For House & Dominion: Civil War [spoiler]Quest[/spoiler]

First few engagements will be about testing the enemy strength and weaknesses and trying to whittle down their numbers to a more manageable amount. Especially their heavy ships and maybe their supers if we can get to them.

>1953 was probably a shit time for heraldic research
This has been a concern of mine as well.

My Grandfather likely didn't have many family records of his own to draw on due to the war.

Rolled 4 (1d12)

>Do we have a rough idea how many cloaked ships have arrvied?
Hard numbers are difficult to determine but there may have been upwards of 20. Some ships may have flown in closer formations making it more difficult to get better readings.
At least two ships were detected heading for the outermost reaches of the relay which were confirmed by allied scanning ships.
The bulk of them were heading into allied space towards locations fleets might be expected to group to contest the invasion forces.

Mike reports ready and soon enough attack cruisers have been detached to form a dense enough network.

Roll 3d100 for their first attempt to locate a scout ship.
Yes you want my roll to be high.

Rolled 38 (1d100)

>Roll 3d100 for their first attempt to locate a scout ship.
1

>Yes you want my roll to be high.
>Rolled 4 (1d12)
Well, fuck.

Considering how things are going in continental Europe at the moment, I'd do it soon. The local embassy of the country where your family came from might be able to help you get in touch with somebody. Or at least point you in the right direction.

Rolled 23, 79, 54 = 156 (3d100)

>Yes you want my roll to be high.
Well crap. Now I don't know how to feel. Also time to sleep. Got a 12 hour day tomorrow that I need to soldier through.

Rolled 68 (1d100)

2

Rolled 29 (1d100)

3

Rolled 27, 82, 63 = 172 (3d100)

Rolled 13, 81, 35 = 129 (3d100)

Rolled 88, 71, 2 = 161 (3d100)

Late user rolling to see if we can get anything other than a bell curve.

The first attempt to catch a cloaked ship with the detection formation takes some work. hastily assembled as it was the force is still working out some issues when they jump in near the last known coordinates of an enemy ship.

Half of the ships are having technical problems or are out of position at first. Mike orders the deployment of additional sensor probes normally used against the Neeran, increasing the overall beam detection range of those ships that still have them.

A lucky hit from the detection beams is just enough for the Dragoons to triangulate a location and micro jump in closer. The squadron opens fire in every direction, scoring a phase cannon hit and forcing the scout ship to decloak, raise shields and flee.

Even though the Dragoons are not in ideal position to quickly intercept it doesn't take long to change that. The Frigate takes considerable damage to the outer hull and engines before it can be brought to a halt.
While potentially salvageable it's going to need some time in the yards.

You were expecting a Silent Hunter, not a ship built off a modified Factions Frigate chassis. Its profile is more bulky than Rovinar cloaked ships, but the Dominion design can potentially carry more troops and cargo to be inserted for special operations.

Mike's taskforce heads out after additional targets in order of proximity.

"Those cloaked ships will cause more trouble than simply reporting on your positions if you're not careful. You might need to be on the lookout for sabotage or attempts to incite uprisings."

Did you want to take any special precautions against special forces? Keeping the planetary shields up whenever possible on worlds not under direct threat of attack could offer more protection for them but could also hinder logistics.

You could have light and attack cruisers from your reserves deploy a similar scanning formation in the Smugger's Run to look for ships there.

[ ] Raise planetary shields
[ ] Run Patrols with reserves
[ ] Other

[X] Run Patrols with reserves

>[ ] Run Patrols with reserves
Raise military and police readiness, which goes without saying due to imminent invasion.

Don't suppose it's worth it to start rolling propaganda in the style of ww2 to help combat enemy infiltration?

>[x] Run Patrols with reserves
>[x] Other
Instate a curfew?

[x] Both

Report ALL suspicious activity to your local PDF.

Not hat you know they work similar modifications will be made to ships back in the Run to help search for cloaked ships trying to find weak points in the defenses.

>Don't suppose it's worth it to start rolling propaganda in the style of ww2 to help combat enemy infiltration?
Worth a shot, though it might be a bit late.

>Instate a curfew?
Could prove difficult in certain areas where people work at all hours. Otherwise it's not a bad idea to keep non essentials off the street as much as possible.

