Oh the game world started in college. Let's just say Clinton was President at the time.
Gremlins in the works: After the shakedown cruise, the Gremlin’s mistress rotated out and we picked up a brand new command team including Ms. Francis, as a new Kaptain and command branch department head. Her posting was 1st Watch BDCO. The rest of the senior BDC team, including the Mistress Lady Karlie Du Prix, were Senior Navigation Majourette Evita Rodriquez, Senior Sensors Majourette Eva Lyn Brooks, Senior Commo, Lewtenette Dianne Evans, assistant Maneuver Control Officette, Kaydette Lisa Michaelson and astrogator Lewtenette Gloria Spears.
One of the other changes from the Old Skull, to Gremie, was that fire control and defenses are in a separate compartment adjacent to the BDC. Kaptain Ursula Greer (Lady Greer’s sister) is in charge of that division and compartment. This adds another firewall to the ship and probably means that at least one senior will survive all but a catastrophic explosion. Using what little pull I had, I convinced the powers to be to post all many of my fellow survivors from Old Skull to Gremie. Granted Junior Mate Ichorne was not too happy at first, until she found out she would be sitting 2nd chair in my watch. Chief Helm’s Mate Lydia Walenstein had 1st chair.
The other changes were mainly organizational. As the ship’s MCO on first watch I was responsible for the entire MC section, this included four Kaydettes, one each for 2nd watch, BDC, 1st and 2nd watch, VNB, and 3rd watch (BDC/VNB, who was also assistant DCO station 1, which was adjacent to the BDC. (DC Central was relocated to E deck, just aft of the central lift, again moving a department head to a separate area of the ship.
Basically during general quarters, Lady Karlie was on the BDC, Kommandette Nelson on the VNB, Kaptain Tavington in Engineering, Kaptain Francis, on the BDC, Kaptain Greer in Primary Weapon’s Control (a secondary control room was on deck N just aft of D turret (now a copy of A turret but on the ventral, and all other batteries numbered on letter higher), and Kaptain Sheen in DC Central. (The redundancy and relocation of key personnel proved invaluable on many ships, luckily we never tested that capability on Gremlin, I guess Soro thought having poor Miss Parker loose two ships would be really bad form). The last senior non-medical officette was Kaptain Harriet “Momma Bear:” Dorn, the CO of the interceptor group. We carried 24 or two squadrons of Raptors, and 4 Ocelot class shuttles. The last were very light shuttles that could be carried by any ship in AIDOF, and could be used in boarding ops if needed. Miss Rita Towns commanded the NAIL convent, so we had five ladies in pink aboard a ship with over 300 Officettes, including 30 in dark purple and 12 in lavender. The rest wore light blue. However in mission and routine Old Skull and Gremie were near identical twins. However rather than a carrier who tried to stay away from fights we played goal keeper with the AISS Debutante, a Heavy Attack Cruiser, or sometimes called a battle cruiser or mini dreadnought. In other words a big mother who looked for trouble, our task was to keep the enemy aerospace and small fry away.
The sector we were assigned was near Goddard, system that has been captured and recaptured several times, so this was a hot area. With the big Deb and Gremie we had two Saturns, the Falmouth and the Franklin, two Tyche’s Lionfish and Lawrence, and two Vulcan class frigates, Bainbridge and Belknap. This gave BATCRURON 854 a very heavy offensive punch but a modest defensive capability. The AS craft on the big Deb were a mixed bag composed of single seat and two seat attack fighters. On squadron of the combat proved Warrior, and two of the venerable Sheena-cat. No Arcs were carried on anything except carriers. Each of the Saturns had one squadron of Warriors and one of Sheena-Cats. So amongst the four AS capable ships we had 24 of the brand spanking new Raptors, 48 Sheena Cats and 36 Warriors.
Beyond the crew of the ungainly looking Raptors, most of the Aerobabes derided them, until the first series of exercises proved that the Raptor could almost out run, out gun and out maneuver any of the other platforms, as well as take more damage. The Warrior was faster and carried more but less effective missiles, but could not turn as tightly or in a gun dual the Raptor’s pulse cannon proved to be extremely deadly. The Sheena-Cat had the same speed, but a much wider turn radius; it could stay in action longer and carried a wider array of weapons. Again in a dogfight, the Raptor’s four guns to the single powerful particle gun of the Sheena-Cat proved to be overwhelming.
