The Third Battle of Lutiz
A Short Story
from 
Sins Forums
Sins Forums
The following is based on an actual event that happened in my first "real" game (TEC vs the Advent on slow on a small map) a few days ago. I don't have time to complete the whole story at present - I'll be posting the rest of it tomorrow.
The Third Battle of Lutiz
Part I
Admiral Davin Owens paced ECS Akkan's flag bridge impatiently, a pensive look upon his face. The tac plot in the center of the flag bridge flickered and re-oriented itself, giving a better view of the approach to the base.
Captain Sandra DuValle rolled her eyes. "Relax, sir," she said, "we'll do fine."
Owens snapped his head around suddenly and glared at her. "'Fine,' captain?" he asked, "Do you remember what happened the last two times we tried this?"
DuValle sighed. "I think you're overreacting just a..."
"Overreacting?" Owens screamed back at her, "Captain, the last two times we tried to assault Latiz Base we lost our entire frigate complement and half our capital ships!"
"Yes, sir, I realize that. But panicking is going to get us nowhere."
Owens breathed deep. She was right and he was wrong, dammit. He couldn't admit it, of course. Looking for an outlet, he turned to stare at some poor technician who'd had the misfortune of being assigned to flag.
"You!" he shouted, "get me the latest data on the Latiz Base defenses! Now!"
The tech nearly jumped a foot in the air, and Owens let out a satisfied sigh. Content in his demonstration of power, he sunk into his chair and went over the tac plot again.
The whole mission was stupid to begin with, in any case. No pirate had menaced the Elysisan Confederacy in months - the Confederate government had paid a small fortune to keep the Latiz's attention firmly focused on the Ast Eternal sect of the Advent ever since the war for the Dubhe System began - but now that Aegina was firmly in Confederate hands, Latiz had suddenly become a "security risk."
Owens himself had led the attack that claimed Aegina. It had been a massacre, really, not a true battle. The AE battlefleet stationed at Aternos had fled into Phase Space the moment they saw First Fleet emerge, and they'd managed to cross Aegina's gravity well in the time it took for First Fleet to secure the planet.
Now Fleet Command had a problem. Until now, First Fleet's advance had been steady - from Confederate Arakis to AE-held Aternos, to AE-held Aegina. But Aegina was right up against Latiz Base, and the Treasury was starting to run dry of the credits the Confederate government needed to keep the pirates that ran the place more interested in the Ast Eternal than in themselves. Advancing further into Ast Eternal territory would mean leaving Aegina uncovered, and if Latiz decided they wanted to go hunting Confederate for a change, there was no way the fleet would be able to get back in time to stop them.
Thus, Fleet Command had decided that Latiz base must go - but the immense bounties the Confederate government had placed on Ast Eternal ships were starting to work against them, for there were well over two hundred frigate-equivalents stationed in Latiz. Even the Confederacy couldn't hope to build that much. Owens' mission was to be almost impossible.
He reviewed his options again. Apart from the Akkan-class battlecruiser he used as a flagship, Owens had command of a Sova-class carrier, ECS Solonis, a Marza-class dreadnought, ECS Marza, five Kol-class battleships (some veterans, some fresh out of the yard at Rachis) twenty-two Kodiak-class heavy cruisers, fifty-odd Javelis-class missile frigates cobbled together from the Arakis System Guard and the new factory at Nocturne, and a handful of three Krosev siege frigates. Less than a hundred ships, more than half of them mere frigates, to take on a pirate armada the likes of which few had ever seen.
He stared further into the tac-plot, and traced a line from Arakis to Latiz. At least he had force multipliers. The fleet's weaponry, armor, and shielding technology were all state-of-the-art, and they would have support from Station Novalith, as well. Still, he didn't like the odds.
He shuddered at the memory of the Second Battle of Latiz - the way those two huge swarms of pirate warships, both of them well over a hundred ships strong, had come crashing down on the phase lane transit arc like a rolling avalanche. Moving forward inexorably, straight toward the...
He snapped up. Could it work? Could he actually...
"DuValle!" he shouted, "Raise Admiral Carter! I've got a plan!"
