10th September 2032
Crete, the first Hercules class Tug, is launched from the Kawasaki shipyard. The tug is designed to tow bases and shipyards and its intended mission is to move Colonial shipyards from Earth to Alpha Centauri. Several of those shipyards are either in use or being upgraded so they will be moved once their current tasks are completed. First to be moved will be the Rotterdamsche Shipyard so that FACs can be constructed at Alpha Centauri II. A second tug, Cyprus, is under construction and will be ready in March 2033.
Hercules class Tug 39150 tons 824 Crew 1457.4 BP TCS 783 TH 4500 EM 0
5747 km/s Armour 1-102 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Capacity 23 MSP Max Repair 100 MSP
Tractor Beam
Commercial Ion Engine (30) Power 150 Fuel Use 7% Signature 150 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres Range 131.4 billion km (264 days at full power)19th September 2032
The minelayer Aeolus completes deployment of a minefield consisting of twenty-five captor mines at the Epsilon Indi - Lacaille 9352 jump point
6th November 2032
The last of the alien installations ruins on Epsilon Indi I has been recovered. Approximately half were too damaged for successful recovery. The remainder comprised seven mines, a construction factory, a mass driver, six million litres of fuel and a small quantity of Corbomite.
11th December 2032
The language and symbology found within the ruins on Alpha Centauri II have finally been deciphered. The ruins are from a race that called itself the Mogami Empire. Seventeen installations have been identified for potential recovery.
1st January 2033
The Chinese colony on Mars has reached a population of over ten million and has one hundred mines in operation. The Chinese mining colony on Rhea has sixty-seven automated mines. India has a colony on Mars with a population of 3.3 million and thirty-seven manned mines plus a mining colony in the asteroid belt with twenty-two automated mines. The Martian colony of the Union of South American Nations has a population of 2.8 million and twenty-seven manned mines. The Non-Aligned States have eleven automated mines on Mars but no actual colonists.
The Colonial Alliance colony on Alpha Centauri II has a population of almost seventy million. Installations include one hundred construction factories, one hundred and forty-six fuel refineries, forty maintenance facilities, ten terraforming installations and three shipyards. There are no mines as the planet has little in the way of mineral deposits. The mining colony on Ross 154 II has a population of just one point eight million. Thirty-two mines are on the surface but they are undermanned and only running at sixty-five percent efficiency. Although further mines and colonists are planned, the colony cost of 3.3 is a significant hurdle. Seven terraforming ships are adding greenhouse gases to raise the temperature from its current level of -72C. Epsilon Indi I has a population of one point five million and has sufficient maintenance facilities to handle ships of up to 3000 tons. Four of the five Newton class survey ships are in orbit of this colony, awaiting a decision to resume the exploration of jump points. The Alliance also has eighty-five automated mines on Titania, a moon of Uranus.
27th January 2033
The South American geology team which discovered the Duranium deposits on Mars finds further deposits, increasing the total amount of Duranium to 345,000 tons and improving the accessibility from 0.8 to 0.9. This should be of great benefit to the Sol-based powers but not very useful for the Colonial Alliance.
1st February 2033
The Chinese have requested a delay to the planned move into Procyon as they will launch three more of their Laertes class warships in early March.
24th March 2033
A combined Chinese and Colonial Alliance fleet is assembled at the Sol - Procyon jump point, comprising four Pegasus class destroyers, two Houjian II class destroyers and thirteen Yinchuan class frigates. The two nations share general information about the capabilities of their ships in order to work together more effectively. The Chinese designs are shown below. Colonial Intelligence updates their information accordingly, as they had previously referred to the two Chinese classes as the Bernado and Laertes respectively. They are particularly interested to note that the Chinese have developed ECM, which is not available to the Alliance. A Chinese Hegu class jump gate construction ship has built a jump gate on the Sol side of the jump point and is waiting to enter Procyon. A Jianghu class gravitational survey ship that was acting as a picket is also present.
