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Posted by: Kurt
« on: August 16, 2025, 11:41:37 AM »

June 11, 2165, HIP 84051 system
Admiral Paglinawan ordered the two assault groups still with the Expeditionary Force to advance on the jump point and join the 2nd Assault Group.  As the heavy ships move towards the jump point, the carriers and missile ships of the Expeditionary Fleet prepare to engage anything that comes through the jump point to escape the assault ships. 

The 1st and 2nd Assault Groups each consist of a heavy assault carrier, a dreadnought, two battlecruisers and a destroyer, while the 3rd consists of a heavy assault carrier, a dreadnought, a battlecruiser, a jump cruiser, and a destroyer.  When the 1st and 3rd join the 2nd all three jump through to the Oct home system. 

The three assault groups arrived in a rough triangular formation around the jump point with the 1st closest at 110,000 kilometers, the 3rd next at 273,000 kilometers, and the 2nd at 625,000 kilometers.  The area around the jump point was littered with wrecks, most of which were heavy Bob warships.


Situation upon jumping into the Rho Camelopardalis System

The dreadnought Andromeda, in the 1st, came under immediate fire as soon as it materialized.  It was hit by forty-nine serious weapons impacts, draining its shields to 67%.  All three assault groups targeted the three Oct ships sitting on the jump point and began opening the range until they could return fire.  In addition, all three groups launched their fighters. The assault groups raced to open the range until they could get their weapons active, as the thirty-six strong fighter groups also moved to open the range.   

Two of the Oct heavy cruisers, each massing 16,783 tons, ran for open space at 18,073 km/s in between the 2nd and 3rd assault groups, while the third Oct heavy cruiser, massing 17,019 tons with an apparent speed of 2,203 km/s, sat on the jump point.  Only the Terran DD Victoria Konecny got off a shot at one of the smaller Oct heavy cruisers, missing completely.  The Oct weapons were apparently recharging as they did not fire again immediately. 

The DD Cord Gotti joined the Konecny in firing on the two fleeing heavy cruisers, but neither got a hit.  The battlecruiser Saturn speared the Oct heavy cruiser on the jump point with its spinal laser and several of its heavy 35 cm lasers, completely destroying the motionless Oct warship.  Later analysis would show that the Oct ship was in fact a commercial design of some sort. 



With more ships activating their weapons, the Terran captains began trying to close on the remaining Oct warships, but it soon became clear that that would only happen if the Oct’s allowed it.   The Terran ships continued to fire on the Oct warships but the fast ships were difficult to hit and no damage was inflicted by the Terran weapons. 

Oddly, the Oct heavy cruisers maneuvered to remain between the three groups of Terran warships, which were closing the noose.  Twenty seconds after their first volley, the Oct warships fired again, continuing to concentrate their fire on the Andromeda, dropping her shields to 56%.  The Terrans fired in response, and this time they got hits.  The two heavy cruisers were hit by seven Terran lasers, one of which was a 35 cm X-Ray laser from the DN Pegasus.  None penetrated the Oct ship’s armor. 

The Oct warships continued to close on the 1st Assault Group and the DN Andromeda, which allowed the Terran ships to begin hitting them with greater accuracy and power.  The 1st, firing at just 91,000 kilometers, managed to get ten of the eleven hits scored on the two heavy cruisers, but none penetrated their armor.  All Terran ships were now firing. 

Fearing that the Oct warships would strip the Andromeda’s shields, Admiral Paglinawan, aboard the flagship of the 1st, ordered the assault group’s fighters to engage the two heavy cruisers.  Almost immediately twenty fighters launched their Sparrow III ASM’s at the two Oct ships.  In the meantime, the Terran ships continued to pummel the Oct warships with their lasers.  After three salvos at close range the Terran ships started to get penetrating hits on one of the Oct heavy cruisers. 

The next volley from the Oct warships was split between the Andromeda and the destroyer Konecny.  The Andromeda merely suffered more shield damage, but the Konecny was devastated, left without engine power and drifting.  In retaliation, the Terran 1st Assault Group cored one of the two Oct heavy cruisers with heavy laser fire, causing a massive internal explosion that left the warship a drifting collection of debris. 

Five seconds later the missiles from the fighters began arriving, pummeling the fleeing Oct warship with hit after hit.  The Oct warship managed to decoy away some of the missiles during their first pass, but after that there was nothing to interfere with the missiles.  As the Oct warship ran it continued to strike at the crippled Konecny, striking at ranges of over 500,000 kilometers, far beyond Terran laser range. 

Finally, after fifty-three hits, the missiles started causing internal damage.  In addition, the Oct warship, now slowed, had turned back towards the pursing Terran warships, which were now back in range and beginning to score hits as well.  The end came quickly after that, with the Oct warship overwhelmed by hit after hit. 

Admiral Paglinawan ordered his ships to recover their fighters and return to the jump point.  The crew of the Konecny set to work repairing what they could. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: July 30, 2025, 10:58:24 AM »

HIP 84051 System
A single-star system, with a M1V primary orbited by four planets, one terrestrial, one gas giant, one super Jovian, and one dwarf planet.  None are habitable, although one of the moons of the super Jovian has a nitrogen-CO2 atmosphere at 0.72 pressure. 

None of the buoys placed in the system by the survey group survive, bit there is a group of life pods close to the wreckage of a Bob light battleship in proximity to the jump point.  Admiral Gabehart, commander of the assault force, orders one of his destroyers to pick up the life pods while another returns to the 86 Cygni system to call the other ships forward. 

Once the fleet is assembled, Admiral Paglinawan dispatches scout fighters to probe the inner system and the jump point to the suspected Oct home system. 

May 16, 2165, 1114 hours, Oct controlled HIP 84051 system
Scout Group 1, headed for the location of a group of wrecks orbiting the system’s 3rd planet, detect three Oct ships located not far from the third planet’s LaGrange point.  All three are light destroyers of unknown capability.  The commander of the recon group sends a contact report back to the fleet and halts his advance to maintain contact with the Oct ships. 

Admiral Paglinawan, once he receives the report, orders the 1st Carrier Group to launch their fighters to eliminate the Oct ships. 

At 1414 hours the Recon Group advancing on the jump point reaches sensor range and detects seven Bobruisk warships guarding the jump point.  One of the seven is a light battlecruiser massing 17,787 tons, four are light battleships massing 35,577 tons, and one is a heavy battleship at 53,375 tons.  There are two wrecks on the jump point, one Bob heavy battleship, and an unknown class massing roughly equivalent to the Bob heavy battleship, presumably an Oct warship.  Oddly, there are life pods clustered around the Bob HBB wreck, and none of the Bob ships are moving to pick them up. 

Encouraged by the fact that there are Bob ships guarding the jump point to the Oct-controlled system, Admiral Paglinawan orders the fleet to advance to a point halfway in between the jump point to Rho Camelopardalis (Oct Home), and 86 Cygni. 

May 17, 2165. 0827 hours, HIP 84051
The 1st Carrier Group’s fighter wing launches one hundred and twenty Sparrow III ASM at the three light destroyers from just over a million kilometers.  The three Oct destroyers remained stationary, almost as if they didn’t see either the fighters or the missiles, but responded vigorously when the missiles reached point defense range.  The missiles scored twenty-eight hits on the three LDD’s on the first pass, another sixteen on the second, five on the third, and four on the following attacks.  None penetrated.  Two of the LDD’s suddenly accelerated to 18,104 km/s and went into pursuit of the fighter group, which was only 1,908 km/s faster than the DD’s.  Still, they were faster, and thus were able to maintain the range.  The fighter group launched its remaining missiles at the three LDD’s.  The three hundred and eighty-four Sparrow III’s completely overwhelmed the LDD’s, destroying all three.  As the fighters returned to their carriers, the recon fighter accompanied them, as it was at the limits of its endurance.  The fighter group detached a recon fighter to replace it.   

May 17, 2165, 1143 hours
The recon fighters have detected no additional Oct ships in the system, so Admiral Paglinawan orders the fleet to advance on the jump point to the Rho Camelopardalis system. 

Approximately thirty minutes later, as the recon fighter dispatched to probe the third planet is returning to its carrier, it detects two 16,783 ton Oct ships at the location close to the third planet’s LaGrange point where the three light destroyers had been destroyed.  The recon fighter immediately sends a warning to the fleet.  This is mystifying.  There are no other LaGrange points or jump points in the system, and all the planets have been probed with no further contacts, so the only place the Oct ships could have come from is deep space. 

Admiral Paglinawan detaches the 4th Assault Group and two carriers from the 1st Carrier Group to destroy the two ships and probe the area. 

May 19, 2165, 0301 hours, HIP 84051 system
The 1st Expeditionary Force has reached its standoff position, five million kilometers from the jump point to the suspected Oct home system.  The jump point is still invested by seven Bob ships, all capital ships.  The 4th Assault Group and its carrier escorts has arrived and is standing off of the system’s sole LaGrange point, watching the two 16,783 ton Oct ships from ten million kilometers out.  The assault group’s superior sensors have detected something the fighter scouts failed to see, an Oct listening post on an asteroid approximately five million kilometers from the LaGrange point.  This could explain the Oct ship’s presence, along with the wrecks strewn about the locale.  As of yet, there has been no sign that the Oct’s have seen the imperial squadron.     

Once in position, Admiral Paglinawan establishes communications with the Bobruisk guard force. He explains that his fleet is present to engage the Oct’s, not to interfere with any Bobruisk operations.  In addition, he requests any information on the Rho Camelopardalis system and the Octs that the Bobruisk can give him.  The Bobruisk, enigmatic as always, merely reply that the Rho Camelopardalis system is dangerous, but that the Terran fleet’s presence was “acceptable”.   

Captain Jaime Lockmiller orders his group to close to three million kilometers.  His preference would be to engage the Oct ships directly, to save the hard-to-come-by missiles in the carrier’s magazines, but his ships are slower than most known Oct designs, so it is unclear if the Oct’s will let them close to weapons range. 

0331 hours
The 4th Assault Group is now in position, five million kilometers from the Oct ships, with still no reaction.  The two carriers, the Malaysia and the Mexico, are following one million kilometers behind the assault group with the fighters ready to launch.  Seeing no reason to delay, Captain Lockmiller orders his ships to close with the enemy and engage at close range. 

At 392,000 kilometers, the Oct ships, which had sat and watched the Terran ships approach, opened fire.  This was disconcerting as it was beyond the Terran ship’s range, although just slightly.  The Oct’s concentrated their fire on one of the destroyers, getting thirty-four hits, knocking her shields down and seriously damaging her armor.

In response, Captain Lockmiller ordered his ships to continue to close and to open fire, concentrating their fire on one of the Oct ships.  All six Terran ships opened fire immediately, the destroyers with their six 15 cm X-Ray lasers, and the jump cruisers with their four 15 cm and one 52.5 cm X-Ray lasers.  The range at that point was 344,000 kilometers, and the Oct’s had activated extremely effective fire control jammers.  The Terran ship’s weapons fire missed completely. 

The Assault squadron continued closing.  Twenty seconds after their first salvo, the Oct ships fired again, this time targeting one of the jump cruisers.  This time they scored thirty-five hits, dropping the cruiser’s shields to 14%.  In return the Terran’s managed to score two hits with their 15 cm lasers, causing minor armor damage.  Combat analysis of the Oct ships has revealed that they are equipped with seven rail guns and a laser, with a maximum range of 392,000 kilometers.  Their engine type and speed are not known, and they appear to have no shields, only armor of unknown thickness and strength. 

Captain Lockmiller knows that he has fifteen seconds to deal as much damage as possible to the Oct ships, so he orders his ships to close to point blank range, where they will have the best chance to hit and deal the most damage.  The jump cruisers are almost within range of their 10 cm laser turrets, and he has hopes that they will be able to score more hits than his other weapons if they can get close enough. 

Unfortunately, the Oct ships chose that moment to activate their engines and run in front of the Terran squadron, keeping the range open.  The Oct ships are almost twice as fast as the Terran ships, and if they open the range they will be able to pick apart the Terran ships piece by piece.  Captain Lockmiller opens a channel to the carriers and orders them to launch their fighters and destroy the Oct ships.  The he orders his ships to come about and retreat towards the fighters, to draw the Oct ships in towards the soon to be oncoming missile strike. 

The two carriers launch their fighters, which had been held at readiness for just this occasion, and the fighters immediately launch their missiles as they are well within their fire control range.  In seconds one hundred and sixty Sparrow III ASM’s are racing towards each of the Oct ships.  The Oct ships rapidly moved out of the Terran ship’s firing range, and scored one hit on one of the cruisers at 412,000 kilometers range.  As Captain Lockmiller had hoped, once the Oct ships moved out of the Terran squadron’s weapons range, they turned around and pursued, running straight towards the oncoming missile wave.  Twenty seconds after their last salvo, the Oct ships fired again, concentrating on the same jump cruiser as before.  This time, perhaps because they were at extreme range, they scored only nineteen hits, but this was enough to strip away the cruiser’s weakened shields and lightly damage her armor.  Fifteen seconds later, before the Oct ships could recharge their weapons, the missile wave slammed into the two ships.  The first strike scored twenty-one hits on the two ships, with another twenty-one being decoyed away. 

The next missile strike scored forty-four hits on the two Oct ships, with none being decoyed and two armor penetrations on one of the ships.  One of the penetrating hits must had hit something important, as the Oct ship immediately came to a halt.  By this time the Oct ships had recharged their weapons and again targeted the same jump cruiser, scoring twenty-one hits, knocking her shields down again and scoring nineteen hits on her armor.  The Eradicator’s armor was at 90%, but one hit had almost penetrated all the way through her armor. 

The intact Oct ship continued pursuing the Terran squadron, while the other fell behind.  Both were swarmed by the remaining Terran missiles.  The missile’s third strike scored forty-nine hits on the two Oct ships, with three penetrating hits on one and ten on the stationary ship.  The fourth strike finished the crippled Oct ship when the fourth penetrating hit destroyed something critical.  The other ship, which was still pursuing the Terran ships, took eighteen hits, nine of which penetrated, leaving it at half speed.  The fifth strike caused multiple penetrations, one of which caused a massive internal explosion, destroying the ship. 

Captain Lockmiller ordered his squadron to come about and close on the Oct asteroid base.  The fighters returned to their carriers.  As his ships closed on what was almost certainly a listening post, Captain Lockmiller dispatched a report to Admiral Paglinawan.  His ships had suffered no internal damage, but one of his cruisers and a destroyer had suffered moderate armor damage.  In addition, the Oct ships had been confirmed to be much faster than human ships, and were incredibly hard to target, as they possessed fire control jamming systems that were at least one generation behind current Imperial designs.  Finally, the missile strike that had destroyed the two Oct cruisers had been overwhelming, at least in his initial evaluation, and a potential waste of missiles that were very hard to replace this distant from the Imperial core.  However, the speed of the Oct ships meant that the missile strike had been sufficient, but certainly not overwhelming.  This would have to be taken into consideration for future action against the Oct’s. 

The 4th Assault Group reaches the asteroid at 0340 hours, and detects a small ground defense force, but there are no ground-based attacks on the Terran ships, meaning that the defenders might not have STO units.  Captain Lockmiller, pursuant to standing orders, orders his ships to engage the Oct listening station.  The initial salvo destroyed seven installations, but failed to destroy any of the ground force targets.  The next salvo destroyed two more installations, but the ground forces were proving difficult to target.  The next salvo took out the last installation, and several of the ground troops.  After thirty seconds of targeting the ground forces to little effect, Captain Lockmiller called for a cease fire.  He was depleting his ships maintenance stores to little effect, and the installations the troops were guarding were gone.  He ordered his ships to proceed to Asteroid #11, the site of another Oct listening post, detected by the survey group some time ago. 

At 0712 hours the 4th reaches Asteroid #11 and confirms the presence of a listening post, and a guard force slightly smaller than that of the other asteroid.  Captain Lockmiller orders his ships to eliminate the listening post, and once that is complete, he orders his ships to rejoin the main fleet. 

 May 19, 2165, 2113 hours, HIP 84051
The 4th Assault Group and its escorting carriers have arrived at the fleet assembly point, and Admiral Paglinawan has recalled his scout fighters from across the system.  Thermal buoys have been dispatched to watch the two asteroid bases and the jump point back to the 86 Cygni system.  In addition, Admiral Paglinawan has dispatched the DD Joseph Keller back to the forward base in the Upsilon Puppis system.   The Keller had suffered armor damage and was the perfect candidate to carry messages back to the forward base.  Once there it will deliver his message calling forward the support ships to refuel and rearm his ships, and the salvage ships to begin salvaging the incredible bounty of wrecks in the system.  Rearming is necessary before transiting into the Rho Camelopardalis system as the carriers have substantially depleted their magazines. 

Roughly twelve hours later the Bob force guarding the jump point leaves its position and heads back towards the jump point to 86 Cygni without a word to the Terrans. 

May 26, 2165, Upsilon Puppis system
The Joseph Keller enters the Upsilon Puppis system and dispatches a message to the base before heading in-system.  When the report arrives at the base, the base commander dispatches a message back through the communications network detailing the fleet’s victories over the Oct’s, and dispatches the requested support ships for the fleet, along with an escort from the base’s defense force. 

At 1600 hours a Terran fleet scout enters the HIP 84051 system, bound to rendezvous with the 1st Expeditionary Force.  Three hours later it detects the seven Bob ships moving back towards their original positions, and an Oct light cruiser 249 million kilometers ahead of them.  If they are pursuing the Oct ship, they’ll never catch it, as they are even slower than Terran ships and the Oct ship is more than twice as fast.  Strangely, the Oct ship is headed straight for the Bob fleet.  The scout comes to a halt to observe. 

One hour later the scout picks up two additional Oct ships accompanying the first, a light destroyer and a corvette.  The Bob’s and the Oct’s begin playing some sort of game, rushing towards each other and then retreating.  Once the scout’s reports arrive at the Expeditionary Force, Admiral Paglinawan orders the 2nd Carrier Group to launch its fighters and eliminate the targets, if the Bob’s fail to do so.  The Oct ships lay between the Expeditionary Force and the jump point back to the forward base, and the support ships will run right into them if they aren’t taken care of. 

May 27, 2165, 1530 hours, HIP 84051 system
The Terran fighter strike group has now closed to 80 million kilometers of the Oct battlegroup, which is on the scout’s thermal sensors.  The Bob and Oct ships are approximately 60 million kilometers apart, and given the fact that the Oct ships are twice as fast as the Bob ships, they must not want to catch them very badly.  Possibly because the Oct battlegroup was out-massed by the Bob force by about eight to one. 

The Terran fighters closed on the Oct force as it played cat and mouse games with the Bob fleet.  When the fighters reached the range of their on-board sensors two new Oct ships appeared, another corvette and an escort, for a total of fourteen thousand tons of new naval ships. 

At 1732 hours the fighters had reached firing range, and launched on all five Oct warships.  These fighters were armed with Sparrow III’s with laser warheads, which had proved to be less effective than standard Sparrow III’s, at least so far.  Still, seventy-eight fighters carried enough missiles to overwhelm the small Oct ships, or at least it was hoped that they would suffice.  In short order six hundred and twenty-four light ASM’s were racing towards the Oct squadron. 

The attack was completely overwhelming.  The Oct ships appeared to limited active defenses and no decoys, and the missiles simply swarmed the beleaguered alien ships.  The first strike got a total of one hundred and forty-one hits on the five ships, with two of the smaller ships suffering multiple penetrations of their armor.  One hundred and forty-one missiles were shot down by the Oct defenses.  The next strike got ninety-seven hits on the five ships, with the same two smaller ships suffering multiple penetrations.  The third strike got sixty-six hits, with only the light cruiser avoiding penetrations.  The next attack got sixty hits, causing penetrations on all targets. 

The missiles doggedly pursued the Oct ships, scoring another two hundred and thirty hits on the small squadron.  The light destroyer was destroyed outright, while the escort, light cruiser, and one of the corvettes were left motionless.  One Oct corvette, in spite of being hit many times, escaped serious damage and accelerated away at 18,104 km/s.  The fighters turned back to their carriers. 

Over the next hour the damaged light cruiser and corvette regained engine power and began moving away from the oncoming Bob fleet, but the crippled escort was left behind.  The Bob fleet destroyed the crippled escort as they passed with long range missile fire, then began pursuing the fleeing Oct ships.  At this point the Oct light cruiser was slower than the Bob fleet, and would eventually be overhauled if they didn’t repair more of their engines. 

Against the possibility that the Oct ships escape from their Bobruisk pursuers, Admiral Paglinawan dispatches the Boarding Group, bolstered by a carrier from the 1st Carrier Group, and several destroyers, to intercept and capture the damaged ships. 

At 0016 hours on the 28th, the Bob battlegroup began bombarding the Oct light cruiser with missile fire from a distance of 1.4 million kilometers.  The CL’s fate was a foregone conclusion, and after two salvoes of one hundred and forty anti-missile missiles the light cruiser blew up.  That left one active contact, an Oct corvette that was somewhat faster than the Bob ships, and was still charging at the Bob force and then running away.  There was an additional Oct corvette that was known to be present, but it had fallen off of the Terran’s sensors and its position was unknown. 

At 0916 hours the Boarding Group picked up the missing Oct corvette on its sensors, headed towards the jump point to the Oct home system at 18,104 km/s.  Captain Wooldridge of the carrier Australia ordered the group to intercept the fleeing Oct ship. 

The Boarding Group launched its boarding pods at 1048 hours, but the Oct CT turned and ran, and with a mere 1,953 km/s speed advantage, the pods would find it difficult to close in a timely manner.  Still, the marines in the pods were determined, and after an 87-minute chase the pods overtook the fleeing Oct warship and began their boarding operation.  The marines’ losses during their boarding attempt were hideous, ranging from 50 to 90% due to the speed of the evading Oct ship.  Once they were aboard the ship, that changed.  The Oct crew found themselves hard pressed to fight the armored marines.  In the initial engagement 137 Oct crew were killed, in exchange for five marines.  The battle within the small ship raged for another minute, before abruptly coming to an end when the marines penetrated to the control spaces and killed the last Oct, losing one additional marine.  The marines wasted no time in bringing the ship under control, and then transmitted the ship’s particulars to the Australia, which forwarded them on to the fleet. 

Code: [Select]
CT Backfire class Missile Destroyer      8,562 tons       165 Crew       3,323.8 BP       TCS 171    TH 3,100    EM 0
18104 km/s      Armour 11-37       Shields 0-0       HTK 57      Sensors 24/0/0/0      DCR 4-4      PPV 29.7
Maint Life 1.41 Years     MSP 970    AFR 147%    IFR 2.0%    1YR 531    5YR 7,959    Max Repair 775 MSP
Magazine 494 / 64   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Plasma Core AM Drive  EP1550 (2)    Power 3100    Fuel Use 9.09%    Signature 1550    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 350,000 Litres    Range 81 billion km (51 days at full power)

Size 16 Decoy Launcher (4)     Decoy Size: 16    Hangar Reload 200 minutes    MF Reload 33 hours
Size 9 Missile Launcher (30.0% Reduction) (11)     Missile Size: 9    Rate of Fire 450
Missile Fire Control FC147-R20 (1)     Range 147m km    Resolution 20   ECCM-6

Active Search Sensor AS127-R20 (1)     GPS 5760     Range 127.3m km    Resolution 20
Thermal Sensor TH1-24 (1)     Sensitivity 24     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  38.7m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Missile 6   

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

May 28th, 2165, HIP 84051 system
The 1st Expeditionary Force detects an Oct corvette transiting into the system from their suspected home system.  The Terran fleet is positioned three million kilometers from the jump point, and the Oct corvette merely sits on the jump point watching the Terran fleet.  Admiral Paglinawan orders a missile strike from two of his CAG’s, hoping either to force the corvette to retreat or to destroy it.  Five seconds later twenty-eight Sparrow III laser ASM’s were in space, racing towards the corvette.  The missiles lost lock when the Oct corvette jumped out, leaving them to self-destruct. 

Several hours later the Oct corvette reappeared and launched a salvo of size nine missiles before disappearing again through the jump point.   Oddly, the Oct missiles lost lock and self-destructed after the corvette jumped out, indicating that they were almost certainly depending on their firing ship for sensor lock.  This happened several more times over the next several hours, and finally Admiral Paglinawan lost patience and ordered the 1st Assault Group to close on the jump point and engage the Oct corvette the next time it appeared. 

The Oct corvette reappeared four hours later, and five seconds later the 1st Assault Group opened fire.  The massed laser fire from the heavy carrier, dreadnought, two battlecruisers, and a destroyer swatted it from space effortlessly. 

At 2357 hours the marines are finally offloaded from the captured corvette and a prize crew takes control and then sets out for the forward base in the Upsilon Puppis system.   

May 29, 2165, 0253 hours, HIP 84051 system
Fighters from the Malaysia run down and destroy the last damaged Oct corvette known to be in the system. 

May 30, 2165
The Bob fleet arrives back on station at the jump point to the Oct home system. 

May 31, 2165
An Oct corvette jumps into the HIP 84051 system and is met by a large salvo of size two Bob missiles.  The Oct ship runs from the jump point, almost directly towards the Terran fleet.  Admiral Paglinawan dispatches the 2nd Assault Group to intercept it, if it survives the Bob missile salvo.  The Oct ship runs towards the 2nd for a time, but then turns back towards the jump point, where the 1st Assault Group is waiting. 

The two assault groups squeezed the Oct warship between them, ultimately destroying it with heavy and sustained laser fire. 

Just over twenty-four hours later a 17,019 ton Oct ship jumped into the system.  The 1st Assault Group, positioned on the jump point, moved to attack, but Admiral Paglinawan ordered them to stand down when it became clear it was a commercial ship.  Instead, he ordered the boarding group to launch its pods.  Unfortunately, the Bob fleet destroyed the commercial ship before the pods could reach it. 

June 2, 2156, 2212 hours, HIP 84051 system
Another Oct corvette appears on the jump point, and the 1st AG pursues and destroys it in short order

June 8, 2165, HIP 84051 system
The support fleet joins the 1st Expeditionary Force and begins refueling, resupplying, and transferring missiles to the waiting ships.  In the last week two Oct corvettes have jumped in and been destroyed within seconds of arrival.  In addition, the Bob fleet left its position and was last seen jumping back to the 86 Cygni system, leaving the Expeditionary Force as the sole defenders of the system. 

June 11, 2165, 2152 hours, HIP 84051 system
The support ships are well on their way back to the jump point to Bob controlled space when four Oct ships jump into the system.  The two light destroyers and two corvettes immediately head for the Expeditionary Force, or the jump point to the 86 Cygni system, both of which lie in the same direction.  The ships of the 2nd Assault Group, guarding the jump point, open fire on the intruders immediately after they appeared.  The Terran lasers stabbed out at short range, penetrating the Oct ship’s armor, crippling one and damaging the other three.   The Oct ships ran for open space, with the Terrans falling behind but firing as they came.  Two more Oct ships were crippled before they could escape, but one corvette managed to escape laser range without losing its engines.  The assault group commander ordered his heavy carrier to launch its fighters to run the corvette down while his ships finished off the two remaining crippled Oct ships. 

Incredibly, the fleeing corvette, after surviving the group’s laser fire until it got out of range, survived sixteen Sparrow III ASM’s from the fighters as well.  The fighters fired a second salvo of twenty-four Sparrows, and this time it was too much for the small ship, which was overwhelmed and destroyed by the missile salvo. 

Admiral Paglinawan was heartened by the success his ships and fighters had had in the HIP 84051 system.  They had destroyed quite a few Oct ships and captured one, and they had succeeded in their mission of securing the system and sweeping it of Oct ships.  While the Oct’s displayed superior technology, both in the areas of propulsion and electronic warfare, the Terran fleet’s fighter force had proved capable of dealing with the threat, even if it was necessary to use overwhelming force at times.  Give the disjointed nature of the Oct response to the appearance of the Terran fleet, Paglinawan was beginning to believe in the intelligence assessment that the Oct fleet had been depleted by their long war with the Bobruisk.  The Terran fleet’s aggressive move to secure the jump point to the Oct home system had proved successful.  And now, with his ship’s fuel tanks and magazines replenished, it was time to move on to the final phase of the campaign, the conquest of the Oct home system. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: July 26, 2025, 03:25:50 PM »

March 24, 2165, Sol System
On this date the 1st Expeditionary Force departs Terra, bound for the base in Upsilon Puppis, in the Bobruisk territories.  The fleet consists of fifty-five warships of various classes, and two hundred and forty-one strike fighters.  It is by far the largest fleet deployed to the frontier by the Empire to date.  The fleet’s departure is marked by planet-wide celebrations and holidays.  The young Emperor himself attends several of the celebrations and the public is ecstatic at the display of the Empire’s might.  Much is made of the complement of the fleet.  Legendary ships are leaving Terra to subdue the alien hordes and make the galaxy safe for humanity.  The CVA’s Allegiance of Terra, Angel of Retribution, and the Eternal Crusader, and the dreadnoughts Pegasus, Andromeda, and Sauron all by now were legends to the people of Terra, their defenders and avengers of past wrongs committed by the aliens who had devastated the planet over and over again for decades.  Accompanying the mighty ships were the backbone of the navy, the carriers and battlecruisers that had defended the empire for decades now against hivers and raiders and every threat imaginable.  Legendary ships like the battlecruiser Saturn, that had single handedly destroyed five rifter ships, and the carriers Japan, France, and Canada, whose fighters had been involved in battles for longer than many citizens had been alive.  These ships were the shield and sword of Terra, and they carried the hopes and dreams of the empire with them.  They had always won their battles, and always returned. 

The fleet commander is Vice Admiral Wiley Paglinawan, flying his flag aboard the heavy carrier Allegiance of Terra.  His orders are to advance to the base in the Upsilon Puppis system, where he will fuel his ships and give his crews shore leave.  Once readied his fleet is to advance to the Oct controlled HP 84051 system.  Once that system is secure, the fleet will then advance on the Oct home system of Rho Camelopardalis and eliminate all Oct resistance, clearing the way for a base to be established in the system and for troops to be brought in to subdue the Oct home world. 

