System Aru
Irune Perimeter Defenses
Now that the Taiidan are finally committing to the battle it's time to rendezvous with their fleet and combine your forces. Fortunately the Taiidan aren't coming into this battle unprepared. Their flagship is the Vanae, a dreadnought armed with their most impressive spinal cannons. It's sister ship the Vanak gives the fleet an impressive punch. Each of the dreadnoughts is larger than the wraith carriers, but still smaller than the wraith flagship, and armed with a number of secondary railguns and ion beams in addition to their primary guns. Filling out the Taiidan fleet are a dozen heavy cruisers, and several frigate flotillas. Trailing the dreadnoughts is the heavy carrier Talek'ahr, which is already shrouding the fleet in defense fighter squadrons.
All in all in terms of pure tonnage the addition of the Taiidan fleet shifts the balance far more to a balance. The problem is that while impressive by galactic standards the Taiidan don't really hold up to Bentusi standards in armor, engines, or weapons. Which means they also won't hold up to the Wraiths.
Fortunately you have some ideas to that end. You open a channel with the Taiidan admiral, Silcia Macdus, "Admiral Macdus, I'm sure you've been analyzing the battle. Allow us to shield your ships while you take the fight to the wraiths."
The admiral is a stern looking Turian in the returning vid call, "Valerius isn't it. I'm glad to see we're on the same wavelength. I'm ordering a drive for their flagship. We need to remove their subversion beam from the battle as soon as possible. Have your bombardment ships and carriers move to the rear. I'll detail some frigates to protect them."
"Understood admiral. May Sajuuk guide you."
Your two fleets waste no time integrating as you disperse your bucklers around the dreadnoughts and heavy cruisers while you yourself guard the Vanae. The slingers take up position in the core of the fleet while Laverna guides the shepherds back to join the Talek'ahr. Soon your acolytes are mingling with the flights of Taiidan defense fighters.
There is now a hole in the defensive sphere where subverted platforms have been destroyed by their former comrades. But the wraith won't be able to take advantage of it as the combined fleet slips through it on the way to confront the Wraith flagship. If the wraiths want to reach Irune they'll have to go through you.
Something they seem perfectly happy to attempt. A storm of missiles and fighters immediately assault the fleet as you pass the wall of sentry platforms. As you expected the Taiidan defense fighters die in droves, and your own acolytes are occupied dealing with the cruise missiles. Fortunately the dervishes are there to pick up the slack. Their ion beams light up the void in a dancing light show as they adroitly pick off wraith interceptors.
The first real test comes when the wraith flagship fires its subversion beam once again. Fortunately you've been working on the problem and have been carefully monitoring its energy emissions. As soon as you detect the signature spike of exotic particles you move forward with the bucklers and merge your defensive fields into one massive shield. Your sensors are blinded by the massive energy beam, and pain overwhelms you as cascades of failure reports drift up from your field generators. But it works. Through your combined efforts the beam is deflected away from the fleet. Some of the fighter groups were still unlucky enough to be caught in it, and you order the dervishes to deliver a merciful execution to the screaming remnants as you examine the reports from the bucklers.
One of them was gutted when its reactor overloaded, and another two suffered major damage. The rest of them, as well as you, suffered overloads in your field capacitors, but should be able to bring your fields back online. You expect that you'll be able to deflect one more subversion beam before you lose too many bucklers to generate a large enough field.
Unfortunately you also estimate that the wraith flagship will be able to fire twice more before the Taiidan fleet can reach engagement range. You communicate as much to Admiral Macdus, "Admiral I suspect we'll need to weather at least one of these beams before we reach engagement range."
"As do I. Nevertheless we must press forward."
Not reassuring, but you have to agree. You begin performing repairs on the most heavily damaged buckler. Perhaps you'll be able to bring it back online in time.
There is one bright spot. From their position within the fleet your slingers are able to launch their cruise missiles far closer to the wraith carriers. They've been attempting to close with the Taiidan fleet themselves, but that just makes the problem worse for them. You're able to overwhelm and destroy two of them by using clouds of missiles to prevent them from escaping. After that the remaining carriers retreat to their flagship.
Another beam washes over the fleet, and once more you and the bucklers are able to deflect it. However you lose two more of the drone ships this time and the remaining ones are all suffering major damage of one kind or another. Only your own defensive field is still at anything approaching full strength and it won't be enough.
