Battle of Terra

The penultimate battle of the Monsos War, the Battle of Terra would not be equaled in total number of ships involved until the Battle of Pergamia at the close of the First Enmalex War. The battle would result in the almost complete destruction of the Terran Imperial Fleet and the crippling of Monsos’ offensive capability.
     

Background

While on paper nearly equal in size at the start of the Monsos War, the ships used by Monsos were far more advanced technologically and included the new assault carrier, which alone comprised nearly half of the Monsos assault fleet’s numbers. In the opening days of the war, Monsos effectively occupied one third of the Imperium and destroyed the equivalent of twelve fleets, nearly half of the Imperium’s full battle strength. Subsequent engagements and the rebellion of Lord High Admiral Hollister would see additional significant losses.
  Against this, Grand Admiral Adex realized that the Imperium was simply outmatched, and could not face Monsos in a decisive fleet battle unless it held a significant defensive advantage. He would settle on Terra, the best defended of all Imperial worlds as the battleground, and gained authorization from Emperor Constantius to begin preliminary deployment of the necessary forces.
  The original plan for Operation Thunderbolt included relocating the orbital defenses of as many Imperial worlds as possible to Terra. Unfortunately, Monsos began their second offensive two days later, resulting in the day known among the Imperial Fleet as “the Bloody Ninth.” This would force Adex to accelerate his timetable and abandon that part of the plan.
  Included in Adex’s battle plan was the use of the Mykentian fleet brought by Admiral Kosos to Terra at the end of the Fall of the Republic. Kosos had constructed a large fleet base on the far side of the moon, and stationed the fleet there in covered hangars on the lunar surface. While Terran companies had been contracted to manufacture spare parts and munitions for the fleet, Kosos had his own technicians perform the final assembly and installation of the equipment. As a result, the Terran Imperium possessed the ability to produce the components of weapons equivalent to those used by Monos, but had never figured out how they worked, what their performance characteristics were, or the tactical doctrines for their use, and were reluctant to use the few weapons and ships they had in the extensive testing required to figure this out.
  Ironically, it was observing Monsos using these weapons that allowed the Imperium to discover the capability of these ships, and as the Imperium had never used them, Monsos remained unaware of their continued existence. To the militaristic logicians of Monsos, it made no sense to have such ships and not use them. Holding them as a final reserve did not occur to them. Adex would redistribute the munitions stockpile to the Imperial Fleet in preparation for the battle.
  On March 10, Emperor Constantius would challenge Monsos to a single battle to determine the outcome of the war. He did this based on intelligence from Galatian ambassador Mark Thomason, who indicated that Monsos, as a fully militarized society, would crave such an engagement as no battle of that scale had ever been fought. In his estimate, Monsos would see the challenge as both history making, and an opportunity to eliminate the Terran Fleet in a single engagement. In response to the challenge, the Monsos fleet would halt their offensive and begin their own redeployments for the battle.
     

The Battle

 

Initial Deployment

The Imperial Fleet would deploy outside the range of Terra’s orbital defenses, centered on the imperial command ship Imperator. Emperor Constantius would personally command the defending forces, consisting of approximately two thousand ships of the Imperial Fleet, and one thousand ships of the Imperial Houses which had been conscripted into the Imperial Fleet. Grand Admiral Adex would command a detached force of three hundred Mykentian ships from Bismarck, which remained in their hangars with only Bismarck and its light escort visible to Monsos sensors. The Imperial Fleet would position itself facing the moon spread out in a wide grid formation, with a line consisting primarily of damaged vessels comprising a second line within the orbital defense perimeter.
  Monsos forces would deploy in a tight, spherical formation centered on their sole fleet carrier with approximately twelve thousand ships. Adex had hoped to draw this ship into battle where it would be vulnerable, but had not counted on the Monsos High Admiral as well as their High Command to be aboard. This would prove to be a critical mistake.
  Monsos would offer the Imperium the chance to surrender, with the phrase “Kneel and surrender to live, stand and fight to die.” Emperor Constantius would reply simply with “We stand,” and order all Imperial ships to engage.
     

