Horse and Sun, Dragon Falls 04
DCS HAGURE
Vengeance-class DropShip
Close orbit approaching Galtor III
The Vengeance-class carrier, although an aerodyne type DropShip, was never meant to land on a planet. Thus, it had no need for secondary drives like the Leopard that pointed 'down', allowing it to land or maintain an aerodyne craft's deck that was normally oriented horizontally to match planetary gravity. A Vengeance, being a purely space-borne craft, only had its rear drives to push and create the sensation of gravity through constant acceleration.
Its decks were laid out much like a skyscraper in space. Inside the CIC Admiral Torvald Nitta lay strapped down to a reclining chair and stared *up* at the holopool. The distant observation deck windows had the appearance of skylights. Though now shuttered for protection, the impression of a tall roof remained. The entire chamber was lit with red and orange lights that would not ruin night vision.
The other crew moved and worked around him, and if necessary walked up and down the walls on magnetic boots. The dropship, like all the others, approached the world accelerating at 1.5 gravities to save time - but due to Newton's First Law of Motion, they had to spend the same amount of time decelerating or else they would never stop and just overshoot the planet back out into deep space even with the drives turned off.
All the ships had flipped around and had to burn for the same time they had been accelerating to bleed off their acquired momentum.
The strategic map was oriented towards the planet as 'north'. As the group of Kurita dropships had arrived in-system from the nadir point and burned towards the planet at an acute angle as seen from the orbital plane, their track showed both the world and the group of ELH JumpShips over to the left being roughly equidistant from this point.
"Admiral Nitta, the Warlord Yoriyoshi is again asking for information and advises for us to 'hurry this up'," his aide reported.
"Maintain radio silence," he replied. "Do not reply nor indicate which DropShip the Warlord is in. Order the fleet to maintain their heading and disposition. Does he want to pancake himself on landing?"
The dropships could not 'speed up' to break past the defenders because not slowing down means they would overshoot the planet or arrive with too much speed that even aero-braking would not be able to bleed off. None of the dropships carrying the six regiments of the DCMS could afford to do anything but stay in formation trying to zero their momentum until reaching stable orbit.
Except for a pair of symbols on the man, which could accelerate up to 4 gravities as their safe thrust factor.
Assault DropShips, that were not intended to land at all, had more flexibility to maneuver.
The Achilles-class dropships, each escorted by two squadrons of fighters, turned to meet the group of four dropships that were so foolish enough to push forward all but naked of fighter cover. The sixteen escorting fighters for each DroST were busy tangling with the fighters right behind the dropships.
Due to the inextricable geometry of space, the shortest route to intercept was dead-on. "Four ships. Is this an insult, or this suicide?" Nitta mused. "If they must try to nibble at our formation like wolves looking to pull away the sick and weak from the herd, they would be giving us more time instead. And time is the most valuable quality here."
The holopool showed two blinking routes. One, in a straight line between the world and the Kurita group. Another, at an angle, waiting for the dropships to pass by.
Admiral Nitta could theoretically 'refuse the flank' and rearrange the formation into a diagonal line that exposed more of the group into effective firing line. Alternatively, a flank approach by the Light Horse means he would have much more freedom to just split off the far half of the dropship group and they would be able to freely land without any interference.
Barring any remaining aerofighter defenders, but largely they could not do enough damage to deter landings on their own.
A standard Overlord-class had at its disposal:
6x PPC
2x AC/20
6x AC/5
12x medium laser
3x LRM-20
6x large laser
But this was divided across various firing arcs in its mammoth egg shape.
By comparison, the Achilles-class was half the mass, just as tough, and was more impressively armed with
6x PPC
3x AC/20
2x AC/10
4x AC/5
1x LRM-10
6x LRM-20
4x large laser
12x medium laser
Unlike an Overlord, most of its weaponry were mounted to converge fire on the forward arc, delivering a heavy blow that could demolish dropships twice its mass in short order. They could sweep through enemy fighters and were made to hunt dropships. They also had 60 tons of armor, making them each slightly tougher than an Overlord.
