Ascent to Greatness: A Junior Officer's Tale

[Azatol]

Chapter 9 – Homeward Bound


To: All Military Personnel


Introducing the Oradea anti-engine specialty light cruiser. This ship is designed to shut down enemy engines using the massive ionic disperser, as it was recently named. The ship also includes many other innovations such as shielding, advanced sensors, and ECM equipment.

Introducing the Zimnicea light cruiser. This ship uses the same cannons of the Turnu Magurele but also includes shielding, sensors and ECM.

***

The fleet was underway to the Butukret system following the Mizil’s report of three colonies and a light cruiser in system. The Mizil stopped sending messages after that, and so it seems the Amon’krie have destroyed another of our recon ships.

The Turnu Magurele has more point defense and more ammo storage than either of the new ships, so we won’t be retroffiting as of yet. Nonetheless the Zimnicea and Oradea are impressive advancements in the state of the art, although the shield rating on their ships hardly seems worth the space that the generators take up. Perhaps someday generators will be more powerful.

No one knows how useful the combat sensors and ECM will be, combat sensors can track the enemy more successfully in theory, removing some of the need for manual mode firing. The fleet also needs a greater operational range, or else they need to build a resupply station in Ashadra.

Comm traffic has been high in the Nizzarum system as the administrators there are proceeding with the colonization of the system, which contains a large number of methane planets suitable to the Amon’krie people. Some rumors say that the Amon’krie will be assigned all methane planets in the Kingdom and the King’s people may take all of the Oxygen planets, thus reducing the need for domed colonies.

***

Entering the Ashadra system, it was clear the Amon’krie were still a modest power, as they had recolonized one planet in the system and a light cruiser was spotted in the system. This time we had the Tarnaveni, so the colony could be taken over and turned into a military base serving the forward fleet.

But first we engaged the light cruiser, which had no chance against our large fleet. I was eager to use the cannons for the first time, and the Admiral allowed the cannon ships to take out the light cruiser to get some practice in, and find out just how reliable the cannons were. No Zimnicea nor Oradeas had been built, but the Admiral asked the administration on the Amon’krie homeworld to build at least one Oradea, to test out the engine destroyer. For this battle, it was cannonry’s turn however.

Onboard the Magurele 003, cannon #2 was ready and waiting to fire.

“Estimate we will be in range in five minutes, be ready cannon teams,” the captain ordered.

“One quarter thrust, ready firing solutions on my mark.”

The enemy display showed the Amon’krie vessel at 9000 kilometers. The captain was trying to get off the first shot at maximum range and avoid taking damage from the enemy.

“The Admiral has ordered all cannon ships to close in and fire all cannons, hopefully destroying the enemy before he has time to react. Full thrust.”

“Colonel, the sensor AI is finding a targetting solution. 50% completion...locked!” Pai said.

“Fire!” I shouted in response.

With the cannon mounted outside, I could not hear it firing, but the ship shook in brief spasms as all four cannons fired, each pushing the ship backwards a bit from the intense momentum created on the cannonballs.

“We missed,” Pai responded, “damn computer system.”

“5 hits out of 16 attempts fleet wise, not so hot,” the captain said on COMM.

“Light Cruiser is firing,” the Sensors chief said, “Turnu Magurele 001 has one point defense cannon destroyed sir. Light structural damage.”

“Fire at will!”

“Targetting solution acquired Dorn...and lost. The Medias hit with most of its smaller cannons and destroyed the enemy vessel.”

***

“Entering orbit of Ashadra VI, colony of the Amon’krie. General Adram requests a sweep of all planetary defenses and satellites.”

“This is the Targul Ocna 001, We pick up no satellites and no planetary defenses. Ground invasion is ready.”

“Switch to Marines Comm frequency, hold positions. Good luck general.”

“I want one King’s division supervising each three of the Amon’krie volunteer divisions, make sure the Amon’krie don’t turn against us...”

“Yes general. Tarnaveni inbound...”

“Hatch opening...drop pods released...”

“Entering atmosphere...”

“Touchdown, corps form up, isolate resistance, prepare for enemy militia groups...”

