DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

Still decelerating, the Annabel’s Alliance ships make their dive down into the atmosphere only when they’ve closed the range to less to 1,500 kilometers.  The Requiem leads the charge, peeling off and diving her sleek makes a dive into the lightning and winds of Chernyeva.  The Zhang Jia reacts, s-turning up and behind the Requiem’s stern, even if this allows the whole Chinese battlegroup (light missile cruiser Xu Shan, destroyers Hohot and Shantao) to cut behind the Zhang Jia in turn.  The hatred between these Chinese and the Black Dragons is beyond murderous, remember that it was against the Russians and Chinese that the Black Dragons originally revolted when the Black Dragon War first started way back in 2512.  That war, now entering its seventh year, has not been a pretty one.

Yet the Russians themselves take a more measured approach.  The light cruiser Lazarev and corvette K-98 barely dip into the Chernyeva atmosphere, presenting a roadside to the Prussians and targeting the EW / escort frigate Nordwind.

The opening exchange of fire is intense.  The torpedo spread of the Xu Shan, one of the new line “Greater Xhia” class of light missile cruisers, slams into the stern of the Kesseldorf, who’s mass drivers have been mostly been engaged against the torpedoes fired from the K-98.

Gunfire from the Lazarev, with enhanced targeting on her powerful plasma projectors and EPCs (electron particle cannons) tear apart the bridge of the Nordwind and singlehanded put her out of the battle.  An instant later, however, the pin-point gunnery of the Kesseldorf (Commander Valentin Goeritz) likewise drills 8-gigawatt rail guns into the bridge and CIC systems of the Lazarev, leaving her blinded and adrift as well.

Seconds after that, the Requiem’s advanced lasers and light rail cannon slam into the Kesseldorf’s port quarter, along with the aforementioned torpedoes from the Lazarev, K-98,  Xu Shan, and two Panasian destroyers.  Not many of these relatively low-tech warheads hit, but with so many fired, plus the razor-accurate gunfire of the Requiem, and forward guns of the Xu Shan, hit the Kesseldorf so hard that she actually explodes, killing 198 of her crew, the baslt wave doing tremendous damage to the Franz Jospef’s fo’c’sle and starboard bow.  At the same time, however, the point-blank broadside of the Black Dragon killer Zhang Jia, one of the deadliest ships in Known Space, tears apart the stern of the Requiem, leaving her spinning through the Chernyeva atmosphere … only the gravity acceleration provided by the planet will keep her moving fast enough to not spiral down into the crushing heat, pressure, and gravity of the gas giant’s lower atmosphere.

Yet even this isn’t all … since the broadsides of the destroyers Hohhot and Shantao  likewise tear open the Zhang Jia’s and reduce her to little more than a man-made rocket hurtling straight up out of the Chernyeva atmosphere.  Even so, the mass torpedo strike of the Zhang Jia and the Nordwind, together with the aft guns of the Kesseldorf, is also enough to, in the same instant, cripple the destroyers Hohhot and Shantao.

Just that fast, there are only three ships left, the huge heavy cruiser Franz Josef, the damaged light cruiser Shantao, and the tiny Russian corvette K-98.

The battle now comes down to rail guns vs. torpedoes, size and bulk and hitting power vs. speed and maneuver.  The Xu Shan is fast even for a light cruiser, while the corvette K-98 can outrun some aerospace craft and possibly even torpedoes.  But neither can outgun a rail gun bolt.  Time and again, they manage to stay behind the Franz Josef as Captain Gold takes her up and out of the Chernyeva atmosphere, pinging away with their much smaller guns, hoping to stay out of Franz Josef’s full broadside just long enough for their torpedoes to score a killing blow.  The Franz Josef has very powerful gravitic shielding over her stern, however, not to mention aft gun batteries that are quickly smashing the Xu Shan’s forward sections into mangled, superheated slag.  The Panasians and Russians are also quickly running out of torpedoes …

In the end, however, the Xu Shan and K-98 simply get lucky.  Some of their last torpedoes gut the Franz Josef, again doing enough internal damage that the huge Prussian heavy cruiser detonates, the blast so powerful that it damages the Xu Shan some 540 kilometers away.  The blast also wipes out all the scout aerospace craft on both sides, engaged in a furious miniature dogfight near the Franz Josef as British and Panasian scouts tried to shoot into Franz Josef’s crippled port quarter shielding.

The Battle of Chernyeva is a shocking defeat for the Prussians.  The loss of their two most powerful ships, the Franz Josef and the Kesseldorf, is enough to settle the issue once and for all in the Cervantes system.  If the Iron Wolves want to score any victories in Duchess Annabel’s War, they’ll have to do it somewhere else.  Also, the Prussians have very been badly hurt, the heart torn out of the Franz Josef cruiser squadron.  More ships are ready to carry on the fight (including the light cruiser Rossbach, destroyer Oder, frigate-monitor Dresden), but for now the war effort for the Iron Wolves will have to be borne by the Black Dragons, New Romans, and Japanese.

SCORING:  The Chinese have the light cruiser Xu Shan, (100 points), the Russians have the corvette K-98 (10 points).  No scouts remain on either side.  Annabel’s Alliance wins by 110 points, very solid but still minor victory (25.4%)