30th February 1894
Cassini and Galileo have passed through Britannia after surveying a chain of three systems starting with London. The last system in the chain, Thermopylae, has the largest star found so far ? an orange giant K5-III primary forty-five million kilometers in diameter and two hundred and forty times brighter than Sol. The third planet, orbiting at almost two billion kilometers, is only the third ideal habitable world to be discovered outside Britannia
2nd March 1894
Ajax and Copernicus transited into Marathon on February 30th and while Copernicus remained at the jump point, Ajax set course for Marathon II, the suspected homeworld of the Mongols. Given the relatively slow speed of the Mongol ship encountered by the Copernicus it was assumed that Ajax would be able to outrun any trouble, so the plan was to move away from the jump point to avoid revealing its location and try to get as close as possible to the Mongol homeworld in an attempt to get some sensor readings. On March 2nd, as Ajax passed within a hundred million kilometers of Marathon III, three fast moving thermal contacts appeared directly astern at a range of 700,000 kilometers. Ajax engaged her active sensor and detected three ships of 1000 tons moving at 6000 km/s, considerably faster than her own maximum speed of 4200 km/s. Her captain, Commander Laurence Johnson, hailed the Mongolian ships and relayed a message from Joseph Chamberlain, explaining they were on a diplomatic mission and asking to be escorted to the Mongolian homeworld. The Mongolian response was a curt statement that Ajax was invading their sovereign territory followed by a demand that the ship should halt immediately and surrender.
Commander Johnson repeated his message that his ship was on a diplomatic mission and asked the Mongolian ships to keep their distance. The Mongols continued to close. As the range dropped below 400,000 kilometers, he tried once more, stating that any attempt to fire upon or seize his ship would be regarded as an act of war. The next transmission was a relayed message from someone claiming to be the Mongol leader, Kublai Khan. He warned that any attempt to resist the Mongol Empire would be met by overwhelming force and no quarter would be given. Any threat of war against the Mongol Empire was plainly suicidal. With direct access to the Mongol leader established, Joseph Chamberlain took over the somewhat hurried negotiations, pointing out that the British Empire was far more powerful than the Mongols and that negotiations would be better for both sides. Kublai Khan contemptuously dismissed the idea as fanciful, claiming that a tiny island beyond the fringes of civilization could never pose a threat to the greatest Empire in history. If they were as powerful as Chamberlain claimed, they would not be trying to open negotiations. The recent direct interference of the Gods was evidence enough. The Mongol Empire had defeated all its foes on Earth and now the Gods wanted the Mongols to conquer the Stars.
As Kublai Khan finished speaking, the pursuing ships reached 200,000 kilometers and opened fire, launching some type of energy torpedo that traveled at light-speed. The three torpedoes all missed but the message was clear. With no options except surrender or die, Commander Johnson requested instructions from Victoria. The message was sent to Copernicus at the Marathon ? Manchester jump point, which transited into Manchester and relayed the message to Halley at the Manchester ? Britannia jump point. Halley jumped into Britannia and sent the message direct to the Admiralty. Meanwhile the Mongol ships continued to close, firing every fifteen seconds. The second volley missed but a single torpedo from the third inflicted a strength-4 hit. Fortunately most of the damage was absorbed by Ajax?s armour and her jump drive survived the minimal internal damage. Another volley missed and then the fifth, fired at only 55,000 kilometers, scored another hit, causing minor damage to Ajax?s extensive fuel storage. The fire control of the small Mongol warships did not seem to be very accurate. Nevertheless, with no way for Ajax to return fire or escape, the poor shooting of the Mongols did not affect the inevitable outcome, only its timing.
