Fleet Action Off Vega

Artists Depiction of the Fleet Action Off Vega

The 2262 Fleet Action off Vega, was an engagement between the Soviet Navy, of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the German Kriegsmarine, of the German Reich. The engagement is almost certainly presumed to have occurred between the 7th and 8th of October, and it was the largest-ever fleet engagement to have happened as of 2285. Despite the basic admission from OTO that a major fleet action took place in the Vega System in 2262, no governmental agency from any nation has ever offered any details or evidence from which even a simple narrative of events might be constructed. It is only through the work of private or independent analysts, that we have information on the engagement, leading to highly biased and inconsistent narratives between accounts.

Prelude

Soviet Account

By the summer of 2262, the tenure of Altan Nergüi as both General Secretary and Premiere atop Soviet leadership, had reached its lowest ebb. Prominent setbacks in the expansion of the Kazandzhik Interstellar Combine had turned what was supposed to be a major component of the 58th, 5 Year Plan, into a metaphor for the struggling national economy. And this was only the most visible symptom of far deeper, systemic, challenges. Since his ascendency atop the government of the USSR in 2249, Nergüi’s domestic initiatives had been defined by political conservatism, neglect, and stagnation. Rollbacks of previous reforms and a lack of innovation had led to the unchecked expansion of the interstellar Soviet bureaucracy, with systemic inefficiencies, cronyism, and corruption. To retain his position Nergüi had become dependent on a powerful faction of hardliners within his government and especially a few prominent allies in control of key military institutions and security services. While domestic failures might not have been enough to threaten this support, Soviet foreign policy and the nation’s position in the Orion Arm had been repeatedly hindered by missteps and miscalculations. The Comintern was bleeding members, reduced by 28 states over Nergüi’s tenure. With his credibility as a statesman severely undermined, the reformist wing of the Communist Party was emboldened. It was within this political environment that the first plans were made to spark a confrontation with the German Reich.

Soviet intent appears to have been to spark a surprise, powerful, but ultimately limited provocation, a quick bloodless propaganda victory that could shore up Nergüi’s domestic support and demonstrate to the Comintern that the Soviet Union remained a formidable and committed partner in every region of the Orion Arm. The selection of the Vega Planetary System as the desired site of this escalation also communicated Soviet intentions in a few significant ways.

Originally one of the most powerful and influential extrasolar nations to emerge from the evacuation efforts, Vega had been an early symbol of pride and progress at a time when most of mankind was still struggling to rebuild their transplanted societies. But a series of conflicts and foreign interventions (e.g; The Lyra Campaigns) had left the nation in ruins. In 2262 it was again an active warzone, split in half between the Republic of Vega, and the Federal Union of Vega - the latter a new member of the Axis Powers. But the conflict appeared to be nearing its end. Despite substantial material support and tens of thousands of “military advisors” from the Reich and other Axis nations, the fighting on Vega and its outlying star systems remained locked in a stalemate with no decisive breakthrough likely by either side.

Vega had become an embarrassment for the Reich, and it was now pursuing its own exit strategies and pressuring the Federal Union to negotiate an armistice. If a Soviet Fleet could arrive undetected into this environment; a war zone in which the Reich might technically be seen as an active combatant, the propaganda value would be immense. The maneuver would expose the weaknesses in the Axis position and amplify the perceived loss of prestige associated with their imminent withdrawal. It would also be a major escalation, even if the only intent of the Soviet fleet was to perform a simple transit through the system as a non-belligerent nation. But any blowback would be contained, affecting only the nations and star systems of the Local Cluster and unlikely to upset the far more volatile Soviet-German border territories in the Antares Gap. The Soviet government also certainly hoped that by confronting the Reich in Vega, they might leverage that system’s historical significance, an important touchstone to many of the non-legacy nations in the region. Based on the scale of the operation, planning and forward redeployments of the Soviet Navy were likely conducted throughout the late summer of 2262. And it is almost a certainty that the Operation was carried out between October 17th and 18th.

German Account

An alternative, conflicting account provides a very different, though no less plausible version of events. It contends that driven by desperation, General Secretary Nergüi had desired to not only provoke the Axis powers, but humiliate him. A deceive show of force, it was believed, would fully cement his weakening position, and might even be enough to convince the Republic of Vega to assume full membership in the Comintern once the war in the system was over. To achieve this, the arrival of the Soviet battlegroup within the system would not be conducted in friendly, uncontested territory well outside the warzone, but carefully timed to facilitate the successful intercept of German interstellar assets. A Luftwaffe supply convoy of some 200 ships, one of the many German flotillas departing the system in preparation for the Axis withdrawal, was deemed an appropriate target. Upon selection, it was clandestinely tracked by Republican intelligence assets throughout the system. The Soviet fleet meanwhile, meticulously prepositioned in deep space to avoid German detection, would be periodically briefed as to the convoy’s course and speed.

