Much has happened since the last pitched battle with the invaders, but very little of it can be said to have been caused by them.
Several small ships have turned up missing without a trace, all of them apparently destroyed before they even had time to send out a distress signal. Recently, the disappearances have started to converge on the Nexus system.
The mining station and gate that hover over the planet Nexus have been busy. Large amounts of ore have been processed and sent to Tharhome for rapid production of ships and defenses. Several extra well armed ships are helping with the defenses around Nexus. And the array of passive and active sensors around the system will hopefully help with early warning of the attackers.
Sirius hmms as he goes over the additional upgrades to the Tail Thrasher, knowing Leda won't want to wait to try them out. In the back of his mind, the amount of military like build up of the Chirr'T'Thar bothers him, like it bothers nearly everyone else. They are normally a peaceful race, but they will vigorously defend their homes and lives.
Leda nearly flies in. "How are things progressing in here?"
Sirius starts a little, "Doing very well. It almost seems that these invaders are stimulating our creativity and inventiveness. Shame so much of it is directed at weapons."
Leda smirks, nodding. "Unfortunate, yes."
Passive sensors scream a warning seconds before the officer-on-watch calls out, "Inbound contacts from outside the ecliptic. Unknown number of contacts, accelerating hard in system!"
Leda snarls. "I hope all the new stuff is bolted down, because we're going to be burning out of here."
Sirius yelps to himself and starts powering up all the defensive and offensive systems. As the signal is relayed to the station, the metal refining processes shut down as the hardware and energy is redirected into shields and weapons. The gate glows as it's energy is diverted into a defensive mode.
Sirius nods, "We show green across the board Leda."
Leda bounces forward and climbs into her 'seat', strapping herself in quickly.
Sensitive scanners onboard the carrier paint a picture of the target system, marking the faint communications trails from the system periphery. Weapons and shields power to full in response and the invaders scream in system, straight for the heaviest concentration of ships.
The rest of the Chirr'T'Thar 'fleet', about 10 ships and a few shuttles, also powerup and move into position. Knowing the enemy likes to hammer away, they create a spread formation as the accelerate to fighting speeds.
Sirius nods, "Engines at full Leda. Ready to fly."
A voice hails from the side, "Scanners indicate 15, no.. _30_ incoming ships..tentative ids on 4 ships of carrier size!"
Leda nods. "Everyone better be strapped in, we're moving in five, four, three, two, one!"
On the station, and on the nearest moons surface, large ion cannons, masers and even a few rail guns power up. As the ships get near the asteroid belt that lies well outside the orbit of Nexus, several "asteroids" become active as non Chirr'T'Thar drives are detected. They detonate matter/anti-matter charges when the ships get close enough.
Leda slams the engines into near full, straining the inertial compensators to their limits as the Tail Thrasher leaps out away from the station.
The invading fleet falls into formation, destroyers and light cruisers covering the front, guarding the most important members of the fleet.
Sirius's claws are dug deep into his acceleration couch, as are everyone else's on the ship is used to Leda, and this situation calls for speed.
Leda starts evasive maneuvers early on... with lasers and the like you have no idea if it's pointed at you until it's already there, so no point in giving them an easy target.
With typical arrogance..or lack of concern...the enemy ships do not evade much. They lock themselves onto the mining fleet and waver from that course not at all. As the range closes, the guns begin to open fire...a light barrage at extreme range.
Leda starts bearing directly down the enemy fleet, ducking and weaving about. "Tell me when we're in weapons range."
From the left side of the bridge, "Something weird...about 2/3 of those ships aren't firing..."
Sirius nods, "In about 2 minutes. What? Only 10 ships out of 30 are firing?"
A nod, "Yeah. They're spreading out the shots to confuse us, but it looks like the volume of fire is only about a third what it should be."
Sirius shouts, "See if they look different. We've been warned they may be after entire planets!"
Sirius nods to Leda, "One minute to effective weapons range."
Leda says nothing on this, focusing on keeping the ship going where she wants it to go. While fire from this range isn't much trouble, no sense in letting minor scrapes build up.
