DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

(apologies in advance, I didn’t get many photos of this battle)

SITUATION:  For the Holy Russian Empire, the War of Annabel’s Star has been an unmitigated disaster.  Not since the outset of the Black Dragon War in 2512 has their navy been beset by such a string of defeats and humiliations.  So far only the United Kingdom and Panasian Union have been winning battles for Annabel’s Alliance, leading some analysts to comment that the British and Chinese are fighting this war “with one foot in a Russian bucket.”

In fact elements of the Russian government (Empress Katarina VII, Patriarch Vladimir the Just, and the St. Petersburg Duma) find themselves under increasing pressure to pull out of this war entirely.  Proponents of such a withdrawal urge that the battered Russian Navy instead be focused on a separate war against the Black Dragons of the Khitan-Tunguska Free State, a desperate effort to save at least some holdings out here in the Libra-Sagittarius SCS (Strategic Command Sector).

Yet even as the Russian government and naval command debate their rapidly-dwindling options, commanders of the  Iron Wolf Coalition prepare to relieve them of the burden of choice altogether. With their footing in the Neu-Bremerhaven system now secured (thus closing down any enemy approach to the Eisenwolf Colonies at Gliese 570), the Iron Wolves feel sufficiently secure to take the offensive against the Russians, perhaps dealing a hard enough blow to force their diplomats to the negotiating table.

Accordingly, their commanders assemble the famous Japanese Konoya carrier strike group, and reinforce it with additional escort light cruisers and destroyers from the Prussian and New Roman navies.  Together this combined task force is sent out for what they hope will be a killing blow against Russian interests in the War of Annabel’s Star.

The selected target is the Russian star system of Cervantes (Mu Ara).  This system the key link between Russian holdings in the Core, the Tsarina Twins system (Gliese 667), and their colonies further out in the Libra-Sagittarius sectors of the Third Band (what few that are left since the start of the Black Dragon War).

The Russians, for their part, know they’re in trouble.  Despite advance warning of the Iron Wolf incursion thanks to a prowling K-56 class torpedo corvette, their bruised and bleeding navy can only muster limited resources to head off the Iron Wolves and defend the Cervantes star system.

But what the Russians lack in numbers, they make up for in composition.  As fate would have it, the only task force in position to meet this threat is the light cruiser Suvorov and her escorts, the very task force that has been handled so roughly by the Konoya battlegroup so far in this war.  The key factor is the careful rebuilding of the Suvorov task force … where lessons of past defeats have been diligently applied to a reorganized military force deliberately built to meet and defeat the Konoya battlegroup. In summary, the Russians have given up trying to match the Konoya battlegroup’s aerospace strike capabilities, instead relaying on a new squadron of K-56 class torpedo corvettes and upgraded gunnery targeting suites on the cruisers Suvorov and destroyers Syekyra and Rusalka.  It is hoped these enhancements will help engage the Konoya battlegroup at a longer range, given the Japanese preference to deny battle at closer gunnery distances with which these heavier Russian ships are typically more comfortable.

More good news comes in the form of British reinforcements.  It’s only one ship, but the light fleet carrier HMS Vigilant, her bays loaded with the elite “Royal Griffins” and “Mad Hatters” aerospace strike squadrons.  This potent force promises to pose a serious counterweight to the equally elite Japanese “Starfox” naval strike squadrons of the light carrier Sagae and light fleet carrier Konoya.

On November 20, the Japanese, Prussians, and French drop out of their Darkstar waves, vectoring toward the outermost planetismals of the Cervantes system’s planetary debris belt.  Their Darkstar wave ripples have been detected by automated Russian sensors, and already the Suvorov-Vigilant task force is vectoring in to meet the invaders.

For many of those engaged, today could be a particularly fateful battle.  The Japanese embassy in St. Petersburg has already prepared a proposal that offers peace to the Russian government.  If these Japanese diplomats receive word of a victory here, as they have so far in virtually every battle in the War of Annabel’s Star, their terms will be submitted to the Foreign Minister of Empress Ekatarina VII.  For the Russians and Japanese, the war could end right here, in near-perfect victory for the Japanese, and bruising defeat for the Holy Russian Empire.

REPORT: The Iron Wolves make their approach very slowly, dropping to less than fifteen kps and making a turn to port, hoping to keep the longest possible distance between themselves and the gun/torpedo-heavy Russian task force.  The Russians, however, have upgraded their targeting suites, all too ready to engage the Japanese carriers at this longer distance.  The presence of HMS Vigilant makes this option even more appealing, as the “Mad Hatter” and “Royal Griffin” aerospace strike squadrons launch and begin their approach toward the Iron Wolf invaders.

Straight off the bat, the Iron Wolves draw blood.  The opening salvo from the light cruiser Kesseldorf, her rail cannons manned by some of the best gunnery crews in Known Space, immediately engage and destroy the tiny Russian torpedo corvette K-109.  Return fire from the Russians is fierce, but not enough to cripple either of the escorting Japanese Akashi-class strike frigates.