Admiral Nitta hummed. "Observe," he spoke out idly to his aide, educating him in further preparation for becoming captain of his own assault ship. "Unlike BattleMech combat, where you could throw mechs and men at each other and they would sort themselves out, naval combat is a matter of patience, preparation, nerve, and endurance. It is as much about predicting your enemy and make them move according to your will than it is about killing the enemy. Space and time make themselves the ultimate masters of us all."
The captainship of a military cargo dropship like a Union or Overlord was different from that of a space-only dedicated assault dropship like a Vengeance. The Admirality considered itself a much purer service to the DCMS.
"Every action creates its equal and opposite reaction. Take note of how they *must* respond to our own actions -"
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SLS Johnston
Taffy-class Pocket Warship
Same time
Pocket WarShip captains needed a peculiar qualification - they had to be privy to the secret of Declan II and spent time pondering before the planet with a face. Unlike the rank and file that were excited about reactivated by the SLDF, they had to remember that their ultimate goal was not restarting the Star League in itself - but *only* all that is *good* about the Star League, and protect the Inner Sphere from the debased remnants of the SLDF. They had to be *worthy*.
They had to use every means at their disposal, because there would be no other help coming.
Naval technology, just like everything derived from Robotnik's genius and the space magic of the nanolathe and its Chaos Emerald taking completed designs from nearby alternate realities, was streamlined and automated to the point that one did not need to spend decades in an academy to do something useful with it.
Naval combat was one instance where, due to the sheer range and firepower involved, did not need much in terms of gunnery and piloting skill as compared to being a fighter pilot and squadron leader. Where fighters needed to think in intense moments, capital ship combat was about spending fuel to maneuver into position, slowly and inexorably moving to their point of destiny. Miscalculations early on could get them killed.
Some would liken naval combat to a game of chess, but Fleet Captain Ford Lancaster preferred to think of it as a game of cards. Texas Hold 'Em, in this case.
The interior of the SLS Johnston was much more conventional, as the DroST could use its main thrusters to point 'down' across its decks like on a planet, and when moving 'horizontally' with its nose pointed at the enemy, high-gee chairs still faced the right way. Clean bright walls with all meeting edges softened into curves made the CIC look more like a bridge for a ship made to trek through the stars.
The main screen faced forwards, and showed enemy response according to the radar tracks. A smaller picture-in-picture window showed half of the visible drive flares on the screen blink out as the dropships stopped reverse thrusting and coasted forward at speed. The other half briefly angled their thrust to point them away at an angle.
"Hah!" Captain Lancaster slapped the armrests of his command chair. "Look at that! They bought the bait!"
His executive officer, Brendan Waterson, commented from his station directly managing the CIC "It is a logical response, captain. With these many ships, splitting forces in half puts the furthest half well out of our reach. If we assume that the regimental commanders are in those ships, they would be much safer on the ground. Four ships versus a dozen other ships is still enough of an advantage."
"They're taking most of the Overlords and trying to overwhelm us with a pair of Achilees and some Unions to soak up fire. Looks like they're not impressed with us being able to take down Avengers."
"Avengers have the flight performance of an interceptor craft, if necessary. As such they can only be escorted by interceptors in turn. They were far too exposed. But now, with the bulk of the Kurita aero wing behind us preventing our own aircraft from disengaging, and more heavy fighters and assault dropships in front, we are caught between hammer and anvil."
The tactical map showed all elements shifting in maneuvers that would take half an hour to complete.
Lancaster nodded. "It would work."
"Aye, sir."
"If we weren't, you know - us."
"It is somewhat out of context, sir, I agree."
"Signal the fleet. Full burn."
#FLEETCOM
SLS_Joel - I just lost two drones.
