January 2203, part 2
Battle of Jupiter's Moons
January 8th, 2203 0110
Rear Admiral Brenna Muldoon looked at the sensor returns as the range to Jupiter grew smaller. The plot on her display was a maze of criss crossed objects and vectors as the maze of moons around the giant planet crowded the screen with numbers and information. It looked like nothing so much as a minefield. If the Chinese were here already, they could be hiding behind any one, or several, of those rocks. 'That gas giants magnetic fields are going to make it all but impossible to identify any vessels without coming in range of a thrown rock.' she thought. 'How in the world did I draw this assignment. I should be back at the academy examining activities and training plans. If I send everyone in as a group I risk losing most if not all the ships at one time. If I send in scouts to check the moons and sweep the area, they are almost certainly doomed.' She looked hard at the monitor as the distance shrank.
Brenna keyed the channel to the Comm Officer. "Give me all ships." She waited until the monitor showed green for the link to all the ships in her task force. "In less than thirty minutes we wll enter the outer orbits of Jupiter's moons. All ships are to come to general quarters at this time. Exploration Vessel Da Vinci will engage drive and move to a position five light seconds ahead of the Heavy Interceptor Tatianna, on the same heading. Attack Escorts Isabelle and Catherine assume standard attack formation on the Tatianna. Armed Exploration Vessel Louis and Rodney, engage drives and take positions at two light seconds bearing sixty degrees and three hundred degrees respectively from the Tatianna, also on a parallel heading. The Red October will assume a position one light second behind the Tatianna on the same heading. US Space Interceptors Hancock and Hamilton, take positions alongside the Red October at two thousand kilometers bearing ninety and two seventy degrees. Planetary Survey Vessel Michaelangelo take position at two light second behind the Red October, same bearing. All missile ships, remove primary and secondary safeties. Rear Admiral Muldoon, out."
'We are coming right down the orbital path' thought Brenna. 'Most of the small outer moons are scattered in various orbits away from our approach, but three of the four largest are close to the orbital. They are the prime real estate here. The battle is for them. Calisto and Ganymede are both on this side of Jupiter, each thirty degrees off the orbital on opposite sides. Io is directly on the orbital on the far side of Jupiter. Europa is ninety degrees off the orbital on the dark side of Jupiter. With just a slight bend in course we can make a close sweep of all four, plus get a slight peek at the inner four moons, all in just one pass. If they are clear, this is where we will arrange our defense. But they won't be. Somewhere out here the Chinese are waiting. I'm almost sure of it.' And the minutes crawled by.
On board the Exploration Vessel Da Vinci, Lieutenant Commander Gustav Schimmelpfennig watched as the various readouts about the moons scrolled across the screen. They had drawn point, a competely unarmed vessel. He could see the reason, if they were lost it would not affect the combat capabilities much if at all. They had passed by Calisto and Ganymede without any anomylous readings, and had just received orders to alter course by sixty degrees to port. The helm made the change without a word. After Admiral Muldoon's radio command, any repeating of it was just unnecessary. It was regulation to give the orders himself, but the helmsman knew his commander better than that. The new course brought them directly toward Europa.
Suddenly the sensor returns blazed in red and orange.
'Chinese Strike Vessel detected. Location - Surface of Europa. Range 0.75 LS.
Bearing 02 Asc +03
! MISSILE LAUNCH DETECTED ! INBOUND X3
Gustav barely had time to key the sensor transmit before his ship was torn apart by multiple drive detonations. Forty five seconds later the debris would become part of Europa as it impacted on the surface with a force rivaling the explosions that had destroyed the ship.
Brenna's screen sprang to life with the transmissions of the Da Vinci and sensor readings of the missiles that destroyed it. A second set of readings showed a launch from Ganymede of a single missile targeted at the Armed Explorer Rodney. The Rodney fared much better. The missile passed into the hellish exhaust of the Rodney's drive and was consumed before it could detonate. Brenna was amazed at the almost immediate response of the Rodney's crew as they launched in return, their missile churning up clouds of dust on the moon's surface. The missile had detonated its drive well above the moon's surface, but the heat pulse and kinetic energy of the molecules that had once been the missile had ravaged the moon. The Red October had the most advanced (and experimental) sensor array in the fleet. They showed that the hostile launch had come from a vessel landed on the moon's surface. A vessel now obscured by the fury of the Rodney's missile detonation.
