Empire of the Stars

[AuroraSteve]

7th September 1986
The deserted intact colony on Kokura III has been fully surveyed, revealing over five hundred potential recovery sites. It is very welcome news during a challenging period for the Empire of Japan.

Meanwhile in Mauritius, the five Caucasian Lynx class ships that were closing in Chōkai suddenly vanish from sensors approximately halfway to the Comoros jump point. Chōkai was holding an active contact, so it was not that they moved out of planetary sensor range. The only explanation is that they reversed course for some reason, possibly after detecting the replenishment ship Kyokuto Maru, which is moving away from the area in which the Bloodclaw ships vanished. Chōkai reverses course and heads for Kyokuto Maru in an attempt to locate the Lynxes, and detects them several hours later on a converging course. Chōkai changes course once again, moving back toward the Comoros jump point. The Caucasian Lynx resume pursuit.

The pursuit does not last. The Lynx move back toward the replenishment ship, while Chōkai tries to distract them, dancing around the edge of sensor range but unwilling to get too close and risk the missile cruisers getting within launch range. A dozen times, the Lynx react to the heavy cruiser before moving back toward Kyokuto Maru. Eventually, Kaigun-Taisa Kido orders Chōkai to resume her original mission and head for the jump point. The build cost of the replenishment ship was a tenth that of the Chōkai and in the grim calculus of the current situation, the heavy cruiser cannot put itself at risk in an increasingly unlikely rescue attempt. Besides, the Bloodclaw warships are not heading directly for Kyokuto Maru, but rather a location she occupied some time ago, so it is possible she may still escape.

In the meantime, two Golden Cat class terraformers have departed the Bloodclaw home world bound for the Reunion jump point, so with the missile cruisers several days away, Hiryu breaks orbit and uses her Showa L1D ‘Raikō’ Assault Transports to board and capture both ships before returning to Mauritius Base

11th September 1986
The five Caucasian Lynx missile cruisers reappear in the inner system, less than six hundred million kilometres from Mauritius Base. Chōkai is three billion kilometres away and hopelessly out of position, while Nagara and Yura are in Comoros. Kyokuto Maru is twice as far out and untouched. The Bloodclaw warships appear to be on a direct course to their home world that will take them very close to Mauritius Base. The only ships available to defend the colony are the heavy cruiser Maya, the light cruiser Naka, the virtually obsolete battlecruiser Kirishima, twenty-two A3M2 fighters from Hiryu and three surface-to-orbit batteries intended for anti-ship combat.

Given the desperate situation, Kaigun-Taisa Kido orders a captured alien freighter and a pair of H3K ‘Shoki’ patrol craft to move away from Mauritius Base, in an effort to lure the Lynxes on to a different course; the former due its size and the latter due to its speed. For some reason, the Dominion does not seem to want to engage Mauritius Base directly, perhaps because they believe the four Yokosuka class stations may be military ships, so Kido wishes to avoid any accidental engagements due to simple proximity. The distraction works, as the Caucasian Lynx move to investigate the contacts, but still has a cost. One of the H3Ks is struck by a salvo of missiles at a range of thirty-four million kilometres. The other makes it to the Reunion jump point, where it can transit if attacked. The freighter, a Javan Leopard with a volunteer crew, is capable of only 1400 km/s, so it is a suicide mission, but in a very good cause.

Meanwhile, the Bloodclaw home world, on the third moon of Mauritius II, launches another three military-engined ships of a new type, designated as Chinese Mountain Cat. Strangely, they move into orbit of the first moon, which is not known to be a Bloodclaw colony. The Caucasian Lynxes pursue the decoy freighter, but for some reason do not close the range, or attack it. It seems unlikely they are out of ordnance, so perhaps the fact the ship was originally one of their own is causing confusion or hesitation. Kaigun-Taisa Kido will take whatever time he is given to get Chōkai, and possibly Yura, back to Mauritius Base.

13th September 1986
The Bloodclaw home world launches another five ships, this time a new commercial design designated as Marbled Cat. Given the Dominion’s astonishing rate of recent ship production, especially of new types, Imperial Naval Intelligence is soon going to run out of feline nomenclature. While the Marbled Cats head for the Reunion jump point, the Caucasian Lynx missile cruisers decide to ignore the captured freighter and suddenly streak across the inner system, perhaps in response to the distant approach of Kyokuto Maru, which is seven hundred million kilometres from Mauritius Base and trying to reach home. Kaigun-Taisa Kido begins to suspect the Bloodclaw home world has an extremely long-range tracking capability, which combined with the deadly missile cruisers, is going to make life around Mauritius Base extremely difficult. It appears that the Empire of Japan may have waited too long before sending a significant military force to Mauritius.

Kyokuto Maru changes course, while the H3K near the Reunion jump point attempts to cause a distraction, albeit without success. It soon becomes apparent that the Bloodclaw missile cruisers are actually on a course for Chōkai, which is much further out and reinforces the concerns about long-range detection. Kaigun-Taisa Kido orders her to change course and deactivate both shields and active sensors, to reduce her passive signature. As soon as she does so, the Caucasian Lynxes reverse course and head back to the inner system.

Suddenly, the captured freighter, a Javan Leopard, is blown apart by strength-7 missiles. It is over four hundred million kilometres from the Caucasian Lynxes, but only a hundred million kilometres from the Dominion home world. Either the assailant is a ship that has yet to be detected, one of the orbital bases has long-range missiles or the Chinese Mountain Cat class is also a missile combatant. Meanwhile, the Marbled Cats continue toward the Reunion jump point. Kaigun-Taisa Kido decides to let them proceed in the hope that an attack by the Zharovians in Reunion will attract the attention of the Dominion missile cruisers.

After the destruction of the freighter, the Caucasian Lynxes move toward the two recently captured Golden Cat terraformers, that are very slowly making their way toward Mauritius Base. Once again, the chosen course will take the ships close to Mauritius Base. Following his strategy of distraction rather than confrontation, Kido orders Chōkai to engage sensors and shields once again and attempt to pull the Lynxes out of the inner system. This tactic has a time limit because Chōkai cannot get past the enemy ships to Mauritius Base, due to their superior speed, and cannot run forever as she is down to two-thirds fuel. She also has to be careful not to draw the cruisers close to Kyokuto Maru, which lies between them, as that will result in the destruction of the replenishment ships, and she cannot lead the cruisers in a direction that places Mauritius Base between them and their home world.

The first Marbled Cat enters Reunion and immediately comes under fire from a Zharovian squadron on the jump point, comprising two light cruisers, an escort cruiser and two escorts, with a total mass of 80,000 tons. Chōkai disengages her shields and sensors so that the pursuing cruisers might investigate the events in Reunion without distraction. In Reunion, the Marbled Cat withstands a massive amount of damage from the Zharovians before it is finally destroyed. Given it has commercial engines, it may be some form of armoured troop transport. Unfortunately, it’s loss does not interest the Caucasian Lynxes, which set a direct course for Mauritius Base, or possibly their home world, as the two are now aligned. Chōkai is forced to resume her distraction efforts, which causes the Lynxes to head out-system and disappear from Japanese sensors.

15th September 1986
Chōkai reaches a point in the sparse asteroid belt that will provide a clear run to the Bloodclaw home world if the Caucasian Lynxes have followed her. Unfortunately, they are no longer on sensors. She needs to reduce her emissions to disappear from the sensors on the Bloodclaw home world, but remaining motionless and deactivating both shields and active sensors would render her completely helpless if the missile cruisers are able to locate her and attack. As a compromise, she deactivates sensors and moves further out-system. Her active sensor has three times the passive signature of her shields and engines, so he hopes that is enough to make her vanish, without completely sacrificing her defences. Meanwhile, the other two Marbled Cats, having seen their sister ship destroyed in Reunion, change course toward the Comoros jump point.

17th September 1986
The Caucasian Lynxes reappear five hundred and fifty million kilometres from Mauritius Base, on course toward the Reunion jump point, or possibly toward Kyokuto Maru, which has almost made it home. Chōkai is over two billion kilometres away in the outer system. It appears her distraction worked for a time but now the missile cruisers have returned to the inner system. Kaigun-Taisa Kido orders Kyokuto Maru to move to the Reunion jump point, where she can escape if necessary and Chōkai to head home.

Meanwhile, two transits away in Atlasov, the four Yamato class battleships are approaching the Zuijin-held planet in the system, followed by four troop transports. Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi ordered them to the system in July. Since that decision, they have refuelled at both Fiji Naval Base and the temporary base in Kharimkotan before arriving in Atlasov. He now considers ignoring the Zuijin and sending the battleships to the relief of Mauritius Base, but the Zuijin are close to the direct course anyway so the attack goes ahead.

The defending force in orbit of Atlasov III comprises Devastator and Terror class bases, three Vengeance missile cruisers, two Ravager escort cruisers and ten Ghost class fast attack craft, plus three fuel harvesters and a tanker. Surprisingly, there are no long-range missile strikes from the Vengeance class ships or the FACs, possibly because the Zuijin have calculated they would be futile.

The first Zuijin attack comprises one hundred and seventy-five light missiles, launched from the Devastator and the two Ravagers, followed by further salvos every ten seconds. The battleships do not even bother to activate point defence, using shields and electronic warfare alone to defeat the attack. Even when the Yamatos close to half a million kilometres, there is still no launch from the Vengeance missile cruisers. Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa Rai, commanding the battleships from the flag bridge on the Yamato, begins to suspect the Zuijin have expended all their missile stocks in prior combat against the Followers of Zharov.

The battleships halt at 245,000 km and open fire on the Devastator and the Ravagers, initially reducing their fire and then destroying them. After picking off the Ghosts before they can flee, they move closer and engage the surface defences, at which point the surviving ships break orbit and flee. The particle lances on the planet are rapidly obliterated, the Terror class base is annihilated in a single salvo and the remaining ships are quickly caught and eliminated. In destroying what would once have been a significant target for the early Imperial Navy, the four Yamato class battleships paused only briefly as they swept past the planet and wiped out its defences. They head for the Zharov jump point while the troop transports move up in their wake.

An hour after the destruction of the Zuijin, a large fleet of commercial-engined Zharovian ships that have been stationed at the Kharimkotan – Atlasov jump point for a considerable period of time, all transit into Kharimkotan and set a course for their home system at their best speed. In aiding the logistics for the potential invasion of the Bloodclaw home world, the Imperial Japanese Navy appears to have inadvertently assisted the Followers of Zharov.

In Mauritius, the Caucasian Lynxes abandon their approach to the Reunion jump point and set course for home, which always seems to result in a course that will pass close to Mauritius Base. Chōkai switches on her active sensor, which attracts the attention of the alien cruisers, pulling them further from that course. Her fuel is down to fifty percent.

19th September 1986
Against all odds, the replenishment ship Kyokuto Maru arrives at Mauritius Base.

23rd September 1986
The heavy cruiser Chōkai continues to play hide and seek with the Bloodclaw missile cruisers in the system’s sparse asteroid belt, which has allowed the light cruiser Yura to make it back to Mauritius Base, slightly boosting the planet’s defences. Her sister ship Nagara remains in Comoros, acting as a jump point picket, while the tug Ryokai Maru has towed both captured fuel harvesters into Comoros, so they can be shielded by Nagara. The two captured terraformers continue to make glacial progress toward Mauritius Base.

25th September 1986
The 3rd Kurogane Samuri Division, the 3rd Arashi Division and three infantry divisions are delivered to Atlasov III by four large transports and five small Shinshu Maru class transports. The planet is a cold high gravity world, dominated by vast rift valleys that are entirely covered in ice. It is not an ideal combat environment, but for once the Imperial Army has a significant numerical advantage. The Zuijin defenders are completely overwhelmed, killing less than two hundred Japanese infantry before they are wiped out within thirty-six hours. The transports begin loading the five divisions for transport to Mauritius Base.

The swift victory cannot be quickly followed up due to a lack of xenoarchaeological regiments to survey the ruins. Two of the Empire’s five regiments are still on Kokura. A third is on Earth. The final two, plus two engineer regiments, are on board the new troop transport Suwa Maru, which is in Proxima, having recently departed Earth en route to Atlasov. It will arrive in four and a half months, so Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi hopes that the Followers of Zharov will not launch their own expedition to whatever ruins are present during that time.

27th September 1986
The Caucasian Lynxes reappear from the general direction of Chōkai, but this time on a direct course for their home world that does not take them anywhere near Mauritius Base. The four Yamato class battleships are already in the system, running without sensors or shields and one hundred hours away. Chōkai takes the opportunity to head for safety, still with her sensors inactive, but the missile cruisers reverse course and try to intercept. It seems that beyond a certain point, around one point two billion kilometres from the Bloodclaw home world, she can only be detected by her active emissions. Any closer and her engine and shield emissions reveal her position. However, with the Yamatos moving closer, Kaigun-Chusa Kido is happy to have the Lynxes out of the way so he instructs Chōkai to keep their attention, despite her worsening fuel situation.

