[The GM is aware that the following results are not all to the set standards. Sacrifices were necessary to try to get the game moving again.]
War Plan Green Revised version 4
-Homna String Defense League (20LY): 1st Garrison Army Group, 2nd Garrison Army Group, 2nd Line Army Group
--In conjunction with the Dark Star Alignment the ground forces will do their best to hold the line against the Ork invasion. They must hold WAAAGH!! Metalrenda's attention for as long as possible.
It has been an achievement for the Crusade to have gone from strength to strength as it cut back the threats of the Subsector. Casualties among the ground forces have been limited to moderate losses among single formations by reserves and limited enemy strength.
This was no longer the case.
The broad offensive against the Crusade's northern border split the Admiralty's attention too many ways. A situation that was made worse by the typical difficulty in tracking Ork fleet strengths. Simply put there was nothing less to assign to the Homnan region. Their purpose was always to be a buffer zone and so the Admiralty decreed that their deaths would buy the time needed to achieve results elsewhere, against greater foes.
To most of the Homnan garrisons the arrival of the Orks was signalled by the presence of deorbiting Rok transport "craft" and the regular volleys of anti-orbital missiles from those positions lucky enough to possess them. These missiles may be weak, by the standards of void warfare, but the Roks were merely metal rich masses hollowed out and made mobile. Gouges were torn from their brittle surfaces as they reduced their speed to velocities safe to lithobreak from and sometimes they formed a critical weakness.
The first landings of the Orks were done with the burning contrails of a destroyed Rok in the skies above as the more intact hammered into the ground to spawn howling blast waves.
[Combat Initiated
Ork Forces:
21x Ork Attakk Ships
5x Ork Terror Ships
2x Ork Stormerz
4x Ork Roks
36x Ork Warbands
4x Stompa Mobz
Friendly Forces:
1st Garrison Army Group, 2nd Garrison Army Group, 2nd Line Army Group:
-3 Orbital Defense Armies
-4 Defense Armies
-4 Infantry Armies
-1 Bridgehead Army
-1 Siege Army
12x Militia Armies
Minor Dark Star presence]
In the lead up to this campaign much of the population of the Homnan region had been evacuated to safer locations behind the front lines. Their noncombatants packed up and shipped out along with what little heavy industry they had produced in the time since their liberation. What was left behind were the volunteers, the militia,who would not abandon their worlds to defilement by aliens without a fight. Poorly armed but with experience fighting feral Ork populations, they stood ready to bulk out the defensive lines.
Over the heads of the incessant infantry battles as Human infantry held back or were swamped by waves of hollering Orks a second battle was fought. Entrenched artillery meant to wear down and crack open the walls of fortresses and Hives engaged the tottering, shuffling war machines of the Orks in vicious gun duels. Wavering beams of force, spheres of restrained energy, and comparatively simple atomic munitions lashed at the reinforced casements of the Human artillery as secondary weapons cheerfully traded fire with the infantry in the path of the feats of mechanical necromancy. Often, spearheads of Ork superheavy walkers were targeted by the ballistic missiles of the strategic weapon arm of the Crusade military. Something they were well suited for and entire clusters of poorly made walkers disappeared behind the accompanying fireballs of atomic weapons, to be released as broken ruins from the effects of their own failing systems.
The Orks were not deterred by these displays of violence. Megabommers and fighters swept through the sky to try and catch the Human missiles and pound the launchers (or any other particularly inviting target really) into scrap. Worse was the revealed capabilities of the rotund and bristling corvettes in orbit as Mega Armoed Nobs appeared in secure areas without warning to dispense uncontrolled violence upon all in reach. More than once this resulted in strategic weapons being detonated in their launchers after Meks attached to these parties subverted the devices to break the fortresses that had protected the defenses.
The only saving grace for the Humans was the unreliable nature of the Ork transports. The Roks once landed were difficult for the Orks to repair for further transit. Of the five worlds in the region, three had fallen, their garrisons annihilated to the last child by laughing Ork hordes in barbaric feats of ccruelty. Another was the subject of brutal sieges as the remaining soldiers fought to save enough land to feed their remaining soldiers and industry. The last was nearly untouched, subject to mere raids by opportunistic and foolishly eager ship kaptins.
Of interest were the ships sent by the Alignment who kept the Ork armada sufficiently distracted that they did not have the inclination to shoot or ram the Human defenders from orbit in spite of the minor firepower arrayed against them. During one of these attacks a previously hidden Alignment ship managed to seize one of the Ork teleportation ships after the nominal protectors had been lured away.
