Author Topic: Federated Nations Campaign - Part 2  (Read 2551 times)

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Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Federated Nations Campaign - Part 2
« on: October 25, 2009, 09:52:29 PM »
With a hostile alien force in a system just two jumps from Earth, the first priority for Fleet Admiral Thomas Shaw, the head of the Federation Navy, was to secure the safety of any unarmed vessels near the combat area. Two groups of government-owned colony ships were in Proxima Centauri, one heading back from the recently established colony on Proxima II and the second en route to Minerva. The three Jamestown class ships in the second colony fleet were ordered to return to Sol immediately and unload their colonists on Mars. The Proxima II colony would have to be out of bounds to commercial traffic as well as it was just sixty-three million kilometres from the Proxima - Alpha Centauri jump point. Three Genesis class terraformers were in orbit of Proxima II so they were ordered to pull out and head back to the Sol system. Unfortunately, at 652 km/s, they couldn't run very fast. All eleven Atlas class freighters, two jump gate construction ships and a Gateway class freighter were in the chain that comprised the systems of Barnard's Star, 70 Ophuichi and Kuiper 75 so they were all out of harm's way. The third jump gate construction ship was in Lacaille 9352, building a jump gate connection to Proxima. As the gate was one third completed, the ship was ordered to remain on station. Five of the eight survey ships were in overhaul while the others were deployed in Struve 2398 and Gliese 674, adjacent to Proxima and Alpha Centauri respectively. Both systems were outside the limited jump gate network and therefore outside of communication range.

Three of the five destroyer squadrons were on training exercises in the inner Sol system so they were all ordered to return to Earth for refuelling and resupply. The Fourth Destroyer Squadron was at full strength and in Earth orbit but the four ships had never trained together so Fleet Admiral Shaw regarded their deployment to Alpha Centauri as risky, while the Fifth Destroyer Squadron still lacked a jump cruiser. The First and Second Squadrons had the most experience so they would be sent to Alpha Centauri with the Third deployed to Proxima II as a reserve force. The Fourth and Fifth would guard Earth.

At 11:42 on August 17th, nineteen hours after the destruction of the colony ship, a new disaster struck. The three Genesis class terraformers had only moved forty-five million kilometres from Proxima II when they came under missile attack. The unknown and unseen aliens were now in the Proxima Centauri system as well, just one jump from Earth. The first salvo destroyed one of the huge 57,000 ton terraforming ships. 186 survivors made it to the life pods out of a crew of 561. Two minutes later a second salvo arrived and a second Terraformer exploded. The remaining ship continued to run blindly, not even aware of the direction from which the missiles were arriving. For two and a half hours, the ship held her course and the crew held its collective breath. Then, at 14:17, two active sensors were detected by the Terraformer's extremely limited EM sensors at a distance of just six million kilometres. Strangely, the two alien ships appeared to be on a direct course for the lifepods from Genesis 002 rather than attempting to intercept the surviving Terraformer. Even more than the fate of the lone surviving Terraformer, the great concern for Fleet Admiral Shaw and his staff was the speed of the alien ships. At 5833 km/s they were almost fifty percent faster than the Federation Navy's own warships. Their size and full capabilities were still entirely unknown.

[attachment=3:1a8ach5p]Proxima001.GIF[/attachment:1a8ach5p]
[attachment=2:1a8ach5p]Proxima002.GIF[/attachment:1a8ach5p]
The brief contact with the alien sensors was lost at 14:34. At 14:37 the beacons of the Genesis 002 life pods ceased transmission. Apparently the aliens had picked up the 134 survivors, although whether the alien motivation was some misplaced sense of honour or a desire to find subjects for interrogation was purely conjecture. Five minutes later, the Genesis 003 life pods vanished from sensors as well. The flight of Genesis 001 continued and still the mysterious aliens did not interfere. At 19:41, eight hours after the loss of her two sister ships, the first Federation Navy warships entered Proxima from Sol. The Third Destroyer Squadron comprised the jump cruiser Haruna, the Agincourt class destroyers Balaclava and Crecy and the Guardian class escort Defender. Instead of her original mission to stand in reserve at the Proxima II colony, she was now ordered to hold at the Proxima - Sol jump point to warn of any intruder. Once the First and Second Destroyer Squadrons arrived in Proxima, they would advance toward the colony as a combined force.

