Many, many lightyears away, three minutes before the raid on the Grand Inquisitor. The border between the USA and the UEG, also known as the "Euros". The UEG has entered US territory and is currently blockading a small lunar colony around the smallest class of gas giant planet. The colony only consists of 1200 civilians and has only a token National Guard and Coast Guard force consisting of 100 total troops between the two. Due to the reported UEG fleet size a carrier group is sent to either convince the UEG fleet to leave or to turn their vessels inside out...
"Ma'am, we are dropping out of FTL in less than thirty seconds."
The entire bridge crew of the USS Henry J Kennedy, the main fleet carrier of the 21st carrier fleet based out of the "New Kentucky" cluster of systems, is primed for combat. All atmosphere has been drained from the ship, all exterior viewports shuttered, each crewmember in environmental suits, manned craft loaded onto launch rails, drone craft loaded onto their docking clamps, ready to be dropped as swarms, and gravity systems shut all the way down as the crew strap themselves into their seats.
The CO of the vessel, Admiral Helen Porter, a scarred and gnarled old bat, gets into her command seat and begins interfacing with her vessel. As the fleet carriers' chief, she has more than just duties of running her ship's individual systems, but also has the duty to work as the main strategist and tactician alongside the other captains, in a term known as "battlespace" where their collective minds are able to communicate immediately and perfectly thanks to modern advances in neural interface technology.
She sees nothing for a moment as the ship hasn't dropped from FTL, but she can feel the beast of a vessel breathe into her. All systems green, she can feel the pulse of the fusion reactor as if it is her own heart. She can feel the crewmembers inputting into their controls as the ship grows ready. All weapons and fighters primed and ready as if she were loading up to pounce like a predator. If in this state she had a mouth to smile with she would, she can't get enough of the feeling of becoming one with the vessel, knowing she will hate it later when the migraines come after absorbing all that data, she still cant get over the high of becoming what in any other time would be considered an absolute god of death and destruction.
As soon as the massive vessel returns to normal space and normal speeds, a full-scale sensor pulse is launched from every vessel in the fleet, every ounce of data running through the Admiral's head, her perception of time altered so she may thoroughly go through it all, along with the other captains and all on board sensor AI. It takes three seconds for the first UEG ship to be spotted against the backdrop of the gas giant and the moon. It's a big ship, battleship class or bigger, but soon the entire UEG fleet is spotted and categorized, all of the data entering the Admiral's mind as she orders obscuring action to be taken.
Large missile tubes explode open across the fleet, and massive missiles scream into the void, accelerating rapidly to bridge the two light-second distance between the US and UEG fleet. It takes them close to half an hour to reach the correct distance, about halfway between the US and UEG fleet, before all missiles rapidly spin before detonating massively, huge clouds of reflective chaff form a cloud thousands of KM in width after another few minutes as the shimmering strips of reflective material spin through the void. Behind this expanding cloud, the US fleet moves forward, wanting to get within optimal combat range before the enemy can target them.
Then the electronic warfare starts, the first true volleys of any conflict, and the warning shots of the modern era. It's easy to force an enemy to retreat or surrender if you are able to puppet their ship remotely, or if you manage to blind their sensors.
It's a silent and invisible war, purpose-built AIs battle it out at light speed through streams of data, through tiny nanometer-wide holes in the chaff cloud, the US's prior sensor locks granting them an advantage by being able to predict the location of the enemy vessels through the obscuring cloud, while the UEG has to send return "fire" in searching patterns hoping to land a lucky hit.
When the receivers of the vessels are hit, a spam of junk messages and false radar, lidar, and other sensor contacts fills sensor officers' screens and attempts to overwhelm the senses of the captains hooked into their ships. Defensive AI, along with the Sensor AI of an affected vessel, works instantly to clear the junk from the ship's system. When transmission receivers hit, all communications become garbled and wrong, false orders given by AI voice systems sounding exactly like people who had spoken through those same channels recently. The beams of information seek any wireless device, even a personal music device, looking for anything connected to a ship's system, even through a wall plug or wireless charger. Any flaw is enough for the aggressive attack AI to try and worm its way into important combat systems. The defensive AI quickly undoes any damage done to software or programs, and some create traps, having false vulnerabilities only to "trap" the attacking AI to create an internal "vaccine" for their own systems by systematically ripping apart the little bit of the aggressive AI to learn its code to defend against it more efficiently, sometimes the trapped data stream is a purposeful false flag, delaying defensive AIs ability to find any malicious code or incorrect inputs.
