[ooc]Check above Pauls last lost for the reconstructed T226. The posts below are chronologically before t232, but I've fiddled around writing them up and Paul posted faster
[/ooc]
Month 229, Undine expanses, Telurium Salt system.
Thirteen months ago, an undine survey fleet had found a system of the red fleet by exploring a warp point in the Terbium system, which lay downchain from Telurium salt past the Gadolinium system. Unfortunately, the survey fleet was quickly destroyed, and the chain left open. Due to the scarce resources and the demands of the war elsewhere, and Telurium salt being far away from the central systems, assembling a defensive fleet had been slow and only been possible in lockstep with the rising supply levels in the system. Also compounding the troubles was that the chain was open and offered no diverting warp points, and thus by surveying Telurium salt would be found. Thus, a small fleet of nine heavy cruisers and nine smaller warships held positions off the warp point to Gadolinium.
But as events turned out, they were enough to discourage three probing battleships from unleashing their gunboats upon them. Unable to catch the undine ships and not having enough gunboats to chase them down, the red fleets probe turned and vanished through the warp point. No assault followed. It looked like both sides had a sideshow going on in this distant warp chain, and now rushed reinforcements to the point of contact.
Month 230, Cartell expanses, Bootlegger system
Theban First Survey Flotilla
Fifth Lay Magicia Nabu was worried. The First Survey Fleet under his command had explored beyond the Pedise system, and after exploring the rock ball Minkhat system found a system inhabited by the Cannon Cartell. They called their system Bootlegger, and immediately called upon military assistance. Apparently they and the inhabitants of the neighbouring bullet system where located in an isolated, newly developed pocket of the Cartell reaches. And now, their survey force in the also adjacent Gladius system was attacked by a foe the cartellians where already fighting with the undines. Now Bootlegger and Bullet lay defenseless before the foe, as local infrastructure was only being build due to the yet low income available locally.
Thus, Nabu ordered his small fleet forward to cover the Gladius warppoint and sincerely hoped that reinforcements would soon arrive, as his total force consisted of a small minefield and two armed survey ships, a light cruiser and two escort carriers. enough to deal with a light probe but definitely insufficient to deal with any heavy attacks like those the cartellians reported happening elsewhere.
His small fleet definitely was not prepared for six battleships breaching the warp point. The first fired upon his command ship, but only a hetlaser scratched the armour. retaliation was swift, and being presented with the blind spot of one battleship, he did not hesitate to order he cruisers external ordinance fired, later tipped capital missiles. Four of them hit and could not be intercepted. Apparently the Theban crews had been very nervous and trigger happy, as all three armed ships activated and managed to score a total of eight torpedo hits on the battle ship, and several standard missile hits as well. It made Nabu curse the ministry of exploration though for having all his ships designed only with auxiliary weapons for reasons of saving costs, as well for not having assigned a heavier escort able to keep up, like the new patrol class of battlecruisers being build currently.
Also, his lighter units fired their capital missiles, if equipped with them, from longer range.
The parasite craft from the battleships stayed with them as they all turned ponderously to face his small The light Theban return fire was shot down by the battleships point defence fleet. While the first survey force turned to flee, the enemy hetlasers and capital missiles knocked both survey ships out of data link and slowed them.
Next the battleships advanced into the minefield, easily absorbing the attack and then sweeping the light field aside with their lasers, and damaged the light cruiser further. The Theban return fire, already reduced by accrued damage, just bounced off the enemy shields. also, the enemy was now reinforced by six light cruisers.
In the next exchange, the light survey cruiser was crippled, and the second survey cruiser was annihilated by the hostiles heavy lasers. But Nebu did not have long to ponder their fate. Despite a solitary spring missile spitting defiance against the enemies shields, his ship reached incandescence mere seconds later and sparing him from witnessing the remaining fight. The light cruisers chased down the remaining lighter fleet elements, accompanied by the hostiles parasite craft. When the six fighter squadrons finally tried to contribute, the light cruisers whipped them out with specialised missiles, followed up by the parasite craft delivering withering point defence fire scything down the charge of the light brigade.