“Isolated militia response, colonial capital taken...”

“First Corp begin administrative and peacekeeping operations. The rest of you prepare for extraction.”

***

It only took six hours and less than a dozen casualties to take out the small colony. The colony was localized around a small set of habitation domes, and few had the resources to fight back, especially against 146 divisions, many of them formed of volunteer elements of their own kind.

Now the fleet waited while General Adram managed the logistics of building fleet resupply facilities on the colony.

***

To: All Military Personnel


A Mizil class scouting vessel operating in undiscovered territory through the Welshrak far side wormhole has discovered another civilization. Diplomatic contact has not yet been established, but homeworld will be building a reserve fleet to guard against possible hostile actions of this power.

A quick end to Amon’krie resistance is preferred if possible, in case this civilization is a large threat. All efforts will be made to assure at least temporary peace with the power.

***

Finally on 2408::03::25 we set off again in search of Amon’krie colonies, and glad to be fully supplied. The Butukret system actually contained four colonies, and we set to conquering them one by one.

In the meantime we awaited word on the new alien presence, but received none. Our recent campaigns would demonstrate to potential applicants that the first operation of the Space Marines was a flux, as losses in each operation after that one were laughably low. We still had not encountered anything but militia groups, but on the Amon’krie homeworld they were powerful, on the colonies they were not numerous enough to threaten us.

The fleet contained relics from the beginning of the war, but as of yet, none of the newest ships. The new fleet orbitting homeworld was to have two Oradeas and four Zimniceas once they were completed.

The General left five divisions on each conquered colony to maintain order as we fought a war oddly similar to island hopping campaigns of our past. Unlike those campaigns, the enemy hardly fought at all. The main thing keeping the Amon’krie state alive was its rabid colonialism. Every time we tracked down some colonies, we found that the Amon’krie had expanded elsewhere.

Butukret II was the first planet in the system to defend itself, with satellites and missile silos in operation. We relished the task of wiping out the satellites, so much as to cause problems. Medias went in alone against the satellite cluster, which could have destroyed the ship quickly, except that the Medias was just outside of the firing range of the enemy’s cannons.

The first test of point defense went well, with most shots from the defense cannons disabling a missile. Unfortunately the limited salvo of missiles intended to knock out planetary defenses, knocked out the whole colony, leaving the general nothing to conquer.

Turnu Magurele 002 finally showed up to help the Medias wipe out the satellites, and demonstrated that point defense is more effective than cannonry for that purpose.

Because of the fleet’s overkill in conquering Butukret II, for Butukret VII, the last Amon’krie colony in system, we sent only two missile ships against the colony which was defended by a number of missile silos. The plan was to unleash just enough but not too much devastation, because the General wanted to established a shipwrighting yard somewhere in system. The other colonies where already working on a resupply center and space port, respectively. The King’s glory was indeed rising to previously unheard of levels.

And now, with Butukret under the general’s control, once again the question of whether the Amon’krie had anymore colonies came to the forefront. Butukret’s neighboring systems would have to be explored to get an answer, but it seemed to some captains in the fleet that perhaps the Amon’krie empire was conquered after all those years.

***

To: All Military Personnel


Recent advancements in building stations in space have culminated in the Peshkopi battle station. Weighing in at 1500 kilotons, it far surpasses all previous size records, but its contents are more interesting. The Peshkopi contains shipwrighting and repair facilities like the Alba Lulia, but it is much more. Designed as a last stand defensive base, the Peshkopi is a fully military facility.

The heaviest cannonry ever is mounted on this battle station in four gigantic cannons. The battle station is designed with superior tracking, such that it has a maximum range of 8000 kilometers on its main cannons. The Peshkopi also features an upscaled engine destroyer that can fire from that same range, and immobilize almost any enemy vessel. In addition the station has shielding with a combined rating of 500 megatons. It also has 5 point defense cannons.

The Peshkopi will enter construction once the reserve fleet construction is completed.

***

“After we explore the surrounding systems, assuming we find no traces of Amon’krie, we will be returning home for a victory celebration. I believe many of the older ships will be scrapped to make way for the new designs.