Rear-Admiral Harry Carter paced the small, cramped bridge of Javelis 3Z819. The ship wasn't large enough to have a true flag bridge, but he was the fleet's junior flag officer, and someone had to command the frigate element, even if Owens was of the official opinion that frigates were worthless wastes of the metal used to build them.
"Wow," Lieutenant - the ship didn't even rate a captain, for the love of Earth! - Jan Sawyer said, staring out the bridge window - bridge window, Carter thought, a forsaken window on a bridge! Who puts a window on a starship bridge? it was just asking for trouble! - "Isn't it amazing, sir?"
Carter sighed and leaned over Sawyer's shoulder, and, for just a moment, let himself see what the lieutenant was thinking. First Fleet stretched out as far as the eye could see. They'd been waiting at the edge of Aegina's gravity well for some time now while a straggling Javalis caught up, and Carter could see it now at the far end of the formation. But the ships... especially the Akkan, it's boxlike structure dominating the far end of the line.
"Oh!" Sawyer said, "Hold on. Message for you sir."
Carter looked up. A message?
"On screen."
The screen flicked on, and Admiral Owens' deadly serious face appeared.
"There's been a change in plans, Rear Admiral," he said, firmly, "you are to take your frigates, and Krosev 53B2T, Krosev 5XE245 and Krosev ZZ42A to Aternos, then proceed to close orbit with Dubhe and await further instructions.
Carter raised an eyebrow. A change of plans now? When they were this close? He quickly dismissed the though. Owens was his commanding officer, after all. And besides, there might be a chance for him to prove himself out there.
"Of course, sir," he said, "I'll relay the order presently."
DuValle looked back up at the grinning Owens. It was starting to get on her nerves.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, sir?" she asked, "splitting our forces like this..."
Owens rolled his eyes. "I assume you studied Phase Space Navigation at the Academy, correct?"
"It didn't take," DuValle said with a shrug, "I'm a freighter captain, admiral, not a career military officer."
Owens kept that idiotic grin plasterd to his face and leaned over the tac plot. He pointed to the blinking grey icon that represented Latiz.
"Take a look at Latiz," he said, "so unfortunately positioned for us, isn't it? Right between Aegina and Dubhe."
DuValle raised an eyebrow. "The pincer attack," she observed, "the oldest trick in the book."
"It got into the book for a reason, captain," Owens said, "and if I know pirates, they'll fall for it hook, line, and sinker."
Captain Tanya Kerensky stared down at the latest orders to come down to Station Novalith with incredulity. Novalith wasn't under First Fleet's jurisdiction - in fact, the massive interplanetary artillery weapon wasn't under anyone's jurisdiction, officially. The last word to come down from Fleet Command had been a list of known Ast Eternal planets with the words "Go nuts," appended. Now, they wanted them to provide close fire support.
Kerensky sighed. At least now they knew what command's moratorium on firing Novalith for the past few days had been about - and, at least, they'd get to shoot something again. She activated her tac plot, leant back in her chair, and waited.
Owens lurched as the Akkan left Phase Space.
"All hands, report in!" he shouted, "All ships, launch bomber squadrons and prepare to engage the enemy! Communications, signal Novalith! All ships, fire at will!
Laser fire erupted from Akkan's gun batteries, ripping through the shields of the handful of pirate ships stationed at the phase lane to Aegina. The Kols quickly followed quit, autocannon and gauss cannon fire setting the skies a fire. The battle was going well - for now.
But Owens could see them, out of the corner of his eye. The two huge swarms of pirate frigates, stationed at opposite ends of the base's gravity well as if it was a magnet, both moving slowly, inexorably, toward him.
Both moving right into the trap.
"That's our cue, people!" Kerensky shouted, striding forward into the command center. "Engineering, prime Novalith for firing. Control, adjust firing solution, 12 degrees left, 5 degrees up. Mister Higgs, theme music! Fire!"
Captain Aleksander Petrov felt ECS Karazamov's deck shake beneath his feet as missiles struck her broad side. Karazamov was one of the latest Kol class battleships, and her crew - including Petrov himself - were, for the most part, rookies, just barely out of the Confederacy's five-day crash course on modern naval combat. Petrov supressed a laugh and looked out again at the enemy fleet.
He gritted his teeth and slammed himself hard into the Karazamov's command chair. He hadn't wanted to join the Navy, but if this was where civilization wanted him to be, then for the love of Earth he would do it, dammit. As if to underscore his thoughts, a squadron of bombers from the Solonis rushed by overhead.