Needless to say the Corps Quads and new Pi fighters were outmatched, in everything but numbers. BATCRURON 854 was also tasked for limited independent operations, we did not have an attached tender but there were five squadrons to ATG 85, and three had tenders. BATCRURON 854 was the muscle for the ATG, we were supported by a CARON, it had a Juno class and was a carbon copy of the old CTG 61 (in 2630 Task Groups were expanded to include squadrons that were ship and mission specific, so CARON 851 and CTG 61 were the same size but CARON 851 was led by a Baroness while CTG 61 could have been led by a Countess.) Designators for Squadrons were 3 numbers, the first two being the mother task group and the last being the position within the TG. In an ATG (Attack TG), first squadron was always a CARON, 2nd a CRURON (light and medium cruisers and fast ships for screening), third squadron was either another CRURON or DESTRON (a light cruiser with several destroyers) for scouting and fast strikes, 4th Squadron was the heavy punch, in most cases a BATCRURON, but sometimes a full BATRON, and finally 5th Squadron was a SUPRON or support squadron with defensive ships and tenders. A CTG or Carrier TG 1st and 2nd were CARON’s and 4th was always a DESTRON. In an BTG (Battle TG), 1st through 3rd were BATRONS or BATCRURONS, and 4th was a CRURON. (At this time ASTG, STTG, and STG were not operational units, for Assault TG’s there were no centralized control for assault ships, they were task organized as needed. Strike units were not around because AIDOF employed very few Hyperwarp capable platforms in the early 30’s and Support ships were always part of the existing TG structure so no one thought create a dedicate large support force. In fact this defect in SAN would not be rectified until the debacle at Ayemore was seriously analyzed in 2645.)
However as a Lewie and responsible for other junior Officettes of my section, such big picture things were far from my head. Mainly because of my relationship with Barb and to a lesser degree Wendy and Terry, I did not see the need to get intimate with my subordinates, beyond doing the minimum that was expected or course. And they all understood that I was committed, and in fact I encouraged those who were interested to pursue longer lasting bonds than the typical Amazon seemed to express until much older.
We were on patrol of the 2nd system beyond Goddard, a dead system called YX 8342, the only item of note was the 4th planet was a Corporate resource world. CRW’s are worlds claimed by the corporation for future exploitation, needless to say quite a few CRWs lie within Imperial space. It was during 2nd watch, so I was in the wardroom training my off duty personnel (I rotated sleeping during 2nd and 3rd watches so I could train them on my off hours) when the GQ alarm sounded.
GENERAL QUARTERS, GENERAL QUARTERS ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS, THIS IS NO DRILL.
Stopping the class, I instructed the 3rd watch kaydette to go to my quarters and get my vacuum suit. Rushing to the BDC and to my station I just beat the navigation team. “Hey what’s up?”
“Multiple jumps detected, and at least one theta has been ID’d.”
“Oh boy this should be interesting….”
“Miss Parker, plot course for intercept we just got word from Deb, we are going close and engage.”
“Aye Ma’am ok plot course bearing 218 angels plus 11 speed 30MMH.”
“Oh Miss Parker?”
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“Where is your V suit?”
“On the way, Miss Woods is bringing it…”
“I see, well very good, perhaps we should have spare sets in the BDC, look into that Miss Parker.”
“Aye Ma’am.”
A few minutes later Miss Woods came in and handed me my suit then headed to her station at DC 1.
“Right ok, let’s do a status check. MC?”
“MC is up and ready.” I said looking at the people in my section at their stations.
“Good, Commo?”
“Commo Up Ma’am….” And so went the roll call throughout the BDC.
“Ma’am BDC is all manned.”
“Very good Ms. Francis, signal rest of departments.” Miss Evans queried the rest of the ship’s stations and got all present and manned. She relayed the information to Ms. Francis, who then told her Ladyship. “Ships is manned and at action stations.”
“Right time to intercept with enemy ships?”
“At present speed and course eight hours.”
“Ok 1st Watch stand down, 2nd Watch take over, 3rd Watch remain at secondary stations, alert me when enemy is two hours from weapons release.”
“Aye Ma’am, ok you heard Lady Karlie, 1st Watch return to your quarters and get some rest, 2nd Watch and 3rd Watch resume duties and maintain present course and speed. Miss Jelinkski you have the con.”