SLS_Joel - Negligible armor damage.
SLS_Heerman - Entering capital laser range in five minutes.
SLS_Heerman - That's a lot of fighters.
SLS_Samuel - Twenty-four fighters versus all four of us?
SLS_Samuel - What a mismatch.
SLS_Samuel - What are they going to have left after the Davion wing is done with them?
SLS _Heerman - With a minimum of aero cover, nothing short of nukes can stop that many Overlords from forcing a landing.
No matter how powerful any Pocket WarShip, there were simply too many enemies. They could not stop the invasion in any scenario.
14 vs 4, however?
Much easier to handle.
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DCS HIRANO
Achilles-class DropShip
Close orbit around Galtor III
"Enemy assault ships have increased thrust to two gravities. Intercept in twelve minutes." the sensors officer reported.
Captain Katsumi Kondo smiled. "They took the bait."
He thought that sending the Avengers out ahead on their own, escorted by only Sholagars, had been a waste. But it was not like he could argue against the fleet admiral. The DCA's job here was not to kill the enemy but to preserve as much of their forces and protect the landing. Certainly no one could have expected the ELH to have dropships capable of destroying a pair of Avengers in short order.
Avengers being as fast and nimble as Interceptors was quite ridiculous for a 1,900 ton craft. They were, for dropships, small enough that they could be used as oversized fighters and maneuver in formation as one.
His dropship was much larger, and though it may have more long-ranged armament, proportionally had thinner armor than those assault dropships. But there was another way bigger was definitely better.
An Achilles spent some of that mass and volume for two aerospace fighter bays, two small craft bays and one foot platoon for boarding operations.
A Vengeance-class DropShip carried up to 40 fighters. But a standard air Wing was only 36 craft. What about the remaining 4? Usually they were reserved to protect the carriers, but in this instance, the two fighter bays of each Achilles held guest fightercraft from the fleet carriers while their dedicated fighters flew outside in escort.
The assault group composed of the two Achilles and twenty-eight fightercraft plus eight small craft moved in a threatening blob towards the four DroTS.
The often senseless and self-serving brute violence of the DCMS continually made even Davion commanders continue to underestimate and forget that the Draconis Combine was capable of making dense multilayered attacks where there were many possible routes to victory.
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SLS Johnston
Taffy-class Pocket Warship
"All hands, make secure. Combat maneuvers imminent!" the shipwide comms announced.
Abruptly gravity cut out as the ship stopped accelerating. Everyone lurched forward in their seats. Those standing held on to convenient handles at their work stations and relied on their magnetic boots.
Aft-facing Large Lasers and Extended LRMs continued firing at the Kurita fightercraft chasing after the four DroSTs. The attackers had learned that robotic escort fighters could not be tempted to move away from their dropships, thus they had freedom to dive in and out in v-shaped formations like diving birds of prey.
The insides of the bridge rang with the constant *zip-zip-zip* and *swooosh swoosh* noise of the augmented combat interface.
"Capital Long range in ten seconds."
"Light Capital Lasers, mark targets in AAA mode. Taffy Fleet- combined fire in pairs."
The Capital Lasers gave out more of a *freeem* sound, and the main screen showed a simulated beam line to their targets.
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#FLEETCOM
SLS_Heerman - Enemy fighters engaged at capital range.
SLS_Heerman - Thirty second combat report - one fighter destroyed.
SLS_Samuel - Switching targets.
SLS_Samuel - Continuing combined fire on marked heavy fighters.
SLS_Heerman - Two fighters down. Twenty-two remaining.
SLS_Joel - For something massing a hundred and fifty tons, I would have expected doing more than AC/10 damage at this range.
SLS_Heerman - It's good enough that the focusing lenses can even keep a steady bead at this range. The slightest twitch here means a wide arc at the end. It's the lighter lenses that are even allowing the beam not to overcorrect itself away from the target.
