Running Battle

The Travails of Convoy PXQ-290

Disclaimer: I do not own and I am not connected to Sins of a Solar Empire, Stardock Entertainment, Inc., and Ironclad Games Corporation in any way shape or form. This is a fanfic and can not be considered canon or used in any kind of debates. No money will be made from this story and Stardock Entertainment, Inc. and Ironclad Games Corporation can at any time demand I erase this story if they feel I have infringed upon their intellectual property.

AN: I try to keep within reasonable numbers for ships and such with the limited information we get on the ships. All units of measurement will be in metric. Temprature will be given in degrees Kelvin. This chapter will be short, just to set the plot. The main characters will introduced next chapter along with some action in two days.

Chapter One

Trader World Ganges, 5-23-4890

Grand Admiral Karen Orlon of the TEC Merchant Marine was tired. For ten years she had been trying to keep the TEC economy functioning by working with the TEC Navy to protect convoys through danger spots and find safer routes.

In times of peace, a freighter would load up and head out at best possible speed to unload its cargo at its destination. It was highly effienct. In wartime though that was no longer possible as the military could no longer suppress Pirates and enemy forces targeted her ships that she licensed and certified. This forced all merchant ships to convoy.

However, convoying reduced cargo deliveries by half and thus without firing a shot, the enemy had reduced shipping by an unacceptable level. She wondered how WW2 Admirals got any sleep over the sheer amount of work required to keep the supply lanes open and the Convoys moving.

Currently she was putting together a forty merchant ship convoy to deliver raw ore to the Valconian Military Shipyards orbiting the Volcanic World of Tyril which was near the frontlines of the Vasari Front. Each four kilometer long Dunov Super Freighter could haul 90,718,474 metric tons of raw iron ore, four shiploads were enough to build a single Sova Class Super Carrier.

Protection for the convoy, labeled PXQ-290, would consist of six Dunov Battlecruisers, seven Percheron Light Carriers, nine Kodiak Heavy Cruisers, and twenty-three Garda Flak Frigates.

Double checking that everything was correct, Grand Admiral Orlon stood up from her desk. "Mr. Jessups, deliver these orders to the Ship Captains and inform Rear Admiral Douri that my ships are ready to go."

"Yes Ma'am"

Turning to look out the Viewport into space Grand Admiral Orlon saw the convoy starting to form. It would be twelve hours before they made their two week journey. Sadly not all those ships would return as she knew. 'Damn war,' she thought again for the millionenth time in ten years as a flight of four fighters flew past her viewport.

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Chapter Two: Part One

Phase Space enroute to Fretena System, 5-24-4890

Rear Admiral Saddam Al-Douri entered the CIC of his Flagship, the Dunov Battlecruiser RBDBC-1290 Zulfiqar, to the salute of the two TEC Marines guarding it. His Chief-of-Staff, Captain Taymullah Al-Tikrit greeted him.

“Admiral, we are ten minutes from exiting Phase Space. All ships are alert and crews in EVA suits in case of combat.”

“Excellent Captain, you stand relieved. Get some rest.”

“I stand relieved sir,” Captain Tikrit saluted and left the CIC.

Rear Admiral Douri stared at the holograpic display. He would be taking a wormhole in the Fretena System as his first stop on his two week journey which began ten hours ago. It was a known Pirate Haven, but he had enough firepower and acceleration to quickly make the three phase jumps in this system needed to get to the wormhole and through it to the next wormhole. Shouldn't take any longer than twelve hours to clear the system.

“Sir, Captain Safwan reports we are exiting phase space now,” CPO Ma'mun called out from his station.

“Confirm receipt of message, Mr. Husam bring up the strategic map of this system,” Admiral Douri ordered as the ship shuddered from the 6,000Gs of deceleration from exiting phase space.

“Sir all ships accounted for,” CPO Ma'mun reported.

“Order all ships to move to the phase lane at 400Gs.” The Admiral ordered as he kept a cautious watch on the holographic display.

“Aye, Aye, Sir,” was the reply.

While 400Gs was not the fastest velocity for a Dunov, the smaller frigates wouldn't be able to keep up with the thrust generated by the massive engines Dunovs relied on to move their heavy mass from point A to Point B. In a straight out race, a Dunov could run down even a F-2900 Star Fighter, the fighter simply did not have, nor could it carry the fuel to keep accelerating, nor did it have access to the high amount of thrust the Dunov engines could generate just by being larger. Maneuvering on the Z-axis in the 4D environment that was space was another matter.

“Sir COMSCAN detects cloaked Vasari vessels.” Lt. Husam pointed out the ships on the Holographic Display.

Patching himself into the Fleet Intercom, Admiral Douri gave his next Fleet Order. “All Dunovs, begin 'EMP' bombardment.”

Each Dunov immediately fired two 'EMP' missiles at 8000Gs. Each missile, which were actually powerful Neutron Bombs as EMP didn't work in space with no air molecules for Compton Scattering, burnt their fuel out in three seconds and irradiated the area with thermal and ionized radiation equivalent to detonating a 700 gigaton Warhead on a planet. Any Vasari Ship that was cloaked in the AOE would have had its crew literally fried to death or every system fried to uselessness. Sad that the Vasari still hadn't realized there was no “stealth” in space. You might as well go in with active scanners and be ready to kill as there was no way to hide the life support systems from any scanner or sensor. The energy needed to cloak a ship from visual scanning lit a ship up like a blowtorch on the infrared sensors.