Houjian II class Destroyer 5000 tons 521 Crew 571.2 BP TCS 100 TH 240 EM 0
2400 km/s Armour 5-26 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 24
Annual Failure Rate: 100% IFR: 1.4% Maint Capacity 143 MSP Max Repair 58 MSP Est Time: 1.73 Years
Nuclear Pulse Engine E9 (6) Power 40 Fuel Use 90% Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 40.0 billion km (192 days at full power)
12cm C2 Visible Light Laser (6) Range 80,000km TS: 4000 km/s Power 4-2 RM 2 ROF 10 4 4 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0
Mk2 Laser Fire Control (2) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 4000 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Pebble Bed Reactor (4) Total Power Output 12 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Mk4 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 1600 Range 17.6m km Resolution 100
ECM 10Yinchuan class Frigate 2500 tons 258 Crew 301.4 BP TCS 50 TH 120 EM 0
2400 km/s Armour 4-16 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 12
Annual Failure Rate: 50% IFR: 0.7% Maint Capacity 75 MSP Max Repair 58 MSP Est Time: 1.79 Years
Nuclear Pulse Engine E9 (3) Power 40 Fuel Use 90% Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 40.0 billion km (192 days at full power)
12cm C2 Visible Light Laser (3) Range 80,000km TS: 4000 km/s Power 4-2 RM 2 ROF 10 4 4 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 0
Mk2 Laser Fire Control (1) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 4000 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Pebble Bed Reactor (2) Total Power Output 6 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Mk4 Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 1600 Range 17.6m km Resolution 100The combined fleet is led by Commodore Song Tian Yuan of the People's Liberation Army Navy. His plan is to enter Procyon and build a jump gate on the far side before proceeding further. None of the ships can jump unaided and although the Yinchuans could be escorted out by the Jianghu, the larger warships would be stuck in Procyon if the operation went badly. Therefore, the Pegasus and Houjian class ships, plus most of the smaller ships, remain in Sol for the moment while the Hegu proceeds into Procyon, escorted by a pair of Yinchuans.
22nd April 2033
The 46th Engineer Brigade recovers nine alien electronic counter-countermeasures systems from the ruins on Alpha Centauri II. One option would be to fit these to a new class of Colonial warship but Rear Admiral Williams decides to order their disassembly in an effort to try to improve Colonial technology. Unfortunately nothing is learned.
1st June 2033
Two Chinese terraforming installations on Earth begin pumping anti-greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
29th July 2033
The jump gate at the Procyon - Sol jump point is completed. The Chinese construction ship withdraws and the allied warships move into the system. Hydra, one of the four Pegasus class destroyers, engages its active sensors then all nineteen ships head for the inner system. As the jump gate permits inter-system communications, the advance of the fleet is monitored from Colonial fleet headquarters on Alpha Centauri II and Chinese fleet headquarters on Earth.
3rd August 2033
At 04:34, the CF/SPS-4 Active Search Sensor on the Hydra detects thirty-nine contacts as a distance of three point one million kilometers, closing at 10,000 km/s. Each contact masses only 800 tons. As the Colonial sensor was designed with much larger targets in mind, their size allowed the aliens to reach close range without being detected. The Colonial and Chinese ships both reverse course at maximum speed; 4125 km/s for the Colonial destroyers and 2400 km/s for the Chinese. With so many targets to choose from, the senior Colonial officer, Commander Tadeshi Ryokai, orders all four destroyers to switch to automated firing. Their tactical computers will assign targets to fire control systems, engage and destroy those targets and then select new targets, all without the need for further human intervention. The computers of all four ships coordinate their attack and decide that each target will be engaged by a full salvo from two ships. The destroyers open fire, with each subsequent wave of missiles directed against a different pair of alien ships.
[attachment=0:3tdguvir]Procyon.GIF[/attachment:3tdguvir]
The first wave of thirty-two Colonial missiles arrives at 04:35:46. The alien ships are moving at 10,000 km/s, which makes them very difficult targets. Even with the 22,500 km/s speed of the RGM-5A Javelin, the chance of a successful interception is barely above twenty percent. Only one out of sixteen missiles strikes the first target, without any visible sign of damage. The second target is hit four times and explodes amid a spray of some type of viscous fluid. There is no sign of any atmosphere loss, either from the initial hits or the subsequent destruction. Nor is there any sign of wreckage. The alien ship seems to have disintegrated.
