August 31st, 2168Palaven, Trebia System, Apien Crest Cluster
Councilor Tacitus Salva took his seat in the briefing room with Primarch Hastas, Consul Hilanin and General Folra.
The purpose of their meeting today was to review the situation in the Terminus Systems.
Consul Hilanin, the first of the primarch's general staff, was here to provide her input as to the Hierarchy's overall strategic situation.
General Folra was the commander of the Third Battle Group and would be responsible for reinforcing General Tivuris' Fifth Battle Group if the situation necessitated it.
For his own part, Salva was here to provide insight into how the asari and salarians were responding.
"The investigation into the attacks in C-space have traced them back to the Hourglass Nebula," Hilanin said, "the Hegemony fleet under Lord Admiral Sidil, as the closest substantial force, has already transited to the cluster and are beginning reconnaissance efforts to narrow down where the Geth and any other forces have set up.
"General Tivuris is shifting his battle group around so as to not leave Lorek under-defended, though he has detached the HNV Frumen and HNV Lusco to assist."
"And the Alliance?" Folra asked.
Hilanin shook her head, "they haven't authorized a significant deployment into the Terminus Systems. Only the SSV Sicily has been deployed to assist. For what it's worth, a task force under Rear Admiral Haxci is staged and ready in the Caleston Rift Cluster to reinforce Sidil should he need it."
"That puts her anywhere from four hours to four days away," Hastas noted.
"Average response time across the whole cluster is about sixty-five hours, sir. Fewer secondary relays," Folra corrected. "It'll take at least six hours for my battle group to get to wherever Tivuris needs us from our rally points in the Valius March Cluster. That'll get worse if we try to stage at Lorek instead."
That made sense to Salva. Staging at Lorek would just double up on the difficulties the logisticians were having keeping Tivuris' Fifth Battle Group supplied and add a conventional FTL transit to their response time. Better to stage in C-space.
Salva idly pulled up the forces under Sidil's command while he continued listening to the other officers. The batarian fleet was a little smaller than a Hierarchy battle group in size, even before their losses from defending Lorek - three dreadnoughts, a fleet carrier and about eight hundred vessels of smaller size. Haxci's task force was much smaller; only one dreadnought and carrier and about two hundred smaller vessels.
Neither force would be destroyed quickly, but worse things have happened before.
According to intelligence provided by the Perseus Veil Geth, the Heretics had four dreadnoughts and almost two thousand smaller vessels, though they trended on the smaller side.
"I don't think it's likely that the Heretic Geth have their entire strength in the Hourglass Nebula," he commented.
"The Lystheni don't think so either, Councilor," Hilanin said.
Salva didn't care for the fact that they were working with the salarian-offshoots. Neither Valern nor Tevos had made much noise about the Coalition's coming to terms with the Domain, but he figured it was only a matter of time.
The agreement was working. He couldn't argue with that and their current problems made his dissent borderline irrational. Salva knew that. He still wasn't looking forward to dealing with that controversy when it came back to the forefront.
His personal misgivings aside, Salva would follow his orders for when that conversation finally came.
"Do we have any assessment on their disposition beyond 'they are here'?" Folra asked, annoyance bleeding into his tone.
Hilanin gave him a sharp look before she answered, "between all of our intelligence sources, we have high confidence at least one dreadnought and a few hundred other vessels are in the region."
"Beyond the lack of relays, why are we having issues finding Geth vessels?" Salva asked.
"The attack on the Krogan DMZ shows that at least some of the Geth vessels are disguised as civilian vessels," she answered, "that is the most obvious issue we're facing. The reality of it is that active IFFs aren't terribly common in the Terminus. Unless we have a profile to compare it to, a vessel is difficult to identify at range. There is also the matter of coverage. We don't have eyes were we need them and the governments in the region aren't cooperating with us or the Lystheni. "
"Do we need to be concerned about conflict with the governments in that cluster?" Hastas asked.