“Mr. Husam, please bring up the map of the first planetary body.”

“Aye, Aye, Admiral.”

Admiral Douri, examine the first planet they would be arriving at in four hours. It was a Terran planet that pirates had taken over. The planet had five moons and from the last intelligence run, it had a Jump Inhibitor that stimulated a gravity well. Running a quick Delta V calculation, he planned a bomber raid to slingshot around the third moon, then slingshot around the first moon to hit the Phase Jump Inhibitor, then they would slingshot around the planet to rendezvous with his taskforce as it moved past the fifth moon. Total Mission time of two hours at 1,000Gs of acceleration.

“Admiral, we are near the jump zone, ten seconds to Jump.”

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Chapter Two: Part Two

Commander Johnathon Armady, from the Republic of France on Earth, was currently in command of Zulfiqar's Wing of three squadrons of F-2900 Star Fighters, though it would be more correct to label them as corvettes, each 'fighter' was 56.6 meters long, a wing span of 32 meters, height of 9.4 meters, speed of 500 Gs in space, 64,373.76kph in a planetary atmosphere, a range of one AU, all were armed with two pulse lasers and carried nine crew members.

Each squadron of twelve fighters was divided into four flights of four aircraft and each flight had a specific job. First flight was the RF-2900s, each of which carried an extensive ECM/ECCM package and fifty-six 50 kiloton HARMs for attacking enemy defenses, second flight was the ASF-2900s each of which was carrying hundred-twenty 1 kiloton All Threat Missiles to deal with any threats for flight three. Flight Three was the SF-2900s, each of which was carrying twelve 200 megaton rockets.

In short, on a planetary scale, he had the power to devastate his home country of France in an indiscriminate bombardment or destroy Earth's main planetary military, industrial, and communication hubs. But, those were not his targets, his target was a Phase Jump Inhibitor. While the main group drew all the pirate fire, his group would go in and nail the relay. After which the Percheon Squadrons would go onto the planet and liberate it.

His wings would return to the Dunovs. The countdown continued, soon he would unleash hell.

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“Admiral we have reached the Planet.”

“Launch the Strike Force. Send word to Commodore Jessups to liberate the planet. Dunovs accelerate to 1000 Gs.” Admiral Douri ordered.

The Frigates and Cruisers peeled off to liberate the world. His Dunovs covered them with long range fire as they accelerated to the Jump lane.

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Commander Armady watched the countdown reach zero and felt the massive launch rails his bird was on hurl him out into space. “'Lovely Goose' jam all frequencies,” he ordered the lead RF-2900.

“'Legion', we are way ahead of you. Be advised that that we are engaging satellites and defense platforms.” 'Lovely Goose' responded back to Commander Armady's call sign.

“'Tricky Dick', this your chance to avenge TDN-Intrepid, one Kodiak moving to intercept us,” Armady informed ASF-2900-S1236 which had been assigned to the Zulfiqar after the Trader Defense Navy ship he was assign to, the Sova Class Carrier Intrepid, was destroyed.

“Consider it destroyed,” was the reply as the ASF-2900 unleashed its entire payload into the Kodiak. The Kodiak shot a few missiles down, but the rest exploded against the hull and cooked its crew alive. It would be a few weeks before it cooled off enough to board.

His wings started to pick up speed as they sling shotted past the third moon. They also picked up alot more defensive fire, thankfully the Pirates had little training and access to ECM/ECCM packages and it was easy to jam their scanners and shut them down with 50 kilotons of death. No one had been hit so far, which was also good, had they been up against the Vasari, they would already have suffered 20% causalities. It also helped that the Big Guns were drawing all the attention.

“Sir, Admiral Douri has updated our route, the Pirates spammed him with a lot of nukes and he had to adjust course,” Petty Officer 3rd Class Bronson informed him from his console.

Commander Armady glanced at the course change that called for him to sling shot around the fourth moon after sling shotting from the Planet. Then he turned back to the task at hand, “Look sharp, approaching the first moon, its going to be hot.”

Hot indeed, the fire intensified even more as they approached the first moon. Flak unimpeded by atmosphere exploded all around them and pinged off the hull, his weapons officer Ensign Gerome was keeping the two pulse lasers working over time intercepting missiles blind fired by the defenders. The two lasers did the job with their five gigajoules shots. RF-2900-S4600 'Fearless' took a direct hit from a pulse laser and broke apart. It was followed in destruction in rapid succession by RF-2900-S8908 'Babe', ASF-2900-S090 'Pag's Payback', and RF-2900-S30096 'Boa'. Other birds took damage and 20 had to abort.

“SAR, be advised we have five EVA signals, they won't last long,” Commander Armady sent out. He prayed they could be rescued in the four Kelvin temperature out there in time.

“Sir approaching release point in four, three, two, one...”

Commander Armady thumbed the pickle button using his command over ride to launch his payload before pulling on the stick with his co-pilot to begin the sling shot around the planet. Behind him the Inhibitor was rendered useless by the multiple nuclear detonations against it.

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“Admiral, all Dunov squadrons have returned, no losses, Percheon squadrons were hard hit though.”

“Noted Mr. Husam, their sacrifice was not in Vain, and this world will soon be liberated and the Pirate broken. Do not mourn for those who time has come. Now we must make all haste.”

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