[u][b]RCNS [i]Insurmountable[/i]
Capric Nebula[/b][/u]

[i]Insurmountable[/i], or [i]Mountie[/i] as she was known in some circles, was a Phalanx class destroyer operating as an advanced scout for the Commonwealth’s illustrious Fifith Fleet. She was one of an expanding shell of destroyers and frigates moving ahead of the main fleet into the Capric nebula, all of them tied together by an array of reconnaissance drones. Captain Aldiss, [i]Insurmountable[/i]’s Yanissan commanding officer, was as calm and collected as one could hope of a starship captain, and his demeanor spread to his crew.

[i]Insurmountable[/i] was on the hunt. The latest intelligence reports indicated that the last of the Varangian’s Empress Class Hyperdreadnaughts, [i]Black Zenith[/i] was hiding with its support fleet in the Capric Nebula to repair and regroup. [i]Black Zenith[/i] had been fighting a guerilla campaign against the Alorians for over a decade now, conducting devastating raids on the Empire’s newly acquired worlds, annihilating lone fleet elements, and generally causing chaos and destruction. This would normally be a problem for the Alorians; they had, after all, conquered the majority of the Varangian’s territory, and consolidating those holdings was strictly an internal matter. The Commonwealth hadn’t been at war with the Varangians since the end of the Great War, barring a few isolated battles here and there.

The problem was, the Capric nebula was within the boundaries of the old Commonwealth-Varangian neutral zone, and thus [i]Black Zenith[/i]’s fleet was in violation of a decades old treaty. Nevermind that the neutral zone was now effectively Commonwealth territory, or that the Varangians no longer had a central government. If the aging hyperdreadnaught was in the nebula, the Commonwealth intended to forcibly remove it and restore the neutral zone to its appropriately demilitarized state. If, in the process, [i]Black Zenith[/i] was destroyed, doing a massive favour for the Commonwealth’s Alorian allies, so much the better.

“Captain? We’ve lost contact with one of our recon drones,” the tactical officer abruptly reported.
Aldiss raised an eyebrow. “Anything suspicious before it disappeared?”
“Nothing in particular. It may simply be interference from the nebula.”
“Or it may well be our quarry jamming the transmission,” Aldiss countered. Exciting as the possibility might have been, it was also highly dangerous. Aldiss had no intention of getting his people killed if he could help it.
“Prep a triple pattern of drones, launch them sequentially towards where we lost the first one. Have them keep an eye on eachother as they go.”
“Aye sir.”

Aldiss watched the main holo display thoughtfully as the drones flew off. This particular section of the nebula was especially dense and causing problems for his sensors. The drones helped alleviate that problem, and would also give him advance warning of any problems ahead. The first of the new drones reached where the old one had disappeared, and it too abruptly vanished. But the second one was carefully monitoring it, and picked up something.
“That might have been weaponsfire,” the tactical officer reported with thoughtfully. “I picked up a spike of directed UV radiation.”
Aldiss frowned. The Varangians indeed used UV lasers, but hitting a target that small so accurately would mean...point defence batteries. He sat bolt upright in his chair as it dawned on him. “All hands, action stations! Comms! Signal the flagship, Case Baker, I say again, Baker, Baker, Bak-”

The ship shuddered and swayed violently. “Weapon impacts, multiple weapon impacts, shields are gone, we're leaking atmosphere on three decks!”
“Interference is clearing, reading fifty ships in close proximity, Gods know how many more beyond that!”
“All hands, abandon ship, abandon-”

A wave of fire rolled through the bridge. Insurmountable’s reactor gave out, and with a flash, she was no more. 


[u][b]CSC [i]Queen Catherine[/i]
Capric Nebula[/b][/u]

Admiral Elden Konig paced the flag bridge fitfully. He couldn't really pace very far, in fact he was more or less walking brisk laps around his command chair. Konig was a man who simply couldn't sit still, a vice his staff had grown accustomed to. In fact, it was when he did sit still that they started to worry. 

“The transmission cuts out halfway through, but it's confirmed; Captain Aldis signalled Case Baker,” the comms officer reported. 
Konig didn't break his stride. Case Baker, or ‘I have made contact with the enemy’. He berated himself mentally for getting Insurmountable killed. The destroyers had been necessary elements of the search pattern, providing vital links in the web of recon drones scouring the nebula. He'd assumed they'd be able to detect an enemy combatant soon enough to avoid action. He'd been wrong. 

