Battle of Hera

The Battle of Hera was a military action of the Second Havenite-Manticoran War between a task force of the Royal Manticoran Navy's Eighth Fleet and the Hera System Defense Command of the Republic of Haven when Hera was selected by the RMN for a deep raid as part of Operation Cutworm.
==Order of battle==
===Royal Manticoran Navy===
Task force of Eighth Fleet, CO Admiral Honor Harrington
* Battle Squadron 61, CO Rear Admiral Alistair McKeon
* a heavy cruiser divisionSaganami-C vessels of the Cruiser Squadron 7
* a light cruiser division of the Light Cruiser Flotilla 18
* a destroyer elementHMS Skirmisher and HMS Ambuscade
===Republic of Haven Navy===
Hera System Defense Command, CO Commodore Tom Milligan
* a battle division (BB)
* a battlecruiser element
* a LAC element
* system missile pods
==Course of battle==
With accurate intelligence on the disposition of Hera's defenses from HMS Skirmisher and HMS Ambuscade, the Manticoran forces translated into normal space into two separate groups on converging cources. Group one consisted of HMS Imperator, HMS Intolerant, and three Saganami-C-class heavy cruisers. Group two consisted of the remaining four of Battle Squadron 61's SD(P)s and three light cruisers. Having detected the arrival of Skirmisher and Ambuscade, the Hera System Defense Command was expecting the attack. Commodore Milligan ordered a change in the system alert status from Condition Two to Condition One and ordered every civilian hyper-capable starship in the system to leave the system. Those orders issued, he and his staff transferred to his flagship and deployed to meet group one of the Manticoran forces. At that point, Admiral Harrington recorded a message to Milligan in which she pointed out the disparity between their forces and expressed her desire not to kill his people unnecessarily. To that end, she instructed him to abandon and scuttle his ships, promising not to fire on his people as they escaped. Unable to deny the superiority of her forces, Milligan agreed, but decided to engage her with his system defense missile pods as well. Transferring control of the pods to the planet's surface, he ordered his LACs to return to base and their crew to adandon while their commanders scuttled them. In turn, he repeated the process with his starships. Meanwhile, the system defense pods launched on Intolerant and Imperator, both of which initiated their active point defenses. The Havenites launched eleven hundred missiles, but failed to score even a single hit. ()
==Aftermath==
The Royal Manticoran Navy raiding force eliminated every piece of orbital infrastructure in the system. ()
==References==
Hera
Hera