We could use those PDAs we handed our to colonists on Rioja as tracking and identification devices. If the police sees people walking down the street but they get no signal from their PDAs, or owner data doesn't match the person carrying it, the police stops and IDs them.

Oh god they're deploying lots of supers and heavies and it's finally dawned on me how tough this is going to be.

I'm desperately trying to think of any last minute advantages we can scramble together, or some ancient superweapon we can unearth.

youtube.com/watch?v=6m-vRZnUFxg

Mike's unit has managed to take down 4 cloaked ships by the time elements of the enemy main fleet begin to arrive.

Bouncing signals off of the many com buoys in the area Arron reports that most of the leading wave have jumped in within weapons range of the nav station. Most of these consist of older Battleships and light cruisers covering Republic built Ballista class carriers. While inferior in most respects the Ballista can launch all of their fighters simultaneously.

Soon there are more than three thousand starfighters spreading out to secure the area.

Ranks of corvette squadrons are next, made up largely of Mark 2 attack corvettes, though some are still using the larger Mark 1's. Arron estimates at least 90 wings have jumped in within his detection range. Jamming has also started to increase with the arrival of additional support ships. Thankfully they're able to cut through it for the moment.

"I'll try to get readings on as many of them as possible. If we lose coms I'll pull back once they start to move."

Bigger ships start to revert, positioned safely behind the defensive screen of smaller ships. At the center of the formation appears the mobile fortress, dropping out of FTL so close to the smaller corvette screen that its reversion nearly damages them.

"That mobile fortress may have some problems with her drive systems. The energy discharge from her reversion was way higher than it should have been. Maybe there wasn't enough time for a proper shakedown? IFF shows her as the Chhogori... fuck me that thing has a lot of guns."

Three EX Mega class supers outfitted with Helios siege guns drop out in flanking positions followed by heavy cruisers and carriers. Several of the Talos class heavy carriers are present as are more cheaply built models Bonrah has been assembling from heavy asteroid tugs.

It's difficult to get an exact fix on the number of support craft that follow their arrival.

Other scouts report additional enemy ships arriving in surrounding systems. All show no signs of movement aside from those secure the space around the nav station and covering more arriving friendlies.

Intel believes that 30% of the enemy fleet still hasn't arrived yet.

Did you want to conduct raids or have ships jump in at long range to launch missiles and torps in an effort to provoke them?
Or would you rather wait and see what their plan is and react to their movements?

Let's see if we can't provoke them into an aggressive stance. We need to engage them piecemeal.

Will we get reinforcements, or are we expected to deafeat that fleet with what we have in the relay?

If we can catch a few of their lighter units unsupported I'm completely in favor of hitting them with overwhelming force quickly. Mixed wings drop in, catch attack Corvettes in a head to head and rip their guts out before jumping back out.

Harass them. I want to throw a comet at them like the Neeran did but I doubt we have the time to get it ready.

Do we have any stealth casings? I want to generate an overcharged AM torp and sneak it into the middle of their formations, try wiping out all their launched starfighters.

>Three EX Mega class supers outfitted with Helios siege guns
How does Forbearance compare to these? I remember something about older versions of the Mega being pretty low quality ships.

>Will we get reinforcements, or are we expected to deafeat that fleet with what we have in the relay?
Due to the recent battle in the Centri cluster your allies will be unable to send a relief force in the immediate future.

Best case scenario due to the 10 days needed to reach the relay from Gesaur is 24 days for earliest reinforcements.

>Do we have any stealth casings?
Some have been stockpiled for use by special forces and a number of other operations. These numbers are finite. Generally your Knights will keep 1 aboard their ships for use as a stealth probe, normally bought with their own funds.

Your engineers have been working on a prototype stealth casing for a heavy torpedo cobbled out of several smaller ones that were disassembled. Only 1 is available at this time. Due to the blockade that will be taking effect more of these can only be built at a rate of about 1 per week, otherwise you'll quickly deplete your stockpile.

>How does Forbearance compare to these?
Despite it's rebuilds (and possible structural problems that run the risk of reappearing in the future) Forbearance is a very powerful ship. Upgrades to its sublight drives using Terran built components mean that it can outrun any of the Mega class variants currently in use.
Weapons and power systems are also of very good quality.
Most Mega class in Dominion use tend to be used as dumping grounds for outdated capacitor banks and power systems that still have a few decades left before they burn out. Because of the Super's size it lets them just throw more on. This does not do their sublight performance any favours, but they tend to be slow enough that few care.

