March 9th, 2278

165 days remain

Fleet Admiral Joachim Moser was speaking with United Nations Secretary-General Fu Li Wei about the state of the war.

"I've read the files and seen the classified vids, I know how powerful our enemy is. You're preaching to the choir, Admiral. I'm just trying to make sure you're aware of how serious the political situation is becoming. Resting on our laurels while our civilization burns is making me lose support, quickly." the Secretary-General said.

Moser rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighing. He'd been about to lash out angrily, but he'd held his tongue. In truth, he had nothing but respect for the Secretary-General. The man had backed him up at every turn, and had effectively ended any chance he'd had of reelection by doing it. He was willing to sacrifice his career, and even his integrity to protect humanity. Moser was sure that the Secretary was losing just as much sleep about the millions they'd left to die as he was. In a war for the survival of the entire species, such measures are an ugly necessity.

"I'm aware of that, Secretary-General, but you know as well as I do that we have no safe way to hit them, not yet."

It was true. Asymmetric warfare against the Ivos was next to impossible. The Ivo fleet had no logistical profile. Their fleet stopped to 'rest' after exterminating a human colony. Emergency communication probes sent out from several of the colonies that had been annihilated brought back footage of the Ivo fleet gathering around the system's star, with their assault carriers extending massive solar panels, presumably to gather the energy necessary to generate anti-matter on the spot. It was possible they were even fabricating new munitions with the system's resources. It was speculated that this was the reason no one had ever spotted a single Ivo resupply fleet. There were no supply lines to be cut, no soft targets to be hit. The Ivos had even stopped sending out frigates for recon after they'd lost the first few to human cruiser wolfpacks. They were well aware of their advantages, it seemed, and they had no intention of leaving ways for the humans to circumvent those advantages.

"The Ivo fleet's point defenses have a far greater range than our own, and that means that their defenses overlap with each other. Their ability to intercept our weapons grows exponentially with the size of their fleet. Our simulations give us less than a one percent chance of victory if we face that entire fleet, and that's with every ship we have available to us partaking in the fight. We have to defeat them in detail, it's the only way. That's why I've been 'resting on my laurels', because there hasn't been an opportunity worth taking. Not yet." the Admiral said.

The Secretary General's expression grew darker. "You're not understanding the gravity of what I'm saying, Admiral. There are actions being taken in the General Assembly to push for a vote of no confidence in me. The death of my political career might not concern you, but consider what happens if my replacement is not as...understanding...as I am. What happens if the new Secretary-General orders you on a direct offensive action against the Ivo fleet? Or replaces you with one of your more...aggressive subordinates."

Moser was stricken. "...How long do you have?"

"If I burn every favor, sacrifice every relationship, and make every impossible promise I can...a few months." the Secretary-General said.

"...Damn."

"My thoughts exactly, Admiral. We have to act, while we still have the power to do so. You mentioned other plans. What were they?" the Secretary-General asked.

"Well, our simplest plan was to engage them directly, with all of our strength...in Dark Space. The dampening effects Dark Space has on radiation and energy would hamper the Ivos point defenses, which rely almost exclusively on lasers. We'd get more missiles hitting their targets, and we're reasonably sure it would decrease the range of their beam weapons, based on the data we've gotten from the Pride of Nigeria's engagement and the handful of recon frigates we've killed. Engaging them in Dark Space increases our odds from a fraction of a percent point to about five percent."

"...Not ideal."

"It's an incredibly slim chance, but it's a chance. I was saving it as a last resort, and hoping a better opportunity would present itself while our outer colonies bought us time."

"Can't we just keep launching missiles at them and running away?"

"They don't know where our fleet is yet, it's the only thing stopping them from just running straight for Earth. The moment they have eyes on our fleet, they'll chase us relentlessly. They have to. They aren't faster than us, but they aren't slower either. We'll have to stop running eventually, and then we'll be fighting them without any missiles. Not an option."

"What else?"

