LANCER: BATTLEGROUP - Breaking Upon the Diamond Shoals

[DragonCobolt]

DRAMATIS PERSONA

Bold Text Indicates a Viewpoint Character

Admiral Bryce Garrison: Shadowy leader of Harrison Armory's forces

Admiral Talbert Shane: Untested leader of Battlegroup December

Ambassador Langly: Asshole face for Harrison Armory

Belladonna-331: Queer NHP in a sexy Subaltern aboard the Derecho

Captain Sven Halston: Recently promoted captain of the Hurricane

Chief Xon Brailey: Grumpy chief of operations on the battle scarred Butterfly Hill

Deck Chief John Mandala: Grumpy deck chief aboard the Harrison Armory ship, Fearsome.

Dr. Yata: Fleet Astrophysicist, Battlegroup December.

Engineer Sarial Serial: Overworked fabrication engineer, dragooned into service aboard the Gale.

Flight Lieutenant Ines Ibanla: Cocky combat pilot stationed on the Cú Chulainn.

Flight Private Alot "Neck" Xanata: Lancer aboard the HA ship, Fearsome.

Flight Private Tane "Catboy" Wallstein: Snarky catboy, mecha pilot aboard the Fearsome.

Flight Sergeant Lim "Bio" Biovare: By the numbers ace pilot stationed on the Harrison Armory ship, Fearsome.

Gunnery Captain Vane Omelas: Grizzled Union Veteran, in charge of the Derecho's (very large) gun.

Lieutenant Jade Gala: Signals and Intelligence officer for the Hurricane, Fisher.

Lieutenant Samuel Varine: Redhead of little words, helmsman of the Hurricane.

Lieutenant Xammie Galapagos: Best friend of Jade Gala, gunnery officer of the Hurricane.

Lieutenant Pilot Malard Morganstern: Newbie addition to Wolf Squad, attached to Butterfly Hill

Lieutenant Pilot Mark Vanderbilt: Cocky squad leader of Wolf Squad, attached to Butterfly Hill

Lieutenant Pilot Poius Chenard: Chenard just wants to grill, man - Lancer from Butterfly Hill

Lieutenant Pilot San Quanski: Buff warrior woman of Wolf Squad, attached to Butterfly Hill.

Technician Tanner Tan: Lowly technician aboard the Butterfly Hill.

Zivian: Overworked DOJ/HR Lawyer

BATTLE GROUP DECEMBER (SRON)
Satastroy Republic Orbital Navy ships
CS - Capital Ship
OC - Orbital Carrier
SC - Strike Cruiser

SRON-CS Derecho

HP: 28/33 | Defense: 10
SUPERHEAVY

Spinal Petajoul Kinetic
Single Target, Accurate, Charge 3, Critical
Range: 5-2, 15 damage​

ESCORTS

30 ISP-N Barracuda Corvettes
6 HP
30 HA Wagner Corvettes
6 HP
30 GMS Combahee Corvettes
6 HP​

SYSTEMS

Subaltern Combat Crews: May use an additional tactic per turn
Single-Plane Shield: May re-roll interdiction and take the better result.​

SPECIAL

Superior Logistics: Escorts begin with 2 Overshield.
Combat Refit: Tactic, Limited 1. Repair up to 3 escorts within the range band. One may be repaired even if destroyed. May then issue orders to two Escorts.​

SRON-OC Gale DRONE BOARDING IN PROGRESS - TARGET LOCK AQUIRED!

HP: 11 | Defense: 14
AUXILIARY

Message Lead Laser
Special: May add +1 damage to a Payload Weapon at 0, up to +4.
Range: 4-2
Message Lead Laser
Special: May add +1 damage to a Payload Weapon at 0, up to +4.
Range: 4-2​

ESCORTS

30 ISP-N Barracuda Corvettes
6 HP
16 ISP-N Bowsprit Destroyers
8 HP​

SPECIAL

Close Support: Allied battlegroups may use tactics granted by this ship's escorts as if they were under its control.​