I retired to my quarters and slept very fitfully, however having had to endure one prolonged battle back on Golgotha I knew I needed the sleep now as once the action started things were going to be very intense. On reason for my unease was this was the first time in a long while where the other bunks were empty, as the pilots were all at the ready room getting briefed and the weapons division was fully manned, doing last minute checks and battle drills. When the ISC beeped and summoned 1st Watch back to their duty stations, I was already awake.
An hour after returning to my station, we got word to launch the fighters, all of our Raptors would be used to protect the strike craft, while the Warriors hung back to provide cover for the ships.
“Ma’am we have positive ID on the Corps, two Dolci’s, eight Thetas twice the number in destroyers and small fry, and one Pascal….”
“Right ok, what is Deb doing?”
“She and the attack cruisers are lining up for missile launch, we are ordered to have the Raptors go ahead of the strike craft and blow a hole through the quads and new fighter Pi fighters. Meanwhile the “F” Troop, the nickname for the two Saturns and the Tyches will engage the front line with missiles, and the big Deb will fire her salvos at the Dolcis and the Pascal.”
200 missiles at the three big boys, and another 300 at the escorts, should make for a wonderful light show from the VNB. Meanwhile in the BDC we just had the huge holographic tank plotting the action, as well as the smaller screens at each station.
“Missile Launch!”
“What?”
“The Thetas and the Pascal, and Dolci’s have fired missiles!”
“Ah so they can learn, right ok get us a broad side approach to them so we can intercept the missiles.”
“Aye Ma’am, ok plot course bearing 87 degrees, angle minus 5, then turn about 120 degrees at the 4MM mark.”
“Very Good, Helm, make it so.”
“Aye Ma’am, Ichorne execute first leg of the maneuver. Speed 34MMH.”
“Aye, Speed 34MMH.” The helmsgal replied.
The Gremie rocketed forward and slightly to the starboard of the big Deb and then we slewed abeam so our starboard weapons were facing the incoming missiles.
“Track has 300 missiles approaching, in three waves, 100 from the Dolcies, another 150 from the Thetas and last 50 from the Pascal, last group appears to be bigger but slower.”
“Right, Thetas and Dolci probably are packing some form of Shipkiller, the big guy probably has a home grown weapon. ETA?”
“First wave 20 Minutes, 2nd about 30, and last nearly an hour…” Sensors read from the plot
“Right time for our barrage?”
“First group in 15, then rest are at two minute increments.”
“Right ok, Commo, advise rest of the squadron to take bow on aspects to missiles and have the frigates get in our shadow.”
“Aye, Weapons reports they will engage at 16MM with large batteries.”
“Very good, ok set condition Zebra, secure all hatches!” Lady Karlie said from her command chair.
NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS SET SHIP TO CONDITION ZEBRA, SECURE ALL HATCHES
“Lead Raptors want to know if they should engage missiles?”
“Negative, they are to concentrate on enemy AS craft, however request that Warriors should be used to help with leakers.”
“Aye Ma’am…Flag concurs, using one Warrior Squadron on CAP, other two to assist with missile defense.”
“Very good, status on enemy missiles and AS craft?”
“Dolci’s have launched fighters, looks like they are launching a strike as well, lead Raptors are engaging!”
We all watched the distant battle as the icons representing our Raptor interceptors launched missiles at the oncoming corporate craft. Unlike the missiles carried by the Warriors and Sheena-Cats, the Raptors were armed with a new plasma tipped missile; they exploded in a huge burst of superheated plasma that could, if lucky take out two craft at a time. Each Raptor carried 10 of these weapons so that meant 240 missiles directed against 120 quadratic fighters. After all of the plasma blooms dissipated only 40 quadratic fighters were left. 30 more died by the heavy cannon of the Raptors, before they closed into knife range. Here the superb maneuverability of the Raptors and the heavy armor paid off, as only four Raptors were damaged and only five quads limped back to their ships. The Raptors continued on station escorting the Sheena-cats to their respective targets, but first our missiles.
The first wave, or 300 LRAM missiles streaked into the Theta cruisers and Trig destroyers, (this group had none of the ancient Hawkings) Even with double kills and the enemy point defenses, only three Thetas and eight destroyers survived the maelstrom. The next wave of 100 targeted at the two Dolcis, was mostly destroyed by enemy defenses, as it was twenty missiles hit, all but three on one ship. So one Dolci was toast, the other only superficially damaged. The Pascal likewise suffered moderate shield damage. Now it was our turn to receive the enemy missiles.