As torpedoes battered through the remaining armour, wreaking massive internal damage, a reply from the Admiralty finally arrived, ordering Commander Johnson not to surrender his ship under any circumstances. The level of Mongol technology was unknown and giving them examples of the latest British technology was out of the question. With ninety crew dead, the jump drive and three engines destroyed and the bridge wrecked, a wounded Commander Johnson gave the order to abandon ship. Commander Johnson, Joseph Chamberlain and one hundred and thirty-three crewmen escaped before the scuttling charges blew. The signals from the lifepods ceased shortly afterwards, although whether that was because the crew was picked up by the Mongols or because the pods were destroyed is unknown.
News of the destruction of the Ajax reached Queen Victoria two hours later. She immediately summoned Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, and demanded that the Mongol Empire should be severely punished for the attack on a British ship. Six hours after that, the short-term aim of the Royal Commission was changed to ?Subjugation of the Mongol Empire by any means necessary?.
5th March 1894
Due to the limitations of our jump drive technology, the Commission has decided that once the Brunel class jump gate construction ships are available, jump gates should be constructed in Britannia, Manchester and Marathon to provide access to the Mongol system for our battleships. This will be a significant undertaking and the construction ships will have to be well protected, especially when they have to build the final gate in the Mongol system. This scheme does have a major drawback as the jump gates will allow Mongol ships to transit as well so if our offensive does not go according to plan, we will be giving the Mongols access to Britannia.
19th April 1894
The construction ships Brunel and Faraday have been completed. They will commence construction of jump gates at the Britannia - Manchester and Britannia - Liverpool jump points. Construction of a gate at the Manchester ?Britannia jump point will not be possible until the Britannia - Manchester jump gate is completed as the construction ships will need to use the first gate to enter Manchester.
25th April 1894
Based on the recommendations of the Commission, a colony has been established on Athena in the Britannia-B system. As terraforming has not yet been completed, enough infrastructure has been moved to the planet to support a significant population. The purpose of this colony will be an off-world research base devoted to missile and kinetic technology. Once the population has grown to a sufficient level, research facilities will be transported from Victoria.
24th June 1894
Retooling of the Barrow Shipbuilding shipyard has been completed and three Apollo class cruisers have been laid down. Construction will take approximately twelve months.
26th September 1894
In early January 1894, a small colony of 200,000 was established on the ideal habitable world in the Athens system. The geological survey vessel Clarke has now completed a survey of the planet, finding significant quantities of accessibility 0.7 Duranium and Neutronium. During the course of the survey Clarke also discovered some ancient ruins, high in the mountains of the northern continent. Initial investigations have led to the conclusion that this was once a small outpost of an advanced civilization. Based on the internal layout of the ruined buildings and a few recovered artifacts, the investigation team believe the ruins are not human in origin. If confirmed, this startling news means that aliens exist, or at least existed in the past, and we may encounter them in our explorations. Our level of military preparedness has just become even more important.
14th October 1894
The Harland & Wolff Shipyard has been upgraded to a capacity of 12,000 tons, allowing it to build the Royal Sovereign class battleship. However, retooling will be delayed until new search sensors and fire controls system are developed, based on recent advances in sensor technology. The Swan Hunter shipyard, where the seventh and eighth Royal Sovereigns are currently under construction, now has a capacity of 18,000 tons. Once the new sensors are available, a design for a new, larger battleship will be created.
22nd October 1894
The jump gates at the Britannia - Manchester and Britannia - Liverpool jump points are complete, allowing one-way traffic from Britannia into those systems. Jump gates on the other side of each jump point will be required before two-way traffic is possible. Once our freighters return from their current mission to deliver automated mines to the Cambridge system, they will be able to transport the required jump gate components to Brunel and Faraday to allow construction of the next two gates. The question is where to construct those gates. If we are to get our battleships into the Marathon system in the shortest possible time, the obvious locations are the Manchester ? Britannia and Manchester ? Marathon jump points. That course of action also carries the most risk. We only have six warships at the moment and several, or perhaps all of them, would have to be deployed at the Manchester ? Marathon jump point to protect the jump gate construction ship against any hostile transit. Copernicus remains at that jump point and so far has reported no Mongol ships entering Marathon, possibly because they do not possess jump ships or perhaps because they have not surveyed their own system. Either situation could change at any moment.