Support squadrons of tankers, UNREP ships, and munitions carriers have been stationed at the base in Upsilon Puppis.  In addition, two corps of Guards units, and two corps of Marine assault units, along with heavy armor support, have been prepositioned in Upsilon Puppis, and an additional three corps of Guard units, logistical support, and a brigade of the Guard’s latest Titan assault tanks are en route to the base, and will arrive shortly after the fleet. 

During the outward voyage, Admiral Paglinawan isolates himself from his staff and the day to day running of the fleet.  While he justifies it by telling himself that he is focusing on the coming campaign, in truth he fears that the stress he feels will become obvious to his staff and his subordinate commanders.  He fought tooth and nail for this assignment, by doing everything he could to promote the War Party’s cause both within and without the Navy.  But now that he had command of the largest fleet every deployed, the reality of the situation felt like it was crushing him.  He was leading the fleet against an implacable enemy that was known to possess superior technology, and which had an unknown sized navy and capabilities.  His orders were to take and secure the HIP 84051 system, and then to advance into the suspected oct Home System of Rho Camelopardalis and destroy the Oct fleet.  The Navy’s senior staff and the Regent believed that the Octs had been depleted by their long war with the Bobruisk, and that the Imperial Navy would crush the remnants of their fleet.  And he had believed right along with them, right up until the fleet left and he realized that their success or failure would be hung on him.  If the fleet succeeded, his success was assured, and nothing would stop is rise to the pinnacle of the navy, and maybe beyond.  If they failed, though, he would be through.  He’d either be disgraced or dead, and his long and successful career would end in failure.  The weight was crushing him, along with the unknowns they faced. 



May 8, 2165, Upsilon Puppis system
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet has arrived and completed refueling.  Admiral Paglinawan has given its crews liberty while he and his staff begin final planning for the attack.  Perhaps fortuitously, the war between the Bobruisk and the Oct’s has flared up again, with extensive fighting in the 86 Cygni system.  In addition, a large Bobruisk fleet was observed transiting into the Rho Camelopardalis system.  After absorbing this new information, Admiral Paglinawan decides to cut his crew’s liberty short to take advantage of the fighting.  The fleet will depart in twenty-four hours. 

On the 9th the fleet departed, after absorbing several of the ships guarding the base at Mu Puppis.  The fleet was now organized into four jump point assault groups, a carrier wing, a missile combat group, a boarding group, and an escort group.  It would take them just over twenty-four hours to reach the jump point to the 86 Cygni system. 

May 10, 2165, 0456 hours, 86 Cygni system
86 Cygni System: Located 13 jumps and 38.5 billion kilometers from Terra, deep within Bobruisk territory, one jump from the suspected Bobruisk home system and two jumps from the suspected Oct home system.  It is a single-star system, an M3-V primary orbited by five planets, two terrestrial, two gas giants, and a super Jovian class planet.  None can be considered habitable or easily terraform-able for Terrans. 

The Bobruisk have one known colony/base in system.  This is a small outpost, located on the outermost moon of the fifth planet, a gas giant.  The moon was confirmed to possess minor resource deposits by Terran survey ships. 

At the time that the Terran fleet entered the system, several sensor buoys deployed by the survey group are still operational.  There is a cluster of wrecks, some belonging to Bobruisk naval ships, around the jump point to the Oct controlled HIP 54051 system on the far side of the system. 

The 1st Expeditionary Fleet enters the 86 Cygni system and immediately strips the latest data from the sensor buoy closest to the jump point.  The most recent combat was three days ago, close to the jump point to the HIP 48051 system.  At the current time there were life pods belonging to both the Bobruisk and the Oct’s scattered throughout the wreckage close to the jump point. 

The jump point to the Oct controlled HIP 48051 system was on the far side of the system from the fleet’s current location.  There were no active ships of either side detected in the system, and the Bobruisk outpost on a moon of the fifth planet was still present, indicating that the Oct hadn’t penetrated too far into the system.  Admiral Paglinawan ordered the fleet to set course for the inner system, as the first step towards advancing to the jump point to the Oct controlled system. 

May 12, 2165, 86 Cygni system
The 1st Expeditionary fleet reached the inner system without incident.  A single Bob battleship was detected transiting through the inner LaGrange point to the orbit of the fifth planet, but no other ships were detected.  Admiral Paglinawan ordered his fleet to follow the Bob ship.  After transiting there was no sign of the much faster Bob ship, so Admiral Paglinawan ordered the fleet to advance on the jump point. 

May 13, 2165, 86 Cygni system
 The fleet’s passive sensors detect a single Oct ship moving at 18,055 km’s towards the fleet.  The ship is of an unknown class and type.  Admiral Paglinawan orders the carrier Japan to launch its fighters to intercept the contact.  An hour later the fleet detects the Bob battleship, in between the fleet and the Oct contact, running back towards the fleet and away from the Oct ship.  The Bob ship is approximately 700 km/s slower and will eventually be overhauled by the Oct ship. 

At 0659 hours the Bob battleship passes the fleet and continues in-system.  The Oct ship, meanwhile, has turned to a course towards the jump point to the Mu Puppis system, on a course that puts them on a tangent with the approaching Terran fighters.  Shortly after that the Oct ship drops off of the fleet’s sensors.  The fighters continue towards its last known location.  Fortunately, it soon reappears on the fleet’s sensors. 

The fighters continue to pursue the contact, while the fleet heads for the jump point.  The pursuit has now turned into a stern chase, and the fighters, while faster, are only 1,200 km’s faster.  It will take them over fifteen hours to chase down the Oct ship.   

Finally, at 0401 hours on the 14th, the Japan’s strike group has reached firing range, at 900,000 kilometers from their target.  The target is an Oct LDD, which is 8,585 tons.  The fighters launch eighty Sparrow III light ASM’s with laser warheads.   This is the Empire’s first use of laser warheads, which trade of damage for standoff detonation range to avoid point defense fire.  The Oct LDD seems to be lightly armored, as a relative few penetrating hits eliminate the ship when something inside explodes, ripping the ship apart.  The fighters turn back towards their carrier, which, along with the fleet, is approaching the jump point to the Oct controlled system. 

May 15, 2165, 1303 hours, 86 Cygni system
The 1st Expeditionary Force has reached its assembly point three million kilometers from the jump point to the HIP 84051 system, and the Japan’s fighters have returned and rearmed.  Admiral Paglinawan orders his carriers to launch their fighters, and in short order one hundred and fifty-six strike fighters are en route to their watch station one million kilometers from the jump point.  With the fighters on their way, Admiral Paglinawan orders his three assault groups to move to the jump point.  Finally, he detaches the DDE Chimalli to pick up the life pods drifting near the wrecks close to the jump point.  Once the Chimalli has the Oct and Bob survivors on board, she will return to the forward base in Upsilon Puppis.   

Forty-six minutes later the Chimalli has recovered all of the survivors at the jump point and his headed towards the two groups of pods in between the jump point to the HIP 84051 system and the jump point to the Bob home system. 

With the DDE clear, Admiral Paglinawan orders the assault groups to jump into the HIP 84051 system.  The three groups, composed of three dreadnoughts, three assault carriers, five battle cruisers, a jump cruiser, and three destroyers, immediately jump out. 

The assault groups arrive in the HIP 84051 system, scattered around the jump point, but find no defenders.  Their only company are the eighty wrecks silently drifting near the jump point, including the wreck of a Terran survey ship that had apparently made a run to the jump point, only to be destroyed just short of it.  There are Bob life pods near one of the wrecks, a Defamatory class light battleship, meaning that the ship hadn’t been destroyed all that long ago.  The wrecks mostly belong to Bob warships, although thirty-one are unknown, indicating that they are likely Oct warships of some sort.  Two of the wrecked Oct warships are close to the size of Bob light battleships, at 35,975 tons, while the bulk are 16,278tons, or between an Imperial DD and BC in size.  There is a stream of wrecks headed across the system towards the jump point to the suspected Oct home system, along with a group of wrecks in orbit over the third planet.  In all there are one hundred and thirteen wrecks in the system.
Posted by: Kurt
« on: June 30, 2025, 09:26:02 AM »

August 4, 2163, Rift System
The salvage effort of the destroyed Rifter and Terran ships is complete.  A total of 116 Rifter systems of various types were recovered, along with over a hundred Terran systems from the destroyed bases.  In addition, 27,000 tons of TN resources were recovered, including 5,500 tons of precious gallicite.  The salvage ships set out for Terra. 

August 24, 2163, 86 Cygni (Bob controlled Space)
Terran sensor buoys detect a barrage of nuclear explosions on the jump point to the Oct controlled system of HIP 84051, and then a new wreck appeared on the jump point. 

September 19, 2163, Terra
The fast salvage ships deliver their load of components and raw materials to Terra on this date.  The components are studied carefully, but none contain advanced tech, and although that is disappointing to the scientists and engineers on the examination teams, it is a relief to the naval high command.  The Rifters have so far not demonstrated any tech in advance of the current Imperial standard. 

 November 27, 2163, Sol
The last four warships scheduled to be refitted with the new solid-core anti-matter drives go into the yards.  The commercial yards are still working on the support fleet, in particular the troop transport squadrons, but the fleet is now in the final phase of the refitting program.  However, the Io labs recently finished development work on a new generation of laser weaponry, with upgraded capacitors.  Negotiations begin on targeted refits to upgrade some capital ships to the new standard before the fleet departs to Oct space. 

December 15, 2163, Mu Puppis, Bob Territories
Sensors left in the Bob home system of Mu Puppis detected a flurry of explosions in the outer system and the appearance of a wreck at the explosion’s location, in spite of the fact that there had been no ships on their screens before this. This information was relayed back the forward base at Upsilon Puppis, and then back to the Empire. 

The navy wasn’t ready to mount the planned Oct Pacification Campaign yet, but a squadron of newly refitted battlecruisers and carriers, supported by destroyers, was dispatched to bolster the forward base’s defenses. 

January 29, 2164, Sol System
The Empire calls a halt to the refitting program for the commercial fleet.  Stocks of gallicite are dangerously low, and stockpiles across the empire have been emptied to fuel the refit of the fleet and its support units.  Until those stockpiles can be replenished, no further refits will be authorized.  Similarly, plans to expand the fleet will have to be put on hold, at least for now. 

February 21, 2164, Sol System
Troop Transports begin loading Imperial Guard troops for transport to the forward base in Upsilon Puppis.  The first wave will consist of two corps of Imperial Guard troops, and the newly constructed 1st Super Heavy Armor Division. 

September 22, 2164, V577 Monoceri System, Shield Forward Base
At 0600 hours Shield Base Naval Operations Center received a distress call from a small civilian freighter crossing the Sigma Cephei system.  Sigma Cephei was an uninteresting system three jumps from Shield Base, on the route between Shield and the new colony in the Omega Pegasi system.  Sigma Cephei had no Terran naval presence, which meant that the small freighter was likely doomed. 

During the major refit and build up to the offensive against the Oct’s beyond Bob space, Shield Base’s squadron had been reduced, but as the attacker was likely a small group of raiders, Captain Feng wasn’t too worried.  He dispatched a strike carrier, jump cruiser, and a destroyer to investigate and hunt down any remaining raiders. 

The three Terran ships arrived in Sigma Cephei on the 27th.  During their voyage to the system the raiders had hunted down and destroyed a second small freighter.  The squadron immediately set out for the location of the wrecks. 

Just over nine hours later, as they were about half way to the wrecks, a third small freighter reported that it was under attack in-system of the previous attacks.  The Terran squadron was fifteen hours away.  It took the raiders forty-five seconds to destroy the freighter, after which they hunted down the life pods. 

At 0734 on the 28th the Terran Squadron picked up a Raider ship on their sensors.  It was immediately identified as a salvage class ship, and was at the location of the first ship to be destroyed.  Captain Feng ordered the Phobos to launch her fighters to run down the salvage ship while the squadron continued on towards the last known location of the Raider attack ship(s). 

When the fighter squadron reached its own sensor range of the salvage ship it detected two Raider class ships, and two light raiders, escorting the salvage ship.  The fighters continued closing.   

The raiders waited to the last minute to begin running, but it was far too late.  One light raider pulled away from the other four ships at full speed, while the other three armed-raiders limited their speed to that of the salvage ship they were escorting.  The fighters launched a salvo of Sparrow III ASM(L)’s at the three warships in close proximity to the salvage ship.  These were the Empire’s latest missiles, an improvement over the Sparrow IIb’s that had been used in previous engagements.  The Sparrow III’s were 10,000 km/s faster, at 52,800 km/s, had more range, and were equipped with the Empire’s latest development, laser warheads.  Eighty-eight ASM(L)’s roared away from the fighters, divided between the three warships. 

All three warships took multiple penetrating hits, and one was reduced to drifting.  Their missiles launched, the fighters turned towards the Phobos to rearm.  Captain Feng ordered his squadron to chase down the lead raider while the fighters returned to their bays.  The Jump Cruiser Destructor and destroyer Henderson took the fleeing light raider under fire at 1107 hours, scoring only one hit at extreme range.  The two warships relentlessly closed on the fleeing ship and pounded it to scrap, then turned on the group of damaged raiders still covering the salvage ship. 

The Terran squadron closed with the group of two raider warships escorting the salvager and opened fire at 380,000 kilometers range.  By the time they had closed to 200,000 kilometers the lone medium raider had been destroyed and the squadron shifted fire to the damage light raider.  It only took two salvoes to eliminate the light raider, after which the Terran squadron shifted to targeting the salvager. 

With the salvager gone, the Terran squadron set its course for the medium raider that had been crippled during the missile attack, while their fighters set out for the location of the most recent attack.  It only took two salvoes to eliminate the medium raider, after which the squadron turned to follow their fighters.  During the engagement a pair of raider ships had appeared in between the fighter’s location and the site of the last attack, a light raider and an Echo class ship, which was a suspected commercial ship of some sort. 

At 1303 hours the fighters launched twenty-four ASM(L)’s at the lone light raider escorting the Echo class ship.  The medium raider survived, but was left drifting.  The fighters left the drifting warship and the Echo class ship for the following warships and set out for the scene of the last attack.  Once there they found nothing except for lift pods containing twenty-one crew members of the civilian freighter. 

After destroying the Echo and the crippled medium raider with laser fire, the squadron set its course for the life pods, which were being watched over by the fighters.  Once the life pods were recovered the fighters had landed, the squadron set out for the inner system to determine if there were any more raiders lurking in the system.  When no more raiders were detected, the squadron set its course for Shield Base.

Back on Terra, the fleet is nearly ready to set out for Bobruisk space to confront the Octs.   
Posted by: Kurt
« on: May 27, 2025, 03:14:08 PM »

Imperial Terran Fleet, as of 2164, at the start of the War with the Octs
The retribution campaign against the Octs was delayed to accommodate the fleet’s refit to solid core anti-matter drive technology.  Oct warships were known to boast speeds of 14,000 km/s to 26,000 km/s, so even with the refits the new fleet standard speed of 9,600 km/s was still too slow to match most Oct warships.  Studies were done on the feasibility of equipping Imperial warships with over-powered engine designs, but to achieve speeds matching most Oct warships, the engines would have to double their power output over the current naval standard, drastically decreasing the ship’s fuel efficiency – see the proposed design for a fast Star class Battleship below.  As this option was determined to be infeasible, the new fleet speed was confirmed to be 9,600 km/s, and perforce the primary striking wing of the fleet would continue to be the fleet’s fighters. 

In addition to the new engines, the fleet’s designs were upgraded with several other technologies, including the latest weapons upgrade to full X-Ray lasers.  As part of this refit the old plasma carronades were removed from fleet-wide use, as the carronade technology had not kept up with lasers and the space was better allocated to additional laser armaments.  Unfortunately, the new Xi class shield generator tech was not available for inclusion into these designs, as it was not developed until the refits were almost completed. 


Designs
This class is a proposed design for the Empire’s latest and greatest capital ship.  One of the Navy’s yards in orbit over Luna is being upgraded to handle the massive size of this design, and construction will begin as soon as the yard is ready. 

The navy does not yet have a jump drive large enough to handle a 160,000 ton ship, so this class will be limited to using the jump gate network until a new class of jump drives can be designed and developed, at which time a command class SD equipped with a jump drive will be designed. 
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Terrible class Superdreadnought      160,000 tons       4,602 Crew       59,027.1 BP       TCS 3,200    TH 30,720    EM 140,400
9600 km/s      Armour 15-262       Shields 4680-650       HTK 1057      Sensors 108/108/0/0      DCR 257-16      PPV 527.8
Maint Life 3.14 Years     MSP 54,646    AFR 864%    IFR 12.0%    1YR 8,320    5YR 124,799    Max Repair 2,560 MSP
Troop Capacity 1,500 tons     Tractor Beam     
Captain    Control Rating 5   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   FLG   
Intended Deployment Time: 20 months    Morale Check Required   

DN Solid Core AM Drive   (6)    Power 30720    Fuel Use 7.50%    Signature 5120    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 9,210,900 Litres    Range 138.2 billion km (166 days at full power)
Capital Xi Shield Generator (18)     Recharge Time 650 seconds (7.2 per second)

52.50cm Spinal X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 72-9     RM 70,000 km    ROF 40       
35.0cm X-Ray Laser (15)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 32-8     RM 70,000 km    ROF 20       
20cm X-Ray Laser (25)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 10-10     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Twin 10cm SXRL Turret Mk II (20x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 5       
CIWS-320 (10x8)    Range 1000 km     TS: 32,000 km/s     ROF 5       
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (10)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (14)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Capital Solid-core AM Reactor (6)     Total Power Output 614.4    Exp 5%

AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Scout Anti-Clk Search Sensor Mk II (1)     GPS 15120     Range 167.2m km    Resolution 14
Capital EM Sensor Mk II (1)     Sensitivity 108     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  82.2m km
Capital Thermal Sensor Mk II (1)     Sensitivity 108     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  82.2m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 5    Fire Control 5    Missile 5   

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

All three units of this class are being deployed to the front line with the Expeditionary Force.  This is the Navy’s largest and toughest ship, designed to jump into a combat environment and survive long enough to open the way for the Navy’s carriers to enter a contested system and launch their fighters. 
Code: [Select]
Galaxy Flt II class Dreadnought      80,000 tons       2,003 Crew       23,031.5 BP       TCS 1,600    TH 15,360    EM 34,800
9600 km/s    JR 6-750      Armour 9-165       Shields 1160-400       HTK 460      Sensors 108/108/0/0      DCR 91-11      PPV 200.34
Maint Life 1.82 Years     MSP 16,865    AFR 716%    IFR 9.9%    1YR 6,397    5YR 95,953    Max Repair 2,560 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 4,000 tons     Troop Capacity 1,200 tons     Magazine 900 / 0   
Commodore    Control Rating 5   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   FLG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 80    Morale Check Required   

J80000(6-750) Military Jump Drive Mk III     Max Ship Size 80000 tons    Distance 750k km     Squadron Size 6

DN Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 15360    Fuel Use 7.50%    Signature 5120    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 5,419,900 Litres    Range 162.6 billion km (196 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (29)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (2.9 per second)

52.50cm Spinal X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 72-9     RM 70,000 km    ROF 40       
35.0cm X-Ray Laser (8)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 32-8     RM 70,000 km    ROF 20       
15.0cm X-Ray Laser (8)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Twin 10cm SXRL Turret Mk II (2x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 5       
Twin Gauss Cannon Mk II Turret (2x8)    Range 40,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 40,000 km    ROF 5       
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (4)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Capital Solid-core AM Reactor (3)     Total Power Output 307.2    Exp 5%

Sparrow III ASM (300)    Speed: 52,800 km/s    End: 1.4m     Range: 4.4m km    WH: 8    Size: 3    TH: 246/147/73

AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
Capital Thermal Sensor Mk II (1)     Sensitivity 108     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  82.2m km
Capital EM Sensor Mk II (1)     Sensitivity 108     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  82.2m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Fire Control 5    Missile 4   

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

As with the dreadnoughts, all three of the Navy’s heavy carriers are being deployed forward in the Expeditionary Force. 
Code: [Select]
Allegiance of Terra Flt II class Heavy Carrier      80,000 tons       1,633 Crew       18,878.8 BP       TCS 1,600    TH 15,360    EM 19,200
9600 km/s    JR 6-750      Armour 6-165       Shields 640-400       HTK 399      Sensors 108/108/0/0      DCR 78-9      PPV 85.76
Maint Life 1.34 Years     MSP 12,701    AFR 868%    IFR 12.1%    1YR 7,555    5YR 113,332    Max Repair 2,560 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 16,000 tons     Troop Capacity 1,200 tons     Magazine 1,800 / 0   
Commodore    Control Rating 5   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   FLG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 320    Morale Check Required   

J80000(6-750) Military Jump Drive Mk III     Max Ship Size 80000 tons    Distance 750k km     Squadron Size 6

DN Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 15360    Fuel Use 7.50%    Signature 5120    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 5,497,200 Litres    Range 164.9 billion km (198 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (16)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (1.6 per second)

52.50cm Spinal X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 72-9     RM 70,000 km    ROF 40       
35.0cm X-Ray Laser (3)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 32-8     RM 70,000 km    ROF 20       
Twin Gauss Cannon Mk II Turret (2x8)    Range 40,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 40,000 km    ROF 5       
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (2)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Solid-core AM Reactor (3)     Total Power Output 38.4    Exp 5%

Sparrow III ASM (600)    Speed: 52,800 km/s    End: 1.4m     Range: 4.4m km    WH: 8    Size: 3    TH: 246/147/73

AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
Capital Thermal Sensor Mk II (1)     Sensitivity 108     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  82.2m km
Capital EM Sensor Mk II (1)     Sensitivity 108     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  82.2m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Fire Control 4    Missile 4   

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Carrier for auto-assignment purposes

The Navy’s battleships have been dispersed across the Empire for system defense duties, or held in the Sol system as a reserve.  None have been transferred to the Expeditionary Force.
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Star(C) Flight II class Battleship      40,000 tons       973 Crew       12,038.6 BP       TCS 800    TH 7,680    EM 19,200
9600 km/s    JR 6-750      Armour 8-104       Shields 640-400       HTK 226      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 64-16      PPV 84.58
Maint Life 1.76 Years     MSP 6,202    AFR 512%    IFR 7.1%    1YR 2,459    5YR 36,886    Max Repair 1,280 MSP
Troop Capacity 800 tons     
Commodore    Control Rating 5   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   FLG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

J40000(6-750) Military Jump Drive Mk III     Max Ship Size 40000 tons    Distance 750k km     Squadron Size 6

BB Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 7680    Fuel Use 10.61%    Signature 2560    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 5,215,300 Litres    Range 221.3 billion km (266 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (16)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (1.6 per second)

52.50cm Spinal X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 72-9     RM 70,000 km    ROF 40       
35.0cm X-Ray Laser (3)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 32-8     RM 70,000 km    ROF 20       
15.0cm X-Ray Laser (3)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Twin 10cm SXRL Turret Mk II (2x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 5       
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (2)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Capital Solid-core AM Reactor (2)     Total Power Output 204.8    Exp 5%

AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
EM Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Fire Control 5    Missile 4   

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

This class is a proposed design using over-powered engines capable of matching most Oct warship speeds.  However, to achieve a speed of 19,200 km/s, the engine’s fuel efficiency has been greatly compromised.  A standard Star class battleship has a fuel range of 214.5 billion kilometers, while the proposed fast design’s range is reduced to a mere 38 billion kilometers.  Given the ranges the fleet would be operating at, and the fleet’s refueling capability, this limitation was viewed as undesirable. 
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Star Flight II -proposal class Battleship      40,000 tons       1,227 Crew       16,527.9 BP       TCS 800    TH 15,360    EM 18,000
19200 km/s      Armour 9-104       Shields 600-400       HTK 230      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 44-11      PPV 115.58
Maint Life 1.31 Years     MSP 7,697    AFR 533%    IFR 7.4%    1YR 4,727    5YR 70,904    Max Repair 2,560 MSP
Troop Capacity 800 tons     
Commodore    Control Rating 4   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Fast Solid Core AM Drive Test (3)    Power 15360    Fuel Use 60.0%    Signature 5120    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 5,086,300 Litres    Range 38.1 billion km (22 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (15)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (1.5 per second)

52.50cm Spinal X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 19,200 km/s     Power 72-9     RM 70,000 km    ROF 40       
35.0cm X-Ray Laser (4)    Range 384,000km     TS: 19,200 km/s     Power 32-8     RM 70,000 km    ROF 20       
15.0cm X-Ray Laser (7)    Range 384,000km     TS: 19,200 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Twin 10cm SXRL Turret Mk II (2x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 5       
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (3)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Capital Solid-core AM Reactor (3)     Total Power Output 307.2    Exp 5%

AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
EM Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Fire Control 4    Missile 4   

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

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Star Flight II class Battleship      40,000 tons       987 Crew       12,692.4 BP       TCS 800    TH 7,680    EM 18,000
9600 km/s      Armour 9-104       Shields 600-400       HTK 231      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 44-11      PPV 115.58
Maint Life 1.73 Years     MSP 6,259    AFR 533%    IFR 7.4%    1YR 2,552    5YR 38,275    Max Repair 1,280 MSP
Troop Capacity 800 tons     
Commodore    Control Rating 4   BRG   AUX   ENG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

BB Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 7680    Fuel Use 10.61%    Signature 2560    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 5,056,300 Litres    Range 214.5 billion km (258 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (15)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (1.5 per second)

52.50cm Spinal X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 72-9     RM 70,000 km    ROF 40       
35.0cm X-Ray Laser (4)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 32-8     RM 70,000 km    ROF 20       
15.0cm X-Ray Laser (7)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Twin 10cm SXRL Turret Mk II (2x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 5       
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (3)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Capital Solid-core AM Reactor (3)     Total Power Output 307.2    Exp 5%

AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
EM Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Fire Control 4    Missile 4   

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

The carrier is seen as the primary striking arm of the fleet, and is never intended to be exposed to enemy fire.  They are lightly armored and unshielded, and would quickly die in direct combat, so they are always escorted and held away from enemy combatants.  Seven carriers have been transferred to the Expeditionary Force. 
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Country Flt II class Carrier      40,000 tons       681 Crew       7,727.4 BP       TCS 800    TH 7,680    EM 0
9600 km/s      Armour 2-104       Shields 0-0       HTK 194      Sensors 108/0/0/0      DCR 46-11      PPV 0
Maint Life 1.58 Years     MSP 4,639    AFR 492%    IFR 6.8%    1YR 2,140    5YR 32,101    Max Repair 1,280 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 14,000 tons     Magazine 1,350 / 0   
Captain    Control Rating 4   BRG   AUX   ENG   FLG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months    Flight Crew Berths 280    Morale Check Required   

BB Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 7680    Fuel Use 10.61%    Signature 2560    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 3,046,000 Litres    Range 129.2 billion km (155 days at full power)

Sparrow III LASM (450)    Speed: 52,800 km/s    End: 1.4m     Range: 4.4m km    WH: 6    Size: 3    TH: 246/147/73

Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Capital Thermal Sensor Mk II (1)     Sensitivity 108     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  82.2m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Missile 4   

Strike Group
26x Eagle Strikefighter   Speed: 20012 km/s    Size: 9.99
3x Aegis Patrol Craft   Speed: 19289 km/s    Size: 6.48

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Carrier for auto-assignment purposes

Prior to the construction of the battleships and dreadnoughts, the battlecruiser was the primary capital ship design of the navy, however, now it is primary used for support and escort roles, or to fill out jump point assault groups. 
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Planet Flight IV class Battlecruiser      20,000 tons       525 Crew       7,369.9 BP       TCS 400    TH 3,840    EM 4,800
9600 km/s      Armour 6-65       Shields 160-400       HTK 125      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 29-14      PPV 73.79
Maint Life 2.20 Years     MSP 3,437    AFR 337%    IFR 4.7%    1YR 958    5YR 14,368    Max Repair 640 MSP
Troop Capacity 800 tons     
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

BC Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 3840    Fuel Use 15.00%    Signature 1280    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 2,611,500 Litres    Range 156.7 billion km (188 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (4)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (0.4 per second)

52.50cm Spinal X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 72-9     RM 70,000 km    ROF 40       
35.0cm X-Ray Laser (2)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 32-8     RM 70,000 km    ROF 20       
15.0cm X-Ray Laser (5)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Twin 10cm SXRL Turret Mk II (1x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 5       
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (2)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Capital Solid-core AM Reactor (2)     Total Power Output 204.8    Exp 5%

Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
EM Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Basic Thermal Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Fire Control 4    Missile 4   

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

The missile cruiser and missile destroyers are still considered a test of a theory, rather than a proven design.  Currently they are intended to escort the heavier ship and carriers and defend them if the fighters fail to stop a faster enemy ship. 
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Indefatigable Flt II class Missile Cruiser      20,000 tons       462 Crew       4,680.2 BP       TCS 400    TH 3,840    EM 6,000
9600 km/s      Armour 5-65       Shields 200-400       HTK 111      Sensors 54/54/0/0      DCR 30-15      PPV 47
Maint Life 2.36 Years     MSP 2,962    AFR 320%    IFR 4.4%    1YR 724    5YR 10,867    Max Repair 640 MSP
Magazine 947 / 0   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

BC Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 3840    Fuel Use 15.00%    Signature 1280    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 2,428,400 Litres    Range 145.7 billion km (175 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (5)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (0.5 per second)

ASM3 Launcher (14)     Missile Size: 3    Rate of Fire 10
AMM Launcher MK II (5)     Missile Size: 1    Rate of Fire 5
Sparrow Fire Control (1)     Range 31.9m km    Resolution 2   ECCM-2
AM Missile Fire Control Mk II (1)     Range 43.9m km    Resolution 1   ECCM-2
Thermal Buoy Bus (30)    Speed: 4,133 km/s    End: 11.1d     Range: 3,975m km    WH: 0    Size: 3    TH: 13/8/4
Shrike IV AMM (257)    Speed: 131,200 km/s    End: 1.2m     Range: 9.4m km    WH: 1.04    Size: 1    TH: 437/262/131
Sparrow III LASM (200)    Speed: 52,800 km/s    End: 1.4m     Range: 4.4m km    WH: 6    Size: 3    TH: 246/147/73

Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Standard EM Sensor Mk V (1)     Sensitivity 54     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  58.1m km
Standard Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1)     Sensitivity 54     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  58.1m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Fire Control 5    Missile 4   

