[sachmo]

Probes

The Ukra-Tal destroyer appeared as a tiny dot against the background of space, barely distinguishable from the stars that pierced the dark veil. Commodore Hitcher watched the Ukra-Tal ship close range with his own fleet, seemingly oblivious to the danger he was facing.
The enemy ship continued coming toward the Remorhaz ships, increasing velocity every moment.
It won’t work, Hitcher thought. The Ukra-Tal ship had to close into guns range to have any hope of damaging the Remorhaz ships. Hopefully, their own missiles would finish her before that happened.
As soon as the enemy ship moved into effective missile range, Skydancer and Shining Victory opened fire.
Hitcher’s eyes followed the missiles as they streaked across the gulf of space, reduced to tiny white dots on the tactical display.
The Ukra-Tal destroyer began maneuvering to try and break the seekers lock, but it was futile. Both flights crashed into her hull, causing massive internal explosions. If Hitcher had been looking into space with his naked eye, he would have seen a brilliant flash as the destroyer met her fate. As it was, the craft simply disappeared from the display.
“Ok, let’s go home” Hitcher said. He wasn’t sure how long the Ukra-Tal would keep sending ships thru Iolo one at a time, but as the opportunities presented themselves, he would take them.

2411.1

Brigadier General Townsend was ecstatic. Lezzari V was the Last Rage planet in this system, and it had been undefended. The planet was taken with only a single casualty, the local sequencer. Lezzari was now firmly back in Remorhaz hands.

In Zekrat, Sakazawa gathered all of his combat power for the assault on the Rage homeworld. Within the next month, the final battle would be joined.

2411.2

The Research Guild perfected the third generation of the anti-proton beam. This weapon was still less effective than the depleted uranium cannon, but it required no ammunition as was more effective at shield penetration. The guild began work on an even more powerful depleted uranium cannon, which would be ready within the month.

In the Iolo system, Commodore Hitcher watched as a fleet of nineteen Ukra-Tal ships moved toward Correlia. However, before they were able to move into attack position, the lead ship triggered the Kursk space minefield that had been laid the previous year. All eyes stared in disbelief as the Ukra-Tal ships were overwhelmed by the destructive power of the minefield. The mines homed in on the ships, detonating at precise range to cause maximum damage. The mines preformed their duty far beyond the expectations of naval planners and scientists alike. The mines were too small and moved too quickly for the Ukra-Tal ships point defenses to stop. Each ship was lost in a brilliant display of explosion, and still more mines homed in. The devastation was utter and complete. The Ukra-Tal fleet was reduced to a cloud of fine debris.
Shaking himself out of a disbelieving stare, Hitcher ordered his fleet to move into the area to check for survivors. He was confident that he would find none.

In the Koltan system, a science vessel sent word back to Remorhaz of contact with a craft of unknown origin. The craft did not make a hostile move toward the science vessel, but did not respond to hails. Chairman Sachmo knew that if this new race turned out to be hostile, there would not be much hope for the future. He ordered Ambassador Mulatti to immediately draw up a message of piece, and he prayed to his god that this race respond favorably to his overtures.

Commodore Brennan took his fleet back into Jethanis. Apparently the Rage had been busy here. Where there had been one, there were now five Rage inhabited worlds in this system. The first target world would be Jethanis III.
The fleet closed in on the planet. Jethanis III had no surface defenses, but was protected by a space station. However, when long-range scanners studied the station, they found that it was in fact only a repair station and had no defensive weapons whatsoever. The 1st Space Marine Brigade captured the planet without casualties, capturing a space yard and a mineral miner facility. The Rage troops and workers on the space station refused to surrender, and so it had to be destroyed by the fleet. It would have been nice to capture intact, but the shipyard was the biggest prize of all.
Providence finished construction of a rock colony ship, and this ship set course for Nova with four million Norak colonists. These colonists were determined to continue the work started by their brothers who had died here in the Rage attack.

In Zekrat, four million Remorhaz colonists began to set up a resupply base on the world of Zekrat IX. They named the colony Grenville, and started immediate construction of a supply depot. It would be three months before the facility was up and running, and it was possible that the battle would be won or lost by then.

Rear Admiral Shiro Sakazawa closed the com channel and sat back in his command chair. This was the biggest battle fought by the Remorhaz Navy since the Battle of Norak all those years ago. They were finally bringing the fight to the Rage homeworld. If they succeeded in taking it, the war with the Rage was all but over. If they failed, the road was open to the heart of the Remorhaz Society, as well as over half of their fleet strength.
We must not fail, he thought.
Shiro allowed himself a quick glance around his command center. So many young faces, he thought. How many will die in this battle?
He steeled his resolve, and glanced at his communication officer.
“Signal all ships. Begin the attack.”
The communication officer sent the message out, and the orders were acknowledged. The ships took up a V-formation, and aimed right at the heart of the Rage homeworld.
The Rage defenses were impressive. Seven capital ship missile complexes, complete with anti-missile guns, defended the planet itself. There were also three armed space stations, formidable in their own right. The entire battle would be won or lost in whose weapons overwhelmed the others first.
The Remorhaz ships moved to engage an armed space station. The orbit of this station took it outside of the protective umbrella of the surface weapons anti-missile batteries, and so was left to fend for itself against the power of the Remorhaz fleet. At long range, the Remorhaz ships opened fire with missile salvos, overwhelming the point defenses of the station. Missile after missile struck the station’s sturdy shields, until they eventually burned out the shield generators and began peeling back the armor of the hull. Atmosphere and debris vented as holes appeared in the skin of the space station. Ganymede, Tarus, and Olympia closed to guns range to finish the station off, but not before it was able to deliver a broadside of phased polaron beam fire into Tarus. The beams tore thru her shields, and melted a huge furrow in her port side. Sakazawa was tossed and shaken as the ship bore the brunt of the attack. One of his orderlies, who was not strapped into his seat was flung against the bulkhead that he hit with a sickening crunch. For her efforts, the combined gunfire from the three ships finished the space station. Missile fire from the fleet also overwhelmed the defenses of another space station, destroying it in short order. Sakazawa decided to wait for the rest of the fleet to join him before pressing home the main attack. For the cost of a heavily damaged light cruiser, they had succeeded in weakening the defenses of the Rage homeworld by 20%. With continued success, the might be able to take this planet within three months.

2411.3
The Ukra-Tal came to Correlia once more. This time the minefield was not large enough to stop them completely, but only two light cruisers made it thru to orbit, and they were badly damaged. Three ships were destroyed. The Iolo defense fleet destroyed the remains with no damage to themselves or to Correlia.
Hitcher wasn’t sure that this would be good enough. Strategic display showed a fleet of 23 Ukra-Tal ships closing in from the Wanduk system. All he had were his six ships, a light minefield and the planetary defenses of Correlia. He hoped that it would be enough to blunt the attack. The ultimate test was coming.

In the Lundra system, another Ukra-Tal fleet was on the move. It lost two ships to the minefield Jager had set up outside the wormhole, but they had successfully swept the remaining mines. 13 enemy ships were on course for Highrock. Highrock launched the Last of the space mines, and had six ships left to defend the system. It was going to be a close call, for sure.