The plan hinged on the Soviet battlegroup conducting a translight jump into the Vega System just as the Luftwaffe convoy was crossing its outer makers. Facing a confrontation with a superior force, the German fleet would have no choice but to accede to Soviet demands and reroute. In practical military terms this maneuver would be a near useless gesture –a mild frustration to the Germans, no different from the aggressive conduct commonly employed by navies looking to intimidate their rivals. But symbolically, the act would be almost unprecedented. A fleet of the Reich, even an empty supply convoy, forced by a foreign nation to alter their course within their own claimed sphere of influence, would be an extraordinary display of Soviet military planning and a far deeper blow to Axis prestige.

To ensure total secrecy and give the operation every chance to succeed, the Soviet government would not signal its intentions through any of the dedicated backchannels. Even once the operation was underway, German officials would receive no acknowledgement from any Soviet source as to the mission’s scope, intent or existance. Only after the successful intercept of the convoy would the operation be acknowledged.

Fleet Action

Soviet Account

The Soviet force intended to complete an orbit of one of the system’s outer planets, conduct a resupply with ships from the Navy of the Republic of Vega, and then depart. This was all to have been done in an uncontested part of the Vega Planetary System, well away from the ongoing fighting. But at some point during the exercise, the Soviet fleet was suddenly required to divert from its original course. According to some sources, this change was to assist a Republican convoy that had experienced some sort of accident, having possibly struck a mine.

It was during these emergency operations, while still well within the Republic of Vega’s territory, that unidentified, unresponsive contacts appeared on the outer edge of the fleet’s sensor coverage. As attempts were made to establish contact, these craft instead fired a salvo of advanced, anti-ship munitions. Launched from extreme range with a generous window to intercept, a combination of interceptors and space defense missiles shot down the majority of the incoming fire, with close-in weapons systems neutralizing the remainder. Damage was minimal, but this action nevertheless forced the Soviet fleet to abandon its ongoing emergency efforts and reposition itself around the sticken convoy.

In the aftermath of this attack, when confusion surrounding the developing situation was at its height, an additional line of far larger, still unidentified sensor contacts appeared at extreme range on a bearing almost directly opposite to the initial missile strike. Operating on the assumption that these new contacts were the Republic of Vega’s resupply force, the Soviet fleet allowed them to close while attempting to establish contact and simultaneously identify the nature of their previous attackers.

Up until this point, the Soviet force reportedly believed it had been the victim of a friendly fire incident. Their inability to positively identify and communicate with allied ships at longer distances had in fact been a common occurrence due to difficulties integrating Soviet and Vegan equipment. In an incident that had been quietly suppressed just weeks earlier, a Soviet vessel had mistakenly fired upon a Vegan drone-ship. By the time Soviet interstellar warning and control craft had positively identified the incoming contacts as warships of the German Kriegsmarine, it was far too late for either side to disengage.

A furious exchange of weapons fire erupted, and though accounts contradict on which side fired the first salvo. Soviet naval doctrine, favoring heavy saturation attacks at extreme range, proved decisive. Though they had closed the distance significantly, the German warships still remained far too distant to employ their more advanced, shorter ranged arsenals, and were simply unable to match the Soviets missile for missile. Some reports claim that only 9 minutes after the first volley, the space in front of the German fleet had become so saturated by torpedo deployed chaff, mines, and loitering munitions, that their tracking systems were entirely overwhelmed. The success rate for the P-150 Rubyn, the heaviest Soviet anti-ship missile in use at the time, supposedly climbed from a baseline 4% to 39%, an extraordinary record for an engagement taking place at that range.

Damage to the Soviet fleet by contrast was concentrated across the formation’s leading flank, where a Battlecruiser squadron had momentarily entered the effective range of Kriegsmarine railguns. Engagements between aerospace and escort squadrons screening the two fleets continued for several hours afterwards, but neither of the main battlelines made any attempt to re-engage the other.

In the weeks following the battle, once the threat of further escalation had been contained, investigations conducted by intelligence services in both nations determined that the German force had been composed of paramilitary units operating independently of the Reich’s central command structure. Having not been included in the informal backchannels used by either government, they had acted on their own initiative, raising questions as to the extent of command and control that could be exercised inside the German military hierarchy.

While this version of events suggests a reasonable possibility for what might have occurred, it is not without its detractors. Particular skepticism is directed towards the claimed involvement of partially rogue paramilitary forces. The theory that an entire Soviet battlegroup, engaged in a carefully planned and communicated operation would suddenly divert to assist a Republican convoy is likewise seen as highly improbable.