The Commission meeting to decide our course of action was one of the most stormy so far. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Richard Hamilton, supported by Sir Edward Harland and Sir William White, led the argument for immediate action on the basis that the jump gates could be built before the Mongols developed jump capabilities of their own. The more cautious members of the Commission, led by Sir Archibald Primrose, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, argued that the absence of a Mongol transit into Manchester was not compelling evidence of a lack of Mongol jump capability. The Mongols could simply be building up their forces or exploring other jump points. There was also no real sense of Mongol strength, except for my own assertion that their population should be considerably less than our own. Sir William Christie also pointed out that there was no way to tell if the Mongols had arrived in this area of space at the same time as ourselves. They could have been here for decades or even centuries, building up their population and their strength. I entered the discussion myself at this point, reminding the Commission members that initial discussions with the Mongols immediately after contact included reports they had endured their own Transference five years ago and that Kublai Khan himself had communicated with the Ajax prior to its destruction, which also suggested the Mongols had not been here for very long.
Sir Archibald accepted my points but countered with the possibility that the Mongols has misled our initial contact team in order to hide their true strength and a communication claiming to be from Kublai Khan could in reality be from anyone. The Mongols might even have adopted a practice similar to the Romans, where all emperors where named Caesar based on the name of Julius Caesar. He recommended that we carry out scouting operations to learn more of the Mongols before sending construction ships and precious battleships into danger. Sir Richard angrily reminded Sir Archibald that he was directly responsible for the deaths of over three hundred Royal Navy sailors after sending them into Marathon against Sir Richard?s advice and it was a little late to be worrying about their safety now. It was time for the military to handle the Mongols without further interference from the Foreign Office. He reiterated his demand for immediate action before the Mongols could build up their forces and contended that guessing games about when the Mongols underwent their Transference or what they were doing in their own system were useless speculation. The only hard fact was that the Mongols had not yet entered Manchester so the gate should be built as quickly as possible before the that changed. Once scout ships were available, they would be sent into Marathon as that made military sense but that should not stop the construction of the gate.
The course of action to be taken eventually came to a vote. Sir Richard, Sir Edward Harland, Sir William White all voted in favour of building the gate as soon as the construction ship and components could be brought to the Manchester ? Marathon jump point. I found myself convinced by Sir Richard?s argument and voted with them. Sir Archibald, Mr William Thomson, Mr William Blandford and, to my surprise, Sir William Christie all voted against, leaving Lord Randolph with the casting vote. He decided in favour of immediate action.
19th November 1894
An improved Royal Sovereign design has been created, replacing all of the sensors and fire control systems with upgraded versions based on recent advances in sensor technology. The new Royal Sovereign Mod 1 class will be built in the Harland & Wolff shipyard once the retooling is completed.
Royal Sovereign Mod 1 class Battleship 12000 tons 1145 Crew 1713.6 BP TCS 240 TH 960 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 5-46 Shields 0-0 Sensors 8/8/0/0 Damage Control Rating 8 PPV 48
Annual Failure Rate: 144% IFR: 2% Maintenance Capacity 714 MSP
Magazine 948
Whitworth Ion Engine (16) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 53.6 billion km (155 days at full power)
Vickers S4 Missile Launcher (12) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Bloodhound 66/35 Missile Fire Control (2) Range 66.2m km Resolution 35
Broadsword Anti-Ship Missile (180) Speed: 21000 km/s End: 38.3 minutes Range: 48.2m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 4
Rapier Anti-Ship Missile (57) Speed: 24000 km/s End: 22.3 minutes Range: 32.1m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 4
Foxhunter 63/60 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 6300 Range 63.0m km Resolution 60
TH8 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
EM8 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m kmEven the Royal Sovereign Mod 1 will stand in the shade of the new Majestic class battleship. The largest British warship ever designed, for either sea or space, will mass 18,000 tons and carry a main armament of eighteen Vickers S4 missile launchers, fifty percent more than the Royal Sovereigns. Her magazine space is sixty percent greater than her predecessor while her armour is twenty percent thicker and fifty-seven percent greater in terms of total mass. One criticism that has been voiced against the design is that the number and type of sensors are identical to the Royal Sovereign Mod 1s. Sir William White, designer of the Majestics, has dismissed such criticism, stating that the sensors and fire control systems of both designs are more than adequate. He has assured the Admiralty that the increase in firepower for the Majestic class does not require a commensurate increase in the capability or number of electronic systems. The Majestics will be constructed in pairs in the Swan Hunter yard, which up until now has built Royal Sovereigns.
