Re: Rise of the Remorhaz Society
Recon in Force
2414.0
Deep under the surface of Correlia, men watched the skies. The Iolo system was displayed in the center of the room as a holographic image, and this image was always being watched by a team of naval officers, watching for any sign that the enemy was coming. For the past week, there had been signs, but as usual, they didn�t make much sense to the humans who watched for them.
The enemy was present in Remorhaz space, but they did not bring numbers with them. In Sector 4-10, a lone Gol class cruiser drifted lazily between the Yukra and Wanduk wormholes. It seemed that the Ukra-Tal commanders knew that their enemies would not chance leaving Correlia open to attack, and so would not molest their journey through the system.
Of greater concern to the underground watchers was the Rasbokil class battle cruiser in Sector 2-4, following a course that would lead it to Correlia. This ship was an unknown enemy, and had never been faced by the Remorhaz navy before. How much damage could it hope to do against Thom Hitcher�s task force 3 and it�s eight ships of the line?
Aboard RSS Odysseus, Hitcher had already decided to find out. It was vital to the rest of the fleet that the enemies rapidly changing capabilities be accessed and recorded, and if this could not be done by electronic spies, it would have to be done the hard way, in combat. Knowing that the battle cruiser would outgun even his most powerful ships, he decided to take the whole task force out the meet it, and hopefully destroy it.
The trip out was uneventful, and on the fifth day out of Correlia, they met the enemy ship. Hitcher divided his force into two units. He led the main task force, consisting of the destroyers Midguard and Narvik, and the light cruisers Odysseus and Orion. Commodore Landover led the second element, made up of the destroyers Shining Victory and Skydancer, and the light cruisers Mount Thunder and Xanthe. Landover flew his flag on Mount Thunder.
Hitcher watched from the command center as his task force cut through the darkness, bearing down on the Ukra-Tal battle cruiser at maximum speed. Long range scanners began to probe the enemy ship, and after burning through the enemy jamming, a clearer picture of the enemies capabilities began to form.
The Rasbokil was a barrage ship, loaded down with seekers. Hitcher could only guess that the Ukra-Tal had sent the ship to try to bombard Correlia from maximum range and then flee. With a stronger escort, the ship may have been able to do some damage, but Hitcher doubted it would survive very long against his own ship�s phased-polaron beams. He was confident his ships would be able to stand up to whatever seeker barrage the enemy battle cruiser could throw at them, and launch a counter-attack that would eventually wear it down to a hulk.
Hitcher keyed his com unit and switched to the command net.
�Gentlemen, let�s keep the formation tight. I want to maximize point defense fire.�
Then he watched as the two separate elements quickly closed formation, creating what he hoped would be a withering wall of fire to defeat all of the seekers fired from the Rasbokil.
At maximum range, the battle cruiser opened fire. A wave of over fifty parasite seekers screamed toward the Remorhaz battle line, but when they reached effective point defense range, they were all destroyed in short order. Employing usual tactics, the Ukra-Tal ship moved to keep at maximum range while his crew readied another salvo of their living seekers.
Hitcher was surprised when the Rasbokil quickly fired another salvo of seekers, minutes before he thought they should be able to.
�Weapons upgrade. That�s bad news,� he said to no one in particular. If the Ukra-Tal were able to put more ordinance into space in a shorter period of time, it would take away one of the advantages that the Remorhaz forces had over them, which was the ability to hit their ships between seeker salvos. His ships continued on, as the point defenses defeated the second wave of seekers without damage. However, the Ukra-Tal ship was able to keep ahead of the task force, matching their speed and retreating from close combat with the Remorhaz ships.
Hitcher weighed his options, and finally decided to take a risk. It was a small one, but he wanted to catch the enemy ship, and with his speed, he wasn�t sure he would be able to get close enough to hit him with his beam weapons. He opened the command net again.
�Beta element,� he said, speaking to Landover�s force, �split off and go for the fork.�
On the screen, his junior officer nodded.
�Yes sir. Executing fork.�
Hitcher decided to split his force into two elements again, hoping to catch the enemy ship between the two forces and cut off his options for disengagement. The downside of this maneuver would be that the point defense fire from either group would not be as strong as it would if the forces were together, and his ships were at greater risk. Still, he felt that they would still be able to defeat the Rasbokil�s attacks, and hopefully get some of their own in as well.
The forces moved apart, with Hitcher�s force continuing to trail the battle cruiser and Landover�s four ships moved off at a right angle to them.
Perhaps the Ukra-Tal commander guessed what the Remorhaz ships were doing, because he fired another salvo of seekers and moved quickly to cross in front of Landover�s force. If he could get past them without sustaining much damage, he would leave Hitcher�s force too far behind to do any good in the engagement, and then maybe he could pick off one of the Remorhaz ships. Midguard, Skydancer, and Shining Victory all fired small missile salvoes at the enemy ship, hoping to slow him down and allow the pursuit to catch up with him.
The point defense fire from Hitcher�s element defeated the seeker salvo, but the Ukra-Tal commander was extending his escape path. The Remorhaz salvo did nothing to slow him down, and he moved full speed to try to escape the outside of the �fork� maneuver. Mount Thunder was able to close within four hundred miles of the ship, but that was still about one hundred miles out of range. Hitcher frowned slightly at the thought of losing his quarry.
Finally, the task force got its chance. Skydancer was able to get within beam range, and they opened fire, but missed. Shining Victory also was in beam range, but also missed, mainly because of very heavy jamming coming from the enemy battle cruiser. Both ships fired missile salvoes. Mount Thunder lashed out with a powerful broadside of beams, but was only able to hit the Ukra-Tal ship once. Gashed appeared in it�s armor, but no major damage appeared to have been done to the huge ship.
The Rasbokil fired yet another parasite seeker salvo at the Remorhaz fleet, and Hitcher prepared to give chase. The enemy ship had escaped the gauntlet relatively unharmed, and it would be a very near thing if Hitcher hoped to catch back up with him. Then the enemy captain did something extraordinary. He reversed course, and made as if to fly directly between the two Remorhaz elements! Hitcher watched the plot with his mouth agape, dumbfounded by this maneuver. The ship had made good it�s escape, but here it was, charging his battle line like a mist bear with a thorn in it�s paw. He quickly recovered, and decided not to squander his good fortune.
�All ships fire at will,� he said calmly over the command net. Immediately, his order was obeyed. Before the beam fire opened up, the Remorhaz seekers did their damage, however. The Rasbokil fired its counter missile projectiles effectively, but they were quickly overwhelmed. Missile after missile slammed into the ship, but were unable to bring down the battle cruisers shields. Still, the shields were heavily damaged, and would not stand up to much more punishment. Some of the damage done to the hull be Mount Thunder had already been repaired by the living armor that covered the ship, but Mount Thunder got a second chance. The Rasbokil was only thirty miles from her when she opened fire, point blank range in space combat. Mount Thunder hit with every shot, and the phased polaron beams penetrated the ship�s shields without losing any energy. The beams burned down the length of the battle cruiser, burning off armor and weapons alike. When it was over, the Rasbokil was venting gas from a number of hull breaches, and two of its seeker launchers were destroyed. Orion closed in and bLasted the ship with two more salvos, igniting secondary explosions within the hull of the battle cruiser. Odysseus delivered the coup de gras, delivering a withering beam attack that finally caused the huge ship to explode.
Their mission accomplished, Hitcher turned his forces for home, allowing the Gol to live another day.
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