The Northern Coalition (AAR)

[Paul M (OP)]

Nice AAR. Few typos and such here and there but they don't really impede reading this. I like your style, keep it up!

Also, can you imagine being among the 500 first colonists to Forge? 11 months with mere 499 other people, stuck setting up an underground base under those conditions? I bet synth-beer consumption was heavy  

I've never done a conventional start with such a low population base. I usually start with 6 or 7 billion people Unified Earth. It sure makes the beginning easy as you have plenty of research labs and conventional industry but the mineral/fuel-crashes can be just as bad.

I try to get rid of the typos as I notice them.  I certainly hope the reading is relatively smooth.  I like a challenge and decided to go for a real survival start.  The hardest part after the lack of minerals has been the technology.  The NCN is really very primative and desperately needs improvements in a number of areas...sensors being a major one.  The fact that the enemy can detect ships out to 130 m km is rather terrifying.  I've been advancing the turns and need to write up the events of the last few months...they just aren't that fun to write about.

As for Forge's 500...yeah that was about as unfun an asignment as you can draw.  Synthbeer?  No that would have caused a riot...they probably brought their own brewery along with them...  But they can use their radio to talk to the fuel harvesters so there was at least another 300 people to communicate with pen-pal style.  But yes...set up the base followed by the real joy of monitoring the lone mine...and for the lucky few assigned to keep the mining robots maintained...the joy of surface visits.  That place is just a hell hole...what is odd is that virtually all colony worlds so far have been tide locked to their stars.  But currently another 4000 colonists are on the way with more infrastructure...they should hit their 10,000 people goal next trip after that...plus a second mine.  The planet actually makes venus look good, but terraforming it would be the work of centuries (45 bar atmosphere of CO2 and SO2 plus it is too close to the star so its surface temperature is far too high to allow water).  As BiC doesn't even have terraforming ships right now it is a lot of dreaming.

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]This report is brought to you by Schweinegrippe H1N1 and Tamiflu medication.  Not to mention a collegue at work who I hope never again comes to work when they feel like death warmed over.  I'm feeling well enough to write and my humor is ok so I suspect the Tamiflu is doing its job.[/ooc]

AD 2276 Learning the pitfalls and ropes of operations away from home

The first part of the year was a major series of logisitical challenges focused primarily on swapping units out and keeping fuel tanks at reasonable limits.  Lacking any means of reliable interstellar communication faster than a ship meant the only reasonable clock was the crew endurance.  Northern Coalition Naval Command and BuSurvey had to get used to sending out the replacement force a reasonable amount of time before crew fatigue would set in, and onsite commanders needed to learn to budget fuel requirements to ensure sufficient fuel plus operational margines was available at all times.  Having a forward refueling base in AD Leonis helped greatly but the number of harvesters was not up to the task of keeping even a small force fully fueled though they did a respectable job at keeping it in fuel.

On Earth the efforts were concentrated on the development of Io, with BIC calculating the full capacity of the current fleet of civillian transports and contracting out sufficient infrastructure construction to cover that many people.  They were desperately attempting to stave off another dump of people onto an unprepared colony.  

Outsystem Operations (AD Leonis, Wolf 358, Ross 128)

2nd Squadron was the NCN force overseeing the survey efforts in this region of space.  Insterstellar Survey I plus Alpha and Beta Grav Survey were the initial BuSurvey forces and they were in the process of finishing their survey of Wolf 358 as Interstellar Survey II plus Delta and Epsilon Grav Survey arrived from Sol to take over their missions.

AD 2276 (January 26) Interstellar Survey II, Delta and Epsilon Grav Survey Missions have completed their jump into Lalande 21185 from Sol
AD 2276 (February 16) Interstellar Survey II, Delta and Epsilon Grav Survey Missions have completed their jump into AD Leonis from Lalande 21185
AD 2276 (February 26) Interstellar Survey I completes orders in Wolf 358 and boosts for the jump point to AD Leonis
AD 2276 (March 1) Interstellar Survey II, Delta and Epsilon Grav Survey Missions have completed their jump into Wolf 358 from AD Leonis
AD 2276 (March 3) Wolf 358,Alpha Grav Survey Mission completes orders in Wolf 358 and boosts for the jump point to AD Leonis
AD 2276 (March 9) Wolf 358,Beta Grav Survey Mission completes orders in Wolf 358 and boosts for the jump point to AD Leonis
AD 2276 (March 13) 2nd SQN Battlegroup/TG1/1st Fleet arrives at the unexplored jump point in Wolf 358 closest to the jump point to AD Leonis
AD 2276 (March 14) Interstellar Survey II arrives at the unexplored jump point in Wolf 358 closest to the jump point to AD Leonis
AD 2276 (March 14) An exploration of a jump point in the Wolf 358 system by IS II supported by two warships from 2nd Sqd BG has revealed the new system of Ross 128
AD 2276 (March 14) 2nd SQN Battlegroup/TG1/1st Fleet is fully present at the jump point to Wolf 358 in Ross 128.  Nothing is detected by the ships and the survey force is given permission to start survey operations.  2nd SQN Battlegroup will remain at the entrance jump point and awaits the support group engaged in refueling operations in AD Leonis.
AD 2276 (March 15) IS II, Delta and Epsilon Grav Survey Missions commence survey operations in Ross 128.
AD 2276 (March 27)  Interstellar Survey I arrives at the jump point to AD Leonis in Wolf 358 and together with Alpha and Beta Grav Survey missions begins their journey home.
AD 2276 (April 12) Interstellar Survey I, Alpha and Beta Grav Survey Missions tranist out of AD Leonis into Lalande 21185.
AD 2276 (April 25) Pious Antonious rejoins the 2nd SQN Support Group/TG1/1st Fleet after being partially refueled by FHGs III and IV.
AD 2276 (May 2) Interstellar Survey I, Alpha and Beta Grav Survey Missions tranist out of Lalande 21185 into Sol.
AD 2276 (June 24) Fuel Harvester Group II arrives at Earth confirming that 10% of fuel is suficient to make the journey to or from AD Leonis.
AD 2276 (June 29) The crews of 3rd Squadron Battlegroup/TG1/1st Fleet have completed shore leave on Earth and are ready to resume active duty, the will be relieving 2nd Squadron in a few weeks.
AD 2276 (July 11) Interstellar Colonization Group V returns to Earth from Forge, its Freighter the Jade enteres into refit.

(Wolf 358)
AD 2276 (February 13) Minerals Discovered on Wolf 358-A VI - Moon 15: Duranium 793,800 (0.1)  Neutronium 1,416,100 (0.6)  Sorium 313,600 (0.1)  Gallicite 17,640,000 (0.1)  
AD 2276 (February 23) Minerals Discovered on Wolf 358-A VI - Moon 20: Corundium 210,681 (0.8 )  


(Ross 128)
AD 2276 (May 7) Minerals Discovered on Ross 128-A VI - Moon 8: Mercassium 31 (1)  
AD 2276 (June 30) Minerals Discovered on Ross 128-A V - Moon 17: Duranium 903,168 (0.8 )  Tritanium 370,881 (0.7)  


Comercial Yard Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp. (Sol, Earth)
AD 2276 (March 10) Goliath (Colossus (HP) class) completes refit and the yards begin retooling for the Bauxite Long Range (HP) class
AD 2276 (April 10) Retooling for Bauxite Long Range (HP) class completed


Naval Shipyard Deschimag A.G. Weser (Sol, Earth)
AD 2276 (March 9) 500 tons of capacity added
AD 2276 (April 30) 500 tons of capacity added
AD 2276 (June 20) 500 tons of capacity added



Civillian Operations in Sol
AD 2276 (March 29) The civilian mining colony on Neujmin has been expanded to 5 civilian mining complexes
AD 2276 (June 10) The civilian mining colony on Encke has been expanded to 8 civilian mining complexes

Operations in Sol

On the 5th of February the first of its class the PDC Fort Rostock comes on-line.  This is the most advanced of the CN Naval bases protecting Earth.  It is considered by the NC Navy as the most optimized design so far, and the one which will be used for all future conversions.  Reduant fire controls give it the most flexibility of any base on Earth.  A considerable amount of colonial infrastructure for the Io colony is produced as well as a Terraforming installation for the colony, on the 20th of June a new research laboratory complex has its ground breaking ceromony.  Secondary projects include the completion of a new fuel refinery on the 21st of April and on the 30th of May the start of the conversion to an automatic mine of one of earths older manned mines.  Javelin III ASM and Hawk II CM come out of the ordinance factories and are immediately sent to the forts and the older missiles are scrapped for their fuel.  The Fairmile B2(EW) 003 is completed and a new pinnance is entered into the production queue on the 30th of April.  It will soon be necessary to scrap the original A models but the Navy is waiting until sufficient numbers of B models exist.

On the 10th of July Mr. Saeggr TryggRson is assigned to lead the newly established colony on Io.  Jumping the gun as usual the civillian colony ships break orbit and head for the First-In colonial workforce which is only begining the task of assembling the colonies powergrid and lifesupport hub on the icey surface of Io.  Needless to say waiting for the remaining delieveries of infrastructure would apparently cost the civillian firms some sort of bonus.  As predicted within weeks a staggering million people were decanted into the half prepared and below the freezing point of nitrogen temperature surface of the moon.  BIC responded with scathing condemnations of the ancestory of the captains of industry that persist in behaving like imbiciles.  They did internally learn from this...deliever all the infrastructure first before sending in the First-In Colony group.  Even though freighters raced from Earth to Io to deliever a massive amount of infrastructure the shear numbers of colonies decanted ensured that lawyers would be busy for years to come as next of kin started sueing everyone and any government agency or private contractor they could.  Protests from Ganymede's representatives were loud as well.  If the treatment of Faewald had annoyed them the fact that the Commision had prepared major infrastructure assets for Io far in excess of what had been done for Ganymede in it is colonization start up phase not to mention that the colonial population on Io soon nearly doubled that of Ganymede (by the end of the month the older colony was decidedly the junior partner in the dance) insenced the locals to no end.

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]here is the part I didn't really enjoy writing up so much.  Can't see any way to avoid having him retire after he returns to earth...the NCC really really really needs better sensors.  And bigger ships and well...lots of things.[/ooc]

AD 2276 The SV Henry Hudson Incident

The SV Henry Hundson and her two Oberson class consorts had been in Ross 128 since March.  The two Oberon class ships were on opposite sides of the system doing the tedius job of a gravatational mapping of the whole system.  The Henry Hudson had stopped to survey one location and then proceeded inwards to start the system body survey.  Ross 128 had seven planets.  Two terrestrial planets the second one a water bearing world with a too thin atmosphere was tidelocked to the dim red sun.  Following that was a gas giant with multiple moons.  Next was another Terrestrial world with a single moon.  This world had a thin atmosphere that was largely coposed of hydrogen and its surface temperature was below the freezing point of nitrogen.  Two more gas giants again with multiple moons and lastly a super jovan with a plethora of moons.  That planet was currently the furthest away from the Henry Hudson and so Commander Nefjólfr Bergfinnrson decided to wait and survey the rest of the system first starting with gas giant labeled VI in the charts and its 12 moons.  This was to be follwed by V and its 20 moons then moving inward to the first terrestrial planet and its single moon.

