Rise of the Remorhaz Society

[sachmo]

An old fashioned butt whuppin!

2412.8

The com unit chirped.
Gina Jager’s eyes snapped open, waking quickly from a fitful sleep. She glanced at it, and considered ignoring it.
It chirped again.
With a groan, she sat up and glanced at the id. It told her that it was a secure channel from Fleet Headquarters. That got her attention.
She quickly wiped the sleep from her eyes, ran her fingers through her hair, and cleared her throat. Whoever it was would just have to deal with her appearance.
She keyed the com unit, and was shocked to see the face of Grand Admiral Urian.
“Gina, did I wake you?” the Grand Admiral asked.
“Yes sir” she answered before thinking, “I mean, I was up sir, just resting.”
He smiled. “I see. The Ukra-Tal have been keeping your pretty busy.”
She ran her fingers through her hair again. She couldn’t believe he was seeing her in this condition!
“Yes sir, they’ve been active, but not really pressing us. Did you get my report, sir?”
She began to wonder where this conversation was going.
“I did”, replied the Grand Admiral, “and I agree with your conclusions. I think we’ve hurt them worse than they expected. I don’t think they will be mounting any more large scale offensives for a while.”
Well it’s always good when your superiors agree with you, she thought.
“That’s why I want you to come back to Remorhaz for a while, Gina. We need to discuss our strategy now the war against the Rage is over. I also thought you might want to be here for the funeral of the Bardron VI casualties.”
Gina processed the information. Why was her pulling her off of the line? She knew that she had been at war for years now. Maybe he thought she had lost her edge.
The Grand Admiral continued.
“We’re reorganizing the Navy into two main fleets. Ukra-Tal Fleet will be based on Highrock. The other fleet will be Romulan Fleet and will be based here on Remorhaz. I’m giving Romulan Fleet to R.J. Brennan. Ukra-Tal Fleet is yours, if you want it.”
Gina’s heart skipped a beat. Fleet command?
“It won’t be official until you get here, but consider yourself promoted. Congratulations, Admiral Jager. I know you are the right person for the job.”
Fleet command? As reality closed in on her, she felt her mouth turn up into a huge grin.
“Sir, I’d be honored” she managed to squeak out.

The next few days were a flurry of activity for the Remorhaz People’s Navy as the reorganization took place.
In Ukra-Tal Fleet, Gina chose her commanders from those she personally knew to be exemplary officers.
Task Force One, which was her previous command, was the easiest choice for her. Walter Reed was an officer that Gina strived to emulate throughout her career. Through a number of circumstances, she had earned the lion’s share of the glory and promotions, but she considered Reed to be the best officer in the Navy. She pressed Grand Admiral Urian to promote Reed to Fleet Admiral, which he did. His flag would be his former command, RSS Stormfront.
Task Force Two, presently based in the Bardron system, she gave to Gordon Lu. Gordon had been a protégé of Sakazawa, and Gina knew from personal experience that he was a brilliant tactician and an excellent leader. Lu was promoted to Rear Admiral. Lu chose RSS Ganymede as his flagship.
Task Force Three was the Iolo Defense Fleet renamed. The heroic defense of Correlia by the tiny fleet against incredible odds was one of the more celebrated stories of the war, and the name of the fleet’s commander was known by all of the children of the Remorhaz Society. Thom Hitcher retained command of his fleet, and was promoted to Rear Admiral. He retained his flag on the legendaryRSS Orion.

For the only task force in Romulan Fleet, Brennan chose to promote Will Crowley to Rear Admiral. Crowley had been XO to Lu while they served on RSS Intimidator, and he had a sterling reputation as an aggressive officer with a great head on his shoulders. Brennan wanted an officer who could plan on the run, since much of the war effort against the Romulans would be improvised as intelligence was gathered. Crowley had proved to be exactly the type of officer he was looking for.