Majestic class Battleship 18000 tons 1706 Crew 2491.2 BP TCS 360 TH 1440 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 6-61 Shields 0-0 Sensors 8/8/0/0 Damage Control Rating 14 PPV 72
Annual Failure Rate: 185% IFR: 2.6% Maintenance Capacity 1211 MSP
Magazine 1512
Whitworth Ion Engine (24) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 350,000 Litres Range 50.0 billion km (144 days at full power)
Vickers S4 Missile Launcher (18) Missile Size 4 Rate of Fire 40
Bloodhound 66/35 Missile Fire Control (2) Range 66.2m km Resolution 35
Broadsword Anti-Ship Missile (288) Speed: 21000 km/s End: 38.3 minutes Range: 48.2m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 4
Rapier Anti-Ship Missile (90) Speed: 24000 km/s End: 22.3 minutes Range: 32.1m km Warhead: 6 MR: 10 Size: 4
Foxhunter 63/60 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 6300 Range 63.0m km Resolution 60
TH8 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km
EM8 Passive Sensor (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 8m km11th December 1894
Construction of the Manchester ? Britannia jump gate begins. Three Royal Sovereign class battleships and the construction ship Brunel are already at the Manchester ? Marathon jump point. Jump gate components are en route.
5th January 1895
Construction of the Manchester ? Marathon jump gate begins. The gravitational survey ship Copernicus is deployed on the Marathon side of the jump point and has not yet reported any hostile contacts.
17th April 1895
Construction of the jump gate at the Manchester ? Britannia jump point is completed. Our battleships can now move freely between Britannia and Manchester and the survey ship Halley can leave her station at the jump point as the jump gate can relay messages between the two systems.
19th April 1895
The Royal Sovereign class battleships Ramilles and Empress of India are launched from the Swan Hunter shipyard.
11th May 1895
Construction of the jump gate at the Manchester ? Britannia jump point has been completed without incident. At the far side of the jump point, Copernicus has still not detected the approach of any Mongol ships. I feel a great personal relief at the successful completion of this task. If the Brunel or any of the three battleships had been attacked and suffered casualties, I would have felt directly responsibility as a result of my vote at the Commission meeting. Now the new question becomes when to proceed into Marathon itself.
The Royal Commission was assembled to discuss our next move. Sir Richard explained that eight Royal Sovereign class battleships are available, three of which, Royal Sovereign, Royal Oak and Revenge, are already deployed at the Manchester ? Marathon jump point. Empress of India, Hood, Ramilles, Resolution and Repulse are all in Victoria orbit. None of the new Majestic or Royal Sovereign Mod 1 classes have been laid down as retooling of the Swan Hunter and Harland & Wolff shipyards is still underway so there will be no new battleships available for well over a year. The three Apollo class cruisers are nearing completion though and should be ready be mid-June. Sir Richard emphasized the fact that once the Apollos were launched, our military strength would be at its highest point since the Transference and it would not improve further until the end of 1896. Therefore there was nothing to be gained through further delay, especially as the Mongols could be building up their own strength in the meantime.