The second wave scores a total of seven hits on two targets, leaving them dead in space. Fluid streams from several locations on both ships. Two alien ships are destroyed by the third Colonial missile wave. Despite their losses the aliens continue to close in, grimly determined to reach the firing range of whatever weapons they carry. Given that there is no sign of incoming missiles, the assumption is that they are armed with some type of beam weapon. Another alien is destroyed by the fourth wave and two more crippled by the fifth. Thirty-one remain on course and have closed to within one point four million kilometers of the Chinese ships. The Colonial ships are faster and four hundred thousand kilometers further away. By the time they close to within half a million kilometers of the Chinese, three more missiles waves have smashed into the alien horde, killing four and wounding two more. Despite the Colonial success, they are not destroying the alien ships fast enough and it appears a significant portion of the original force will soon enter range of the Chinese lasers.
[attachment=1:3tdguvir]Procyon2.GIF[/attachment:3tdguvir]
Just one more alien ship is destroyed before the remaining twenty-four ships open fire at 110,000 kilometers with meson cannon. Fortunately, the alien weapons seems inaccurate at that range. Even so, a Chinese Yinchuan class frigate is suffers two hits and two other frigates are hit once. One of the damaged frigates loses its fire control system, rendering it useless in the fight, and a second takes engine damage, slowing it to 1600 km/s. As the alien craft move into Chinese weapon range, another wave of Colonial missiles arrives, obliterating two targets. The Chinese score fifteen strength-1 hits, spread across six targets, without any apparent signs of damage.
While the Chinese lasers are recharging, the alien horde fires again, concentrating on the frigate with engine damage at a range of 60,000 kilometers and inflicting thirteen hits. Yinchuan 10 loses all three lasers, its fire control, a second engine and its fuel storage, leaving it dead in space without fuel for movement. The Chinese ships return fire five seconds later, scoring a total of nine hits on several different alien ships. Given the apparent fragility of the aliens, Commodore Song Tian Yuan is hoping to take out vital systems on several ships rather than trying to destroy them individually. The aliens hold position 60,000 kilometers from Yinchuan 10 and their next salvo blows her to pieces. The first allied casualty of the battle. Seeing the aliens are trying to hold the range open, Commodore Song Tian Yuan orders his ships to reverse course and attempt to close to point blank range where his lasers can cause more damage.
The short-range slugging match continues with the aliens using their superior speed to maintain the range at a distance where the Chinese lasers can only match the mesons in term of damage. As the mesons ignore armour that puts the Chinese at a significant disadvantage. The Chinese have more overall weapons, for the moment at least, but the alien ships are much faster which badly affects Chinese accuracy. Colonial missiles are arriving every forty seconds, which is an eternity in beam vs beam combat, and Colonial magazines are running very low. There are simply not enough missiles to destroy every remaining alien ship so the fate of the allied fleet lies with the Chinese Yinchuans and Houjian IIs.
Colonial missiles destroy another alien then two Chinese hits finally penetrate the armour of a second. Jubilation is short-lived as a second Yinchuan explodes. The Chinese ships are taking a battering and two of them lose fire controls system, which is as good as being destroyed. An alien ship explodes, hit by laser fire, then a second, taken out by Colonial missiles. The aliens suddenly reverse their tactics and close in, obliterating a third Yinchuan from just 10,000 kilometers.
Each of the four Pegasus class destroyers has only thirty-two missiles remaining, twenty-five percent of their original loadout. One of the previous salvos lost lock when its target was destroyed by Chinese lasers so Commander Tadeshi Ryokai is reluctant to fire into the unpredictable close range melee in case the missiles are wasted. He requests permission to hold fire and use his missiles if any aliens survive the battle. Commodore Song Tian Yuan disagrees, concerned that any reduction in fire could result in the annihilation of the Chinese fleet. Instead he orders the Colonial ships to spread their fire, linking four launchers to each of the two fire controls on each Pegasus and targeting a total of eight different aliens. The Colonial ships comply but they are not used to operating as a fleet and changing the firing orders requires valuable time.
