David Patrol…

Admiral Mar-Veil could not help but admire the Kashans, watching on as their formation bore down upon his own.

The CIC of aboard the Provincial, namesake of her line and a sizable super-carrier in her own right, was a furious buzz of activity though the tone was decidedly subdued. From his position in the center of the Combat Information Center he could observe the oncoming fleet in multiple formats; rendered as three dimensional objects moving through a specific grid of space in holographic display cubes and painted on the main viewer in impossibly high resolution.

Unlike the standard CIC found on Colonial and Commonwealth class vessels, the Provincial line featured expanded control functions which enable the carriers to act as command positions in Gestalt task-force deployments. Fully equipped and operated, optimally, by a full staff of seventy five people the well accommodated compartment is large enough that everyone can perform without significant crowding interfering with the conduct of their tasks.

Admiral Mar-Veil had a singular view of it all.

Astride the Provincial sat the Commonwealth, namesake for the line of battlecruisers, and the new Colonial (Mk II) class destroyer, Wells Grey. Both ships were actively submitting their readiness reports and each was sufficient to begin combat actions. Amongst the tide of incoming and outgoing information was a communication from David Colony, deferring its orbital defense facilities to CDF control alongside reports that the Colony had scrambled its fighters.

The three ships in question were all part of First Fleet which in itself was the direct command commission of Admiral Mar-Veil. Their position in orbit of Gestalt II and the fact that among them was the Admirals Colonial Flagship officially meant that these ships were technically part of David Patrol. In truth David Patrol was composed of a CDF deployment comprised of ships taken from the First Fleet and as such the differences were merely technical and since the Admiral himself superseded the authority everyone in question, there was… no question. The vessels that had previously comprised David Patrol, a handful of LDC craft and outmoded Colonial (Mk I) destroyers and Commonwealth (Type 1) Frigates, were presently assigned to the Rim; the section of the Gestalt star system between the seventh and outer planetary orbits.

Home Fleet, which was by far the largest single Gestalt grouping, operated largely around Gestalt I and The Ring. The command of Home Fleet deferred to Vice Commodore Shipwright in times of hostility.

Third Fleet was largely mobile and had kept station throughout the Colonies during its existence. Portions of Third Fleet were located at Modular Defense Station D-05 which was currently within the vicinity of Gestalt II.

“Engines to Full ahead,” ordered Admiral Mar-Veil.

The three ships surged forward and away from the planet. They gained speed quickly with the clear intention of intercepting the Kashan formation before the enemy could close with the planet and thus threaten the Colony. Relative to the oncoming line the Gestalt ships formed up in a slanted, horizontal line which put the Commonwealth central and forward of the other two. The Colonial kept position on the high port quarter of the battlecruiser, on its flank leaving the Provincial to follow behind both below their ventral surfaces and behind their angular bodies the idea of which would be to protect the carrier from direct fire even as it began to belch a full wing of starfighters alongside those fighters being deployed by the battlecruiser and destroyer alike.

Sixty starfighters formed up ahead of the Gestalt formation, thirty six contributed by the Provincial and one squadron a piece launched from the others. More were standing by, ready to launch at a moments notice. The five squadrons consisted largely of GF-111 and 105 starfighters but at least a dozen HF-10 HyperFighters roamed amongst them. More over, the Provincial had deployed half of her gunship squadron to supplement the combat effectiveness of the starfighters and provide supplemental offensive capabilities. These were CG-10 Centaurs.

The range began to spiral down. Admiral Mar-Veil looked to his left and signaled his tactical crew.

From the Colonial leapt a battering array of missiles. Fifteen of the long, deadly projectiles shot out of horizontal slots along the dorsal bow of the ship propelled on solid flames of brilliant blue ion efflux. They quickly, almost instantly, gathered speed and rocketed away from the CDF line. Capable of immense g-gains, they would close the range with considerable speed but the fact remained that, at best, these were being fired from extreme range and would thus present less of an obstacle.

The missiles themselves were not armed, were not even equipped with explosive warheads, but rather a complex combat computer which was in turn tied into the War Games computer; a massive mainframe, the joint effort of Kashan and Gestalt military complexes.