The Shipwrighters on homeworld are busy working on the Peshkopi, but they also promise a 500 kt hull size for ships within another two months. Even thought it’s a station, not a ship, a lot of captains are seeking the lead position on Peshkopi, because of how impressive its weapons are, or perhaps many of us are tired of being away so long because of the war.

But on to the personal, you have a real leadership ability, you’ve taken a team of missile bay operators and made each of them worthy of their own cannon command. I’m giving 2nd Lieutenant Pai your position.

It’s a lot of responsibility, and I hope you live up to the position, but welcome to the command ranks, Lieutenant Commander Dorn. I am making you Weaponry commander onboard this ship, in charge of all weapon systems and crewmembers.”

“Thank you, sir. I will do my best to serve.”

***

With two neighboring systems being unoccupied by the Amon’krie and third being a dangerous spacial rupture, the fleet declared the Amon’krie defeated, and we began our long trek home.

***

To: All Military Personnel


The Sighisoara cruiser contains four large cannons, three point defense cannons, 100 megatons of shielding and extra ammo and fuel storage for prolonged tour of duty.

***

The crew of all thirty fleet vessels landed at the Space Operations Center, just outside of the capital city. The King sent a representative asking us to line up by rank, and march into the city, following the designated parade route. Even just outside the Space Operations Center, crowds were lined up cheering us on as we marched military style all the way into the city. The King had a box set up where the senators would be announcing our arrival, and supposedly they had a few other surprises in store as well.

The roar of the crowd became much larger as we turned right to enter the large cul de sac where the King’s box was. The crowds surrounded us in throngs as the King’s senator announced our entrance.

“First we have the thirteen captains of the Toltayan fleet, these men used their wits and resolve to defeat the Amon’krie menace, give them a big round of applause.”

And the crowd did.

“Following behind them we have the Commanders and Lieutenant Commanders who implement the captain’s decisions and command the crews.”

All of the commanders including myself saluted and stopped marching in front of the King’s box, just as the captains had done.

“Here come the officers who lead their men in operating the great warships of the fleet.”

“And now the ensigns and specialists of the fleet, who form its backbone.”

“Finally, we have a special treat for you, the 201st Space Marines division, just commisioned. Here are the soldiers of the future. And now, the shipwrighting guild would like to share a special announcement with the crew of the fleet and with the public at large.”

The senator turned over the mic to another man who began speaking. “On behalf of the Shipwrighting guild, I would like to announce the pinnacle of our achievements to date, surpassing all previous efforts.

With the King’s permission we name this the Aya!”

Holosystems had been set up before the parade it seemed, because in the air hovered a gigantic holographic space station.

“We call this hull size the Starbase, it is quite simply the largest structurally sound object that could ever be constructed in space. Scientists with the guild estimate that any larger object would have problems with structural stability. Therefore the Aya is quite simply the pinnacle of object design, as the largest station ever.

The Aya has 1000 megatons of shielding, an incredible NINE cannons, which are each substantially larger than those on the Peshkopi, and each cannon has an incredible firing range of 11000 kilometers, surpassing even missiles. The Aya also has two engine destroyers, one massive with a firing range of 12000, and one smaller with a 6000 kilometer range. Finally the Aya has eight point defense cannons. The Aya even has a vacation home inside for the King and his staff.

The Aya will be continously retrofitted as better equipment is discovered to ensure it remains the premier representation of the mighty power of the King! ”

[Azatol]

Chapter 10 – Glory and Envy


To: Toltayan Fleet


All missile based ships are hereby declared as obsolete and to be scrapped. As we are transitioning to peace time, excess naval personnel will be honorably discharged by seniority and request.

The fleet will be transitioning to a larger base hull size, named the cruiser. New construction will match old so that the fleet remains the same size it was after scrapping missile ships, but is transitioned to the latest vessels.

A special program for retiring naval crew would put them in civillian colony vessels. Colonization efforts are being refocused to provide room for growth. Current priorities are for good research planets, because currently there is a vast surplus of raw materials.

The fleet will stand down for the next year to provide leave for all crew members. Orders for reasignment will be processed after all retirements and requests have been filed.