Even during this, some ships have microsecond-long RCS burns, attempts to throw off navigation that are fixed immediately. Crews hold their breath as lights flicker overhead momentarily, as the invisible war continues. The Admiral watches as one of her captains disappears from the battlespace for a moment as his connection is severed by a UEG AI, but he quickly returns. The US forces switch to lateral laser communication receivers only, shrouded from any frontal communications to keep their battlespace linked among ships and to limit the capability of the enemy's electronic warfare.
There are reports of some UEG vessels going quiet as their entire vessel is hijacked and forced to remain silent in orbit, and their own communications systems work as relays for the US electronic warfare systems, as another angle to find even more vulnerable wireless connections or other systems, but they also broadcast at maximum power an order to surrender or to leave the system as they are in US territory as a foreign invading force. This ultimatum has a two-minute time limit for the opposing fleet to start leaving or start raising white flags.
Taken over ships become "breeding" grounds for the attacking AI as they copy themselves over the preexisting ones found within, increasing the efforts of the US vessels, while also leaving horrible computer viruses as virtual "landmines" for anyone or thing attempting to regain control of the disabled vessel.
All of this, this entire massive electronic war happens in instants, and the entire first barrage from each side takes a single microsecond; that's all it took for an entire capital ship to become disabled because the ship's captain had a fishtank with a thermostat connected to the ship's systems.
When the carrier fleet reaches optimal fighter range, along with optimal combat range, somewhere within 1.5 light seconds or closer, all fighters launch. The manned craft catapulting out of the large vessels and large cylinders containing hundreds of drones extend from the carrier, and the smaller craft come screaming out into the void, quickly forming a deadly swarm. Then from what look to be vents in the carrier hundreds of thousands of tiny drones form a defensive, undulating swarm in defense of the carrier, each only lightly armed to work as a secondary form of missile defense and to attempt to disrupt the paths of kinetic kill vehicles, as at these ranges a nanometer change in corse can result in a multiple kilometer miss.
When the time limit is reached and the UEG begins launching offensive missiles, the fighter jocks and their companion drone swarms scream through the chaff cloud, their own internal communications and sensors being used as further relays for the electronic warfare of the capital ships, protecting them from enemy EW while adding to the problems of the enemy EW AI. The small ships and their drones release further streams of chaff, some deploying larger balls of the material, hoping to throw off any slightly dumber than usual targeting systems of enemy missiles to protect themselves and the capital vessels behind them.
The warships of the carrier fleet form angelic wings around themselves as they fire massive salvos of both offensive and defensive missiles in response to the enemy, but due to the enemy's orbit being right above the lunar colony, kinetics are being held back in fear of hitting the civilians behind the foe.
One of the hijacked UEG ships, a frigate of some class, begins firing its guns and missiles into the engines of its fellow vessel, its violence guided by an unfeeling AI system with only the intention to disable enemy vessels. The Admiral corrects this behavior, as while it's not illegal in terms of war crimes, it's just something one doesn't do, as this is not currently total war, and at this current moment, despite the dozens of megatons of ordinance flying through the void, both sides are holding back to avoid unnecessary casualties. This event is considered nothing more than a large border skirmish as both groups of combatants only have around 20 capital vessels each, not including auxiliary support and logistic vessels.
The reason why the thousands of deadly missiles aren't considered "that" much of a use of force is seen right at the halfway point between the fleets. There are momentary flashes in the void as nuclear missiles are smacked by defensive missiles. Conventional missiles suddenly turn off as their internal computers are hacked; some detonate far away from the battle as the EW AI diverts their path and orders an airburst. The central point in this battle looks like a firework display of sparkling chaff, moments of atomic fire, and oxygen-rich fuel cooking off in the void. Less than .1% of all ordinances launched make it past this halfway point. The only weapons unaffected by this clash are kinetic rounds fired from guns, as a slug of metal cannot be hacked, but at these ranges, they are unlikely to hit, as every ship is constantly moving and adjusting course to avoid weapons such as these.
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The fighters continue their path, making it past this meeting point of death due to their wingmen drones, some designed entirely to take incoming fire for the manned fighters, containing nothing but fuel and guidance computers. This results in very minimal losses for the fighters as they get close enough to begin dogfighting with the considerably smaller force of UEG fighters.