Newer heavier weapons found on them tend to be of better quality than seen elsewhere in the Dominion. Major Houses have gone to great lengths to bring their firepower up to par with what the Alliance was using 2-3 years ago.
In a prolonged battle the older power systems may not be able to match demands.

>Only 1 is available at this time.
Oh man we should definitely at least try it then.

Has Helios officially entered the war by now?

Not against a bunch of fighters. Save it for a superheavy or the fortress.

What's the largest type of ship the 4 siege Decis we've built are able to destroy in one salvo if they focus their fire? Older generation medium cruisers?

I just had an idea for a modification of the Avalanche class. I need pictures of the Orta Hone Hone from OutlawStar!

>Older generation medium cruisers?
Not even.
A Battlecruiser would be more realistic. The light siege guns need sustained fire to do damage. That's why the Jupiter class they were stripped off of was firing 5 of them in sequence.

1) Did you want to have a stealth Antimatter torpedo launched against the enemy fleet? Presumably it would do a fair amount of damage to the corvette screen. It's doubtful it would make it all the way to the capital ships.

1A) Launch Torpedo
1B) Save for later

2) Launch weak raids against the enemy main fleets while they wait for the rest of their fleet to arrive?
2A) Yes
2B) No

1B
2A

We should make sure our skirmishers are lead by people who know what they're doing. Any mistake in this situation is likely to be fatal.

[x] 1A
Thin their numbers!

[x] 2A

1a and 2a

1A) Launch Torpedo
2A) Yes

1A) Launch Torpedo

2B) No

Let's switch to launching a bunch of torpedoes to take advantage of the thinned out corvette screen

Kim will work out a way for his people to safely deploy a large warhead in a timely manner.
He'll coordinate with skirmishing units under the command of Drake and your other allies.

Only attack ships capable of launching missile or torpedoes will be sent in to keep others from getting in the way during the attack and retreat phases.

See you in the morning!

What happens if the containment systems on a gravity well generator fail?

Does it produce a black hole bomb?

Bump

bump

>1B
>2A) Yes

If the gravity well was active when it happened it will probably eat part of the ship. There are contingency measures in place to prevent (or reduce the likelihood of) the complete destruction of the ship should this happen.
It does not have the mass necessary to sustain itself and will rapidly evaporate, though this may still take the better part of an hour.

Ber'helum and the Alliance have been looking at ways to potentially weaponize this but for now any attempt would result in damage to the ship in a best case scenario.

Also let's get a 1d100 for that torpedo.

Rolled 58 (1d100)

>1d100
Rolling!

Rolled 46 (1d100)

Rolled 23 (1d100)

So if they ejected the black hole and used something to accelerate it, like our gelsan array, would that make a singularity projector?

Rolled 99 (1d100)

Oh crap.

>Ber'helum and the Alliance have been looking at ways to potentially weaponize this but for now any attempt would result in damage to the ship in a best case scenario.

Wouldn't it make sense to deploy dedicated fire ships in that case? Throw out all the the sensor equipment and security measures, shove the remaining black hole machinery into a destroyer or light cruiser hull, put that stealth coating on the hull, and then fly it into enemy formations or capital ships.

So close

Didn't J-D manage to capture one of the early Neeran shroud generators a while back?

youtube.com/watch?v=iTstNuaJXqM

Raider squadrons sent in by Drake and your other allies micro jump in outside of the effective range of energy weapons and begin to launch torpedoes and missiles. Squadrons generally fire off two volleys before changing course and jumping out.

Despite their range it doesn't stop elements of the enemy fleet from returning fire. Most of the big ships hold back for fear of hitting their escorts and even some of the corvettes have to watch for their starfighters.

Arron is still loitering in the area but is quickly pulling back to avoid being hit by stray fire.

Before the first wave of warheads even reach their targets the Nasidum forces decide how to counter your tactics. They launch their own barrage of torpedoes, multiple waves intended to deny your units places to micro jump in without the risk of encountering them.

"They're wasting a lot of torpedoes." observes Maybourne.

