2190 – Showdown!Before starting to plan the invasion in Altair, the chancellor started to move around all administrators to free up the sector governor slot which should have been given to Long. With the current Sol’s Governor reaching his 64th birthday it was decided to retire him with all the honours and facilitate the transition. Even if Mishe Pletnyov was extremely respected as governor, the government knew that to keep the peace between the Chancellor and the Federalists house something was to be conceded otherwise everything would have become extremely hard. Long Qiong An was then nominated Sector Governor and started immediately to talk with all the colony administrators introducing the new Chancellor Policy regarding the labour camps.
Long Qiong An ProfileWith unemployment going through the roof and many dissidents in the street, the news was more than welcomed. Construction started immediately on Earth to “accommodate” 50 million people. 25 would have been specialized in construction and the other 25 in mining. The mining ones would have been taken from the prison population so that some pressure on these infrastructures would have been able to be released. The prisoners would have been then shipped over Alpha Centauri Mining Outpost which would have been renamed Alpha Centauri Mining Penal Colony. Mars and Luna did not have the infrastructure needed to start the program right away but Earth offered to help to send part of the new labour force to the colonies along with a basic mineral stockpile to be decided based on the requirements in terms of extra camps needed.
On the 15th of January 2190, the UNEN Adrien de Gerlache jumped into the 2 unexplored jump point in EQ Pegasi as a continuation of the Sol – EV Lacertae loop exploration. The First Jump revealed the uninteresting Scholz’s Star binary system while the second ended up in Ross 695 another small and uninteresting system. So far, to do not find external connections to the loop was still very good news.
Meanwhile, the Military Tenders on Earth were ready to be deployed. An executive order from Naval command arrived as soon as the ships cleared the docks. The Supply vessels were ordered to drop ordnance, spare parts and fuel to Sirius to ensure the Starports were ready to receive the Strike Force. Tankers were ordered to wait on the Sirius Altair Jump point as first emergency refuel station.
A month later, with the tenders in positions, The Strike Force fleet was ordered to break Earth’s Orbit and officially start operation showdown. Phase one would have consisted in reaching Sirius to Refuel, rest and debrief the crew. Once ready ships would have moved on to Sirius Altair Jump point and jumped into Altair systems in smaller groups. Phase two would have then started following a similar layout of the one already used against Sirius’ separatists. The only difference was that ships would have been acting together to take advantage of the full PD defences.
On the 29th of March 2190 at 2:01 pm, Showdown phase two officially started when the Strike Force Fleet rallied back after jumping into Altair from Sirius. Waypoint Alpha and Beta were set while Red Zone and Attacking Range references were set. The Red Zone was the area which we believed we could have been attacked any time by enemy missiles.
Fleet in Position, Waypoints SetThe fleet reached the Alpha Waypoint on the 29th of March 2190 at 7:31 am.
Waypoints Alpha, all clearA week later at 10:01 am the first contacts were spotted on Altair-A IV orbit: 1 Sekhemkare and 2 Panehesy classes which moved immediately towards our fleet meaning that we were effectively been spotted as well. Due to that the Leader of the Fleet, Rear Admiral Viviana Agostini, ordered the Active Sensors to be switched on. While advancing without fear, our fleet noticed that after having closed range quickly the enemy started to retreat back to their planet probably scared by the dimension of our forces. Navy Command, which was following the events trough a network established by the Tender Ships directly to Sirius Prime, was already cheering for victory as if the Aliens had established our superiority we would have certainly been on the right path.
Contact and retreat, easy win?Strike Fleet reached position Beta on the 12th of April at 5:13 am and proceeded to Attack Range passing through the Red Zone, which was the area we presumed the Akir Stations could have been able to launch their missiles. While advancing the fleet could lock on on any specific target with contacts which were coming and going every few seconds. At 11:33 am while deep into the Red Zone contacts started to be a bit more consistent and 2 Akil, 2 Panehesy, and 1 Sekhemkare were now fully visible on Altair-A IV orbit along with the other Sekhemkare which was still retreating. Based on our previous report dated 2168/9 we knew that at least 30 contacts should have been orbiting the planet and Navy Command started to think that probably would have been wiser to send another scout in to establish that the tactical situation wasn’t changed prior launching Showdown. Eventually, at 8:13 pm we spotted multiple salvos of missiles incoming which were directed to our eyes.
IncomingIn the first wave, the UNEN Eclipse exploded with 85 people saved and recovered from the pods while 212 died, including Commander Martin Terblanche. The second wave saw the departure of the UNEN Violet of which 62 people could have been saved from the pods while 155 died including Commander Ines Cordero Serrano. As salvos kept coming in, we lost also the UNEN Plover and another 174 members of the crew, while 43 people including Commander Chou Na You were saved from the pods, and the UNEN Dauntless of which we could save 120 people from the pods but 262 including Commander Freya Lyons died in the explosion of the ship.
First LossesMeanwhile, the UNEN Leftwich was dead in space and all commanders on board evacuated including operation chief and leader Viviana Agostini. During the multiple hits, she injured herself and her long term health would have probably been conditioned. However, shortly after the evacuation, one of the engines was repaired permitting the ship to begin retreating with the others as in the meantime Navy Command acknowledge the mission as failed and ordered all ships to retreat back to Altair Sirius Jump Point.
RetreatWhile retreating, UNEN Undaunted, already severely damaged, was reached by another salvo of missiles and exploded. 119 members of the crew managed to reach life pods and escape the massacre to be rescued shortly after while the rest of the crew, 178 people, died in the explosion, including Commander Rurik Cherkasov. With the UNEN Exmouth already dead in space, it was only a matter of time before another salvo of missiles would have reduced her to pieces and that exactly happened shortly after we lost the Exmouth. 78 members of the crew managed to escape and were saved from the pods including Commander Maria Vikstrom, while 139 people died.
Finally, almost at the end of a horrible day, the UNEN Ulster ceased to exist and only 37 people were saved from the pods leaving the remaining 180 dead, including Commander Gerodi Morello.
On 7th of May, all survived ships but the UNEN Able transited the Altair Sirius jump point. Stranded without fuel, all 309 members of the crew were declared MIA including the captain of the ship, Lieutenant Commander Fidel Alanis Ruiz. The Final numbers of what we remember today as the "Bloody April" were: 4 Patriot-I E, 2 Patriot-I BS, 1 Danilov-I BS, 1 Paladin-I S destroyed, and 1038 people KIA along with 309 people MIA.
The UNEN Able and the rest of the wrecks in Altair, including the UNEN Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld lost on the 2nd of December 2141It goes without saying that many people on Earth and also the other colonies were extremely unhappy with the outcome. The battle was badly lost and probably even the war if the Aliens would have ever decided to strike back.
