Author Topic: Wings of Dawn Lore  (Read 76475 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Uuuuuuunless disabling Aretha's ship backfires and leaves them in the middle of a fleet engagement when French tags in, which would probably suck.

 

Offline Lorric

  • 212
I think they have a plan for that. And I'm thinking it's an escape plan, because of the way they destroyed the carriers. That says to me they don't think they can win outright, so they want kills now while they can get them.

 

Offline Enioch

  • 210
  • Alternative History Word Writer



HMS Bellerophon, in orbit near the Sodesuka Shipyards - 18:27 Central System Time.


The Bellerophon pushed forward, toward empty space and freedom; and the debris of the carrier Takeko was shoved aside almost casually, scraping down the Dreadnought's starboard side and still venting atmosphere, fire and bodies.

Aretha Pegasus laughed, glad to be alive.

Behind her, her ships - her surviving ships, her beautiful ships tightened their formation, the Temeraire putting a final railgun broadside into the foundering flagship of the enemy battlegroup. And then they were clear, with the rest of the enemy far behind them.

"Background ether is stabilising, Ma'am," Downey called from her station, her voice as jubilant as Aretha felt. "Nav estimates...nine minutes to safe translation."

"Thank you, Ms. Downey," the Exarch responded. "Closest pursuing enemy?"

"At near-maximum weapons range, Ma'am," Downey responded. "PD net has solid lock on all incoming torps and our Destroyers are falling back to screen our rear. They can't hurt us."

"They most certainly can," Simmons said, softly, and Aretha's head turned sharply. She realised that her Champion had not spoken - had not uttered a word for several minutes, even while the fighting was the thickest. And she just managed to hold a disbelieving gasp when she looked at him, for the first time since they had ordered Fletcher to his death.

Simmons was pale, his skin glistening with sweat and his white hair matted with it. His hands were trembling, almost imperceptively - but for Simmons, the confident, charismatic officer, they may as well have been leaves in the wind. His eyes, as he turned his own head to meet her gaze, were dark and apathetic - distant, in a way that sent a cold shudder down Aretha's back.

"Their hand is long, and they have yet to strike at us, Your Grace," Simmons said, calmly. "They will not allow us to escape. Please. Ignore the torpedoes pursuing us. Get the Destroyers back with the fleet. What fleet we still have. We need their point-defense, now, now, now. Or we will die, like Fletcher did."

"Sir Fletcher's ships died defending us, Sir Champion," Aretha said, almost physically pushing her shock aside, "and I will not have them die in vain. The only thing that can hurt us now are the carriers-"

"The carriers are not important," Simmons interrupted her, his voice low, and his face spasming into a bitter wince, as he turned his eyes back to the holotank. "The carriers are only here to be big, and threatening, and die. And to keep us looking at them."

He shook his head, like an animal, a shudder that ran down his whole body. "No," he said, his voice a trancelike whisper, "it's their spawn that will kill us. Long-legs, long-legs they have and they are everywhere. They can still be everywhere and anywhere."

Aretha's hair was standing on end - this was not Simmons she knew. Not this - this broken down husk, speaking nonsense. "Get-"

- a grip, Sir! she would have said, but then Downey cried in alarm; and she looked up just in time to see the holotank's display shift the entirety of the mass of Delest strikecraft - that cloud of angry red that Fletcher had died keeping away from them -  into dark blue. Blue, for subspace jump.

"They were there but now they are here," Simmons said, his voice low and sad and resigned, amidst the bedlam that erupted on the bridge of the Bellerophon. "Too late, too late, Your Grace."


In orbit near the Sodesuka Shipyards - 18:29 Central System Time.


The Delest strikecraft jumped, guided by the navigation coordinates that the three Yonsakuren cruisers had crunched in their stead. Their pilots gritted their teeth and clenched their muscles and minds during the five heartbeats it took for their ships to scrape their way into the boiling sea of subspace, make their way through the dizzying angry caleidoscope of blue-bitter-loud-copper-soft-blood and drop back into realspace. Some of them, very few, did not make it: either their jump drives malfunctioned, or they made a mistake when inputting the frequencies of the inhibitors, and their relatively light craft pancaked themselves against the agitated etheric barriers that the Penza was still maintaining around the shipyards.

But the others emerged less than three kilometres from the retreating Lords - the Lords that were moving towards them, their Cavalier escort behind them and unable to assist. Just outside the range of the CRF point-defense, they took a few seconds to regroup, reform their wings and picked their targets; and then they charged.

This would be no slaughter - not like the strike on the carriers at all. The Delest pilots had received very specific orders and, this time, their goals were much more...precise. Not to kill the Pegasus leviathans (for, in all honesty, no matter their vast numbers, they would be swatted out of the sky by the CRF point-defense long before they could carve them up like they had the Dukes), but to cripple. This time around, they would not be the butcher's cleaver, but the rogue's knife: cutting and bleeding and running.

