Turn 119 - Chiquita
Combat activity on RN 3 has reduced significantly, with extended periods now between attacks. As a consequence, Bourbon forces are beginning to land on the planet and take over responsibility for dealing with the RN forces that remain. Meanwhile on RN 1 there has been little change, the tempo is gradually slowing but attacks remain a daily occurrence. Naval forces from RN 2 and 3 have shifted to RN 4 to assist in the orbital bombardment, it is now estimated that total destruction of RN facilities in the system will be accomplished in no more than 3 years.
A pair of Black Steel attacks have occurred.
The first, in the Arvum system, is fairly small, several dozen capital ships escorted by massive numbers of small corvette class vessels. This attack appears to have been intended to pin down any reaction forces. Admiral di Palo didn’t take the bait, however, allowing Home Fleet’s local defense forces to handle the situation, relying on the heavy fortifications provided by the
Black Tower station complexes to protect the planet. After several weeks of inconclusive sparring the Black Steel departs.
The main attack hits the Waypoint 3 system and is in very heavy force. Admiral di Palo brings in the Grand Fleet, with full support from the Expeditionary Fleet, to engage the enemy. The battle consists of three main phases.
First the fighting at the jump points, the Black Steel jumped in simultaneously to both the Zenith and the Nadir points and closely engaged the defenses there. The
White Tower,
Oasis and
Black Tower stations put up a ferocious fight, bleeding the Black Steel heavily but in the end were overwhelmed.
The system defense forces engaged in hit-and-run attacks on the Black Steel formations, but were unable to drive them off or protect the fixed defenses. 60
England-class Frigates and 120
Lyr-class Corvettes were engaged, but thanks to careful tactics managed to avoid destruction. However they inflicted relatively light damage on the Black Steel during the first phase of the fighting.
The second phase was initiated by the Expeditionary Fleet jumping in away from the Zenith jump point and beginning and engaging in the sort of high speed ‘cavalry’ tactics that they specialize in. They accompanied this by making use of some advice given by the Black Pumpernickels and the Masters of Ikea and broadcast mocking taunts at the Black Steel, calling them the Rusted Tins and that all they were good for was the scrap heap. Evidently the deadliest insult was stating that the Black Steel ran on something called an ‘Atari’.
The Black Steel promptly abandoned the jump point at that insult and gave chase, their comms frothing about how they would redeem their honor with the Expeditionary Fleet’s blood and other such threats, delivered in a screaming fury that was nearly incoherent. Taking advice from the Black Pumpernickels, the Expeditionary Fleet broadcast back that the Black Steel’s mother was an Atari and their father smelt of Apples.
The Expeditionary Fleet was hard-pressed at this point to maintain separation, as the Black Steel formation lost all semblance of coherence as every single ship lunged forward at maximum thrust, turning what had been a planned fighting withdrawal to get the Black Steel into position for a Grand Fleet pounce into a pell mell chase scene worthy of a film award.
Evidently this was a very good insult… but the Black Steel had more tonnage in light, fast units than the entire Expeditionary Fleet combined, by several orders of magnitude. Thankfully the Expeditionary Fleet also had a rather substantial
lead.
The third phase of the battle began when the Grand Fleet under Admiral di Palo jumped in right behind the Black Steel. Warned by HPG of the situation, Admiral di Palo decided to be bold and jumped in almost on top of the onrushing Black Steel forces.
One nice thing about KF jumps, especially against an enemy who is so enraged that they are ignoring most of their sensors, the emergence bubble from the KF drive has a nasty habit of annihilating anything that happens to be occupying that space, without harming the emerging unit. There’s a
reason fixed defensive stations are locating
inside the KF limit, not outside it.
The Grand Fleet pretty much obliterated the heavy, slow units of the Black Steel with that emergence, and promptly tore into the survivors with everything they had. The lighter Black Steel units had far too much velocity built up from their headlong pursuit of the Expeditionary Fleet that they had no chance of doubling back to save their heavy units and were now in the rather dreadful position of being pinned between the Expeditionary Fleet and the Grand Fleet.
The Expeditionary Fleet promptly made their day even worse by jumping out, depriving the Black Steel of their target. The Black Steel forces themselves then jumped out, after the single most lop-sided battle of the entire war with the Black Steel.
Unfortunately the fixed defenses in the system, along with the parasite forces and ASF units attached to them, were completely destroyed, making this a far from bloodless victory. But the exchange ratio is incredibly favorable. When the initial reports come in there is a great deal of celebration in Navy HQ, and it is rumored, but not confirmed, that Admiral Fisher was seen sipping bourbon and actually smiling.
