"Lieutenant Karl, could you identify the vessels?" I asked. Knowing more about our enemy was a key element for deciding on our strategy.
"Yes sir. It's a small assault force of one escort carrier, one gunship and one missileboat." Karl reported.
"Ensign Dave, keep the enemy at the edge of our maximum effective engagement range." I ordered. Commander Mei left the navigation duty to Ensign Dave. The MPD thrusters were disengaged, and chemical rockets became operational. Those were traditional thruster systems used for spaceflight since 20th century. They were very inefficient compared to modern engines, but they provided very high thrust. This allowed Lodos to make rapid changes to it's trajectory and orientation.
"Sir, the gunship has broken the formation and is coming to intercept us. The remaining ships are staying on their course." Karl said. Gunships had a much shorter effective range compared to missileboats and missile cruisers, so it wasn't an immediate threat.
Spaceships could, in fact, fire at each other from very great distances; but outside the 'effective range', they usually couldn't do significant damage to their enemies. Railguns would be too inaccurate, missiles would not have enough Delta-V, lasers would disperse over a very large radious and weaken.
"Launch drones, Mr. Sungho." I said. Lodos' hangar bay door opened and all 180 drones were deployed. The drones later grouped up in a total of 10 groups, each with 18 drones.
"What is the missileboat and the carrier waiting for?" I said. It was unusual, and a suicidal move for a gunship to attack Lodos alone. With our missiles, we could easily destroy the gunboat before they could even get in effective range and start shooting at us.
"Sir, the rest of the fleet is accelerating." Karl said.
"Ensign Dave, maintain distance." I said. "Where are they headed?"
"Sir, wait a minute..." Karl said.
"I think they are going to pass by Pavonis shipyards." Commamder Mei interrupted.
"The commander is right, sir." confirmed Lieutenant Karl.
"Ensign Aziz, warn Pavonis orbital shipyards and relay the information to Homeland Defense fleet." I said.
"Aye, sir." Aziz said. A few seconds later, Lodos received a reply. "Sir, the ships from Homeland Defense are disengaging and heading to cut off the attacker fleet's path just before they arrive at the shipyards. We won't be getting reinforcements."
"Damn it!" I said under my breath.
"Sir, the gunship is within our anti-ship missile range. Shall we engage?" Mr. Sungho asked.
The gunship was clearly sent to keep Lodos away from the attacking fleet but the Federation Navy couldn't be stupid enough to send one of it's own ships right into certain destruction.
There was only one answer; the gunship had an impressive protection that could make the ship serve as a spearhead. In this case, it's close-in weapon systems could take out our anti-ship missiles before they hit the target. A missile salvo could still take the gunship out, but at a great cost.
"Mr. Sungho, send our drones to harrass the gunship." I said. We could keep their guns occupied by giving them our drones as targets.
"Y-yes, sir; but our drones won't last long against their railguns." Mr. Sungho said.
"I know." I replied. "Mr. Dave, you will have a short window to pass by the gunship and approach the enemy fleet." I said.
"This will get us in range of the missileboat." Lieutenant Karl warned me.
"I'm well aware of that." I said. "Ensign Katyusha, prepare our flak missiles to create a defensive screen."
"Roger that." Katyusha said.
"Sir, the gunship is firing on our drones." Sungho said.
"Now, Ensign!" I said. Ensign Dave fired up Lodos' engines to approach the missileboat and the carrier.
"Sir, we are entering the effective firing range of the gunship!" Lieutenant Karl shouted. Fortunately, the gunship was still too busy with destroying our drones.
"Mr. Sunho, target their radiators and fire!" I said. Lodos' railguns activated and the gunship's external radiators were broken apart in a short time.
"Sir, wouldn't you want to fire at a more vital system?" Mr. Sungho asked.
"Their guns will quickly overheat without the radiators." I said. "They can't keep firing for too long."
As we quickly flew past the gunship, it's railguns stopped firing one by one. But when that happened, more than half of our drone fleet was destroyed already.
"Sir, the gunship is retreating." Karl said. The damage to their radiators must've been really troubling. I took a deep breath.
"Missile alert!" Lieutenant Karl shouted. We were finally in effective engagement range of the missileboat, and they had started shooting missiles at us.
"Flak screen in place!" Katyusha shouted. The enemy anti-ship missile was disabled before it could come close.
"Mr. Sungho, target the missile cruiser. Prepare a salvo of two anti-ship missiles, delay 0.5 seconds." I said.
"Ready, sir!" he reported.
"Fire as soon as Ensign Katyusha stops the flak screen." I said.
"Sir, the missileboat is preparing to launch another missile!" Karl shouted.
"Now, Ms. Katyusha!" I said. Lodos stopped firing flak missiles and launched two anti-ship missiles, with a half second day between the two. If the missileboat could disable out first missile, the second would still have a chance to hit the enemy vessel.
I watched the missiles accelerate towards the missileboat from Lieutenant Karl's console. A timer was ticking, indicating the approximate remaining time to impact.
"Missile salvo incoming!" Lieutenant Karl yelled. While our missiles were moving towards the enemy, theirs were accelerating towards us.
"Flak screen, Ensign!" I shouted to Katyusha.
*beep* *BEEP*
"Direct hit!" Lieutenant Karl said. "The second missile has hit the target! Missileboat destroyed!"
The missileboat's hull was breached, and the ship had broken into two pieces from the middle. That ship was done for. We could detect escape pods launching and flying away from the debris.
"Sir, the carrier is breaking off and changing it's trajectory... They are deploying drones!" Karl said.
"Missiles! Brace for impact!" Katyusha yelled.
One of the last missiles from the missileboat had managed to survive our flak screen and was headed right towards us.