You lucky people! So a bit more expermentation with style and enough commas (hopefully
) Given the lack of response (and readers) from last time I'm not expectin much but here goes. Comments would be nice, even if they just say 'For the love of God stop posting this rubbish'
2402.4
"Wake the captain and the commodore. Now!" The tactical officer shattered the silence of the dog watch as he yelled out.
"What is it Brooks?"
"The
Saintes is picking up a Bolivar leaving their shipyard."
"Understood, sound battle stations."
Commodore Delap and Captain Jennings were both on the bridge of
Leander long before the Jraenar ship broke free of the planet
"Status report." Delap commanded. It may not be his ship, but he was still the boss
"All ships report full readiness sir."
'All ships, all three ships you mean.' Delap though to himself. The fleet may have been expanding at breakneck speed but the dinos still had more colonies than the Republic had ships.
"The enemy vessel appears to be a modified Bolivar class, same tonnage and weaponry but she's out pacing the standard acceleration curve." The PWO, Unsworth, continued
"Blockade runner?" Jennings asked, echoing the commodores thoughts
"Probably." Delap answered. "Get me engineering."
"Molby here. What's the problem." the chief engineer promptly replied to the internal comms.
"No problem here Jan" Delap started
"That'll be a first." Molby interrupted. He was one of the few, along with a few of
Pegasus's senior officers, who could get away with interrupting Delap.
"Calm down Jan, I just want you to take a look at the scans from that Bolivar."
The news from Chief Molby wasn't unexpected. The Jraenar ship had stripped everything unneeded and was carrying minimal stores. The energy profile was fluctuating wildly and the ships acceleration was a long way from stable, in short they were red-lining their engines. Despite that the Jraenar ship still had the advantage; Task Force One had drawn up in a loose blockade to stay out of range of the planet based missiles. The temptation was to order the entire force to chase the blockade runner, something Delap was sorely tempted to do, but that would leave the Jraenar homeworld un-blockaded.
"We could pull Task Force Two back to cover the planet while we're gone." Jennings suggested
"That would leave the warp point undefended" Captain Tanner from
Saintes countered.
"That's an insignificant risk compared..." Jennings tried to reply before being interrupted
"Shhh. I need to think." Delap stopped all conversation. Now it made sense. The Jraenar ship was on a suicide mission, all the modifications could do were extend it's life prior to being destroyed. So the ship had to live long enough to draw TF 1 from orbit, so TF 2 would be pulled back to cover them and so the warp point blockade broken. When you put it that way it made sense.
"Task Force Two is to stay were it is and step up to high alert.
Grafton is staying here while
Leander and
Saintes chase that Bolivar." Delap announced to the hushed meeting. There was no argument, everyone moved to carry out the command decision.
There was however argument from Captain Vickers, as senior captain she had command of Task Force Two and wasn't happy with the Commodores orders.
"It's crazy leaving just one ship to enforce the blockade can't you see that Mike?"
"Compared to leaving this system opened to reinforcements through the warp point? Look our fleet is too small to do everything, we've got to take some chances. This is an acceptable risk.
Sirus and
Gold Rover will be here within three weeks, we can't risk that ship escaping and intercepting them, but equally we can't leave the warp point unguarded. This is the only option."
"You're the Commodore. I just hope your right." Vickers cut the comms link.
'You're not the only one.' Delap though to himself.
As 2/3rds of Task Force One continued it's pursuit of the Jraenar ship another Bolivar emerged from the warp point, expecting to find empty space. Instead it ran straight into several volleys of Hellstorm and Brimstone missiles. The fight was short and sweet, provided you were on an Ocelot Republic ship. The fight with the original blockade runner was a bit more involved.
"She's turning around"
Leander's PWO announced to the bridge
"Guess they heard about the battle at the warp point then." Jennings commented
"Their mission failed and they can't get home. They're looking for a blaze of glory." Delap agreed
"Battle stations! How long to missile range?" Jennings took command
"Assuming constant acceleration from the Bolivar, two minutes." Unsworth called out.
"So it's the waiting game." Delap had been in this position before, but he still wasn't comfortable. At least when the missile were flying there was no time to think about what might happen.
The three ships raced at each other at full power then launched missiles.
"Missiles away, sir!" PWO reported
"Turn and full power." Jennings ordered
"
Saintes isn't turning."
Delap and Jennings simultaneously shouted "What!"
"I've got Captain Tanner on the comms"
Leander's enterprising communication officer reported
"What the hell are you doing Tanner?" Delap asked
"That ship can out manoeuvre us and the captain can't be stupid enough to fall for the same tactics as the last Jraenar ship."
Delap and Jennings looked at each other, they couldn't fault the logic.
"Helm turn us around. PWO, lock and load all tubes."
Leander was heading back for a knife fight.
Half of the Jraenar missiles had rejected
Leander as being outside their no-escape envelope so homed in on
Saintes. Those missiles were more than enough to take out half the engineering deck and the entire missile magazine. Luckily the bulkheads around the magazine held, but
Saintes was effectively unarmed and fled the battle as fast as possible.
Leander avoided the remaining missiles, which out of fuel were ballistic only, and launched her second Hellstorm volley just as the first missiles hit the Jraenar vessel. The enemy ship did it's best, it avoided three of the five missiles, but couldn't evade the last Hellstorm and
Leander's first Brimstone. The two missiles obliterated the entire rear end of the ship,
iLeander's second volley took care of the front end.
"
Saintes status report. Tanner can you hear me?" Jennings was on the comms almost instantly
"It's not good sir. My engineer can't even tell me how bad the damage is." Tanner replied in a croaky voice
"It's that bad!" Delap leapt into the conversation
"No idea sir, it could be. Apparently the damage report machine has exploded."
Re: Ocelots Rampant (Game Story)
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