[sachmo]

Zekrat Campaign-Phase II begins

“Contact! Rage Gorgon II class light cruiser, bearing 080 at 6 sectors, Captain. Looks like she’s just sitting there, sir.”
“Thank you, Sensor,” Reid called back.
Captain Walter Reid flipped on his tactical display. Yep, there she was, at a dead stop right outside of the Lundra-Zekrat wormhole. At least Reid knew that if there were more Rage ships on the other side of the wormhole, Sakazawa would have warned them about it.
“Helm, set course for the bogie. Relay our situation to Commodore Lu. Weps, I want all missiles bays loaded and ready to fire.”
His crew acknowledged his orders.
Hyperion fired her engines, and she was quickly joined by the remains of Lundra fleet, RSS Faith and RSS Ganymede.
In less than a week, they intercepted the Rage light cruiser. No one had yet faced a Rage light cruiser in battle, so everyone in the fleet was a little nervous. While the Remorhaz fleet had a three-to-one advantage in the fight, they knew that the Rage had superior missile and beam weapons. The weapon advantage enjoyed by the Rage could even things up in a hurry.
As they moved closer to the wormhole, they were able to gather more data on the Gorgon II. She was armed with no weapons. She was actually configured as a long-range colony ship. Still, they could not allow it to escape.
The battle was short. The Rage ship, with 4 million colonists aboard, decided to try and ram the Remorhaz ships. She never got closer than two million miles before the combined cannon, torpedo, and missile fire of the Remorhaz ships vaporized the Gorgon.
Lu and his task force continued on to Zekrat, where they were to join with the Xillantha fleet for an assault on Zekrat VIII.

2410.8

Captain Reid was wrong about one thing, the Rage did have another ship with which to attack his ships. Unfortunately for the Rage, this craft was another light cruiser outfit as a long-range colony ships, and another 44 million Rage, plus the ships crew, were bLasted to atoms by the Remorhaz fleet.

RSS Orion pulled into orbit with the rest of the Iolo defense fleet. Commodore Thom Hitcher looked out of the bLasteel windows. He could see his new command laid out before him. The orange glow of Iolo’s sun played across the hulls of the four ships of the Iolo defense fleet, illuminating them for a few brief moments until their orbit took them back around to the dark side of the planet. In the light, where the ships rarely were, they looked powerful and deadly. Floating above Correlia, they looked like guardian angels, watching over the people far below as they went about their lives.
How much protection would these ships be able to provide for them? Currently, his scanner showed twenty-one Ukra-Tal ships heading for the Yukra system transiting Iolo, and he was powerless to stop them. They had just blown the satellite belt that had secured the wormhole while suffering only minor damage to one destroyer. If the Ukra-Tal attacked Correlia, his ships would be a minor distraction. However, it was his job to make sure that the people below him on the surface survived. The longer he had to build up his forces and the defenses on Correlia, the bigger the distraction to the Ukra-Tal his fleet would prove to be.
Commodore Hitcher stood up and looked at himself in the mirror. This would be the biggest test of his life. If he failed, he knew that everyone on Correlia would die.

Plans had changed for Xillantha Fleet in the Zekrat system. Before the fleet was able to leave Invexus and join up with Lundra Fleet for the assault on Zekrat IX, a fleet of seven Rage ships jumped into the system and took a course to attack Invexus. Rear Admiral Sakazawa was forced to detach Badger from his fleet and have it join up with Lu and Lundra Fleet. They would have to try and take Zekrat IX alone. Xillantha Fleet would move to intercept and destroy the Rage fleet at maximum distance from Invexus, as the colony had no defenses yet. The second phase of the Zekrat campaign was about to begin.