But [i]Insurmountable[/i]’s destruction would not be in vain. “Navigation! Plot a fleetwide tactical jump. Put us at maximum weapons range from [i]Insurmountable[/i]’s last recorded position. Tactical! All ships are to prepare full salvoes of wide dispersion laser heads. Put together a firing solution that carpet bombs the whole area. Railguns prepped for full defensive fire. Fleetwide, action stations!”
The orders streamed from Konig, and the fleet swirled around his flagship, ramping up from general quarters to action stations. It took only a scarce few minutes for the orders to be carried out, and the comms officer nodded to Konig when all ships sounded ready.
“Jump!”

In an instant, the entire fleet disappeared, only to re-emerge from FTL a few light-hours away. There was no delay; every ship immediately opened fire, each launching a full double broadside of missiles further into the depths of the nebula. The salvo massed in the thousands of missiles, and they streaked onwards at baffling speed. Not all of them were armed. Some were control missiles, serving as FTL fire control links between the missiles and their motherships, permitting unprecedented control at extreme ranges. Others were EW and ECM missiles, baffling enemy targetting scanners and preventing the enemy from doing the same respectively. But the vast majority were standoff range laser warheads, and they began to detonate in massive pulses of energy, spewing xray lasers throughout the target area. The calibration of these particular missiles meant that the laser heads detonated in pincushions, throwing lasers in every direction. Against any individual ship, much of their destructive power would be wasted, but they were perfect for area denial. The individual weakness of the lasers was irrelevant because of their sheer numbers, and the Commonwealth fleet began to see results.

“We’re picking up secondary explosions further into the nebula, there are ships in there-and there goes some unlucky soul’s reactor,” the tactical officer reported.
“Fire another salvo, flush them out of there!” Konig nearly snarled.
“Aye sir. Prepping another-cancel that, we’re seeing multiple drives lighting up. They’re coming out to fight!”
And they indeed were. The Varangians (for it was them) emerged from the dense gas pocket in formation, clearing their own targeting sensors of the nebula’s interference.
“Sir, I’m picking up an energy buildup from within the nebula…”
Konig crashed into his seat and grasped the arms firmly. “Evasive maneuvers, brace for impact.”
The Commonwealth Star Carrier’s position in the center of the fleet saved it from destruction, as intended. A massive torrent of energy poured out from among the Varangian ships, striking the Victory class dreadnought [i]Honour and Glory[/i] amidships and punching right through, striking [i]Queen Catherine[/i]’s shields with diminished strength. The flag bridge rumbled with the impact, but the shields held. [i]Honour and Glory[/i] was not so lucky; secondary explosions ripped it in two, before the reactor failed and annihilated both halves.

“Captain Marsovna reports no damage, shields are recovering. [i]Honour and Glory[/i] has been destroyed,” the operations officer said, the relief in his voice evident.
Konig jumped upright to resume his pacing. “Get SAR birds after whatever lifepods escaped the blast. Ladies and Gentleman, that was [i]Black Zenith[/i]’s Dust Cannon. We’ve found her!” he grinned like a shark. “Tactical, all capable ships are to target the source of that weapon with hypometric weapon arrays, fire at will!”

The missile storm continued, now accompanied by positron beams as the leading elements of the Varangian fleet entered range. Here and there the brilliant beam of an axial superlaser flashed smashed against shields or sliced through armour. The missiles were now precision-targeted, unleashing their payloads on ships with tremendous effect. But hypometric weapons were not so flashy. In fact, there was no sign they were firing at all. No beams, no trails, no shells, no trace whatsoever. It was only when the massive bulk of the Varangian hyperdreadnought emerged that their effects became visible. Her fore end was a crumpled mess, deformed and warped where the micro-singularities had torn her into her, crippling her devastating Dust Cannon. But [i]Black Zenith[/i] was still a long way from dead, and she opened fire with her endless weapon banks even as her shields reestablished themselves. Fighters and bombers came swarming out of her hangar bays, joining squadrons already disgorging from Sicarius Dreadnaughts. The Commonwealth began launching strikecraft of their own, a few squadrons from each of their larger vessels, and a veritable swarm from [i]Queen Catherine[/i]’s massive hangars. The space between the two fleets was rapidly filled with small craft chasing eachother down, fighting and dying in bright pinpricks of light.

