Author Topic: From the Ashes - part 28  (Read 2887 times)

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Offline Haji (OP)

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From the Ashes - part 28
« on: March 07, 2017, 09:45:49 PM »
23rd February 2407

   The reasonable colony candidate in Pensacola is now within sensor range of Valiant showing a sizeable task group of Confederate ships ranging in size from small corvettes massing forty nine hundred tonnes to cruisers massing nearly thirty thousand tonnes. In addition some constructs massing over eleven thousand tonnes appear to have no thermal signature indicating them to be orbital bases.

4th March 2407

   The Defender carrier group has received the new fighters allowing them to be deployed to Pensacola. The decision is somewhat controversial but the negotiations with Kinharans are going nowhere and the Hegemony is not only worried about potential aggression but also considering military action of their own. As far as they are concerned the threat of the Destroyers should make it in obvious self-interest of everyone to cooperate, but the Confederation flat out refuses any cooperation until 'they get to know humans better”. Aside from sheer stupidity of such an attitude there is also the fact this sounds simply suspicious.
   As the next batch of fighters enters construction, to replace the two hundred older ones currently on Invincible, the first new carrier in over a decade is laid down, the Incredible.

7th March 2407

   The Hegemony detects five slow moving yet large ships approaching the inner Albuquerque system. As they appear to be some sort of commercial design the negotiators inquire Kinharans about their purpose. The aliens respond that those are colony ships bringing their people to their new homes.
   The humans immediately protest colonisation of a system under dispute, but the Confederation responds there is no dispute – they developed the system first and it belongs to them.

11th March 2407

   Valiant detects ten powerful thermal signatures moving at over five thousand kilometres per second implying them to be warships. The negotiators once again inquire about those vessels and the Kinharans respond those ten are the core of a task group sent to escort the Hegemony out of the Albuquerque system. The humans flat out state this is not going to happen, but they also say, for a thousandth time, that they are willing to concede the system, and even the next one in chain, in exchange for trade and military cooperation. The Confederation responds, also for a thousandth time, that until borders are established and free flow of information permitted, so that the two nation can learn more about each other, no formal cooperation, especially one that can be twisted, will be possible.

18th March 2407

   The Confederate task force is now within active sensor range allowing the humans to get a full count and size estimate. It comprises twenty five destroyers massing fourteen thousand and seven hundred tonnes each, fifteen larger destroyers massing nineteen thousand nine hundred and fifty tonnes each, twelve cruisers like the one encountered by Watt, each massing twenty nine thousand and four hundred tonnes each and ten battleships each massing sixty one thousand two hundred and fifty tonnes. In total the aliens have twice as much tonnage as the Hegemony.
   So far the Kinharan commander have not hailed the Valiant and similarly the humans remained silent. The aliens are moving more or less towards the carrier group but it remains to be seen where they intend to stop. The group still holds its position between the orbits of the first and second planets and has so far not responded to the alien movements as its commander, Rear Admiral Odra Jagtap does not intend to be bullied.
   Of course the news of the aliens have been sent towards the Sanctuary as soon as the battleships have been detected through their thermal signature, but the government simply ordered the carriers to stay put. As the system is under dispute it is no surprise that both sides have sent forces there to reinforce their claims and as this is seen as more of a diplomatic move rather than military one, no new carriers have been ordered to Albuquerque.

20th March 2407

   The alien task force stopped seventy nine million kilometres away from the humans, finally contacting Valiant and ordering the carrier group out of the system. The Hegemony had five Kinharan days which apparently translated to ten Earth days.

