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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/ApprehensiveCap6525 on 2024-06-16 22:41:08+00:00.

A/N: better late than never baby

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It took Admiral Jedik and his men twelve minutes to decipher all the data from the coded transmission. Three hours to compile it. Two hours to discuss its implications and prepare a battle plan based on useful intelligence. Twenty-four to lie in wait. Thirty to put their plan into action.

By this time, Jedik’s ships had all moved to their posts in the outer system and waited there in near total silence, emissions and transmissions regulated such that only gravitational sensors could detect their presence at range. Even then, they would have been logged as just abnormally large asteroids. As far as the Neldian space defenses were concerned, the last remnants of the Coalition Navy left the star system days ago.

The timer on Admiral Jedik’s console bleeped. On the two dreadnoughts Midnight Requiem and Beijing, flagships of their own respective task forces, two synchronized alarms went off at the same time. Phase one of the plan had begun.

Four hundred ships of the Republic fleet burned for Neldia from stellar south, the Republic’s Claw at their head, and they encountered no resistance as they passed through the now-desolate outer system. Admiral Jedik knew the Alliance fleet would be distracted replacing sensor buoys, to regain their early warning mechanism, and he wanted to cover as much distance as possible before being found.

After a few days’ travel, during which Admiral Jedik and his advisors revised and prepared their battle plan, they made contact.

“Three hundred ships, sir,” said a liaison. “Sensor signatures consistent with the experimental armada. Three dreadnoughts, with escort, standard formation.”

Three hundred ships of the Supreme Leader’s famed armada cut through space in a pyramid formation. Admiral Jedik’s fleet, equally renowned, began to decelerate. “Fire a salvo of missiles,” said Jedik. “Let’s test their resolve a bit, shall we?”

The gravity cannons of the Republic’s Claw were not even close to being repaired, nor were her electromagnetic pulse weapons. The dreadnought that had once been at the head of this fleet now hung near the rear, relying on her vigilant escorts for defense and attack, but the fleet was formidable even without her guns. Billions of units’ worth of ordnance shot toward the Alliance armada in one salvo alone.

The Alliance fleet intensified their laser screens, drawing weapons and power away from their return fire. Only missiles launched from the Alliance squadrons, and Admiral Jedik’s force was happy to sustain damage to their shields if it meant avoiding direct hull impacts. After all, shields were well able to take this beating.

The warships of Janus Ora’s personal fleet were kept a highly classified secret for sixty years. Not even the best spies could have gotten their hands on exact copies of that armada’s blueprints. But, to reduce costs, the Supreme Leader ordered that his fleet be built from the modified hulls of standard ships of the fleet. Their designs were similar enough for Admiral Jedik’s intelligence to be useful in this battle.

Republic lasers, precise and well-aimed, struck where Jedik’s analysts believed the enemy’s neutron beam weapons to be positioned. They were not very accurate, most hitting standard batteries or burning into thick armor, but it was progress. In the tense action of a space battle, most warships suffered death by a thousand cuts.

“Secondary contact, outer perimeter,” reported a fleet liaison. “One detachment of Neldian Armada warships, plus fifty advanced models. One hundred and fifty in total.” The Alliance fleet had attempted a flanking maneuver to box in Jedik’s ships and destroy them. Admiral Jedik, anticipating this, had spread his forces wide to detect them. Everything was going according to plan.

“Focus fire on the central contingent,” Jedik said. “Target their forwardmost dreadnought.” His fleet was at a severe disadvantage, heavily outgunned even with superior numbers, and he knew his first priority had to be keeping their neutron lances out of range of his fleet. “Have our outer perimeter engage the Neldian Armada warships, firing to disable without the need to destroy. We want victory, not a cloud of corpses.”

By then, the Republic fleet had finally finished decelerating. Though their enemies were still closing, they were now pursuing a retreating foe. Admiral Jedik was bringing them right where he wanted them.

