Unfortunately for the Confederacy, their computers had gone on the blink. Instead of having almost a thousand ships nearby, they only had 380 ships in Niot. Only 150 ships ahd been left from the battle against Zak, and DSN-8619 was actually 9 jumps away, and not 0.9 as the computers had thought. As for Krraali, its fleets where now pretty small. It had a mere 400 ships.
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Under command of Fleet Admiral Herla, Fleet One of Phase 2 of Operation Thunderball was underway. 650 ships entered Niot and opened fire. Gravity wells caused the mines not inside the Galactica fleet to smash into each other, clearing the way for the rest of the fleet. Standoff Missle wiped out the entire front wave of the Confederate fleet in 2 volleys. the Alliance continued to underestimate the power of Galacticas missles, and paid for it badly. Confederate Styx bombers shot off their own mines, only to find them changing directions suddenly, and heading back even faster, smashing into the Confederate fleet. The Confederate fleet was outnumbered 650 to 370, and most of its fleet had either been annihilated by Galacticas missles, or smashed into by their own missles. The Galactica fleet had taken moderate damage from the initial mines, a score of ships being blown up, but damage afterwards had been light.
The Confederate fleet finally managed to close with the Galactcia fleet, but its badly reduced numbers found themselevs confronted by Laser Frigates. They tore into the damaged ships, reducing many to wreckage. Standoff missles shot behind the Confederate fleet, only to tear at them from behindw tih gravity wells, and EMP warheads.
The last confrontation had damaged the Galactica fleet badly, but it had wiped the Confederate fleet from the system. Every last ship that had gone for the fleet had been destroyed.
Galactica finished off the remaining fixed defences from beyond their range with standoff missles, as well as wiping out Niots shields. Support Cruisers began landing of troops, while transports with larger battalions entered the system. Other Support Cruisers began dumping Missle Bouys all over the system. Repairs comenced.
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In Krraali, a similar tale repeated itself. While the Confederate fleet was larger by 20 ships, Galacticas fleet was larger by 50. The minefield, having been set up longer ago than the Niot one was larger, and took a heavy toll on the Galactcia fleet. The initial ships to enter the system had been support Cruisers however, all loaded with missle bouys, and they had managed to eject most of them before destruction. Gravity wells decimated the rest of the minefield, and Galactcia began bombarding the Confederate fleet. The whole first volley ahd headed straight for the newly built station, impotently out of range, obliterating it completely. Bombardement began of the mainf elet, and Galactica waited for the Federates reaction, flipping back the few bombs that had been sent its way. As a demonstration of Galactcias technology, several bombs where picked off by the antimatter railguns, far beyond normal primary range. The large Alliance fleet at DSN-8619 was too far away for reinforcements to arrive before the closing stages of the battle. And by then, the Confederate fleet would have nearly been destroyed, whatever it did. The longer it hung back, due to the confusion of the stations destruction, the more ships would find themselevs destroyed.
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On the other side of the galaxy, Galactcia left a system open. Most of the defence fleet of Notil ha left the system, along with some newly built ships. Its destination was Plogok. It was not a mission of conquering, but rather of destruction. The fleet entered the system, and shot its missles off, it took some damage from the fixed defences, but it was gone before the Alliance could even react. The missles wheren't however. They smashed into Plogok Outpost, wiping it frome existance. Just to keep the Feds busy, 50 Support Cruisers had dropped missle bouys. That added up to a lot of missles.
The fleet retreated to Leka, where a transport fleet had begun construction of a station, using the carefully prepared components. The station would be constructed in record time, even faster than the Alliance could manage.
Another transport fleet, slightly larger, ahd begun construction of a station in Gadzair. the extra transports in the fleet ahd dropped Missle Bouys and the more powerful Drones. It was another of the prefabricated stations.
Meanwhile, in Notil, ships from defence fleets further into Galactica space had reinforced it. Igadzra had been a primary contributor, but it had recieved its own reinforcements from further in.
Note:Numbers have been checked with Esponer. He has also said you cannot build battlestations that quickly. He also said DSN-8619 was too far away to get to those systems so quickly.
Note 2:Please remember Galactica ships and stations have pds. Exchanging a bombardment of missles with Galactica means almost all of ours will hit, whereas yours for the most part either get nullified by ECM, or blown up by the pds.
Note 3:Ohh! Look! I got an action approved by Esponer!
Note 4:I decided anything that closed with Laser Frigates, backed up by Antimatter railguns and missles wouldn't actually survive.
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Research on Gyroscope missle:ETA 1 post
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(This message has been edited by RMA (edited 12-02-2001).)