[attachment=1:1a8ach5p]proxima003.GIF[/attachment:1a8ach5p]
At 09:37 on August 18th, with the Terraformer still making slow progress toward the Sol jump point, the eight ships of the First and Second Destroyer Squadrons left the Third Squadron at the jump point and set their course for Proxima II. Fortunately, both the Proxima II colony and the Minerva colony had been either ignored by the aliens or somehow remained undetected. Commanding the overall force was Commodore Cornelius Hilgendorf, of the Second Destroyer Squadron, from the destroyer Waterloo. The First and Third were under the command of Commodore Robert Rowley and Commodore Alexandra Perry respectively.

Because of the alien attacks, the financial restrictions on production were lifted and construction work began on a pair of Caernarvon class Planetary Defence Centres, each of which had the firepower of an Agincourt class destroyer and two-thirds of the defensive firepower of the Guardian class escorts. Although in the longer-term, specialised PDC-specific systems would be designed and built, in the crisis atmosphere after the attacks in Alpha Centauri and Proxima, the decision was made to go ahead with an design based on existing and therefore immediately-available systems.

Code: [Select]
Caernarvon class Planetary Defence Centre    5950 tons     522 Crew     895.4 BP      TCS 119  TH 0  EM 0
Armour 8-29     Sensors 1/96     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 34
Magazine 706    

Mk 2 Guided Missile Launching System (10)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 15
Mk 1 Guided Missile Launching System (6)    Missile Size 4    Rate of Fire 60
FN/SPG-10 Anti-Missile Fire Control (2)     Range 960k km    Resolution 1
FN/SPG-8 Missile Fire Control (1)     Range 76.8m km    Resolution 80
RGM-1A Falchion (90)  Speed: 20,000 km/s   End: 50.5m    Range: 60.6m km   WH: 5    Size: 4    TH: 66 / 40 / 20
RIM-2A Sentinel (346)  Speed: 24,000 km/s   End: 1.6m    Range: 2.3m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 176 / 105 / 52

FN/SPS-7 Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 7680     Range 76.8m km    Resolution 80
FN/SPD-9 Missile Detection Sensor (1)     GPS 96     Range 960k km    Resolution 1
The First and Second Destroyer Squadrons passed the outbound Terraformer at 09:30 on August 22nd. Six hours later, at 15:08, the huge FN/SPY-11 Area Search Sensors on the jump cruisers Kongo and Kirishima detected six alien ships, all of which were 9550 tons and therefore sixty percent larger than the warships of the Federation Navy. They were located just eighteen million kilometres beyond Proxima II but there was still no sign of any attacks against the colony. Confronted by a faster alien force that out-massed his own, Commodore Hilgendorf could be excused for exercising discretion and pulling back his ships or at least calling for reinforcements. However, he knew that the defences of Earth could not be reduced and that Fleet Admiral Shaw would not uncover the Proxima - Sol jump point in case a second alien force was lurking nearby. Furthermore, there were 680,000 colonists on Proxima II and another 1.7 million on Minerva, located beyond the jump point to Alpha Centauri. Finally the fact that the third Terraformer had been allowed to flee the area suggested the aliens could be short of ammunition, so he elected to advance to within the sixty million kilometre range of his missiles, assuming the aliens would let him, and open fire.

[attachment=0:1a8ach5p]Proxima004.GIF[/attachment:1a8ach5p]
to be continued...
 