29th September 1986
The Bloodclaw missile cruisers are out of contact, once again trying to pin down Chōkai’s location, while the four Yamatos are still fifty-three hours from Mauritius Base. The Dominion dispatches seven ships toward the Reunion jump point. Leading the way are four are Chinese Mountain Cats, a design with the same size and speed as the Caucasian Lynx, but unknown armament. Following at a slower speed are two commercial-engined designs; two 78,557-ton Marbled Cats and a single 22,600-ton Pampas Cat. While both have been previously detected, their functions are unknown. Kaigun-Chusa Kido decides to leave them alone and let the Zharovians handle it.

The Mountain Cats are within a hundred million kilometres of the jump point when their course deviates to their starboard by about forty degrees, in the general direction of the distant Comoros jump point. Suddenly, without warning, the two recently captured Golden Cat terraformers explode, amid ninety-one strength-7 detonations. They are a hundred million kilometres from the Chinese Mountain Cats, which is the same distance as the Javan Leopard was from the Dominion home world. There is now no doubt the new design is also a missile cruiser, which has grave implications for Mauritius Base. The Yamatos have travelled over fifty billion kilometres to reach their current location, but they are still over a billion kilometres away and unable to intervene.

Rather than immediately launch against Mauritius Base, the Chinese Mountain Cats continue toward the Comoros jump point. The salvage ship Kimikawa Maru and two freighters are directly in their path, although over two billion kilometres away. The commercial-engined Marbled Cats and Pampas Cat follow the course of the missile cruisers, although much more slowly.

1st October 1986
The four Chinese Mountain Cats have moved beyond the tracking capabilities of Mauritius Base, while the three commercial-engined ships are still within two hundred million kilometres. The Yamatos are only eight hours from the base, so they engage both shields and sensors and set a course for the Pampas Cat, announcing their presence in an effort to draw in the Chinese Mountain Cats and the still-absent Caucasian Lynxes. The missile cruisers engage active sensors, confirming their position, but ignore the battleships and continue on course to the Comoros jump point.

The Imperial Navy battleships close to point-blank range and blast the Pampas Cat into wreckage, then change course to intercept the two Marbled Cats, which are suspected troop ships. They run for the Reunion jump point, but cannot escape. After destroying both, the Yamatos finally head to Mauritius Base, arriving to a heroes’ welcome. While they do not guarantee the safety of the base, the situation has improved considerably. None of the nine Bloodclaw missile cruiser - five Caucasian Lynxes and four Chinese Mountain Cats - are currently on sensors. The former are still suspected to be hunting for Chōkai, while the latter are presumably still en route to Comoros.

While the battleships refuel, Chōkai engages her active sensors, then leaves the asteroid belt and begins heading for Mauritius Base. In the past, this inward movement has attracted the attention of the Caucasian Lynx class ships, but on this occasion there is no sign of them. Their location remains a mystery. Two days later, Chōkai finally returns home.

6th October 1986
Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi considers ordering the four Yamato class battleships to test the defences of the Bloodclaw home world. In orbit, there are three Snow Leopards of 20,787 tons, three Jaguars of 20,875 tons and six 26,151-ton Caracals. Little is known about the three classes, except that they all have resolution-1 sensors, which suggests they are intended for defence against missiles and therefore are likely armed with light missiles and short-range, fast-firing weapons. In April 1982, the Zharovians moved within weapon range and their ships were hit with over thirteen hundred strength-1 detonations in a single attack. Considering the Zharovians have a similar or greater level of technology to the Empire of Japan and those detonations were only the missiles that actually hit, Takagi decides to exercise caution.

Four of the six Taiho class carriers are already en route to Mauritius and have recently refuelled at Fiji. Four hundred anti-ship missiles have already been stockpiled at Mauritius Base and the carriers will bring almost six hundred more. Once those missiles have been used to test the defences, Takagi will have considerably more information on which to base a plan of attack. In the meantime, the priority task for the Yamatos and the new system commander, Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa Rai, will be to eliminate the existing missile cruisers, if they can be located, and destroy any further ships launched by the Bloodclaw home world.

Less than one hour after that decision is reached, the five Caucasian Lynxes are detected on approach to the Comoros jump point. This is the exact scenario for which Nagara and Yura were positioned on the Comoros side and Chōkai was dispatched to reinforce. Unfortunately, only Nagara remains on the jump point, along with one of the two captured fuel harvesters. The other is being towed to a gas giant in Andaman by Ryokai Maru. Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa considers dispatching two of the Yamatos, but the jump point is five billion kilometres away, which means a two-week return trip, and the Yamatos are slightly slower than the Bloodclaw missile cruisers. Given the strategic situation, they will be better used protecting Mauritius Base until the carriers arrive. Instead he dispatches the heavy cruisers Maya and Chōkai. For the next few days though, Nagara is on her own.

The Caucasian Lynxes transit into Comoros. They will suffer some degree of jump shock, so Nagara immediately opens fire with her twelve Kentaro-Sakura KS-20B Far Ultraviolet Lasers and twelve Takashi Kinetics TK-10B Railguns, inflicting a dozen strength-10 hits and forty-seven strength-1s, several of which penetrate the armour of her target. All five ships move away from the jump point at 8114 km/s. Nagara is only capable of 6400 km/s but her captain, Kaigun-Taisa Nishihara Kintaro, is aggressive and has no intention of wasting the opportunity of attacking the temporarily helpless missile cruisers, so he pursues.

Nagara’s railguns, despite their short-range and limited damage, have a high rate of fire but her main damage output is from the 20cm lasers firing every ten seconds. The second laser volley destroys the targeted Bloodclaw warship, so Nagara changes target and keeps firing. A second target is hit by two more laser volleys and blows up. Forty seconds have passed since transit and the missile cruisers have opened the gap beyond both railgun range and the range at which the lasers inflict maximum damage. Kaigun-Taisa Nishihara orders a course reversal and Nagara runs for the jump point. The missile cruisers change course by about a hundred and sixty degrees, not quite following Nagara.

Their proximity allows Nagara to target a third ship with her lasers, achieving ten strength-10 hits, once of which penetrates the armour and reduces the Caucasian Lynx to half speed. The damaged ship moves away, so Nagara fires on her fourth target, one of two ships that now parallel her course. The missile cruiser vanishes in a colossal strength-350 secondary explosion. The remaining undamaged Bloodclaw warship reverses course and moves away from Nagara.

Nagara could risk a pursuit, but the Caucasian Lynx is already over a hundred thousand kilometres away, so she continues toward the jump point and transits into Mauritius, having destroyed three Bloodclaw missile cruisers and damaged a fourth. Almost at the same moment she transits, the damaged Caucasian Lynx launches forty-seven missiles at the captured Andean Mountain Cat fuel harvester, utterly destroying it. The same ship continues moving in-system, toward the Andaman jump point, while the undamaged Lynx moves back toward the Mauritius jump point and takes up a picket position.

With the engagement over, at least for the moment, Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa has time to address a longer-term issue. While Mauritius base has four Yokosuka maintenance bases and seven maintenance facilities, that is insufficient for the large force now stationed at the base. To reduce that burden, Hiryu launches her Kōkūtai then heads for the Zharov jump point. Four of her seven Showa L1D ‘Raikō’ class Assault Transports are transferred to the four battleships, each of which has a 1000-ton capacity hangar bay. The other three, plus her surviving H3K and twenty-two A3M2 ‘Hayabusa’ fighters, will be stationed at Mauritius Base. Kaigun-Taisa Kido’s ship, the old battlecruiser Kirishima, is dispatched to the Reunion jump point to adopt a picket position. She can remain on station for twelve months, which should be enough time to resolve the assault on the Bloodclaw home world, one way or another. There is still insufficient capacity, but the two deployments will ease the situation.

[AuroraSteve]

7th October 1986
Even after Nagara’s heroics, another concern is troubling Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa. When the two groups of missile cruisers vanished, it was the Chinese Mountain Cats, not the Caucasian Lynxes, that were heading for the Comoros jump point. The latter were presumed to be searching for Chōkai. Which leads to the question of where the four Chinese Mountain Cats are now. If they also approach the Comoros jump point, Nagara cannot transit as the undamaged Caucasian Lynx is waiting on the far side. Equally, Hiryu could encounter them en route to the Zharov jump point, or Kimikawa Maru and her freighters, which are still trying to make it back to Mauritius Base, or a pair of colony ships that recently entered Mauritius via the Zharov jump point. Unfortunately, operations cannot cease entirely due to the unknown location of the four missile cruisers. Even so, Kurosawa decides to split the heavy cruisers, with Chōkai continuing toward Comoros, while Maya moves to protect Kimikawa Maru.

11th October 1986
The four missing Chinese Mountain Cats are detected by a sensor buoy on the Mauritius – Zharov jump point. The first three Kuroshio Maru class colony ships recently transited and are less than two hundred million kilometres away, albeit on a different vector than the Bloodclaw approach. Further out, at one point two and one point seven billion kilometres respectively are the fleet support vessel Hayasui and the carrier Hiryu, the first heading toward Mauritius Base and the other toward Zharov. Both ships change course, as they lie between the Bloodclaw missile cruisers and their home world.

Moments after initial contact, the Chinese Mountain Cats disappear from sensors. The three colony ships cease movement, as they cannot escape anyway if already detected, in the hope that a lack of thermal emissions may avoid pursuit. After a few minutes, the Mountain Cats reappear and transit into Zharov without further hesitation. A fleet of fourteen Zharovian warships is stationed on the far side, ranging in size from 10,000 tons to 26,000 tons and all equipped with shields. One Mountain Cat explodes within five seconds of transit. Two more are destroyed within a further twenty seconds. The fourth manages to escape outside energy-weapon range and the Zharovians are not fast enough to catch it.

Once recovered from jump shock, the surviving Chinese Mountain Cat launches a salvo of forty-six missiles at its pursuers. The target is a 26,089-ton Soci class with shields of strength-110. It is struck by forty-one missiles and heavily damaged, with its speed falling from 4645 km/s to 774 km/s. Seven ships continue pursuit of the Bloodclaw missile cruiser while the others head back to the jump point. The damaged Soci transits into Mauritius to avoid being attacked by a second salvo. The next two volleys from the Mountain Cat focus on one of the pursuing ships, a 10,811-ton Andropov class. The first has no obvious effect beyond reducing the shield strength to zero; the second destroys it.

By the time the fourth salvo arrives, thirty-four minutes after transit, the Japanese sensor buoy can no longer detect the shields on the Zharovian ships, but a second Andropov falls out of formation at half speed. The original pursuers fall back to the jump point and the other group of ships takes up the chase. A Soci is damaged by two salvos, dropping to two-thirds speed, before firing ceases. Despite destroying three of the four Mountain Cats near the jump point, the Zharovians have lost one ship with three more damaged. All three damaged ships take up temporary residence in Mauritius, while five ships remain in pursuit of the Mountain Cat, which has left sensor range of the buoy.

Close-range observation of the combat has revealed the armament of two Zharovian designs. The 26,089-ton Soci is armed with eighteen 20cm lasers and a single 25cm laser and is classified as a heavy cruiser, while the 10,811-ton Andropov is armed with seven 20cm lasers. As the designation of ‘destroyer’ has generally been given to small, missile-armed ships, the Andropov is classed as a frigate.

An hour after the combat in the Zharov system, the three damaged Zharovian ships, two Soci and an Andropov, leave the Mauritius – Zharov jump point in the direction of the Comoros jump point. Meanwhile, with six of the known nine Bloodclaw missile cruisers destroyed, three by Nagara and three by the Followers of Zharov, and the other three blocked from Mauritius by the same forces, every unarmed Imperial Navy vessel ends their careful manoeuvres and heads straight for their destinations. Six hours after the battle, the undamaged Caucasian Lynx transits into Mauritius from Comoros. Nagara is waiting. Two volleys are sufficient to trigger a strength-228 secondary explosion and the remaining number of known Dominion missile cruisers falls to two.

12th October 1986
Having somehow eluded the five ships that were in pursuit, the last Chinese Mountain Cat moves back into sensor range of the buoy on the Zharov – Mauritius jump point. Five Zharovian ships remain on the jump point itself; two Andropov class frigates armed with lasers, plus three Kazan class escorts armed with gauss cannon. The Mountain Cat takes a pair of strength-1 hits at 218,000 km, then six strength-4 hits fifteen seconds later, providing Imperial Naval Intelligence with useful data on the Andropov’s range and rate of fire, although it is deemed to be an out-of-date design. The Kazans fire at 16,000 km, scoring fifty-two strength-1 hits, and then the Mountain Cat transits into Mauritius before the Andropovs can fire again. Despite the damage inflicted by the Zharovians, it emerges at full speed and sets a course for home. There is no threat to Japanese shipping as it is evidently out of missiles. The challenge will be locating and destroying it before it can reload.