"Sir!" the Signals Officer shouted, "ECS Magnius is retreating!"
"What?" Petrov shouted, looking down at the quivering Signals Officer. Magnius was the Karazamov's sister ship. There was no way they would ever...
"They've hit the gravity well!" Signals shouted, "they're preparing to phase jump!"
"Comms!" Petrov shouted, "patch me through!"
"Aye aye, sir!"
A screen appeared, and Magnius's captain flickered into existence on it.
"Captain Baer!" Petrov shouted, "return to the line of battle this instant!"
Baer glared at him. "You don't get to make demands of me, captain," he said, "our ship has sustained heavy damage. We are retreating to Aegina."
"I will not tolerate cowardice!" Petrov shouted back.
"Then it's a good thing you're not in command, now isn't it?" Baer said with a smile, and, with a flash, ECS Magnius disappeared into Phase Space.
Petrov swore as he turned back to Latiz - just in time to see the shot from Novalith hit it.
He swore under his breath as the golden light filled the bridge's main view. It was barely possible to see the base through all the light thrown off. For just a second, he dared himself to believe that that one shot had ended it all.
And then the light faded, and the enemy was upon them.
Owens swore as yet another pirate frigate exploded spectacularly. Where the hell was Carter? He was supposed to arrive a full ten minutes ago.
The Akkan's flag bridge lurched as another pirate missile hit her broadside, and Owens struggled to keep memories of First and Second Latiz from resurfacing. This time he had a plan. This time, it would be the pirates running home in pieces.
"Sir!" his tactical officer shouted, "ECS Karazamov's shields are down!"
"They can hold out for a little while longer," Owens said, "but just to be sure, bring them to the edge of the gravity well."
"Aye aye, sir."
Owens stared at the tac plot again. The lead ships in both the massive formations were in weapons range now, and First Fleet was starting to feel the heat. If Carter didn't show up soon...
"Sir, the Solonis's shields are down!"
Owens dismissed it with a wave of his hand, concentrating on the tac plot. Maybe if he wanted it to happen enough, it would...
"Sir!" Signals shouted, "multiple PSIDAR contacts! It's Admiral Carter!"
The Third Battle of Lutiz
Part I
Admiral Davin Owens paced ECS Akkan's flag bridge impatiently, a pensive look upon his face. The tac plot in the center of the flag bridge flickered and re-oriented itself, giving a better view of the approach to the base.
Captain Sandra DuValle rolled her eyes. "Relax, sir," she said, "we'll do fine."
Owens snapped his head around suddenly and glared at her. "'Fine,' captain?" he asked, "Do you remember what happened the last two times we tried this?"
DuValle sighed. "I think you're overreacting just a..."
"Overreacting?" Owens screamed back at her, "Captain, the last two times we tried to assault Latiz Base we lost our entire frigate complement and half our capital ships!"
"Yes, sir, I realize that. But panicking is going to get us nowhere."
Owens breathed deep. She was right and he was wrong, dammit. He couldn't admit it, of course. Looking for an outlet, he turned to stare at some poor technician who'd had the misfortune of being assigned to flag.
"You!" he shouted, "get me the latest data on the Latiz Base defenses! Now!"
The tech nearly jumped a foot in the air, and Owens let out a satisfied sigh. Content in his demonstration of power, he sunk into his chair and went over the tac plot again.
The whole mission was stupid to begin with, in any case. No pirate had menaced the Elysisan Confederacy in months - the Confederate government had paid a small fortune to keep the Latiz's attention firmly focused on the Ast Eternal sect of the Advent ever since the war for the Dubhe System began - but now that Aegina was firmly in Confederate hands, Latiz had suddenly become a "security risk."
Owens himself had led the attack that claimed Aegina. It had been a massacre, really, not a true battle. The AE battlefleet stationed at Aternos had fled into Phase Space the moment they saw First Fleet emerge, and they'd managed to cross Aegina's gravity well in the time it took for First Fleet to secure the planet.
