Author Topic: After the Fall, Battle of 40 Eridani  (Read 2277 times)

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Offline Kurt (OP)

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After the Fall, Battle of 40 Eridani
« on: February 01, 2014, 03:54:56 PM »
August 24, 2082 22:37 hours      
The 1st Fleet jumps into the 40 Eridani system and brings up its active sensors as soon as possible.  Admiral Maurais detached the Josephus Daniels and the Yorkshire to watch the jump point and the rest of the fleet sets out for the third planet. 

August 25, 22:45 hours       
The long range sensors on the City class patrol cruisers detect three 8,450 ton contacts directly in between the fleet and the third planet.  The contacts are 693 mkm’s away, at the limit of the cruiser’s radar detection range.  A short period of observation confirms that the alien ships are inbound at 6,655 kps.  Admiral Marais orders the fleet to close at the maximum speed of the Belknap, 3636 kps. 

August 26, 15:52 hours      
The alien ships have closed to 50 mkm’s.  In spite of repeated attempts to contact them, and then repeated warnings, the alien ships have not reacted.  Admiral Maurais orders the fleet to open fire. Soon after the battlecruisers tasked to attack the incoming ships confirm that the alien ships mount some sort of ECM, which means that the maximum range that the Federation targeting systems can track the enemy ships is just over 30 mkm’s.   Admiral Maurais orders the fleet to close.  After closing an additional million kilometers, to 49 mkm’s, the alien ships turn away and begin running in front of the fleet. 

After consulting with her officers, Admiral Maurais ordered the Arleigh Burke to launch its gunboats with orders to close and attack the alien ships.   Rear Admiral Moehrle, CO of the Burke, launched his gunboats immediately, and ordered them to close to 30 mkm’s and launch on the alien ships.  The gunboats raced away at 12,000 kps, with a rate of closure of 5,344 kps. 

Twelve minutes later the reason the alien ships were running became clear.  Eighteen missiles, each twice as large as a standard Federation missile, were detected inbound at 33,209 kps.  Immediately fifty four interceptor missiles raced away from the Federation ships and nearly everyone held their breath as the two groups of missiles closed on each other.  The alien missiles were faster than the Federation AMM’s, which was a bad sign.  Twenty five seconds later the first group of incoming missiles had raced past the defensive missiles, while a second group was detected.  Once again anti-missile missiles raced away from the Federation ships, but given the inability of the first group of AMM’s to catch their targets; the Federation officers were beginning to doubt their efficacy.  Orders were given by the commanding officers to stand by point defense weapons. 

The first eighteen alien missiles raced straight through the Federation fleet and slammed into the Belknap’s armor.  Only the Belknap’s main battery fired on the incoming missiles, not one of the dedicated point defense lasers fired before the missiles hit, and for a few seconds the fleet was staggered.  The Belknap came through the bombardment in good shape.  Although the enemy missiles were more powerful than the equivalent Federation missiles, the Belknap was protected by a massive armor belt that shrugged off the damage.  One AMM control station was damaged by shock from the pounding the Belknap’s hull was taking, but aside from that the flagship was fine.  For now. 

The blood had drained from Admiral Maurais’s face when the alien missiles sailed right through the fleets inner defensive sphere without being challenged, and after the Belknap stopped shaking she began issuing orders for every ship to check and recheck its targeting settings.  Crews frantically checked their systems, trying to figure out why their lasers had failed to engage the enemy missiles even as the second salvo closed. 

Twenty seconds later a third salvo had appeared, and the second salvo had raced past the defending AMM’s like they weren’t there.  Admiral Maurais ordered her ships to stop wasting their AMM’s and everyone watched with trepidation as the second salvo closed on the fleet.  This time every laser in the fleet engaged the incoming missiles, but the results were…disheartening.  Only two of the eighteen incoming missiles were destroyed.  Once again the Belknap came through without damage, but several of the missiles had hit in the same location and the armor damage was beginning to worry her commander. 

Admiral Maurais ordered her fleet to come about and retreat, in the hopes of stretching out the time in between salvoes.  The fleet came to a halt as the individual ships came about while trying to maintain their positions.  While the delay in retreating was frustrating, Admiral Maurais hoped that the fact that they were no longer moving towards the incoming missiles would make a difference.  Almost immediately a cheer went out across the Belknap’s flag bridge as the third salvo ran straight into the third, and last, group of AMM’s launched just before Admiral Maurais ordered the fleet to stop wasting AMM’s.  The thirty six AMM’s destroyed nine of the incoming missiles, leaving nine to close on the Belknap. 

