28th May 2032
The NATO geological survey ship Endeavour arrives in Gliese 87 to assist the survey ship Nimrod. She finds only wreckage and immediately jumps back into Gliese 105 to warn the rest of the Fleet. The main force supporting survey operations, the Enterprise / Graf Zeppelin carrier strike group, is one jump further away in TZ Arietis and is unable to enter Gliese 105 or Gliese 87 without a jump gate. The smaller Alexander task group, comprising the jump cruiser Alexander the Great, the light carriers Illustrious and Invincible, the cruisers Texas and Virginia, the area defence cruiser Dauntless and the destroyer escort Cunningham, is already in Gliese 105 and currently en route to Gliese 109 to support exploration of two new jump points in that system. The task group is immediately diverted to Gliese 87 to investigate the loss of Nimrod.
6th June 2032
The Soviet geological survey ship Akademik Golitsyn is in Luyten 726-8, which lies beyond Sol's fifth jump point. The Soviet expansion into the Alpha Centauri chain and the Sino-Soviet war delayed the Soviet Union's survey efforts in the other systems adjacent to Sol. Since the destruction of the last Chinese warships, that survey effort has resumed. Golitsyn arrives in orbit of the primary star's second planet, a terrestrial-sized ice world with a thin oxygen - nitrogen atmosphere, and detects the presence of a population. While the EM and thermal signature strength is weak it is still too strong for one of the listening posts deployed by the aliens encountered by the Soviet Union in Alpha Centauri and appears to be from a new alien race. Golitsyn heads for the jump point to Sol to raise the alarm.
11th June 2032
Akademik Golitsyn arrives in Sol and reports the existence of the alien colony to Soviet Fleet Headquarters on Ganymede. The KGB believes NATO has already surveyed Luyten 726-8 and while NATO would probably not inform the Soviet Union if they discovered the presence of unknown aliens, they would send warships into the system or at least picket the Sol - Luyten 726-8 jump point. Since the survey NATO has shown no interest in the system at all, which suggests the alien colony has only recently been established. The KGB analysts further theorise that this could mean an alien Empire is expanding in the direction of Earth. An extremely worrying prospect. Akademik Golitsyn is ordered to remain on the jump point as a picket while a task group is assembled to investigate. That will take some time though as the Soviet Navy is critically short of anti-ship missiles and several ships have significant unrepaired armour damage. The captured Chinese shipyards are too small for the Soviet cruisers and larger warships so no repairs are possible until shipyard capacities have been expanded. It will be at least a year before repairs have been completed and sufficient missiles are available.
20th June 2032
The Alexander task group arrives in Gliese 87 and soon detects three 12,900 ton alien ships heading for the jump point at 6975 km/s. They are identified as the same aliens that were encountered in Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti, although the three vessels are of a previously unknown class, designated as Patroclus. The two light carriers launch all thirty-six of their F-24A Cobras, armed with AGM-1A Sabre anti-ship missiles. Each carrier has one hundred and fifty AGM-1B Sabres in its magazines. Although NATO now has the F-24B and the AGM-1C Sabre in service, both of which have magneto-plasma drives, those fighters and missiles are being assigned to the larger Enterprise class carriers first. At 7200 km/s, the fighters are only slightly faster than the alien ships so it is likely this will be their only strike before the aliens enter potential missile range of the NATO task group.
[attachment=3:2ds4p9ek]Gliese87-001.GIF[/attachment:2ds4p9ek]
As the aliens reach a point three hundred million kilometers from the jump point, six small 1000 ton ships, designated as Socrates class, are detected seven million kilometers ahead of the three Patroclus. They are moving at 10,000 km/s, which gives them a considerable speed advantage over the NATO fighters. At the very least that means they would beat the fighters back to their carriers and at worst it might allow them to run down the fighters if they are detected by the alien task group. Therefore the commander of the NATO force, Rear Admiral Arno von Kolbe, considers ordering the fighters to launch some or all of their missiles against the alien fast attack craft and the rest against one of the larger ships. However, the SN/APG-1 Missile Fire Control of the F-24A has a maximum range of 62.4 million kilometers and a resolution of 100, which means the FACs can only be targeted by the fighters at two point five million kilometers, even assuming they have no ECM. It is extremely likely the fighters would be detected and attacked before they reach that range so Rear Admiral von Kolbe decides to stick with the original plan and launch everything against the three Patroclus, although that might be tricky with the FACs continuing to move further ahead of their larger consorts. Given that the larger alien warship very likely have powerful ECM, the NATO fighters will have to close the range to perhaps thirty-five million kilometers, by which time the FAC will be very close. Therefore, von Kolbe orders the fighters to move on a course perpendicular to that of the approaching aliens so they can maintain their distance to both groups of ships.
