Just a short update as I haven't had time to do much with the campaign lately
A few prisoners were taken, mostly those too wounded to resist further, and xenolinguists began the task of understanding their language. Within a couple of weeks they had a basic understanding of three of the native dialects. The best translation of the inhabitants' name for themselves was the Hunters of the Eternal Forest, which the Roman troops immediately shorted to simply Hunters. The Hunters threw tens of thousands of warriors at the invading army, which numbered only 5000 men in total. A tiny force with which to subdue a planet. Native casualties were massive, with the dead piled up like cordwood around the Imperial positions. On the few occasions the Hunters managed to get close quarters, they proved a deadly foe. Although their weapons were almost useless against powered armour, sheer ferocity and brutal strength managed to tear away the armour on several unlucky soldiers of the Auxilia. The Hunters also ambushed Legio I Tertius Cohors using crude naphtha bombs to set the Imperial troopers on fire. Fifteen were killed before the attacking Hunters were wiped out.
Eventually, the native attacks lessened and Legio I went on the offensive, rapidly reducing the defences of the major alien cities. The last organized resistance was eliminated on the ninth day of October, almost three months after the invasion. Guerilla attacks continued and the Hunters refused to surrender. The imperial troops were simply too few in number to occupy an estimated population of over six hundred million. Scipio Africanus was dispatched to the jump point to inform Legatus Romulus of the events in Hyperion and to request reinforcements. By early December, Maximus class Auxiliary Transports had brought Ala III, Ala IV, four Cohortes Urbanae and the headquarters of the Auxilia ground forces. Still the Hunters refused to capitulate. Ala I arrived on the ninth day of Ianuarius, which meant all four infantry Ala, with sixteen Auxilia Cohortes, were now present on Hyperion, plus the aforementioned Legio I and four Cohortes Urbanae. Finally, after more than six months of combat and counter-insurgency and with every major city firmly under Imperial control, the Hunters of the Eternal Forest finally surrendered. Remaining on Terra were Legio II, Legio III, Legio IV and Legio V with a total of sixteen heavy assault cohorts, plus the four Cohortes Classiarii of Legio VI who were specially trained to board enemy ships or assault planetary defence centres.
After the wrecks in the Severus system were salvaged, Legatus Romulus, in consultation with the Emperor, agreed to disassemble forty-nine Tokamak reactors and twenty internal confinement fusion drives rather than use them in new Roman ships. No new technology was gained. A number of different ship components were also found in the Islander city on Aurelius III but all were of lower tech than contemporary Roman technology and were scrapped for their mineral content. Recovery of a research facility in Februarius 970 did provide enough information to increase the level of Imperial technology for EM sensors.
With the situation on Hyperion IV under control, Legio Astra I, including its ground elements, pulled out of the system, leaving the Auxilia to occupy the planet, and headed for the second unexplored jump point in Aurelius. Scipio Africanus, Khopesh and Verutum entered the jump point on the twenty-third day of Aprilis 970. They found a G1-V primary, similar to Sol, and six planets. The second planet had a thin carbon dioxide - nitrogen atmosphere with a surface temperature of -5C. None of the others were of any particular interest. What was interesting was a trio of wrecks in the orbit of the second planet. One was identified as a Mechanus Vhaeraun class orbital base. The other two were unidentified wrecks of 7400 tons and 46,000 tons. Scipio Africanus momentarily returned to Aurelius to report then the frigate squadron headed in-system to scan the planets. Legatus Proculus informed Legatus Romulus of the discovery using the Aurelius-Sol jump gate as a comm relay and requested the Viduus class salvage ship and its attendant freighters. The new system was named Veritas.
As the Legio Astra I Frigate Squadron approached Veritas II, the escort Verutum detected a dozen size 24 buoys in orbit of the planet. Moments later, she picked up forty-eight size 2.5 missiles inbound from the same location and her automatic point defence systems sprang into action, launching fifteen Arcus anti-missiles. The forty-eight unknown missiles streaked toward the squadron at 38,000 km/s, faster than the Arcus. The three Roman ships ran for the jump point and Verutum launched another defensive salvo. The first wave of Arcus killed four incoming missiles and the second just one. A desperate third salvo took out five more. The Roman crews braced for impact. Suddenly, the remaining thirty-eight alien missiles stopped dead in space one hundred and forty thousand kilometers away and the Romans began to open the range. Arcus continued to fire until Nauarchus Cogitatus ordered Verutum to cease fire. The missiles remained stationary as the Romans moved out of sensor range. The best guess of the Roman tactical officers was that the buoys were captor mines that had launched sub-munitions similar to those from the Nemesis anti-ship missiles. In this case, there was no sign of an active sensor so the mines and sensors were probably using passive sensors. A re-creation of the brief action showed the missiles had stopped at the location the frigate squadron had occupied at the point of their launch, presumably because they couldn't detect the Roman ships on their sensors. A very narrow escape.
