September 2, 2021: Overall opinion in the UHF is that we cannot afford to forfeit the Ross 128 jump point chain to the enemy. Vice Admiral Hannah Avram agrees, and points out that this will enable us to gather better intelligence on our enemy without putting the Hope colony in immediate danger.
For now, the jump point is the best location to hold them. The 1st Fleet launches its gunboat complement and has them maintain a 24 hour picket of the location; the carriers will move to the Hope jump point while still supporting the gunboat squadron. For better or for worse the jump point to the Hope system is less than a billion kilometers from the jump point to WX Ursae Majoris.
With Humanity facing a war against a dangerous new opponent, it needs strong leadership. The UHF issues an immediate promotion of Hannah Avram to the rank of Sky Marshal. She immediately orders the 2nd Fleet to load all available armed gunboats and move forward to support the Ross system.
Two new craft designs are also commissioned.
Comet class Jump Scout 800 tons 77 Crew 142 BP TCS 16 TH 184 EM 0
11500 km/s JR 1-50 Armour 1-7 Shields 0-0 Sensors 11/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Maint Life 17.16 Years MSP 111 AFR 5% IFR 0.1% 1YR 1 5YR 11 Max Repair 46 MSP
J1000(1-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 1000 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 1
GB Magneto-plasma Drive (1) Power 184 Fuel Use 780% Signature 184 Armour 0 Exp 36%
Fuel Capacity 140,000 Litres Range 40.4 billion km (40 days at full power)
Short Range Targeting Sensor (1) GPS 21 Range 2.3m km Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH1-11 (1) Sensitivity 11 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 11m kmIf the navy is to have any hope of assaulting the WX system, they must know if the enemy is picketing the far side. The Comet is designed to scout the far side of a jump point before the fleet risks itself by jumping through.
Pegasus class Tanker 5,800 tons 250 Crew 764 BP TCS 116 TH 400 EM 0
3448 km/s Armour 1-28 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
MSP 82 Max Repair 50 MSP
Civilian Magneto-plasma Drive (2) Power 200 Fuel Use 6% Signature 200 Armour 0 Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 3,000,000 Litres Range 15516.0 billion km (52083 days at full power)For the navy to remain on long deployments, it will need to be refueled. The Pegasus is not a complicated ship, simply a very large fuel tank with engines.
September 14, 2021: Deploying all of the Navy's armed ships away from Sol is not popular with the home system.
In the short term, a brigade of mobile infantry will be stationed on Mars to make sure the protests don't spiral out of control. In the long term, however, it's believed that some form of fixed defenses should be developed so that the navy is free to deploy where needed. Inspiration comes from early studies to understand and replicate the alien meson weapons.
Watchman class Planetary Defence Centre 6,250 tons 794 Crew 1005 BP TCS 125 TH 0 EM 0
Armour 5-30 Sensors 1/21 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 92.76
Quad Small Meson Cannon Turret (6x4) Range 60,000km TS: 16000 km/s Power 12-12 RM 6 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
PDC PD Fire Control (3) Max Range: 120,000 km TS: 16000 km/s 92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Fusion Reactor (6) Total Power Output 72 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Short Range Targeting Sensor (1) GPS 21 Range 2.3m km Resolution 1The meson beams are capable of penetrating a planet's atmosphere (or even the planet itself) just as easily as they penetrate armor. By making use of this trait the Watchman bases can defend the planet they are stationed on from missile bombardment and troop landings. They should also serve as a highly visible sign that the population of a planet is being protected.
November 27, 2021: The 1st Engineering Brigade arrives on Alpha Centauri-A I and begins work excavating the ruins.
January 7, 2022: Scientists analyzing records of the WX Alien communications have come to the conclusion that communication will be impossible. In fact, they are of the opinion that the signals are not signs of intelligence at all, but rather communication at an animal-like level.
This news gives hope to the fleet; if the enemy encountered in WX is somehow not intelligent, it may not be guarding the jump point after all. Orders go out to bring up a Comet jump scout with the next wave of reinforcements.