Sir Richard recommended sending a battleship force into Marathon, along with Brunel and sufficient freighters to carry jump gate components. Construction of the Marathon ? Manchester gate could then proceed immediately. He was forced to admit this was a risky operation as the battleships would be unable to retreat into Manchester until the gate was completed. However, apart from sending in the construction ship without escort there was little other option. His regular opponent in the Commission meetings, Sir Archibald, inquired as to why the battleships could not remain in Manchester at the Marathon jump point and only commit themselves to entering Marathon if there was contact with the Mongols. If an overwhelming Mongol force appeared, the Brunel could be sacrificed without risking the battleships while if a smaller force approached, the battleships could transit and deal with it.
Sir Richard retorted rather acidly that the Royal Navy did not send its crews into harms way without adequate protection and that the battleship commanders would hardly stand idly by while the Brunel was destroyed by hostile forces. In any event, the battleship sensors were far more powerful than those on the Copernicus and could see trouble coming at a great distance. It was hardly worth having long range anti-ship missiles if you let the target get close before deciding to engage. Sir Richard?s intention was to send six battleships into Marathon and engage their active sensors, inviting the Mongols to attack. If they declined, the jump gate would be completed before the ships moved on to attack the Mongol planet. If they attacked, Sir Richard was confident the battleships could deal with the problem. The other two battleships and the three Apollos would remain in Victoria orbit. There was some support for the more cautious approach but eventually the commission voted 5-3 in favour of Sir Richard?s plan. I am glad to report that myself and Sir William were back on the same side.
28th May 1895
Terraforming of Athena has raised the temperature above freezing, creating a second ideal habitable world in the Britannia system. Colonization is preceding apace, with the population now at three and a half million. Two research facilities are in place.
10th June 1895
Retooling of the Swan Hunter shipyard has been completed and the 18,000 ton battleships Majestic and Magnificent have been laid down. They will take almost eighteen months to construct.
14th June 1895
The 5000 ton cruisers Apollo, Scylla and Spartan have been launched by the Barrow Shipbuilding Yard. Together with the Royal Sovereign class battleships Ramilles and Empress of India, they will guard Britannia while the bulk of our forces attempt to construct a jump gate within the Mongol-held Marathon system.
16th June 1895
The Royal Commission has been carrying out a series of studies to determine ways to improve the effectiveness of the Royal Navy. One of the first conclusions of this study is that we must find a way to protect our battleships from enemy missiles. Despite their substantial armour, sufficient missile hits will eventually penetrate and a few lucky hits in the same location might destroy a key system, such as fire control. Therefore the Minerva class light cruiser has been designed. The Minerva will carry 560 newly developed Javelin missiles and will be able to launch them at a rate of 120 per minute. Each Javelin will have only a small chance of destroying an incoming missile but with the number of Javelins being fired, it should thin out enemy salvos and increase the survivability of our battleships. Over time, as we develop more agile missiles, we should be able to develop more effective anti-missiles than the Javelin. For the moment it will be far better than no defence at all.
Some within the Commission believe the Minervas are a waste of resources and that we should devote all our efforts to battleships and offensive weapons. However, the Minerva can be built within one of the smaller shipyards and will not affect battleship construction, although it could admittedly be replaced by additional Apollos. Retooling of the Thorneycroft Shipyard has begun. The Thorneycroft yard is working on a pair of White Star class colony ships at the moment but these will be finished in plenty of time for the first Minerva to be laid down in December.
