EDIT: NOT FINAL UNTIL WE HAVE DECIDED HOW TO SOLVE EARIELR MOVE
Turn 4: Cat and mouse.
Spoiler!
Admiral Kiro'i stood on the command bridge and watched as the subspace before him ruptured and his fleet entered into the normal space. To his surprise, Novian ships were sitting right at the node in pretty scattered formation, the main target, Eternity Drednaught right next to the Orentis. Immidietly all sorts of warning sounds and lights filled the bridge, and the officers began to shout orders to their dedicated units and sections under their delecated command. Quite an mess for fleet jump. "Contact! Five Novien ships in loose formation, all around us." Came shout from tactical board while the XO was already yelling his own orders. "This is the XO, Launch all birds, I repeat, launch all birds!". Kiro'i himself had to say little for every function of the ship had its own overseer making sure that things went by the book. Kiroi's job was simply to make his own additions to commands when he saw need and right now there was only one thing he had in mind.
"Gunnery" -He said.
"Yes sir?"
"Main batteries to salvo fire. Target the largest ship. Fire at will." Kiro'i murmured and the gunnery officer dictated the orders forward. The Admiral watched as the enormous battlecarrier painfully slowly turned towards the Novian Drednaught, its massive railguns taking aim while the super heavy autocannons already opened fire. "Firing solution!" Yelled the Gunnery operator to which the officer immidietly replied. "FIRE!"
The whole ship shook as the port side railgun released its depleated plutonium shell. The very instant there was bright flash and once it was gone, the Novian drednaught was gone - not destroyed, but jumped away. All the Novian ships were gone too.
"It Jumped!"
The XO already began cursin and yelled the tactical board to track the ship's heading. Few seconds later the board came with numbers, telling that the five Novian ships had jumped to the Gre'kt.
The Admiral let out deep sigh and before he could ask his most obvious question, the XO told what he wanted to know. "Jump clock 33 minutes.". This meant It would take 33 minutes before the battlecarrier had fully charged it jump drive to make it back to Gre'kt. Sure, there were some destroyers, such as angels that could recharge in just five - as they had made jump with only half of their cores active in order to be slow enough for rest of the fleet. But 3 angels against drednaught and their escorts were not much.
Now the another question in Admiral's mind was why? Why had the Novians jumped into system they for certain knew to be under Ratai control with just five ships? Kiro'i could not help but to think Novians had more on their way to Gre'kt. They were deep in enemy territory and yet Gre'kt had not been guarded by any fleet.
The admiral walked over to the tactical board, and gestured his XO to come over. They had 32 minutes of idle time to decide what to do. What was stationed in Gre'kt sure was enough to handle the 5 novian ships that had just jumped away, but what if more was on the way? There was also that one rather tempting option now on the table - with backdoor to Novian systems open from Urema - assuming there were no more fleets waiting further. The Admiral and commander had short debate about what to do, when comm's officer interrupted. "S.. sirs, we are recieving transmission on encrypted channels from Mioran ship. No Identification."
"Lets hear it, Liutanent"
"Uhh.. its only log file. No audio. Message says: Novian fleet jump from Rad'an to Gre'kt. Several class 1 threats."
"Well, that settles it then." -Admiral growled and immidietly gave order for comms officer to contact shield fleet and tell it to scoot.
"Where to, sir?" The officer asked while he was already typing the encrypted message.
"To Rad'an" XO replied for the Admiral.
Kiroi' leaned onto the tactical board and watched the star map with keen eyes. Things had not went like he had hoped for, but then again, this new unexpected situation presented some interesting opportunities. There was even bit of a smile on Kiroi's face as he murmured to XO "Lets see how close we can go before it gets hot..."
The Ratai had now new, quite altered plan. If things went well, one of the fleets had chance to even reach Novian Capital system before intercepted.
"Gunnery" -He said.
"Yes sir?"
"Main batteries to salvo fire. Target the largest ship. Fire at will." Kiro'i murmured and the gunnery officer dictated the orders forward. The Admiral watched as the enormous battlecarrier painfully slowly turned towards the Novian Drednaught, its massive railguns taking aim while the super heavy autocannons already opened fire. "Firing solution!" Yelled the Gunnery operator to which the officer immidietly replied. "FIRE!"
The whole ship shook as the port side railgun released its depleated plutonium shell. The very instant there was bright flash and once it was gone, the Novian drednaught was gone - not destroyed, but jumped away. All the Novian ships were gone too.