AD 2276 (July 19) 03:55:36 Polar Orbit Planet IV

The SV Henry Hudson had only a few minutes before arrived over the targetted planet's north pole and was shaping its survey orbit.  The third watch was on duty.  "Bob...we're picking up someting on the the auto scan system."  "What?"  the officer of the watch was fresh out of the academy and was still getting over the high of actually being allowed to do the orbital insertion himself.  He got up out of the command couch and walked the few steps over to the ships minimlistic tracking display.  "Lord.."  he leaned over Samantha's shoulder and for once didn't bother to admire her chest as his eyes were glued to the thermal read out from the IR telescope automatic sweep.  His hands fumbled at the controls on his waist as he jammed down the key..."Captain...Captain to the bridge...we have an emergancy situation."  "Larry, get the Navy on the line...prep log...send it...then begin auto transmission..."  "Oh Lord..."  that sort of thermal signature could only be a military engine...and it was 25 times as powerful as the ones this ship used.  

Nefjólfr Bergfinnrson was in his bunk when the call came in.  The sound of Ensign's Manning's voice snapped him out of his sleep...what had the fool done wrong with a simple orbital insertion...?  He rolled out of his bunk and yanked on his uniform pants as his brain caught up with the facts that the ship didn't appear to be manuevering.  He ducked through the hatch and ran for the bridge rather than waste time with the comm channel. He charged through the bridge door once it slid open.  "Manning! Report!"

"Sir...we have three contacts...right on top of us...IR and now EM reading are off the scale!"  Ensign Manning replies as he looks up from the tracking station display.  "They are not yet maneuvering..."  Commander Nefjólfr Bergfinnrson blinked looking at the young officer.  "Sound action stations Mr. Manning."  "Navigation make a course..." he paused thinking...and looked at the display..'right on top of us' in this case was relative..."...to survey point 4.  Helm when the course is laid in, go to 250 km/s take us out slow and easy."  That would keep the ships thermal signature down.  "Aye aye sir."  He slid into the command couch.  "Talk to me Mr Manning." "We have a sent a linkage to the Navy."  "Good."  "Helm?"  "Ready in 15 sir."  "Don't wait just take us out slow and easy."  He flipped on his repeater and set it to the tactical option and watched.  He grunted...so much for that.  "Confirm intercept course Samantha."  "Aye Sir...computer confirms targets are now maneuvering velocity is 8379 km/s...course is interception."  "Helm, go to maxium velocity." "Velocity maximum.  Aye aye sir."  "Samantha bring the search sensor on line."  "Yes sir."  The alien ships were still a distance 3 times the range the sensor was effective but it clearly wasn't possible to hide from them.  "Sir...sir...the computer tags the drives as Wolver."

The Henry Hudson proceeded away from the alien ships for nearly a minute before Commander Bergfinnrson realized he was making a mistake.  "Start recording:  Communciations for Captain Morgenrot.  Peter we can't make this work, I'm going to turn the ship and lay in a course for the jump point if we detect fire we'll abandon the Hudson and you can use the pinnance to get us.  It is a better chance then what we have now.  I won't loose people when the ship is assuredly lost.  And the pinnace should be small enough to get in undetected.  Commander Nefjólfr Bergfinnrson, CO Insterstallar survey one. Out.  End Recording."  "Communications send that to the Navy."  "Navigation, new course to our entry jump point.  Helm when it is ready implement it."  He hit the intership override comm switch.  "Crew this is the Captain, we are being pursued by three vessels of unknown intent.  No communications have been recieved and it is probable they are Wolver ships.  I intend to abandon ship if we are brough under fire so all non-essential personal are to report to their life pods immediately.  Get as much supplies into the pods as possible.  Section chiefs and watch officers ensure your people are there report to Mr. Manning when you are in place."  

The ships crew moved quickly though a few panics broke out luckily the ships senior non-coms broke those up speedily.  First and second watch and the support personal of the ship including all engineers from the jump drive section took their places in the pods.  Time seemed to crawl to the people sweating on the bridge and Commander Bergfinnrson nearly swore at the seven eternities it took to program the course change but at last the ship yawed about.  By this time the habitation section was slowing down so the crew was in low g.  They had all suited up but their visors were raised.  Their radio communications were speeding towards the naval ships but they would take slightly more than two and quarter hours to get there.  The Hudson's course now converged with the onrushing aliens but in terms of missile combat ranges the Hudson had to be deep in the enemies envelope.

AD 2276 (July 19) 03:58:01 On Course to Jump Point 1

The Hudson bucked like a bronco anyone not securly fastened down was hurled around as the ship heaved, rolled and yawed due to armour spalling and boiling off its starboard rear quarter.  "Radiation spike sir"  Mannings voice was a bit shrill but no one cared at the momement.  "Armour plate lost and minor structural damage...ship can maneuver."  "Hudson to Bloodhound.  Captian Morgenrot we are abandoning ship, the Hudson has been hit by multiple nuclear attacks."  He hit the intership switch. "All hands this is the captain.  Abandon ship.  Repeat.  Abandon ship."  He looked around the bridge.  "Move people they have to more birds inbound. MOVE!"

The pods spilled from the ship the one containing Commander Bergfinnrson last.

AD 2276 (July 19) 06:15:04 Jump Point 1

Captain Peter Morgenrot the CO of 2nd Squadron was just starting his day and the priority call caught him in the middle of the second "S" so he shut off the water flow and stuck his hand out to hit the intercom switch "Captain here."  "Sir...priority message from the Hudson...she has detected three targets on thermal...warbook is pegging them as new Wolver ships...we have a data feed starting up and are starting to get their logs and telemetry on side channels."  "Go to action stations, alert level yellow. What is the time lag?"  "Two hours, seventeen minutes, three seconds."  Peter wanted to swear...whatever had happened had happened while he slept.  "On my way...get the XO there and bring the other captains into the loop.  Tell Navigation to lay in a course to the Hudson."

He was fully dressed and shaved when he walked onto the bridge less than three minutes later.  "What have we got."  Andrew Jenkins his intell officer looked up..."Sir, we have two new wolver contacts initial names: Akagi and Mikuma.  Both are capable of 8379 km/s, and the thermal signature rating is 1500.  The Akagi's are emiting a strength 180 estimated resolution 76, and GPS 13000+ search sensor.  Range on it is 130 million km approximately.  They showed up out of nowhere shortly after the Hudson took up her polar search orbit over planet IV."  "What is Commander Bergfinnrson doing?"  "Sir from his telemetry and his last message for you he is heading for us and he is going to abandon ship if fired upon.  He hopes we can get the pinnace to him and his people."  Captain Morgenrot stood looking at the displayed data, the alien ships were within effective range of the Hudson for certain.  He didn't think they could cram the hundered crew of the Hudson into the pinnance but duct tape could solve many things and as things stood now it was the best solution he could see.  "Right...communication squadron link."  "Squardon link active sir."  "Squadron this is Bloodhound, we are going to try and rescue the crew of the Hudson.  All ships prepare for action.  This is no drill.  Repeat this is no drill.  Authorization for arming nuclear weapons is given.  Stand by for course updates."  "Sir...the Hudson has been hit.  Three..."  Andrew looks confused, "Scale 1 explosions register in the data stream."  "Three?"  "Yes Sir."  Now most of the officers looked baffeled.  The 1-1-1 had been destroyed by overwhelming firepower and in this case the enemy fired just three missiles on a ship fully the same size as those others.  "That is crazy...did they abandon ship?"  "Yes sir.  We have telemetry from the lifepods all crew is in them.  The beacons are weak and we lost the link with the Hudson but the people seem fine."  "Lets go see if we can get them."

AD 2276 (July 19) 07:45:15 On course to the life pods

"Sir!"  Peter Morgenrot looked up from the discussion he was having with his XO, chief engineer and the Watchman's primary pinance pilot on the repeater of his command couch.  "Direct feed from the lifepods, you need to see this."  "Pipe it to my chair."  The pinance pilots face vanished to be replaced by a view of space taken from a camera obviously mounted on one of the lifepods.  The strobes of another life pod could be seen and behind them a vague shape occulting the stars in the background before turning to give a semi shadowed view in the light of the distant dim star while a voice was repeating over and over "they took pod 3!"  The strobes on the pod in the camera pictures suddenly started moving towards the shape of the alien ship and a large opening in the side of the ship.  "They are taking the pods!"  The three officers looked at each other...they weren't taking them...they had took them over 2 hours ago.  They were silent as the pod transmitting the signal they were watching suddenly was apparently jerked violently in one direction, the sounds of impacts, shouts and groans taking over from the paniced commentary then it was silent.  "Last transmission lost sir."  "Thank you." Peter's voice was quiet.  "Send to squadron.  Operation is canceled all ships to return to the jump point.  There are no longer any life pods to rescue the crew of the Hudson has been captured alive by the Wolvers."  His voice was bleak by the time he finished the last sentence.  "XO you have the bridge, I'll be in my office if you need me." He got up from the command chair and headed for his small work room near the bridge.

Five minutes later he slamed a fist into the table top and then shook it.  "Bridge this is the captain."  he pauses "Contact the two Oberon's tell them to maintain their survey missions we need to find out where the jump point the Wolvers used is."  He looked at the ceiling and swore.   After getting it out of way he started to type up the after action report, probably the last one he would write as he could not see any way forward but to accept full responsibility for the loss of the Hudson.  Now he had to wait for the support group to finish refueling or else for the squadron sent to relieve him.  It would be a long and sleepless next few months.

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]I'm a bit too close to the story as such...  Cpt. Morgenrot's defence at the inquiry will be that he didn't have the fuel (the ships were at 45% by this time) for a dedicated fly by which would have spotted ships lying cold in space...so he didn't do it as no planetary populations were detected.  If he had done it there is still the fact that he would have probably lost his entire battle group to the wolvers.  It is still overall a PR nightmare for the Navy.  If anyone has an opion what the Navy or he should do feel free to toss it out.  Thanks.[/ooc]

[chrislocke2000]

I think this going to come down to politics and the relatioship of the navy with the government.

Option A) The government is keen to enforce the vision that the Navy is a stong capable protective force in order to keep the citizens happy, in which case the loss has to be his fault and he needs to go to the wall.

Option B) The government is less defensive whice meant that the Navy uses the incident to highlight issues with the fleet and a push for further funding. In this he probably gets exhonerated and may even get a special posting to help develop strategies and tech to counter the wolvers.

