[Starhawk]

2436.9 Bloodshed in Starlight
The orders from the Praetorian palace had arrived just two days ago and Admiral Patrick Raley, commander 2nd fleet hadn’t slept since, the orders were clear, the 1st 2nd and 3rd fleets were to retake the offensive and begin invading even further into Andermanian territory.
The 2nd fleet was currently holding position in Gamma Omicron, where Raley was supposed to rendezvous with the three dozen or so former ECA superdreadnougts that were currently undergoing refit, Raley found it strange that their first station had been in H’Athor system, until the orders came down to leave, which was oddly perfect because less then a week after the 2nd fleet had left the system it’s sun mysteriously went nova and turned the entire system into a nebulae, destroying 86 Andermanian ships and killing over a billion former ECA citizens in the process.
Raley suspected that the “incident’ was a shadowdagger operation of some sort but one did not investigate such matters if one wanted to remain in the light of day, and besides that at least whatever happened his fleet and his people had been spared from it.
An ear piercing shriek jerked Admiral Raley out of his chain of thoughts and caused him to nearly fall flat on his butt as his chair swung out from under him as he jerked to his feet and ran for the com panel.
A worried face appeared on the screen a moment later and Raley’s heart leapt into his throat as he caught a glimpse of the tactical plot behind the young woman on the screen.
“Admiral please come to the bridge, we have an Andermanian battlefleet in system, we count only 15 but we have strong reason to suspect cloaked warships in the mix, either that or they have the biggest balls of any Andermanian fleet I’ve ever seen sir.” The young woman blushed slightly as she realized she had said the latter statement aloud.
“Alright Ensign thank you I’ll be right there, and your damned right that if they don’t have a cloaked contingent with them they’ve got balls the size of New Icara.” Raley grinned as he switched off the com and went to don his vacsuit.

A few minutes later Patrick Raley emerged into the controlled chaos of a Warship’s bridge as it’s crew prepared for battle, Raley noticed with pride that though the bridge was chaotic the disciplined silence of an Imperial Navy crew.
His fleet and the enemy’s were on a constant acceleration towards one another which tended to confirm his suspicions that the enemy had some cloaked warships with them, no commander, not even an Andermanian would charge a fleet that was over five times their own size unless of course they were suicidal or had some vastly superior technology which was unlikely.
The two fleets continued closing in on one another for over six hours before the Andermanians finally tipped their hat.
“I have 24 ships decloaking dead ahead Admiral!” The chief tactical officer sang out as the master plot lit up with 24 new objects, all armed super dreadnoughts….so it was a trap after all, Raley thought to himself as he watched the range marker tick down.
“Estimated time to Weapons range tactical?” Raley said calmly as he returned to his command chair and adjusted his vac suit.
“Three zero seconds sir, but they’re going to be moving slow enough by that point to fire their weapons while we still finish our deceleration maneuvers.” The tactical officer said grimly, in this era of I-Laser weaponry getting the first shot of in a battle could easily mean the difference between life and death, for at least some of his people today was going to be their last and it was going to end before they were even in firing position, somehow Raley felt as if he had failed his entire fleet, because if everyone of those ships had I-Lasers then at least 15 of his ships would be destroyed.
The range quickly dropped and space erupted in a light show as the entire Andermanian task force opened fire at once, HMS Ferret and HMS Reverence were torn apart almost immediately though Reverence got lucky and managed to eject a handful of escape pods from her wrecked hull before what was left of her power plant went critical and turned the once proud starship to nothing but a cloud of debris.
“Admiral Imperius is breaking apart, she’s ejecting life pods, Zander as well.” The com officer’s voice was almost robotic in its professionalism but Raley could also hear the bitter tone as he watched yet another light code wink out, this time it was Grasshopper followed swiftly by Force of Arms and Alora even with this grotesque display unfolding on his screen Patrick Raley could not help but feel his spirits rise as he realized that the majority of the enemy’s warships were equipped with nothing more powerful then old style Anti-proton beams, by their power it looked like it was 12th generation but they were still no where near as deadly as I-Lasers would have proven.
“Admiral we are in firing position all gunnery crews have targets.” The tactical officer sang out.
“All guns, all commands open fire, I repeat open fire!” Raley had to force himself not to scream the order as he could finally bring an end to this intolerable abuse his ships were receiving, unfortunately it was too late for Hispannia II as her hull was burned and torn by anti-proton beams, her sole remaining engine put the last ounce of energy that she had into accelerating the battered ship away from the battle.
The Imperial counter fire was far deadlier for both weight of guns and the fact that the entire Imperial 2nd fleet was I-Laser armed, in short order the Andermanian battle line was turned into expanding spheres of Plasma and wreckage as the I-lasers tore through hull and shield like a wolf through a sheep’s hide. Seven Andermanian combat superdreadnoughts survived long enough to score a second salvo against the Icarans and Katana vanished in a ball of fire as Andermanian I-lasers rent her hull, Enchanter was set adrift as her own hull was shredded by Anti-proton beams, over four thousand of her crew died in the fires and explosions that turned her into little more then a drifting hulk.
The remaining ships scored damaging blows against [/i]California, Hathor,[/i] and Trafalgar as well but nothing as severe as had happened to their comrades.
Raley felt an emotion he had not been aware of before, even as he watched so many of his ships devastated by enemy fire, he felt a swell of absolute hatred, of loathing and contempt for the Andermanian crews and to his shame he felt a near glee as he saw the last Andermanian combat superdreadnought vanish in fire and death. Eight superdreadnoughts remained but they were mere minesweepers and the Icaran guns butchered them like cattle in a matter of moments.
An hour after the engagement that would go down as the First Battle of Gamma Omicron, Patrick Raley knelt silently by his bed and prayed to God for the strength to go on and for God’s forgiveness, Raley had fought in the tale end of the Phong crusades and had seen the bloodshed and devastation wrought by his beloved Empire, and he had known even then that he like all soldiers was a butcher, trained to lead young men and women into battle to kill other young men and women, the Phong were different they were Xenos, not worth tears, but the Andermanians though genetically engineered and considered “Mutants” by the State Church were human and nearly ten billion of them and their allies had died already, yet still they fought on. Raley hoped God would forgive him and mankind for the butchery and slaughter they brought upon one another, and though Raley would never doubt his Empire’s divine right to rule mankind he felt that he would go to his grave with the fear that he had done wrong and that when he met his God he would be branded a murder for eternity.
As the Commander of the 2nd fleet finished his prayer and rose once again to his feet he felt the weight lift from his shoulders ever so slightly, but he also felt his hatred of the Andermanians pass like a cool breeze and found it grudgingly replaced by a pseudo respect, for the Andermanians did what any Icaran would do, they fought tooth and nail, never giving up even when death was the only option, then Raley felt a dread of sorts come over him, Icara found in the Anderman and Mantisorans something they had not encountered in centuries, enemies that would not yield until they’re very nation was broken and dead in front of them, and that meant that this war was just heating up.


