Skirmish at Trident Base

The Skirmish at Trident Base was a short battle which occurred during the Second Earth-Mars War, between the United Forces of Earth and the Vers Empire. It was an opening battle before the major battle between Trident Base and Marineros Base.

Prelude
During the third year of the War, the UFE's Trident Base and Vers' Marineros Base were predicted to orbit within close proximity to each other. As such, both sides began amassing forces in preparation for a major battle between the stations.

En route to Marineros from the Moon Base, Count Saazbaum decided to launch a preliminary strike against Trident Base. His convoy of seven Martian Transports, executed an orbital burn to make a high-speed pass of the station while still traveling towards Marineros.

Battle
Saazbaum's ships exited the orbital burn not far from Trident base. As they moved towards the Base, Saazbaum ordered the launch of the newest weapon to the Vers arsenal: the Stygis Fighter. At least 3 squads of 5 fighters were released from the Transports, and they proceeded to merge and approach Trident base at high velocity.

By this time, Trident base had detected the Transports and the Fighters, though due to their merging capabilities, each squad of 5 was perceived as one craft. As such, the command center ordered all Kataphrakt units out into the Satellite Belt, among which were the remnants of Mustang Platoon. The majority of Terran units took cover in the asteroids, with several out in the middle of space.

Once they were relatively close to the Base, the Stygis fighters separated and proceeded to open fire on the enemy combatants. The Terran forces returned fire, but due to the speed of the fighters and the ambient gravitational effects of the Satellite Belt, neither side could land a shot at long range.

While the Terran units took potshots at the Fighters, Inaho Kaizuka entered the battle. Using his Analytical Engine, he was able to compensate his aim for the gravitational effects, and proceeded to take out 5 Fighters. Immediately after this, the Transports open fired on him. He dodged their shots and proceeded to open fire on them. One of the shells was set to hit Saazbaum's vessel, but was intercepted by Slaine Troyard in the Tharsis. After ordering the helmsman, Harklight, to take evasive maneuvers, Slaine moved in to engage Inaho and draw his fire away from the Transports.

Inaho proceeded to take a shot at Slaine. Using his Kataphrakt's predicting abilities, Slaine was shocked to see that the shell was going to land on him, and proceeded to dodge the shot, surprising Inaho. As they drew closer and closer to each other, each was amazed by the other's abilities and began to wonder who the other was. Using cameras on their Kataphrakts, each was able to identify the other, with Slaine identifying the color of Inaho's Kataphrakt, and Inaho identifying the model of Slaine's. Slaine was shocked, while Inaho was mildly surprised.

Meanwhile, the Vers forces entered within firing range of Trident base, and both forces proceeded to open fire on each other. In the resulting crossfire, at least one Terran KG-7 Areion and one Stygis Fighter were destroyed.

After some time, the Martian Convoy began to break off their attack and proceed towards Marineros. At this point, Inaho and Slaine met and exchanged a glare, after which Slaine broke away to catch up with the rest of the Convoy.

Aftermath
Trident base was ordered to continue firing until the Transports left weapons range. Afterwards they looked over the damage done to the base. Despite the massive amount of weapons fire, neither side had made any serious impact on the other.

Inaho used the identification data on the Tharsis to identify Slaine, while Slaine himself recalled what Eddelrittuo had told him about the "Orange Kataphrakt," and the name of the pilot. At this point, the two boys identified each other by name for the first time.

Saazbaum's forces continued on to Marineros while Trident base made repairs. The stage was set for the battle between Trident Base and Marineros Base.