The other ships seemed to respond painfully slow as they struggled to gain sensor locks and plot targetting solutions to the contacts that were springing up across her monitor. The Red October had originally been designed as a large scientific and exploration vessel. The two missile bays were almost an afterthought. And her targetting computer seemed to crawl through the computations. The sensor returns showed a vessel had lifted off the surface of Calisto and swung into an orbit that had taken it behind the moon, hiding it from her ships. On Ganymede, unbelievably a drive bloom was appearing from out of the dust cloud. Sensor returns also showed three Chinese Strike Vessels and a single Convoy Escort had lifted off from Europa and were moving to put Jupiter between them and her group. At their current acceleration they would be able to succeed before her lead ships would be able to bring them into range. Only god knew what other ships were hiding amongst these moons.
"Fleet, alter course sixty degrees starboard. Clear your drive paths, I don't want anyone frying our own ships. Then engage drives, full accelleration." She needed to make sure they didn't get to close to the Chinese Vessels. Only the superior range of the Euro's missiles had carried the last engagement. "Blow that damned ship from Ganymede off my map NOW!" She couldn't change the way her voice sounded, but she could definetely up the volume. Almost as she said it launches from the Rodney, Catherine and Isabelle converged on what sensors were reporting as a colony vessel. 'A damned heavily armed one if it is.' she thought as the missile's detonations obsured the ship's sensors momentarily. Afterward only shattered debris remained. 'Payback for the Da Vinci.'
She checked ship positions quickly. "Michaelangelo, turn around and get out of here. Rodney come sixty degrees port." The Rodney was the extreme right of her formation and she didn't want to put it out of range of the fight, or the rest of the group if they needed to support it. The comm link suddenly showed the Louis had managed to gain a tenuous lock on the Chinese Convoy Escort and had launched. But it had been at the extreme end of the ship's range and the missile lost tracking before it could make intercept.
A flashing light showed that the US Space Interceptors Hancock and Hamilton had suddenly broken formation and turned to port. She realized that they only carried lasers and would not be able to engage the Chinese vessels at this range, but why try if they could be destroyed without danger? She wanted to open the comm link with the US ships but knew she didn't have time. She needed to command her own ships and try to win this battle. Comm returns from the Rodney indicated a second Chinese Convoy Escort was moving behind Jupiter on a course to try and intercept the Rodney. But for the moment the Chinese ship had manuvered behind the small moon Metis and the Rodney was unable to get a sensor lock. These damned moons could be the death of them.
"Tatianna group, port sixty degrees to parallel the US ships. Follow Rodney's tracking. When that Chinese Escort appears, fire. Armed Explorer Louis, starboard another sixty degrees. Your walking right into that Chinese Escort." Moments after the Louis had come about The Chinese Convoy Escort appeared from behind the small moon and launched. Heartbeats later the Tatianna group fired on the Chinese Escort. The Louis had put just enough distance behind it that the Chinese missile's guidance was unable to correct for the small inaccuracies in its targetting - a victim of its own breakneck speed and mass. The plume of superheated particles passed harmlessly out into space.
The Tatianna had been refitted following the first Chinese incident, removing her one laser emitter and relacing it with a second missile bay. Now that extra long range firepower would come into play. The Heavy Interceptor Tatianna and the Attack Escorts Catherine and Isabelle all launched on the small Chinese vessel. Brenna watched the four missiles on her display as they moved to intercept. Then the inevitable sensor disruption as the drives detonated in a long string along the course of their target. Then the sensors registered a fifth detonation of immense size as the small ship's drive lost containment and consumed the ship. 'Two down, how many left?'