SRON-SC Bomb Cyclone

HP: 16 | Defense: 10
PRIMARY

Single-Stage Torpedo Tube
Single Target, Payload -1
Range: 4-2, 8 Damage​

AUXILIARY

Message Lead Laser
Special: May add +1 damage to a Payload Weapon at 0, up to +4.
Range: 4-2​

SPECIAL

Fire Control Network: 1/round, when an allied battlegroup in range consumes a lock-on, it may re-roll that result but has to take the second result. Additionally, when defensive screening, it may lock on a hostile capital ship or escort.​

SRON-SC Hurricane

CAPTAIN: Lt. Commander Sven Halston
HP: 16/16 | Defense: 10
PRIMARY

Single-Stage Torpedo Tube
Single Target, Payload -1
Range: 4-2, 8 Damage​

SYSTEMS

Brace for Impact!: Tactic, Limited 1 - entire battlegroup becomes Bolstered​

SPECIAL

Repair Drones: When assigned to Defensive Screen, the ship the Hurricane is screening regains 2 HP
Fleet Triage: 1/encounter, Tactic. One of your capital ships, escorts or allied of the same in the same range band repair 5 HP.​

BATTLE GROUP DIAMOND (UN)
Union Navy
BB - Battleship
CV - Carrier Vessel
LS - Line Ship

UNS-BB Chesapeake ALERT ALERT GRAYWASH ATTACK IN PROGRESS - 33% CONTAINMENT [2 tokens]

HP: 24/28 | Defense: 12
SUPERHEAVY

Long Spool Primary Lance
Single Target, Charge 3, Critical, Reliable 3
Range: 4-0, Damage: 12​

PRIMARY

Primary Kinetic Batteries
Single Target, Reliable 1
Range: 3-0, Damage: 1d6+1​

AUXILIARY

Flyswatter Missiles
Range: 3-0 | Damage: Special, when fired alongside a primary weapon, deal 2 damage to up to 2 wings in the target's battlegroup
Secondary Turrets
Range: 3-0 | DAmage: when fired alongside a primary single target weapon, deal +1 damage to the same target.​

SYSTEM

Subaltern Combat Crews: May use an additional Tactic during their turn.
Insightful Commanders: 1/round, whenever a hostile effect or ability forces move any number of range bands forward or backwards, your next single target attack gains +1 Accuracy, or +2 Accuracy if attacking at range band 5-4. This effect lasts until the end of next turn, does not stack.​

SPECIAL

Paragon: 1/round, add +1 Accuracy to any roll made by you or an allied battlegroup within range. 1/engagement, add +3 Accuracy instead.​

UNS-CV Blair Mountain

HP: 19/19 | Defense: 12
WINGS

8 Balor Combat Wing (LL 3)
HP: 8/8 | Tenacity: 14
8 Tortuga Wing (LL 3)
HP: 8 | Tenacity: 14​

ESCORT

[Classified] [Redacted] Limpet [Classified]
Tenacity: 12​

SYSTEMS

Bulwark Redundancies: +3 HP​

SPECIAL

Away Teams: Boarding attacks gain +2 Tenacity.
​

UNS-CV Cú Chulainn

HP: 12/14 | Defense: 15
WING

4 Various Frame Wing (LL6)
HP: 4/6 | Specials: NHP Co-Pilots, Goalkeeper, Aggressive Pickets
150 Legion Drone, Nexus Point 4
4 HP​

SPECIAL

Escort Formation: This ship can be assigned as a defensive screen as if it were a frigate.​

BATTLE GROUP ORCHARD (UN)
Union Navy
BB - Battleship
CV - Carrier Vessel
LS - Line Ship

UNS-BB Butterfly Hill

HP: 33/33 | Defense: 10
SUPERHEAVY

Long Cycle Primary Lance
Single Target, Charge 3, Critical, Reliable 3
Range: 4-0, 12 damage​

PRIMARY

Heavy Kinetic Batteries
Single Target, Reliable 2
Range: 4-1, 5 Damage​

WINGS

150 Legion Drone, Nexus Point 1
4 HP
20+4 Various Mounted Chassis (LL 3-4)
5 HP | Tenacity: 11
+4 Wolf Squadron (Attached to Chassis Wing)
6 HP - Jettison Ram, NHP Co-Pilot, Shipkiller​