SLS_Heerman - Of course the necessary weakness is that we can't pump too much power through the lens without melting it.
SLS_Heerman - You should in fact consider it miraculous that a capital weapon can be only a hundred and fifty tons at all!
SLS_Samuel - Time to Medium Capital Range, twelve minutes.
SLS_Johnston - Continue focusing fire.
SLS_Johnston - It doesn't matter if we're wasting hits over-killing fighters.
SLS_Johnston - Ignore light fighters.
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DCS HIRANO
Achilles-class DropShip
"Why are our fighters exploding?! How are they hitting us from this far?!"
"Evasive maneuvers!"
The ASFs began jinking about semi-randomly, ruining Capital Lasers' ability to maintain a damaging beam in one spot. Lasers, unlike PPCs, did not deal smash damage in one go but needed to maintain consistent time on target of at least a few seconds.
"We know their maximum range now," Captain Kondo breathed. "Record and send everything to the Admiral."
And the carrier itself packaged this information to send down into the HPG station on the planet, because Comstar was supposedly so neutral that they would deliver military information to opposing parties of the world they inhabited as long as they paid the necessary priority fee.
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SLS Johnston
Taffy-class Pocket Warship
"Entering Medium Capital Range in five seconds."
"Main guns ready. Converge all capital lasers. Taffy Fleet, ready for combined bracketing fire on marked ship."
"Aye sir. Firing on your mark."
"Three. Two. One. Mark."
*FREEEEEM* *FREEEEEM* *FREEEEEM* *FREEEEEM*
From the 'chin' of the DroST, four laser ports briefly glittered.
This variant of the Drost IIH had reduced standard firepower and did not carry integral Fighter Bays. The general-purpose Drost IIH with an all SCL/1 armament could probably wipe out whole fighter wings by their lonesome while still being a decent threat to large craft.
There was room in the prow to carry up to eight Light Subcapital Lasers.
But Taffy Fleet's Pocket Warships carried four Heavy Sub-capital Lasers. SCL/3s. Each of these SCL massing 300 tons each had a punch approaching that of a Naval Laser/35, which massed 700 tons!
Although at a much reduced range. Four of them, if they could just concentrate their beams into one spot, could deal more on-point damage than a full scale Medium Naval PPC or a Naval Autocannon/10, which massed 1,800 and 2000 tons respectively. A Pocket WarShip only had to carry 1200 tons in primary armament.
In addition, the DroST IIH SL3 carried a pair of SCL/1s in each wing, each massing 150 tons.
In total, the 5300-ton Pocket WarShip had armament of:
- 4x Sub-Capital Laser/3
- 4x Sub-Capital Laser/1
- 9x Extended LRM-20 (3 aft)
- 16x ER PCC (4 aft)
- 16x ER Large Laser (12 aft)
- 2x AMS on each facing
Bracketing fire was a skill lost during the Star League (along with the top-secret algorithms that made it practical to employ) and was the art of dispersing fire in a carefully selected pattern to increase the chance of a hit. Normal individual fire modes for capital weapons mostly involved shooting in the enemy's general direction in a rippling pattern trying to predict its movements. Bracketing fire took that best prediction and walked the fire mode around it in a calculated series of hits where at least four guns worked in unison ensuring that something will hit no matter how the enemy dodges or random-walks.
*FREEEEEM* *FREEEEEM* *FREEEEEM* *FREEEEEM*
Laser sounds thrummed continuously through the bridge, the decks vibrating with every shot. Sensors tracking the enemy gave punchy audible returns, crackling and popping of enemy armor being scraped away, the scream of metal being ripped into-
For argument's sake, assume that SLC/3 deals 3 Capital Damage and the SCL/1 dealt 1 Capital. That was 12+4 = 16 on the forward arc. A Union had side armor of 18. An Overlord had side armor of 21. The largest Assault DropShip ever built, a Colossus, had 25 armor layers on its thickest facing.
