Part 3: Alea iacta estNote: From this point on, history is provided from the viewpoint of Oceania onlyAdmiral Nelson gave Vice Admiral Ryan the go-ahead to begin combat operations against the Eurasian Union at the earliest convenient opportunity. His assigned objectives were as follows:
1) Ensure the security of Titan Base
2) Ensure the security of the London jump point
3) Establish control over the alien jump gate at the Washington jump point
4) Allow the survey of Washington to be completed
5) Neutralise any Eurasian forces outside the orbit of Mars
6) Ensure the safety and successful return of the gravitational and geological survey ships in Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London
At the time the order was given, Oceanian deployments were as follows:
Earth2x Pueblo Sensor Outpost
Titan Base2x Ark Royal class Carrier:
Yorktown,
Illustrious1x Tribal class Destroyer:
Gurkha6x Roanoke class Colony Ship
12x North Carolina class Freighter
36x Eagle class Fighter (12 each on Ark Royals plus 12 in orbit)
London Jump Point2x Ark Royal class Carrier:
Ark Royal,
Enterprise2x Tribal class Destroyer:
Apache,
Zulu1x Sao Paulo Jump Tender:
Sao Paulo24x Eagle class Fighter (12 each on Ark Royals)
(plus 2x Spruance class geological survey ships in the London system)
Washington System3x Melbourne Gravsurvey Ship
Los Angeles System3x Melbourne Gravsurvey Ship
San Francisco System1x Spruance class Geosurvey Ship
25m km from Washington Jump Point1x Tribal Destroyer:
Iroquois80m km from San Francisco Jump Point (en route to Los Angeles)
1x Sao Paulo Jump Tender:
Minas GeraisOceania?s main problem was that although every ship had a full load of missiles, the only additional missiles were on Earth, in the form of 1000 Katanas and 340 Falchions. So once a ship or carrier had expended all its missiles, the only option for a reload was to make it back to Earth and hope any Eurasian ships in orbit abided by the agreement that Admiral Nelson believed he had with Amiral Cherkasov. Rather then declare war immediately, Admiral Ryan decided to wait until he had a better situation and was sure of the destination of the two Eurasian jump ships. If he could take them both out, that would give Oceania a temporary advantage. In the meantime he ordered the Iroquois to move within range of the Eurasian battlecruiser on the Washington jump point and await instructions.
Commander Preston on the Iroquois was faced with a dilemma. As far as Military Intelligence knew, the Kirov class battlecruiser he faced was armed with 15cm lasers and had no missiles, giving the Iroquois a huge range advantage, although the Kirov could maintain fire indefinitely while his own ship had sixty missiles. Those missiles were probably enough to handle the Frunze if he could hit with perhaps least half of them. However, with the Frunze sat right on the alien jump gate, if it detected his missiles it could simply transit the jump point and his missiles would lose lock. Ironically, the only sure way to close in and destroy the battlecruiser would be with beam weapons. He was effectively helpless while the Frunze could move between systems scanning for the Oceanian survey ships. Of course it was entirely possible the Kirov class did not have active sensors capable of detecting something as small as a missile but it very likely had thermal sensors that would detect the small thermal signature of the missiles on their final approach. Commander Preston passed on his concerns to Vice Admiral Ryan and requested support, stating that he would be able to force the Frunze into Washington with a missile salvo and then the second ship could pursue and attempt to destroy the ship in that system. In the meantime he halted Iroquois eighteen million kilometers from the jump point, well inside the 21.5m kilometre range of the destroyer?s Katana anti-ship missiles. Vice Admiral Ryan accepted his concerns and ordered Apache to detach from Second Fleet and reinforce Iroquois. However, Apache was three billion kilometres away and would need almost twelve days to make the trip from the London jump point to the Washington jump point so any offensive action was on hold for the moment.
In the inner system, the two Eurasian jump ships continued on courses for the London and Los Angeles jump points while the Kirov and the two Dunkerque class escort cruisers maintained their direct heading for the Washington jump point. The Eurasian warships were 16 million kilometers from Earth at a speed of 3000 km/s and would remain on active sensors until they exceeded the thirty-seven million kilometre range of the Pueblo?s largest sensor. The two jump ships were at 14.7m kilometers at a speed of 2666 km/s and were too small to be detected by Pueblo?s primary sensor. Her secondary sensor with its lower resolution tracked them until eight million kilometers from Earth but now they were being tracked via their thermal and EM signatures by the planetary sensors. At eighty million kilometers, they dropped off thermal sensors but could still by tracked by the emissions of their powerful active sensors for at least a billion kilometers. However, in the early hours of the morning of September 19th they de-activated their sensors 100m kilometers from Earth and vanished from Oceanian tracking screens. The Kirov was tracked on thermal sensors all the way out to three hundred million kilometers, although her Dunkerque class consorts disappeared at only 230m. Realising the critical importance that planetary sensors would have once combat began with Eurasian forces, Admiral Nelson ordered additional planetary sensors to be constructed as soon as work was completed on a new research facility.
Several hours after Oceanian sensors lost contact with the three Eurasian warships, the eleven Eurasian Fast Attack Craft broke orbit and headed into the asteroid belt in the general direction of Saturn, which was incidentally not that far away from the direction of the Los Angeles jump point. Whether this was a prelude to an attack on Titan Base or simply a way to distract Oceanian forces was unknown. Due to their small thermal signature it was not long before they were undetectable.
Just after midnight on September 22nd, the jump ship Minas Gerais transited into Los Angeles to warn the three Melbourne class survey ships of the potential hostilities with the Eurasian Union and to pass on an order from Vice Admiral Ryan to pull out of the system for the time being. Their survey was approximately fifty percent complete but they could always resume it later under safer conditions. Vice Admiral Ryan did not want his entire survey force trapped by Eurasian forces sat on jump points. The Los Angeles primary was a G5-IV sub-giant with fifty percent greater mass than Sol, which meant the survey area was correspondingly larger. The three survey ships were five, six and eight billion kilometers from the Sol jump point and would take several weeks to arrive. While she waited, Minas Gerais jumped back into Sol to watch for any potentially hostile contacts. She didn?t have to wait long as a strength-160 thermal contact appeared at a range of one point five million kilometers and a speed of 2666 km/s, almost certainly one of the two Eurasian jump ships. Minas Gerais switched on her active sensors and confirmed the identity of the contact, although she also revealed her position to the planetary sensors of the Eurasian Union and East Asian Alliance which would easily detect her active sensor emissions.
