DARKSTAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE: DUCHESS ANNABEL’S WAR IS OVER

SITUATION:  Having been handed a series of rough defeats in the Cervantes star system (Mu Ara), the Iron Wolves are finally falling back to surrounding friendly systems to regroup and lay new plans.  One such haven is the nearby Japanese star system of Onomoken (“Lord’s Sword” – HD 172051), a yellow main sequence star with no less than six terrestrial planets rich in ores and metals, and three gas giants with heavily-colonized and industrialized moons.  At just 11.5 light-years away from the recently-embattled Cervantes system, it lies within just two weeks’ striking distance of most naval task forces in Cervantes, making it a prime target for resurgent Annabel’s Alliance striking out from these Imperial Russian holdings.

In fact, British, Panasian, and Russian naval commanders have already decided on a different course of action.  With the Franz Josef “Kruezergeschwader” (cruiser squadron) so more or less gutted and Prussian naval forces so badly damaged throughout the Libra-Sagittarius SCS (strategic command sector), it is hoped that the direct path to the Eisenwolf Colonies at Gliese 570 lies more or less open – or at least lightly defended.  Just maybe, Annabel’s Alliance can seize the moment to smash the weakened Prussians out of the Duchess’ War.

To prevent other nations of the Iron Wolf coalition from reinforcing these Prussian colonies, misdirection operations are launched to keep Japanese, New Roman, and Black Dragon battlegroups and task forces pinned down in other areas.  The first of these is intended to reinforce the impression that the Annabel Alliance is indeed making a push in the opposite direction from Cervantes, toward the nearby Japanese colonies of Onomoken.

The mission is given to Captain Pyotr Myshaga and the Lazarev task force.  Although not nearly at full strength after the savage battles in Cervantes, Myshaga’s force is nevertheless deemed fit to at least launch a diversionary raid into Onomoken’s outermost reaches.  After all, the Lazarev and her escorts are hardly invading the system, simply penetrating its outlying regions and engaging the first small force it runs across.

Myshaga and his Russians, however, get a little more than they bargained for as they complete their first high-speed Darkstar wave toward the Onomoken system.  Typically, invading naval formations first make such a fast “approach wave,” usually at ninth- or tenth-magnitude, to cover most of the interstellar distance to a target.  Dropping out of their Darkstar wave just outside the system, they then take new sensor readings and astronavigational fixes (aligning themselves to the relative galactic motions of the target star system, which of course are usually radically different from the star system from which they sortied), and finally set a much slower, more accurate, and stealthy Darkstar course to actually penetrate the enemy star system.

While making preparations for this second jump, however, the Lazarev task force finds it is being approached by a New Roman cruiser-destroyer battlegroup, built around the Foch-Hispania class light cruiser Leclerc.  Myshaga decides this will be the “small force” he will engage to fulfill his mission.  There are no moons or planets nearby, this battle will take place in the whisper-thin electromagnetic bands of the Onomoken star systems helioshock boundary, where the star’s solar wind is piled up ever so faintly against similar solar wind and particles of the interstellar medium.  Put more simply, it’s at the very edge of interstellar space, some 20,000 AU (almost one-third of a light-year) out from the Onomoken star.

REPORT:  What was supposed to be a raid quickly turns into more of a pitched battle, as the Leclerc battlegroup and  Lazarev task force make their initial approaches.

With much longer-ranged weapons, more gunnery, and more accurate sensors, the French of the Leclerc, Calais, and Corsica opt to keep the range open as long as they can, holding back and drilling the Russian corvettes with long-ranged laser fire to lighten the weight of the expected Russian torpedo spreads.  The Russians, for their part, and to close the distance as quickly as possible, but are also using the vast, ionized bands of charged particles drifting throughout this helioshock boundary as “cover,” hoping they will take the edge off superior New Roman electronics.

At first, the tactics of both sides seem to be working reasonably well.  As the Russians hoped, the opening French volley missed at a range of 3600 kilometers, partly due to the EM disruption of the helioshock ion bands.  But as the Russians close, a second French volley engages the torpedo corvette K-121 at 2,200 kilometers, not quite crippling her but forcing her captain to break off the action.

For the French, however, things become unstuck from there.  The Russian return volley, even at this relatively extended range, is devastating.  The Lazarev and Syekyra have upgraded their targeting systems, and even shooting through a dense “pressure wave” of ionized solar wind, enough hits are scored on the starboard bow of the fragile destroyer Corsica to force her to break off.  The damage isn’t actually that bad, but the hits just happen to set up a cascade failure through Corsica’s navigation computers and life support systems.  Then again, perhaps no one is particularly eager to get in a really bloody fight this far out from any bases, colonies, or potential rescue.