"No, sir. It'd be a minor distraction at best. Most of the governments in that cluster are little more than one system. All together they might be able to match the Alliance task force. The only exception is a far-flung Tarkan colony that we might need to be careful with."
"Whether they have the strength to be a problem or not isn't relevant, it's a complication we don't need. Let's try to avoid it if possible," Salva requested mildly.
"Yes," Hastas agreed wryly, "we should avoid making the councilor's job harder than it needs to be."
Hilanin nodded and continued, "It shouldn't become a problem regardless. They won't provide information, but they also probably won't get in the way either."
"Do the Lystheni have any assets in the region?" Folra asked.
"They say they only have two reconnaissance flotillas and a few special operations teams in the cluster. They're working on acquiring actionable information but they have claimed that Sidil will have better odds of shaking something loose."
"That leaves just the asari and salarians. Councilor?" Hastas prompted.
Salva nodded, "a dozen or so asari matriarchs are trying to bully their counterparts on Illium and elsewhere in the Terminus for information," he didn't think they had a high chance of success, most of the influential asari in the Terminus were further coreward and spinward than the Hourglass Nebula.
He continued, "the STG have inserted an undisclosed number of intelligence gathering assets into the region, I'd guess at least ten, and a similar number of spectres have made their own way into the region. The Union has also put their First Fleet on standby."
"Should I expect company at the Valius March relay?" Folra asked.
Salva shook his head, "unfortunately, no. First Fleet is intended to respond to a larger Geth incursion into C-space."
"Unusually reactive of them," Hilanin said.
Salva shrugged, "They hadn't said it outright, but I'm fairly confident its because the Lystheni are involved as a nominal ally. They don't want to help us too much and would rather to put us on the right path than fight it out themselves."
"That's a very kind of way of saying they want us to shoulder the burden," Folra said.
Salva didn't reply aside from a small nod.
"Alright. The main effort is Sidil, then. If, in the worse case, the entire Heretic force is in the Hourglass Nebula, Folra will be able to assist, correct?"
"Yes, sir," Hilanin answered. "General Folra and I have made arrangements if that proves necessary, but our main concern is the likely possibility that the Geth's main force or Leviathan-2 are elsewhere. If they intend on coming out of hiding, they'll probably do so while Sidil is out of position and Fifth is broken up over three clusters."
***
September 13th, 2168HNV Prekdral Dolma, High Tememan-VI Orbit, Tememan System, Hourglass Nebula Cluster
Lord Admiral Sidil had been consulting reports in his office when the Prekdral Dolma's battle alarm began ringing.
Sidil managed to keep his curses purely internal as he made his way to the bridge, his entirely superfluous SIU protection detail followed closely behind.
This was spectacularly poor timing. He had only needed two hours to discharge his force.
"Lord Admiral," Shipmaster Grenol said the moment Sidil stepped onto the bridge, "Probable Geth vessels on approach - one dreadnought, eight cruisers and twenty-four frigates."
Sidil nodded, a severe frown overtaking his expression. "Time?"
"Forty minutes, Lord Admiral."
He studied the tactical plot. Thirty-five warships would not have ordinarily been a problem for this task force. He had ninety vessels; the Prekdral Dolma, Adrek, Bektal, nine heavy cruisers, eighteen light cruisers, twenty-four destroyer escorts and thirty-six frigates.
Of those, only the Prekdral Dolma, Adrek and a third of the lighter vessels were capable of defending themselves. The rest of his task force were in the middle of discharging into the gas giant's atmosphere, blind and without barriers, and would be indisposed for at least another hour.
Conventional wisdom stated that it was more likely a discharging force would be discovered part way through than it was for them to be under observation when their discharge began. Under that premise, it was advised that a commander should discharge half of his command at a time. It nearly doubled the amount of time spent discharging, but it was an acceptable price compared to being totally defenseless.
