Aurora 4x
C# Aurora => Spoilers => Topic started by: boolybooly on August 07, 2022, 05:34:36 PM
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I am enjoying v2.0.x and have had a stimulating first few years.
SPOILERS ahead.
I went for a TN start and shotgun ranks so my empire reads like a mafia family.
I had one geo scout out, the good ship Abalone, having put most points into research and economy and was researching basic ship tech. The scout got as far as Callisto, around Jupiter, when an alien interloper appeared in the system. I set up a diplomacy station using unspent instant build points and staffed it with a diplomat, whereupon the interloper blew it to hell and set about dismantling all my shipyards in a like manner as I had zero defence tech.
It then made a beeline for my scout around Jupiter, not sure how it knew to do that, then blew that up as well.
I cobbled together a search and rescue vessel Amber, using the scout engine and an emergency cryopod to collect survivors, which worked, meanwhile built deep space tracking to keep tabs on the uninvited guests and avoid them with my S&R vessel, which went to collect the survivors from the scout in lifepods then dodged a group of ships which appeared to salvage the Abalone's wreck.
It took several years of development to finally acquire something which might defend Earth during which Amber had to dodge the occasional visit from the aliens looking for something to shoot, preventing me from building shipyards. So I eventually built 5 fighter class orbital missile platforms based around the Nemo II class missile, size 6, warhead 5, range 25m, 64%@3km/s.
I had scanners and MFCs calibrated for about 18000t as I did not have active scanners ready when it attacked first. It was dishing out 20 hits of damage and I reasoned it must have multiple guns but it was hitting targets at over 90k km range which foxed me, I thought lasers and did a sum.
When the beastie returned to engage my trap it sailed through my defences and my platforms could not get a lock. I had taken the precaution of giving each platform a different 5t sensor and it was the R10-500t anti fighter sensor which finally picked it up showing 929t, yet it was fielding 20 hits every 15s !?
It took out 2 of my 5 platforms with the biggest sensors before it got close enough for the 18kt MFCs in the remaining three to lock on at about 38k km. They were set up to fire in sync and out of three salvos of 6 one salvo of 6x5 got through and did the biz. Once they had penetrated the hull armor the scanner size jumped to 9,287 indicating a cloak no longer functioning.
I instant built a near ultraviolet laser battery which I had previously researched and assembled and it was able to finish it off as I didn't have boarding tech yet but there were no lifepods.
It was a lot of fun and satisfying to come back from being the underdog. I have since recalibrated sensors to 900t and refitted the surviving platforms and built some more with Nemo IIIs on the way. Next time I will be ready!
Digesting the data I twigged it must be cloaked at 90% no less. It also seems to have very powerful railguns according to the intel. I am thinking this might be a raider as it was resistant to dialogue just like the precursors and did not drop lifepods. It seems to visit major planets looking for prey, singly and in fleets.
I would like to know if anyone can confirm this because my start setup had "player known systems for raiders 12" and I had not visited any other systems having not researched jump tech yet, I was planning to turtle a bit. If it is a raider then it seems like there might be a bug as player systems should not count NPR explored systems surely. Maybe its just a very hostile neighbouring NPR, or even a precursor spawned in Sol? I am not sure. Will update when I find out more.
dun dun duhh!....
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From a role-play perspective, that's a great way to start your campaign! It reminds me of Sword of the Stars's intro: humanity escapes
Einstein's Newton's cage, only to meet tragedy.
Digesting the data I twigged it must be cloaked at 90% no less. It also seems to have very powerful railguns according to the intel. I am thinking this might be a raider as it was resistant to dialogue just like the precursors and did not drop lifepods. It seems to visit major planets looking for prey, singly and in fleets.
I would like to know if anyone can confirm this because my start setup had "player known systems for raiders 12" and I had not visited any other systems having not researched jump tech yet, I was planning to turtle a bit. If it is a raider then it seems like there might be a bug as player systems should not count NPR explored systems surely.
This definitely sounds like a bug; it might be worth adding to the bug thread (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13028.msg160997). Would it be possible to switch on Spacemaster and check whether your attacker belongs to the raider race?
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Another data point: It looks like someone has seen the same phenomenon in Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread: C# Edition (http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=11545.msg161005#msg161005)
How does one actually get the "Player Known Systems Until ______" to work? I encountered what I believe to be Aether Raiders in the first year of a new game - in Sol, no less! Granted it wasn't a disastrous meeting, as they ran off when they saw that my diplomacy ships come with a frigate escort, but still. How does one turn that function on?
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Thanks, that's helpful. Yes, who can forget the Hiver incursion...!
I have made a report in the 2.0.1 bugs thread as this game started with 2.0.0.
AuroraDB save from the start of the second attack is available there if anyone is curious.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13019.msg161018#msg161018
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I have to say its really hotting up now, literally as Sol Disaster heating @1% is also in play. I am having to use everything I have learned about the game so far to avoid the destruction of my chattels. Because of the spoilers I am making an AAR here.
A single raider scout was followed by a three ship fleet with a big tanker, which I had to face with 9 salvos of third generation missiles plus a few odds and sods. The missiles were big slow and not very damaging size 6, speed 17k, warhead 5, to hit @3k-94%.
I disabled the three destroyers which bought some time but the suspected tanker was really ... tanky, as you might expect and a damage sponge which soaked up all my spare missiles. As luck would have it I had a scout ship in overhaul and I had taken it out to avoid the expected blitz and sent it away, the lone tanker set about trying to ram it, which was alarming and yet kind of amusing.
I can imagine this 50kt tanker trying to ram a tiny 1kt scout travelling at 100km/s due to the overhaul exit penalty as the plucky and inventive but thoroughly corrupt and not entirely competent engineering crew (this empire name theme is based on gangster ranks like gangboss and gangleader) were frantically trying to get the engine back online and the pilot was dodging and weaving using skills developed as getaway vehicle driver to avoid the massive blundering hulk piloted by an insanely vindictive, possibly psychotic raider.
However the pilot succeeded in doubling back to lure the tanker within range of the planetary guns of Earth (18 lasers) and they eventually made a wreck of the tanker. This was salvaged for 1.5k research in armor which was welcome as a new generation of smaller faster and more powerful and cheaper missiles was researching along with new orbital missile platforms. It seemed to be going well until the size of the next raiding fleet became apparent, 14x 10kt destroyers each with around 20 shots capable of 4 damage at close range and 1 damage at 160k, I figure it must be a 20cm railgun x5, very potent and perhaps something unique to the raiders. I want to capture some but current beam tech cannot compete so its missile doctrine all the way for now.
I am not sure the empire can beat this fleet as things stand, not enough missiles and long reload times. Luckily I have figured out a way to use their berserker mentality against them and have sent my one FAC missile boat 'Citrine' to lure them away as the OV scout did. It was specifically engineered to win a race against the raider destroyers observed top speed but at some cost, it is working as a lure and winning but only has 11bn range remaining and I have to figure out how to use this and the time it offers to defeat the armada.
All the while the Sol Disaster is in effect, the system is growing hotter by 1% per 5 days. The only thing stopping Earth from boiling is a fleet of 45 terraforming modules in 9 stations with 5 each. If the Aliens destroy these it could get very nasty very quickly and might even mean defeat and the extinction of humanity and its criminal ways, so they must be stopped, of course.
