Sometimes a simple plan is best.

9 May 06

Interesting feedback. Thanks for the comments and emails. Please keep them coming. I'll let you know when I've reached a decision. Let's get back to our story.

Mintarr has an interesting history. It was the site of one of the first of the Empire's battles with the Liir. It was also the site of the one of the great early victories against the Liir when a small group of cruisers with only tankers as destroyer support defeated a larger cruiser assault fleet. The Liir wanted Mintarr. It was easy to see why. It was a large world rich in resources. Even though it was out of the range Tarka engineers could terraform, it was apparently acceptable to dolphins. The Empire had maintained a garrison to prevent the Liir from snatching it, but they were called away when the Liir simultaneously attacked several vulnerable colonies in the area. Those attacks included the slaughter at Melnitz where 300 million Tarka colonists lost their lives. The Liir paid highly for those attacks, but they did gain Mintarr.

While the first dreadnought assault fleet was busy fighting for and securing Mon El, my nearby colonies were building the second. It was not centrally built like the first. Parts came from all over and assembled at Altair. By the time the fleet was assembled, the Liir had three separate reinforcement fleets closing on Mintarr. It look like they were readying an assault to take back Mon El. They were about to find their assault force assaulted.

Using my new speed advantage, I was able to arrive after the first reinforcement, but before the second and third. That meant I had to fight the Mintarr defense, the remnants of the Mon El fleet and those first reinforcements. Of course, the clock is ticking with those other fleets inbound.

I knew there would be 40 ships waiting for me with another 25 inbound. The best news on arrival was the complete lack of defense platforms. The platforms themselves aren't hard to deal with (well, except the heavy platforms), but when dealing with a hostile fleet they make any move toward the planet extra painful. They all have a combination of short and long range weapons. In mass, they can be quite painful. Unfortunately for the Liir, they were missing from Mintarr.

That meant two things. One, I could charge the planet without additional risk. Two, it meant that fighting near the planet was actually to my benefit. Since I was outnumbered, the planet would block attacks from that side except the planetary missiles themselves. Those would end as soon as the planet was cleansed. Losing the planet would also be a blow the morale of the Liir. My strategy was obvious, keep in formation, but burn for the planet.

The obstacle standing in the way of that was a line of six Liir cruisers with a screen of destroyers in front. Almost as soon as the warp fields collapsed announcing our arrival, long range weapons were firing. Except for the planetary missiles, I still had range on the Liir. Under other circumstances, I might have exploited that, but here, I assigned targets in the center of the enemy lines and ordered engines to full. I had also learned my lesson from earlier battles. This time there were no support ships in the main assault. Each ship had a part to play, but they all involved massive destruction.

I don't know if the Liir were surprised when my ships didn't slow down upon engaging theirs. I'm pretty sure they were surprised at how quickly their cruisers were torn apart with the combined firepower unleashed when my cruisers and dreadnoughts had all of their weapons in range. Soon the middle three enemy cruisers were burning hulks and my fleet poured though the gaps. I could see reinforcements burning in, but I paid them no mind. There was now nothing between me and Mintarr.

I launched the assault shuttles and unleashed the barrage ships upon the planet. The assault ships formed a loose screen around the barragers. Even I was a bit surprised by the amount of fury unleashed on the surface of the planet. One explosion would barely die down before the next lit up. All the while, great beams were cutting into the heart of Mintarr. I checked the scans of the planet and found its strength falling fast.

Once again, my blitzkrieg tactics had disorganized the defense. Reinforcements were streaming in on multiple vectors, but they were doing a poor job coordinating their attacks. Right as I was about to start worrying about time, I saw the planet go dark. Now the Liir had to decide how hard they wanted to fight over a dead planet. They fought valiantly before both sides were force to regroup, but they had lost three times as many ships as I had and the planet.

With the planet secured, I wasn't as worried about those reinforcements coming. I was able to perform some repairs and rebalanced the fleet for ship to ship combat. The next wave of battles was a joke. After the first six Liir cruisers were burning, they lost their will to fight. They started burning for deep space and escape. With most of their weapons facing away from me, many more Liir ships were vaporized before they flickered out of the system.

What they probably hadn't counted on was that I had a couple of small pursuit fleets ready to chase them. These fleets would not escape so easily. It was almost ugly. Each time they would only last one charge before trying to flee. Each time they would lose more ships. The only Liir fleet to escape the battle of Mintarr was the third reinforcement fleet that turned around in deep space before arriving. They plotted a course to points unknown and disappeared off my scans.

One advantage of the Liir colonization of Mintarr was they terraformed it to within the range our engineers could start their work. The colonists arrived shortly after the repair fleet, but shortly before the pursuit fleets returned. There no longer remained a large Liir fleet anywhere within the range of my scans. The war was starting to turn.

Jason