Well aware that the Eurasian Fact Attack Craft might be in the area, Vice Admiral Ryan ordered Minas Gerais to deactivate her sensors and retreat. He also ordered the twelve Eagle fighters of VFA-03, current in Titan Orbit, to head for the area in case the Fast Attack Craft made an appearance, Unfortunately the fighters did not have the range for a round trip so Vice Admiral Ryan also ordered Illustrious, Yorktown and Gurkha, along with VFA-04 and VFA-05, to follow under emissions control (no active sensors) and recover the fighters on the way back. Although that left Titan Base uncovered, its thick atmosphere would protect it from beam weapons and the Admiral was gambling the Eurasian had no missile weapons and would not suspect the carriers would leave orbit anyway. However, the six colony ships and twelve freighters in orbit of the base would be extremely vulnerable so they were ordered to head into deep space to avoid detection.
As soon as Minas Gerais pulled away from the jump point and de-activated her sensors, the Eurasian jump ship, now given the designation of the Montcalm class by Military Intelligence, activated its own sensors, pinpointing the Oceanian ship?s location for any hostile warships. Minas Gerais did have a 300 km/s speed advantage and because of her small size could only be detected by the short-ranged sensors of the Eurasian ship, which allowed her to get out of sensor range within twenty minutes. Electromagnetic sensors on Earth continued to track the active emissions of the Montcalm as it moved back to the Los Angeles jump point and vanished. Five minutes later it reappeared and a Eurasian Konigsberg class geosurvey ship left Earth orbit and headed for Los Angeles.
Thirty-six hours later, the fighters were within eighty million kilometers of the Los Angeles jump point where the sensors of the Montcalm were still active. However, the fighters could not obtain a missile lock on without an active sensor contact on the target and the Eagle class had no onboard sensors. By this time Minas Gerais was four hundred million kilometers away and could not use her sensors to illuminate the Eurasian ship. The Eurasian fast attack craft had not made an appearance so Vice Admiral Ryan ordered VFA-03 to pull back to the carriers for refuelling but allowed the carrier force to continue closing on the jump point. As both carriers already had twelve Eagles on board, that would require one of the existing squadrons to launch temporarily. An immediate lesson learned was the need for either active sensors on the fighters or on their missiles, or possibly for the creation of a dedicated sensor platform on a fighter hull.
Ten hours later VFA-03 was refuelled and escorting Yorktown, Illustrious and Gurkha as they continued closing on the jump point. At fifty million kilometers, just outside the estimated range of the main search sensor of the Eurasian jump ship, they halted. The Oceanian force was faced with a similar dilemma to the Iroquois. With the Montcalm parked on the Los Angeles jump point, any missile attack could be avoided by the simple expedient of jumping into Los Angeles. In this case however, the Montcalm was probably not armed, or only lightly armed, so Vice Admiral Ryan ordered Gurkha to engage its active sensors and close on the jump point. VFA-03 and VFA-04 followed a million kilometers astern. Because the Eagle class fighter was much smaller than the Tribal class destroyer, the resolution of the Montcalm?s main search sensor was too great to detect them. Vice Admiral Ryan?s plan was to either force the Montcalm into Los Angeles where it could be dealt with later or get it to run, in which case the faster Gurkha would overhaul and destroy it, or at least keep it on sensors while the fighters handled the job. As a bonus, any Eurasian ships which attempted to attack the Gurkha would be unaware of the nearby fighters until it was too late.
Even with the Tribal class destroyer closing on the jump point, the Montcalm class jump ship remained in place and its sensors remained active. The commander must have realised his ship had no chance if he ran so he presumably intended to monitor the incoming warship as long as possible before transiting into Los Angeles to escape. Back in Earth orbit, Pueblo monitored the departure of an Eastasian heavy cruiser and two escorting destroyers on a course close to the Los Angeles jump point. The Eastasian tracking stations on Earth must have detected the active sensor emissions of Gurkha and the Eurasian jump ship and the East Asian Alliance was probably sending a task group to find out what the other two Earth powers were so interested in. As far as Military Intelligence was aware, the East Asian Alliance had only recently began a gravitational survey so they didn?t yet know the locations of any jump points. It would take two days for the Eastasian ships to arrive at their speed of 3000 km/s
Once Gurkha and the two fighter squadrons were within five million kilometers of the jump point, the Eurasian jump ship vanished into Los Angeles. With no sign of any other Eurasian forces, Vice Admiral Ryan ordered Gurkha to take up position on the jump point and maintain active sensors. VFA-03 took up station with her while VFA-04 returned to Illustrious. The two carriers moved forward to join Gurkha and Minas Gerais was recalled from her flight, although it would require three days for her to return to the Los Angeles jump point. With one Eurasian jump ship now bottled up in Los Angeles, Vice Admiral Ryan could turn his attention to determining the location of the second jump ship, the eleven Tarantul Fast Attack Craft and the three Eurasian warships that left Earth several days earlier. So far, the threatened conflict between Oceania and the Eurasian Union consisted merely of move and counter-move as the two sides jockeyed for position.
All of the naval activity since relations began to deteriorate between Oceania and Eurasia led Admiral Nelson to re-examine the current shipbuilding priorities. On September 22nd 2085, six Oceanian shipyards were in operation, with twelve slipways between them. The Newport News shipyard had two slipways with a capacity of 10,500 tons and was configured to build Ark Royal class carriers, two of which were currently under construction and due for delivery in October 2086. The BAE Systems yard was configured to build North Carolina class freighters, although both 8000 ton capacity slipways lay empty. 500 tons of extra capacity was being added as part of a plan to upgrade the North Carolina class freighters with greater speed and range. This would be accomplished through a larger 8500 ton version of the freighter, which would need the increased capacity. Roanoke class colony ships were being built in the two 6000 ton capacity slipways of the Swan Hunter yard and the latest pair would be completed in March 2086. The Electric Boat shipyard was the same size as Swan Hunter and would complete two Sao Paulo class jump tenders within a month. It was also retooling to build Alaska class freighters and would be ready to lay the first two down in November 2085. The Bath Iron Works had three slipways with a capacity of 2200 tons and had almost completed an upgrade to a capacity of 2700 tons. All six Melbournes had been built at the Bath Iron Works but its slipways lay empty pending the creation of an upgraded design. Finally, the recently constructed Victoria Shipyard had a capacity of 2000 tons and had just started work on increasing that to 3000 tons. Its single slipway was empty.