Fifteen hundred metres - and the CRF Dreadnoughts slowly came together in as close a formation as they could manage, slowing down, perhaps hoping that their escort ships might catch up in time. The first shots went out - ranging fire, as the CRF PD net came online and tried to make sense of the incominc swarm. The Delest strikecraft stayed silent, their forward shields reinforced and their drives redlining, pushing themselves to close the distance.

A thousand metres - and the Cheburashkas leading the pack started dropping countermeasures and flares, filling the scopes of the Pegasus Dreadnoughts with false returns. Some of the interceptors died, being the first to come under the increasingly accurate point-defense fire, but their wards, the Sodesukas and Shilos were safe, for a few crucial seconds.

Five hundred metres - and HMS Avalon turned to interpose herself between the incoming bombers and the Bellerophon, in a desperate gamble to draw their fire away from her flagship. Her PD batteries wreathed her in a halo of white light and one- no, three- no, eight bombers died in balls of fire as they screamed in - and then they were there.

Contact.

The Shilos came in first, their powerful forward shields smashing into those of the CRF capitals. They slowed down, for an instant, and several of them paid for it with their lives. But then ether warped, shield emitters fighting against shield emitters and thrusters pushing forward, and the Delest bombers were through and under the CRF shields, and suddenly all the PD in the world was not enough.

Torpedoes were the first to be fired - what few of them still remained unused in their launch tubes, for the Delest had not had the time or opportunity to recover and rearm their bombers. The Avalon had sought to draw fire away from the Bellerophon; she succeeded tragically in that regard. Six torpedoes, fired at point-blank range and under her shields smashed into her primary bridge; her sensor array; her portside batteries. Two more corkscrewed into her port engines as the Shilos lumbered past and out, seeking new targets; the massive CRF Dreadnought staggered to a halt, an incontrollable wreck, her reactors on emergency shutdown and her IFF transmitting the universal automated 'my-core-is-about-to-blow-I-surrender' codes.

Behind her, the Shilos were now working on the Indefatigable and Invincible. The two sister-ships were working in tandem, covering each other with their PD batteries and they extracted the worst toll of all on the Delest strikecraft. But the pilots did not persist beyond two attack runs - and they did not have to, for on the second one, two torpedoes got through and found their mark on the Indefatigable's main thruster. The Delest bombers pulled away, in a shower of burning debris, and the CRF pair fell out of the main formation, the Invincible still trying to cover her crippled sister.

The Sodesukas, meanwhile, had found a perfect target in the Menelaus, hammering her with graviton strikes again and again and again, stripping away her weapons and sensors, until she was utterly blind. The Dreadnought kept moving, and supporting PD fire from the nearby Temeraire prevented her from being overwhelmed, but she did fall behind - and she did leave a gap in the PD formation, into which the Sodesukas poured to reach the Bellerophon.

By now, the Delest flight had been mauled. More than half of the attacking strikecraft had been downed or crippled; but there were still more than enough for one last attack run on the enemy flagship. At 18:34, with the CRF Destroyers less than thirty seconds away, and with desperate, concentrated PD fire turning the space around the Bellerophon into a raging inferno, a Shilo torpedo found her mark and buried her warhead deep into the Pegasus flagship's engine cluster, secondary explosions blasting two of her main thrusters clear off the hull.

And then, with their job done, the Delest strikecraft pulled out and away, in courses perpendicular to the CRF battle-line, to avoid the incoming Destroyers; and the angry red blips of the rapidly closing Grazhdanins crept closer, ever closer.


HIDMS Michiko, in orbit near the Sodesuka Shipyards - 18:31 Central System Time.


"Ermolai, you magnificent bastard," Dyatlov cried into his commlink, "Emperor bless you, you saved our asses there."

"Yes, that was an excellent redeployment, and one of my better moments," Ermolai agreed, still smiling his infernal smile. "Although I cannot take the full credit for it. You enabled it yourself by deploying our strikecraft on-site and it was my Navigation officer, Alyona Afanasiyvna Yonsakuren, who did the necessary calculations."

"My thanks to her, she did an excellent job," Dyatlov said, maneuvering under a collapsed steel truss to reach Michiko's Nav station. The flagship had been hit by several long-range railgun slugs and a lucky shot had grazed the bridge; damcon crews were hard at work to get his darling back to the fight. "Ermolai, your job isn't over."

"Of course it is not," Ermolai agreed. "We have made this a good fight but we still have to win it. I am bringing my cruisers up and we can push together."