While the reorganization was taking place, the war still raged. In Lenoltris, just days after Gina left in a shuttle for the four month trip to Remorhaz, long range scanners picked up two Ukra-Tal cruisers that had made the worm hole transit from Yukra. Fleet Admiral Walt Reed ordered Task Force One, with fourteen ships and twenty-four fighters to lay a course to intercept the enemy ships. One week later, they met in a quadrant adjacent to Lenoltris III.

At a range of almost three thousand miles, the two fleets deployed into battle formation. The Ukra-Tal ships continued to head right into the heart of the Remorhaz fleet, and so Reed deployed his ships to maximize point defense fire. The Ukra-Tal fleet consisted of a
Hedenso class cruiser, armed with three seeker launchers with very long range, four anti-missile “organs”, and advanced computers and shields. The other ship was a Hedmora class cruiser, with a main armament of two heavy acid launchers, advanced computers and anti-missile “organs”, also. As with most Ukra-Tal ships, their ships were part organic and, given enough time, could heal any damage suffered.
The range closed quickly. Reed pulled his wedge into a tight box, with the fighters out on the flanks.
The Hedenso opened fire on Stormfront at a range of one thousand miles. They would cover that distance in minutes if the Remorhaz ships reversed course, but the intercept time dropped exponentially as they moved to get into guns range of the Ukra-Tal ships. Warning klaxons sounded on the bridge as the seekers locked onto the flagship of the Remorhaz fleet. Reed watched the tactical display as the two fleets continued toward each other. He was confident that his own point-defense fire could knock down all of the enemy seekers, but he wanted to get the first shots in on the Hedmora, and hopefully knock it out before it could bring it’s powerful acid launchers to bare.
Finally, the enemy ships moved into range. At nine hundred miles, Reed ordered all ships to go to flank speed. If they could get the range down to five hundred miles quickly, they would get the first shot.
RSS Liberation was the fist ship to get into range. She was a Glory C Class destroyer, and her main armament was two missile launchers and one heavy cannon. At a maximum range of five hundred miles, she fired, missing with her cannon shot but targeting the Hedmora with a salvo of missiles. RSS Binghampton fired and hit once, damaging the Hedmora’s shields. RSS Hecate also hit once with a cannon shot, damaging her shields even further, but not doing much to slow the Hedmora down. RSS Firefly missed with all of its shots, but Stormfront hit it and brought its shields down to half strength. One of the elements of fighters entered the maximum range of the Ukra-Tal ships anti-missile launchers, and instantly a huge cloud of projectiles was ejected from the Hedenso. The projectiles caught the fighter squadron head on, shredding nine of the craft. The other three were able to avoid the attack.

The Ukra-Tal ships turned to make a raking pass at the Remorhaz battle line. The Hedmora fired another projectile cloud at the fighters, destroying all of them. It then opened fire on Binghampton, hitting with two heavy acid salvos. Fortunately, her shields held, barely, and she escaped the attack unscathed. The anti-missile clouds knocked down most of the Remorhaz missile salvoes, but two still sought their targets.
RSS Hercules now found herself three hundred miles from the enemy cruisers. Her captain was Lieutenant Commander Kahlid Pedram, an aggressive officer in his first command. He closed the range to within one hundred miles and opened fire on the Hedmora with a three cannon salvo. The Ukra-Tal countermeasures spoiled his shots, however, and only one found their target. The cruiser’s shields were down below half strength, but she still had suffered no structural damage. RSS Hecate also closed with the Hedmora and delivered a heavy salvo of cannon fire, hitting with all three shots at very close range. The Hedmora’s shields were almost down.
Binghampton fired and hit the Hedmora once, and then away turned to open the range with the Hedmora to preserve her shields. They would not survive another attack. Firefly closed and attacked, bringing down the Hedmora’s shields and bLasting a furrow in the ships outer skin. No significant damage was done, but the shields were down. Fleet Admiral Reed ordered all ships to continue firing on the battered cruiser, even as Stormfront closed range. Her cannon salvo damaged the organic armor on the port side of the ship so badly that it would be unable to “heal” damage to the ship. RSS Triumph gave the armor on the starboard side the same treatment.
At this point, the Hedmora and the Hedenso split up. Reed would not be fooled though, and continued to hound the enemy cruiser. Hercules remained at point-blank range, hitting the cruiser twice and destroying the ship’s shield generators and opening the crew quarters to space. Ukra-Tal bodies escaped the hole along with gasses and other debris. Buffalo moved into range and delivered a heavy cannon barrage, ripping the port side of the Hedmora open with great explosions. From bow to stern the Ukra-Tal ship was bleeding atmosphere and debris, and the crew of Buffalo watched as one heavy cannon shell ripped open an acid launcher, it’s contents streaming out into space from an ever-widening tear in the hull. Hecate and Firefly surrounded the Ukra-Tal ship, determined to destroy it before the single remaining launcher could launch another salvo of acid. Their combined firepower was more than enough to destroy all weapon systems on the Hedmora. The ship still lived, but would pose no threat to the Remorhaz fleet. Reed immediately turned his attention to the Hedenso.