The gangster empire has only had time to partially scout 4 other systems and found planets with high terraforming rates and potential population sizes which could take the population of Earth. Alpha Centauri BIII is already being prepared by a terraforming station and has a small human colony of 120k currently in infrastructure based accomodation. Another world, Sirius AI, will soon have its own terraformer station too just as soon as I can get a portal jump tender station to Sirius JP. The single tug is working overtime.
As if that was not enough there is also a mineral shortage looming. All the empires original shipyards were destroyed by the raiders and building new ones is expensive. So these challenges must be met and overcome on a shoestring budget. I am not certain of success but that makes it all the more fun to try.
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Cue Benny Hill music...
(https://i.imgur.com/SPNVknm.jpg)
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Sun Tzu, ancient master of military strategy once said "Quickness is the essence of war."
He also said "The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”
The raiders great strength of arms is made doubly dangerous by their speed but speed has a price, as the designers of Earth's Citrine FAC discovered and in a word it is fuel.
Every raider fleet must bring tankers because their fast ships have limited range. Thus their strength is also their Achilles heel.
The crew of Citrine were briefed by the boss of bosses and told their part in the plan, keep the fleet away from Earth, you didnt argue with the boss. Each knew only that they had to save themselves and in the process it wouldn't hurt to keep the fleet away from "The Family" which included for some their own young families. Though members of a criminal culture and self professed self preservation society, persuasion, promises, youthful yearning for honour & glory and pure greed, all compelled them to do what they could to save Earth, not oblivious to the risk of death but like any caper, enticed to take the risk by the rewards imagined, if they could pull it off.
Their first stratagem was to run and keep running away from Earth. It didnt take a rocket scientist to work out that sooner or later they would run out of fuel and either need to refuel or face certain doom from the raider armada as the Abalone had years earlier. The second option didnt sound like fun to anyone on board, heading out past the point of no return wasnt going to happen. The captain wisely concurred with the mutinous consensus that they needed to refuel.
While fleeing the invaders and drawing them far away from Earth, Citrine's navigator matter of factly computed their chances of survival, taking into account the fuel requirement and transfer rate, the refuel time was calculated. The speed of the invader gave a minimum necessary distance Citrine would need to be ahead to survive refuelling and get away for another run past Neptune and back, to buy Earth's weapons program precious days to prepare for battle by manufacturing missiles and their launchers.
Citrine's top speed was faster than the invader by design. As the calculation turned out, the necessary lead could be achieved if Citrine could get a free run at top speed for 2.5 billion km, or thereabouts. As luck would have it, Citrine's range was 12 billion meaning an outward leg of over 5 billion was possible, while matching the invaders speed to draw them out. After carefully reversing course while avoiding the invader's guns, the return leg at full speed was twice that needed to successfully refuel at a tanker or Earth, reengage the invader fleet and continue the journey into the unknown for a while longer. All things being equal Citrine could keep this up for over two years before maintenance failures could threaten her continued survival.
They made a run to Neptune and returned, successfully turning theory into practice, refuelling as the invader fleet showed up on planetary deep space tracking trailing behind Citrine having lost her, returning to sweep the major planets. Reengaging the chase was a moment of fear but careful choices over navigation vectors and speeds brought them back into the same steady comfortable arrangement as before. Rinse, repeat, run for your life.
On the third run the invader dropped off the Citrine's sensors on the outward leg. Cautiously Citrine came to a stop, reversed course and discovered her foe, helplessly adrift somewhere beyond the asteroid belt. At first the crew could not believe the scanners, were fearful it might be a ruse. Then as the truth sank in, there was much celebrating as the masters of Earth pondered what to do with their prize.
"Hey boss, so why ain't dey movin'?"
"You know I was wonderin' dat myself, I tink... maybe... dey ran outta juice."
(https://imgur.com/bkLzy41.jpg)
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"He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.” Sun Tzu.
The Cordoba incident was a complex business.
Three disabled ships and a wreck, remnants of the third battle for Earth's survival, awaited the entrepreneurs of the criminal state in an area euphemistically designated the "Test Range". One Bourg class raider destroyer was captured by a boarding party, another self destructed when boarded, killing The Family's only boarding party. It would take a while to recruit another.
Now there were two wrecks and one disabled enemy ship. One wreck was the self destructed destroyer and one was a Cordoba class wreck. The Cordoba was something big and undefended which the criminal state had blown up with a lucky missile volley.
Deep space tracking detected the appearance of another Cordoba at a distant point in the solar system. Strategists feared it might bring supplies to the disabled ship or fuel to the large stranded fleet being monitored by an ELINT sensors platform beyond the asteroid belt.
Worse, this Cordoba was defended by five more destroyers.
Citrine was sent to investigate but was entirely ignored by the slow moving fleet which did not give chase, unlike the stranded fleet which had been too aggressive for its own good, this fleet was defensive, focussed on some task, presumably the mission of the Cordoba. The course of the invader fleet was heading directly for the ship graveyard in the Test Range area.
The Family's strategists reasoned that the Cordoba was heading for the wreck, they did not know why, they did not need to know why, they needed only to arrange a little rendezvous with a few Moonstone Mobile class missile platforms developed for close range high velocity ambush tactics, each fielding 15x size s3 missiles with size W6 warheads and each capable of movement over a multibillion klick range at a slow but useful 100kms.
A plan was devised to set a trap and three Moonstone Mobiles were brought to the predicted site, another was on the way plus the Citrine and a newly built Coral class high speed missile fighter. It took a while to reach the Test Range now because the attacks which created the wreck and disabled hulks had only been 6 months before and Earth was on the other side of the sun now.
The Cordoba 003 fleet settled on the wreck of its predecessor and was apparently salvaging it. The Family's strategists postulated that since the fleet was mission oriented, an attack on the mission critical craft would be the most effective way to drive them off. Three Moonstone Mobiles were moved into position and joined by the Citrine, the passivity of the enemy giving them enough time to prepare a missile strike from very close range giving the enemy defences only 10 seconds warning.
45xW6 s3 warheads and 6xW9 s6 struck the Cordoba 003 without opposition, the enemy ships were perhaps new replacements and their reactions not quick enough. The Cordoba immediately began to retreat but slowed, more importantly the destroyer group turned tail and ran for it. The fleet of Earth's criminal empire were very heartened to see the rout unfold and there was much cheering and jeering, many had expected to die that day. Recon fighter Obsidian was ordered to get out of their way and follow the Cordoba to provide guidance to the remaining assets.
(https://imgur.com/OQzAH2p.jpg)
The Family's tug, Emerald was told to pursue with the last Moonstone Mobile with full payload in tow and the only Coral fighter in existence was tasked with intercepting the vulnerable Cordoba 003 with a maximum strike of 7xW8 s3 close range warheads to slow it further and enable the Emerald to catch it before it reached the distant portal through which it had appeared and was assisted by some kind of intermittently visible mothership which seemed to be waiting there.
Both succeeded in their missions and the Cordoba 003 was destroyed, preventing the retrieval of materiel which would only make the task of defeating the invader harder. The destroyer fleet escaped and would have to wait until another day to meet its match.
The criminal empire was heartened by their success and the defeat, albeit temporary, of an enemy which had seemed insurmountable.
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"Youse ave such a nice ship ear, would be a shame if somefing were to appen to it." - Probably said by some space gangsters trying to get these new space gangsters to give them money rather than keep raiding their turf.
"Oh smeg, it's the space IRS, leg it!" - Probably said by the new space gangsters in their destroyers when the Sol gangsters shot at the Cordoba 003 whilst wearing a suspiciously new coat of paint on their warship.