In summary, apart from the two Ark Royals, no new warships were either being built or in the planning stages. Given that Oceania was preparing for action against the Eurasian Union, that was a worrying state of affairs. To correct this problem, Admiral Nelson ordered that the Swan Hunter yard be retooled to build Tribal class destroyers, a process that would require until March 2086. In addition, Oceanian research labs began developing a design for an Oceanian Fast Attack Craft engine, based on information gained from scanning the Eurasian Tarantul class Fast Attack Craft. Once this engine was available, the two smaller shipyards could start building Oceanian FACs.
To ease the problems caused by operating fighters beyond active sensor range of ships, a new Hawkeye class fighter was developed, using a sensor and extra fuel storage in place of missile launchers, The Hawkeye would be able to pinpoint missile targets for other fighters. In addition, two Recon Drones designs were created. These could be fired out of a standard missile launch tube and would provide long range active sensor coverage of a small area, enabling a ship or fighter to gain more information on a thermal contact or perhaps check out a planet or jump point without venturing too close.
Hawkeye class Fighter 250 tons 19 Crew 47.7 BP TCS 5 TH 24 EM 0
4800 km/s Armour 0.5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 0
Fighter Nuclear Pulse Engine FN-1 (1) Power 24 Efficiency 70.00 Signature 24 Armour 0 Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 5.1 billion km (12 days at full power)
SPS-48/20 Active Sensor (1) GPS 480 Range 4.8m km Resolution 20Recon Drone
Missile Size: 3 MSP (0.15 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 3300 km/s Endurance: 321 minutes Range: 63.6m km
Active Sensor Strength: 1.2 Resolution: 20 Maximum Range: 240,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 1.3667
Materials Required: 1.2x Uridium 0.1667x Gallicite Fuel x1875
Development Cost for Project: 137RPLarge Recon Drone
Missile Size: 4 MSP (0.2 HS) Warhead: 0 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 5000 km/s Endurance: 268 minutes Range: 80.4m km
Active Sensor Strength: 1.35 Resolution: 20 Maximum Range: 270,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 1.6833
Materials Required: 1.35x Uridium 0.3333x Gallicite Fuel x3125
Development Cost for Project: 168RPAt 13:58 on September 27th, Yorktown, Illustrious and Gurkha had been holding position on the Los Angeles jump point for just over two days, with Minas Gerais just sixteen hours away, when Gurkha?s primary search sensor picked up the battlecruiser Kirov and the two Dunkerques at thirty-seven million kilometers on a bearing of fourteen degrees. As their current location was almost the opposite direction from which they departed Earth several days previously, they must have doubled back after they moved out of sensor range and skirted through the asteroid belt. On Earth, Vice Admiral Ryan received the updated sensor information in real time and quickly realised that the Eurasians probably didn?t realise the two Oceanian carriers were in the area. All their sensors would have detected was Gurkha?s sensor emissions. Unfortunately Kirov switched on her active sensors moments later and illuminated all three Oceanian ships. Vice Admiral Ryan immediately ordered Gurkha to close on the three Eurasian warships and keep them in sensor range while VFA-03, VFA-04 and VFA-05 gave chase. The thirty-six fighters carried one hundred and eight Falchion anti-ship missiles between them, which Admiral Ryan believed would be more than enough to penetrate the anti-missile defences of the Dunkerque class escort cruisers.
At 3025 km/s, Gurkha was marginally faster than the 3000 km/s of the Eurasian warships so she would be able to keep them in range. However, the two carriers were only capable of 2800 km/s due to a design decision to include a full squadron of twelve fighters at the expense of greater speed and gradually fell behind. Illustrious engaged her own active sensors as Gurkha pulled away. Two hours into the chase, the thirty-six fighters were twelve million kilometers ahead of Gurkha and twenty-four million kilometers from the fleeing Eurasian ships but still outside their missile fire control range of sixteen million kilometers. The two Ark Royals had fallen 1.6 million kilometers astern of Gurkha. At about the same time, thermal sensors on Earth detected a strength-160 thermal contact on a course from the Los Angeles jump point, probably the Konigsberg class geosurvey ship that left several days ago and had to abandon any hope of entering Los Angeles.
At 17:35, three and a half hours after the chase began, the fighters had drawn within fifteen million kilometers of the fleeing Eurasian warships, inside missile range but not yet close enough to open fire. In the fifteen minutes the Falchions would take to reach their maximum range, their targets would have moved a further two point seven million kilometers and the missiles would run out of fuel before reaching attack range so the fighters planned to close in to less than thirteen million before opening fire. Gurkha was twenty-two million kilometers astern of the fighters and 2.8 million kilometers from the Ark Royals. Suddenly, proximity alarms starting wailing on the two carriers as eight strength-60 thermal contacts appeared just 397,000 kilometers astern. In an instant, Vice Admiral Ryan realised his forces had been led into a trap. As Gurkha moved ahead of the carriers, eight Eurasian Tarantul fast attack craft had moved in from behind, just outside the 3.2 million kilometre range of the destroyer?s secondary sensor. They must have been within a few million kilometers of the Oceanian task group when the three larger Eurasian ships showed themselves and drew off Gurkha and the fighters. With their small thermal signature and cross-section they had been undetectable at long range. Even so, they would have been picked up at over three million kilometers by the Tribal class destroyer if she had remained with the carriers. Now the Fast Attack Craft were still just outside Gurkha?s active sensor range but within four hundred thousand kilometers of the vulnerable, shieldless carriers.
