Battle of the Asteroid Belt


 * Seen in: "Pirate Scourge", "Seeds of Deception"
 * Previous: Unknown
 * Next: Battle of the Rings of Saturn
 * War: Pirate Clans War
 * Year: 2119
 * Location: Asteroid Belt
 * Tactical victory: Exofleet
 * Strategic victory: Exofleet
 * Objective
 * Exofleet: destroy the Pirate Clans
 * Pirate Clans: survive
 * Factions
 * Exofleet
 * Pirate Clans
 * Commanding officer
 * Exofleet: Winfield
 * Pirate Clans: Jonas Simbacca
 * Units
 * Exofleet: Copernicus, Defiant, Resolute
 * Pirate Clans: Pirate Spaceship, Pirate Fighter
 * Casualties
 * Exofleet: Defiant, Copernicus
 * Pirate Clans: Pirate Spaceship, Pirate Fighter

History
After the destruction of the Danube, the Homeworlds Congress declared war on the clans. To make certain the clans were annihilated, the majority of Exofleet was sent on the campaign. Simbacca knew that the pirates would never survive a regular battle and instead planned an ambush using asteroids rigged with rocket engines. The asteroids would serve as kinetic energy weapons and inflict severe damage on the exocarriers.

Positioning the pirate fleet in the asteroid field, which Exofleet had to travel through, he ordered the asteroids sent against the Resolute. With the flagship paralyzed, the other ships would be unable to coordinate defensive tactics. Believing the Resolute had been damaged by an asteroid, Simbacca ordered the pirates to disengage their Cloaking Devices and commence ship-to-ship combat.

The advantage of surprise allowed the pirates to inflict heavy losses. The Defiant was destroyed by an asteroid and several other ships were destroyed. However, Exofleet's superior numbers and the E-frames tide the turned and the pirates began to suffer the majority of the damage.

Simbacca initially refused to retreat, but after being reminded that retreat would allow the pirates to create a new plan, he ordered a retreat saying that the next battle would be fought where the pirates had the advantage.