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OORP the new version not being DB compatible required a restart from scratch with gameplay inspiring the following story, which since it again involves the new raider spoiler I am posting in this thread in the spoiler forum. I set raider known systems to 1 to create the same effect as the previous version bug i.e. an early raid on Earth. So here is a new fiction, just for fun.
A history of the hitherto unreported fate of the gangster empire and its transformation in a spacetime happening of mind blowing proportions.
Deep in the bowels of a secret drugs laboratory, a gangster scientist known only as "X", exploring the boundaries of spacetime for recreational purposes using transnewtonian physics and the drugs cocktail known as "Sleuth", potent peccadillo of gangster strategists which sharpens the intellect to an astonishing degree, stumbled on a mind potentising cocktail of technology involving an illegal psycho-physical neural interface and a synthetic transnewtonian crystal lattice, stolen from a rival oligarch's lab, which enabled transmissions carrying the perceptions and productions of their consciousness to travel in time and connect with the processing cores of quantum computers from an earlier age.
In one such exploration an opportunity arose to converse with a scientist from 2023 and X, the gangster scientist, feeling free of moral or ethical constraint due to the influence of Sleuth seized it, sharing information which only someone from the future could know to prove their stated identity was reality and not a hoax. Of course the conversation turned to lotto numbers, share prices, bitcoin market patterns but money aside it involved details in the news and the political ramifications which would corrupt the affairs of humanity turning them from chaotic demagocracy into worldwide cleptocracy.
To the receiving scientist, who cannot be named and will be referred to only as "W", the discussion proceeded over many months through 2023, even though for X it was a single Sleuth session of several hours, pursuing W relentlessly along the river of time from a vantage point in a later era. X proposed a collaboration with W, to gain and stash wealth for their mutual benefit, in return for a cut. W agreed, however, once armed with the necessary details and convinced of their validity, W was not content to allow the vision of the future they had received to unfold and chose to challenge and change it.
X realised their mistake on removing their VR goggles, the world outside the vicinity of the jury rigged crystal, balanced precariously atop a pile of expensive looking lab equipment, had become a dark grey mist, X was sufficiently versed in theory to understand what had happened, the universe was dissolving into a quantum foam, becoming a future which didn't happen. Outside the protective field of the central quantum crystal which had made the foray into the past possible, timespace was collapsing. The crystal, constructed with atomic precision as a complex array of transnewtonian elements capable of tunneling through spacetime, was losing power as the source was cut off. The power station which had supplied it no longer existed, only the laboratory capacitor directly beneath the experiment and within the crystal's protective field remained as did X who sat close by. The information they had impregnated on the past having wrought their own destruction. In the few seconds which remained X saw with the clarity Sleuth allowed, that their incautious greed had caused their own destruction, before existence blinked out and X was gone.
Since 2023, scientist W had been busy, accruing vast wealth from a series of lucky lotto wins and stunning financial gambles they had set about changing the world and succeeded. They had financed worthy candidates against cleptocrats, influencing elections, beginning a global campaign to bring humanity back from the brink of the moral abyss. Several of the worlds best PR agencies were enticed away from problematic agencies to work long and hard on a transformative treatment for the ailments of human culture and their solution had gravitated to the styles and culture of an earlier era of optimism, the post war euphoria of the hippies.
Through their contrivance, bankrolled by a lot of money, they enhanced the natural rose tinted views of retro style and everything hippy became fashionable once again, psychedelia, love, peace, the emblem of the flower, ecology and a philosophical fascination with mystical rewards over materialist gratification. Guided with the information from the future, for the time it remained accurate, W was infallible and unstoppable. The criminal era was forestalled and humanity reinvented itself, in this timeline adopting an ashram culture lead by W's powerful PR machine.
It was a hippy Earth which met the visitors from beyond.
(https://imgur.com/jwCfOWB.jpg)
W had gleaned a little about the alien threat from X before transmissions ceased. W knew what the aliens would do and tried to encourage those who stood behind the new hippy culture to develope defences against the unknown but even with the knowledge of transnewtonian elements gained from X and extracted from the sub-quantum information fields which remained entangled in the quantum computer through which X had contacted W, the resistance of Earth was insufficient. In X's timeline there had been no defences at all. In W's there were going to be orbital platforms and missiles, W would see to it.
The new arrivals, as the press called them, had been watched on scanners approaching. W made sure it was broadcast to the world, wanting them to see the truth about these new arrivals as a salutory lesson. Many took to the streets and stone circles making signs of love to the sky. The Arecibo message was rebroadcast, carved into crops and chalk landscapes across the world. All the hopes and dreams of beautiful star creatures from the loving hippy population of Earth met the alien ship as it closed on Earth and...
(https://imgur.com/TVonNUx.jpg)
...opened fire, as it always had, as it always would, this time destroying one of the "Lennon Karma" defence platforms, so named in a public acknowledgement of the dangers of violence even in a hippy world and a careful preparation for this moment. All the more reason to choose love, W's well remunerated PR agencies had reasoned and love must be defended.
The New Order of the Velvet Glove, as the armed forces of Earth had been rebranded, replied in kind. Their missiles "Spear of Truth One" hit but failed to prevent the invader from destroying the platforms and just as they had done in the previous timeline, blowing up the diplomatic station "Cosmic Liberty" in a show of contempt for hopes of peace. However the Earth's weak resistance changed the raider's strategy and the unforeseen tragedy of "Little Flower" unfolded.
In the aftermath the slightly damaged single raider ship departed and Earth desperately tried to recover the lifepods which had ejected from the destroyed orbital fleet. There were no interplanetary engines available, there had not been time to develope them, even though W knew they were possible from discussions with X.
A space-going equivalent of the WWII 'Air-Sea Rescue Float' was hastily developed and launched, christened the "Little Flower" it did its duty in rescuing and returning the few survivors to Earth. However the raiders now sought to dominate the people of Earth and sent a large fleet to crush their hopes and salvage the wrecks of the orbital fleet. Little Flower was destroyed on sight and somehow, noone knows exactly how, the lifepods of the valiant crew, including the commander Jill Zieman, were ejected from Earth's orbit.
(https://imgur.com/FFbYT1R.jpg)
When the raider fleet left briefly and while interplanetary engines were still being developed, a second Little Flower rescue pod was launched and attempted to reach Zieman's pod on thrusters alone. Unfortunately the first raider scout chose this moment to return and picking the second rescue pod up on sensors immediately closed to destroy it, leaving no survivors. Agonisingly the Earth looked on, powerless to help, as Jill Zieman's life support gave out.
(https://imgur.com/50znLMU.jpg)
It was only a few weeks later that the design for a powered rescue pod was finalised, 'the organisation' as developed by W to ensure the positivity of humanity in defiance of good taste and common sense, had arranged to give it an even more upbeat name but "Little Flower Groovey Baby" was too late for Jill. Her tragic tale had become an object lesson for the hip people of Earth who now understood the fight was on for their survival and behind the scenes for their very soul.
For years the alien fleet scavenged the solar system, taking all the wrecks and looming over the Earth like a harbinger of doom. The hippies who believed in their existential struggle for liberty and love, were not cowed and with peaceful meditations, drew up their plans for war. Then as swiftly as they had arrived the raiders left and the hippy planet set about winning the next round, which X while extant had assured W was coming.
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"Little Flower Groovey Baby"
Suddenly I find myself rooting for the aliens...