First Battle of Gamma Omicron 2nd fleet engages and destroys Andermanian fleet of 31 SDs and 8 Battleships:

Icaran Casualty List:
HMS Ferret (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Alora (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Reverence (SD) Destroyed (5,932 dead)
HMS Zander (SD) Destroyed (5,812 dead)
HMS Force of Arms (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Grasshopper (SD) Destroyed (6,100 dead)
HMS Imperius (SD) Destroyed (5,210 dead)
HMS Katana (SD) Destroyed (6,000 dead)
HMS Trafalgar (SD) 59% damage (1,500 dead)
HMS California (SD) 30% damage (800 dead)
HMS Hathor (SD) 67% damage (2,300 dead)
HMS Hispania II (SD) 89% damage (5,140 dead)
HMS Enchanter (SD) 84% damage (4,560 dead)
Total Casualties: 61,654 dead
Overall Andermanian Crusade Casualties: 197,301 dead

The Remorhaz Front:
Admiral Tyson Babcock and the 1st fleet had begun the invasion of the Cyrilla system and since then they had conquered four worlds, now reduced to three as a Remorhaz squadron bombarded the one from orbit, completely destroying it and in the process killing 26 million of their own citizens.
The Remorhaz People’s Republic had been encountered a few years ago but had proven again and again that they were not worth contact on an official basis, their “Republic” was small and economically bankrupt not to mention technologically backwards as proven by the fleet they had just used to exterminate their own people.
“Sir I count eleven destroyers, three light cruisers, a single super dreadnought and three assault carriers.” The tactical officer reported confidently as she checked her sensor readings once again.
“Excellent Lieutenant then this should prove little more then target practice for our troops.” Babcock folded his hands behind his back and smiled at his crew, the RPR would prove little more then an annoyance to his fleet, and Icara would easily prevail in an engagement with such a two bit nation.

The battle began and ended in a single trade of broadsides, the Remorhaz fleet fired their missiles and broke wide to open the range, the single Super dreadnought in their midst closed in on an Imperial Superdreadnought and used her null space cannons to cripple the Icaran, killing two thousand of her crew in the process, the Remorhazian did not live long enough to celebrate her hit however as the Bear turned it’s wroth upon her.
The Superior destroyed four of the enemy destroyers in a single broadside as did another super dreadnought, the dreadnought Neptune scored her kill on one of the three assault carriers and moments later the last Remorhaz ship had been destroyed, the last traces of their fleet the dozens of escape pods trying to flee the wreckage of the carriers, there were no survivors from the other ships.

Total Andermanian Crusade Losses for Icaran Military: 199,301 dead

The Mantis Front
Admiral William Jefferson Ross watched from the deck of his flagship as Corellian VIII fell to his fleet, his invasion of Mantisoran space had begun with Corellian X and now led to VIII his ground forces had taken the only action of the battles so far as there had not even been a single Mantis warship to engage the 3rd fleet on it’s march to conquest.
Even as Ross acknowledged yet another conquest under his belt in the name o the Icaran Empire he could not help but realized how much he missed his beloved wife, Lin who was even now hundreds of light years away leading the home fleet on a mission of conquest of it’s own against the worlds within the Empire that were held by other nations. It had been nearly a year since he had seen her and he still remembered their last passionate night with a fire in his eye, but for all it’s passion it had still been nearly a year since he had seen Lin in person, held her in his arms and told her he loved her in person. Letters were just not enough and he longed for the day when the wars were all over and he could take Lin back to Icara and start a family with her. His spirits rose as he realized that this conquest brought him one step closer to that goal, and he silently swore that h would not rest until the Andermanian Alliance was crushed beneath Icaran jackboots, he would fight the wars alone if that’s what it took to see his beloved wife again.