15th October 1986
Chōkai joins Nagara on the Mauritius – Comoros jump point. Unlike the smaller light cruiser, Chōkai has a jump drive, which means she will suffer far shorter jump shock using her own drive than relying on the stabilised jump point. The buoy on the far side cannot detect the damaged Caucasian Lynx, so she transits, relying on her ability to return before any missile salvo can reach her. Instead of the Bloodclaw missile cruiser, she finds six Zharovian warships, which appear to have picked up the life pods from the Bloodclaw wrecks and the captured Harvester. Chōkai remains near the jump point, allowing Nagara to head home for well-earned shore leave. The Zharovians depart on a heading for the Comoros primary and its two dwarf planets.

17th October 1986
Chōkai transits into Mauritius to destroy a pair of Marbled Cat troop transports approaching the Comoros jump point, then returns to Comoros. A few hours later, the missing Chinese Mountain Cat transits into Comoros and runs for the Andaman jump point. Chōkai pursues and opens fire, inflicting massive damage with two salvos. Unexpectedly, the missile cruiser surrenders before it is destroyed. The ship is barely holding together after the damage inflicted by both Chōkai and the Zharovians and has lost both engines and three quarters of its launchers. The tug Ryokai Maru is in the adjacent Andaman system, where she has placed the captured fuel harvester in orbit of Andaman. However, there is still a missing Caucasian Lynx somewhere between Ryokai Maru and Chōkai.

22nd October 1986
The salvage ship Kimikawa Maru and her accompanying freighters finally arrive at Mauritius Base, escorted by the heavy cruiser Maya. She will now begin the task of clearing some of the wrecks littering the inner system, while Maya remains as close escort.

27th October 1986
The damaged Caucasian Lynx is detected by a sensor buoy at the Comoros – Chagos jump point, which is seven billion kilometres from the Comoros – Mauritius jump point. The ship will not pose a threat for the foreseeable future. Chagos has yet to be surveyed, so it is possible it is host to a Dominion colony. The tug Ryokai Maru, which has been moving through Comoros expecting to be attacked at any moment, tractors the crippled Mountain Cat and heads for Mauritius Base.

9th November 1986
Five Shinshu Maru class troop transports trying to move through Zharov are detected by the Zharovians, who issue a demand for them to leave immediately. While careful travel through the system has significantly reduced the number of warnings issued, there are still occasional problems, any one of which could be the trigger that leads to war with the Followers of Zharov.

14th November 1986
The relationship between the Empire of Japan and the Followers of Zharov appears to be deteriorating rapidly. In Mauritius, a group of Zharovian warships at the Zharov jump point demand that a pair of Japanese colony ships should leave the system as a matter of urgency. Simultaneously in Atlasov, the four carriers en route to Mauritius are ordered to leave the system immediately. In retrospect, eliminating the Zuijin from Atlasov may prove to have been a mistake.

With demands issued in the connected systems of Mauritius, Zharov and Atlasov, it is difficult to see how Mauritius Base can be maintained without causing a war with the Followers of Zharov. It would be extremely unfortunate if that war were to start while the carriers were travelling without escorts. In addition, tensions are rising in Sapporo with the Capella Imperium so the Empire of Japan faces a possible war on four fronts; against the Bloodclaw Dominion, the Followers of Zharov, the Capella Imperium and the Mizuchi-Ha. While the Mizuchi-Ro, the Wokou Raiders and the Zuijin are also hostile powers, they present less of an immediate threat.

15th November 1986
Five new ships depart the Bloodclaw home world. Two are a new type, designated as Sand Cat class, which have a speed of 16,224 km/s and a thermal signature double that of the Caucasian Lynx. The other three are Angelo Bassini V escorts, the design of which was obtained by ELINT data. It is armed with ten twin gauss turrets and has a speed of 8107 km/s. All five ships seem to be on a course toward the Comoros jump point. The battleship Katsuragi breaks orbit to intercept the escorts, while the twenty-two A3M fighters left behind by Hiryu try to intercept the Sand Cats. In both cases, the intercepting vessels are slower. The Sand Cats retreat, while the Angelo Bassinis attempt to evade Katsuragi. Those efforts are unsuccessful. The battleship picks up the survivors and heads back to Mauritius Base.

A few hours later, the Sand Cats try again. This time the fighters take up position in their path and disengage their active sensors. As the Sand Cats approach, they attempt a head-on intercept, but again the Bloodclaw ships reverse course and run for home. The fighters back off and the Sand Cats resume their course toward Comoros. With fuel running low, the fighters split into two group, one running ahead of the Sand Cats while the other circles around behind them, then both groups converge. The Sand Cats manoeuvre to escape both groups and succeed, with the nearest fighter group closing to less than 70,000 km before the range begins to open again. After evading, they resume their course toward Comoros.

19th November 1986
The two Sand Cats change course, transit into Zharov and are destroyed by the Zharovian fleet on the jump point.

20th November 1986
A Pampas Cat class launches from the Bloodclaw home world and heads for the Comoros jump point. A pair of Showa L1D ‘Raikō’ class assault transports from Mauritius Base, operating with refuelling support from Kyokuto Maru, intercept and capture the ship, which turns out to be a civilian colony vessel. Ryokai Maru tows it back to the colony, so that the repair ship Fukuju can scrap it and its engines can be disassembled.

22nd November 1986
The last Caucasian Lynx missile cruiser is detected moving from Comoros into Andaman. It is still moving at half speed.

23rd November 1986
Kiso, a Nagara IV-Ro light cruiser, arrives at Mauritius Base. Naka, one of the three long-serving Nagara III-Ni light cruisers operating from Mauritius Base, along with Nagara and Yura, begins the long journey back to Earth for a refit.

29th November 1986
The carriers Chūyō, Hiyō, Shinyō and Unryū, plus the light cruiser Jintsū, all arrive at Mauritius Base. Fortunately, the Zharovian forces picketing the various jump points in the area did not stay in contact long enough to raise an objection to the carriers. Jintsu was intended to picket the recently conquered Zuijin planet in Atlasov until the arrival of xenoarchaeological regiments, but given the tension with the Followers of Zharov, it was decided she would leave the system and provide an escort for the carriers. The Kido Butai is reformed, comprising the four battleships and four carriers and under the command of Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa Rai. Their first mission in Mauritius is a missile attack on the Bloodclaw home world to test its defences.

Kido Butai - Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa Rai
Yamato II class Battleship: Katsuragi, Musashi, Shinano, Yamato*
Taihō III class Carrier: Chūyō, Hiyō, Shinyō, Unryū
4x Showa L1D ‘Raikō’ class Assault Transport
72x Nakajima B2N ‘Tenzan’ class Carrier Strike
72x Nakajima B2N2 'Tenzan class Carrier Strike
144x Mitsubishi A4M ‘Ryūjin’ class Fighter
8x Aichi E3A class Scout

In orbit of the Bloodclaw home world, the third moon of Mauritius II, there are three Snow Leopards of 20,787 tons, three Jaguars of 20,875 tons and six 26,151-ton Caracals, all of which are assumed to be orbital bases. Given the volume of fire against Zharovian attacks in the past, including thirteen hundred strength-1 detonations in a single attack, Imperial Naval Intelligence estimates that at least half must be armed with light missiles and possibly more. When the Zuijin recently launched light missiles against Imperial Navy battleships, only a small portion hit their targets, mainly due to jamming. So many light missiles hit the Zharovians, who are a high tech race that would also have modern jammers, that there are only three possibilities: the bases launched far more than thirteen hundred missiles, the Zharovians were using old, out of date ships, or the Dominion light missiles have modern ECCM. The first or last possibilities would be very serious indeed if the Yamatos moved within range with the Bloodclaw defences at full strength.

In the past, ships have approached within five million kilometres without being engaged, so Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa takes the Kido Butai to that range and launches his one hundred and forty-four strike craft. They target four different bases, two Caracals, a Snow Leopard and a Jaguar, with seventy-two missiles each, equally split between Rakurai-Ni and Rakurai-Ho variants, with the latter having strength-15 warheads compared to strength-12 for the former, but otherwise identical.

Two point two million kilometres from the planet, the missile wave is intercepted by the first defensive missiles, with two hundred and forty-one detonations detected. Detonations continue as the missiles move closer to the planet, with almost a thousand in total. That is sufficient to destroy two-thirds of the Japanese missiles. Strangely, there is no point-blank defensive fire, so ninety-five missiles detonate, thirty-six of which strike decoys. All four targets are hit, with each suffering between two and five penetrating hits. While no targets have been destroyed, the attack has at least proven that the defences can be penetrated. Back on Earth, Daigensui-Kaigun-Taisho Takagi regrets not sending all six Taiho class carriers, but he was not prepared to send every strike carrier in the Imperial Navy fifty billion kilometres from Earth, behind potentially hostile territory. For now, the strike craft land and begin re-arming with Rakurai II missiles, which have a speed of 50,000 km/s, improved ECM and a strength-20 warhead.

Two hours later, they launch a second strike. The four damaged bases are each targeted by thirty-six missiles while two undamaged bases, a Jaguar and a Snow Leopard, are targeted by seventy-two missiles each. This time the results are more dramatic. One hundred and forty Rakurai II reach their targets, forty-six of which strike decoys. Four bases explode, including one of those newly targeted. A Caracal attacked by the first wave suffers a further six internal hits, while three detonations penetrate the armour of a previously undamaged Jaguar. The defences now comprises six intact and two damaged bases. Once again there is no point-blank energy fire, so it possible that all twelve bases were armed with light missiles.

The Kido Butai pulls back to Mauritius Base to reload missiles. There are one hundred and fifty Rakurai II and three hundred and ninety-two Rakurai-Ho at the colony, which is enough for one full strike and a second at around three quarters strength. Given the past volume of missile fire from the Bloodclaw home world, Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa is keen to reduce the defences further before sending the battleships in to mop up the survivors.

30th November 1986
The 1st Infantry Division is delivered to Sapporo by the transport Togakushi Maru, finally providing some ground defence for the colony.

In Mauritius, a fleet of eight Zharovian warships, comprising a Saransk of 17,382 tons, four Sverdlov of 17,344 tons and three Baku of 8,669 tons, transits into Comoros. This is the second significant fleet to transit in the last two weeks.

1st December 1986
The Kido Butai launches a third strike against the Dominion home world, this time comprising two hundred and eighty-eight Rakurai-Ho anti-ship missiles, equally targeted on the four undamaged Caracal class bases. Six hundred and thirty-seven interceptions are detected before the missiles reach their targets, achieving a total of one hundred and forty-eight strength-15 detonations, sixty-eight of which hit decoys. None of the targets are destroyed, with one, three, six and twelve armour penetrations recorded respectively. There are now six damaged bases, five of which are the larger Caracals, and two intact bases; a Jaguar and a Snow Leopard.

Two hours later, the fourth and final strike is launched, comprising one hundred and forty-four Rakurai II missiles, directed against the five damaged Caracals, plus one hundred and four Rakurai-Ho, split between the damaged Jaguar and an undamaged Snow Leopard. One intact Jaguar remains untargeted. Because the strike includes missiles with different speeds, 50,000 km/s and 40,000 km/s respectively, the strike craft close to two point six million kilometres before launching. The two waves of missile, slowly separating as they travel, head toward the moon.

Oddly, compared to previous waves, there are no interceptions until one point one million kilometres, and even then only thirty-one detonations. In total, one hundred and twelve interceptions are detected before the Rakurai II reach their targets, with the loss of only eighteen missiles. The rest completely destroy the five targeted Caracals. The following wave of Rakurai-Ho hits ten seconds later, after minimal interceptions, destroying the undamaged Snow Leopard and inflicting eight more internal hits on the damaged Jaguar. For the expenditure of eleven hundred missiles, comprising two years of ordnance production and sufficient wealth and materials to build three Taiho class carriers, the Imperial Japanese Navy has shattered the orbital defences of the Bloodclaw home world. All that remains are two Jaguar class bases, one of which has significant damage.

Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa orders the four battleships to advance, eliminate the remaining bases and deal with any surface-based defences. The Yamatos close to 320,000 km, without taking any fire from the Jaguars or the surface, so they open fire on the existing 34,000-ton signature of surface-based weapons, revealed by their attack on Zharovian ships four years earlier. They gradually move to 280,000 km and then 240,000 km to improve the damage of their 30cm lasers, still without receiving hostile fire.

After thirty-four minutes of constant bombardment, every known STO weapon has been eliminated. Imperial Naval Intelligence estimates that the collateral damage killed thirteen million civilians and destroyed one hundred and seventy installations of various types. Enough dust has been thrown up into the atmosphere to lower the global temperature by nine degrees. Due to the wear and tear on their weapons from continuous firing, all four battleships have less than half of their maintenance supplies remaining. There are still surface-based sensor emissions, so the battleships gradually move closer.

At two hundred thousand kilometres, they come under attack. One hundred and thirty-five STO weapons open fire, scoring just nine strength-6 hits on the battleships’ shields. A new ground forces signature of 13,300-tons is detected, so the four Yamatos resume their bombardment for a further fifteen minutes, eliminating the attacking weapons. They target the two Jaguars as they resume their approach, destroying both before encountering additional surface-to-orbit weapons at just 15,000 km/s. The battleships receive over a hundred strength-1 hits, but it does not trouble their shields. They withdraw and attack the new contact, registering over 22,000 tons.

