The Battle of Ixion was an engagement fought during the Alliance-Syndicate War. The battle was fought in the star system of Ixion, during Captain Geary's risky charge for Alliance space. Geary expected a large Syndicate prescence at Ixion. Instead, there was a relatively minor Syndic flotilla waiting behind a minefield.
The Alliance Fleet came out of the jump point of Daiquon with automatic orders to angle up the moment that they arrived in Ixion. Doing this, they managed to avoid the minefield that was waiting for them and they came around over the top of the minefield.
The Syndics turned and attacked the Alliance, trying to strike at their unsupported units and then fall back. Unfortunately for the Syndics, this left them open to an attack by Geary. In the Syndic's attempt to avoid contact with the Alliance Fleet, a heavy cruiser and battleship collided and were destroyed. As the formation fell apart, many other ships- manned by inexperienced crew- collided and were destroyed. The Alliance fleet charged in to finish off the remainder of the intact ships.
However, other formations of Hunter-Killers inside the system saw the arrival of the Alliance Fleet, and they brought news of this to nearby Syndic systems. Geary, realising that the Syndics were starting to second guess him, attempted to do something uncharacteristic, by asking the insane Captain Falco for advice.
Falco advised that Geary head to Lakota, where Falco believed that they would be able to escape using the hypernet gate. Geary agreed with this, deciding to head to Lakota.
As the fleet left Ixion, a formation of Syndic Capital Ships and Escorts came from Dansik. They began pursuing the Alliance Fleet, though they would not catch up until the end of the First Battle of Lakota.
Preparation[]
Following the end of the Battle of Ilion, Geary believed that the Syndics were starting to double guess his strategy of heading away from Alliance space. Hoping to fool the Syndics once again, Geary decided to head towards Alliance territory. This plan worked for the systems of Tavika, Baldur, Sendai and Daiquon, though Geary was growing ever more cautious.
Geary decided to head for Ixion, using a formation called Kilo One. In this, Geary had nine subformations, each with lighter escorts providing defense and capital ships providing firepower. The subformations were also positioned closely to one another, so that they could support each other in case matters got desperate.
The last thing Geary did before leaving Daiquon was give orders to the Fleet to angle upwards when they came out of the jump point at Ixion.
The Battle[]
First Stage[]
The Battle was relatively short due to poor experience on the part of the Syndic fleet. As soon as the Alliance Fleet arrived, it pivoted upwards, into a nearly vertical position, and navigated their way over a minefield that the Syndics had laid on the path from the jump point, so that the Alliance Fleet would be mauled and damged by the mines as it jumped through.
A Syndic formation, behind the mines, and very close to the jump point, was waiting for the Alliance fleet so that they could finish off the ships that escaped the minefield. The Syndics had learnt this trick from what Geary had done at Ilion, however, now they pushed it to extremes, positioning themselves right in front of the jump point so that they could hit the Alliance Fleet at close range without giving the Alliance time to respond.
However, the vital flaw in the Syndic Commander's plan was that, being so close to the Fleet, he had very little time to react, especially as the Alliance formation was practically[1] unharmed. The Syndic Commander once again tried to copy Alliance tactics, by attempting a glancing blow at the bottom of the Alliance formation.
Instead, Geary now brought his fleet around into an attack formation, ready to hit the approaching Syndics, and break them. Grossly outnumbered, the Syndics turned and tried to pull out. However, the inexperienced crew of the Syndic ships collided with each other as they tried to retreat, and were seriously damaged. The Alliance charged what remained of the Syndic formation, destroying a lot of their ships. Eventually, Geary allowed his ships to break formation and attack their targets of oppurtunity.
Whilt the Fleet finished off the Syndics, the captain of the Indomitable asked permission to leave the damaged ships in Formation Kilo Nine unprotected; Geary declined his request, believing that Indomitable needed to protect the damaged ships from a Syndic suicide attack.
After the last Syndic ship had been destroyed, Alliance ships Paladin and Conquerer used up weaponary attempting to deal more damage to the wreck. Geary got angry with them as they used up expendable ammunition attempting to attack a wreck.
Moving to Lakota[]
During the move to Lakota, Rione informed Geary that, following the terrible performance of the ships at Ixion, she believed that the Syndics were running out of ships and personnel, and could not afford to devote a large fleet to Ixion.
Rione also insisted that Geary continue to be seen amongst the crew so that they kept up morale on Dauntless. Rione later spent time with Geary in private.
As the Fleet moved across Ixion, Geary began to worry about the lack of good options for systems to jump to. Eventually, he went to see Captain Falco, as he believed Falco would do something that Geary wouldn't normally do, making sure that he could double-guess the Syndics. Falco told Geary to go to Lakota, where they would be able to use a hypernet gate to go home.
When the Alliance Fleet was just 3 hours from jumping out of Ixion, they saw another Syndic flotilla arrive from Danisk. Geary decided not to deal with the Syndic force, who would be forced to chase Geary all the way to Lakota before they were able to confront him.
Aftermath[]
Geary's jump to Lakota caused the First Battle of Lakota, where the Alliance Fleet was forced to engage the first superior Syndic force that it had met since the First Battle of Prime. Geary's decision not to take out the flotilla from Danisk would also cause issues when the flotilla arrived during the Battle for Lakota.
Titan took mine damage during the Battle, which slowed her considerably. As such, the fleet was forced to move slowly until Titan had repaired the damage. The damage to Titan was the only damage down to the Alliance Fleet during the battle.