Author Topic: Terran Empire - Part Fifteen (December 3 2056-November 13 2057)  (Read 3107 times)

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Offline OAM47 (OP)

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December 3rd 2056 (continued):  The contact heads on a course for a nearby optimal survey location to search for jump points.  The time it takes to recover from transit is worryingly short.  A more immediate concern, though, is that the ship can move at 8000 km/s, far faster than any human ship.

December 6th 2056:  The fleet is hastily assembled.  Eight Hero class ships and two Oregon class ships are sent to intercept.  They must head down the predicted survey pattern, as they can not catch up in a direct line.

December 16th 2056:  The contact beats the fleet to the point without any indication of seeing them, though it may simply not care.  At 420k km task force CO Commodore Floyd Loffler orders active sensors turned on.  The ship is marked at 6000 tons.  Comms are opened and the ship is ordered to exit the system, though so far communication experts have not made a breakthrough.  No response is forthcoming.  After 30 seconds the TES Caruana, Captain Tiara Gonsoulin commanding, is ordered to lock the target and repeats the warning.  One salvo of AAMs are fired as warning shots when there is still no response.  Enemy ECM detected is, quite strong, but the engagement range is well within the reduced targeting distance.  The misses take around twenty seconds to reach the target.  All four are destroyed by some form of close in weapon system.  The contact still does not respond, or fire back, so the Commodore quickly consults with the command staff back on Earth and recieves permission to engage with all missiles.  There's simply too big a risk to let an unknown ship survey Sol.  The ship will be closely monitored for any sign that they wish to surrender, though.

There's a bit of confusing resulting from diffent missile stores on some of the ships, so the first salvo isn't as strong as it is supposed to be.  Still, only the first four missiles are shot down.  Five of the twenty remaining hit for armor damage.  Eight of the ASMs are intercepted give seconds later, of the twelve remaining five hit.  The ship still does not respond, so a second wave is launched.  Two of the first fourteen to arrive hit.  Only one of the next sixteen hit, the older missiles, giving command some live fire data on the differing designs.  There is still no visible damage after three waves.  Targeting success is mixed, but eventually a good wave results is a visible oxygen leak from the ship.  Despite repeated efforts, it still doesn't so much as open the channel to the Earth vessels.  Slowly more hits result in more oxygen loss.  The CIWS fire is noticablly reduced over time and the thermal signature is cut in half with the next two waves.  Even when fully disabled, the ship refuses to respond.  While many are hesitant to destroy the seemingly defenseless ship, the task group can't sit and watch the faster ship.  With the loss of the last fleet fresh in everyone's mind, the executives eventually order the ship to be taken out.  A salvo of AMMs finishes it off. Strangely, some form of shield energy is detected at the last second.  No life pods deploy, making the decision weigh heavier on the minds of those involved.  Overall 564 missiles were used in the engagement.  With the contact destroyed, the task group heads back to Earth and salvage is dispatched.

December 20th 2056:  The crisis is officially declared over.  Commodore Loffler gets the lion share of the good press for the event.  While there's not much celebration, given the circumstances, he's quietly propelled into the nobility as Duke of Illinois.  His health is still a  concern, as is the fact that he's an Industrialist.

December 29th 2056:  Another ship of the same class transits in from the black hole.  The panic is much less this time.  It moves to survey as well, going the other direction around the inner survey ring from the last ship.

January 1st 2057:  Two Hero class ships and the TES Newfoundland are dispatched to intercept and use lasers as an experiment in the effectiveness of the various weapon systems.  Most of the fleet had been on long training exercises before the last engagement, and thus are undergoing minor refits in the shipyard complexes.

January 5th 2057:  Elections see the Militarists lead in light of recent events.

Council:        3 Militarists -       4 Industrialists -  3 Apolitical
Senate:   1411 Militarists  - 1356 Industrialists -  8 Apolitical (Militarist +55)

January 9th 2057:  Contact is abruptly lost with the survey ship as it departs it's last location.  There's a few possibilities as to where it went.  The Ross 248 gate is nearby, sending some at command into fits of worry at the chance of Raye being discovered as well.

January 10th 2057:  The contact is found again, in a very tense situation.  The ship has moved farther from Sol, right into the shipping lane between Earth and the Ross 248 jump gate.  Unfortunately, it is found by a happless Linn Marine colony ship as the contact makes a ramming  attempt.  Unlike during the December Incursion, the civlian ships have not been ordered to radio silence.  Thankfully, the colony ship reports the situation quickly and another system wide communications blackout is issued.  The ship in question has already turned it's systems off of its own accord.  The contact does not seem to have active sensors, as it now moves off without the signal to lock onto.  Soon it's out of detection range again.  Unfortunately, as it is now out of position, it heads down a survey pattern that the intercepting force is not ready to set up an ambush on.

January 15th 2057:  After analysing the contact's paterns, the TECS Balrog, a military freighter, activates its transponder and tries to lure the ship onto a more favorable intercept.  It's a very outdated design, though, and the best choice to be effective, but if lost it's not a huge deal.