The Iron Wolves turn on their wakes, reversing course toward the Russians as they continue to bear down on the Japanese.  Yet the Japanese also keep asteroid debris between them and the Russian plasma projectors, the Suvorov in particular is completely blinded to any enemy targets.  Yet the Japanese carriers also get close enough to the enemy warships for an immediate bomber strike and provide mass driver protection for their bombers (those British aerospace fighter pilots are some of the deadliest anywhere).

The tactic works … mostly.  The Russian flagship Suvorov is left impotent with no targets, the Kesseldorf mauling the destroyer Rusalka.  But this is perhaps a mistake, as the rest of the Iron Wolf fleet doesn’t join this cannonade, instead gunning for the carrier Vigilant.  And while the Japanese B7N “Tenrai” (Heavenly Thunder) bombers indeed are able to launch their ordinance strike from a protected position under cover of the battlegroup’s mass drivers, the A9M “Kataka” (Fire Hawk) fighters can’t reach the same position quite fast enough.  Their missile wave will strike precious seconds after the bombers’ torpedoes, giving the Russian gunners additional opportunity to shoot down the incoming warheads.  This is another fatal division of firepower that will wind up costing the Japanese heavily.

Russian torpedoes don’t have this problem.  Although the loss of the K-109 has reduced their number, enough P-500 “Plamya” (Flame) warheads slam into the stern of the Kesseldorf, followed by broadsides of the Rusalka and Syekyra, to force Commander William Goeritz to break off the action.

The Russians are also in trouble.  Although not quite fatal, the Japanese torpedo strike has smashed the engineering sections of the flagship Suvorov and destroyer Rusalka wide open.  Limping away, they head toward the small planetismal, lobbing out plasma, EPC, and rail gun fire at the Japanese strike frigates while trying to keep their sterns screened from further enemy fire.  It doesn’t work, the valiant little frigate Yurakasu (despite heavy damage to her fo’c’sle and having no forward shields) decides to dive straight for the Suvorov’s exposed fantail. The brave little frigate doesn’t knock out the Russian cruiser, and is predictably shot out of the battle by a strafing run of the “Mad Hatters” Royal Navy Aerospace Strike Squadron, but one of the Yurakasu’s Ki-45 Toryu (Dragon Slayer) torpedoes knocks down the Suvorov’s after shields … a development to have dire repercussions later in the battle.

The carriers Konoya, Sagae, and Vigilant are now frantically trying to recover bombers, while the cruisers, destroyers, and frigates on both sides are trying to cripple these ships while they’re rearming these strike wings in their hangars.  It doesn’t work, and soon enough bombers are relaunched to release a second round of devastating aerospace strikes.  First, the guns of the Suvorov and Syekyra cripple the frigate Tanakasha, sistership to the nigh-suicidal Yurakazu.  Torpedoes from the Suvorov and Rusalka cripple the French destroyer Corsica, on instant before a mass of aerospace torpedoes finally force the Rusalka to eject her reactors, putting her out of the battle.

The rest of those torpedoes go after the Suvorov, still in the fight but without aft shielding to protect her badly-damaged engine rooms (thanks to that final volley of the Yurakazu).  Many of these torpedoes are shot down, but enough get through and explode within the Sovorov’s engineering sections . . .

There’s no saving the ship.  In fact, Captain Pyotr Myshaga barely has time to give the order to abandon ship before a chain reaction of explosions starts ripping its way forward.  Thirty seconds later, the ship goes up altogether, a gigantic fusion explosion that kills 212 members of her Suvorov’s crew and leaves many more badly injured as the shockwave slams into lifeboats, escape bods, and ejected combat compartments of the ship.  Among the wounded is Pyotr Myshaga, Suvorov’s captain.  The nearby destroyer Syekyra and corvettes K-98 and K-121 are also badly damaged in the colossal blast.

That said, the battle is already shaking to a conclusion.  The Royal Griffins have launched a new torpedo strike, slamming into the stern of the charmed light carrier IJN Sagae.  She’s never been crippled or even badly damaged in combat, a lucky streak that is finally broken here.  Although she survives, she’ll be crippled for the better part of a month.  The larger light fleet carrier Konoya fares even worse, hammered by the torpedoes of the dying Suvorov, the destroyer Syekyra, and corvettes K-98 and K-121.  She’s going to be out of action for months, the only reason she’s able to be towed clear of the Cervantes system and back to a Japanese naval base is because the Russians are now scrambling to pick up survivors from the Suvorov.

The Battle of Outer Cervantes is over.  Despite their horrific losses, the Russians have finally crushed out a smoldering, charred, blood-soaked win.  Although the Suvorov is gone forever, the Konoya task force has been handed a severe mauling, her carriers gutted and elite strike squadrons suffering steep losses in aerospace fighters and priceless pilots.  Most importantly, enough Russian and British naval power remains in the Cervantes system to categorically thwart any plans of an Iron Wolf invasion, or thoughts of putting the Holy Russian Empire out of the Annabel’s Star War quite yet.

SCORING: The Russians and British have the destroyer Syekyra, corvettes K-98 and K-121, light fleet carrer Vigilant, and assorted scouts, double-elite fighters and double-elite bombers = 193 points.  Japanese have remnants of the “Star Fox” double elite aerospace strike squadron, plus additional scouts and fighters / bombers from the light fleet carrier Konoya, +3 bank points =  99 points.  Russians and British win by 94, minor victory.