30th March 2407

    The Kinharan ultimatum has expired. They ask last time if the humans will leave but Jagtap has strict orders to remain in the system. Both sides once again repeat their positions and once again no agreement is reached.
   Forty five minutes later the Admiral begun cursing. He didn't know whether his government truly believed it was all a bluff or whether they actually welcomed a new war but it still left him to deal with over sixty three hundred incoming shipkillers. Fortunately it was now obvious the aliens truly were behind the Hegemony as their munitions moved at only fifty thousand kilometres per second, which meant the Hegemony anti-missiles will have nearly a hundred percent interception chance.
   His fighters were on standby ever since the ultimatum was drawing to a close and now they all launched but as he saw the results of the first interceptions he decided to not turn them loose yet. After a couple of minutes all incoming shipkillers have been destroyed well short of his force leaving him with the decision of what to do next. The best choice in his opinion would be to ask government for directions but it would take four days for a replay to arrive, assuming one would be sent immediately. For all instances and purposes he was on his own. And he really didn't like having thousands of missiles coming at him, especially since it was an obvious bid to flat out annihilate or at least cripple his entire group. He decided to respond in kind and go from there.
   The enemy was slightly outside the range of his Tomahawks but not by much and he was faster. He ordered his group to close to sixty million kilometres and then do what the Kinharans have done – launch everything which totalled sixteen hundred Tomahawks E and the same number of Spacebolts C. While only half of what the aliens have launched the humans had faster missiles, moving at eighty eight thousand kilometres per second, the enemy likely had lower interception ranges and poorer anti-missiles and the carrier could reload the fighters for two more strikes.
   The first explosions were detected a million and a half kilometres from the Confederate task force, confirming the aliens were behind in sensor technology as well. That has ended up being a critical weakness allowing enough missiles to get through to destroy four battleships and five of the smaller destroyers. Three more battleships, four cruisers and one more of the smaller destroyers have fallen out of formation with some of them dead in space.
   The bulk of the alien task force moved a little ahead to protect the damaged ships while no doubt repair and rescue operations were ongoing. There was no way to tell what else was going on or to receive new instructions as Watt was nearly four light hours away and the Kensington naval base was twelve light hours away. It was all to Jagtap.
   The aliens haven't commented on the combat and he knew that the long term goal of the Hegemony is to create a unified front against the Destroyers – by any means necessary. As the aliens haven't responded well to negotiations it seemed like the war was the only way to make them see reason. Even so he would prefer to avoid killing more of them, so he once again tried to get the necessary military cooperation agreements by pointing out how useful the Hegemony could be as an ally. As no humans have died so far he believed that the government would honour any agreement he could get.
   But the Confederation refused once again. As the task force commander explained, the fact that the humans were unwilling to grant any concessions during negotiations and were unwilling to reveal too much of themselves, agreeing to such agreements could be a prelude to peaceful, but still very real total takeover of the Confederatcy and the Kinharans were unwilling to risk it. If the Hegemony truly wants to create an alliance, one of equals, they have to show at least some good will. But Jagtap could not simply abandon Albuquerque due to his orders.
   As it appeared the war will be the only way to settle the issue, his first order of business was to make sure the system was open. He probably could not secure it with his remaining forces, but he had to prevent any blockade so that the other two carriers and their escorts could enter without hindrance.
   Fortunately it seemed the aliens believed his force to be spent, as far as long range missiles went. They probably did not detect the fighters from such a distance so his first order of business will be to launch more strikes against the main enemy body. For that reason he halted his approach, landed his fighters and begun their reload. Interestingly the smaller alien group near the first planet did not move. It was possible they were afraid of being caught alone in an energy weapon duel by the faster human ships.
   While Valiant was preparing and conducting the second strike the alien damaged warships managed at least some emergency repairs allowing them to get under way at three thousand kilometres per second while also recovering the life pods. Jagtap intended to let them go, at least for now, as there were far too many combat ready enemies who had to be dealt with if he was to keep his presence in the system. Of course considering the enemy inferior technology he should be fine in an energy weapon duel, but his laser and particle beams were quite behind the times as well, he wasn't sure his untrained crews could properly execute movement orders well enough and last but not least he had a much smaller force than the enemy and the Kinharans had to have a lot of anti-missiles which could be used in offensive mode. For now he intended to rely on missiles.
   The second strike was more successful than the Admiral expected, destroying a single battleship. The third one finally made the aliens run out of ammunition, although only near the very end but even so this led to the destruction of a battleship, a cruiser and four of the smaller destroyers. Three more fifteen thousand tonne ships detached themselves to pick up survivors and take them to safety.
   The main enemy force still comprised a battleship, six cruisers, fifteen large and twelve small destroyers. Due to their slow speed and lack of ammunition they couldn't do anything, but those were nonetheless enemy combatants. Confident his carrier can take care of itself Jagtap decided to send most of his escorts – six cruisers, seven destroyers and eleven frigates - to finish off the enemy with short range fire. This left only a command cruiser and three Da Ya class missile destroyers to accompany Valiant itself.
   As soon as the aliens saw the movement they begun running away. But what really interested the Admiral was what will the force near the first planet do. As they were twenty one light minutes away he had to wait quite a bit for an answer. In the end they did nothing, which was not surprising. Assuming the constructs without any thermal signature detected were orbital bases rather than stealth craft, the enemy had there only three cruisers, three of their smaller destroyers and ten corvettes. At the same time the fact they weren't running away meant they felt confident their orbital defences can deal with remaining Hegemony ships if they try to enter energy weapon range.
   Soon after the Admiral received report from Watt that the ship has been expelled from the system by the Kinharan cruiser. As the exploration craft had no armament and was unwilling to risk calling the alien bluff, they complied with the alien orders. Soon after the communication channels through the jump gate were jammed. Fortunately the Watt will be able to send a message further towards the Hegemony to warn Kensington and New Earth of what is going on thanks to which the Vanguard and Vengeance should be on their way soon.
   The one thing that had to be thought out before closing in on the enemy was the use of anti-missiles in offensive mode. The aliens had close in defences of course but probably not enough although that was the lesser concern. The larger one was the general ammunition availability in the Hegemony.
   There were fourteen hundred ordnance factories on New Earth and six hundred more on Khamali. Even so there was simply not enough time to produce enough modern ammunition. The warships moving to the front are fully loaded out as were the two small carrier groups in Untama system. For that matter there are healthy stockpiles of Tomahawks and Harpoons available. What is problematic are fighter munitions and anti-missiles. Because of that Jagtap gives order not to use the Patriots unless absolutely necessary.

