From the Begining New Chapter Added (9/12/06)

[Starhawk]

Yeah sorry about that I ended up busy with other things.

Well here yah go

2412.1 The Battle of Wardo
It had been four Months since the planet buster drones had destroyed four bases in the Fornax system. And two months since HMS Hawkwing arrived and became Admiral Ross’ new flagship and he was still settling in to the sheer size and power of his new heavy cruiser, the only one on the entire Phong line at the time.
It was two in the morning when the detection nets first picked up the energy signatures of an entire Phong task force of some 22 frigates and destroyers headed to destroy the only Icaran world in Phong territory. It was still four hours to intercept range and Ross sat silent in his briefing room with his subordinates, including Captain Bradshaw of the 2nd space fighter wing which had come on-line only two months ago.
“Sir we can’t intercept them at any great range or else we’d risk letting them slip through our defenses and scoring hits on Wardo before we could intercept.” Captain Sarah Pallins steepled her fingers under her chin as she gave the holotank another look over.
‘Yes but at the same time, if we intercept them too close to Wardo colony it would risk them firing straight past our ships.” Commadore Stanley shook his head even as he made his statement, either way intercepting a fleet the size they were facing with as few ships as they had was going to be a hit or miss proposal.

“Alright what we are not taking into account here is that we have the 2nd Space Wing with us.” Ross chimed in, and everyone turned to face their Admiral, as it had been the first time since the briefing began that he had spoken. “Captain Bradshaw do you think your fighters could fill the gaps in our line of battle?”
“Sir, with all respect I think my fighters should be more active in the defense of the planet then taking up gap filling ops in your line of battle.” Bradshaw was always slightly arrogant, Ross had gotten used to that but he was also good at what he did and Ross was somehow still irked by that.
“So what do you recommend Captain?” Fowler’s sneer was obvious as she addressed the man that was for all intents and purposes her junior but the confident Pilot didn’t even flinch as he looked straight back at Ross.
“Well Sir, I’d recommend you let my fighters stay just behind your battle line, no doubt the enemy will envelope your battle line and punch holes in it, my fighters could sweep into them as they tried to reach the planet and take them by surprise. I know you’d feel safer with my fighters intermingled with your own line sir but if those destroyers got even one lucky shot on one of your capital ships they could totally disrupt my fighter formations….uh pardon sir but if my fighters have to evade one of our own exploding starships it would still open up a gap in your lines but worse then that it would totally disrupt my fighters abilities to intercept.” Bradshaw’s voice was totally emotionless as he stated what he considered perfectly acceptable facts but to the navy commanders sitting in the room with him his “facts” were appalling as he described the destruction of a Capital ship as a problem for him.

Ross raised his hand to wave down the other naval commanders before they had a chance to speak. “Alright Bradshaw your fighters will stay just behind my line of battle but I do expect you to get involved in preventing gaps in our lines…understood captain?”
“Understood sir.”
“Alright then, our Naval commanders know where their place in the line is and now we know where our fighters are going to be, so I think that covers it all. Good even Captains, Commodore Stanley.” Ross said politely, he escorted the other officers to his boat bay and saw them off. He then went back to his quarters to grab and hour of sleep.

“Line of battle is formed Admiral, all squadrons assembled, Bradshaw’s fighters are in position behind us.” Captain Palmer spoke on the screen, he was in his command station on the Hawkwing‘s main bridge and Ross was in the Flag bridge just below and 20 meters behind the main bridge, Ross was still not used to not being on “the bridge” as a battle was going on, he had to forcefully hide his frown at the thought as he nodded to Palmer.
“Thank you Captain, my plots down here say we have twelve minutes to intercept range is that correct?”
“Aye Admiral twelve minutes.” Palmer’s voice was remarkably calm-even for a navy man-but Ross thought the Captain had every reason to be, not all that long ago Hawkwing alone had destroyed six of the enemy’s ships while suffering no damage and that would make any captain cocky.

Twelve minuets later the entire line of battle erupted in a chain of broadsides, the light cruisers, cruisers, and heavy cruiser’s beams sliced across space but it was at extreme ranges and only two enemy frigates died under the fire. The destroyers fired their own cannons, but their depleted uranium shells only scored a handful of hits on the enemy fleet and no serious damage was done. A stream of missiles rippled away from the smaller Icaran ships.
The Phong point defenses chewed through the missiles however turning them into a massive cloud of erupting micro-stars but their overall effect on the battle was non existent. The Phong counter fire was hellish as the 14 Phong ships in range opened up on Ross’ battle line.
The heavy cruiser was the main target of the enemy fire and nearly a dozen shells slammed into her shields as the enemy continued pouring on the fire, fire which was broken again as the Icaran line fired it’s broadsides yet again, Hawkwing alone claimed two kills, the light cruisers each scored a kill and the cruisers crippled two ships and killed two more with their own powerful armaments.
The destroyers actually scored some good shots in their second broadside and three Phong ships fell out of formation as their engines burned out.