The Oceanian ships were in a difficult situation. All three fighter squadrons were far too distant to intervene, which left just Gurkha to protect the carriers. However, if she reversed course, which is what the Eurasian planners must have hoped she would do, the Kirov and her escorts would move out of sensor range and probably escape. She also only had two SPG-1 missile fire control systems, which meant she could only engage two Tarantuls at once and with a 1200 km/s speed advantage over the carriers, the Tarantuls were going to be in firing range within two or three minutes. Commander Edward Connell, captain of the Gurkha, decided on a balancing act, reversing course long enough to bring the Tarantuls into active sensor range so he could get a missile lock while trying to keep the Kirov and escorts within range of her primary search sensor.
Ten seconds after the course reversal, active sensors picked up the eight Tarantuls and the fire control systems locked on the first two. Ten Katana anti-ship missiles burst out of their launch tubes and streaked toward their targets at 16,700 km/s. Gurkha continued launching salvos of ten Katanas at intervals of ten seconds. Although all the missiles were still locked on the same two targets, Commander Connell planned to change the targets of his fire control systems as soon as a Tarantul was destroyed so the follow-on missile would engage the new target. Forty seconds after the first launch, fifty missiles were heading toward the Tarantuls while Gurkha retained just ten missiles in her launch tubes. Despite the desperate situation, Commander Connell was well aware that the Eurasian Union had eleven Tarantuls in service and he didn?t want the other three turning up after Gurkha had fired every missile in her inventory. In the time it had taken to get all his missiles away, the fast attack craft had closed to within 331,000 kilometers of the carriers and the lead missiles were still two point three million kilometers from their targets. Gurkha reversed course again, keeping both the Tarantuls and the Kirov in her sights, although the latter was at 99% of maximum detection range. With no way to influence the battle happening millions of kilometers to their rear, the fighter squadrons continued closing on the Kirov.
Every Oceanian officer with access to a tactical repeater display, watched as the missiles seem to crawl across the screen while the gap between the Tarantuls and the carriers grew inexorably smaller. As the lead missiles passed the two Ark Royals, the fast attack craft were just 204,000 kilometers away. Based on the known level of Eurasian fire control technology, the carrier commanders expected to receive laser fire at around 150,000 kilometers..
The first two groups of five missiles each reached their targets at 17:38. Four missiles targeted on the lead Tarantul all missed, presumably due to the high speed of the target, and several Oceanian officers only started breathing again when the fifth missile exploded right on top of the fragile fast attack craft. Although the strength-5 warhead wasn?t enough to destroy the Eurasian vessel, it obviously wrecked its engine because the Tarantul fell out of formation and was left drifting in space. The second target was bracketed by three detonations and exploded into a million glowing shards. Five seconds later the second wave of missiles hit. The third Tarantul was hit by two missiles and might have survived had its engine not exploded and destroyed the rest of the ship in the secondary explosion. Number four somehow survived three hits but was reduced to an irradiated hulk. There was no defensive fire against the missiles and it seemed likely the Tarantuls had no sensors capable of detecting them.
The third wave of missiles struck as the fast attack craft reached 174,000 kilometers and completely destroyed both targets. The last two Tarantuls pressed on bravely but were overwhelmed by the missiles of the fourth wave. One was obliterated and the other heavily damaged. Just three crippled fast attack craft remained. With the last wave of missiles coming in, Commander Connell sent a message with seconds to spare, ordering the Eurasian crews to abandon ship. Life pods spilled on to the Oceanian tactical displays, joining those already floating near the wreckage of the Eurasian ambush force and the crippled Tarantuls were destroyed by scuttling charges rather than missiles. Ten Katanas were still in flight with nineteen minutes of fuel left so Commander Connell ordered his tactical officer to keep them under shipboard control until their fuel ran out in case the missing three Tarantuls appeared. Also available were also the ten missiles he had retained in their launch tubes as an emergency reserve.
The Eurasian ambush had been foiled by Commander Connell with only seconds to spare and he had accomplished it without losing contact with Kirov and the two Dunkerques. Oceanian attention now returned to running down the battlecruiser and her escorts. The Eurasian life pods were left in the wake of the battle. With fourteen days of air there would be plenty of time to recover them later. Vice Admiral Ryan believed the Eurasian wrecks would also be worthy of investigation if Oceania had a ship capable of salvaging them. An oversight he intended to correct in the future.
Seventeen minutes after the Tarantuls were first detected, the thirty-six Eagle class fighters drew within twelve point five million kilometers of their targets and launched one hundred and eight Falchion anti-ship missiles; thirty-six at each ship. The Falchions were a third larger than the Katanas used by the Gurkha, slightly faster at 17,500 km/s and carried a strength-10 warhead. They were also shorter-ranged at 16.1m kilometers compared to 21.5m for the Katana but designed to emphasise warhead strength over range because they were limited by the fire control range of the Eagles. No doubt realising they would be facing a missile attack at some point, the three Eurasian warships had created a line ahead formation, led by the Kirov with the Dunkerques at intervals of sixty thousand kilometers. This was probably to give Kirov the best possible protection if she was the target, with both Dunkerques able to use area point defence fire on missiles as they passed. However, the Eurasians probably didn?t realise just how many fighters had been committed against them, especially with a third squadron involved, or the power of the Falchion anti-ship missiles.
As the wave of missiles closed on the targets, Gurkha?s tactical and sensor officers watched their displays with great interest, trying to get whatever information they could from the defensive fire of the Eurasian warships. The closest Dunkerque fired first, destroying six missiles at 10,000 kilometers with fire from two quad 10cm laser turrets but that left thirty missiles targeted on the cruiser. It required only seven strength-10 hits to blast the ship into wreckage. The rest of the wave left the debris in its wake and crashed down on the second Dunkerque, annihilating it amid a cascade of explosions. Kirov fired her five twin 15cm laser turrets in a blaze of last-second defiance before vanishing in a cataclysmic crescendo of detonations. Stunned Oceanian officers stared at their tactical displays, shocked by the speed at which three powerful Eurasian warships were transformed into tumbling debris.
