Rise of the Remorhaz Society

[sachmo]

Combat!

2410.9

The two undamaged Rage frigates extracted a toll on the planet Invexus. Since Sakazawa had used the entire fleet to attack the Rage at the battle of Zekrat Sun, Invexus was left virtually defenseless. The colony was quickly destroyed. Remorhaz no longer had a base in the Zekrat system.

Commodore Hitcher rubbed his chin. He stared at the strategic display. It showed one Ukra-Tal Gjovik class cruiser lumbering toward the Iolo-Yukra wormhole. She presented the commodore with quite a dilemma. Taking that cruiser out would be a nice victory for his task force, and would boost morale on Correlia. On the other hand, they knew nothing about her armaments, and the cruiser could give the Remorhaz ships a bloody nose if given the chance. The decision was his alone.
After weighing the pros and cons, he came to a decision.
“Let’s do it. Command Iolo Defense Fleet to move on a course to intercept the Gjovik.”
The message was sent out to the fleet, and immediately the other three ships which made up the Iolo Defense Fleet moved into formation with RSS Orion.
After a week of travel time, they closed range with the Gjovik.
She was an impressive ship. Sensors gathered the following information about her armaments:

2 Large Acid Globule Launchers
5 Class 4 Point Defense cannon
One minesweeper unit
One class 3 shield generator
Combat sensor suite
One self-destruct device

Hitcher knew that the best way to take on the Gjovik was to use the Remorhaz ships superior range to their advantage. If they could weaken her shields and get a few luck hits in, Orion would be able to close in and finish the job.
The Remorhaz ships formed a combat wedge and closed range. The Gjovik took a heading that would lead her right down the throat of their fleet.
Once the Gjovik closed range, the two Glory class destroyers and the Nemesis frigate opened fire with capital ship missiles. The seekers flew across the miles in moments. Once they were within range, the point defense cannon on the Gjovik opened fire, knocking out two salvos before they could reach the ship. The salvo from Milton flew thru the defenses and locked on to the hull of the Gjovik. Unfortunately, the point defense cannon were able to reacquire this new threat, and knocked the remaining missiles out. The point defenses of the Gjovik were too strong for missile fire alone. They would have to close range and take her out with gunnery.
The Gjovik decided to change course, seemingly to give her point defenses enough time to deal with any missile salvos coming her way. However, this move allowed the Remorhaz fleet to close range and open fire with DUCs. Skydancer fired as fast as she could, pumping shells into the Gjovik and trying to bring down her shields. Eventually, the shields did fail. The return fire from the Ukra-Tal ship came close, but did not strike the Remorhaz destroyer. Once her shields were down, Orion moved into range and fired her heavy depleted uranium cannon. The shells came at the Ukra-Tal cruiser at an angle above and behind, and the first shell tore into the Gjovik’s engine mounts, knocking out two engines. The second shell slammed into the forward hull, tearing thru the thin hull and carrying on into the bridge. Once the shell slammed into the forward bulkhead in the bridge, it exploded, turning the bridge and it’s contents into superheated molecules in an instant.
The Gjovik was still able to fire her weapons, and with her second salvo was able to knock out Skydancer’s shields and hit the hull. The acid quickly began to eat thru the ship, disabling her depleted uranium cannon before it could be stopped. Skydancer backed out of the fight, but continued to fire missiles at the Gjovik. Shining Victory also fired missiles, and her DUC damaged the Gjovik’s engineering section, taking out two more engines and half of her life support.
Now it was Orion’s turn. She moved to close range behind the damaged ship, and opened fire with everything she had. Depleted uranium shells tore great rents in the hull, while meson bLasters burned thru the entire ship. Finally, a spread of anti-matter torpedoes all but finished her off as the energy weapons collided with the Gjovik’s hull and transformed a large section of the ship into nothingness. With most of her point defenses destroyed, the Remorhaz missiles were able to home in on the crippled cruiser with no interference. The Gjovik shuddered as they struck her, tearing massive gashes in the stern of the ship. Debris filled the space around the cruiser as the ship began to break apart. One Last salvo from Orion’s depleted uranium cannon finished the Gjovik off, and she blew herself apart from secondary explosions.
Commodore Hitcher took off his beret and ran his fingers thru his hair. They had destroyed one enemy cruiser while suffering only minor damage to themselves. He had expected a heavier toll, and so was very happy with the result. Only then did he become aware of the sound of cheering throughout Orion. This was what the fleet needed. He hoped that this small victory cheered the people of Correlia also.
Not wanting to push his luck, Hitcher ordered the fleet to turn and head home.

In Iolo, Lundra and Xillantha fleets joined up and attacked the Rage fleet at Invexus. In the resulting action, on of the Rage frigates was destroyed, and the other suffered over 50% damage. The fleet prepared to withdraw to Fezzran to regroup when they received word that a fleet of eight Rage ships had been spotted in the Lundra system, headed for Zekrat. Rear Admiral Sakazawa ordered the supply ships to head for Fezzran to resupply and changed course for Zekrat VIII. The battle would be decided there.

Providence Ship Yard launched the first ship in the Catreus class, RSS Catreus. This class was the first gun only frigate in the Remorhaz Navy. She moved to join Providence fleet in the assault on Lezzari.

[ September 04, 2002, 14:37: Message edited by: sachmo ]