With the aliens closing to point blank range, the Chinese ships become more effective. 12cm visible light lasers rip one alien to pieces and seriously damage a second. In return, Yinchuan 02 is crippled. The alien horde seems to realise its mistake and suddenly streaks away again at 10,000 km/s, opening the range to 60,000 km/s before the Chinese can fire again. The damaged alien ship is left behind and quickly blown to pieces by the Chinese. Seventeen undamaged alien ships now face two Chinese destroyers and ten frigates, three of which cannot fire due to the loss of their fire control systems and three more have damage to weapons or engines. Suddenly, the aliens charge in again and destroy Yinchuan 02 then move back out to 60,000 km in time for the next Chinese volley. One of the Chinese ships is firing out of sequence though and catches one of the aliens at close range, taking out an engine. The cripple cannot leave with the rest and is quickly destroyed by the remainder of the Chinese fleet. The Colonial destroyers have still not opened fire after changing their targeting orders, despite urgent demands from the Chinese Commodore.
Finally, the Colonial missiles launch but the battle begins to go badly for the Chinese. Within the space of fifteen seconds, two previously intact Yinchuans are hit hard, losing their fire controls and most of their weapons. Return fire inflicts only a single strength-1 internal hit. Only five Yinchuans remain combat capable and two of those only have partial weapons. The two Houjian class destroyers are still intact. The surviving Chinese ships fire again and an alien ship explodes. Unfortunately one of those on which Colonial missiles are targeted. Four Javelins self-destruct. Alien revenge is swift as a hail of mesons blow Yinchuan 01 and Yinchuan 13 to pieces. The Chinese fleet is being rapidly reduced to wreckage but they keep on fighting. Another alien ship is destroyed by desperate counter-fire.
On his own authority, Commander Tadeshi Ryokai orders his four destroyers to cease fire. They have less than one hundred missiles between them and if even one alien ship is left standing when they run out of ordnance, all four destroyers will be lost. He intends to let the Chinese make their stand and then deal with any alien survivors with small salvos, in an attempt to make every missile count. Commodore Yuan opens visual communication with the Colonial commander and demands his ships resume fire. In the bridge windows behind the Commodore, Commander Ryokai sees another Chinese ship blow up.
The aliens close to point blank range once again, making their own weapons more accurate but allowing the Chinese to make full use of their own weapons. 12cm lasers tear one of the small alien craft apart and badly damage a second. Eight Colonial missiles streak into the melee and two of them detonate on target, wounding a third alien ship. Unfortunately, the follow-up wave of twenty is reduced to sixteen as four were targeted on the destroyed alien ship. Commander Ryokai makes the point that a quarter of the last salvo from his ships has now been wasted. Commodore Yuan insists he commence firing immediately as seventy-five percent of the Colonial missiles right now will make more difference than all of them later.
Four of the sixteen missiles home in on a stationary alien ship and completely obliterate it. The other twelve missiles chase the alien fleet as it pulls back once again. Meson cannon wreck another Chinese frigate. The missiles score a total of five hits spread across three alien vessels. Follow-up fire from the Chinese destroys one of the cripples. Ten alien craft remain. They concentrate their fire on Yinchuan 11, already damaged from the previous volley, and another Chinese ship goes down in flames. Both Houjian IIs and four Yinchuans are combat capable. A fifth is relatively intact but has lost its fire control and lacks the necessary spares to repair it. Eight Yinchuans have been lost. The four Colonial destroyers continue to open the range and are one point five million kilometers from the alien fleet.
The aliens charge into point blank range again and this time they stay there for thirty seconds. It is a key moment in the battle. Yinchuan 12 is pounded by two full alien volleys but she somehow holds together until a third finally destroys her. Her sister ships take full advantage of her gallant resistance. They close to visual range, killing two aliens in a storm of laser fire and damaging two more. The aliens retreat to 60,000 kilometers again, taking out the fire control on Yinchuan 05 as they leave. One of their number is too crippled to follow and is quickly overwhelmed. Yinchuan 05 is hit again but the tide of battle is finally turning for the Chinese and another alien ship blows up, reducing the alien fleet to six vessels.
