1527 UST 15th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
‘Marshal, Sensors, Penyrheol reports a new contact at extreme range thermal strength 1200 designate Bravo 1. Based upon known alien characteristics estimate target mass as 6 000 tonnes.’
‘Nav, continue to close with target.’
‘Aye, Sir.’
1530 UST 15th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
‘Marshal, Sensors, Penyrheol reports Bravo 1 currently moving at 1000 km/s.’
1535 UST 15th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
‘Marshal, Tactical, assuming that Bravo 1 has a max speed of 1000km/s it is possible the actual mass is 60 000 tonnes.’
Hall turned to his Tactical Officer and gave him his best stare. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, I will not tolerate unfounded pessimism on my bridge.’
2203 UST 15th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
‘Marshal, Sensors, Bravo 1 is now at 224 million km/s and has been actively scanned by Penyrheol. Bravo 1 has a confirmed mass of 60 000 tonnes!’
Hall turned to stare at his Tactical Officer, who was inspecting one of his displays intently and, sensibly, made no comment.
0328 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
Hugh Hall watched his tactical screen as the 60 fighters of his carrier strike sped towards the behemoth that his fleet had been tracking for the last 24 hrs. About 6 hrs ago the ship had obviously detected his forces as it left orbit of the asteroid it had been close to and headed directly towards them. After an hour or so it had become apparent that no more of the drone warships had been launched and, given the massive speed advantage of his fleet, Hall had become confident that he could control this engagement.
0342 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
The 60 Dreigiau fighters launched 360 Bolts at the massive alien ship and turned for home. Still no drones appeared and Hall felt his confidence rise even further.
0343 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
The Bolts struck home and flattened the alien ship’s massive shields. Hall studied the display intently but he couldn’t see any sign of internal damage. Unbelievable, 360 missiles hadn’t killed it. Then another set of icons appeared on his display.
‘Marshal, Sensors, new contacts designate Tango 57 through 76. Speed 10000km/s, bearing directly.’
‘Marshal, Tactical, the large alien ship fired meson weapons to intercept some of our missiles, postulate that the drones are also meson armed.’
‘Marshal, Tactical, Cruisers are opening fire using targeting protocol Hall Charlie.’
On his tactical display, Hall watched as groups of 5 Arrows appeared, each targeted on a different drone.
0348 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
Hugh Hall watched as the last of the drones exploded under the weight of the Arrow barrage.
‘Tactical, order the fleet to close to 1 million km of the Bravo 1. Cruisers are free to engage at will.’
0350 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
‘Marshal, Tactical, cruisers have expended Arrow stocks. Switching to Dart. Target’s shields are regenerating and absorbing some of each volley’
‘Tactical, order the frigates to close to effective laser range, they are only doing minimal damage at the moment. We need more weight of fire; we are just knocking the shields down again and stripping layers of armour off.’
Dart AMM: 1 MSP (0.05 HS) Warhead: 1 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 35
Speed: 92000 km/s Endurance: 2 minutes Range: 13.5m km
Cost Per Missile: 2.4083
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 3220% 3k km/s 1050% 5k km/s 644% 10k km/s 322%
0352 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
‘Marshal, Tactical, Tan 001 has suffered significant internal damage from meson fire, the frigates are pulling out of range.
0354 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
‘Marshal, Tactical, the alien ship is streaming fluid and appears to have slowed. Thermal signature has also reduced.’
‘Tactical, I want that thing dead; order the frigates to close again.’
0356 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
Punctuated by cheers, the Tactical Officer called out ‘Marshal, Tactical, target has exploded.’
‘Well done everyone, Tactical, I want a status report on missile stores and damage.’
0400 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
Hugh Hall looked at his display and shook his head, out of an original inventory of 420 Arrows and 1320 Darts his cruisers only had 170 Dart AMMs left. Tan 001 had lost 50% of its engines and 25% of its weapon batteries along with 378 of her crew. In exchange the aliens had lost seventy six 800 tonne drones and a 60 000 tonne ship.
‘Tactical continue on course to the asteroid that monster was in orbit of; I want to make sure we have cleansed this system.’
0837 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
‘Marshal, Sensors, Penyrheol has detected 6 new targets designate Charlie 1 through 9. Thermal strength 160, speed 1333 km/s estimate tonnage as 6 000 tonnes.’
‘Marshal, Tactical, concur with Sensors assessment.’
‘Tactical, instruct the frigates to close and engage.’
1029 UST 18th Rivros 3127 CC Luyten’s Star System.
Hall watched his display as the last of the 6 000 tonne alien ships exploded, it was now obvious that they were unarmed. They had tried to run from the frigates; given the frigates were nearly 5 times as fast as the aliens it had been a futile gesture.
‘Tactical, order the frigates to re-join the fleet. Nav, shape a course for home.’
With their magazines practically empty, the first Celtic ships to ever engage in space combat headed home.