[Combat Result: Slow Defeat
Ork Losses:
1x Stormer
2x Terror Ships
2x Roks
14x Ork Warbands
2x Stompa Mobs
Friendly Losses:
2x Dark Star corvettes
2x Orbital Defense Armies
2x Defense Armies
1x Infantry Army
9x Militia Armies]
-Shrine World Lativa (60LY): 3rd Naval Squadron, 3rd Patrol Squadron, 4th Patrol Squadron, 2nd Mobile Army Group, 3rd Line Army Group, 1st Combined Army Group, 2nd Support Squadron
--Lativa will hold the line as best possible. Naval forces will serve as a distraction for the Orkish fleet to reduce pressure on Lativa. They are to avoid decisive battle as much as possible. Skirmish with the Orks, make them chase sensor ghosts, etc.
Internal Calavan Admiralty Memo
Regarding: Battle for Lativa during Legcutta's Invasions
...the early phases of the battle were characterized by the typical Ork aggression. Escort squadrons attempted to run down the combined Fleet element present in the system, stymied only by the distances involved negating the acceleration advantage of the unreliable Ork engines and allowing the fuel efficiency of the merchant derived thrusters of the Calavan vessels to shine as they were put in the exact situation they were built for…
...presented a significant tactical force yet an even more massive strategic liability. An army level formation of Shelter platforms and variants, led by Sisters Militant and made up of war orphans and refugees, simply consumes too much material of too high a grade to be deployed together. Thus, like the noble Astartes they must be used as a supplement to standard forces to break open the enemy front, or blunt an enemy spearhead, for other assets to exploit once the exoskeletons reach their combat loss grouping and become a liability to be protected instead of an asset to be used…
...usage proved invaluable in denying the Orks redoubts with which to organize around, both in destroying the crude but effective impactors of the invaders as they went through the slow process of deorbiting in order to strike the Cathedral of Holy Purpose and as they lay on the plains before the defensive belts of Cartren's City. Supplementary strikes prevented the hordes from massing as much as they wished in order to reach critical mass which allowed mobile forces augmented by Ecclessiarchal armored infantry to annihilate them in detail…
...to summarize: large numbers of Ork infantry continue to pollute Lativa's surface but they lack the ability to threaten the population centers and their immediate environs in the face of anti-ship warheads and Superheavy Armor. A comfortable margin of time exists for relief to be provided.
[Forces and Losses:
WAAAGH!! Gutrippa:
5x Frigate Analogues (1 Destroyed in limited engagements)
16x Corvette Analogues (4 Destroyed in skirmishing throughout the outer system, 5 destroyed in limited engagements)
26 Warbands (14 Destroyed through strategic weapon deployment and armored avalanches)
2 Roks (1 Destroyed as it was burning for a deorbit into the largest cultural site, another destroyed on the ground)
Crusade:
5x Resolute-class Corvettes (1 Destroyed in limited engagements)
2x Modernized Escort Carriers
2x Armed Merchant Marines (1 Destroyed in limited engagements)
A bunch of armies, taking limited damage
-Uniary (40LY): 1st Naval Squadron, 2nd Naval Squadron, 4th Naval Squadron, 1st Torpedo Squadron, 2nd Torpedo Squadron, 1st Line Army Group, 1st Calavar Void Army, 2nd Calavar Void Army, 1st Mobile Army Group, 1st Support Squadron, Sacred Legacy (Detached from 3rd Naval Squadron)
--The bulk of the Calavar fleet will fight to hold Uniary against the Ork onslaught. The 2nd Calavar Void Army's sole task in this battle will be to defend the Sacred Legacy against Orkish boarders and kommandos. The general idea of this battle will be centered around using the Sacred Legacy to snipe the Orks' cruisers and frigates. The Sacred Legacy must survive this battle. Force the Orks into the teeth of the fleet's firepower if they wish to attack the Sacred Legacy. The 1st Calavar Void Army will serve as a mobile fire brigade using the Harbingers to reinforce ships against boarding attempts by the Orks.
[Forces Involved:
WAAAGH!! Legcutta:
9x Onslaughts
6x Ravagers
2x Gitburnas (Lance Escort)
24x Corvette Analogues
1x Ended-Effort Lite Krooza (Looted Endeavour Light Cruiser)
1x Lite Krooza (Inverted)
1x Bigzzappa
8x Roks
80x Warband
Crusade:
4x Castigation
3x Warrior-A
1x Resolute-A
2x Escort Carrier
1x Courante
1x Long Arm
1x Long Arm-B
1x Indomitable
1x Strife
2x Herald (Variants)
Sacred Legacy w/ Lexicalum escort carriers
A bunch of armies in defensive positions
3x Hatchet
1x Knife]
Result: Lots of things die in one huge, cataclysmic orgy of mutual destruction. Unusually for the Crusade the enemy holds something approaching parity in the field of strike craft as Dakkajets cloud the combat space as much as Saviors do.