The Sensor Comm brought Brenna out of her little reverie as he keyed her that the three Chinese Strike Vessels and the single Convoy Escort with them had appeared. The Chinese group's trajectory and the Red October's move out and around the planet had brought them into view. Then the Chinese ships disappeared behind the moon Amalthea. It was considered a minor moon, but with a length of over 120 kilometers it was more than massive enough to hide a group of ships. The Chinese groups were on a course that would allow them to also use Metis to hide their approach, but the manuvers would cost them speed. Enough that they shouldn't be able to catch the Euro ships and bring them into range.
" Tatianna, come about sixty degrees starboard, we need to keep away from those Chinese Ships. Louis, come about onto the same course as the Tatianna. Rodney adjust course to maintain missile range to the Chinese Strike Vessels" Then keying the comm to her own helm Brenna added, "Bring us about to port, I want to see how well these new targetting arrays work on this ship." Brenna had received reports that the Red October's sensor array should allow an almost forty percent increase in engagement range. "Bring us up to full combat speed." She also knew that the systems on the Red October should allow for a greater maximum combat speed than what the rest of her ships would be able to maintain. Maybe if she could show the Chinese that they had no chance to catch her, and she would be able to engage tham at ranges they wouldn't even be able to track her, they might decide to withdraw. Maybe.
Vice Admiral Zhu Rongji considered the situation carefully. He knew that he had lost the Convoy Escort Canton, and the Armed Colony Ship Korea. He had also been forced to have the Armed Colony Ship Manchuria disengage when the bulk of the Pan Euro ships passed between it and the rest of the fleet. The Manchuria had relayed that it had momentary contact with a Pan Euro vessel moving back along the orbital path away from Jupiter, but had been unable to identify it. He had placed the Mobile Construction ship and the Marco Polo at fifteen light seconds from Jupiter on opposite sides to try and relay comm signals to the various ships, as the moons were making consistent communications difficult.
He also had some strange sensor returns indicating the larger Euro vessel, assumed to be the Red October, had reached a speed that was unprecedented in any space going vessel. The US Space Interceptors were continuing on a course to intercept his Attack Frigates, and the Pan Euro Armed Exploration Vessel bearing two seven three was on the edge of their missile range. They would hold fire until they cleared the moon Metis and then fire. They Euro ships would likely be unprepared for the longer range of the new launchers the Attack Frigates carried.
"All Frigates, target the Euro Armed Escort bearing two seven three. Launch when clear of Metis." The little escort would easily be able to disengage, but the US ships would take time to come about. Their inertia would carry them into easy range and the new missiles would make it impossible for them to escape.
Captain Jack Ryan ordered the Hamilton and Hancock forward on an intercept course with the Chinese Strike Vessels. Only six hours ago a coded broadcast from Command had arrived. Intelligence had confirmed the two vessels that had attacked the Interceptor JFK in the belt had been carrying Chinese lasers. Of the entire crew, many his friends, only six had survived. Today he would see them avenged. His lasers should be able to tear apart the Chinese vessels from a distance their short range missiles and outdated lasers woud be unable to reach.
"Target the lead Strike Vessel. Radio our intentions to Rear Admiral Muldoon." It was time to light up their world.
Brenna looked at the various reports on her monitor, and the transmission from Captain Ryan. "Tatianna group, target the Convoy Escort. All other vessel target the lead Strike Vessel." She watched the tactical display as the escorts of 3rd Battle Group launched their missiles one after another. Then she felt the Red October's drive cut out to allow her to deploy missiles from its twin bays. 'This is the first time this ship has launched a weapon in anger' she thought. Then her display lit up with new contacts. Three of them. Each of the Chinese Strike Vessels had launched an as yet uncataloged missile. Targeting seemed to be the Rodney, but at 2.5 LS she should be out of range for any known Chinese ordinance. But these weren't known. Even as her sensors confirmed the destruction of the Chinese Convoy Escort, and that the lead Chinese Strike Vessel was stuttering its drive and venting repeatedly to clear debris from the repeated hits of missile blasts and lasers - it also showed the destruction of the Rodney as it registered the drive field losing containment.