Stormfront, Liberation, and Triumph brought the ships shields down with one combined salvo of heavy cannon fire. Binghampton bLasted its organic armor down to about half strength before the ship could return fire. Reed ordered all remaining capital ships to attack the Hedenso and leave the Hedmora to the remaining fighters. Hercules continued her relentless attacks and bLasted the remaining organic armor off of the Hedenso. Liberation attacked with a missile salvo and a cannon shot, which hit the cruiser amidships and destroyed two of the anti-missile cloud launchers.
The Remorhaz ships continued to pound the Hedenso with cannon fire, turning it into a twisted wreck. On the tactical display, Reed watched as the Remorhaz missile salvoes overwhelmed the crippled cruiser, bLasting it’s remaining superstructure into a cloud of small pieces.

Ensign Berton watched the Ukra-Tal ship slowly limp through space. Most of its engines were destroyed, its hull was holed and venting gas. Not ten minutes before, it had killed half of his squadron mates, and so it was with singular joy that he ordered his flight of FA-5 Warhammers to commence their attack runs on the Hedmora. Victory 2 rolled in to the attack, executing a prefect rocket attack. The heavy projectiles arced lazily through space, and then struck the ship right near it’s engine room with spectacular force. Quickly, the remaining engines of the Ukra-Tal ship went up as the warheads of the rockets carried on through the hull deep into the powerplant. The explosion consumed the ship in a huge fireball, rocking the fighters with concussive force. Berton watched impassively as the fireball quickly consumed itself, removing all evidence that a warship had even existed in this patch of space. He ordered his element to form up on him and set a course for Highrock, but as he turned he kept his eye on the spot where the Ukra-Tal cruiser had died.
“There’s more where that came from, you slimy bastards.” he whispered to the ghosts as he continued his turn for home. “We’ll be waiting.”

[ June 11, 2004, 13:25: Message edited by: sachmo ]

[The FryeR K]

I love your work, just got caught up...
Your story is lively, with vivid imagery for both characters and action.

Keep up the good work.


P.S. You will become a great author someday

[Atrocities]

You make me smile from ear to ear when ever you post a new chapter. This one was espeically pleasing to read. Thank you.

[Paul1980au]

GOod work

[Nostalgia For Infinity]

It seemed to take a lot of effort for your fleet to take down the Ukra Tal cruisers. I'd hate to think how desperate the fight would be, if they had parity with your forces, they seem to have a big tech edge!

Enjoying the read very much, since it is a work in progress it could still all go wrong as well. Very much in suspense!

[sachmo]

Paul, Atrocities, FryerK: Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the kind words.

