On 8 Feb., 2046, Commodore William Wallace, commanding TG1, lead his 7 ships into Groombridge 1830, commanding from the bridge of TAN
Galatea, one of the two newly commissioned Heavy Cruisers. A Juliet II class gravitational survey vessel had transmitted a hostile contact report from this system shortly before its destruction roughly 6 years ago. At the time, major portions of all active-duty formations were undergoing refits, and Fleet Command had decided that a frigate squadron would not be sufficient to deal with the threats reported by the unfortunate survey ship. In his OOB, Commodore Wallace had his own TAN CA
Galatea, as well as TAN PDs
Goliath and
Juggernaught, as well as TAN DDGs
Sentinel,
Shield,
Striker, and
Ferret. The known enemy forces consisted of a pair of constructs believed to be orbital forts, as well as a third contact with a thermal reading of 2700, indicating a large mobile asset.
Upon completion of the jump, every ship in TG1 actived their search sensors, hoping to draw the enemy ship away from the third planet. They proceeded at half speed toward its last known location. Approximately 2.7 hours after entry, a thermal signature matching that of the previous contact appeared on
Galatea's display. 20 minutes later, it entered the edge of TG1's active sensor envelope, and further information came in, listing its speed at 6975km/s, 1975km/s greater than TG1's maximum speed. Seconds later, the hull profile data returned, indicating a rough estimate of it as 19,350 tons, nearly twice as large as the PDs and DDGs, but 30% smaller than
Galatea. The targetting AI tagged it as Perry 002, as it represented the first unit of this previously unknown class, though its current speed indicated a similar level of technology to previously encountered vessels.
At 140.4m km distance, Perry 002 paused for 110 seconds, then resumed its course toward TG1. Early on the morning of the 9th, the first enemy missiles were detected at extreme range. Tracking estimated them to be size 5, with a thermal output of 8, and an average speed of 30,000km/s. Over the course of the next hour, they closed and were engaged by TG1's point defence.
Galatea,
Goliath, and
Juggernaught accounted for every missile. No ship suffered a single hit, despite having an average PD chance to-hit of 30%, and no ASMs were expended to suppliment PD fire. At the end of the barrage, the PD computers had tallied a total of 215 enemy ASMs destroyed. Perry 002 continued to close.
At 80m km, the maximum range for the Sabre 4b ASM,
Galatea and the DDGs attempted to target the enemy contact, but were unable to achieve a lock. Based on the level of ECM output, sensor techs aboard the flagship estimated a maximum effective range of 66.5m km for their fire control. TG1 closed to a range of 55m km, to avoid the possibility of Perry 002 fleeing beyond FC range, and then fired.
Galatea emptied her internal tubes, along with Box Launchers 1-20, half of her total XO load, while the DDGs each fired 8 missiles from their respective internal tubes. A total of 68 Sabre 4bs were fired in this initial salvo, and TG1 shut down their firing sequences to await the results of this first offensive strike.
When the salvo reached the target, sensors logged 12 as having been destroyed by an unknown PD weapon. As the rest had a 150% chance to hit, each of the 56 remaining Sabre 4bs struck home, each dealing a strength-4 nuclear detonation on the enemy hull. Perry 002 lost speed, and her thermal output was reduced to 2200. A second salvo of 48 Sabre 4bs from the internal tubes alone was launched, losing 13 to PD fire, and scoring 35 hits. Perry 002's thermal output was reduced to 2000, and her speed dropped to 5167km/s, hardly more than TG1's. Two salvos of 48 missiles were launched; the first lost another 13 to PD fire, but triggered a STR-4 and two STR-5 secondary power explosions, which completely destroyed the hostile contact.
Galatea retained 20 of her XO launchers, and the DDGs had never fired theirs. Their internal magazines were still at high capacity as TG1 began to close with Groombridge 1830 III, the near-ideal planet around which the orbital stations were positioned.
TG1 closed to 63.3m km on the afternoon of the 9th without encountering hostile missile fire, leading Commodore Wallace to believe that the stations were pure PD platforms. He ordered TG1 to fire a salvo of 68 missiles at Warramunga 002, the 12,850 ton station, emptying the remaining 20 XO racks on
Galatea. He was shocked (though he showed no outward sign of surprise) when the entire salvo entered the final sprint unmolested, and every one of TG1's missiles struck home, shattering the station's armor, and triggering a massive strength 39 magazine explosion. TG1 shifted its fire to Collins 002, the 12,800 ton station, launching two salvos of 48 missiles each from its internal tubes. The first lost 24 to PD, with the other 24 impacting successfully. The point defense output was positively identified as 12 turreted gauss cannon, an easy judgement, given the TAN's own depth of experience with Gauss technology. The second salvo had a perfect 100% hit rate, as the first salvo had apparently knocked out the enemy fire control. The second station was confirmed destroyed at 22:14, 9 Feb.
At the end of the engagement,
Galatea had expended 58% of her missiles, including all of her XO racks, while the four DDGs had expended 47% of their own magazine capacity, leaving their XO racks unfired. TG1 closed with the planet, while a scout cruiser, JGC, and salvage fleet were dispatched from Sol to secure the system, recover useful data, and allow TG1 to leave the system, as the only existing military jump tenders were a pair of severely outdated vessels incapable of supporting ships larger than 10,000 tons.
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Topic: Aurora - The Dwarf Fortress of 4X Games (Read 2843820 times)