Overall the Theban survey force concept had proven its teeth but against the weight of fire arrayed against it the first survey force melted like a snowball in the desert.
Month 231, Thing of Odin against the odd crabs. Odd Crab home system (Blue).
"Delays, delays, delays... with the constant flare-ups about the Yetis, with that ware see-sawing back and forth, this had been long overdue by four years. who knows what these unfriendly aliens might have prepared by now." Fourth Bainisteor Brunehild was actually feeling uncomfortable about her mission. Even though it was finally given a go ahead, her fleet was stripped down from its initial complement of ships, especially with no small craft carriers assigned to it. But she now had been told to go forth and secure this area from a potentially hostile species. No more surprises where needed, especially with the known threads and the undines having troubles of a most unpleasant sort, and thus any bad surprises in this sector had to be taken care off unless at a later date no ships where available and a potentially bad situation grew even worse.
The oddly formed crablike aliens never ever talked with the initial contact group, and thus had been ignored far too long. And then Survey fleet four had found an obvious colony system two years a go, so they were spreading. Best to nib them at the roots, namely their home system. The warp point was surprisingly undefended. And so the Task force Mjoelnur advanced in-system in a quick raid, having only supplies along for this dash in-system and then back towards the supply base, instead of the full compliment of freighters they were used to.
Racing into the system, they found the main planet well defended. Two space stations, three huge bases, and eight stupendous ships, larger even than Iasc class dreadnaughts orbited the planet. The six battlecruisers also present felt almost negligible compared to this. Definitely a mission of conquest now had become a probe to determine the hostile capacities. Luckily Task force Mjoelnur was composed of fleet ships, and thus almost certain to escape all but the enemy battlecruisers. Sending in the shorter ranged escorts to test the enemies missile capacity though was unnecessary, and only the twelve battle cruisers advanced cautiously, edging into the ten light second range. Nearest to the fleet was a space station and a base, and just ahead of it the superdreadnaughts and three of the battlecruisers. Modulating, the Eaglas slipped closer and then the base reached out towards them with a salvo of fourteen SBM missiles. But only one was on target and easily shot down by the point defence. The fleet returned fire, and one missile actually hit the base. Then two of the monitors returned fire, with a stupendous cloud of 42 missiles. But again none were on target. Then the enemy battlecruisers joined in, and one of their SBM penetrated the Eaglas point defence to reduce the shields. In return the Eaglas scored no further hits on the base. Electronic countermeasures on both sides seemed to be outstanding.
Still, the Eaglas advanced, reducing the range now to nine light seconds. The crab base fired again, but after achieving no further success the crabs held their further fire. Brunehild could understand their decision, given that of a total sixty missiles her ships fired in return, a single one was on target. But she ordered a further advance. In response the monitors and their three companion battlecruisers lunged ahead, engine tuners engaged and closed the distance to her Eaglas to seven light seconds. And the three battlecruisers back at the planet launched fighters. Cursing the high command for all their penny-pinching hides were worth, Brunehild ordered her battlecruisers to start turning away and switch fire onto one of the missile bearing superdreadnaughs, hoping she could at least extract some of her ships from this. The mission now had become survival. At least the reduced range helped her crews fire, and the first salvo saw two missiles take down the superdreadnaughts shields. She assigned the class the name Bumblepuff, after a jolly archer of fairy tales who could shoot many arrows quickly. Her ships engine modulation did confuse the enemies fire control, and from the 42 missiles only seven achieved a lock and five of them got handled by the point defence. The next salvoes eroded the superdreadnaughts armour further, but the crab battlecruisers also took the targeted Eaglas armour down further. and the next salvoes would be exchanged without any engine modulations.