"Tatianna, shift fire to the lead Strike Vessel. Ryan GET OUT OF THERE NOW." The Chinese vessels weren't up to full combat speed yet, but it wasn't going to make any difference. The US ships were way to close. As were half of the Euro ships.
Captain Jack Ryan barely had time to react. The orders to come about and red line the drives had been given, even as the sensors reported a total of nine inbounds. He had seen that his first pass, along with the Euro missiles, had caused the lead Chinese vessel to shudder and vent repeatedly. Its drive bloom was significantly reduced indicating that some of the particle accelerators had been damaged. But it was still launching three missiles. And then the sensors cut out as the drives detonated again and again on the Chinese missiles. He had keyed the monitor to fire the lasers of the Hancock, hoping that hurried fire solutions might find the damaged Chinese ship. But their own red lined drive emissions made a lock on the Chinese ship tenuous at best. As the sensor returns began to come back up he saw the only thing worse than having died in that awful exchange. The Hamilton was still with them. Its drives had cut out to prevent the ship from detonating, but the three scorched setions of its hull were tumbling wildly through space. Anyone left alive in the ship was doomed. There could be no rescue in that field of debris with the tumbling sections of hull.
He had ordered the charge into this. Now his only hope was to try and get them back out.
Vice Admiral Rongji considered the unthinkable. "Comm, radio the Euro vessels. State that we intend to withdraw and stand down all weapons if they will cease fire." The last minute had been a brutal exchange. The Attack Frigate Hunan had come apart under the pounding of the Euro missiles, and his own vessel the Anhui had taken damage to its outer plating in the combat. They had come up to full combat speed and woud likely have been able to destroy the last US Interseptor and Euro Armed Explorer, and even been able to engage one of their Attack Escorts. But the other Attack Escort, the Heavy Escort, and that last ship that had been launching at him from farther than his sensors coud even track, were beyond his engagement envelope. That had made the decision inevitable. If they destroyed the last US ship it would have been an exchange of the two long range missiles that his vessels could deploy, against the Euro's ability to deploy six or seven. It would only have served to lose the last two Frigates he had under his command, and to make any negotiations more difficult as the Euro losses mounted.
And against a ship that could fire farther than his could detect, there would have to be negotiations.
January 26th, 2203
Admiral Jude Kushnir relaxed aboard the Euro space station. Her ship, The Heavy Escort Anastasia was preparing for the same refit that her sister the Tatianna had undergone. The last ship of the class, the Rebecca, was docked at the Mercury station for just the same reason. Eight hours ago the various nations of earth had signed a new treaty. The Treaty of Mare Serenetatis, named for the location it had been signed on the Euro colony on the moon.
The new treaty reaffirmed most of the limitations of the Treaty of L2, and had given the Pan Euro claim to Jupiter and all her satalites, plus half of the Trojan belt. China had accepted Saturn and her satelites, while the US claimed Uranus, Neptune, and the last half of the Trojans. All bodies of the Kuiper belt and scattered disk were to be claimed by the first nation able to place a permanent colony of 50,000. It would be a long time before anyone had to worry about that though...
At least the worries of war were over for the moment....
In the late twentieth century a group of astronomers posited that the periodic extinctions of earth's prehistory were the result of a red dwarf star far beyond the scattered disk. It would orbit Sol, and the elliptic shape of its orbit woud dislodge comets and asteroids from the Oort cloud and scattered disk, sending them careening into the solar system periodically. Named for the periodic extinctions it would cause, the astronomers dubbed it Nemesis. Its low emisions, possibly less than 1 percent of Sol, coupled with other factors would make it troublesome to identify. As the years and decades went by, research for Nemesis was dropped.
But it existed.
It was a small star even as red dwarfs go, with output barely 0.2% of Sol. As its fusion reaction and emissions were driven by convection, it never 'flared' to life and cleared the dust of its formation from its galactic neighborhood, making it nearly invisible - and particularly uninteresting. Its only gas giant was a slow orbiter, with a mean density even lower than Saturn, leaving little oscilation in it's emissions to garner attention. It's other four planets were even smaller, and very cold. Invisible.
