DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

As the Black Dragons start to head toward the gap between the two Chernyeva Twelve moonlets, Captain Pyotr Myshaga of the Lazarev hopes to “cross their T” and broadside them as they come through the passage.  But the Black Dragons have anticipated this, and as Lazarev decelerates and turns to port to cross their T, they instead accelerate  and fish-hook to cut across Lazarev’s stern at less than 600 kilometers.  It’s a deadly move, but the destroyers Syekyra and Rusalka counter but looping all the way around the smaller Chernyeva Twelve moonlet and cutting in turn behind the sterns of the Black Dragon battlegroup.

From here, the battle gets very bloody, very fast … as has been typical between the Russians and Black Dragons since the opening of the Black Dragon War six years ago.  The Lazarev’s torpedoes slam into the stern of the Zhang Jia, destroying engines and possibly putting her out of action.  The Lazarev is nearly exploded by the massive wave of Black Dragon torpedoes and close range plasma and rail gun fire, especially the torpedoes of the Zhang Jia (upgraded EW) and the rail guns of her sistership Xin Tian.  Russian scouts of the Lazarev manage to finish off the K-206 with only their light machine guns, while the rail guns and plasma projectors of the Syekyra and Rusalka open fire point blank into the stern of the destroyer Gorokhov and light missile cruiser Xin Tian.

Long story short, at the end of this horrific exchange of gunfire (all delivered at ranges less than 600 km, some of it as short as 150 km), only the damaged cruiser Xin Tian and the destroyer Syekyra remain operational.

After the blistering violence of the initial pass, what follows now is a complex series of maneuvers, a virtual 100,000-ton dogfight between the Xin Tian and Syekyra.  Both ships wheel and turn, pivot and bluff, each trying to get guns behind the other for a shot at the engines.  The Syekyra has the edge (Commander Ekaterina A. Duranov), being a smaller and having undamaged engines, while the Xin Tian has larger engines but more bulk, and her reactors and engineering plant has been badly damaged.  Also, both ships have experience bridge crews (+2 initiative bonus) and the Xin Tian has a huge edge in gunnery.  So if Duranov isn’t careful, Xin Tian can simply blow the Syekyra apart with massed rail guns and torpedo fire no matter where Syekyra makes her approach.

The dogfight lasts another eight minutes, with the Xin Tian doggedly refusing to ever let the smaller Syekyra outmaneuver her.  During this time, both ships almost  exhaust their torpedoes, which is saying something given the Xin Tian’s massive missile load (she carries 152 total warheads in all).  Although the Syekyra never really gets on in the Xin Tian’s stern, she manages to continually present new facings to the Xin Tian’s guns, pivoting and rolling, never letting the Xin Tian’s big broadside hit the part of the ship twice.

In the end it comes down a torpedo spread from the Syekyra.  With her aft shields now knocked down, Xin Tian is completely reliant on her mass drivers to defend from Russian P-500 “Plamya” (Flame) torpedoes, but these mass drivers have also been hammered by successive hits, and are down to 60% their original strength.  More importantly, Xin Tian is almost blinded, with three hits on her sensor suite.  Thus, although Syekyra can only launch five torpedoes in her last wave, none are shot down by Xin Tian’s defenses, or pre-detonated by Xin Tian’s gravitic shielding.  Four of these warheads hit the Xin Tian’s damaged stern, instantly putting her adrift and out of action.

The skirmish at Chernyeva Twelve is a clear Russian victory, but even now the battle is not over.  Since this is a Russian system near a Russian orbital installation, rescue craft and life boats are already descending on the battle site for rescue and recovery of the Lazarev and Rusalka.  This leaves the Syekyra free to chase down Black Dragon cripples.  The corvette K-211 is the first to go down, picked off by a coup de grace salvo from Syekyra’s rail guns.  Next is the crippled destroyer Gorokhov, in fact a Russian’ build Sovnya class destroyer.  Syekyra manages to catch up with the drifting Gorokhov, docking with the wreck and boarding her with marines.  The Russians actually fail in the first boarding attempt, the passageways and compartments of the derelict Gorokhov the scene of a furious small-arms battle between Russian and Black Dragon troops and crewmen.

But the Gorokhov is finally secured after a second boarding attempt, and this old Russian destroyer is re-captured by its original owners.  Commander of the Lazarev task force (Captain Pyotr Myshaga) has Gorokhov towed to the Imperial Russian Navy shipyards at Cervantes Prime, where she will be repaired and eventually join the Lazarev task force, once more as a Russian ship of the line.

SCORING:  Russians have the destroyer Syekyra and two scouts = 68 points.  Black Dragons have six scouts = 6 points.  Russians win by 62, Minor Victory.