120

Coromodir System

Nadir Jump-Point

Olympus Station

12th January 3069

The duty station started like all others for Ensign Julius Silva. Monitoring the traffic on the Nadir Jump-Point of the Coromodir system was a busy job, but not a properly exciting one. Until now.

"Unscheduled emergence wave. A big one! Confirmed several big ships!'

'Sound the alert!'

'Interference on the Box! Can make the bloody thing work.'

'Switch to radio signals! Fast.'

'Can't, also massive interference.'

'Activate case Zulu, prepare the emergency secure laser data-links for communication with both planets. Whatever is arriving is big and is serious.'

'Time count… already passed the megatons class jump, incoming is going to be a very big WarShip, or various ships arriving at the same time.' 

The force that arrived was composed by 4 WarShips, more precisely, 2 Aegis class Heavy Cruisers, 1 Lola III and 1 Baron class Destroyers. None with active IFF, a sure sign that they were hostile.

The forces present at the Nadir Jump-Point tried to do something, they really tried, but they didn't have any WarShip and the only Pocket Warship, a Leopard CW, only had a single NL55. To be fair, it got a clean shot on the Lola III, without any visible damage other than a scar on the Destroyer armor.

The answer destroyed all the defending forces present, including the Olympus station with one Ensign Julius Silva, but not before he successfully sent the composition of the invader force via secure laser data-link to both Coromodir V and VI.

After that, several hours later, in Coromodir V, the nearest inhabited planet, (Coromodir VI being on the other side of the system at this time) potent optical telescopes were pointed to the location. Soon, they confirmed the composition of the invasion (or raider) force and also detected a late arrival wave with a very rare Falsane Yardship, 1 StarLord, and 6 Invaders.

Furthermore, the DropShips, that by now, were deployed were a mix of Assault, 'aerospace carrier and infantry transport, which indicated a will to capture targets.

As usual in these emergencies, any JumpShip present at the Nadir that could immediately jump out, did it, and the poor ones that couldn't were destroyed.

The JumpShips at the Zenith Jump-Point, as soon as they learned of the invasion also jumped out if they could.

That let the system without any (civil) way of alert the near systems, because of the unprecedented and unexpected jamming of the FTL communications.

Their objective quickly became obvious as the force moved in direction of Coromodir V.

Whoever they were, they didn't try to go for the stable pirate jump-point near the planet, having no doubt been well-informed about the (relatively) massive defenses covering it (as well as the stable pirate Jump Point around Coromodir VI).

Note..: OTL/Lore the HPG/BlackBox and radio interference/jamming can be caused by the massive 1000LY ranged Super-HPGs that WoB used in the Jihad.

The forces defending the system included the Winchester II class Cruiser TCS Daniel Calderon, and two Corvettes – the Tribal class TCS Tribal, first and so far only operational ship of her class, and the Pinto class TCS Mandalas, as well as several Pocket Warships. Also present were 3 Carcajou class Cutters.

Because of the jamming, the nature and numbers of the invaders and the location of the forces present, it was decided that the TCS Mandalas that was near the Coromodir VI jump point would jump to the Guldra system and from there alert all the forces in range to provide support.

Only later was it discovered that both Guldra and Itrom, the two inhabited system at less than 30 LY from Coromodir, had also been hit by the same jamming. The defense had thus been deprived of a WarShip for nothing.

In the Coromodir V shipyards, 2 Tribal class Corvettes, 2 Ajax class Destroyers and 6 Invader class JumpShips rested in varied stages of construction and represented without any doubt a very tempting target for the invaders/raiders.

The 'journey' to Coromodir V was not easy for the invaders.

Captain Mary Li, commanding the TCS Tribal pulverized the previous range record and while it took her the full ammo of her Light Naval Gauss to take down three DropShips, she managed to destroy them, at over 5 million kilometers. Of course, not all the shots hit, but the ones that did were enough to destroy a Union-CV, a Titan and a Triumph.

Due to the fact that the distance between the Nadir Jump Point and Coromodir V was about 9 days, and that the locations had more JumpShips and ferries than a system without shipyards (or spacers) would normally have, a series of immense navigational feats moved several military DropShips from Coromodir VI, that at this time was on the opposite side of the system, and under normal conditions wouldn't be able to send help in time, a fact more than probable know by the invaders, to Coromodir V, with the very capable navigators making full use of the Pirate Points near both planets.

Normally, more than half of these jumps would have make anyone navigation licenses removed but this was a special circumstances.