Even with simulated damage, remarked the Admiral in the confines of his own thoughts, one can still have a good old time running up the re-painting bills.

Pegasus, Tertiary Kashan Flagship, Gestalt Colonies

“Heavy,” noted Commander Fyre.

Corise gazed out of the viewport. The Colonials had amassed a sizeable fighting force, even with two Commonwealth-class Battleships. Task Force Pegasus was considerably smaller than either Gestalt group present, albeit combined with Task Force Seraph, which was still waiting outside the Gestalt Colonies, KDF at least matched the forces. The Commodore tapped a few buttons on his command chair, pulling up the ranges of the fleets. His blue eyes scanned the holographs quizzically.

“Commence long-range firing of all weapons and engaged the Magnetorian Sweep,” ordered the Kashan man, “Slow to 1/10the speed and prepare to have all ships to turn to the port at oh, say 120 degrees.”

A series of “aye sir”s reverberated throughout the bridge. Nearly all of the Kashan Defence Fleet personnel had seen action before mostly against pirates and criminal elements, like the Black Sun. But the Pegasus was crewed by sailors who had previously served on the Seraph and Steadfast. They were the crews that had already been pitted against the Empire, driving those forces from the field of battle; something of a rariety for a defence fleet. This already enhanced the academy training as well as the war games Kashan had played against itself. These elements combined tended to make Kashan soldiers very professional and confident. And that actually can be bad if any of that confidence gets shaken by a defeat. Heck, a defeat here might actually be good to instill some humility and teach them what to do when everything goes wrong. He shook his head.

Meanwhile, the Pegasus and her consorts engaged their Magnetorian Sweeps and slowed to a near halt. The jamming of Gestalt ship weapons and other subsystems would likely be something of an unpleasant surprise to the Gestalt crews; by disabling and otherwise impeding those systems, the combat performance of the ships would be somewhat dampened, which might make up for the inferior numbers of Task Force Pegasus. Simueltenously, by slowing down, the Kashan ships made the time of interception longer, and thus, gave more time for perhaps one of the more favorite Kashan techniques: long-range bombardment.

The emerald bolts of the Pegasus’ and her heavy gunship consort’s heavy turbolasers began to lash out concentrated fire at the battleship Commonwealth. Obviously, because this was an excersise, they did not carry any destructive power; instead the beams of light carried data, in a manner similar to a tightbeam transmission, that would indicate how much damage should be done to the ship’s shields and/or hull. On the Pegasus, the quad ion cannons began to open fire as well on the same target, with their bolts working in a similar manner to the turbolasers. Most ships didn’t usually carry as many ion cannons as the Pegasus, and the Commodore was at a lost for why, since most ships didn’t have any protection against that sort of weaponry.

A full volley of Starflares, with a total of 32 Starflares equipped with what would be registered as Ion Warheads, surged forth from all of the Kashan vessels into hyperspace towards the Commonwealth. The Juaire-class gunships also employed their more exotic weaponry, the Tachyon Cannons and the Gravity Field Disruptors. But unlike the previous weapons, these were aimed at the Provincial, particularly at the hangar(s) opening. While the Gravity weapons wouldn’t actually be on their normal settings, if it was a real-life battle, it would be likely that the Gestalt fighters and crewmembers nearest to space would have been jostled around or damaged. And by concentrating fire with the Tachyon Cannons, if they did lower their particle shields to launch or recover any starfighters, the beam would hit the inside of the carrier with no opposition from the shields. In effect, it was almost like blockading the hangar launch exits while slowly battering them down.

“Ah sir, they’ve launched some missiles at us.”

He snorted as the holo-projector zoomed in on the fifteen missiles. After the debacle at Genon, KDI had worked on making defences that would negate mass missile attacks such as those employed by the Vendettas against the Havens. The result had been the myriad of point-defence cannons amassed on the four vessels as well as the Electric Reactive Armor, which rendered typical explosive warheads such as concussion missiles or proton torpedoes less effective. No, the warheads are more of a distraction right now. We’ll let the defences deal with them as they come.

“Sir,” reported the Flight Controller, “the starfighter pilots are little less than pleased with our jamming.”