[Execrated1]

Take a look at his Political Reliability Bonus as well as his Personality Traits. I haven't run into any issues with my current game, but in the past when I've made a mistake or did something I shouldn't have, I generally blame it on my officers. Then I look at their personality and political reliability bonus. If they're charismatic and loyal with a medium to high PR Bonus they get off the hook. If they're lazy and insubordinate with a very high PR Bonus, they get off. If they're lazy and insubordinate with a medium or lower PR Bonus they get "honorably discharged." If they've got a low PR Bonus and not enough "good" traits then they either get honorably or dishonorably discharged depending on what "their" failing was. Some times they might also be shipped off to some crappy posting, like a sensor PDC on Io, or the Sensor Officer for your shipping fleet.

[Conscript Gary]

He could certainly try to argue the case for actual research focus on sensor technology. Looking back to the Wolf 359 Encounter, the same conclusion was made then as well. Except, so far as I can tell, after slapping together some reconfigured sensors with the technology on hand, the research labs were promptly passed over to engine technology and nine years passed with no advances in competent threat detection.

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]A thank you to everyone who responded to the question I asked your input was appreciated.  It is good to have other peoples views here as I said, I'm a bit too close to the story to be objective all the time.  A lot of mundane stuff is happening but it takes several months before 2-1-1 gets back and informs NC Naval Command of the loss of the Hudson.  Officers are still a serious issue to the Navy and they are getting seriously hit with a dire shortage of Commanders, not to mention Captains.  The fuel situation still remains tense and the refueling in AD Leonis is still well under what it needs to be.  One comment on the slow development of sensors...there no longer is a scientist with that speciallization as the last one to have it had to retire.  That makes it even more frustrating.[/ooc]

AD 2276  Situation Abnormally More Exciting Then Stricktly Necessary (It Turns Out)

As far as Sol was concerned the summer's excitment was Io.  The colony there was off to a booming start, its populaton crossing the 2 million mark only 8 weeks after the first civillian colony ships left for the moon.  A terraforming engine and the tools for mineral extraction were shipped out from Earth.  The number of mines would triple to 15 by the end of the year.  Ganymede's complaints caused BIC to release infrastucture it was stockpiling for Forge and Faewald.  Where markets had been predicting a major slump in earnings by shipping firms suddenly all of them were earning cash and reporting strong pospects for the next quarter.  Court cases dealing with the suits being brought up against shipping firms, colonial advertisment agents, agencies of the NCC, individuals on all sides generated enough waste heat to power several small cities as judges sat through case after case.  The merry go round for this situation had just started if previous incidents were anything to gauge it by.

Both BIC and the Navy were happy though.  BIC had its operations in Alpha Centauri going particularily well, it would refit the returning Bauxite class freighters and gain an increase in 50% in speed the ships could make, the second Petrol class Harvester was on the way to the systems gas giant (arriving on station October 29) and colony was doing well with slightly over 900 tons of TN minerals enroute to earth.  Forge was getting a major boost in population with 4000 colonist scheduled to be added to the tiny staff there.  They had finished construction of the 5 Loch (HP)s they wanted and they were ready to go full out to build Petrol's to fill out the harvester groups.  The also had all the Colossus class jump freighters they had planned for and after the Bauxites currently making the the Faewald runs were done refitting they could fill out the V-VIII Colonization groups with freighters.  This would allow them to start the construction of a second major off world outpost.  On the 24th of December the ships of ICG I, now fully refit, are loaded with colonists and colony support equipment and begin the now quicker trip to Faewald.

The Navy was struggling to deal with the command staff shortages it faced but was managing to get by.  The good news for them is that the expansions to both their yards finish up.  This leaves them capable of producing the next generation of hull types they have been planning for the last few years.  The Heavy Frigate/Corvette Hull (4500 tons) and the Destroyer (9000 tons) are to be the new standard in warship designs.   The Heavy Frigate will take over most patrol duties enabling the current Frigates to be used in picket duties where their relatively short range is not the issue it currently is.  The destroyer should hopefully enable the Navy to meet threats more head on.  Even the 50% larger new frigates would be helpful in terms of enabling more firepower per ship.  The problem haunting the navy currently was that it doesn't have jump drives to move these larger ships.  Add to that was the detail that for the most part the technologies they would be sticking in the ships were a decade old.   Naval planning was currently debating the question of "a bird in hand" to determine if the Navy would approach the Commission for funding for at least prototypes of the new warships or if they would wait until at least the jump engines were developed.


Comercial Yard Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp. (Sol, Earth)
AD 2276 (August 10) Jade (Bauxite Long Range (HP) class) finishes refit
AD 2276 (September 15) Titan (Colossus (HP) class) is built and assigned to Interstellar Colonization Group VIII.  This is the last Colossus planned by BIC.
AD 2276 (December 10) Bauxite and Iron are refit to the Bauxite Long Range (HP) class bringing ICG I up to the most modern standard.


Comercial Yard Robert Napier & Sons (Sol, Earth)
AD 2276 (July 23) Bayou (Loch (HP) class) is built on Earth and assigned to Fuel Harvester Group V.  This completes the planned Loch class builds.
AD 2276 (September 25) Kerosene (Petrol (HP) class) is built on Earth and assigned to Fuel Harvester Group III
AD 2276 (November 10) See (Loch (HP) class) is refit

Naval Shipyard Deschimag A.G. Weser (Sol, Earth)
AD 2276 (August 10) 500 tons is added bringing the yard up to its full 9000 tons of capacity


Operations in Sol

A mineral survey of Calisto resumes after the Upholder's crew completes their shore leave on Ganymede.  All forts on earth recieve a full magazine load of new AS and CM missiles and the ordinance factories turn out a set of spares for the reserve.  A new Fairmile B2 (EW) pinnance is completed and both the Watchman and Sentry from the 2nd Squadron swap their older pinnaces out.  The new research laboratory complex is still under construction but more colonial infrastructure and then the start of a new fuel refinery consumes the rest of Earths industrial capacity.  As workers are available on Io more and more mines are transfered to there.  With the existance of a civillian fuel harvester in Jupiter orbit the plans for a mass driver for Io are put on hold, the Mackenzie can make the run to pick up the Neutronium, refuel and then return to Earth.


Civillian Operations in Sol
AD 2276 (October 30) The civilian mining colony on Encke has been expanded to 9 civilian mining complexes
AD 2276 (December 24) Burns Freight and Logistics launches the first of its kind Burns H2 class Fuel Harvester, this is considered widely to be a very nice Christmas present for the NCC.


Research Progress
AD 2776 (January 15) Dr. Ellen Allan's team completes their work on improvements to ship construction methodologies (Shipyard Operations: 10% Time/Cost Saving) and resumes their old task of further improving fuel refinery efficiciency (Research into Fuel Production 32,000 Litres).


Northern Coalition Army
AD 2276 (July 23) The Londonderry Territorial Bn completes training.  The Blue and Grey Infantry division is broken down into a cadre to be reformed as the Blue and Grey Inf Bn equipped with TN weapons.
AD 2276 (October 5) Brigadier General Madeleine Fox is been promoted to Major General, this makes her the highest ranking officer of the NCA.  She still commands the Guards Armoured Division in England.


NC Navy Outsystem Operations

Unaware of the events in Ross 128, NC Naval Command tasked the 3rd Squadron (CO: Cpt. Michael Wells) to relieve the 2nd Squadron in Ross 128.  His ships were ready to depart on the 25th of August.  They jump from Sol to Lalande 21185 on the 29th of August and into AD Leonis on September 12th.  They rendevous with the 2nd Squadron Support Group on the 22nd of September and refuel from the RS Pious Antonious.  The 2nd Sqn. SG is still in AD Leonis awaiting sufficient fuel from the harvester groups.  Cpt. Wells orders the 2nd Squadron SG to stand by at the jump point and proceeds to jump to Wolf 358.  The 3rd Sqn enteres Ross 128 on the 28th of September.  Cpt. Morgenrot and Cpt. Wells discuss the Hudson Incident and on September 30, 2nd Squadron BG starts the journey for home.  The two Grav survey missions had continued their task and to date no new jump points had been found, a disturbing fact as a large fraction of the survey had been so far completed.  2nd Sqn. BG is ferried back into AD Leonis by the SG on the 6th of October.  As Fuel Harvester Group III has to return to Earth to give its crew shore leave Commander R. Rilley is ordered to rendevous with the 2nd Sqn. to refill the Pious Antonious's currently nearly empty tanks before commencing the trip home, this is accomlished on October 18th.  2nd Squadron arrives in Sol on the 1st of November and promptly sends a encrypted message to Naval Command and ruins Commadore Frasier's afternoon.  By the 4th the ships arrive in Earth Orbit.  BuSurvey dispaches the SV Lief Ericson on the 2nd with orders to rendevous with the 3rd Squadron.  The cesium hits the water as news of the loss of the Hudson spreads.  IS I (SV Lief Ericson) will arrive in Wolf 358 on December 6 and stripping the bouy at the jump point determines that the 3rd Squadron and Delta and Epsilon Grav Survey Missions are on the way to an unexplored Jump Point.  On the 16th of December 3rd Squadron jumps into the HIP 51317 system ending up a large distance from the system bodies.  Captain Wells is faced with the same dilema that faced Cpt. Morganrot as even after refueling from the RS Paul Bunyon his ships are only at 70% fuel and he would need his full tank to just get to the inner system and back.  The system is composed of gas giants and chunks of rock none of which are habitable without extensive terraforming.  He decides to authorise the survey regardless.  When the Lief Ericson jumps in system on the 30th of December he confirs with her captain (Commander Elliot Stokes) and restricts him to surveying the outermost planet and doing the inner grav survey locations.
[ooc]I'm trying this in this form rather than the standard time stamp reporting method as I think this is a bit more easy to follow.[/ooc]

(Ross 128)
AD 2276 (November 4) Gravitational Survey Completed in the Ross 128 system. The system has a total of 1 jump points.  A detail NC Naval Command will find very interesting.


(HIP 51317)
AD 2276 (December 16) An exploration of a jump point in the Wolf 358 system has revealed the new system of HIP 51317.  The system primary is a M2-V star.  The system bodies orbiting the dim red star consist of: 2 dwarf planets, 2 tererestrial worlds (if just barely given the largest has a diameter of 4400 km), a gas giant and a super jovan.  8 comets are present as well.  The moons are not much more enticing with the largest being 4600 km in diameter.  Worse the entry jump point is 3.4 billion km from the system primary.  All in all no one was particularily excited by the system when it was discovered.
AD 2277 (January 5) New Jump Point found
AD 2277 (January 12) Two new Jump Points found


The Hudson Incident Inquiry

The news of the loss of the Hudson ignited a political smeg storm even with the ongoing Io trials.  The Navy, as is routinely done, started an Inquest into the loss of the ship.  The various political factions of the NC got involved the next day.  Mr. T. Buxtorf, the Commisioner stood behind Commadore Frasier's handling of the situation publicly throwing his support to the besieged Naval Senior Officer [ooc]November 25, Commadore Frasier's political reliabilty increased to 25% so I figure this is reasonable[/ooc] and his handling of the situation.  Opposition parties were making hay while the sun shone, families of crew lost in this and previous two encounters with Wolvers were howling (with unfortunately a fully understandable reason) for blood, the typical interweb riff raff were making conspiracy theories that tinfoil would not protect against and the news agencies knew a story when it hit them in the face.