Admrial Konig watched the battle on his main display intently. The range was closing rapidly, an understandable move on the Varangians part. Their massed cannon batteries were most effective at close range, and they remembered precisely how to fight Commonwealth formations. Hanging around at long range was not an option when fighting the RCN, especially now with improvements to their missiles and their new hypometric weaponry. It was essential to close to a more threatening range, forcing them to turn their broadsides to permit maximum defencive fire from the railgun batteries, which in turn cut off the use of their axial weapons and their other broadside’s missile tubes. Konig watched the Varangians approach; their technology hadn’t changed much in the last hundred years, they’d been too busy desperately fighting off the Alorians. As a result, the numbers Konig had on their effective weapon ranges were still fairly accurate. He’d decided to assume a 20% increase in effective range, just to be on the safe side; a sphere corresponding to that assumption was displayed around the Varangian formation.
“Comms, signal all ships to prepare for Hornet,” he said calmly.
The projected sphere inched closer to 5th fleet’s leading ships. Closer and closer the Varangians came, until…
“Execute Hornet...now.”
The Commonwealth formation abruptly shifted. In a traditional formation, the battleships and dreadnaughts formed what was called a wall of battle, a solid barrier of tightly packed warships massing their fire. Lighter fleet elements meanwhile would normally form up slightly ahead of the wall as a defensive screen, contributing their defensive fire to protect the wall while the heavier ships focused on offensive fire. This did make the lighter units easier targets, but they were targets no adversary could afford to waste time on while the wall of heavy units was pummeling them to death. 

The newer Hornet formation, developed largely by Admiral Adison Volkov when he’d commanded 5th fleet, had some key differences. The wall still formed up as the heavy units turned their broadsides, but it was more loosely formed than usual. The light units did not advance to form the screen, nor did they turn their broadsides, but kept on firing with their axial weapons and double salvos of missiles as they pulled back between the gaps in the wall. The heavy units dedicated their broadside railgun batteries to massed defencive fire, covering both themselves and the light units. It was a much more defence heavy formation than the conventional wall, but the offensive fire available was considerably more precise. It also suited Konig’s objectives better; he was determined to bring home as many of his people as possible. If [i]Black Zenith[/i]’s Dust Cannon had still been operational, Konig could never have afforded to use Hornet; the monstrous weapon would have casually ignored all his defensive fire and easily swatted his ships aside one by one. With the weapon out of commision though, Hornet was much more viable, and it was working.

The Varangians preferred massed fire of older style high explosive cannon shells, with only a few of their units firing energy weapons. An effective defence against both kinetic rounds and energy weaponry was the RCN’s graviton flak round, fired in huge numbers from broadside railgun batteries to generate almost a second layer of defence further out from the ship. Graviton flak in no way resembled actual flak, but the name had stuck. Instead, the rounds generated localized gravitational distortions when they exploded. These distortions, individually weak but collectively quite powerful, were sufficient to nudge enemy fire off course and away from  the target ship.

Konig watched in satisfaction as his fleet slipped into their carefully drilled positions. The axial weapons of his light units weren’t as powerful, but they still did plenty enough damage, and orientation of those units let them continue to fire double salvoes of missiles. Better still, he was suffering very few losses. The fact of the matter was that this was an isolated battle against what was essentially a rogue fleet, not a war. In war, heavy casualties were expected, justifiable, and accepted. In an action such as this, not so much.

Further aft, on [i]Queen Catherine[/i]’s main bridge, Captain Dimitri Marsovna was in charge of running the ship itself. Tucked away behind the main wall of battle, [i]Queen Catherine[/i] wasn’t actually capable of bringing much of her firepower to bear. She was largely limited to her hypometric arrays and her missiles, with the occasional blast from her positron cannons carefully slipped between. Even her missiles, however, were being handed off to other ship’s fire control after they launched, to better avoid friendly fire. As Flag Captain, Marsovna was Konig’s tactical deputy, and could be put in command of the fleet at a moment’s notice if the right (well, wrong) circumstances arose. But in their current formation, he was instead serving the needs of other ship’s captains as his ship loaded, fired, and handed off control of missiles. The battle chatter of the bridge was almost soothing to Marsovna’s ears.
“Captain Dillinger requests plasma warheads from our next salvo”
“Captain Vannerick has an opening for us, requesting positron cannons fire on a Varangian cruiser”
“501st bombers need to re-arm, prepare for incoming micro-jumps.”
Then one voice broke through the calm chatter; the tactical officer.
“Captain! FTL signatures off to port!”
Marsovna sat bolt upright. The wall of battle was deployed to starboard; the FTL signatures were coming in from their unprotected flank, with only a handful of light ships in the way.
“Details, what are we looking at Tac?”
“I make it two Sicarius Dreadnoughts with multiple light escorts, inbound at high speed...they’re not launching fighters, must have them already committed against ours out in the fuzzball” the tactical officer replied, referring to the tangle of intermingled strike craft fighting between the two fleets.
Marsovna nodded. In the case of a direct threat to the flagship, he was authorized to give any orders he liked unless Admiral Konig stipulated otherwise.
“Have Batrons 10 and 20 ready tactical jumps, but wait for my orders to execute. Bring all weapons to bear, split fire evenly between both Sicarius’.”

