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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) Starfleet Ship Design Bureau, Refit ("To Boldly Go...")
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OneirosTheWriter said:
I thought @AKuz was the secret Romulan, not you?
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Erandil said:
It might work as a bluff or if the Ked Padaah do it (though the later would likely cause significant political blowback) but I highly doubt that the Federation would react very positive to news of Starfleet actually conducting large scale bombarding operations against an inhabited planet. Such an action, once it becomes public, would would likely cause massive dissident in large portions of the (fed) population. Indeed any action that does result in high numbers of civilian casualties is a political nightmare waiting to happen, at least in my opinion.
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I didn't mean indiscriminate WW2 style bombardment. Military targets, and perhaps precision strikes against some of the nobles' favorite bits of private property. I can't really see that having a higher civilian death toll than our planned Ked Padda troop invasion.
 
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[X] Attack Ixaria Orbit

Take opportunities as they come. Hitting the shipyard now will let us remove a boosted ship, and Thuir notes we may be able to hit the outposts one at a time. Iron Hail will have to come after we've cleared orbit, but we can remove the cruiser from play and those outposts won't be easy to replace even if we have to withdraw.
 
If the Imperial Fleet does respond to Gammon, then I'm sure Thuir can find a useful secondary target to strike while they're busy.
 
Iron Hail would be the greater threat if we're only dealing with the local defense force, but Ixira's Scalpel is the greater threat if imperial reinforcements DO show up- because its power to hurt us scales with the number of ships it buffs.

Iron Dome is the most powerful of the 'buff stations,' except in the case where Ixira's Scalpel gets to buff a whole fleet.

OneirosTheWriter said:
Commodore ka'Sharren has parked herself on the direct Gammon=>Ixaria route, so ships cannot come through there uncontested. However, any fleet moving from Morshadd or Gesseria to Ixaria is difficult to identify, and it is always difficult to track warp signatures inside of another entity's claimed space. Worst case, your Underway Intelligence detachments believe you may have only hours of forewarning.

If pressed for an estimate, they'd rate it between a 25% to a 50% likelihood that reinforcements would arrive before a third set of operations could be mounted. They will almost certainly arrive before a fourth operation could be mounted.
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If we neutralize enough of the buffing stations, AND we can determine whether or not an enemy fleet is coming hours in advance, then we can probably win a pitched battle against the imperial fleet or at least hurt them badly. The danger is that imperial battleships will show up boosted by Ixira's Scalpel and Iron Dome and give us a 'murthering great battle.'

Yes, they are in Ixaria Prime orbit now. AHS Foresight is at the shipyard undergoing emergency repairs.
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I consider this to be an unwise reason to hit that target, personally- they can't possibly get the ship all the way back into fighting condition. If the ship tries to fight us, well and good- as long as the Foresight doesn't get so many combat buffs it manages to fight better than a battleship.


[X] Attack Further Research Stations (Maximum of 2)
-[X] Attack Ixira's Scalpel
-[X] Attack Iron Dome


Nervos Belli said:
Actually, changing my vote.

[] Attack Further Research Stations (Maximum of 2)
-[] Attack Iron Hail
-[] No Second Target

Remember, the Ked Paddah have troop transports standing by. The ultimate goal here is to clear the way for them to launch an invasion. The torpedo defense will prevent them from invading even after we clear the orbit. Might as well take care of it first, so we can attack the orbitals without torpedoes hitting us in the back. The other stations cannot directly deal damage, so they can't impede the troop transports.
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"No second target" means a significantly harder fight in Ixaria orbit. We're not better off that way. The best strategy right now is either to hit Ixaria now (and you're right that we should take out Iron Hail before deploying transports), or to hit two targets. If our entire fleet concentrates on one target, all our ships still get exposed to mines, and we'll still have ships rendered unable to participate when we fight in Ixaria Prime orbit.

Either we should commit all our remaining strength, or we should launch as many second-wave attacks as practical. Even if we're forced to retreat after a second wave of successful attacks, the defenses will be blown so wide-open that we can hopefully capture the system with follow-up attacks.

...

NOTE: Given that the Ked Paddah are extra-vulnerable to mines, if we can't split the Starfleet force to help them sweep mines, my strategy will need to be reconsidered.

Briefvoice said:
Wouldn't it be better to clear the orbit first, then go back and do Iron Hail second?
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I agree that we can save Iron Hail for 'last,' but do not agree that we should refrain from knocking over any more research stations, personally.

Leila Hann said:
Once we take Ixaria orbit can't we say "shut off the iron hail or we start bombing?"
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OneirosTheWriter said:
I thought @AKuz was the secret Romulan, not you?
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Now now, that just means we threaten to bomb expensive property, rather than people.

Briefvoice said:
Ah see, that's where we differ. I think that if we take main orbit then the Imperial fleet will retreat whether or not Iron Hail has been taken. In other words:

Hit Ixaria Prime first, IMperial fleet can no longer effectively hope to depend system and turns around, we mop up Iron Hail at our leisure.

@OneirosTheWriter can you clarify? If we take Ixaria Prime but not Iron Hail, then will the Imperial Fleet still potentially contest the system? Is taking Iron Hail a precondition for holding the system, or just something that has to be taken care of eventually, but the Imperial Fleet is no longer a real threat?
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I suspect the imperial fleet will make that decision opportunistically. If they show up, and the operators of the Scalpel, the High Energy Beam, the Iron Dome, and the Iron Hail can offer them support, they may well decide that this represents an opporunity to inflict losses on us under just about the most favorable conditions they're likely to get. Especially if we've already gotten embroiled in an attack on the capital planet and we have still more ships damaged by mine blasts and the heavy guns on the Licori outposts.