Back on Earth, Vice Admiral Ryan quickly recovered from thirty minutes that began with despair and ended in triumph and started planning the demise of the remaining Eurasian forces. Top of his list was the battlecruiser Frunze, still sat on the Washington jump point. Iroquois continued to watch from eighteen million kilometers and Apache was less than three days away. Admiral Marcus Nelson had other ideas. While he was very happy with recent events, he was concerned that pushing the Eurasian Union into a corner could be potentially disastrous if the Union felt it had no choice but to launch an attack on Earth itself. He therefore contacted Amiral Cherkasov with Oceanian terms for a ceasefire. The Union would be allowed to keep its remaining forces but they would be forced to give up access to the London, Washington and Los Angeles jump points and refrain from sending any forces into the eastern half of the Sol system. Their forces would be restricted to the western half of the system and their access to extra-solar territory would be through the San Francisco, Chicago and Ottawa jump points. Frunze would be withdrawn immediately from the alien jump gate and the jump ship in Los Angeles would vacate the system at once. The normally calm Amiral Cherkasov was furious at the proposed terms and declared that the Union would never surrender to Oceania. Determined to avoid his past mistakes in negotiation with his opposite number, Admiral Nelson pointed out that no surrender was involved, merely a restriction in the movements of the Eurasian Navy and that if Amiral Cherkasov wished to continue the conflict, his own forces were more than capable of restricting the Union to within the orbit of Mars. Cherkasov fumed for a few moment longer then stated she would discuss the matter with the Eurasian government. Before terminating the connection, Nelson reminded her that hundreds of Eurasian naval personnel were sat in life pods that would run out of air in less than fourteen days, so he suggested she reach a decision quickly.
Meanwhile, the state of war continued. Gurkha headed for the Los Angeles jump point to rendezvous with Minas Gerais while the two carriers followed at a slower pace as they waited for their fighters to return. The twelve Eagles of VFA-03 ?Space Barons? headed for Earth to refuel and re-arm; VFA-04 ?Fighting Hawks? and VFA-05 ?Golden Hawks? set course for Yorktown and Illustrious. By 01:30 on the 28th September, Gurkha and the carriers were stationed on the jump point with Minas Gerais just five hours away. Unexpectedly, three new contacts appeared on the edge of the destroyer?s sensor range at a bearing of thirty degrees. Based on previous scans, they were quickly identified as the Eastasian heavy cruiser Jianghu and two Kongo class destroyers which left Earth orbit two days before. Recent intelligence reports suggested their original mission was to determine what had attracted the attention of several Eurasian and Oceanian ships. Now they would find many Eurasian life pods and numerous wrecks. Once within Oceanian sensor range, they engaged their own active sensors, although their range was shorter than the Oceanian and Eurasian equivalents. With the Eurasians on the defensive, Vice Admiral Ryan did not want to complicate matters by getting involved with the East Asian Alliance so he instructed the task group commander, Captain Jacob Barnett on the Illustrious, to ignore the Eastasians unless they made any threatening moves.
When the Eastasians moved to within ten million kilometers, Captain Barnett began to get nervous, partly because if the Eastasian ships had missiles, then the carrier task force was well within range and partly because the Eastasian active sensors would be scanning his ships. Therefore he hailed the Jianghu and requested that she and her escorts leave the area to avoid raising tensions. Although there was no response to the hail, the three Eastasian ships halted their approach, remaining within sensor range. Two hours later Minas Gerais arrived at the jump point, ready to transit into Los Angeles and contact the three Melbourne class survey ships. Unfortunately, the Jianghu?s sensors would observe the transit and give away the location of the jump point. In addition, a Eurasian jump ship entered Los Angeles three days previously although as far as could be determined by the Sixth Directorate, the Montcalm class was unarmed.
Captain Barnett requested instructions from Vice Admiral Ryan on the planned transit of Minas Gerais into Los Angeles, especially with regard to the watching Eastasian ships. After consulting with his intelligence colleagues, Vice Admiral Ryan gave the go-ahead on the basis that the Eastasians had no jump ships so knowing the location of one jump point before they completed their own survey would do them little good. As Minas Gerais could escort two other ships through a jump point, Captain Barnett considered sending a pair of Eagle class fighters to watch over her and deal with the Eurasian jump ship. However, the search sensor on the Sao Paulo class jump ship had a resolution of seventy-five and therefore would not even be able to detect the small Eurasian Montcalm class while the Eagles lacked their own search sensors, so there was little point. Captain Barnett recommended to Admiral Ryan that in future Oceanian ships should all mount some type of low-resolution sensor, especially given the Eurasian fascination for fast attack craft, then gave the go-ahead for Minas Gerais to transit. She arrived 48,000 kilometers from the jump point and relayed an update to the three Melbournes. As she started to move back toward the jump point to transit into Sol, the ship suddenly staggered under the impact of three point blank hits from 15cm lasers. Secondary explosions tore out the heart of the Minas Gerais and the small jump ship blew up. Just thirty-nine from her crew of one hundred and seventy-three made it to the life pods.
Captain Emma Pickering, senior officer among the three Melbourne class survey ships in Los Angeles, ordered the other ships to immediately halt their approach to the jump point. The survey ships lacked active sensors and there was no way for them to detect whatever just killed the Minas Gerais. With nothing else to do until help arrived, she decided to resume the gravitational survey. Back in Sol, it quickly become apparent to Captain Barnett that there was a problem with Minas Gerais. Either the Montcalm class was armed after all or the missing three Tarantul fast attack craft had somehow got into Los Angeles undetected. Unfortunately, he had no way to send immediate help as the only other Oceanian jump ship, the Sao Paulo, was five billion kilometers away at the London jump point. Fortunately, the third and fourth Sao Paulos would be completed by the Electric Boat shipyard within two weeks.