Minerva class Light Cruiser 6000 tons 556 Crew 968 BP TCS 120 TH 480 EM 0
4000 km/s Armour 3-29 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/0/0/0 Damage Control Rating 4 PPV 20
Annual Failure Rate: 72% IFR: 1% Maintenance Capacity 403 MSP
Magazine 560
Whitworth Ion Engine (8) Power 60 Efficiency 0.70 Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 42.9 billion km (124 days at full power)
Vickers S1 Missile Launcher (20) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Kestrel M126 Missile Interception System (2) Range 1.3m km Resolution 1
Javelin Anti-missile Missile (560) Speed: 24000 km/s End: 44.6 minutes Range: 64.3m km Warhead: 1 MR: 10 Size: 1
Vixen R126 Missile Search Sensor (1) GPS 126 Range 1.3m km Resolution 1
21st June 1895 21:30
All of the necessary forces are finally in place at the Manchester ? Marathon jump point. Six battleships, the jump gate construction ship Brunel, five Cunard class freighters carrying jump gate components and the jump cruiser Blenheim, which will escort the freighters back into Manchester after they deliver their cargo. Incidentally, Lord Randolph?s son Winston is in command of the Blenheim so he has a very personal interest in the success of this mission. The gravitational survey ship Copernicus is still in Marathon and recently jumped back into Manchester to report that no Mongol ships have approached the jump point. That may change soon however. The operational commander, Vice Admiral George Tryon on the Repulse, has orders to engage his active sensors once his ships are in Marathon. The Admiralty believes that detecting the enemy at long range in order to give the battleships the full use of their long range armament is much preferable to stealth. While remaining undetected would be the ideal situation, allowing enemy ships to potentially reach close range undetected could be disastrous.
22:00
Copernicus has just jumped into Manchester and sent a message via the Manchester ? Britannia jump gate. All ships are safely in Manchester, no contacts have been detected and jump gate construction is underway. Blenheim and the five freighters are heading for home while the six battleships remain in Marathon to guard Brunel. Copernicus will continue to act as a message relay, jumping between Marathon and Manchester as necessary.
24th June 1895
Three days after entering Marathon, the Foxhunter 48/60 Active Search Sensor on the Hood detected a 1000 ton contact at just 5.2 million kilometers ? the same ship type that destroyed the Ajax. The Hood?s active sensor can detect ships of 3000 tons or more at forty-eight million kilometers but against such a small target the range was far less. With a speed of 6000 km/s the contact was closing rapidly, presumably to try and determine the source of the active sensor on the jump point (if the Mongols are even aware of the existence of jump points). Vice Admiral Tryon ordered his own ship, Repulse, to fire a single salvo of twelve Broadsword missiles at the contact and was gratified to see the missiles launched within twenty-five seconds. The Fleet has been carrying out training exercises in the Britannia system, although Sir Richard tells me they still have a lot to learn.
The missiles took three minutes to cover the distance, by which time the Mongol ship had closed to just under four million kilometers. Six out of the twelve missiles struck their apparently unsuspecting target, which disappeared from sensors. A few moments later, the Hood detected wreckage and the transponder signal from several small life pods. Vice Admiral Tryon directed Copernicus to carry out a rescue and she recovered twenty-four survivors, after which she jumped into Manchester to send us the above information. The prisoners were transferred to Repulse but have so far revealed nothing of significance. Unfortunately the commander of the small Mongol vessel and his senior officers were killed, along with eighty percent of their crew, and the survivors are junior crewmen unlikely to possess any useful information, even if they were inclined to share it. Whether the Mongol ship gained any information before it was destroyed is unknown. Our ability to detect hostile sensor emissions is fairly limited and it is possible the Mongol ship had a primitive sensor capable of detecting our battleships at a range of four million kilometers. In any event, the onus is on the Mongols to make the next move. The jump gate will be completed in one hundred and twenty-two days.
27th October 1895
The Marathon ? Manchester jump gate has been completed without any interference from the Mongols and the Brunel is on her way back to Britannia. The lack of opposition is very surprising, although given the easy dispatch of the lone Mongol scout it is possible the Mongols are reluctant to approach with their small, torpedo-armed craft. They may even lack missile technology entirely and are trying to correct that oversight before engaging the Royal Navy. The next stage of the campaign will now get underway as the six Royal Sovereigns attempt to confirm the location of the Mongol colony and force its surrender. With jump gates at both sides of the Britannia ? Manchester and Manchester ? Marathon jump points, the battleships can maintain real-time communication with Victoria.
