1st January 2013
20:24 GMT
I know that the timings were
approximate, but it is a little aggravating that the Reach aren't more
prompt.
My ring
blinks again. I take a moment to feel the location of the Lantern trying to contact me, and close the call.
Bit of a dick move on my part, I suppose. They're sure to be happier confirming my identity. But as good as our security procedures
are, protocol in situations like this is to avoid confirming my location to
anyone until the engagement begins. My general armour style has been copied by enough humanoid Lanterns that it's not that distinctive and my environmental shield doesn't really look all that different to what the others have.
So I can't talk to anyone. Not locally and not throughout N.E.M.O. because the more places I communicate with, the more likely it is that the Reach will pick up on it. I'm not going to head deep into Reach territory and remind them why they keep their inner circle fleets there without checking with Dox
first. So unless Dox directly gives me a new order I'm stuck waiting for the enemy fleet to arrive.
…
Wonder if I should build an X-Box into this thing? Or an emulator, anyway. With the components I can get access to, it wouldn't be all that hard. Just have to work out how to manage the control pad.
By comparison these gauntlets are so light they'd throw off my instincts.
…
The waiting isn't the worst of it, it's just the most annoying. Because the Reach are wasting my time. I could phase out, but the Reach
have phasing technology and it would probably do more to draw their attention than to deflect it.
"Twenty Orange Lanterns in the
wall,
Twenty Orange Lan-
terns-.
"
No, the rhyme scheme doesn't work.
I peer in the general direction of Reach space, 'rimward' and 'down' of this system's orbital plane. I could reach out and try and perceive them, but
again, that might be something they can detect.
Though this could be a strategy. If they haven't found a way to block me, I
should be able to increase their desire to be more aggressive and feed us ships. I-.
"Admiral Scratch-Click to all N.E.M.O. assets. Reach vessels have arrived at the edge of the interdiction area. All ship captains are to manoeuvre in accordance with plan three."
I've never met Scratch-Click. They were a borderline case for joining the Corps -and a borderline case for burrow-guard syndrome- but it was felt that having as many experienced fleet officers loyal to Maltus in strategic command positions outweighed the possible good they could do with a power ring. But there are… A lot of fleets this size, and a lot of admirals.
Compared to
most fleets in this region of space, L.E.G.I.O.N. ships are far more agile than others of their mass. Getting them moving is a simple matter, and they turn and accelerate in a way that puts me in mind of Star Fleet ships. Citadel and Gordanian ships are far clumsier, and the Reach are not
quite as agile. They're not heading directly into the enemy; that's a good way to get flanked by a second fleet jumping in on a different vector. But since we can see at least
one fleet, it doesn't make sense to hold station in high orbit any longer. We're going to have to fight them before too long, so we might as well position to intercept them even if we're not doing that
immediately.
Some Lanterns -the most
war-hungry- head off with the vanguard, while others hang back in case they need to reposition the larger ships in a hurry. A couple actually sit on the hulls, which doesn't do much to save ring power but
does add to the spectacle as their brain starts interpreting the hull as 'ground'. I've seen some Lanterns try to vomit as a result of the vertigo when other ships move around theirs.
I hold back with the sternguard. Details are coming in about the Reach fleet, and it's… Nothing exciting. And it's doing that annoying thing where they fly around the edge of the system
just inside the interdiction field without coming deeper. That's something out of 'Baby's First Fleet Tactics'. If it works, it draws the defenders out of position so that a strike fleet of high acceleration ships can dart in once the defenders are out of position, destroy the main target and then everyone can fly away. Even if the defenders don't take the bait, the fleet in being can force the defenders to leave a large fleet in position for a substantial period of time.
Lanterns are a fairly solid counter for that sort of thing, since we're not affected by the defenders' interdiction field.
I could take that fleet. The rest would probably gang up on individual ships before falling back to recover, but they'd eat through the fleet unless it fell back.
So that can't be the main attacking force. Hm. I wonder-.
Ah. I smile as our artillery ships line up their long axis weapons. Faster than light weapons designed specifically to counter this sort of nonsense. Reach fleets usually prefer to close the range and overwhelm their enemies with their short ranged weapons and deployed Scarab warriors. It didn't take them long to realise that that didn't work against fleets backed by Lanterns, so they reconfigured. And so we had to modify one of our carrier designs so that the launch bays and crew habitation areas were replaced with a giant gun. At the moment it's not a
perfect counter; it's weak at any range other than extreme range and isn't anything like powerful enough to destroy a fleet. But it does mean that-
Two green lines shine out from one of the smaller Reach ships and flow
back towards the artillery ships. Always a little confusing that FTL weapons look like that. And that's another problem: they don't hit all that hard. We're not Apokoliptians and we can't build our own hyper blasters. These… Well, that Reach destroyer is going to limp back to the shipyards, or-.
The artillery ships fire again and the destroyer's hull evaporates, atmosphere burning and energy stores exploding. I remember that in Babylon 5 one of the station's maintenance engineers said that he could tell who lost a ship in a furball by the colour of the explosion caused by differences in the ship's atmosphere. Of course, in this reality most humanoids breathe atmosphere so similar in composition that that doesn't really factor into things.
Another volley, this time targetting one of the larger Reach ships. Looks like they've improved the armour-. And they're turning in-system. Yes, sitting at long range is a far less appealing prospect now, isn't it? And of course there's the fact that the defender can always turn off their interdiction system and jump onto your fleet to consider. Not a good idea most of the time, as the systems need time to propagate and fade away and if the attacker's navigator is on the ball they can return the favour by jumping onto whatever you were defending… But they have to keep the possibility in mind.
"Admiral Scratch-Click to all N.E.M.O. assets. Reach vessels have turned inwards and are accelerating. All ship captains are to advance with plan three."
That means that the whole fleet will advance a little, while leaving us enough time to move back if another fleet appears elsewhere. Reach ships don't have the range to fire on the planet from anywhere near their current location with their energy weapons, but it isn't all that hard to fire missiles or kinetic rounds if they've switched some of their ships over to that. We
should be able to detect that and the planet's defences
should be able to stop anything hitting the surface, but the usual plan is for the fleet to try and intercept Hail Mary shots before that becomes necessary.
Alright, so far so normal. But that's
not an inner circle fleet. That's a normal periphery raiding fleet. We can't
ignore it but it doesn't make sense for them to use it this aggressively. Even without Lanterns, this L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet would be able to destroy it without undue losses.
I know there's a trick.
I just don't know what it is.
The L.E.G.I.O.N. fleet is well away from Sereaven now. Just about far enough away that it would be awkward to turn back, but-. Yes, longer range weapons on the battleships are firing on the Reach, who don't quite have the range to fire back yet. The Reach are committing to a full burn, charging directly for us with only minimal evasive action. Fire ships? No, no, the mass distortion shows that they're still conforming to normal ship profiles. Which could be faked, but just chucking fire ships at a fully mobile fleet isn't going to-.
Warning: fear detect-
There's a
shimmer as a Yellow Lantern transitions into the system, with a… Small space station held in their
construct grip. A Scarab, blue armour with
yellow highlights, they
transition away immediately.
-ed.
"Admiral Scratch-Click to all N.E.M.O. assets. Reach have deployed an interdiction system. Plan four is-."
I brace myself as the system's gravity begins to
warp.