The dogfights look less like turn battles, but ballets in the void, even among the drone wingmen designed for fighting. The ships spiral around one another, attempting to get missile locks, or when they are within two kilometers, they attempt to shred one another with wide sprays of gunfire. Thanks to modern compression suits and specialized gas mixture, the pilots are able to reach G-forces not possible within a planet's gravity, and especially not within an atmosphere.
There are many deaths on either side, but the US fighters come out on top due to a mix of sheer numerical advantage and having slightly more modern fighters due to the doctrine difference between the two peer states.
Now with fighters close in and evasive maneuvers being taken, the UEG ships are forced to deploy their massive radiator sails, which sit perpendicular to the local star. This creates an even larger sensory signature, turning all the ships into massive infrared beacons, even through the chaff cloud that continues to be replenished and expanded by both sides. These sails are usually considered the best targets as it means a vessel is overheating due to usage of guns, thrusters, and other energy intensive systems, when targeted and destroyed the loss of the radiators can result in the internal fusion reactor shutting down to avoid catastrophic loss of all hands, or if a safety isn't engaged the entire ship can either become a massive furnace or a very large nuclear propelled shapnel bomb. This is where fighters can really hurt capital vessels.
Fighter defense for modern capital vessels has lots of problems. The main one being that most anti-fighter weapons produce tons of heat, as close-in weapons systems are largely composed of guns of all calibers and for very close lasers, all of which produce lots of heat that is not easily dispersed. Mixed with how most situations where fighters are able to get close to a vessel mean things are going really badly, there are usually hundreds of minor course corrections and forward burns as evasive maneuvers from the heavy hitters thousands of miles away. This is also compounded by the EW and other combat AI becoming power gluttons as they become more active, which forces the reactor of the ship to kick it up a notch, thus producing more heat. By turning off many life support systems, the whole situation can be mitigated, but once those sails go down, things get toasty. This is also the easiest way to force a retreat or surrender in space combat. Then, even if the sails aren't up, most fighters of most sizes are able to deploy nuclear ordinance, and no matter how big or armored a vessel is, even a single KT warhead is going to rip massive holes into a ship, so the fighters cannot be ignored. Therefore, fighter defense is almost paradoxical as it creates its own weakness through the means needed to defend against fighters. Even if the fighters aren't armed with anti-ship weapons, they can still deploy magnetic chaff all over the vessel being harassed, which results in that ship becoming quite blind, which is never good in any situation.
Luckily and unluckily for the UEG ships, these fighters are equipped to more or less disable rather than crack the larger vessels. Spraying chaff all over the large vessel, which disrupts the capital ship's capability of intercepting the agile fighters, before a drone wigman dives through the cover and with a few semi-guided rockets at practically point-blank range for space multiple capital ships lose their means of rapidly radiating heat. This leaves their only option of expelling hot coolant from their vessel in a crash cooling maneuver, which is only used when the reactor is going critical and is being shut off immediately, because there is a chance of survival by being dead in the water, but no one survives the inside of their ship being filled with artificial solar corona.
Also, luckily for the UEG, the US mission to liberate the colony isn't one of removing all threats; it's more of a territorial display, meaning the few US missiles now making it through the rapidly diminishing defensive fire are mostly conventional warheads targeting non-vital components needed for crew survival. On the other hand, the US does take a single ship loss, a destroyer is hit hard by a kinetic slug from one of the battleship's main guns, it's not a realatavistic round and it's not a direct hit, but the 380mm round left a few hundred meter long gash along the side of the destroyer causing a massive coolant leak, which resulted in an immediate reactor shutdown leaving the ship drifting harmlessly in the void.
Yet as the UEG numbers dwindle, they find themselves with a massive problem. While being in front of the moon protects them from kinetic rounds, it also limits their maneuverability and avenues for reorganization, as the sudden US attack forced them closer to the point of no return on the moon. While capital ships are massive and powerful, they have zero capability to "fly" in the atmosphere without destroying the planet or moon, or most likely themselves. Past a certain tonnage, nothing is really meant to fly in a gravity well. This close proximity means most burns are less effective than at higher orbit due to the gravity having more authority, and the thin wisps of the upper atmosphere add minimal, but still existent, drag. With each ship lost, the AI war becomes worse for the UEG, and most ships have at least one system quarantined from the rest of the vessel, further diminishing combat capabilities.