1st April 2407

   During the chase the main alien force realised they were going to overtake their damaged, and thus slowed, vessels so they changed course, allowing humans to cut the angle. As soon as they were clear of their crippled comrades the Kinharans once again begun moving directly away, but the Hegemony had nearly three thousand kilometres per second speed advantage.
   The detached force was commanded by Captain Shi Ai Yuan. As her ships were equipped predominantly with particle beams she intended to close to three hundred thousand kilometres – a little less than her extreme possible range – and pummel the enemy. Assuming the Kinharans have also focused their technological development on missiles, like the Hegemony and the Commune did, she should be able to fight from outside the enemy range. If not she will have to either accept a battle of attrition with heavy loses or disengage and allow the aliens to retreat. She could in theory use anti-missiles but using those in an attempt to cripple ships will require far too much ammunition for too little return. If the Confederation have beam ranges equivalent to those of the Hegemony the humans will have to avoid short range battles as much as possible.
   As the two forces were half a million kilometres away the aliens turned about directly towards Yuans ships. She realised they were hoping the Hegemony won't react in time giving them an opportunity to close the range. Unfortunately for them her ships were by now on a finely tuned automatic controls which were ordered to keep her at least three hundred thousand kilometres away from her enemy.
   As she finally got into range she scored her first two hits. While few if the enemy could not respond it didn't really matter. Unfortunately as her Gharaans had only older ECCM systems and the enemy did have some ECM on their ships, the eleven frigates were not contributing anything.
   As her weapons were still recharging the enemy finally fired scoring two powerful hits, each equivalent to missiles armed with ten megaton warheads and twenty nine lighter hits, equivalent to what an anti-missile would do. Five seconds later her force responded with four solid hits but the aliens scored twenty five light ones. In terms of actual damage done the hegemony was slightly ahead in this particular exchange, but it appeared the aliens had reasonable long range fast firing lasers and they were still the larger force as well, capable of taking more damage. If this continued she will die while the enemy will suffer only moderate losses. She could use anti-missiles to thicker her fire but while this would help in this particular battle, the enemy probably had more ships deeper in its territory. If he didn't the two presumably coming carrier groups will win the war outright but if the conflict was to last longer, the best bet for Hegemony victory will be missile duels, where their technological advantage will deal with superior enemy numbers.
   As all of this was going through her head, another volley was fired by the Kinharans scoring another twenty eight light hits while all her weapons were either recharging or unable to fire. She ordered to disengage immediately. Unfortunately while her crews were better trained than most in the Hegemony they still needed far too much time to carry their orders allowing the enemy not only to continue pummelling them but to use the confusion to close the range somewhat. But they finally got under way, still exchanging long range fire from the aliens as they retreated. Her heavy guns actually got some good hits due to the lower range, making one of the alien cruisers fall out of formation, but she was unwilling to risk continued engagement.
   As the range reopened to three hundred thousand kilometres another heavy alien salvo arrived, scoring four good hits along with thirty light ones but after that they turned about and headed back towards their space.
   Jagtap was too far away to monitor the fight in real time of course and while disappointed he couldn't fault Yuans decision to disengage. He noted that as the range closed the Hegemony warships were getting some really good hits, possibly out damaging the small enemy lasers, but even if that was true it would still result in massive human loses. As the enemy was withdrawing, many of his ships damaged and completely out of ammunition, there was no reason to try and fight to the death at this particular time.
   His ships have taken damage as well, but fortunately the aliens have spread their fire and it was pretty light to begin with. Five of his cruisers suffered light armour damage but nothing worse than that.
   Several hours later, as the various forces were going their own way, he regained contact with the Hegemony. Apparently the Kinharan cruiser moved away, not wanting to fight potential reinforcements on his own. Of course due to the time lags Kensington didn't even know about the expulsion of Watt, but at least now communication will be possible once again.
   Once all his warships were concentrated again he made his way towards the Amarillo to ensure any incoming reinforcements will have easy access to the system.
   Late evening he received news from Vice Admiral Rosa Landmann, commanding the forces operating from Kensington naval base – which included the Valiant carrier group – that she's taking the Vanguard and the Vengeance to Albuquerque. Valiant is to secure as much of the system as possible, but its priority is to secure the jump point and to avoid unnecessary loses.