[attachment=2:2ds4p9ek]Gliese87-002.GIF[/attachment:2ds4p9ek]
Once the fighters are thirty-six million kilometers to the side of the alien's line of approach, Rear Admiral von Kolbe directs them to head toward the alien cruisers and launch when they get a target lock. At thirty million kilometers, the F-24As confirm their targets and launch forty-eight AGM-1A Sabres against each Patroclus. By this time the alien FACs have moved forty million kilometers ahead of the cruisers and are thirty-two million kilometers from the NATO fighters
[attachment=1:2ds4p9ek]Gliese87-003.GIF[/attachment:2ds4p9ek]
There is no evidence of alien anti-missiles as the Sabres close in, eventually attacking from the port quarter. Thirty-six missiles are destroyed by point blank point defence and seventy-nine more miss due to the high speed of the alien ships. Twenty-nine explode on target. The alien ships are not even slowed down. Immediately after the attack, active sensors are detected on all nine contacts. There is no sign of a course change so it appears the fighters remain undetected. As the alien FACs are moving much faster than the NATO fighters, it is now up to the two Virginia class cruisers to defend the rest of the task group.
Texas and Virginia are equipped with the SN/SPG-18 Missile Fire Control, which has a max range of 131.5 million kilometers and a resolution of 90. Against the small alien fast attack craft, its effective range is only six point five million kilometers. The vulnerability of NATO ships to small attack craft, such as the alien FACs or the Soviet Molniya class corvette, is quickly becoming apparent. The only real options for the task group are to either transit out and abandon the fighters or defend against any attack launched by the FACs and hope they enter effective range. A potential third option would be to transit with alien missiles in flight and hope they have no onboard sensors. If they did then any return transit might run into a ready-made minefield. For the moment, Rear Admiral von Kolbe decides to stand his ground.
Eighty-four incoming missiles with a speed of 30,000 km/s, probably launched from the six alien FACs, are suddenly detected at a distance of two million kilometers. The area defence cruiser Dauntless begins launching RIM-8A Stiletto anti-missiles from her twenty-five Mk5 GMLS. Seeing the incoming weight of fire, Rear Admiral von Kolbe uncharacteristically changes his mind and orders Alexander the Great and the two light carriers to jump back into Gliese 105 to avoid being hit. Dauntless, his own ship Texas, the second cruiser Virginia and the destroyer escort Cunningham remain in Gliese 87. The Admiral orders them to move away from the jump point to allow the maximum engagement time. He has left it very late though as the jump cruiser and light carriers are recently built ships and are not used to operating together. The other ships have trained extensively with NATO carrier groups and are faster to react, moving away from the jump point within a few seconds of the order being given.
RIM-8A Stilettos intercept their targets and the incoming missiles start to die, albeit in small numbers. The NATO anti-missiles only have a hit rate of approximately twenty-two percent. The jump cruiser and the two carriers suddenly look very vulnerable on the jump point as they desperately try to align for a jump. Forty-two alien anti-ship missiles are destroyed by Stilettos, three more by the 15cm lasers on the Cunningham, which is still within laser range of the jump point, and four by the two CIWS on the Alexander. Eight missiles miss the frantically evading NATO warships. The other twenty-seven, armed with strength-8 warheads, slam into Alexander, virtually wiping out her armour, inflicting massive internal damage and killing over four hundred of her crew. Critically, her jump drive is disabled, which means none of the NATO ships can leave the system. Her speed is reduced to 2800 km/s, which means she is also not going anywhere within the system very quickly either. Cursing himself for the indecision that might lead to the destruction of his entire force, Rear Admiral von Kolbe re-assembles his task group and takes them away from the jump point to maintain as much distance as possible to the alien ships while repairs to the jump drive take place. Dauntless has used a third of her RIM-8A Stiletto anti-missiles and the task group has yet to face the attack of the alien cruisers. Meanwhile, the alien FACs reverse course and head for the inner system.