Nostalgia: Yes, they have a big edge in technology, and so far when a larger enemy fleet has attacked us we've had to rely on planetary defenses to turn the tide. Having said that, Remorhaz has just started deploying Phased Poloron Beams and targeting computers, which should help even the odds us and help us take down their big ships. At least I hope, but skipping shields would make a HUGE difference!

[sachmo]

Battle of Highrock

Task Force Three was the first task force to complete full refit. All of the ships in the force were armed with the newest phased polaron beams and battle computers. When a lone Fredrikstad class Ukra-Tal light cruiser was cornered in quadrant sixteen, the first combat test of the new weapons systems began.
The Fredrikstad was a minelayer, and had no offensive weapons of her own. Knowing this, the Ukra-Tal captain turned away from the task force and made a run for the wormhole. Hitcher’s ships had a speed advantage, and so he gave chase, confident that they would be able to catch and destroy the enemy craft.
At six hundred miles, RSS Orion opened fire. Hitcher watched as the blue beam streaked through space to impact on the hull of the enemy ship. Of the three shots, only one missed. The Fredrikstad was visibly damaged, but continued to run. RSS Shining Victory was the next to attack. Her beam hit at the bow, and then burned a huge gash in the hull as the beam continued to burn down the hull.
Even at three hundred miles, Hitcher noticed that the gun solutions were generating hit probabilities in the nineties, which was unheard of accuracy with the old computers and depleted uranium cannon. The Remorhaz ship fired, mangling the stricken hull of the Fredrikstad. RSS Shining Victory moved in and finished it off with a well-placed beam into the weakened midsection of the ship, bLasting it in half.
Hitcher looked at his assistant.
“Have the data and a vid of the engagement beamed back to Fleet HQ immediately” he said.
He knew that the scientists in the Research Guild would be ecstatic to see that their weapons were as effective as advertised.

2412.9

Surtran completed construction of another Scorpion Class Minesweeper, RSS Boar Beetle. On Cirius, another was launched, RSS Dagger Moth. The ships left port as soon as they were provisioned but with skeleton crews. The bulks of their crews were training on Highrock, and would join with their ships when they arrived. The minesweepers were vital to the success of Operation Reconquest, and without them the fleet would take massive casualties before a shot was even fired in anger. One of the lessons of the war so far was that well prepared minefields were a great equalizer.

2413.0

The shipyards at Cetarus completed construction of another Scorpion class minesweeper, RSS Aphid. A new Comet Class planetary assault ship, RSS Quark, was launcher from Surtran in the Surtran System.
RSS Mount Thunder and RSS Xanthe arrived in Iolo to join Task Force Three. Both ships were immediately docked to be refit. These two ships would greatly increase the combat power of the task force.

In Lenoltris, Fleet Admiral Walt Reed watched as an armada of forty-three Ukra-Tal ships appeared from the Yukra wormhole and was headed straight for Highrock. They had come this way before, and the Last few times had turn back after accomplishing some unknown mission, but this fleet seemed far too large to him to be anything other then a full assault fleet, coming to destroy them.

The Ukra-Tal fleet did come, but apparently learned nothing from the experiences of previous fleets. As the fleet passed the asteroid belt just inside Highrock Quadrant, the Remorhaz minefield was triggered. The ships were devastated. The mines homed in on their ships, bypassing defenses and slamming into hulls. Finally, the enemy ships punched through the minefield, but only after losing twenty-seven ships. Of the remaining sixteen ships, ten were heavily damaged. Against this reduced armada, sixteen Remorhaz ships were deployed around Highrock, in addition to the ground defenses. The odds were fairly even, thanks to the mines.
RSS Loyalty was the first to fire, launching a missile salvo at an Ukra-Tal cruiser. Reed pulled the rest of the fleet back toward Highrock, so that the fleet and the surface batteries could support one another.