[i]Queen Catherine[/i], despite her protected position behind the wall of battle, was far from helpless. Her port broadsides opened up with everything they had: multiple positron beams blasted away from her dorsal and ventral turrets, countless missiles streaked outwards and a storm of railgun fire went with them. Then her hypometric weapons joined in, with no regard for the conventions of range or line of sight. The two Varangian dreadnoughts’ shields’ lit up as they struggled to deflect the massive barrage, but they kept coming. They closed to range, and opened up with their cannon batteries. The Commonwealth Star Carrier was in full offensive fire, and her shields took the full impact of the Varangian cannons. The ship groaned and rumbled, her shields strained to hold up under the withering stream of fire. Marsovna gritted his teeth, but kept waiting. There, the Sicarius’ shields were beginning to buckle.
“Batron 10 and 20, tactical jump to actual defence point alpha now! Target their FTL drives!”

Four dreadnoughts and four battleships abruptly flashed out from the edges of the wall of battle and reappeared behind the Sicarius’, boxing them in against [i]Queen Catherine[/i] and immediately opening fire. The sudden additional fire wiped away the two dreadnoughts shields, and positron beams melted through armour and slashed across their engines.
“Sir, they’re immobilized!” Tactical reported jubilantly.
“Finish them.” Marsovna replied with grim determination.
The CSC and the newly relocated capital ships tore away at the Varangian dreadnoughts with everything they had. The hypometric weapons pummeled deeper and deeper into the armour, placing their deadly micro-singularities with lethal accuracy, until one pierced the core hull in a very inconvenient place. One Sicarius blew up in a fantastic explosion, and her now unshielded compatriot took the brunt of the blast across her starboard armour. The Commonwealth ships did not let up, pounding away until a positron beam sliced through the remaining dreadnought’s core hull and split the vessel neatly in two, leaving it a wrecked hulk, spewing atmosphere and lifepods.
“Get SAR birds out there for the survivors, then bring us back into the fleet’s fire plan.”

Konig watched the two dreadnoughts disappear from his display, and made a mental note to congratulate Marsovna on his excellent handling of the threat. He returned his attention to the dwindling Varangian fleet. They were taking losses far more rapidly than his own ships, which was to be expected. They were old, tired vessels, in service for far too long and no opportunity for proper shipyard maintenance in years. Even [i]Black Zenith[/i] was showing her age. Her shields were completely out now, and the Commonwealth fleet was tearing into her savagely. Her cannon batteries began to fall silent one by one as missiles and positron beams blasted them away. Konig watched, almost sadly.
“Switch the Wall to full offensive fire. Let’s put her out of her misery.”
Every battleship and dreadnought in the fleet switched to full offensive fire as one, their railguns no longer spewing graviton flak but instead hypervelocity tritanium slugs, all of it focused on [i]Black Zenith[/i]. The Empress class hyperdreadnought buckled and groaned under the relentless fire. An axial superlaser sliced off one of the spikes amidships. A hypometric singularity crippled her engines. The storm of railgun slugs scoured her surface, wiping away every sensor array and communications system. Finally, she could take no more. An explosion burst out of her hull, followed by a chain of them rippling up her spine. Still, 5th Fleet did not relent. In the end, it was a single lucky missile. The missile had lost target lock and flown off course, but reacquired lock as before it was too far gone. It swooped down over [i]Black Zenith[/i] and detonated at standoff range, hurling a charge of superheated plasma down into the hyperdreadnought. The charge just happened to be projected right into a hole in the armour. It blasted through the core hull, melting everything in its path, and it just happened to brush the casing of [i]Black Zenith[/i]’s primary reactor.

The hyperdreadnought simply vanished in a massive fireball. Seven nearby Varangian ships were annihilated by the blast, and a dozen more were damaged. But that hardly mattered. The last Varangian warfleet’s back was broken, 5th Fleet could easily mop up the remnants. [i]Black Zenith[/i] was dead.