“Ma’am we have detected 12 Newtons but they seem to be not interested…” “That’s because they know we would smoke them before they got into effective range, they will only move in after we are beat up a bit.”
“Roger that, first missiles ETA 1 minute!”
“Right ok it’s in Weaps hands now.”
We watched as the big guns on A through D batteries engaged and destroyed 20 missiles. Then once the smaller batteries were in range, the space before the missiles was laced with deadly beams from the lasers. This accounted for another 40 missiles. Next our own short range missiles fired and took out 30 more, thus leaving 10, all homing on the big Deb to leak through, and between the Warriors and the big Deb’s own defenses only one missile got through to explode on the massive shields of the battle cruiser.
“Big D, got hit, but only 5% loss to starboard shields, next wave in 5 minutes!”
We repeated the process for the other two waves, however the last five missiles in the 2nd wave were targeted on us, so our point defenses came into play as we smoked all five, the nearby explosions rocked the ship but our own massive shields easily warded the blows. All that was left were the massive missiles launched by the Pascal. In the meantime the Sheena-Cats struck the 2nd Dolci and broke its back, and seriously damaged the big Pascal battleship. Only three Sheena-Cats were lost, so for the price of three AS craft with 6 crew, and some light damage to the shields to two ships, we destroyed over 100 fighters, two battle cruisers, five thetas and eight destroyers plus damaging their only major offensive threat. All and all a great victory, however, Lady Meyer, the Squadron Regent, decided to make a statement and sent the big D and the two light cruisers in with their guns. We had the VNB patch the visual down to us, as the four massive Whirlwind disruption beams tore into the Pascal, which was just charging up its own main fusion battery when it shuddered briefly and then broke apart into four sections. The dissection of the Pascal was incomplete when it flared to bright plasma as the reactor containment fields failed. With the loss of the Pascal, the other ships were easy prey, only the Newtons and two destroyers managed to limp away to jump out. Goddard was saved once again.
Three weeks later the jump signature of our relief the massive form of the AISS Palanquin appeared. BATRON 712 took up our station, so we could go home and refit and refresh our stores. The rest of the time on this patrol was routine and hardly worth mentioning, let alone remembering.
Gremlins in the works: After the shakedown cruise, the Gremlin’s mistress rotated out and we picked up a brand new command team including Ms. Francis, as a new Kaptain and command branch department head. Her posting was 1st Watch BDCO. The rest of the senior BDC team, including the Mistress Lady Karlie Du Prix, were Senior Navigation Majourette Evita Rodriquez, Senior Sensors Majourette Eva Lyn Brooks, Senior Commo, Lewtenette Dianne Evans, assistant Maneuver Control Officette, Kaydette Lisa Michaelson and astrogator Lewtenette Gloria Spears.
One of the other changes from the Old Skull, to Gremie, was that fire control and defenses are in a separate compartment adjacent to the BDC. Kaptain Ursula Greer (Lady Greer’s sister) is in charge of that division and compartment. This adds another firewall to the ship and probably means that at least one senior will survive all but a catastrophic explosion. Using what little pull I had, I convinced the powers to be to post all many of my fellow survivors from Old Skull to Gremie. Granted Junior Mate Ichorne was not too happy at first, until she found out she would be sitting 2nd chair in my watch. Chief Helm’s Mate Lydia Walenstein had 1st chair.
The other changes were mainly organizational. As the ship’s MCO on first watch I was responsible for the entire MC section, this included four Kaydettes, one each for 2nd watch, BDC, 1st and 2nd watch, VNB, and 3rd watch (BDC/VNB, who was also assistant DCO station 1, which was adjacent to the BDC. (DC Central was relocated to E deck, just aft of the central lift, again moving a department head to a separate area of the ship.