Opinions differed on how exactly to divide one's command for discharging. Sidil opted to divide based on tonnage, with the majority of his lighter vessels discharging first while his largest vessels and a select few escorts stood ready to defend them.
"Yator, direct the task force to interpose themselves between the enemy and our discharging vessels. All vessels are to launch all of their strikecraft," Sidil ordered.
Yator relayed his orders and they were carried out over the following minutes. In the meantime, Sidil designated targets for his combat-ready vessels. He opted to focus the spinal mounts on the enemy cruisers first and would direct all of his strikecraft to expend their munitions on the enemy dreadnought.
This skirmish could not be allowed to continue for long. Should the enemy get clear lines of fire on his discharging vessels, he would almost certainly begin losing a vessel every few seconds.
A careful approach would leave the Heretics with too much freedom to act and take his discharging vessels under fire, many of which would be destroyed before they even realized what was happening.
Sidil took a calming breath as he came to an unwanted conclusion. Once again, he did not have the luxury of conducting a battle carefully.
He had the tools to ensure a swift conclusion, but it would be costly. Sidil knew from the technical reports provided by the Veil Geth that the Heretic vessels he was facing had been designed and built after the introduction of carriers. In addition to more extensive GARDIAN arrays, they carried fighters of their own, though they were intended to be used defensively.
None of them were dedicated destroyer escorts, however. The strike group of a dedicated carrier like the Adrek was still a threat all on its own. Adding in the fighters from the Prekdral Dolma and his available cruisers gave him a total of three hundred strikecraft.
His instincts told him that they would not be enough to get through both the enemy fighter screen and the GARDIAN arrays.
Sidil knew what it would take - maximum aggression. He had to keep the Heretics fully occupied with their own survival.
Sending his available frigates and several of his destroyer escorts would be required.
He gave his orders and watched on the tactical plot as they were enacted. To his crews' credit, they felt none of the trepidation that had afflicted him.
Sidil didn't know the fleetmasters in his fleet as well as he did his admirals and the House Bekahlcha commandants. The demands on his time meant that he had little time to dedicate to understanding his subordinates. He would rectify that at the next opportunity; he disliked haphazardly assigning his subordinates to roles he was not confident they were the best suited for.
Sidil's eyes tracked back to where his discharging vessels icons on the tactical plot. If more enemy forces made themselves known, he would be forced to withdraw with what he had and leave the rest of his task force to their fate. Sidil had nothing left to commit.
The two distinct groups of Hegemony assets formed up, one between the Geth and his discharging forces that consisted of his dreadnought, carrier, cruisers and two of his destroyer escorts while the other was offset from his heavy force and consisted of all of his fighters, frigates and the remaining six destroyer escorts.
Once he was satisfied with their arrangement, or as close as he would get, he ordered them to intercept the Heretics.
Minutes later, a sensor operator interrupted the low thrum of activity on the bridge, "they've reversed their velocity and have begun jamming us, Lord Admiral."
They had only just crossed into what could be considered 'long range'. A few seconds later, the enemy dreadnought opened fire. It was nearly the exact same situation as had occurred with the Terminus fleet over Lorek.
He noted that the targeted vessel, the light cruiser Holfol, began evading only after the trajectory of the projectile was confirmed as being no threat to the discharging vessels, which were still close enough to potentially be the actual target.
Geth jamming was more effective than the dedicated efforts of the Lystheni. It would have been a disaster in the making had he tried to stay at standoff range.
He would catch up to them soon enough. The Geth could not actually flee without turning around. As the range between them and the discharging vessels grew, Sidil became more confident that the direct danger to them had passed.
Now he only actually had to drive the Heretics off.
The smaller Geth vessels opened fire, focusing on the Holfol. His forces had little chance of hitting anything, but he ordered his force to return fire regardless, if only so that they were not engaging him with impunity.
