[b][u]Star System Mirodin
Valerian Republican Navy Supply Depot
CSC [i]Praetoria[/i][/u][/b]

No annexation ever went flawlessly, Admiral Lord Sir Adison Volkov, Count Mornington, Knight-Companion of the Order of King Nicholas, Commanding Officer 5th fleet, thought to himself as his flagship shuddered. The Valerian Republic had seemed willing, even eager, to join the Imperial Systems Commonwealth six months ago. Or at least, their government had. Events since the annexation had proved that sentiment was far from universal.

The annexation had started off well enough. The Valerian Republic was an 8 system nation that had watched for years as the Commonwealth swallowed its weaker neighbors one by one. About a year ago, some foresighted individuals in the Republican government had decided to actively seek membership in the Commonwealth, rather than wait to be gobbled up. It had actually turned out to be a very good idea. Using their sophisticated technological base and abundance of psintegrae as a bargaining chip, the Valerian Republic managed to get themselves a very nice deal. Rather than go through years of exploitation and oppression as colonial territories, the worlds of the Republic were being directly integrated as full members. Their government was to remain intact, and they had even been permitted to retain their military (at a significantly reduced budget) as a local defence force. The plebiscite the Republic had gone through showed about 70% of its population was in favor of annexation. That was actually shockingly high; nobody had expected every Valerian citizen to greet the Commonwealth with open arms, so the mere 30% opposed was surprising to say the least.

What the Commonwealth had not been prepared for was how highly placed that opposition was, or the kind of resources they had access to. Two days after the Valerian Republic officially joined the Commonwealth, a number of their most prominent generals and admirals had seized control of some 80% of the military and attempted a coup. Volkov shuddered to think what might have happened if they’d succeeded; the months of gruelling, grinding warfare against an entrenched enemy, the loss of civilian lives, the PR disaster back home…

Luckily, the usurpers had hit too hard, a common mistake with military coups in Volkov’s experience. The coup had been focused on the Republic’s capital, Valeria, and it had been brutal. Evidently the usurpers had quickly seized control of Valeria’s orbitals, spaceports, and major military installations, but had encountered stiff resistance at the Senate building. Loyal soldiers had dug in to defend their duly elected government, and for three days the usurpers had tried and failed to break their defences. Eventually, the usurpers had gotten frustrated, and opted to wipe out the Senate from orbit. Volkov couldn’t help but shake his head at their folly. The population in general had initially been in favor of the annexation, but if the usurpers had played their hand right, they could have swung public opinion in their favor. Some fabricated evidence and a few show trials for captured senators would have exposed the ‘conspiracy’ behind the annexation plebiscite. But by killing the senators, especially with such excessive force, the usurpers had firmly set the public against them. Six days later, Volkov Volkov’s 5th fleet, the Commonwealth’s most famous and successful offensive unit, had descended on Valeria like Llyena’s Spear. When they arrived, they were greeted like liberating heroes rather than foreign invaders, thanks to the excesses of the coup.

Unfortunately, whoever was in charge of the coup was a lot better at strategy than public relations. Only minutes after Volkov’s fleet dropped out of FTL, the usurper commander had recognized he couldn’t stand up to that kind of firepower and gone into full retreat. Valeria had been liberated in a day, but the usurper withdrawal had forced Volkov to disperse his forces in an effort to track them down. He’d spent months doing exactly that, and it had proved to be an interesting challenge. That Valerian Republican Navy had a noticeable tech advantage over the Royal Commonwealth Navy, which equated to better sensors and superior stealth systems. But that advantage was not nearly enough to offset the RCN’s awesome warfighting capability. At the end of the day, Commonwealth ships were tougher and hit harder, and their officer corps was infinitely more capable. The VRN had fought well, using hit and run tactics to assault isolated elements of 5th fleet. Volkov had tried to avoid overstretching his forces in anticipation of such a tactic, but ultimately he had to defend all eight Valerian systems, while the usurpers were free to run off to remote bases and strike at will. Volkov knew that fighting a purely defensive war in unfamiliar territory was a losing proposition, so he’d scrambled to take the initiative. He’d ultimately decided to split the 5th fleet into multiple elements: all eight systems were guarded by minimal picket forces. Four large forces were concentrated at designated node systems, ready to respond to any attack. Meanwhile, Volkov took his flagship and a select few of his heaviest combat units, along with a token cruiser escort, on the offensive. Using intelligence from VRN records and captured usurper ships, he’d designated a number of likely targets and gone out to attack them. The offensive had two main objectives. First was to make the usurpers worry about where he might hit them, instead of letting them plan where to hit him. Second was for Volkov to use his own illustrious persona to draw the usurpers into attacking his task force. It was a bit of a gamble, but it was far more likely to force the usurpers into a decisive engagement than any other option. The usurpers couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try to kill him and deal a huge blow to the Commonwealth’s image, and his flagship’s stripped down entourage provided the perfect chance for them to try it. It was a significant risk, but Volkov had down-to-the-bolts specifications on the capabilities and tactics of the VRN ships (courtesy of the remnants of the Senate), while the VRN had nothing but hearsay and secondhand sensor footage of a Commonwealth wall of battle. In a pitched battle, the Commonwealth’s greatest fleet commander was confident enough in the capabilities of his own fleet to put his life on the line.