Fifty minutes after the initial attack, with the NATO ships eight million kilometers from the jump point and one hundred and ten million from the three alien cruisers, a new wave of twenty-seven missiles is detected. Dauntless opens fire once more, sending three anti-missiles against each incoming anti-ship missile. Just twenty seconds after the initial contact, a second wave of missiles is detected half a million kilometers behind the first and then a third twenty-five seconds later. Rear Admiral von Kolbe orders Dauntless to switch to two Stilettos per incoming missile, extending her engagement time at the risk of more missiles reaching the NATO task group.
The first alien missile wave is destroyed six hundred thousand kilometers from the task group, by which time a fourth wave has appeared and Dauntless is down to just two hundred and sixty Stilettos from her original six hundred and twenty-five. She changes to a one-to-one engagement rate. With the second wave breaking though the area defence cruiser's reduced fire and a fifth wave on sensors, Admiral von Kolbe orders the task group to resume maximum speed and leave Alexander in their wake. The crippled cruiser has been unable to repair its jump drive so far and the intact warships need maximum speed to avoid as many missiles as possible. Three missiles from the second wave penetrate the anti-missiles and the 15cm lasers of the Cunningham operating in area mode and bear down on the CVL Illustrious. Two are destroyed by the carrier's CIWS and the third by a 20cm laser from the Virginia. The beam fire control of the Virginia class cruisers is not designed to engage missiles but the task group is forced to use every available resource. The admiral orders Cunningham to change to final defence mode to ensure maximum accuracy against the fast moving alien missiles. Unfortunately the destroyer escort was designed with Soviet doctrine in mind and is intended to engage one large salvo in area mode rather than several smaller salvos. Because of that design decision she has four triple laser turrets linked to a single, long-ranged fire control system.
Six missiles from the third wave reach the Illustrious. One is killed by her CIWS, two by Cunningham and two by Virginia. The sixth impacts the carrier's armour but does not penetrate. All the leakers from the fourth wave are intercepted and destroyed. At this point Dauntless has just eighty-six anti-missiles still in her magazines and four more missile waves are on sensors. So far, the slow-moving and isolated Alexander the Great has not been targeted. The fifth wave proves more difficult to stop. Seven missiles are killed by point blank defences but three more slam into the carrier Invincible, cratering her armour. She is hit six more times by the sixth wave, suffering serious armour damage and losing an engine. Her speed falls to 3800 km/s. As a tenth wave of alien missiles is detected, Dauntless fires her last few RIM-8A Stilettos and her magazines run dry. The task group now has to rely on point blank defence only.
Invincible is struck by seven more missiles, which knock out two additional engines and cause serious damage to her hangar bay. She can still operate fighters but her hangar capacity is down to forty percent of normal. A magazine is also hit but manages to eject its ordnance to avoid a secondary explosion, leaving the carrier with one hundred and twenty-four AGM-1B Sabres. Eleven missiles from the eighth wave hit Virginia. Fortunately the cruiser is much better protected the fragile light carriers and her armour absorbs all the damage, although it is penetrated in one location. Still more alien missiles are detected, taking the total number of known missile waves to twelve. Virginia is hit by fourteen missiles from wave nine, which smash through her armour and inflict considerable internal damage. Her situation is made worse by a large secondary explosion caused by the destruction of one of her engines. Her damaged systems include half of her lasers and missile launchers, her beam fire control system and a third of her engines. Her speed drops to 2666 km/s and she falls out of formation. Fortunately for the crippled cruiser, the tenth wave is directed against her sister ship Texas, which suffers fourteen impacts, none of which penetrate her armor. The next wave scores twelve more hits on Texas, which knock out five of her eighteen engines and damage a missile launcher. Her speed is reduced to 2888 km/s.
Only Invincible, Cunningham and Dauntless remain in the main body. Texas, Virginia, Illustrious and Alexander are strung out in their wake, making their individual best speeds. The alien missiles continue to pursue the NATO ships and new waves continue to enter sensor range. Cunningham is next to be targeted and her armour belt is far weaker than the larger Virginia class ships. She is devastated by sixteen strength-8 explosions that completely gut her armament. Three of her four laser turrets are knocked out, along with the huge SN/SPG-9 Beam Fire Control, and her speed falls to just 1300 km/s. The thirteenth wave blows her to pieces. Two more waves of alien anti-ship missiles are still incoming. Dauntless is completely defenceless and none of the other ships are in any state to assist. The last fifty-four missiles tear her apart. For the moment, the onslaught ceases and the survivors of the NATO task group are left to count the cost.