By the time the last of the surface defences have finally eliminated, the four battleships are all below thirty percent maintenance supplies, with Yamato at fourteen percent. The toll of collateral damage is twenty million dead and close to three hundred installations destroyed, with enough dust in the atmosphere to drop the temperature by fourteen degrees. There is still a sizeable shipyard complex in orbit and a ground forces signature of over half a million tons on the surface, which probably indicates a force of triple that size. Given how well Bloodclaw crews have fought with light personal weapons in recent boarding actions, that planetary defence force is likely to be formidable.

Daigensui-Kaigun-Taisho Takagi had hoped the Empire of Japan could capture the shipyard complex, following a successful invasion of the Bloodclaw home world. However, that invasion could be at least a year away. There are five divisions already at Mauritius Base, including two Arashi divisions and all three Kurogane Samurai divisions. A third Arashi division and three infantry divisions are on troop transports in the Mauritius system, en route from the Zharov jump point. Even with nine divisions, totalling 900,000 tons, they would be outnumbered and facing a fortified enemy. There are no more divisions currently in transit from Sol. Five large troop transports are in various systems heading home to Sol and more are under construction. Two Arashi divisions are available on Luna, with a third being trained. The only other available formation is the Scimitar Division, which comprises the last of the old Imperial Army formations that took part in the invasion of Scimitar Prime.

Either the invasion is launched immediately, or postponed until the transports heading home can load more divisions, once they have been trained on Luna, and return to Mauritius. A one way trip is nine months for most of the existing transports and six months even for the new Yasukuni-Ro Maru class, so postponing will mean a delay of between twelve and eighteen months. Having achieved so much to this point, Daigensui-Kaigun-Taisho Takagi is not willing a risk an understrength invasion that could, if it ended in failure, end any hope of conquering the Bloodclaw home world for several years. Therefore he decides to wait.

The immediate consequence of that decision is that the Dominion shipyard complex has to be destroyed. Unless the Imperial Navy maintains a very strong force in Mauritius, the complex could build additional ships that might overwhelm Mauritius base and it defenders, so that risk must be eliminated. The Yamatos open fire once again. With ninety-six 30cm lasers firing from point-blank range, the damage is catastrophic. The entire shipyard complex is obliterated in less than three minutes. Over the course of only three days, the Kido Butai has changed the status of the Bloodclaw Dominion from a major spacefaring power to one mainly restricted to its home world, although it could rebuild given sufficient time.

One minor task remains: removal of the small outpost on the first moon, which has a ground forces signature of 4300 tons and sensor emissions from surface-to-orbit weapons. The battle is one-sided and brief, although Yamato has to cease fire due to a lack of maintenance supplies and the other three battleships are not in much better shape. Once all STO weapons have been eliminated, a small ground forces contact of 1900 tons remains. Daigensui-Kaigun-Taisho Takagi orders the capture of the moon, which orbits two point five million kilometres closer to its parent superjovian than the Bloodclaw home world and will make an ideal forward observation post for monitoring the Dominion.

2nd December 1986
Two new jump points have recently been discovered in Orochi’s Maw. Beyond the first is a planetless red dwarf system named Baffin, discovered by the Asagiri class survey cruiser Shinonome, which is currently conducting a survey. No survey cruiser was available to probe the second so the Diplomatic ship Kizuna was dispatched from the Ascension jump point. She enters the system, designated as Iceland, to find a yellow-white F6-V primary with seven planets and sixteen moons. A Mars-sized moon of the fifth planet, a gas giant, is an ideal habitable world. The planet is cold and dominated by Tundra, but has small seas, an atmosphere almost identical to Earth and a temperature of -3C.

A second moon of the same planet is near habitable, with a breathable atmosphere and an ice sheet covering a third of the surface. The temperature is -48C. The parent gas giant has an eccentricity of 0.19 and is close to perihelion, so the temperature of both moons will fall between 40 and 50C at aphelion. Even so, both could be made into permanent ideal worlds with suitable terraforming. The fourth planet, dominated by coniferous forests and with liquid oceans, also has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, with the oxygen content slightly too high to be breathable by humans. This would become an ideal world with minimal terraforming. As there is no survey cruiser available, Kizuna heads in-system to investigate.

4th December 1986
The troop transport Takami Maru combat drops the 2nd Arashi Division on the first moon of Mauritius II. The defending forces comprise a thousand infantry with light anti-tank weapons and are completely outclassed. The moon is secured within twenty-four hours with the loss of twenty-two Arashi. One of the captured Dominion freighters moves a tracking station from Mauritius Base to the moon, then Takami Maru transports the 2nd Arashi Division back to Mauritius Base and returns with one of the colony’s three shore batteries.

9th December 1986
While Kimikawa Maru continues to salvage wrecks in Mauritius, her sister ship Kamakura Maru is in Sri Lanka, five transits outward from Mauritius Base, via Reunion, Amirante, Zanzibar and Madagascar, salvaging the large number of wrecks in that system, mainly from the Helgrim Protectorate. Combat has been previously observed between the Helgrim and an undetected opponent, plus ELINT data from the Bloodclaw Dominion revealed they were aware of a race unknown to the Empire of Japan. That mystery race is potentially revealed when an unknown alien ship approaches Kamakura Maru close to the Madagascar jump point. The ship, designated as Rodan class, is 34,351 tons and travelling at 1490 km/s. It ignores Kamakura Maru and transits into Madagascar, where it moves away in a direction that does not correspond to any known jump point.

13th December 1986
Kizuna moves into orbit of Iceland IV and detects a small colony of the Capella Imperium. There are thermal and EM signatures of approximately strength-300, a ground forces contact of 3500 tons and six ships in orbit: five Pasht class geosurvey vessels and a Sekhmet of 6,127 tons. She breaks orbit and heads across the inner system toward the fifth planet on the far side of the star. Half way to her destination, she detects an extremely strong Capellan EM signature on the planet’s eleventh moon, an ideal habitable world, almost fifty percent greater than the EM signature of Earth. This is almost certainly the home world of the Capella Imperium, which places it just two transits from Sapporo, via Orochi’s Maw. Kizuna reverses course, trying to stay out of Capellan sensor range, and detects another small population on Iceland III as she passes close by.

14th December 1986
All four Taiho class carriers, plus the battleships Katsuragi and Shinano, depart Mauritius Base en route for the Zharov jump point, the first leg on their long voyage back to Earth. Yamato and Musashi will remain at Mauritius Base for now to deal with any threats that appear before the invasion of the Bloodclaw home world can begin. A few hours later, a colony ship approaching the Mauritius – Zharov jump point is confronted by a Zharovian squadron on the jump point and ordered to leave the system as a matter of urgency.

16th December 1986
An Incheon class ship of the Wokou Raiders is detected in Paramushir, a system two jumps outward from Fiji and on the direct route to Mauritius. Three Imperial Navy ships are in the system; an Asuka Maru fast freighter, the troop transport Suwa Maru, which is carrying two xenoarchaeological regiments and two engineer regiments to Atlasov, and the replenishment ship Tatekawa Maru, which is heading home after several months stationed at the temporary refuelling location in Kharimkotan. The Incheon appears within eight million kilometres of the replenishment ship, which attempts to run but cannot escape. Tatekawa Maru is destroyed forty minutes after the Incheon is detected.

The fast freighter, five hundred million kilometres away and carrying two tracking stations for use in Mauritius, continues on course to the Iturup jump point. Suwa Maru, four hundred million kilometres away in the opposite direction, reverses course back toward the Sakhalin jump point. In addition to the Imperial Navy ships, there are seven Zharovian ships on the Iturup jump point, six with commercial engines plus a Zagorsk class diplomatic ship.

17th December 1986
The Imperial Navy diplomatic ship Heiwa enters Madagascar, moves to the Sri Lanka jump point, then follows the course of the recently-detected Rodan. She finds the ship in orbit of an asteroid with a small population of the new alien race. Ground forces are also present, including emissions from shore batteries. Heiwa moves into orbit to begin communication attempts, but can make no progress. She starts receiving unintelligible messages that seem to be unrelated to establishing communications, so she withdraws to Zanzibar.

18th December 1986
The Incheon class raider in Paramushir is destroyed close to the second planet of the system by energy-weapon fire, presumably from a Zharovian ship or colony.

31st December 1986
Kamakura Maru detects five 34,470-ton Thorn class ships of the Sri Lanka aliens transiting into Madagascar at 1160 km/s. Meanwhile in Sapporo, a steady stream of commercial vessels from the Capella Imperium are transiting into the system from Orochi’s Maw, although their destination has not yet been determined.

4th January 1987
The first military-engined ship of the Sri Lanka aliens, an 8500-ton Cloudfire with a speed of 7000 km/s, approaches the Sri Lanka – Madagascar jump point.

10th January 1987
Salvage of a Caracal wreck in orbit of the Dominion home world reveals that its missile launchers were double the size of the light missiles used by the Zuijin. The increased size probably indicates the Bloodclaw light missiles have ECCM or multiple warheads, or perhaps both, making them far more dangerous.

23rd January 1987
The heavy cruiser Chōkai, on a mission to hunt down the last Caucasian Lynx, finally locates and destroys the Bloodclaw ship near the Andaman – Silhouette jump point.

31st January 1987
The long-delayed survey of the Reunion system, adjacent to Mauritius, is completed, revealing a third jump point. Asakaze transits and discovers Cartier, a system with an orange K0-V star and a single, dwarf planet. She begins a survey of the new system.

4th February 1987
The Followers of Zharov continue to issue warnings to Imperial Navy ships in the Atlasov system, ordering them to leave as a matter of urgency. A deep space tracking station has been emplaced on Atlasov III in preparation for the arrival of xenoarchaeological and engineer regiments, which will potentially cause further tension if it is detected.

Meanwhile, in the Sri Lanka system, Kamakura Maru is salvaging a wreck when a new ship of the Sri Lanka aliens transits a previously undetected jump point at the same location. Two of the three freighters accompanying Kamakura Maru are waiting at the jump point in case the aliens turn hostile. When the salvage is complete, the third freighter enters the stable jump point, making it the first freighter in the history of the Imperial Japanese Navy to be used in an exploration role.

The freighter discovers a giant K5-III star with three planets, the second of which has an ice sheet and a thin nitrogen – oxygen atmosphere, and twenty-eight moons. The wreck of a Helgrim Frigga class ship of 14,785 tons is located on the jump point, with another wreck of unknown type approximately five billion kilometres away. The system is named Sumatra. Kamakura Maru enters Sumatra to salvage the Frigga, while the detached freighters are ordered to head home to Mauritius Base.

9th February 1987
The battleships Katsuragi and Shinano, plus the four Taiho class carriers deployed to Mauritius, arrive at Fiji Naval Base. Both battleships remain at Fiji for now, along with the battlecruiser Hiei and two light cruisers that were already deployed to the colony, in case tensions with the Followers of Zharov turn into open hostility. All four carriers head for Earth to reload ordnance.

20th February 1987
A Japanese colony ship in Paramushir, two jumps outward from Fiji, is ordered to leave the system immediately by a Zharovian ship. Warnings of varying severity have been issued by the Followers in recent weeks in Paramushir, Atlasov, Zharov and Mauritius, all of which are part of the logistics chain between Fiji and Mauritius Base. War between the Empire of Japan and the Followers of Zharov does not seem far away. All Japanese colonies and fleets are placed on high alert. In Mauritius, the battleship Yamato is ordered to move toward the Zharov jump point.

[AuroraSteve]

3rd March 1987
The Followers of Zharov issue warnings to Yamato, positioned a hundred and fifty million kilometres from the Mauritius – Zharov jump point, and a survey ship in Atlasov that they must leave both systems immediately or be fired upon. Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi believes that war with the Followers of Zharov is inevitable and could begin within days. With that in mind, he begins considering a plan for the Empire of Japan to strike first. At least the threat from the Bloodclaw Dominion has been significantly reduced after the recent attack on their home world, so Mauritius Base will not face a war on two fronts.

In preparation for hostilities, Yamato is ordered to move within twenty thousand kilometres of the seven Zharovian warships currently stationed on the Mauritius – Zharov jump point. She is out-massed by two-to-one, but three of the ships, comprising a third of the total tonnage, are escorts with short-ranged weapons. The other four are Soci class heavy cruisers armed with eighteen 20cm lasers and one 25cm spinal laser. The Zharovian ships have shields, strength-110 for the Soci and strength-105 for the Saransk, but even in total they are weaker than Yamato’s strength-953 shields. Yamato’s sister ship Musashi is undergoing overhaul at Mauritius Base, along with the heavy cruiser Chōkai. Both ships should be available in two to three weeks. Chōkai’s sister ship Maya is in orbit of the Bloodclaw home world, protecting the salvage ship Kimikawa Maru.

The other two jump points from Mauritius, to Reunion and Comoros, are picketed by the battlecruiser Kirishima and the Nagara IV-Ro class light cruiser Kiso respectively. The main threat to the latter is a known Zharovian fleet two transits from Mauritius in Andaman, which comprises three 21,000-ton Magadan class cruisers armed with sixteen 20cm lasers each, an Archangelsk class escort cruiser and three 13,000-ton Kirovs, which have a speed of 6000 km/s and unknown armament. Once Chōkai is available, she will move to support Kiso.