The dogleg course the Eaglas had to take in order to turn around reduced the distance between both fleets by a furrther half light second. The Bumblepuffs where quick of the mark, and now targeted the damaged battlecruiser and one of its squadron mates, thus splitting the defensive fire and achieving hits against both. In return the squadron ripped into the superdreadnaughts innards. Apparently the bublepuff class was fairly thin-skinned. The eaglas concentrated on the damaged one and hurt it further, but the base got a parting shot in and killed the already damaged engine room from the damaged eagla.
The flight went on, and the bumblepuffs again shot first, splitting up on the two damaged battlecruisers, and this time slowing both. In return, the damaged superdreadnaught took further hits, and the other Bumblepuff was targeted as well, removing its shields. The chase went on, with the fleets keeping their distance. The last eagla of the damaged data group was slowly whittled into its armour, and the bublepuff was divested of its meagre armour and shields. Soon the two slowed eaglas would fall into range of the so far silent superdreadnaughts, but Brunehildes suspicion was high that they would be armed with capital beams in huge numbers.
One last service to the nation could be performed by the two crippled battecruisers, and Brunehild ordered them to turn into the oncoming fleet. The other superdreadnaught class proved to be armed with seven capital force beams and four Xray lasers. That was powerful, but still light for a ship twice the size of a battlecruiser, and so she suspected them to be heavy assault designs, most likely with corresponding amounts of passive defences. There was no way she could take them down with the missiles in her magazines, and thus continuing the engagement would be futile. The warp point would be guarded the next time though, she suspected. The one damaged Eagla got a salvo off and took out an engine room on the Bumblepuff, thus slowing down the pursuit and enabling her fleets escape, then it too became incandescent with beam fire. Unfortunately the bumblepuff had other ideas and managed to send a staggering six missiles into her lone Eagla, slowing it down as well. This markedly improved the motivation of her other crews, and they send a total of eighteen misisles into the huge ship, slowing it to a crawl, while the crab battlecruisers ensured the Eaglas doom by taking out the third engine room.
Now falling out of effective range on the Bumblepuffs, Brunehild made good her escape from the system, with the fighters not daring an unsupported attack on her fleet. It was a humbling lesson for the thing, who so far had been very confident in their ability to outfight any foe.. except maybe the Regia Maria, and even them they had brought to the conference table. The Things favourite battlecruisers are proving to be light now, and assuming the absence of fighters was no longer guaranteed. The following months would see a reshuffle of fleets and ships in order to face this new development. Unfortunately, the anthropoids had to be dealt with as their space was almost the only open avenue left for expansion.
Month 233, Cartell expanses, Bootlegger system
The Theban Ishtaq picket had moved into the system and was forced to send back its battlecruisers due to supply issues. But still the small flotilla was able to guard the warp point to the now silent and lifeless system from which the red fleet of invaders had come and apparently retreated to. Next door in the cartells Bullet system a mixed fleet from the Cartell and their military allies, the Norse Yeti assembled. It seems since the thing and the yetis no longer where busy with each other they respectively found new outlets now for their martial energy.
The three heavy cruisers, three lights cruisers, three destroyers and single corvettes guarded the warp point but for a pinace probing it from the other side nothing happened. For now...
Somewhere else in the galaxy.
They called themselves the chosen of the rain bringer, but due to their appearance everyone else they met just called them the spiders. Despite their spiky chitineous outer shell, spindly legs and powerful mandibles, they were relatively peaceful theocrats and merchants. Backed up by a strong and technological advanced navy, they decided to expand from their small cluster of systems after a survey probe by a reddish hued light cruiser penetrated the Teotihoachan system, a cluster of rocky worlds and asteroid fields orbiting in complicated trajectories around double suns. A subsequent survey revealed that Seven warp lines branched off from here, and one of the warp points was guarded by a solitary red destroyer, silent to all attempts of contact. Since then the spiders expanded outwards, meeting several races and colonising four systems. In the last one of these, the Michoacan system, their survey fleet probed a warp point into another rocky system, emerging from a closed warp point. As the probing cruiser inspected various worlds, a destroyer started to close in. A retreat towards the warp point proved futile, as two other destroyers placed themselves ahead of the cruiser between the warp point and it, and shadowed it closely towards the location. All three ships displayed the familiar crimson hue and settled down on their side of the warp point to guard and wait.
