Persei-Aries War Resumes
Skirmish at 14 Hercules (Khaizan's Haven): muakhah vs. oriskany
FROM: UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL COLONIAL CENTER
13:10 SOL GMT, 09 JULY 2521
BREAKAUTH: 181072.18J
CLEARANCE: SECRET (NATIONAL)
**UNITED NATIONS COMMUNIQUE**
Recent weeks have seen the center of gravity in the ongoing Third Hercules War shift increasingly to the coreward star systems of the region. As the Americans and British catch their breath in the wake of the Hawking’s Star battles, the Arab League and Holy Russian Empire ratchet up the engagements on the other shoulder of the Hercules Rim. Most recently, the Arab League launched an abortive raid against KV323, innermost planet of Krasnaya Nadhezda colonies (72 Hercules). The Russians forced a bloody win at the ensuring skirmish, and emboldened by their success, have launched a counter-raid back at the Arab League’s main holding in the Hercules sector, Khaizan’s Haven (14 Hercules).
Yet the Russians aren’t going alone. Another local power supporting the Russo-American “Coalition of Eagles” is the Corporate Consortium, with important holdings at Ragnarssonland (Gliese 649). Thus far the Consortium hasn’t been involved very deeply in the war, only cooperating with the Russians in a minor battle against the Japanese at the conflict’s outset. Put more simply, the Consortium hasn’t been interested in the bloodbaths at Hawking’s Star or the stalemate at the UN Mandate at Redemption (99 Hercules). Where the Consortium is interested, however, is when the war strays too close to Ragnarssonland, and with the recent Arab League raid at KV323, they’re interested in discouraging further League sorties along the coreward Hercules Rim.
Accordingly, two Baroness class “security ships” (strike frigates) have joined a Russian raiding battlegroup made up of a Kutusov class light cruiser and a Zhukov class light strike carrier, setting a Darkstar wave toward the outer reaches of the Khaizan’s Haven colony at 14 Hercules.
The long distance of this strike, however, requires a powerful Darkstar wave to carry the ships to the target in a reasonable timeframe. High-magnitude Darkstar waves are easy to detect, and automated League outposts have done just that. With half a day’s warning, a League response force is sortied to the outer protoplanetary disc of the 14 Hercules system, where they meet the Russians and their Corporate allies amidst the dark, frozen, slowly drifting debris.
This is the newly-repaired Mutamid battle group, rebuilt from the badly-damaged Al Fihri battlegroup that took such a pounding at KV323. Now those commanders are back, some of them with new ships. For them this is more than a question of a new League caliphate in the Hercules Rim. This is also about a personal matter … of payback.
Holy Russian Empire / Corporate Consortium: Oriskany
Arab League: Muakhah
214 points per side
RAID victory rules
Current disposition on the Third Hercules War. An Arab League strike out of Khaizan’s Haven has recently failed at the Holy Russian Empire colony of Krasnaya Nadhezda (Red Hope). It’s time for the Russians to return the favor, along with Corporate allies from the Consortium based at Ragnarssonland. Are there ties between corporate executives and oligarchs within the Holy Russian Empire? Is the Consortium simply wary of Arab League interference along their Ragnarssonland shipping and communication routes? Does the Arab League hold important contracts with corporate rivals? Motives are rarely clear among the naval powers of Darkstar. 
Here’s the matchup. For the League, we have community member @muakhah ‘s rebuilt task force, led by his new Almanzor-class light cruiser Mu’tamid (named for Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, one of the Abbadid rulers of Seville during the time of Moorish Spain). It is escorted by the Basra class destroyers Kashan and Jeddah, also replacements for ships lost in recent battles. The only League ship here from the “original” Al Fihri battlegroup is the Khalifa class light carrier Abu Bashir. The Russians have the Kutuzov class light cruiser Kravachenko, flanked by the Zhukov class light strike carrier Novorossysk. These Zhukov class carriers were originally built as planetary assault ships (carrying drop ships, troops, tanks, and APCs), but a handful were converted to carry a bomber-heavy aerospace group for strike-role operations such as this. This carrier’s also been in previous games, where her aerospace group was rated as “double elite.” They are only “elite” now, the result of new pilots joining the squadron to replace losses suffered in earlier engagements. There are also two Baroness-class “security frigates” from Cignis Systems ... very small, very fast, very high tech ... but ultimately pretty vulnerable IF HIT because of their very small size. 
The two battlegroups vector toward each other and make their initial approach. Note the large asteroid, about 1000 kilometers across at its widest point (about the size of France), surrounded by smaller planetismals and protoplanetary debris. Fighters and bombers are launched from the Mutamid, Abu Bashir, and Novorossysk, both sides aggressively pushing bombers forward while also screening them behind asteroids and keeping them within covering range of friendly mass drivers. Only a few ships can see each other at the moment, many lines of sight are blocked by “Kuiper Belt” asteroids. 