If this were a total war scenario, not just a rather large border skirmish, all UEG vessels would've most likely been cored out by now, or all the unoperable vessels would have had their bridges targeted and all hand would be lost, but as a border skirmish all captured combatants are a massive prize as it can add political pressure against the invading foe, plus it allows for US intelligence to go through their computers for any information about future attacks or incursions. This will force the UEG to reconsider any attack in the near future.
The main flagship of the UEG fleet, a massive battleship-class vessel, attempts to pull out of the battle, the smaller vessels forming a defensive ring around it as it plows through weaker missiles, drones, and other incoming ordinance. It retracts its sails as it stops firing entirely, focusing entirely on getting far enough away from the gas giant to get into FTL. The smaller ships keep their sails open as streams of fire spew from them, defensive missiles, close-in gun systems, and even a few defensive lasers fill the void with light as the US fighters nip their heels as they run. The big ship pulls just away from the horizon of the moon, and the US Admiral orders,
"All guns free, remember folks, we are looking to disable, not destroy."
A chorus of "Ayes" comes through all coms channels as every ship focused on gunnery extends their thermal sails, the pneumatics explode the massive sheets of piping and radiator rails out from their ships, immediately all systems start cooling as rapidly as the void can take it, which isn't much but the chill of space where the broad ends of the sails face cools the internal coolant just enough to keep the vessels out of the red, and at this point in the battle being unseen and untargeted isn't too much of a risk as most ships are designed for forward engagements, and even massive battleships have diminished broadside capability when turning tail and running, not to mention while charging any form of FTL a lot of heat is produced, enough to where the sails can barely do their job while the ship is moving, and cannot do their job if the ship is fighting while on the move.
With capacitors pre-charged, the more gun-centric ships of the US fleet burn forward, closing to well within .75 light seconds, an optimal range for non-realativistic shots, and then open up with their heavy cannons.
Most shots go wide as the UEG ship makes minor adjustments to its course, but a few of its escorts take critical damage to their aft sections, ripping forward propulsion from the ship along with creating massive leaks in the cooling system, resulting in emergency reactor shutdown and leaving the small ship dead in the water. The large battleship does what it does best: it takes multiple hits before finally one of the shots hits something important, and a series of explosions spreads a line of destruction alongside the flank of the vessel as many of its VLS batteries have their fuel and warheads cook off. While they are designed to explode outward and away from the ship's hull, it still leaves extreme damage to the outer armor of the vessel and devastates all of the solar sails alongside that flank as the shrapnel created from the blown-out VLS tubes tears into the relatively fragile cooling apparatuses.
The forward propulsion is shredded with the heavy slugs, specialized for less penetration, but maximum energy transfer through slightly softer metal. When these rounds hit the nozzle of the engines, they collapse quickly, resulting in the large ship listing slightly as it tries to run. It returns some fire for a moment before a signal is sent from the large ship, the one signal that all nations agree cannot be touched or used by electronic warfare systems. The Admiral orders,
"Cease fire. They have thrown in the towel."
There is a general feeling of joy throughout the US fleet, but not overwhelmingly so. There were many casualties, three escort vessels were left drifting, but with few hands lost. A heavy cruiser will most likely be scrapped due to most of its bow being reduced to a tangle of shattered armor. Around eight fighter pilots were lost, and multiple ships had casualties due to either poor thermal regulation, cooking someone through user error, and a missile cruiser was left heavily irradiated after an enemy AI managed to remove all radiation shielding from both the internal reactor as well as the exterior one before being caught in the trail of a friendly vessel, which more or less spat an artificial solar flare as exhaust from its engine.
Overall, it was an absolute victory as all enemy ships were either disabled or surrendered, but as far as the Admiral is concerned, any loss is a loss to many. She has the communications officer send a request back to command to send salvage and prison vessels before pulling herself out of her ship.
She comes back to her human sense and gives a nod to her companions before slumping backward, holding her helmeted head as the migraines appear instantly. She groans out,
"Get life support back online... I need a drink, a painkiller, and a good long nap..."
Thus, the fourth skirmish along the US and UEG border concluded in an overwhelming US victory. This leaves the record 2-2 between the nations at the start of this minor border conflict. Yet, something is coming from the far reaches of space in a month that will change the minds of all the leadership pushing for this medium-intensity conflict...