***

“The pace of progress the King’s researchers are giving us is so quick that we don’t know what to teach. The equipment used in the next generation of ships will be so far beyond what we have now that its hard to give anyone training in anything beyond the core basics. For instance, a breakthrough in propulsion is imminent that will totally change the face of the engine room and require a new set of experts to run its exotic systems.

In terms of ship design, shielding becomes more important with each improvement in its design. The Aya is on iteration 4, and its initial design is only 6 months old. Its shield coverage improved 50 percent, sensor equipment has advanced in leaps in bounds, as have ECM packages. Point defense is becomming brutally efficient, asking the question of how much is needed for everyday fleet purposes. It’s a tough question dependent on how stupid the enemy is. Missiles are obsolete against modern point defense, but its hard to justify lots of point defense without missile threats. In turn if point defense is minimized missiles become an easy victory route. We’ve ran several iterations of that dance through the fleet simulator.

But enough about the struggles of running the academy, what’s your next position?” the Weaponry college dean asked me over lunch. I knew that things we changing rapidly, but he had a bigger picture of that change.

“Probably Cannonry Operations Chief, in charge of all the main cannons, on the Aya. The Aya is going to be the best staffed vessel in space, it has a bunch of new positions, like specific weapon combined operations commands. So another commander will run the engine destroyers, and a third the point defense. Someone will run the shield systems, and another will run the sensors and ECM.

Its not an active sort of position, after all, whose going to dare to attack our homeworld, but it is prestigious. The king is making the place a home away from home, and a statement of his power, who wouldn’t want to serve onboard? Plus the starbase is going to always be state of the art, the king has commited to that. Like you said, they are on iteration 4 already.”

“I’ve heard the pricetag is 34 billion credits.”

“The King hasn’t said anything about it, but his coffers aren’t empty these days, by any means.”

***

The shuttle was orbitting the newly completed Aya, which was already into its first retrofitting to improve the shield and sensor systems.

Aya’s cannons seemed as big as a frigate all by themselves, I thought to myself. The starbase was fixed in position relative to the planet so that all nine cannons could be mounted outwardly where they would be able to hit anything approaching the planet.

The giant engine destroyer had a lot of power cables that seemed to lead inside, forming a scaffolding of cables. It seems the weapon was power hungry, but engine destroyers had never been used in combat.

Point defense was stacked in three groups, all facing outwards. The station had a limited amount of manuevering thrust, but its mass would make it hard to turn. Facing the admittedly unlikely threat of an internal rebellion, the starbase would be helpless until it could be turned 180 degrees. The nine cannons firing together could hit with a combined energy of 2.2 gigatons.

***

To: All Military Personnel


Introducing the Visiru battle cruiser. It has 50% more firepower than previous designs, with 6 large cannons, 200 megatons rated shielding, and the standard ecm/sensor packages that have featured on all recently designed vessels. The vessel has three point defense cannons and additional fuel and ammo storage.

***

Serving in the military during peacetime is a matter of routine and bureacracy. With no immediate threats and peace with both our neighbors the fleet was slowly rebuilt with better ships, but the frontier held the excitement of the times as colonies were established further and further from homeworld, extending the reach of the kingdom. Most of the colonists had already colonized another world before them, as sending people all the way from the homeworld to the fringes of space was too difficult.

Technological advancement was the King’s tune in many areas, and although some planets were still set up for mining and harvesting resources, many others became academic colonies, and still others became warehousing colonies.

***

We were running test fire combat engagements, and using just targetting solutions, the Aya was able to demonstrate it could destroy two and a half cruisers in one salvo of its guns. The damaged third vessel was immobilized by the engine destroyer as well.

The fleet was still closing in as the Aya continued to rain death upon them. It’s second volley destroyed three ships as they tried to get in range against its superior cannons. The battle cruisers could survive an extra hit over the other vessels, but the shielding on all the fleet vessels was not able to make any dent in the Aya’s firepower.

Finally two Vizirus and a Sighisora got in range, and all their firepower combined was not able to surpass the Aya’s shield rating. The Aya wiped out the rest of the engagement, and smashed all expectations of its performance. The Admiral thought his fleet would surely best it, but the Aya had defeated the fleet without even running through its shielding.