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Federated Nations Campaign - Part 2
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2009, 11:21:47 PM »
The Federation ships drew within sixty million kilometres early on August 23rd and still the alien ships showed no sign of movement. Conscious that if he launched his RGM-1A Falchion anti-ship missiles and the aliens moved away, the missiles might run out of fuel, Commodore Hilgendorf decided to continue closing the range. Finally, at 04:19 with his fleet just under fifty million kilometres from the enemy, he gave the order to open fire. Unfortunately, his fleet's tactical officers immediately discovered that they could not lock on to the enemy ships at that range due to heavy electronic countermeasures. Their best estimate was that the range would have to be no more than thirty-eight million kilometres. Given that distance was only half of the normal maximum range of the FN/SPG-8 Missile Fire Control, Commodore Hilgendorf was now more worried about the alien ECM than their size and potential speed. Regardless, he could not let them sit so close to a colony of the Federated Nations with impunity so he ordered his ships to begin closing the range once again.

[attachment=1:1sc29g0p]Proxima005.GIF[/attachment:1sc29g0p]
At thirty-eight million kilometres, with the alien fleet still apparently oblivious to the Federation ships, Commodore Hilgendorf repeated his open fire order. Each of the four Agincourt class destroyers targeted a different alien ship and launched five salvos, each of which contained six RGM-1A Falchions. With a third of his force's entire ordnance load en route to its targets, the Commodore could only wait for the results. The reason for the aliens' immobility remained a mystery. Had they suffered some type of mass breakdown, were they waiting for orders or had they simply stopped to chat? Against the advice of his operations officer he had decided to hold back two-thirds of his missiles and assess the first attack, rather than risk wasting them against some unexpected defence. Commodore Hilgendorf fervently hoped his missile attack would be effective and not just serve to awaken a deadly foe.

[attachment=0:1sc29g0p]Proxima006.GIF[/attachment:1sc29g0p]
 

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Federated Nations Campaign - Part 2
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2009, 12:00:24 PM »
The first missiles reached the alien fleet at 05:40 Zulu. Due to their slow response to the Commodore's orders, two of the four Agincourts had fired fifteen seconds after the first pair so the twelve missiles from Agincourt and Blenheim arrived ahead of those from Waterloo and Salamanca. There were two classes of alien ship, designated as Apollo and Achilles by the fleet's tactical computers. Two of the aliens were Apollo class and the rest were Achilles class. Three of the six missiles directed against the vessel designated Apollo 001 scored hits and the second of the three hits was accompanied by an atmospheric out-gassing, which indicated the armour had been penetrated. Only one hit was registered against Achilles 003 and there was no visible sign of damage. Seconds after the missile strikes, an active sensor was detected coming online aboard Apollo 002 that matched the two signatures detected by Genesis 001. The fact that no sensor was detected on Apollo 001 suggested that it might have been damaged by the Federation attack. The aliens also began moving directly away from the Federation destroyers at 5833 km/s. Commodore Hilgendorf ordered his ships to pursue, despite their inferior speed, in order to keep their fire controls in range as long as possible.

The first missiles from Waterloo and Salamanca reached their targets fifteen seconds after the initial attack, scoring three hits against Achilles 004 and one against Apollo 002. Neither ship began streaming atmosphere. The second wave of twenty-four missiles, again staggered over fifteen seconds, resulted in eight hits. Atmosphere loss was detected from both Apollo class ships and Apollo 002 slowed to 5416 km/s. Given the low rate of successful missile attacks, it was fortunate there was no anti-missile fire. As a result of the Apollo class falling out of formation, Achilles 003 brought its active sensor online. So far all detected active sensors had a range of sixty-one million kilometres and a resolution of 73.

At 05:43, Apollo 001 took two more hits, neither of which penetrated the armour, and a single missile struck Achilles 003. So far, neither of the targeted Achilles class ships had lost any atmosphere, which suggested their armour was stronger than the Apollos. The twelve Falchions in the second half of the third wave scored just a single hit in Apollo 002, without any obvious effect. Each of the Apollos suffered three hits from the fourth wave and the speed of both ships dropped to 5000 km/s, still twenty percent faster than their Federation pursuers. Achilles 003 and Achilles 004 were both hit twice. The fifth and final wave of Federation missiles inflicted three more hits on Apollo 001, which reduced speed to 4583 km/s and two hits against Apollo 002, which maintained its 5000 km/s speed. Achilles 003 and Achilles 004 were each struck three times, still without any sign of internal damage. In total, one hundred and twenty RGM-1A Falchions were launched against the alien fleet, forty-one of which detonated close enough to damage their targets.