Later in the day the salvage operation of the last incursion vessel is finished.  The team leader makes a report that will help designers come up with more fuel efficient engines.  A superior model of thermal sensors is recovered as well.

January 25th 2057:  The contact is picked up again dead ahead of the intercept force at 10:30, headed straight towards them.  It takes two hours to close to even missile range.  The CO, Duke Brule, has decided to open up with missiles as a distraction and in hopes a few hits score, seeing as the aliens are now clearly reciprocating hostilities, but he does not have the firepower to overwhelm the ship totally.  The ships together can only fire 8 missiles at a time.  After two waves are totally wiped out, though, he orders that effort stopped.  Two more waves are already in flight, though, and a single AMM hits out of the last sixteen.  Somewhat to everyone's surprise, it takes a little longer than hoped to lock lasers because of the previously detected ECM.  Before the first volley can be fired the contact rams the Newfoundland.  Most bridge officers and a good portion of the crew are able to use advanced warning to get to the life pods.  The enemy ship might have survived, but was very unlucky.  One of it's engine's cooked off, resulting in a chain reaction across it's power systems.  Even then, it's superstructure was still intact.  However, less then a second later twenty four beams lanced out from the two Hero class ships, ripping it to shreds.  The ramming of a military vessel causes a bit of shock among the surviving personel, but the life pods are quickly recovered and a course set for earth again.  The salvage team is dispatched once more.

February 10th 2057: Experts believe that the various signs and etchings on the alien hulls, all they have to go by, are beyond current understanding.  The race is now being called the "Wormhole Aliens", after the popular theory taking hold that they've come from the wormhole near the blackhole.

February 13th 2057: Another contact of the same class is picked up near where the first was destroyed.  This is grave news, as this ship must have entered Sol undetected somehow.

February 15th 2057: The same two ships with two Argentina classes set out to intercept, but may not make it in time.  While perhaps prone to being rammed again, the Newfoundland was much less sturdy than the second generation ships, so command thinks the assignment is reasonable.

February 21st 2057: Intercept failed.  Contact appears to cross the system for a mid ring survey completion.  The intercept group is ordered to protect the Ross 248 jump gate to prevent the discovery of Raye.  A day later the contact is loss.

February 30th 2057:  The Empire finally has a fighter design, the F/A-571A.  Construction will begin soon.

The same day the second salvage operation is finished.  A massive breakthrough is gained in the area of active sensors, as an advanced array is recovered from the more intact wreck, despite never having been observed in use.  An ECM device is recovered from the ship as well, and in the near future a project to counteract it will be established.

March 10th 2057:  A picket force is dispatched to the black hole jump point as extra protection.  By the end of the month both forces will be in place and ready.

April 22nd 2057:  First F/A-571A produced by the North American Avionautics Combine.

May 12th 2057:  The first fighter base comes online near Denver, hollowed out of a nearby mountain.  Another is being prefabbed for use on Raye.

July 13th 2057:  Two Outreach II jump capable omni surveyors completed and dispatched.  Also, a massive "jump tender" is designed, to be used mainly to aid in the construction of colonies without needing to wait for jump gates.

August 22nd 2057:  Ross 248 hadn't been quite 100% surveyed, despite its importance.  A new jump point is found in the outer system.  On he other side is Gliese 625, a red dwarf.  After jumping back to relay the find, TES Samual Baker checks out the first two planets, near habital worlds.  The  outer system is composes of several super jovians with many moons, some no doubt mineral rich.

August 27th 2057:  Four ships of similar make to those in the Gliese 844 system ambush the Samual Baker, though no knowledge of the first encounter exists, and thus the crew believe this to be a new alien race.  They have weak sensors compared to the human vessel, but are most definitely armed, unlike the scout.  The armor absorbs a lot of the damage in the first salvo, but is thin, so some internal damage leaks in from kinetic weapons.  Captain Leopold Azbill orders reverse course, but it's too late, and missiles held in reserve destroy the ship seconds later.  He does not make it off the ship, though rescue isn't possible for those that did anyway as the distance can't be crossed in two weeks.  A military expedition will be mounted, but will wait for the next two Oregons.

October 3rd 2057:  With two Argentinas, six Heroes, and four Oregons, the expedition to Gliese 625 heads out.  Missile factories are working overtime in preparation for the battle.

October 12th 2057: A scout jumps in from the black hole and the picket force scrambles to respond.  The crew is quick, but the enemy recovers from transit effects quickly, as before, and moves out of range before any shots get off.  The gunners aren't at fault, but rather the fact that the active sensors were in powered down mode.  By the time locks came up, the ship was already out of range because of ECM.  A change in tactics is now mandated for the picket force:  leave sensors on.  Missiles are fired, but only one hits.  The attempt is called off due to lackluster results.

November 8th 2057:  Geosurvey results of EZ Aquarii find subsantial deposts of several key minerals.  A "half-way station" might be set up here between Earth and the promising system of Ross 780.

November 13th 2057:  The battle fleet arrives in Gliese 625.  After the wreck of the survey ship is detected, Commodore Acquaviva orders the fleet to head towards it, in battle posture.