Unlike with the Terminus forces, the Geth's heat tolerance was likely immense. Enough that it would not be a factor. He would not have the luxury of breaking off to dissipate even if his vulnerable discharging vessels were not a factor. The Geth would not allow him to break off.
Short of transiting away, there would be no withdrawal from this engagement for his force.
As they closed the distance, volume of fire ensured that hits steadily beat down the Holfol barriers despite its frantic evasion and Sidil directed it to shelter behind the Prekdral Dolma. As soon as it completed the maneuver the Heretics efficiently redirected their fire to another light cruiser.
Cycling the target of their attention through wouldn't work forever and the forth light cruiser to receive their attention had its bow broken by repeated hits, reporting that its spinal mount was damaged beyond use moments later.
The Heretics shifted their attention to a new target. At the inner side of medium range a few minutes later, the batarians return fire started landing hits. It was a poor exchange rate, however.
Sidil watched tensely as the range steadily trickled down and the lethality of the incoming fire rose sharply. The wildly lopsided exchange rate resulted in two cruisers being destroyed and another two being crippled before any of the Geth vessels had even lost their barriers. Even through the jamming he could tell they were cycling their vessels as he was.
Before the pivotal moment came, he double checked that his strikecraft and frigates had clear lanes of attack. It was critical that they saturate the enemy's point defenses with everything simultaneously. The better the timing the more ordnance that would slip through and more of his strikecraft would return to their carriers.
His task force crossed into close range and the Geth shifted their fire to the Prekdral Dolma. They could not miss the dreadnought at this range and its barriers would collapse quickly.
So close were they, that his destroyer escorts were engaging the enemy fighter screen with their point defense mass accelerators.
Sidil finally gave the order for his strikecraft and frigates to begin their runs. Almost immediately after they started accelerating, the Geth reorientated. The enemy dreadnought presented its drive cones and began fleeing from his light force while its escorts attempted to drive off the attackers.
Sidil mentally tallied the casualties as his entire force engaged the Geth simultaneously. Ten pilots, then thirty pilots, a frigate lost to a drive core detonation, another torn apart by fire from Geth cruisers.
The directional jammers that had been focused on the Prekdral Dolma up to that point was redirected to the new threat and his dreadnought and cruisers were finally able to contribute effectively. A Geth cruiser and frigate were quickly silenced.
Another Hegemony frigate and sixty more strikecraft were destroyed before their ordnance was launched.
All of them tracked towards the dreadnought. The incoming ordnance drew all of the Geth's attention and his strikecraft and frigates used the distraction to slip away.
What would ordinarily be fantastic overkill seemed like it would not be enough. GARDIANs intercepted many and the jammers were strong enough that even more lost track of the kilometer long dreadnought.
All of the frigates' torpedoes were intercepted.
Most of the missiles did not reach their target. From over a thousand of them, a paltry thirty reached their target.
It was enough. All thirty impacts were concentrated around the aft of the dreadnought, and were close enough to set off its drive core in a significant secondary detonation that disabled the rest of the dreadnought.
The remaining Geth vessels almost stuttered at the dreadnought's destruction. They sluggishly reformed under fire to transit away and out of the system.
The jamming returned to his larger warships and even at their most vulnerable, the Prekdral Dolma and his cruisers were only able to reap another cruiser before they fled.
With the skirmish over, Sidil released a breath he had not realized he had been holding. His bridge crew seemed proud of their success, as they should be.
They had performed admirably.
As he surveyed his losses, Sidil believed that the only performance that should be questioned was his own.
A quarter of his task force's strikecraft, four cruisers and three frigates for a dreadnought, two cruisers and a frigate.
Was it worth it? Yes, unambiguously.
But casualties like this could not repeated, he would not accept it. He needed better ECCM and it stood to reason that the Veil Geth were the only ones able to provide it.
Had this been a larger engagement, the jamming would have no doubt resulted in ruinous casualties.
Sidil would have to request that Iraphi work with all due haste to make that happen before his fleet happened upon more Geth vessels.