Dauntless and Cunningham, the two ships intended to provide anti-missile defence for the task group, have both been destroyed. The jump cruiser Alexander is no longer jump-capable and the carrier Invincible has lost much of its hanger capacity. Texas has serious engine damage and Virginia is a cripple with minimal remaining armament. Only Illustrious has survived relatively intact. She picks up the survivors from Dauntless and Cunningham and the task group attempts to regroup and head back toward the jump point while carrying out whatever repairs it can. Rear Admiral von Kolbe is in a state of deep despair, believing his entire command is doomed. Fifteen minutes after the loss of Dauntless, his chief of staff, aware of the admiral's dark mood, reminds him that Illustrious is carrying a single J-30 Vanguard jump scout that could carry a message into Gliese 105 and summon help. Von Kolbe curses his own stupidity once again and orders the Vanguard to be launched immediately. The Vanguard has barely left the hangar bay when twenty-seven tiny thermal contacts are detected at fifty thousand kilometers. There are no anti-missile sensors left in the task group after the loss of the two escorts, although that is not a huge problem with hardly any anti-missile capability remaining. Moments later, Alexander the Great explodes in a hail of missiles, eliminating any chance of the task group escaping into Gliese 105.
The J-30A transits into Gliese 105 twenty-one minutes after the loss of Alexander, finding the survey ship Endeavour still picketing the far side of the jump point, and transmits a report of the disaster in Gliese 87 to Belisarius, an Alexander class jump cruiser waiting at the Gliese 105 - TZ Arietis jump point. The Enterprise / Graf Zeppelin carrier strike group is waiting at the far side of the same jump point but cannot enter Gliese 105 until jump gates are constructed. Belisarius jumps into TZ Arietis to pass on the report to Rear Admiral Arnoldo Bethea, commanding the strike group, and to relay it to Jamestown via the jump gate network. Rear Admiral Bethea orders Belisarius to head for Gliese 87 to rescue any surviving ships but it will take her twenty-four days to make the trip across Gliese 105. Back in Gliese 87 the three alien Patroclus-class cruisers, now identified only by their active sensor emissions since the loss of Alexander and her sensors, have reversed course and are heading back toward the inner system. The four surviving ships of the Alexander task group, Texas, Virginia, Illustrious and Invincible, huddle on the jump point, waiting for the return of the fighters while trying to make whatever repairs they can.
The J-30A Vanguard returns to Gliese 87 with orders relayed from Admiral Thorn at Jamestown. Once the fighters are back on the carriers, or at least rotating into the limited hangar space, Rear Admiral von Kolbe is to maintain emissions control and take his battered ships into the outer system where they should hide until a rescue mission can be mounted. The first attempt at that mission will be the arrival of Belisarius. If she detects a significant alien presence, a full scale operation will be mounted once the two nearby Enterprise class carriers can enter Gliese 87, which will be almost a year.
15th July 2032
The jump cruiser Belisarius arrives in Gliese 87. Her thermal sensors detect the three alien Patroclus class cruisers eight million kilometers away near the wrecks of Alexander, Dauntless and Cunningham. The survivors of the ill-fated task group, Invincible, Illustrious, Texas and Virginia, are waiting over a billion kilometers further from the primary with most of their internal damage repaired. There is no way for them to escape though with the alien cruisers near the jump point. After relaying a message to them to hold their position until a rescue force can be assembled, Belisarius transits back into Gliese 105 before she is attacked. The alien cruisers are either not jump capable or are reluctant to transit into Gliese 105 for some reason.
14th August 2032
NATO completes a third Fortress class PDC on Earth and also a Fortress class PDC on Jamestown.
5th September 2032
The four Chinese-built Jiangwei class cruisers are fully repaired and enter operational service with the Soviet Navy.
25th September 2032
The NATO survey ship Newton transits the sole unexplored jump point in the GJ 1002 system, located adjacent to TZ Arietis. Normally, new exploration would be covered by warships but with the situation in Gliese 87, all the military forces dedicated to survey protection are in TZ Arietis or Gliese 105. Instead, Newton's sister ship Kepler is providing backup for the probe. All remaining unexplored jump points except this one are in systems beyond Gliese 105 so NATO Fleet Headquarters, and Admiral Thorn in particular, is keen to ensure no threat exists down this particular avenue so that all forces can be focused on the Gliese 105 chain. Newton emerges in Heintz 299, a binary system with two red dwarfs orbiting at just one hundred and ten million kilometers and six planets, five of them around the primary. The solitary planet of the companion star is by far the most interesting, with a carbon dioxide - nitrogen atmosphere and a temperature of -44C. Inhospitable but with some terraforming potential. Newton heads in-system to check for any sign of life while Kepler remains at the jump point
[attachment=0:2ds4p9ek]NATOSystems.GIF[/attachment:2ds4p9ek]
3rd October 2032
Construction of a jump gate begins at the Gliese 105 - Gliese 87 jump point. Once completed it will allow access to the system for the Enterprise class carriers. A jump gate is already in place at the TZ Arietis - Gliese 105 jump point but construction has yet to start on a corresponding jump gate in Gliese 105 so for the moment the carriers remain in TZ Arietis.
