RP: 4th Fleet (NSN) [Artume] Battle of Artume

[Firebrand]

>Artume System, Elysian NMX Occupation Zone
> November Thirteenth, YE 32.


The squadron posted to defend the Artume system while the main forces were occupied elsewhere, the 292nd Patrol Squadron, was small. Composed of only five ships, the squadron was spread out across the star system. In low orbit around the most populous planet of the system, the XSS Intransigence(Battle Carrier/BCV) served as the Flagship of the fleet, using FTL communications to link the system to the NMX war machine in case something happened.

The four remaining ships of the squadron were all of the Escort/Destroyer class(DD), and spread throughout the Gas Giants of the system. The XSS Audacious and the XSS Malevolent, with new crews, were within the atmosphere of the innermost gas giant, conducting training operations and mock ship to ship duels. The Terror and Monitor were steaming towards the Flagship from the edge of the system, coming in from galactic "south" and from below the ecliptic.

 

[Zack]

With a bright flash the sleek for of the NSS Hornet would appear 0.8 au directly above the north pole of the main habitable world of the Artume system followed shortly by its sister ship the NSS Yellow Jacket. Both cruisers would immediately begin preparing for combat, the protective covers over the main laser emitters rose up to expose their protected lenses and the large radiator fins extended, glowing a dull red as they bled off waste heat from the FTL jump. A few moments later the NSS Odessa and Primorsky would arrive, the older C2 cruisers taking position several thousand kilometers behind the first two ships, placing the Hornet inbetween themselves and the planet. All ships would raise their shields and bring their interdiction fields to full, the C2 cruisers each deploying a pair of interdiction mines for added protection, setting up a series of overlapping interdiction fields that extended out 1AU, covering the main world. The NSS Hornet also deployed all 382 of its small attack drones, having them spread out in a sphere around the formation of four ships.

Then they began their transmission.

“NMX FORCES PLEASE SURRENDER AND YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE.” The NSS Hornet would be transmitting on all frequencies using radio and subspace radio. The image of the spherical body of a junker drone with a skull painted on and a single red glowing eye in the mouth accompanied the images, “OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!”

 

[Firebrand]

"Machines should know their place, and shaln't order around thine betters." A voice responded to the SMDION fleet, the XSS Intransigence beginning to move into a position over the planet's southern pole, the Battle Carrier's anti-ftl generator spinning up, nullifying the Anti-FTL field in a .4au sphere. A small probing attack of Battlepods, numbering 12 in total, launched from the Intransigence's flight deck, accelerating to full speed and streaking out towards the Nepleslian vessels, aiming to damage the radiators on the cruisers or to distract the vessels long enough

"We shall do to you here as our sisters, the Nekovalkyrja, did to the freespacers years ago. We shall defile your bodies, and consume your flesh, and we will bring down our wrath upon your homeworld."

Meanwhile, the Terror and Monitor made a quick micro-jump, re-entering realspace on the sunward edge of the interdiction bubble, the Audacious and Malevolent joining them after a few minutes. The Four ships then began to "Leapfrog" using Anti-interdiction fields to slowly close the distance between themselves and the Nepleslian fleet.

 

[Zack]

The Carrier would find itself stuck at STL speeds, the interdiction fields generated by the Nepleslian fleet overpowering the anti-interdiction systems of the carrier leaving it stuck on the other side of the planet.

Meanwhile onboard the Hornet:

The junker drone would look up from his position on the bridge, sitting at the head of a table surrounded by other junker drones that were busy monitoring other systems. Overlooking the table was the slender form of Drei, one of her organic bodies in turn watching over the Junkers. They would all begin thinking out loud as soon as the NMX reply came.

“Anti-Interdiction field detected on the far side of the planet, Unable to extrapolate ship class from this data.”

“Two ships detected, range 1au. Adjusting drone position to compensate for sun blinding effects on STL sensor systems.”

“12 masses moving towards us from the planet, Battle pods based on speed and thrust output. Approximate time to arrival: 9-2-8 seconds.”

Drei of course didn’t need to hear this verbally, but shouting out information made the ‘Spacer made junkers happy. With close to 90 million miles between themselves and the NMX their best laser weapons could only reach the nepleslian fleet after traveling for nearly eight minutes. Their projectile weapons and torpedoes would take more time than that while their fighters and ships moving at full thrust would take nearly 20 minutes to arrive.