A new ship design based on the recently developed J600 jump drive had yet to be completed. Admiral Nelson corrected that oversight by visiting the Bureau of Ship Design personally and encouraging them to complete the new design as quickly as possible. Three days later, the Tarawa class Jump Destroyer was revealed. The Tarawa would be able to escort all Oceanian survey ships, the Roanoke class colony ships, the Alaska class freighter and the Tribal class destroyers. Only the Ark Royals and the large North Carolina class freighters would be restricted to the Sol system. The sensor suite of the Tarawa was the best of any Oceanian ship to date and her sixteen Mk 2 VLS Single Cell Launchers could carry Katana anti-ship missiles or the Recon Drones currently under development. Although she lacked shields, her limited armament was mainly for reconnaissance or last-ditch defence, not pitched battle. The new class would be constructed in the BAE systems yard, which had built all twelve North Carolina class freighters. That meant the planned upgrade of the North Carolinas would have to be put on hold but the need for new and more capable jump ships was a higher priority. Retooling began immediately and was estimated to require six months, which meant completion of the first Tarawa was approximately eighteen months away.
Tarawa class Jump Destroyer 6000 tons 493 Crew 756.4 BP TCS 120 TH 360 EM 0
3000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1 Shields 0-0 Sensors 10/10/0/0 Damage Control 0-0 PPV 7.2
Magazine 48 Replacement Parts 5
J600 Jump Drive Max Ship Size 6000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Nuclear Pulse Engine E7 (9) Power 40 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres Range 128.6 billion km (496 days at full power)
Mk 2 VLS Single Cell Launcher (16) Missile Size 3 Hangar Reload 22.5 minutes MF Reload 3.7 hours
SPG-1 Missile Fire Control (1) Range 21.6m km Resolution 20
Katana Anti-Ship Missile (16) Speed 16700 km/s End: 21.4 minutes Range 21.5m km Warhead 5 MR 15 Size 3
SPS-80/16 Active Sensor (1) GPS 800 Range 8.0m km Resolution 16
SPS-375/75 Active Sensor (1) GPS 3750 Range 37.5m km Resolution 75
SQS-2 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 10 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 10m km
SE-2 EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 10 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 10m kmAt noon on September 30th, Apache moved within thirty million kilometers of the alien jump gate at the Washington jump point. The Eurasian battlecruiser Frunze now faced both Apache and Iroquois. However, the situation had not significantly improved. Now that the armament of the Kirov class battlecruiser had been confirmed at ten 15cm lasers, the original plan send one ship through to Washington so that Frunze could not escape missile salvos from both ships was fraught with problems, the main one being that any ship transiting the jump point was likely to be blown to pieces before her missiles hit their target. The Tribal class destroyer had only strength-14 shields and at close range the Frunze could inflict ten strength-6 hits every ten seconds. While Vice Admiral Ryan and his staff decided how to proceed, Apache moved to rendezvous with her sister ship.
Two days later in the Washington system, the three Melbourne class survey ships completed their gravitational survey and were amazed to discover a second jump point that was also surrounded by an alien jump gate. As Port Phillip was the closest, she headed for the new discovery while Sullivan Bay and Dandenong set course for the Sol jump point to report their findings, completely unaware that a war had broken out since they left their home system and that the Frunze was waiting on the far side of the jump point. Back in the Sol system, Vice Admiral Ryan?s Fighter Operations Officer, lieutenant-commander Lucas Finch, hit on the idea of using a fighter squadron against the Frunze. A dozen fighters could get through the alien jump fate and open the range at 1800 km/s per second. The Frunze would have multiple targets to deal with and would probably not have chance to engage all of them before some missiles hit their target. The destroyers would be able to force the Frunze to stand and fight by using their own missiles in the Sol system. Vice Admiral Ryan pointed out that none of the fighters had active sensors and therefore would not even be able to detect the battlecruiser, let alone shoot at it. The ever-enthusiastic Lieutenant Commander Finch pointed out that the first pair of Hawkeye class fighters were now available and they could substitute for two Eagles. It would be extremely unlucky if the Kirov managed to kill both of them, especially as a simple active scan would not be able to differentiate them from the Eagles. Vice Admiral Ryan approved the plan and the Enterprise broke away from the London jump point and headed for Earth. As soon as she was within fighter range of the homeworld, she would fly off two Eagles and take on board the two Hawkeyes before setting course to Washington.
On October 10th, twelve days after the Oceanian offer of ceasefire terms, Amiral Cherkasov contacted Admiral Nelson and stated that the Eurasian Union would consider a modified version of the terms. The Union was prepared to accept that Eurasian ships would stay out of the Eastern half of the Sol system, including abandoning their investigation of the alien jump gate, but restricting their access to half of Sol?s jump point?s was unacceptable. Therefore she suggested a modification of the terms so that the Los Angeles system, the closest of all six jump points to Earth, was open to both powers for peaceful exploration. Bearing in mind the recent Eastasian interest in the Los Angeles jump point, Admiral Nelson stated he was prepared to accept the amended terms if the Frunze and any Eurasian survey ships in Washington returned without further delay. No doubt conscious that only forty-one hours of life support remained in the Eurasian life pods scattered near the Los Angeles jump point, Amiral Cherkasov reluctantly agreed to the terms. Admiral Nelson was fully aware the Union would start re-arming and that at some point in the future Cherkasov would be out for revenge. However, a return to peace allowed time for Oceania to exploit the London system and investigate the alien jump gate without interference
Vice Admiral Ryan was furious at the ceasefire declaration. Plans for the destruction of Frunze were well in hand and once the two new Sao Paulos were available, he intended to use them both to get Hawkeyes and Eagles into Los Angeles. He contacted Admiral Nelson in an effort to persuade him to resume hostilities as soon as Frunze was vulnerable. Admiral Nelson tolerated his subordinate?s barely concealed anger for several minutes before reminding him of the chain of command. As Chief of Naval Operations, Vice Admiral Ryan was responsible for all naval activity, including fighting any wars, while Admiral Nelson was the head of the Oceanian military and set naval policy along with his civilian superiors. In other words, Vice Admiral Ryan had to fight who Admiral Nelson told him to fight. Admiral Nelson followed the brief reprimand with his complements on Vice Admiral Ryan?s conduct of the brief Oceania ? Eurasia war and notified him that he was to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Commander Edward Connell, captain of the Gurkha, was awarded the Black Star for meritorious service.
