April 2000
The hanger in the 'Glorious Venture' was stark steel walls with pipes and cables running across the walls. It was quiet, but only due to the fact that there was no air in there currently. While watching the technicians busily servicing ships in the bay, Robert 'Hellfire' Lexington fired up the Naquadah reactor, engaged the primary systems and slowly went through the checklist pasted to the side of the control panel (including some German to English translation for the few systems that still had some Reich electronics... or whatever their control systems were) of the 'Jaeger 950 Trans-atmospheric mult-irole fighter' as his instructor had insisted he call the craft.
He'd only had a month to train with the ship, but prior to that he'd been in the Area-51 '3-axis vacuum combat training facility' that had been set up in preparation for the X-301... which now likely would never be finished. At least how it was first envisioned. He could handle fighting in space and knew the tactics. He'd help train a group of Japanese and English pilots this last month while he learned the specifics of this craft.
"Ranger One. Stand by for launch." Came the computerized message, tailored for his ship.
He nodded idly to himself while he checked the catapult systems and the inertial dampers. Up ahead he smiled at the bulkhead doors and took a deep breath.
"This is Ranger One to Ranger flight, We're set to go people. All ships report in."
"Ranger Two here."
"Ranger Three plesent."
"Ranger Four ready to kick ass!" Yeah, their token American. Dang that he got stuck with a mostly Brit and Nip crew... with one Hebridian.
The rest of the flight reported in, ending in...
"Ranger Nine, ready to launch." came the crisp speech of Silsa, the Serrakin.
"OK Rangers, we're set. Keep close on the line in." He said, reading off the briefing notes emailed to him on the in flight system. Oh things were getting weird! Baal? "Looks like we have a change in venue. Old Baaly has shown up and we're set to kick his ass today. We'll be running in hot with Scarlet flight from the Siegfried and Yu's Bloodhands. Support will be from the new defense cruiser and four destroyers running picket with missiles. Watch your IFFs and don't shoot the wrong deathgliders. Yu will not be pleased if you wreck his hardware!"
Attempting to ignore a snort of derision at that from someone he went through the course details, acceleration and deceleration plot for intercept, estimated fuel use, positions of carriers for refuel and who could run point to cover them while landing for resupply. Then the call came.
"Ranger flight. You are cleared for launch. Go go go." That was an American on the bridge. The crew of the Glorious Venture had ended up with a mix of Hebridian and... 'Tauri'. He hated that name! Anyway, somehow the big brass had wrangled the US to be mostly assisting with the crew duties on the carriers, for those tasks the Hebridians hadn't much skill in, mainly tactics stuff and gunnery. That said he'd seen some pretty fine gunnery from the few Serrakin he'd worked with. Guess there just weren't many that were up to it. Or wanted to be up to it. He shrugged, passed on the order to his flight, and checked his harness, and watched the catapult light cycle down...
"Unnnngh!" He grunted as the mag systems shot his craft forwards at incredible accelerations, shooting him up to a kilometer per second as soon as he left the rails. Thank god for inertial dampers!
As soon as he was out of the carrier he scanned his eyes around, watching the HUD display over the interior of the canopy (a device installed by the Hebridians. Way better than a HUD). The scan was a mess, dots of ships all around, though the fleet seemed to be organizing... OK, the Reich fleet seemed to be organizing... into a disk with the flat facing Baal's ships. Yu's ships were a series of lines, somewhat haphazardly spread along their vector towards the enemy. Given what he knew of Goa'uld 'tactics' that was actually better than in most combats. Maybe Yu was learning?
It looked like Scarlet flight's heavy fighters from the Reich carrier were taking the lead. He brought his flight in on their right, with the deathgliders of Yu's 'Bloodhands' swinging in on their left. The Jaffa were surprisingly good pilots, though some of that was no doubt due to the mental interface those ships had. Their 'order of battle' was a little disorganized, but they kept good pace relative to the group and he saw three other nearby flights head off on different vectors.
Up ahead he saw a flash, preceded by an overlaid dotted line indicating laser... sorry, deathray fire from their support. The defense cruiser had longer ranged weapons than anything he'd seen up till now, definitely outstripping the Goa'uld Hataks. Unfortunately the Reich only had one of them. They also seemed to make very good anti fighter platforms so along with the assault support role that ship was staying close to the center of the formation to defend against any deathgliders coming in. A second flash of weapons fire lashed out at the same target up ahead and the Hatak in question seemed to waver, perhaps changing course. Could Hataks dodge? They seemed a big big for that kind of thing.
