The Slippery Slope of War
I'm expanding nicely, and I've got DS, Propulsion 3, and some religious tech.
My homeworld has been repeat building colonies for 25 turns or so, and I've got a 5-system cross of habitable planets in a sea of asteroids and storms.
Every arm has a shipyard, and the homeworld has two.
All of a sudden, the CueCappa come into the left arm of my empire, take my gifts, and proceed to level a colony. Instantly, the home system switches from colonies to warships.
But, the best warships I can build are speed 7 (12 engines) DS's with 5 DUC 1s.
The first three arrive in the besieged system just as the CueCappa LCs wipe out thee more colonies, including the Shipyard.
I have a fleet of four, more advanced (DUC 3)models coming, but the CueCappa reduce the system to one colony (which my ships are sitting on).
As they move to retreat through the wormhole, the Last two LCs come close enough to reach in one turn, and so my fleet of three ships rushes in.
The enemy has dual (large mount) TK projector 3s, and a neural stunner thing.
My Destroyers zoom in, in a tight arrowhead formation, and spray fire wildly.
15 DUC rounds flash past the hulls of the lead LC, disabling 3 (of 12) engines.
The left wingman gets slammed hard, losing weapons control (reload time), two guns and some engines. He breaks off and runs for it.
The remaining two Destroyers close to point blank and spew nearly harmless DUC rounds. 20 damage at a time, the LCs slowly lose engine power while they pursue and bLast at the damaged DS.
My DS is crippled by two big hits, losing its C&C systems as well as many engines, but the damage from the other two DSs is taking its toll. One LC loses a TKP, and the other loses the bridge.
The crippled DS is bLasted again, and down to almost nothing, but the other ships have stopped one of the LCs, and my ship starts to get away.
The LCs finally go down after 17 rounds, leaving all three primitive DSs surviving
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Two turns later; the damaged DS has been restored to half hitpoints, 2 MP, and one DUC I. The five DS reinforcements are still en route, but the three old ships have taken up orbit around the newly established military base near the warp point.
And... 6 CueCappa LCs and an ES have arrived to avenge their bretheren.
By the time my DSs have circled the planet (slowed down by the cripple), the quick ES has arrived. My fleet exchanges fire with the ES at 1/3rd accuracy, but 11:1 in guns. The ES misses, and absorbs 3 hits, losing lifesupport and dropping to 2 speed.
The heavy firepower of the LCs streams out, but are too distant to score any hits.
My cripple turns back to lead the ES away from the planet, and the others surge forward to strike at the LC wing.
The left wing LC loses crew quarters and some engines to the strafing attack of my DSs, and drops to 1 speed.
TK projectors search through space, and the cripple is slammed, losing C&C functions as its neural core is crushed. The crippled LC smashes the neural core of one of the other DSs, which falls to 2 movement and loses a DUC.
Blazing fire impacts the damaged LC, and a number of hits are scored, but the LC suffers no loss in capability.
On the other side of the battle, the CueCappa fleet catches up with my disabled DS, and it is shredded by their TK powers.
My DSs fire back into the damaged LC, and the flurry of slugs manages to disable one of the TKPs.
With the loss of the DS, the CueCappa fleet swings around. As an afterthought, one of the LCs uses its TKP to punch a huge hole in the protective dome. Hydrogen gas pours through the facility, slaughtering millions while debris rains down. In minutes, the colony is desolate and lifeless.
With the colony lost, the surviving destroyers turn to escape, hoping to survive long enough for the reinforcements to arrive.
The entire CueCappa fleet seeks the damaged destroyer, but only one finds it. Two devastating explosions rock the ship, severing three more DUCs and sending the ship's neural tendrils into shock.
DUC shards clatter off of an LC, but it suffers no damage.
The crippled DS is spared, but the lead ship is hammered, and loses power.
Unable to keep ahead of the enemy fleet, the crippled DS is shredded, and drifts off, lifeless.
The Last ship spurts slugs towards the nearest LC, damaging its engines.
Before the DS can pull away from the fleet, two ships combine to smash it around, disabling most of the engines.
With no chance of escape, the DS turns to head straight for the LC and fires slugs. The LC shrugs off the impacts and hammers the ship with its TKPs. The poor DS is batted around the fleet before disintegrating into shards of metal and guts.
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My four advanced DSs (DUC IIIs) arrive, and speed in to counter-counter-counter attack.
My fleet comes in using a wall formation, and shifts from side to side. The enemy fleet is thrown into disarray as the slower ships fail to follow the manouevers of their leader.
The CueCappa get the first shot due to their range advantage, but fail to hit. All four destroyers open fire, sending waves of slugs towards the nearest (and fastest) enemy ship.
Tiny flashes pepper the hull, marking each impact point, and the ship falls back with engine damage.
The CueCappa reach out with their telekinetics, and this time manage to snag a ship. One of the destroyers reels as an explosion rips out some of the organic guts of the ship. It quickly turns to limp away at half speed.
Chattering fire from the remaining cannons pierces the command & control systems of another LC, and it falls behind.
CueCappa weapons fail to stike, as the Destroyers fall back, covering their wounded wingman.
The constant stream of tiny slugs damages the engines of two more LCs as they try to charge forward, but not before a series of blows smashes another destroyer. Organic systems crushed, and its engines a mangled mess, the ruined (but salvagable) destroyer drifts off away from the battle.
Still covering the retreating ships, the remaining two destroyers blaze their cannons at any ship with movement remaining.
The CueCappa fleet burns, but continues to press forwards, thier Psy assaults failing to hit.
One by one, the LCs turn away and retreat as their weapons become unusable.
In the end, only one CueCappa ship is destroyed, but the rest of their ships have a thousand small holes, and the victor is clearly me.
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[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 16 July 2001).]