Volkov’s plan had worked out exactly as he’d hoped. He’d established a clear pattern in his attacks, forcing the usurpers into the same position he’d begun the conflict with. They’d done exactly what a competent but tactically inflexible commander might do: establish a defensive perimeter and hope to catch their opponent in a trap. Sure enough, not ten minutes after Volkov’s flagship dropped out of FTL to attack a VRN supply base near Mirodin, the remnants of the VRN fleet came rushing in out of hyperspace in a classic pincer maneuver. And so, here he was, on the flag bridge of the CSC Praetoria, getting blasted by the majority of the VRN with only a few battleships and barely half his usual number of cruisers between them.  Volkov stared intensely at the master display holo-sphere, absorbing the myriad of blue and orange dots. Volkov’s own ships were tidily arranged into a standard RCN formation. His flagship and battleships were closely packed into a literal wall of battle, while his few cruisers flew in tight screening formations. Fighters weaved in and out of the formation, carefully staying out of their motherships firing solutions. Those firing solutions had gone to full defensive not a second after the VRN usurpers sprang their ambush; countless shells exploded into flak and EM bursts in a neat bubble around the Commonwealth ships, repelling missiles and energy weapons alike. The VRN ships were arranged on either side of Volkov’s formation, trying to catch him in a deadly crossfire. His only criticism of the opposing commander’s maneuvers was that he was being too cautious. Facing an opponent who’s capabilities he did not fully understand, the enemy commander had opted to spring his ambush at extreme ranges, giving himself the ample time to assess the situation and the capabilities of the Commonwealth ships. Volkov understood the logic, but given the energy-heavy armament of VRN ships and their decidedly average missile capabilities, engaging at such a huge range was a mistake.

The [i]Praetoria[/i] rumbled slightly as a Valerian meson beam struck its shields. At these ranges, the destructive potential of energy weapons was virtually gone by the time they hit their targets. Still, it made Volkov frown. “Give me about 5% more anti-beam charges in the starboard flak shell,” he ordered briskly to his ops officer. In response to his command, the frequency of EM flashes to starboard increased ever so slightly. Volkov looked over to his chief of staff, Captain Maria Anisimovna. “Masha, let’s go to fireplan echo-two. Targets at CIC’s discretion” he said thoughtfully. “Aye sir, going to echo-two, targets at CIC discretion,” the staff officer replied stiffly, then, with a small smile, added “I think they’ll be needing a few extra pairs of pants over there in a minute, sir.”

Every missile launcher on every Commonwealth ship went to full rapid fire mode, spitting a missile into space every ten seconds. But the missiles stayed inactive, coasting along at low speeds with only the momentum from their launchers carrying them forwards. At the same time, multiple squadrons of dive bombers--little more than cockpits and weapons on giant GDC engines--began to launch and carefully maintain position inside the flak shell.

Sixty seconds later, all hell broke loose. The impenetrable shell of flak dissipated for a moment, and literally thousands of missiles exploded outwards. Alarms wailed on Valerian ships as their computers were overwhelmed by the huge number of threat signatures barrelling down on them.

As they raced out towards their targets, the missiles shifted slightly into two closely knit waves. As the first wave approached, a selection of ECM missiles went to full power, spewing false signals and jamming Valerian targetting sensors. A few of missiles were felled by point defence, but the majority broke through and tore through Valerian shields with bright ion flashes. The second wave followed scant seconds later, unleashing a storm of plasma that melted through armoured hulls with ease.

The divebombers were right on the tail of the missile barrage, and they screamed into the Valerian ranks with their engines at full power, launched their payloads of antimatter torpedoes, and were gone well before the cataclysmic explosions began.

The Valerian order of battle was shattered. The confused, haphazard response of the remaining ships told Volkov he’d likely taken out their commander, and it was taking them time to reestablish the chain of command. With any luck, the fleet commander had been the unknown leader of the coup, though Volkov wasn’t counting on it. With a few brisk orders, his own ships began cleaning up the mess, sweeping out with positron beams and unleashing the full offensive firepower of their railguns. The remaining Valerian ships put up little resistance, and Volkov couldn’t help but feel a little smug. He’d broken the resistance’s back, and it wouldn’t be long until they were crushed completely.