The three joined flights sped out as the fleets positioned, and Hellfire could see two huge waves of gliders, no formation what so ever, pour out of the enemy fleet and charge towards them. This was going to be fun!
"All Rangers, incoming. ETA two minutes. Don't lose your burn time. We're on rendezvous and attack, not defense. Loose one missile a piece at them and dodge. Do not engage, repeat. Do not engage! We have our task, let the fleet get these suckers."
Various calls came back in acknowledging the order and they kept on. Soon they would see how they could handle larger targets.
***
"The Heschel is reporting long range weapons fire from bearing 45 mark 10, the right fringe of Baal's fleet. It looks like he is splitting his forces."
Grunwald nodded to his adjutant then focused on the plot. Things were spread out so far, Sokar withdrawing his few ships to defend what little of his orbital net remained and ground weapon systems. Baal wasn't stupid, and most likely this 'split' was some kind of bait to get him to assault a small group of his ships.
"Order to fleet." Grunwald said calmly. "maintain long range barrage. Do not, repeat, do not close to engage separating ships. Focus long range fire on that group, single ships at a time. Maintain combat net."
A crude system had been implemented to interface the Reich communications and control net with the Goa'uld and Hebridian ship network. The fighters, including the Tauri ones, were on their own comms net. As he watched the fighter groups were swinging around from multiple directions to swarm down on the enemy, heavy fighters leading each group. The latest upgrades to the Jaeger 1250 heavy fighter allowed it's shielding to be a bit more resiliant, but not a huge amount could be done without a redesign.
Turning to a second display he saw the ground assault through the gate was progressing well. Having established a decent perimeter and he having command of the orbital position, his ground forces were now pouring through the gate. All the buildings near the gate temple were in ruins, some flattened, and the fighting had more or less quietened down for the moment down there. Sokar's forces had pulled back to regroup, those that could at least, and probably were preparing a counter offensive. So far nothing Sokar could throw at them could deal with those two powered up corvettes though. At least no individual ships. Massed troops and fighters were difficult for those ships to deal with though. A beam weapon can only strafe so far on massed troops, especially when they spread out. There were also sporadic mention of shielded troops fielded by Sokar down there. Grunwald didn't think the Goa'uld trusted their soldiers with shields, but perhaps Sokar was getting desperate. It hadn't helped much so far though, but have to be careful.
On the display massed fire struck through the shields of one of the Hataks in the separating group and it shattered, a hail of missiles rupturing the hull. So far long range was working, but Hataks were pretty nimble and it would be hard to hold the range open to keep this advantage too long. Plus they only had a few ships with long range deathrays, and normally their missiles would not last forever. But... there was a way to deal with that.
"Estimate till the ground forces have finished arriving?" He said to his adjutant.
"Another five minutes sir." He said with a smile.
"Very well, prep the gates and maintain missile barrages. Cycle them quickly, Baal probably has a gate here himself and he'll detect when we start using them to resupply. If he can interdict our gate access up here...."
"Don't worry sir, we'll manage. I just wish they had the power to engage another Single Link gate to us. Then he couldn't interdict us at all."
Grunwald nodded and focused back on the display as the fighters neared their first targets. Meanwhile the outer defenses engaged the enemy's fighters that were approaching their lines.
***
"OK, Rangers One through Five, form up behind me. Rangers Six through Nine, circle at two hundred meters. Cover us on incoming missiles. One through Five prep for strike. Feeding target data."
Hellfire sent the target info on the ship he'd been given from Scarlet One as their target. One strike from over thirty fighters should take it out, and he could see another three squadron force lining up to strike if they failed.
The way in had been a little anti-climactic. They'd blasted through the enemy fighters at hundreds of kilometers per seconds and very few missile or beam strikes they launched hit, but thankfully none of his own ships were struck at all. One deathglider had been struck for minor damage, but was continuing on. The enemy had been down five craft. Not a bad exchange. Now they were closing on their target at last, pointing away from them as they decelerated to match speeds with the targets. They got down to two kilometers per second and turned around to engage.
Around him fighters circled, forming up in the familiar lines he'd planned with them in training. Some were full Reich Jaeger fighters, untouched by American hands. His own was one of the 'advanced' models that the US had been upgrading for a while. Almost all the Reich 'electronics' had been removed, but some remained and his German was non-existent. He peered at the control display and shook his head. What the hell was 'Wartezustand' anyway? Someone had missed something off the crib cards! He hoped it wasn't important.
