Sirius Business - a C# Aurora forum game. v2.5

[blue emu]

Sure, I might as well lead the first space marine division!

There might be no ground combat, of course. All we actually SEE is that big STO.

What do you think of the crazy "towed drop pod racks" idea?

It's just a big frame holding racks of drop pods, enough for a whole brigade, with life support attached.

The Lizard class don't even have a hull... if the trooper were to open the pod, they would be in vacuum.

 

[blue emu]

So we've got 450,000 tons of Naval vessels parked on the Lacaille 9352 => Lalande 21185 jump point. Naval vessels.

Plus 224,000 tons of Ground Forces, and all the Civilian tonnage required to carry and drop it (Tugs and Lizards).

The jump gate opens in two weeks.

 

[randakar]

Sure, I might as well lead the first space marine division!

Welcome to the game

 

[randakar]

Operation Funky Lizard :nods:

 

[blue emu]

The Gate has opened!

OK... this should be a clean-up operation rather than a battle. Operation Tapdancing Centipede is underway!

We can use this op as a chance to work out our doctrines in more detail. The first step will be getting into Lalande 21185 without exposing our vulnerable Troop Transports to potential fire. Convoy escort through a bottle-neck (the jump point).

First we'll send through a scouting force... a squadron of Destroyers plus an AWACS.

 

[blue emu]

The Scouting Force jumps through into Lalande 21185.

We're still getting data feeds from both of those probes we placed, months ago... one at each planet. Awesome!

We'll wait until we're out of jump shock and our sensors settle down. A couple of minutes.

 

[blue emu]

OK, everything is back online and there are no suspicious signatures detectable within a quarter of a billion km of the jump point.

We can bring first the Iche Bins Force, then the Troop Convoy through the Gate.

We'll just knock out the Achernar with a Fighter strike. It's a purpose-built PD vessel, so a strike on it will properly test our Penetrator missiles vs Point Defense.

The Troop Convoy will follow along behind the Iche Bins Force as we approach the innermost planet.

 

[blue emu]

Tactical.

Note that the Achernar has a functioning cloaking device, so its RADAR signature is only 715 tons (it is really a 7,150-ton ship, cloaked at -90%).

This complicates the Fighter attack a bit, since our Admiral II class AWACS are tuned for a completely different size of target (R100 instead of R14) and don't illuminate it properly for the Fighters unless we get very close indeed. Our Eyeball class AWACS FACs however, which usually manage Sabre squadrons, are tuned to R15 and will serve very well indeed to illuminate for the Fighters... and of course we brought one along inside one of the Mountain class Tenders.

We'll launch the Sabres when we reach the Waypoint. Might as well escort the Eyeball with Sabres.

Naturally, the target is ALREADY illuminated by that probe we placed months ago... but we're trying to develop tactics here, so let's arrange illumination.

 

[blue emu]

Tactical:

Notice that the range of our Penetrator two-stage missiles extends well beyond the opposite side of the planet's orbit.

Should we start by knocking out the STO on the second planet with a three-squadron Fighter strike? Or attempting to, anyway...

 

[blue emu]

ESN James Bond and ESN Mata Hari have both moved up within five million km of the planet containing that nasty STO. The Active Sensor Scout James Bond illuminates the target for the Fighters with his powerful AS101/R11 RADAR, while the Passive Sensor Scout Mata Hari stays back a bit and records everything.

 

[randakar]

Should we start by knocking out the STO on the second planet with a three-squadron Fighter strike? Or attempting to, anyway...

Why not?

 

[blue emu]

... so with the Spy and the Agent up close to act as Forward Observers, we should be able to hit that puppy with a Fighter strike from the back row. He's 10,000 tons, so the Fighters should have no trouble locking their R100 Missile Fire Controls onto him.

 

[blue emu]

With all of the Fighters lumped together into a single formation (78 of them), we turn "Fleet Sync Fire" on... so that everybody will wait until the entire formation is ready to fire, and then all will fire in a single time-on-target salvo.

LOL.

That's about five times as much ordnance as it will actually take to knock them out... an estimate... assuming that they took no damage from the Jerx.

But I want to test these Penetrator puppies. This is the first live test.

 

[blue emu]

The missiles pass Mata Hari and James Bond, and continue on towards the planet.

 

[blue emu]

Each lower-stage missile bus now releases two high-speed Penetrator warheads.

The warheads move about three times faster than the lower stage (50,000 kps vs 17,000 kps).

 

[blue emu]

Wow.

OK, there's a LOT of stuff on that planet, including Armored units.

Combat report -

Good news : We hit them with 452 nine-factor nukes. That's a lot of pain.

Bad news : There's still lots of them left. We might want to repeat that Fighter strike. Maybe a few times...

First there's several pages like this:

... and then a summary.

 

[blue emu]

The RADAR signature of the Goon ground unit has dropped from 10,000 tons to 6,000 tons.

... I wonder if the STO is still functional?

 

[randakar]

Holy moley. That sounds intense. Nuclear Armageddon intense. How much damage does that bombardment do to the planet itself?

Also, looks like our marines will have a fight on their hands when they land...

 

[randakar]

29 hits on the STO, 14 destroyed according to that report. Only 40% according to the signature so 21 more units left?

Sounds like a second salvo won't be entirely unwarranted

 

[randakar]

Those battlewagons soaked 106 hits, and you destroyed.. 6 of them? Also, almost 1500 hits on infantry. How many warheads did you send? 78 fighters times 2 missiles carrying 2 second stages each?