The Asagiri class survey cruiser Yugiri is in Reunion and the larger Shimakaze class survey cruiser Asakaze is one transit further out in Cartier. Two freighters, full of minerals and ship components from the salvage operations in Sri Lanka, are in Zanzibar, three jumps from Mauritius via Reunion and Amirante. In the event of hostilities, their route home is blocked by three Zharovian Andropov class frigates on the Amirante – Reunion jump point. The salvage ship Kamakura Maru and a third freighter are three transits further out in Sumatra. The only immediately available warships at Mauritius are the Nagara III light cruisers Nagara and Yura and the Nagara IV-Ro light cruiser Jintsu. Given that Mauritius Base may be cut off for some time, the almost 20,000 tons of minerals in the freighters would be extremely useful, so Nagara and Yura are ordered to rescue them, if that is possible without excessive risk.

Seven transits away In Fiji, the heavy cruisers Atago and Takao are approaching the Sakhalin jump point, which is the border between the Empire of the Japan and the Followers of Zharov. Takagi orders them to ignore two Zagorsk class diplomatic ships on the jump point, transit into Sakhalin and, in the event of hostilities, secure the Sakhalin - Paramushir jump point, which is currently occupied by three Zharovian commercial ships with a 7700-ton Vorkuta as escort. Securing Paramushir itself, which has a small Zharovian colony, and the Paramushir - Iturup jump point would be a key objective in the early stages of any war with the Followers, as it is a choke point through which any Zharovian attack on the Empire of Japan would have to pass.

The battlecruiser Hiei is following in the wake of the two cruisers wake and will reach the Fiji - Sakhalin jump point in four days. Her job will be to eliminate the diplomatic ships, then support Atago and Takao. The Yamato class battleships Katsuragi and Shinano are at Fiji Naval Base and would form the core of any offensive push beyond Paramushir through Iturup and Kharimkotan and into Atlasov, site of the Zuijin ruins and directly adjacent to the Zharov home system. Iturup and Kharimkotan each have a third jump point, leading to different parts of Zharovian territory. These two jump points would have to be picketed during a Japanese offensive, probably by Atago and Takao, to prevent flanking attacks on the drive toward Atlasov.

Already in Atlasov is the light cruiser Kitakami, the only defence for the unarmed Imperial Navy ships in the system, including the new salvage ship Kochi Maru and her attached 235,000-ton Omurosan-Ha Maru class freighter, the survey cruiser Shirakumo, the fleet support vessel Harukumo and the tug Nihonkai Maru, which is towing a Yokosuka class maintenance base for a planned colony at the Zuijin ruins. The new tanker Natsugumo Maru, which is carrying fifty million litres of fuel for Mauritius Base, is about to transit into the Atlasov – Zharov jump point.

Between Atlasov and Fiji are several other unarmed Imperial Navy vessels, including two replenishment ships and a fleet support vessel at the temporary replenishment base in Kharimkotan. They, along with a troop transport and two ELINT vessels in the system, are ordered to move into deep space and attempt to avoid contact. If the replenishment ships can survive they will be extremely valuable in providing logistical support for the battleships if they make it as far as Kharimkotan.

A few hours after Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi issues the war preparation orders, a Viper class survey ship of the Mizuchi-Ha transits from Ryugasaki into Sigma Tucanae. A Kawanishi H4K ‘Kumo’ picketing the jump point engages and destroys the Mizuchi ship. This would not be a good time for the Mizuchi-Ha to start sending ships through Sigma Tucanae into the key Fomalhaut system.

7th March 1987
Natsugumo Maru and her fifty million litres of fuel transit safely into Mauritius and move away from the jump point. In Fiji, Hiei has taken up a picket position at the Sakhalin jump point, close to the two Zharovian diplomatic ships, while Katsuragi and Shinano are a day away from joining her. The various support ships in Atlasov have gathered under the protection of Kitakami, in orbit of the third planet, which is home to the Zuijin ruins. A Zharovian Murmansk class, 7150 tons and equipped with commercial engines is also in orbit. The Taihō-series class carriers Taihō and Junyō and the Akagi-series carrier Soryu, escorted by the heavy cruisers Ashigara and Myōkō, have left Earth for Fiji and will arrive in nineteen days. Two more Taihō-series class carriers, Hiyō and Chūyō, have been quickly turned around after their return from Mauritius and, despite their lack of overhaul, are three days behind their sister ships.

Despite the Imperial Navy being scattered across known space and only three ships in position to take immediate offensive action, Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi gives the order to commence hostilities against the Followers of Zharov. The alternative is cede the initiative to an aggressive alien empire that seems determined to provoke a war. The overriding objective of the war will be to link Mauritius to the rest of the Empire of Japan before it is overwhelmed by the Followers of Zharov. Given that six Zharovian systems stand between Fiji and Mauritius, the last of which is the Zharovian home system itself, this will not be an easy task.

The first, and by far the most important, engagement takes place at the Mauritius – Zharov jump point, where Yamato faces four 26,000-ton Soci class heavy cruisers and three 17,400-ton Saransk class escorts. There is a second Zharovian fleet on the far side of the jump point, comprising two Soci cruisers, three Saransk escorts, two smaller Kazan class escorts and three 10,800-ton Andropov class frigates. In combination, the two Zharovian fleets out-mass Yamato by four to one. She targets two of the Soci class cruisers and opens fire. One is instantly destroyed by a large secondary explosion; the other is crippled. Moments later, Hiei destroys the two diplomatic ships in Fiji, while Kitakami eliminates the Murmansk with a single volley.

Yamato moves away from the jump point, opening the range to 40,000 km to avoid gauss cannon fire from the Saransk class escorts. Her shields suffer twelve strength-10 impacts from the two intact Soci class heavy cruisers, and a single hit from their heavily-damaged sister, which is destroyed in response by Yamato’s 12cm laser turrets. Even while Yamato’s main 30cm armament is recharging, the Followers of Zharov begin to dismantle the buoy network of the Empire of Japan.

The Zharov – Mauritius buoy is destroyed by the Zharovian jump point defence force. In Iturup, three jumps from Fiji via Sakhalin and Paramushir, a Sverdlov class light cruiser and a Baku class escort eliminate the buoy on the Kharimkotan jump point. In Shikotan, the first in a side chain of nine systems connected to Kharimkotan, two more Sverdlovs and a Baku class escort eliminate the buoy on the Kharimkotan jump point. Before the buoy was destroyed, it was also tracking seventeen 84,000-ton Brezhnev class ships, equipped with commercial engines and of unknown function. The two warships in Iturup will be a near-term target for the Japanese advance from Fiji, while the three warships in Shikotan present a flanking threat to any Japanese advance through Kharimkotan to Atlasov.

In Kharimkotan itself, where six unarmed Imperial Navy ships are moving to hide in deep space, the buoys on the Iturup, Shikotan and Atlasov jump points remain intact. The latter retains a sensor contact with eight commercial-engined Zharovian ships of various types which begin moving from their position on the Atlasov jump point toward the Shikotan jump point, presumably to seek safety under cover of the Zharovian squadron in that system.

Two transits from Mauritius, the Andaman – Comoros buoy is eliminated by a group of seven Zharovian warships, comprising three Magadan class light cruisers, an Archangelsk escort cruiser and three Kirov class escorts. The armament of the Kirov was unknown until it fired on the buoy with gauss cannon. Prior to hostilities, this fleet was believed to present the main danger to Kiso on the Comoros – Mauritius jump point. However, in orbit of Andaman II, a captured Bloodclaw fuel harvester, which lacks sensor capability, comes under gauss cannon fire from an unknown assailant, which means there are additional Zharovian forces of unknown strength in Andaman. As a result, defending the Mauritius – Comoros jump point moves up the list of Imperial Navy priorities.

In Reunion, adjacent to Mauritius, three Andropov class frigates and four Zharovian survey ships transit into the system via the Almirante jump point, and set course for the Mauritius jump point. The H4K ‘Kumo’ patrol craft picketing the Almirante jump point cannot fight three 10,800-ton warships, so it tries to open the range before the Zharovians recover from jump shock and open fire. Two Nagara III-Ni light cruisers, Nagara and Yura, are already moving across Reunion from the Mauritius jump point and will need to confront the Andropovs to secure a safe return home for the salvage ship Kamakura Maru and three freighters full of minerals and ship components.

The battle in Mauritius continues, as Yamato moves further from the jump point with the five Zharovian warships in pursuit. Follow-up salvos from the Yamato’s 12cm turrets strike the shields of the two remaining Soci class cruisers. Both Zharovian cruisers return fire and Yamato takes a further eleven strength-10 hits, reducing her shields to eighty percent. Yamato has a speed advantage and could open the range to reduce damage but Kaigun-Shōshō Kurosawa wishes to finish the battle as quickly as possible, before the remaining ships decide to transit into Zharov or Zharovian reinforcements arrive.

Yamato fires her main armament for the second time. Her fast-firing 12cm lasers have already removed the shields of the two Soci cruisers, so the broadside of twenty-four 30cm lasers at 40,000 km completely obliterates both ships, leaving only the three Saransk class escorts. Yamato splits her fire between all targets, which cannot respond due to their short-ranged gauss cannon armament. Four twin 12cm lasers turrets target each Saransk, quickly battering down their shields and damaging the armour before Yamato fires her main armament and destroys all three ships simultaneously. Yamato returns to the Zharov jump point to guard against any attempt by the Followers to enter Mauritius, while the tanker Natsugumo Maru returns to the area to pick up the Zharovian survivors and drop them off at Mauritius Base.

In Andaman, the assault against the captured Bloodclaw fuel harvester continues until it explodes. Only ninety-two survive from a crew of four hundred and fifty. In Sakhalin, adjacent to Fiji, three 23,800-ton commercial-engined Bernaul class ships and a Vorkuta class escort transit into Paramushir, possibly heading to safer systems after the destruction of the diplomatic ships in Fiji. In Reunion, the three Andropov class frigates suddenly reverse course and move back into Amirante, followed a few minutes later by the four survey ships. As soon as they recover from jump shock, the Andropovs eliminate the nearby sensor buoy. In Kharimkotan, three Saransk class escorts transit into the system from Shikotan. These ships are new additions to the three known warships in the latter system. The six unarmed Japanese ships in Kharimkotan will be in significant danger until the warships of the Imperial Navy arrive.

9th March 1987
A pair of commercial-engined, 34,000-ton Vladivostok class ships are detected by a sensor buoy approaching and transiting the Kharimkotan - Shikotan jump point from the general direction of the Atlasov jump point. A few hours later, the heavy cruisers Atago and Takao transit from Sakhalin into Paramushir. Already in the system is Shinobi, a Kitsune class stealth scout in orbit of Paramushir I. Four 84,000-ton Zharovian Brezhnev class ships are in orbit of the second planet, which is known to have ground forces and surface-to-orbit batteries. Atago heads for the planet while Takao sets a more direct course to the Iturup jump point, looking for any ships retreating across the system.

Less than three hours after the cruisers transit, thermal emissions from the Vorkuta class escort that entered Paramushir with three commercial-engined ships are detected by Shinobi, on a direct course for Paramushir II. Back in Sakhalin, a Bransk class ship that was somehow missed by the cruisers during their journey across the system, approaches the Paramushir jump point at almost 9000 km/s. Takao reverses course but is still fifty million kilometres from the jump point when the Bransk transits and immediately flees into the outer system. Based on its speed and behaviour, the Bransk is most likely a scout ship.

As soon as Takao is detected by the Bransk, the four Brezhnev class ships break orbit of Paramushir and run for the Iturup jump point. Their maximum speed is 358 km/s, so they will not reach it before Atago, which declines a futile pursuit of the Bransk in favour of cutting off any escape any into Iturup. The Vorkuta, still fifty million kilometres from the planet, also changes course for the Iturup jump point and is considerably faster at 8,379 kms/. The previous assumption the Vorkuta was an escort design may be in error given its speed.

In Comoros, adjacent to Mauritius, two Saransk class escorts transit into the system from Andaman to join a small, commercial-engined Voronez already stationed on the jump point, then head straight for the light cruiser Kiso on the Mauritius jump point.

10th March 1987
Two Magadan class light cruisers and an Archangelsk class escort cruiser are detected moving toward the Sakhalin - Paramushir jump point. Closer examination of their course suggests it may have originated at Sakhalin’s sole planet, a barren, Mercury-like world, which would explain why the three warships and the Bransk class scout were missed by Atago and Takao. Takao reverses course yet again toward the Paramushir – Sakhalin jump point, although she is now half a billion kilometres away. This time though, she has a speed advantage so she will able to catch three Zharovian warships if she can detect them. The battleships Katsuragi and Shinano are almost half way across Sakhalin and have just passed the old battlecruiser Hiei, which is directed to investigate the planet.