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
[\code]

The Annihilator class is a valued design that gives smaller battlegroups strategic mobility. 
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Annihilator Flight V class Jump Cruiser      20,000 tons       485 Crew       6,413 BP       TCS 400    TH 3,840    EM 3,600
9600 km/s    JR 6-750      Armour 8-65       Shields 120-400       HTK 126      Sensors 54/18/0/0      DCR 34-17      PPV 61.37
Maint Life 3.03 Years     MSP 3,805    AFR 229%    IFR 3.2%    1YR 620    5YR 9,301    Max Repair 640 MSP
Troop Capacity 400 tons     
Captain    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

J20000(6-750) Military Jump Drive Mk V     Max Ship Size 20000 tons    Distance 750k km     Squadron Size 6

BC Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 3840    Fuel Use 15.00%    Signature 1280    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 3,277,400 Litres    Range 196.6 billion km (237 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (3)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (0.3 per second)

52.50cm Spinal X-Ray Laser (1)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 72-9     RM 70,000 km    ROF 40       
15.0cm X-Ray Laser (3)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Twin 10cm SXRL Turret Mk II (3x2)    Range 180,000km     TS: 32000 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 60,000 km    ROF 5       
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (2)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Solid-core AM Reactor (6)     Total Power Output 76.8    Exp 5%

Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
EM Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Standard Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1)     Sensitivity 54     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  58.1m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Fire Control 5    Missile 4   

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

Originally classified as strike carriers, the Moon class has been reclassified as light carriers.  They are often deployed in situations where a full carrier is not needed or cannot be risked, and in the Expeditionary Force the lone light carrier is assigned to carry and deploy boarding pods. 
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Moon Flt II class Light Carrier      20,000 tons       302 Crew       3,987.2 BP       TCS 400    TH 3,840    EM 0
9600 km/s      Armour 4-65       Shields 0-0       HTK 88      Sensors 54/18/0/0      DCR 9-4      PPV 0
Maint Life 2.00 Years     MSP 2,433    AFR 337%    IFR 4.7%    1YR 810    5YR 12,155    Max Repair 640 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 6,000 tons     Troop Capacity 400 tons     Magazine 450 / 0   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Flight Crew Berths 120    Morale Check Required   

BC Solid Core AM Drive   (3)    Power 3840    Fuel Use 15.00%    Signature 1280    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 2,750,700 Litres    Range 165 billion km (198 days at full power)

Sparrow III LASM (150)    Speed: 52,800 km/s    End: 1.4m     Range: 4.4m km    WH: 6    Size: 3    TH: 246/147/73

Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
EM Sensor Mk VI (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Standard Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1)     Sensitivity 54     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  58.1m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Sensor 4    Missile 4   

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Carrier for auto-assignment purposes

Code: [Select]
Absolution II class Missile Destroyer      10,000 tons       118 Crew       2,339.6 BP       TCS 200    TH 1,920    EM 0
9600 km/s      Armour 7-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 74      Sensors 54/0/0/0      DCR 4-4      PPV 50.4
Maint Life 2.44 Years     MSP 1,484    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 344    5YR 5,153    Max Repair 480 MSP
Troop Capacity 400 tons     Magazine 336 / 0   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months    Morale Check Required   

Solid Core AM Drive   (2)    Power 1920    Fuel Use 17.32%    Signature 960    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,846,000 Litres    Range 191.8 billion km (231 days at full power)

Standard Box Launcher (42)     Missile Size: 8    Hangar Reload 141 minutes    MF Reload 23 hours
Missile Fire Control Mk II (2)     Range 117.6m km    Resolution 100   ECCM-2
Archer V ASM (42)    Speed: 44,475 km/s    End: 15.3m     Range: 40.8m km    WH: 16    Size: 8    TH: 207/124/62

AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1
Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
Standard Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1)     Sensitivity 54     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  58.1m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

Code: [Select]
Hero Flight V class Destroyer      10,000 tons       235 Crew       3,294.6 BP       TCS 200    TH 1,920    EM 1,200
9600 km/s      Armour 6-41       Shields 40-400       HTK 60      Sensors 54/0/0/0      DCR 4-4      PPV 30
Maint Life 2.53 Years     MSP 1,723    AFR 200%    IFR 2.8%    1YR 377    5YR 5,649    Max Repair 480 MSP
Troop Capacity 400 tons     
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months    Morale Check Required   

Solid Core AM Drive   (2)    Power 1920    Fuel Use 17.32%    Signature 960    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 1,840,800 Litres    Range 191.3 billion km (230 days at full power)
Lg Theta Shield Generator (1)     Recharge Time 400 seconds (0.1 per second)

15.0cm X-Ray Laser (6)    Range 384,000km     TS: 9,600 km/s     Power 6-6     RM 70,000 km    ROF 5       
Main Battery Fire Control Mk IV (2)     Max Range: 384,000 km   TS: 8,000 km/s    ECCM-3     97 95 92 90 87 84 82 79 77 74
Solid-core AM Reactor (5)     Total Power Output 64    Exp 5%

Standard Active Search Sensor Mk III (1)     GPS 2688     Range 79.9m km    Resolution 14
Standard Thermal Sensor Mk IV (1)     Sensitivity 54     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  58.1m km

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Fire Control 4   

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

Code: [Select]
Shield Flt IV class Destroyer Escort      10,000 tons       212 Crew       2,952.9 BP       TCS 200    TH 1,920    EM 240
9600 km/s      Armour 5-41       Shields 8-200       HTK 73      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 6-6      PPV 40.76
Maint Life 2.41 Years     MSP 1,125    AFR 131%    IFR 1.8%    1YR 265    5YR 3,981    Max Repair 599 MSP
Troop Capacity 400 tons     Magazine 365 / 0   
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months    Morale Check Required   

Solid Core AM Drive   (2)    Power 1920    Fuel Use 17.32%    Signature 960    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 977,700 Litres    Range 101.6 billion km (122 days at full power)
Small Theta Shield Generator (2)     Recharge Time 200 seconds (0 per second)

Twin Gauss Cannon Mk II Turret (2x8)    Range 40,000km     TS: 25000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 40,000 km    ROF 5       
Turret Fire Control Mk IV (1)     Max Range: 192,000 km   TS: 32,000 km/s    ECCM-3     95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48

AMM Launcher MK II (5)     Missile Size: 1    Rate of Fire 5
AM Missile Fire Control Mk II (1)     Range 43.9m km    Resolution 1   ECCM-2
Shrike IV AMM (365)    Speed: 131,200 km/s    End: 1.2m     Range: 9.4m km    WH: 1.04    Size: 1    TH: 437/262/131

AM Active Search Sensor Mk IV (1)     GPS 240     Range 37.1m km    MCR 3.3m km    Resolution 1

Electronic Warfare Jammers:   Fire Control 4   

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes

The bulk of the Expeditionary Force’s fighters are of this older design.  The Eagle is known to be slower than some Oct warship designs, so the Expeditionary Force’s commanders will have to be cautious how they deploy them. 
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Eagle class Strikefighter      500 tons       3 Crew       145.4 BP       TCS 10    TH 200    EM 0
20012 km/s      Armour 1-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 3      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 3.6
Maint Life 1.86 Years     MSP 18    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 7    5YR 99    Max Repair 100 MSP
Magazine 24 / 0   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Aslt Shuttle Inertial Fusion Drive   (1)    Power 200    Fuel Use 357.77%    Signature 200    Explosion 20%
Fuel Capacity 40,000 Litres    Range 4.03 billion km (55 hours at full power)

Sparrow ASM Box Launcher (8)     Missile Size: 3    Hangar Reload 86 minutes    MF Reload 14 hours
Missile Fire Control  (1)     Range 79.6m km    Resolution 100
Sparrow III ASM (8)    Speed: 52,800 km/s    End: 1.4m     Range: 4.4m km    WH: 8    Size: 3    TH: 246/147/73

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a Fighter for auto-assignment purposes

This is the new Eagle design with sold core anti-matter engines. 
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Eagle II class Strikefighter      500 tons       3 Crew       211.9 BP       TCS 10    TH 288    EM 0
28800 km/s      Armour 1-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 3      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 3.6
Maint Life 2.03 Years     MSP 26    AFR 20%    IFR 0.3%    1YR 8    5YR 126    Max Repair 144 MSP
Magazine 24 / 0   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Ast Shuttle Solid Core AM Drive (1)    Power 288    Fuel Use 360.20%    Signature 288    Explosion 22%
Fuel Capacity 43,400 Litres    Range 4.34 billion km (41 hours at full power)

Sparrow ASM Box Launcher (8)     Missile Size: 3    Hangar Reload 86 minutes    MF Reload 14 hours
Missile Fire Control Mk II (1)     Range 117.6m km    Resolution 100   ECCM-2
Sparrow III LASM (8)    Speed: 52,800 km/s    End: 1.4m     Range: 4.4m km    WH: 6    Size: 3    TH: 246/147/73

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a Fighter for auto-assignment purposes

Code: [Select]
Aegis class Patrol Craft      325 tons       2 Crew       159 BP       TCS 6    TH 125    EM 0
19289 km/s      Armour 1-4       Shields 0-0       HTK 5      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 0
Maint Life 4.67 Years     MSP 30    AFR 8%    IFR 0.1%    1YR 2    5YR 34    Max Repair 86.4 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Fighter IC Fusion Drive   (2)    Power 125.0    Fuel Use 1250.0%    Signature 62.5    Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 101,000 Litres    Range 4.49 billion km (64 hours at full power)

Interceptor Active Search Sensor Mk II (1)     GPS 1008     Range 43.2m km    Resolution 14

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
This design is classed as a None for auto-assignment purposes

Code: [Select]
BPOD II class Breaching Pod      798 tons       8 Crew       228.6 BP       TCS 16    TH 320    EM 0
20057 km/s      Armour 6-7       Shields 0-0       HTK 4      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 0-0      PPV 0
Maint Life 1.89 Years     MSP 17    AFR 51%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 6    5YR 92    Max Repair 40 MSP
Troop Capacity 400 tons     Boarding Capable   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 days    Morale Check Required   

Fighter Solid Core AM Drive   (4)    Power 320    Fuel Use 937.50%    Signature 80    Explosion 25%
Fuel Capacity 10,000 Litres    Range 0.24 billion km (3 hours at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes
Posted by: Kurt
« on: May 07, 2025, 09:59:19 AM »

March 1, 2163, Rift System, 2nd Rift Incursion

Imperial Rift System Defense Forces
Stationed within the Rift: 7x10,000 ton Long Duration Missile Bases

Stationed at Rift Base (Moon 7, Planet VII)
Rift System Defense Squadron: 1xCV, 2xCVS, 2xBC, 3xDD, 48xStrike Fighters, 4xScout Fighters
Rift Base Orbital Missile Bases: 6xAggressor class Missile Bases, 6xSeige Class Missile Bases
Rift Base Orbital Fighter Bases: 5xAdamant class 17,943 ton fighter bases, 65 Eagle Strike Fighters, 5 Aegis scout fighters
Rift Base Ground Defenses: 5th Guard Division (132,242 tons), 69,000 tons of STO units

The deployment of forces in the Rift system has been controversial, with factions in both the navy and the senate pushing for deployments to the surrounding systems instead of within the Rift system itself, to quarantine the Rift system.  While dispersing forces to the surrounding system would not normally be considered, as each force would be weaker than a consolidated force in the Rift system, the unknown nature of the threat from the Rifters made such a deployment at least somewhat attractive.  After some delay, though, the Emperor resolved the impasse by issuing an Imperial decree ordering the establishment of a base in the Rift system. 

The selection of the base site then became a point of contention, but, as the Empire’s attention began shifting to the Bobruisk and their hostile neighbors the Oct’s, interest in the Rift system began declining.  This is where Captain Thornton Black came into the picture.  Captain Black was an ambitious young officer with highly placed and powerful patrons in both the admiralty and the senate.  He had begun his career as a pilot of a Forward class FAC, and moved on from there to be a science officer on a long-range survey ship, after which he rose to command another survey ship.  After several successful survey voyages, he was ready to make a move that would ensure his admiral’s stars and a bright future in the navy.  Even as the planners were arguing about what shape the deployment to the Rift system would take, and the size of the deployment, the Imperial government’s interest in the Rift system was declining.  Captain Black and his supporters saw this as the perfect time to seize an opportunity, and Captain Black stepped forward with a plan, cutting through the arguing bureaus and contending officers.  Perhaps with a sense of relief, his plan was rapidly approved with minimal oversight, and the transfer of forces to the Rift system began.  Captain Black was promoted to Commodore and given command of the new naval district, and oversaw its initial deployment and dispositions.  Unfortunately, as would eventually become clear, Commodore Black was an idiot.  His patrons had consistently covered up negative performance reviews, and no one senior to him knew that his peers considered him to be an arrogant, resentful, egomaniac with no real experience and at best an academic’s understanding of naval strategy and tactics. 

Commodore Black decided to locate the main base for the Rift system forces on a moon of the seventh planet.  The seventh planet was the primary star’s outermost planet, and had an orbit that most closely approached the Rift.  At the time the base was being established, the planet was quite close to the rift, and would allow any forces stationed there to respond quickly to any incursion.  However, for most of its orbit the seventh planet would be quite far from the Rift, and for at least half of the orbit it would be farther from the rift than any other body in the system.  This fact was pointed out to Commodore Black, repeatedly, but he was intolerant of criticism and once he had chosen the location, he refused to change his mind.  Thus, the base was established on a moon of the outer gas giant. 

With the base location decided, Commodore Black then began establishing the deployment of forces for the system.  By this time, the base, and its anchoring gas giant, had moved fairly far from the Rift, meaning that the system defense force now had an inconveniently long response time to an incursion.  Not being willing to admit to a mistake, Commodore Black developed a plan.  He requested the deployment of all existing long-duration missile bases to bolster his defenses.  These bases had been developed in the early days of interstellar expansion, when it had been thought that the Raiders were transiting standard jump points, and had been designed with ten-year deployment schedules as jump point interdiction units.  Once it was clear the Raiders had their own interstellar transit system and were not using jump points, the bases had been left with no reason for their existence.  Even so they had been modernized and had been deployed to bolster the defensive strength of colonies and forward bases.  Now, Commodore Black asked for them and all six were transferred to his command.  He ordered them deployed to the Rift, to act as an immediate deterrent to Rifter incursions, giving the system defense fleet time to move to the Rift. 

This deployment scheme found little favor with the officers of the system defense force, and even less with the officers of the long-duration bases.  The original commander of the base squadron protested the deployment as reckless and foolish, but was overruled by Commodore Black, and then, when she protested to fleet command in the solar system, she was relieved of her command by Black’s patrons in the admiralty.  Commander Gang, the former second in command of the base squadron, considered resigning to highlight the idiocy of Commodore Black’s deployments, but in the end decided to stay with his people and do the best he could to protect them.  And so, when Rifter ships began appearing in the Rift, Rift Base and its attendant gas giant, were, of course, on the far side of the system, and the Rift Defense Fleet was over a billion kilometers away, leaving the six long-duration bases on their own within the Rift.   

At 0538 hours on the 1st, three groups of Rift ships arrived within the rift, forming a triangle with its points close to the outer edge of the rift.  Two of the groups consisted of two ships each, and matched the designs seen in the last incursion.  These units had remained immobile, were equipped with short-ranged weaponry, and were presumed to be some sort of base.  The main group of twelve ships appeared closer to the Terran missile bases stationed in the rift than the other groups, but immediately set a course away from the bases.  The main group consisted of four heavy cruisers, five light cruisers, and three light destroyers. 

The commander of the missile base group, Commander Gang, ordered his crews to combat stations and to begin preparations for immediate launch on the main group.  Seconds later power failed on all seven long duration missile bases, leaving them drifting and helpless. 

The Rift system’s main fleet base orbited the outer moon of the seventh planet, which was currently just over one billion kilometers distant.  The contact message from the buoys at the Rift arrived fifty-five minutes after the arrival of the Rifter ships, and it took nearly another hour to organize the response.  The fighter bases orbiting the moon launched their fighters, which joined the Rift Defense Fleet’s fighters, and they set out to intercept the main Rifter fleet.  That put one hundred and fifteen fighters in space, racing towards the main Rifter group. 

Back at the Rift, Commander Gang’s crews finally restored power to the seven bases.  The chief engineers all agreed that the missile bases had been sabotaged by unknown software resident in the power system control computers.  With their system’s back up they were finally able to engage the enemy, however, the main fleet had moved beyond their range.  The four Rifter medium bases deployed to the edges of the rift were within their range, but were known to be equipped with short range weapons, meaning they were no threat and could be ignored for now.  Commander Gang decided to remain on alert against further incursions.  Besides, he had teams frantically inspecting the missiles in the base’s magazines.  Given the sabotage to the base’s power systems, he had no desire to launch nuclear-tipped missiles until they could be inspected. 

The Rifter fleet moved to a point just past 120 mkm’s from the bases in the Rift, then split.  The bulk of the fleet headed back towards the rift, and the bases stationed there, while the light destroyers split up and headed across the system.  One of the destroyers was headed towards the inner system, while the other two were headed in the direction of the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system.  The fighters speeding away from Rift Base split, with each group intercepting a light destroyer, while on the missile bases stationed in the Rift, Commander Gang told his inspection crews to hurry, as they would have to engage the Rift main fleet before it could reach firing range of the bases. 

One hour and forty-five minutes later the Rifter fleet entered extreme range for the Archer IV ASM’s in the bases’ launchers.  Commander Gang waited to fire until the Rifter ships reached 20 mkm’s, then launched every missile in his arsenal.  Three hundred and fifty big ASM’s raced away from the bases at 35,000 km/s.  The Archer IV was the Fleet’s last-generation long range ship-killer.  The Archer V had recently gone into production, and was faster and had a longer range, but none were available in the Rift system.  The Archer IV was still a potent ASM though.  The IV still had the Empire’s best ECCM and active terminal guidance, two decoys, and a heavy warhead.  The strike was devastating.  When the explosions cleared, three of the Rifter heavy cruisers and three light cruisers were simply gone, wiped from space.  Two CL’s appeared to be untouched, and the remaining heavy cruiser had been heavily damaged and were drifting.  It was a stunning validation of the Archer IV ASM and the missile base concept.  Except for the two remaining mobile CL’s, and the fact that the bases had expended their entire missile supply in the massive alpha strike, leaving them with only short-ranged AMM’s to defend themselves.  And worse, the base’s magazines weren’t stocked with a full load of AMM’s due to an oversight at the time of deployment. 

Commander Gang and his crews watched, wondering whether the light cruisers were going to continue their charge, but they left the crippled heavy cruiser and set out on a tangent towards the outer system.  Five minutes later, though, they turned and headed inwards towards the bases.  Eight minutes later they were seven million kilometers from the bases, which opened fire with their anti-missiles.  Each salvo contained seventy AMM’s, and they sped away from the bases at 102,400 km/s.   

For a while the light cruisers played cat-and-mouse with the AAM salvoes, but in the end the bases, which did not have full stocks of the AMM’s in the first place, ran out before inflicting serious damage on the two remaining Rifter warships.  Once the bases ran out of defensive missiles, the Rifter warships closed and began firing at the bases at 150,000 kilometers range.  At that point Commander Gang ordered his crews to abandon ship.  Life pods began racing away from the doomed bases, and once they were all away the bases self-destructed. 

The Rifter ships, in an act disturbingly reminiscent of the Raiders, destroyed the life pods before moving away, eventually appearing on the sensors of a nearby sensor drone, apparently waiting for something within the Rift.  After several hours of loitering, they set out away from the oncoming fighters, towards the jump point to 82 Draconis.  One of the fighter groups diverted to chase the CL’s, having lost its light destroyer target, while the other fighter group continued chasing the two light destroyers headed towards the Omicron Tucanae jump point. 

At 2236 hours on the 1st, the heavy cruiser crippled by the missile bases repaired at least one of its engines and began moving slowly away from the Rift, following the light cruisers towards the jump point to 82 Draconis. 

By 0218 hours on the 2nd, the fighters from the Rift System Fleet had managed to close to 80 mkm’s from the two light destroyers they had been pursuing, finally picking them up on their own sensors and verifying their position and status.  The two LDD’s were hovering around the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system, moving on and off of the jump point.  The Omicron Tucanae defense force had been warned via the ICN to expect visitors, so if the LDD’s jumped away they would be the problem of that system’s forces, but for now the Rifters seemed content to hover around the jump point. 

Several minutes later, though, one of the two LDD’s jumped into Omicron Tucanae, leaving the other LDD in the Rift System.  The Rift Defense Force fighters diverted towards the remaining LDD, which was moving away from the jump point.  Twenty minutes later the LDD jumped back into the Rift system.  The fighters continued on towards the LDD further from the jump point. 

At 0428 hours the fighters reached optimum missile range of their targeted LDD and launched eighty Sparrow IIb light ASM’s.  The missiles completely overwhelmed the LDD and left only scattered wreckage floating in space.  The fighters then turned towards the second LDD, which was now 60 mkm’s away and headed in the general direction of the Rift base’s location.  Just over an hour later the fighters were in position and launched a salvo of sixty-four Sparrow IIb light ASM’s at the fleeing LDD.  The result was the same, the LDD was left a drifting wreck.  Their targets destroyed, the fighter group turned towards the Rift, and the four Rifter bases located there.   

At 1349 hours the fighter group from the Rift System Defense Force arrived at its waypoint, one point five million kilometers from the two Rifter bases located to one side of the Rift.  The bases had proved to be tough to kill, so the group commander split her remaining missiles between the two, emptying the fighter group’s racks.  Two hundred and forty light ASM’s raced away from the fighters towards the two waiting bases.  The results were less than satisfying.  Forty-four missiles were intercepted by energy weapons fire, and one hundred and twenty-three were decoyed.  One of the bases suffered eleven penetrating hits, the other none.  The fighters turned towards their carriers, which were now approaching the Rift with the rest of the Rift Defense Force. 

While the fleet’s fighters had been tangling with the LDD’s and the bases, the fighters launched from the fighter bases orbiting Rift Base had been chasing down the two CL’s headed towards the jump point to 82 Draconis.  It had been a long stern chase, and from the first it was clear that the fighters wouldn’t be able to catch the CL’s before they reached the jump point.  Indeed, they were still 71 mkm’s from the jump point when the CL’s reach their target.  Both CL’s immediately jumped out to the 82 Draconis system.  The 82 Draconis system is a planet-less system located on the edge of the Kraken Frontier, two jumps from the 111 Virginis system.  There is no Terran presence in the system aside from sensor buoys located near the jump points. 

At 0108 hours on the 3rd the System Defense Fleet, having rescued the few life pods that had somehow escaped destruction and rearmed its fighters, launched its fighter group with orders to destroy the intact pair of bases on the far side of the Rift.  At 0211 hours the fighters launched three hundred and eighty-four missiles at the two bases.  It took forty seconds for the missiles to reach their targets.  Fifty-seven were stopped by energy weapons fire, two hundred and six were decoyed, and the remainder caused thirty-six penetrating hits between the two bases.  The fighters turned back towards their carriers.  The fighters landed and were rapidly rearmed, but Captain Kitzmiller, the CO of the defense force, decided against launching another strike as his carriers were low on missiles at this point, and at least three of the four bases had suffered significant internal damage.  The defense fleet retreated from the Rift at this point, but only to a ten million kilometer standoff distance. 

At this point the Rift forces in-system consisted of the four bases, three of which had suffered internal damage, and a damaged CA and undamaged LDD headed towards the jump point to 82 Draconis.  Two Rifter CL’s were known to have jumped out to 82 Draconis.  The fighters from the defense fleet had landed on their carriers, and the fighters from Rift Base were stationed at the jump point to 82 Draconis.  Captain Kitzmiller, who had taken some time to take stock of the situation, ordered the base fighter group to intercept the LDD and CA that were headed towards the jump point to 82 Draconis, and then to return to base, unless the CL’s returned from 82 Eridani.  That done, he ordered Captain Lynd to take her battlecruiser group into the rift, accompanied by their destroyer group, and eliminate the damaged bases.  Captain Kitzmiller’s carriers would remain outside the rift, on overwatch. 

The two battlecruisers and three destroyers of the Rift Strike Force opened fire at 0511 hours on the 3rd, at 346,000 kilometers.  All five ships targeted one of the bases, The destroyers scored several minor hits before one of the Mercury’s 30cm lasers carved deeply into the already damaged base, causing a secondary explosion that destroyed it.  The Terran ships shifted fire to the second base and began scoring hits, but this base was in better shape.  The Terran ships pounded the base until they reached 200,000 kilometers, at which point the BC’s 30cm lasers recharged and carved the base into three separate chunks.  Their mission here finished, the Strike Group turned for the second pair of bases, located on the far side of the rift. 

At 0637 hours the Strike Group was within range of its lasers and opened fire on one of the pair of bases, scoring several hits with the group’s smaller 15cm lasers.  The Strike Group came to a halt 150,000 kilometers from the bases and continued to pour fire into the immobile units, which did not return fire.  Whether they possessed weapons that couldn’t reach that far, or had been too damaged by the missile attack to engage was unknown.  At any rate it took five more salvoes before the targeted base blew up, at which time the group shifted fire to the last remaining base.  It took five salvoes to pound this base into scattered debris, after which the group turned to leave the rift and rejoin the carrier group. 

At 1235 hours, the LDD, which had dropped off everyone’s sensors, reappeared on the active sensors of the returning fighter group, which immediately went into pursuit.  The Rifter LDD turned and ran, but was much slower and had no chance of getting away.   Eighty minutes later the fighters had reached optimum firing range and launched 80 Sparrow IIb light ASM’s.  The LDD was completely overwhelmed by the missile strike and left drifting, powerless, as the fighters continued on towards the last Rifter heavy cruiser.   

At 2151 hours the base fighters had finally chased down the last Rift ship in the system, a damaged heavy cruiser.  The fighter group launched a salvo of forty light ASM’s at the CA.  The missiles were more than enough to destroy the last Rifter ship, after which the fighters headed for their home base.  The incursion was over. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: March 29, 2025, 11:04:59 AM »

December 20, 2158, 111 Virginis System, Kraken Frontier
Cargo Group 08, consisting of forty 44,000-ton freighters, had just entered the 111 Virginis system with a cargo of factories and auto-mines recovered from the ruins in the Xi Bootis system.  It was fifty-six million kilometers from the jump point and headed towards the base on 111 Virginis II, which had been designated as the central collection point for the facilities and ore recovered from the ruins in the surrounding systems, when a Kraken Iku class ship jumped into the system behind it.  Messages from the freighters and the buoy at the jump point were sent to the base, which immediately launched its fighters to intercept.  Fortunately, the Iku class ship didn’t seem interested in pursuing the freighters, but instead set out across the system on a course towards one of the other jump points.  The fighters continued their pursuit, while the freighter captains tried to regain their composure. 

The fighters caught up to the Hive Fleet Kraken ship a number of hours later and promptly swatted it out of the sky with missiles from three of the fighters.  The Iku class was a small ship, at just under 4,000 tons, and had never demonstrated any offensive capability, although it did mount military engines.  Naval intelligence theorized that it was some sort of survey ship.  In any case, it was gone, and the fighters turned back towards base.   

December 23, 2158
Grand Senator Durant looked around the room with carefully concealed contempt.  His fellow “movers and shakers” within the Expansionist Party, commonly and derisively referred to as the war party, were arguing as usual.  And as usual, they were arguing about fine points within the party’s platform, and the purity of their philosophical positions, rather than trying to hash out an actual plan of action.  Durant sighed and settled back into his chair.  He knew he was part of the problem. He was the single most powerful person in the room, but he wasn’t trying to get the members to cooperate because he knew why they argued about arcane points of purity.  As long as the emperor opposed their position there was little that they could do but argue amongst themselves.  The Expansionist Party was the second largest party in the Imperial Senate, but the Emperor and his lackies in the Imperial Party, had been very successful at limiting their attempts to enact their agenda, or to expand their ranks.  The frustration at this was why the members were arguing now.  It was easier to do that than dream of actually getting anything done. 

Senator Durant was working himself into a funk when the door to the retreat’s conference room opened and his aide rushed in, looking around for him.  Durant waved and the aide rushed over.  The room fell silent as the aide whispered into Durant’s ear, handed him a reader, and then turned and left.  The color left Durant’s face as he looked at the reader.  When he looked up, he saw that everyone’s eyes were on him.  He stood.  “Senators, we’ve been recalled to the capital.  I’m afraid the Emperor has died.”  There were gasps around the room as the senators looked at each other. “The palace has released a statement that the emperor passed peacefully this morning.  They have called for the Senate to be convened to confirm Prince Roger as the new Emperor.”  Again, the Senators looked at each other. 

Durant’s mind raced as the senators began talking amongst themselves.  Senate confirmation was required, but was considered little more than a rubber stamp, as the Emperor had no other heirs.  However, Prince Roger was all of eight years old, and obviously would not be expected to make any decisions for a long time.  A Regent would have to be appointed.  Durant signaled for the others to quiet down.  This was the opportunity they had been waiting for. 

December 24, 2158
The palace announced the death of the Emperor and the plans to crown Prince Roger on January 1st, 2159.  The Senate voted unanimously to support the coronation of Prince Roger, and issued a statement that meetings between the senate leadership and the court were underway to agree on a Regent and a Regency Council. 

The Emperor is widely mourned and the mood across the Empire is somber.  The Empress is beloved by most, and Prince Roger is adored, but the Emperor was the rock that the empire rested on, and with his passing most feel at least a little uncertain about the future, even though Terran might is ascendant across known space.  The Emperor’s funeral is held on the 31st and Prince Roger is crowned on the first day of the new year.  Empress Cordelia is named Regent, and a Regency Council consisting of Sky Marshal Ni, Governor Cicalese of Luna, and three Senators stand behind the new, young, Emperor as he is crowned. Senator Durant is among the senators standing behind the new Emperor.   

January, 2159
The new Regency Council almost immediately sets a more militaristic tone for the Empire, holding out the Navy and Marines as the backbone of the Empire. 