The King was quite happy onboard, to hear his starbase was so powerful. The Admiral was angry and hoped to improve his fleet, in case he had to face an enemy with such a starbase.

***

Every ship in the fleet was being retrofitted for the new Contra-terrene engine technology. The new engines would significantly increase acceleration rates and manuevering.

Meanwhile new colonies were opening up, even for residents on homeworld, scientists had invented a system to make ice colonies habitable and liveable, which would open up a number of colonies in the home system, and throughout the empire.

***

This journal has been archived for efficient storage, as it has not been accessed in over six months.

***

It was a sudden blow, I had taken a liking to the rather soft position onboard the Aya, where drills were run once a month and even the officers enjoyed the finest meals in the kingdom, plenty of free time and comraderie with fellow officers.

One might say I lost some of my military sensibilities, getting casual about things that I never should have. Then, on 2414::03::07, the Piundon Empire and the Kithra Consortium jointly declared war against us, citing the fact that we were too mighty and they feared us. To my thinking, that fear should have silenced their desire for war, but nonetheless it was war time.

In the several years since peace had broken out, colonization continued, and sensor technology was developed to an incredible pinnacle, although the Tirgoviste battleship had not yet been redesigned with the latest improvements.

The King wanted us to go after the Piundon first, since they were close by. Hopefully, the might of the fleet could quickly end that war, but there was no certainty. Many officers had retired during peacetime, and so when war broke out, my name was selected to captain one of the older generation Vizirus, specifically Viziru 001. So I transferred from the Aya, and assessed the Viziru’s capabilities. It was far more powerful than any vessel of the previous war, but substantially weaker than the Tirgoviste.

As Captain Dorn, I boarded the Viziru on the 14th, just 7 days after war had been declared.

“Captain on deck!” the bridge commander shouted as I entered.

This was actually my first time on any bridge. A main display showed tactical elements while other bridge crew had smaller displays and control systems. The bridge could fit five including the captain, but I knew much of the combat would be handled by the weaponry teams elsewhere.

Propulsion was controlled here, and also at engineering if needed.

Bridge commander Jeff was my second in command, in charge of the bridge and the ship whenever I wasn’t on duty. He had already served with the crew of the Viziru it seemed.

“Fleet orders have us leaving orbit in thirty minutes sir. Engine test is currently being performed. Anti-matter containment is steady. Ever served on a contra-terrene vessel sir?” he said.

“I’ve been on the Aya since the end of the Amon’krie war, so no.”

“Ship hums a bit different than the old ion drives. And these days the engine room is the highest security area. Anti-matter is not available to the general public, and one mistake in handling the containers means tearing the ship apart in an instant. Expose one quart of anti-matter to air, create an explosion equal to 15 volleys of the Aya’s main cannons.”

“I’ll try to remember that. What do we know about the Piundon?”

“Fleet says almost nothing, they’ve sent over a few scientists, but they’ve been rather tight lipped. I recommend we prepare for anything, as far as enemy capabilities go.”

“Thank you commander, finalize that engine test and we’ll leave orbit.”

***

“What was it like on the Aya sir? Such a prestigious station, and the way the fleet lost in battle testing to the Aya, you couldn’t have planned a better way to make the King happy. Those cannons are unbelievable, the test system declared this vessel dead in the water after two hits.”

“Luckily I can almost guarantee we won’t be facing anything like the Aya. The Amon’krie, for instance, have no sense of monumental shipwrighting projects such as the Aya. The Aya’s glory didn’t just go to its namesake, but also to the guild for constructing it. If only we could have an Aya with engines, then we’d be unstoppable.”

“And slow, very slow, but with the range on those cannons, nothing could stop us,” he said.

“Coming up on the Lundra wormhole, all hands to battle stations, we don’t know what could be facing us on the far side.”

“Aye, sir. All hands to battle stations,” Jeff transmitted on comm to the crew.

The sensors chief counted off time to wormhole entry, “15 seconds.”

“Nothing on scanners but three colonies sir,” the chief said.

“Fleet orders incoming: proceed to fourth planet for Marine insertion.”

