27th of July, 2082

Senator Amanda Haverty sighed and placed her copy of the Fienga Jump Point Battles on her desk and stared at the light gray painted bulkhead. It was clear even to her non-naval eyes that the Spruance had been overcome far too easily by purpose built PD rail guns. It had been killed by concentrated fire from a mere four ships that appeared to be build to only kill missiles. The ships had been smashed up so throughly by the TF fire that little was available for the intel types to look at in terms of the ships. Of course, there was the little matter of 1806 aliens picked up in life pods. She shuddered as a picture of one of them came to mind. Ugly gets from the deepest subconscious fears of mankind and about as capable of being worked with. They fought being extracted from the life pods and killed several of the marines detailed to the deed until a sergeant hit upon the idea of tasers. 50,000 volts stunned them long enough for them to be tied up and cleared out. Little progress had been made on their language, but their physiology... Well, lots of corpses had been discovered. It looked like her mission of "talking them to death" was not going to happen. Her ship would return to earth after redistributing its fuel to the other tankers. Several of the holds had been converted to prisoner wards and several squads of marines had been assigned guard duty. Nobody went near them unless they were escorted by heavily armed marines. Several intel types had been killed when they got too close to the aliens. Worse, the aliens were fast. They could cover twenty feet in literally the blink of an eye and kill in about the same. When the marines had opened fire, it hadn't stopped the aliens from trying to close and kill them. The staff intel xeno psychologist had been ripped apart as had one of the marines. Two other marines had been severely injured as the rest of the squad reacted and killed Even the bulkhead doors and corridors outside of the containment areas had been set up to permit the guards to pour fire into the prisons. Her security chief had expressed his opinion of having suicidal aliens on the same ship as herself. It had been duly listened to and then dismissed. Her Sec team consisted of 8 highly trained men and women that were exmilitary and many had been in special forces as well. If they were nervous then she was too. But. She still had her job to do and the navy didn't need to worry about prisoners out here on the sharp end. In fact, planning hadn't been really carried out for it at all. This was not Danwinegar with a developed habitable planet to drop the survivors onto. In fact, there was no knowledge of where the nearest alien planet was, nor was there any real idea of the size of their industry or fleet for that matter. It was believed that the aliens wouldn't have sent more then half their fleet. That still left at least fifteen warships for their fleet. This did not count the three missing warships that were not accounted for from the fleet that had just been recently smashed. This was causing her more then a little bit of worry. While the Admiral had laughed those three ships off, they were still a threat to the unarmed members of the fleet like the Logistics ships. Both she and Captain Simms had pressed upon the Admiral the need to detach escorts, but the Admiral insisted that it was more important to remain concentrated as overwhelming firepower was far better then "just enough". Overwhelming firepower reduced casualties and the Admiral said that every hull he had would be needed as additional systems were taken. It still didn't feel right, but what could she do? Nothing at this point and further pondering would merely get her even more frustrated. So another thought.

Captain Simms had told her at dinner last night that the loss of the Atticus didn't equal a significant loss of firepower, but it was one less hull available for guard duty. As TF 1 penetrated deeper into alien space it would need to leave forces behind to guard unexplored jump points and maybe even to escort Logistics and Survey ships. The Spruance was well suited to this role. It was designed to engage at a distance and not for close combat like the Portlands. Its shields were maybe a seventh of the capability of the Rapiers and Portlands. Even the Navajos had more powerful shields. It was, however, rated at 6000 tons and could transit with and thus escort any of the Enterprise class surveyors and Texaco tankers. Their size limited the number of engines and shields that could be put into them. A classic problem faced by naval designers down through the centuries. If you wanted to limit its size then you had to find a balance. A faster ship had to sacrifice something. Either protection, weapons, sensors, range, or any of a myriad of other potentials had to be removed or made smaller in order to make the space for more engines. It was one of the reasons that contributed to the rapidly increasing tonnage of the old wet navies and was one of the reasons for the new Montana class Heavy Cruisers. Weighing in at 9750 tons, it was the largest fastest missile based cruiser yet and had been designed to go after the hostile aliens in El Paso. Eliminated them would free up the Frontier fleet for other desperately needed duties, like reinforcing TF 1 or rebuilding TF Battle Fleet stationed at earth. Oddly, the Montana was not the largest vessel in the Kingdom Navy. The Rapier and the newest Portland class cruisers came in at 10750 tons and 10600 tons respectively, but they came no where near the Montana's top speed of 5600 KPS.
  She still didn't understand the Captains musing on why the aliens here had rail guns that had a recharge time of 25 seconds. He said that it made for inefficient Pd installations. She would have to ask about that. She had learned a lot about the Navy and how it operated in the past several months, but she needed to know more if she was to succeed her grandfather.

