DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER
Deep Space Engagement P2
Screening Engagement in Helioshock Boundary
Onomoken Star System (HD 172051)
12 January 2519
The Russians press their advantage, and perhaps get a little too confident, splitting their torpedo spread between both the cruiser Leclerc and destroyer Calais, clearly hoping to wrap up this little raid straight away. The move doesn’t work, and although both remaining French ships are heavily damaged, they remain operational. Their return volley, meanwhile, positively mauls the corvettes K-98 and K-109, leaving both burning cripples, adrift in space and already screaming for rescue.
The Russians take their first real losses. One of their small torpedo corvettes has already been forced to break off, now two more are outright crippled by powerful French laser fire. However, French torpedo spreads are easily shot down by Russian mass driver point-defense guns, in fact the Russians have enough point defense guns to also shoot down ALL SIX of the French scouts.With all three of their torpedo corvettes now removed from the fight, the Russians will have to rely much more on raw gunnery to defeat the weakened French. But their guns for the moment aren’t doing very well at all, despite the shorter range. The French commander (Captain Raphael deChalemonde) now has his ships in a solar wind pressure wave, using it as a disruptive screen against Russian targeting while the Russians are barreling at him more or less in the “open.”
Myshaga, however, now has the taste of blood in his teeth. Shaking off his losses, he continues to press the French, his next volley finally crippling the badly-damaged destroyer Corsica. But the Corsica has already released her own broadside of 8-megakelvin lasers at the Syekyra, followed up by a volley of pinpoint accurate rail guns from the Leclerc and especially her incredibly powerful (and long-ranged) 12-megakelvin lasers. These hits slash right across Syekyra’s engines, exposed as Myshaga turned his ships to broadside the French. The Syekyra lies crippled right along with the Corsica, both destroyers tumbling through deep space.
The French destroyer Corsica is crippled.
But the Corsica and the light cruiser Leclerc likewise take down the Russian destroyer Syekyra.The battle has now come down to the two flagships, Lazarev and Leclerc. Myshaga and the Lazarev have a clear advantage, however, as the Leclerc has already been hit astern by five torpedoes and has thus lost two complete engines, along with maneuvering thrusters and perhaps most distressingly, sensors suites that feed telemetry data into her advanced targeting system. Largely hobbled and half-blind, the Leclerc really has no chance against the undamaged Lazarev, yet for an incredible ten minutes, Leclerc keep hope alive through some great maneuvering and lucky breaks. The Lazarev just can’t finish her off, all the while taking a steady stream of damage from Leclerc’s rail guns and especially her powerful 12-megakelvin lasers. The Leclerc can’t win, but if she can just survive, she can force a draw … or perhaps force the Lazarev to break off with a lucky hit.
Just such a miracle almost happens when the Lazarev’s bridge is hit by one of Leclerc’s penetrating high-powered lasers. Myshaga himself is wounded in the resultant explosions, but the Lazarev’s bridge remains operational and Myshaga retains command.
Each class of weapon not only does different amounts of damage at different ranges, but also different "profiles" or shapes. Explosive weapons like rail guns and torpedoes can "cavitate" inside the target, as we see here. Successive 7-gigawatt rail gun hits from the Leclerc against the Lazarev have struck her port quarter too far forward to hit any engines or reactors, but note how the shells explode outward a little as well as deeper into the ship. This "sideways" cavitation damage causes one of the Lazarev's bridge boxes to be hit. ALL bridge boxes hit means the ship is immediately crippled and out of the game. However, even partial bridge boxes hit have bad consequences. Also, the boxes shaded in gray are considered "core" compartments - with four of these hit the Lazarev have a 60% chance of being forced to break off the action (15% per core box for light cruisers) - but note the 67 rolled ... she BARELY remains in the fight. With partial bridge damage, though, the captain might also be killed or wounded ... it's a 1-7 for safety on a d10. Note the 10 rolled ... the captain is hit! He gets a re-roll if he wants, however (note the "Commander's Luck" merit purchased at upper left). If Myshaga uses this re-roll here, however, he can't use it later in the game ... The end comes with abrupt brutality. With half her engines and maneuvering thrusters gone, Leclerc can only outmaneuver the Lazarev for so long. Finally Lazarev cuts behind her for a point-blank broadside across her stern at less than 150 kilometers. Already savaged by an earlier Russian torpedo spread, the Leclerc’s engines and reactors are positively shredded by close-range Russian plasma and EPC fire. Beyond crippled, the Leclerc ejects both her reactors with just seconds to spare, it’s really a miracle she doesn’t explode.
Time runs out at last for the Leclerc. Despite some big disadvantages and a very unlucky start of the game, she ALMOST pulled off a draw here. When the Lazarev finally gets a broadside behind her, however, as we see here ... Leclerc is doomed.
The savagery of close-range Russian firepower is made evident here. With her stern already badly damaged by previous torpedo hits, Leclerc's stern is positively blown inside out by Lazarev's powerful plasma projectors and EPC emitters. Damage has tunneled comepletely through the ship to set off secondary explosions as far forward as the bridge and forward magazines. The Leclerc is more than crippled, she really should explode here. Light cruisers start off with a "cripple number" of 10+ on a d6, this target is reduced by 1 for each critical box (red) hit. Leclerc has lost 13 critical boxes. So the Lazarev has to now roll a -3 (10-13) on a d6 ... so Leclerc is obviously automatically crippled. Worse, because that target number is now actually NEGATIVE, Leclerc is in very real danger of exploding. For light cruisers it's 25% for each point that she's in the negative, which is as we've seen is -3. So she has a 75% chance of exploding. Note the 95 rolled on percentile dice, however ... against the odds Leclerc has survived! She's crippled, of course, her captain may be killed or wounded, and she'll spend 90 days in dry dock (60 internal component boxes hit, +50% for being crippled) - and I don't even want to imagine the casualties among her crew of 490 officers and men ... The “skirmish” is over. Although heavily damaged, including a bridge hit that has wounded her captain, the Russian light cruiser Lazarev remains operational. Even considering the rescue and recovery operations that will keep her occupied for the time being, she now represents a major threat to the Japanese holdings in the Onomoken star system. In fact, major Japanese vessels (including in all probability the Konoya carrier strike group) will not be available to help defend the Eisenwolf Colonies against the larger invasion of Annabel Alliance warships already en route. Although only a diversion, only a “sideshow,” the fact remains that this skirmish in the Onomoken helioshock boundary represents another massive come-back for the Russian Navy in Duchess Annabel’s War, and more bad news for the faltering Iron Wolf Coalition.
SCORING: The Russians have the light cruiser Lazarev remaining and two scouts (116 points). With the overall battle only being 208 points in size, this constitutes a MAJOR VICTORY, although only in a small battle.
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