SYSTEMS

Brace for Impact!: Tactic, Limited 1 - entire battlegroup becomes Bolstered​

SPECIAL

Hook Jab: 1/round, whenever a capital, escort or wing in this BG consumes a lock on as part of a single target attack, may issue one command to a wing.
Body Blow: Maneuver, Limited 1, repair one wing to full HP (even if destroyed) and fire one superheavy or two primary weapons. Then, issue commands to all this ship's Wings.​

UNS-LS Sekwun

HP: 12 | Defense: 10
SUPERHEAVY

Spinal LinAc Coherent Beam Cannon
Single Target, Charge 2, Critical
Range: 4-1, 8 Damage​

PRIMARY

VEGA-Pattern Targeting Laser
Single Target, Reliable 2, on a hit, apply a lock on to target
Range: 5-2, 2 Damage​

SPECIAL

Purpose Built: Can carry that fucking gun it has.​

UNS-LS Tukwakin

HP: 12 | Defense: 10
SUPERHEAVY

Spinal LinAc Coherent Beam Cannon
Single Target, Charge 2, Critical
Range: 4-1, 8 Damage​

PRIMARY

VEGA-Pattern Targeting Laser
Single Target, Reliable 2, on a hit, apply a lock on to target
Range: 5-2, 2 Damage​

SPECIAL

Purpose Built: Can carry that fucking gun it has.​

CURRENT DISPOSITION
(5) EXTREME RANGE: BG Orchard
(4) LONG RANGE: BG December
(2) COLLAPSING RANGE: BG Diamond

CHARGE TRACKERS
SRON-CS Derecho
1 Charge Counters

UNS-BB Chesapeake
1 Charge Counters

UNS-BB Butterfly Hill
1 Charge Counters

UNS-LS Sekwun
FIRING IN PROGRESS

UNS-LS Tukwakin
FIRING IN PROGRESS

TARGET: BROTHERS IN ARMS
FIRING IN PROGRESS

PAYLOAD TRACKERS
None

ENEMY FORCES - DIAMOND SHOAL FLEET #1
CORSAIR: 0 HP, 10 DEF, 1d6 ID
Wing 1: 0/5 HP | Wing 2: 0/5 HP | Wing 3: 0/5 HP | Wing 4: 0/5 HP
HIVEQUEEN: 14 HP, 8 DEF, 2d6 ID [Graywash attack in progress!] [BOARDING IN PROGRESS]

BATTLETHREAD: 10|10 HP, 8 DEF
DILUVIA: 9 HP, 8 DEF
Mastermind Template (Applied to Hivequeen)​

TURTLEBACK: 35 HP, 6 DEF, 1d6 ID [BOARDING IN PROGRESS]

BROTHERS IN ARM 1: 0 |8 HP, 8 DEF
STALWART 1: 10|10 HP, 8 DEF
ALBEDO CAVALIER: 10 HP (Ace Wing) [2 HEAT]​

 

[Legionman]

Orchard should be at range 3, along with December. Diamond is at range 2.

Click to shrink...

Whoops, guess 18 will have to do

 

[DragonCobolt]

Two hits! That's sixteen eighteen damage!

 

[Acatalepsy]

Two hits! That's sixteen eighteen damage!

Click to shrink...

Wait, where did we pick up extra damage?

 

[Acatalepsy]

Anyway, if the Hivequeen is down to 14 HP, we don't have quite enough to delete it first thing, but we can definitely make it die this round if we want. If it's down to 12, we can just delete it (but I'd say maybe don't do that, unless we can end the scenario).

I'd assumed the objective was destruction of the whole enemy fleet but if we can get the enemy to surrender by making their flagship explode we can definitely do that now. Otherwise, I am happy to have the Battlethreads and Diluvia trapped in a Battlegroup that can't use tactics.

Otherwise, I was going to propose focusing fire from December and Diamond into the Turtleback, and let the spinal railguns and long spools finish the job in Impact 3.

 

[DragonCobolt]

Wait, where did we pick up extra damage?