Later this month, Bootlegger system, Theban Cartell relief.
3 Candace class heavy cruisers, 2 Aten class light cruisers, a Nekhnet command light cruiser, 3 Blackjack DD, and 1 Amathaunta II class CT.
all at 4 LS from warp point.
Six battlecruisers emerge on a convergent heading, and launch 60 pgb. Fire is very sporadic, with only a few XRay lasers hitting.
But also Theban ships are very slow of the start, with only a destroyer and a light cruiser activating. The Mitsuhide Akechi takes some armour damage, reducing it by 2/3rds, and the CT gets hit hard by two beams as well.
Then sic light cruisers arrive, heading the other way. The Thebans are still slow, but the Calvalcade Candace class manages to deal some damage to a battlecruisers shields. Then Theban fire smegs away to one of the arriving light cruisers, getting through its shields and into the armour. In return two destroyers take laser damage, but the light cruisers don't seem to hit well with their advanced missile launchers. ninety gunboats fly through the hole in the minefield and in a wide arc around it.
In response, the Theban ships move away from the warp point, leaving the enemy ships out of range but giving themselves more room to fight the gun boats. Calvacade and Candace fired upon gun boats, killing 6, but then the battlecruisers targeted Achilles, one of the Aten class cruisers, and their XRay lasers seemed to have more range than anticipated and damaged her. In return, the light cruisers damaged a red fleet cl further with XO launched missiles, and killed another gunboat. Mark Anthony and Mitsushide Akechi, both slowed by damage, hovered just at extreme range for their standard missiles and damaged the red light cruiser which now streamed air. In response, the light cruisers fired upon the two valiant destroyers. results were varied. Mark Anthony managed to shot down all but one missile, but Mitsushide Akechi managed to shot down only three of the missiles borrowing in on her and she vanished in a brilliant fireball as eleven antimatter missiles incinerated her.
The Theban ships moved further from the warp point, now definitely beyond range from all but the missiles, with the gunboats closing to two light seconds on them. Now also Claude Auchinleck joined her comrades, and the three Candace class cruisers proceeded to send 54 sprint mode missiles at the approaching gun boats, hitting eleven of them. The light cruisers killed another eight with 28 sprint mode missiles send their way. But Achiles in return was hit by a capital missile lobbed at it by the battlecruisers, and lost her forward engine room. With the destroyer Marcus Tulerius Cicero bagging another two gun boats, this exchange of fire was done.
although the gun boats ignored the damaged destroyer Mark Anthony, the battlecruisers didn't, but it shot down both capital missiles on target and then three gunboats. But elated by their success the gunners where unable to intercept the next two missiles and the brave ship was left burning along its hull and barely moving anymore. The Theban heavy cruiser then killed 16 gunboats Then a squadron of gunboats fired a salvo of fighter missiles at Achiles, with four of them penetrating her point defence. In return, the light cruisers killed another nine gunboats. Their targeting capacity prohibited more kills. Marcus Tullerio Cicero took out another two gun boats, but then faced a swarm of incoming missiles which reduced her to a floating magazine with an engine room. The next salvoes reduced the Theban corvette to an unarmed crawl, and the remaining five salvoes targeted Achilles and left her a burning wreck.
Thirty-three gunboats then broke off the charge, realising that they would be eliminated before they could bring significant weapons to bear. A somewhat shaken Theban fleet retreated, having lost a light cruiser, three destroyers and a corvette, in return for a damaged light cruiser and fifty-seven gunboats. The crippled ships soon were eliminated by the light cruisers.