"OK, standby people. They should have a close enough bead to begin taking potshots at this range. Start maneuvering."
Sure enough in a few seconds the Hataks ahead opened up, blasts heading in their direction, including some of those nasty Beam weapons Baal had. So far most weapons fire was focused on the lead flight and he saw one of the heavy fighters take a direct strike from one of the beams, dodge away, and keep on going. Damn those little ships were tough!
As they got closer the hits got harder to dodge, and two gliders vanished in explosions, and another from a direct his from a plasma bolt. Then Ranger Seven vanished in a fireball off to his right. Wincing he kept up their dodging, and then saw the wing of Al'kesh sweeping in.
"Rangers Six Eight and Nine, engage those Bombers! Everyone else, keep lock on target but hold evasive."
Sidewinder-XN5 missiles flashed out from the fighters as they intercepted the bombers, which were hit with Naquadah enhanced warheads, blossoming into a combination shaped charge, area explosive effect that punched through the relatively weak shields and into the vulnerable craft. Of the three Al'kesh, two spiraled out of control, one exploding violently shortly afterwards, but one, though struck hard and having smoke trail from it, kept on coming, and it's cannons tore Ranger Six apart. However they'd done they're job and the rest of the flight was in range.
"Fox Three!" He said, hearing multiple other targets say the same, and swathes of missiles, Amraam-XN2s from the Tauri ships, Rapier-12s from the Reich fighters, and... something new from Yu's vessels, left the three flights, heading for the Hatak up ahead.
Tough Hataks maybe, but against that it didn't stand a chance. Hellfire grinned, then blinked as the target flickered. Did those shields come back up? He kept watch as the shields fell as the last of the missiles struck the ship, then it fell apart in typical Goa'uld explosion. Why did their ships always explode?
The remains of their flight shot past the enemy fleet, out the other side, and the enemy focused it's guns against the next wave.
What had happened with that Hatak?
***
"Sir, looks like we've got a problem. Of the ships we've struck so far two have raised shields after collapse and one attempted to do so, but missiles had already damaged the emitters. I think Baal had duplicated our double shield system!"
Grunwald sighed.
"Of course he has. Well, doesn't change the plan, just reduces our effectiveness. What's the betting that all the ships in that 'small group' he was splitting off had that modification?"
"No taking that bet sir." His adjutant said darkly.
Watching the plot the forces were getting closer, and with double shields they couldn't neccesarily guarantee a kill with a battleship's Uberbeams except at very close range. Not that the Battleships would stand alone against them.
He could see the first fighter strike was heading back now, and Baal's fighter assault had been next to worthless.
"Casualty reports from the fighters?"
"Estimated twelve percent losses, mostly among Yu's and the Tauri forces."
Grunwald shook his head.
"Don't assume it's due to the pilots. Our ships were all heavy fighters in that wave. The Raubvogels wouldn't fare as well against those Hataks."
"Sir, the enemy is closing. The whole fleet is now at extreme range sir. And they're firing."
"Accuracy is going to be horrible at this range." Then Grunwald stopped as the Hataks suddenly accelerated. "OK, they're making their move. Back off, keep pace with them, but don't loose focus. Keep the ships pointed at them."
"That'll lose us the orbital high ground over Sokar's palace sir."
"I know, can't be helped, but it'll also open Baal to attack from Sokar." Grunwald chuckled. "I somehow don't think they're going to kiss and make up."
***
The Fleets shifted, The Alliance pulling back and staying at long range, much to Baal's annoyance, as he lost individual ships to long range sniper strikes, with nothing to show for it. The enemy could shift and balance his ships, covering one vessel with another to balance shields to keep them undamaged, and his new technology had been revealed as well. He had managed to damage their fighter force, though not as strongly as he hoped.
Still, everyone was waiting for Baal's 'masterstroke', his secret weapon. Whatever his card up his sleeve was this time. Grunwald was beginning to think he didn't have one for once.
On the ground the ships, tanks and troops advanced, seizing at least two of the industrial plants with only minimal damage, but perhaps the only reason Sokar hadn't destroyed them all before the Reich could take them was that the Reich showed little to know interest in them, and had destroyed four outright almost incidentally when striking at Jaffa columns.
This might have been something to do with their previous deal with Yu about who got what in this battle. They were curiously avoiding any paths leading near any of the shipbuilding pads with half completed vessels on them.