Click to shrink...

Math is hard!

 

[Acatalepsy]

I think we're just in the "waiting for the narrative update" now. Looking forward to it!

I did want to ask whether destroying the Hivequeen is the victory condition, or if it's "all capital ships destroyed". As above, we can definitely accomplish the former more quickly, but I also kind of want to get to the Impact 3 "all of the beams go off at once" moment, maybe with some bonus payload-related carnage in the process.

(Also, whether or not one of the objectives of Wolf or Century Rain is capture of Admiral Garrison so he can stand trial, for real this time.)

 

[DragonCobolt]

(Also, whether or not one of the objectives of Wolf or Century Rain is capture of Admiral Garrison so he can stand trial, for real this time.)

Click to shrink...

That would definitely change things!

Also, today there will be no update due to my brain being tired. I spent all my energies inventing guns and have no brains left.

 

[DragonCobolt]

Gunnery Captain Vane Omelas lounged back in his seat and watched as the programming he had slaved over for the past three strung out, caffeine driven shifts played out in a slow motion ballet on his screens. He had been tapped to assist the gun teams on the UNS-LS Sekwun and the UNS-LS Tukwakin - for the very simple reason that they definitely, one hundred percent, did not want to miss. Not even slightly. They had been charging their LinAcs for the entire battle, preparing them to open fire on their distant targets, and with the battle so clearly on a fulcrum point, it had been decided at the fleetwide level to risk tightbeam messages that might be intercepted. The chances were low, and the sharing of information and expertise had been exceedingly useful.

At the ranges that they were working at, the Ra was able to use several tricks to make its exact position in realspace hard to pin down. It had launched chaff fields and short lived solid state stabdrives, which were able to pulse out energy energy to mimic the shape and size of the ship for a few minutes before they were too far out of position to be an effective potential target. That, combined with the sheer number of subline craft and fighter wings and chassis that were out there produced a chaotic field that made combat feel less like a shooting gallery and more like a particularly sadistic game that Vane had once seen played on a Disaporan world involving a painting of a carnivorous slug with a missing appendage.

The player would be blindfolded, then loosed with a small piece of paper with the appendage on a pin. They'd have to try and pin that paper down onto the slug - all from memory. In some versions of the game Vane had watched, there had been a merciless spinning of the subject before they were loosed for the pinning.

Except here...

Here.

Here if they didn't pin the appendage on the slug, then the enemy would shoot back.

The grainy sounds of the gun teams, audible over his crackly tightbeam connection, spoke through his headset. "Okay, we're seeing another bit of blurr, uh, can you parallax that a bit?" Then, a moment later. "There we go. We've got a clearer bit. Bump the LL-290."

"We need a jolt here. Uh, this is guncom to taccom, are you getting this readout here?"

"Guncom this is taccom, we're getting the same numbers here, 23%, over."

"Yeah, 23% too, we should be at 23.8% by now."

"Checking..."

"LL-290-2 clear, we're almost green to go, guncom."

The soft babble was almost relaxing. It almost made Vane's stomach stop knotting. As he leaned back in his seat and heard the subliminal tightening of his own ships' thrumming main batteries, he saw the culmination of more math than he really wanted to ever have to do again.

"Time to target, two minutes."

"Solid confidence, we are go."

A female voice, from the Sekwun: "LinAc-1A go."

A male voice, fierce, from the Tukwakin: "LinAc-2A, go!"

The two ships, represented as tiny green lines on his screen, both blipped once. The realspace view was breathtaking. They had made bigger and bigger guns since the time where LinAc CBCs had been the cutting edge. But there was nothing ever quite the same as the hexagonal expansion waves that rippled around the visible beams of coherent energy that were blasted out of the spinal mounted focusing ranges. The two freighters were dispersed enough that their beams looked like they were scything out the sides of a right angle triangle - and they intersected at a single point that flared with a hideous green-blue radiance that caused the long ranged telescopes to fuzz and spark. On the simplified view, a series of damage control readouts and probable hit indicators flared around the target that was the Ra.

Vane lifted his coffee bulb. "Have fun you murdering bastard," he said, grinning fiercely.

