[sachmo]

First Battle of Cetarus

2411.7

The Rage fleet of nine ships closed in on Cetarus as Brennan watched. His five combat ships would have to use everything that they had to defeat the enemy fleet. These Rage ships, like most that they had fought before, relied on speed and missile fire for their strength. The ships could get off a salvo of missiles and be out of range of return fire before his own ships could react. Since Brennan’s force was a mix of gun ships and missile launchers, he would have to modify his tactics to allow his fleet to gain the advantage over the Rage.
When the Rage fleet entered the system, Brennan had the defense forces on Cetarus produce as many anti-missile batteries as they could fit on the small planet. Brennan planned to have his fleet wait behind this extra wall of protection while the Rage ships fired their missiles at them. He was hoping that one of their ships would come a bit to close and present his fleet with a chance to pounce on one. He realized that he could very well wind up sitting and soaking up missile fire and never get a chance to engage the Rage fleet, but he had the luxury of knowing that help was on the way. If he could ride the attack out, he might be able to counterattack and defeat the Rage. He could lose, but only if he acted impatiently. He chuckled to himself, remembering days earlier in the war when the Rage could have counted on just such behavior from him. If he had learned nothing else, he had learned patience. If he had not learned, he would probably be dead already.
The Rage ships deployed into a wall formation, preparing to close range and let fly with a salvo of missiles. Their scanners were creating electronic noise on all of the fleet’s sensors as the Rage eagerly tried to find out what they were up against. Still the wall advanced, with four of the ships moving back into a second rank to wait and launch a second salvo. This told Brennan that they probably had not seen the anti-missile batteries on the surface of Cetarus. If they had, they would try and fire all of their missiles in one salvo to overwhelm the Remorhaz defenses.
Once they reached maximum range, they opened fire. Missiles streaked across the darkness of space, casting an orange glow until they reached maximum velocity and cut their engines, homing in on their targets.
The sensor officer called out targets and the ranges of the incoming missiles. Tension gripped the deck. Brennan did some quick math in his head, and he knew that the missile salvo would probably not be large enough to penetrate the Remorhaz defenses. He was right. Once the missiles reached maximum engagement range, the point defense cannons on the Remorhaz ships opened fire, knocking a number out. The fire from the anti-missile batteries on the surface quickly smashed the few that penetrated the ship’s defensive fire.
“Surprise”, Brennan thought as the tactical display snuffed out the Last of the threat icons. “Now let’s see how you react.”
The Rage did not hesitate, and the second rank opened fire. This salvo too was knocked out. The Rage moved into range, fired, and then pulled back. Every time, the Remorhaz defenses held.
Finally, the Remorhaz chance came. Once of the Rage ships closed past his optimum missile range, and quickly closed distance with the Remorhaz ships. Brennan took his own light cruiser Sierra and the frigate Catreus at full burn toward the Rage ship. Quickly realizing his mistake, the Rage captain turned his ship and tried to open the range. The ship had already fired its missiles, and was defenseless. Sierra was the first to reach weapons range, and she fired everything she had. They hit with the heavy depleted uranium cannon and the anti-matter torpedoes, causing considerable damage to the Rage frigate. As the other Rage ships turned to react to this threat and fire their missiles at Brennan and his wingman, Hawk, Comet, and Fortitude moved to engage another Rage ship which had moved into range while changing position to fire at Sierra. They scored a few hits on a Rage destroyer, but did no major damage. All of the Remorhaz ships raced back toward Cetarus and the cover from the anti-missile batteries.
Soon the Rage presented them with another opportunity. A Rage Notorious class destroyer came charging at the Remorhaz fleet. Brennan assumed they planned to concentrate their fire on one ship and fire at close range, possibly to overwhelm their defenses by limiting reaction time and flooding the ship with missiles. However, the Rage ship moved in alone. Sierra and Catreus closed range and fired on the enemy destroyer. Depleted uranium shells tore thru the hull, knocking out two engines, it’s point defense cannon, and one of its missile launchers. Hawk was able to close range with a Claymore class frigate that was in the process of reloading its missiles and pump a few shells into the ship’s dark hull. The ship lurched as the shells tore deep into its interior, wrecking havoc with the ship’s components. Hawk turned and ran back to the protection of the batteries on Cetarus.
At this point, the Rage broke off the attack. They left having done no damage to the Remorhaz fleet while having four of their own ships damaged, one of them heavily. Brennan watched as the Rage ships fled, slowed by their damaged ships. He immediately began weighing his options. He had taken no damage, and had almost full supplies. His ships were outnumbered, but the enemy was fighting with reduced capacity. He called his XO over.
“Well Benson, they turned tail. What do you think we should do?”
Lieutenant Benson cracked a smile that split his face in two.
“Well sir, we have the initiative. They are going to be slowed by their stragglers. I say we go after them.”
Brennan gave Benson a little wink.
“Good idea. Let the fleet know we are counterattacking. Also, I need to speak to General Townsend. I want to see if he can go after Jethanis VII with his Marines while we keep the Rage busy here.”