They're not really wasted if they keep your ships from doing their job. Kim had better hurry up and get that torpedo away before there are no safe places to approach from.

"The torpedo is away." reports Kim not long after.

"Really? I didn't see it launched."
"That was the point wasn't it?"

Interceptor missiles are launched by a few of the newer Aries built ships as the torped waves close in. There aren't enough to prevent all of them from reaching their targets. The occasional corvette is destroyed and larger ships that take enough damage pull back behind the rest of the screen.

The heavy warhead is quite close to the outer screen when it's detected. A few of the older model ECM battleships they have fitted with additional sensors must have picked them up.

Some nearby ships move to intercept while others pull back in an attempt to keep out of range. When a combination of weapons fire and proximity sensors set off the AM warhead it annihilates everything nearby, instantly erasing 2 corvettes squadrons and damaging 30 other ships.

Starfighters that were nearby also must have taken a heavy dose of radiation. Some of them pull back to carriers while others are launched to take their place.

Drake reports that the missile and torpedo screens launched by the enemy fleet are now making it almost impossible to safely deploy raiding forces against the main fleet. Unless you order otherwise they'll break off the attempt.
"They've more or less just mined the area around the station. We can try against the other fleets but there's no guarantee they won't do the same."

Intel reports that the enemy fleet is transmitting what may be a propaganda broadcast on the civilian com frequencies and via the public infonet in the region. They're announcing bounties have been placed on the heads of all Admirals and Nobles acting as fleet commanders in the region. This includes the Counts and Barons.

[ ] Jam them. Have hackers destroy data that reaches the net.
[ ] Counter them with bounties on their fleet commanders
[ ] "What's their bounty on me?"

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit I didn't get a fathers day card!
Back in 40-ish minutes.

>[ ] Jam them. Have hackers destroy data that reaches the net.
>[ ] "What's their bounty on me?"

>[x] "What's their bounty on me?"
>[x] Jam them. Have hackers destroy data that reaches the net.

>[X] Jam them. Have hackers destroy data that reaches the net.
>[X] Counter them with bounties on their fleet commanders
>[X] "What's their bounty on me?"

All of the above.

We have hackers?

Intel does. Someone has to train all of the Marine intrusion specialists and protect House data networks from hostile attack.

"What's their bounty on me?"
"Half of your landholdings and industry on Rioja, though they don't specify what parts."

That is... not a small bounty.

"Jam them. Get intel to destroy any of that data that reaches the net. We can't have the unemployed mercenaries or bounty hunters getting it into their head to join the opposition."

It's a good thing your personal guard was expanded.

Any additional security precautions you want to put in place?

>Any additional security precautions you want to put in place?
Wear our PA all the time. If it's in maintenance, wear cell armor instead.

Offer minor payments for intelligence that leads to the capture/neutralisation of enemy saboteurs.

>That is... not a small bounty.
Wow. Pure curiosity, but are we the highest bounty offerd?

>Many hundreds of millions in land and business

It's a damn narrow field I expect

Yeah, but if we beat out the local head of the Royal House it still counts as bragging rights.

At present yes.
You have not broken the record for largest bounty in the history of the Dominion though.

Bounties placed on the leaders of any House siding with your alliance are also quite substantial. Fortunately most of them are listed as needing to take the person alive. Dead they're worth 10% of the full bounty.

As word of this gets out it may hurt morale.

For now you suit up in your armor and suggest that minor rewards be made available to those helping to prevent sabotage.You hope it doesn't lead to a witch hunt.

Once the last ships from the enemy fleet have arrived they open a channel to the Guild station and before long every ship that was docked begins to evacuate.

"What are they up to?" wonders Drake.
"They can't destroy a nav station." says Maybourne. "The Guild would blacklist them."

Once most of the ships have departed the main guns on the Chhogori are brought to bear and two of the turrets open fire. Beams from the Iratar siege weapons strike the upper and lower most points of the station core destroying the main communication and sensor arrays. Of the four beams one missed its target but it hardly makes a difference. No traffic is going in or out of the Relay from this end until they're rebuilt.

That may take months.

For now Nasidum and their allies look to be abandoning the station and have begun to align for a jump to attack Csontos. Smaller squadron level units are beginning to jump out in different directions, either to scout or begin raiding.

