[sachmo]

Clearing Lenoltris

Strikefleet Hellcat descended on the Rage colony of Bardron III like an avalanche. Reinforced by the bulk of Rear Admiral Brennan’s Strike Fleet Avenger, Sakazawa now had twenty-four ships under his command. For the first time in history, two Space Marine brigades were preparing to assault the same planet. Considering the resistance they had encountered so far, it seemed like overkill, but Sakazawa didn’t want to take any chances. The Rage were a clever and tenacious enemy. He expected the next few invasions to be very met with fierce resistance. If it turned out to be anything like the invasion of the Rage homeworld, the extra Space Marines would be necessary.
This was not the case on Bardron III, however. The fleet detected no ground or space based defenses. The 1st and under strength 2nd Space Marine brigades landed on the planet, eliminating the Rage forces and primary sequencer with minimal casualties. The planet was renamed Tovador, and the population integration process was begun. There were only two Rage planets left in the Bardron system, and Sakazawa intended on having them both neutralized by the end of the month.

In Lenoltris, the interdiction of Ukra-Tal fleet movements continued. In the lower quadrants, Strikefleet Dauntless intercepted a Hedmora class cruiser. Scans showed that the Ukra-Tal ship was packed with electronics, armor, shields and armed with two large acid launchers. With a numerical advantage of seven ships to one, Gina was confident in her chances, but was by no means sure of escaping the battle unscathed.
The fleet was deployed in a standard wedge formation as they moved to engage the Hedmora. The Ukra-Tal cruiser turned to face the Remorhaz fleet. It was a slow ship, but her guns outranged those of the Remorhaz cruisers. If they maintained their approach, her ships would get the critical first shot at the Hedmora. Of course, that was assuming that the Hedmora didn’t have a trick up her sleeve.
Gina watched the tactical display of the battle from her command chair in the combat information center aboard RSS Buffalo. She intended to let the individual ships captains run the battle, and only get involved if things began to get out of hand. She watched the two fleets approach one another. Over the communication network, the senior line officer, Captain Olaf Svenson, ordered missiles to be fired at maximum range. Svenson commanded RSS Nemesis, which was Jager’s previous command. With his greater numbers, Svenson was trying to force the Hedmora away from his fleet and hopefully damage the enemy cruiser before they had to close range and engage with direct fire weapons. The Ukra-Tal acid launchers had a longer range and bigger punch than the depleted uranium cannons on the Remorhaz ships.
The Hedmora continued to close the range, moving into firing range while knocking some of the Remorhaz missiles out with his ships strange anti-missile projectiles. Ukra-Tal ships resembled living creatures, and fired projectiles from their “snout” that were capable of destroying threatening warheads. It was truly an unsettling sight for even the most experienced Remorhaz crewmen. Having survived the initial missile strike, the Hedmora opened fire on RSS Buffalo, damaging her shields. Gina could see the hits reflected on the tactical screen, but knew that the shields had held. They would not be able to stop another strike, though. Realizing this, Buffalo’s captain fired his cannon at the Hedmora at maximum range, damaging her shields, and turned the ship to take her out of range of the enemy cruiser.
Seeing the waves of missiles streaking toward him, the Hedmora turned to open the range with the Remorhaz seekers. More projectiles filled the space behind the ship, and many of the missiles were knocked down, but two waves made it through its defenses, further damaging the shields. Seeing this, Svenson ordered the fleet to hold back until their missile tubes were reloaded.
The Hedmora suddenly reversed course as the Remorhaz ships lined up for another missile salvo, and before the missiles were fired, it hit Buffalo with two more acid salvos. The damage was superficial, but they had lost all shields. If they stayed in the fight, they would suffer serious damage. Svenson seemed to realize this at the same time, and ordered Buffalo to fall back and avoid engaging the Hedmora until further notice.
The Ukra-Tal defenses proved a constant source of frustration for the Remorhaz ships. Heavy radiation waves from the countermeasures suite on the Hedmora downgraded the effectiveness of the Remorhaz gunnery computers, resulting in many cannon shots missing their mark. However, the sheer volume of fire from the fleet finally brought the Hedmora’s shields down, with the final blow being struck by the depleted uranium cannon of RSS Liberation. RSS Firefly fired at the cruiser at close range, missing with two shots. The third struck the hull of the Hedmora, which immediately began to “heal” itself.
Again the Ukra-Tal ship turned to run while it’s acid launchers recharged. Now was the best chance for the Remorhaz ships to close range and do some heavy damage to the cruiser, since it appeared long-range cannon fire would be very ineffective. As Gina watched her fleet move in and close with the cruiser, she bit her lip and hoped that someone back home would see the difference the defensive electronics were making in the battle, and figure out how to get her ships some of their own.
Firefly was able to land some more damaging blows to the Hedmora, while the second salvo of Remorhaz missiles homed in on their target.
The Ukra-Tal captain again turned and flew through the heart of the fleet, locked in on RSS Buffalo. At maximum range, he fired his acid launchers even as the Last Remorhaz salvo overwhelmed his defenses and battered the cruiser’s hull. The acid globules smashed into Buffalo’s hull, eating away both shield generators, one engine, and two of her point-defense batteries.
As her CIC staff reported the damage, Gina wondered when she would stop being surprised at the tenacity of her enemy. One of the main duties of a Remorhaz ship captain was to ensure the safety of her ship and it’s crew. In her experience, their enemies did not seem to hold the same values. Where this Ukra-Tal captain could have maneuvered to escape and fight another time, or hold out for reinforcement, he instead chose to concentrate on one enemy ship and try to take them down with him. It was honorable, but futile. She just couldn’t see the logic in the alien’s thinking.
The Hedmora was a wreck, venting gasses and debris as she limped along toward RSS Buffalo. No attempt was made by her captain to surrender his ship. Gina watched stoically as her fleet sent the Hedmora to oblivion.

The only other combat in Lenoltris occurred when Dauntless moved into range of the Lenoltris-Yukra wormhole, where they found a heavily damaged Ukra-Tal light cruiser hiding. Gina presumed that it was waiting here for a rescue ship, as all of it’s engines were destroyed. She attempted to have the enemy captain surrender his ship, but again they refused. Buffalo finished it off with a salvo of cannon shells into her powerplant, causing a fatal explosion. For the moment, Lenoltris was clear of all enemy shipping.

[ October 07, 2003, 18:50: Message edited by: sachmo ]