A lightly armed shuttle simply vanishes from the display as heavy cannon from the invaders converge and lock on it almost as one.
Several moments pass, "They're DECOYS! There's only about 10 ships out there..the rest appear to be scanner decoys!"
Leda yeefs, and dodges away from that shuttle!
Sirius growls and sighs, watching the rest of the Chirr'T'Thar ships weave and dodge. He growls, "Great. Relay that to the rest of the fleet! We can't afford to waste firepower on shadows!"
"Yes sir!"
Leda says, "Just as long as we know which ones are the real ships."
Most of the ships vanish from the tactical display just as the fleet enters weapons range.
Several of the guns on the mining station open fire. Large pulsed ion cannons and heavy, planet boring masers, trying to target the heavier carriers that don't disappear.
Leda continues, "Sirius, start firing when we're in reasonable range. And get the mines ready for wide dispersal, I'm going to try plowing right through the middle of the formation if we get that close."
The estimated effective range of the enemy vessels comes up..it is time to test the effectiveness of the drones.
The heaviest ships..only two remain..begin sluggish evasive maneuvers, hiding behind both the screening vessels and electronic warfare.
Sirius nods and sets the forward guns on target and moments later opens with heavy fire. The ships have been reconfigured to dump out energy at rates that would be wasteful on long trade journeys.
The mining stations larger guns now open fire, believing they've gotten the range of the carriers who are clumsily moving this time.
Leda says, "Can anyone get me a closeup of some of the ships out there? I want to know if they're targeting us."
Down on the surface, Copernicus is talking with the command on the station, "No ECM burst? No bunch of fighters or gunships? They're up to something. May be getting ready to drop warriors down here. We've got a reasonable group on planet. I'll get them together."
Sirius thwacks one of the crew on the rump with his tail, "Get on it. Detect any lock ons immediately." and goes back to barraging his targets with everything the ship can dish out.
A destroyer's shields flare up, and then vanish under an outpouring of energy that they were not configured to expect. Almost immediately the other ships in the fleet change course slightly, opening the range just long enough to reconfigure shields and weapons. The concentrated hail of fire that answers the Thrasher's greeting sends another of the armed shuttles into oblivion.
Leda nods, and keeps up the weaving path anyway, just to be on the safe side.
Sirius growls, "They fight like battering rams."
'Scanners' calls out, "They've lo...nevermind. It looks like they target a ship only a few seconds before they tag it. They've reconfigured their shields. Estimated several times more effective against our heavier masers."
Leda nods, and 'ducks' back down. "Well, let's hope those mines have lots more explosives in them. How long before contact?"
The mining station pours energy from it's array of fusion plants into the huge masers, shooting out pulsed "slugs" of raw energy this time, rather than constant fire, figuring to break the new shields. Also, several smaller drone like rockets have "awakened" from the asteroid field and are now moving behind the attackers.
Planetary cannon find the range on one of the larger of two vessels, tearing a gash along the side and sending atmosphere streaming out into space. The ship tumbles once, then falls back into position, guarding that flank.
Sirius urrps, "At this rate, one minute."
Leda says, "Good. Launch them a couple of seconds at most before we pass through their formation, at high dispersion outward. I want to get a ring of fire around us as we go through."
The enemy fleet continues to alter it's course, holding the range open for as long as possible.
The Phoenix Fire, repaired and refitted, along with three other heavy cruisers, split and move towards both flanks of the enemy, pounding away with ion cannons, masers, and missiles.
Leda says, "Let's see how much damage we can do at that close range."
The moving asteroids move to position themselves behind the heavier carriers, but hopefully outside the their rear defensive range.
Sirius nods, "Signal in, our "rump biters" are setting to fire. I'll give you course coordination to keep us out of the line of our own fire."
Sirius also readys the mines, missiles, and powers up the rear weapons.
Another destroyer is shattered as fleet weapons converge on the shields, overloading them after several seconds of scattered fire. The enemy now numbers 8. The answering barrage of fire tears into the Phoenix Fire.. stripping shields from the vessel as the concentrated fire from each of the eight remaining ships strikes the same point at the same time.