2nd April 2407

   Due to the time lag the Hegemony government only now begins to receive news from Albuquerque although due to the temporary jamming there are a lot of holes in their knowledge. Moreover their options are limited due to several carrier groups being in overhaul and Invincible – their most modern and powerful group – still not having new generation bombers. Even so there are things they can still do and so they order Unyielding, the larger of the two carrier groups in Untama, to redeploy to Kensington. Despite it being among the smallest and oldest carriers still in service, her escorts have been modernised, the formation is fully armed, supply, rested and has the highest standards of training possible. As Defender is already on her way this will add two more carrier groups to the front in short order.
   The news of the war were generally received with disappointment as it will be a significant distraction for the Navy from their anti-Destroyer stance but it couldn't be helped. The Kinharan unwillingness for military cooperation was engendering everyone, even their own race and since they could be a future danger as well, the Hegemony was unwilling to let them be. The last thing they would want was to spend themselves against the enemy of all just to be backstabbed by an alien, opportunistic race.
   Troops will also be deployed to the front. It is currently unknown how large the Confederate territory is but it will have to be secured. And while most of the troops will come from New Earth, the government has also decided to recall some of those deployed to Untama. Three divisions of National Guard will remain there to keep an eye on things but two Assault Divisions and two divisions of Mobile Infantry will be sent to Kensington.

11th April 2407

   The news of the war has been spreading throughout human space for some time now with responses pretty much within expectations of the Hegemony government. The Republic wishes to assist in negotiating peace, but New Earth thanked them for that without taking them on the offer while the Commune says that while they cannot condemn anyone's right to self defence, they find it curious that every time the Hegemony meets a new species it ends up with a war. At the same time Valhalla has chosen to do nothing, confirming the opinion they don't have any forces to spare in light of three Traveller anomalies within their territory.

17th April 2407

   The Vanguard and Vengeance carrier groups enter the Albuquerque system, setting course for the inhabited planet to destroy its orbital defences. Valiant will stay in the system for the moment keeping an eye on the jump point. The group may have no shipkillers and only a limited number of anti-missiles but it would still be very difficult to dislodge. It will also assure clear communication between the system and the rest of the Hegemony.