8th of June  00:17
 After five days of waiting, the Admiral orders the freshly arrived TF 1.2 to take the three Rapiers and to lose several of its ships in exchange. The net result was a force of nine combatants and three Rapiers that had a chance of taking the jump point. After the TF 1.2 transit into Fienga, the Rapiers were to return and guide TF 1.1 through as well. Projections had been run time and time again and they all gave the TF a 99% chance of securing the  jump point on the other side. The Portlands by themselves should have been able to smash the remains of the opposing force. The inclusion of the Spruances and the minor weapons of the remaining ships should just make the victory that much faster. This was assuming that the enemy were waiting for them on the other side. Considering the one sided pounding that had been given to them earlier, they would have to be insane to stay and contest the jump point unless serious reinforcements had arrived. Munitions had been requested by the Rapier and Spruance Captains, but it would take another 23 days for the colliers to arrive and he wanted to make sure that both sides of the jump point were secure. Officially anyway. The waiting was killing him. The flip side was that he could see what was coming and know in advance whether or not to run or fight. As of right now, a huge enemy force could be gathering on the other side and preparing to jump through and engage his ships in a point blank turkey shoot. His fleets advantage lay in long range combat where his missiles could pound his enemy into glowing debris without fear of an effective enemy response. The Portlands were built for the crush of close combat, but he only had four with him. The remaining six were in Frontier Fleet or assigned to Battlefleet Earth. While the four he had would most certainly stop those ships he had already seen...
  Enough self doubt. It was time. His finger taped a button and Captain Samuel Adams Simms popped up on his monitor.
  "Sir, all ships report ready."
  "Begin. And good luck"

  Three Rapiers, four Portlands, four Spruances, and a Navajo make their jump into potentially hostile territory.

I PM'd you using the PM button at the bottom of the post.

I have a possible problem. Do I continue the campaign with ver 2.0 and permit the newer members of the forum to scratch their heads when I post designs that simply could not be, or do I ask Eric to make a note at the beginning that I am using an older version of the program and continue happily on my way? The newer versions add much in the way of capability and new horizons for stories, but I have no way to port my game into it and I have found myself rather attached to the Kingdom of Haverty (Old men and all). I have also debated telling the story from the Cendel view point as well. They are lower tech, but not stupid and have begun to evolve better ways of handling their new opponent. Tactics does help a lot, even when your weapons suck.

20th of April 2082, 4:26 AM

One of the Rapiers reappear at the jump point and signal an all clear. The tension on the bridge noticeably relaxes. The remaining part of the fleet begins an orderly transit through the jump point in Bocklin. The other two jump points in Bocklin are literally on the other side of the system, but are relatively close together at only 1.063 million kilometers apart. The kingdoms Navajo scouts could sit in between the two jump points and have a significant overlap. The Probe fleet is sent to guard and secure the Apta JP and the Battle Fleet would secure the JP to Fienga. It would take a day to replenish the missiles used by Battle Fleet, so the Probe Fleet  would arrive at it destination at about the same time as Battle Fleet. The Admiral decides to name Battle Fleet as TF 1.1 and the Probe Fleet as TF 1.2. Once the JP had been secured the support ships would be brought up to provide fuel and potential missile replenishment. Of the two, the fuel would be needed most. The trip across the system would be done with shields up and this would increase fuel expenditures notably. His ships would arrive with anywhere from 52% to 84% of their fuel remaining. Enough for an engagement and most other eventualities that would arise, but not for any extended maneuvers. His march across this system would be cautious. The aliens had had at least one small vessel pass through that he had just destroyed. They probably had more. TF Survey 12 had reported 15 vessels of three distinct sizes, but none were on this jump point. Either they were off checking out the Apta jump point or, more likely, they were at the Fienga jump point. Unless the aliens were really nasty customers, they probably felt that this system couldn't be defended at both the Apta and Boise jump points and probably concentrated their fleet at the Fienga jump point. The ship that he destroyed was quite likely a probe to see what was beyond  in Boise. They were probably looking for which way led to the Kingdoms home worlds. Its destruction would do that, but was unavoidable. It couldn't be allowed to report back the size and disposition of his fleet. TF 1.1 was composed of solely missile ships, the Rapiers, and two of the Navajos and was more then capable of taking and closing the Fienga jump point from any conceivable threat, but wasn't likely to be able to force the jump point without painful losses.  Most of his ships were ranged killers, not meant for point blank killing. Those were reserved for ships like the Portland class of which he had only four. Their three 25 cm lasers could, if not outright kill a target ship, then cripple them badly.
  It was time to get going. It would be impolite to keep the aliens waiting.