Cpt. Peter Morganrot was the 3rd highest serving officer in the fleet with a more than respectable service record and the Navy sent out senior officers so they could make these kind of decisions.  The last thing Commadore Frasier needed was to send a message to his senior staff that they could expect no support when the chips were down.  Plus it was pretty much cut and dried as far as the Navy was concerned when you looked at the facts.  Commadore Frasier could predict resonably well what the Inquest would find.  The problem was Navy's jump engines limited them to ships that in order to mount sufficient hardware to do their jobs had to sacrifice something and fuel was what had taken the back seat.   His headache was now to make this into something that didn't cause a PR fallout the Navy would be years recovering from.   Making matters even worse Cpt. Taylor Hartley was reaching mandatory retirement age very soon that would leave Cpt. Morganrot as the senior captain even though he was the youngest of the 5 currently serving.

The Inquest even moving as slowly as possible and breaking for Christmas but still could not spend too much time as the information available was clear.  By the middle of January after 4 weeks of televised statements they presented their initial results to the Judge.

Finding 1:  That Commander N. Bergfinnrson was not at fault for the loss of the SV Henry Hudson.  He is commended for his quick actions that intially saved the crews lives when the ship was attacked.
Finding 2:  That the range of the initial encounter (~6 million km) was so low that the SV Hudson was ambushed, by ships operating at minimal emisions.  The Hudson's electronics did detect the ships once they brought their engines online and once they activated their search sensor.
Finding 3:  The aliens sensor technology is significantly more advanced than that possessed by the NCN or BuSurvey ships involved in this incident.
Finding 4:  The alien drive technology does not seem to have advanced since the 1-1-1 incident.
Finding 5:  The aliens can be expected to have captured NC personel in the both the 1-1-1 and Gagarin Incidents.  If they salvaged the wrecks, and there is no evidence they have done so there is no reason to believe that abandoning the Hudson revealed any technology unknown to the aliens.
Finding 6:  The inquest finds no fault in Cpt. P. Morganrot's actions.  He had no reason to expect the alien presence as no inhabited worlds were detected.  His fuel level and the fact the Battlegroup was seperated from the Support Group meant his ships had limited options.  His actions during the crissis point were in the finest tradition of the navy.
Finding 7:  The inquest finds no fault in the Com. G. Broddison, senior officer of the squadron support group, as waiting to refuel the RS Pious Antonius was in accordance with orders.  This representing only the second time such operations had been carried out the delay was unanticipated.  The need to return to Earth reduced the number of available FHGs and they had needed the majority of the fuel so far processed for the journey home thus extending his stay in AD Leonis.
Finding 8:  The inquest sees no reason to believe that had Cpt. P. Morganrot engaged in a probe he would have discovered the alien ships at range where he would have been able to avoid combat.  The aliens have higher velocity drives, and better sensors.  It would be unreasonable to expect that the 2-1-1 would have had a different final outcome than the battlegroup of 1-1-1 in combat.

Recomendation 1:  Complete the survey of Ross 128 and determine the location of the Wolvers entrance jump point.
Recomendation 2:  As with the 1-1-1 inquiry a strong recomendation to increase the sensor technology available to the NCN.  The work arounds adopted after the 1-1-1 incident are not solutions.
Recomendation 3:  The SV Amundson's need to be rebuilt once the new jump drives become available with full military sensor suites and laser turrets to defend the ship.  This should be a priority even above getting new naval construction.

Other Findings and Recomendations were restricted due to security concerns but these were the ones the civilian newsies cared about.

Predicatably the Raff and Riff declared it a white wash and cover up.   Even though when considered in black and white factual terms the Inquiry had come to the proper conclusions there was still the unspoken desire from both those who had lost family and those who wanted to turn the situation to their advantage that "someone had to pay."  The fact that 2nd Squadron was in an overhaul and R&R period bought Commadore Frasier at least some time to figure out how to deal with the situation the Inquests findings and recommendations left him and the navy in.  
[ooc]I'm trying still to sort out how to deal with this...he may end up flying a desk in Naval Command or end up incharge of Faewalds orbital defences...  Just to mention it his personality trait is conservative and his PolyR bonus is 0...not well known by the politicians at all.[/ooc]

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]Well as the saying goes it never rains but it pours.  Your standard dull logistic update is interupted for more "interesting" fare.  I'm going to be asking a few questions about this I suspect as it was my first full blown battle.  I had taken a screen shot but I forgot to paste it into paint and work with it...so it is lost.[/ooc]

AD 2277 (March 16-April 23)  The Battle for HIP 51317

Prelude (The loss of the Leif Ericson)

AD 2277 (March 16)  22:13:51  On approach to Planet VI

The Ericson had completed 3 of the standard grav surveys and was on course for its survey of the outermost planet of HIP 51317 a gas giant with 20 moons.   It was 4.4 million km from the gas giant's north pole, near the end of 2nd watch when the ship suddenly pitched and emergency sirens started howling.  Commander Elliot Stokes the ships CO was finishing up his day in his bridge workroom and the sudden gyrations threw him over his worktable which he clutched frantically as the depresurization alarms two tone bleet start.  His monitor was ruin he was lucky if the pain in his chest was only bruising and not brokent ribs.  He had barely gotten out of his chair when the door opened and Dr. Lougheed the watches' scientist stepped in.  "What was ..." Elliot had to stop as he started coughing.  "Nuke."  The pudgy scientist grabed the bent over naval officer and pulled his arm over his shoulder and assisted him onto the bridge and into one of the couches.  "Stop trying to talk...just let me get you strapped in."  The XO whose watch this was looked over briefly but seeing the captain being half carried to an acceleration couch didn't stop his commands to the damage control crew currently trying to plug the breach in engineering that had taken out the ship's jump drive and opened one engineering space to vacuum.
 
[ooc]Engineering Spaces destroyed on Leif Ericson after receiving 1 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Saab JX3-60 destroyed on Leif Ericson after receiving 3 points of damage. 16 Casualties.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x1 detected![/ooc]


AD 2277 (March 16)  22:14:11

Dr. Lougheed was still bent over the captain fastening his harness when two more detonations bracketed the Ericson.  The command crew didn't have a chance as the plasma shock front struck the ship and bare structural steel vapourised and spalled.  Overloaded power cables plunged the bridge into utter darkness before the outerwall vapourized an inperceptably short time later, the crew was reduced to sprays of carbon as the cooling plasma smashed into the guts of the ship.  The observatory and most of the ships engineering support section were destroyed and the ship began to corkscrew violently due to the out of balance thrust from her two surviving engines.  Engineering was open to space and the bridge was not responding to frantic calls by the senior nco's or few remaining officers.  The remaining crew made for the life pods as they prepared to abandon ship before the next wave of missiles reduced the crippled ship to scrap.

[ooc]Engineering Spaces destroyed on Leif Ericson after receiving 1 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Fuel Storage destroyed on Leif Ericson after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M28S destroyed on Leif Ericson after receiving 2 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M28S remained intact on Leif Ericson despite receiving 1 points of damage.
Rolls Royce NP E-M28S remained intact on Leif Ericson despite receiving 1 points of damage.
NorTEL Civ IR Telescope destroyed on Leif Ericson after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Bridge destroyed on Leif Ericson after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Commander Elliot Stokes was killed by a hit to the bridge of Leif Ericson
Interstellar Survey I slowed to 933 km/s due to damage to Leif Ericson.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x2 detected![/ooc]


AD 2277 (March 17)  02:06:40  Jump Point to Wolf 358

The watch woke up Cpt. Michael Wells when the transmission from the Ericson reached them.  His first question was if the Sentinal could reach the survivors but the distance of 4.2 billion km was to great the ship would still be enroute when the life pods support systems were exhausted.  Cpt. Wells voice was grim as he informed the squadron CO's of the loss of the Ericson.  He contacted the two Oberon's and told them to continue on surveying and to rendevous at the jump point for extraction.  When the news came less than 24 hours later that the life pods transmissions had ended he settled into a cold fury that had his crew on their edges.  This looked like another Wolver encounter, and as he had his limited personel pour over the charts of the system it made no sense.  Nothing was here, none of the rocks even had atmosphere and even the largest barely had gravity.


Interlude

A few days after the loss of the Ericson Cpt. Wells contacted Lt. Cmdr.  Brandon Byron and told him he had a mission for his ship and its pinnance.  "I want you to recon the Ericson wreck.  Go in quiet and use the pinnance to see what you can find out."  "There isn't any survivors sir."  Perhaps not the most politic thing he could have said but he wasn't sure what his CO wanted.  "I know that...but anything we can find out we have to find out.  We can't keep fighting the damn boogy man...all we have is theories and guesses."  It went without saying that an ensign and 5 crewmen were worth trading for some real data if it came down to that.  "Tell Ensign Standish to take it slow and careful when he approaches the wreck and to keep his sensor off...if they have the same sensors that they used in Ross 128 they will see him before he gets any data from his sensor."  "Aye, aye Sir."  An hour later after refueling from the RS Paul Bunyon the Sentinal boosted for "Jump Point 1"  using that as a reference point.  

AD 2277 (April 14) "Way Point 1"  950 million km from wreck of SV Leif Ericson

"Bay doors open." The magnetic grapple that held the Fairmile B early warning pinnace of the Überwachter SQN extended.  "Ensign Standish you're free to disengage."  The deck officer said as the umbilicals all showed golden for locked and stowed.  "See you in a week Sentinal."  Ensign Standish replied as he fliped switches that told the grapple to release his boat.  "Let's do this."  Lt. Cmdr. Byron had been explicit about his expectations for the pinnances safe return...'don't be a hero Ensign'...summed it up.

AD 2277 (April 17) Überwachter SQN in space

Ensign Standish was sweating as his boat slid closer and closer to the wreck of the science vessel.  It was 13:38 according to his clock, and the mission was into its second day.  The tension was so thick in the pinnance you could cut it and make clothes with it.  Everyone was in suits and conversation was non existant as the small craft moved closer and closer to the wreck.  He was keeping the velocity low so his thermal emission was reduced to nearly nothing.  
"Contact! CONTACT!"  The crewman manning the boats foward looking infrared system suddenly called out.  "Range 600k km."  
"Oh...smeg."  Ensign Standish hit the "Kill Forward Velocity" button at that.  
"Two Contacts...thermal strength 1500...emissions match wolvers just off the Ericson."  
"Mother of God."  The engineer was looking at the read out.  
"We are right on top of them."  
"We are soo..."  
"Can it people!"  Standish didn't need to hear the last comment as he was thinking the same thing.  "Stay calm."  For over 2 and half minutes the situation remained the same as the pinnace sat in place and the crew tried to breath as quietly as possible.  They were the first humans to be this close to a wolver ship and "Don't be a hero" kept repeating itself in Ensign Standish's mind.
"Movement!  Targets are boosting...velocity climbing to 8379 km/s"
"Course?"  Standish's hand clenched...they had been spotted...they were screwed...
"32°"
"What...?"  That wasn't an intercept course.
"32° the range is increasing...look at those mothers move."