"It Jumped!"
The XO already began cursin and yelled the tactical board to track the ship's heading. Few seconds later the board came with numbers, telling that the five Novian ships had jumped to the Gre'kt.
The Admiral let out deep sigh and before he could ask his most obvious question, the XO told what he wanted to know. "Jump clock 33 minutes.". This meant It would take 33 minutes before the battlecarrier had fully charged it jump drive to make it back to Gre'kt. Sure, there were some destroyers, such as angels that could recharge in just five - as they had made jump with only half of their cores active in order to be slow enough for rest of the fleet. But 3 angels against drednaught and their escorts were not much.
Now the another question in Admiral's mind was why? Why had the Novians jumped into system they for certain knew to be under Ratai control with just five ships? Kiro'i could not help but to think Novians had more on their way to Gre'kt. They were deep in enemy territory and yet Gre'kt had not been guarded by any fleet.
The admiral walked over to the tactical board, and gestured his XO to come over. They had 32 minutes of idle time to decide what to do. What was stationed in Gre'kt sure was enough to handle the 5 novian ships that had just jumped away, but what if more was on the way? There was also that one rather tempting option now on the table - with backdoor to Novian systems open from Urema - assuming there were no more fleets waiting further. The Admiral and commander had short debate about what to do, when comm's officer interrupted. "S.. sirs, we are recieving transmission on encrypted channels from Mioran ship. No Identification."
"Lets hear it, Liutanent"
"Uhh.. its only log file. No audio. Message says: Novian fleet jump from Rad'an to Gre'kt. Several class 1 threats."
"Well, that settles it then." -Admiral growled and immidietly gave order for comms officer to contact shield fleet and tell it to scoot.
"Where to, sir?" The officer asked while he was already typing the encrypted message.
"To Rad'an" XO replied for the Admiral.
Kiroi' leaned onto the tactical board and watched the star map with keen eyes. Things had not went like he had hoped for, but then again, this new unexpected situation presented some interesting opportunities. There was even bit of a smile on Kiroi's face as he murmured to XO "Lets see how close we can go before it gets hot..."
The Ratai had now new, quite altered plan. If things went well, one of the fleets had chance to even reach Novian Capital system before intercepted.
Moves:
Spoiler!
Shield fleet From Gre'kt to -> Rad'an.
1x Orentis battlecarrier.
3x Overseer battlecarrier.
6x Guardian hvy cruiser.
4x Dragonfly light cruiser.
10x Teus class destroyer.
5x Chaser class frigate.
10x Hammerhead frigate.
1st Fleet from Urema -> to KRAE'GAN
1x Orentis Battlecarrier.
1x White star battlecarrier.
5x Stormbringer missile cruiser.
3x Dragonfly light cruiser.
3x Angel class destroyer.
1x Oracle supply ship.
5x Teus Destroyer.
1x Arime class destroyer. (Minor hull damage, but combat able.)
Forces in Lak'Tar
2x Dragonfly light cruiser.
--> Reinforcements to Lak'tar. 2x Arime class Destroyer.
<-- 1 Guardian hvy Cruiser and 2 Teus class destroyers retreat from the battle map back to Ratai fleet due to being too heavily damaged
1x Orentis battlecarrier.
3x Overseer battlecarrier.
6x Guardian hvy cruiser.
4x Dragonfly light cruiser.
10x Teus class destroyer.
5x Chaser class frigate.
10x Hammerhead frigate.
1st Fleet from Urema -> to KRAE'GAN
1x Orentis Battlecarrier.
1x White star battlecarrier.
5x Stormbringer missile cruiser.
3x Dragonfly light cruiser.
3x Angel class destroyer.
1x Oracle supply ship.
5x Teus Destroyer.
1x Arime class destroyer. (Minor hull damage, but combat able.)
Forces in Lak'Tar
2x Dragonfly light cruiser.
--> Reinforcements to Lak'tar. 2x Arime class Destroyer.
<-- 1 Guardian hvy Cruiser and 2 Teus class destroyers retreat from the battle map back to Ratai fleet due to being too heavily damaged
--
This can be prevented simply by keeping fleet in system. After all, I have to jump in to invade it.If we can just jump away from a battle then you could just invade the whole sector without taking a hit.
But why then cannot my ships from 1st fleet engage your's in Urema? If I jump in and attack? (not to mention addition that there were already few ships from earlier battle around.)At the battle over Urema, I jumped in and I attacked. That's what I'm doing here. :p