At this moment, he badly wished that his love was beside him. But Belladonna-331 was as distant from Vane at this moment as he would have been if Vane had been on Cradle. Belladonna didn't exist on this plane of reality at this moment and, according to some scientists, didn't exist at all at this point. He had unwound himself and intermingled with the Legion that was, even now, tearing ragged chunks into the enemy fleet's Legion. But he'd come back. He always came back. Vane clung to that fact - and ignored the worrying statistic on non-causal casualties...the result of enemy Legionspace attacks, yes. but there was always the danger of a Non-Human-Person emerging from the Legion gestalt and being put together...differently. Vane knew that if you took every atom of his body and rearranged it ever slightly differently, you'd get anything from a genius chess player to some cancerous, tumor riddled wreck.

Vane knew, at a certain level, that the magic trick of Belladonna emerging from the legion like pulling a cube of sugar from a coffee bulb, intact and pristine, was as miraculous as anything in this galaxy.

Vane deliberately cheapened that miracle.

It was too scary, otherwise.

Then Vane's eyes were drawn to another view.

"Shit the Chesapeake is about to have a bad fucking day," he muttered, watching as what looked like half the torpedoes launched by the bad guys were all swinging around to recenter on the big battleship. Torpedoes started to wink out one by one as the point defense guns started to open up. Vane shook his head. There was no way, they didn't have enough point defense for that.

Unless.

He reached out, then flicked his finger - swirling around the view in three dimensions, and saw that what had, on a skewed perspective, had looked distant was actually anything but.

He whistled. "Well, there you go," he said. "It'd take one crazy ass pilot to do any good."

He sipped from his coffee.

"But what the fuck am I saying, is there anything but crazy ass pilots out there?"

"Gunny?"

The voice came over his com and Vane realized that he had just been spliced in by some helpful comp-con into his group chat. He'd need to teach it that he just talked to himself sometimes. "Nothing for you to worry about. Just woolgathering." He said, watching as one of the squadrons of returning chassis broke off, heading for the missile swarm. He reevaluated their maneuverability based on the reaction mass they'd have left after coming back from a sortie and shook his head. "...not a fucking chance."

***
​

"We do what we can, Inbalas," Gordon said over the line as Ines was pushed back into her cockpit. "We're low on remass - we take out as many missiles as we can, then we withdraw. Got it. We withdraw."

"Yeah, yeah," Ines said, her brow furrowing. Her eyelids wanted to drag themselves down over her eyes. It had been a grueling sortie - and on the way back, they had spotted the incoming munitions. She chafed at the idea of letting even some of these get through the swarming interdiction fire that was peppering space around the white and red bulk of the Chesapeake.

"You do know that you have a wildly inaccurate estimation of how many missiles you can take down?" Cerulea asked as Ines glowered at the missile swarm. They were on their secondary burn stage - coasting up to close range, before they began their mad sprints, and were all jinking and juking around wildly, in crazy grid patterns to avoid the long ranged laser battery fire. The missiles weren't going all out to save their reaction mass for that last sprint, which meant a few were bursting apart as lasers intersected on them to boil them apart. But not nearly enough were exploding out there for Ines' liking.

"...though, I suppose if you wished to shoot a missile down, paracasual ammo is the right kind of ammo to do it with. The real issue is the reaction mass." Cerulea said.

Ines nodded.

Reaction mass.

The missiles weren't going all out...

She was low on reaction mass.

...going all out...

She was-

...going all out to save on...

-low on...

The sleepy neurons that ticked between Ines' head sparked. She blinked, slowly.

"Reaction mass," she said, quietly. "We're low on...reaction mass."

"Yes, we-" Cerulea started, but then was cut off as Ines pushed her throttles forward. Alerts screamed. Her wingmates screamed. Ines, though, was grinning brightly. She flicked three switches as the last of her tanks went dry and her flight harness exploded off her frame. Cerulea started screaming. But to Ines, everything was stillness and quiet as she brought her feet up. Hit the mags. Then landed, directly on the side of a missile right as it began its jinking. The missile screamed off and Ines reached back with a single one of her frame's hands - then twisted the nozzle ever so sligthly and sent the missile screaming straight through the thickest part of the enemy swarm.