Corise slightly smiled. One of the drawbacks of the Magnetorian Sweep was that it effected everything in it’s path, including friendly craft like the individual Deathsabers and Nemesis starfighters that were slowly creeping in on the Gestalt starfighters like an assassin waiting for the right moment to make the kill. Corise glanced at the screen, which revealed through the Kashan Battle Computer that two dozen of the Mk II Deathsabers were heading in to infiltrate the Gestalt ranks. The other four squadrons of craft were scattered around discretely and randomly around Task Force Pegasus to intercept of the Gestalt starfighters. Corise briefly paused. How do you fight what you can not see?

Admiral Mar-Veil winced inwardly. While he had not expected the opening rounds of combat to go in the Colonists favor he could not have anticipated such an intense, action ready response and though the Vice Commodore had often made reference or allusion towards Kashan fighting strength Mar-Veil had always taken this with a grain of salt; assuming it was due, in large part, to the rather close relationship that the Vice Commodore had forged with Corise Lucerne. The very same Corise Lucerne, Kashan Commodore, commanded the invading forces and was in many ways Admiral Mar-Veils direct adversary.

Watching their reprisal unfold Admiral Mar-Veil regretted having not obliterated part of the Kashan line with a full volley from the Wells Grey. That regret compounded upon itself. Forced to endure the superior range of the Kashan weapons, Ruben Mar-Veil could do nothing but watch as his front-line cruiser, the Commonwealth, soaked up a not insignificant amount of simulated damage. Aboard his command and deep within the Provincials CIC, a simulated data feed scrolled with incoming damage reports (many of which were incomplete, being only seconds old). The information was invaluable.

In nearly simultaneous succession the Colonial ships registered incoming ion-based weaponry while also detecting and then succumbing to some sort of long range jamming technology.

Registering damage on her port bow, the Commonwealth turned her full port side towards the enemy offensive and redoubled her side-wall shields with energy borrowed from the ships auxiliary reserves. It was exactly what Admiral would have done in her position and he took a certain pride in knowing that the battlecruisers commander had acted upon the same idea. By placing herself horizontally across the plane of attack the Commonwealth had effectively slowed the Gestalt advance at extreme weapons range. The Kashan weapons could still reach the Gestalt formation and with some degree of reliable accuracy too but the Colonials lacked the extremely long-range weapons employed by their rivals. But what they lacked in offensive capability the Commonwealth compensated for with endurance. Her powerful shields soaked up the first volley.

Ruben smirked, wondering what his counterpart would think, seeing the Gestalt formation continue to advance behind the turtle-like shell of the Commonwealth. Gestalt warships had the distinct ability to endure, to absorb enemy offensives while continually pushing towards the line. Even if she were to become the victim of a unified enemy assault, the Commonwealth would stand strong for some time. Even so, the Admiral was not intent upon loosing any of his ships to such bravado.

As if that this was not enough the Kashans employed an elaborate jamming system of which Admiral Mar-Veil had only heard rumors. Nearing the enemy formation his opening salvo, a volley of fifteen capital-scale concussion missiles, suddenly began to track away from the targets. Obviously scrambled by the jamming signal they had lost their targeting computers first and begun to spiral out of control. The cascade flooding continued until the missiles either went inactive or detonated harmlessly. Worse still those installations exposed on the broadside of the Commonwealth began to falter and fluctuate unpredictably. Luckily her shields were holding strong but the same could not be said for the ships turbo-laser batteries which were already reporting troubles with their tracking systems… even before they could return fire.

The Admiral wanted to curse but was interrupted by a shout from tactical.

“Sir, we’re being hit with some sort of particle weapon!”

Impossible, thought the Admiral. He had positioned his command, the Provincial, behind the Commonwealth and had anticipated that she would be clear of most fire trajectories, in particular those of the Pegasus. In a bustle he hurried to the officers duty station and examined the readings for himself.

“It’s tachyon based,” concluded the Admiral but he was cut short.

“We have incoming bogies; tracking thirty two inbound projectile missiles.” Called out another officer, “They read as Starflares.”

This time the Admiral did, indeed, curse.

“Damn, they’re targeting our bays with those tachyon beams of theirs. What’s our status?”

