[Starhawk]

2409.9 A busy month in Gaia
It was a dull day for the crew of the cruiser HMS Brilliance, they had been blockading the same warp point ever since Trafalgar had gone into port for repairs, the crew was more then bored the were starting to become absolutely worn out, they had been responsible for the intercept of three Rebel Alliance colony ships and their cruiser had killed over one hundred million human beings mercilessly.
Captain Babcock started to wish he had his brother’s job back at the Admiralty, at least there he would not be responsible for intercepting unarmed colony ships and playing the role of butcher so that these Alliance types didn’t expand into Icaran space.

“Sir I’ve got a GFG footprint!” tactical officer Schmit sounded nervous as he studied the nav chart in front of him. Babcock had the information fed directly into his command repeaters and he swallowed hard when he saw the footprint and mass readings, it was a cruiser and the hull shape suggested it was a Solar cruiser.
Babcock snorted in disgust as he remembered the Solar ship that had destroyed an innocent ark ship without even attempting to make contact!
“Battle stations mister Schmit, all hands to battle stations!” Babcock said coldly as his tac office punched in the alert codes and the familiar sound of klaxons and alarms began their tirade.
Brilliance closed rapidly on the offending starship and within seconds her broadside came to bare, her phased poloron beams lashed out but met either empty space or the cruiser’s phased shields.
A counter volley from the Solar, brought down the Icaran’s shields and two DU cannon shells slammed into her exposed hull.
“Damage report con.”
“Engines one, two, and three gone, starboard reactor gone, aft GFG gone, sir heavy casualties reported in those sections.” Schmit nearly shouted as the sound of another explosion jerked brought his attention back to his control Boards.
Another volley from Brilliance lashed out into space and this time it got lucky, the enemy ship’s shields went down and the Last beam that actually hit the enemy cruiser managed to pierce her hull just enough to take out her ECM generator negating her prime advantage.
The counter volley struck home on Brilliance yet again, and this time it’s second shell exploded right in the heavily reinforced prow of the Icaran cruiser, taking out her forward GFG and most of her primary sensors.
“Helm take us baring one-five-three-zero-zero” Babcock’s chilly tone sounded mechanical as he almost chanted out the coordinates.
The Icaran cruiser closed point blank on the enemy cruiser, only a few hundred meters off it’s port side, then her cruiser’s powerful phased poloron cannons swung round and dealt a devastating broadside which crippled the Solar cruiser’s weapons, and most of it’s engines. Another volley turned it into an expanding sphere of flame.

“Helm take us to Goin base for repairs.” Babcock’s voice had returned to normal as he read the damage and casualty reports, out of a crew of 2,000 he lost 50 dead and had 120 wounded, and his ship had the living hell beaten out of it.

The Price of Victory
Rear Admiral Yu Hing Pe sat quietly aboard the bridge of the Icaran cruiser Torment which orbited Handra base with the other warships of the 3rd fleet. He grinned at the thought of his small squadron being called a fleet, six ships didn’t even meet the official minimum requirement for the name fleet. He had just received his orders from the Admiralty and his fleet was getting supplies and equipment loaded aboard from Handra’ supply facility before they set course for the Fornax system to join the two ships of the Enterprise section.
“Admiral Yu?” the soft voice of his flag captain Allison Hickock sounded concerned as she saw the face of her Admiral.
“They want us to attack the largest base in Fornax before linking up with Ross’ ships and continuing on.” Yu’s voice was quiet enough so that only his Flag Captain could hear the concern in his voice, intelligence reports from the Enterprise and Wardo base had suggested that the Phong had one of their bases there in preparation for an assault on Handra and that left the Admiralty with no choice but to take out that base and all the warships that may be there when he arrived but with only 6 starships Yu hardly felt confident about his chances. But his orders were clear and he intended to carry them out come hell or high water.

Two days later the ships of the 3rd fleet left Handra base and made the jump into the Fornax system, their target lay ahead of them and the fleet immediately formed a battle line, HMS Torment holding the center of the line.
“Admiral I’m detecting one-five enemy destroyers closing fast from their base, radar also detects satellites in orbit around our objective.” Tactical officer Browler’s face was pale as he saw the sheer number of enemy ships coming their way, they had two cruisers two light cruisers and two destroyers vs. that entire fleet.
“Alright tell HMS Victorious to hold her position on our left flank with Retribution, King Roger and Manticore will hold the left. Inform them that Torment and Pollux will hold at our center.” Yu analyzed the formation that was coming at him with some hope, they were approaching in an old style arrowhead formation which meant that his line of battle formation may be able to defeat the oncoming warships in segments, unfortunately the arrowhead favored the destroyers because of their sheer numbers 15 to 6 was hardly an even match and he knew it.