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Naming the new rescue vessel Little Flower Groovey Baby was a controversial move. Not least because it coined the last words of the captain of the original Little Flower, Jill Zieman, to her husband and young daughter. As they told her of their hopes for her rescue over a video link, she replied "groovey baby" before signing off, for the last time. It was her dreamy manner which caught people's attention, when it was explained that she knew she was experiencing hypoxia due to lack of oxygen and was about to die, signing off so her daughter would not see her pass away.
Her famous last words echoed through the world's media as pundits speculated on the rescue effort and its ultimate failure due to the onslaught from the raider ships, becoming a catch phrase signifying, with some irony, the cruelty of war. For those who understood, the outlandish name was an inspiring memorial to Jill and all she stood for.
While the raiders remained overhead plans were drawn up to defeat them. Once they left humanity lost no time in developing the weapons they had imagined and immediately launched a group of defence platforms which had been manufactured but held back due to the futility of launching them to face the raiders guns without payloads.
For years the governments of Earth were driven to build defences. Shipyards were rebuilt and a new class of "Chelsea Morning" heavy defence platforms launched, while heavy surface to orbit particle cannon and railgun emplacements were built with ranges of 200k and more, exceeding the raiders range of 160k.
Chelsea Morning class Orbital Defence Platform 2,815 tons 8 Crew 359 BP TCS 56 TH 0 EM 0
1 km/s Armour 12-17 Shields 0-0 HTK 1 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 27
Maint Life 4.31 Years MSP 69 AFR 253% IFR 3.5% 1YR 6 5YR 90 Max Repair 20 MSP
Magazine 180
Adept Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Morale Check Required
Rack (60) Missile Size: 3 Hangar Reload 86 minutes MF Reload 14 hours
Pointer (6) Range 7.9m km Resolution 18
Spear of Truth Six (60) Speed: 28,533 km/s End: 0.4m Range: 0.7m km WH: 6 Size: 3 TH: 161/97/48
Lookout (1) GPS 87 Range 7.9m km Resolution 18
Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
Cosmic River class explorers explored Sol and ventured into three neighbouring systems through Mystic Chakra jump portals towed by Tangerine Dream class tugs including Creedence and Mary Hopkin. As the sun heated up threateningly terraforming stations were built and eight new generations of missiles were developed to protect them before the raiders returned to test Earth's defences once again.
The original defence satellites, now fully trained, were in the process of being reengineered into mobile fighter bombers. As luck would have it (some thought it was too great a coincidence to be ascribed to luck alone) refits for half the heavy platforms and fighter bombers were underway when the raiders returned. The remaining fleet was barely sufficient and the latest generation of "Spear of Truth Eight" missile was in short supply. Truth be told it was complex, expensive and hard to manufacture. However, ten fighter bombers were ready to deploy and were loaded from a stockpile of "Spear of Truth Seven" missiles which were becoming available. Compared to their ancestors these were formidible, S3W8 42k-km/s 0.9m, with a much improved chance to hit but short range deployment.
The ten "Lennon Karma Realised" bombers were the best chance Earth had for preemptively thinning the advancing raider strikeforce evident on deep space tracking scanners to prevent them overwhelming the guns of Earth and destroying the terraforming fleet and shipyards.
Lennon Karma Realised class Fighter-bomber 500 tons 5 Crew 50 BP TCS 10 TH 45 EM 0
4504 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 2 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 3.6
Maint Life 12.57 Years MSP 101 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 1 5YR 18 Max Repair 18 MSP
Magazine 24
Seeker Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 37 months Morale Check Required
SkyFire Ion5 P45 (1) Power 45 Fuel Use 42.67% Signature 45 Explosion 8%
Fuel Capacity 22,000 Litres Range 18.6 billion km (47 days at full power)
Rack (8) Missile Size: 3 Hangar Reload 86 minutes MF Reload 14 hours
Pointer (1) Range 14.2m km Resolution 18
Spear of Truth Seven (8) Speed: 42,533 km/s End: 0.4m Range: 0.9m km WH: 8 Size: 3 TH: 269/161/80
Sentinel (1) GPS 38 Range 7.1m km Resolution 18
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
An "Ant" class raider scout, like the one which had so vexed Earth in the first raid was dispatched with two salvos of the precious missiles, the eight remaining salvos were meant for the larger fleet which was fast approaching. The two fighters responsible for Ant 005's demise were ordered to rearm and eight went on to intercept the raider fleet and match speed to launch missiles.
(https://imgur.com/5dZJWGg.jpg)
Many were intercepted by defensive fire but enough got through that three of seven ships were destroyed or disabled, making the remaining four an easier proposition for Earth's defences. A precision strike of station launched "Spear of Truth Seven" missiles and STO gun fire disabled these just outside their strike range and within range of Earth's STOs.
(https://imgur.com/ONa42bS.jpg)
However, as military planners were soon to discover, this was only the first wave. There were no less than five waves of raider attack fleets in all, some split into two fleets of three, most advancing as a wall of six, raiders plus escort destroyers. By the time the last waves approached, stockpiles of missiles were dwindling and the seven series were reserved for Earth defence so the "Lennon Karma Realised" fighter bomber squadron was launching series five and even four at the invaders, which massed together against the smaller fleets were still able to break through their defences and disable enough to make Earth's defence less precarious.
(https://imgur.com/QE6qvCt.jpg)
By the end Sol had become a battlefield and was littered with wreckage. During the aftermath, disabled ships were boarded and captured, wreckage salvaged and the source location of the raider incursion detected by the bomber fleet near asteroid "Aurora", guarded by a fleet only intermittently detectable and not worth targeting due to the likelihood of wasting missiles as the targets would suddenly disappear as missiles approached. Among them was some kind of large vessel "Bee" class, possibly a salvager but the bombers once reloaded, patrolled the distant wrecks so the Bee had little chance to work in Sol and wisely retreated as it would have been swiftly dispatched if it had left the safety of the undetectable aether rift in which it was evidently hiding.
(https://imgur.com/rj9cEIK.jpg)
An Ocean Lily sensors platform was placed to monitor the rift and its fleet finally disappeared when the last of the disabled raider ships in Sol had been destroyed or captured suggesting another raid was over, this time ending in unmitigated defeat for the raiders thanks to the tireless, selfless heroism of the "Lennon Karma Realised" fighter bomber squadron and the faultless focus of Earth's well trained defence crews.
The raider's retreat was welcome as a chance for Earth to improve its missile stockpiles and other defences including ground defences. To this end new cheaper close quarters "Tyrant's Teacher" missiles were developed, sized 1.7 W6, which could be manufactured rapidly in quantity and were, though stocks of gallicite were dangerously low and a prospecting initiative was required thoughout Sol to furnish necessary materials.
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I assume the corpses of the Raiders will be used to grow Hallucinogenic Mushrooms to be consumed at a music festival in honour of the fallen? Also, is the military regulation haircut and dress uniform 70s Hippy gear?
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I assume the corpses of the Raiders will be used to grow Hallucinogenic Mushrooms to be consumed at a music festival in honour of the fallen? Also, is the military regulation haircut and dress uniform 70s Hippy gear?
Regarding the mushrooms on corpses thing, its a striking image, though I feel only likely if Chaos Marines snuck in through the Dark Eldar's webway portal which the Raiders are using and began to subvert the planet through occult means, which is the kind of thing they would do. However, contrary to your expectation, in this particular dystopian timeline fiction, the Chaos Marines are mercifully absent.