Drei would pass along targeting data for the two ships that had arrived sunward of their position, the Terror and the Monitor to the fleet, letting the Hornet track one and the Yellow Jacket track the other.

Unlike the NMX, Drei wouldn’t have to wait for results.

The drone sphere around the formation would take aim at the Terror first as the two pods on either side of the hornet carrying the main weapons turned to face their target. A tight anti-interdiction beam would be generated to the target, just enough to open up a small window but not enough to allow them to FTL away. The Hornet would then fire off several intense beams of energy at its target carried by an FTL bubble traveling at 18,500c.

Time till impact, .02 seconds.

The NSS Yellow Jacket would then repeat the maneuver, this time targeting the Monitor. Previous experience with NMX ships indicated that their destroyer sized ships could only withstand a single volley from these weapons, and with the only other targets obscured by the planet or still minutes away the escort carriers had nothing to shoot at.

(edit:
12 main lasers, SDR4, at Terror
12 main lasers, SDR4, at Monitor

I've been pming this to Five in chat but I'll add it here so others can follow along.)

 

[Wes]

(OOC: At the end of RP each post, please note exactly which weapons were fired and their individual and cumulative damage output).

 

[Firebrand]

Previous experience was flat out wrong. Somewhere along the line, the SMDION forces had gotten mixed up, believing the four oncoming ships to be only two. The initial blast sheared against the Monitor's shielding, the ship's quantum computer barely dodging the blast, the FTL enhanced laser shearing across the edge of the shield. the Terrpr and Monitor, mostly unscathed, fell back to the rear of the formation, allowing the Audacious and Malevolent to take the front of the formation, pumping additional energy to shielding, FTL Drives and Anti-Interdiction interfacing to time it right.

And the Time was Now. The four destroyers, with Anti-Interdiction at maximum strength, commenced a quick FTL jump, moving at many thousand times the speed of light. When the ships finally reappeared, they were all within 1 to 2 kilometers of the NSS Hornet, facing the Cruiser's midsection from the lower rear. As the aftershocks from the transit began to wear off, the four ships began to open fire with all of their weapons on the Hornet, aiming for the Radiators and missile racks. The hangar bays of each ship opened, disgorging not only a total of 80 Battlepods, but multiple humanoid weapons as well.

-------

Actions: Escort Destroyers make an FTL Jump to close with the hornet, begin firing on the ship. Launches Battlepods and mecha.

 

[Zack]

( The reason I was saying two ships were there was that after the first pair warped in the Nepleslians had at least a minute to respond, giving them plenty of time to start shooting.

Meanwhile, the Terror and Monitor made a quick micro-jump, re-entering realspace on the sunward edge of the interdiction bubble, the Audacious and Malevolent joining them after a few minutes.

)

---

The NMX ships would be able to overcome the large interdiction fields put out by the mines laid by the C2 class ships, and could slowly make their way through the .6 AU fields put out by the C3E class ships, but by the time they reached .4AU the entirety of the Nepleslian’s interdiction was able to be brought against the enemy ships including four fields (one from each cruiser) and hundreds of small interdiction beams from the drones surrounding the formation. The Nepleslian ships then matched course and acceleration with the NMX ships, preventing them from getting any closer while keeping them solidly within an overpowering area of interdiction.

With more than 59 million kilometers between them the Nepleslian ships would be have to wait nearly 200 seconds for a laser fired from the NMX ships to arrive but could continue to bombard their opponents with long range FTL laser strikes. By using a combination of anti-interdiction beams from the cruisers and the deployed drones the Nepleslians could walk an FTL pulse right up to an enemy ship before it dissipated from the various interdiction technologies converting on a target, letting the laser’s energy continue on to target.

The NSS Hornet would again fire first,

Followed by the NSS Yellow Jacket,

If the NMX were going to make things difficult then they would have to focus fire down a single target at a time.

(
12 FTL lasers SDR 4 at Terror from Hornet
12 FTL lasers SDR 4 at Terror from Yellow Jacket
Many ships vs smaller number of ships for Level 4 anti-FTL field at .4 au)