A number of enemy cripples are taken as prizes instead of scuttled as for once Human void infantry is available in numbers. Likely to be broken down for scrap given the damage to Calavar's docks.
[Losses:
Orks:
5x Onslaughts, mostly from tangling with the Crusade heavy frigates to try and reach the Strife
5x Ravagers, recreating that time when a Crusade torpedo crippled a Bulk Hauler turned light carrier
1x Gitburna, providing fire support for the spearhead and earning the ire of a Long Arm and its Lances over an extended period
17x Corvettes, as they prove just how bad they are even with shields in the face of heavy ordnance and Crusade Rapid Shields
8x Rok, while the fleet had more important things to do eventually they were dealt the Wages of Sin
1x Ended-Effort Lite Krooza, can be rebuilt with effort as it had its engines disabled by the Sacred Legacy and subsequently purged of greenskins
1x Lite Krooza but in appropriately Orky fashion, as Broadside mounted Zzappas cut into Castigations and heavy frigates
1x Bigzzappa
Perhaps 50 Warbands
Crusade:
Heavy damage to the Strife and her complement from being an easily noticed centerpiece of the Crusade fleet and Legcuttas advanced fighters
1x Resolute-A, 1x Warrior-A, 1x Escort Carrier lost in the press of Ork corvettes and opportunistic fire
1x Long Arm-B, 1x Castigation to the Ork spearhead
Moderate to heavy damage across the fleet, not helped by Kommando teams taking temporary control of the guns of friendly ships (round repair costs to a quarter of the surviving vessels, call it scrapping the ruined hulks for parts if you want)
Bagalog ships suffer heavily from inadequate garrisons, once boarders start getting through their solid hides]
[Legcuttas forces are nearly broken. A swift counterattack could end the threat he poses for good... It is encouraged to bring Sisters Militant for this to manage a kill on the notorious Warboss instead of relying on a Heroic Intervention by REDACTED.]
-Calavar: Attack of the Fifty Foot B-Team
Despite all of the excitement of the last century the Calavar system had not come under serious threat. True, pirate ships had occasionally nosed about the outer system before being chased off by the threat of the customs monitors or returning/outbound warships but it's placement at the heart of a burgeoning interstellar empire had warned off most attackers. The chance of meeting a squadron of irate veterans returning from a campaign was simply too much of a risk for opportunistic scavengers.
Yet there were more than just scavengers among the stars. The personnel of the nascent Forge World of Incleon watched the backward primitives with disdain. Who were these striplings to meddle with powers that had been proscribed from them? Their agents were few with the supposed Crusade's alliance with Lativa cutting out those who had been liberated of their dogma (or simply duped) with a single minded fervor that rivalled that of the disciples of Chaos… But they knew enough: Calavar could not be left to recover the region.
And thanks to the Orks there was going to be the perfect opportunity to get into their yards.
The translation of a trio of warships escorting a small shoal of transports was a common occurrence in the Calavar system of today. Resources to be shoveled into the yards, raw materials or manufactured products to be molded into ever newer, larger weapons of war. Even so the new arrivals were neither scheduled nor readily identified. Their hulls were of the correct shape but the drive plumes were clearly the product of systems that had not been produced in the Calavan yards.
This deception was dropped when a customs monitor closed to inspect the group and controlled detonations split the applique shells to unmask gun batteries that were already training on the Loyalist "warship". Venerable mechanisms strained as the monitor moved to try and evade but the Renegades were of far higher quality. Their vessels were built to face the likes of the Imperial Navy, dueling with Sword class Frigates as they fled or harrying Light Cruisers in packs where the monitors… Were not.
Muted columns of light overloaded the thin layer of Voids of the ship before tearing into the monitor's internals. A millennia of service ended with burning fuel flooding the corridors.
Despite the suddenness of the attack the Calavan Admiralty was no peace time administration. Hardened from the long campaigns to repel the invaders the military assets in the system were roused to battle. Saviors of the Planetary Defense Force readied for action alongside the proof of concept Interlopers and the Harbingers held back for military maneuvers or cargo. A partial mobilization of the infantry was conducted to be safe but the enemy had much more interest in the single strategically vital point of the system.