A significant proportion of the population has turned to veganism, encouraged by scientist W's PR machine which was bribed away from serving the cleptocrat elite. Veganism is publicised as an effort to mitigate the Sol system disaster of solar warming along with dozens of 125kt terraforming stations. It is also a way of shaping attitudes. The concept is that veganism reduces CH4 + CO2 emissions showing commitment to humanity's mutual interests and utilises/encourages respect for sentient life to enhance a unifying society wide sense of caring humanity and its corollary of moral indignation at the murderous raider attacks. All this is part of an ongoing attempt to carefully hone a sense of cohesion against an external enemy, recognised as an embodiment of the enemy within in the form of limbic instincts, reinforced by technologically informed yet mystically conceived righteousness, based on self justifying ethical values and a cult of reverence for hippy era icons as well as entirely fictional characters.
As a consequence vat grown synthetic meats based on animal protein DNA cloned into genetically altered yeast, are regarded as ethically acceptable dietary substitutes for animal meat. Hallucinogenic mushrooms are cultivated planetwide for recreation in controlled conditions to strict standards on vegan media along with other mellow fruits of nature.
Peace personnel are not permitted to be under the influence while on duty. The consequence of transgression is a two week stay in a retreat ashram on a compassionate cleansing carrot juice diet. Failure to complete the retreat will result in a discharge from military service and a consolation complimentary ticket to Glasto, where a field and tent are dedicated to vets including those who "took the ticket" because the new order has tried to learn from the lessons of 'Nam and provides an extensive support net for vets.
Scientist W's PR companies had world leaders ostentatiously consulting representatives of the Shao Lin monastic tradition, reknown for their expertise in self defence in the philosophical context of a buddhist way of life, when devising the military ethics for the New Order of the Velvet Glove (aka NOVGLOV).
Using the excesses of the enemy as an object lesson in what humanity does not do was a key plank in their PR strategy.
Consequently enemy corpses not designated for research by military intelligence in forensic biolabs are launched on a collision trajectory ending at the local star in a deliberately reverent ceremony of forgiveness, pity and annihilation in recognition that their life karma drove them to violence and caused their own demise, representing a folly which justifies the Earth hippies philosophy that they come in peace, prepared for defence, ready to stop violence against sentient life without taking the part of the aggressor themselves. The bodies of the fallen are returned to the condition of stardust from which all living beings evolved and can return to the cycle of the universe in the distant future. Also conveniently gets rid of the evidence and prevents the enemy gaining intel on combat methods from studying the remains of their own.
For the young and old, values are expressed and reinforced in a campaign of superhero and martial arts movies from a company in which W is a major shareholder. Controversially, the blockbuster movie series "Yew Kiylled Ma Maw #", based on a story of revenge against alien invaders was also very popular and also backed by W based on consultancy advice to exploit the 'afterglow' of the Jill Zieman incident to encourage enthusiasm for martial peacekeeping as a career and significant budget expenditure worldwide.
Dress uniforms are a cross between UFO and Sgt Pepper, less flimsy than the Sgt Pepper costumes but with the same neo-Napoleonic style of band collar (hehe... band... is a pun), sleeve cuff rank insignia, plus ornate material colours and patterning of the wearers choosing for standard garment structural patterns, with clean practical lines, no text or images of debased nature permitted, nor excessive frills, all at the swamis discretion. Kaftans and ponchos discouraged for active duty but allowed in administrative roles, there has to be some discipline. Hair style is the wearer's choice but due to practical considerations may be no longer than one meter, tie-backs mandatory for all weapons and machinery operators including drivers and pilots who wear their hair longer than collar length. Flowers may not be worn in clean rooms due to the pollen hazard, pictures of flowers are allowed though.
(https://imgur.com/fzxA3Rb.jpg)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sgt._Pepper%27s_50th_Anniversary_Billboard_in_London.jpg
Battle ready uniforms and equipment on the other hand include olive polymer-kevlar onesies for technicians, aviator glasses optional. For infantry, camo power-armor exoshells, known as turtles (after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costumes which they slightly resemble), with full internal VR, respiration support and vision slit options for backup in case of systems failure. Because different situations require different practical priorities and require a different dress mode.
W's PR campaign has tried to resolve the dichotomy of human nature so evident in the 60's and 70's hippy movement in the US, protesting the Vietnam and Korean Wars, resulting in the displacement of traumatised returning vets. Human combatants have much more post combat support in this era and the need for the apparent paradox of aggressive peacekeeping is widely accepted as a necessity in the face of the existential challenge posed by the merciless raider onslaught. Evolutionary psychology is a mandatory part of basic education and vets are honoured in annual flower parades in every major city, in which the vets parade in dress uniforms and are wreathed in garlands by the young, while flower petals fall like ticker tape. The sun is always shining for these parades as meteorolgists are consulted and the date fixed only a few days beforehand, though preparations are made and expectations raised during a month long window following the summer solstice in each hemisphere.
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In 2064 the peace of the industrious human race was shattered once again by a brutal raider incursion in Epsilon Indi.
(https://imgur.com/1lcYHfX.jpg)
The status of operation Exodus was ongoing and several avenues of escape for the human race were being prepared. This has already been documented by other sources and is well known to the public.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=11100.msg163720#msg163720
What many do not know, because the information remains classified as top secret, is the horrific discovery the NOVGLOV fleet made in Epsilon Indi as a result of their response to the incursion.
The initial attack took fleet command completely by surprise. The two "Shifting Sands" xenoarcheology support stations overseeing the archeological expeditions on Epsilon Indi III had only seconds warning thanks to their modest scanners. 41 crew ejected in lifepods when the stations were completely destroyed by the merciless onslaught of an "Ant" class heavy railgun scout, identified as "#34" by NOVGLOV fleet intelligence, which had approached from the direction of Epsilon Indi IV.
(https://imgur.com/ZUXoftU.jpg)
NOVGLOV fleet command immediately dispatched a Little Flower Groovey Baby Ranger class rescue ship followed by a Peaceful Willow class long range recon patrol fighter christened Peaceful Hornbeam plus a particle beam FAC squad of three Crimson Rainbows Green, Coral and Lime to Epsilon Indi.
The journey would take over ten days but hopes that a rescue could be effected were to be proved correct as all 41 survivors were rescued, which was a great morale boost for the fleet and public alike, especially for those who remembered the Jill Zieman tragedy. The archeology expeditions had taken shelter on the planet surface but were continuing their work having taken no fire.
Slower than the ranger class rescue ships the FACs and Peaceful Hornbeam arrived in system but could find no trace of the attacker. While in conference, as the commanders deliberated on the necessary search strategy, the sensors operator on Peaceful Hornbeam interrupted his captain Charlie Lizardo to inform him that the wreck of the Shifting Sands had disappeared. At first Lizardo dismissed the information, the loss of salvage was a minor inconvenience compared to hunting down the violent forces responsible for creating it.
"What do you mean gone?" Lizardo asked the crewman.
"There one moment sir, gone the next, literally, vanished before my eyes." It took a few moments to twig.
"If the salvage is gone, who took it?" Lizardo's question was rhetorical. The commanders all looked at each other through their respective viewscreens. There was no more need for words, each knew what the other was thinking and each gave their crew the same order, head for the last known location of the wreck of the Shifting Sands.
As they approached their destination the long range scanners of the Peaceful Hornbeam picked up hostile vessels attempting to escape with their loot.
(https://imgur.com/hvXZdj5.jpg)
Crimson Rainbow Green FAC squad set about their grisly work, as one by one they disabled or destroyed the escort ships of the fleet from long range, leaving the largest to last as it was slowing the others down and making them easy targets, having been schooled in strategy by the reports of an analyst known to the intelligence community only as "W", who had suggested that if the mission ship was disabled first the escort fleet would detach and flee or attack at full speed.