18th April 2407

   Passive sensors on board the Hegemony warships detect five active sensors emissions coming from the vicinity of the jump point believed to lead deeper into Confederate territory which is located almost, thought not quite, on the other side of the star and at similar distance. The distance between the two jump points is nearly nine billion kilometres and the detected ships are still much too far away to be seen with human active or thermal sensors, so the exact size of the force is unknown. However one of the detected ships is a battleship.

21st April 2407


      For three days now the Hegemony carrier groups have been moving towards the inhabited planet in the Albuquerque system, refining any data they had. Initially they thought that the five active sensors were moving directly towards them, which confused Landmann as they had no chance of catching her. She expected the aliens to move to the same location as her, although they would almost certainly be late. However as she moved away from her entry point, she realised the aliens were moving towards the jump point to Amarillo. Either they didn't know about her presence – which was unlikely as she was using her own active sensors – or they were trying to cut her off.
   She begun running scenarios through her head. If the aliens were powerful enough to challenge her two carriers she could easily evade them. By moving to the jump point they left her free to roam their territory and she did know the jump points to two adjacent system, one of which almost certainly led to the heart of the alien territories. Not only that but while she had no survey capabilities jump gates could be detected by active sensors allowing her to potentially do significant damage to the Confederation. Logically the aliens should have tried to block the jump point to the next system as they couldn't catch her.
   At the same time her sensors, while powerful, had still rather limited range compared to the size of an average star system which coupled with limited fuel meant she could devastate only a couple of systems before she run out of supplies and became effectively defenceless. Not only that but if the Kinharan force is really as powerful as its confident movements indicated, she could ill afford wasting ammunition or risking damage against other forces. For that matter there is absolutely no reason to believe there is no blockade on the other side of the jump point leading deeper into enemy space. Last but not least she has no way of knowing how many other ships the aliens have in reserve. For all she knows even more are on their way.
   The aliens played this right. She could still destroy the defences above the inhabited planet and than head back but she couldn't afford to waste the ammunition. Her only reasonable choice was to bring the enemy into sensor range as soon as possible, see what it has and go from there.

22nd April 2407

   The Hegemony carriers moved close enough to detect thermal signatures of the alien battleships – twenty five of them.

24th April 2407

   The enemy fleet is in range and consists of twenty five battleships, eighty cruisers, twenty five larger and eighty five smaller destroyers. In total it's three and a half as much tonnage as her two carriers and their escorts have. If the Valiant were to be counted, it would fall to a little over twice the tonnage, but considering the enemy performance in previous battles those were still daunting odds.
   Unfortunately she had to fight. The Hegemony force was designed to fight in deep space but it was obvious the aliens knew they couldn't win that way in the long run and intended to try and force the humans to bleed themselves in jump point assaults where the technological advantage was much less relevant. If the Kinharans managed to establish such a picket in Albuquerque, the Navy will have to wait for years to build up necessary jump ships and additional escorts to try and enter the system.
   Her biggest problem was the short range of Spacebolts and Tomahawks. As fighters were supposed to be hard to detect the range of their munitions wasn't really relevant. In the case of the Confederation it would appear they will be working as intended, as they had nothing that could detect them, at least according to the data gathered so far which showed their sensors to have either too poor resolution or too short range. Similarly her escorts were supposed to engage an enemy which was already softened by the fighter strikes so Tomahawks had short range. The ships could be equipped and handle the long range Harpoons but that was not the case here. Unfortunately in this case the doctrine simply failed, for she needed a coordinated strike from her ships and her fighters to get through the enemy defences. But that means she'll have to try and survive the alien fire first.
   Her first order of business was to join with Valiant. The carrier group may be out of offensive ordnance but she could transfer some of her fighter missiles, which would increase her bomber strength by fifty percent and the escorts still had most of their interceptors and of course close in defences and energy weapons.