2nd November 1895 02:20
Vice Admiral Tryon has reported that his ships are within sensor range of Marathon II and there is no sign of any ships in orbit and no thermal or EM signature from the planet. This is still not confirmed as the Mongol homeworld, although the only other possible candidate is Marathon III which has gravity of 1.65G and a dense atmosphere that would not be breathable by humans. Rather than send his whole fleet any closer, the Admiral has detached the Royal Oak to investigate the planet .
05:10
Royal Oak is in orbit of Marathon II and reports the planet is deserted. Vice Admiral Tryon is now taking his fleet to Marathon III.
20:20
Seventy-five million kilometers from Marathon III, the fleet has detected an EM signature with a strength of 16,350. This compares to an EM signature of 63,000 for Victoria. Despite the apparently hostile nature of the planet, it appears it is indeed the location of the Mongol homeworld. Somehow the Mongols are living on a planet that would be impossible for us to colonize due to its high gravity. The main body of the fleet will now hold position while Royal Oak moves within missile range and issues an ultimatum.
22:01:16
Royal Oak has issued an emergency alert at a distance of forty-nine million kilometers from Marathon III. Forty-eight small thermal contacts have been detected only sixteen thousand kilometers away.
22:01:25
Royal Oak has just been attacked by a salvo of forty-eight missiles travelling at 20,000 km/s. She was hit twenty-eight times by strength-6 warheads and eight of the missiles penetrated her armour. Five of her sixteen engines have been destroyed, reducing her speed to 2750 km/s, as well as three missile launchers. As the Fleet cannot detect what is firing at her, Vice Admiral Tryon has ordered the battleship to retreat immediately.
22:02:10
A second wave of missiles arrived forty-five seconds after the first. Contact with Royal Oak was lost immediately and the active sensors on the other battleships can only detect wreckage and life pod beacons. With her engines damaged and most of her armour destroyed by the first attack, she had little chance against the second salvo.
22:25
Vice Admiral Tryon has reported that contact has been established with four hundred and eighty-eight survivors in life pods. Royal Oak?s crew complement was one thousand, one hundred and forty-five. Regrettably, he is unable to effect a rescue without endangering further ships. Therefore he is taking his fleet back to the jump point, both to protect the route to Britannia and hopefully to allow the Mongols to rescue the surviving crew of the Royal Oak, once they see our ships moving away.
3rd November 1895
The Commission has met in emergency session. The loss of the battleship Royal Oak and almost seven hundred crewmen is both a tragedy and a serious setback in the campaign against the Mongols. The inexplicable inactivity of the Mongols while we constructed jump gates on the Manchester ? Marathon jump point now has an explanation. They were obviously fortifying their homeworld against attack rather than wasting ships in an all-out offensive against our battleships. Now safe behind their defences, at least for the moment, they will be free to build up their mobile forces. Equally worrying is that the Mongols possess both missiles and targeting systems that outrange our own. Even if these are restricted to orbital defences, which is by no means certain, they will no doubt be adding them to their mobile forces. Combined with their small ships that our sensors struggle to detect, they could pose a serious threat even in deep space.
For once the debate within the Commission was short and one-sided. The Mongols represent a significant and immediate threat. Any thought of trying to negotiate or force a surrender has been put aside in favour of developing a strategy to cripple their industrial potential as quickly as possible. That strategy is simple. Long range missiles will be developed and used to bombard the Mongol planet without warning. As that will also require longer ranged missile fire control systems, a new class will be developed with the sole purpose of long-range planetary bombardment. Research into the necessary systems will begin almost immediately. In the meantime, new and longer ranged passive and active sensor systems have been developed with a scout class in mind. Design and production of that class will also be prioritized so that scouts can be dispatched to Marathon to learn more about our enemy.
to be continued...
Steve