14th October 2032
The recent Soviet victory over China combined with the debacle in Gliese 87 has affected confidence within NATO, both for its leaders and its citizens. Voters in many NATO countries demand their governments ensure their protection, politicians argue over allocation of funds and military leaders seek more freedom to make fast decisions in the face of potential hostile action. The NATO Council, given the task of recommending a more responsive command structure, is well aware of the tensions within the alliance. Many members of the Council are senior professional diplomats or retired military officers who have dedicated many years of their lives to ensuring that the alliance endures and view this task as a historic opportunity to bring the member nations closer together. They realise that the general level of concern within the populace and the demand for strong leadership may give them the chance to pass changes to the NATO treaty that would normally be blocked by politicians with a short-term or parochial view. The situation is also complicated by the status of the NATO colonies in Epsilon Eridani. Both Jamestown and Roanoke have populations in excess of fifty million, greater than many NATO members, yet the colonists have no voting rights. The initial creation of the colonies was under the auspices of the NATO Council rather than any specific member nation and that status has never changed. A growing, vocal movement within the colonies is demanding equal rights to those NATO citizens on Earth.
The Council members recommend changes that they hope will kill two birds with one stone. The four populated Epsilon Eridani colonies, Jamestown, Roanoke, New Amsterdam and Bermuda, will form a federation called the Eridani Republic, which will be given the status of a NATO member, in the same way as the United States, France or Italy. Its total population is almost one hundred and fifty million, making it the third most populous NATO nation after the United States and Japan. The constitution of the new Republic will be similar to that of the United States, except that several changes will make the executive branch more powerful, particularly in the provision of wide-ranging emergency powers. The Presidents of the Eridani Republic will be directly elected by the colonists and will serve a single six year term with no option for re-election. Due to the fact the NATO population is migrating into Epsilon Eridani, non-residents may stand for election with the proviso they must move to one of the colonies if elected. Any additional colonies will become part of the Eridani Republic under its federal system.
The most important role of the President of the Eridani Republic is that he will be the immediate decision-maker for any military or civilian activity in Epsilon Eridani or any of the systems in the Epsilon Eridani chain. However, the strategic direction of NATO, such as overall colonization policy or shipbuilding, and will still be controlled by the Council and by the leaders of the member nations, of which the Eridani Republic will be one. This will allow immediate action in the case of a crisis, because the military in the colonies will take their orders directly from the President, while retaining overall control in the Council. This still does not resolve the issue of an unambiguous chain of command in Sol but the Council is aware that the national leaders are very protective of their sovereignty and would strongly resist any move to reduce it. The long-term implications of giving such powers to the Eridani President are obvious to the senior members of the Council and also to those politicians with a long-term view. Most Earth-based politicians are far more short-term oriented and focused on the next election, not the situation in ten years or fifty years. They see the proposed Eridani Republic as a way to quiet restless colonists and hand off unwanted responsibility for dealing with alien threats to someone else without compromising their own power base on Earth. The impact of colonization on the NATO population on Earth has so far been relatively minor, as population growth has almost kept up with migration, although the effect is now accelerating because of the greater number of civilian colony ships and a small amount of negative population growth due to the radiation lingering from the Sino-Soviet war. NATO military leaders see the long-term benefit of the proposed Republic as it will result in a far more responsive command structure in an emergency. As expected, the Eridani colonists are extremely happy about the idea. Even the citizens of the NATO nations on Earth view the recommendation favourably, partly because it will create stronger and more responsive leadership in the face of an alien threat but mainly because most NATO citizens aspire to a life in the colonies, away from a crowded, radioactive Earth that lies under the immediate threat of the Soviet Navy.
The recommendation by the Council is accepted and the Eridani Republic will come into being on July 1st 2033, allowing eight months for the creation of the necessary bureaucracy and for presidential and local elections to be conducted.
to be continued...