Shortly after the ceasefire was declared, Frunze vanished into Washington to send a message recalling the Eurasian survey ships in the system then returned to Sol, pulled away from the alien jump gate and headed for Earth with her captain warning of violent retribution if either Apache or Iroquois opened fire once his ship was too far from the jump point to escape. A pair of Eurasian geological survey ships headed for the life pods near the Los Angeles jump point.
On the Oceanian side, all four carriers plus Apache headed for Earth to refuel and load fresh ordnance as necessary, leaving Zulu, Iroquois and Gurkha to watch the London, Washington and Los Angeles jump points respectively. Vice Admiral Ryan recalled the Oceanian freighters and colony ships hiding in deep space and Iroquois transited into Washington through the alien jump gate to send an update to the three Melbourne class gravsurvey ships. News of the discovery of another alien jump gate at Washington?s second jump point was quickly relayed back to Earth. The other three Melbournes were trapped in Los Angeles, along with the survivors from the Minas Gerais, because the Eurasian defenders of that system did not yet know the war was over. The Eurasian Union promised to send their other jump ship through with a message but it was apparently a week away. Unfortunately for the remaining crew of the Minas Gerais, there was no way for the Oceanian forces in Sol to know they had survived and Admiral Nelson did not want to risk restarting a war for possible survivors who might have already been rescued. With only hours of air remaining the survivors were picked up by the Eurasian jump ship in Los Angeles as her commander could not leave them to suffocate, despite believing they were still at war.
In Washington, Port Phillip transited the recently discovered jump point and found a fourth alien jump gate on the far side. Even more interesting was that she found herself inside a nebula, three billion kilometers from a large G3-V protostar. A sparse asteroid belt orbited within sixty million kilometers of the protostar and a halo of comets was much further out, ranging from eight to twenty-five billion kilometers. The amount of dust within the nebula would make it difficult for ships to travel at greater than 2000 km/s, unless they were particularly well-armoured. It would also greatly degrade fire control and sensors, render shields ineffective and prevent the use of missiles, hardly ideal for Oceania with its specialisation in missile technology. However, Commander Katie Rice of the Port Phillip was a keen amateur geologist as well as a gravitational expert Oceanian and had seen several scientific papers suggesting that if jump points were to occur in nebulas, the few system bodies that might be found should contain higher than average amounts of mineral wealth. Port Phillip transited back into Washington and relayed a message via Iroquois to Earth, reporting the new discovery. Despite the slow speed at which a survey of the new system, named Denver, could be carried out, Vice Admiral Ryan wanted to know where the chain of alien jump gates led, so he ordered the three Melbournes to begin a gravitational survey.
On October 12th 2085, the Electric Boat yard on Earth completed the new Sao Paulo class jump ships, Serra da Cantareira and Serro do Mar. Serra da Cantareira left orbit bound for Los Angeles while Serro do Mar set course for the San Francisco jump point to check on the geological survey ship Spruance. At the same time, two new Dunkerque class escort cruisers were launched from Eurasian yards
Five days later, the Eurasian Montcalm class jump ship Carillon arrived at the Los Angeles jump point from a northerly direction. Her activities during the war are still unknown. After transiting briefly into Los Angeles, she re-entered Sol with the other Montcalm class jump ship and three Tarantul class fast attack craft. Montcalm transferred the thirty-nine survivors from the crew of Minas Gerais to Gurkha, an act that slightly lowered the high tension following the war, and left in the direction of the San Francisco jump point. The three Tarantuls headed back to Earth. Carillon remained on the jump point, presumably awaiting Eurasian survey ships keen to begin work in the Los Angeles system. Serra da Cantareira jumped into Los Angeles to check on the three Melbourne class survey ships Melbourne, Macedon and Yarra.
Frunze returned to Earth orbit on November 1st, joining up with the two new Dunkerque class escort cruisers and the three Tarantuls that destroyed Minas Gerais. Four Baden class gravitational survey ships had transited into Sol than the alien jump gate over the previous two weeks and were now all en route to Earth. So far the Eurasian Union was keeping to its treaty commitment to abandon the eastern half of the solar system. Three more Badens were already in Los Angeles, along with a Konigsberg class geological survey ship.
By November 3rd, all four Oceanian carriers had returned to Earth for refuelling and resupply of their ordnance. While in orbit each carrier exchanged one of their Eagle class fighters for a Hawkeye, creating four strikegroups that each consisted of eleven Eagles and one Hawkeye. VFA-03 ?Space Barons? remained without a carrier for the moment but was changed to the same composition as the four carrier-based squadrons. A sixth squadron, VFA-06 ?Sky Demons? was being formed in Earth orbit and so far comprised five Eagles and one Hawkeye. The combined force then left Earth and returned to Titan Base, which was still unable to provide maintenance support but at least provided a haven away from prying sensors. For the moment there was little chance of increasing the maintenance capabilities of Titan beyond its current 5000 ton limit because of serious shortage of the Duranium needed for construction of additional infrastructure. The Oceanian stockpile on Earth was down to 2000 tons and Earth?s core was fast running out. With no sign of any imminent hostilities, Vice Admiral Ryan ordered Gurkha to return to Earth for refuelling and rearming before joining the carriers and Apache at Titan.
On November 12th, the Eurasian Union launched five new Tarantul class Fast Attack Craft. The Union was quickly replacing its war losses while Oceania was still some time away from resuming significant warship production.
Two months passed with little incident. The geological survey ship Kinkaid travelled to Denver to investigate the asteroid belt but failed to find any significant deposits. Ongoing surveys of San Francisco and London were having an equally unproductive time. It was looking as though any off-world mining operations would have to concentrate on several different small deposits on moons and asteroids, changing sites on a regular basis as supplies ran out. The gravitational survey of Denver continued slowly with all the Melbourne class ships restricted to 2000 km/s by the nebula. Los Angeles contained no navigational hazards but the sub-giant star required a survey over a wider area than Sol and was requiring correspondingly more time.
