Persei-Aries War Resumes
Russian Heavy Cruiser Strike v. British Defense, Uxbridge Colony / Mu Hercules
FROM: UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL COLONIAL CENTER
04:10 SOL GMT, 19 SEPTEMBER 2521
BREAKAUTH: 181072.18J
CLEARANCE: SECRET (NATIONAL)
**UNITED NATIONS COMMUNIQUE**
With recent defeats at the McClusky-Ramirez gas giant (Alpha Lyra system) and the HH779 comet in the Outer Hebrides (Mu Hercules), the British Empire has again been brought to the brink of defeat in the Third Hercules War. American planetary assault ships are now lurking in the Oort Cloud and outer debris discs of the Mu Hercules system, ready to land battalions of US Marines on British colonies and run up the stars and stripes, while bristling cruiser squadrons of the Holy Russian Empire are making fast Darkstar approaches from the coreward system of Krasnaya Nadhezda (72 Hercules). This is effectively putting the Outer Hebrides colonies in a pincer, with British resources … and time … rapidly running out.
All is not well in the “winning camp,” however. Relations between the Russian and American “allies” of the so-called Coalition of Eagles have reached an ominous chill. Russian naval units seem to always be present for coalition victories, while the burden of defeats are left for the Americans alone to bear. This has resulted in the Holy Russian Empire stacking up as much political capital at the UN negotiating table as the United States, while the Americans are left paying the vast majority of the cost, in naval assets, money, and of course blood. Making matters worse, the naval battlegroups of their Indian Republic allies haven’t shown up much at all.
This has resulted in something of a breakdown of communication and liaison between the American naval command at Port Halsey (Alpha Lyra system) and the Russian Admiralty at Krasnaya Nadhezda (Red Hope, 72 Hercules). Neither of these “allies” much trusts each other, each convinced that the other is trying to “steal” the victor’s spoils from Britain’s inevitable defeat.
Perhaps it was inevitable, therefore, that one side or the other would launch a quick strike at the British first, without consultation or coordination with their allies, in the hopes of scoring the “knockout blow” against the British and claiming final victory entirely for their own flag.
The Russians win this race, lashing into Mu Hercules with a newly-arrived squadron of heavy cruisers, built around three of the new “Wave Two” Slava (Glory) class heavy cruisers. Nicknamed the “Three Sisters,” these cruisers bear the names of the three daughters of Czar Michael I, founder of the Romanov Dynasty. Supported by a Gagargin-class light fleet carrier, this powerful task force sorties into Mu Hercules with orders to smash whatever remains of the weakened Royal Navy, and claim the system (along with final victory) for the Holy Mother Russia.
The British, however, aren’t as powerless as the Russians estimate. Although outnumbered and outgunned, a crash repair and refit program has brought Task Force Agamemnon (Commodore Edward Cavendish) back on line. Alerted by Peregrine¬-class gunboats, Cavendish vectors to the colonized terrestrial planet Uxbridge (about 80% the mass of Earth) to intercept the Russian invader.
HOLY RUSSIAN EMPIRE: @Oriskany
UNITED KINGDOM: @Damon
I know I said I wanted to blow shit up when we planned the game but I didn’t think it would be that literal… That was a big bang.
It was nice to get back into a game, can’t get any face to face games in at the moment, this was a very welcome break.
Well done @damon Still in it to win it!
During this whole quarantine period online game has really been a nice treat.
Thanks very much, @muakhah . Which reminds me, I apologize for missing the battle report on Raid at Kayashenko 14. Please understand these battle reports take almost as long as the game does. This last one at Uxbridge was 1 hour of game prep 5 hours of game play 4 hours of battle report / posting. 10 hours total. The whole damned day. Now while I don’t mind the game AT ALL 😀 … the battle reports can sometimes get a touch much, especially when they don’t seem to draw much focus in the project page from the community at… Read more »
Don’t worry about it. The main thing is the game! I think people read the battle reports. It’s just sometimes we don’t want to leave another comment that is essentially good game good write up. Because they are all good games and well written.
Looking forward to many more of them!
Thanks @muakhah . I agree the games are epic and should go on. It’s the full-scale AARs that are a little tedious, especially the graphics. Maybe I’ll just cut out the “ship trails” which are actually pretty time consuming.
I know YOU GUYS read the AARs, 🙂 but you guys are also in the campaign and in the games and so already know what happened. 😀 The point of the AARs was for others to see what’s going on and perhaps generate interest.
Yep @damon – this is why the USS Liberty aerospace fighter group (VSF-221 “The Dead Rabbits”) detonated those last three missiles hitting the unshielded stern of HMS Agamemnon a few games back. This is what happens. And it wasn’t entirely just a “being a nice guy” move, that blast wave would have destroyed / damaged some of my warships and aerospace craft if memory serves.
But “NPC” Russians? Yeah, blow ’em up. >:D
Explosions are great when you know they aren’t someones favorite ship! Especially since Jim was cool enough to work out different ways for the crews to survive.
Thanks, @gladesrunner – indeed, Darkstar is a lot more survivable than it used to be.
That said, I think just this last weekend saw the closest USS Oriskany has come to actual DEATH in a long, long LONG time. Perhaps ever.