Can we counter-bounty the three lead commanders of the invasion fleet? Offer a significant portion of their fleet salvage as payment.

Can we drag a portion of their fleet out of jump with Bonrah's generator?

>Fortunately most of them are listed as needing to take the person alive
Who's unpopular enough to warrant the full bounty when killed?

>map
Where does the open route that's not to drh 2 lead?

>destroyed station
Can we use this to convince the terrans to allow a relief fleet through their territory?

>Can we counter-bounty the three lead commanders of the invasion fleet?
>[ ] Counter them with bounties on their fleet commanders
Yes.

>Who's unpopular enough to warrant the full bounty when killed?
Generally lower ranked knights that might be too dangerous to capture. Mike for instance.

>Where does the open route that's not to drh 2 lead?
A Republic relay. They're neutral to the two sides as long as nobody sells their good quality plasma cannons. There are a large number of restrictions on transit through the region as a result of the Terran blockades.

The only real reinforcements that could come through there are mercenaries from PCCG space.

>destroyed station
The station was not destroyed, just the main communication and sensor arrays.

We should definitely use this as political leverage. Can we inform all guild stations we're in contact with about what they're doing? Might hamper future fleet movements by them.

>Can we drag a portion of their fleet out of jump
The Grav Well that Ber'helum when to great effort to get to you? Possibly if you can get it into position in time. That could be very difficult as your fleets are parked back closer to the local Ruling House capital. The enemy has only a short jump to make, though with more ships.

Did you guys want to try and get a fleet into place for a drag and drop?
Remember that it takes time to disengage the gravity well once active so it will take time to retreat.

>A Republic relay.
Can we ask the Republic and isolationist Neeran for some low-key support? We stopped that city ship from crashing into their capital, after all.

Do we know how many ships have split off to go around the nav hazard?

Did we get get the drop them in minefield plan set up?

Sorry, my post didn't go through.

>Can we ask the Republic and isolationist Neeran for some low-key support? We stopped that city ship from crashing into their capital, after all.
Discreet inquiries will be made.

>Do we know how many ships have split off to go around the nav hazard?
Before the stations sensor arrays were destroyed your allied agents within the guild were reporting that a force was starting to jump towards the edges of the relay.
The sensor ship you had stationed in that direction has also picked up their movement. It's a force of several hundred ships at minimum and looks to include support craft and cargo ships.

>Minefield
You may not even have time to get there before they pass let alone power up the gravity well and deploy mines.
This would not be a battle suited to a minelayer action.

[ ] Try to intercept with grav well, we may catch some of them in time
[ ] Hold off and prepare for other operations

>[ ] Hold off and prepare for other operations

>[ ] Hold off and prepare for other operations
I think the enemy forces are still too concentrated at the moment.

>It's a force of several hundred ships at minimum and looks to include support craft and cargo ships.
I would guess they're planning to get the grounded ships into this fight.

[X] Hold off.

A shame we couldn't get a minefield in place, I mentioned it a few times in previous threads.

With the Nasidum fleet's arrival at Csontos they've begun a large scale bombardment to bring down the planetary shields. While they've been reinforced since the Ruling House retook the planet they're no match against such a large fleet.

Count Al'mari wants to contest the enevitable toop landing during the planetary assault with hopes of causing excessive casualties to the enemy. That won't be possible without the full support of the other commanders.

"Viscount Reynard, their fleet has settled into high orbit of the planet. Outside the gravity well still but it would take time for their larger ships to break orbit and jump. Do you believe this would be a good opportunity to bring our reserves and heaviest bombardment weapons into play?"

>What say?

It seems like a decent opportunity for a hit and run with our long range weapons. I'm not exactly comfortable commiting all our forces to a battle around the asteroid fortress at this point.

What do the other commanders think?

Do we know the location of their smaller ships? I feel like it's a pretty obvious trap.

Basically agree.

Apparently I neglected to post these two responses.
You'd just be moving the black hole and the gravity well rather than projecting a cone of increased gravity.

>Wouldn't it make sense to deploy dedicated fire ships in that case?
Gravity well generators can be used as fire ships. Ones lacking the necessary containment systems would not be able to carry or generate a singularity.
>shove the remaining black hole machinery into a destroyer or light cruiser hull
An extremely large battleship is the size limitation imposed by current technology. At this point the miniaturization of technology necessary to use a BS instead of a Medium would actually make it more expensive not less.