The gravitational survey of Los Angeles was finally completed on February 1st 2086, revealing a single new jump point seven and a half billion kilometers from the primary. Serra da Cantareira set off to investigate but would require a month just to reach it. The three Melbournes head back toward the jump point where they would be met by Serro do Mar and escorted into Sol, after which they would refuel at Earth and then head to London to start a new survey. Serra da Cantareira entered the new jump point on March 1st to find Canberra, a system with a yellow G6-V primary, seven planets and a large asteroid belt. None of the planets were habitable, although the fourth planet had acceptable gravity and a nitrogen ? carbon dioxide atmosphere that was dense enough for oxygen to be added. While hardly ideal, its colony cost of 2.20 made it a prospect for an initial hostile environment colony followed by long-term terraforming.
At the same time Serra da Cantareira was exploring Canberra, the Eurasians completed six more Tarantuls, taking their number of fast attack craft to fourteen. Retooling of the BAE systems and Swan Hunter shipyards was completed in mid-March 2086, allowing the hulls of two Tarawa class Jump Destroyers and two Tribal class Missile Destroyers to be laid down.
On March 26th 2086, two Eastasian Jianghu class heavy cruisers and three Kongo class destroyers broke orbit and set a direct course for the Washington jump point. Either the Eurasian Union had passed on the location of the alien jump gate or the East Asian Alliance had just completed its own gravitational survey of the Sol system. Only Iroquois was in position at the jump gate and the four carriers and two destroyers at Titan Base were at the far side of the system. Vice Admiral Ryan ordered Iroquois to stay out of the Eastasians' way as she could not fight them alone and apart from the jump gate, nothing of interest had been found in either Washington the connecting system of Denver. The single Kagero class gravitational survey ship in orbit also headed for the Washington jump point and presumably the Eastasians? other three survey ships would be en route as well from wherever they were currently located. As a precaution, Vice Admiral Ryan ordered Illustrious and Yorktown to reinforce Zulu on the London jump point in case the Eastasians constructed a jump ship and attempted to enter the system.
Monitored by the Iroquois, A Kongo class destroyer carried out the first known jump point transit by an Eastasian ship on April 17th and returned a few minutes later. All five Eastasian warship then engaged their active sensors and began scanning the alien jump gate, trying to learn its secrets. The first Kagero survey ship entered Washington on April 23rd and was followed by a second three day later. The East Asian Alliance had finally become a serious competitor in the race to explore nearby systems
By late April, the deposits of both Sorium and Corundium were exhausted on Earth and Vendarite would be gone within six months. The lack of Corundium was not a problem for Oceania as there was nineteen thousand tons in storage and Oceania didn?t use the mineral extensively anyway. Sorium was far more serious as the planetary stockpile was down to less than seven thousand tons and the Oceanian refineries would consume that within a year. So far, none of the powers had established any off-world mining operations, mainly because there were limited deposits in the Sol system and no power had deployed a ship capable of escorting freighters through a jump point. Outside of the Sol system, the most promising candidate for a mining colony was Los Angeles II, which had the deposits shown below. Its proximity to Earth made it easily accessible but very hard to defend.
Los Angeles-A IIDuranium 155,682 Acc: 1
Neutronium 34,596 Acc: 1
Corbomite 54,756 Acc: 0.9
Mercassium 3,249 Acc: 0.9
Vendarite 12,321 Acc: 0.9
Uridium 38,025 Acc: 1
On May 1st, the Eurasian Union completed the construction of two Kirov class battlecruisers, taking their warship strength to three Kirovs, two Dunkerques and fourteen Tarantuls. The balance of forces was now more in favour of the Union than before the start of the recent war. The East Asian Alliance had also been very productive. The recent completion of two destroyers brought their order of battle to five Jianghu class heavy cruisers and nine Kongo class destroyers. Oceania still had the four carriers and four destroyers with which it began the Oceania-Eurasia war, although its fighter strength had increased slightly from sixty to seventy-eight, including six Hawkeyes.
With accessibility of Duranium on Earth dropping below 0.4, Admiral Nelson decided that Oceania could wait no longer to establish a new source of the mineral. Although several asteroids had a few thousand tons plus small quantities of other minerals, Admiral Nelson selected Tethys, a moon of Saturn with 130,000 tons of Duranium at accessibility 1.0 plus 50,000 tons of accessibility 1.0 Mercassium and 140,000 of accessibility 0.9 Corundium. While the Mercassium and Corundium were not immediately required, Mercassium on Earth would be exhausted within two years and the Oceanian stockpile was 20,000 tons. More importantly, Tethys was easy to defend because of its proximity to Titan Base. The twelve North Carolina class freighters and the first two Alaskas began moving Oceania?s one hundred and sixty-five automated mining complexes.
The survey of Denver was completed on June 13th 2086 and another alien jump gate was discovered, the fifth so far, on the system?s only additional jump point. Dandenong transited the jump point and found jump gate number six on the far side, still within the level 5 nebula. In this case, the local protostar was an M8-V and was orbited by three small rocky planets, a gas giant with twenty-three moons and a scattered asteroid belt. The three Melbournes entered the new system, named Santiago, along with the geological survey ship Radford.
On July 12th, Eurasian shipyards launched five units of a new class of fast attack craft, which was quickly designated the Tarantul II. There were obvious construction differences but until active sensors could get a good scan of the new ships, their capabilities remained a mystery. The first successful scan was on July 24th when the presence of composite armour was detected, which at least meant the Eurasian Union had not improved its armour technology in the last three years. Two days later, technical data on a beam fire control installation was obtained, revealing the system was based on tracking speed technology of 3200 km/s. The real surprise came a month later on August 21st when Pueblo managed to scan the drive section and detected an Ion Drive, a engine technology that was still only theory as far as Oceania was concerned. Given the likely power of the new engine, the Tarantul II probably had a speed of 6000 km/s, compared to the 4000 km/s of the Tarantul I and the 4800 km/s of the Eagle class fighter. The fact that Eurasia had researched a new drive technology, developed a new engine design, incorporated that into a new class, retooled a shipyard and built the first five ships before Oceania had even started looking at the original technology indicated just how far ahead the Union was in terms of propulsion. Oceania?s recent research had concentrated on gauss cannon, trying to develop an effective anti-missile weapon before the other powers deployed their own anti-ship missiles. Research into the Ion Engine now became a top priority, supported by whatever data Pueblo could gather. Fortunately, the pre-requisite technology of gas-cooled fast reactors was already in use by Oceania.
Steve