Three minutes later the pair of ship faded from the boat's limited infrared sensor system and the sighs of relief were heartfelt.  The pinnance boosted at 10% of its maximum for 8 hours then Standish opened his engines to full heading back to the Sentinal.  They arrived at the waiting ship on the 20th just in time for a hearty breakfast and a hot debrief from Lt. Cmdr. Byron.  The wolver ships course had been relayed back to the Sentinal during the trip back but so far no one in the squadron could see a point to it.  It looked like they were making for one or another of the inner worlds.  The computer on the sentinal had assigned the ships the ID Tama.  It seemed odd that each new encounter with the Wolvers meant new ship types.


Lt. Cmdr. Byron oders the Sentinal to return to Jump Point 1 as it is a handy navigational aid at 100 km/s to keep the ships thermal emissions at a minimum.  


Climax

AD 2277 (April 23) 23:00:01 Near Jump Point to Wolf 358

"Captain to the Bridge!"  The yellow alert woke Michael Wells out of his sleep.  He rolled out of his bunk and pulled on his uniform pants before heading down the short corridor to the bridge.  "What is it?" he asked as he entered it a short time later.  "We have 5 thermal contacts, Sir.  Range 22.5 million km thermal arrays on all ships just picked them up."  "Navigation?"  "We show intercept course."  Cpt. Wells looked at the screen and at his XO.  "Two contacts are identical with those the Überwachter picked up."  "That answers the question of where they were going."  His voice was grim.  "What about the other three?"  "New contacts are identical contact name Hiryu assigned."  "Communications, send to squadron:  The squadron will prepare for combat.  All ships to action stations.  This is not a drill.  Repeat this is not a drill.  Nuclear weapon release is authorised.  Squadron Command out.  End message."  "Aye aye sir."  He looked at his XO, "Get suited up."  "Michael..sir...we can't win."  The XO's voice was quiet and he was just doing his job being the devils advocate.  "I know Tom...but we can't run either."  The contacts were moving four times faster than the Terrier's flank speed.  "And I'm sick of those alien bastards...this time we can see them...we need information and this is our best chance."  The XO and CO exchanged looks, their chances were slim but damn it all...there were three ships deep in the system.  "Aye aye Captain."  A crew man rushed in with the Captain's vacc suit.

All through the squadron the hab sections spin was cut and the ships crews suited up.  Once that was confirmed the pressure in the ships was reduced to keep depressurization effects to a minimum and reduce the risk of fire.  Cpt. Wells ordered the support group to remain on the jump point as he set out two locations for the Battlegroup and the Warder's EW pinnance.  Between them they would have an effective missile detection range of 1.5 million km to the battlegroup and 2.5 million km to the support group.

"Squadron, this is Cpt. Wells.  We are going to fight for information.  We have 12 Javelin's and I intend to launch all of them at one alien ship.  The aliens are maintaining a straight line course for this jump point.   I hope we can then withdraw to Wolf 358, remunition and prepare a hot reception for anyone chasing us.  The Sentinal and the two Oberon's are counting on us to get them out of here.  Lets kick some alien ass.  Squadron command out."  Not the greatest pre-battle speach ever given he thought but it would have to do.

[ooc]New Thermal Contact!  Contact ID: Tama 002, Class ID: Tama, Race ID: Wolvers, Strength 1500
New Thermal Contact!  Contact ID: Tama 003, Class ID: Tama, Race ID: Wolvers, Strength 1500
A new ship class of the Wolvers has been detected in HIP 51317. Our intelligence service has designated the new class as the Hiryu.
A new ship of the Hiryu class from the Wolvers has been detected in HIP 51317. Our intelligence service has designated the new ship as the Hiryu 002.
A new ship of the Hiryu class from the Wolvers has been detected in HIP 51317. Our intelligence service has designated the new ship as the Hiryu 003.
A new ship of the Hiryu class from the Wolvers has been detected in HIP 51317. Our intelligence service has designated the new ship as the Hiryu 004.
New Thermal Contact!  Contact ID: Hiryu 002 (New), Class ID: Hiryu (New), Race ID: Wolvers, Strength 1500
New Thermal Contact!  Contact ID: Hiryu 003 (New), Class ID: Hiryu (New), Race ID: Wolvers, Strength 1500
New Thermal Contact!  Contact ID: Hiryu 004 (New), Class ID: Hiryu (New), Race ID: Wolvers, Strength 1500
New Active Sensor Detected!  Contact ID: Hiryu 002, Class ID: Hiryu, Strength 4320, Resolution 20
New Active Sensor Detected!  Contact ID: Tama 002, Class ID: Tama, Strength 2736, Resolution 76
New Active Sensor Detected!  Contact ID: Tama 002, Class ID: Tama, Strength 1728, Resolution 4
Sensor Data reveals that the alien ship class Hiryu (Wolvers) is capable of 8378 km/s[/ooc]

AD 2277 (April 23) 23:05

The squadron reported all ships were at full shields and the battlegroup and pinance were manueving towards their designed battle positions.  This was the first time the human ships had such a chance and Cpt. Wells made the most of it.  


AD 2277 (April 23) 23:11

"Yes!"  The three contacts designed as Hiryu 2-4 had continued to close as the battlegroup had advanced while the Tama's had turned back, but now they had crossed the sensor envelope of the NC naval search sensor and for the first time the size of the ships was known.  "Computer estimates 8,950 tons Captain."  "Destroyer sized."  Not that the NC Navy had such ships...yet but at least once they had they would match the enemy in tonnage.  It also meant that 3 times the battlegroups tonnage was bearing down on them.  The Javelin III's could now reach out and touch the enemy also.  "Time on Target launch with Mastif Guns, stand by to launch when you have confirmation Mastif is ready.  Target is Hiyru 2."  "Target is Hiyru 2 aye.  Time on Target Launch aye."  Seconds later, "We have a problem Sir!"  "What?"  "The enemy ships are messing with our targeting we should have a hard lock but its jumping all over the place."  "Damn it Guns keep trying."    

[ooc]Sensor Data reveals that the alien ship class Hiryu (Wolvers) has a target cross section of 179. Estimated tonnage is therefore 8,950
Hostile Ship Contact!  Contact ID: Hiryu 002, Class ID: Hiryu, TCS 179  Thermal: 1500 (Existing)  Active Sensor S216/R20 (Existing)
Hostile Ship Contact!  Contact ID: Hiryu 004, Class ID: Hiryu, TCS 179  Thermal: 1500 (Existing)
Hostile Ship Contact!  Contact ID: Hiryu 003, Class ID: Hiryu, TCS 179  Thermal: 1500 (Existing)
Dalmatian - Telus ASMFC 53-1000 targeting Hiryu 002 at 11m km
Telus ASMFC 53-1000 on Dalmatian has a maximum range of 10,050,000k km due to enemy ECM and is therefore unable to lock on to the target. No missiles are fired.
Sensor Data reveals that the alien ship class Hiryu (Wolvers) has an ECM strength of 50[/ooc]

AD 2277 (April 23) 23:14

The squadron was in position, the EW pinnance was still moving to its position infront of the squadron.  "HARD LOCK!"  "Guns, launch!"  "Launch, Aye sir!"  Computers syncronized on both Terriers and the small ships shuddered as the missiles slide down their launch railes under their solid boosters.  "Sir.  Birds in space.  All systems both birds read green.  Target is acquired. Time to target 42 min."  "Thank you."  On the combat plot a new icon bloomed as the missiles went to full power.


AD 2277 (April 23) 23:23

The fourth salvo was in space and 70 s showed on the reload clock.  The Hiryu's continued to close and were currently 7.3 million km from the Battlegroup.  "New contact! VAMPIRE 1! Inbounds!"  "Warder has engaged!  Salvoing Counter Missiles!"
[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3  Thermal: 2 (New)
Warder - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4342 at 0k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
3x Hawk II Counter Missile has no target and no onboard sensors and will therefore self-destruct
[/ooc]

"New CONTACTs!  VAMPIRE 2!  VAMPIRE 3!"  "Battlegroup Saloving Counter Missiles" "Cleveland is manuevering for a shot!"

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3  Thermal: 2 (New)
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4363 at 20k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
Mastiff - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4362 at 20k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
Cleveland - Grundig Sureshot Mk1-25/20X  BFC targeting Missile Salvo #4363 at 20k km: Base Chance to hit: 51% (Fire Control To Hit: 50%  Modified by Crew Grade: 51%)
Cleveland: Thales MilL-IR Stiletto (To Hit Modified by Tracking Speed: 9%)  missed.
[/ooc]

"Target is Cleveland!"  The battlegroups close in escort's YAG lasers were filling space with a series of pulses of coherent light as the missile dove through and a single powerful flash detonated near the ship.  Her shields deflected most of the plasma away as they were intended and her armour ablated muting the plasma shock front but still the ship shuddered.  Lt. Cmdr Marcus Kerr didn't realize he had been promoted back on earth and at the moment he didn't care.  "Status?"  "Oh my god!"  "GUNS talk to me!"  "The damn targeting system is off line...main dishes and the link to the auxillaries sir."  Lt. Cmdr Kerr stared at the plot.  His ship was now reduced to a distraction...his laser systems worked just fine but he had no way to target them.  "Isn't that just jim dandy...."  He hit the switch for damage control and told them to do whatever it took to get his ship back into the fight.

[ooc]Grundig Sureshot Mk1-25/20X  BFC destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 4 Casualties.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x1 detected![/ooc]

"Sir!" Cpt. Wells looked up.  "Cleveland reports their targeting system is down, unknown time to repair."  He nodded he had better revise that idea that they would get out of this unscathed.  The Hiryu's apparently had missiles and weren't just close combant ships.


AD 2277 (April 23) 23:24


"New Contact! VAMPIRE 4!"  "Support Group under fire!"

The RS Paul Bunyon shuddered as a missile detonated near her.  The ships shields and armour took most of the hit but one engine was knocked out.  The Warder tasked with protecting the support group had not yet reloaded her countermissile rails.

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3  Thermal: 2 (New)
Warder - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4348 at 20k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  5 seconds until next missile launch.
Rolls Royce NP E-M28S destroyed on Paul Bunyon after receiving 2 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
As Paul Bunyon has slowed to 1400 km/s due to damage, it has been detached from 3rd Squadron Support Group/TG1/1st Fleet.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x1 detected![/ooc]

"New Contact!" "VAMPIRE 5"  "Targeting Battlegroup"  Cpt. Wells swore the CM launchers were nearly recharged.