The Magadans and the Archangelsk transit into Paramushir and set a course for the Iturup jump point, placing them on an opposing course to Takao. Meanwhile Atago, on course for Paramushir II, encounters the three Bernaul class ships that fled Sakhalin three days earlier and moves in to attack.

As Takao moves toward the Sakhalin jump point, she encounters the Bransk, which attempts to move past her en route to the Paramushir jump point. It seems that every Zharovian ship close to Japanese territory is running for home. The first shots from Takao impact the shields of the 10,800-ton Bransk and it promptly surrenders. It is confirmed as a scout ship, thirteen years old and equipped with magneto-plasma drives. Takao leaves a prize crew on the ship and continues on course. Two hours later, Atago destroys the three Bernauls then resumes her approach to Paramushir II.

11th March 1987
Takao detects the Magadans and the Archangelsk and closes to 325,000 before opening fire. Her Type 45 Go-31G Laser Fire Control has a range of 384,000 km, which her captain, Kaigun-Taisa Miyazawa Senshi, believes will be superior to the slower, and therefore probably lower-tech, Magadan class light cruisers. That assumption proves to be correct, as there is no answering fire, but the Magadans have shields of strength-100 and the occasional hit from long-range cannot overcome their recharge rate. Kaigun-Taisa Miyazawa orders his ship to close to 235,000 km, where Takao’s six twin 12cm laser turrets can support her ten 25cm lasers.

She comes under fire at 255,000 km from a total of thirty-two 20cm lasers and two 25cm laser. No hits are scored. At 235,000 km, her fast-firing 12cm lasers begin reducing the Zharovian shields, bolstered every twenty seconds by several strength-3 hits from her main armament. Her own shields take occasional hits in response, but not enough to trouble her recharge rate. Emboldened by the relative ineffectiveness of the Zharovian fire, Miyazawa orders another range drop to 180,000 km. The incoming fire starts to reduce Takao’s shields, but not enough to concern Miyazawa, especially as the shorter-range increases the accuracy of all Takao’s weapons and the damage of her 25cm lasers.

The targeted Magadan loses its shields and start taking armour damage, followed by the first penetrating hits. Three minutes into the battle, it has dropped to half speed and is falling behind the other two Zharovian ships, so Kaigun-Taisa Miyazawa orders a change of target to the undamaged Magadan and a reduction in range to 120,000 km, where her 12cm lasers will inflict twice as much damage. Takao’s shields are at seventy-six percent and the reduction in range will be offset to some extent by the reduction in enemy fire. At the closer range, the second Magadan is hammered by Takao, although it continues to fight and inflicts enough damage to reduce the shields of the Japanese heavy cruiser to less than half. That brave defiance is ended by a colossal secondary explosion.

With the damaged Magadan trailing well behind, Takao closes to within 40,000 km of the Archangelsk, where the escort cruiser’s deadly but extremely short-ranged gauss cannon are ineffective, and rapidly blows it to pieces. With only one damaged enemy vessel remaining, Kaigun-Taisa Miyazawa resorts to simple brute force, accepting increased shield damage to end the battle quickly. When it over, Takao picks up the life pods and resumes her course for the Iturup jump point. The only point of concern for Miyazawa is the use of almost thirty percent of Takao’s maintenance supplies during the brief engagement.

12th March 1987
On the fifth day of the war, a Soci class heavy cruiser transits from Andaman into Comoros and destroys the sensor buoy on the Comoros – Andaman jump point, removing any further warning of Zharovian ships entering Comoros. Kiso remains on the Comoros – Mauritius jump point, awaiting the potential arrival of two Saransk class escorts that entered Comoros three days earlier.

In Paramushir, the Vorkuta reappears and transits into Iturup. A few hours later, Atago engages multiples batteries of surface-to-orbit weapons on Paramushir II, with a total ground forces signature of over seven thousand tons, eliminating the threat at the cost of half of her maintenance supplies. A further five thousand tons of ground forces remain, but they have no way to affect anything in orbit or beyond. The planet does have significant, accessible deposits of several minerals, but nothing that would be worthy of diverting any mines from the current Japanese colonies.

Paramushir II Survey Report
Duranium: 12,610,242 0.50
Corbomite: 656,100 0.90
Tritanium: 455,625 0.10
Boronide: 893,025 0.40
Mercassium: 35,721 0.10
Vendarite: 385,641 0.90
Sorium: 46,656 0.60
Uridium: 186,624 0.50
Corundium: 4,901,796 0.80
Gallicite: 4,901,796 0.10

Atago leaves Paramushir II behind, quickly closes the range on the slow-moving Breznevs and destroys all four, then moves toward the Iturup jump point. In Sakhalin, the battlecruiser Hiei moves into orbit of the sole planet, finding no evidence of any Zharovian presence. The Imperial Navy is rapidly clearing those systems closest to the Empire of Japan.

13th March 1987
A Viper geological survey ship of the Mizuchi-Ha transits into Sigma Tucanae from Ryugasaki. An H4K ‘Kumo’ picketing the jump point open fire and scores a hit, then the 3,549-ton Viper rams the 500-ton patrol craft, completely destroying it. The Mizuchi-Ha have attempting ramming attacks in the past, but without success. The stealth scout Kitsune is stationed twenty-five million kilometres away and detects the Viper moving in-system at half its normal speed, probably due to damage suffered in the attack.

15th March 1987
The light cruisers Nagara and Yura arrive at the Reunion – Amirante jump point. In Amirante are two Japanese freighters, hiding away from the main shipping routes, that have twenty thousand tons of minerals and ship components from the salvage operation in Sri Lanka. Three Zharovian Andropov class frigates transited into Reunion a week ago and shortly thereafter returned to Amirante, destroying the sensor buoy on that side. They could still be picketing the jump point, in which case a transit by Nagara and Yura would be a suicide mission, as they would have to transit via the jump gate and be unable to respond to an attack for several minutes. The H4 ‘Kumo’ that has been monitoring the Reunion side is sent through instead and finds the three frigates and four Zharovian survey craft less than 15,000 km away. It has only a moment to send a message before it is destroyed. For now, Nagara and Yura will have to remain as jump point defenders.

Atago and Takao transit from Paramushir into Iturup without any sign of resistance. They split up, with Atago heading for the Kunashir jump point to guard against any flank attack while Takao sets course for the key system of Kharimkotan. Both are below fifty percent fuel so they are relying on the rescue of the replenishment ships Kōgetsu Maru and Kōrin Maru and the fleet support vessel Harusame, which are hiding away from the shipping routes in Kharimkotan. The battleships Katsuragi and Shinano are three days behind them. A Japanese colony ship and a freighter that were trapped in Iturup by the outbreak of hostilities break orbit of the comet where they had taken refuge and move toward the Paramushir jump point, on the first leg of their long voyage home.

16th March 1987
The Viper class survey ship of the Mizuchi-Ha that recently destroyed the H4K at the Sigma Tucanae – Ryugasaki jump point transits from Sigma Tucanae into Ube, a system that is yet to be explored. An older H3K ‘Shoki’ is on picket duty because the Sigma Tucanae – Ube jump point is within forty million kilometres of the Sigma Tucanae – Fomalhaut jump point and therefore acts as an early warning of Mizuchi-Ha activity. Unfortunately, the Viper has repaired its engine and vanishes into the depths of the system before the H3K can score a hit.

A day later it reappears on course for the Sigma Tucanae jump point and the H3K successfully intercepts it. After several penetrating hits, the Viper repeats its ramming tactic and destroys the H3K, this time causing so much self-inflicted damage, it is left dead in space and within sensor range of the jump point buoy. An H4K ‘Kumo’ that is picketing the Fomalhaut – Sigma Tucanae jump point moves through the latter system into Ube, finishes the Viper with a single shot and then returns to its original station. Another H3K ‘Shoki’, dispatched from Fomalhaut, takes up the picket position in Ube.

17th March 1987
A Sverdlov class light cruiser and a Baku class escort, the same ships that destroyed a buoy on the Kharimkotan – Iturup jump point, transit from Iturup into Kunashir. Several commercial-engined ships have preceded them into the system.

In Comoros, two 21,000-ton Magadan class light cruisers, an Archangelsk class escort cruiser and two Kazan class escorts approach the Mauritius jump point. The 18,000-ton Nagara IV-Ro light cruiser Kiso moves out to meet them and the five Zharovian ships retreat. Kiso has a 2000 km/s speed advantage, so she gives chase. Fourteen hours later, with the range at 260,000 km, she opens fire on one of the Magadans. While she scores multiple strength-1 hits with her 20cm lasers, she is barely able to overcome the regeneration rate of the target’s shields. Unfortunately, the Nagara class light cruisers do not have any shields, so moving closer, within the fire control range of the Zharovian light cruisers, will expose her to armour damage while she can only reduce the enemy shield strength.

Kiso closes the range to 250,000 km, which increases the damage of her 20cm lasers, while making herself a difficult target, despite being inside extreme range of the 20cm lasers on the Magadans. Once again, the Imperial Navy benefits from the fire control advantages provided by the Osaka-B research colony. Kiso suffers occasional strength-1 hits to her armour, but the enemy shields steadily reduce until the targeted light cruiser begins to suffer armour hits. Eventually, armour-penetrating hits disable an engine and the Magadan falls out of formation. Kiso maintains her 250,000 km distance to the damaged Magadan, scoring an increasing number of internal hits until it suddenly disintegrates amid two huge secondary explosions.

Kiso picks up the survivors, then closes to within 250,000 km of the second Magadan and continues firing. While the tactic is working, as Kiso inflicts far more damage over time than she receives, it is a gradual process, which places a strain on her maintenance resources. Once they drop below twenty-five percent, she closes the range, accepting more damaging hits in order to finish the attack quickly. The Magadan inflicts several strength-4 and strength-5 hits on Kiso before it is finally destroyed.

With only twenty percent maintenance remaining and significant armour damage in three locations, one of which penetrates through two-thirds of her armour belt, Kiso moves in on the three escort ships. They are armed with gauss weapons, which means that Kiso can close to 40,000 km, where her 20cm lasers will inflict maximum damage, before opening fire. All three Zharovian ships are quickly destroyed, but Kiso drops to just thirteen percent of her normal maintenance supply level. Kiso rescues the survivors and retreats to the Mauritius jump point. While five more Zharovian warships have been eliminated, Kiso cannot fight another similar battle.

18th March 1987
The battleship Musashi completes its overhaul at Mauritius base and is sent into Reunion, first to deal with the known Zharov colonies on the second and third planets of Reunion-B and then to assault the Reunion - Amirante jump point. Musashi approaches Reunion-B II and detects a population with thermal and EM signatures of 2800 and 3500 respectively, plus a 10,000-ton ground forces signature, including surface-to-orbit weapons. She moves within weapon range and eliminates the shore battery without difficulty. Reunion-B III hosts a much smaller Zharovian colony. Musashi detects a 24,000-ton ground forces signature, but reaches orbit without any weapon fire from the surface. With both colonies now open to invasion by ground forces from Mauritius Base, Musashi heads for the Amirante jump point to confront the three Andropov class frigates on the far side.

21st March 1987
The 27,000-ton heavy cruiser Takao, on approach to the Iturup – Kharimkotan jump point, detects a fleet of eight Zharovian ships, comprising four 17.344-ton Sverdlov light cruisers, a 17,382-ton Saransk class escort and three 8,669-ton Baku class escorts. Due to her long journey and previous combat, Takao has only twenty-seven percent fuel and seventy-two percent maintenance supplies. Replenishment ships await in Kharimkotan if the Zharovian fleet can be eliminated.

Recent combat has demonstrated that Imperial Navy warships have a qualitative edge over the Zharovian laser-armed warships and gauss-armed escorts, at least those that have been encountered so far. The Sverdlov, based on its size, speed and lower shield strength, appears to be an older version of the Magadan, so it should not present Takao with any difficulty, assuming that she can keep her weapons operational. With that in mind, her captain, Kaigun-Taisa Miyazawa Senshi, decides to move within Zharovian weapon range and repeat the tactics of Kiso in Comoros, although as Takao has shields she can risk combat at closer range.

Takao moves to 200,000 km, then 160,000 km and finally 120,000 km, destroying a different Sverdlov at each range bracket, while maintaining her shields above fifty percent. The remaining ships finally abandon the jump point and charge toward her, so Takao retreats, keeping the range open and maintaining fire. One by one the Zharovian ships are blown to pieces until nothing remains except wrecks and life pods. Once the survivors are on board, interrogations are conducted. One of the prisoners is an expert in shield technology who proves to be very talkative when persuaded. He reveals sufficient technical information to provide the Empire of Japan with Theta-level shield technology.

As a result of his recent actions, Kaigun-Taisa Miyazawa Senshi becomes only the ninth recipient of the Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Stars. While in command of Takao, his ship has destroyed over three hundred thousand tons of military shipping and a hundred and twenty thousand tons of commercial shipping. Takao had already destroyed sixty thousand tons of military shipping prior to Kaigun-Taisa Miyazawa taking command, making her the most successful cruiser in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Only four of the eight battleships have a better record.