The screaming over her coms got louder. Ines ignored it as she held her heavy machinegun one handed, then started to fire - one bullet, one missile, one target. The issue was range. And she was in range. Each time her rifle barked, the paracasual bullet she sent downrange blinked between where it was to where it could have possibly been - which was always directly ahead of a missile on a fierce acceleration curve.

Missile after missile bloomed as Ines started to whistle cheerfully, her other hand jerking the nozzle the other way. The missile swept out towards space and she kicked off it, and fired her last round. The missile she had been riding exploded in a swirling firework and Ines used her RCS thrusters to swing herself around and...

The Chesapeake's magnetic grapples - normally used to grab passing shuttles - snagged her and smashed her, somewhat gently by naval standards, against the hull. She stood beside a staggered array of secondary guns, which had all stopped firing for a moment. A hazy mist of railgun exhaust drifted by, sublimating so quickly that it was gone almost before she noticed it.

Ines nodded.

The screaming...had all stopped.

"I'm pretty great," Ines said to the stunned silence.

---
Okay! You know the drill! Pick battlegroup, vote on what do! Also, I know the Chesepeake was in no danger mechanically and most of the missiles were shot down by point defense, but...drama~

 

[GAWR]

[X] Plan Smashing Faces
-[X] BG Diamond
--[X] Open Fire (Primary): on STALWART and BATTLETHREAD
--[X] Legion Drone Command (Hunt/Kill, Agressive): on BATTLETHREAD
--[X] [CLASSIFIED] CONSUME: on DILUVIA

 

[Acatalepsy]

[X] Plan Damn The Torpedoes
-[X] BG December
-[X] Tactic: Destroyer Command, Encirclement, move BG December to Collapsing Range (2)
-[X] Maneuver: Open Fire, both Single Stage Torpedoes on Turtleback + 2 damage destroyer auxiliary.

The Hivequeen is partially neutralized, I want to see who does what work repelling boarders before we use the other two BGs, so December it is. This will do 2 ping damage to the Turtleback, but more importantly dump 20 damage on it in the next impact phase (8 damage torpedoes x2, +4 message lead lasers) against an interdiction of only 1d6.

It's also a threat: if it doesn't spend a maneuver to push either December or Diamond out, we're going to dump our superheavies into it from range 2. At defense 6, that's not quite a guaranteed kill....but it's close.

 

[Talkos]

[X] Plan Damn The Torpedoes

Yeah, if I understand correctly. Currently the boarding wings/aces are committed to their attack and cannot be used. But there is a chance that when the enemy BGs go they expel the boarders. Thus Orchard especially is in a state of limbo, as its best wings are committed, but may become available later in the round.

If the squadrons get expelled, then we can use them to do quite a bit more direct damage/finish off some escorts. If they don't get expelled then we can use Orchard to get lock-ons for the superheavies that will finish charging this turn.

 

[SweetJackal]

[X] Plan Damn The Torpedoes

Putting more pain in the next Impact phase? I'm game. And yeah, we want to wait until boarder return so we can issue them new commands.

Edit: Wait, December has a ship being boarded. What is the effect of that?

 

[Talkos]

[X]
Edit: Wait, December has a ship being boarded. What is the effect of that?

Click to shrink...

I believe at the end of its turn it has a automatic chance to repel them.

The other option would be to use up its maneuver and do a full purge that is 100% sure to kick the boarders off. But that would mean it won't get a chance to fire the torps.

 

[Acatalepsy]

Edit: Wait, December has a ship being boarded. What is the effect of that?

Click to shrink...

Every boarding phase in which it remains boarded, there's a chance (8+ on a d20) that it will take 3 damage and become locked on at the start of the next action phase.

It has a chance to automatically repel boarders at the end of its turn, or can automatically repel boarders with a manuever, or the Tortugas on Diamond can repel them as a tactic (while they're in the same range band).

We're...basically going to ignore this. Absent any enemy effects that key off lock on, it's just not worth the time and effort to repel them.