Alien attention turns to Yinchuan 04, ignoring the crippled Yinchuan 05 and she suffer multiple hits, including her fire control Four Chinese ships remain combat-capable. Enough to destroy another of the small alien gunboats. Once again the aliens return to close range, trying to finish off Yinchuan 04. She is reduced to a gutted hulk but the Chinese take their chance. Three of the five remaining alien ships, which must have already suffered serious damage, are blown to pieces in a concentrated volley of laser fire. They hit Yinchuan 04 again, which stubbornly refuses to die, and open the range. The Chinese now have the numerical advantage and use it to destroy the remaining two enemy ships without further loss. The last active alien warship dies in a spectacular strength-40 secondary explosion. A suitable climax to the impressive performance of the Chinese fleet.
Six Chinese ships have survived the battle, including both Houjian class destroyers and four Yinchuan class frigates. Yinchuan 04 and Yinchuan 05 are both dead in space, the former due to the loss of all its engines and the latter due fuel to loss. Yinchuan 06 and Yinchuan 07 both have internal damage but remain combat capable. Only the two destroyers are undamaged, probably because their ECM systems made them harder targets. The total number of Chinese dead is over eighteen hundred. Almost seven hundred more are in lifepods. No Colonial ship suffered any damage or casualties, although they used eighty-two percent of their ordnance. Colliers are dispatched immediately from Alpha Centauri. There are still also several crippled and immobile alien ships some distance away from the site of the close quarter battle that were hit by Colonial missiles as they approached
Commodore Yuan's first act after realizing his ships will survive is to demand that Commander Ryokai be turned over to Chinese authorities on charges of mutiny and cowardice. The Commodore insists that had the Colonial ships continued their missile attack, the Chinese fleet would have suffered fewer casualties and therefore Commander Ryokai has Chinese blood on his hands. Well aware that Commodore Yuan will be a national hero when news of the battle is released, the Chinese authorities back up his claim, leaving the Colonial leadership with a serious diplomatic problem. A couple of senior Colonial Fleet officers recommend using the destroyers' remaining missiles to take out the surviving Chinese warships while the planetary defence centres on Earth's obliterate the Chinese shipyards. Five of the seven Commonwealth shipyards are in Alpha Centauri so Chinese retaliation would be limited. That suggestion is quickly rejected, partly because most of the Colonial population and industry is still on Earth and might be vulnerable to a Chinese ground invasion as well as attacks from conventional Chinese ICBMs but mainly because the Colonial leadership wants to maintain human unity in the face of many alien threats. Besides, while the Colonial Alliance would almost certainly win a war against the People's Republic, it would not emerge unscathed. Given the scarcity of resources, wasting them on intra-human conflict would be unwise.
Instead, the Colonial leadership informs the Chinese that Commander Ryokai will be relieved of his command and returned to Earth by one of the colliers en route to resupply the destroyers. Once on Earth, a court of inquiry will be convened with both Colonial and Chinese members. In the meantime, they pledge continuing cooperation in the effort to secure Procyon for the People's Republic. The Chinese authorities, well aware they need Colonial assistance - at least in the short term, accept the offer as it should satisfy their domestic public opinion. Meanwhile in Procyon, the Chinese destroyers recover the lifepods while the Colonial destroyers locate and kill the six alien ships crippled earlier in the battle, using eight more precious Javelin missiles in the process.
Yinchuan 07 repairs its damaged 12cm laser, returning the ship to full operational status. Yinchuan 05 begins repairs on its fuel storage system so it can take on more fuel and limp home on its one remaining engine. Yinchuan 06 is only lightly damaged but has lost its crew quarters and its engineering section, along with all the spares contained therein. Its is combat capable though and will remain in Procyon. Yinchuan 04 is the most serious case. With no engines and no engineering section it can neither move nor repair itself. There is little option for the Chinese, who lack tractor beam technology, but to evacuate the crew and scuttle the ship. The eight remaining ships in the allied fleet hold position, awaiting the arrival of the two Colonial minelayers that are acting as colliers.
19th August 2033
Sixteen days after the battle, the two colliers arrive and refill the magazines of the Colonial destroyers to ninety percent capacity, giving them one hundred and sixteen RGM-5A Javelins each. The colliers head for home with Commander Ryokai on board while the allied fleet resumes its course for the Procyon inner system. Commander Robin Campoverde is now the senior Colonial officer.
to be continued...
