EARN alliance battleships were starting to come online. Before final approval for use in daily combat. A final weapon test was required. Up until now, they were just used in smaller test engagements.

For many weeks now members of the EARN alliance have been targeted for attack operations by a few people in different alliances. Those members getting targeted were mostly baiting attention away from a secret plan in operation.

Anytime fleets showed up in certain systems where EARN was operating out of. All operations had to be shut down to not be discovered. Individuals would appear as easy targets without anyone giving them a second thought that something more sinister was going on.

The chief intelligence officer has been scanning the galaxy for days. Looking at possible targets for EARN to test their new weapon capabilities. One that was heavily fortified and loaded with riches to help fund the expensive battleship program emerged.

While battleships themselves are quite powerful and often feared. The target selected would also highlight their biggest weakness. Unlike most other combat-capable ships. The battleship lacks rapid-fire capabilities. It instead fires a devastating blow to a single target at a time and nothing more.

The target selected would be considered by many scholars to be less than ideal. It was a heavily turtled-in system mostly with fodder. This weapons test would also serve another purpose and that was dealing with fodder with a ship that had rapid fire.

To fully understand the capabilities of fleets you must be willing to take some heavy losses in the process if needed. Otherwise, you never know just how far you can push things. It’s best to learn such things early and seldomly then later and often.

What makes a great alliance an amazing one. Is not just the ability to learn from mistakes. It’s not just having a chief intelligence officer who is the only one that runs the show. It’s having multiple members of an alliance take up new roles, perform activities they are not used to doing, and learn from their mistakes.

Multiple Individuals would end up getting needed combat experience. They would learn new ways to think how to approach certain situations. They would get the taste of loss as well.

After thousands of simulated missions were run against the target it was for the real deal. There was good news and bad news. There would be at least some losses. In many cases, those losses were low or could be mitigated. In others, they were higher than one would hope but still well worth the testing of weapons systems.

The first empire in EARN sent out a tiny fleet. While alarms would start to go off in System 41. The attacker was so far away and sending such a small fleet. It’s doubtful anyone even cared slightly about it.

A while later that attacking fleet was coming up on another EARN system. Another empire joined in on the attack. Then another and another. Over a long time, the supporting fleet had the battleships joined as well from more powerful empires.

By the time the attack landed, it was quite an impressive fleet. In the first attack wave alone a monster of 89,464 damage was done. With the battleships would be carrying the damage later in the fight this first round went to the cruisers.

On the defense end, an impressive 44,932 damage was done back as well. This planet after all was quite known for having a massive planetary defense. It sure did not disappoint.

What was disappointing ended up being the number of missile launchers that were taken out. While a total of 89 were disabled. It seems a lot of the fleet ended up hitting the other defense and ships parked on the planet. While a further 9 small cargo ships were taken out. This was less than ideal

The good news at least for EARN was a lot of their fodder took the brunt of the damage dealt. Since planetary defenses lack rapid fire. There was only so much it could do even with 213 missile launchers.

As expected by the third round, the rapid-fire targets were slowly getting disabled. The amount of damage EARN was putting out would swing from the cruisers they brought in towards the powerful battleships. There was quite a massive drop in damage out without further rapid-fire targets to disable.

The fight ended up dragging out a bit longer than expected. With a single small shield dome holding it's out on the defender's side. It even managed to get a cruiser kill. Which was considered highly unlikely to occur in simulation. It was however the reality of an actual attack.

While EARN took quite some heavy damage from the attack itself. Along with 157 missile launchers, 13 light lasers, and 6 heavy lasers only being disabled instead of destroyed. The target in System 14 was now quite weakened.

It then became time for EARN to mount a salvage operation to collect the massive debris field that had formed around the planet from the attack. Along with what was looted. They managed to recover a decent chunk of losses.

The biggest goal of this attack was to test out the battleships and learn some things. The other objective was to soften the target up. While there were still quite a few missile launchers remaining. The remaining attacks were now in the fully capable empires that were closer to System 14.

The battle was studied along with further battle simulations on the remaining defenses in place. A new plan was created by those more local to the area to mount a further attack after pumping out further ships to deal with the remaining defenses.

No longer need to test battleships with minimal support. The next attack on System 14 was optimized to get defenses down as quickly as possible. Thus, reducing total losses. This dramatically reduced the losses EARN took. It was to the point that the resources looted were greater than any losses.

It was just then a matter of grinding down the defenses. As with any attack, there is a 70% chance any planetary defense becomes just disabled during an attack and not destroyed. Each attack would result in fewer losses as the defenses dwindled. Enough was left to keep out any wana-be pirates that would come savaging across the galaxy in hopes of some easy loot.

Information

Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Hive Moon.

Based somewhat on real events. Some things were changed for dramatic flair.