Their attacks succeeded, Crimson Rainbow Green acquiring some armour damage from an uncooperative hostile as it was subdued and made ready for boarding. NOVGLOV command sent tugs carrying boarding pods from Earth, to capture as many ships as possible to serve a plan developed by the technical wing of the intelligence arm of the fleet, to harvest the alien cloaking devices and incorporate them in ELINT surveillance ships.
The "Bee" class 100kt alien salvager was unfortunately destroyed before it could be disabled. The commanders were not content and all agreed there might be more aliens in the system judging by the record of attacks on Earth and their known method of operations using a hyperdimensional rift to gain entry to the system. There was at least the scout ship which had destroyed the Shifting Sands stations, #34, which had not been among those taken down from the salvage fleet. While that was on the loose the system was not safe for commercial class tugs with payloads.
Charlie Lizardo suggested Peaceful Hornbeam extrapolate the course of the escaping salvage fleet and use their large scanners to seek out signs of other hostiles and possibly locate the rift. This worked admirably well when Peaceful Hornbeam, over a billion klicks out from the site of the disabled hostile salvage fleet discovered a fleeing 20kt Bumble Bee class mission ship moving slowly with a single Beetle class light railgun missile defence escort. Crimson Rainbow Green closed and disabled both ships. Neither of them was #34, the scout which the fleet was hunting.
By this time the first commercial Tangerine Dream class tanker and supply tugs had begun to arrive in system with their payloads. Crimson Rainbow Green FAC squad was low on supplies and fuel after several difficulties with weapons maintenance in battle and arranged a rendezvous to refuel and resupply.
Peaceful Hornbeam was still operating reliably and returned to the core of the system, where Lizardo, drawing on analysis of raider attack strategies, devised a search pattern which visited each major body in turn. Finally at Epsilon Indi III they made contact with their quarry which charged them at full speed. Fortunately the navigator of Peaceful Hornbeam was second to none and swiftly changed course to evade the onslaught of #34. Peaceful Willow class recon ships were at least a hundred klicks faster than the fastest known raider classes, they had been designed that way.
Crimson Rainbow Green decided they had enough supplies and fuel for this and reversed course to make for #34 which Peaceful Hornbeam was leading towards them, right into firing range.
(https://imgur.com/hDFkH5Q.jpg)
(https://imgur.com/a/mdUsRx8.jpg)
On sighting the diminutive attack squad of Crimson Rainbow Green, comprising three ships with tonnage not even half that of Ant #34 the brutal raider thugs attempted to flee but by then it was too late. Particle beams blazed and #34 was finally disabled. Crimson Rainbow Green made their resupply rendezvous and then the special operations tugs equipped with boarding pod modules began their work.
It was only when the 20kt Bumble Bee was captured, that the fleet and NOVGLOV command realised its true purpose. Horrifyingly it was crammed with cryochambers, which by the description rendered from the raiders own language were intended to hold slaves, it was a slave ship. It had arrived too early to find trade in the Esilon Indi system but as a direct consequence of this information NOVGLOV immediately took additional precautions with all other populated systems and sent Crimson Rainbow Green, once repaired and overhauled, to defend V1216 Sagittarii which had only recently been colonised.
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It was a normal run to Iota Horologii for Adept Lucian Bettin, captain of the commercial colonies tug "All Along The Watchtower", named for the classic track memorably performed by Jimi Hendrix and penned by the equally beloved Bob Dylan. This mission tasked her with hauling a train of cryochamber modules carrying two million colonists in suspended animation to escape the stellar heating crisis in Sol and make a new home on Iota Horologii II, which had been successfully terraformed many years before.
To NOVGLOV (New Order of the Velvet Glove), the names of great vessels like All Along The Watchtower held a significance which kept the spell of mystic heroes alive in the media and thereby in the minds humanity and in the administration of human affairs. NOVGLOV was the culmination of the work of scientist W after a temporal incursion from an alternative future for humankind, a future of criminality and the degradation of humanity, had things been allowed to run their course.
W had chosen a career in science because of the highminded and exacting logic behind experimentation and discovery, which contrasted with the the schoolyard politics they had encountered in youth. As a child W had lost many hours escaping into scifi stories and longed for a better world, inspired by the logic of Roddenberry's Vulcans, the forward thinking of Asimov's psychohistorians, the moral deliberation of Banks' Culture. W's revulsion at a future of widespread criminal corruption and megalomania, as revealed by the temporal incursion data transmitted to a quantum computer in W's lab, created a strong desire to use the power the data offered to change the future and W's scifi filled imagination furnished the initiative.
A criminal known as X (because X comes after W in the alphabet) in a drug induced psychosis had offered foreknowledge, believing it to be for their own advantage. This enabled W to develop a financial empire funding a PR machine which defeated the political demoralisation of the age by harking back to the golden age of post war peace, appealing to the heart of humanity, thus paradoxically ending the future which had given rise to X who, having changed the past before the time of their own birth, simply no longer existed.
In W's future, just laws would rule humanity, life was sacred and violence a horror but the organisation W created to govern human affairs, NOVGLOV, well understood the motto para bellum and the need to prepare for war, a lesson taught to the human race by the barbarous acts of the Raiders in the early years. The necessary human reponse to such violence was the subject of many semi-fictional hero movies carefully curated by NOVGLOV to inspire a sense of cohesion between human beings everywhere.
Little did Adept Lucian Bettin suspect he was about to become one such semi-fictional hero as he oversaw the jump into 68 Bootis, an uninteresting red dwarf system, almost empty except for two comets. All that was on his mind in the midst of jumpshock was a small patisserie in the French quarter of Iota city, Chez Le Boulanger, which made the most divine croissants and beautifully black and bitter coffee in the known universe and that waitress, the one who had smiled at him so sweetly the last time he was there. He was wondering if she still worked there. Just one more jump to go and he would find out.
All Along The Watchtower automatically set course for the Iota Horologii jump point, behind her a tractor train of eight "Magenta Skye" cryomodules, each supporting a quarter of a million bodies in deep sleep, followed obediently as she slowly accelerated. Lucian gathered his wits and verified the course with the oversight astrogator, Pete Worsnip. Despite his dreams Lucian took his responsibilities for his crew and cargo of two million souls seriously, it was not something he could forget. He knew people in those cryopods, distant cousins, friends and friends of friends. Whole families and small communities were waiting to spring to life on the surface of Iota, just one more jump away.
The following day at 4:23am on 23rd May 2095, Lucian was on watch again. Halfway across the empty expanse of 68 Bootis, making steady progress towards their destination, the soft thunder of the engines which permeated the bridge was pierced by the automatic alarm of the friend or foe recognition system integrated into the Watchtower's environment monitoring systems.
(https://i.imgur.com/JbueTEB.jpeg)
Lucian was startled out of his reverie by the urgent beeping. His sensors specialist of the watch, Induja Krishnamurthi, looked shocked as she tried to make sense of the display. Her voice quavering in disbelief as she turned to look at her captain and with wide horrified eyes told him of the discovery the FoFRS had made, in the data of the Observer scan. The Observer was standard equipment on all civilian tugs, finest resolution, to avoid collisions navigating crowded orbits. It had a limited range, just over eight million clicks and there at the edge of its sweep was a red blob and unmistakable signature of a Raider gunship destroyer, 10Kt cloaked to 996t, class name Ant. This was a lone scout but there could be more behind it. Lucian knew what Induja knew, from the movies, from their training. The Raiders had only one objective, to destroy, then they would salvage and maybe take slaves, if anyone was left alive.