The hanger in the 'Glorious Venture' was stark steel walls with pipes and cables running across the walls. It was quiet, but only due to the fact that there was no air in there currently. While watching the technicians busily servicing ships in the bay, Robert 'Hellfire' Lexington fired up the Naquadah reactor, engaged the primary systems and slowly went through the checklist pasted to the side of the control panel (including some German to English translation for the few systems that still had some Reich electronics... or whatever their control systems were) of the 'Jaeger 950 Trans-atmospheric mult-irole fighter' as his instructor had insisted he call the craft.
He'd only had a month to train with the ship, but prior to that he'd been in the Area-51 '3-axis vacuum combat training facility' that had been set up in preparation for the X-301... which now likely would never be finished. At least how it was first envisioned. He could handle fighting in space and knew the tactics. He'd help train a group of Japanese and English pilots this last month while he learned the specifics of this craft.
"Ranger One. Stand by for launch." Came the computerized message, tailored for his ship.
He nodded idly to himself while he checked the catapult systems and the inertial dampers. Up ahead he smiled at the bulkhead doors and took a deep breath.
"This is Ranger One to Ranger flight, We're set to go people. All ships report in."
"Ranger Two here."
"Ranger Three plesent."
"Ranger Four ready to kick ass!" Yeah, their token American. Dang that he got stuck with a mostly Brit and Nip crew... with one Hebridian.
The rest of the flight reported in, ending in...
"Ranger Nine, ready to launch." came the crisp speech of Silsa, the Serrakin.
"OK Rangers, we're set. Keep close on the line in." He said, reading off the briefing notes emailed to him on the in flight system. Oh things were getting weird! Baal? "Looks like we have a change in venue. Old Baaly has shown up and we're set to kick his ass today. We'll be running in hot with Scarlet flight from the Siegfried and Yu's Bloodhands. Support will be from the new defense cruiser and four destroyers running picket with missiles. Watch your IFFs and don't shoot the wrong deathgliders. Yu will not be pleased if you wreck his hardware!"
Attempting to ignore a snort of derision at that from someone he went through the course details, acceleration and deceleration plot for intercept, estimated fuel use, positions of carriers for refuel and who could run point to cover them while landing for resupply. Then the call came.
"Ranger flight. You are cleared for launch. Go go go." That was an American on the bridge. The crew of the Glorious Venture had ended up with a mix of Hebridian and... 'Tauri'. He hated that name! Anyway, somehow the big brass had wrangled the US to be mostly assisting with the crew duties on the carriers, for those tasks the Hebridians hadn't much skill in, mainly tactics stuff and gunnery. That said he'd seen some pretty fine gunnery from the few Serrakin he'd worked with. Guess there just weren't many that were up to it. Or wanted to be up to it. He shrugged, passed on the order to his flight, and checked his harness, and watched the catapult light cycle down...
"Unnnngh!" He grunted as the mag systems shot his craft forwards at incredible accelerations, shooting him up to a kilometer per second as soon as he left the rails. Thank god for inertial dampers!
As soon as he was out of the carrier he scanned his eyes around, watching the HUD display over the interior of the canopy (a device installed by the Hebridians. Way better than a HUD). The scan was a mess, dots of ships all around, though the fleet seemed to be organizing... OK, the Reich fleet seemed to be organizing... into a disk with the flat facing Baal's ships. Yu's ships were a series of lines, somewhat haphazardly spread along their vector towards the enemy. Given what he knew of Goa'uld 'tactics' that was actually better than in most combats. Maybe Yu was learning?
It looked like Scarlet flight's heavy fighters from the Reich carrier were taking the lead. He brought his flight in on their right, with the deathgliders of Yu's 'Bloodhands' swinging in on their left. The Jaffa were surprisingly good pilots, though some of that was no doubt due to the mental interface those ships had. Their 'order of battle' was a little disorganized, but they kept good pace relative to the group and he saw three other nearby flights head off on different vectors.
Up ahead he saw a flash, preceded by an overlaid dotted line indicating laser... sorry, deathray fire from their support. The defense cruiser had longer ranged weapons than anything he'd seen up till now, definitely outstripping the Goa'uld Hataks. Unfortunately the Reich only had one of them. They also seemed to make very good anti fighter platforms so along with the assault support role that ship was staying close to the center of the formation to defend against any deathgliders coming in. A second flash of weapons fire lashed out at the same target up ahead and the Hatak in question seemed to waver, perhaps changing course. Could Hataks dodge? They seemed a big big for that kind of thing.