The Ukra-Tal ships deployed in a line, standing off and launching seekers at Reed’s ships. One of the enemy ships, the Heinola class, turned out to be a carrier. It launched fifteen fighters, then turned away from Highrock.
The waves of Ukra-Tal seekers came at the Remorhaz formations, and waves of anti-missile fire rose to meet them. The ships knocked down most of the parasite seekers fired by the capital ships, and the ground-based batteries totally destroyed the Ukra-Tal fighters. A Hedmora class cruiser was able to get into range to fire its acid globules, and targeted RSS Triumph. Two out of three shots hit the destroyer, knocking out two of her engines. The Remorhaz line returned fire, damaging the cruiser’s shields. Reed continued to pull his ships back, drawing the Hedmora into range of the surface batteries, which destroyed the Hedmora’s shields and battered her armor. At the same time, he ordered the remaining Remorhaz fighters to flank the enemy line and go after the damaged enemy ships that were trying to stay out of the fight.
The ground batteries severely damaged an Ukra-Tal light cruiser, and Buffalo and Stormfront finished it off. Hecate took heavy damage as a Hedmora closed range and bLasted her with acid launchers. Reed ordered the ship to retreat from the battle.
Triumph was lost when three undamaged Hedmoras pressed then attack and battered the ship with acid volleys. Most of the crew was able to escape the ship after the second Hedmora attack crippled the ship. Captain Villareal ordered all hands to abandon ship before the third Ukra-Tal cruiser was able to close range, and about 350 of the 400 men on board were able to escape. Captain Villareal was among the lost.
After the surface batteries severely damaged another Hedmora, Reed ordered his fleet to go on the offensive. Binghampton and Buffalo pounded another Hedmora from close range, and the destroyers helped to cripple it.
The remaining Ukra-Tal Hedmoras turned back to face the Remorhaz charge, but instead of facing the cruisers head on, they maneuvered past the line and went after the damaged Hecate. They opened fire from extreme range, and Hecate dodged the best it could, but the heavy acid fire finally caught her in the missile magazine. The explosion tore the destroyer to pieces. None of the crew survived.
The Remorhaz ships now had the Ukra-Tal between them and Highrock. The combined firepower from the fleet behind them and the heavy planetary batteries took a toll on the Hedmoras. Every ship was heavily damaged in the resulting exchange. At this point, the Ukra-Tal ships began to turn away from Highrock, apparently in an attempt to withdraw.

Reed would have none of it. He pressed the attack, leaving every Hedmora crippled. Every remaining Remorhaz ship destroyed at least one enemy ship. It was over in minutes. Reed continued on, determined not to let a single Ukra-Tal ship escape. At six hundred yards, Binghampton and Stormfront fired on the Ukra-Tal carrier, tearing it to pieces. Once the carrier was destroyed, the line fell on the remaining crippled Ukra-Tal ships. None survived.

The battle was over. The Remorhaz People’s Navy had lost close to five hundred men and two ships, with minor damage to a few others. The fighter group had lost another five of their number, but had destroyed another enemy ship. The Ukra-Tal losses were total. Every one of the fourty-three ships in the fleet was destroyed. Reed was staggered by the number, and also by the implication that the Ukra-Tal could sustain this magnitude of loss and still continue to sustain offensive operations. If Remorhaz had taken that big of a loss, over half the navy would be space debris. Just how many ships did the Ukra-Tal have? If they decided to come with all of them, could Remorhaz stop them?

[ June 12, 2004, 04:47: Message edited by: sachmo ]

[Paul1980au]

Good update - will be interestin to see if the can deal with the ukra - tal on an ongoing basis - im assuming you are using a real game as motivation for this story which is getting interesting. Will give them food for thought for an invasion (reconquest)

[sachmo]

Originally posted by Paul1980au:
Good update - will be interestin to see if the can deal with the ukra - tal on an ongoing basis - im assuming you are using a real game as motivation for this story which is getting interesting. Will give them food for thought for an invasion (reconquest)

Thanks, guys.

Yes, the game dictates the story. I just fill in the blanks.

[Atrocities]

Big big smile. Awsome read.