"We've considered ambushing them when they stop to rest, where they would theoretically have reduced munitions. Trouble is, there just aren't any targets in the Frontier hard enough to force them to expend a significant amount of munitions to kill it. The hardest one was Sapphire, and we didn't learn about that until days after the fact. We'd have to wait for them to throw themselves against one of our Inner Colonies and its defenses...and sacrificing just one of our Core Worlds means the deaths of more people than in the entire war so far."

"But what odds does it give us?"

Moser sighed. "About a seventeen percent chance of success if we ambush them after expending their munitions against one of our world's defenses, give or take a percent depending on which world they attack. It bumps to twenty-two if we can bait them into Dark Space. But it still requires us sacrificing an entire world to our enemies."

"Another last resort, then. If there's anything that has better odds, I'd love to hear it."

"While they typically act as one fleet, they actually spread out into three smaller sub fleets of about one hundred ships each, presumably to extend their sensor range. Normally, they're well within communications distance of each other, so an attack on one of the sub fleets will just draw the entire Ivo fleet in. However, the area they're projected to travel through over the next few weeks is predicted to have a particle storm pass through it. It'll blind them, and cut off their communications. If we can get one of those subfleets to chase a detachment of our fleet, we can draw them into an ambush and fight them with a four to one numerical advantage."

The Secretary-General looked annoyed. "Why didn't you lead with that? And why wasn't I informed of this earlier? This could be our best chance!"

Moser smiled without humor. "It sounds like a good plan, but it's not. It is completely reliant on the enemy doing exactly what we expect them to at every step. We'd be exposing our entire fleet to do it."

"What are the odds of success if they take the bait?"

Moser frowned. "If we draw them into the ambush, eighty percent."

"So, our options are a direct assault where we hope for a miracle, sacrificing our entire frontier and at least one major colony for an at best twenty percent chance of success, or a long shot plan that gives us a good chance of destroying a third of the Ivo fleet, at what will likely still be a significant cost in lives and ships. I can't claim to like any of these options, but nevertheless I think the choice should be obvious. Draw the sub fleet in for an ambush. Every ship of theirs we claim is one less antimatter lance aimed at our people."

Moser slowly nodded. Before learning of the dire political situation, he might have protested. But this had just become the least terrible option. The Admiral saluted and said "Yes sir. I'll keep you posted."

---

March 24th, 2278

150 days remain

Moser sat in his command chair on his decidedly small flag deck, reading reports on his screen.

Ostensibly, the purpose of a flagship is to provide reliable communication for the transmission of orders, and high survivability in order to keep the fleet's leadership intact. Against most foes, the biggest, toughest ship in the formation is given this privilege. Against the Ivos, whose beam cannons ensure that the largest battleship and the smallest tug boat die in one shot all the same, a different sort of flagship is needed.

A new kind of frigate, one purpose-built for the fighting Ivos, had been rolling out of the shipyards at a prodigious rate. It was small, agile, and utterly utilitarian in its design and function. At first glance, it looks similar to every other human frigate: vaguely spindle shaped, like two cones of unequal size fused together at the base. Behind the "peak" where the edges of the two cones meet, a set of wide, short radiators glows orange in the blackness of Dark Space. With this design, it's vulnerable heat management systems are shielded behind the armored slope of it's larger "nose" section. A small gray protrusion can be seen at the tip of the nose, the end of the barrel of its spinal mount which runs the length of most of the ship.

However, the similarities stop at the surface level. Most human ships are highly modular and of exceptional build quality, enabling human ships to have a service life measured in several decades, upgrading its core systems as time passes. With this style of shipbuilding, humanity had maintained a much larger fleet than most other young races.

For these new frigates, the service life is estimated to be three years.

It has no armor, just a thin layer of metal to guard against navigational debris, and a laser-resistant coating to guard against Ivo point defenses. It is of less sturdy construction than its peers; who had been built to take hits from kinetic weapons. Ivo weapons only need to hit once, so the resilience of a ship is meaningless.