Or heck, even if the imperials are still afraid to cross swords with the main strength of our fleet, they could seriously hurt us just by targeting and destroying the crippled Ked Paddah ships that were already damaged in the first wave of combat. We'd have to fight to defend them, or turn what's already a terrible blow for the Ked Paddah fleet into a crippling one. And they'd still have the support of the defensive stations.

If we want the imperial fleet to decide to go home rather than fight us, we need to make sure they can't engage us on favorable terms. Since turning the defenses against them doesn't seem to be an option, the best we can do in that regard is to neutralize the defenses and deprive them of the power to help the imperials, before the imperials arrive.

Nervos Belli said:
Okay, that changes things. Attacking the cruiser while it's offline is more important than the torpedo defense.

[] Attack Ixaria Orbit
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If the cruiser isn't being massively buffed by Iron Dome, we can kill it. It's not that powerful. We can defeat it. Our military problem here isn't overcoming the force the Licori have in-system, it's neutralizing enough of their advantages that an imperial fleet can't hope to come in and avenge all the losses the local force has taken.

Leila Hann said:
The SOC has my full confidence.
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We don't actually know if the SOC force is even in position yet. At least at Endor, they knew when Han was supposed to blow up the shield generator, so they knew when he'd try to do it. The only question was if he'd succeed. Not whether or not he was going to be making the attempt at the right time.
 
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Driven by Apathy said:
I'm just waiting for the moment the Licori try to use some fancy super-science superweapon against us, and instead of doing what it's supposed to, it just explodes. Or blows up a Licori colony or two, instead of our ships. Or turns all the mentats on board into newts. Or something.

I mean, the whole reason for this war is that Licori super science isn't just super science, it's also super dangerous and unpredictable.

[X] Attack Ixaria Orbit
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A bit late here, but honestly, their super science has been pretty consistently predictable in it's stability so far. The freak out is because they're fucking with stars and nobody wants someone with the power to set star systems ablaze on a whim.
 
[X] Attack Ixaria Orbit

I'd prefer to neutralize the outposts and secure the orbitals. If we can take those piecemeal, the Imperial fleet will have no friendly support in-system beyond the research stations, and while those are useful, if they commit to battle with a fleet that includes five explorer-class ships, it's entirely likely they will get mauled and the Licori will be completely unable to contest any further offensives. Whereas if the outposts are intact then Ixaria Prime could potentially hold.
 
I'm going to go with killing that cruiser while it's helpless. Especially as it means the forces will be combined so the Ked Paddah will have our Science scores to help in the mine field.
Being able to take the outposts one at a time would be a massive boost as well.

[X] Attack Ixaria Orbit
 
Leila Hann said:
How old is the First Minister supposed to be? I'm imagining Jack Gleeson with nose bumps.
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Laid it on a little thick, huh? :p

Actually I think he's ~40, and since he doesn't really grok the interaction between the King and the people of the Union he's basically been interpreting Iifirdir's politeness as aqiuesence and the earnest attempts by diplomats as amusing overreach, which only enflames the shittiness.

Hm, now I wonder if I should go back with Alan Rickman firmly cast in my mind and do a rewrite...
 
The problem is, if we hit Ixaria orbit and beat the defenses there, any garrison the Licori leave in system benefits from the buffing stations and will be formidable. If we hit the buffing stations, the defensive forts are still there, but they're isolated and weakened if we hit them again in a few weeks or a month with a fresh force drawn from other elements of the fleet (e.g. the Gaeni, or Nash if she gets done with the campaign around Gammon without a heavy fight)
 
If the buffing forts affected outposts I'd agree @Simon_Jester but given how the only things they can buff at present is the two frigates I say go for it.

If reinforcements are detected moving in its possible we can engage them away from the buffs or disengage after blowing up shipyards and critical infrastructure from orbit. If the Imperial fleet engages us here it'll make things easier for Gammon so I'd consider that a fair trade.

[X] Attack Ixaria Orbit
 
Simon_Jester said:
The problem is, if we hit Ixaria orbit and beat the defenses there, any garrison the Licori leave in system benefits from the buffing stations and will be formidable. If we hit the buffing stations, the defensive forts are still there, but they're isolated and weakened if we hit them again in a few weeks or a month with a fresh force drawn from other elements of the fleet (e.g. the Gaeni, or Nash if she gets done with the campaign around Gammon without a heavy fight)
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There's a decent possibility that if we hit Ixaria orbit and beat the defenses there, the research stations will simply surrender and we'll control the entire system. Not a sure thing; depends heavily on morale and perception of whether relief is coming, but it's a very real possibility.

EDIT: Not under a "surrender or we blow up your planet" threat, but rather a "surrender or we'll come around one at a time and blow up your stations... this way you won't die" threat.
 
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Iron Wolf said:
Laid it on a little thick, huh? :p

Actually I think he's ~40, and since he doesn't really grok the interaction between the King and the people of the Union he's basically been interpreting Iifirdir's politeness as aqiuesence and the earnest attempts by diplomats as amusing overreach, which only enflames the shittiness.

Hm, now I wonder if I should go back with Alan Rickman firmly cast in my mind and do a rewrite...
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Yeah, I'm having trouble imagining him as older than 20 as he's currently written. An older Bajoran royal might have the same attitudes, but you'd think he'd have been exposed to aliens enough to understand that their societies are different and/or learned at least the very basics of diplomacy.
 
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Leila Hann said:
Yeah, I'm having trouble imagining him as older than 20 as he's currently written. An older Bajoran royal might have the same attitudes, but you'd think he'd have been exposed to aliens enough to understand that their societies are different and/or learned at least the very basics of diplomacy.
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Plenty of people make it far in life without having to learn the basics of diplomacy, especially if they're high status to begin with.
 
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