“We’re down Admiral,” replied the starfighter Commodore, a stern man in his own right. “The battle computers are blocking our flight crews. Whatever those things are, they’re coming from those blasted gunships!”

“Agreed,” the Admiral concurred. “Helm, move us in closer behind the Commonwealths deflective screens. Prepare a 90 degree port turn and axial repositioning on my mark, engines ahead full.”

Checking the trajectory plot for his ships, Admiral Mar-Veil noted that the formation was still moving ahead at 75% of full due to their inertial momentum and would continue along this vector with tactical speed for a while yet. He counted down the measures before calling out, “Mark.”

The Provincial spun to port almost with reaching distance of the Commonwealths starboard side. Bleeding her forward speed to match with the sidelong velocity of the battlecruiser, which was considerably larger then the carrier, the Provincial slipped into the protected wake of her larger escort.

The tachyon readings bled off but the Starflares continued to close with considerable speed but the Admiral had a solution for this as well. Taking advantage of the fact that enemy formation had more or less ignored the presence of the Colonial (Mk II) destroyer, Wells Grey, he gave that ships Captain the order to free all weapons. In turn and before the Starflares closed within countermeasure range, the Colonial spun ten of her proton-torpedo blisters around and released a barrage of fifty ion-encoded, energy sheathed projectiles.

Given the Kashan reliance on Ion weapons Admiral Mar-Veil guessed that the rival commander would be striking with ion-warheads in an effort to render the Provincial defenseless. The Starflares would then have little or no effect on the inbound cloud of proton missiles and even an early detonation would not be likely to affect their tracking. Clocking the range, however; Mar-Veil felt uncomfortable with the range; the missiles would meet one another closer to the Gestalt formation then he would have liked.

Even as the range indicators were shooting towards zero Mar-Veil was again about the business of commanding his battle group. He signaled for the attention of the starfighter Commodore. “I think it’s time to show the enemy that they aren’t the only ones with range on their side. Dispatch your HyperFighters.”

With a nod the Commodore set about delineating his own orders. On the tactical displays tasked with tracking friendly starfighters two squadrons worth of green blips separated from the crowd and vanished into hyperspace. Fractions of a second later they appeared on the far side of the system over a million kilometers away. They skipped into hyperspace once more this time to reappear behind the enemy formation and moving with considerable velocity towards their exposed flank. The twenty four HF-10s closed on the enemy formation with the sort of resolve that can only be found in a pilot secure in the knowledge that he is risking neither life nor limb, but striving to contribute to a greater whole. Weapons blazing, they shot through the formation.

And then the missiles met. Somewhere in the neighborhood of around twenty five Starflare missiles and forty proton torpedoes collided with one another. The resulting explosion blurred space and obscured sensor readings for seconds longer but still, a handful of Starflare torpedoes broke through. They closed with the Provincial and Commonwealth alike.

Both ships opened up with their defensive weapons, of which the Provincial boasted considerably more. Equipped with an extensive network of projectile-defense weapons, the Provincial made quick work of those missiles that came her way but the Commonwealth was not so fortunate. Two of the meters long torpedoes struck her port side, adding their own ion-damage to that already dispensed by the Pegasus leaving the battlecruiser with fifty-percent shields. He knew it would take time to get them back up to a more stable level.

“Authorize all deployed starfighters to engage the enemy. Order our faster interceptors ahead with priority targets. I want those gunships blasted out of the sky… so to speak.” He checked the displays. “Get our Albatrosses tangled up with their starfighters or else we’re going to loose them entirely.”

Grimly he noted that the Deathsabers deployed by the Kashans were already vanishing into the black. Luckily he had secured his own launch bays by positioning behind and towards the Commonwealth battlecruiser.

“Objective alpha,” he declared.

