DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

With the recent win over the Black Dragons’ Ostovny battlegroup, the Americans at last are nearing the precipice of final victory in the Scorpion’s Tail War.  And it’s not a moment too soon.  As the nearby Duchess Annabel’s War begins to heat up, the unbelievable news soon arrives that through a labyrinthine web of political ironies, the Japanese have actually joined the “Iron Wolves” alliance alongside the Black Dragons.  Needless to say, the Americans in Xi Scorpio are beginning to feel understandably anxious about the security of their base of operations “behind” them on Japan’s Hokkaido’s Flower colony.  Although the Japanese  are so far doing very well in Duchess Annabel’s War and are nowhere near being forced into any additional concessions to  their Black Dragon “allies,” for the Americans the writing is on the war.  This whole astropolitical quagmire (and military train wreck) of the Black Dragon Wars was never an American affair, and it’s time to be done with it before their Japanese allies have to reassess their relationships in the region.

Yet as much as the Americans would love to deliver a final knock-out blow to the weakened Black Dragon naval forces still clinging to the outermost extremities of the “Scorpion’s Tail,” (a vast protoplanetary and cometary debris “whiplash” extending out from the Kostas-Saigo binary star system – Xi Scorpio A/B), they have to wait.  Only the USS Oriskany is presently operational, and legendary as she may be, she can’t beat even a weakened navy by herself.  Soon her sistership USS Princeton is back online, having missed the battle against the Ostovny battlegroup on September 20.  But while Captain Matthew Spencer (commander, Task Force Oriskany) feels confident with two destroyers to at least begin more aggressive patrolling, he doesn’t want to move decisively until he task forces is at 100% strength.

This takes some time, and it’s not until October 10 that all five ships of the task force are back on line.  Yet while Spencer’s patience has indeed delivered him a full-strength order of battle, the Black Dragons have also been hard at work repairing ships, and soon have a sizable force yet again on its feet in the outermost reaches of the Scorpion’s Tail.

Fortunately for Spencer, he already has a target identified, one of the larger dwarf planetismals of the Scorpion’s Tail, the thousand-kilometer “Ceres” of Xenia’s Fortune (named for a merchant ship that once crashed here, her wreckage still half-buried in one of the super-asteroid’s craters).  Here the Black Dragons have been building up a sizable task force around the hated light missile cruiser Zhang Jia. If this war is to end anywhere, it is here.

Yet as Spencer’s task force drops out of its Darkstar wave and vectors towards the Black Dragons, its quickly apparent that the enemy has been gathering additional reinforcements, some of which have only just arrived.  Three light cruisers are awaiting at Xenia’s Fortune, along with two destroyers, a frigate and an old Russian torpedo corvette.

In all twelve ships have gathered here … all of Task Force Oriskany and the vast bulk of what the Black Dragons have left in the Scorpion’s Tail.  If the Americans lose here, they’ll have to give up much of what they’ve won in this war so far.  But if they can score a solid win, this war could finally end today.

The Black Dragons make their approach, hugging close to Xenia’s Fortune, launching scouts and trying to get a torpedo guidance lock on the approaching Americans.

Only some of their ships can get that lock, however, as Spencer has carefully vectored his approach behind one of the area’s many asteroid scatters, screening his ships from some of the enemy task force while allowing a full torpedo firing solution to on the trailing Black Dragon vessels.

The Americans release a full torpedo spread while the Tarawa begins launching her aerospace group (US Marine Corps aerospace strike squadron VMF/A-319 “Tigersharks”).

In this image, DD1 = USS Oriskany, DD2 = USS Princeton, DD3 = USS Valley Forge, DD4 = light carrier (destroyer class) USS Tarawa, and CV1 (barely visible) = torpedo corvette USS Daggerfish.

The Valley Forge takes some long-range hits from the Zhang Jia, while the forward guns of the Valley Forge, Princeton, and especially the Oriskany slash into the K-206.  Even from 2,500 kilometers, the pin-point accuracy of this American volley (enhanced with upgraded targeting suites) enough to hit K-206’s bridge, detonate her starboard magazine, and leave the ship crippled and adrift.  First blood has been drawn.

The two minutes that follow see both sides take incredible risks and pay an incredible price in their effort to win decisive victory here at Xenia’s Fortune.

As the K-206 careens out of control, the light cruisers Xin Tian and Petranyevska shoot forward, hoping to get around the asteroids behind which the Americans are screening their ships.  This allows USS Valley Forge to cut ahead and behind these cruisers with a starboard turn, presenting a broadside to the cruisers’ vulnerable sterns, and at a comfortable distance (the Americans don’t want to get too close to the fearsome Chinese rail guns and Russian plasma projectors).

Other Black Dragon warships, of course, see the Valley Forge make this move.  Rather than stay close with Petranyevska and Xin Tian, they instead fire their engines full astern, “slamming on the brakes” to drop in perfectly behind the Valley Forge.  The damage they will inflict on any American ships in this position will be horrendous, but it also means their fleet is fatally divided in the face of a massive incoming American torpedo and aerospace strike.  Since all the ships will not be able to support each other with defensive fire …

Too late now.  The Americans and Black Dragons both double down on their aggressive strategies, the Americans putting virtually their whole task force in a broadside behind the Petranyevska, the Black Dragons likewise doing so with most of their force behind the Americans.  All the while, of course, torpedoes are racing toward their targets, the Tarawa has completed her aerospace launch, and the Tigersharks of VMF/A-319 release a deadly swarm of ASM-56 Harpoon torpedoes and ASM-92 Hellfire missiles at the Zhang Jia and her escorts.

The USS Oriskany and Princeton open fire first, lasers and rail guns tearing into the stern of the Petranyevksa’s stern at just over 1,000 kilometers.  An instant later the full broadside of the hated Zhang Jia tears full-force into the Oriskany.  First come three of her Tsing Tao missiles, (over sixty warheads were fired at her) ripping open her stern for the fusillade of rail guns that follows.  Engines are hit, reactors overload.  Oriskany’s starboard reactor starts to melt, the port reactor has to be ejected before it overloads and detonates.  Still more fire hits, crushing sensors, mass drivers, aft turrets, and caving in crew quarters.  The “Lady O” is beyond crippled, her whole aft section more or less single sheet of flame as burning atmosphere escapes into space.

Yet even as this happens, Oriskany’s own spread of torpedoes, along with the Valley Forge’s, is slamming into the fantail of the Zhang Jia.  The damage isn’t quite as comprehensive, but the torpedoes set off enough internal explosions to cripple Zhang Jia’s power plant and leave her wrecked and adrift in space.

The slaughter is just getting started.  Seconds later, Xianhoa, Gorokhov, and Natelyeva likewise take apart Princeton’s aft superstructure, instantly knocking her out of the battle.  The Valley Forge opens fire into the Petranyeska, scoring a lucky series of hits that finishes what the Oriskany and Princeton started moments before.  The engines of Petranyeska flicker and die, the cruiser careening out of control.  The missiles and torpedoes of the Tarawa’s Marine aerospace strike slam into the destroyer Gorokhov, damned near blowing the destroyer’s stern clean off and almost exploding the ship right then and there.

Twelve ships sortied for battle at Xenia’s Fortune, and already six are put out of action.