There's only one thing you can think of. If you can't deflect the beam with fields, then you'll do it with pure bulk. You order the bucklers to form up in a wall and have your shepherd frigates join them. The acolytes are proving less useful here than would be preferable. You consider what else you can sacrifice, but conclude that everything else will be needed for the actual fight. Hopefully it will be enough.
You'll find out soon enough as you detect another energy spike from the wraith flagship. The beam plays over the fleet and your drone ships quickly degrade. You can feel corruptive influence coming over the flotilla link so you quickly cut them out of the link even as you extend your fields to maximum capacity to try and shield the Taiidan dreadnoughts.
You can tell it won't be enough as your fields begin to fail under the strain, and then the Vanak surges forward. Exiting your field it drives full into the fury of the beam. As the beam dies off you see the Vanak start to list as ominous red tumors begin erupting from its hull plates. It isn't alone either. With your much reduced protection several of the heavy cruisers have also been subverted along with your drone ships. You prepare to fight your former allies when a short transmission comes from the Vanae, "I salute you captain."
Then all the infected Taiidan ships explode as their reactors overload. For a brief moment you are stunned before realizing what happened. The Taiidan must have been prepared to sacrifice themselves from the start and rigged their ships for external self destruction. You are impressed. And a bit chagrined that you didn't think to do the same with your own drone ships. Not that they prove much of a challenge to squadrons of dervishes.
Then at last you are within range of the Wraith Flagship. Admiral Macdus sends out another short transmission, "For the Republic!" And every surviving Taiidan ship opens fire. You order the slingers to do the same even as Laverna takes personal controls of the remaining Dervish squadrons.
The flagship is no easy target though. Hundreds of weapon pods open on its flanks and begin responding with a hail of railgun fire even as fleshy tumors pop to reveal plasma spitting protrusions. It might be outnumbered, but it isn't outgunned. Especially since the first thing the fleet does is focus fire on the Subversion Beam leaving the other weapons to freely target various ships in the fleet.
Ship after ship is destroyed and the void becomes filled with the ping of emergency beacons, but the flagship suffers as well. First the subversion beam is melted into slag, and then its largest railgun banks silence one by one. Through it all you position yourself doggedly in front of the Vanae protecting it from fire even as it uses its spinal cannon to best effect.
Massive craters are blasted in the flagships hull and you order the slingers to send their missiles to detonate inside the hull itself. But even that isn't enough to destroy the massive ship. Eventually though you read a massive explosion from the interior of the ship and the entire front third sheers off.
Even this isn't enough to completely destroy the flagship as the back section backs away revealing a cross section filled with both strange technological structures and pulsing red organs. It has however done with the battle and opens a quantum gate to exit the system even as it continues to be bombarded.
The surviving carriers flee as well, but the missile cruisers and what few wraith interceptors have survived this long continue to fight. Fortunately this is comparatively nothing. It shouldn't take long to clean up the remaining wraith forces.
The Taiidan paid a heavy price though. Besides the Vanae and Talek'ahr only four of the heavy cruisers and a handful of frigates survived. Of your own forces Laverna is fine as are the shepherd destroyers, but you lost all but two of the slingers. Fortunately they are just drones. Your dervishes and acolytes are nearly gone, but Laverna and the shepherds are already constructing replacements.
Still now you need to decide what to do with the remaining Wraith forces. Destroying them would be the safest option, but you could try to disable them to study their technology now that you have ample opportunity to do so.
Make your Choice.
[ ] Wipe the Battle Space Clean
Your standard protocol after a battle with the wraiths. Destroy their remaining forces quickly and vaporize the remnants. Don't take the risk of infection. Use the remaining slingers to vaporize everything at long range.
[ ] Salvage the Wraith Flagship's forward section
You may want to see what you can learn from the flagship's remnant however. It might be dangerous, but there's a lot of technology in just this one section. Including the subversion beam, which you need a more effective answer to. You will likely need to convince the Taiidan to leave it to you however.
[ ] Disable the Missile Cruisers
You have an opportunity to disable the missile cruisers in the cleanest manner possible now that the carriers are gone. You will be able to get the most intact examples of wraith technology this way, but it will be a little dangerous for your forces. If you don't deal with them though, then the Taiidan will have to. And it will be even more dangerous to them.