This technology is still in its infancy.

>Do we know the location of their smaller ships?
A screen of more than 10k corvettes surrounds the heaviest elements of the enemy fleet at Csontos. Some of them are contributing to the orbital bombardment.

Smaller squadron sized elements are spreading out through allied space. Most of that region has been evacuated. The forward most logistics base has been sabotaged by engineering units that are standing by to destroy it. If they lose communications and are attacked they'll play it safe and detonate the station early.

>What do the other commanders think?
Earl Tarse-enic thinks it's a bad location to deploy the gravity well and too early to bring in the Siege Array. Instead they would prefer to set a trap along the main trade lane by positioning a fleet there that the enemy will detect and move against.

Baron Anitol and several others believe that all contact with the enemy should be avoided until more of their recon assets are destroyed. Two other groups are being prepared to help Mike's fleet in tracking down and destroying cloaked ships.

>hit and run with our long range weapons.
The siege array being incapable of a quick hit and run due to its deployment time would not be able to participate.
Forbearance and their escort, along with the Helios AM launcher might be fast enough.

[ ] Hit and run with fast light ships
[ ] Hit and run with long range ships
[ ] Do not contest Csontos, focus on killing enemy scouts
[ ] Do not contest Csontos, set a trap along main trade lane

>[ ] Hit and run with fast light ships

>[ ] Hit and run with long range ships
We should still focus on getting the enemy scouts. Setting a trap without getting rid of these first seems unlikely to work.

>[x] Do not contest Csontos, focus on killing enemy scouts

[x] Let Daska take over, oh god.

[ ] Hit and run with long range ships
Keep a constant pressure on them. We can't stop raiding them for even a moment or they will catch their breath.

[ ] Hit and run with fast light ships, focus on killing enemy scouts and set a trap along main trade lane.

That graveyard outside of everyone influence cut off by Nav Hazards. Since they brought a bunch of support ships that way can we expect them to set up a salvage base there? Its a lucrative source of replacement parts and depending what they brought with them, could use it to replace ship losses.

Also at this point I'm inclined to go full total war mode and deny them their grounded assets in our rear line by bombardment

2 votes for hit and raid in some manner and 2 votes for taking out the enemy scouts.

Either way more efforts will be put into taking out the scout ships.

The Run Alliance fleet commanders are disappointed by the lack of a decisive attack plan from you.

youtube.com/watch?v=zl3WeXFnZBg

Drake and the other forward unit commanders send out additional skirmishing units to intercept the enemy squadrons scouting the forward areas.

Cloaked ships are apparently busy finding and disabling minor communications transmitters making it more difficult for sensor arrays to work in conjunction to track their movements. It will also make it easier for jamming to cut off your squadrons.

Hera reports that some of the enemy squadrons detected are made up of mercenaries. A few look to be equipped with some very advanced upgrades, or at least better than they'd usually be carrying.

"We're seeing numbers of a heavily modified Razor class with some of them. They seem to be carrying more of everything, even afterburners."

Com and sensor coverage of the forward areas begins to stutter from jamming and when they recover you see contacts of multiple units closing on Hera's position.

"Not this again. Boosalis to Drake, they're after my command ship. Performing a fighting withdrawal, it'll try to draw them away while my slower ships escape."

[ ] Send reinforcements
[ ] Let Drake handle it, focus on other enemies

>The Run Alliance fleet commanders are disappointed by the lack of a decisive attack plan from you.

I think we should try to bog down the enemy fleet around Csontos as long as possible. Just not with a large fleet action as our enemy will most likely have a definite advantage in that kind of engagement.

We should attempt constant raids with different tactics. Cold launch torpedoes, pot shots at hostile ships who are out of position with siege weapons, harassment of enemy recon elements. I'm sure the large pool of officers we have will be able even more ideas. Choosing between hit&run with certain ship types make little sense. If we can pull it off without significant losses, the idea is generally worth pursuing.

The enemies have commited to the invasion it seems, while we can deploy our forces where we want. We should take advantage of that.

>[x] Let Drake handle it, focus on other enemies