From the immense, protected and sheltered hangar bays of the Provincial-class carrier a full wing of starfighters deployed and detached from the Gestalt formation. They swarmed about the Wells Grey and covered the destroyers advance as it brought its engines up to flank speed, shooting ahead of the advancing defensive line established by the Provincial and Commonwealth. The mixed wing of starfighters formed up in a defensive position ahead of the destroyer and followed the advance of their already deployed partners who, for their own part, were already rocketing ahead in search of the Deathsaber starfighters that were dispersing between them. Two squadrons of heavy interceptors, Arrows armed with capital-scale torpedoes slung to their bellies, worked under the cover of the others to try and set up for high-speed slashing attacks on the Kashan gunships. Adding their own weight to the attack, the Wells Grey opened her bay doors and fired an additional, simulated fifteen capital-scale assault concussion missiles and, to add insult, fired ten of her Starflare torpedo tubes… long projectiles also designed to simulate ion-damage. The sole target of the Colonial destroyer was the Pegasus.

Admiral Mar-Veil knew that he had lost the initiative and that the severity of his own reprisal had been little more then an attempt to compensate for that mistake. He only hoped he could gain it back because he knew, as every warrior hates to know, that his battle would be up hill.

In the Past…

“Commodore,” mused Commander Fyre, “do you ever think we rely too much on technology?”

Corise looked up from the table.

“New Technology can be advantage. It gives us more oppurtunities and options with which to deal with it; that’s why KDI is always working on more innovations. But we can never rely on them; for as we are developing technologies, others are developing ones that can surpass our own. No, the best method is to combine the lessons from history and couple it with the oppurtunities and options provided by technology. And remember, the man behind the machine is just as important…”
------------------------------------
The Present

“We can’t hold them their forever,” stated the Commander.

Corise nodded. “The idea of using the Commonwealth like a shield is certainly ingenous. I want to study that move after the battle, so make sure we get some clear footage and data feed on that.”

“Yes sir.”

“Sir, we’re reading the hyperfighters making a jump.”

Probably right at us.

“Well,” stated the Kashan officer, “we fight fire with fire. Divert an A3 squadron to target; they can use all their missiles as well. Bring the second to bear on the incoming Gestalt ships…and prepare to make a jump to Whirlwind Eight. Effective for all ships. Oh, and infiltrators are clear to wreak havoc.”

“Aye sir.”

Seconds later, the hyperfighters appeared and started their attack. The Nemesis Assault bombers sluggishly turned to meet the threat. With targeting data provided through the Kashan Battle Computer, each one launched a fourth of their missile load at the various hyperfighters, which was to say, a reasonable amount firepower: 120 advanced concussion missiles.

“Sir, they managed to intercept our missiles.”

Corise raised an eyebrow. Starflares, especially the Mk IIs, were generally hard to intercept because of the stealthed engines and reflec coating. He would have to learn how the Gestalts managed that one. It could be a glitch. Shrugging, he pulled up the enemy info, showing the incoming missiles. Missiles. Everyone loves missiles.

“We have detected Cronau radiation nearby the Wells Grey.”

Starflares. The only hyperdrive capable missile used by the Colonials. It’s not hard to see that they’re launched, but tracking them afterward is an altogether different manner. Well, that could hurt…unless…

“Make the jump now.”

“Yes sir, it will take a few minutes to bring in all the starfighters to the same point.”

He shrugged indifferently. With that, the Kashan ships one-by-one disappeared into hyperspace in a series of flashes. Where once the Kashan ships resided, space and Gestalt Colonial ships occupied it. And the Pegasus and her consorts reappeared at where Whirlwind Eight was last stationed: directly on top of the carrier.

The Kashan ships didn’t bother to aim; they immediately opened fire as they emerged from hyperspace. The accuracy was incredibly poor, in fact, it was probably the worse the Pegasus crews had ever done. But accuracy wasn’t the point: intimidating and surprising the Gestalts was. He watched as some of the bolts hit the large ships, but more than a few missed them and went farther on,

The Pegasus was at point-blank range with a carrier, which was probably good, considering that carriers weren’t designed to stand up to heavy cruisers, particulary at point-blank range. Unfortunately, this put the aft of the Pegasus to the Commonwealth as well. This would make things tougher, but given that the Pegasus used Ultrachrome armor and two sets of shield arrays and that the Commonwealth depended heavily on energy weapons, he wasn’t too particularly worried at the moment. Besides, helm was already rectifying the situation.

Using the electromagnetic properties of the armor plating, the Pegasus channeled her engine output in a forced, tight beam that sent the ion stream far to port, thus quickly turning the vessel in such manner that the Pegasus had soon rotated so that her bow now faced the Commonwealth and the Provincial was slightly ahead and below of the Kashan warship.