By this time, the aliens had pulled out of fire control range so no follow-up attack was possible. With no way to catch the enemy fleet, Commodore Hilgendorf ordered his ships to move into orbit of Proxima II so they could protect the colony and maintain sensor coverage of the jump point to Alpha Centauri. He believed the aliens were out of missiles but it was still possible they had launched once they were under attack and the missiles were en route. As time passed that possibility became less and less likely. At 07:11, the faster of the damaged Apollos increased speed to 5416 km/s, presumably because it had repaired an engine. At 08:40, just at the point when the trailing Apollo moved out of alien active sensor range of Proxima II and the Federation ships in orbit, all of the alien ships changed course to head for the jump gate to Lacaille 9352, approximately four hundred million kilometres away. Commodore Hilgendorf sent an urgent message to Golden Gate, a construction ship building a jump gate on the far side of the same jump point, ordering her to run for it. Unfortunately the construction ship was trapped in the system as she had entered through the jump gate on the Proxima side and couldn't leave until she had built a matching jump gate on the Lacaille side. The Commodore request a Gateway class jump freighter be dispatched from Sol so that a rescue mission could be attempted if the aliens did in fact enter the Lacaille 9352 system. He also asked for deep space tracking stations to be established on Proxima II as soon as possible. In the meantime, he decided to take his own ships toward the Lacaille 9352 jump point on a converging course, hoping to move back within weapons range.

[attachment=0:19819gaq]Proxima007.GIF[/attachment:19819gaq]
 

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Federated Nations Campaign - Part 2
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2009, 03:18:14 PM »
At 11:13 Zulu, the faster of the two damaged Apollos completed repairs to its engines and increased its speed to match that of the four Achilles class ships.. The other Apollo had already increased speed to 5000 km/s and at 13:18, it accelerated to 5416 km/s. Gradually, the unknown aliens were repairing their battle damage. By this point, the Federation ships had closed the range to the closest Apollo to fifty-six million kilometres. Commodore Hilgendorf ordered Waterloo to attempt a lock-on in case the enemy ship had suffered damage to its ECM but the attempt was unsuccessful. The second Apollo increased speed to maximum at 14:19. All six alien ships were now at 5862 km/s and easily outpacing the Federation ships. Realising his converging course idea would not work in time, Commodore Hilgendorf decided to turn towards the alien fleet, hoping they were more interested in reaching Lacaille 9352 than avoiding his ships. It was a futile attempt. Even on a diagonally crossing course, the alien ships were still faster and the Federation destroyers did not even get within fifty million kilometres before the aliens had passed in front of them and receded rapidly into the distance. The chase resumed, although purely with the intention of keeping the aliens within sensor range and confirming a transit into Lacaille 9352.

The four Achilles class alien ships vanished into Lacaille 9352 at 03:06 on August 24th, followed by the two Apollos at 03:22 and 03:59. There was no way to receive messages from the Golden Gate due to the lack of a jump gate on the Lacaille side but follow-up warnings were sent to the ship after each alien transit. When the last alien ship left Proxima, the two Federation destroyer squadrons were one hundred and twenty-four million kilometres away. They finally arrived at the jump point at 12:35. Commodore Hilgendorf ordered the jump cruiser Kirishima to transit and determine the situation in Lacaille 9352. Kirishima located Golden Gate, one hundred and ten million kilometres further out from the star and unharmed. The alien ships were almost two hundred million kilometres away and heading for the inner system. Their heading seemed to be for the gas giant Lacaille 9352 V and its system of thirty-five moons. Golden Gate began moving back toward the jump point in preparation for the arrival of Brandenburg, a Gateway class jump freighter.