April, 2159
After years of research and development, the Cowan R&D team completed work on the solid core anti-matter drive.  Drive units will now be developed for the navy and for civilian ships.  The Regency Council, dominated by the war hawks, sees this as both an opportunity and a setback.  They had been pushing hard to increase the fleet presence in the Bobruisk Territories, and to move into the new alien’s space, so that the numerous wrecks in the system can be salvaged, hopefully yielding advanced technology.  The navy will now resist this move until their ships can be upgraded, to reduce the speed disparity between humanity’s ships and the ships of the various aliens. 

June 20, 2159, Omicron Tucanae System, Leviathan Frontier
A single light raider was detected heading in system, and as a response, the CV France, orbiting the base over Omicron Tucanae I, launched her fighters to intercept.  The fighters reached the target at 1501 hours and destroyed it with missiles from a single fighter.  The fighters turned back to their carrier, but fifteen minutes later a second raider, this one a heavy raider, was detected in the outer system.  The fighters immediately turned to intercept.  When they reached active sensor range they found that it wasn’t just one raider, but a heavy raider escorted by nine raiders and four light raiders.  This was the largest raider group seen in over a decade. 

The fighters continued to close and launched all of their remaining missiles.  The alpha strike left the heavy raider and four light raiders drifting, heavily damaged.  The fighters sent a strike report and turned for home. 

When the strike report arrived, instead of waiting for the fighters to arrive and rearm, Commodore Hong aboard the Star class battleship Antares, decided to take her ship out and eliminate the survivors.  Thirty hours later a single salvo of heavy lasers from the Antares blew the heavy raider out of space, and then took out the light raiders one by one.  Finally, the battleship chased down the fleeing light raider and took it out as well. 

July, 2159, Terra
The naval yards orbiting Luna are busy as they begin retooling before refitting the fleet with the latest technology, most notably, the solid-core anti-matter drives that will push the standard Fleet speed to 9,600 km/s.  The Admiralty is giddy with the improved performance, and with the new missiles designed with the new drive tech, and with the newest laser-warhead tech, that are even now being manufactured in the munitions plants of the home-world.  Not everyone is as enthusiastic as the admirals, though. 

Deep within the senate complex, Senator Durant looked on with irritation as Senator Singh, probably the second most powerful senator in the Expansionist Party, ranted about the Navy’s decision to upgrade its ships before undertaking the campaign against the Oct’s (the new hostile race beyond the Bobruisk).  In truth, Durant was at least as irritated as Singh, but he was a good enough politician to know that indulging his irritation was counterproductive.  That was the reason he was on the Regency Council, and Singh was not.

Finally, Durant held up his hand, and Singh fell silent.  “Senator Singh, you are, of course, right.”  Singh’s face expressed surprise, as Durant had not joined in with the Navy-bashing.  Durant sighed.  “They are delaying, and they are damned good at it.”  Seeing the looks on his colleague’s faces, he shook his head.  “No, if we try to force the issue it will just make us look weak.  Too many ships are already in the yards, and their plans are too advanced.  If we try to force them to launch the offensive now, we’ll just throw everything into chaos and in the end, we’ll be forced to wait anyway.”  He sighed theatrically, then shook his head again.  “No, we must admit, our opponents outwitted us this time.”  He looked around the room, noting who looked mulish, or rebellious.  “But, if we are realistic, this is an opportunity.  Now we have time to reshape the navy into the force we want.  To promote admirals who think like we do, and to reorganize the fleet along the lines we want.  So, by the time we are in a position to launch the offensive, we will have a force that is not only technologically supreme, but is also led by the kind of admirals we want, who agree with us, instead of officers that will stab us in the back the first opportunity they get.” 

Durant continued for some time, and by the time he finished talking he had them convinced.  They would wait, but by waiting they would have the opportunity to achieve what they had long dreamed of.  Making the Empire not on the dominant force in known space, but the only force in known space.   

December 8, 2159, V1216 Sagittarii
A single light raider was detected headed towards the gas giant orbiting outside the Super Jovian orbited by V-Sag base and its attendant fuel harvesters.  The base commander dispatched his interceptor group to eliminate the intruding starship.  Five hours later, as the six interceptors closed to combat range of the light raider, a second, much larger, force was detected.  This force consisted of two heavy raiders, two raiders, and six light raiders.  Captain Davison, the base commander, ordered the interceptors to continue their attack, and issued orders for the three destroyers and twelve attack fighters orbiting the base to ready for action. 

The interceptors quickly chased down the fleeing raider and destroyed it with long range fire from their lasers.  They then turned towards V-Sag base, detouring around the oncoming raider fleet.  The raider fleet continued to close on the location of the destroyed light raider for a short period of time, then turned back the way they came. 

Almost five hours after the destruction of the light raider, the 1st DD Group, V-Sag Interceptor Group, and V-Sag Fighter Group rendezvoused just over 100 million kilometers from the raider fleet, which was sitting in space close to the position where it had been first detected.  Once the defense force was reunited, it set out for the raider fleet. 

The Terran warships opened fire at 310,000 kilometers with their soft x-ray lasers.  The attack fighters, with their shorter ranged near UV lasers, were forced to wait.  The destroyers and interceptors all targeted a single heavy raider, but the hit probability was low at long range.  As the Terran squadron closed, It took three salvoes before the lasers penetrated the heavy raider’s armor.  Thirty seconds later the Terran lasers carved through the heavy raider’s armor and took out one of its engines, causing it to fall behind its consorts. 

Suddenly, as the Terrans continued to pound the heavy raider, the other enemy ships turned back and began racing towards the Terran squadron, closing to 150,000 kilometers before the Terran ships could turn away.  The raiders scored eleven hits on one of the interceptors, while the Terran ships continued to pick away at the damaged heavy raider.  Commander Platten, the CO of the DD Ganna Shvets and senior officer of the squadron, ordered her ships to shift fire to the light raiders that made up the bulk of the enemy fleet.  Two salvoes sufficed to slow two of the light raiders, leaving four with the main fleet.  Two more salvoes caused a third to fall behind.  The next salvo caused the fourth to lag.  At that point Commander Platten ordered the squadron to shift fire to the two raiders, leaving only the fighters to engage the last light raider.  The following salvo killed the last light raider’s engines, as well as one of the raiders. 

At this point Commander Platten ordered her squadron to divide its fire between the two raider ships that continued to pursue them, a heavy raider and a standard raider.  The next salvo of laser fire knocking out the raider’s engines, leaving only the heavy raider to face the Terran ship’s fire. 

It took five more salvoes at 150,000 kilometers range to kill the heavy raider, at which time the Terran fleet turned back to eliminate the cripples.  One by one the Terran squadron eliminated the crippled raiders.  No quarter was asked or given, and no escape pods left the doomed ships.  Their mission finished the squadron turned for V-Sag Base to replenish their fuel and supplies. 

December 9, 2159, Monoceri System
Report from New Wyoming Planetary Defense Command
At 1618 hours engaged a lone Light Raider approaching New Wyoming.  The engagement resulted in the destruction of the raider before it could reach orbit.  The enemy ship caused 6,000 civilian deaths; however, the local defense forces took no losses.  Details to follow.     

March 22, 2160, Rift System
A Rift ship is detected entering the Rift system, not through the Rift as expected, but through the jump point to Mu Cassiopeiae.  This is a new class, with an observed speed of over 9,000 km/s.  A carrier, escorted by a battlecruiser and a destroyer, are detached to intercept.  Unfortunately, the new contact heads outwards, away from the pursuing squadron, which is almost 2,000 km/s slower.  Eventually, though, the Rift ship came to a halt 430 mkm’s from the jump point.  As the Terran squadron approached, their sensors got a better look at the Rift ship, revealing that it was 8,500 tons. 

The Terran squadron came to a halt just a hair over 8- mkm’s from the Rift ship and the carrier Canada launched her fighters.  The fighters raced towards the Rift ship on their attack run, and throughout the alien ship sat in the outer system, doing nothing. The fighters launched their missiles at 2 m km’s and then turned away.   The sixty-four missiles obliterated the alien ship, leaving a drifting wreck behind. 

Twenty-three hours later, just as the squadron turned for Rift Base, a second Rift ship appeared at the jump point, behind the squadron.  The new ship was 7,400 tons, and slightly faster than the last ship, at 10,625 km/s.  Captain Ni, squadron CO, ordered her squadron to intercept the Rift ship.  The alien ship set out across the system, headed inwards, towards the inner planets, none of which were inhabited our exploited.  As the Canada and her escorts would never be able to catch the faster Rift ship, Captain Ni ordered the carrier to launch her fighters.  The fighters were soon away and pursuing the alien ship. 

It took the fighters fifteen hours to run down the alien ship as it headed in-system, and they quickly destroyed it with a deluge of missiles.  As the fighters returned to their carrier, Captain Ni received new orders from Rift Base.  She was to take her squadron through the jump point to the Mu Cassiopeia system and probe the system for further Rift ships. 

At 131 hours on the 26th, the DD Jun Hsu jumped through to the Mu Cassiopeia system.  It soon jumped back to report that the far side was clear of enemy ships.  Captain Ni took her squadron through the jump point to picket the far side. 

August, 2160, Terra
Development work is completed on the Titan, an ultraheavy class ground vehicle.  Unlike other Terran war-machines, the Titan is a walker, with a rectangular war-hull low-slung on six legs that allow it to traverse almost any terrain.  The Titan’s main turret is equipped with two super-heavy anti-vehicle lasers, and has two smaller turrets each equipped with a heavy auto-laser to deal with smaller enemies.  The Titan weighs in at 520 tons, 60% more massive than a continental siege unit. 

November 1, 2160, 111 Virginis System, Kraken Frontier
An Iku class Kraken ship jumps into the 111 Virginis system from 103 Ceti and is immediately detected by a sensor buoy, which sends a warning out.  Virginis Base dispatches the CV China’s fighters to deal with the Kraken scout/survey ship.  The fighters streak away from the orbital anchorage as the Kraken survey ship begins to head across the system, likely towards the jump point to the 63 Hydrae system on the far side.  Fortunately, this puts it on a near intercept course with the fighters coming out of the inner system.  When the Kraken ship reached the fighter’s active sensor range it suddenly turned and headed away from the fighters, which were faster and so continued to overhaul it.  At 2110 hours the fighters reached attack range and a single fighter launched its eight Sparrow IIb missiles at the Iku.  It took all eight missiles, but in the end the Kraken ship succumbed to the attack, leaving nothing substantial behind.  The fighters turned for home. 

January 15, 2162, Lalande 21185 system
A light raider is detected in the outer system.  The Terra Nova Interceptor Group is dispatched to eliminate the threat. 

There is a sigh of relief in the naval HQ on Terra Nova when the interceptor’s sensors confirm that the contact is indeed a lone light raider, however, that relief turns to consternation when a new contact composed of three raiders and six light raiders appears 138 mkm’s behind the first.  The BC Terra, fresh out of refit in the yards orbiting Luna, is dispatched to back the interceptors up, leaving a destroyer group behind to guard Terra’s most important colony. 

The Interceptors begin firing at the fleeing light raider at 300,000 kilometers, and continue pounding it as they close.  They get several hits at long range, but as they close their accuracy increases.  The light raider returns fire at 155,000 kilometers, scoring a hit on the lead interceptor’s armor, but the Terrans just continue pouring fire into the raider.  The light raider manages to get off a second salvo, scoring the interceptor’s armor, before the Terrans pound it into scrap.  The interceptors set their course for the fleeing raider fleet, with the Terran battlecruiser coming up behind. 

At 1958 hours on the 15th, the battlecruiser Terra rendezvoused with the interceptor group, and the combined force began closing on the raider fleet.  The Terran ships opened fire at 250,000 kilometers, scoring a single hit.  The Terran force ran ahead of the raider group, maintaining the range at 200,000 kilometers, out of range of the raider’s weapons.  After three salvos the leading medium raider began falling behind, and the Terran ships shifted to targeting a second medium raider.  After five salvoes that raider was falling behind, and the Terrans shifted fire to the last medium raider.  Two salvoes were enough to savage that ship, as several of the battlecruiser’s heavy lasers carved massive holes in the raider’s thin armor. 

Now it was the light raiders turn.  Once by one the Terran ships picked them off, crippling or destroying them from beyond the range at which they could respond.  Once the last intact raider was destroyed, the Terran squadron came about and closed on the cripples, which they mercilessly destroyed.  The action was over in less than five minutes, after which the Terran ships returned to base to refuel and resupply. 

January 24, 2162, Alpha Centauri
The Alpha Centauri system held little interest for the Empire, except in that it was located along the route from Terra to the Groombridge system, which harbored a naval base and several mining installations.  A base with refueling and maintenance facilities had been established in the system to protect the civilian shipping moving back and forth, and the Imperial freighters bound for Groombridge to pick up the mined resources, or returning with those resources.  At 0521 hours a light raider appeared in the outer system, and the commander of the base dispatched his interceptors to deal with the threat. 

The contact proved to be a single light raider, and the interceptors opened fire at 1111 hours.  It took ninety seconds to batter the raider into rubble, after which the interceptors turned for home.   
Posted by: Kurt
« on: February 02, 2025, 11:57:29 AM »

Note: These events occur during the same time period as the last post, but were separated out for clarity.  The last event in this post occurs just before the end of the Rift Campaign.

April 10, 2157, Bobruisk Territories
A ship from the 2nd LRSS working in the Bobruisk system of 86 Cygni, jumps through a newly discovered jump point to find itself in a binary yellow/red star system.  The system’s third planet, a super Jovian gas giant, is orbited by twenty-one moons, three of which have oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres.  None of them are particularly Terra-like, but given the system’s proximity to the battle grounds in the 86 Cygni and HIP 84051 systems, it is certainly possible that this system contains the long-searched for Bobruisk home world.  The system’s secondary star is very distant from the primary, over two trillion kilometers, and has no planets or moons with oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres.  As the jump point is located almost six billion kilometers from the primary star, the survey ship immediately begins moving in-system to reach a point at which it can launch sensor probes towards the habitable planets to determine if they are populated.  The system is designated as the Mu Puppis system.

April 23, 2157, Mu Puppis System, Bobruisk Territories
The first of the sensor missiles launched by the survey ship arrives over one of the habitable moons of the third planet and deploys its sensor buoy.  It immediately detects over three hundred Bobruisk ships in orbit over the moon and another eighty in orbit over the planet.  The moon has a thermal signature five times that of Terra. The other two probes find a small Bobruisk population on the sixth moon, and nothing on the eleventh moon. 

May 22, 2157, HIP 84051 system, Bobruisk Territories
Three ships of the 2nd LR Survey Group were occupied surveying this system when their sensors alerted them that numerous small nuclear explosions had been detected at the jump point to 86 Cygni.  Seconds later, the wreck of a 16,190 ton unknown ship appeared on the jump point.  The HIP 84051 system was controlled by the new race the Terran ships had discovered when they jumped into the system, and the Bobruisk had had ships stationed on the far side of the jump point.  It wasn’t clear if the destroyed ship was Bobruisk, the local aliens, or someone else. 

May 24, 2157, 86 Cygni system, Bobruisk Territories
Units of the 2nd LR Survey Group in operating in this system pick up sixty-two strength 12 nuclear detonations on the jump point to the HP 84051 system, along with a large secondary power system explosion.  This occurs just over two days after the incident in the HIP 84051 system.  It is clear that the Bobruisk and the new race are engaged in a war. 

June 12, 2157, Bobruisk Territories
A survey ship in the 2nd LR Survey Group jumps out of the HIP Alien controlled HIP 84051 system through a newly discovered jump point and finds itself in the Rho Camelopardalis system.  The system has a red M0-V primary, orbited by three terrestrial class planets, two gas giants, and a small outer dwarf.  The second planet was a colony cost 0.0 world for humans, and the other two appeared to be easily terraformed.   Of extreme interest were twelve wrecks, mostly clustered around the jump point.  Five wrecks were of unknown type, likely meaning they belonged to the new alien race encountered in the HIP 48051 system.  These wrecks included three mammoth 89,159 ton ships, and two smaller 25,517 ton ships.  In addition, there were five wrecked Bobruisk warships on the jump point, two light battleships and three cruisers.  There was an additional wrecked HIP alien ship 75 mkm’s out-system from the jump point, and a wrecked Bobruisk light battleship 800 mkm’s in-system, towards the habitable planet. 

The Terran survey ship immediately launched sensor drones towards all of the planets and then jumped out to inform the rest of the survey group about its find. 



Known Bobruisk Military Ships
2xLDN
30xHBB
3xBB
48x LBB
4xHBC
7xLBC
19xCA,
3xCL
12xHDD

The armaments of Bobruisk ships are unknown, but assumed to be advanced as their speeds range from 5,575 to 17,314 km/s for capital ships, and speeds in excess of 18,000 km/s for the CL and DD classes.  In addition to the military ships listed above, the Bobruisk are known to operate two hundred and six commercial ships of varying sizes.  Finally, there are four hundred and thirty-two ships of unknown design operating within the Bobruisk territories.  At the current time they have not been observed closely enough to determine if they are military or commercial ships. 

Currently, a fleet scout is en route to the Bobruisk Territories to scan both Bob and HIP ships and gather useful intelligence on their military capabilities.  In addition, a group of diplomatic ships is on its way to the HIP 84051 system to establish contact with the HIP aliens, and several salvage ships have been sent to begin recovering whatever we can from wrecked Bob and HIP ships. 

June 16, 2157, Rho Camelopardalis system, Bobruisk Territories, suspected New Alien home system
A Terran sensor buoy is deployed over the innermost terrestrial planet, detecting a thermal signature twice as strong as the Ganymede colony, which has 527 million colonists but little industry as of yet.  The innermost planet is much smaller than Terra, and has no atmosphere.  No ships are detected in proximity to the planet. 

The sensor buoy also detects a population on the second planet, which is the Terra-like colony cost 0.0 planet.  This population has a thermal signature close to that of Terra’s, indicating it is a heavily populated and industrialized world. 

Shortly after, a sensor buoy is deployed over the fourth planet, a gas giant.  This buoy detects two outposts, on the fifth and six moons, and nine HIP ships orbiting the sixth moon. 

Several hours later the drone assigned to the second planet deploys its sensor buoy, and when the data reaches the survey ship, its plot is littered with HIP ship contacts over the world, making it clear that it is almost certainly the HIP home world.  In fact, there were over four hundred ships in orbit over the planet.  The buoys deployed to the two outer planets, five and six, detected no settlements or ships.   

Sometime later, as the survey ship explores the system, it discovers a mining outpost on one of the comets, and deploys a sensor buoy.  Seven 956 ton HIP ships are accompanying the comet. 

June 19, 2157, HIP 84051 System, Bobruisk Territories
The survey of the HIP 84051 system is complete.  It contains two jump points, which see, to connect the HIP and Bob empires.  The innermost planet has large deposits of seven TN resources, some at good availability levels.  And, of course, dozens of wrecked starships. 

June 28, 2157, Rho Camelopardalis, Bobruisk Territories
The Long-Range Survey Ship Husband was conducting a geo survey on an asteroid when its sensors began picking up explosions on or around the HIP home world.  Out of the blue there were thousands of energy weapons discharges, and nearly simultaneously the survey ship’s sensors detected over a hundred HIP ships bound for their position at the asteroid, or intent on moving past it, perhaps fleeing the fighting in the inner system.  Based on the number of energy weapons discharges there was clearly a major battle ongoing over the HIP home world.  The captain of the Husband ordered his ship to abandon the survey and move in-system. 

It was at this point that the Husband was attacked by a missile wave, seriously damaging her armor.  The Husband’s captain sent out an emergency alert to the other survey ships in the system, and turned to run.  Unfortunately, the Husband wasn’t fast enough to escape the groups of HIP ships closing on their position, and they certainly weren’t fast enough to escape the missile waves approaching at 86,000 km/s and 53,000 km/s.  The ship wasn’t a warship, and her box launchers were filled with sensor drones. 

The first wave of missiles to reach the Husband was composed of four fast missiles, and they devastated the ship.  The missiles exploded short of the Husband and sent powerful laser blasts into the ship, which had already had much of its armor stripped away.  The four strikes penetrated the remaining armor and destroyed much of the ship’s critical systems, including its engines.  This left it a sitting duck for the next wave of missiles, which stripped away more armor and did even more internal damage.  At this point the ship’s captain ordered his crew to abandon ship and sent off his last report. 

There was one other survey ship in the system, the LRS McAuliffe.  When it received the Husband’s distress call and warning, the ship’s captain immediately ordered his ship to head for the jump point.  Their ETA was 3.3 days.  Once the HIP aliens began taking out the sensor buoys the captain of the McAuliffe decided to detour out to the outer system before heading for the jump point, to try and avoid any alien warships. 

June 30, 2157, 86 Cygni system, Bobruisk Territories
A survey ship in the 86 Cygni system picked up explosions at the jump point to the HIP alien-controlled HIP 84051 system, and shortly afterwards a new wreck of a small HIP alien ship appears on the jump point. 

July 4, 2157, Rho Camelopardalis, Bobruisk Territories
The LRS McAuliffe is on final approach to the jump point out of the HIP aliens’ system.  At a range of sixty million kilometers the survey ship’s sensors detect four corvette class HIP warships on the jump point.  The captain of the McAuliffe is determined to run the gauntlet and leave the system, to get word back to the empire of the treachery of the HIP aliens.  An hour later a light cruiser becomes visible on the jump point. 

When the survey ship reaches 38 mkm’s from the jump point the HIP squadron leaves its station and heads for the oncoming survey ship.  As the alien ships are much faster than the Terran survey ship, Captain Quinn knows that she will have little chance to make it to the jump point, and they cannot outrun their pursuers.  Therefore, she issues orders for a sensor buoy to be launched.  Seconds later a sensor drone races away from the ship, headed towards a point away from the jump point.  Before it was launched the McAuliffe’s comm officer downloaded the ship’s logs into the databank of the buoy carried by the drone. 

Two minutes later a missile salvo consisting of thirty-three missiles moving at 104,000 mkm’s appeared on the survey ship’s sensors.  Just before the missiles hit, Captain Quinn ordered a final download to the buoy’s databanks.  Then the missiles exploded and sent rods of coherent light spearing out, cutting through the survey ship’s armor and carving it in half. 

The sensor drone was too close to the survey ship when the missiles arrived, and died in the same salvo. 

July 7, 2157, HIP 84051 system, Bobruisk Territories
The LRS Smith, which was in the HIP 84051 system, on the jump point heading back towards Bobruisk territory, detected a group of four HIP ships inbound towards the jump point.  The captain ordered his science officer to continue to try to establish communications with the aliens, but was otherwise unconcerned.  When the HIP ships reached firing range they opened fire at the Smith, annihilating it in one salvo.  The Smith had been waiting on the jump point for one of the survey ships in the HIP home system to report in. 

July 20, 2157, 86 Cygni system, Bobruisk Territory
LRS-10 Resnik arrived at the jump point to HIP 84051 and found a single Bobruisk ship guarding the point.  As the Resnik approached the jump point, the Bobruisk ship transmitted a short message to the Terran survey ship.  This was an unusual development, from the normally standoffish Bobruisk, so Captain Jian ordered his ship to halt before they transited and waited for the message to be deciphered.  They discovered it was a picture of a wrecked starship.  As the survey ship’s officers examined it, they realized that it was a destroyed Terran Long Range Survey ship.  The Bobruisk were warning them. 

That was enough for Captain Jian.  The Resnik had been preparing to jump into HIP 84051 to determine the status of the other four survey ships of the 2nd LRSS, which had all been in the HIP 84051 system, or the HIP alien’s home system.  They had been overdue for check in, and now it appeared that they had been destroyed.  Captain Jian was tempted to jump through anyway, to see for himself, but his ship wasn’t a warship and couldn’t take a point-blank attack.  So, he did the only thing he could.  First, he sent a message to the only other remaining ship from the 2nd, which was heading towards the jump point back to the Empire.  The message informed them of the warning from the Bobruisk and detailed his plan to meet the 1st LRSS, which was surveying in Bobruisk territory beyond their home system and inform them of the possible destruction of the rest of the 2nd.  In the meantime, the Onizuka would head back to Shield Base with their information.     

It would take the Onizuka forty-three days to reach the Groombridge system and Shield Base. 

July 24, 2157, Mu Puppis (Bobruisk Home system), Bobruisk territories
A survey ship from the 1st LRSS jumps out of the system through a newly discovered jump point, finding itself in the omega Lyrae system.  This system has a G8-V primary, orbited by a inner terrestrial planet, a dwarf, two gas giants, and a super Jovian.  None of the planets have atmospheres, but the jump point is surrounded by forty-one Bobruisk ships.  While all of the ship classes are known, little is known about these classes, even whether they are military or commercial. 

July 26, 2157, Mu Puppis (Bobruisk Home System), Bobruisk Territories
The survey of the Bobruisk home system is complete.  In addition to a total of three jump points, the system contains a small number of resource deposits of limited interest.  The only major deposit is a sorium deposit on the same super Jovian the Bobruisk home world orbits.  Interestingly, the Bobruisk home world appears to have no TN resources, indicating that they must have mined it out and are dependent on out-system mining, much like the Empire.  The survey ships move on to the two systems found through the newly discovered jump points, both of which have been stabilized. 

August 1, 2157, Omega Lyrae System, Bobruisk Territories
The 1st LRSS Komarov, headed in-system and nine hundred and eighty million kilometers from the system, detects two Bobruisk light battleships apparently sitting in deep space. 

August 24, 2157, HIP 48659 (Original Bob contact point), Bobruisk Territories
The two surviving survey ships of the 2nd LRSS jump into the HIP 48659 system and immediately send their reports to the courier waiting on the jump point back to the Empire.  It will take twenty-three hours for the courier network to relay the message back to Terra. 

August 25. 2157, Terra
The arrival of the news of the destruction of the bulk of the 2nd LRSS at the hands of the enemies of the Bobruisk causes consternation throughout both the admiralty and the senate, however, that is a distant problem, and for now the Empire is focused on securing the GJ 1128-Rift system.  This new enemy is thirteen jumps from Terra and almost 39 billion kilometers.  It can wait. 

September 4, 2157, 86 Cygni System, Bobruisk Territories
Three Terran salvage ships and their six accompanying freighters jump into the 86 Cygni system.  The group immediately breaks up and heads for the wrecks clustered around their entry point into the system.  There are two Bob wrecks, a LBB and an LBC, and a lone 30,644 ton unknown class, probably belonging to the HIP aliens. 

The salvage ships are relatively safe in this position, deep within Bob territory, and a Terran scout is located on the far side of the system watching the jump point to HIP alien territory, so there will be warning if the HIP aliens jump into the system. 

This is a high priority operation, as salvaging Bob and HIP ships will give the Empire valuable insight into their technological capabilities.   

December 19, 2157, Sol
The Imperial Navy puts into action Operation Tollhouse, a plan to establish a hidden base in the Bobruisk Territories.  This base will eventually contain ground defenses, refueling and resupply capability, and maintenance support and R&D facilities.  The plan calls for the base to be established on one of the moons of the third planet of Upsilon Puppis, which is adjacent to 86 Cygni, where salvage operations are currently underway, and two jumps from the Bob home system and the disputed system of HIP 48069.

The Navy views this as a necessary step to enable a military expedition against the HIP aliens, now officially code named the Oct’s (rather unimaginatively, as the aliens look as if they are descended from Terran octopi).  The closest Oct controlled system to the solar system is HIP 48069, and it is fourteen jumps and 42 billion kilometers away from Terra.  The Upsilon Puppis system does not appear to be used by the Bob’s, so if they happen to stumble across our base, they hopefully will not be too upset.  It will take quite some time to ship all the necessary installations to the system, though.

December 29, 2157, 86 Cygni System, Bobruisk Territories
Three salvage ships had been working in this system for the last several months to recover everything possible from the five wrecks located in the system.  These wrecks belonged to both the Bob’s and the Oct’s, and the Empire desperately needed information on their capabilities.  The recovery effort was done, and the salvage ships were withdrawing from the vicinity of the jump point to HIP 86059 to rendezvous with the scout assigned to watch over them.  It had been a risky move to salvage so closely to the jump point, when the Oct’s were known to launch periodic attacks, but the jump point was guarded by two Bob light battleships, so the risk had been fairly low. 

The salvage ships had recovered numerous ship’s systems, including ECM systems equal to those the Empire used, various sensors, and size 8, 2.5, and 9 missile launchers.  The size 9 missile launchers came from the unknown wrecks, which were presumed to be Oct warships, and interestingly they were reduced size, slow-loading designs.  Additionally, one of the salvage ships stripped some data from one of the wrecks that would give Imperial R&D a leg up on fuel efficiency research. 

The real prize was in the HIP 48069 system, where over eighty wrecks drifted.  Unfortunately, the loss of the survey ships argued that the jump point was defended, so until the Empire could dispatch a fleet to the area there would be no way to recover those wrecks.   
Posted by: Kurt
« on: February 01, 2025, 09:51:52 AM »

May 13, 2157, 1210 hours, GJ 1128 system
The 1st Expeditionary Force has arrived at its waypoint.  Admiral Casella issues the order to fire to her DDG’s, and soon thereafter twenty Archer III ASM’s were on their way, headed towards the closest pair of Rift Alien ships.  Little was known about this ship class, which had been designated the Kurhah class.  It was 15,231 tons, putting it in between a Terran DD and a BC, but nothing more was known.  Twelve minutes later the missiles hit, scoring seven hits on the two ships, with the rest being intercepted. 

The Terran fleet waited another two minutes, bit the Rift Alien ships didn’t move.  At that point Admiral Casella ordered a second strike to be launched against all four ships.  Seconds later eighty Archer III ASM’s were on their way.  The missiles reached the closer group first, and this was the same group that was attacked by the first salvo.  Nearly half of the missiles avoided point defense fire, but a quarter of those were decoyed away from the ships.  The remainder hit the ships and scarred their armor, but none penetrated.  The second missile strike scored thirteen hits between the two ships, all of which were absorbed by the armor.  Five were decoyed and twenty-two were shot down short of their targets. 

The alien ships were proving to be more difficult targets than anticipated.  Admiral Casella ordered the five DDG’s to empty their missile pods, and seconds later one hundred and ten missiles were on their way towards the four Rift Alien ships. 

Once again, the closer group came under attack first.  One of the ships took seventeen hits, ten of which penetrated.  The other took seven, none of which penetrated.  The two ships of the further group took ten hits each, and both suffered penetrating hits.   
 