From the side, "They're apparently orienting on Haven..the course corrections have put them directly inline for the planet."
Leda nods. "Gotcha."
The decoy drones continue on their course...locked on the defending fleet and preparing to interpenetrate the formation.
The other three ships, used to this tactic, pour on the fire at the lead ships. The mining station increases it's fire, along with the heavier weapons from the moon's surface. At this point, the silent "asteroids" far behind the carriers detonate. The huge nuclear charges are focused into a powerful beam of x-rays. Seems the Chirr'T'Thar have learned from their enemy.
Sirius purrs, "We're here Leda. Punch it."
Sirius helps Leda keep the ship safely out of the line of the X-ray lasers, and dumps a barrage of missiles and weapons fire at the ships as the Tail Thrasher speeds past.
Leda dodges out of the way at near the last minute to keep out of the path of her own side's weapons, without giving the enemy too much warning that there's something coming in this path.
The already damaged carrier-sized ship turns itself broadside, dodging the incoming fire from the heavy cruisers, taking the heavy x-ray lasers on its weak shield and cracking like an egg. They now number seven.
Leda hits the thrusters on full, instead of just the 3/4 or so she was running before. The ship tears right in between a small cluster of the enemy ships, trying to stay about equidistant from all of them as she zips through so the mines will spread out and hit all about the same time.
The decoy drones interpenetrate the Chirr'T'Thar fleet, at the last seconds targeting the nearest ships, thus revealing their final task. Small anti-matter warheads explode on contact, shattering two of the smaller ships and throwing another few off course.
The Phoenix fire staggers, and has moved to the side before accelerating towards the remaining carrier. As it gets closer, a powerful magnetic charge sweeps along the belly of the heavy cruiser, and suddenly it looks as if it's been "kicked" back. Their rail gun has fired a slug of shielded neutronium (one of the few slugs borrowed from the Stela'rhyan) at high velocity towards the carrier, at an angle above their own fighters.
Two of the Chirr'T'Thar cruisers quickly work to recover and get back on course. The felitaurs seems as doggedly determined to fight back as the invaders are to attack. But they're a bit less reckless.
As the Chirr'T'Thar ships prepare to break through the fleet formation, it breaks, scattering in nearly random directions. One of the scattering light cruisers takes the heavy rail-gun slug instead of its intended target, imploding with a flash of light and fury. The unshielded Phoenix Fire is easy prey for even one of the lowly destroyers as it passes, leaving only a cloud of debris behind it.
Leda says, "Hit the rear weaponry! It's going to take a bit to turn around."
Sirius nods and opens fire with the rear maser cannons, and fires off a few more guided atomic missiles as he does so. He notes with some relief that the captain of the Phoenix Fire did order most of the crew off the ship when it lost its shields.
Leda looks around for anything she could use for a slingshot.
The mining station and the moon based weapons select the nearest targets and fire. Apparently the Chirr'T'Thar are learning to fight better. The Tail Thrasher is now around the asteroid belt.
Rear shields shudder throughout the fleet before the escorts perform gut-wrenching turns and position themselves between the defenders and Haven. The carrier continues on its course at its best speed.
Sirius, firing away, nudges one of the other technicians, who promptly points out a large asteroid for a slingshot approach.
From the planet now comes it's own barrage of weapons fire. Seems Copernicus has spread it out around but not too near Haven.
Leda nods... "Not much gravity, but it will have to do." She curves over towards it, trying to use what little gravity it has to spin the ship around. Of course, it also disrupts the asteroid's orbit from this range, and people get a good view of the rougher parts of the asteroid passing within a few meters of the Tail Thrasher...
The mining station is now rotating it's weapons towards the invaders over Nexus. It's picking and choosing it's targets now, firing large pulses from the cannons.
The carrier's shields ring from impacts, but that does not slow or deter it. It continues on its way, targetting the weapons picking it out and one at a time destroying them.
Many of the weapons targetting the ships are moving, even on the planetary surface. And the mining station concentrates it's fire on the carrier, along with the three remaining cruisers.