Nauarchus Cogitatus waited for ten minutes then ordered his ships back to the planet. There was no sign of the sub-munitions and the buoys remained quiescent. The frigate squadron moved into orbit and Khopesh destroyed the buoys with her lasers. Who placed the mines was a mystery and they didn't appear to be guarding anything, although a geological survey would be made as soon as possible. Just one more danger in what was proving to be a very dangerous universe.
The frigate squadron of Legio Astra I made its next exploratory jump on the nineteenth day of Iunius, entering the innermost of four unexplored jump points in the Severus system. The system, named Volturnus by the IAC after the God of the Waters, had five planets and thirty-six moons. The only planet of note was Volturnus II, which had a breathable atmosphere. According to the squadron's chief astrographer it was an ocean world, although that was difficult to see from space as the planet was totally encased in ice due to its -92C temperature. It had a rating on the Silvanus Scale of 4.16. Scipio Africanus, Khopesh and Verutum spent six weeks conducting a round tour of the planets to ensure the system was safe before the Legio moved on to its next task.
On the fifth day of September, a Decius II class survey ship of the Auxilia's Survey Group Primus discovered a ruined alien colony on Veritas II; the location of the captor mines and the orbital shell in which the three wrecks were found. The Xenology team was picked up from Severus and transported to the new ruins site.
Legio Astra I completed the exploration of the Severus jump points on fifteenth day of October. In addition to the jump points to Sol and Volturnus, jump points led to the new systems of Arimanius, Carmenta and Adeona. Arimanius and Carmenta had fourteen planets between them, although none with any features of note. Adeona was a binary of two white A-class stars with three planets orbiting the primary and a planetless companion star. Adeona III was a small terrestrial world with a breathable atmosphere and a temperature of -9C. A perfect candidate for terraforming with a rating on the Silvanus scale of just 0.42. Their mission complete, the ships of Legio Astra I headed for Sol to refuel and resupply.
Meanwhile, Legio Astra II headed for Augustus to begin its own exploration mission. Three unexplored jump points were investigated by the Legio Astra II frigate squadron, comprising the Scipio class frigate leader Gaius Marius, the Lancea class escort Soliferrum and the Drusus class frigate Spatha. No sign of alien life was encountered in any of the systems and no habitable or near-habitable worlds were discovered.
The role of the Legio Astra frigate squadrons changed with the launch of the first three Primus survey cruisers. The Primus class was designed purely for the mission of probing new systems and had a significant stand-off reconnaissance capability. In addition to long range recon drones with ranges exceeding a billion kilometers, it carried a pair of Impavidus Fast Scouts, capable of 8000 km/s and carrying the recently developed Marius-400 Active Sensor with its four hundred million kilometer range. The loadout of the Primus included both geosurvey buoys, which could be dropped off in orbit of promising planets, as well as stand-off geosurvey drones, which carried the geosurvey buoy in their second stage. Instead of risking all three ships of a frigate squadron to scout newly discovered systems, a single Primus could investigate from a distance and send in the fast scouts for a closer look when required. The high speed of the small scouts would enable them to escape from danger, although it was generally accepted they would be treated as expendable units. The frigate squadrons would return to the role of providing energy weapon combatants for the Legio Astra, as well as acting as a forward scouting detachment when required. Over time the new Exidium class frigates would replace the smaller Drusus and the Lancea escorts would be concentrated in whichever Legio Astra continued to operate the older Trajan class missile cruisers. The Scipio IIs would remain active in all Legio Astra.