The survival of the four ships left Admiral Casella in a difficult position.  She could withdraw and head to the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system and relieve the BB Antares, leaving the four ships on the rift.  They were damaged, and it was possible they no longer represented a threat.  Or she could advance into the rift and force a close engagement.  Even taking the enemy’s superior technology into account, her fleet vastly outmatched the four ships, even if they were intact.  She had no idea what was sitting on the far side of the rift, though, and for all she knew the aliens might be waiting for her to move into the rift area so that her fleet could be ambushed. 

In the end she decided to launch a fighter strike against the four ships, to eliminate them before moving on to relieve the Antares.  Twenty-two minutes later the forty-four strike fighters from the Allegiance of Terra and the two DN’s Andromeda and Pegasus were on station and ready to launch.  Seconds later three hundred and twenty Sparrow IIb missiles were on their way towards the four alien ships.  When the explosions around the four ships cleared, three were little more than debris, while the fourth had suffered eight penetrating hits. 

The two strike groups reunited one point five mkm’s from the remaining alien ship, and then the four fighters with ordnance launched their missiles against that last alien ship.  The thirty-two missiles destroyed the last ship, but it took twelve penetrating hits to kill it.  Their job finished; the fighters returned to their bays. 

With the fighters safely in their bays, the 1st Expeditionary Force set out for the jump point to Omicron Tucanae and the Antares.  The five DDG’s, now out of missiles, detached from the main force and jumped out of GJ 1128, headed for Sol to rearm. 

May 13, 2157, 1814 hours, Omicron Tucanae
The CV France has rearmed her fighters, and launches again as soon as they are ready.  The enemy’s location is not known, as they pursued the fighters until they fell off the fighter’s sensors.  The France’s squadron will head towards the jump point in the hopes of reacquiring them. 

At 2330 hours the fighters are close enough to re-acquire the alien ships, which have returned to the jump point.  Once again, the alien ships begin to pursue the fighters once they get close enough, and again the fighters launch against the alien ships.  This time the fighters focused their fire on three of the Caripare class escorts, in the hopes of stripping their missile defense capabilities from the Rift Alien fleet.  The two hundred and eight Sparrow IIb missiles reached their targets twenty seconds later, scoring twenty-one, fifteen, and sixteen armor hits on the three ships, none of which penetrated.  Once again, the fighters turned back towards the carriers, leaving the alien ships to fall behind them.  The aliens pursued the fighters for over an hour, until they fell off the fighter’s sensors. 

May 14, 2157, 0639 hours, Omicron Tucanae
The France has reloaded her fighters, but has nearly drained her magazines to do so.  Captain Zhen launches his last strike, but with orders to remain four million kilometers from the jump point as Admiral Casella’s ETA to the jump point is approximately an hour after the France’s fighters will arrive.  It is Captain Zhen’s intent to have his fighters draw the aliens away from the jump point, so that Admiral Casella can get her carriers and warships into the Omicron Tucanae system without having to engage the enemy ships after jumping in. 

At 1155 hours the France’s fighters pick up the nine Rift Alien ships on their sensors as they approach the jump point.  The fighters approached to 11 mkm’s from the jump point, at which time the Rift Alien ships began pursuing them.  Lt Commander You ordered his fighters to turn away, and the fighter group set out to lead the alien ships away from the jump point.  Lt Commander You let the alien ships close to three million kilometers from the fighter group, then accelerated to match the alien ship’s speed, leading them on a course away from anything important in the system.

Almost two hours later, at 1345 hours, the 1st Expeditionary Force arrived at the jump point in the GJ 1128 system to the Omicron Tucanae system.  Admiral Casella ordered her assault units through the jump point and they arrived in Omicron Tucanae to find the nine Rift Alien ships pursuing the France’s fighters, now 71 mkm’s from the jump point. 

The 1st Expeditionary Force’s assault ships were content to wait on the jump point for the rest of the fleet’s carriers to join them.  The alien ships continued to pursue the France’s fighters, but then, just as the fleet’s carriers jumped into the system, the aliens turned back towards the jump point.  It was too late, though.  Admiral Casella ordered her ships to launch every fighter they had, and soon one hundred and forty-four fighters were in space, headed towards the alien fleet.  Once the fighters were away, the carriers jumped back to the GJ 1128 system and put some distance between themselves and the jump point. 

At 1429 hours the three fighter groups were in position to launch.  Admiral Casella had decided to launch an overwhelming strike against the alien fleet, as the range was too close to try again, or conserve missiles.  In seconds, one thousand, three hundred and sixty Sparrow IIb missiles were in space, racing towards the alien ships.  The Rift Alien ships all turned towards the France’s fighters after the launch, perhaps running from the bigger missile strike coming from the 1st Expeditionary Force’s fighters.  The aliens soon turned back towards the larger fighter group, meaning the alpha strike from the 1st Expeditionary Force’s fighters would arrive first.

The missile wave washed over the alien force in a flurry of explosions.  When the first wave’s fireballs cleared, three of the heavy cruisers and three of the light cruisers were just gone, leaving one heavy cruiser and two light cruisers to face the fury of the remaining missiles.  The next attack took out the remaining heavy cruiser and one of the light cruisers, leaving a single light cruiser in the midst of fifty-nine remaining missiles.  The remaining missiles took out the last light cruiser, meaning that the strike cleared the area of the remaining alien ships.  The threat to the Omicron Tucanae system was decisively ended. 

While the fighters returned to their carriers, messages were sent to recall the terraformers so they could begin working on the innermost planet once again. 

Once the 1st Expeditionary Force’s fighters were back in their bays, Admiral Casella issued orders for the fleet to return to the GJ 1128 system and begin to advance on the jump point to the Mu Cassiopeiae system.  A civilian jump gate stabilization ship had been destroyed at the jump point, and the sensor buoy watching the jump point had been destroyed.  If there were any more Rift Alien ships in the system, there were likely located there. 

Once the France’s fighters landed, the carrier would return to Shield Base for replenishment and overhaul, as it had expended almost all of its missiles.  The Antares was left to watch the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system, and Admiral Casella detached a DD and a DDE to join the battleship.   

May 16, 2157, GJ 1128 system
The 1st Expeditionary Force assault groups have arrived at their staging point fifteen million kilometers from the jump point to the Mu Cassiopeiae system without spotting any alien ships.  Once the carriers are in position, the assault groups advance and jump to the Mu Cassiopeiae system, where they find a single stabilization ship hovering off of the jump point.  No Rift Alien ships have entered the system, so the fleet returns to the GJ 1128 system and heads for the rift.  Before they depart, a missile cruiser launches a buoy carrier missile to station a sensor buoy near the jump point. 

With the system clear of alien ships, Admiral Casella orders the Contact Force, which had advanced out of the 111 Virginis system and had been guarding the jump point to the adjacent 82 Draconis system, to detach its support ships and return to Sol for overhauls.  The support ships would join the 1st Expeditionary Fleet’s support units. 

May 18, 2157, GJ 1128 system
The 1st Expeditionary Force is in position 141 mkm’s from the Rift.  Admiral Casella orders her missile cruisers to establish another ring of sensor buoys around the rift, to ensure complete coverage. 

June 30, 2157, GJ 1128 (Rift) system, Leviathan frontier
A group of tugs drops off four missile bases over the newly established Rift Base, located on the thirteenth moon of the seventh planet, a gas giant.  The base is still in the early stages, and does not have ground forces, or most of its installations yet. 

July 12, 2157, GJ 1128 (Rift) system, Leviathan Frontier
Assault transports finished unloading the 5th Guard Division and 69,00 tons of STO units for planetary defense.  So far, a refueling station and a munitions transfer station had been positioned at the base, and tracking stations and maintenance and R&R bases were on their way. 

July 13, 2157, EQ Pegasi System, Kraken Frontier
Xeno study teams have completed their work in the ruined colony found on the innermost planet, discovering seventy-six installations that appear to be recoverable. 

September 23,2 157, GJ 1128 (Rift System), Leviathan Frontier
Rift Naval Base is officially declared operational on this date.  The base is located on the outer moon of the system’s seventh planet, a gas giant whose orbit will keep it near the rift for some time.  The base currently consists of a naval command center, a refueling station, an ordnance transfer station, a cargo shuttle station, and thirty deep space tracking stations.  The tankers and UNREP ships assigned to the 1st Expeditionary force have transferred their fuel and maintenance supplies to the base, and heavy ground defenses, including the 5th Guard Division and a large STO contingent, are present.  The first group of maintenance and recreation bases are en route and will arrive in five and a half days.  Finally, fourteen missile bases are in orbit over the base, with more on the way. 

With the establishment of the base, the Senate officially renames the system to the Rift System. 

September 29, 2157, Rift System, Leviathan Frontier
The first set of five maintenance bases and a recreation base are delivered to Rift Base.  These bases aren’t enough to maintain the missile bases in orbit, much less the 1st Expeditionary Force, but it is a start.  The heavy tugs that dropped off the bases immediately leave, headed back to Sol to pick up more maintenance bases. 

December 29, 2157, Rift System, Leviathan Frontier
The heavy tug group delivers six more maintenance stations, increasing the Rift Base’s maintenance capacity to the point where it can maintain the nineteen missile bases currently in orbit, with a bit additional for ships.  The tugs will return to the Solar system for another group of maintenance bases to enlarge the base’s capability to support additional ships. 

January 20, 2158, Rift System, Leviathan Frontier
A salvage ship, working on one of the Rift alien ships destroyed within the rift, recovers a solid-core antimatter power plant, and a soft X-ray laser turret, along with assorted other standard ship’s systems and resources.

January 23, 2158
Both the Hive and the Rift ships have been difficult targets for standard Imperial missiles, so, after the recent engagements in the Rift and Omicron Tucanae system, the Navy began an R&D effort aimed at developing missiles with advanced point defense penetration capabilities.  The researchers soon settled on a capability first seen in use by the Rift Aliens, laser warheads, which could attack from a standoff distance that would hopefully allow them to attack before being engaged by point defense.  The result is the Assegai-LW ASM.  The Assegai is the same size as an Archer IV ASM, and has similar capabilities, except the warhead of the Archer has been replaced with a laser warhead set to engage at 20,000 kilometers.  Construction has started and the missile will be deployed aboard the Absolution class missile destroyers as soon as they become available.   

The base in the Rift system is now fully operational.  The base’s ground defenses are in place, and   twelve missile bases orbit the moon.  The missile bases do not have the range to engage ships in the rift, but are in place to defend the base should the Rift Aliens attempt to attack the base.  The base has enough orbiting maintenance bases to support the orbiting missile bases as well as almost two hundred thousand tons of naval ships.  Admiral Casella has decided to depart the system for home, as her ships are in dire need of overhauls.  She detaches a battleship, two battlecruisers and three destroyers, along with the 1st Carrier Group, composed of a carrier and two strike carriers, to act as the Rift System Defense Force.  These ships immediately set out for Rift Base, where they will undergo overhauls before taking up their system defense duties.  The rest of the fleet sets out for Sol. 

In addition to the twelve missile bases in orbit over Rift Base, seven long duration missile bases have been towed into position to engage anything coming out of the Rift.  Because the rift is now thirty million kilometers across, which more or less matches the missile base’s engagement range, the missile bases will be positioned within the rift. 

This is the first time the missile bases have been used in such a critical and exposed role.  This, in turn, has caused the missile base program to be examined more closely, and has revealed just how critically neglected the missile base program has been.  The bases were originally conceived and built decades ago when naval planners believed that the Raiders were using standard jump points to travel between systems.  The bases were built to bolster Terra’s defenses, and long-duration bases were built to be stationed at jump points to interdict Raiders trying to travel between systems.  When it became clear that Raiders used other methods to travel between systems, the bases were relegated to colony defense duties, and over the decades they fell behind as naval ships were kept current with successive upgrades.  Before being deployed to the Rift system the bases were loaded with the latest missiles, but most of their other systems are woefully out of date.  This has caused the Navy to re-examine the bases and planning for a major upgrade and expansion of the base program is underway.     

The Rift Campaign is officially over. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: January 22, 2025, 09:55:50 AM »

Shield Sector
April 7, 2157
The Tau Cephei system is located just within the borders of the Shield Sector.  It is an uninteresting red star system with three planets, a number of moons, and several comets.  Two of the planets are gas giants and contain significant amounts of sorium at good availability levels, marking them as targets for future exploitation should sources closer to the inner empire run out, but otherwise the system has largely been ignored.  It is, however, on the route between the Shield Sector and the GJ 1128 system, which contains the anomalous region of space dubbed the “Aether Rift” by the scientific team sent to study it.  Because of this, the sensor buoy network and the courier network have been extended through the system so that if something comes out of the rift the empire will know about it.   

At 01441 hours the courier and the sensor buoy stationed on the jump point in the Tau Cephei system that leads to the GJ 1128 system detects an unknown ship just off of the jump point.  The ship’s thermal signature is similar to that of an Imperial battleship, and its observed speed is 13,794 km/s.  The courier immediately jumps out to the Tau Cephei system, while the buoy sends a contact report to the other jump point.  As soon as the contact report is received it is forwarded on to the Shield Sector Capital.  This takes eight and a half hours. 

At nearly the same time, the buoys deployed around the Aether Rift in the GJ 1128 system detect a second ship in close proximity to the rift.  This ship’s thermal signature is between that of a battleship and a battlecruiser, and its observed speed is 10,626 km/s.   This contact report is sent off as well. 

About an hour later, a third ship is detected in the GJ 1128 system, headed towards the jump point to Tau Cephei.  This ship has a similar signature to that of the one still hovering over the rift, but is moving slightly slower.  The ship moves past the jump point, possibly headed to the system’s other jump point. 

The contact report arrived at Shield Base at approximately midnight, and their reaction was immediate.  Their course was clear, as the Naval HQ on Terra had directed a very clear response should ships emerge from the rift.  The bulk of the base’s mobile strength, the 1st Battle Group and the Battlecruiser Pluto’s battle group, were dispatched to the Tau Cephei system to make contact with the aliens.  They were not to move into the GJ 1128 system without direct orders from Sol, though. 

Meanwhile, the contact report, and Shield Base’s response, were forwarded up the chain to all other commands.  They would reach Terra in approximately 11 hours, and 111 Virginis in just over 10. 

When the contact report arrived in the 111 Virginis system, on the Kraken Frontier, it was received by Commodore Zadrozny, the Contact Force CO, who was on the verge of ordering his ships to return to the Solar system after the disastrous contact mission’s aftermath and cleanup.  His mission to the Kraken Frontier was done, he had merely been putting off returning to help the system garrison chase down the Hive Fleet Kraken survey ships that had been popping up occasionally. His squadron was still well within its endurance limits, and they had plenty of supplies and fuel.  So, after a short stop at Virginis Base to refuel one final time and give his crews R&R, he ordered his force to the Mu Cassiopeiae system.   They would approach GJ 1128 from the secondary route from the Kraken Frontier.  He sent his intentions to fleet command in the Solar System before he departed, but once en route would be beyond the courier network and out of touch. 

The contact report arrived in the Solar System one hour later.  The Admiralty had been electrified by the recent arrival of the news from the Bobruisk territories of the discovery of numerous wrecks and apparent fighting, but this was far more alarming.  Unknown ships coming out of a mysterious rift, something never mentioned in any of the records recovered from the alien Imperium. It could only be a threat of stupendous magnitude.  Therefore, a fleet was assembled and designated as the 1st Expeditionary Force.  It consisted of 1xCVA, 1xDN, 2xBB, 2xCV, 1xCVS, 6xDD, 5xDDE, 100xStrike Fighters, and 8xSensor Fighters.  Rear Admiral Paglinawan is placed in command with orders to establish contact with the new aliens.  Support units will follow as they are organized. 

April 13, 2157
The new aliens, already being referred to as Rift Aliens, have appeared in the Omicron Tucanae system.  The news is alarming, as the Omicron Tucanae garrison force is returning from several system’s away, where it had been chasing contact reports of an elusive Hive Fleet Leviathan warship. 

After hesitating on the jump point, the Rift ship begins moving in-system.  This causes a problem on the second planet, which has been settled by over five million colonists.  The system’s naval base is located on the first planet, where an ancient construct is located.  This is where the terraformers are currently stationed, and they are defended by the base’s STO’s in the absence of the garrison squadron.  The Imperial Army has not yet stationed a defensive force on the second planet, as it was not scheduled to be settled yet.  As has happened before, though, once the terraformers were finished civilian ships began transporting colonists to the now planet whether the government wanted them to or not.  So, the naval base in the system is defended, as are the terraformers, but the population on the second planet is not. 

Fortunately, the Rift Aliens reach the fourth planet and then turn for the outer system and the jump point, without moving towards the inner system planets. 

Once the alien ship departs the system, the base commander orders the terraformers to leave the system, fearing the disappearance of the aliens is only temporary.  The massive ships slowly lift away from the first planet and begin moving towards the distant jump point out of the system. 

April 14, 2157
A Rift Alien fleet is detected closing on the jump point to Omicron Tucanae in the GJ 1128 system.  The fleet is composed of nine ships of two different classes.  Five of the ships have thermal profiles consistent with that of an Imperial dreadnought, while five have profiles 50% higher than a dreadnought.  All are moving at 13,734 km/s.  When the ships arrive at the jump point, they casually swat the Terran sensor buoy before jumping to Omicron Tucanae.  The other buoys in the system record the death of the sensor buoy, along with the energy profile of the weapons that took it out.  If those weapons had been aimed at an Imperial dreadnought, they would have taken out its shields in one shot. 

April 17, 2157
The Shield Base Battlegroup, under Rear Admiral Casella, jumps into the Tau Cephei system from Gamma Carinae on this date.  The sensor buoy at the jump point reports the presence of a single Rift Alien ship at the system’s second jump point to the GJ 1128 system.  At this point, Admiral Casella is unaware of the destruction of the sensor buoy in the GJ 1128 system, however, that information would have been of interest to her, but would hardly have been pivotal in her planning.  The destruction of an automated buoy was not a friendly act, but it also wasn’t a declaration of war.  And she could hardly be any more cautious than she planned on being anyway. 

For now, the Shield Base Battlegroup was on its own.  The 1st Expeditionary Fleet, advancing out of Sol, was still twenty-two days away.  And the Contact Expedition hadn’t left the 111 Virginis system yet, and would need time to move up the chain to a flanking position on the far side of the GJ 1128 system.  Admiral Casella’s battlegroup was not an inconsiderable force in its own right.  The battlegroup consisted of the DN Pegasus, the battleship Rigel, four battlecruisers, four missile cruisers, six destroyers, five missile destroyers, four destroyer escorts, a fleet scout, and a carrier and strike carrier with forty-four fighters embarked. 

Admiral Casella’s orders were to block the aliens from moving further into the Empire, and, if possible, establish contact with them and determine their intentions.  Mindful of the fact that the alien ships were almost twice as fast as Terran warships, she was not willing to advance her force very far from the jump point back to the Empire.  Neither was she willing to risk her capital ships, or God forbid her carriers, in close contact with an alien race of unknown intent and capabilities.  Therefore, she ordered her force to advance 850 mkm’s towards the jump point on the far side of the system, and from that vantage point she would launch her strike group towards the lone alien ship.  The strike group would position themselves approximately fifty mkm’s from the alien ship, at which point a single automated sensor fighter would move into close contact with the aliens to determine their intent. 

April 19, 2157, Tau Cephei – Leviathan Frontier
The Shield Base Battlegroup’s strike fighters jumped through the system’s La Grange point into the inner system, bound for a waypoint that would position themselves approximately 60 mkm’s from the jump point to the GJ 1128 Rift System and the Rift Alien ship last seen on the jump point.  Shortly after jumping into the inner system, the Aegis sensor fighters with the fighter group detect a 7,423 ton Rift Alien ship in orbit over Tau Cephei I, an airless terrestrial class planet.  Instead of continuing on as planned, the strike group remained on the La Grange point and dispatches the specially prepared automated sensor fighter towards the Rift alien ship.  Shortly after that, the Rift Alien ship departed the planet, bound for the jump point to GJ 1128. 

The automated fighter makes contact with the Rift Alien ship short of the jump point, but is ignored as the alien ship continues to retreat.  Once the alien ship reaches the jump point it jumps out, followed by the sensor fighter.  The automated fighter is programmed to follow the alien ship through the jump point and return as soon as possible to report on the conditions on the far side. 

Two minutes and forty seconds later the fighter reappears in the Tau Cephei system and sends its report to the waiting fighter group.  The Rift Alien ship continued its retreat when the fighter appeared in the GJ 1128 system.  No other Rift Alien ships were within detection range of the jump point.  As ordered, the fighter stripped the logs from the sensor buoy near the jump point and transmitted those as well.  The logs were very interesting.  The buoys at the jump points to Omicron Tucanae and Mu Cassiopeiae had both been destroyed by Rift Alien ships, which was not in and of itself necessarily a hostile act.  While not exactly friendly, it was completely understandable that an alien race might not want sensor buoys from another race in territory they considered their own.  However, much more important was the destruction of an Imperial jump point stabilization ship that had apparently been in transit through the GJ 1128 system before it was placed off limits.  The commercial ship had been attacked without warning and destroyed within seconds of entering the system.  When that report reached Admiral Casella, it settled the question of whether the aliens were peaceful or not rather definitively. 

Admiral Casella was tempted to proceed to the jump point and picket it with her heavy ships, but her orders were clear, she was not to unnecessarily risk her command but rather to block any advance into the Empire.  To that end she recalled her fighters and ordered one of her missile cruisers to re-establish the sensor buoy coverage of the jump point to the GJ 1128 system. 

April 20, 2157, Omicron Tucanae, Leviathan Frontier
For days now a Rift Alien ship had been sitting on the jump point to the GJ 1128 system, watched by a sensor buoy sitting off of the jump point.  Now it was joined by a second ship, which immediately headed in-system, towards the Imperial base on the innermost planet.  Eventually this new ship would be matched to the ship which ran from the sensor fighter in the Tau Cephei system, but for now it remained unknown to the Imperial forces in this system. 

Several hours after leaving the jump point the ship stopped at about 350 mkm’s from the jump point, and the second ship, which had been sitting on the jump point, left and started heading in-system.  About an hour later the second ship returned to the jump point, while the first began heading across the system towards a different destination.   

April 23, 2157, Omicron Tucanae, Leviathan Frontier
The Omicron Tucanae Carrier Group was back in the system and finally in between the retreating terraformer squadron and the Rift Alien ship that had been poking around the system.  The Terraforming Group, one hundred and thirty-four terraformers strong and very slow, was still over eleven days from jumping out of the system.  The Rift Alien ship was five hundred and thirty mkm’s ahead of the Terran squadron, and was 7,400 tons and moving at 10,626 km/s.  Commodore Hong, CO of the carrier group, was very suspicious of the aliens.  They had not been confirmed as hostile, but the immense industrial investment represented by the terraformers meant he couldn’t just avoid contact with them, he had to be aggressive and try to establish whether they represented a threat or not. 

Unfortunately, his “carrier group” was, in reality, a single carrier supported by a jump capable battleship.  Doctrine demanded that the carrier not be exposed to close attack by a potential threat, but the battleship Antares was built for just such a situation.  Commodore Hong ordered the carrier France to retreat and follow behind the Antares from one million kilometers, while the battleship closed on the alien ship and tried to establish contact. 

April 24, 2157, Omicron Tucanae, Leviathan Frontier
The battleship Antares reached three hundred thousand kilometers from the alien ship without incident.  The battleship had been transmitting contact messages the entire way in, but the alien had not responded.  In fact, the alien was doing nothing, just sitting in space.  Since the alien hadn’t reacted, Commodore Hong ordered the Antares to close to one hundred thousand kilometers.  It was at this point that the alien ship began running, and as it was faster, soon pulled out of the Antares’ weapons range.  After ten minutes Commodore Hong called a halt to the chase.  After consulting with his officers, Commodore Hong decided on a different approach.  He ordered his ships to close on the second alien ship, a faster ship equipped with military engines that had been hovering around the jump point to GJ 1128. 

After several hours of following the alien ship as it maneuvered apparently aimlessly across the system, Commodore Hong was losing his patience.  The alien ship was faster than the Terran warships, almost twice as fast, and hadn’t allowed then any closer than seventy million kilometers before darting away again.  What made it even more frustrating to Hong was that he knew that he could order the France to launch its fighters and they’d be able to chase it down.  After some thought he raised the commander of the France and ordered him to launch the carrier’s fighters.  The fighters were to close on the alien ship to 1,000,000 kilometers range, and then send in a lone sensor fighter to try and make contact. 

Two hours later the fighters were in position and a single sensor fighter detached from the group and closed on the alien ship.  The aliens let the fighter close, and changed course towards the jump point, but otherwise ignored the Terran fighter.  As the alien ship raced back towards the jump point, the battleship Antares was able to intercept it by cutting across its course, but it ignored the big warship just as it had ignored the fighters. 

The alien ships both jumped out of the Omicron Tucanae system at 0937 hours on the 25th, leaving the sensor fighter to wait at the jump point for the rest of the squadron to arrive.  The Antares arrived at the jump point five hours later.  Commodore Hong ordered the France to retreat to the 4th planet, which would put it 415 mkm’s from the jump point, but still in between the jump point and the base in the inner system.  He then sent a message to the courier at the jump point back to the Empire to be forwarded on the other fleets involved in the operation and the fleet HQ on Terra. 

The Empire now has blocking forces in place in three of the four systems adjacent to the GJ 1128 system, although two of those forces aren’t particularly strong, and the main force advancing from Sol is still a week away from the Tau Cephei system. 

May 7, 2157, Tau Cephei system
The 1st Expeditionary Force has entered the Tau Cephei system, fresh from refueling from the tankers in the Gamma Carinae system.  Rear Admiral Paglinawan, following orders issued to him on Terra, retires to his quarters to open sealed orders.  Inside the packet he finds that he is ordered to clear Imperial space of the Rift Aliens.  Prior to his departure the Senate declared the Rift system and all associated systems part of the Shield Sector.  He was ordered to establish contact with the aliens and order them to depart, peacefully, if possible, by any means necessary if not.  If the aliens refused to talk, his orders were clear, that would be considered willful refusal of an Imperial order and he was authorized to use force to clear the alien infestation. 

His orders clear, Admiral Paglinawan ordered his fleet towards the jump point to the GJ 1128 system. 

May 13, 2157, Tau Cephei
The three assault groups of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet were arrayed around the jump point to the GJ 1128 system, also known now as the Rift System.  They consisted of an assault carrier, two dreadnoughts, two battleships, a jump battleship, four battlecruisers, and five destroyers.  Five million kilometers back from the jump point were the fleet’s other ships, three carriers, two strike carriers, four missile cruisers, five missile destroyers, seven destroyers, nine destroyer escorts, and several support ships.  On the signal, the assault groups jumped into the Tau Cephei system. 

They materialized in the GJ 1128 system with the familiar 7,602-ton Rift Alien ship sitting on the jump point.  The alien ship immediately set out across the system, towards the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system.  After the fleet’s sensors settled, several things became clear.  First, the rift itself was not only still there, but had significantly expanded, now extending beyond where the sensor buoys had been placed.  The buoys were still there, and still reporting, though.  The buoys on the Omicron Tucanae and Mu Cassiopeiae jump points had apparently been destroyed, and, finally, a commercial stabilization ship had been destroyed at the jump point to Mu Cassiopeiae system.  That last was enough for Admiral Cassella, who had taken over command of the fleet upon its arrival.  The aliens were hostile.  With the jump point secure, she sent a destroyer back to call through the rest of the fleet. 

Unknown to Admiral Casella, shortly after she jumped into the GJ 1128 system, nine large Rift Alien ships jumped into the Omicron Tucanae system, on top of the battleship Antares, which was picketing the jump point.  There were four 22,905-ton ships, and five 15,258-ton ships.  None were as large as the Terran warship, but as a group they significantly out-massed the battleship.  Commodore Hong ordered his crew to prepare to jump, and targeted all his ships weapons on one of the larger ships, but held fire to see what they would do.  After fifteen seconds of staring at the motionless alien ships, Commodore Hong decided to put some space in between his ship and the potentially hostile alien ships.  The Antares moved out to just within weapons range of the jump point and settled in to watch the alien ships. 

Ninety seconds later all uncertainty was removed when the alien ships opened fire on the battleship and the sensor buoy.  Ten lasers of varying strengths hit the Antares, reducing her shields to 91%.  Commodore Hong ordered his ship to open fire and sent a message to the France to launch her fighters.  The fighters wouldn’t arrive in time to decide this battle, but they would avenge the Antares, if nothing else.     

The alien ships accelerated away from the jump point at almost twice the speed of the Terran battleship, racing to close the distance.  The Antares fired her laser weapons, but the alien jammers made hitting the oncoming ships nearly impossible and all the battleship’s lasers missed. 

Commodore Hong saw the nine alien ships rushing towards his command and knew they were doomed.  He couldn’t out run them, and if a single long-range salvo was able to take out 10% of his shields, when he couldn’t even hit their ships, then he wasn’t likely to take very many of them with him.  Worse, based on the latest information he had, Admiral Casella had advanced into the GJ 1128 system to make contact with the aliens, and did not know that they were hostile, unless she had already encountered them.  His comms officer had already dispatched a message to the courier network ship sitting on the jump point back to the Empire, warning them of the attack, but it would take over twenty hours for the message to reach Admiral Casella.  There was a quicker way, though. 

“Helm, set a course to the jump point.  Take us through.  All weapons to continuous fire!”

The Terran BB turned towards the jump point, and the alien fleet, and raced forward. The aliens, perhaps realizing they held the range advantage, turned away to maintain the range.  This amused Commodore Hong, who hadn’t been sure that his ship could stand up to a close pass with the alien ships.  With them running ahead of his ship, the path to the jump point was clear.  The BB took several more hits to her shields during the approach, and scored one low power hit to an alien ship at long range. 

At the last second, as the BB approached the jump point, the aliens must had realized she was going to jump out as they turned and raced towards the human ship.  The battleship took a heavy shield hit that reduced her shields to 86%, and scored several more hits on one of the alien ship’s armor, and then jumped out. 

