Of Another Commie Horde!
As the enemy forces entered range Thanh nodded to the Tactical section and CAG. “Release the fighters, commence evasion pattern Delta. Helm, vary thrust from 1.5 to 2g in coordination with tactical. Once those Hives are in range, see if you can pop them with the big lasers.”
Outside the 12
Eagles surged forward to intercept the shaken mass of enemies before they got within easy range of the battleship. Clouds of missiles erupted, met by the flashs of laser anti-missile systems. The enemies volleys were utterly futile, the superior point defense of HMS Renown effectively no-selling them.
The enemy force seemed to melt, the utter lack of unit cohesion combined with the mounting armor damage swiftly transformed into complete chaos and short-lived ugly fireballs. The
Eagles focused on the vastly more numerous Swarmer-type fighters and it quickly became obvious that the pirates were thoroughly outmatched.
It was a classic turkey shoot. None of the
Eagles were even
hit, much less damaged, even though they were outnumbered 12 to 1 as it turned out there were a total of 144 of the little fighters. HMS Renown herself mostly ignored the dogfight, trusting in the
Eagles to deal with the tiny pests while focusing her own fire on the larger Stinger-type dropships.
The fighting never even got close enough for HMS Renown to have to take any actual evasive action. The sheer firepower going downrange seemed to melt the enemy away like ice before a flamethrower. At one point one of the Stingers tried to flee, but it was useless, a single contemptuous volley detonated its drive. In the distance the Hive type ships were now trying to flee, but HMS Renown had far too high of a delta-V advantage over them for that to ever work out.
The question is, simply annihilate them in place, or cripple them, board, and take prisoners. So far, you’ve lost nobody… and it would be trivial to destroy all four of the Hives. Boarding them may yield prisoners and intelligence, but would place your marines at risk.
[] | Slaughter Them |
[] | Capture Them |