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4367 at 30k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  5 seconds until next missile launch.
Mastiff - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4367 at 30k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  5 seconds until next missile launch.[/ooc]

It was the Cleveland again this time a pair of missiles bracketed the ship and what staggered out of the fireballs was a crippled wreck and the reactor hit ensured her lasers would remain silenced the damage control parties struggled to bring systems on line while the helm struggled to steady the now yawing vessel.  The Cleveland was out of the action.

[ooc]Crew Quarters destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Crew Quarters destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Crew Quarters destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
CANDU AHW 6MW destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M40S destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 2 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M40S remained intact on Cleveland despite receiving 1 points of damage.
GE Barrier A119 destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Seimens SSS 53-3000 destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
NorTEL IR Array 0-3 destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x2 detected![/ooc]

"NEW Contact!"  "VAMPIRE 6"  "Support Group is Target!"  "Sir the Perryvale reports she is hit!"  Cpt. Wells jabed his override.  "Communications!  Send to Perryvale. Commander you are ordered to jump.  Repeat you are to jump.  Make for Earth best speed!  Naval command has to know what we found out!  Tell Earth 120 days for the survey ships.  God speed and good luck.  Squadron Out.  End Message."  "Sending now sir."  He had been wrong...well there was nothing for it now.  He had 8 birds in space and another 2 ready to fire in under 15 seconds but they needed over 30 minutes to reach their target and he doubted the battlegroup would last that long.

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3  Thermal: 2 (New)
Warder - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4352 at 30k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x1 detected!
3x Hawk II Counter Missile has no target and no onboard sensors and will therefore self-destruct[/ooc]

Cmdr. Aaron Benson CO of the support group turned white when he heard the orders from Squadron Command.  "Oh damn!"  His ship had weathered the hit with no internal damage but the enemy missiles should not be getting through.  The hits on his support group had been coming from a different angle then the Hiryu's.  "Engineering! Spindle the drive!"  "Communications send to the Paul Bunyon they are point.  Send to Warder that they have the tail."  "Aye Aye sir." "Helm, stand by for jump."  "Helm stand by for jump, aye."  Within 30 seconds engineering was reporting that the jump point was stable and the three ships sliped through the opening between the stars to emerge in Wolf 358.  They immediatly set out for the warp point to AD Leonis, the RS Paul Bunyon trailing as her crew worked to make battlefield repairs to her damaged engine.

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3
Mastiff - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4372 at 50k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4373 at 50k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
3x Hawk II Counter Missile has no target and no onboard sensors and will therefore self-destruct[/ooc]

His last two anti-ship missiles were on the way to the launchers as Cpt. Wells ordered the ships to manuever for a spot in space chosen away from the direction the missiles were now determined to be coming from.  The Hiyru's had slowed down apparently matching the speed of the EW pinnace and they were now closing at only 1000 km/s.  That low velocity increased his Javelin's chance to hit significantly but they still needed time to cross the 7 million km to the target.


AD 2277 (April 23) 23:25

"Hostile Contact!"  "Vampire 7!"  "Battlegroup is target!"  Not that anyone else was a possible target now thought Cpt. Wells but his crew was following their training.

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3  Thermal: 2 (New)
Mastiff - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4377 at 10k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4378 at 10k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
3x Hawk II Counter Missile has no target and no onboard sensors and will therefore self-destruct[/ooc]

"Hostile Contact!" "Vampire 8!"  "Battlegroup is target!"  It was the Mastif's turn as a single missile detonated off its side, ripping its shield apart before gouging away a chunk of the ships armour and the most of its phased array panels for its IR detectors.  "Mastif reports she is still combat capable sir!"  "Thank you."  Cpt. Wells tried to find a solution but there wasn't one.  The enemy missiles were showing up at close range and in the last case 5 seconds too soon.  His ships were getting picked apart.

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3  Thermal: 2 (New)
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4383 at 20k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  5 seconds until next missile launch.
Mastiff - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4383 at 20k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  5 seconds until next missile launch.
NorTEL IR Array 0-3 destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x1 detected![/ooc]

AD 2277 (April 23) 23:26

"Hostile Contact!" "Vampire 9 and Vampire 10"  "Battlegroup is target."

Both Terriers shuddered as their CM launchers salvoed 3 Hawk's into space.  To the crew even in their suits it was like a massive artillary round had been fired as the missile litteraly howled off their launchers.  The Hawks engaged their main drives and both sets of missile flashed at each other at over 15000 km/s.  Strobe light flares dotted space as the Hawk's warheads detonated.  Astoundingly enough for the first time in the engagement two enemy missiles were reduces to tumbling ruin by the human defences.  Unfortunatly it was too little to save the crippled Cleveland which disintegrates under fire, the ship becoming a slowly spinning mass of twisted metal spewing life pods.  The Mastif it hit by two waves of inbound missiles and her structure snaps sending chunks of what used to be a ship off on wildly diverging vectors and the human force is reduced to a single ship, the Dalmatian.  Cpt. Wells orders his ship to maintain target lock.  The lead missiles are now around 18 minutes away from the Hiyru 2 that is now at 7.2 million km from the Dalmatian.

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x3)  TCS 3  Thermal: 2 (New)
Hostile Missile Contact (x1)  TCS 3
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4364 at 20k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.
Mastiff - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4364 at 20k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) has launched a Hawk II Counter Missile. Reload Time: 30 seconds.

Crew Quarters - Small destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 0 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Crew Quarters destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Engineering Spaces destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Engineering Spaces destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Fuel Storage destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M40S destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 2 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
GE Barrier A119 destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
GE Barrier A119 destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Bell Phased Array P3-15 destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Thales MilL-IR Stiletto destroyed on Cleveland after receiving 1 points of damage. 5 Casualties.
Cleveland suffers complete structural failure due to the amount of damage it has received. The ship is destroyed.
Commander Marcus Kerr has made it to a lifepod before the destruction of Cleveland

Salvo of 3x Hawk II Counter Missile has intercepted its target. Chance To Hit 8%: (Missile Speed 4000 km/s / Target Speed 11200 km/s) x Missile Agility 19 x GradeBonus 15%
Salvo of 3x Hawk II Counter Missile has intercepted its target. Chance To Hit 7%: (Missile Speed 4000 km/s / Target Speed 11200 km/s) x Missile Agility 19 x GradeBonus 1%
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4364 at 10k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  25 seconds until next missile launch.
Mastiff - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4364 at 0k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  25 seconds until next missile launch.

Rolls Royce NP E-M40S destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 2 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
GE Barrier A119 destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Seimens SSS 53-3000 destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Bell Phased Array P3-15 destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Nordion Arbalist ASM Launch System destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 2 points of damage. 9 Casualties.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x4 detected!
Strength 1 Nuclear Detonation x1 detected!
I'm not sure if I got 2 or 1 missiles...from the fact only a single str 1 nuke was detected I suspect the log is a bit off here.[/ooc]

"Vampire 11!"  "Mastif under fire!"

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x3)  TCS 3
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4369 at 30k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  20 seconds until next missile launch.

Crew Quarters destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Crew Quarters - Small destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 0 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Engineering Spaces destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Engineering Spaces destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M40S destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 2 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M40S destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 2 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Fuel Storage destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
GE Barrier A119 destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
GE Barrier A119 destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Telus ASMFC 53-1000 destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 4 Casualties.
Grumman SCMFC 52-50 destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Bridge destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 1 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 0 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 0 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Boeing SBMAG destroyed on Mastiff after receiving 3 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Mastiff slowed to 1 km/s due to damage to Mastiff.
Mastiff suffers complete structural failure due to the amount of damage it has received. The ship is destroyed.
Lieutenant Commander Isobel Singh failed to escape the destruction of Mastiff and has been killed.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x5 detected![/ooc]

"VAMPIRE 12!"  "INBOUNDS!"  "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" The Dalmatian's counter missiles launchers were cycling and the crew could do nothing as the Wolver missiles closed in.  Detonations bracketed the ship and it twisted and  then snapped, the next successive detonations pulvarized the pieces.  As the ship was hammered by the fury of six multimegaton detonations few of its crew able to reach lifepods at all.  The ship was reduced to a slowly expanding debrie field under the pounding it took.  Cpt. Wells died while trying to get his bridge crew to the dubious safety of a life pod.

[ooc]Hostile Missile Contact (x3)  TCS 3  Thermal: 2 (New)
Dalmatian - Grumman SCMFC 52-50 targeting Missile Salvo #4376 at 20k km
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System (x3) reloading.  15 seconds until next missile launch.

Crew Quarters destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Crew Quarters destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Crew Quarters - Small destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 0 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Crew Quarters - Small destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 0 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Crew Quarters - Small destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 0 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Engineering Spaces destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Engineering Spaces destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Fuel Storage destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Fuel Storage destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M40S destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 2 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M40S destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 2 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Rolls Royce NP E-M40S destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 2 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
GE Barrier A119 destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Seimens SAMS Vigilant 51-0050 destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Seimens SSS 53-3000 destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Grumman SCMFC 52-50 destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Telus ASMFC 53-1000 destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 4 Casualties.
NorTEL IR Array 0-3 destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 4 Casualties.
Bell Phased Array P3-15 destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Bridge destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 1 points of damage. 3 Casualties.
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 0 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 0 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Nordion Buckler CM Launch System destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 0 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Nordion Arbalist ASM Launch System destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 2 points of damage. 8 Casualties.
Boeing SBMAG destroyed on Dalmatian after receiving 2 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Dalmatian suffers complete structural failure due to the amount of damage it has received. The ship is destroyed.
Captain Michael Wells failed to escape the destruction of Dalmatian and has been killed.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x6 detected![/ooc]

The destruction of the Battlegroup and the retreat of the Support group stranded the crew of the Fairmile B2 pinnance.  There were still 10 Javelin's in space but they no longer had commmand guidance and they would home in on the target's last location and then use their onboard thermal sensors.   But those had been planned for re-acquiring targets at close range so the commander of the pinnace Ensign Susan Lee set a course for the last reported position of the Hiryu's and hoped to make contact to possibly guide the missiles in.  Unfortunately the enemy had other plans.

Afterthought

AD 2277 (April 23) 23:35  

They never made it.  The enemy expended two missiles on the small craft and only 3 crew made it into space in their survial suits from the molten twisted mass that had been their ship.
 