The three joined flights sped out as the fleets positioned, and Hellfire could see two huge waves of gliders, no formation what so ever, pour out of the enemy fleet and charge towards them. This was going to be fun!
"All Rangers, incoming. ETA two minutes. Don't lose your burn time. We're on rendezvous and attack, not defense. Loose one missile a piece at them and dodge. Do not engage, repeat. Do not engage! We have our task, let the fleet get these suckers."
Various calls came back in acknowledging the order and they kept on. Soon they would see how they could handle larger targets.
***
"The Heschel is reporting long range weapons fire from bearing 45 mark 10, the right fringe of Baal's fleet. It looks like he is splitting his forces."
Grunwald nodded to his adjutant then focused on the plot. Things were spread out so far, Sokar withdrawing his few ships to defend what little of his orbital net remained and ground weapon systems. Baal wasn't stupid, and most likely this 'split' was some kind of bait to get him to assault a small group of his ships.
"Order to fleet." Grunwald said calmly. "maintain long range barrage. Do not, repeat, do not close to engage separating ships. Focus long range fire on that group, single ships at a time. Maintain combat net."
A crude system had been implemented to interface the Reich communications and control net with the Goa'uld and Hebridian ship network. The fighters, including the Tauri ones, were on their own comms net. As he watched the fighter groups were swinging around from multiple directions to swarm down on the enemy, heavy fighters leading each group. The latest upgrades to the Jaeger 1250 heavy fighter allowed it's shielding to be a bit more resiliant, but not a huge amount could be done without a redesign.
Turning to a second display he saw the ground assault through the gate was progressing well. Having established a decent perimeter and he having command of the orbital position, his ground forces were now pouring through the gate. All the buildings near the gate temple were in ruins, some flattened, and the fighting had more or less quietened down for the moment down there. Sokar's forces had pulled back to regroup, those that could at least, and probably were preparing a counter offensive. So far nothing Sokar could throw at them could deal with those two powered up corvettes though. At least no individual ships. Massed troops and fighters were difficult for those ships to deal with though. A beam weapon can only strafe so far on massed troops, especially when they spread out. There were also sporadic mention of shielded troops fielded by Sokar down there. Grunwald didn't think the Goa'uld trusted their soldiers with shields, but perhaps Sokar was getting desperate. It hadn't helped much so far though, but have to be careful.
On the display massed fire struck through the shields of one of the Hataks in the separating group and it shattered, a hail of missiles rupturing the hull. So far long range was working, but Hataks were pretty nimble and it would be hard to hold the range open to keep this advantage too long. Plus they only had a few ships with long range deathrays, and normally their missiles would not last forever. But... there was a way to deal with that.
"Estimate till the ground forces have finished arriving?" He said to his adjutant.
"Another five minutes sir." He said with a smile.
"Very well, prep the gates and maintain missile barrages. Cycle them quickly, Baal probably has a gate here himself and he'll detect when we start using them to resupply. If he can interdict our gate access up here...."
"Don't worry sir, we'll manage. I just wish they had the power to engage another Single Link gate to us. Then he couldn't interdict us at all."
Grunwald nodded and focused back on the display as the fighters neared their first targets. Meanwhile the outer defenses engaged the enemy's fighters that were approaching their lines.
***
"OK, Rangers One through Five, form up behind me. Rangers Six through Nine, circle at two hundred meters. Cover us on incoming missiles. One through Five prep for strike. Feeding target data."
Hellfire sent the target info on the ship he'd been given from Scarlet One as their target. One strike from over thirty fighters should take it out, and he could see another three squadron force lining up to strike if they failed.
The way in had been a little anti-climactic. They'd blasted through the enemy fighters at hundreds of kilometers per seconds and very few missile or beam strikes they launched hit, but thankfully none of his own ships were struck at all. One deathglider had been struck for minor damage, but was continuing on. The enemy had been down five craft. Not a bad exchange. Now they were closing on their target at last, pointing away from them as they decelerated to match speeds with the targets. They got down to two kilometers per second and turned around to engage.
Around him fighters circled, forming up in the familiar lines he'd planned with them in training. Some were full Reich Jaeger fighters, untouched by American hands. His own was one of the 'advanced' models that the US had been upgrading for a while. Almost all the Reich 'electronics' had been removed, but some remained and his German was non-existent. He peered at the control display and shook his head. What the hell was 'Wartezustand' anyway? Someone had missed something off the crib cards! He hoped it wasn't important.