There was no dropship that ever existed that could survive two volleys from these lasers.
And there were four shipfuls of them.
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DCS HIRANO
Achilles-class DropShip
Alarms rang through the red bridge, and the systems offer could only scream out "What? We are taking damage! Sir, breaches across-!"
A beam punched through into the internal ammo storage of the assault dropship and detonated. The ship tore itself apart from the inside.
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#FLEETCOM
SLS_Johnston - Enemy down.
SLS_Johnston - Switching to the next lead ship.
SLS_Samuel - Good job team.
SLS_Heerman - Enemy fightercraft accelerating.
SLS_Heerman - Also the Union DropShips.
SLS_Johnston - Beware of kamikaze attacks.
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The remaining Achilles, already doing a modicum of evasive movement, switched to a sudden frantic swerve. The nearest Union was being screamed at to provide cover.
Literal cover.
But nothing in space could ever be done so suddenly. Momentum was something to fight, and Newton's laws ruled. The Achilles wobbled sluggishly off to one side, while the DroST's capital lasers were already cycling.
In addition, because Lasers had comparatively light focusing lenses that could fire off-bore, they could be set into Anti-Aircraft Mode more suitable for engaging fast small craft below 500 tons. A single hit from any Sub-Capital Laser could throw even a heavy fighter off kilter, if not leaking thermal shock through a weak point. Even if the armor might hold, some components could still be damaged if unlucky - such as flight control surfaces, avionics wiring, and thrusters.
There was nothing short of a true WarShip that could stop them, much to the Combine's dawning horror.
The Dictator-class Pocket WarShips, massing 9000 tons instead of 5300, could only have been much more fearsome. No wonder even the Wolf's Dragoons could roll over and surrender.
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DCS PRIDE OF BENJAMIN
Overlord-class DropShip
The captain of the ship reported the events with a tone of hushed awe and dread to Warlord Yoriyoshi. Deep ensconced inside his Dragon, Yoriyoshi looked up, startled. "At that range?!" he roared.
"Hai, Tai-sho!"
"Those… those are not Extended Range lasers. Those are not extended range lasers at all!" he howled. "Those are no mere Assault DropShips - those are WarShips! Davion has WarShips! They fit a WarShip-grade weapon inside a DropShip!"
The captain of the ship nodded silently, sweating inside the temperature controlled environment of his bridge. He thanked his lucky stars that his ship was far on the other side of the formation.
"Your orders, Warlord?."
"I demand to speak with Admiral Nitta! Immediately!"
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DCS HAGURE
Vengeance-class DropShip
"Your orders, Teitoku?" asked the comms officer.
Instead of answering, the old leaned back on his chair and rubbed his chin. After a while, he waved his hand and said "The orders have not changed. Move at best combined speed. Destroy those dropships with any means you have."
The Light Horse dropships had already been considered the most dangerous element here, this only increased the urgency.
This was the absolute advantage of range.
Most of the important troops were in the Overlords. These Unions contained mainly DCMS tanks and infantry. They were helpless to do anything inside their bays. The captains of these Unions - they would take hits and ram the enemy if necessary. They would do this, or their families would suffer long and agonizing deaths for their cowardice.
A bright light flared in the distance and on the holopool, one of the triangular symbols for an aerodyne dropship vanished.
"DCS MEGUMI… has been sunk," reported the sensors officer, only a small quaver betraying his nervousness.
"Continue," said Admiral Nitta. "Everything in that battle group exists to clear the way for the bombers. No one comes back. Kill those dropships or die trying."
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SLS Johnston
Taffy-class Pocket Warship
"Enemy fightergroup entering Capital Medium Range. We are taking LRM fire."
There were still the ten Union DropShips, now burning forward at their max thrust of 2.5 gees.
Captain Lancaster let out a sigh of relief. Still dangerous, but compared to the Achilles that can maneuver at six gravities, they had much more room to breathe.