"Negative," Dyatlov said, his voice dark, as he came up to Nav and Tactical. Sebrenova was there, muttering obscenities over the tactical plot (the main holotank was out of commission for now) and juggling three comms feeds with other ship commanders in the fleet. "Not that easy, I'm afraid. They hit us hard during their breakout. I've still got Masako following me, with her escorts, but a lot of my capital strength was smashed with Kunokin and the fleet is...unravelling. We have an active mutiny on the Anano and the Evstafi is being suspiciously sluggish in following orders. We've suffered too many casualties and morale is breaking."

"Unacceptable!-"

"Is that Ermolai?" Sebrenova asked, her voice sharp as she looked up. "Please share the commlink, Sir. Petya, keep up the fire on those Destroyers, see if you can't slow them down, give our fighters some more time. Share the commlink, Sir, he needs to hear what I have to say."

Dyatlov raised his eyebrow, but obliged her; and Sebrenova brought up the comms screen on her small headset. "Thank you, Sir. Arurior Ermolai, that was exceptional."

"It is kind of you to say so, Arurior Sebrenova," Ermolai replied, his smile shifting slightly for maximum smugness, "but I am well aware."

Sebrenova's lip twitched slightly. "Yes. Good. That's exactly what we need right now."

Ermolai's smile did not leave his face per se, but it did turn hard, in a way. Small changes in the tilt of the head, the muscles used, the crinkling of the eyes made it absolutely clear that this was now less 'expression of humour' and more 'showing off the sharp teeth, oh my'.

"You need me, Arurior?" he asked. "What is your pleasure?"

Yes, that was clearly Sebrenova's lip twitching, and a very slight reddening of the tips of her ears, Dyatlov noted, but this time she held her ground. The fact that the Yonsakuren was on a different ship, several kilometres away must have played a part.

"Our fleet is falling apart around us, Ermolai Yonsakuren," she said, her voice steady, "and we need you to be yourself. That bravado of yours? We need you to show it now, not to me, but to everyone else."

"You need us to lead the charge," Ermolai said, a note of satisfaction creeping into his voice.

"We need you to lead the charge," Sebrenova confirmed, calmly, and Dyatlov nodded, next to her. "Now. Because if you don't, if the others don't see the Yonsakuren taking point right now, there is no way we'll be able to bring the fleet together in time to catch them before they reach the edge of the inhibitor fields. Crippled as they are, they are still more than a match for our remaining Volyas."

A few heartbeats of silence, as Ermolai considered; then a sigh.

"You do realise that my cruisers are no match hull-for-hull for the Pegasus Dreadnoughts, of course," he said. "We are good, but not that good."

"We do," Sebrenova replied. "I do. And we will be right behind you, I promise you. But if Michiko leads right now, she'll be given no support - the Praetor's authority will collapse, because he will have to give an order that will not be obeyed. Our carriers are simply too hurt and not disciplined enough to charge into that again and there's not enough of the 5th Fleet left to rally around. Their commanders or their crews will break and then the fleet will follow."

"So, you are asking me and mine to take point," Ermolai stated, matter-of-factly, "because you know that we would do it."

"Yes," Sebrenova replied - and she held his gaze. "Simple as that. If you lead - if the Yonsakuren are seen taking the fight, that should bring morale back up. We -the rest of the fleet-  will rally. And we will kill them."

Ermolai grinned.

"Truly magnificent," he said. "Damnation, woman, you make me physically ache to be with you. Very well, Arurior, Praetor. We will lead. And thank you, thank you both - this is more glorious than we would have ever dreamed."


« Last Edit: July 09, 2017, 12:43:09 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Enioch

  • 210
  • Alternative History Word Writer
Back home and writing.

Hello, all!

 :D
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Lorric

  • 212
https://youtu.be/bV-rhtet4Ow?t=8

I recommend pressing 9. Repeatedly. :)

 

Offline Lorric

  • 212
Well, I think the CRF's fate has been sealed. Unless perhaps if French jumps in and kills everyone. But I don't think that's going to happen.

Ermolai told Dyatlov what would bring the Yonsakuren from Uuni, and he appears to have surpassed Ermolai's wildest dreams. Uuni is soon going to be empty of Yonsakuren. They will spill into Terconia and sweep the CRF away. The pendulum will swing back the other way, and I don't think it will be stopping in the middle. I can see the Yonsakuren riding the wave of bloodlust through the starlance the CRF came in through, and laying waste on the other side.

 

Offline Enioch

  • 210
  • Alternative History Word Writer
Well, I think the CRF's fate has been sealed. Unless perhaps if French jumps in and kills everyone. But I don't think that's going to happen.

Ermolai told Dyatlov what would bring the Yonsakuren from Uuni, and he appears to have surpassed Ermolai's wildest dreams. Uuni is soon going to be empty of Yonsakuren. They will spill into Terconia and sweep the CRF away. The pendulum will swing back the other way, and I don't think it will be stopping in the middle. I can see the Yonsakuren riding the wave of bloodlust through the starlance the CRF came in through, and laying waste on the other side.