27th April 2407

   The Defender and her group arrived at Kensington, exhausting the fuel stockpile of the colony, which was still not enough. Even so the group is called forward to Albuquerque despite the fact it will arrive too late to stop the Kinharans from reaching the Amarillo jump point.

30th April 2407

   By using fighters as ammunition shuttles the Hegemony forces have spread out their ordnance allowing the three carrier groups to launch two full fighter strikes and while a third of the escorts is still empty of shipkillers, it still significantly increased the size of the joint strike. The only question is whether or not fighters should strike alone first or after the joined strike with the escorts.
   Unfortunately as far as Landmann is concerned there is only a single choice – strike with fighters first and then do a joined launch. The reason is very simple – while the tonnage ratios are similar to those in the first battle, she cannot be sure her defences will work as well as the last time and if the enemy gets lucky and destroys a carrier, she won't be able to launch as large a second strike as she'd like.
   The forty eight hundred Spacebolts C failed to achieve anything although they came close enough to enemy warships for last ditch point defence to be used. It was also unknown how much ammunition the aliens have spent but hopefully a large enough amount. For now she continued on her way to Amarillo jump point, allowing the fighters to overtake her.

2nd May 2407

   As the two forces begun moving closer and closer Landmann expected a repeat of the first battle between the Valiant and the smaller Kinharan force. However the range fell below seventy million kilometres and no fire came.
   It took her a while to realise what the enemy was probably doing. The aliens knew their long range missile strike will accomplish either nothing or at best very little, so they didn't bother. Once the Hegemony launched they will be out of ammunition and no danger. If he humans retreat, the system will be secured by the Confederation. If they don't they will be cut off by jump point blockade. And if they try to close for energy weapon duel, thousands of missiles will devastate the three carrier groups form range so short it won't matter how good her interceptors were.
   And once the fleet gets to the jump point it will be able to unleash hell on any force which will try to transit. In fact if even half of this force survives it will probably have enough ammunition to destroy the entire Hegemony Navy.
   She considered calling off her strike, but that would change nothing. At best she could try to close to the enemy and fire her own missiles from close range, but all that would accomplish would be to trade her ships for the enemy's – and that was the best case scenario, for she wasn't sure she had enough destructive power to kill everything the enemy had. Admittedly three carrier groups represented only a third or so of the New Earth's military power so if she traded it for the bulk of the enemy navy, especially one that was technologically inferior, it could win the war. But even if she has seen every single Kinharan warship, all they had to do was to re-arm and get everything they had left at the next jump point and with the current ammunition situation and lack of jump leaders it would be impossible to gather force powerful enough to break such defences any time soon. Her real options was to fire her strike anyway to do at least some damage or to disengage.
   It all came down to what the enemy intended to do however and there was no way to know that. If the alien intended to secure Albuquerque or at worst Amarillo, launching now would be the best option. However if she did and if the aliens intended to drive as far as they could, there would be no way to stop them for months to come. At least if she kept her ammunition now she could rendezvous with the Defender carrier group two jumps away and get much more powerful strike. But if she launched now the single carrier group will be unable to get through the massive alien defences.
   She held an inner debate for nearly half an hour before she decided to risk striking now. The aliens probably knew the route to Pensacola but that base was still young and expendable. The Confederation had enough warships to spread out and look for jump gates using their active sensors of course, but from what she could see those were rather short ranged so even that would take time, the aliens were slow and if worst came to worst she could mount desperate jump point defence together with Defender which would have fully armed escorts and enough missiles to arm four hundred and eighty fighters, as many as took part in this strike and almost got through the defences. And if the situation became even more desperate, Invincible was available, Unyielding was on its way and the other groups were almost out of overhaul. Even with the lack of the newest ammunition that was enough to stop the aliens cold and with the technological disadvantage they had they had to be wary of going too far too fast.
   As it happened Vanguard and Vengeance had less cruisers and more frigates than Valiant so the three carrier groups managed to launch a total of sixty eight hundred Tomahawks and Spacebolts. It wasn't nearly enough and Landmann looked in something close to despair as missile after missile was shot down. In the end only a single battleship was destroyed although she probably managed to dent some armour on at last some other ships.
   With no reason to stay in the system she ordered fighters recovered and she set course back towards Hegemony space.