Instead of heading straight into the Icaran battle line the Phong fleet attempted to flank them, Yu’s force moved to intercept and prevent themselves from being flanked but with their approach only the left flank would be in firing position for several minutes, fortunately they were also two of the heavy ships in the formation Retribution being one of two light cruisers in the Icaran navy, the other being Victorious which was one of the newest cruisers in the navy.
The Phong fleet closed in on the Icarans but the two warships on the Icaran got into firing position first and the Cruiser Victorious laid a devastating broadside into the closest Phong destroyer, the energy cannons caused the destroyer’s hull to buckle, whole sections of the destroyer began melting or exploding under the force of the beams clawing at it in rapid succession, within seconds the Phong destroyer ceased to exist and Victorious was seeking her next victim. The Icaran light cruiser also scored a kill before the startled Phong formation brought their own cannons to bare on the two warships.
Shell after shell slammed into the shields of Victorious and Retribution yet they held against the fire and the two Icaran warships sought out two more victims and within the blink of an eye only 11 Phong destroyers remained, unfortunately the counter fire this time was too much for the shields of Victorious and her hull erupted in flame where the shells scored home. Three of her engines were gone and all but three of her cannons but Commodore Stein refused to pull his ship out of the fight and his broadside crippled another enemy destroyer.
“Get us into that fight Helm!” Yu said bitterly as he watched Retribution turn another destroyer into floating debris….the Admirals eyes squinted as he saw another volley impact on Victorious unprotected hull.
“Sir message fro Retribution Commodore Stein’s flag bridge was destroyed, he’s dead sir as his command staff Victorious is withdrawing from the battle.” Com officer Jessup’s voice was more then a little shocked as he saw the battered hull of Commodore Stein’s flagship withdraw from the battle, leaving the Light Cruiser alone.
The Phong were fortunately using a kind of mount for their weapons that allowed them much longer range then the standard DU cannons that the IRN had used on their older ships but the Phong cannons also had much reduced accuracy, which was probably the only reason Retribution was still alive and fighting.
HMS Torment and Pollux finally closed the range with the Phong warships, two destroyers rapidly died under the firepower that the two warships unleashed, 7 Phong warships still remained however and two were pursuing the shattered remains of the cruiser Victorious.
“Commodore Hanson, reports his warships are in position to intercept those two Phong Destroyers sir, he recommends we sustain fire on the main formation.” Jessup’s voice sounded relieved as he saw the two light codes for the Icaran destroyers closing in on the enemy warships that were pursuing Victorious.
“My compliments to Hanson and inform him we will sustain engagement with their main body.” Yu said calmly as he saw another enemy destroy vanish beneath the fire of his warship. Two more enemy warships died rapidly as the other two warships brought their fire to bare.
The missiles from the two Icaran destroyers quickly brought the two warships chasing the Victorious to a halt, rapidly ending their pursuit with a volley of cannon shells and seconds after that another volley of missiles finished them off in two brilliant flashes of light.
“Sir two enemy ships closing on our port, INCOMING!” Browler’s voice was cut short as three cannon shells tore into Torment’s shields, a fourth shell impacted on the cruiser’s hull taking out two of her engines in the process.
“Return fire!” Flag Captain Hancock shouted over the din of damage alerts, her cruiser shook again as a secondary explosion tore open her aft gravity field generator.
The Retribution and Pollux moved into position beside their flagship and their combined salvo destroyed the remaining destroyers, it was only then that Yu was able to notice of Commodore Hanson had moved his destroyers into position near the enemy base, sadly their missiles were torn apart by the numerous point defense stations on the planet and its satellites.
“Sir Manticore is taking fire from the planet!” Jessup hissed as the displays showed multiple hits impacign on the unshielded destroyer. “King Roger is moving in to cannon range sir, she’s firing….I’m reading impacts on the surface, I think she got one of those weapon platforms.”
“Tell Pollux to follow us in, order Retribution to stay with Victorious in case any more enemy ships come into range.”
“Aye sir transmitting orders.”

Moments later HMS King Roger exploded into a ball of flames as she tried to shield the battle damaged Manticore.
The cruiser and two light cruisers that were still in fighting trim approached the enemy base, unfortunately Torment was the first to discover the range that the remaining planetary weapons platform truly had, her unshielded hull was rent by eight cannon shells.
Admiral Yu regained consciousness enough to see that his bridge had been exposed to vacuum and that most of his bridge crew was gone, the injured Yu looked over to his right where Captain Hancock was strapped to her seat and noticed that her helmet’s faceplate was opaque with blood, he glanced downward and saw a massive piece of debris embedded in her chest.
A brilliant light grabbed his attention back to where his ship’s view screen had used to be and his Last thoughts were of his son, who was a Captained a cruiser in the 1st fleet, then the light drew nearer and nearer, then an all encompassing flash ended the life of Admiral Yu and the lives of his crew as the massive shell tore apart the remnants of Torment.
The dead were avenged quickly however as the two light cruisers destroyed the satellites and weapon platforms that were defending the base, the base was soon destroyed as the Icaran warships opened up on it’s surface.
15 Phong destroyers and one of their most important bases in Fornax had been destroyed but the Icaran 3rd fleet had paid dearly for their victory, Victorious and Manticore had to be towed by the two light cruisers, Torment and King Roger had died with all hands including Admiral Yu.
The Icaran dead numbered 2,800 and the 3rd fleet was neutralized as an effective fighting force.

Meanwhile on the other end of the Fornax system Enterprise Farrogot and Saber successfully engaged and destroyed 4 Phong destroyers, suffering only 81 dead and 150 wounded.