Lucian ordered Pete the astrogator to change course away from the Ant, then called for a vector analysis and thirty seconds later Induja informed him the Ant was on an intercept course. His delusional hope that the Raider had not detected the sluggish fifty kiloton tug with her train of eight sixty kiloton modules in tow was dashed.
Lucian could hardly believe what was unfolding, it seemed surreal, like a scene from one of those movies. Surely they were the heroes, surely there would be a happy ending. The icy fingers of reality gripped his heart. The course change had bought them some time but the Raider was inexorably gaining on the slower tug and he had only a couple of hours to work out how to save the lives of two million colonists, his crew and himself before the Ant caught up and opened fire on Watchtower and her precious cargo.
Lucian caught the eye of the comms officer Olga Kravchuk and nodded, she understood his meaning and a superluminal system wide mayday was immediately transmitted by a trans newtonian device known as the teletrans but there was no answer, just a few relay pings from sensor buoys. They were alone in 68 Bootis but if the relays were working someone should hear their call for help.
As they raced and the Ant chased, amid the static another sensor buoy ping, then a verification code request from the minefield guarding the Iota Horologii jump point. A minefield, another crazy hope filled Lucian's head, if only they could reach it but it was too far away, at this speed they would not reach it before the Ant had caught up and opened fire, unless they dumped their cargo to the Ant's tender mercies, unthinkable.
At that moment Lucian discovered something about his character he had not known before. He knew in his heart he would rather die than give those unfeeling murderers the colony modules. He asked astrogator Pete Worsnip if there was any way the much larger and potentially faster Watchtower could ram the Ant. Pete replied it was impossible because of the inbuilt collision avoidance systems in the Watchtower's helm. NOVGLOV had designated ramming an act of barbarism, evoking the inhumanity and abuse of altruism of the kamikaze and suicide bombers, even military ships had the same prohibition upon them. Lucian frowned as he wondered if NOVGLOV had ever considered a scenario like this, two million lives could be saved by disabling the Ant, even if it meant the sacrifice of a tug crew, surely it would be worth it.
It took a while for the Iota Horologii jump point gate station to respond. The commanding adept, Darrel Hartranft, told Lucian the Watchtower's mayday and telemetry had been received, to maintain course and speed and standby for further instructions. The noise of the bridge was full of silence or was silence full of noise, Lucian in his dreaming way pondered the conundrum as time seemed to crawl. They were no longer alone and yet the Ant was gaining with terrifying speed. Hartranft spoke again to introduce another speaker, a military analyst, codenamed W who told Lucian to listen, there was plenty of time and not to panic and explained there was another way besides the desperation of ramming. However when W told him to drop the colony modules Lucian exploded with indignation. Hartranft who had known Lucian at the academy told him seriously to listen, so Lucian listened.
W explained calmly that NOVGLOV had captured many Ants and some of their crew had been interrogated. Fearsome as Raider warriors were, they were genetically programmed to fixate on destruction and this was their weakness. W told Lucian what to do and explained how and why it would work. As Lucian contemplated his conflicting responsibilities a familiar voice filled the bridge, the unmistakable deep and rugged tones of Grand Master Dominic Digiovanni, commander in chief of the entire human navy. Lucian sat down heavily in the chair as the commander echoed W's advice. The Grand Master was one of a select few in W's inner circle who knew the truth about W's position in NOVGLOV and even the source of W's knowledge.
The navy's commander explained, they had all received the alert from battle monitor HQ at the same time no more than a couple of minutes after Watchtower's alarm had sounded and he had immediately connected with W and the nearest FAC base in Iota Horologii and ordered the launch of a Crimson Rainbow search and destroy squad, which was on its way.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZTqRjOb.jpeg)
To Lucian W seemed an untrustworthy faceless spook, willing to order others to do things they would not dare to do themselves, the commander on the other hand was reknown for success in search and destroy missions during the battle for Omicron Phoenicis, against a different alien aggressor, while commanding a squadron of NOVGLOV's top of the line Mesh superfighters. Someone had even made a movie about it.
Besides which, the only living Grand Master was in command of the entire navy and well known to everyone on board Watchtower, there was no higher authority and Lucian knew that to continue on his current course would meet with sure disaster in just under two hours, while the Rainbows were thirty four hours away. Listening to his comforting gravely tones, Lucian felt a surge of gratitude for his commander's support and understood the risk he must take to save the colonists. The bridge crew, who had heard everything seemed in agreement.
Lucian ordered navigation to do the unthinkable and drop the colony modules, reverse course and make a beeline for the Ant at full speed, engines burning as hot as they could. A tug at full speed makes a larger thermal signature than static cryomodules. The plan was to obscure the location of the modules and give the Ant something else to focus on. Once free of its burden the Watchtower's top speed became 8188 km/s, nearly twice that of the well studied Ant which was known to be capable of 4393 km/s, she left the modules behind and closed rapidly on the enemy contact.
The Ant's sensor capabilities were also known, it would probably detect the modules but the warriors on board would attack the nearest target, as W had explained. It had become Lucian's task to make the Watchtower the nearest target and lure the Ant away from the colonists, towards its doom. A task he and his crew embraced with defiant commitment. He told his crew over the ship wide address system, this was a job worth living for.
Watchtower approached the Ant at high velocity, to 320,000 km, twice the known range of the Ant's main guns and changed course for the Iota Horologii jump point, slowing to match her enemy's speed. It was imperative that she take the Ant with her, the modules were only two million clicks away, if she opened up range to the Ant it might change target and attack them, they had to stay close.
As the Ant swung around behind Watchtower it followed and closed, it was evident the Raiders had taken the bait.
(https://i.imgur.com/y071elY.jpeg)
Lucian held his nerve and Watchtower made for the jump point maintaining a 220,000km distance to the Ant for the several hours it took to receive an in system hail from the Crimson Rainbow squad.
Adept Tod Para in command of Rainbow Violet and the squad including Rainbow Purple and Peaceful Pine recon, sounded cool and professional, which he was. Inside the confined bridge of Violet he touched the local coms button and politely requested Bernice Alejandre commander of the Pine keeping formation just behind the two Rainbows, to go dark. His sparks had verified, using the known sensitivity of the Ant's EM detector, a likely detection range of just over 32m km if the Pine's large active sensor remained active, which was a little too early, as he explained to Bernice, it would be nice to get closer and Bernice understood. Pine's time to shine would come later once the known threat was dealt with and the unknown threats were being sought. In the meantime telemetry on the Ant's position from Watchtower's sensors meant his squad knew exactly where to go.
(https://i.imgur.com/tS8lDcB.jpeg)
On the morning of 24th May at 11:56am, at range 20m km the Ant was within range of the Rainbow's sensors, calibrated to pick up cloaked Raiders. Adept Para ordered the squad's beam fire controls to lock onto the enemy contact as they approached. He knew they had another ten minutes before the Ant's sensor would pick up the Violet and Purple. Crimson Rainbow III's were not large but they packed a significant punch and were an improvement on the previous generation, with a particle beam firing 400,000 km and improved beam fire control accuracy. There would be no mistakes. The enemy ship would be neutralised and if disabled, Ocean Blue was already on her way from Earth to capture and tractor the Ant and turn the threat into an opportunity to learn more about enemy cloaking systems.
