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

[Starhawk]

2431.4 The 1st Space battle of Sadalmelek:
It was third watch aboard HMS Terror and most of the crew was either asleep or off relaxing or working out in their off time, Lieutenant Jeffery Hellar was commander of the watch on the bridge and was pacing the deck in his boredom, he hated third watch but he was the most junior command officer on board which meant he always got dogwatch.
“Lieutenant sir I’ve got something odd coming in from DNX-N1 system, spyer sat just picked it up on range five minutes ago, but I can’t get a positive lock on what it is yet.” The tac officer of the watch frowned down at his screen for a moment and rubbed his jaw.
“Can you get me a clearer answer then that tac?” Hellar said irritably as he stopped his pacing, dogwatch always got the Officer’s in training or the rooks which made things a royal pain when it came to getting anything done.
Five minutes passed and Hellar resumed his pacing as he considered whether or not to wake the Admiral, until finally the tac officer cleared his throat.
“Sir I’ve got confirmation, I am reading two formations of enemy starships, by drive strengths I’d say most of them are battle cruisers and battleships I can’t tell you who’s they are yet though, but I can tell you they are moving under cloak and at present rate of acceleration will enter firing range of the outer planets in two four hours…..sir I think we should wake the Admiral.” The tac officer frowned again as he noticed the glare shot his way.
“Thank you tac I figured as much, sound general quarters and wake the Admiral.” Hellar growled as the klaxons came on and the sound of drums thundered, if anyone was still asleep Hellar figured they were in a coma.

A few moments later the entire fleet was in battle formation and Rear Admiral Patrick Raley was standing on the bridge of his flagship watching his master plot as the two enemy formations continued on their course oblivious to the fact that he saw them on his scopes and was moving at half acceleration to intercept them. Raley had chosen to “sneak up” on the enemy by setting his course to make it look like the 2nd fleet was moving out system instead of moving to intercept the two formations of cloaked enemy ships. And thus far it seemed to be working as his fleet had been heading towards them for the past eight hours and neither enemy fleet changed course or heading.
“Admiral if they are going to attack us it should be any minute now.” Captain Susan Lap said calmly as she watched the enemy light codes merge with that of the 2nd fleet, as they merged the master plot zoomed in to a much smaller plane and focused on the two forces which were now only light seconds apart from one another.
“Enemy ships uncloaking!” The Senior Tactical officer sang out as an alarm whaled into life signaling the “sudden appearance” of the enemy fleet.
“We’ve got missile launch sir, I count 77 birds in the air!” the STO said calmly as the point defenses came to life.
“Point Defense crews are acquiring locks Admiral, I don’t think these missiles of theirs will be a problem at all.” The Chief weapons officer concealed a grin as the tactical displays showed 77 new light codes dart out from the fleet, each one headed straight for an enemy missile. The main problem with missile warfare was in fact that missiles took time to arrive on target, and while it was true that if the Earth Corps ships had gotten the drop on maybe a lone division of SD’s the battle might be in question, but with the amount of Point defense fire that the Icarans could pour out was simply too accurate and overwhelming for missile warfare to succeed.
“Sir they are closing to energy weapons range, and firing.” The tactical officer winced as the five enemy battleships fired their heavy I-laser cannons, unfortunately for the ECA ships their energy weapons were too weak to cut down the shields of the much larger super dreadnoughts.
The enemy light and heavy cruisers had already turned about to disengage, unfortunately for them they could not build the acceleration required to get away from the more powerful drives of their Icaran enemies.
Patrick Raley arched an eyebrow and turned to Captain Susan Lap “Well Captain I think we’ve given them enough of a chance, order the main battle line to engage the enemy at will, let’s end this quickly.” The Captain nodded, a small smile on her lips as she passed on the order to the rest of the fleet. It was the kind of naval battle every Admiral dreamed of, the Icarans totally outmatched their adversaries, and as the 2nd fleet opened their broadsides to the ECA starships that superiority became amazingly apparent. Only one SD division closed the range with the enemy fleet, but with their Dreadnought class I-lasers they would prove more then enough for the ECA ships.
Three of the enemy battleships exploded almost immediately as the massive energy weapons tore through their shields and hulls like talons.
Two more battleships were torn apart as the Terror unleashed her own broadside on them, the green beams shredded the enemy so quickly that the ECA crews never got a chance to get into their escape pods.
Jupiter closed in on the three heavy cruisers, and one light cruiser and cut a swath of death and fire as she passed through their formation like a lion amongst sheep, ending the battle in a matter of minutes.
“Helm take us right down the throats of that second formation, I don’t want any of these ships getting by us.” Raley smiled at his flag captain for a moment before returning his attention to the master plot.

Barely two hours later the entire second ECA force was destroyed by the Icaran fleet, which brought the enemy death toll into the thousands while not a single Icaran life had been lost in exchange making this the single greatest Icaran space victory in nearly fifteen years, and it had all been thanks to the newly deployed Spier satellites.