Takao enters the key Kharimkotan system and secures the jump point. One of the replenishment ships waiting away from the main shipping lanes heads for the Iturup jump point, along with a troop transport. A fleet support vessel and a second replenishment ship remain in hiding until they are certain the route is clear. Katsuragi and Shinano will arrive in the system in three days.

22nd March 1987
In Iturup, the heavy cruiser Atago intercepts and destroys three 16,000-ton, commercial-engined Volgograd class ships near the Kunashir jump point, then takes up picket position at the jump point to prevent any flanking attack against the advance of the Imperial Navy toward the Zharov home system.

In Sapporo, the Kasagi class light cruiser Takasago, an old jump-capable design with ion engines, has been tracking a steady procession of Capellan commercial-shipping as it moves across Sapporo from the Orochi’s Maw jump point to the Ascension system. Perhaps the reason for the Capella Imperium’s rejection of the Empire’s claim on Sapporo is because it provides access to an important colony somewhere beyond Ascension. The traffic pattern also suggests that the Imperium has not yet discovered the direct jump point connection between Ascension and Orochi’s Maw.

26th March 1987
In Sumatra, Kamakura Maru, accompanied by a lone freighter, has ventured five billion kilometres from her entry jump point to salvage the wreck of an unknown ship. On arriving at the site, her active sensor detects a stable jump point. Once the salvage is complete, the freighter probes the jump points to find a planetless red dwarf, with a group of ten wrecks approximately one point five billion kilometres from the jump point, five of which are known Helgrim designs. The system is named Komodo.

29th March 1987
An orbital survey of Atlasov III reveals a ruined city on the surface. Two xenoarchaeology regiments and two engineer regiments are on the surface, so the planet should eventually yield supplies to support a move on the adjacent Zharov system, if the Imperial Navy can reach the planet in time to relieve the single light cruiser currently in orbit. In Reunion, the battleship Musashi transits into Amirante and finds the three Andropov class frigates on the jump point, along with two Magnitogorsk gravitational survey ships and two Kaliningrad geological survey ships.

Musashi moves away, trying to open the range until she can recover from jump shock. The frigates, each of which is armed with seven 20cm lasers, give chase and open fire, scoring seven strength-8 hits. The Magnitogorsks and Kaliningrads transit into Reunion to escape and run straight into Nagara and Yura. All four survey ships are blown to pieces simultaneously by a single volley from the light cruisers. Fifteen seconds after Musashi transits, her fire controls come back online and she replicates the feat of the cruisers by destroying all three frigates with her first attack.

With the blocking force removes, the two Japanese freighters hiding in Amirante can bring their 20,000 tons of minerals through Reunion and into Mauritius. Musashi rescues all the Zharovian survivors and heads back to Mauritius Base, leaving the light cruisers to guard the freighters. Meanwhile, In the Matua system, two jumps from Iturup via Kunashir, a Sverdlov cruiser and a Baku escort eliminate the Japanese sensor buoy on the Kunashir jump point.

31st March 1987
The heavy cruiser Chōkai, fresh from overhaul at Mauritius Base, relieves the light cruiser Kiso at the Comoros – Mauritius jump point, so the latter can resupply, undergo armour repairs and begin its own overhaul.

1st April 1987
The battleships Katsuragi and Shinano rendezvous with the fleet support vessel Harusame at an asteroid in Kharimkotan that has been used as a temporary refuelling location for several years. A deep space tracking station was emplaced on the asteroid to provide early warning for any unarmed vessels at the location. Now that Imperial Navy warships are in the system, the temporary base in back in business, with the support ships returned from hiding in the outer system. After refuelling, Katsuragi heads for Atlasov and the Zuijin ruin, while Shinano moves to the Kharimkotan - Shikotan jump point, where a sensor buoy has registered lot of activity in recent days from commercial-engined shipping apparently seeking refuge in Shikotan.

In the adjacent Atlasov system, a Zharovian Izevsk class geosurvey ship with a speed of 7000 km/s is detected in the inner system by the survey cruiser Shirakumo, one of the older Asagiri class ships that lacks any offensive capability. In orbit of Atlasov III is the light cruiser Kitakami, which has a speed of 8000 km/s and could catch the Zharovian ship, but that would leave several support ships unprotected. Initially, she remains on guard duty. Rather than set a direct course for the Zharov jump point, the Izevsk continues to move in and out of range, so eventually Kitakami breaks orbit and pursues the Zharovian ship. After the first salvo, it surrenders.

2nd April 1987
The 1st Kurogane Samurai Division and the 1st and 2nd Arashi Divisions are unloaded at the Zharovian colony on Reunion-B II by three Sagami Maru troop transports that remained at Mauritius Base while the faster Yasukuni class ships returned to Sol. The defending force, approximately four thousand infantry with light anti-tank weapons, is completely overwhelmed by the Imperial Army force of over twelve thousand Arashi and almost four hundred combat mechs. The battle lasts less than forty hours, with only twenty-five Arashi lost on the Japanese side.

The conquered colony has a population of eleven million, but they are Bloodclaw, not Zharovian. It appears that the Bloodclaw Dominion founded the colony, which was then invaded and captured by the Followers of Zharov. About thirty factories and mines are at the colony, plus two research facilities. The planet has an ancient construct which boosts missile research by thirty percent, which is almost certainly the reason it was established in the first place as there are only two low accessibility mineral deposits. The 6th Infantry Division will be transported from Mauritius to act as a garrison, so the assault divisions can move on to the second, smaller Zharovian colony on Reunion-B III.

[AuroraSteve]

9th April 1987
In Madagascar, a Cloudfire class ship of the Sri Lanka aliens, with whom contact has not yet been established, is destroyed by a dozen strength-8 explosions. The ship was two billion kilometres from the star and nowhere near any of the bodies in the system.

A few hours later, the battleship Shinano, on approach to the Kharimkotan – Shikotan jump point, detects and destroys a commercial-engined Petrozavodsk class of 32,000 tons, then transits into Shikotan. Stationed on the far side is a Sverdlov class light cruiser and five 83,772-ton Brezhnev class ships of unknown function.

Before Shinano can overcome jump shock and open fire, all six Zharovian ships transit into Kharimkotan. After fifteen seconds, Shinano follows them through. As she has her own jump drive and the alien ships apparently used the stable jump point, she recovers far more quickly. A single volley takes out the Sverdlov, then Shinano destroys each Brezhnev with a pair of laser turrets to avoid overkill. Shikotan has a single outward jump point to Ekarma, so Shinano sets a course. Ekarma has five outward jump points, so the Japanese advance in this area will stop at that system until more ships are available.

11th April 1987
The troop transport Reimei Maru drops the 6th Arashi Division on Paramushir II to confront the Zharovian ground force. The defending force is similar to that on Reunion-B II and does not last long. Twenty-eight Arashi are killed during the twenty-four hour battle for the planet. There are no installations or other signs of a Zharovian presence so the 6th Arashi Division returns to the transport.

Katsuragi arrives at the Zuijin ruins on Atlasov III and refuels from the fleet support vessel Harukumo, which is already in orbit. With no sign of hostile activity in the system, she heads for the Atlasov – Zharov jump point to blockade the home system of the Followers.

13th April 1987
As Shinano travels from the Shikotan – Kharimkotan jump point to the Shikotan – Ekarma jump point, she encounters numerous Zharovian commercial ships trying to flee the area. She destroys each contact as she passes, usually with a single volley from a pair of 30cm lasers. The last target she encounters, a 16,114 ton Volgograd class tanker, survives and immediately surrenders. Although it is immobile due to the loss of its engines, the Volgograd still has its refuelling capability and most of its fuel storage, so Shinano takes the opportunity to refuel before moving to the Ekarma jump point.

14th April 1987
Shinano jumps into Ekarma, where a single 32,000-ton, commercial-engined Petrozavodsk is stationed on the Shikotan jump point. Rather than destroy the ship, Shinano launches her Showa L1D ‘Raikō’ assault transport, which conducts a boarding action. The Raiden Sentai captures the alien ship, a civilian freighter, without loss. This is as far as Shinano will venture from the main advance. Ekarma has five outward jump points, so it is more important to protect the flank than continue raiding Zharovian commerce. Takao will eventually relieve Shinano, so the battleship can join her sisters when the time comes to enter the Zharov home system.

15th April 1987
The 1st Kurogane Samurai Division and the 1st and 2nd Arashi Divisions are unloaded at the smaller Zharovian colony on Reunion-B III. The defending force is more substantial than on Reunion-B II, comprising at least ten thousand infantry with support weapons, plus several hundred of a new type of Zharovian ground unt, classified as heavy infantry. Almost four hundred Arashi are killed before they are finally subdued. The colony is also Bloodclaw in origin, although the population has been reduced to 370,000 by the fighting. A dozen factories and mines are on the surface, along with two research facilities. These will eventually be transferred to Reunion-B III, which has an ancient construct, once sufficient Japanese colonists are available to use them.

16th April 1987
Katsuragi, en route to the Atlasov – Zharov jump point, intercepts a pair of small Zharovian civilian fuel harvesters, both of which are already damaged. She uses her L1D ‘Raikō’ to capture both ships. A few hours later she detects an Archangelsk class escort cruiser and ten 74,000-ton Novosibirsk class ships heading slowly toward Zharov at 244 km/s.

Katsuragi closes in, destroys the cruiser and begins boarding operations against the commercial-engined ships, which are also fuel harvesters. Eight Novosibirsk are captured before the Raiden Sentai has to cease operations due to losing thirty-two of its forty Kazuma Raiden. A ninth surrenders after receiving heavy damage and the tenth is destroyed.

So far, apart from a few early engagements, the ‘war’ against the Followers of Zharov seems mainly to consist of the Imperial Japanese Navy advancing through Zharovian systems, eliminating or capturing commercial shipping and outclassing the few warships that attempt to intervene. It is quickly becoming apparent the Followers are something of an paper tiger, possibly due to losses suffered in an extended war against the Bloodclaw Dominion. That may change when the Imperial Navy has to confront their home system defences.

17th April 1987
A Sverdlov light cruiser, three Saransk escort cruisers and a Baku escort transit from Shikotan into Kharimkotan, where they are briefly detected by a buoy on the jump point before it is destroyed. Given that Shinano recently left a trail of destruction in her wake during her journey from that same jump point to her current position at the Shikotan – Ekarma jump point, it seems that the five Zharovian warships must have been somewhere else in Shikotan – perhaps at a colony. They are now inside the Imperial Navy perimeter and no longer on sensors. Shinano leaves her picket position and begins the four-day voyage back to Kharimkotan. Takao is near the centre of Kharimkotan, dropping off prisoners at a holding area on the same asteroid as the temporary refuelling point.

18th April 1987
The ruined city on Atlasov III has been fully surveyed. One hundred and sixty-one locations of interest have been identified. In Madagascar, two more ships of the Sri Lanka aliens are destroyed by missiles. The identity of the attacker remains unknown.

20th April 1987
The battleship Katsuragi arrives at the Atlasov – Zharov jump point. The Japanese sensor buoy on the Zharov side is still intact and reports no contacts so Katsuragi transits into the Zharovian home system. In Mauritius, Musashi has joined Yamato on the Zharov jump point, but the buoy on the far side was destroyed on the first day of the war, so there is no intelligence available on any defending force. Throughout the conflict, a small F1M ‘Kanmuri Tori’ class Observer craft has remained undetected in orbit of Zharov II, gathering ELINT data on the Zharovian home world, Zharov IV, and occasionally on a colony on Zharov III when the orbits are aligned. Katsuragi heads in-system to join the F1M in orbit of Zharov II, from where she can assess the home world defences before moving to the Mauritius jump point to assess the defences.

In Atlasov, the light cruiser Kitakami intercepts a pair of Chefornak III class troop transports attempting to reach Zharov. They both surrender when fired upon. The captured ships have a transport capacity of 60,000 tons and are heavily armoured, making them suitable for an opposed landing – a capability that is not currently available for the Empire of Japan due to the focus on total transport capacity.

21st April 1987
Three Zharovian ships, a Sverdlov light cruiser, a Baku escort and a commercial-engined Kaluga class ship of 74,000 tons, are detected by a Japanese sensor buoy as they approach the Ekarma – Shikotan jump point. They transit into Shikotan and head directly for the Kharimkotan jump point, which places the recently captured Petrozavodsk class freighter directly in their path.

Shinano has left the area and recently arrived at the Shikotan – Kharimkotan jump point, ready to confront the five warships on the far side. On the Kharimkotan side, a Kitsune ELINT stealth ship has crept close enough to verify their presence. Shinano transits into Kharimkotan, arriving 36,000 km from a Sverdlov, three Saransk escorts and a Baku. She immediately comes under fire from the Sverdlov, but is already outside gauss range of the other four ships and able to set the range. Once jump shock wears off, the battle is brief and one-sided.