German Account

Unable to continuously monitor the Luftwaffe convoy without detection, Soviet intelligence assets in the system had been forced to rely on sporadic, passive surveillance and ai-assisted projections. And while their target was almost exactly where it was expected to be, right on the edge of the outer-marker, the Soviet fleet had been entirely misled as to the nature of the ships opposite them. When the Soviet commander broadcast their demand that the German force reroute or face a boarding action, he believed he was addressing a mostly empty supply convoy and its scattered escorts.

Instead they were confronting a fully loaded flotilla of troop transports, containing over 30,000 Axis advisors. In place of the few expected scattered escorts, were premiere elements of the Kriesgmarine’s High Seas Fleet and Hungarian Space Forces.

It was during the broadcast of the German’s counter-demand that a Soviet capital ship, supposedly identified as the Battlecruiser Zinoviev, struck a mine and suffered a major explosion. Believing his task force had just been fired upon, the Soviet commander ordered his ships to retaliate. Only minutes after entering the system, the largest interstellar fleet action in human history was now taking place, with as many as 500 warships across both sides.

Across the battlespace, so many instances of electronic warfare were activated that the capabilities of both fleets were compromised. Even inter-fleet communications was sometimes affected, paralyzing Soviet captains and squadron commanders who relied upon centralized command and control. Though the engagement had opened at extreme range, a situation that in theory favored Soviet doctrine, the pervasive ECM had disrupted their ability to execute the necessary saturation attacks. Entire formations fired their salvos out of sequence, unable to coordinate their timing or targets. Once launched, hundreds of Soviet missiles were reportedly neutralized well before they reached their targets, forced into rapidly and perpetually cycling through their myriad of guidance options and unable to achieve a lock for more than a few milliseconds. Others were jammed by their own on board electronic, counter counter measures before spiraling out of control. German long range missiles by contrast, though not unaffected, proved more resilient at slicing through the interference and were even able to jam Soviet close-in weapons systems.

As both sides struggled to break through the interference and more and more countermeasures were deployed, the identification of enemy targets in the battlespace became almost impossible. By the time each formation had begun to pass within 300 kilometers of the other, the more powerful German lasers had started to burn out the sensors of individual Soviet ships and feed back uncompromised targeting data.

With this advantage, German railguns, prioritized within the Kriegsmarine, began to tear the Soviet fleet apart. German “semi-armor piercing thermobaric incendiary rounds”, which would later gain infamy as “firecracker rods” during the Battle of the Argentine Moons are sometimes said to have had their inaugural use during this phase of the engagement. Unable to be jammed and possessing a far greater accuracy and range than those of their opponents, the Axis forces inflicted sizable damage before Soviet targeting finally achieved parity.

Though far more detailed in its description of the course of the battle, this account too has its critics. The supposed ability of the Soviet Navy in 2262 to conduct a translight jump into a German supply corridor without being detected is especially challenged. As is how such a far more massive action could be kept suppressed, even within the infamously restrictive Soviet and German systems. Nearly every account of the Fleet Action off Vega reports that in the weeks following the battle, a massive effort was made at the highest levels of both nations to prevent an all out war.

International Reactions

OTO Statements

During a brief statement, a spokesman for OTO speaking on security threats to the Orion Arm, appeared to confirm a long held suspicion amongst analysts and conspiracy theorists, that a major confrontation took place between the Soviet Union and German Reich in 2262.

Summary

The theories differ on why each side has elected to keep the details of the incident a secret, or what calculations influenced that decision. But until the Soviet archives or those of the Reich are opened to the public, any report detailing the Fleet Action off Vega must be taken with a degree of circumspection. In all likelihood, no single account reflects the truth and parsing which details are accurate and which have been distorted to fit a more desirable narrative is impossible.

Even discussing the incident publically is difficult, with any discourse held on the networks quickly infiltrated and manipulated by disinformation intelligences. Several governments and other entities are suspected to engage in this practice, a small part in the far greater, omnipresent shadow conflict waged in the information space to shape public opinion.

But some things can be said with certainty, even if their connection to any Fleet Action near Vega is not. In 2263, Premier Nergüi was removed, and the reformist wing of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union obtained an unequaled level of control over their government.

By 2265, every major power had announced a comprehensive review of warship design. The following year the Republic of Vega formally joined the Comintern. And as of 2285, the Vega planetary system remains one of the most dangerous places in the Orion Arm, the only theater where events have transpired so that the Soviet Union and German Reich no longer face each other across the vast gulf of space, but bayonet to bayonet.

Statistics

Forces Engaged

Composition:

• 30,000 Axis advisors (German Claim)

• Up to 500 Ships (German Claim)

Casualties

Soviet Claims:

• 9 Soviet Navy Ships Destroyed
• 31 Soviet Navy Ships Damaged

• 40 Kriegsmarine Ships Destroyed
• 80 Kriegsmarine Ships Damaged

German Claims:

• 210 Ships Destroyed
• Destruction of the majority of the Soviet Fleet