The end result was that several Pocket WarShips, Assault DropShips and Heavy Carriers, the latter carrying a considerable number of ASF and small crafts - small crafts in this case being Flankers-F, 200 tons of pure malice equipped with 3 ERPPCs and a dozen Arrow IVs, in a mix of AAMs and AShMs, were moved from Coromodir VI to the orbit of Coromodir V, greatly reinforcing the local defenses.

Note: This was only possible due to the fact that both planets (Coromodir V and VI) had moons of reasonable size which created Lagrange Points, AKA stable Pirate Points, at a short distance from the respective planets. These were the kind of Pirate Points that ferries could - at the limit, and only with high-class navigators - operate. In reality, the ferries were not certified for these operations, but military emergencies...

Two days away from Coromodir V, the forces on both sides faced each other.

The first line of defense were the ASFs and small crafts, leaving on the Coromodir side the WarShips, Pocket WarShips and Assault DropShips for the second wave.

But what the first wave lacked in mass, they had in numbers and the numerical advantage for the defending forces was obvious from the start. Some 200 ASFs - all SL models, though many clearly upgraded, were up against just over 300 ASFs and 70 small crafts. The two WarShips and DropShips of the invading force did what they could to support their escort.

Clearly the invaders also had AAMs and ECMs, which balanced the forces somewhat, but after the first pass, the invaders had lost more than half of the ASFs, for a loss of ninety two from the defenders. Even if none of the DropShips or WarShips had been destroyed in this attack, all of the invading WarShips and several of their DropShips had been hit badly.

Now it was the turn of the defender heavyweights to enter the game with 1 Winchester II class Cruiser, 1 Tribal class Corvette, 3 Carcajou class Cutters, 4 Lee Pocket WarShips, and 6 Leopard Pocket WarShips.

In terms of mass, this fleet was not impressive. But unlike the attackers, they still had full magazines, and undamaged armor. And being Taurians, they carried lots and lots of nukes.

Whereas the attackers would have basically emptied their magazines to defend themselves and have little anti-missile capability left after stopping the Alamos salvos from the first attack.

Or so the defenders thought. In fact, the two Aegis had been extensively modified, and not only had a comprehensive anti-ASF and AMS defense, but, also much deeper magazines for the capital missiles.

The 4 Lee concentrated on one of the Aegis, and between them, they had enough AR-10s to saturate the Heavy Cruiser defenses. They were destroyed, but the Cruiser died along with them, hit by 3 Peacemakers.

The Baron showed what a Destroyer was capable of against Cutters. It destroyed two and heavily damaged the last one, but did not survive the encounter, hit by Heavy Naval PPC and Peacemakers.

The Cutters, while clearly not designed to fight against true WarShips, survived long enough to do lethal damage, even when they were hit by enough fire that a ship double that size had no chance to survive.

The other Aegis and the Lola, were busy dealing with the Daniel Calderon, and destroyed it, even if in the process, the Cruiser had been moderately damaged and the Destroyer heavily damaged.

This left only the TCS Tribal with some PW Leopards again the invaders – that and several ASF and small crafts with their ammo depleted.

But, in their planning, the invaders had forgot one tiny, small detail that proved to be critical – the jamming worked for the outgoing and incoming messages. Like all important Concordat systems, Coromodir has two HPG networks – one the civilian one, based on the old Comstar HPGs, and another, full Taurian made, for exclusive military transmissions with transmissions being made on a regular basis just in case. When several systems begin losing contact with Coromodir, in both networks, it was evident that something bad was happening there.

And several WarShips were send. Since all the WarShips of the Concordat Navy, with the exception of the Pinto class, had LF batteries they could move fast, helped in this by a network of recharge stations constructed in the last decades at great expense.

The end result, was that when the TCS Tribal was apparently alone against the invasion force, several jump points became active in the system. And from these, emerged several WarShips, including the recently operational TCS Thomas Calderon (a modified Texas class), that arrived with its escort group – 2 Winchester II Heavy Cruisers, 2 Dart II Light Cruisers, 2 Concordat Frigates, and 4 Ajax Destroyers, that were in exercise nearby. While the Thomas Calderon and its group arrived at the Zenith jump point, said jump point had a recharge station, so the fleet could jump to Coromodir V in as short time, negating access to the shipyards to the invaders, which understood it too.

Instead of trying a useless continuation of their mission, the invaders changed directions, moving to the nearest point past the jump limit they could achieve.

But, when they, some days latter, were near the jump limit, the Thomas Calderon task force jumped there, having already recharged its K-F drives, thanks to the Zenith recharge station.

Confronted by a massively superior force and with no escape possible, the invaders destroyed their ships, exploding the reactors (or the nukes that they had inside) committing suicide in the act, so as not to give clues about their origins.