Now Fleet Command had a problem. Until now, First Fleet's advance had been steady - from Confederate Arakis to AE-held Aternos, to AE-held Aegina. But Aegina was right up against Latiz Base, and the Treasury was starting to run dry of the credits the Confederate government needed to keep the pirates that ran the place more interested in the Ast Eternal than in themselves. Advancing further into Ast Eternal territory would mean leaving Aegina uncovered, and if Latiz decided they wanted to go hunting Confederate for a change, there was no way the fleet would be able to get back in time to stop them.
Thus, Fleet Command had decided that Latiz base must go - but the immense bounties the Confederate government had placed on Ast Eternal ships were starting to work against them, for there were well over two hundred frigate-equivalents stationed in Latiz. Even the Confederacy couldn't hope to build that much. Owens' mission was to be almost impossible.
He reviewed his options again. Apart from the Akkan-class battlecruiser he used as a flagship, Owens had command of a Sova-class carrier, ECS Solonis, a Marza-class dreadnought, ECS Marza, five Kol-class battleships (some veterans, some fresh out of the yard at Rachis) twenty-two Kodiak-class heavy cruisers, fifty-odd Javelis-class missile frigates cobbled together from the Arakis System Guard and the new factory at Nocturne, and a handful of three Krosev siege frigates. Less than a hundred ships, more than half of them mere frigates, to take on a pirate armada the likes of which few had ever seen.
He stared further into the tac-plot, and traced a line from Arakis to Latiz. At least he had force multipliers. The fleet's weaponry, armor, and shielding technology were all state-of-the-art, and they would have support from Station Novalith, as well. Still, he didn't like the odds.
He shuddered at the memory of the Second Battle of Latiz - the way those two huge swarms of pirate warships, both of them well over a hundred ships strong, had come crashing down on the phase lane transit arc like a rolling avalanche. Moving forward inexorably, straight toward the...
He snapped up. Could it work? Could he actually...
"DuValle!" he shouted, "Raise Admiral Carter! I've got a plan!"
Rear-Admiral Harry Carter paced the small, cramped bridge of Javelis 3Z819. The ship wasn't large enough to have a true flag bridge, but he was the fleet's junior flag officer, and someone had to command the frigate element, even if Owens was of the official opinion that frigates were worthless wastes of the metal used to build them.
"Wow," Lieutenant - the ship didn't even rate a captain, for the love of Earth! - Jan Sawyer said, staring out the bridge window - bridge window, Carter thought, a forsaken window on a bridge! Who puts a window on a starship bridge? it was just asking for trouble! - "Isn't it amazing, sir?"
Carter sighed and leaned over Sawyer's shoulder, and, for just a moment, let himself see what the lieutenant was thinking. First Fleet stretched out as far as the eye could see. They'd been waiting at the edge of Aegina's gravity well for some time now while a straggling Javalis caught up, and Carter could see it now at the far end of the formation. But the ships... especially the Akkan, it's boxlike structure dominating the far end of the line.
"Oh!" Sawyer said, "Hold on. Message for you sir."
Carter looked up. A message?
"On screen."
The screen flicked on, and Admiral Owens' deadly serious face appeared.
"There's been a change in plans, Rear Admiral," he said, firmly, "you are to take your frigates, and Krosev 53B2T, Krosev 5XE245 and Krosev ZZ42A to Aternos, then proceed to close orbit with Dubhe and await further instructions.
Carter raised an eyebrow. A change of plans now? When they were this close? He quickly dismissed the though. Owens was his commanding officer, after all. And besides, there might be a chance for him to prove himself out there.
"Of course, sir," he said, "I'll relay the order presently."
DuValle looked back up at the grinning Owens. It was starting to get on her nerves.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, sir?" she asked, "splitting our forces like this..."
Owens rolled his eyes. "I assume you studied Phase Space Navigation at the Academy, correct?"
"It didn't take," DuValle said with a shrug, "I'm a freighter captain, admiral, not a career military officer."
Owens kept that idiotic grin plasterd to his face and leaned over the tac plot. He pointed to the blinking grey icon that represented Latiz.
"Take a look at Latiz," he said, "so unfortunately positioned for us, isn't it? Right between Aegina and Dubhe."
DuValle raised an eyebrow. "The pincer attack," she observed, "the oldest trick in the book."
"It got into the book for a reason, captain," Owens said, "and if I know pirates, they'll fall for it hook, line, and sinker."
