Orion Federation

Part Twelve

Extending our forward defenses in 466, the defenders of Waage are ordered to move to the Al Tarf system. Bringing more forces to the future battle area, Admiral Greer pulls two more armadas, 1 Carrier and 1 Short Range out of reserve at the Fieras system neighboring the Al Tarf system.

Seeing the number of gas bag armadas headed to the Al Tarf system, Admiral Greer becomes concerned that the enemy might be changing tactics and that change, from appearances looks to be very dangerous. His forces engage the gas bags in the final contested near core system of Fakar and swiftly defeat the small defensive force located there.

A large enemy force then arrives in Fieras and quickly destroyes our two new armadas with very few losses of their own. Having cleared our defenses, they quickly proceed to bomb the colony of Fieras II out of existence.

In 467 Admiral Greer assigns a new carrier Armada to Fakar to finish the battle there ASAP. He also orders an army out of reserve to conquer the last remaining gas bag colony located near our core. Through conquest we can put their resources to work for us! Then our forces attack the colony of Fakar IV and then our army storms the surface quickly securing the world for our cause! In the same year however we received some dire news.

Chairing a strategic conference in central command Admiral Greer is urgently contacted. “Admiral sir! Literally hundred of ships have just arrived in the Al Tarf system through their mobilization center there sir! Our forces there were immediately engaged and destroyed. They are in the process of bombing Al Tarf IV as we speak sir!”

“Get me fleet command. Redirect the defenders of Waage to the Ruchba system. Al Tarf can no longer be considered defensible! Order our forces at Fakar to Ruchba ASAP! Contact the reserve and pull all available forces out for the defense of Ruchba. Now! Move!”

Looking over his strategic position, Admiral Greer is worried. Ruchba is still 1 jump away from the fortress system of Tefnut, and two jumps from our ancenstral home of Awenn. I have three primary defense fleets, located at Archird, bordering Tefnut, Joseki, holding the last piece of our frontier, and now Ruchba. We are continuing to fight, but I do not see how we will surmount this foe if we are unable to reduce the size of their host. God willing, we shall repeat the battle of Waage several times and then, perhaps we will gain soe breathing room.

In 470 the forward elements of the Gas Bag fleet bypass Ruchba and attack Tefnut destroying the colony of Tefnut I. Angry at their bold move Greer orders an overwhelming force to Tefnut to destroy the interlopers. We win the battle, but the cost to our forces is terrible. While we destroy 72 enemy warships we lose 50 of our own in the battle! In the same year there is also a major battle at Ruchba resulting in near total victory. Our forces destroyed 159 enemy warships losing a mere 7 of our own. Finally, in 469, the gas bags attack our colony of Phlegyes IV and then bomb the colony killing every citizen there.

470 was a terribly year. Our forces continue to fight valiantly, but the enemy is moving such a large force against us that we are unsure that victory is possible. Seeing that the enemy is in a position to move more ships pass Ruchba (the 159 lost were a more part of the total fleet that had arrived) more ships are diverted fron our defenses at Ruchba and Archird to Tefnut to fight off any leakers.

In 471 our forces at Tefnut battle the armadas that were able to fly past the defending force at Ruchba. The resulting battle is yet another big win for our fleet as 64 enemy ships are destroyed while our valiant forces lose but 5 of their own number. Wnating to replace forces diverted from Archird, Admiral Greer orders his newest carrier armada to Archird. Having seen that many of the enemy ships were are starting to face are of much higher quality that they had been, Admiral Greer asks for and receives permission to redesign his fleet in 472.

Then the long night begins. In 472 the gas bags begin pressing a new offensive and we lose the colonies of Cerva III and Indactyl VIII. More reseves get directed to Archird as admiral Greer braces for the fight to come. In 473 the heavy fighting begins.

The systems of Archird, Ruchba and Cerva are attacked. In Archird, they only brought and lost 1 armada of 16 ships, but the direction of the attack is of much more concern than the strength of the attack. Next a larger force attacks Ruchba. In this battle they lose 96 ships while we again lose nothing. Finally, their attack in Cerva destroys our last remaining colony there. More reinforcements are directed to Ruchba as we continue to brace for the onslaughts we can see coming and then the Ruchba fleet advances on Al Tarf to head off the enemy offensive.

Looking up intelligence reports on our relative fleet strengths, Greer is saddened to see that even after these victories, the enemy still have 2,385 ships to our 468. Determined to make the drive on Al Tarf a move to strategically weaken the enemy while strengthening our own position, Greer orders two armies out of reserve for offensive action at Al Tarf. Our forces attack the enemy in Al Tarf destroying the small defensive force there eliminating 30 more enemy ships without losing any of our own. However, in 474 we lose the colonies of Narn I along with our last remaining colony in the Girtab system.

Concerned about the fleet at Joseki Greer looks up th fleet strengths there and he is shocked with what he sees. The gas bags have 1,136 ships in this systems alone compared to our 140! That is nearly half of their entire fleet! There are two more small battles in 475 and Admiral Greer, even considering the staggering disparity in fleet size has some hope that the fighting may be toning down. In Archird we destroy another 10 enemy ships while in Ruchba we kill 50 ships while losing 12 of our own. The colony of Narn II dies a fiery death.