March 24, 2022: Four new Lexington carriers arrive in Ross, carrying reinforcements for the blockade as well as 2 JSC Comets. Available ships line up at the jump point, ready to make a massive assault if the word is clear.
One of the Comets, crewed entirely by volunteers, approaches the jump point and transitions into the WX system. No enemy vessels are visible within range of the jump point, so the 1st and 2nd fleets jump through. As soon as they do, the active sensors of the enemy large craft are detected, but quite far away.
The combined fleets launch 106 Brazwell and 24 Rodney class gunboats, then the carriers jump back into Ross. The rest will be up to the gunboats.
The combined gunboat force begins to close on the large contact, and soon sensors detect the enemy small ships. This time there are 70 rather than 67, and it is noticed that the 3 wrecked Brazwells have disappeared. It appears that the enemy may be salvaging wreckage and using the parts to build new ships.
The gunboat squadron drives straight towards the enemy formation as they open fire. The goal will be to endure the enemy fire long enough to close to plasma range. They accomplish that, but only just; at a range of 55,000 km the enemy begins evasive maneuvers to prevent the gunboat squadron from closing the range. Plasma fire lances out, but it is weak and inaccurate at that range.
Plasma rounds continue to lance out, and one of the enemy ships breaks apart. Sensor evidence shows that it is venting fluid as it does so. This might possibly be evidence of an aquatic race, but analysts are beginning to suspect something even stranger.
Combat continues, but is not going well for the human forces. Unable to close the range to where their weapons are most effective, the enemy is destroying two ships for every one the navy is able to destroy.
Then, fortune strikes. One of the enemy vessels is struck hard by plasma cannon and stops moving, but is not destroyed. Rather than abandon it, the rest of the gunboats stop and hold position around it, allowing the human forces to close the distance.
The pilots are stunned by what they see; rather than technological vessels, the enemy is revealed to be an enormous number of strange, floating jellyfish like creatures. But the pilots of the the UHF are hardened veterans, and the strangeness of the sight doesn't stop them. Orders go out to spread fire and attempt to damage as many enemies as possible.
It quickly becomes a massacre; the creatures are poorly armored and clearly unsuited for a close in dogfight. Their tactics are also quite poor, focusing fire on individual human gunboats instead of spreading their fire and destroying large numbers. The entire swarm is destroyed even as they singly target only four gunboats, each with massive overkill. Then the gunboats set course for the larger sensor contact.
When they close into sensor range they see just how much larger it actually is; active sensors determine that the enemy vessel is approximately 60,000 tons; four times the size of a Lexington carrier. 5 6,000 ton craft escort it.
The smaller vessels exhibit no weapons, attempting to ram the gunboats and claiming one kill before they are destroyed. The larger vessel proves a different story; as the squadron approaches large number of meson weapons lance out, destroying Brazwell 033. The gunboats return fire, firing dozens of plasma and railgun rounds at the giant jellyfish only to have them all intercepted by some sort of force field. But the detection system of the Semmes reports that their energy strength has dropped by 70%
Return fire makes more gunboats explode, and then a second swarm of the enemy's small ships emerge from the larger creature; but this time there are only 20, at least. Rather than break off and let the enemy recharge what seems to be some sort of energy shield, orders go out for the gunboats to keep pounding. More gunboats explode, but the shields buckle and the large creature begins to stream liquid. The squadron continues firing and eventually the creature comes completely apart. The gunboats then turn finish off the smaller vessels.
The battle appears to be won, though a detailed survey of the system will be necessary to make sure. Total losses for the UHF are 18 Brazwell, 4 Rodney, and 1 Semmes.
I know I complain about the Aurora AI, but even I was expecting it to do better than this.
First off, obviously, was not picketing the jump point. Often the AI will do this, if only because they move to where they last saw enemy, but apparently not swarm; they all flew back to the queen. Second was the refusal to split fire; 70 meson cannons should have been killing at least 10 Brazwell at round at point blank. So before anyone says I over sold the enemy, I expected them to do *much* better.