Captain Tanya Kerensky stared down at the latest orders to come down to Station Novalith with incredulity. Novalith wasn't under First Fleet's jurisdiction - in fact, the massive interplanetary artillery weapon wasn't under anyone's jurisdiction, officially. The last word to come down from Fleet Command had been a list of known Ast Eternal planets with the words "Go nuts," appended. Now, they wanted them to provide close fire support.
Kerensky sighed. At least now they knew what command's moratorium on firing Novalith for the past few days had been about - and, at least, they'd get to shoot something again. She activated her tac plot, leant back in her chair, and waited.
Owens lurched as the Akkan left Phase Space.
"All hands, report in!" he shouted, "All ships, launch bomber squadrons and prepare to engage the enemy! Communications, signal Novalith! All ships, fire at will!
Laser fire erupted from Akkan's gun batteries, ripping through the shields of the handful of pirate ships stationed at the phase lane to Aegina. The Kols quickly followed quit, autocannon and gauss cannon fire setting the skies a fire. The battle was going well - for now.
But Owens could see them, out of the corner of his eye. The two huge swarms of pirate frigates, stationed at opposite ends of the base's gravity well as if it was a magnet, both moving slowly, inexorably, toward him.
Both moving right into the trap.
"That's our cue, people!" Kerensky shouted, striding forward into the command center. "Engineering, prime Novalith for firing. Control, adjust firing solution, 12 degrees left, 5 degrees up. Mister Higgs, theme music! Fire!"
Captain Aleksander Petrov felt ECS Karazamov's deck shake beneath his feet as missiles struck her broad side. Karazamov was one of the latest Kol class battleships, and her crew - including Petrov himself - were, for the most part, rookies, just barely out of the Confederacy's five-day crash course on modern naval combat. Petrov supressed a laugh and looked out again at the enemy fleet.
He gritted his teeth and slammed himself hard into the Karazamov's command chair. He hadn't wanted to join the Navy, but if this was where civilization wanted him to be, then for the love of Earth he would do it, dammit. As if to underscore his thoughts, a squadron of bombers from the Solonis rushed by overhead.
"Sir!" the Signals Officer shouted, "ECS Magnius is retreating!"
"What?" Petrov shouted, looking down at the quivering Signals Officer. Magnius was the Karazamov's sister ship. There was no way they would ever...
"They've hit the gravity well!" Signals shouted, "they're preparing to phase jump!"
"Comms!" Petrov shouted, "patch me through!"
"Aye aye, sir!"
A screen appeared, and Magnius's captain flickered into existence on it.
"Captain Baer!" Petrov shouted, "return to the line of battle this instant!"
Baer glared at him. "You don't get to make demands of me, captain," he said, "our ship has sustained heavy damage. We are retreating to Aegina."
"I will not tolerate cowardice!" Petrov shouted back.
"Then it's a good thing you're not in command, now isn't it?" Baer said with a smile, and, with a flash, ECS Magnius disappeared into Phase Space.
Petrov swore as he turned back to Latiz - just in time to see the shot from Novalith hit it.
He swore under his breath as the golden light filled the bridge's main view. It was barely possible to see the base through all the light thrown off. For just a second, he dared himself to believe that that one shot had ended it all.
And then the light faded, and the enemy was upon them.
Owens swore as yet another pirate frigate exploded spectacularly. Where the hell was Carter? He was supposed to arrive a full ten minutes ago.
The Akkan's flag bridge lurched as another pirate missile hit her broadside, and Owens struggled to keep memories of First and Second Latiz from resurfacing. This time he had a plan. This time, it would be the pirates running home in pieces.
"Sir!" his tactical officer shouted, "ECS Karazamov's shields are down!"
"They can hold out for a little while longer," Owens said, "but just to be sure, bring them to the edge of the gravity well."
"Aye aye, sir."
Owens stared at the tac plot again. The lead ships in both the massive formations were in weapons range now, and First Fleet was starting to feel the heat. If Carter didn't show up soon...
"Sir, the Solonis's shields are down!"
Owens dismissed it with a wave of his hand, concentrating on the tac plot. Maybe if he wanted it to happen enough, it would...
"Sir!" Signals shouted, "multiple PSIDAR contacts! It's Admiral Carter!"