Never at any point did Ermolai promise military help to Dyatlov. He doesn't have the authority to do that - he's an Aruirior, not a Clan Elder. What he did promise was "the Clan will owe you a solid if you give us a good fight".

Yonsakuren military deployment would require clearing it with the various Houses that the Yonsakuren in question are serving under or, if we're talking direct Clan involvement, considerable time to assemble a fleet and reach the theatre of operations. A fleet does not mobilise overnight, not even a Yonsakuren one; and, with the damage Dyatlov has suffered here, it is highly unlikely he'll be able to hold French until such reinforcements arrive.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Gray113

  • 27
  • There comes a time when the odds are against you,
Would have loved a running commentary of the Bellerophon bridge during that strike.

Interesting (as I did not think that the damage to Dyatlov's main carrier force or the strike craft would have been as severe) that both sides could still lose this battle. Can't see how the Delest  can still expect to hold the system with another full strength fleet ready engage their mauled forces.

 

Offline Enioch

  • 210
  • Alternative History Word Writer
Would have loved a running commentary of the Bellerophon bridge during that strike.

Nah, I think it's better if let you use your imagination for that.  ;)

Quote
Interesting (as I did not think that the damage to Dyatlov's main carrier force or the strike craft would have been as severe) that both sides could still lose this battle. Can't see how the Delest  can still expect to hold the system with another full strength fleet ready to engage their mauled forces.

Just to make this clear: they flat-out can't.* Dyatlov has six modern capitals left (not counting the Grazhdanins) to French's fifteen. There is no way the Delest can contest the system if French pushes.

*(At least not in a straight-up fight)
« Last Edit: June 27, 2017, 11:24:46 am by Enioch »
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Gray113

  • 27
  • There comes a time when the odds are against you,
I guess the question is then whether French will try to finish off the Delest fleet now or continue with his prior plan. Even if Ermolai is able to lead the fleet to victory over Aretha they will be in no position to defend the shipyards and star bases - assets French may try to capture rather than kill.

A quick end may be in French's best interest but as he is instinctively methodical he may stick with his original plan.  Dyatlov could then refuse to engage French preferring scorched earth tactics whilst waiting to see if the Emperor could manage to get some reinforcements sent. The propaganda from the destruction of Pegasus could allow sufficient clout to get the Branches to fall in to line for the time being.

 

Offline Enioch

  • 210
  • Alternative History Word Writer
I'm so sorry, but I need to finish some corrections on a major piece of academic writing. I should be able to post something later in the week, but right now I've got less than half of a chapter draft ready :/
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 

Offline Spoon

  • Moderator
  • 212
  • ヾ(´︶`♡)ノ
Aaaw ):

Well academic writing definitely takes priority, so go knock those corrections outta the park!
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Lorric

  • 212
Thanks for letting us know. Good luck with both. :)

 
So I finally got around to play catch up and read this thread and... I already liked all the other fiction you wrote (WoD Forum game, RTW) but this one is really amazing. Can't wait for the next chapter!  :nod:

The only sad thing is that my beloved DD, even if they completely trash the Pegasus fleet, won't be able to do much against the other fleet for now besides scorched earth tactics and buying time.  :sigh:
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 

Offline pim

  • 24
Enioch, just say a word if you need our help with academic writing so you can focus on next chapter;-)

 
Quote
WoD Forum game
I'm intrigued.

 

Offline Enioch

  • 210
  • Alternative History Word Writer
Be intrigued no more my child.

Thanks for your patience, everybody.
'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent'  -Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"

So don't take a hammer to your computer. ;-)

 
Be intrigued no more my child.

Thanks for your patience, everybody.
As the second forum game was PvP there were quite a lot of diplomatic messages and posts. Those are hidden in PMs and the fraction subforums cause they were secret stuff, after all. Still even the public parts are really interesting and nice to read - especially DD vs CRF rhetoric  ;)
Here goes scripting and copy paste coding
Freespace RTS Mod
Checkpoint/Shipsaveload script

 
Holy heck, I've honestly been debating running something like this myself. It seems there's a precedent, so who do I pester? (It's either that or Mafia on the Iceni.)

 

Offline Lorric

  • 212
Holy heck, I've honestly been debating running something like this myself. It seems there's a precedent, so who do I pester? (It's either that or Mafia on the Iceni.)
What do you mean? If you just want to write fiction, you could. If however it was to be canonical fiction as the work in this thread is, then you'd have to talk to Spoon. A forum game, well I tried to create one, just launched straight into it, and no one objected to it. Spoon even joined in at one point with a piece of fiction.