The Russians continue to close the distance, ducking behind more asteroids, hoping to remain screened until they can close to VERY short range where their EPCs and plasma weapons can really do heavy damage. The Cignis ships also maneuver to a hopeful advantage, keeping their bows pointed to the enemy so they can fire more volleys of their deadly “Sparta XII” gravitic torpedoes. The League, however, disrupts these plans, punching forward with a rapid reacceleration that puts a broadside immediately on the Russian ships. Streaking out from behind the asteroid field at 1427, they open fire into the port bow of the Kravachenko, doing incredible damage, knocking down her shielding, setting fire to the bridge, destroying portside torpedo tubes, and blowing one mass driver mount clean out of the hull. Russian and corporate return fire is even more withering, however, with one of Casual Friday’s powerful lasers hitting Kashan’s badly damaged port bow and drilling straight through the bridge, instantly crippling the ship and wounding the skipper, Commander Hayder al-Bayati.
With both fleets at high speed and the Russians CLEARLY wanting to close the range as fast as possible, the League commander (Captain Rashid al-Maghrebi) realizes he come full about at this speed and re-open the range. So he dives toward the Russians, using the cover of asteroids at 1923 for the protection that sheer distance can no longer provide. This puts the Russians in a bad spot, the damaged Kravachenko cannot maneuver properly and desperately wants to use asteroids to cover her wounded port bow as well. For the moment, this completely takes the Kravachenko out of the battle, along with 80% of the coalition’s gunnery. The Jasmine’s Diamond and Casual Friday make a dive for the stern of the League destroyer and light carrier, while the Abu Bashir and the Novorossysk complete launching of aerospace groups and set up for torpedo strikes on the Kravachenko and Mutamid. The wounded Kravachenko, while safe from League gunnery, finally goes down under a hail of torpedoes and missiles. The Mutamid fares much better against the Russian MiGs and Tupolev bombers, accurate and concentrated mass driver fire largely breaking up the Russian aerospace and torpedo attack. League scouts go for the Russian bombers but shoot none them down, even as they lose three of their own to Russian mass driver guns. Another killing blow is landed by the Jasmine’s Diamond and Casual Friday, which have maneuvered for point-blank broadsides into the engines of the destroyer Jeddah. 
At this moment, with two destroyers and some scouts destroyed against the crippling of the Kravachenko, the Russians are narrowly winning the battle. Therefore they decide to try to break off, turning to 180 and rapidly making for the bottom of the table. They manage to get behind the asteroid field at 1427, covering their escape from Mutamid’s guns. But that doesn’t hide them from the “Mylekinir” (Fire Angel) fighters of the Mukamid and the Abu Bashir. Many are shot down by the mass driver fire of the Novorossysk and Jasmine’s Diamond, but the Casual Friday (which had lost her port bow shielding earlier to Arab League EPCs) is hit by a pin-point fighter strafing attack targeting the security frigate’s bridge. Her skipper, Sr. Director Greg Shapiro, is killed in the attack.
Thus ends the skirmish. From the narrow Russo-Corporate victory at the end of Turn 3, the League has managed to wrest a draw. The score is actually a League “win” at 102-95, but with only a +7 point lead in a 214-point battle (+3.3%), the battle is still recorded as a draw (reminder: to count as a “win” for campaign purposes, all Darkstar battles must be won by at least 5% of the starting points level). Thus this chart doesn’t actually change that much, the state of the Third Hercules War remains the same. What does change, however, are the campaign points and battle experience for the commanders. The officers of Battlegroup Mutamid continue to gain experience toward future campaign upgrades!
A fun game, sorry about the technical difficulties.
For Hayden al-Bayati’s injury. I was thinking the loss of several fingers on one hand. Now do you think the League is more likely to regrow them or replace them with mechanical augmentations?
No worries, @muakhah – for the injury, really any choice is up to you. The League is described in the writeup as very scientifically advanced, think a star version of Baghdad in the Islamic Golden Age (8-14th Centuries). Cloning is the best, but takes months to grow a replacement. Nanites are the second best, they rebuild the lost body part from the inside out, but the commander is in a controlled coma for weeks. Cybernetic replacement isn’t the greatest, it works fine in the short term but usually causes complications as the character grows older (cancers, blood clots, etc). But… Read more »
Cool, a set of cloned fingers then! That itch strangely due to the regrowth and attachment process, along with a strange almost phantom limb feeling. Perhaps it will wear off in time. Or perhaps they will always be aware that these fingers are not the originals…