Primus class Scout Cruiser 9000 tons 746 Crew 1254.36 BP TCS 180 TH 720 EM 0
4000 km/s JR 3-50 Armour 1-38 Shields 0-0 Sensors 10/16/0/0 Damage Control Rating 6 PPV 16
Annual Failure Rate: 108% IFR: 1.5% Maint Capacity 523 MSP Max Repair 225 MSP Est Time: 1.58 Years
Hangar Deck Capacity 2000 tons Magazine 336
Jupiter-9 Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 9000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 3
Mercury Magneto-plasma Drive (9) Power 80 Fuel Use 70% Signature 80 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres Range 71.4 billion km (206 days at full power)
Drone Launcher (1) Missile Size 16 Rate of Fire 480
Recon Drone Fire Control (1) Range 69.3m km Resolution 500
Geosurvey Buoy (3) Speed: 0 km/s End: 450d Range: 0m km WH: 0 Size: 5 TH: 0 / 0 / 0
Geosurvey Drone (8) Speed: 20,000 km/s End: 803.6m Range: 964.3m km WH: 0 Size: 16 TH: 33 / 20 / 10
Recon Drone (8) Speed: 20,000 km/s End: 803.6m Range: 964.3m km WH: 0 Size: 16 TH: 33 / 20 / 10
Long-range Recon Drone (4) Speed: 20,000 km/s End: 1339.3m Range: 1607.1m km WH: 0 Size: 16 TH: 33 / 20 / 10
Marius-50 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 6300 Range 50.4m km Resolution 100
Ferax-10 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 10 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 10m km
Antius-16 EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 16 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 16m kmImpavidus II class Fast Scout Craft 1000 tons 95 Crew 325.8 BP TCS 20 TH 160 EM 0
8000 km/s Armour 1-8 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 16% IFR: 0.2% Maint Capacity 102 MSP Max Repair 252 MSP Est Time: 1.76 Years
Mercury-X Boosted MPD (1) Power 160 Fuel Use 700% Signature 160 Armour 0 Exp 15%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 12.9 billion km (18 days at full power)
Marius-400 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 36540 Range 401.9m km Resolution 145
The first mission carried out by a Primus was the exploration of the three unexplored jump points in Hespera by the Primus attached to Legio Astra II. These led to the systems of Cumae, Neapolis and Pompeii, none of which had any habitable planets or features of particular interest. By this time, the Empire had mapped nineteen star systems, including Sol, and carried out gravitational surveys in eight of them. With its mission in Hespera complete, Legio Astra II headed for Averna, which was the only system adjacent to Sol that still had unexplored jump points
In Martius 971, the Roma Shipyard was retooled to build an updated version of the Caligula class battlecruiser. The Caligula II was one third larger than its predecessor and had several notable improvements. The number of anti-ship missile launchers was increased from eight to ten and the magazine capacity was increased by twenty-two percent. A boat bay was added, as well as accommodation for a company of Classiarii, in preparation for the development of new, smaller engines that would allow the creation of much smaller dropships. The sensors and fire control systems were all significantly improved, increasing their range by forty percent, providing future-proofing for new missile designs and extending the range at which Mechanus ships could be targeted by existing missiles. ECM and ECCM were added, making the Caligula II harder for hostile fire controls to target and further increasing the range at which the ECM-protected Mechanus could be attacked. Finally, armour thickness was increased by twenty-five percent and the larger hull size meant that the total weight of armour was increased by fifty percent. As two of the three Roma slipways were still building the sixth and seventh Caligulas, only one of the new class was laid down in Martius with two more scheduled for Aprilis.
Caligula II class Battlecruiser 20000 tons 1717 Crew 3014.28 BP TCS 400 TH 1920 EM 0
4800 km/s Armour 5-65 Shields 0-0 Sensors 5/11/0/0 Damage Control Rating 8 PPV 65
Annual Failure Rate: 400% IFR: 5.6% Maint Capacity 754 MSP Max Repair 126 MSP Est Time: 1.25 Years
Hangar Deck Capacity 250 tons Troop Capacity: 1 Company Magazine 1825
Mercury Magneto-plasma Drive (24) Power 80 Fuel Use 70% Signature 80 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres Range 51.4 billion km (124 days at full power)
Gaius V40 Launcher (10) Missile Size 5 Rate of Fire 40
Gaius PD Launcher (15) Missile Size 1 Rate of Fire 10
Tiberius-70 Missile Fire Control (1) Range 69.3m km Resolution 100
Tiberius-14M Missile Fire Control (3) Range 1.4m km Resolution 1
Arcus II Anti-missile Missile (575) Speed: 40,000 km/s End: 1.1m Range: 2.6m km WH: 1 Size: 1 TH: 293 / 176 / 88
Tormentum II Anti-ship Missile (210) Speed: 36,000 km/s End: 23.8m Range: 51.4m km WH 6 Size: 5 TH: 120 / 72 / 36
Nemesis II Anti-ship Missile (40) Speed: 5,000 km/s End: 119.2m Range: 37.8m km WH: 0 Size: 5 TH: 16 / 10 / 5
Marius-14M Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 126 Range 1.4m km Resolution 1
Marius-70 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 6300 Range 69.3m km Resolution 100
Ferax-5 Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 5 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 5m km
Antius-11 EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 11m km
ECCM-1 (1) ECM 10Steve