Once in the GJ 1128 system Commodore Hong ordered his comms officer to send a message towards the jump point to the Tau Cephei system and Admiral Casella’s last reported location.  It would take that message thirty minutes to arrive.  Then they settled in to wait for the Rift Aliens to jump into the system and continue their assault. 

Thirty seconds later they were still waiting.  By then the BB’s shields had recharged almost to 100%.  Thirty minutes later the battleship was still waiting.

Admiral Casella and the fleet received the transmission from the Antares twenty-eight minutes after it was sent.  By that time the Expeditionary Force’s carriers had joined them on the jump point and Admiral Casella had just ordered a fighter strike against the fleeing Rift Alien ship which was now ten million kilometers distant. 

Even as the carriers launched their fighters, the fleet scout accompanying the expeditionary force sent a contact report for four additional Rift Alien ships that had appeared within the Rift.  The four contacts were 15, 231 tons each.  Not wishing to leave a force in her rear when they advanced on the jump point to the Omicron Tucanae system, Admiral Casella ordered her fleet to advance on the rift. 

Twenty-five minutes later the fighters had chased down their target and launched their missiles.  It took thirty-five seconds for the missiles to reach their target, which launched a decoy at the last second.  Only two of the twenty-four missiles were decoyed, and it only took five of the remaining missiles to destroy the fleeing ship.  Unlike the Hive aliens, the destruction of the Rift Alien ship left a drifting wreck, which was somehow comforting for all of the Terran crews.  The fighters returned to their bays aboard their carriers, to rearm for a strike against the ships in the rift. 

May 13, 2157, GJ 1128 system (Rift System)
By 0947 hours the Expeditionary Force was 82 million kilometers from the nearest of the Rift Alien ships.  The four ships that had ‘jumped’ into the system were divided into two widely separated groups, and had done nothing since jumping into the system.  This put Admiral Casella in something of a difficult position.  She could launch her fighters and use them to attack the ships within the rift, but she was reluctant to launch an alpha strike with missiles that could only be replaced by UNREP ships that had to travel all the way from Sol, against ships that could jump out of the system seconds before the missiles reached them.  In the alternative, she could take her assault groups into the rift to attack the alien ships, which would avoid wasting missiles, but that would expose her capital ships to a counter-attack by any ships the Rift Aliens had sitting on the far side of the rift. 

After some thought, and conferring with her staff, she decided to close to 25 mkm’s, at which point they would launch a strike from the force’s DDG’s.  The Absolution class DDG’s carried Archer IV missiles with a range of 30 mkm’s.  They would launch a small test strike, to see if the Rift Alien ships would jump out of the system when they came under missile threat. 
 
May 13, 2157, 1132 hours, Omicron Tucanae System
The France’s fighter group had been facing the same problem as Admiral Casella’s expeditionary fleet, in that their targets, the nine Rift Alien ships that had chased the Antares out of the system, were sitting on the jump point.  If the fighters launched their missiles, they would be able to avoid the strike by jumping out.  Here, though, the strike leader was relying on the experience of the France’s captain, who had served as a fighter pilot and fought several engagements against the Reapers and the Hive.  With both of those alien races, if the fighters got close enough to be detected, the aliens would pursue, even if they couldn’t catch the faster fighters.  Captain Zhen had ordered his fighters to approach to one million kilometers, and then, if the aliens didn’t react, to close even further.  The goal was to get them to pursue the fighters and move off of the jump point.  And it worked.  When the fighters reached two million kilometers from the jump point the nine alien ships began to pursue. 

The France’s fighters turned and ran ahead of the Rift Alien ships and salvoed their missile racks, targeting the four enemy ships equipped with heavy lasers, as they were the bigger threat to the Antares.  The heavy laser ships were slightly larger than an Imperial battlecruiser at 22,905 tons, and equipped with nine heavy lasers capable of dealing heavy damage out to 341,000 kilometers.  These had been christened the Espakeh heavy battle cruiser class, while the other five ships were the Caripare light cruiser class, in between battlecruiser and destroyer sized, and equipped with eight small lasers presumably for missile defense. 

Thirty second after launch, the missiles slammed into their targets.  Sixty-three hit their targets, fifty-one were intercepted by laser fire short of their targets, and the remainder came around to attack again.

Espakeh-001: Twelve armor hits, four decoyed
Espakeh-002: Twelve armor hits, two decoyed
Espakeh-003: Eight armor hits, four decoyed
Espakeh-004: Seventeen armor hits, four decoyed

The remaining came around and attacked again, getting only thirteen hits and losing fifty-three to point defense fire. 

Espakeh-001: two armor hits
Espakeh-002: four armor hits
Espakeh-003: two armor hits
Espakeh-004: four armor hits, one decoyed

The rapidly dwindling missile swarm came around again, but only managed to get one hit while losing twenty-six more to point defense fire.  That left one missile in the strike, and it got shot down before it could get close enough to attack again. 

None of the targets suffered breaches in their armor, however, the strike was not a complete failure.  The four ships had suffered an average of fifteen missile hits each, and as they had no shields their armor must be at least somewhat depleted.  The fighters raced away from the slower alien ships to return to the France and rearm. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: January 12, 2025, 09:49:03 AM »

Note: From now on when listing alien ship classes, I will be including a designator based on human ship sizes.  For instance, a Terran battleship is 40,000 tons, and a battlecruiser is 20,000 tons.  An alien warship might have the code name “Backfire”, but to be honest, that doesn’t really mean anything or impart any knowledge, except to differentiate it from other alien ships.  Therefore, a 40,000 ton alien warship with the codename Backfire will now be listed as BB Backfire.  If it doesn’t match a human ship size, then I will give it a designator as close as possible.  Therefore a 35,000 ton ship will be a light battleship, while a 27,000 ton ship will be a heavy battlecruiser.  Hopefully this will work to remind both myself and the reader of what I’m actually dealing with.  Credit to one of the AAR’s on the board where I saw the author doing this.  I wish I could remember which one, so I could give credit by name, as it’s a good idea. 

Bobruisk Territories
February 8, 2156
A survey ship from the 3rd Long Range Survey Ship detects two Bobruisk populations on the innermost moons of the GJ 1241 system’s fourth planet.  The planet is a super Jovian planet, and the two moons are low gravity moons with no atmospheres.  The survey ship launches sensor buoys towards the planet and continues with its survey.  As the survey ship closes on the planet, a number of Bobruisk ships appear in orbit over the larger outpost. 

When the survey ship completes its survey of the moons of the fourth planet, the results are somewhat surprising, and also encouraging.  The two moons being exploited by the Bobruisk have relatively minor deposits of TN resources that show signs of having been extensively mined.  If true, this would certainly mean the survey group is on the right track and hopefully closing in on the Bobruisk home planet. 

Leviathan Frontier
April 11, 2156
A survey ship probing a newly discovered warp point in the 96 Leonis system discovers it links to a jump point in the 53 Capricorni system.  The 96 Leonis system is located in the Leviathan frontier, beyond the Shield sector, and is of note as it links to the EQ Pegasi system in the Kraken Frontier. The newly discovered link to the 53 Capricorni system means it also links to the Bobruisk Territories.   

April 14, 2156
A survey ship working in the 96 Leonis system jumps through another newly discovered jump point and finds itself in a system with a massive A3-V white star primary.  The system is soon identified as the Fomalhaut system, and it possesses four terrestrial planets orbited by several moons.  Three of the planets are Venusian, and none are Terra-like. 

Solar System
May 10, 2156
The Senate has been considering the strange situation with the newly discovered race(s) in the GJ 2097 and the HIP 96183 systems.  The two systems are widely separated and not connected, at least not with any known connection.  The HIP 96183 system is on the periphery of Bobruisk territory, while the GJ 2097 system is on the edge of the Kraken frontier.  Both populations are small, with limited populations and installations, appearing to be little more than outposts.  And, although widely separated, both appear to be the same race. 

Diplomatic ships have been sent to both locations and have been attempting to establish contact, but both expeditions have failed as the aliens have shown no interest in communicating.  While the outposts are not a threat in and of themselves, the possibility that they represent the leading edge of an alien race’s territory cannot be discounted, and given their eccentric behavior, their presence is concerning.  The Senate has therefore decided that a more forceful approach must be taken. 

At the senate’s orders, the Navy is putting together an expeditionary force that will accompany a group of assault transports to the GJ 2097 system, where they will land a force of marines and guard units that will establish contact with the aliens, one way or another. 

Kraken Frontier
December 2, 2156
The Contact Expedition arrived over GJ 2097 II late in the day and dropped the 24th Guard Division and the 5th Marine Division close to the alien outpost.  The Guards immediately set up a defensible position while the Marines prepared to assault the aliens, but no aggressive actions were taken as the mission commander had ordered them not to fire first. 

The aliens waited approximately sixteen hours and then launched a surprise attack on the Terran forces.  The aliens had exchanged the stone aged weapons they had been observed hunting with for modern and very capable weaponry, and their attack was vicious in its brutality.  Dozens of guardsmen and marines were killed and the Terran camp was thrown into confusion for a short period of time. 

Initial intel reports put the enemy strength at 770 infantry and 215 other unknown type units.  As the battle went on, the intel units had begun to study the aliens and had determined that their armor was much heavier than that of the Mk V guardsman combat armor, but slightly weaker than a Mk VI marine battle suit.  The aliens were much tougher than even an augmented marine, though, and their heavy armor and physical toughness made them difficult to kill.   The Terran forces soon rallied after their surprise and fought back, and in the next sixteen hours killed 147 infantry and 27 other units, at the cost of 78 guardsmen and 49 marines.

The marines and guardsmen fought valiantly, but the aliens were vicious and merciless.  They seemed to focus on the marines in particular, often ignoring a group of guardsmen who had the drop on them to attack a marine squad that was not an immediate threat.  For all their fighting prowess and valor, the aliens were completely outnumbered.  Two entire divisions of guardsmen and marines, numbering over twenty thousand humans and vehicles, faced off against several thousand aliens, and the outcome could only go one way.  It took the Terran forces one hundred and sixty hours to finish the aliens off, by which time the total tally of the alien forces was two thousand two hundred and seven warriors and one hundred and forty-two supporting units.  Four hundred and eighty-nine marines, four hundred and twenty-six guardsmen, twenty-four armored combat vehicles, and one battalion HQ were lost in the fight. 

Once the fighting was over, a thorough search of the area found nothing of note.  The alien outpost held nothing but crude living areas for the alien troops.  There was no tech, no industry, and nothing of value to be recovered.  The only thing the troops came away with was a name for their enemies.  The aliens became known as the Rakhas, which came from their battle cry. 

Kraken Frontier
December 10, 2156
The recovery effort on Kappa Ceti ends on this date.  The construction units have recovered the following:

Numerous Alien Artifacts
16xAuto Mine
14xConstruction factory
2xCargo Shuttle Station
4xDSTS
2xFighter Factories
7xFinancial Centers
38,200,000 tons of fuel
4xFuel Refinery
1xGenetic Modification Center
4xGFCC
1260xInfrastructure
640xLow Grav Infrastructure
11xMaintenance Facilities
40,800 maintenance supplies
1xmass driver
25xMine
4xOrdnance Factory
1xOrdnance Transfer Station
1xResearch Lab
2xSector Command
3xTerraformer
55,000xWealth

10,800 tons duranium
21,600 tons gallicite
5,000 tons Uridium
5,200 tons Corbomite
4,200 ton Corundum
7,000 tons Boronide
6,400 tons Vendarite
6,200 tons Neutronium

2xmissile jammer 2
7x20cm Laser
1xCIC
1xCIWS-160
1xDamCon
1x20cm Railgun
4xScience Dept
3xTroop Transport Bay
1xSalvage Module
Info on high power microwave weapons

The ground troops begin packing up their base in preparation for transfer to the EQ Pegasi system. 

Bobruisk Territories
January, 2157
Survey units operating in the Bobruisk territories detect a large group of Bobruisk ships in the HIP 34361 system.  These ships are moving in several groups, consisting of a total of nine massive 107,259 ton commercial ships, along with a Bellicose class commercial ship of 158,876 tons, an Antic class commercial ship of 159,050 tons, and four Tremulous class commercial ships of 97,193 tons.  This sighting seems to confirm that the survey units operating in this are on the right track in their search for the Bobruisk home world. 

Bobruisk Territories
February 5, 2157
A survey ship with the 2nd LRSS, probing a new jump point found in the Upsilon Puppis system in the Bobruisk territories, finds itself in the 86 Cygni System.  The system is populated by the usual assortment of terrestrial, Jovian, and super Jovian planets and their moons and asteroids.  It does not house the hoped for Bobruisk home world, as the only planets with atmospheres have noxious mixes of unbreathable gasses.  What it does have, however, are 8 wrecks scattered around the system, of sizes ranging from 8,651 tons to 35,577 tons.  The survey ship immediately transits out and reports its find to the courier ship accompanying the survey fleet, which then turns for home to carry the report back to the communications network.  None of the wrecks are of a known class of ship. 

Leviathan Frontier
February 17, 2157
A sensor buoy detects a Hive Fleet Leviathan warship in the HIP 31292 system.  This system is adjacent to the Omicron Tucanae system, and is in the jump line running between Omicron Tucanae and the Shield Sector.  A courier immediately jumps back to Omicron Tucanae and warning the guard force there, which sets out to intercept the hostile warship.  The warship was last seen at the jump point to Sigma Draconis, an unexplored frontier system with only two planets. 

Bobruisk Territories
March 6, 2157
A survey ship with the 2nd LRSS probes a newly discovered jump point in the 86 Cygni system (the one with the wrecks), and finds itself in the HIP 84051 system, a red star system with four planets and a total of eight moons.  None of the planets are habitable or have atmospheres remotely conducive to life, but there are over eighty wrecks scattered across the system.   Some of the ships are Bobruisk ships, but the bulk are unknown in origin.  Even more interesting are the two alien ships sitting on the jump point in close proximity to the survey ship.  The survey ship’s captain jumps back to report his find, then returns to try to communicate with the aliens. 

It is apparent that the Bobruisk and these new aliens are or were at war, and given the fact that Bobruisk ships were active in the 86 Cygni system, it was possible that the Terran survey ships would find themselves in the middle of a fight. 

March 16, 2157
One of the 2nd LRSS’s ships detects a Bobruisk outpost on a moon of the fifth planet in the 86 Cygni system.  It sends a sensor buoy towards the population to keep an eye on the area.  Several hours later another survey ship finds a second outpost on another moon of the fifth planet.  A sensor buoy was dispatched to that moon as well.  Both moons proved to have small, mostly depleted, deposits of TN resources. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: December 20, 2024, 10:20:44 AM »

February 2156, State of the Empire
Fifty-six years after the beginning of the interstellar era, the Empire has become somewhat complacent.  While there are still threats to human existence, the Navy has proven more than capable of dealing with all threats encountered to date.  Human population has grown to just under eight billion, and is spread across seven systems, including thirteen planets and moons.  There is no current active threat to the Empire, although the Navy is carefully watching for a resurgence of either of the known hive fleets, or aggression from the Bobruisk.  And, of course, a watch must always be kept for raiders. 

To better administer the Empire, the Senate recently formalized the formation of the Core Sector and the Shield Sector, and has plans to create two additional sectors in the frontier, with one centered on the former Hive Fleet Leviathan territory, which is also the location of an ancient construct deemed critical to Imperial R&D efforts, and the second located in the former Hive Fleet Kraken territories, which contain several critical mining sites soon to be established. 

No major military actions are being planned at this time, although a minor deployment to the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier is in the early planning stages, to explore the potential threat from the anomalous aliens discovered by survey ships in the GJ 2097 system at the edges of explored space. 



Little is known about the race, which has so far refused to talk with the diplomatic ships sent to the system.  Orbital observation of the outpost shows it to have minimal infrastructure or buildings, and a small thermal signature, but other sensor readings indicate the presence of a significant military presence on the planet, perhaps equivalent to human battalion size.  All visual observation shows no indication of what humans would call civilization, but instead rather primitive behavior such as hunts of local wildlife using primitive weapons and what appears to be ritual combat.  Their refusal to communicate, coupled with their apparent primitivism and sensor readings indicating the presence of high technology, creates a conundrum and potential threat that must be investigated. 

Core Sector



The Core Sector is centered on Sol, and extends to Victory Base in the Groombridge 34 system and Terra Nova in the Lalande 21185 system.  Sol contains the Empire’s largest populations and most of the Empire’s industrial and R&D capability.  Terra Nova is the Empire’s primary mining site, and also a secondary manufacturing center and largest out-system population.  V126 Sagittarii is the location of the Empire’s largest fuel extraction and refinery efforts, although a secondary location has been set up in the Shield Sector.  Victory Base in the Groombridge system is intended to guard against a Bobruisk incursion, although it is one of the smaller bases in the Empire due to the continued lack of threatening activity by the Bobruisk.     

Military Forces
The military forces assigned to the Core Sector are concentrated in the Solar System, although interceptor groups are assigned to all of the systems to deal with Raider incursions, and a battlecruiser group and a carrier group have been assigned to the Lalande system as additional protection for the Empire’s largest out-system population which is also its primary mining site.  In addition, a DD group has been assigned as additional firepower for the local interceptor group in the V126 Sagittarii system, as befitting its designation as the Core Sector’s primary fuel producing site.  The naval forces concentrated in the Solar System provide the bulk of the forces for the various expeditionary forces and fleets dispatched to the frontier. 

The ground forces are also concentrated in the Solar system, although guard and territorial guard units garrison every mining outpost and population in the Sector, along with STO forces.   

Sector Naval Forces
3xCVA, 1xDN, 2xBB, 4xBC, 6xCV, 3xCVS, 3xJump Cruiser, 32xDD, 11xDDE, 5xDDG, 291xEagle Strike fighters, 25xAegis Sensor Fighters, 39xForward Class Fighter, 66xInterceptor, 16xMissile Base

Sector Ground Forces
2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 9th Guard Corps (3,344,000 tons)
23rd Guard Division (172,000 tons)
4th, 138th Guard Brigades (85,000 tons)
1st and 8th Marine Corps (1,428,000 tons)
1st Territorial Division (57,000 tons)
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 32nd, 43rd, and 47th Territorial Brigades (546,000 tons)
Planetary STO formations (687.000 tons)

Shield Sector


The Shield Sector capital is Shield Base in the V577 Monoceri system, which at 94 million is the largest population in the sector.  Shield Base also contains the bulk of the naval forces in the sector, and is considered a bulwark against any incursions from the frontier.  Other areas of interest in the sector are the ancient constructs in the Omega Pegasi (Defensive Systems) and 8 Centauri systems (Unknown) and the fueling base in the 84 Orionis system, where fifty-nine massive harvester ships gather sorium from the system’s innermost gas giant. 

The Shield Sector is the site of the Empire’s expansion efforts over the last ten years, and several worlds have been terraformed during this time.  The following worlds have been colonized to date (in addition to the Sector capital):
Atlantis, Omega Pegasi I, population 7.11 million
New Wyoming, 70 Ophiuchi II, Population 6.11 million
New Siberia, Gamma Carinae II, population 4.74 million

New Siberia is the newest population, and was unsanctioned by the Imperial Bureau of Colonization.  Its appearance on the outer reaches of the sector, so close to the Leviathan frontier, was of concern to the military, which has not yet provided defenses for the colony, although a mission to transport troops is already underway.  New Wyoming acts as a central collection point for the mines on the inner Venusian planet, but the other two colonies have not yet been classified as to their purpose.  Atlantis will eventually become a scientific research station to take advantage of the ancient construct located there, but New Siberia has only limited deposits of inaccessible TN resources, and no other redeeming features, so it is not clear what use the Empire will make of the population. 

The military forces assigned to the sector are primarily there to defend populations and mining sites, and to provide a base of operations for expeditions to the Leviathan Frontier. 

Sector Naval Forces
1xDN, 1xBB, 1xCV, 4xBC, 1xCVS, 4xCG, 6xDD, 5xDDG, 1xFSC, 4xDDE, 44xEagle Strike Fighters, 10xAegis Sensor Fighters, 81xAttack Fighters, 24xInterceptor, 3xMissile Bases

Ground Forces
1st Guard Corps (295,000 tons)
84th, 167th Guard Brigades (85,000 tons)
7th, 8th, Territorial Divisions (348,000 tons)
39th, 46th, 49th Territorial Brigade (126,000 tons)
1st, 2nd, 4th Marine Divisions (535,000 tons)
STO Defenses (138,000 tons)

Beyond the two settled sectors, the Empire recognizes three frontier territories, the Leviathan Frontier, the Kraken Frontier, and the Bobruisk territories.  The Leviathan and kraken frontier areas are the former territories of the Kraken and Leviathan Hive fleets, both of which have been decimated and scattered.  Both of these territories have military forces assigned to them, to secure them should the hive fleets reappear. 

Kraken Frontier Area


Hive Fleet Kraken, originally contacted in the 111 Virginis system, has been decisively defeated after engagements in the Omega Ceti and Black Hole systems.  To secure the area against future incursions, a fleet base is being set up on the second planet of the 111 Virginis system.  There was some debate about this location, as the planet is otherwise uninteresting, and there are other nearby sites that will almost certainly be exploited and/or colonized in the future, but in the end the central location of the 111 Virginis system won the argument. 

A general survey of the systems surrounding 111 Virginis has been carried out, pushing the frontier out to three to four jumps from 111 Virginis, looking for additional Hive forces.  This survey revealed the location of two Reaper bases, in Xi Bootis and Kappa Ceti.  Kappa Ceti was the scene of significant fighting between the navy and the Reapers, and a salvage effort to clean up the wrecked Reaper ships is underway, even as construction units labor to reactivate installations left behind by the race that inhabited the planet at one time.  In addition, the survey found a small outpost of an unknown alien race in the GJ 2097 system and contact efforts are underway, although the diplomats and scientists are making little progress. 

The Kraken territories hold several locations that have interested both the Imperial colonization bureau and the larger mining conglomerates, now that the immediate threats have been eliminated.  Xi Bootis B-III, the former location of a Reaper base, is fairly easily terraformed and has large TN resource deposits and good to very good availability levels, along with an ancient construct that would aide defense research.  Kappa Ceti III, another former Reaper Base location, is also fairly easily terraformed, and contains both ruins of a dead civilization and large deposits of TN resources at good availability levels.  In addition, there are several other prime mining sites in the system.  The EQ Pegasi system is the location of a ruined colony of some sort, and is easily terraformed.  Several other systems contain prime or secondary mining sites of interest.   For now, expansion into this area is delayed, as the Empire is focused on expansion in the Leviathan Frontier.

Territory Naval Forces (111 Virginis II)
1xBC, 1xCJ, 1xCVS, 2xDD, 1xDDE, 11xEagle Strike Fighters, 1xAegis Sensor Fighter

Territory Ground Forces (111 Virginis II)
1st Territorial Brigade (42,000 tons)
STO Forces (22,000 tons)

Leviathan Frontier


Hive Fleet Leviathan has been defeated and scattered, but ships belonging to this fleet continue to operate in the area, although most seem to be survey ships, or at least not combatants.  A number of combatants are still unaccounted for, and the last major force to be spotted was a fleet of four Abuser class destroyers armed with lasers, in the company of six unknown hive ships, in the 123 Herculis system.  A probe of the 123 Herculis system and the surrounding systems was unable to locate the ships, and their whereabouts continues to be a concerning mystery. 

Two bases have been established to secure the territory.  The first is in the Chi Draconis system, positioned to block an alien advance either from GJ 1128 or from beyond Omicron Tucanae.  This base has become somewhat of a backwater since the establishment of the forward base at Omicron Tucanae.  The Omicron Tucanae base can support 80,000 tons of naval ships, and a tug group is en route with additional maintenance bases to double this capacity.  The enlarged naval group has been deemed necessary to protect the ongoing effort to terraform and colonize the two innermost planets of the Omicron Tucanae system.  The current plan is to terraform Omicron Tucanae II first, as it is the closer to Terran standard of the two, and can be established as Terran standard by merely adding a bit of oxygen and nitrogen to the atmosphere.  Once that is complete the terraformers will move on to the innermost planet, which will take a major effort to terraform as it is very hot and otherwise barren.  Normally such a planet would not be considered for terraforming, but this planet possesses a critical ancient construct, which can accelerate the Empire’s R&D on power and propulsion systems, deemed a critical area of interest by the Emperor.  To this end, almost two hundred terraformer ships are en route, with the first group slated to arrive in forty-five days. 

Territory Naval Forces
(These forces are divided between Chi Draconis and Omicron Tucanae, with the bulk in the latter system)
1xBB, 1xCV, 26xStrike Fighter, 2xSensor Fighter, 6xInterceptor

Territory Ground Forces
(As with the naval forces, these units are divided between the Chi Draconis and Omicron Tucanae systems)
12th Guard Division, 200,000 tons
91st, 95th, 96th Guard Brigades, 128,000 tons
3rd Xeno Study Regiment, 78,000 tons
STO Defenses, 80,000 tons

Bobruisk Territories


The Bobruisk were initial contacted in the HIP 48659 system in 2135, and diplomatic contact continues in that system to this day.  Since then, the Empire has sent several expeditions into Bobruisk territory to explore in the hopes of discovering their home world, or at the very least a major colony.  To date the exploration attempts have only discovered Bobruisk outposts and Bobruisk ships.  The survey efforts have been attempting to follow the network of stabilized jump points, in the theory that the Bobruisk, like the Empire, have such a network radiating out from their central systems.  Assuming this theory is correct, at this point there are only three possibilities, the newly discovered black hole system beyond GJ 1241, the GJ 1241 system itself, and the 52 Capricorni system.  Survey ships are currently finishing their survey of the GJ 1241 system and will then move on to the black hole system if no other stabilized jump points are found. 

No naval units are stationed in the Bobruisk territories at this time. 

Detached Duty
87th Guard Brigade, 42000 tons, assigned to protect 2nd Xeno Study Regiment, in transit to 8 Centauri to examine the construct located there.  8 Centauri is located just beyond the border of the Sheild Sector. 

3rd and 10th Territorial Brigades, 84,000 tons, assigned to protect the 1st Xeno Study Regiment (78,000 tons) and the 1st Construction Group (67,000 tons).  Currently on Kappa Ceti III. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: December 14, 2024, 09:20:32 AM »

April 5, 2154
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force has refueled, resupplied, and taken on all of the missiles carried by the waiting UNREP group.  Unfortunately, the UNREP groups missiles only filled the CVA’s magazines to just over 50%.  Still, it was better than nothing.  With their resupply complete, the expeditionary force sets out for the Xi Bootis system to escort the troop transports headed to the planet with the suspected Reaper infestation. 

May 7, 2154
The Hive Fleet Leviathan Expeditionary Force returns to Omicron Tucanae Base after probing the nearby systems, looking for any trace of Leviathan ships that had been sighted in the area.  Much to Rear Admiral Casella’s frustration, they could find no trace of any hive ships in any of the systems where they had previously been sighted. 

Admiral Casella detaches the carrier France, along with two destroyers and two destroyer escorts, to act as the system defense force.  A jump-capable battleship will be dispatched from the Solar System to provide the force with jump capability, giving the forward base in the Omicron Tucanae system the ability to project force to any of the nearby systems where a hive ship might appear. 

May 10, 2154
The ground assault force has arrived over Xi Bootis B-III, escorted by the Xi Bootis Expeditionary Fleet.  The transports immediately begin dropping the 3rd, 5th, and 29th Marine Divisions(reinforced).  Initial intel reports place the enemy Reaper force at 448 centurion infantry robots, 3 decurion AA mechs, and assorted support and leader units.  They are no match for the augmented and heavily armed and armored marines and their heavy armor and artillery support. 

The Reapers were concentrated in a defensive perimeter around what appeared to be a destroyed outpost, and the marine assault elements immediately attacked, pressing in from all sides.  The small Reaper force was overwhelmed and wiped out in a matter of hours, at the cost of seven marines KIA. 

After mopping up, the marines were loaded onto the transports.  Their next target was in the Kappa Ceti system, and would be a much tougher nut to crack. 

June 18, 2154
The scout left behind in the Kappa Ceti system to watch the Reaper base detects a Hotel class Reaper ship in the outer system.  The Hotel class is 17,772 tons and has commercial engines. 

August 29, 2154
The assault transports have finally rendezvoused with the Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force five million kilometers from Kappa Ceti III.  For several weeks as they waited for the assault transports to arrive, the Terran warships had been watching the planet, the Reaper outpost, and the orbiting Hotel class ship.  Commodore Gabehart and his staff had spent their time working out a plan to attack the Reaper outpost, and had decided to eliminate the ship before beginning landing operations.  In spite of it being a civilian ship and unlikely to interfere, it was a complication.  Shortly after the transports arrive the Angel of Retribution launched her fighters, and they moved forward towards the planet. 

One hour later the fighters were in position and launched against the ship in orbit over the planet.  Twenty-four missiles streaked away from the fighters, and slammed into the orbiting ship.  It only took eight to destroy it, and there was no opposition from the STO’s on the ground. 

The fighters turned back to the Angel, and once they were aboard the next phase started.  The Assault Carriers and battlecruisers detached from the rest of the force and moved forward, to just out of the known range of the STO’s on the planet.  They were followed by the troop transports, which were moving up about 50,000 kilometers from the planet. 

The Eternal Crusader took several hits from heavy particle STO’s at 228,000 kilometers, but her shields absorbed the damage and the force continued to advance, shielding the transports following behind.  The ground batteries pounded the two CVA’s with near continuous fire for the several minutes it took for the transports to close, but then the troop transports arrived and began dropping the three marine divisions.  It didn’t take long for the marines to drop, and then the transports turned and began racing away from the planet.  The warships would remain over the planet as long as it took for the transports to retreat, but the two big CVA’s shields hadn’t dropped below 90% during the engagement, so they were confident in their ability to shield the transports for as long as necessary.  Once the transports were out of range, the Terran warships followed them.  Now it was up to the marines. 