Basically during general quarters, Lady Karlie was on the BDC, Kommandette Nelson on the VNB, Kaptain Tavington in Engineering, Kaptain Francis, on the BDC, Kaptain Greer in Primary Weapon’s Control (a secondary control room was on deck N just aft of D turret (now a copy of A turret but on the ventral, and all other batteries numbered on letter higher), and Kaptain Sheen in DC Central. (The redundancy and relocation of key personnel proved invaluable on many ships, luckily we never tested that capability on Gremlin, I guess Soro thought having poor Miss Parker loose two ships would be really bad form). The last senior non-medical officette was Kaptain Harriet “Momma Bear:” Dorn, the CO of the interceptor group. We carried 24 or two squadrons of Raptors, and 4 Ocelot class shuttles. The last were very light shuttles that could be carried by any ship in AIDOF, and could be used in boarding ops if needed. Miss Rita Towns commanded the NAIL convent, so we had five ladies in pink aboard a ship with over 300 Officettes, including 30 in dark purple and 12 in lavender. The rest wore light blue. However in mission and routine Old Skull and Gremie were near identical twins. However rather than a carrier who tried to stay away from fights we played goal keeper with the AISS Debutante, a Heavy Attack Cruiser, or sometimes called a battle cruiser or mini dreadnought. In other words a big mother who looked for trouble, our task was to keep the enemy aerospace and small fry away.
The sector we were assigned was near Goddard, system that has been captured and recaptured several times, so this was a hot area. With the big Deb and Gremie we had two Saturns, the Falmouth and the Franklin, two Tyche’s Lionfish and Lawrence, and two Vulcan class frigates, Bainbridge and Belknap. This gave BATCRURON 854 a very heavy offensive punch but a modest defensive capability. The AS craft on the big Deb were a mixed bag composed of single seat and two seat attack fighters. On squadron of the combat proved Warrior, and two of the venerable Sheena-cat. No Arcs were carried on anything except carriers. Each of the Saturns had one squadron of Warriors and one of Sheena-Cats. So amongst the four AS capable ships we had 24 of the brand spanking new Raptors, 48 Sheena Cats and 36 Warriors.
Beyond the crew of the ungainly looking Raptors, most of the Aerobabes derided them, until the first series of exercises proved that the Raptor could almost out run, out gun and out maneuver any of the other platforms, as well as take more damage. The Warrior was faster and carried more but less effective missiles, but could not turn as tightly or in a gun dual the Raptor’s pulse cannon proved to be extremely deadly. The Sheena-Cat had the same speed, but a much wider turn radius; it could stay in action longer and carried a wider array of weapons. Again in a dogfight, the Raptor’s four guns to the single powerful particle gun of the Sheena-Cat proved to be overwhelming.
Needless to say the Corps Quads and new Pi fighters were outmatched, in everything but numbers. BATCRURON 854 was also tasked for limited independent operations, we did not have an attached tender but there were five squadrons to ATG 85, and three had tenders. BATCRURON 854 was the muscle for the ATG, we were supported by a CARON, it had a Juno class and was a carbon copy of the old CTG 61 (in 2630 Task Groups were expanded to include squadrons that were ship and mission specific, so CARON 851 and CTG 61 were the same size but CARON 851 was led by a Baroness while CTG 61 could have been led by a Countess.) Designators for Squadrons were 3 numbers, the first two being the mother task group and the last being the position within the TG. In an ATG (Attack TG), first squadron was always a CARON, 2nd a CRURON (light and medium cruisers and fast ships for screening), third squadron was either another CRURON or DESTRON (a light cruiser with several destroyers) for scouting and fast strikes, 4th Squadron was the heavy punch, in most cases a BATCRURON, but sometimes a full BATRON, and finally 5th Squadron was a SUPRON or support squadron with defensive ships and tenders. A CTG or Carrier TG 1st and 2nd were CARON’s and 4th was always a DESTRON. In an BTG (Battle TG), 1st through 3rd were BATRONS or BATCRURONS, and 4th was a CRURON. (At this time ASTG, STTG, and STG were not operational units, for Assault TG’s there were no centralized control for assault ships, they were task organized as needed. Strike units were not around because AIDOF employed very few Hyperwarp capable platforms in the early 30’s and Support ships were always part of the existing TG structure so no one thought create a dedicate large support force. In fact this defect in SAN would not be rectified until the debacle at Ayemore was seriously analyzed in 2645.)
However as a Lewie and responsible for other junior Officettes of my section, such big picture things were far from my head. Mainly because of my relationship with Barb and to a lesser degree Wendy and Terry, I did not see the need to get intimate with my subordinates, beyond doing the minimum that was expected or course. And they all understood that I was committed, and in fact I encouraged those who were interested to pursue longer lasting bonds than the typical Amazon seemed to express until much older.