"OK, standby people. They should have a close enough bead to begin taking potshots at this range. Start maneuvering."
Sure enough in a few seconds the Hataks ahead opened up, blasts heading in their direction, including some of those nasty Beam weapons Baal had. So far most weapons fire was focused on the lead flight and he saw one of the heavy fighters take a direct strike from one of the beams, dodge away, and keep on going. Damn those little ships were tough!
As they got closer the hits got harder to dodge, and two gliders vanished in explosions, and another from a direct his from a plasma bolt. Then Ranger Seven vanished in a fireball off to his right. Wincing he kept up their dodging, and then saw the wing of Al'kesh sweeping in.
"Rangers Six Eight and Nine, engage those Bombers! Everyone else, keep lock on target but hold evasive."
Sidewinder-XN5 missiles flashed out from the fighters as they intercepted the bombers, which were hit with Naquadah enhanced warheads, blossoming into a combination shaped charge, area explosive effect that punched through the relatively weak shields and into the vulnerable craft. Of the three Al'kesh, two spiraled out of control, one exploding violently shortly afterwards, but one, though struck hard and having smoke trail from it, kept on coming, and it's cannons tore Ranger Six apart. However they'd done they're job and the rest of the flight was in range.
"Fox Three!" He said, hearing multiple other targets say the same, and swathes of missiles, Amraam-XN2s from the Tauri ships, Rapier-12s from the Reich fighters, and... something new from Yu's vessels, left the three flights, heading for the Hatak up ahead.
Tough Hataks maybe, but against that it didn't stand a chance. Hellfire grinned, then blinked as the target flickered. Did those shields come back up? He kept watch as the shields fell as the last of the missiles struck the ship, then it fell apart in typical Goa'uld explosion. Why did their ships always explode?
The remains of their flight shot past the enemy fleet, out the other side, and the enemy focused it's guns against the next wave.
What had happened with that Hatak?
***
"Sir, looks like we've got a problem. Of the ships we've struck so far two have raised shields after collapse and one attempted to do so, but missiles had already damaged the emitters. I think Baal had duplicated our double shield system!"
Grunwald sighed.
"Of course he has. Well, doesn't change the plan, just reduces our effectiveness. What's the betting that all the ships in that 'small group' he was splitting off had that modification?"
"No taking that bet sir." His adjutant said darkly.
Watching the plot the forces were getting closer, and with double shields they couldn't neccesarily guarantee a kill with a battleship's Uberbeams except at very close range. Not that the Battleships would stand alone against them.
He could see the first fighter strike was heading back now, and Baal's fighter assault had been next to worthless.
"Casualty reports from the fighters?"
"Estimated twelve percent losses, mostly among Yu's and the Tauri forces."
Grunwald shook his head.
"Don't assume it's due to the pilots. Our ships were all heavy fighters in that wave. The Raubvogels wouldn't fare as well against those Hataks."
"Sir, the enemy is closing. The whole fleet is now at extreme range sir. And they're firing."
"Accuracy is going to be horrible at this range." Then Grunwald stopped as the Hataks suddenly accelerated. "OK, they're making their move. Back off, keep pace with them, but don't loose focus. Keep the ships pointed at them."
"That'll lose us the orbital high ground over Sokar's palace sir."
"I know, can't be helped, but it'll also open Baal to attack from Sokar." Grunwald chuckled. "I somehow don't think they're going to kiss and make up."
***
The Fleets shifted, The Alliance pulling back and staying at long range, much to Baal's annoyance, as he lost individual ships to long range sniper strikes, with nothing to show for it. The enemy could shift and balance his ships, covering one vessel with another to balance shields to keep them undamaged, and his new technology had been revealed as well. He had managed to damage their fighter force, though not as strongly as he hoped.
Still, everyone was waiting for Baal's 'masterstroke', his secret weapon. Whatever his card up his sleeve was this time. Grunwald was beginning to think he didn't have one for once.
On the ground the ships, tanks and troops advanced, seizing at least two of the industrial plants with only minimal damage, but perhaps the only reason Sokar hadn't destroyed them all before the Reich could take them was that the Reich showed little to know interest in them, and had destroyed four outright almost incidentally when striking at Jaffa columns.
This might have been something to do with their previous deal with Yu about who got what in this battle. They were curiously avoiding any paths leading near any of the shipbuilding pads with half completed vessels on them.