The rest of the fleet breaks off suddenly, heading for the outer system, dropping decoy drones, and engaging heavy ECM to cloud the sensors. Large segments start to break off the carrier in orbit and fall toward the planet, leaving firey trails as they fall through the atmosphere.
Copernicus notes the incoming objects and purrs, "Ok, they're landing ground troops. All five shuttle commanders take off and wipe as many of them out as possible. The rest of the armed Chirr'T'Thar on the ground will go after the ones the shuttles miss!"
Leda finally manages to get back to around Haven, having had to use a couple of asteroids to burn off her velocity. "Awww, you mean we're too late now? I hope at least we had _some_ effect."
Copernicus growls at having lost so many of his ground based weapons, but notes with satisfaction as the shuttles go after the contrails.
The last of the drops complete, the troop carrier begins to move toward the poles, emitting a strong electromagnetic pulse to scramble radar, scanners, and unshielded electronics.
Sirius growls, "We can still take out that carrier, and with that some of their support."
While this does electronically blind some of the Chirr'T'Thar ships on the surface, little damage is done as the felitaurs have learned to heavily shield against ECM. Manual sighting of weapons is a bit more crude, but it works.
Jenora turns to Coper. "Shall I give them a hand? I know I'm being kept as an 'ace in the hole', but we might need it..."
Leda nods. "All right, let's burn it!"
Copernicus nods, "Sure thing. Did you get enough of a charge from the shuttles' fusion plants?"
Sirius nods to Leda, "It's heading towards the poles, trying to scramble all ground based electronics."
Jenora nods. "Not enough to really pull off some nasty stunts, but I wouldn't want to do some of those anyway." She smirks. "I wonder, though... the ionosphere makes _such_ a nice waveguide..."
There are a great many pods dropping to the surface. Many will fall to the shuttles, but many are already almost to the surface.
Jenora looks around. "I'd better get moving. See you!" And with that, she takes off up into the air, heading for one of the alien ships...
Copernicus looks rather odd. Mounted on either side of his flanks are short bore energy cannons, attached on either side to the streamlined powerpack on his back. Seems the felitaur "ground troops" are going to be more effective in the air. He nods to Jenora as she leaves, "Just be careful." He makes a signal to a commander and several hundred felitaurs, armed like Copernicus, take to the air and quickly reach sonic speeds as they go to target the remaining landing pods.
Sirius growls with impatience, waiting, as are the two cruisers with them, to get into effective range of that carrier to open fire. He looks at Leda grimly.
Jenora sort of glides along the planetary magnetic field lines for part of the way, conserving her energy. She heads towards one of the segments of the carrier, one that's dropping pods, and flies into it and through it.
Combat pods fall from the sky like chaff, falling before the combined firepower of the defenders. The carrier continues to bomb the surface, targetting any source of power that could be a weapon or vessel, actually managing to knock two of the shuttles from the sky before it vanishes from the sky in a brilliant flash of light.
Copernicus continues to watch and coordinate the attack, watching with some satisfaction as the remaining shuttles, along with the well armed solitary felitaurs start taking out more of the trooper pods. He fears that some will make it to the planet surface, which will take longer to mop up.
Jenora starts tracking pods down towards the surface, trying to stay out of the way of 'friendly fire'...
Most of the combat pods are stripped from the atmosphere before they can find safe landing...but several reach the surface, scattered across both continents. They burrow themselves in the ground and empty themselves. Armored troops scatter and vanish in the underbrush.
Jenora tries taking out a couple just as they're hitting the ground, but that only gets one or two more. No telling how many actually made it out.
Copernicus growls, "Lovely. Just what I was afraid of, but at least we have a Chirr'T'Thar following each pod and relaying locations in, and most of this planet is open. None near Haven at least." He notes with satisfaction that some of the felitaurs are able to strafe some of the troops before they can hide, but this is going to be a mess to clean up.
Leda hmmphs, looking around at her ship. "Well, that was a mess."
The escort fleet flees the system after the troop transport is destroyed.. it's job is complete.