"All weapons free. SLS Joel and Heerman, switch to AAA mode. Johnston and Samuel will be on anti-capital ship duty. Helm, intercept at two gravities. All ships, loose formation."
"Setting acceleration corridor, aye sir. All hands prepare for high gravity movement in five seconds."
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All Kurita craft shifted their disposition, becoming all but berserk. The fightercraft skirmishing with Pegasus Wing broke off to swarm the four Pocket WarShips. The ships did not have that many guns to deal with these many fighters.
The four DroSTs moved at an angle predicted to avoid any direct dropship on dropship action - avoiding any silly kamikaze attempts - even if their safe thrust values were about triple that of the enemy. They no longer needed to keep their nose pointed at the enemy.
Internal audio cues hissed with every enemy attack run. This was not something they could just ignore, but it was… bearable.
An Overlord had 22 Capital armor on its nose, 21 sides, and 15 aft. The Achilles had 29 nose, 26 side and 17 aft.
The Drost Pocket Warship DRST-SL3 had *50* Capital-equivalent armor layers up front, *42* to the sides, and *37* to the rear. Against standard weaponry, some poetic license aside, they could do this all day. Captain Lancaster leaned back on his seat and let the crew work. No orders were needed. He focused on observing how the situation developed and imagined this as practice for a thunder run to Luthien.
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#FLEETCOM
SLS_Samuel - DropShip kill.
SLS_Johnston - Reporting: eight Unions remaining.
SLS_Heerman - Enemy Small Crafts destroyed.
SLS_Heerman - Go away, space marines.
SLS_Joel - Still too many fighters.
EYE - WARNING.
EYE - High probability nuclear munitions on inbound heavy fightercraft.
EYE - Targets marked.
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Captain Lancaster sat up suddenly. "WHAT?!"
Looking at the tacmap, a full squadron was diving for his ship in three lines. They were all not going as fast as those fighters could normally be expected to move. Were the bombers concentrated all on one group or spread out across three?!
The escorting dronecraft immediately broke off from fighter combat to intercept.
"AAA mode on! All guns on point defense!" the gunner screamed.
The bridge echoed with a distinctive buzzing siren. *WA-OMP!* *WA-OMP!* *WA-OMP!*
Fightercraft could carry 'off the shelf' nuclear warheads in a five-ton missile. A Slayer at 80 tons could only carry one, but the extra mass on its hardpoints need only slow it down from maximum of 4.5 gees to 4 gees of thrust.
The fleet converged fire and filled the region of space in lasers and missiles and scattered PPC bolts. Fighters died, but not quickly enough.
"Four large missile signatures inbound!"
Everyone inside the ship grit their teeth and felt faint, blood flow being dragged by the g-forces as the DroST slammed its main thrusters into sudden 4 gravities trying to get out of the way.
*vipvipvip* *vipvipvip* *vipvipvip* *vipvipvip*
All non-capital guns switched to Point Defense mode, and Laser AMS worked their frantic best. A Stuka drone swooped down to intercept a missile with its body.
A star was born.
Everything whited out for a moment in a wash of hot photons and a storm of electromagnetic waves. This disrupted one of the closest other Alamo, burning out in fratricidal kill.
The two remaining nuke-tipped missiles were able to continue unhindered, as the nuclear flare also disrupted all nearby sensors and targeting systems.
The SLS Johnston's sideways movement allowed one heavy and ungainly missile to just barely miss. It terminal guidance had overcommitted.
The other missile struck the ship dead-on. Straight into the round ELH logo even.
The five kiloton Alamo warhead burst out into a rapidly expanding orb of nuclear hellfire right on contact.
Layers upon layers of armor instantly evaporated, plating expanding and spooling out into threads as shock traveled through the hull. The internal structure of the Pocket Warship screamed and flexed inwards. The crew felt the hammer-blow of the gods through the ship itself and into their ribcages.
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