Almost simultenously, the tractor beam projectors of the Pegasus gripped the Provincial as they attempted to pull the ships closer and closer together. Corise could care less which vessel actually moved, as long as they would be at nearly point blank range to pound the enemy and prevent it from escaping. But the carrier wasn’t much of a threat to the star destroyer by itself; the Commonwealth was.

And with that, the Pegasus concentrated the rest of its heavy weaponry (the heavy turbolasers, quad ion cannons, and Starflares) on the Commonwealth’s command tower. Meanwhile, its point defences readied themselves for the likely attack of Commonwealth projectiles and starfighters. And likewise, the Magnetorian sweep engaged itself yet again: directly at the Commonwealth.

But the Pegasus was not the only busy Kashan ship. The heavy gunships had emerged and rocketed off away at diverging angles from the fight at speeds which few capital ships could muster. Once they would surpassed normal turbolaser range by 150%, they would make an about face and focus their weapons on the Commonwealth, with the Tachyon weapons employed against the bridge tower of the said vessel.

Gradually, the Kashan starfighters entered the fray, making coordinated hit-and-fade strikes on Gestalt targets. The Kashan hit-and-fade was unusual in that it was generally a mass-fire tactic, with a quartet of S9s attacking a single Gestalt ship. On the other hand, the A3s operated mostly independently, launching a flurry of missiles or striking with their invisible laser bolts before disappearing to haunt a new target.

Admiral Mar-Veil was beginning to fear that he might loose this match and could speculate why. That would have to wait because the enemy would not. He had attempted to regain the advantage and in doing so had thrown a furious assault at the Kashan line but it had not been Gestalt innovation that had moved the Kashan formation, or so he suspected. At that he felt a pang of regret.

He recounted, recalculated.

Having deployed his missiles at range Mar-Veil had left the Kashans with the opportunity to make a micro-jump. They had leapt through hyperspace much like the HyperFighters and pounced right on the Gestalt formation. The move had been hazardous at best and while the Admiral knew his defensive position would force the Kashan commander to change tactics, he had not expected this. Such a close point-to-point jump could have disastrous results and even though many captains came to swear by quick closing tactics such as this, few would normally consider utilizing it on a simulated battleground. Granted, the Kashans possessed moderately superior hyperdrives, but Mar-Veil had not counted on his adversary making such a dangerous and bold maneuver. Any number of things could have gone wrong, from a minor miscalculation on the part of their navigational computer to an abrupt trajectory change on the part of the Colonial forces and any number of those could have had disastrous results.

Still, the Admiral had to give them credit. They had done exactly what he had not expected them to do and he deserved it for leaving his flank open as a result. Tit for tat. The great equalizer swung back and forth like the pendulum of a clock taking with it a toll in lives, which today would be simulated.

Damage reports scrolled in; none of them positive. When the Pegasus had appeared atop the Provincial and opened up with her big guns she had scored a number of simulated hits, some of which had damaged key areas of his ship. But it did not stop there. The big Star Destroyer swung about and opened fire on the Commonwealth focusing its dorsal cannons on the battlecruisers command tower. Initially reverting with its aft exposed the battlecruiser was quick to try and exploit this momentary advantage but the Pegasus was well defended and though the Commonwealth pounded with her forward guns, the Star Destroyer managed to absorb the salvo with little or no apparent simulated damage. It was still operating at peak efficiency and quickly swung around to hide its exposed aft portion.

The Gestalt fighter squadrons were quick to adjust but many of them got caught up in the storm of stealth interceptors deployed by the Kashans. They scrambled forward in a desperate attempt to avoid being closed in by the rival starfighters in the rear and the newly position Kashan/Gestalt melee. HyperFighters, closing on the Kashans prior to their jump, managed to deploy the majority of their capital scale weapons and pepper the enemy ships with their light cannon before being driven off by the swarming missiles deployed by the enemy. A few escaped but the majority of their transponders went blank on the Admirals tactical display. Registering a fatal hit the starfighters were rigged to go inactive. At range the Gestalt forces had been unable to determine the results of those hits. That changed abruptly when they closed range. There was little or no change in the operational effectiveness of the enemy ships.

