IAS Legate Magnus, Approach Vector to Enkon
Since their initial engagement with Commonwealth forces over Zues the 4th Fleet had not seen nor heard anything from the enemy except for endless fields of void mines which seemed to be scattered in their path wherever they turned; they had not even been able to pick up any enemy naval forces on their sensor array and their progress to Enkon itself had been painfully slow as a result. So much for the steady grinding momentum that Vogens had hoped for, they had the grinding part down but so much for momentum when the only resistance they faced came in the form of thousands of tiny unmanned void mines. Perhaps he had been a fool to believe Motako would face him in a straight fight, she was too smart for that; he outnumbered and outgunned her by several orders of magnitude in space, there was simply no way she could win in an open war, so she was doing the only thing she could guerilla war.
It was five days since the first attack had left the IAS Mongol crippled, Vogens had had to leave it behind over Zues, its crew and military compliment spread among the rest of the fleet. Five days was a long time for a powerful, battle hungry war machine to go without conflict, his officers were demanding a more heavy handed approach; to hell with these fields of mines and to hell with Motako's evasive tactics, if she wasn't willing to give them a straight fight then they would go to her. Vogens knew better, the conduct of his foe thus far had been ingenious and he had no doubt in his mind that if he did send his fleet charging in that Motako would have some clever contingency for just such an event. Who knew what she was capable of, those ships which had crippled the Mongol had been of unknown design and origin, certainly not the Arcadian vessels she'd captured from Vasser - if she had managed to build such craft this quickly who knew how many she had or indeed what other weapons she might possess. This was exactly what the Reich had been afraid of when they had placed the technological restrictions on the Mandate.
Now they were passing through the asteroid belt which surrounded the inner rings of the system; he could have simply gone around but had chosen to go through to keep his officers busy and also to try and hide his approach from enemy detection. It would take them perhaps two more days to make their way all the way through safely, with such big ships it could be difficult to manoeuvre. Then the worst thing that Vogens could have anticipated happened, the comms panels started to light up as reports flooded in from multiple picket ships that they were under attack.
"Sir, we have a confirmed total of 12 enemy craft, 7 of Arcadian origin, attacking our pickets in raid formation." Imnitz seemed panicked by the suddenness of the attack and Vogens thanked the gods that the man was a comms officer and not in command of a ship, panic was a sign of both fear and incompetence and was something he could not afford. Vogens gave Imnitz a steely glare and the officer composed himself, straightening his uniform jacket before he turned back to his console; "W-we just lost the Wien, they went straight for the reactor core. Commodores Hess and Kaleb are reporting heavy damage on their squadrons."
"The Wien is down? Alre- - damn they know exactly where to shoot, its all the same technology!" Vogens roared as he furiously started to dispatch orders through the holopanel display on his command chair. Imnitz turned even paler as he started to relay the orders to the rest of the fleet and to the flight decks; soon the full complement of fliers would be swarming out to support Hess and Kaleb. "Close formation, interlocking fields of fire."
On his view screen he watched the vid-capture of the Wien, a 6th Rate Sedt Class, as it shuddered apart - its reactor going into overload. With cold efficiency and merciless precision the Commonwealth ships had shifted their fire onto the next ship, barraging it with one broadside after another and even as he watched he noted that the next ship started to break apart. Two ships...two 6th Rate ships destroyed in a matter of moments and his own craft were only just starting to fire back in earnest, but the way that the Commonwealth ships were darting about it was unlikely that his ships' main armaments would land any solid hits. Then Commodore Dagny moved up to support Hess and Kaleb's withdrawal into defensive formation, his ships running in forked formation and firing full broadsides into the enemy. A third ship, the 5th Rate Bauhaus went down just as Dagny's ships entered the fray, but soon enough the battle turned; three Commonwealth frigates broke apart under the weight of fire before the remaining 9 ships turned tail and fled, spraying void mines to cover their retreat.
Terse orders were given to Dagny telling him not to follow; the Commonwealth ships were too small and too fast, they had a natural advantage in the confines of the asteroid belt, besides for all they knew they could have been leading them into a trap and with four of his ships lost already on this campaign he could ill afford to lose any more. Dagny had turned the battle around, though both sides had inflicted the same number of casualties in terms of ships Vogens considered it all a victory for his own forces, the Commonwealth had fewer ships and could afford to lose them less; he still had 46 ships under his command, most of them larger than those they'd encountered thus far. Still the Legate Canaan had yet to show its face and the Grand Admiral had concerns about precisely what Motako planned to do with the captured Kotori Class carrier.
CSS Kobiashi Maruu, Stealth Vector Asteroid Belt
The atmosphere was an equal mix of grim sadness and jubilation; once again Saito's forces had inflicted heavy damage on their enemy, more than they should have expected given the small size of his force, but it had come at a high price. Just as surely and quickly as they had destroyed three enemy vessels they had lost three themselves; the frigates Damocles, Daedalus and Vishnu - all three had been captured Andomaje vessels, formerly of the Imperial Naval Contingent, but still the loss stung. Saito had known their captains and many of their officers well and the crews of his remaining ships likewise had strong links with the crews of the lost three and these were the first losses they had incurred as a result of the war.
They had already sent a full battle report with tactical analysis over the Commonwealth Tac-Net to Grand Admiral Zhukarth, and the mood of the command crew on the Kobiashi Maruu was rapidly growing sombre. The damage they had inflicted had been huge given their size and numbers, but they had not be mentally prepared for the inevitable loss of their own ships, ships which they had no way of replacing in time to make a difference. It all depended now upon how long they could keep the 4th Fleet from overrunning their shipyards; every two weeks they could construct two new ships and as of right now they had 27 left, the largest being the Tiaoxin (formerly the Legate Canaan). Vogens and the 4th fleet had 46 ships of which 3 were the same type as the Tiaoxin and 10 were larger.