22nd April 1987
Katsuragi moves through the Zharov system, detecting everything that moves within a radius of almost two hundred million kilometres. Eventually, she reaches a location where she can observe the Zharovian home world, the Mauritius jump point and everything in-between. Zharov IV, the home world, which has a population in excess of three billion, is orbited by twelve Sverdlovsk class of 17,400 tons and ten Tomsk class of 21,532 tons. Both types are likely to be defensive bases.

Zharov III has a population of twenty-seven million and no ships in orbit. Three groups of ships are moving away from Zharov III toward the Mauritius jump point, presumably because that is more appealing option than facing a 75,000-ton Imperial Navy battleship. The slowest group, and therefore closest to the planet, comprises two Magadan class light cruisers, five Krasnojarsk class of 107,000 tons and five Gorki class of 130,000 tons. Ahead of them is another Magadan and five more Krasnojarsk. Halfway to the jump point are eight Petropavlovsk class fuel harvesters. On the Mauritius jump point itself are two Soci class heavy cruisers, three Saransk escort cruisers, three Andropov class frigates and three Kazan class escorts.

Katsuragi intercepts the slowest group, charging straight to point-blank range with no attempt at subtlety and accepting shield damage to destroy the two Magadans as quickly as possible. While Katsuragi’s Raiden Sentai is down to just eight Kazuma Raiden, Yamato and Musashi are on the far side of the Mauritius jump point and may be able to capture several of the commercial-engined ships, so Katsuragi ignores them for now. After eliminating the Magadan guarding the second group of fleeing ships, Katsuragi turns her attention to the jump point defence force.

The eleven Zharovian warships are no match for Katsuragi. She is faster, with longer-ranged weapons and can only be attacked if she chooses to enter their weapon range, which she does in order to increase the speed of their demise. Seven minutes after she opens fire, all eleven have been destroyed, clearing the jump point for Yamato and Musashi to enter Zharov. Direct contact has been re-established with the Mauritius system. The three Imperial Navy battleships form a squadron, move toward the unprotected commercial shipping and prepare to conduct boarding operations.

Meanwhile in Shikotan, the Sverdlov, Baku and Kaluga class ships that entered the system a day earlier return to Ekarma and destroy the buoy on the Shikotan jump point. Even with the war against the Followers of Zharov going well, there will need to be a significant effort to track down the likely substantial number of Zharovian ships in the systems away from the direct route from Fiji to Mauritius. There are eight known systems beyond Shikotan, all of which have stable jump points, which means there are likely to be many more further out. Kunashir, which connects to Iturup, has one jump point leading to Velsharoon space and a second to Matua and however many more system lie beyond. Zharovian and Bloodclaw ships still lurk in the systems that lie outward from Mauritius, twenty-three of which have been found so far.

23rd April 1987
The Raiden Sentai from Yamato and Musashi, supported by the eight remaining Kazuma Raiden from Katsuragi, capture all eight Petropavlovsk fuel harvesters in the Zharov system, with relatively minor losses. When they assault the first Krasnojarsk class ship, which turns out to be a terraformer, they lose four Kazuma Raiden in a single assault. The total force is now small enough to be loaded onto two L1D assault transports instead of three.

In Orochi’s Maw, the colossal black hole system adjacent to Sapporo, a Japanese scout ship is asked to leave the system by a ship of the Capella Imperium. Given the importance of Orochi’s Maw, which already has seven known jump points, despite the survey only being half-complete, the Empire of Japan will not be abandoning the system.

April 24th 1987
The Raiden Sentai capture the ten Krasnojarsk and five Gorki class ships, all of which are terraformers. Their heroic performance has come at a cost, with a single assault transport now sufficient for the remaining Kazuma Raiden. After the boarding operations are complete, Katsuragi moves within five million kilometres of Zharov III, which, via ELINT data, is known to have a population of twenty-seven million. Once within range of her missile detection sensor, Katsuragi can determine there is a ground forces signature of 36,000 tons. As the planet is mostly barren, albeit with liquid water and a thin nitrogen – oxygen atmosphere, it would make an ideal staging base for an attack on Zharov IV, home world of the Followers

Katsuragi conducts a similar scan of Zharov IV, which is an ideal habitable world dominated by Steppe, and detects 314,000 tons of ground forces, which is a smaller ground force than on the Bloodclaw home world. Daigensui-Kaigun-Taishō Takagi alters the overall strategic direction of the Empire of Japan and decides that the Zharovian home world will be invaded first, before an assault on the home world of the Bloodclaw Dominion. The ground forces already at Mauritius Base, and those en route from Earth, will capture Zharov III first in preparation for the main landings. Yamato and Musashi move to the Atlasov and Mauritius jump points respectively, to secure the system, while Katsuragi heads for Mauritius Base to drop off prisoners rescued from Zharovian life pods and conduct an overhaul.

27th April 1987
The heavy cruiser Takao arrives at the Kharimkotan – Shikotan jump point, taking over picket duty from Shinano and allowing the battleship to enter Shikotan and sweep the inner system. Shinano eliminates a pair of Chefornak class troop transports on the far side, then heads in-system. Two hours later, an Andropov class frigate transits into Shikotan from the Ekarma jump point, then closes in on the crippled Volgograd class tanker that surrendered to Shinano two weeks ago and destroys it.

One day later, four Soci heavy cruisers and two Archangelsk escort cruisers follow the frigate into Shikotan. After a further eight hours, a captured civilian freighter is destroyed, probably by the Andropov. The Shikotan system has been the scene of significant Zharovian activity, so it will be a priority to send light forces into the systems beyond, once the situation in the area is stable.

1st May 1987
Shinano discovers a tiny population contact and a 1500-tom ground forces contact on the eighth moon of Shikotan II. There are no surface-to-orbit weapons. She conducts a sweep of the first four planets and their moons, plus a comet, then heads back to the Kharimkotan jump point. The fifth planet is ignored for now as it is a long way out, but will be checked when suitable light forces are available.

Before Shinano reaches the jump point, she detects a group of twelve 84,000-ton Breznev class ships ahead of her. The type has been detected before, and several destroyed, but its function remains unknown, so Shinano dispatches her Showa L1D ‘Raiko’ assault transport, carrying a full strength Raiden Sentai of forty Kazuma Raiden, with a Raiden Shōsa in command. The target ship is captured, although three Kazuma Raiden are lost in the assault, revealing that is a terraformer. Three generations of terraforming ships are in service with the Followers of Zharov, with the Breznev being the smallest and oldest, equipped with ion engines and three terraforming modules. The Krasnojarsk has magneto-plasma drives and four modules, while the Gorki has fusion drives and five modules.

The crews of almost four hundred prove tenacious, so the single Raiden Sentai continues to take losses as more ships are captured. By the time the eighth terraformer is secure, only three Kazuma Raiden remain. Shinano destroys the other four, then resumes her course for the Kharimkotan jump point. When she moves within sensor range, she detects all the Zharovian warships that recently entered Shikotan, including four Soci heavy cruisers, two Archangelsk escorts and the Andropov class frigate, all stationed on the jump point. Takao is picketing the far side, but would have to handle six times her own mass if the Zharovians transit before Shinano arrives.

Fortunately, the Zharovian fleet remains on the jump point until Shinano moves within weapon range and opens fire on three of the heavy cruisers, as she continues to close on the jump point. She fires the second volley from her main 30cm armament at just 57,000 km, inflicting massive internal damage on all three Soci. The damaged ships escape into Kharimkotan and find themselves at point-blank range from Takao. Shinano, still at ninety percent shields, changes targets to the remaining Soci, the Andropov and a Saransk. Forty-five seconds after the cruisers transit, every Zharovian warship, on both sides of the jump point, has been reduced to debris. The system of Shikotan, and the area around the Kharimkotan – Shikotan jump point, have become a graveyard for Zharovian shipping, with forty-nine wrecks between them.

Takao transfers her prisoners to Shinano, then resumes picket duty at the jump point. Shinano moves though Kharimkotan to Atlasov, where she will refuel from a fleet support ship, before transiting the Zharov system for a rendezvous with the Carrier Striking Force, which has been travelling through the systems cleared by the heavy cruisers and battleships.

23rd May 1987
A ship of the Capella Imperium is detected in Kagoshima, adjacent to Sapporo and two jumps from Sol. It is asked to leave. Unlike in Sapporo, the Imperium accepts Japanese sovereignty over the system and withdraws. While the large Capellan fleets close to Sapporo remain a concern, at least their advance toward Sol has been halted.

24th May 1987
The Carrier Striking Force, comprising the Taihō III class carriers Chūyō, Hiyō, Junyō, and Taihō, the Akagi IV class carrier Soryu and the heavy cruisers Ashigara and Myōkō arrives in Zharov for a rendezvous for the battleships Yamato, Musashi and Shinano. Katsuragi is at Mauritius Base undergoing overhaul. Their mission is to test the defences of the Zharovian home world, which has twenty-two orbital bases. Ten are Tomsk class, which are 21,532 tons and have strength-273 shields, while the other twelve are Sverdlovsk class of 17,400 tons with strength-183 shields. Unless the shields are penetrated, any attack will be wasted. Despite the ease with which the Imperial Japanese Navy has brushed aside the Zharovian Navy, the defences of their home world appear to be formidable, especially if the bases are all armed with light missiles.

Kido Butai
Yamato II class Battleship: Musashi, Shinano, Yamato
Taihō III class Carrier: Chūyō, Hiyō, Junyō, Taihō
Akagi IV class Carrier: Soryu
Takao III-Ro class Heavy Cruiser: Ashigara, Myōkō
3x Showa L1D ‘Raikō’ class Assault Transport
72x Nakajima B2N ‘Tenzan’ class Carrier Strike
72x Nakajima B2N2 'Tenzan class Carrier Strike
203x Mitsubishi A4M ‘Ryūjin’ class Fighter
8x Aichi E3A class Scout
2x Aichi E2A class Scout

As with the Bloodclaw home world, the first strike is a missile attack. Two hundred and eighty-eight Rakurai-Ho anti-ship missiles are split equally between four different targets: two Tomsk and two Sverdlovsk. The primary aim of the attack is the determine the strength of the defences. Any destroyed bases will be a bonus. The Rakurai-Ho has a speed of 40,000 km/s, a strength-15 warhead and five third generation decoys.

Surprisingly, there are no light missile interceptions. It appears that the Followers of Zharov have eschewed missile warfare entirely. Their point-blank defences are nonetheless effective, taking out more than half the missiles in a single burst of defensive fire. The rest are all expended against either decoys or shields, except for ten missiles than inflict armour and internal damage on one of the smaller Sverdlovsks. Despite the limited tactical success of the strike, the intelligence gained is extremely valuable. The battleships will able to close on the planet without coming under light missile fire, allowing them to directly engage the defensive bases and any surface-based weapons. Yamato, Musashi and Shinano advance on Zharov IV, testing the strength of the latter.

At 400,000 km, the battleships come under from one hundred and sixty surface-based lasers, although no hits are scored due to the extreme range. Yamato, Musashi and Shinano close to 320,000 km and open fire, killing two of the STO weapons. With reduced range, the defensive fire becomes more effective and inflicts strength-2 hits, but not enough to trouble the shields of the battleships. After twenty minutes of continuous fire, every identified STO is eliminated. There are still active emissions from the surface, so the battleships begin closing once again.

At 280,000 km, they come under fire from a further one hundred and twenty-eight 20cm lasers, presumably older batteries constructed when Zharovian fire control systems had shorter range. The second engagement is a mirror of the first, with the only concern for the Imperial Navy being the rate of maintenance supply consumption due to the extended period of combat. The surface emissions continue but there is no further incoming fire as Yamato, Musashi and Shinano move within 40,000 km of the planet. Any further STO weapons, plus the armament of the orbital bases, are likely to be gauss cannon, which is the favoured defensive option for the Followers of Zharov.

The battleships rapidly massacre all twenty-two orbital bases, from what is effectively point-blank range, then move into orbit to confront any remaining STO batteries. Over thirteen hundred shots are fired from the surface, resulting in more than four hundred strength-1 hits shield hits. The battleships pull back out of range and return fire. The ground forces signature for the defensive batteries is over fifty thousand tons, more than double that of the combined 25cm batteries, although they are larger individual weapons so that signature drops more rapidly. Even so, when the surface is finally clear of contacts, all three battleships have less than twenty percent of their maintenance supplies.

Considering the battleships have been bombarding the surface for almost an hour, the collateral damage is relatively light. Less than one percent of the population has been killed and less than two hundred installations destroyed. Sufficient dust has been thrown into the atmosphere to lower the temperature by six degrees. Part of the reason for the lower damage is that the battleships attacked from the maximum range that would still ensure the destruction of their surface targets. The orbital shipyards are not attacked, as landing operations will begin in a few months and they will be a valuable prize.

Shinano picks up the life pods and heads for Mauritius Base to drop off the Zharovian survivors. The Taihō class carriers begin the long journey back to Earth, in case the situation with the Capella Imperium deteriorates. Yamato, Musashi and the Akagi class carrier Soryu will remain to support operations in Zharov and the surrounding systems. The two heavy cruisers that escorted the carriers move to support Takao and begin the investigation of the systems beyond Shikotan.