We were on patrol of the 2nd system beyond Goddard, a dead system called YX 8342, the only item of note was the 4th planet was a Corporate resource world. CRW’s are worlds claimed by the corporation for future exploitation, needless to say quite a few CRWs lie within Imperial space. It was during 2nd watch, so I was in the wardroom training my off duty personnel (I rotated sleeping during 2nd and 3rd watches so I could train them on my off hours) when the GQ alarm sounded.
GENERAL QUARTERS, GENERAL QUARTERS ALL HANDS TO ACTION STATIONS, THIS IS NO DRILL.
Stopping the class, I instructed the 3rd watch kaydette to go to my quarters and get my vacuum suit. Rushing to the BDC and to my station I just beat the navigation team. “Hey what’s up?”
“Multiple jumps detected, and at least one theta has been ID’d.”
“Oh boy this should be interesting….”
“Miss Parker, plot course for intercept we just got word from Deb, we are going close and engage.”
“Aye Ma’am ok plot course bearing 218 angels plus 11 speed 30MMH.”
“Oh Miss Parker?”
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“Where is your V suit?”
“On the way, Miss Woods is bringing it…”
“I see, well very good, perhaps we should have spare sets in the BDC, look into that Miss Parker.”
“Aye Ma’am.”
A few minutes later Miss Woods came in and handed me my suit then headed to her station at DC 1.
“Right ok, let’s do a status check. MC?”
“MC is up and ready.” I said looking at the people in my section at their stations.
“Good, Commo?”
“Commo Up Ma’am….” And so went the roll call throughout the BDC.
“Ma’am BDC is all manned.”
“Very good Ms. Francis, signal rest of departments.” Miss Evans queried the rest of the ship’s stations and got all present and manned. She relayed the information to Ms. Francis, who then told her Ladyship. “Ships is manned and at action stations.”
“Right time to intercept with enemy ships?”
“At present speed and course eight hours.”
“Ok 1st Watch stand down, 2nd Watch take over, 3rd Watch remain at secondary stations, alert me when enemy is two hours from weapons release.”
“Aye Ma’am, ok you heard Lady Karlie, 1st Watch return to your quarters and get some rest, 2nd Watch and 3rd Watch resume duties and maintain present course and speed. Miss Jelinkski you have the con.”
I retired to my quarters and slept very fitfully, however having had to endure one prolonged battle back on Golgotha I knew I needed the sleep now as once the action started things were going to be very intense. On reason for my unease was this was the first time in a long while where the other bunks were empty, as the pilots were all at the ready room getting briefed and the weapons division was fully manned, doing last minute checks and battle drills. When the ISC beeped and summoned 1st Watch back to their duty stations, I was already awake.
An hour after returning to my station, we got word to launch the fighters, all of our Raptors would be used to protect the strike craft, while the Warriors hung back to provide cover for the ships.
“Ma’am we have positive ID on the Corps, two Dolci’s, eight Thetas twice the number in destroyers and small fry, and one Pascal….”
“Right ok, what is Deb doing?”
“She and the attack cruisers are lining up for missile launch, we are ordered to have the Raptors go ahead of the strike craft and blow a hole through the quads and new fighter Pi fighters. Meanwhile the “F” Troop, the nickname for the two Saturns and the Tyches will engage the front line with missiles, and the big Deb will fire her salvos at the Dolcis and the Pascal.”
200 missiles at the three big boys, and another 300 at the escorts, should make for a wonderful light show from the VNB. Meanwhile in the BDC we just had the huge holographic tank plotting the action, as well as the smaller screens at each station.
“Missile Launch!”
“What?”
“The Thetas and the Pascal, and Dolci’s have fired missiles!”
“Ah so they can learn, right ok get us a broad side approach to them so we can intercept the missiles.”
“Aye Ma’am, ok plot course bearing 87 degrees, angle minus 5, then turn about 120 degrees at the 4MM mark.”
“Very Good, Helm, make it so.”
“Aye Ma’am, Ichorne execute first leg of the maneuver. Speed 34MMH.”
“Aye, Speed 34MMH.” The helmsgal replied.
The Gremie rocketed forward and slightly to the starboard of the big Deb and then we slewed abeam so our starboard weapons were facing the incoming missiles.
“Track has 300 missiles approaching, in three waves, 100 from the Dolcies, another 150 from the Thetas and last 50 from the Pascal, last group appears to be bigger but slower.”
“Right, Thetas and Dolci probably are packing some form of Shipkiller, the big guy probably has a home grown weapon. ETA?”
