[geoschmo]

Year 2419.7 The First Battle Of Narcisston

The Sallegan military strategists had analyzed the outcomes of all the previous fleet engagements involving the Norak. Their ships were larger, and more technologically advanced than the Sallgan ships. And the tailsman gave them a decisive advantage in combat. But their strategy had a glaring hole in it. If this could be taken advantage of, it could result in victory for the Republic. Or at least a chance at survival.

This weakness had actually been discovered after the first battle of Cephredi many years ago. While the Sallegans had been victorious in that battle, the Norak ships there were hopelessly outdated. Perhaps if the battle had gone against the Sallegans at that time, they would have taken more seriously the after battle report about the Norak weakness and preparations could have been made sooner to take advantage of it.

It wasn't until the Norak fleet annihilated the Sallegan fleet during the eastern rebellion that the Republic began to realize how deficient their technology was. The line given to the public was that the rebel fleet had been old ships ready for the scrap heap, or the museum. That the Norak ships had been bigger, and more advanced and naturally would have defeated them. There were even rumors spread that the Sallegan rebels had been led by inferior officers, and possibly even deferred to Sergetti masters.

But all this was, though not an out and out lie, certainly a half truth. The ships the rebels had commandeered had been older than the ships in Cephredi, but not that much. And they had a large numerical advantage over the Norak. Tactical reports received of the battle did not show any poor tactics at all. The officers in charge of the Rebels were after all highly trained Republic naval academy graduates, many with actual battle experience against the Xi'Chung and Sergetti. They simply couldn't get within range of their weapons and were blown out of space by the Norak from long range aided by their tailsmans.

Many simulations had been done following that battle, and the results were not much better even with the Sallegans top of the line warships. It was clear that something had to be done to prepare in the event political talks broke down and the Norak started an all out war. It was then that the old report from the first battle of Cephredi had been dug out, and this time it was taken more seriously.

The weakness was simple, and glaring. The Norak did not use point defense cannons. It was known that they did in fact have the technology, it had been seen on their early ship designs. But about the time the first tailsmans started appearing, the Norak ships mysteriously stopped having PDC onboard. It was not known why, perhaps it was some sort of cultural or religious taboo. Perhaps the Norak considered it a lack of faith. If so it was an interesting dichotomy, because they did not have any such aVersion to shield technology, or minesweepers.

It was also entirely possible that they simply felt that PDC were unnecessary as few of the major empires made much use of fighters or missiles, and PDC were of little use against anything else. The Sallegans themselves had many years ago phased missiles out of service, and ceased further research and development on the technology. They did have a sizeable number of fighters for defense in the homesystem, but at the time the Norak could not have known this.

The republic went on a crash program to research more advanced missiles, to build ships employing them, and to retrofit older designs with them. With the armistice signed after the end of the trouble with the eastern rebels, the fleet in Cephredi had been split up over two colonies and work began on retrofitting them as much as possible.

The new top of the line Ahmadabad battle cruiser was designed and as many as could be built, were built. This vessel have seven missile tubes, and with the advanced missiles being designed they could fire from a distance outside of the range of the Norak tailsman controlled Phased Poloran Beams. However, it was a race against the clock, and the clock ran out.

When the Norak moved on the fleets in Cephredi, the fleet being split up and too many being retrofitted at once meant that they could offer little but token resistance to the Norak fleet. As it was a few Norak ships were actually destroyed, better than could be hoped, but not good enough. The Republic could not afford a war of attrition with the Norak. Their empire was too large.

When the picket ship watching the Ashadra system to the south of Narcisston reported the approach of a second fleet of Norak attempting to flank the home system defenses, things looked bleak. The fleet entered the Sallega home system and quickly glassed two planets. It was clear that this was to be a bloody war. The Norak were not even bothering to bring troops with them. It was obvious to the Republic that their very existence was at stake.

There was much discussion as to how best to defend the home system. They senate wanted the fleet kept close to the homeworld. But Grandow knew that was bad policy. He couldn't sit back while the Norak glassed the planets around him and hope for a miracle. He had to do something. And he had his missile ace up his sleeve. He doubted the Norak would take seriously the few that managed to be brought into action in Cephredi. And even if they did, it was estimated this new fleet had departed the Norak space about the same time as the initial suprise attack. They could not have done anything about it that quickly.

The fleet was sent to meet the new Norak fleet. They did battle in sector 6,8. The two fleets engaged each other, and the Sallegan ships let loose their missiles as soon as they were in range. The main force of the Norak dreadnoughts went quickly. They did damage in return, but their phased polaron beams could not pierce the phased shielding of the Republic Battle Cruisers.

The Sallegan fighters moved in next in "large wing" formation. Over five hundred fighters, spilt into two massive Groups. It was a risky strategy. Collected together, the fighters couldn't cover as many targets, and they were easier to hit by the enemy. But the damage they could do grouped together was considered worth the risk. They swooped into action and each destroyed a single Norak warship with their first volley. There was no return fire. The Norak as expected had no PDC, and the few phased polaron beams that survived the initial moments of the firefight were trained on the Sallegan capital ships.

Grandow almost held out hope of total victory after the initial success. But the Norak had a suprise of their own waiting. Included in the fleet were several light cruisers of a new design. The Huron had no standard weaponry, but instead was exclusively armed with ionic beam weapons. These could skip through the Sallegan phased shielding and armor, and immediately burned out the remaining engines. The Sallegan missile ships could still fire, but they were dead in space.

After a few brief and bloody moments, the Norak fleet was reduced to a toothless shell of it's former self. The only weapons it had left were the ionic weapons that were good only against engines. These could not target the fighters at all. While the Sallegan fleet had lost several ships, they still had many more, and most of them still had all their weapons intact. But they could not pursue the Norak fleet. The fighter wings did their best to chase the Hurons down, but they unfortunately did not have any more speed than the Norak ships. They managed two more kills, but the remainder of the Hurons, and all the minesweepers the Norak brought were alive. They moved on past the Republic fleet and resumed course for the Republic homeworld.

Grandow had almost nothing left to stop them. The Norak fleet could not do any damage to the homeworld with only ionic weapons, but they could blockade them. And the Norak still had another fleet in Cephredi waiting to pounce.