The dockyards of the Calavar system had been unimpressive, once. Now it was a double layered construct studded with loading and unloading points and cradling incomplete hulls within it's embrace. In the face of hostile force it's heritage betrayed it for it was yet a commercial installation; unlike the heavily fortified bastions of major fleet bases and established Forge Worlds. Still. It's garrison and workforce leapt into action to protect their home.
The Audacity, the first Light Cruiser scale purpose built warship, nosed out of it's dock as the Renegade fleet closed in on their prey. Entire sections were unfinished or even yet to be started at all. Most of it's hull had been sealed in layered armor, the majority of the engine bells had been brought online, and tertiary weapons had been activated along its length. Fire control for the primary weaponry was… Jury rigged to say the least but none of her crew or builders were fazed. They knew what could be at stake.
A pair of monitors had managed to reach the shipyard ahead of the attack and took up positions ahead of the Audacity as she in turn hovered ahead of the industrial complex. Behind them hovered a cloud of reactivated Combat Lighters to screen the shipyard from boarding attempts.
The interim captain of the Audacity cursed the lack of the prow Lances as the enemy approached. Causing even one of the three Escorts to turn away would be a significant boon to the upcoming gunnery clash. Instead they turned the ship to expose the broadside mounts… And waited.
Laser fire poured from the oncoming warships and was greeted by underpowered cannonfire… And a half dozen cerulean bolts. The Audacity had been built with salvage that Calavar could not produce itself and it appeared that the Renegades didn't know of it ahead of time. The volley of plasma missed, of course. How could it do anything else when the sensors had not been calibrated after their overly hasty installation? What it did accomplish was making the enemy scared for a solid blow from those guns held the potential to cripple one of their ships.
The trio of enemy Escorts fell into a pattern of hit and run tactics, taking advantage of their easy speed and grace as the Calavan warships protected a station and the unfinished Audacity. Interestingly the Renegades held back their boarders instead of feeding them into the guns of the protective shroud of strike craft, unlike the Traitors the Crusade had fought previously.
It was something that couldn't last.
First one then the other monitor were bludgeoned into ruin as clouds of expanding vapor burned through their guts. They died hard was all that could be said of them even as their guns did little to their foes. The death flare of the second hid the approach of the Interloper squadron and scratch escort of Saviors in for refurbishment. Their target had taken a few ineffectual hits from the monitors and a single bolt from the Audacity's broadside and this latter gouge earned many of the anti-ship missiles the impromptu wing carried. It's fore turret silenced and stern bleeding reaction plasma the Renegade warship fell back and triggered their own hidden card.
With the measure taken of the defenders it came time to deploy the main axis of attack. The transports that had previously been holding back darted (insomuch as such an adjective could be appended to fat hulled transports) in to begin unleashing their complements. Lightnings and Thunderbolts fitted for limited spaceflight issued forth to degrade the Combat Lighter blockade ahead of numerous boarding shuttles targeting both the station and the Audacity.
On the decks of the Audacity the lack of crew was sorely felt as the Corona point defense system fitfully burned hostile shuttles from the void as crew were retasked to command them and limited contact with boarding parties. Even so the ship had it's complement of security aboard in case of "incidents" not… Too unlike this. Shelter exoskeletons clashed with carapace armored officers in disturbingly even fights while regular crew exchanged fire around them.
The station had it worse as it was not built with defense in mind and the sole saving grace was the haste with which the enemy had to work. A pair of transports haphazardly burned Calavan Lighters down using their point defenses to open a hole and dock with the station to release work crews into the industrial sections to break down and learn what they could.
The cut and thrust ended with the arrival of the cargo convoy on the edge of the system. A pair of Calavan Armed Merchants protecting the Bulk Hauler, and joined by a quartet of Yttreum privateers provided some decided incentive for the invaders to take their spoils and run. Which they did in disciplined fashion, leaving the Audacity nearly unpowered in space and a slightly ransacked industrial platform.
[Combat Result: Minor Defeat
Enemy Losses:
Minor to Moderate Damage to three Iconoclast Escorts
Moderate Damage to one Air Army
Light Damage to one Void Army
Friendly Losses:
Industrial Platform Damage (Lose 70M until 30M repair cost is paid)
3x Customs Monitor (2x Crippled, repaired for 6M each)
3x Combat Lighter Squadrons
Audacity Light Cruiser Moderately Damaged (21M in repairs)
Research facilities raided: unknown level of compromised technology, lose one Design Action next turn]