5th May 2407

   The Vanguard, Valiant and Vengeance jump to Amarillo. The Defender arrived in the system mere hours ago but is still four and a half billion kilometres away from the jump point, which translates to six and a half days of travel. The aliens will get into the system earlier than that.
   Regrettably Landmann orders all the carriers to jump to Rochester, where she will establish a jump point defence. Most of her escorts may be out of ammunition, but after transfers she will have four hundred and eighty armed fighters, the fourteen fully armed cruisers and destroyers of the Defender group and numerous anti-missile launchers, lasers and particle beams. If the aliens are stupid enough to jump into it, they will get annihilated.
   Of course it was currently unknown if they will even proceed to Amarillo and if they don't, Landmann fully intended to turn about and establish the defence there.

6th May 2407

   Four Hegemony carrier groups complete their overhaul but there isn't enough modern ammunition to arm them all with the greatest shortage being fighter ordnance. Even if that was not the case the government would not authorise deployment of too many groups as four are already on the front, Unyielding is in transit, and Vigilant guards the Untama system leaving only five groups in the capital. Even so the Defiant and her escorts are sent to Kensington as it is expected some of the other carriers will be coming home soon.

9th May 2407

   The alien fleet has jumped in Amarillo, much to the surprise of Ladnmann for if there has been a jump point ambush, the aliens may have suffered very heavy losses for little return, maybe even undo their success of pushing humans out of Albuquerque. As it was however this will let them secure at least one more system.
   She wondered how far will they push. From what she have seen the aliens do not believe themselves to be strong enough to fight the Hegemony in deep space and are all about trying to secure their space by blockading jump points. As such if they continue pushing the Hegemony with its superior speed may be able concentrate enough forces to finally break through the enemy defences. At the same time the Kinharans may have taken the risk just this once to create a buffer for their holdings in Albuquerque.
   In the end she decided it didn't matter. Failing to evict the enemy from the system he fortified was one thing, but losing human territory was another. The Defender was already in Rochester sitting on the jump point to Amarillo and she intended to join it there. If the Confederation jumps after them most of their force will be annihilated by missile strikes before they can recover from transit.

19th May 2407

   The Kinharan fleet should have reached Rochester jump point by now but there is still no sign of them.

26th May 2407

   There has been no sign of the Kinharans, making most people believe they are unwilling to push further. Even so Landmann cannot yet withdraw any forces from the jump point as short range battle with enemy electronics dazzled by transit is the only way for her to have any chance of actually damaging the enemy. Should she withdraw the aliens could just continue pushing, establishing blockades and either driving humans away or trapping them with no supplies.
   Even so she has also told the government of her intention to withdraw the Valiant, Vanguard and Vengeance back to the homeworld for overhaul as soon as the Defiant and Unyielding arrive. While the ships aren't in such a bad shape yet, even if ammunition was to be moved forward, her escorts would be unable to use it. In fact there is already some ammunition available, as her Da Yu class destroyers, armed with twenty repeatable launchers and carrying Harpoons, never fired, but the one shot box launchers require proper supporting facilities to allow them to fire again and the closest of those are on New Earth.
   The government agrees with this decision and decides to send Resolute forward as well although it will be armed with older fighter munitions. While this would be a serious problem in deep space battle, as it would make coordinated strikes impossible, it should be of no consequence in jump point assault battle.
 

Offline QuakeIV

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Re: From the Ashes - part 28
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2017, 07:32:33 PM »
Well this is getting exciting.  I take it these new xenos are controlled by yourself?
 

Offline Haji (OP)

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Re: From the Ashes - part 28
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2017, 10:33:03 AM »
Unfortunately yes. Initially I created a closed area of space and put an NPR there. The idea was to fight against a computer controlled large multi-stellar empire which should be quite interesting as the AI thinks very differently from me. Alas either the AI is more limited than I thought or else there is something very wrong with the database I'm using for this campaign, as the NPR created a single colony outside their system, built like 10 jump gates and just stopped. In the end the war wouldn't be any fun so I deleted it and created this new race, controlled by me.