[attachment=1:373zbu8j]Lacaille001.GIF[/attachment:373zbu8j]
Two days passed without further incident and the attention of the Federation Navy began to focus on the longer term rather than the immediate crisis. Creation of a sixth destroyer squadron was authorised, resulting in the laying down of two Agincourts, a Guardian and a Kongo class jump cruiser. The real issue though was the evident technological advantages of the alien ships. Sixty percent larger, almost fifty percent faster, with electronic counter-measures powerful enough to halve the range of the Navy's fire control systems and firing missiles that, based on the destruction of the two terraformers, had warheads with twice the destructive power of the RGM-1A Falchion. The research facilities of the Federated Nations were committed to economic research due to the ongoing financial crisis. Politicians and Admirals agreed that their current project to boost civilian production should be completed, as they would need the financial benefits it would generate, but after that they would have to concentrate almost exclusively on weapons and propulsion systems. One exception would be the development of a salvage module, so that if any alien ships were destroyed their wreckage could be analysed for new technology.

In addition to the technological enhancements, colony defences would have to be built and any future terraforming projects and even colony expeditions would require military escort. Ideally, a network of sensors would be established at key choke points so that any alien activity could be monitored. For the moment, further expansion of known space would have to wait. Once those survey ships still out on the frontiers returned to base, they would be restricted to supporting military operations.

On August 26th at 07:29, the two Apollo class ships reappeared at the edge of Kirishima's sensor range, heading back toward the jump point from a different bearing from the one on which they left. Brandenburg had covered barely ten percent of the distance from the Proxima - Sol jump point to the Proxima - Lacaille 9352 jump point so there was still no way for Golden Gate to escape the Lacaille 9352. Commodore Hilgendorf ordered her to head back into the outer system as a precaution and brought the rest of the First and Second Destroyer Squadrons into the system to join Kirishima. With the jump point at their back, they could easily jump out to avoid missile attack, although the jump cruisers could only escort two ships at once so they would have to make two jumps each. Commodore Hilgendorf  wanted all his available ships in Lacaille 9352 so the two Guardians could protect the fleet while the Agincourts attacked any alien ships that approached within thirty-eight million kilometres.

Fifty minutes after the initial contact, with the Apollos still 221m kilometres away, three smaller 4800 ton ships were detected escorting the 9600 ton Apollos. One was of a different class than the other two and was designated as Odysseus 001. The others were designated as Menelaus 001 and Menelaus 002.

[attachment=0:373zbu8j]Lacaille002.GIF[/attachment:373zbu8j]
 

Offline welchbloke

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Re: Federated Nations Campaign - Part 2
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2009, 05:40:10 PM »
Very interesting write up so far Steve.  Looks like you've kicked up a real hornet's nest!
Welchbloke
 

Offline waresky

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Re: Federated Nations Campaign - Part 2
« Reply #5 on: October 31, 2009, 06:17:22 PM »
edit-erase.by Waresky
« Last Edit: November 01, 2009, 08:12:35 AM by waresky »
 

Offline Steve Walmsley (OP)

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Re: Federated Nations Campaign - Part 2
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2009, 09:25:15 PM »
Quote from: "waresky"
Whatever Steve write up her Campaignìs History am stopped mine:))..

Am reluctant to build up a "ESCORTRON" (Destroy Squadroon traveller Doctrine@)in size under 5 element of mainly purpouse ship:Destroyer.
Am follow Imperial Vilani doctrine 6 to 10 main Ship-of-the-line then max 10 element's Escort in every Squadroon.

Destroyer r useful on Billion Credit Squadroon,but r better speed up on Trillion Credit and proceed to build up a CRUROn and even BATRON (Cruiser Squadroon.-. Battle Squadroon) group.

Obviously..our puny Human federation was very low level and resource capability atm. (-2400 Imperial TimeLine= 2050 to 2100  present Era)
It's always good to see new after action reports, although if you are going to start posting after action reports, it would probably be best if you started a new thread within the Fiction forum. Posting in the same thread as a different after action report might confuse readers as to which campaign they are reading about.

Steve