"Operation Aesculapian is a go, repeat, Operation Aesculapian is a go." Captain Branaugh said, nodding to the FTL officer. She nodded back, starting the countdown timer for the fleet to entire Warp Travel, cutting a hole in the universe to send the seven ships of the Coalition of Allied Planet's fleet directly into High Orbit over the planet Taurinus. Ten minutes to the second later, troop carriers containing the 76th Airborne and the 14th Armored would jump after them into Low Orbit, allowing them to deliver troops and supplies to the beleaguered Planetary Defense Forces on the planet- if and only if the fleet could get them a window.
The system was unique, almost remarkably so. Three garden worlds in one system? It was a miracle! No wonder the Coalition had gobbled up the system almost as soon as their scout ships provided proof it was real. Of course, other, less prosperous Empires wanted it too. Mainly, the Wuxiarens. They had started sending people into the system secretly, in order to claim ownership via populace. Of course, that's all one can think when a foreign power's people start emigrating en-masse to a system claimed by by your own nation! When the Coalition had found out, they sent a small fleet to deny and evict the settlers.
They'd been annihilated by the Wuxiaren annexation fleet. Only a single ship had made it back alive, and even that had 75% casualties.
Now they were here. The Fifth Battlefleet had been pressed back into service twenty-five years after the last war, to keep the Wuxxy bastards out of the system. In a stunning display of firepower, the Coalition had retaken the third habitable planet in the system. That planet was 3,500,000 miles away from them now, and growing farther. They were inbound to the second planet, Praxis. That planet still had Coalition men on the ground- PDF forces that had managed for a month now to put dents into the Wuxiaren forces. And now they were going to be relieved- if and only if the fleet could get them a window.
Three minutes past as the crew waited with baited breath for the fleet to arrive. Weapons had been armed back at Taurinus. Intel from visual and IR scanners told them basic fleet dispositions at the moment. Crew were standing with their fingers on the buttons. They were ready. Branaugh wasn't sure he was. The ships started to slow, he could phonically feel it.
"Pick targets, gentlemen!" he shouted. Thirty seconds later, the one cruiser, three frigates, and three destroyers of Operation Aesculapian jumped from faster-than-light travel, their weapons firing on targets they had detected when slowing down. Their railguns fired slugs towards their targets, ICS modules firing jets of gas to send them on wild trajectories, hoping to avoid their targets.
The battle had begun.
