NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS! NIDS!

I'm really excited to see if/how imperial fleet doctrine adapts to the swarm.

Hah!  The swarm's speed is terrifying.  The current standard fleet speed for Imperial ships is 6,000 km/s, way slower than the swarm, and even with next generation engines there is no way the Imperial's can boost their fleet speed to match the swarm without unsustainable and impractical levels of fuel use.  That means specialized ships, which means fighters and 1-2,000 ton interceptors.  The trial and error phase is going to be nerve-wracking.

Quote from: SpaceMarine on July 24, 2024, 08:06:10 AM

Mind if I borrow the formation organisation presentation?, its a really good idea and relatively simple to implement to more easily show ground force strength etc

By all means, go ahead! On one hand, I obviously cannot claim copyright to the idea of illustrating OOBs; on the other hand, a robust and detailed ground forces TO&E is a hallmark of a high-quality AAR and I would be remiss to forbid better authors than I from using such a hallmark. 

I've attached the symbol sheet I copy from and the template file I use for this campaign. These are transparent PNGs for single layers, so you can use these in Paint.net or your other editor of choice. I have many others of course, some have been seen in other campaigns.    Most icons are taken from or inspired by those on Niehorster's site

Appreciate that<3

April 19, 2134:
Even as the battle raged in the Lacaille system, the courier from Shield Base arrived in the solar system with the news that aliens had been detected on the frontier.  This news galvanized the Navy and accelerated plans to enlarge Shield Base.  Instead of waiting for the civilian population of Shield Base to be large enough to support a ground-based maintenance facility, the Navy rushed an orbital maintenance base into production, along with a rest and recreation facility.  Once complete these would be towed to Shield Base so that major fleet units could be staged at the system.  In addition, two fleet scouts were dispatched to probe the system where the alien ships had been discovered. 

May, 2134: A tanker arrived over Lacaille II and began refueling and resupplying the Jupiter’s battle group.  Later that same day Interceptor Group 4 under Commander Yearta arrives over Terra to a hero’s welcome.  The group receives a unit commendation and the commanding officers of 013, 006, 017, and 007 all receive awards for destroying an alien ship.  The yards immediately begin repairs on 004 and 006. 

Development continues on inertial confinement drives for the fleet, and shipyard retooling has begun for the jump cruisers and some civilian designs. 

July, 2134: The scout group jumps into Chi Draconis with its sensors active.  Nothing is within range of the jump point, so the scouts deactivate their sensors.  One remains on the jump point while the other heads in-system.  The scout’s powerful thermal sensors should be able to detect the known alien ship class at over 200 mkm’s. 

July 6, 2134: The Christopher Columbus, a gravitic survey ship, detects an alien ship in the 70 Ophiuchi system, three jumps from Shield Base in V577 Monoceri.  The Columbus is crossing the system to join the rest of its group at a newly discovered jump point when its sensors detected the alien 13.4 mkm’s behind it.  The ship’s computer immediately ID’d it as having emissions consistent with the Reapers, a frightening development.  The survey ship’s active sensors show that that the Reaper is 8,675 tons and has a speed 8,023, far faster than the Columbus. 

The Columbus immediately sends a contact report off to the survey group and continues on course.  It soon becomes clear that the Reaper ship, now designated as a Charlie class, is following the Columbus.  Two minutes later the Columbus’ passive sensors detect a second Reaper Charlie class ahead of it, orbiting 70 Ophiuchi II, a terrestrial class planet with a thin nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. 

When the Columbus’ message arrives at the other ships of the group, they immediately set a course for the jump point they entered the system through, avoiding the Columbus’ location if necessary. 



Just over an hour later, as the first Reaper Charlie class is closing from behind, the Columbus’ sensors detect three additional contacts in orbit over Ophiuchi II.  The survey ship is heading across the system, away from the first contact, which is taking it closer to II for the moment, although soon they will begin drawing farther away.  The new ships are designated as Delta and Echo classes, although the ship’s sensors can give little detail aside from their presence.  Another hour passes, and the Columbus detects four more ships or objects in orbit over II, these being designated as Foxtrot class, bringing the number of objects in orbit there to eight.  Shortly thereafter the Columbus detects four more objects, two Alphas and two Bravos. 

Seventy-two minutes later the Columbus detects the objects in orbit raise their shields, and the Charlie orbiting II leaves on an intercept course for the Columbus.  In response, the Columbus changes course away from the oncoming Charlie, and incidentally away from the rest of the human ships in the outer system.  As they turn, two more Reaper ships appear in orbit over II, designated as Golf class.  The first Charlie continues pursuing the Columbus, but the second sets out across the system.  The Columbus runs out-system for twenty hours, and for twenty hours the Reaper Charlie class follows, neither closing or receding.  Commander Wiedmaier orders his ship to turn to run across the system, staying clear of the inner system.  This course will take them across the outer system to a point where they can turn towards the jump point back towards human space without nearing the Reaper ships in the inner system.  By the time the Columbus reaches its turning point towards the jump point, the rest of the survey group will already be at the jump point and hopefully safe.   

July 11, 2134: The scout moving into the Chi Draconis system detects a ship belonging to the same race identified in the system before, although this is a different class.  The ship is in orbit over the only body in the system, a terrestrial class world in a close orbit around the secondary K0-V star.  The planet has a Venusian atmosphere and an average temp of 1216C, so it definitely is not the home world of the Chi aliens, as they have become known.  The scout changes course slightly to a point in space ten mkm’s from the planet and begins contact attempts. 

