The Battle of the BeltThe council quickly set up an action plan: while the DSTS would be moved to Ceres, the FACs would set an ambush 1.5 m km from Vesta.
By the evening of the 12th, the FACs were ready. From there, it was a long wait : the prudence of the Council meant most ship had to move at a ridiculously slow speed.
The tense situation also created the only case in history of a messenger being shot for bringing good news. When a young, eager scientist burst into the Council room to announce that Al-Azred had made yet another breakthrough in information technology, the nervous Coucnillors had him beheaded for distracting them.
On the 25th, after two weeks of waiting, a ship was finally detected heading for Vesta. It was moving quite slowly, at 775 km/s, but the large sensor array he sported hinted of a warship. It was either trying to sneak undecteted or escorting a slower civilian vessel. Probably on escort duty, as a sneaking ship wouldn't turn his sensors on. It was nicknamed the Werewolf for it came out of the night right as Io rised over the Council's chamber.
The Asteroid Strike Force commander, Yussuf Al-Ashad, decided to turn off his own sensors and wait for the civilian ship to start unloading its cargo on Vesta, hoping to pin down the Kaffirs there.
The freighter carrying the DSTS was already far, but the decoy freighter was only 30km away. Al-Ashad sent an order telling it to move away at full speed and reduce said speed after a few millions km.
When the ennemy warship was 2km away from the Mersin and Hufufs, it suddenly changed direction and started speeding toward the FACs at 3500 km/s. Al-Ashad understood he was spotted, probably by the ennemy's anti-missile sensors. Keeping his head cool, he decided not to move, so as not to reveal his FAC's capabilities until the ennemy was in range.
At 200,000km, two new thermal contacts were detected, about a third as large as the Werewolf. In a fit of mockery, it was nicknamed Werepuppy and were probably some kind of anti-missile escort.
The ennemy Warship stopped at 150,000 km. As soon as they stopped, a dreadful revelation came upon Al-Ashad : he was severaly out-ranged. He immediately sent his ships rushing forward at full speed, hoping to close the range before being shot.
The closing of the range was horrible, with some strange beam weapons hitting the Hufufs incessantly. Soon some of them started lagging behing, their engine or fuel tank hit. Other just exploded, killing most of their crews. But always they were surivors, charging toward the infidels, rage replacing faith as more and more of their friends died.
When the FACs finally got in range, only 5 Hufufs remained, of whose only 3 had both fire control and guns. Al-Ashad ordered them to focus on the Werewolf, hoping for a lucky shot that could cause a secondary explosion and disable the ship.
Unluckily, no such shot occured, less than two minutes after the first hit was taken, all the Hufufs were disabled. Al-Ashad, dishonoured, jumped out of an airlock rather than risking capture by the kaffirs. Not all of his men were so courageous though, and the 295 that managed to survive were captured by the infidels.
Werewolf
Tonnage : 10,000 tons
Max Speed: 3500 km/s
Weapons : 8 Particle Beam, Damage 3, Observed Range 149,000 km, ROF 1.
Sensors:Strength 48, Resolution 100, Max Range 48m km.
Werepuppy
Tonnage:4000 tons
Max Speed:3500 km/s
Weapons : 4 Railguns, Damage 1, ROF 4, Observed Range 1000 km
Sensors Strength 38, Resolution 1, Max Range 0,4 m km.
Tl;Dr: The Asteroid Strike Force got wiped out, doing close to no damage. The
Ashdod and DSTS are safe.