Instead of the mix of gauss cannons, defense lasers, railguns, and missiles, all used in support of the spinal mount, this new ship has a large silo filled to the brim with missiles with only its spinal mount and a handful of light railguns in support. It's expected battlefield is in Dark Space: where lasers are drastically less effective as a defensive weapon than kinetics, so it lacks lasers altogether.

It's dramatically reduced weight combines with an upgraded suite of maneuvering thrusters to give it the only survivability one can have against Ivos: evasion. In simulations, the new frigate is far and away the most successful in dodging the Ivo beams.

Moser's flag is planted in one of these frigates, the Jinan, its missile complement replaced with an enhanced communications suite and combat computer core. The flagship trails behind one of the battleships, its larger profile shielding the small frigate from the enemy. Hopefully.

Moser had overseen the construction of the new frigate class, and even he had been astonished at the progress. The ships were cheap, in terms of both money and personnel. It had a skeleton complement of astronauts working in two twelve hour watches instead of three eight hour watches like other ships. For a normal frigate, going on long patrol missions, it would be an ergonomic nightmare. For a ship that would spend most of its existence sitting in orbit of Earth waiting for a single, decisive, battle it was ideal. The efficient use of personnel had been a godsend after the crippling losses taken in the first battle with the Ivos.

Moser had known intellectually that the frigates were cheap and could be built swiftly, but to see it in action had been another thing entirely. In the roughly half a year since the end of the Battle over New Kolkata, over one hundred of the ships had been churned out from every shipyard in human space. Between them ,the reactivation of every remotely viable decommissioned warship available, and the combat conversion of civilian freighters and transports the fleet under Moser's command numbered about five hundred strong. About a third of the ships, the most elderly warships and the converted civilian ships mostly, were little more than missile buses manned with skeleton crews being present only to add more firepower to the initial volley of missiles.

That initial volley was what Moser's entire battle plan hinged around, and he had built an entire anti-Ivo doctrine around it. Against an enemy with such a nightmarishly effective alpha strike, the only thing that could be done was to construct an alpha strike of his own with the technology available to him. The goal was to take as many Ivo ships out of the equation as possible before closing in for the killing blow with a kinetic barrage. Every ship eliminated by missiles was one less beam being fired at his ships.

A handful of ships had been left guarding the Diln border, either those so old they were barely space worthy, or experimental prototypes reliant on energy weapons, like his old laser artillery or the Papaleo. Even without the dampening effect of Dark Space, Ivo ships seemed to be expressly designed to resist energy weapons. Against kinetics, they relied mostly on their exceedingly good point defenses.

Presumably, whatever enemies they had fought in their ancient past had used weapons similar to their own.

The fleet was coming up on its target, and Moser readied himself for the nail-biting hours of following him the Ivo fleet would need to do if the plan was to work. Visibility was low in the particle storm, but the Ivo sub fleet would still be able to see the human fleet at this range. Assuming that they were were his recon ships told him they would be. As Moser was beginning to worry that he'd missed them, a call rang out in the CIC:

"Contact!"

It was the Ivo sub fleet, exactly where recon had said they would be. The human fleet followed orders and immediately turned to flee at its best acceleration from the Ivos, maintaining careful radio silence along the way. Dark Space was not an environment conducive to intercepting enemy transmissions, but Moser was not taking that chance. Moser breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Ivo fleet's icons turn to pursue his fleet on his screens virtual rendering of the situation. They took the bait.

The chase happened for some time, with Moser heading towards his chosen battleground. The Ivos pursued doggedly, likely seeing the clear opportunity to completely obliterate Humanity's capacity to resist. Or at least, it might have seemed that way to them, as the humans had only about 300 ships. It was the same number they'd had before the Battle of New Kolkata. A manageable number for 100 Ivo ships.

Or at least, it might have been.

As Moser passed the predetermined point, the ships serving as bait turned and decelerated, burning hard. The Ivo ships continued on for a few moments longer, deciding to forgo a turnover and instead decelerate with their reverse thrusters. Moser's brow furrowed. They probably smell a trap. Ideally, the Ivos would have done a full turnover, exposing themselves for the surprise.