He certainly seems a bit more relaxed a few days later when he comes in to brief you on some new designs.
“First of all, the boys and girls over at Majeure Electrique managed to actually accomplish something useful that doesn’t break my design rules.” He rumbles, although it appears his heart isn’t in the pro forma complaint that he’s always had about the private design firms out there. “Is a bit too gold-plated in my opinion, but there’s no question that it can do the job.” He pauses a beat, then to your surprise actually smiles, which has you glancing over at Admiral Sims to make sure that Fisher hadn’t been replaced by a doppelganger. “The
Sacramento-class Fast Fleet Support Vessel combines the roles of the
Supply and
Vestal-classes into one platform, and also has the capability to be used as a hospital ship with minimal modification. They’ll take up a Medium yard and are the single most expensive ship we’ve ever contemplated building, but they can carry a massive amount of cargo, have a large repair bay, and are quite capable of taking care of themselves as part of the fleet train. Hardly a proper warship, but as an auxiliary they are quite competent. Pity about how ridiculously expensive they are, but we shouldn’t need too many of them, and worse comes to worse we can develop a cheaper one in house at some point.”
He checks his notes. “My people have turned out a quartet of designs for the Home Fleet as well, although when Admiral di Palo saw them she started making grabby hands and has been besieging my office for the past few days practically begging to have priority on them.” He smirks. “She is not getting priority on them, they are for Home Fleet. Once they have sufficient numbers then she can get a few to play with for Grand Fleet. They are too short-legged for fleet deployment, but I concede that they are impressive little ships.”
His expression is scaring you… Admiral Fisher…. Happy? “Two of them are actually the same tonnage as some of our parasites.” He pauses, letting that sink in as you boggle a bit at him. “You heard that correctly, the
Tarantul-class Missile Raider and the
Asheville-class Raider are only one hundred thousand tons, the same as a
Mikasa-class Parasite Battleship. The
Tarantul is a little missile boat, armed with Killer Whale missiles, while the
Asheville is a gunboat, armed with naval lasers. Then there is the
Skjold-class Corvette, at 240 thousand tons they are the same mass as the old
Lyr-class. Like the
Tarantul these are missile boats, with sixteen Killer Whales apiece, but unlike their smaller cousins they have a substantial naval laser battery as well. Finally, the
Constellation-class is based on the same hull as the
Skjold, but like the
Asheville is an energy boat, armed with a heavy battery of class 55 naval lasers.”
Name | Cost | Materials | HP | A/D | Specials |
Sacramento-class Fast Fleet Support Vessel | $4,620,008,820.00 | DHS, LFA | 4466 | 3866 |
- Armored 50
- AMS 160
- Missile 132
- Capital
- Capital AMS 316
- Command 1
- 20 Drop Collars
|
Tarantul-class Missile Raider | $467,703,800.00 | DHS, LFA | 4322 | 4272 |
- Armored 5
- AMS 160
- Missile 308
- Capital
- Capital AMS 28
- Capital Missile 30
- Command 1
|
Asheville-class Raider | $468,289,800.00 | DHS, LFA | 4643 | 4593 |
- Armored 5
- AMS 160
- Missile 308
- Capital
- Capital AMS 76
- Command 1
|
Skjold-class Missile Corvette | $698,442,800.00 | DHS, LFA | 4612 | 4512 |
- Armored 10
- AMS 160
- Missile 308
- Capital
- Capital AMS 64
- Capital Missile 80
- Command 3
- 2 Drop Collars
|
Constellation-class Corvette | $532,346,620.00 | DHS, LFA | 4597 | 4497 |
- Armored 10
- AMS 160
- Missile 308
- Capital
- Capital AMS 112
- Command 1
|
He glances again at his notes. “I will note that while the old
Lyr-class technically has greater firepower, this is due to the use of sub-capital cannons as a major component of the design. In addition the
Lyr is significantly slower than the new designs. In addition, the
Lyr completely lacks any sort of enhanced sensor suite, making it wholly dependent on other ships for such things thus making it incapable of independent operation. All of the new designs have a solid sensor suite, superior acceleration, and a tightly rationalized and uniform secondary and tertiary battery. The
Skjold can even carry a pair of parasites, further enhancing the capabilities of any squadron that it commands. Currently the plan is to assign a single
Wright-class dockable ASF platform and leave the other collar open for logistics purposes, or special missions.”
He brings up another graphic. “The current plan is to deploy these ships with Home Fleet in 12 ship flotillas, with one
Skjold as flagship, one
Constellation, five
Tarantuls and five
Ashevilles. Our intention is to reserve them for Home Fleet until every colonized system has an assigned flotilla, then decide from there.”