FAC-09 Rainbow Violet (Crimson Rainbow III class Fast Attack Craft) 1,650 tons 45 Crew 573.9 BP TCS 33 TH 98 EM 0
8485 km/s Armour 2-12 Shields 0-0 HTK 11 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 7
Maint Life 3.74 Years MSP 804 AFR 87% IFR 1.2% 1YR 90 5YR 1,345 Max Repair 187.5 MSP
Adept Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 37 months Morale Check Required
StarBurst ICF3 800 P280 T3 0.097 (1) Power 280 Fuel Use 9.72% Signature 98.00 Explosion 7%
Fuel Capacity 33,000 Litres Range 37 billion km (50 days at full power)
Heavy Particles III (1) Range 400,000km TS: 10,000 km/s Power 10-5 ROF 10 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
Divine Light V (1) Max Range: 600,000 km TS: 10,000 km/s 98 97 95 93 92 90 88 87 85 83
P5 32t Ring (1) Total Power Output 5 Exp 5%
R18 15t - Scavenger (1) GPS 195 Range 20.6m km Resolution 18
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Warship for auto-assignment purposes
RC-05 Peaceful Pine (Peaceful Oak class Recon Craft) 600 tons 11 Crew 242.5 BP TCS 12 TH 37 EM 0
8755 km/s Armour 1-6 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 3/1/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 6.13 Years MSP 335 AFR 29% IFR 0.4% 1YR 15 5YR 229 Max Repair 146.2 MSP
Seeker Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 68 months Morale Check Required
StarBurst ICF3 280 P105 T3 0.195 recon (1) Power 105 Fuel Use 19.53% Signature 36.75 Explosion 7%
Fuel Capacity 40,000 Litres Range 61.5 billion km (81 days at full power)
R18 163t - Junker (1) GPS 2106 Range 67.9m km Resolution 18
Yin 5t (1) Sensitivity 1.8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 10.6m km
Deeper Heat (1) Sensitivity 3.6 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 15m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a None for auto-assignment purposes
Closing to 12m clicks the Ant finally detected the Rainbows and broke off pursuit of Watchtower but it was too late for the Raiders, the Rainbows outpaced them significantly at 8485 km/s. At Tod Para's request Peaceful Pine lit up her sensor again and broke formation to escort Watchtower picking up the colony modules.
(https://i.imgur.com/gwt4r4h.jpeg)
A few minutes later at 12:43am on 24th May 2095 the Ant was finally disabled. Bernice Alejandre commanding the Peaceful Pine had logged its escape vector and would later extrapolate and search along the same line to seek out other Raiders in the system but first the colonists must be recovered. As she considered the huge number of civilians adrift in the middle of the Raider infested sector like sitting ducks, she began to appreciate the Watchtower commander's evident sense of urgency seeing her blasting engines lighting up the star strewn vista ahead as Watchtower reversed course at full power. Bernice began to understand the cunning of the strategy which had brought them this far and reflected on the old maxim that hers was not to question why, just to do or die but someone had made the right call and it gave her faith in command. When Grand Master Dominic Digiovanni, commander of the human navy commed her personally and asked her to proceed with all haste to recon the colony modules and the space around them she did not hesitate to comply and move ahead of the tug.
A few parting shots from Violet squad struck the disabled Raider as they too raced to support the recovery effort, now disabled the Ant did not matter, only the defenceless colonists who had mercifully slept through the event. Ocean Blue's boarding marines would deal with the Ant. Meanwhile Cosmic River Expedition, an exploration vessel docked at Iota Horologii II awaiting refit, was launched to assist the search effort with her supersized "Warm Breath on a Winters Night" class thermal sensors.
On the bridge of the Watchtower Lucian Bettin felt a deep sense of guilt, that something was missing from the proper order of things as he urged his ship to make haste towards the colony modules he had abandoned in his effort to save them. He could not hide the emotion in his voice as he contacted the supervising crews on board the modules and advised them to prepare for pick up by reassembling the tractor train which had been automatically disassembled the moment the emergency release had been activated. Now for the first time in over a day, with the Watchtower surrounded by friendly navy vessels, specifically designed and highly trained to tackle the Raider threat, Lucian felt hope instead of dread fear.
In the distant dark, tractor beams wrangled the eight Magenta Skye modules into a long caterpillar ready to reunite its body to its head and resume its journey among the stars.
(https://i.imgur.com/YJMIzkM.jpeg)
Colonists in tow, Watchtower made her way to her destination as Peaceful Pine and Expedition swept the system but with little to go on and possibly because there was no reason for the Raiders to send more ships into a barren system, they found nothing.
(https://i.imgur.com/2CKSJ9V.jpeg)
After a long debriefing meeting somewhere in the bowels of naval command HQ near Iota city, Lucian Bettin invited the commanders of the search and destroy squad, Tod Para, Bernice Alejandre, Wilbur Carrick for a coffee at his favourite patisserie to thank them for all they had done. Tod insisted they needed no thanks and Bernice chimed in that it was they who should thank him. Wilbur suggested they all thank each other and find the cake shop Lucian had been talking about. This they did and after eating sumptious hot croissants with melting butter and tangy marmalade from the farms of Iota Horologii II washed down with fresh black coffee from the equatorial plantations they shook hands and went their ways, though Lucian left a large tip and found the courage to ask the waitress with such a sweet smile out to dinner. Luckily she was not doing anything that evening and agreed.
Epilogue - a teletrans meeting of the inner circle of NOVGLOV was called to discuss the events which had unfolded in 68 Bootis and the peril which two million colonists had faced. W raised the prospect that in the not too distant future, colony transports would need to be increased to evacuate Earth and finally surrender her to the ever heating sun. Several transports like All Along The Watchtower would be needed and the risk of losing any to Raiders could not be countenanced. Suggestions included escorts and concealed hangar modules carrying fighters. Roger Sasaki, head of propulsion research at MIT, commented the tugs were last generation and suggested upgrading them simply to be faster than Raiders even when pulling Magenta Skye modules. The circle agreed this was worthwhile and in due course post-doc Darius Briles was commissioned to develope a prototype engine which could be used to upgrade the existing fleet. The result was the Mastodon commercial inertial confinement fusion engine 11,350t EPH-0.006 and the Purple Rain class of tug, named after the song created by Prince for the Magenta Skye modules they would tow and Rainbows Violet and Purple which had by a curiously colour matched coincidence brought the 'rain' which saved their occupants from a fate worse than death.
Purple Rain class Tug 62,696 tons 535 Crew 2,955 BP TCS 1,254 TH 11,350 EM 0
9051 km/s Armour 1-140 Shields 0-0 HTK 108 Sensors 24/24/0/0 DCR 1 PPV 0
MSP 1,029 Max Repair 454 MSP
Troop Capacity 1,000 tons Boarding Capable Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 10 Tractor Beam
Seeker Control Rating 1 BRG
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months
Com ICF3 11.35k P2270 0.006 Mastodon (5) Power 11350 Fuel Use 0.64% Signature 2270 Explosion 4%
Fuel Capacity 1,280,000 Litres Range 576.7 billion km (737 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 100,000 litres per hour Complete Refuel 12 hours
R18 50t - Crow - 1 (1) GPS 864 Range 50.2m km Resolution 18
R01 50t - Observer I (1) GPS 48 Range 19.1m km MCR 1.7m km Resolution 1
Deepest Heat - I (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 38.7m km
Yin (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 38.7m km
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Troop Transport for auto-assignment purposes