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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!)
Chapter 28 - Dance of Mist/Fire in the Skies[]
Two Stars of Strike Fighters…
…accompanied by NL-46 space combat shuttles coming in on a ballistic slingshot from the orbit of the closest moon to the Johnson gas giant, these are going in at a polar-course that will bring them into orbit of Johnson Two at significant velocity from off-angle. The enemy won't see them until they're already aerobraking in Johnson II's atmosphere.
That's twenty Aerofighters, roughly half of them carrying anti-shipping strike packages under an ECM umbrella.
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Essex II Class Destroyer, SLS Lynnwood
From a completely different angle, twelve fighters, mostly older, Inner Sphere designs with drop tanks and their own strike packages, escorted by drop-tanked Aquarius Escort Small Craft modified to serve as ECM platforms, are coming in from Evanescent with velocity along a course from the fourth moon's orbit.
The spread would tax even very well equipped point defenses in clear space. Thing is, SLS Lynnwood is angling for a close approach over Johnson II, with pre-planned targets on the surface.
Space battle is often a matter of moments from start to finish once the shooting begins.
One of the groups will deliver enough damage to drop the Destroyer, it's almost guaranteed since the Lynnwood has no combat air patrol capable of intercepting and giving space battle for superiority (aka stopping the strike missions).
Combat in space is often decided by a combination not of firepower and armor, but instead, by speed, vector, and timing.
Moving in behind the strike wings, are the Bonaventure-class OWS Evanescent and Bonaventure-Modified-type C OWS Illusive.
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Bonaventure Class Corvette
SLDF naval simulators give the two corvettes about a thirty percent chance of survival, as they're closing with a ship that has them significantly outgunned.
There have always been holes in SLDF warship doctrines. One of those holes is being exploited by the experience and knowledge of Captain David Foster (OWS Illusive), and Captain Amanda Roberts (OWS Evanescent).
This is helped by the choice of SLS Lynnwood's commander, Lord Captain Bartholomew Innslee, whose decision is simply to force the gun-based confrontation despite lacking the combat air patrols necessary to keep the strike fighters from delivering their payloads.
It's a gamble, one that apparently eluded the writers of the textbooks at Norfolk Luna.
But then, the idea that anyone would deploy an Essex II alone, hadn't really occurred to the planners who loaded those training sims in the 2750s, and the idea that anyone would take the risk of running two of the most infamously undergunned and under protected corvettes against a dedicated ship-killer was seen as an amusing joke by SLDF planners when the Lynnwood was deployed, and the inheritors of her original crew really never had to face this situation in the past.
Objectively, this gives Roberts and Foster better than fifty percent chance of being 'right' and surviving this mission.
The first wave from the fighters is a shot of long-range missiles equipped with tuned homing systems-a type of weapon considered impractical, and they come from the Evanescent's fighter wing.
Anti-radiation homing missiles, following the signal from the Warship's targeting arrays as the jamming seems to clear, some are actively listening for the X-band squawk of TVM systems as the destroyer fires her Barracuda anti-air systems.
Missiles hit missiles, while other missiles slide past riding gunnery signal into the targeting arrays feeding the Lynnwood's potent Naval Autocannons.
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Hellcat Medium Fighter
In space, a few Hellcat class aerofighters bloom as their course intersects with relative-velocity shells, while other shots stream past, following false signals into deep space.
The strike wing closes, their larger, anti-shipping missiles warming up, along with iron bombs set to release and drift into the side of the warship on a close pass.
This actually would have a much harder time working against a ship fitted the way the Evanescent or Illusive are laid out-the design of the Bonaventure emphasizes point defenses against fighters, and these have both gotten updates…but the Lynnwood's weapons array is purely Essex II, a design meant to rely on wing-mates and fighter CAP to prevent what was being done.
The few small craft deployed by the Lynnwood are bypassed by the strike fighters, being too slow and awkward to make the interception and engage with add-on rocket pods and weapons meant to engage larger, slower, less maneuverable targets.
Sparks bloom in space, but they also bloom on the hull of SLS Lynnwood.
Fireflies dance and burn in the shadow of the M-class moon.
In the dark silence of space, below the brooding, sky-filling face of the gas giant as men and women are dying in fire.
The first…
…pass-through lost three Hellcat (HCT-313) from the Evanescent's air wing. The remaining nine angled in for deck space on Illusive with empty hardpoints and moderate damage. Their Aquarius class ECM support shuttles fell into an escort/waiting pattern over the Illusive while deck crews began rearming the fighters with additional strike packages.
The reason the Illusive's decks were empty enough to do this, was currently coming in two waves from slightly different angles toward the Lynnwood, and would be landing on Evanescent's slightly smaller deck in stages.
Bay crew scrambled to get the fighters topped up, bombs and rockets re-loaded, and the birds back in the air.
In CIC, Captain Foster studied the probable damage diagram on the enemy ship. It wasn't great news, though they weren't radiating nearly as strongly with their defensive radar, and there was some indication of damaged weapons mounts, doors and installations glowing red with thermal blooms.
"CAG, tell Bravo Star to focus their fire on crippling the enemy destroyer's navigation arrays, we blind them they have to come up from the atmosphere to get their bearings or risk crashing."
"What about Alpha?"
"Stick to their targets for now, the more we cripple his guns and sensors, the easier the rest of this gets." Foster grimaced.
This was messy because it has to be. I hope they have been drilling fast fuel and reloads over on the Evanescent…
The last of the fighters were back out and the first of the shuttles was docking in.
"We have incoming…
…hostiles, planform says two K-1s and three Mark VIIs burning too hot for their velocity or acceleration curve." Mister Samuel reported.
"Well, he found something to use for a strike wing." Amanda quipped. "Now they saw us, because I made sure they saw us, spin up our point defenses, Mister Seron, and gunnery crews switch over to bracket-fire with the main guns. I want those shuttles to pop before we have to use the point-defense cannons. Mister Bedwyr, ETA on Alpha Star?"
"Alpha Star is currently engaging the target, estimate twenty minutes before they're clear of him." her CAG reported.
"Right then…for what is about to happen to us, let us all be appropriate in our gratitude, oh lord…"
Red karats on the scopes began to blink, and then, to blink out.
One, then another, and then…
The hull of the Evanescent vibrated and damage alerts began to stream. "Mister Samuel, how bad are we hit?" she demanded.
"I'm checking now!"
"Hit confirmed!!"
Bart wanted to crow about it too-the shot had been a 'long shot'-using the NAC-25's at beyond maximum reliable detection range at where he estimated they had to be.
And Roberts had held steady speed.
It had been a gamble. "Did we kill them?" he demanded.
"No kill, no secondaries, and they're still engaging our strike package with point defenses-but the LRM flack's fallen off."
That told him what they'd hit. "Keep on them, they're damaged now! Helm, increase thrust, she took the bait!"
"Aye sir!"
I don't have to kill civilians! Relief washed over him..right before damage alarms sounded.
They were being hit from…the wrong side. Systems threw alerts and screens went dark as sensor arrays were blinded and damage alarms sounded.
"Helm! Keep our Bearing on the enemy Corvette, one hundred fifty percent!!" he ordered. “Close the distance to optical sighting-they can't go into thrust and still retrieve their fighters!"