Much like their previous engagement with the Reapers, they were in protective emplacements, but would almost certainly come out to attach the marines when they landed.  Marine intel, gathered by the orbiting ships, estimated the Reaper force as follows:

Centurian Infantry Units: 1,715
Praetorian Combat Mechs: 286
Decurion AA Mech: 49
Support and Leadership: 916
Artillery: 67
Unk: 35

The estimate came with a warning that it should be considered unreliable as it was based on limited orbital observation.  The line marines found the warning hilarious, as they never considered any intel report reliable, ever.  As expected, the Reapers came out to meet the marines as they advanced and the fighting was heavy from the first.  By eight hours into the landing, the marines had destroyed 246 centurions, 10 praetorians, 9 decurions, 42 support units, and 9 STO’s.  In exchange, the 114th Assault Battalion, which was at the forefront of the fighting, lost 22 marines. 

The marines completely overmatched the Reapers, and achieved multiple breakthroughs as they advanced, striking at exposed rear area elements, including the critical STO’s.  Another eight hours of fighting saw 286 centurion, 14 praetorians, and 7 decurions destroyed, along with 42 support units and 13 STO’s.  All this in exchange for 15 marine losses.   

The battle lasted for seventy-two hours.  After the first sixteen, it was mostly mopping up by the marines.  By the end of the battle, the marines lost 197 KIA, most of which were equipped with the older Mk IV or Mk V armor and augments.  The Reaper force totaled 2446 centurion infantry, 151 praetorian combat mechs, 84 Decurion AA mechs, 2268 support units of various types, 37 artillery, and 18 STO’s. 

With the planetary defenses defeated, it was time for the fleet to return to the Solar System for overhaul.  The marines loaded up onto their transports, and the force departed for the 111 Virginis system, where it would rendezvous with the support units. 

September 18,2 154
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force has refueled and resupplied from the support ships in the 111 Virginis system.  They have been out on the frontier for almost a year, and Commodore Gabehart decides it’s time to return home.  The hive menace on this frontier has been destroyed, and the two Reaper infestations have been cleared, opening the way for research teams to begin studying the ruins they protected. 

October 17,2 154
Troop transports arrive over Xi Bootis B-III and begin dropping the 1st Xeno Sturdy Battalion, two territorial guard brigades, and a construction group to begin work on the ruins and the ancient construct on the planet.   

October 24, 2154
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force returned to Terra on this date.  The fleet’s arrival was celebrated by world-wide parades and the government announced the rest of the week would be a holiday for all except essential workers. 

Commodore Gabehart is promoted to rear admiral, and awards are handed out to many of the officers and crewers.  The expeditionary force’s ships are immediately sent to a much-needed overhaul. 

November 22, 2154
The 3rd LR Survey Group has finished its overhaul on Terra and will now be dispatched to the Bobruisk territories to continue the Empire’s effort to determine the location of their home world, or at least a major colony. 

On this same day, the 1st Xeno Study Regiment on Xi Bootis B-III completes its study of the ruined outpost on that planet.  The outpost belongs to an unknown race, given the code-name Hellcat, and the outpost contains ten potentially usable installations.  The Xeno regiment will begin studying the ancient construct, while the construction units begin retrofitting the preserved installations. 

November 28,2 154
The 1st Xeno Study regiment completes its study of the ancient construct on Xi Bootis B-II and determines that it will assist researchers working on defensive technologies. 

December 10, 2154
Surprising no one, a long-range survey ship from the 2nd LR Survey Group confirms the presence of a ruined city on Kappa Ceti III, the site of the Reaper infestation.  In addition, the survey ship finds large deposits of eleven TN resources at moderate availability levels.  The planet has a noxious atmosphere and is too cold for humans, but is fairly easily terraform-able. 

December 22, 2154
The construction units complete their work recovering the stored installations on Xi Bootis B-III.  In all, they recovered a mine, three auto mines, a terraformer, and a deep space tracking station, along with assorted alien artifacts, 10,400 tons of duranium, 5,800,000 tons of fuel, and five fire control jamming units.  The orbiting transports begin loading the ground units to move them to Kappa Ceti. 

January 21, 2154
A raider is detected by the sensor buoy orbiting Zeta Doradus II in the Leviathan Frontier.  The contact report is relayed to the courier at the jump point, which immediately jumps back to Omicron Tucanae to report.  When the report is received several hours later on Omicron Base, the orbiting squadron is dispatched to intercept the raider. 

Just hours later a second raider is detected in the 70 Ophiuchi system, 333 million kilometers from the small colony on the second planet.  The closest warships are at Shield Base in the Monoceri system, nine days away.  A battlegroup is dispatched, but in the meantime the outpost will have to rely on its STO’s. 

The Raider in 70 Ophiuchi heads directly for the innermost planet, which has a mining outpost on it.  Unfortunately, the mining outpost has not yet received its contingent of STO’s, and so is unprotected.  The Raider briefly orbits the mining outpost then departs for A-II and its much larger, and protected, colony.  As it approaches the colony, the raider is brought under fire by the defensive STO’s and quickly destroyed, but not before it gets off one salvo with its lasers, killing four thousand colonists.   

March 4, 2155
A ship from the 3rd LR survey group detects five Bobruisk commercial ships in the NN 4176 system during its survey.  This is a hopeful sign.  The NN 4176 system was selected by the survey command as the most likely of the remaining known systems to lead to Bobruisk territory, as it has an unbroken chain of jump gates leading to it from the first contact point.  The fact that a newly discovered jump point in the system also has been stabilized, and the presence of commercial ships, means that it is increasingly likely that the survey group is on the right track.   

March 20, 2155
A contact report has reached 111 Virginis from the Theta Corvi system, two jumps away.  The report states that an unarmed hive ship, Charon class, has been spotted multiple times in the system, most recently close to the jump point to 103 Ceti (in between Theta Corvi and 111 Virginis).  Captain Luis Bray, CO of the Virginis Garrison Force, would like to take his battlecruiser and supporting ships out to eliminate the threat, but he has no jump ships and the stabilized network has not been extended to Theta Corvi yet. 

May 24, 2155
A sensor probe launched from a survey ship probing the systems in the Bobruisk sphere in the HIP 96183 system detects an outpost from an entirely new race on the innermost planet of the system.  The survey commander had been close to calling their survey efforts off as they were beyond the Bobruisk stabilization network, so out of their territory, but this new discovery has changed his mind. 

July 2, 2155
The ruined city found on Kappa Ceti III has been fully explored and contains 169 buildings that can be recovered. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: December 08, 2024, 12:05:35 PM »

July 20, 2153
A survey ship operating in the Phi Arietis system, adjacent to the 111 Virginis system, detects eight Hive Fleet Kraken ships in close proximity to a comet that was the target of the survey ship.  There are two Mors class escorts, and six new 15,432 ton ships designated as the Camazolz class.  The survey ship immediately turns away and runs for the jump point back to 111 Virginis, but fortunately the hive ships have no interest in fighting and they too turn to run. 

July 25, 2153
A long-range survey ship jumps into the 111 Virginis system from Phi Arietis and sends off a contact warning to the courier network ship on the 111 Virginis to Sigma Eridani jump point.  Once that ship received the message, it jumped out and then returned a few minutes later, after delivering the message to the next ship in the chain.  The message would then be passed back up the chain first to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet, and then to fleet HQ on Terra in a matter of hours.  Admiral Calligaris by then was in the 55 Bootis system headed home.  Because the hive ships didn’t attack the survey ship, she decided to continue home rather than detaching any of her ships, which were badly in need of overhauls. 

July 26, 2153
A group of four survey ships were assembled on the jump point in the 111 Virginis system that led to the Phi Arietis system.  They were waiting for the remaining two ships of their squadron when the eight Hive Fleet Kraken ships that had caused them to abandon the Phi Arietis system jumped into 111 Virginis, leaving them at point blank range of the two Mors class escorts that were accompanying the six other hive ships.  The survey ships immediately sent off a contact report, while the sensor buoy sitting just off the jump point sent off a contact report to the rest of the system. 

Once the survey ships jumped out, the hive ships broke into two groups, neither of which seemed to be headed anywhere in particular. 

August 22, 2153
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet has returned to Terra to honors and acclaim after destroying or scattering Hive Fleet Kraken.  The fleet’s ships have gone into a much-needed overhaul cycle, while the navy begins planning its next move to pacify the frontier. 

September 13, 2153
A survey ship operating in the Xi Bootis system, on the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier, two jumps beyond 111 Virginis, came under fire when approaching the third planet of the secondary star of the system.  The ship was rapidly destroyed by ground fire from Reaper batteries on the planetary surface, having barely enough time to get a warning out to the other ships in the system.  The other survey ships in the system immediately turned for the jump point out of the system. 

The destruction of the survey ship is alarming, for obvious reasons, but when news reaches Terra it will infuriate the admiralty.  After the initial contact with the Reapers, the Admiralty had instituted a requirement for all survey ships to probe planets with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with automated sensor probes, and all survey ships had been refitted to allow them to do just that.  For some reason the survey ship in the Xi Bootis system failed to perform that step before approaching the planet. 

Xi Bootis system
Primary: G8-V Yellow Star
2xTerrestrial – one has a thin C02-Nitrogen atmosphere, the other is Venusian.
3xDwarf
1xSuper Jovian with 23 moons

Secondary: K4-V Orange star
5xTerrestrial with 4 moons, 2x Venusian, 1 with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere
1xDwarf with 2 moons
2xGas Giants with 49 moons

September 25, 2153
A survey ship from the 1st LR Survey Group jumps into the 111 Virginis system and dispatches a Reaper Contact report to the courier network ship on the jump point back to the Empire.  The report will reach Terra in nineteen hours. 

September 26, 2153
The Reaper contact report arrives on Terra.  In response, the Imperial Fleet begins organizing an expedition to Xi Bootis system, and requests Marine and Army support. 

The 1st Expeditionary Fleet is still in overhaul, so the ships will have to be drawn from the system defense fleet.  After much wrangling, the Xi Bootis Expeditionary Fleet will consist of 2xCVA, 3xBC, 4xDD, 5xDDG, 3xDDE, 60xStrikefighter, 4xAegis sensor fighters.  Support units will join the fleet en route. 

The ground contingent will consist of the 5th, 3rd, and 29th Marine Divisions, over five hundred thousand tons of ground force, bolstered by artillery and heavy armor attachments.  The ground transports will have to follow behind the fleet, as they will take time to load and are slower than the fleet’s warships. 

October 6, 2153
The ill-fated 1st LR Survey Group jumps into the 63 Hydrae system, adjacent to the 111 Virginis system, to probe the two jump points detected by an earlier survey.  Shortly after jumping into the system, they come under fire from the two Mors class ships detected earlier, last seen in 111 Virginis.  The survey ships run from the jump point as they will not be able to jump out for some time. 

It soon becomes clear that the hive ships are running from the jump point as well, so the survey ships turn back to jump back to the 111 Virginis system, all except for the lead ship which had lost its jump drive when it was targeted entering the system. 

October 25, 2153
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force has arrived in the 111 Virginis system and refueled from a waiting tanker group.  With that complete, Commodore Gabehart orders his force to proceed to the jump point to 63 Hydrae to determine if the Hive Fleet Kraken ships that attacked the survey group are still present.   

October 26, 2153
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force arrives at its assembly point two million kilometers from the jump point.  There is no sign of the hive ships, so Commodore Gabehart orders his force to divide into two groups.  His two assault carriers will jump through to the far side of the jump point, while his battlecruisers and destroyers will wait on this side of the jump point.  His DDG’s and DDE’s will wait at the assembly point. 

When the two assault carriers jump through to the 63 Hydrae system, they find the eight hive ships sitting just off of the jump point.  The assault carriers materialized 350,000 kilometers from the jump point, so they are just within range of their lasers.  The human ships turn towards the hive ships and begin moving back towards them and the jump point.  As expected, the hive ships run to the jump point and jump to the 111 Virginis system.  Right into the sights of three battlecruisers and four destroyers. 

The Terran warships gutted the Mors class escorts as they came through the jump point, and then turned their fire on the Camazotz class ships, which were clearly civilian ships of some sort, as they had never been observed to fire on any human ship.  Although they carried significant armor, all six Camazotz ships were destroyed in short order.  The fleet reassembled and then set course for the jump point to the 100 Ceti system. 

November 15, 2153
A survey ship working in the EQ Pegasi system discovers a ruined colony on the only planet of the system, a terrestrial world with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, a little hot but otherwise ready for colonization without any terraforming.  EQ Pegasi is on the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier, three jumps from 111 Virginis.  This planet was probed for Reaper presence before the survey ship came near, and this time no Reapers were found, in spite of the ruins. 

November 24, 2153
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force has reached its observation point five million kilometers from Xi Bootis B-III.  The ship’s sensors detect a ground force present on the planet, but no ships.  After observing for a short time, Commodore Gabehart orders his force to close to 1,000,000 kilometer’s range. 

When the Terran ships reach one million kilometers, their sensors reveal the presence of an active sensor on the planet, but no additional information.  Commodore Gabehart orders his assault carriers and his battlecruisers to move to just within laser range of the planet, leaving behind his carriers and destroyers to wait out of range. 

When the big Terran ships reach firing range they begin bombarding the ground force targets with their heavy lasers.  At that range their chance of hitting anything is small, so Commodore Gabehart orders his ships to close to 200,000 kilometers range.  Reaper STO units begin firing on the oncoming ships as they close, and the Eternal Crusader begins taking damage to her shields.  However, the unmasking of the STO’s allows the Terran units to target them instead of random ground units.  While their chance of hitting has increase, Commodore Gabehart is still unhappy with their low accuracy, so he orders his ships to close to 100,000 kilometers. 

The Terran ships continue to fire as they close, but their accuracy is still lacking.  As no new STO’s have opened fire, Commodore Gabehart orders his ships to close to point blank range.  The STO’s opened up with everything they had as the Terran ships closed, including numerous gauss cannon point defense units, but they were barely able to scratch the shields of the big assault carriers.  The five Terran capital ships hovered over the planet and poured fire into the Reaper base, pounding it mercilessly with continuous laser fire.  It took several minutes of laser bombardment to eliminate the STO’s, but it was a forgone conclusion.  The Eternal Crusader’s shields never dropped below 95% during the bombardment, although the three battlecruisers reduced their maintenance stocks to an average of 79% before they were done.  With the threat eliminated, Commodore Gabehart sent a message to the courier at the jump point to signal the ground forces that the way was clear.  It would still take some time for them to arrive, as their transports were much slower than the fleet’s warships.  In the meantime, the survey command would be free to finish their survey of the system. 

Later that same day, a survey ship operating in the EQ Pegasi system (Hive Fleet Kraken frontier), probed a new jump point and discovered that it linked to a known system several jumps from Chi Draconis in the Leviathan frontier. 

November 29, 2153
Another survey ship working in the EQ Pegasi system probes another new jump point and finds itself in the 6 Centauri system, which is located on the frontier beyond Shield Base in the Monoceri system. 

December 11, 2153
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet’s ships have completed their overhauls and been transferred to Sol System Command.  With the ships freed up, a new expeditionary unit is put together to purge the remaining Hive Fleet Leviathan ships beyond Omicron Tucanae.  The new force is designated as the Hive Fleet Leviathan Expeditionary Force, and it consists of one dreadnought, one battleship, two battlecruisers, four missile cruisers, five missile destroyers, two destroyers, four destroyer escorts, a scout, and the dreadnought’s embarked fighters.    The force departs on this date, bound for the forward base in the Chi Draconis system. 

January 5, 2154
A survey ship working in the Kappa Ceti system, in the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier, three jumps from 111 Virginis system, had launched a sensor drone towards the system’s third planet some time ago.  At 1659 hours, the sensor drone bus reached the third planet, but before it could deploy its sensor buoy it was destroyed by a nuclear detonation. 

With the destruction of the sensor drone, the survey ship jumps out to report the contact. 

January 10, 2154
The 2nd LR Survey Group, working in the Xi Bootis system after it was cleared by the navy, discovers an ancient construct and ruins on the planet occupied by the Reapers.  In addition, the planet has massive deposits of eight TN resources at good availability levels, including gallicite, stocks of which have been shrinking. 

January 16,2 154
The contact report concerning possible Reaper presence in the Kappa Ceti system reaches the Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force.  As the ground force is still over two and a half months away, Commodore Gabehart decides to probe Kappa Ceti to determine the extent of the problem.  His expeditionary force sets out for Kappa Ceti on this date. 

February 7, 2154
Survey ships operating in the GJ 2097 system, on the Hive Fleet Kraken frontier, two jumps beyond 111 Virginis, discover a previously unknown alien race on the system’s second planet when the sensor bus deployed by one of the survey ships entered orbit of the planet and deployed its buoy.  The buoy immediately detected a small, outpost sized alien population on the planet, which was terrestrial and boasted an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and temperate climate.  The survey ships began their survey effort while a single ship returned to 111 Virginis to report the contact. 

February 24, 2154
The Xi Bootis Expeditionary Force had entered the Kappa Ceti system, location of the presumed Reaper infestation, several days ago and was headed inwards, towards the third planet.  It was still 2.3 days away when the fleet scout assigned to the expeditionary force detected a Reaper Charlie class ship 235 mkm’s ahead of the Terran ships.  The Charlie class had been encountered before, had a known speed of 8,03 km/s, and although its purpose was unknown it was known to mount a decoy missile launcher.  As the Reaper ship was faster than the Terran ships it could evade the expeditionary force, but it couldn’t run from the Terran fighters.  Commodore Gabehart ordered his force to continue on course towards the planet, curious what the Reaper ship would do. 

After closing for a bit, the Reaper ship turned and started running ahead of the Terran force.  Commodore Gabehart, after consulting with his staff, orders his assault carriers to launch their fighters and destroy the Reaper ship before it can join with other ships at the target.  Shortly after the fighters move away the Reaper ship turns back towards the Terran force and begins closing.  Shortly after that it turns and begins running again. 

At 0149 hours on the 25th, twelve of the sixty fighters launch their Sparrow IIb missiles at 2,000,000 million kilometers range, for a total of ninety-six missiles.  The missiles take forty-five seconds to reach their target and completely overwhelm it, destroying the Charlie in the first pass.  The fighters return to their carriers to rearm. 

Five hours later, when the fleet reached 1.3 billion kilometers from the third planet, the scout’s sensors detected a Reaper fleet closing on the Terran force.  The fleet consisted of six ships, four Deltas, an India, and a new class designated as the Ability class.  Deltas were 26,089 ton offensive missile launching ships, the India was a 17,399 ton defensive missile launching ship, and the Ability was 17,370 tons but otherwise unknown.  The Reaper fleet was just under the maximum range of the Terran scout’s sensors, 400 million kilometers, and closing at 5,333 km/s, which was fortunately below the Terran fleet’s speed of 7,500 km/s.  Once again Commodore Gabehart orders his fighters to launch. 

The sixty Eagle strike fighters raced away from the Terran expeditionary force at their maximum speed of 19,289 km/s while the expeditionary force came to a halt behind them.  When the fighters reached the limit of their escorting Aegis sensor fighter’s active sensors, two additional contacts appeared in close proximity to the Ability class unit, which was leading the other five units by 9.5 mkm’s.  The two new units were Golf class ships, each 8,689 tons and known to mount gauss cannons.  As the fighter’s primary target was the four Delta class ships, the strike commander, Lt. Commander Leota Stach ordered her fighters to detour around the lead force. 

The Terran fighters turned and began moving to the side, while the Reaper ships continued on their course towards the Terran ships.  Once the fighters reached their waypoint seven mkm’s to the side of the Reaper’s course they waited for the Reaper fleet to pass.  Shortly after reaching their waypoint three new contacts appeared trailing eight million kilometers behind the main force, all Foxtrot class ships.  Foxtrots are 8,691 ton ships with heavy particle beam weaponry, and are dangerous close-in combatants. 

One minute later the Reaper fleet grew again, as a single Golf class escort appeared with the main force and two Golf’s appeared with the trailing Foxtrot units.  Lt. Commander Stach waits another eight minutes and then orders her fighters to begin their attack run on the main Reaper force.  The Terran fighters close and the Reaper ships continue on their course until the fighters reach fifteen million kilometers, at which time the Reaper main group and the trailing force turns towards the fighters, while the lead group continues on towards the Expeditionary force. 

Eight minutes later, at near their maximum range of three million kilometers, the Terran fighters launch their missiles.  The Strike planners had no idea what the Reaper’s missile capability would be against the fighters, so they had decided on the maximum range strike as the safest approach.  The sixty fighters concentrated all of their missiles on the four Delta class offensive missile units, as they were the primary threat to the fleet.  Here, the strike planners had been divided.  Previous experience had shown that it was a better allocation of their missiles to eliminate anti-missile escorts first, allowing a later strike to finish off the unprotected offensive ships, but the bulk of the planners felt that the Sparrow IIb missiles, with their improved ECCM and ATG, along with their heavier warheads, would allow them to penetrate the Reaper’s defenses and eliminate the primary targets, leaving the escorts with nothing to protect. 

The four hundred and eighty missiles raced away from the fighters, towards the Reaper force, while the fighters turned away to maintain the range.  Reaper AAM’s began intercepting the missiles 678,000 kilometers from the Reaper force.  Sixteen Sparrow IIb ASM’s were stopped short of the Reaper force by the AMM’s, and then the Terran missiles closed to attack range.  The first attack by the missiles destroyed three of the Delta’s outright, and heavily damaged the fourth.  Point defense fire only took out a relative few of the attacking missiles, but did manage to take out the few missiles that survived the first attack as they came around to attack again.  The strike was a success, with three of the Deltas destroyed and the fourth crippled and reduced to 889 km/s. 

The fighters turned back to their waypoint to the side of the Reaper fleet, and then set out for their carriers, their job done.  The long-range missile threat from the Reaper force was eliminated.  The remaining ships of the main force tried to pursue the fighters, while the lead Reaper force continued on towards the Terran expeditionary force, and the trailing group, along with the damaged Delta, turned back.    After a short period, the lead group turned back as well, followed shortly thereafter by the remnants of the main force.  Shortly after the fighters left the Reaper ship’s detection range, they all turned back towards the Terran force and began closing again, except for the crippled Delta.         

Four hours later the fighters landed on their carriers and Commodore Gabehart ordered his force to close on the oncoming Reaper force, the lead unit of which was now 180 mkm’s away and closing.  As the two forces close on each other, the Terran scout detected a Charlie class ship closing on the damaged Delta from the inner system. 

When the Reaper ships reach 72 mkm’s from the Terran force they turn away and begin running for the inner system, all except the two remaining ships of the main force, which continue to close.  At 2213 hours the India and Golf class units are 27 mkm’s from the Terran force, and Commodore Gabehart orders his DDG’s to engage the oncoming Reaper ships.  The Terran Absolution class DDG’s are armed with forty-two box launchers equipped with the Archer III ASM.  The Archer III has a speed of 35,000 km/s, second generation ECCM and ATG, a range of 30 mkm’s, and a warhead 50% more powerful than the Sparrow IIb’s carried by the fighters.  In addition, the Archer III carries two decoys to help it penetrate fleet defenses.  The lead DDG, the Amnesty, launches twenty-five Archer III ASM’s in response, targeted on the two closing Reaper warships. 

Reaper interceptor missiles began attacking the missile wave when it reached five hundred and sixty-five thousand kilometers from the Reaper force.  For the most part they expended themselves on decoys, but two missiles were destroyed by the AMM’s in the first attack.  Three more missiles were destroyed, and twenty-five of the decoys, before the missiles reached attack range.  Only two missiles penetrated the point defense fire and the ship’s decoys to hit the Golf class escort, expending themselves against the ship’s shields.  Eight missiles survived to hit the India class ship’s shields, and another hit its armor but didn’t penetrate. 

For the next attack, two of the Amnesty’s sister ships launch a total of fifty missiles at the two oncoming Reaper ships at twenty-five million kilometers.  Once again, the interceptions began around 550,000 kilometers. This time the Reapers took out thirteen missiles before they reached attack range.  The India class had its shields stripped again, and took five armor hits, but none penetrated, but the Golf class took a penetrating hit that left it drifting, leaving the India to proceed on its own. 

The third attack consisted of forty Archer III ASM’s, all targeted on the India class ship.  Nineteen of the forty hit the India, stripping her shields again and getting seven penetrating hits, reducing her speed to 2,666 km/s.   

Commodore Gabehart decides that the two Reaper ships have been reduced to irrelevance and orders his fleet to close on them to beam range.  The India doggedly continues to close and managed to get several salvoes of missiles off at the Terran force before the Angel of Retribution’s heavy lasers swatted it from space.  Between the fleet’s point defense and the CVA’s heavy shields the India failed to inflict any damage.  The Terran force set its course for the planet again.  One shot with one of the Angel of Retribution’s 30cm soft X-ray lasers took the crippled Golf class out as the force advanced on the planet. 

In the meantime, the two other Reaper squadrons had turned and were closing on the Terran force, but later turned away. 

February 26, 2154
At 1234 hours, the Terran force picked up a missile salvo of twenty-six missiles closing on their position, apparently launched from the crippled Delta which was now 27 mkm’s away.  Commodore Gabehart decided to avoid wasting any more missiles on the Delta and ride out the attack.  The three DDE’s escorting the capital ships moved forward and prepared to engage, while the rest of the ships ready their point defense weapons. 

The Reaper missiles streaked towards the oncoming Terran ships at 30,085 km/s, while the Delta still limped along at 889 km/s, 30 mkm’s from the Terran fleet and closing.  When the incoming missiles reached three million kilometers AMM’s began racing away from the DDE’s.  The Terran AMM’s were almost three times as fast as the incoming missiles, and they sped away from their DDE’s as if eager to reach their targets.  A second salvo of fifteen AMM’s was launched ten seconds later, followed shortly by a third. 

The first wave of AMM’s only got three hits, two of which were decoys.  The second got seven hits, but again only one was a real missile.  A steady stream of AMM’s raced away from the defending DDE’s as the Reaper missile wave closed, stripping away the decoys.  In the meantime, a second missile wave had appeared on the Terran ship’s sensors, but this missile wave was only composed of eleven missiles. 

By the time the incoming missile salvo reached laser range of the Terran force, it was reduced to seven missiles.  Four more missiles were destroyed by the AMM’s, one more was taken out by last ditch laser fire, and two hit the armor of the DD Wei Zhao, causing minor damage to its armor belt. 

The DDE’s began launching again when the second missile salvo reached three mkm’s range.  Only one missile from the second wave got close, but it was finally shot down by an AMM just 80,000 kilometers short of the fleet.  Space was clear around the expeditionary force again. 

The Terran force chased down the slowly fleeing Delta, and once within range of its lasers, took out the Reaper ship with a single shot from the Angel of Retribution’s spinal laser. 

The next closest group of ships was the Ability class cruiser and its two Golf class escorts.  They were running for the planet at 5,340 km/s, and were sixty-two million kilometers from the expeditionary force.  The other group, composed of three Foxtrots and two Golf’s, was also headed towards the planet and was twenty-four million kilometers farther away than the first group.  Commodore Gabehart ordered his ships to chase them down. 

At 1732 hours the fleet scout attached to the expeditionary force detected two Alpha’s and two Bravo class units orbiting the third planet.  These have been encountered before, and are immobile bases used to protect Reaper anchorages.  The Bravos carry numerous small missile launchers, while the Alphas are suspected to be point defense bases, and possibly beam combatants.  Commodore Gabehart launches his fighters and orders them to close on the suspected Reaper base on the third planet while the expeditionary force continues to chase the Reaper ships. 

February 28, 2154, 0108 hours
The fighters are now within range of the sensors on the Aegis sensor fighters, and they pick up twelve Golf class and a Charlie orbiting the planet, along with the four bases.  The Golf class are small missile combatants, while the Charlie is a beam combatant. 

0144 hours
The fighters are now in their launch position, 1.75 mkm’s from the planet.  The sixty Eagle fighters launch their missiles, eight Sparrow IIb ASM’s each, targeting the four bases and the Golf class fast missile ships.  Twenty seconds later interceptions start, and sixty-eight missiles are destroyed short of the planet.  One hundred and twenty-two are destroyed by point defense fire, and two hundred and fifty-eight hit their targets.  Eight Golf class ships are destroyed outright, and the other four suffered several penetrating hits each.  The missiles were less successful against the bases.  All four bases carried decoy missiles, and succeeded in decoying eighty-six missiles.  Two of the bases suffered two penetrating hits, one suffered one penetrating hit, and one escaped unscathed.  Their missiles expended, the Terran fighters turned back towards their carriers to rearm. 

As the chase grinds on, the closer Reaper force suddenly turned towards the Terran expeditionary force and begins closing.  It quickly turns away again, but the range dropped precipitously for a period of time. 

At 0703 hours the Terran ships drew into range of their lasers and opened fire, with the CVA’s and the BC’s focusing on the Ability class, while the DD’s concentrated on the two Golf class units.  The first hits were low powered and few in number, due to the range, but as the range dropped their accuracy increased, as did the power of the lasers.  When the Terran ships reached 237,000 kilometers the fleeing Reaper ships began returning fire, hitting the Angel of Retribution with several energy weapons that barely scratched her shields. 

The next laser salvo from the Terran ships dropped the Ability’s shields and scored hits on her armor, several of which penetrated.  After several more lasers penetrated her armor, the Ability’s speed began dropping.  With the Ability reduced to 4,000 km/s, the two Golf class units turned back towards the Terran ships and suddenly raced towards them, closing rapidly.  Commodore Gabehart ordered his turreted weapons to focus on the Golf’s, along with the BC’s plasma cannons, which had so far remained silent, to augment the destroyer’s firepower. 

The plasma cannon fire, along with the increased laser fire, stripped the Golf’s remaining shields and shredded their armor, with one suffering a penetrating hit.  The next salvo, at 73,000 kilometers, holed both Golfs, leaving one drifting and the other barely underway.  Two more salvoes and the Golf’s were reduced to wrecks, leaving only the Ability.  One more round of fire from the capital ship’s heavy lasers put paid to the Ability, which had been vainly trying to close the distance. 

With the second group of Reaper ships eliminated, Commodore Gabehart ordered his force to run down the third and last mobile force. 

At 1047 hours the Terran expeditionary force had closed to twenty-eight million kilometers from the third planet and detects a ground force on the planet’s surface.  The third mobile force is now nine million kilometers from the advancing Terran force.  Commodore Gabehart ordered his DDG’s to launch a strike with their remaining Archer III ASM’s against the bases in orbit over the planet.  Seconds later the three DDG’s with missiles left were wreathed in fire and smoke as ninety-five ASM’s left their launchers bound for the planet.  Five minutes later the missiles raced past the last Reaper mobile force on their way to the planet, passing 320,000 kilometers from the ships.  Forty seconds later the active sensors on the missiles picked up nine Reaper missiles out-bound, headed for the fleet. 