Charged ultrachrome armor of the sort ultilized by the Kashans had and was proving highly effective against the standardized weapons used by the Gestalt warships. Though they shared many commonalities, one area in which the Kashans and Colonials were not alike was in their approach to starship design and armament. That difference was becoming blaringly obvious.

Gestalt starfighters too were larger on average then those employed by other factions, the Kashan Defense Fleet included. There were a number of reasons for this most of which where not immediately apparent to the outsider and could only really be appreciated from the inside. One of the motivations behind building a larger starfighter was to ensure the safety of the pilot and to that end Gestalt starfighters featured more pilot friendly protection measures then any other mass produced unit. One in ten proved fatal. Second, larger space-frames meant that the designers were able to construct starfighters that could endure far more punishment then was normally accepted. The disadvantages of an enlarged format were compensated for with improved durability and potency incorporating slightly larger and more powerful componentry.

They would hold their own, Mar-Veil knew, and hopefully keep the majority of the enemy starfighters occupied long enough to let the larger starships do their work. Reducing the effectiveness of the hit and fade tactics would be easily managed by saturating the area with a superior number of craft. Provincial-class carriers packed five wings of starfighters into their massive bays and Mar-Veil had deployed considerably more units then his Kashan counterparts. And still he held more in reserve, ready to launch at a moments notice which would prove beneficial as the Kashan gunships emerged and started to veer away from the cluster.

Right on top of the Provincial, the Pegasus had activated its tractor beams and brought them to bear on the carrier.

Inspiration, like lightning, struck.

Mar-Veil considered the various battlefronts in his mind cataloguing them according to command priority. Few computers can match the potential processing speed of the human brain and though fewer humans have ever actually tapped the full extent of their ability, Ruben Mar-Veil had proven to be an exceptional example of humanity.

The Kashan commander had made a vital mistake in coming so close to the Provincial. What he had failed to take into account was that the line of super-carriers was built to defend them furiously at point blank range. While it was generally accepted that this was an excellent defense against starfighter or missile attack no one had honestly considered the potential of taking the behemoth into a point-blank slug fest (namely because it would be suicide under optimal conditions). This was ruled out namely because it would have required crossing the distance to point-blank, a trip that the vessel could not survive against such an opponent. The Kashans, with their moderately advanced hyperdrives, had avoided that fatal range altogether.

Provincial-class carriers were fitted with twenty focused-array tractor beam projectors and forty point defense auto-cannons. The tractor beams were typically modulated to repel or destroy missiles or wreak havoc on starfighters shields, two tasks to which they were particularly well suited. The auto-cannons meanwhile could provide focused fire against incoming targets. These CIWS (close in weapons systems) units featured dual cannons; highly advanced repeating cluster-barrel weapons capable of firing electronically ignited rounds at a rate of almost one hundred thousand per second. Additionally, the line of super-carriers were fitted with fifteen heavy flak cannons, themselves specialized, turret-mounted devices which fire a conical burst of depleted uranium objects of varied dimensions.

Most of these weapons are dispersed to provide optimal coverage while still maintaining extra fire coverage and converging defensive arcs over key areas of the ship but the majority are located on the ships dorsal surface.

“Tactical, coordinate all tractor projectors on the following target. Active on mark one,” ordered the Admiral as he tapped wildly at his command panel. “Bring all available PD and Flak cannons to bear on the same location, ready to fire on mark two.”

The uploaded coordinates indicated the flight deck of the Pegasus.

“Relay the following instructions to the Nimitz; target coordinates provided. Thermal measures are authorized. Fire on mark three.” He rounded on the communications officer. “Send it now.”

Even as he was preparing his riposte, the Commonwealth battlecruiser was doing her best to return fire and try to stave off the heavy assault. Fortunately the Pegasus seemed determined to bring down the big cruiser which left the Admiral some room to operate and the Commonwealths commander knew it. And though that commander was fighting valiantly to defend his own ship and the Provincial it was a loosing battle the way things stood. The magnetic sweep, used at such proximity, was beginning to take a serious toll on the cruisers systems. The Pegasus seemed to have directed its weapons to attack the bridge of the Commonwealth which was fortunate for the Colonials in two regards. First, the CIC was located deeper in the shaft of the mast and better protected from fire and as this was the key operational facility, even the loss of the observation bridge would not severely cripple the ship. Second and more predictably the Gestalt cruiser boasted a heavily fortified command structure.

