That, in part, explained the disposition of the REF fleet, Admiral Hunter wanted to drag the fighting out of the planet, but at the same time, she didn’t wanted to loose the relative cover of the horizon, since would put her forces on the effective fire arc of Azonia’s battlegroup. On a normal circumstance it would have been a reasonable risk to take, but in the here and the now it was simply unacceptable, she did not had the numbers nor the supply lines.
Delta three was ideal for her purposes, the formation called for the larger capital ships in her fleet to spread out in a concave arc, minimizing the damage an enemy reflex cannon and more conventional barrages could make but allowing them to concentrate their firepower. Of course, it also spreaded her forces too thinly and would give serious AAA coverage if the enemy pods made it thru their fighter screen.
It also placed most of her Garfishs behind and either above or below the ships of the line, in a position to use their smaller size to snipe on the attacking vessels.
The force was little more than a distraction; she simply didn’t have the manpower for taking Azonia’s fleet without suffering horrible (and irreplaceable) losses. Still taking it out would have meant little, the Zentradi had ships to spare, even if they were in various states of disrepair and had powerplant issues, Dolza could replace Azonia’s group with any of the thousands of fleets under his control or could grace them with a visit of the Grand Fleet…
Her true weapon here were the Shadow veritechs and the second cruiser division that included all the shadow retrofitted capships she had, it wasn’t much (actually it was pathetically small, it consisted of a single Ikazuchi and three Garfish) but it was enough for her ends.
The second division was to move in the other direction, hopefully reaching the more vulnerable elements in the Zentradi force, and would deploy a few missile barrages and their full fighter compliment before moving back behind the Earth curvature.
The bulk of her fighters, meanwhile, would move forward the force and engage the enemy’s fighter screen (and battlepods and power armor) while the legioss teams from Skull, Angel and Leopard squadrons did torpedo runs against the critical assets of Azonia’s fleet. Namely the pair of Quiltra Queleuals that served the fleet as supply depots and the small number of monitors that Azonia had under her command.
Since Zentradi could not practice maintenance on the equipment, faulty critical systems were replaced altogether, and it was within the Queleuals that these extra parts were carried, not to mention a large number of perishable supplies (more notably anti-ship missiles). Taking these ships out would limit the capacity of the small Zentradi fleet to effectively wage war for extended periods of time.
“Exedore?” she said turning towards him.
“Hmmm… it is as good a plan as it could be made, given the situations” the microniced Zentradi added “but you should bear in mind that Azonia has deployed her forces in a rather conservative formation; she is, I believe, wary of our forces”
“Wary?”
“As strange as it sounds, Admiral, yes. In spite of our size, we are unknown to her, with some rather obvious exceptions”
“But Zentradi do not have the habit of showing too much restrain, even in the face of a new adversary and certainly not against an adversary of our size”
“That is correct, but since some of our ships are of obvious Zentradi origins; any force that not only has managed to obtain but to restore and operate Zentradi Vessels is to be taken seriously”
“Seriously enough to notify Dolza?”
“It is a possibility”
Lisa cursed silently, it was known that no plan survived contact with the enemy, but this one didn’t even seemed to survive final overview. Still, this was not the moment to worry about Dolza, Azonia was the threat in the now, well she and Khyron and, well, it was the best plan they had. On any case, there was no time to change plans…
“We’ll cross that bridge when we reach it”
“Admiral, Azonia’s ships are coming onto range”
“I see… fighter’s ETA?”
“Sixty seconds”
“Gun director, prepare barrage, secondary weapons only”
“understood”
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(Posted Tue, 18 Jan 2005 13:28)
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