[ooc]Crew Quarters - Tiny destroyed on Fairmile B2(EW) 001 after receiving 0 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Engineering Spaces - Small destroyed on Fairmile B2(EW) 001 after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Fuel Storage - Tiny destroyed on Fairmile B2(EW) 001 after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Bombadier Backboard NPM1-125 destroyed on Fairmile B2(EW) 001 after receiving 1 points of damage. 0 Casualties.
Seimens SAMS Vigilant 51-0050 destroyed on Fairmile B2(EW) 001 after receiving 1 points of damage. 1 Casualties.
Bridge destroyed on Fairmile B2(EW) 001 after receiving 1 points of damage. 2 Casualties.
Fairmile B2(EW) 001 suffers complete structural failure due to the amount of damage it has received. The ship is destroyed.
Strength 9 Nuclear Detonation x2 detected![/ooc]

From the ships original complemeents: 13 crew survived the Dalmatian, 35 survived the Mastif, and 33 led by Lt. Cmdr. Kerr survived the Cleveland.  The Sentinal and two Oberon's from BuSurvey were now the only human ships in the system.


In Wolf 358 the RS Paul Bunyon restores functionality to her engine and rejoins the other two ships heading for the jump point to AD Leonis at 4:50 on the 24th.  Onboard the Perryvale and the other ships computers was all the information that the 4 Human ships lost in HIP 51317 had gained.  The first such data the Navy had to work with, and they had a date to meet.  The survey ships would be done in 120 days and they had no ship in system with a working jump engine.

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]Improved the battle write up a bit...removed a few typos and such.  I realize after looking at the sensor design that I goofed the deployment as I had the ships too far apart.  The CM sensor only picks up those missiles at around 50k km.  Ah well a learning experience.  This is just the events that occured elsewhere up to the time the battle was going on...so yeah the dull stuff again.[/ooc]

AD 2277 What later became known as: The Calm Before The smeg Storm

Commadore Frasier stood behind Cpt. Morganrot and left him in command of 2nd Squadron.  There was a degree of political fall out but he felt that was the Commisioner's problem.  The Naval personel were of mixed feelings over the issue itself.  All the logic in the world didn't change the fact they had "lost one" on their watch.  As a way to deal with the complaints the Navy was not able to protect people off planet (meaning outside of Earth orbit) the Navy proposed that they would build a Ceylon Class Troop Transport and give themselves and the NCA the ground force projection capacity they both wanted and also get some experience with the Heavy Frigate Hull construction issues.  Commadore Frasier also informed the commanders of 1st and 2nd Squadron that the change over of duties would happen as soon as 2nd Squadron completed their overhaul.  This would put Cpt. Morganrot out on the jump point to Wolf 359, and away from the Newsies and Wacho's who were dogging his every step.  It was an expedient way, he felt, to encourage "out of sight, out of mind."  2nd Squadron Battlegroup arrives at the jump point to Wolf 359 on March 30th, having finished their ships overhauls on the 25th.  To improve morale he also ordered the 2nd Squadron Support Group and the 1st Squadron Battle group after being relieved to engage in military excersizes.  The biggest outcome of the loss of the Hudson was a decrease in volunteers for BuSurvey, something which everyone had known was going to come.

The popularity of the NC Commision and the Navy in the polls dropped.  Increasingly respondents were saying they felt the Navy could not fulfill its mission of protecting Humanity.  The Navy and the NCC could do little to curb these trends at the moment.  But they realized they would have to produce the newer ships without waiting for updated technologies beyond their jump drives.  But the Naval board looking into the matter was adamant that they needed to wait for the new Jump engines before they started producing new ships.   A fraction of the board was suggesting that "monitor" type destroyers intended for close range ambush might be a good investment, especially as a PR boost.  In the end the Ceylon construction was viewed as the committee solution that did the most for the least cost and time investment.  It got a fraction of the people off the Navy's back without closing off options.


Comercial Yard Litton-Ingalls Shipbuilding Corp. (Sol, Earth)
AD 2277 (March 13) Amber (Bauxite Long Range (HP) class) and Amethyst (Bauxite Long Range (HP) class) complete their refits bringing ICG II to fully modern standards.


Naval Shipyard Deschimag A.G. Weser (Sol, Earth)
AD 2277 (April 10) Retooling for the Ceylon class troop transport is completed and the TT Ceylon starts construction.

Code: [Select]

Ceylon class Troop Transport    4,500 tons     57 Crew     254.25 BP      TCS 90  TH 63  EM 60
933 km/s     Armour 1-24     Shields 2-300     Sensors 15/15/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 0
Maint Life 2.61 Years     MSP 88    AFR 64%    IFR 0.9%    1YR 18    5YR 273    Max Repair 40 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 18 months    Spare Berths 0    
Troop Capacity: 1 Battalion    

Rolls Royce NP E-M28S (3)    Power 28    Fuel Use 31.16%    Signature 21    Exp 7%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres    Range 12.8 billion km   (159 days at full power)
GE Barrier A119 (2)   Total Fuel Cost  18 Litres per day

Seimens SSS 53-3000 (1)     GPS 1800     Range 11.6m km    Resolution 60
NorTEL IR Array 0-3 (1)     Sensitivity 15     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  15m km
Bell Phased Array P3-15 (1)     Sensitivity 15     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  15m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

This ship isn't exactly what the Navy wanted but it would do its job.  They wanted something with self jump and cargo capacity based around civillian engine technology but could never find an optimal solution before political pressure forced their hand.  It is planned to build three of these ships.


Civillian Operations in Sol
AD 2277 (February 15) Williamson Logistics has launched a new Williamson H2 class Fuel Harvester a welcome addition to their fleet as far as the NCC is concerned.
AD 2277 (February 15) The civilian mining colony on Reinmuth has been expanded to 7 civilian mining complexes


Research Progress
AD 2277 (January 30) Dr. Ellen Allan's team gets a boost in their efforts to improve refinery efficiency as a new research complex is completed and its staff assigned to this task.
AD 2277 (February 16)  Dr. Charlotte Rowley arrives on earth and is re-assigned from 1st Geosurvey Team to heading up the task of improving refinery efficiency as Dr. Ellen Allan has reached mandatory retirement age and her declining health indicates she should step down.  Dr. Ellen Allan is honored for her long and dedicated service to the NCC during a well attended retirement dinner.  She has been responsible for leading teams that have greatly improved the industrial capacities of humanity and the NCC corporate infrastructure.  The unfortunate consiquence of the loss of Dr. Allan's many years of experience is a 3 year delay in the realization in the next step of refinery efficiency whose completion date slips to 2281 from 2278.  A bitter blow this is but everyone hopes that Dr. Rowley will gain the experience needed to reduce this time quickly.


Northern Coalition Army
AD 2277 (February 30) The Blue and Grey Bn finishes their advanced infantry training and the Fighting Second Bn begins its training in Camp Wainwright.


Operations in Sol

During the first quarter of 2277 Industrial activity on Earth was in full swing.  A large number of Javelin III ASMs were constructed to create a ready reserve for the Navy.  The fifth Fairmile B2 Early Warning pinnance was completed.  The Navy retained 8 A type and 1 B type in its bases on earth but it was decided that once sufficient pinnaces had been built for the active navy the A's would be scrapped.  The primary industrial focus was completion of a new reseach complex which was finished on January 30th, efforts then turned to series or rapid builds of a new maintenance facility in build up for the Heavy Frigates, 2 new construction factories one of which was planned to be shipped to Faewald, and then a new Terraformer for Mars.  The secondary industrial group completed a new fuel refinery bringing the yearly production of fuel to 3 018 400 litres.  That group then built new infrastructure for BIC before starting to automate an older mine.

ICG II returns to Earth on Feburary 17 and while the crews of the ships are on shore leave the two Bauxite freighters are sent to the yards to be refit.  On the 25th of March the ships of ICG II load colonists, prefabricated components for the colony and a construction factory and start their journey for Faewald.  By the 10th of April the small convoy of ICG V, ICG VI, and ICG VII have returned from Forge and the ships crews are released for shore leave.

Fuel Harvester Group III moves to Jupiter to begin filling its tanks, stopping on the way to purchase fuel from the civillian harvesters.

The 1st Geosurvey team resumes survey operations on Calisto on the 22nd of February.  The team is now down to 3 members as Dr. Charlotte Rowley is heading up the efforts on fuel efficiency.


Operations in Alpha Centauri

The ships of ICG IV arrive at Faewald on the 21st of February.  They offload their supplies and construction material plus the new colonists and then spend until March 30th enjoying R&R at the colony.   The ships then bid a fond farewell to the thriving settlement and head for the jump point to Earth.  On April 15 FHG I has filled its tanks to 90% capacity and breaks orbit heading for Faewald, they report that they will ferry down 715 401 liters of fuel when they arrive to Ms Jackson's staff.  This is enough fuel to refuel fully a ICG arriving from Earth with fuel to spare for a second one.  A second such harvester group would ensure that the all 4 yearly ICGs could be refueled.

Operations in AD Leonis

By the 17th of January FHG IV is joined by FHG II.  They have a combined production capacity of 532 000 litres per year.  Onboard currently is approximately 30% of the 3 ships tank capacity.


Survey Developments in HIP 51317
AD 2277 (February 20) New Jump Point found in the HIP 51317 System

[ooc]One thing that happened in the battle that needs mentioning was that the RS Paul Bunyon was nocked out of the squadron due to damage to her engines.  Then when the squadron jumped she didn't jump with them...so I used the SM ability and moved her.  I wasn't sure if I could manual add her back to the squadron (with out her getting booted again) but I have to say this was a tad annoying.   Almost as annoying as when WitP AE the AI detached a carrier with a single DD escort rather than keeping her with the rest of the BG...[/ooc]


 

[chrislocke2000]

Cripes that was a bit of a crunch for the Navy to say the least. Hopefully though it will help set some design parameters for the new generation of ships to give them a fighting chance. The lack missile detection range looked to be particularly catastrophic for the fleet as did the lack of armour.

Am looking forward to seeing how the battle between the politicians and the Navy pans out on this.

[Paul M (OP)]

Cripes that was a bit of a crunch for the Navy to say the least. Hopefully though it will help set some design parameters for the new generation of ships to give them a fighting chance. The lack missile detection range looked to be particularly catastrophic for the fleet as did the lack of armour.

Am looking forward to seeing how the battle between the politicians and the Navy pans out on this.

Yeah the Navy just got kicked in the groin followed by an elbow to the back of the skull.  However, the information that was collected in this battle was invaluable.  Now, as you point out, the Navy designers can start optimizing things where before all they had were parameters so vague as to be useless.  However, they would have rather not traded 4 ships for them.  How things fall out in the end is going to depend on how the rescue efforts go.  And the decision to release ships for task force training is going to throw a spanner into that.

Survey operations are going to be seriously curtailled for some time no matter what happens.  BuSurvey is down to only 2 SVs and 2 Oberons at Earth, so getting those 3 ships in HIP 51317 out would be a "good thing."

