Dodging the heavy weapons? The heavy weapons are beams, David. I'll agree that pretty much anything else in the game you can dodge to an extent, but beams are pretty much automatic hit weapons unless they're wildly inaccurate, which none of ours are.
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"So, the Confederation has arrived. firefoxes, target the Cruisers, Devil Rays, cover them. Supercruisers, go for the Ospreys - no problem there, they're coming for us too. Must be too used to seeing us run."
As the first Osprey slipped into range of the R.S.S. Victory , both ships fired their beams. While the Victory mostly shrugged off the Particle Turret with it's advanced shields, return fire ripped through the Osprey, sending it away burning in a matter of seconds.
Other Confederate ships that attacked the Supercruisers met with similar fates. Attacking the other Cruisers wasn't much better, since they were all F-Class. They couldn't absorb near the damage that the Supercruisers could, but they still had 2 Heavy Fusion Turrets each, giving them rather nasty firepower.
The Assault Carriers also proved more vicious than the Confederates might have expected. All were dueces, so they had a heavy Fusion beam. They seriously outgunned even Class II Frigates, and if a Class II Cruiser came at one of them, they would dance away, and the Cruiser soon found a wing of Firefoxes dancing around it, covered by a few Devil Rays. The Carrier could then easily finish up with turrets and Fusion beam.
"Looks like we're doing OK here, but we seem to be fighting some sort of central control system," Macavenger said. "Let's see if we can do that literally." He moved to a large strategic board and began tapping systems. "OK, we've got sector defense fleets at Sirgil, Adhara, Tiber, Atropos, Palshife, and Apollo. Let's see... OK. Comm, call Admiral Skyblade on FTL. Tell him that if he can spare the ships, I want him to throw a 40 to 50 ship task force to feint at each of the Sol, Procyon, and Vega systems. If he can only spare one or two tell him I really want one at Sol, and have him tell me his decision. Next," he tapped a few dots again, "Next, contact Sirgil Starport. Order them to send two-thirds of their fleet to feint at Regulus. Then have Port Oread send two-thirds of theirs to feint at Antares. Next, contact Sentinal Station, they're to send two-thirds of their fleet to attack the Alcyon system, and if they can break through there, they should attack New Japan at Pollux."
"Sir, could you slow down a -"
"I also want Sirius Station to scramble half it's defense fleet to feint at the Tau Ceti system." Looking at his board, Macavenger mutters to himself, "Anything else i can do from here? Ah, yes. Comm, also hail Hogdson's World. Commodore Vaten's X-Group is still there. I want him to take his fleet and attack New Britain at Rigel. Tell him I'll join him as soon as I can. Finally, call Capella, I want half their defense fleet to feint at the Barnard system. Remind everyone that the point of these feints is not false bravado, their first order is not to gt killed if possible, second is to distract the Confederation, and third is to take all military targets of opportunity."
"I think I have all that," said the comm tech.
Meanwhile, the battle was raging. The Confederates had come in right by the Rebel fleet, and engaged it in a short range brawl, probably the worst choice given the Fusion weapons of the Rebel fleet. By this time, about half the Confederate attackers had been knocked out, in no small part by the Supercruisers. All 6 Supercruisers were still present, and thanks to their incredible shield systems, none was even in danger, with shields all over 75%. A couple F Class Cruisers had been lost, along with several Carriers, plus a cross section of the fighters, except Devil Rays, of which only 2 were missing. As incredible as the Cruisers were, the Devil Rays perhaps shocked the Confeds more than anything else. They tended to fly in pairs, and if no Rebel fighters nearby needed help, they'd just look for the nearest batch of Confed fighters and take them, even if that group was three Lightnings from an Osprey. Both fighters would invariably survive these encounters. If they traveled by full squadrons, as they sometimes did, any fighters in their way were just dead. The only casualties had been fighters separated from the rest that got jumped by 5 or more Gunboats.
The Confederate Ospreys in particular had been hit hard, as they had been the first line of attack against the Supercruisers. They'd also been surprised by the fact that the Rebel ships didn't run from them as usual. As a result, all the new ones had been destroyed. Most of the Confederate Class IIIs were also gone, as any Cruiser revealing Particle Turret technology tended to get hit hard by Firefoxes and/or have a Supercruiser come up at them, at which point it was over. The Supercruisers, for all their incredible firepower, could still outrun any of the Confederate fleet ships.
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Alarms began rining again in the monitoring center.
Commodore Henderson groaned and said, "What now?"
A technocoan gulped and said, "Sir, I have Rebel fleets all over. I've got about 70 Destroyers at Barnard. I've got about 70 Destroyers at Tau Ceti. We've got groups of rooughly 120 ships each at Alcyon, Regulus, and Antares. The Group of Rebel Experimental ships has returned to Rigel, but it's about twice the size it was before." Another alarm sounded. "Sir, another thing, the 72nd and 91st at Centauri report that they're getting hammered, and need assistance."
"Get Innes in here, now," snapped Henderson.
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Well, looks like the Confederation underestimated my fleet a little David. Rmember, we're outside the area guarded by the Drones, so don't expect them to help you any. Your turn. Three things for you to consider in closing.
- Skyblade still needs to know what forces he's facing at Eridani.
- I refuse to believe that every Confederate system has a large group of Defense Drones and a defense fleet of Frigates. You can only rearm so much in the couple of weeks we left you. Rigel in particular has been rather isolated and shouldn't have too much. Also, some of the inner worlds like Tau Ceti and Procyon and probably some others shouldn't have many if any drones. There comes a point where you just don't have enough to go around. I'm also positive you don't have enough fleets to be everywhere. Remember the only Confederate systems that aren't under attack or won't be when Skyblade responds will be Pollux and Castor. You can't have that many fleets.
- Thanks for sticking to my plan so far. You may actually have helped it some by brining those fleets in right next to mine. Jolly good show.
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Almost doesn't count, but barely does.
"The problem with the designated driver program, it's not a desirable job. But if you ever get sucked into doing it, have fun with it. At the end of the night, drop them off at the wrong house."
- Jeff Foxworthy
(This message has been edited by Macavenger (edited 07-24-2001).)
With all that the Rebellion owns, they can produce more ships then the dying Confederation worlds can.