Just as the Ivos were starting to make progress in slowing down, a hail of missiles burst out of the particle clouds, besieging them on both sides. Mosers fleet, being at a similar distance to the two missile swarms, launched their missiles the moment they saw their allied missiles.

The missiles coming from the side were coming in at a diagonal angle, closer to the rear of the ship than the front. Moser's missiles were heading straight at them. The Ivos cut their deceleration and instead fired their engines into a hard upward-arcing burn. They had likely decided that their was no realistic way to completely avoid the missiles, so instead they would move vertically and buy their point defenses as much time as possible. They launched their torpedoes, wisely choosing to aim them all at Moser's fleet, which was visible, rather than try and guess at the location of the other to fleets in the particle cloud.

Moser gave a grimly satisfied smiled at that. After the enemy taking the bait, and getting the timing of the missiles right, the Ivos choosing to fully commit their volley to his fleet was the most important part of the plan. The other two fleets were mostly made up of the older ships and civilian models, and they would have been all but annihilated by a torpedo volley. His own fleet, made of the most modern ships in the fleet (and their point defenses) was much more suited to resist the Ivo torpedoes. The more losses he minimized, the more ships he'd have to face the Ivo beams in the final part of the plan.

The faster Ivo torpedoes reached their targets first, and human defenses (largely kinetic, in anticipation of battle in Dark Space) opened up on them. Moser braced himself for some serious casualties. They were no beams, but Ivo torpedoes were still drastically more dangerous than any weapon humanity could conjure. The torpedoes, fired in a disorganized haste against a prepared enemy, fell to the point defenses in much greater numbers than they would have otherwise. Even still, Moser lost twenty ships to the weapons.

After the Ivo torpedoes had finished their attack, the human missiles began their strike. The Ivo evasive burn had been the best maneuver to make in the situation, but the human missiles had already been too close by the time it was performed. Normally, the woefully inferior chemical drives of missiles meant that they could be simply led along on a lengthy chase by their prey, with the eventual result being the missiles running out of fuel and drifting uselessly. It was the reason missiles had largely been relegated to a supporting role in the doctrines of most space forces.

However, at close range, missiles had drastically better acceleration than starships. It was the perk of not having any organics to coddle. For all their technological progress, the Ivos were just as much a slave to inertia as the rest of the galaxy. The human missiles, having drifted in the particle storm until very close range, fired their thrusters at maximum acceleration and gave chase to the Ivos.

The Ivo evasive burn bought their longer ranged point defenses time, but it wasn't enough. The majority of the human missiles made it into the appropriate range, and detonated. Thousands of depleted uranium flechettes approached targets at great velocity. Many fell to the exceptional Ivo point defenses, but many more struck home. Ivo ships were shredded by the awesome power of kinetic energy: a force that cares little if its origin is an anti-matter engine or a "primitive" chemical engine.

"At least thirty confirmed kills or disables, sir." Moser's tactical officer called. Seventy vs Five Hundred. Better odds than we faced over New Kolkata, and they weren't disorganized by a perfectly timed missile barrage then either.

The human fleet had already been burning after the Ivos, the other two hundred ships of the two human subfleets emerging from the stormclouds and joining the main force in its pursuit. A few good hypervelocity volleys, that's all it would take. As the human fleets converged into one unit, they chased the Ivos, flying "up" after the Ivos. The humans got into formation and prepared their first volley.

Two hundred Ivo beams emerged out of the particle storm, instantly vaporizing two hundred targets. The human ships hadn't been able to detect the beams through the particle storm for the same reason they hadn't been able to detect the ships that fired them. With the lack of any forewarning, only a handful of the human ships were lucky enough to dodge, their automated systems seizing control of the ships.

No.

The sudden volley taking out over a third of their fleet had completely shattered the human ships' organization. Many automated systems went haywire, seizing control in anticipation of more shots. Others went into evasive maneuvers of their own volition, the humans aboard not needing a machine to do the panicking for them. Out of the storm emerged the other two Ivo sub fleets, merging together and burning upwards after their prey in the same manner the humans had just chased their sister unit.

No.