27th of February 2082

The Battle Fleet had arrived at the Cleveland-Boise jump point. The Admiral ordered the fleets shields up and waits 15 minutes to charge them.
 ?Initiate the probe, Captain.? He wanted the Portland cruisers to all go in as they and the Rapiers had the strongest shields of any of his ships and the best chance of surviving an ambush and returning to tell the tale. The Navajo had shields that were 25% as powerful, but it had the most powerful sensors by far. The Spruance was filler. It had shields that were 60% as powerful as the Navajo's shields, but it had Sparrow Mk V's and twin lasers to thicken the PD capability of the Probe Fleet. If all went well, the rest of the fleet would transit normally. If the aliens were on the other side, it would get ugly. But then, the fleet was here to handle any discussion of intentions. Even those pointed discussions armed with 25cm lasers and focused nuclear warheads. His support fleet was almost a month behind him and was a great factor in his tactical decisions. While he was confident of winning any single battle, it was likely that he would have severely depleted magazines that would render most of his fleet moving targets in the next fight. The flip side was that two Texaco ships had arrived so he wasn't worried about fuel issues. He could maneuver without worrying about running out of fuel and stranding units. He could even run if he needed to. But running was not going to be happening today. Whatever else happened, they needed more information about the aliens capabilities and the only way to do that was to seek an engagement of one kind or another. He didn't want a fight, but he wasn't going to turn one down either. To add to his worries was the King's granddaughter. She was currently onboard the  Texaco class fueler assigned to TF Exxon 11 and the rumor was that she was being groomed to be the Heir. Not a situation designed to be low stress. In reality, it shouldn't be a problem. No support units should be in contact with the aliens anyway.  His orders were to keep them one system back whenever possible. He was going to be at the far end of a tenuous logistics chain, which meant precautions were a good thing.
  He watched the countdown end on his view screen and  2 Rapier Jump Cruisers, all 4 Portlands, a Navajo Fleet Scout, and a Spruance Missile Cruiser moved forward and pause in front of the jump point.   Three minutes later they all disappeared from the universe and popped back into being in the Boise system.

22nd of January, 2082

   TF Survey 6, consisting of an Enterprise Mk II, jumped into the Bonklin system from Fienga during its retreat from Riverside to Washington. the Captian didn't know whether or not the unknown aliens had followed the Adams back through the jump point in Riverside or not, only that he had not encountered an aliens when his 30 day voyage from the inner system had finished. It was  on pins and needles that he had made the jump into the empty system that was Fienga. He had no way of knowing if the aliens were there or not. He knew that they were on the other side of the jump point from Riverside into Yamatai though. It had been with great relief that no aliens had been encountered on the Fienga side. All through out his journey through Fienga to its only other jump point, the one to Bocklin, he and his crew had held thier breathes and watched thier sensors like hawks, waiting for the unknow to creep up behind them or lay in wait in front of them.
  They were not expecting an alien fleet in Bocklin at 6.8 million Kilometers towards the Apta Jump point. His sensors detected 15 ships in all and they were headed back to the Fienga Jump Point at 1955 KPS. He tapped his controls to get a readout on ship sizes. The disply blanked and then listed mass readings based off of recorded drive strengths and then noted that the drive signitures were the same ones that the Charles Hitchcock Adams had detected in Riverside.

  6-5600 ton ships  Signitures familiar - last recorded in Riverside.
  7-6000 ton ships  Signitures familiar - last recorded in Riverside.
  2-9000 ton ships  Signitures familiar - last recorded in Riverside.

Fortunately, he could get to the Boise ump Point long before they could, but theier presence here meant that the Survey fleet up the Apta jump chain could be blocked from resupply. There were no fewer then three highly inhabitable planets up the chain which was why the survey units had not been pulled back to finish the "two system out" surveys. The policy of surveying two systems out from all colonized systems had been lax in its execution for the past twenty years and Fleet Admiral Braley had rolled a few heads in Survey Command. It would still take time and with only 22 ships to do it with, well, five years would be about right. EVen though Survey Command had two ships under construction or in refit at all times for the past four years, it had been a struggle to continue to expand the survey capabilities of the fleet. There were small fleets of frieghters sitting in orbit half the time, but the work horse of the fleet, the Enterprise class DSS, had been rarely, if ever, idle. The same could be said of the Exxon class tankers. Finally, at least one tanker was with each major survey area with more moving back and forth to Earth for resupply in addition to the ones assigned to the various battle fleets.
   "Helm, continue heading for the Boise Jump Point. Sensors, I want continuous analysis. XO?"
   "Sir?", Commander Samantha Adams said.
   "We will get out of here safely if we head straight for the Boise Jump Point. However, the survey fleets up the Apta chain will be transiting through here at some point in the next three weeks. So, do we reveal ourselves to them and let them chase us away from the Apta and Boise jump points so our people can get through or do we run for it? We could also power down and show ourselves as an additional rabbit to chase when they detect our people coming through? This may give them a higher chance of survival."
   Samatha was quiet for a moment."Sir, there are so many of them that they could split up easily and catch us all. If even one of them with a reasonably powerful weapon gets into range of us... Its not like we could defend ourselves. Our only possible response would be to surrender or die. We will return at the head of a force that can defend itself if attacked, but in the meantime this ship and its crew represent a valuable resource to the Kingdom." She looked thoughtful for another moment. He recognized the look and waited while her first class mind worked. "Maybe something else can be done. Engineering can rebuild several of our planetary survey satellites to be emitters. We can plant them around the outside of the system on this side and give them low velocities. Push some towards the inner system and some outwards. Have them broadcast at random intervals. The aliens will go looking for them. They will have to, if only to find out what they are. Odds are this will dilute thier force to the point that they will not be able to maintain a strong force at both the Apta and Boise jump points. They may even retreat to holding only the Fienga jump point. If that is the case then our ships may be able to sneak through."
   "Make it so." He smiled.