And they knew it. “Probe launches detected,” said a liaison, pointing out several objects shooting away from both fleets. Clearly, the enemy was not about to let themselves be outflanked. Their precautions were wise, but useless in the end. It was said that Yegel Jedik could know his enemy’s next move before even they did.

“Continue your retreat,” said Jedik. “Inform Admiral Venin to commence his attack.”

An interplanetary battle was a costly affair. The Alliance fleet, though it had won, had spent very much of its resources in the defense of Neldia. Shipyards lay in ruins, supply depots were destroyed, most of the Neldia system’s space-based infrastructure had fallen victim to Galactic Coalition attacks long ago. Admiral Jedik knew that Neldia would need to rebuild. He also knew that, while they were rebuilding, they were vulnerable.

Stolen intelligence had let him discover there were over a thousand supply and construction ships in the Neldia system at the time his attack began. They were all unarmed, and very few were escorted. So, when a hundred and fifty small and fast raiders sprang from the void to ambush them at predetermined coordinates, there was nothing the hapless ships could do.

Admiral Jedik knew the Neldian Armada was coming to defend its people. He knew most of Admiral Venin’s contingent would be destroyed before the battle’s end. He knew innocent people were about to die. But such were the costs of war.

An explosion on the holomap caught his attention. One of his battleships had just been lost. Many smaller craft on both sides had been destroyed already, an inconsequential loss in the grand scheme of things, but this was the first time a capital ship had been finished. This was not good.

“Status report,” he demanded.

“Fleet status nominal, sir,” a liaison reassured him. “Sixty losses, thirty-two corvettes, twenty-seven frigates, one battleship.”

Jedik assessed the holomap. He issued a series of commands to a series of individual squadrons, redirecting their fire to destroy the enemy’s attack capabilities faster. Casualties did not matter here, and he did not care how many bright flashes he could see from the enemy fleet this time. As long as a ship ceased fire, that was all the damage he needed to deal.

“That dreadnought’s taken enough of a beating,” he said, changing his fleet’s targets to a few other ships that were putting out far more fire. “Have the fleet switch targets to the ones I’ve marked.”

Then he checked the status of Admiral Venin’s raiding fleet. They could easily have destroyed their targets, mostly unarmed and unprotected supply convoys, but this was not tactically sound. The Alliance was fractured. Killing civilians would only renew his enemy’s resolve. Instead, they used breaching pods, boarding with marines to play the part of convoy raiders. Such tactics were common in fringe systems, but never before seen at Neldia.

A supply ship exploded as Jedik watched on the holomap. It was impossible to tell who or what caused it, but one thing was certain. Thousands of innocents had just been killed. Everybody who fought in war knew beforehand that their fight would not end bloodlessly. Not all of them were prepared to see all the blood.

Another capital ship was erased from the fleet just then, a Republic dreadnought being turned into a miniature star before disintegrating into nothing at all. That crew’s families would not even get to bury their dead.

“Heavy losses, admiral!” a liaison called out. “The Republic’s Vigilance is gone!”

Jedik’s fleet was dying too fast. He had known this would happen, and he had prepared for it, but it was one thing to visualize a slaughter and another thing entirely to see the blood drip from your hands. In war, innocence died as much as innocents. His force was down to only around three hundred ships now, and they faced just under four hundred. The Neldian Armada’s contingent was falling back, many of their ships disabled, but the advanced models pressed on relentlessly against the full force of Republic bombardment.

Their armor was thick. Their shields were strong. Their weapons were deadly. And, despite the fleet’s reverse thrusters firing at full, they were closing ever faster on their outnumbered prey. Admiral Jedik looked at the tactical map. His reinforcements would arrive in time. Just barely in time.

He spoke gravely, iron will keeping the dread from his voice. “Begin phase three of the operation.”

The bulk of the Alliance fleet was fighting Admiral Jedik’s ships in the outer asteroid belt. They were winning. The rest of their force was fighting parties of Coalition raiders, mostly small craft, in scattered engagements across the star system. They were also winning.

But none of those ships were at home to protect Neldia. In fact, the jewel of the Ninth Sector had …

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