Battle of Ulla – Sol System
1966. March 22nd, 08:16 – Sol
A sharp signal cuts through the silence of the radar screens. Contact confirmed. A Raider vessel, Niobe 030, appears north of Earth, moving at high velocity—5,831 km/s—on a direct vector toward the planet. The response is immediate.
Three newly commissioned Balbo-class cruisers—Agordat, Caio Mario, and Lombardia—are dispatched at full speed to intercept. As a precaution, additional assets are deployed: the carrier Dominix, the two Renegade-class flagships, and a Hangarina missile carrier. The fleet spreads out across multiple waypoints, active sensors kept offline to avoid early detection. Then, suddenly, Niobe 030 vanishes.
The ships continue their sweep in silence, scanning the void.
20:58. A new contact from Tracking Station on Earth. Then another.
Two Raider ships—Niobe 025 and 026—appear to the northeast. Moments later, Niobe 030 re-emerges. Fighter-bombers are immediately launched from the carrier Shokaku, tasked with intercepting Niobe 030. The other two signals disappear again.
At 23:56, the Balbo cruisers close into firing range. Niobe 030 strikes first, hitting 5 shields of Caio Mario. The response is devastating: twenty Leonardo Particle
Beam III fire in unison. Sixteen hits tear into the Raider’s hull. Its engines fail instantly.
At 23:57, the boarding unit—1,000 tons of assault troops—launches from Agordat. Sergeant Thomas Howe leads the attack. The engagement lasts minutes. Twelve losses. The ship is captured. A Tug vessel, Ciclope, is dispatched from Earth to retrieve the prize.
March 23rd, 10:57. Niobe 025 and 026 reappear. Axis forces move to intercept, but the Raiders vanish once more into the void.
March 24th, 12:05
Two new contacts: Ontario 005 and 006, dangerously close to the carrier Shokaku. A Pathfinder scout is launched at extreme speed (10.000km/s). Its mission is simple: track, do not engage.
At 13:49, the scout, piloted by Cadet Livio Turci, closes in. “Earth, multiple contacts detected! Ten ships confirmed—six Niobe, two Magnificent, two Ontario.”
“Maintain distance. Draw them north. Lead them toward the Renegades.” Commander Arkadiy Filippov’s voice is calm, from Comando Ricognitori Terra he talks to the cadet. “Be calm, precise to keep distance. Everything will be ok”. He knows the Raiders. The trap is set.
“Never seen this many together,” murmurs Inoguchi Massari aboard Renegade Mk3 002. “We’re outnumbered… but not outmatched.”
14:58 - Fighter-bombers launched from Dominix strike first. Twenty Torpedo-5s launched at Niobe 025. Four hits. Limited damage. The Raider formation holds. Bombers are going back to carrier to reload
22:47 – Battle near asteroid Ulla
The fleets finally converge. The Raiders, now close to the asteroid, detect the Balbo cruisers and the approaching Renegades as active sensors come online.
The two Renegades open fire. Particle Lance 24 cuts through space. Niobe 026 is struck and disabled. Niobe 025 detonates moments later, a cloud of debris expanding into the void.
The enemy closes in—too close. At 130,000 km, a miscalculation exposes the Renegades. A barrage follows—39 hits on their shields. The damage holds. Barely ten percent of shield capacity breached. The Renegades pull back, recalibrate.
Then strike again.
Niobe 036 is crippled. Seconds later, destroyed. Niobe 033 follows. Then Magnificent 007, 008, 009—disabled in rapid succession. Ontario 006 drifts, then is finished with a final shot. Niobe 027 is obliterated. One by one, the Raider fleet collapses under relentless fire.
By 22:52, the battle is decided.
What remains is silence. And wreckage. The space around Ulla has become a graveyard—drifting hulls, shattered metal, disabled ships spinning slowly in the dark.
The Balbo B.A. moves in, boarding the survivors one by one. Minor damage is sustained during one operation, quickly repaired upon return. Six ships are captured.
Sergeant Thomas Howe records six successful boarding actions in a single day.
The Renegades claim four confirmed kills. Inoguchi Massari sets a new personal record: a total of eleven enemy ships destroyed. The battle record 6 captured ships and 9 ships destroyed. All military personnel involved in the operation were awarded a special medal: the Cross of Defense, in remembrance of March 24th, 1966, when Earth and the Solar System were defended by the brave heroes of the Axis.
In the days that follow, the Axis works tirelessly—salvaging wrecks, recovering alien modules, towing captured vessels back to port to scrap and diassemble. The largest naval battle in 33 years of Empire by the Axis ends in a decisive victory. And perhaps, a sign of what is to come. Rho Sculptoris awaits.