[Paul M (OP)]

[ooc]This covers the time period while the 3rd Squadron Support Group is returning to Earth.[/ooc]

Northern Coalition Government Structure

The Northern Coalition is a parlimentary government formed from the nations that arrose after the collapse.  The new states don't really correspond well to older one except for England, Iceland and Ireland which more or less came throught the collapse in a form similar to what they had before.  The area controlled by the Coalition stretches from Victoria on the West coast of North America, through the old praries of Canada and the Northern United States to the East Coast, most of which is an unihabited ruin mostly flooded and largely unclaimed in the resettlement. Newfoundland, Iceland, Ireland and England bridge the Atlantic ocean.  The old countries of Norway and Sweden are a single state now.  Finland, the Karnelian Peninusla and the baltic coast line from St. Petersburg to Konigsberg and stretching to Novogrod in the south forms another major power block.  The northern coast of France from Normandy to Rostock is a patchwork of minor states.  During the resettlement of the past half century large areas of central Europe have been reclaimed along the major waterways and restoration efforts are underway in central and southern Europe and parts of the Balkan's.  The lack of significant resources has left the Iberian penisula largely untouched.

The NC Parliment meets in Goose Green on the coast of North America.  The various member states elect MPs to the Parilment on a roughtly 5 year basis.  A speaker controls the debate and there is a Privy council and a Prime Minister.  The Prime Minister comes from the party with the Majority of the seats.  There are a number of political parties in existance and they are generally but not allways fairly multi-national.  A few such as the Putinites are regional in nature.   Le Blocque is language based.  The CDU while strongest in the German speaking areas polls well in North American ridings.  The Libs, Democrates, Cons, Pinks, GOPs are the main North American parties.  In recent years ridings have opened up on Luna and Mars and there is a degree of representation of these two worlds in the NC Parliment but largely they prefer to deal with the NC Commision.  This is in large part due to the NC Assembly being focused on matters related to Earth and shifting agendas make long term projects of little interest to the current seated members of the house.  To catagorize all politicians as having a major agenda of bringing as much of the NCC pie as possible to their riding, would be unfair in all cases but it is unfortunately a general truism.  Squabbles in the Assembly are common and worse so the weaker overall the government is.  Minority governments have a tendancy to get paralyzed when polarizing issues show up.

The NC Commission or NCC is a government agency similiar to the EU Commision or The Department of Energy in the USA.  It is run by technocrats and answers to the NC Assembly.  It is tasked with developing TN technology with the goal of forming outworld colonies to support the Earth.  BuSurvey and BIC are both part of the NCC directly and the Science Directorate (SD) is the NCC's research arm.  Although there are lofty and humanistic goals in the charter of the NCC most Prime Ministers and the Governments they lead view it as a wealth creation tool.  When things are going well most Prime Ministers never think about the NCC other than to see that as many contracts as possible arrive in ridings their parties control.  Removing the current Commisioner is certainly something a government could do, but it requires a 2/3+1 vote in the Assembly and so would only be done for a serious issue.  It is easier for a government to show its displeasure by trimming the budget of the NCC or piling on extra tasks rather than bothering the generally well entrenched beurocracy. Within the NCC has developed a culture that views most NC govenments as transitory nuicences to be appeased and the NCC as a timeless organization.  To a degree you could draw parallels between the NCC and the Catholic Church with the Commisioner as the Pope.  The NCC is physically based in Cantebury due to overall better access to the commercial starport at Scapa Bay.

The NC Navy is a branch of the Armed Forces of the NC Gov.  But the only thing NC Gov is all that concerned with usualy is Earth so the PDCs are their main focus.  This and the NCCs control over TN minerals has led to a near merger of the NCN's Quartermaster corps with the NCC operations group.  For the most part the Navy's mobile forces are protecting NCC assets be they ships or colonies so there is a high degree of cooperation between the agencies.  Regardless, the NCN answers to the NC Assembly and while the funding channels may be byzantine at times authority flows clearly.  The navy has two main ports on Earth, one at Victoria and the other at Strahlsund.  The main training and administrative centre with a lot of the navy's quartermaster corps as well is in Churchill in North America.

NC Navy personel man all BIC and BuSurvey ships, but here the chain of command gets murkier.  But the NCN is considered the senior service so in practice there is generally a precident for who is incharge of what.  Civillians also tend to seperate the Navy (space born) from the Navy (PDC) although infact there is no difference.  Due to the chance to form political connections most Commodores have come from the Senior Commander of the PDC Force but there is no reason this will be always the case.  BIC's fleet is headed by a NCN Captain who is seconded to BIC, and at the moment the Navy uses BIC as a dumping ground for its more technically inclined officers.  Though just due to the larger number of such ships most officers will command a BIC vessel at least once in their early career.  The Navy tries to rotate officers through a variety of commands in their first decade of service.

AD 2277 The Clock Ticks Down

Cmdr. Aaron Benson CO of the 3rd Squadron Support group orders his ships to head directly to Earth.  The RS Paul Bunyon has sufficient fuel on board so that when the the squardon jumps into AD Leonis on the 11th of May he does not swing by the FHGs to acquire fuel.  His ships maintain radio silence with the FHGs and Forge as they race for Earth.  His ships arrive in Sol on the 5th of June with between 11 and 17% fuel.  They jump into Sol at 4:50 am and their coded transmission arrives at Naval Command about an hour later and Commadore Frasier's day begins early.

Operations in Sol

Earth's ordinance industry continues to churn out Javelin III's and Hawk II's with the goal to give the NCN a reserve of 150 of each of these missile.  During the month of May a Terraforming Engine, and a maintenance facility are completed by the main group of Earth's industry.  The Terraformer arrives in Mars in a week via a civillian contract.  Two Deep Space Tracking Installations, one intended for Faewald, are started on May 25th.

ICG V, loads 1000 colonists, an automated mining facility and more colonial  infrastructure and then sets out for Forge on the 30th of April.  It will pass 3rd Sqn. SG in Laland 21185 on its journey to Forge.  ICG III arrives in Earth orbit from Faewald on the 24th of May and the two Bauxites are sent in for refit as the crews are released for shore leave.  For the first time the minerals arriving from Faewald cause a stir comercially.  

A large number of ships have arrived at Earth in need of fuel over the month of May and by the 5th of June only 0.5 m litres of fuel remain in the tank farm.  This is its lowest level in over a year.

Operations in Alpha Centauri

Fuel Harvester Group I arrives in Faewald orbit on the 26th of April and after offloading their fuel into the colonies tank farm the crews are released for shore leave.


Operations in AD Leonis

Fuel Harvester Group V arrives to join FHG II and FHG IV at AD Leonis II on the 28th of April.  The production capacity of the three groups is now 672 000 litres per year.   Additionally FHG V has a considerable amount of fuel that it harvested at Jupiter plus purchased from the civillian harvesters onboard.

Research Progress
AD 2277 (May 30) Dr. VíkingR Hœkillson's team has completed the theoretical underpinnings for more efficient jump engine design (Jump Drive Efficiency 5) and begins research into more powerful drive systems for existing engines (Maximum Engine Power Modifier x1.5)
AD 2277 (May 30) Dr. Samantha Buckley's team is tasked with developing the first of the new series of jump engines the Saab JA3-60, two laboratory complexes that had been assigned to Dr. Hœkillson will assist Saab's engineers in producing the first of the 2nd generation (Alpha-series) of jump engines.  These jump drives will be used on the Heavy Frigate and Advanced Science Vessels.

Comercial Yard Robert Napier & Sons (Sol, Earth)
AD 2277 (May 15) Gasahol (Petrol (HP) class) is built and dispatched to join FHG III at Jupiter

Civillian Operations in Sol
AD 2277 (May 20) The civilian mining colony on Haumea has been expanded to 5 civilian mining complexes

NCN Operations
(Sol)

1st Sqn. Battlegroup and 2nd Squadron Support Group are on training excersizes until the first week in May when both forces are ordered to Earth to begin their overhauls while their crews enjoy shore leave.   Unknown to NC Naval Command the decision to have the 1st Sqn. BG undertake trainging will have consiquences.

AD 2277 (May 30)  2nd Squadron Support Group completes their overhaul and are ready for deployment


(HIP 51317)

Lt. Cmdr. Brandon Byron is keeping the FFG Sentinal at 500 km/s which reduces her thermal signature to a quater normal and is on course for Jump Point 1 when on the 4th of May he looses contact with the life pods from the London.  Based on their last transmission the aliens have captured the crew of that ship.  The next day the remaining life pods also send their last transmissions.  The Sentinal has the last messages of all the surviving crew from the Battlegroup that wished to make them in her computer memory.    The transmissions to the pods that had set up this had been risky but Lt. Cmdr. Byron had felt there was not choice to not to attempt to collect them.  If they will be able to return them to family and loved ones is a matter that is causing Lt. Cmdr. Byron sleepless nights.  The Oberon's are still surveying and he is wrestling with what to do to facilitate a rendevous with the NCN force he expects to arrive in around 90-100 days.  

On the 21st of May the Sentinal arrives at Jump Point 1 and after discussing the situation with his senior officers Lt. Cmdr. Byron sets course for Jump Point 3.  The jump point to Wolf 358 is 245.5 m km at a bearing of 268° from Jump Point 3.  The biggest advantage is that JP3 is nearly equidistant from the last two survey locations the Oberon's will survey.  Another advantage is that it is away from the approach vector of the Wolvers used during the battle.  From JP3 Lt. Cmdr. Byron intends to lead the pair of survey ships to a point 140 m km bearing 0° from the jump point to Wolf 358.  He can then use his pinnance to scout the jump point and decide if he can risk moving in closer.  It will take the Oberon's 31 hours to cover a distance of 140 m km, so the closer he can get to the jump point the shorter time the enemy will have to react.  Unfortunately, he has no way to convey his intentions to the relief force.

AD 2277 (May 21) New Jump Point found in the HIP 51317 System bringing the total to 6 making this the second largest concentration of jump points so far found and the survey is only half complete.

[Anarade Relle]

Thank you and sorry for the delay replying I was on my christmas holidays and discovered my memory was not up to remembering my site password.  I have to admit I worry constantly that I am building too many ships for my fuel status.  I have to write up another update as I recover from jet lag.  The fuel situation is still a major concern though.

No worries. I've taken my revenge by forgetting to check the AAR and then, after a moment of glorious comprehension of many updates, reply after a perhaps longer period of time. I like the narrative (especially the personal bits about the officers in various situations, mostly doomed or fighting) and the format of reporting the mechanical stuff.

[Paul M (OP)]

No worries. I've taken my revenge by forgetting to check the AAR and then, after a moment of glorious comprehension of many updates, reply after a perhaps longer period of time. I like the narrative (especially the personal bits about the officers in various situations, mostly doomed or fighting) and the format of reporting the mechanical stuff.

Thank you...I look forward to the time I can write about the NCN really "kicking alien butt."   For the moment it is likely that "fighting" and "doomed" are interchangable.