Admiral Maurais immediately ordered the fleet to open fire with its AMM launchers once again.  A second group of AMM’s intercepted the third salvo, destroying four more missiles.  Even as the cheers broke out a communications tech reported that the Burke was relaying a report from the gunboat squadron.  They were under attack.  Two gunboats had been destroyed so far by missiles they didn’t even see.  They were still 43.28 mkm’s from their targets, too far to launch on them.  Admiral Maurais ordered them to continue with their attack run, in the hopes that the enemy would run out of missiles.  Five seconds later the remnants of the third salvo slashed in on the beleaguered Belknap.  The five missiles ran into a wall of laser fire and in quick order four were destroyed, leaving one to slam into the Belknap’s armor. 

Fifteen seconds later thirty six AMM’s slammed into the fourth salvo, destroying eleven of the alien missiles.  Ten seconds later Federation AMM’s destroyed another five incoming missiles from the fourth salvo, leaving three.  Two more were destroyed by AMM’s, but the last missile sailed through defensive fire and slammed into the Belknap.  After that the Federation AMM’s destroyed most of the incoming missiles, and only one missile got through to hit the Burke, which, in spite of its much thinner armor, came through unscathed.  By then, though, the entire gunboat group had been destroyed. 

Admiral Maurais, having intentionally ordered the gunboats to continue their attack in an attempt to distract the aliens from her main fleet, was torn on whether to return for the life pods that marked the graves of the destroyed gunboats.  Leaving the crews to die in their pods was nearly unthinkable, but returning to pick them up might make a mockery of their sacrifice if the enemy renewed the attack.  Finally, after consulting with her staff, Admiral Maurais ordered the fleet to come about and pick up the stranded survivors.  Her fleet had dealt with the enemy missiles well after the confusion surrounding the initial salvoes was resolved.  She decided to trust her crews to continue their newly found competence. 

Six minutes later the Arleigh Burke was staggered when she was hit by eighteen alien missiles that had snuck up on the fleet without warning.  The Burke’s thin armor was penetrated at several points and she suffered light internal damage.  Once again Admiral Maurais ordered the fleet to come about and run from the incoming missile salvoes as AMM’s flashed away from the Federation ships. 
Unfortunately, the second salvo slipped around the Federation AMM’s and eleven of them hit the Burke, shredding her armor and heavily damaging her hangers and sensors.  By that time the Federation fleet was moving away from the incoming missiles and, apparently because of that, the Federation AMM’s began decimating the incoming missiles again. 

The alien missile attack petered out after another two salvoes, and no more missiles got through to the Burke.  Admiral Maurais, unwilling to risk the Burke but also unwilling to leave the gunboat crews, ordered three of her City class cruisers to detach from the main fleet and to pick up the survivors.   The three cruisers successfully rescued twenty seven men and women and then raced back to the main fleet.  Once the fleet was reassembled, Admiral Maurais ordered the fleet to retreat through the jump point. 
 

Offline MWadwell

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Re: After the Fall, Battle of 40 Eridani
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2014, 10:29:13 PM »
Mmmm - not a good result. 270+ kton fleet defeated by ~27 kton fleet.

Just goes to show the kind of multiplier higher tech is.....
Later,
Matt
 

Offline MarcAFK

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Re: After the Fall, Battle of 40 Eridani
« Reply #2 on: February 01, 2014, 11:53:46 PM »
Mmmm - not a good result. 270+ kton fleet defeated by ~27 kton fleet.

Just goes to show the kind of multiplier higher tech is.....

I haven't read the update yet, but ouch!
My own fleet's will be somewhere near 260kton by the time it's ready for battle, all it needs is its carriers, fighters, and some long range sensors. Though I've been toying with the idea of 200 million km range size 16 missiles, if i can spare the 4k research points for the sensor. Hoping my first battle doesn't go that way :P
« Last Edit: February 02, 2014, 12:00:13 AM by MarcAFK »
" Why is this godforsaken hellhole worth dying for? "
". . .  We know nothing about them, their language, their history or what they look like.  But we can assume this.  They stand for everything we don't stand for.  Also they told me you guys look like dorks. "
"Stop exploding, you cowards.  "
 

Offline Kurt (OP)

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Re: After the Fall, Battle of 40 Eridani
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2014, 07:27:50 AM »
Mmmm - not a good result. 270+ kton fleet defeated by ~27 kton fleet.

Just goes to show the kind of multiplier higher tech is.....


It was true in Starfire, and its true in Aurora, if you are faster than your enemy, and out range them, they are toast.  The alien ships in this engagement outranged my ships and were faster.  I'm just lucky they didn't have enough missiles to finish the job. 

Kurt
 

Offline Kurt (OP)

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Re: After the Fall, Battle of 40 Eridani
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2014, 07:29:25 AM »
I haven't read the update yet, but ouch!
My own fleet's will be somewhere near 260kton by the time it's ready for battle, all it needs is its carriers, fighters, and some long range sensors. Though I've been toying with the idea of 200 million km range size 16 missiles, if i can spare the 4k research points for the sensor. Hoping my first battle doesn't go that way :P

I didn't go too bad!  After all, I got all of my ships back home, only losing some gunboats and pride.  Not bad for the Federation's first battle. 

Kurt