As the Reaper missiles approached the fleet the DDE’s went into action again, spewing AMM’s ahead of the capital ships.  Once again, the missiles were stopped short of the fleet.  Reaper AMM’s reduced the Terran missile wave to fifty-six as they closed, and then point defense took a massive toll of the large Terran missiles, leaving only nineteen to hit the two Bravo class bases, neither of which lost their shields. 

Not wishing to face massive waves of small missiles from the two Bravo class bases, Commodore Gabehart authorizes one more strike by the fighters with the last of the expeditionary force’s fighter missiles.  The fighters launch and streak towards the planet shortly thereafter. 

Even as the fighters race towards the planet and its orbiting bases, the third mobile group turns back towards the Terran expeditionary force and races towards it, closing rapidly.  Commodore Gabehart assigns each of his capital ships to target each of the oncoming Reaper small ships, with his destroyers each picking a target as well. 

As the two groups closed the Reaper ships turned away while still out of range, forcing the Terrans into a chase again.  In the meantime, the fighters had reached their launch point and sent their missiles towards the orbiting bases.  All of the fighter’s missiles were targeted on the two Bravo class missile bases, in an attempt to overwhelm them.    As before the Reaper AMM’s began intercepting the fighter’s missiles short of their target, and then a veritable storm of point defense fire tore massive holes in the missile wave, but with two hundred and forty missiles targeted on the two bases there was just no way the Reapers could stop all of them, and the two missile bases disappeared in a series of massive explosions, leaving two point defense bases, a Charlie class beam combatant, and four Golf class escorts orbiting the planet. 

Five minutes later the Terran expeditionary force drew into range of the mobile group and opened fire on the Reaper combatants.  As before the hits were few and low power at long range, serving only to attrit the Reaper ship’s shields, but they increased in power and number as the range dropped.  When the range reached 200,000 kilometers the Terran ships turned to maintain the range just as their fire took down one of the Reaper ship’s shields.  So far, the Reaper ships had not got a shot off at the Terran fleet.  Soon after that the Terran lasers began penetrating the Reaper ship’s armor. 

One by one the Reaper ships were destroyed by the sustained laser fire.  One managed to get close enough to fire its particle lance at a Terran destroyer.  Fortunately, this was a Hero Flight IVd type destroyer, with the latest shields.  The Reaper particle beam took the DD’s shields down, but only scratched her armor.  It took time for the Terran ships to reduce the Reapers to scrap, but Commodore Gabehart was perfectly willing to take the time to do the job right. 

When the last Reaper ship blew up under sustained laser fire, Commodore Gabehart ordered his fleet forward, towards the planet and its remaining defenders.  Fourteen minutes later the fleet came to rest three million kilometers from the planet. 

After holding station for a short period of time, Commodore Gabehart ordered the fleet forward.  The fleet’s sensors still showed a considerable ground force contact on the planet, two Alpha class point defense bases, a Charlie class beam cruiser, and four Golf class small missile ships.  The priority target for the Terran ships would be the two point defense bases, and then the Charlie class cruiser. 

As before, the Terran ships opened fire when they came into range, at 384,000 kilometers, but this time they were all targeting the same Alpha class base.  The hits started becoming more powerful, and more common, as the fleet closed, but Commodore Gabehart ordered them to come to a halt at 300,000 kilometers.  At this range the Terran ships could engage with all of their lasers, and it appeared that the Reapers could not reach them. 

Unfortunately, the Terran weapons weren’t getting enough hits or doing enough damage to get through the Reaper’s shield in a reasonable amount of time, so Commodore Gabehart ordered his ships to close to 250,000 kilometers, and then 200,000 when that didn’t increase their effectiveness enough.  At 212,000 kilometers range the Angel of Retribution and the Eternal Crusader were attacked by twelve powerful ground-based particle weapons each, but fortunately most missed and the Eternal Crusader only took one hit to her shields.  The Terran ships were apparently still too far out to determine which ground units were attacking his ships, so Commodore Gabehart ordered his ships to move back to 250,000 kilometers and to bombard the enemy fleet from there.  Even as the Terran ships moved away, they finally penetrated their target’s shields.  They almost immediately began getting penetrating hits on the base.  It didn’t take long for the base to succumb to the sustained laser fire, at which time the Terran ships shifted to target the second Alpha class unit. 

The long-range laser bombardment soon wore through the base’s shields, and then its armor.  Soon it joined its fellow base as wreckage orbiting the planet.  The fleet then shifted fire to the Charlie class cruiser, and then took out the Golf’s one by one.  Once they were gone, the fleet shifted fire to the STO’s that had revealed themselves. 

After several minutes pounding the planet, Commodore Gabehart called a halt to the bombardment.  The chances of hitting the STO’s was too small, and the wear and tear on his ships was beginning to be a problem.  They had destroyed all of the Reaper mobile forces in the system, and the planet lay open to invasion when the ground forces arrived.  It was time to withdraw.  The Terran expeditionary force turned towards the jump point out of the system, on course to rejoin the tankers and supply ships in the 111 Virginis system. 
Posted by: Kurt
« on: November 30, 2024, 09:53:49 AM »

September 8, 2151
A sensor buoy in the 111 Virginis system detects a ship belonging to Hive Fleet Kraken jumping into the system from Omega Ceti.  This is a new kind of ship, and will be eventually designated as the Iku class once the contact report is received on Terra.  It is small, at 3,950 tons, has military engines, and its observed speed in 17,392 km/s. 

The ship leaves the vicinity of the jump point and is soon out of sensor range of the buoy.  Thirty-six hours later the buoy on the fourth jump point, to an un-surveyed system named 103 Ceti, detects the hive ship approaching the jump point.  The Hive ship jumps out shortly thereafter. 

Nine hours later, on the 10th, a buoy tender jumps into the 111 Virginis system and strips the nearest buoy’s logs.  The contact report is noted and the ship jumps back out, headed for the Lalande system to report this newest information. 

September 18,2 151
Battlegroup Indefatigable sets out for the Omicron Tucanae system from Terra on this date.  The battlegroup is composed of three Indefatigable class missile cruisers, two strike carriers, a jump cruiser, and three destroyers.  The missile cruisers are carrying sensor buoys in addition to their standard missile loadout, and will seed the systems around Omicron Tucanae to track Hive Fleet Leviathan ships. 

November 17, 2151
Eight Hive Fleet Kraken ships jump into the 111 Virginis system.  The nearby sensor buoy notes their arrive and dispatches its contact report to the other buoys in the system.  One day later the buoy tender will jump in and download the logs.  It will take seventeen days for the contact report to reach Terra.

November 25, 2151
The Empire announces the establishment of the courier network.  The network will consist of couriers stationed at each side of jump points connecting inhabited or exploited systems.  Each courier will receive messages transmitted from the inhabited worlds of the system, ships, or bases, and jump through to the far side of the jump point to transfer the messages to the courier on the far side, which will then transmit the messages to the next courier in the network. 

This is a monumental accomplishment, greatly reducing message transit times between bases and planets in the Empire.  Currently, for a courier to get from the frontier at Shield Base in the Monoceri system to the solar system with a message it would take just over thirteen days.  Once the new network is in place, a message will take just eleven hours to get from Shield Base to Terra!  This will revolutionize not only business practices and personal communications, but will also allow for much faster comms between naval bases and forward fleets.   

December 4,2 151: The contact reports detailing Hive Fleet Kraken activity in the 111 Virginis system reach Terra.  Many of the major units of the fleet are in the midst of a major refit, so no action will be taken for now, at least until the buoy seeding force returns from the Omicron Tucanae frontier. 

December 15, 2151
The Buoy Seeding Force has delivered sensor buoys to the three known jump points in the Mu Draconis system, and to the second planet in the inner system.  No hive fleet ships are detected, so the force jumps out to continue seeding the nearby systems. 

January 31, 2152
A light raider is detected in the Lacaille system.  An interceptor group is dispatched from the naval base in the inner system, and a contact report is sent to the solar system via the ICN (Interstellar Communications Network).  Unlike the earlier courier network, where a courier based in Lacaille would have to travel all the way to the Solar system to report, taking days, the message, which is transmitted to a courier on the jump point in Lacaille, and then carried through the jump point to the Wolf system, where it is transmitted to a courier on the jump point to the solar system and then carried through that jump point by that courier, will arrive on Terra in just five hours. 

The light raider is positioned in the outer system, beyond the jump point to the Wolf system.  Fortunately, the interceptors are fast and will intercept the raider before it becomes a problem.  The interceptors close on the raider, until at twenty million kilometers it turns and begins running.  The interceptors steadily close, until at 160,000 kilometers they open fire with their 15 cm lasers.  It takes three salvoes before they get a penetrating hit, and the interceptors continue to pour fire into the fleeing raider.  After eleven additional salvoes and numerous additional hits, the commander of the interceptor group decides to close to enable his lasers to do more damage per hit.  The very next salvo, at 123,000 kilometers, cripples the raider, and the next destroys it.  A second message is sent to the solar system while the interceptors return to base. 

April 29, 2152
The ICN is extended to the 111 Virginis system, establishing a link with the sensor buoys in that system that have been tracking the Hive Fleet Kraken activity in the system. 

May 7, 2152
The 1st LR Survey Group has assembled on the jump point to the Lambda Volantis, joining the Buoy Seeding Force in the area beyond Omicron Tucanae.  Their survey of the 85 Draconis system is complete, and both adjacent systems have been probed. The Buoy Seeding Force has positioned sensor buoys on all three jump points in the system.  At this point, Captain Feng declares his mission complete.  The survey ships will return to Terra for overhaul and possible refits, accompanied by the Buoy Seeding Force.  No contact has been made with Hive Fleet Leviathan.   

May 31, 2152
A force of ten Hive Fleet Leviathan ships is detected by a sensor buoy in the Mu Doradus system, at the jump point to the 26 Draconis system.  The force is composed of four 10,650 ton Abuser class, and six ships of a new class, designated as the Equalizer class.  The ships jump through to the 26 Draconis system.  Shortly thereafter, the ships jump back to the Zeta Doradus system. 

June 11, 2152
The Hive Fleet Leviathan force appears in the 123 Herculis system. 

June 19, 2152
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet begins forming in the Solar System.  Many of its units are still training up, or in overhaul or refit status, but once it is ready it will head out to deal with either of the hive fleets, depending on their activity. 

August 11, 2152
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet leaves Terra for Omega Ceti.  The fleet consists of two dreadnoughts, six carriers, three battleships, one battlecruiser, four missile cruisers, two strike carriers, three jump cruisers, five destroyers, six escort destroyers, five missile destroyers, one hundred and ninety-two strike fighters, sixteen Aegis sensor fighters, a fleet scout, and six military replenishment ships.  Tankers, tugs, and UNREP ships are moving from various bases across the Empire to support the fleet, along with a survey fleet.  The 2nd LR Survey Fleet is being recalled from Bobruisk territory and will join the fleet as soon as possible. 

August 29, 2152
A light raider is spotted in the Lalande system, 365 mkm’s from Terra Nova.  The thirty-five warships of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet just happen to be passing through the system at the time, but are just over a billion kilometers away.  Rear Admiral Casella orders her fleet to continue on towards the jump point out of the system, while the naval forces assigned to Terra Nova respond.  The six interceptors of the Terra Nova squadron chase down the raider and destroy it with two salvoes from 120,000 kilometers range without suffering any damage of their own. 

September 3, 2152
A light raider is detected in the Alpha Centauri system, in between the base on the innermost planet and a group of freighters transporting resources from the Groombridge system to the Solar System.  The interceptors of the Alpha Centauri group are dispatched to intercept.  These interceptors are equipped with the latest soft X-ray lasers, and engage at 261,000 kilometers.  It isn’t long before the raider is reduced to wreckage. 

September 25, 2152
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet has refueled and resupplied from waiting support ships, and jumps into the 111 Virginis system.  The jump point is clear, as confirmed by the ICN ship that has been stationed on the far side.  Once in system, the fleet proceeds to the nearest jump point, to 63 Hydrae.  Given the prior hive activity in the system, Admiral Casella wants to probe each jump point to determine if Hive Fleet Kraken ships are present. 

September 26, 2152
The 63 Hydrae system is clear, and contains no planets, asteroids, or comets.  The fleet jumps out and heads to the next jump point.  Four days later the fleet clears the 100 Ceti system, which, like 63 Hydrae, has no planetary bodies and only a lonely comet. 

September 30, 2152
The fleet is assembled at the jump point to the 101 Ceti system.  To probe the jump point, five warships move away from the rest and then jump through.  The DN Pegasus, followed by the battleships Pride of Sol, Rigel, and Antares, and the battlecruiser Terra.  For these probing jumps, Admiral Casella had decided to only include ships with shields, to avoid exposing her destroyers to microwave and corrosive weapons. 

Unlike the other two probes, there is a Hive Fleet Kraken ship waiting for them on the far side.  It is a 3,298 ton Charon class, just 40,000 kilometers from the jump point.  The assault group appears 290,000 kilometers from the alien ship.  Admiral Casella orders her ships to pursue the alien ship and open fire. 

Reacting quickly, the alien ship jumped out to the 111 Virginis system, and to what it clearly thought would be safety.  Instead, it appeared in the midst of the assembled Expeditionary Fleet.  The alien ship was ravaged by a nearby destroyer and then nearly cut in half by a 30 cm Soft X-ray laser from the DN Andromeda.  The assault group jumped back and the fleet moved on to the next jump point. 

October 6, 2152
Having cleared all of the other jump points, the Expeditionary Fleet has arrived at the jump point to Omega Ceta.   As it is entirely possible that a large proportion of the Hive Fleet is on the other side, Admiral Casella will be taking three assault groups through the jump point.  Two of the groups are composed of five ships, the third is composed of four.  The three groups account for virtually all of the beam combatants in the fleet.  The carriers and missile ships move off of the jump point, in case the hive ships jump through. 

They find nothing on the far side, so Admiral Casella calls forward the support ships so her fleet can refuel before moving into the system.  In the meantime, the missile cruisers begin launching senor buoy carriers to various points in the system, to provide intelligence on the location of the Hive Fleet, if it is present. 

When the main fleet enters the system, the scout’s sensors pick up two contacts in the inner system approximately 350 mkm’s away.  The first contact, designated as Viper-1, consists of one previously unknown 19,762 ton ship designated as Scathach-01.  The second contact, designated Viper-2, is fifteen million kilometers in-system from the first group and consists of the 61.550 ton Osiris class suspected to be the hive’s flagship, two 20,550 ton Anubis class (laser combatant), and four 10,153 ton Mors class (point defense).  Admiral Casella orders an Alpha Strike with every fighter in the fleet, hoping to eliminate the enemy’s flagship in the first strike. 

Seconds later one hundred and eighty-two strike fighters are headed in-system, leaving only the DN’s fighters with the Fleet.  Unfortunately, one hour later the alien forces disappear through the system’s inner LaGrange point, jumping out to the outer system.  The fighters are ordered to hold position.  An hour later Viper-2, including the alien flagship, jumps back into the inner system and sets its course for the jump point where the main fleet is located.  The fighters are ordered to intercept. 

Unfortunately, force Viper-2 soon turns back and jumps back to the outer system.  Admiral Casella orders the fighters to continue to close on the LaGrange Point. 

2144 hours
The fighter group is now 2.3 mkm’s from Viper-2.  The fighter’s sensors have confirmed that the group has no additional ships.  The hive group is moving at 14,663 km/s, over five thousand km/s slower than the fighters.  Lt Command Tupin orders an overwhelming strike against the alien fleet.  Seventeen fighters targeted each of the Anubis class ships, ten each of the Mors, and fifty-two targeted the Osiris class (416 total missiles). 

The Sparrow IIb missiles raced away from the fighters at 41,266 km/s.   Forty seconds later they slammed into Viper-1.  The first wave scored as follows:

Osiris-1: 124 hits, 14 penetrating hits
Anubis-5: 28 hits, 3 penetrating hits
Anubis-6: 26 hits
Mors 1: 28 hits, 4 penetrating
Mors 2: 30 hits, 2 penetrating
Mors 3: 25 hits, 2 penetrating
Mors-4: 24 hits, 1 penetrating, destroyed (internal explosion)
121 missiles destroyed short of their targets by point defense

Second wave attacks
Osiris-1: 17 hits, 9 penetrating, destroyed (internal explosion)
Anubis-5: 15 hits, 1 penetrating, destroyed
Anubis-6: 16 hits, 1 penetrating
Mors-1: 8 hits, 2 penetrating, destroyed (internal explosion)
Mors-2: 7 hits, 2 penetrating, destroyed (internal explosion)
Mors-3: 14 hits, 8 penetrating     
10 missiles destroyed by point defense

Third wave attacks:
Anubis-6: 11 hits, 3 penetrating
Mors-3: 4 hits, 4 penetrating, destroyed
3 missiles destroyed by point defense

Fourth wave attacks:
Anubis-6: 4 hits, 3 penetrating

Fifth wave attacks:
Anubis-6: 4 hits, 3 penetrating

Sixth-tenth wave attacks
Anubis-6: 7 hits, 7 penetrations

The fighters launched a follow-up attack on the last surviving Hive ship, Anubis 5.  Thirty-two missiles raced away from the fighters and wiped the Anubis from space.  Their mission complete, the fighters turned back to their carriers. 

October 24, 2152
The fleet has been refueled and the carriers have rearmed their fighters, and restocked their magazines from the replenishment ships.  As survey ships enter Omega Ceti, the fleet moves in-system towards the inner LaGrange point.   Sensor buoys have been deployed to all critical locations in the system, and there is no sign of the hive. 

November 5, 2152
A new jump point is discovered in the outer system of Omega Ceti.  One of the survey ships launches a buoy carrier to position a buoy to observe the jump point. 

November 22, 2152
A second new jump point is discovered in the Omega Ceti system.  This one is located just inside of the orbit of Omega Ceti VI, and is in the general area that the Hive Fleet Kraken ships seem to retreat towards.  A survey ship launches a buoy carrier towards the jump point.  The grav survey of the system is now complete. 

November 24, 2152
Sensor buoys are now in place surveilling both jump points.  Admiral Casella orders the fleet to move to the most recently discovered jump point to probe it before unleashing the survey ships on the new system. 

November 27, 2152
An assault group jumps through the jump point just inside of the sixth planet’s orbit.  The five warships materialize 123,000 kilometers from the jump point, and 134,000 kilometers from the 19,762 ton Scathach class hive ship hovering just off of the jump point.  The Hive ship dives for the jump point and jumps out before the Terran ships can fire, materializing in the midst of the Terran fleet.  The soft X-ray lasers of the Andromeda and the Pride of Sol ripped the hive ship apart five seconds after it materialized. 

The Fleet jumped into the new system shortly thereafter.  The scout’s sensors were clear out to 400 mkm’s.  The new system was designated as the Iota Ursae Majoris system, with a K-8V primary orbited by two terrestrial planets, three gas giants, and a small rocky dwarf.  Neither of the terrestrial planets were particularly habitable as one was airless and the second had a thin helium-hydrogen atmosphere.  One of the moons orbiting the innermost gas giant was terrestrial class, though, and had an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, although its atmosphere was thin and the moon was bitterly cold. 

Admiral Casella ordered a missile cruiser to launch a buoy carrier to the moon, just in case.  With the buoy carrier on the way and the survey fleet moving into the system, Admiral Casella ordered the fleet back to Omega Ceti to probe the other jump point. 

December 1, 2152
A Charon class hive ship appears in the 111 Virginis system, on the jump point to 100 Ceti.  One of the couriers left in the system by the fleet jumps through to Omega Ceti and warns the fleet.  Once Admiral Casella receives the warning, she dispatches her two strike carriers, along with several DDE’s and DD’s, and a jump cruiser, to return to the 111 Virginis system and deal with the threat. 

December 4, 2152
The fleet is now positioned at the second new jump point in the Omega Ceti system.  As before, the three assault groups have assembled on the jump point, and the carriers and other ships have retreated to one million kilometers from the jump point.  The three assault groups have incorporated missile cruisers, to make up for the destroyers sent with the strike carriers. 

1328 hours: The three assault groups jump through to the new system.  They are immediately taken under fire by waiting Hive Fleet Kraken ships.  The three assault groups are spaced almost evenly around the jump point, with the nearest being 270,000 kilometers from the jump point and the farthest 490,000 kilometers.  A Hive Fleet Kraken force composed of Mors class escort, Anubis class laser-cruiser, and two massive 93,890 ton ships designated as the Mania class by the tac computers, sits just 48,000 kilometers from the jump point.  The Anubis class ship fired on the nearest assault group with its heavy lasers, getting seven hits on a jump cruiser that knocked the ship’s shields down and scored her armor. 

As per their orders, the three assault groups accelerated towards the hive ships, their crews struggling to open fire as they came.  All of the Terran ships targeted the Anubis class unit.  The three Terran cruisers remained with their assault groups but did not open fire. 

In response the Hive fleet jumped back to Omega Ceti.  Admiral Casella ordered the assault groups to close on the jump point in case they jumped back. 

In Omega Ceti, the carriers of the Expeditionary Fleet observed the hive ships jump into the system.  Captain Scoggin ordered the fleet to maintain the range and for to prepare to launch their fighters.  The hive squadron set a course away from the Terran carriers, towards the outer system, eliminating the sensor buoy as they passed it on their way towards the outer system.   

Fifteen seconds later the hive ships turned back towards the jump point.  Captain Scoggin had delayed launching the fighters as he wanted the hive ships to get far enough away from the jump point that they couldn’t duck back to the other system if he launched on them, and his hesitation turned out to be prudent.  The hive ships didn’t jump out, though.  Instead, they passed the jump point and continued their pursuit of the fleeing carriers, which were now 1.4 mkm’s away and running at their top speed, just half of the hive’s speed. 

Forty-five seconds later the hive ships had closed to 1.1 mkm’s and were now almost 600,000 kilometers from the jump point.  Captain Scoggins gave the order and the one hundred and fifty-six fighters of the carrier group launched.  Five seconds later over a thousand missiles were in space, streaking towards the hive ships. 

Twenty-five seconds later the missiles slammed into the oncoming hive ships, wreathing them in fire and destruction.  None of them survived. 


First wave results
Mania 01: 139 hits, 8 penetrating hits, drifting
Mania 02: 135 hits, 13 penetrating hits, drifting
Mors 05: 28 hits, 3 penetrating hits
Anubis 08: 40 hits, 2 penetrating hits, destroyed
29 missiles destroyed by PD

Second wave results
Mania 01: 12 hits, 5 penetrating hits, destroyed
Mania 02: 36 hits, 20 penetrating hits, destroyed
Mors 05: 8 hits, 3 penetrating hits, destroyed
18 missiles destroyed by PD

All targets destroyed after 573 hits

Back in the new system, the jump cruiser that had been hit by corrosive fire from the hive ships has suffered light internal damage after the corrosive effect managed to eat through its armor, but the corrosion had stopped after destroying its search sensor and damaging its troop bay.  By then, the assault group’s personnel finally had enough time to look around and realized that they were in a very unusual system.  Approximately 435 mkm’s away lay the accretion disk of a black hole.  There was nothing else in close proximity, aside from dust and gas falling into the maw of the nearby (in galactic terms) beast.  After a short time, the assault ships jumped back to the Omega Ceti system and rejoined the victorious carriers. 

December 7, 2152
The strike carrier group detached from the 1st Expeditionary Fleet has arrived at the last known position of the Charon class hive ship in the 111 Virginis system, the jump point to the 100 Ceti system.  The group’s jump cruiser, along with two destroyers, head to the jump point and jump through, leaving the two strike carriers and their escorting DDE’s waiting one million kilometers from the jump point.  The jump cruiser and destroyers find space clear on the far side and soon jump back to 111 Virginis and join the carriers. 

December 21, 2152
Charon-06 appears in the 111 Virginis system on the jump point to 101 Ceti.    It soon jumps back out. 

February 8, 2153
A survey ship working in the Iota Ursae Majoris system discovers a single new jump point in the system as it finishes up the survey.  Following orders, the survey ship heads back to the Omega Ceti system, where he will report the discovery to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet before heading on to the black hole system. 

February 18, 2153
Admiral Casella dispatches an assault group, reinforced with the 1st Carrier Division, to probe the new jump point in the Iota Ursae Majoris system. 

March 12, 2153
A light raider is detected by a sensor buoy in the Zeta Doradus system.  Zeta Doradus is located in the Hive Fleet Leviathan frontier beyond Omicron Tucanae.  The contact report will be sent back eventually, but as the system is uninhabited and unexploited no ships will be sent. 

March 18, 2153
A Terran assault group jumps through the new jump point in the Iota Ursae Majoris system, leaving the 1st Carrier Division watching the jump point behind them.  They appear in a K5-V star system the computers will later determine to be 1112 Aquarii.  The system has a grand total of one atmosphere-less terrestrial class planet and three lonely comets.  There are no hive ships within sensor range of the jump point, so the assault group jumps back out. 

April 21, 2153
A LR survey ship working in the 63 Hydrae system, adjacent to the 111 Virginis system, detects an Iku class Hive Fleet Kraken ship sitting on top of the survey point it is heading towards.  This seems to confirm the fleet’s suspicion that the Iku is a survey ship of some sort. 

May 19, 2153
A light raider appears in the V577 Monoceri system.  This is a serious mistake on the part of the raiders, as this is the largest Imperial Naval fleet base outside of the solar system.  One of the base’s two interceptor squadrons is dispatched to deal with the raider, while the base’s naval squadron is put on alert in case there are more raiders lurking. 

The interceptors soon overtook the raider, which had turned and run as soon as it detected the Terran ships.  The six interceptors were an older design, not yet refitted to the latest standard, and so had to get relatively close to consistently hit the raider, and so one of the interceptors suffered several minor hits to its armor before the raider was destroyed. 

May 22, 2153
A raider salvage ship is detected two billion kilometers out in the Monoceri outer system.  This is somewhat more serious than the attack by the light raider, as the salvage ships are usually escorted by several larger warships.  The base commander sorties his fleet, two battlecruisers, a strike carrier, and four destroyers, all of the latest design. 

May 24, 2153
When the Monoceri task force reaches sensor range of the raider force the Terran ship’s sensors confirm the presence of the salvage ship, and detect its three escorts, two raiders and a light raider.  As the Terran sensors pick up the raider force, the raiders see the oncoming warships and turn to run.  Their flight will be futile given the Terran overtake speed of 5,700 km/s. 

Captain Galster, the CO of the BC Uranus, decides to directly engage the raider force instead of using the Io’s fighters, and the Terran force closes to 300,000 kilometers, well within range of even the DD’s 15 cm soft X-ray lasers, before opening fire.  The four destroyers concentrate on the light raider, while the two BC’s fire on one of the larger raiders.  They began scoring hits immediately, but all were low power hits from the smaller lasers, so Captain Galster ordered his ships to close to 200,000 kilometers and maintain fire.  Four salvoes later the light raider exploded, and the Terran DD’s turned their fire on the other raider.  Pretty soon only the salvage ship remained.  Captain Galster ordered his squadron to close on the civilian ship and to pound it into scrap.  It took just three salvoes from the devastating laser weapons to destroy the civilian ship. 

Jume 18, 2153
Admiral Casella has been considering declaring the campaign complete and returning to Terra, mostly because her ships are all in increasing need of overhauls, however, on this date two Hive Fleet Kraken ships appear in the Omega Ceti system, close to the jump point to the Iota Ursae Majoris system.  As this is the first sighting in some time, and one of the two ships is a Mors class anti-missile escort, she orders her fleet to relocate to the jump point to investigate the contact.  Their ETA is 3.5 days. 

June 21, 2153
The 1st Assault Group jumps through to the Iota Ursae Majoris system.  They are taken under fire as soon as they materialize close to the jump point.  The two Hive ships, a 10,153 ton Mors class destroyer escort, and a 19,762 ton Scathach class, are sitting just 15,000 kilometers away.  The Mors class fires ten lasers at the Terran destroyer Aydan Calligaris, hitting with all ten and scouring away 20% of her armor.

As the Terran ships struggle to recover from the jump shock, the Hive ships begin running from the jump point at the Scathach’s apparent maximum speed of 3,818 km/s.  A second salvo from the Mors manages to penetrate the Aydan Calligaris’ armor and causes significant internal damage.  Admiral Casella orders the damaged DD to open the range while the rest of the Terran ships pursue the hive ships.     

The Assault Group closes to point blank range as the Terran crews try to get their system’s operational, while the Calligaris flees.  A third laser salvo hits the Calligaris at 65,000 kilometers, causing extensive internal damage and dropping the DD’s speed to 50%.  The hive ships turned and pursued the Calligaris continuing to fire and inflict damage, with the Terran ships in close pursuit.  However, the hive ships weren’t pursuing the Calligaris, they used the opportunity to duck through the jump point.  Unfortunately for them, they appeared in the midst of the 1st Expeditionary Fleet. 

The Mors lasted exactly as long as it took the BC Terra’s soft X-ray lasers to discharge.  The Terra’s 45cm spinal laser tore a massive hole in the Mors’ thin armor, and the rest of her lasers savaged the ship, leaving it breaking up after a single salvo.  The Scathach was destroyed by the Pride of Sol’s lasers immediately after. 

The Aydan Calligaris rejoined the Assault Group and the group jumped back to Omega Ceti.  Damage control teams worked frantically to repair the Calligaris’ damage, fearing the accumulation of additional damage from the corrosive effect of the Hive ship’s weapons.  For some reason, in this case, there was no such corrosion and the DC teams were able to focus on the destroyer’s most significant damage. 

June 27, 2152
The 1st Expeditionary Fleet has returned to the jump point in the Omega Ceti system that ultimately leads back to the Terran Empire.  The Aydan Calligaris has repaired its engines and some of the other damage the DD suffered during the battle, but the ship has run out of maintenance supplies.  Admiral Casella orders the fleet to refuel and resupply from the waiting support ships, and then return to the Solar System.  The campaign is over.