Opening Engagement

The Imperial Fleet would advance, open fire on the Monsos forces, and then immediately begin to fall back, holding at maximum range. While fire was ineffective at such ranges, it was the Imperial intention to hold the attention of Monsos on their forces while Adex deployed his detached force in the shadow of the moon behind them. The plan required both Constantius and Adex to have complete trust in each other’s ability to hold up their end of the plan, without communication or coordination.
  Constantius would continue falling back into the gravity well of the planet, conserving energy and holding his Mykentian munitions in reserve. Imperial losses would mount, with up to one quarter of all Imperial casualties occurring in the first thirty minutes. The Imperial fleet would fall back through the orbital defenses, which did not immediately engage, holding their fire until the Monsos fleet carrier was within range of the planetary defense centers.
     

The Thunderbolt

It was at this moment that Constantius transmitted the code phrase “Thunderbolt.” All Imperial ships switched to their Mykentian munitions and targeted the Monsos fleet carrier. Backed by the full orbital defenses and the planetary defense centers, the attack quickly overwhelmed the fleet carrier’s point defense. Adex’s detached force would engage the fleet carrier from behind, where the Monsos forces could not target them, ensuring fire poured in on them from every side. Not even a Mykentian fleet carrier could stand long against the concentrated fire of thousands of ships and fixed defenses, and the ship was quickly destroyed.
  The abrupt, unanticipated loss of the fleet carrier, along with the entire High Command of Monsos caused both shock and a complete breakdown in command and control capabilities in the Monsos fleet. As the fleet carrier exploded, Constantius would order “All ships, full power advance and engage.” The Imperial Fleet would charge headlong into a massive, close engagement battle with the Monsos fleet at near point blank range. So short was the range that most Imperial ships were able to engage with their point defense batteries.
  The Imperial Fleet, now engaging with railguns and their limited supply of antimatter ordnance, would gut the Monsos forces in this single pass before turning and pinning them against the orbital and planetary defenses.
     

Armistice

Imperial forces were engaging the still recovering Monsos forces from behind when a second fleet carrier with a light escort appeared behind them. As Adex turned to engage, a transmission was intercepted from the fleet carrier ordering all Monsos ships to immediately disengage. As Monsos forces reluctantly began making escape jumps, the fleet carrier would contact Emperor Constantius and inform him that they were from Monsos’ confederation partner Mansos, and that they wished to negotiate an armistice.
  Where Monsos was an exclusively military partner, Mansos was primarily economic. With the destruction of the Monsos fleet carrier and over half the Monsos offensive fleet, Mansos had become acutely aware that the cost of repairing and rebuilding the fleet would be greater than any benefits gained by continuing the battle. In addition, they were aware that Monsos had already achieved all its objectives in the war, and that the battle itself had been completely unnecessary.
  Emperor Constantius would agree to the terms of the armistice, which required all Monsos forces to depart Imperial territory immediately, and allowed for a detachment of neutral ships from Centos to perform rescue and recovery operations on the destroyed and disabled Monsos ships. Centos, for its part, would repatriate the Monsos survivors, but would seize the Monsos ships themselves and add them to their own fleet.
     

Aftermath

In the immediate after battle survey of the Imperial Fleet, it was found that out of the total of roughly three thousand ships that had entered the battle, only 236 were combat worthy at the end of it. Of these ships, 193 of them were Titan class Dreadnaughts. Imperator itself had sustained extensive damage and would require exhaustive repairs. Emperor Constantius would order the hull quickly replated, with the intention of touring the former combat zone as a show of resilience to reassure citizens. Ultimately this tour would never happen.
  The Imperial Fleet would never recover its full, pre-war strength, and the Imperium was forced to rely on the House Fleets of the Imperial Houses for years after the war. Virtually all Titan class dreadnaughts would be returned to service, with some, such as Titan-975 going on to serve in the First Enmalex War.
  Monsos forces would similarly never recover. In the First Antoskan War, Monsos forces would be fully engaged in the periphery and were unable to provide an adequate defense of their home systems. This would allow the bombardment of Monsos by the Imperial Fleet and force Monsos to surrender.
     

Recognition

After the Battle of Terra, seven Imperial Admirals, including Grand Admiral Adex would be awarded the Eagle of Terra for personally leading ships into combat. The heads of thirty-eight Imperial Houses were awarded the Order of Terra. All officers and crew were awarded the Thunderbolt of Terra in either silver or gold, a new award designed specifically for participants in the battle. Ships which participated in the battle were painted with a thunderbolt next to their hull designation.
  The Convention of Houses would award Constantius with the titles “the Eagle of Terra” and “Defender of Earth,” while the Convention of Worlds added "Slayer of Monsos," and declared the fifteenth of March an imperial holiday.