The retreating Ivo subfleet turned on its heels, its organization returning in a sudden maneuver. Evidently its panicked retreat had been less legitimate than it had seemed. Its numbers were reduced by the fighting, but the human fleet now faced the full Ivo beam volley, minus thirty ships. Two hundred and seventy beams went out from two directions.

No no no no.

With their enemy in full view, the human ships' computers were able to detect the energy release and anticipate the volley. Two hundred and seventy beams went out, and one hundred and five struck home. It was largely the remnants of the older ships and the converted civilians, them being the ones lacking the upgraded maneuvering thrusters. Skeleton crews they might have been, but thousands still died, turned into shadows on the bulkheads of their ships as their vessels were bisected by the terrible weapons. They wouldn't have even had enough time to realize they were dying.

The other, more modern ships of the fleet had been modified, and their computers had seized control and burned wildly the nanosecond they had detected the hint of an energy release.

No no no no no no n-Moser scraped himself up off of the floor, "All ships, scatter! Full Ivo retreat protocols, flee in every-" he was cut off as the Jinan's computer seized control and violently accelerated laterally, slamming Moser and the entire crew against the wall. Screams and sobs rang out throughout the Admiral Deck as bones broke and organs ruptured. The crews of seventy-eight of the remaining ships had not been lucky enough to be able to do the same. Moser sat up, groaning at his newly broken ribs, his inner ear throbbing at the sudden loss and reapplication of "gravity" as the ship took a new course in a random direction. Every other surviving ship in the fleet did the same. Their crews were in various states of disrepair, but the computers had heard the order.

Retreat was already a difficult prospect in space war. Against the Ivos, an organized retreat was effectively impossible, the alpha strike of their beams rendering formations deadly. Ironically, a panicked route was the optimal way to flee, denying the enemy a cohesive target.

And so, the most organized panic in human history occurred.

---

Moser rolled over, discovering yet another cracked rib after the latest evasive maneuver. Pain lanced through his body, and his mind raced. One question rose to the top.

How?

It's obvious, you colossal fool. You, the leader of the inferior force, underestimated the enemy. The irony might be funny if it didn't mean the extinction of your entire species.

His self-loathing boiled over. He had treated the Ivos like mindless beasts or a force of nature, not as sapient beings with thoughts and the capacity to form plans and set traps of their own. His relentless mental self-destruction was interrupted by a recurring question coming from the more rational parts of his mind: How?

It may have been planned in advanced, but there's just no way they could have timed it so perfectly, not with the particle storms cutting off their...communication.

Of course.

Somehow, someway, the Ivos had invented a way to communicate reliably in Dark Space. It should have been impossible. Every research effort by every race towards that end came to the same conclusion: sending a coherent signal at any meaningful distance through Dark Space was a physical impossibility. For all their incredible technology, the Ivos had never done anything that wasn't considered theoretically possible by current science. Why should Moser have assumed there'd be an exception here?

Excuses, excuses. You old fool.

Moser watched on his screen as the icons representing his ships scattered away in all directions. Some reached the limit of sensor range in dark space and vanished, others flashed red as an Ivo beam annihilated them. Some bearing the ID codes of frigates turned to distract pursuing Ivo frigates. It allowed the larger ships with more firepower, and personnel, to escape. Moser almost laughed at the sight. Perhaps he'd taken the larger picture of the war he got as the Space Force Commander for granted. His subordinates were still doing the cold calculus of war, thinking in terms of success or failure. They didn't know what he knew, that the losses inflicted here weren't merely devastating, they were crippling. They couldn't have known that replacing the personnel alone would take months, never mind the ships. They didn't know it would only take weeks for the Ivos to burn their way through the Inner colonies. Days if they cut a path straight for Earth. They didn't know what Fleet Admiral Moser knew.

The war had just been lost.

---

The scattered remnants of humanity's fleet fled in a dozen directions. Their officers watched the tactical displays on their screens, and they all felt a cold hand grip their heart as they watched the icon of the Jinan, their flagship, suddenly stop and glow bright red.