The heavy cruiser’s shields flared again and again as shells continued to slam into her relentlessly, the shields strained and succeeded in destroying most of the incoming shells but even it’s energy barrier had it’s breaking point.
A loud serious of explosions within the heavy cruiser shook her to her core as four direct hits punched massive holes in her engine core and another hit blew apart three of her cannons tearing them asunder as if they were toys.
“Sir, engine one down, cannons four, five and seven are gone, heavy casualties in those sections…” Ross could hear other damage reports over the com as Palmer’s face appeared on his screen again.
“Admiral, they are enveloping our lines, Hawkwing seems to be their main objective at the moment sir but Trafalgar has also taken some fire, Sir should I order the fighters in now?” Palmer’s voice was still remarkably calm and icy even as the holo display showed more fire from his battle line destroy six more Phong warships and then the dozens of tiny red blips that signaled the Phong counter salvos.
“No Captain we can’t yet, give them four more minutes, then order the intercept.”
“Admiral I….” Palmer’s voice was suddenly cut off as a massive explosion tore the bridge apart, a shell had impacted just behind the bridge its self but the angle of impact sent massive splinters slicing into the bridge, the two marine sentries exploded in clouds of gore and blood as the whole after section of the bridge erupted in splinters and shrapnel, a piece of wreckage decapitated Palmer’s exec and continued on into the helmsman, tearing his back open, a woman’s scream and then a gurgling blood filled cry jerked Palmer around, just in time to see another piece of bulkhead coming straight at him, it was too late to duck of course and the shard slammed into his face destroying it in a spray of blood and rent flesh.
Hawkwing took more hits, somehow her com net stayed on line however and Ross continued issuing orders to his ships, the line of battle had been broken much as he had expected but his fleet’s damage aside from his own flagship was surprisingly light, however the destroyer Trafalgar was in almost as bad shape as his own ship as it moved to cover his port side from fire.
“Bradshaw NOW, get your fighters into it!” Ross shouted over the com as another shell tore yet another piece out of the wounded and atmosphere bleeding heavy cruiser.

100 Wasp fighters screamed at full thrust from three different angles on the Phong ships that had enveloped the 3rd fleet, 10 squadrons of 10 fighters each unleashed hellish amounts of cannon fire as they darted around the much larger enemy ships, dodging what few cannons tried to fire at them. Rapidly eight enemy ships died as eight of the ten squadrons strafed them.
“Alright squadrons 1 and 8 follow me in, we’ve got to take out the bastards that are firing into Hawkwing before they destroy her.” Bradshaw led his squadron straight down the throat of one of the Phong destroyers that had been picking at the badly damaged flagship, as he squeezed the triggers on his controls Bradshaw saw hundreds of cannon shells tearing into the enemy ships hull, as his squad mates opened up those hundreds of shells quickly turned into thousands and then tens of thousands as the continued to strafe along the destroyer’s exposed hull, less then a minute later the destroyer wheeled away out of control and burning, until her reactor overloaded and she disappeared in a brilliant flash of gold.
The other squadron that Bradshaw led in the defense of the flagship also scored a kill and the fighter Captain couldn’t help but smile as he looked at his helm mounted HUD and saw the 3rd fleet firing another concentrated broadside into the enemy, and still more Phong target indicators winking out.
“Alright you scrappers, Squad 1 stay with me, I’m reading another ship going after Hawkwing squadron eight you have free fire, pick your targets and kill them at your discretion”

Ross exhaled deeply as he saw the Phong that were chasing his badly damaged ship destroyed by the 2nd space wing, more then that all along the line he saw his fleet gaining ground as more and more enemy ships died.

“This is Victorious to flagship, sir do you need assistance?” Sarah Pallins sounded more concerned then Ross had ever heard her before but he was too relieved to hear her voice to even see the las few red light codes wink out as the light cruisers Retribution and Pollux opened fire.
“Status is critical Sarah, but I can get her to port, what is the status of the fleet, I’ve lost most of my sensors over here.” Ross was still in the unfeeling professional mode that he donned in battle, but in his gut he felt a terrified knot twisting around his stomach, his fleet had taken a lot more fire then it ever should have and he knew that his own ship-which was the biggest most powerful ship in the fleet- had been beaten to hell so he could only imagine what could have happened to the smaller ships.
“Sir, you and Trafalgar took most of the fire, I’m afraid the destroyer was crippled, her Captain is dead along with about two thirds of her crew, but other then that the rest of the fleet has suffered only minor damage, in fact Admiral, Captain Fowler and I request permission to take our ships out and hunt down those two enemy squadrons that ran their recon for that fleet.” Pallins’ voice was full of heartache and the yearning to make the rest of the Phong fleet pay for the damage the 3rd fleet had suffered and for the lives that had been lost.
“If you are sure you can take them out with minimal damage to your own ships then go for it.” Ross smiled thinly at the grin on Pallins face as she relayed those orders to her helmsman.

Retribution and [/i]Victorious[/i] both intercepted two separate Groups of Phong warships that had run recon for the main fleet which had raided Wardo, both squadrons were completely destroyed by the two Icaran warships.
Fowler had scored two enemy destroyers while Pallins scored another six destroyers killed, on their return to Wardo Fowler and Pallins were congraluated by Ross for their victories.