But it managed to harbor life.
Life had evolved on a moon of a more distant planet. It had learned to tolerate intense cold, and even to hibernate for the days or weeks that its orbit would pass behind the planet it circled, cutting it off from the faint warmth of its star. It became several types of life, and each in turn became more intelligent. They worked together and reached a point where they could reach out to the other moons of their planet, and then to the other planets of their system. And they readily found homes on all of these moons. Even in the tiny asteroid belt that circled their sun. And then space began to run out.
And the various races learned of war.
It was a total war of species against species, with only extermination viewed as victory. In the end only one of the races survived. And only just. But they rebuilt, and grew again. Until space once again grew to small for new growth.
And then they looked out.
Space held several stars nearby. Proxima Centauri, Sol, and others. But these two were the closest. Both were just short of a light year away. To far to travel and keep the crew fed, maintained, and alive.
But they could hibernate.
And so the first colony ships were built. It would be dozens of lifetimes for them to make the trips. And the first would go to Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star like their own. Eventually the first ships were finished and launched. For a great time afterward more ships were built and sent to the distant star.
And then it was time to turn to the bright star Sol.
And the armada of ships was built and launched, with more built and following the first to leave. And this continued until it was time to turn to another star.
And the crews slept as the ships passed silently through space.
It would take the ships 91 earth years to make their trip of 50,000 AU. And then the systems began to wake the crews back up. As the race that inhabited the Sol system battled around its fifth planet, the last of the first wave of colony ships was completing their surveys - and emplacing populations. On the bodies in the cold region of space they would call home. The star was bright, but their were many, many places that they could live quite easily.
But they had not forgotten the war that consumed their home system.
And they brought the warships they had learned to use.
And they knew that coexistence was futile.....
///////
This first turn was an eye openning experience. Up to this point my family had played RPG and worked together or their starfire races all tended to cooperate. This was the first time I had seen them go after each other with such energy. And it brought a new meaning to the word 'espianage'. Any stray scrap of paper or unattended trash can was fair game. Eavesdroppping was rampant. It was this way the US player learned of the Chinese involvement in the attack on the JFK. It was a long while before they would begin to trust each other, even in the face of a common enemy. It definitely slowed their ability to respond to external threats.
For those interested, here are the ships that took part in the battle.
EURO (Admiral Brenna Muldoon - Average)
Science Vessel Red October FG 22HS
[2]A A A A A A H Qa Mgs Xp (cpCp) Ra Ra Ya Qa (Cp) [7/1]
Heavy Escort Tatianna CT 16HS
[2]A A A A H Mgs Ra Ra Qa (cpCp) [6/1]
Attack Escorts Catherine , Isabelle ES 12HS
[2]A Hs Mgs La Ra Qa (Cp) [6/1]
Armed Explorer Rodney , Louis EX 7HS
[2]A Hs Qa Ra (cp) [4/1]
Exploration Vessel Da Vinci FT0 7HS
[2]A H Xp H Qa (Cp) [6/1]
Planetary Survey Vessel Michaelangelo FT0 7HS
[2]A (BbS) Xp H Qa (Cp) [6/1]
US SPACE
Interceptor Hancock , Hamilton CT 16HS
[2]A A A H (MNE) Qa Lb Lb (cpCp) [6/1]
CHINA (Admiral Zhu Rongji - Average)
Attack Frigate Hunan , Anhui , Hubei FG 22HS
[2]A A A A A A A Hs Qa (Cp) Ra Mgs Ga Ga Qa (Cp) [6/1]
Convoy Escort Canton , Jinan EX 7HS
[2]A H Qa Ga (Cp) [6/1]
Armed Colony Vessel Korea , Manchuria FT2 16HS
[2]A H H H H H Qv Qv Qv (BbS) Hs Mgs Ga Qa (Cp) [4/1]
Survey Vessel Marco Polo FT0 7HS
[2]A Hs (BbS) H H Xp Qa (cp) [6/1]
Mobile Construction Ship FT4 30HS
[2]H H H Qa (Cp) (SYM0) [2/1]