Beam Fighters vs Fast Rail Frigates
The Frigates won. Mistakes were made on all sides, some more severe than others, but in the end the rail frigates won with nearly reparable component damage. Any proper report would be tediously dull unless written as high drama from 1st or 2nd person perspective. The next time I feel like writing a high-drama short story I'll come back to this. Until then, moving on.
Writing Style #7: Recollections
A recounting of Shield Fleet vs Classic Missiles
The clash between the Shielded Fleet and the Classic Missiles is, without a doubt, the closest fight the Alpha Cenauri Arena has seen that was not decided by a tremendous strategic or tactical mistake. The contest opened with remarkably little subtle, with both sides charging the other jump point and meeting in the center. The Shielded fleet established contact first by detecting the Classic Missile active scanner emissions. Orders were given to close to 30m km for missile firing.
Within the hour, the Classic Missile fleet established contact by active sensor ping. They closed gave orders to close to 70m km. Uncertain of their target, the fleet launched four salvos, one each against a different target, before ceasing to observe and reload from the colliers. Observations indicated that the targets had at least class-2 armor, shields somewhere between strength 35-45, point defense batteries capable of destroying 2-4 salvos, and no anti-missiles. The intelligence gain almost made up for the depressed realization that they had just fired nearly a third of their offense to negligible effect. Determined to make up the loss, the classic missile fleet adjusted orders to close to 9m km, so that the Nahid escorts could use their size-4 tubes to provide a 25% increase in missile density.
As the fleets closed passed 32m km the Shielded fleet had there chance to realized that their plans were flawed as they slowly realized that their adversaries were smaller than the 125 resolution used. No firing solution would be available until the 20.8m km mark. At 18m km the shielded missiles had their chance to open fire.
The hailstone missile of the Shielded fleet exemplified the philosophy that quantity has a quality of its own. The 30x outbound missiles in each wave, fired 45 seconds apart, were an impressive sight sure to leave their victim a realization of impending doom. The shielded fleet fired a full wave against each of the Falaq destroyers seen to have a large anti-ship scanner. The Nahid, for their part, were quick to respond to the threat, and began promptly launching AMM 3:1 as the inbound missiles appeared. By the 2nd wave the missiles did begin to inspire fear, but it was fear that the Nahid would run out of missiles rather than any worry of being overwhelmed. The order was given to cut back to a 2:1 AMM ratio to make the missiles last. On the third wave the order was given to resume launching the SuckerPunch ASM, this time 2.5 waves per target.
As the last HailStone wave vanished emotions peaked high on all sides. The shielded fleet with disappointed disbelief that of the 120 missiles launched only a single hit leaked through. The Classic Missile fleet was wavering between giddy relief of survival and disappointment at another suboptimal missile launch. One one hand the Nahid had fired 75% of their stocks in an effort that left one escort with just 5 missiles remaining, while their nearly unscathed survival proved that their launch need not have been hurried.
The 2nd set of SuckerPunch impacts established a new high for effectiveness. On each target the 1st wave shattered the shields, the 2nd wave shattered the armor, and the next half wave destroyed internal components. Both targeted Turk and Zambia were left venting atmosphere even if only one was slowed. The Classic Missile fleet reloaded a final time from colliers, closed to 9m km, and opened up an improved volley of 30 suckerpunch missiles, a wave and a half at each previously injured foe. The results were devastating. The extra missiles were desisive, allowing the first wave to shatter the rebuilt shield and nock the target out of formation. The next half wave then struck the vulnerable ship separated from protective point defense fire with a killing blow. Two shielded ships were destroyed, but with insufficient missiles to reload all launchers the missile fleet was forced to give ground as the shielded fleet pressed onward to camp on the Classic fleet's jump point. For the next 19 days the two fleets sat in draw, waiting.
The wait ended with the jump emergence of reinforcements. The Shielded fleet immediately opened fire with point defense weapons. The defending Classic missile fleet ordered the slower Nahid and Falaq destroyers to separate from the Fath colliers to allow the missile reloads to speed ahead. Freed from the slower destroyers, the fath immediately rocketed out of the ambush before the first Zambia could open fire. In the end, both reinforcing destroyers were lost, while both colliers escaped to rearm the main fleet. For now, the two fleets stood tied at two kills, although this distinction would scarcely last the hour.
Partially reamed, the Classic missile fleet unloaded everything they had in four waves, two waves targeting each of the Zambia cruisers now known to carry the point defense guns. Weakened by the earlier loss of one Zambia, additional missiles leaked through the remaining point defense fire. This time two waves were enough. A 2nd Zambia fell, allowing the 3rd to fall as well despite the 4th missile wave being understrength. The Classic missile fleet now stood at four kills, although the losses were immediately replaced by Zambia and Turk in the shielded fleet reinforcement group. Again, the two fleets settled down to wait.
At first the 2nd wave of reinforcements ran better than ever for the classic missiles, the single point defense Zambia managed to take out a single fath collier while the other collier and two destroyers began their escape, but this escape proved short lived. The Turk from the 1st reinforcement group had been saving its missiles for the occasion, and began launching salvos one by one at the escapees until they were slowed to below the shielded fleet speed. The reinforcing Falaq made a valiant effort at covering the retreat, firing missiles point-blank as the shields tried to close. However, the shields were happy to drop back to recharge and this defiance soon ended when the lone falaq's magazines ran dry. With no survivors from the 2nd reinforcement wave the unarmed classic missile fleet was compelled to reluctantly surrender.
Winner: Shielded Missile Fleet
Casualties:
Shielded Missiles: 3x Zambia, 1x Turkmenistan
Classic Missiles: 2x Falaq, 2x Nahid, 2x Fath
Four more matches and this version of Alpha Centari will be completed.
Shielded Missiles vs Fast Rail Frigates for 1st and 2nd place,
Classic Missiles vs Guass and Beam Fighters vs Long Missiles in the looser bracket semi-finnal, with the winners then facing off for the 3rd and 4th place spots.
Is anyone interested in seeing me do a 2nd Alpha Centauri arena at a higher tech level once this one ends, and if so would anyone be interested in submitting designs instead of everything being my own creation?