“First wave 20 Minutes, 2nd about 30, and last nearly an hour…” Sensors read from the plot
“Right time for our barrage?”
“First group in 15, then rest are at two minute increments.”
“Right ok, Commo, advise rest of the squadron to take bow on aspects to missiles and have the frigates get in our shadow.”
“Aye, Weapons reports they will engage at 16MM with large batteries.”
“Very good, ok set condition Zebra, secure all hatches!” Lady Karlie said from her command chair.
NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS SET SHIP TO CONDITION ZEBRA, SECURE ALL HATCHES
“Lead Raptors want to know if they should engage missiles?”
“Negative, they are to concentrate on enemy AS craft, however request that Warriors should be used to help with leakers.”
“Aye Ma’am…Flag concurs, using one Warrior Squadron on CAP, other two to assist with missile defense.”
“Very good, status on enemy missiles and AS craft?”
“Dolci’s have launched fighters, looks like they are launching a strike as well, lead Raptors are engaging!”
We all watched the distant battle as the icons representing our Raptor interceptors launched missiles at the oncoming corporate craft. Unlike the missiles carried by the Warriors and Sheena-Cats, the Raptors were armed with a new plasma tipped missile; they exploded in a huge burst of superheated plasma that could, if lucky take out two craft at a time. Each Raptor carried 10 of these weapons so that meant 240 missiles directed against 120 quadratic fighters. After all of the plasma blooms dissipated only 40 quadratic fighters were left. 30 more died by the heavy cannon of the Raptors, before they closed into knife range. Here the superb maneuverability of the Raptors and the heavy armor paid off, as only four Raptors were damaged and only five quads limped back to their ships. The Raptors continued on station escorting the Sheena-cats to their respective targets, but first our missiles.
The first wave, or 300 LRAM missiles streaked into the Theta cruisers and Trig destroyers, (this group had none of the ancient Hawkings) Even with double kills and the enemy point defenses, only three Thetas and eight destroyers survived the maelstrom. The next wave of 100 targeted at the two Dolcis, was mostly destroyed by enemy defenses, as it was twenty missiles hit, all but three on one ship. So one Dolci was toast, the other only superficially damaged. The Pascal likewise suffered moderate shield damage. Now it was our turn to receive the enemy missiles.
“Ma’am we have detected 12 Newtons but they seem to be not interested…” “That’s because they know we would smoke them before they got into effective range, they will only move in after we are beat up a bit.”
“Roger that, first missiles ETA 1 minute!”
“Right ok it’s in Weaps hands now.”
We watched as the big guns on A through D batteries engaged and destroyed 20 missiles. Then once the smaller batteries were in range, the space before the missiles was laced with deadly beams from the lasers. This accounted for another 40 missiles. Next our own short range missiles fired and took out 30 more, thus leaving 10, all homing on the big Deb to leak through, and between the Warriors and the big Deb’s own defenses only one missile got through to explode on the massive shields of the battle cruiser.
“Big D, got hit, but only 5% loss to starboard shields, next wave in 5 minutes!”
We repeated the process for the other two waves, however the last five missiles in the 2nd wave were targeted on us, so our point defenses came into play as we smoked all five, the nearby explosions rocked the ship but our own massive shields easily warded the blows. All that was left were the massive missiles launched by the Pascal. In the meantime the Sheena-Cats struck the 2nd Dolci and broke its back, and seriously damaged the big Pascal battleship. Only three Sheena-Cats were lost, so for the price of three AS craft with 6 crew, and some light damage to the shields to two ships, we destroyed over 100 fighters, two battle cruisers, five thetas and eight destroyers plus damaging their only major offensive threat. All and all a great victory, however, Lady Meyer, the Squadron Regent, decided to make a statement and sent the big D and the two light cruisers in with their guns. We had the VNB patch the visual down to us, as the four massive Whirlwind disruption beams tore into the Pascal, which was just charging up its own main fusion battery when it shuddered briefly and then broke apart into four sections. The dissection of the Pascal was incomplete when it flared to bright plasma as the reactor containment fields failed. With the loss of the Pascal, the other ships were easy prey, only the Newtons and two destroyers managed to limp away to jump out. Goddard was saved once again.
Three weeks later the jump signature of our relief the massive form of the AISS Palanquin appeared. BATRON 712 took up our station, so we could go home and refit and refresh our stores. The rest of the time on this patrol was routine and hardly worth mentioning, let alone remembering.