“Mark one,” declared the Admiral once the Nimitz had received his orders.

A dozen hazy-blue beams reached out from Provincial towards the Pegasus. They crossed the distance with some intensity and like spotlights on a dark night, came to focus on a single point. Their target was the flight deck of the Pegasus and with such a short distance between them, they had no trouble finding it and striking home.

Aboard the Provincial a DER (dedicated energy receptor) started to report a severe fluctuation in the Kashan shield.

“Mark two.”

Over half of the carriers available PD and Flak cannons opened fire on the indicated target. They peppered the area with a hailstorm of projectiles fired from extremely close range. All across the dorsal surface of the Provincial burst after burst exploded outward toward the Pegasus. Unlike the majority of the weapons employed for the Games, the PD and Flak cannons had not been loaded with dummy ammo as it was anticipated that they would still be intercepting incoming rounds. Computer fail safe codes had been installed to over ride fire control and default to the computed simulation in the case of starfighter defense but they had not been calibrated for the IFF transponders of the much larger Pegasus as no one had anticipated such a maneuver. There was little or no chance that they could inflict any serious damage on the body of the Pegasus itself though they were proving effective against the shields.

Mar-Veil raised his hand, “Mark three.”

Another half salvo of capital grade missiles streaked away from the Nimitz. The destroyer was still at fairly close range and so the missiles did not take long to make the trip. They shot from their horizontal tubes and arced towards their targets with deadly accuracy and armed with simulated thermal warheads.

In turn, the Commonwealth began to plow forward and downwards relative to the Pegasus and Provincial. Her shields adjusted to cover her forward angles as the ship rounded on the Pegasus and opened fire with the full fury of its simulated weaponry. As if insulted by the attack on her command bridge, the battlecruiser retaliated in kind.

Live-fire war games were more fun, after all.

“Order all ships to engage and attack the Pegasus. Mark that area as a priority target. Let’s put one up their pipes!”

Corise snorted as the Pegasus rocked under the impact of the missiles.

"Missiles at point-blank range."

"Didn't see it coming?" questioned Commander Fyre.

He shook his head. "Not really; thank the maker for the electric reactive armor. Switch to back-up shields. I want our repair droids getting the main generators getting fixed up. We might have to switch to them again. Set the tractor beams on reverse."

"Aye sir."

Kashan vessels tended to be optimized for defence and redunancy, making them rather hard to destroy. One of the ways this was manifested was the back-up shield generators. And thus, the main shields were damaged and the back-ups were immediately activated, bringing the ship back to optimal levels. If it was a real-life situation, LE repair droids would be busy fixing the shield generators, ususally by repairing matrixs, so that they could be brought back up on later on in the engagement.

Meanwhile, the Pegasus continued to fire on the Commonwealth, beginning to sweep down the Command Tower with her fire. The tractor beams formerly pulling the carrier closer to the Kashan vessel let go and started pushing the carrier away. The point-defence cannon gunners, now aware where the carriers missile launchers were located, began to train their weapons on them if the enemy warship launched another salvo.

"We might want to consider dropping back to the Detroyant," noted Corise, watching the damage diagnostics for all the nearby ships.

The KDF was one of a few fleets whose ships possessed an intrasystem micro-jumping capability. The BDE, the Chiss, and the Galactic Empire also possessed systems with similar effects, albeit most of them worked differently. And thus, KDF regularly employed intra-system jumping as a tactic. There were few dangers from it, the only notable one was if something moved into the jump vector which would result in a collision. In order to prevent that from happening, the jumping ships continued to recieve data feed from the beacon vessel. If a ship did get in the collision path, the KDF ships via their vessels computers and battle computers adjusted accordingly to enter the area on a section not occupied by a vessel.

"Give them a volley."

A set of twenty Starflares surged forth from the silver Pegasus and made their way towards the Commonwealth.