“Set course to Lundra IV” I said.

***

I almost wished for a worthy opponent as we swept across system in what was basically the same drill as the end of the Amon’krie world, hop from island to island facing small missile silos at best, and capture the planet. I hoped that our fleet could test its strength against a real enemy fleet rather than the single ships the Amon’krie had sent against us, that would allow us to demonstrate our power.

***

“Piundon light cruiser inbound, prepare all weapon systems,” I said as the Piundon ship approached.

“Fleet orders: break formation and close in on the enemy craft, weapons free,” Jeff said, reading off the incoming orders.

“Fleet message: Viziru 003 is in range, heavily damaged the enemy vessel.”

“Close in for the kill,” I shouted.

“Aye sir.”

“Ready all cannons for firing on my mark.”


“4000 kilometers and closing,”

“Fire!”

“Shots are away...six shots – six hits, confirmed kill for us. Congratulations captain... New fleet orders: proceed to Quornor III for Marine insertion.”

***

To: All Military Personnel


Introducing the Oravita Dreadnought. Weighing in at 1.0 megatons, the Oravita is equipped with a new type of weaponry. Using the exotic polaran particle, the phased polaran beam is a particle stream that heavily damages the target. The nature of the particle’s phasing means that it is unaffected by all known shielding technology.

The Oravita equips 10 heavy phased polaran beams, as well as 900 points of shielding, and the most sophisticated ECM and sensor equipment in the fleet. The Oravita will begin construction immediately.

***

To: All Military Personnel


The four battleships of the Reserve fleet took out 3 destroyers, a frigate, a satellite cluster and a space station controlled by the Kithra consortium yesterday. Unfortunately, the fifty divisions planned for the invasion of the Kithra homeworld were overwhelmed by an estimated 80 divisions of Kithra militia. Recruiting has been stepped up on the Amon’krie homeworld to conquer the Kithra.

[Azatol]

Well I'm in first place and way ahead of everyone else in tech, and it seems the rest of game is going to play out without a lot of excitement. Stories like this aren't very fun to read or write without some real challenging opponents. The Amon'krie never even sent more than one ship at a time against me, it was pathetic.

So I'm ending this AAR because its just not got the excitement. I'm going to go download TDM mod and hopefully have some more interesting games to write about.

[Suicide Junkie]

Yeah, the lack of competition was noticable.

A carrier battles mod game might be good. Plenty of crew turnover, and border skirmishes can go back and forth with survivors on both sides.

As long as you don't get to the point where you describe *this* as merely a "border skirmish"
A small map would help in that regard.

Considering that a story game would have fairly slow turns, I'd be happy to play an AI or two for you

[Azatol]

Maybe I should try to get into a good story game on PBW, or start one. If you really want to help out as an "ai", sounds cool to me.

I think the problem with the perspective of a junior officer is that most of the routines on a naval ship (and by extension a space ship) are well... routine.

When I was first introducing him I could give detail, but after a while, the lack of good battles made it hard to talk from his perspective and I gradually went away from that.

Carrier Battles mod sounds good for a PBW version. I'd like to scrounge up the Star Wars mod, if that still works with the latest Space empires version. Another mod that could work is P&N, with all human players being pirates or nomads, and some AIs as regular forces. That would facilitate more of a focus on just the ship.

I kinda wish there was a game in between Star Fury and Space Empires in style and scale. Especially since I like the tactical combat in Space Empires but sometimes wish I could lead a small fleet in Star Fury. (And I wish I could start out with a Battlemoon or something, heh)

One more idea on the PBW thing, if Carrier Battles has infantry size troops like Proportions, we could give all our ships some cargo space and have officers on them, allowing us to say whose onboard and when they transfered and such.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Azatol said:
One more idea on the PBW thing, if Carrier Battles has infantry size troops like Proportions, we could give all our ships some cargo space and have officers on them, allowing us to say whose onboard and when they transfered and such.

AAAnd of course if you make your main character one of those officers, he's bound to get wasted at some point. And not just your main character; what about the other, secondary characters? One big battle, suddenly you're forced to work with half the cast you used to work with.