As the scout approaches it detects two more Chi ships in orbit, these a new class which will be designated as Charlie class.  Three hours later the scout detects thirteen new ships of two new classes, all orbiting the Venusian planet. 

An hour later the scout detected fifty-nine new ships, bringing the total up to seventy-one ships in ten different classes.  The scout’s commander decided to stop where he was and maintain distance from this somewhat intimidating assemblage of ships.  Five seconds after stopping the number of alien ships increased to two hundred and twenty-six, and the scout’s commander ordered them to turn away and begin retreating. 

Immediately after the scout turned away, eight Chi ships left orbit, headed away from the scout, and thirty-six headed towards them.  The aliens were moving 3.7 times faster than the scout, so escape was impossible.   

The Chi aliens closed to 150,000 kilometers and opened fire, hitting the scout with an unknown weapon, causing some internal damage.  The scout turned away and began running, but it was over quickly.  The aliens fired as they came, and when they reached point blank range, they boarded the scout.  The scout’s valiant crew tried to fight them off, but the aliens were fearless and attacked with some sort of acid-based weapon that ate through whatever it hit. 



The scout crew fought bravely against the animalistic attackers, but were completely incapable of stopping the aliens, who killed a third of the crew in the first few minutes of the boarding action.  The crew fought on with no thought to surrender, because everyone who tried was dissolved by the alien acid weapons.  Suddenly, the attack ended when the alien attackers inflicted so much damage on the ship that it exploded, killing the crew and boarders alike. 

The second scout, sitting in the outer system, recorded the transmission from the other scout then quietly jumped out, taking the warning to the rest of the empire.  This was a major threat, and one that could not be ignored. 

Chi ship classes:
Alpha  # 1     speed 13,516       unk                                          suspected gravitic survey ship
Bravo  #1      speed 10,562       sensor tonnage  130,600
Charlie  #2    unk                        sensor tonnage 119,689
Delta     #2    speed 2,732         sensor tonnage 21,030
Echo     #11   speed 10,562      sensor tonnage 21,495
Foxtrot #42  speed 12,326       sensor tonnage 761
Golf #1      speed 10,649     sensor tonnage unk
Hotel #62  speed 11,109     sensor tonnage 844
India #24   speed 11,109     sensor tonnage 695
Juliet #82   speed 11,109     sensor tonnage 844

In light of the numbers, and the way the animalistic aliens attacked the scout, they immediately became known to the Imperial Navy as The Swarm.
 


July 12, 2134: At 0938 hours the Columbus joined the rest of her group and they jumped out, leaving the 70 Ophiuchi system behind.  The Reaper ship had followed them across the entire system, never closing on them.  Once on the far side they began running from the jump point.  If the Reaper Charlie class had a jump engine, then it could jump through in less than a half hour. 

A half hour later the group was five million kilometers from the jump point, which remained clear.  The group proceeded on towards the jump point back to Terran space. 

July 25, 2134: The Challenger, operating out of the Tau Cephei system, probes a newly discovered jump point.  They discover the GJ 1128 system, a single-star system with a small red star primary.  The red star is orbited by seven planets, two terrestrial class, two dwarves, and three gas giants, along with numerous moons.  Excitingly, the third planet is terrestrial, with a cold oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.  The initial analysis shows that the world is rated at 0.86 for colonizing purposes.  As of yet, the Challenger’s crew is unaware of the Empire’s encounters with the Reapers and the Chi aliens, so the Challenger’s captain is tempted to probe the planet to determine if it is inhabited.  They are low on fuel, though, so he reluctantly turns back to rendezvous with the fuel support ship several system’s back towards Imperial space. 

July 30, 2134: The fleet scout arrives in the Monoceri system and immediately transmits its sensor and comm logs to the base.  Two hours later it receives a response from the base ordering it to return up the jump route to the 25 Ursae Minoris system and picket the jump point.  Shield Base immediately dispatched its courier to Terra with the sensor and comm logs.  It would take just under eighteen days for the news to arrive in the Solar System. 

August 5, 2134: The Jump Ship Culthine and her gravitic survey group jump into the Monoceri system and immediately transmit their Reaper contact report to Shield Base.  As the base’s courier has already jumped out of the system, the base commander orders the Culthine and her group to return to the Solar System with their report.  As the gravitic survey group is low on fuel they head in-system to refuel at the base before setting out for home.  It will take them nearly thirty days to reach the Solar System. 

August 10, 2134: Fleet Scout 003 jumps into the 25 Ursae Majoris system and contacts the fuel support ship stationed at the jump point.  The fuel ship reports that the three long-range survey ships departed less than a day ago, headed for the rim.  The scout immediately sends a message to the three LR survey ships, ordering them to return to Shield Base.  Fortunately, they are still in-system and turn back.  The scout then orders the fuel ship to return to Shield Base as well, after topping off its tanks. 

Epsilon Eridani is discovered twice?

Was a typo, alpha aurigae was discovered, also put comments here only as i would like to keep the updates thread clear

Just started reading. Operation Ashes and Temples - is that a Macauley reference?

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
"To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods

Indirectly. It is the operation name for the base defense mission in Enemy Within which is in turn a reference to the poem cited. Good eye!

Also, is that some specific software you used for the TOE?

The mad lad does them by hand on Paint (or was it Gimp?)

Paint.net, in fact, which has a very useful layers feature to make these easy to do! I now have a template with all the spacing and placement cues for text, etc. so it is very nearly as simple as copying and pasting the desired icons.