1 August 4007
A Krivak-class Belaire scout was detected approaching the position of First Fleet in the evening of 1 August. Not thinking too highly of the unarmed ship as a threat, Captain Criasus dispatched the light cruiser Double Edge to eliminate the enemy observer, which turned to flee on detecting the incoming threat. Six minutes after the Krivak had turned tail, Frigate Squadron 1 reported incoming active sensor signatures matching the Sovremenny-class cruisers. Not willing to take any chances even against such an anemic opposition, Double Edge was ordered to break off pursuit and rejoin the fleet. Five hours later, now in the earliest hours of 2 August, the incoming Belaire squadron was detected, formed with the same composition as the previous group. Captain Criasus expected them to meet the same fate as well, and ordered First Fleet to sally forth to meet and destroy the opposition, just as before. There was one small change to the plan: Frigate Squadron 1 was detached and ordered to hold position at the jump point, being both unnecessary in terms of combat ability and too valuable a fleet asset to be risked in battle yet again - the Belaire fleet would surely return fire at some point.
First Fleet
Captain Absolus Criasus commanding aboard CL Deadly Poison
Cruiser Squadron 3: Deadly Poison, Domination, Double Edge, Garrote, 3x R-56
Destroyer Squadron 1: Chainsaw, Char, Charon, Furious
Destroyer Squadron 5: Calamitous, Caliban, Creeping Death, Flayer
Frigate Squadron 1 (detached): Barbette, Bloodsucker, Braggart, Excelsior
Republic of Belaire Cruiser Squadron 3
Designation and commander unknown
4x Sovremenny class Cruiser
2x Slava class Escort Cruiser
1x Osa class Destroyer Escort
Fleet dispositions prior to contact.
In fact, even better than returning fire, the Belaire squadron opened the proceedings, taking a clearly different approach by launching eight salvos of five missiles each. First detected on thermal scanners, the missiles were no larger than 3 tons in displacement and approached the Legion fleet at 35,000 km/s. At such a high speed these would be a challenge to deal with, but Captain Criasus was confident in the ability of his destroyer squadrons to defend the cruisers, removing the 152 mm batteries of the latter from point defense duties for the moment as a test of his expectations. Ten seconds later, a second barrage was detected as the first came into active scanning range, followed by a third after ten further seconds. First Fleet was in for a harrowing experience.
Pictured: the beginning of a harrowing experience.
The harrowing nature of the experience was significantly thwarted as the first Belaire volley broke against the rock-solid destroyer squadrons of the Legion Navy. Every missile in the first wave was blown to bits before closing with their targets, with the destroyers of First Fleet not even having fired a full salvo from their collective railgun batteries. Filled with confidence, Captain Criasus ordered a revision of tactics; First Fleet would close to within 550,000 km of the Belaire squadron and hold that distance, aiming to keep the Belaire within the range at which their missiles could be resolved by active scanners while remaining safely out of range from any lasers or other long-ranged beam weapons until the enemy magazines had been expended. The Legion would thus exploit their considerable speed advantage over the Belaire fleet to effect divide-and-conquer tactics. The crews of First Fleet executed this change in orders with great zeal, eager for their first real battle against the hated foe.
Unfortunately for Captain Criasus, the hated foe was not as inept as initial encounters had led him to believe. After three ineffective volleys, the missile launchers of the Belaire squadron fell silent; apparently they had decided that firing additional missiles would be a waste against such a superior opponent. Even as First Fleet reached their designated holding range, the Belaire refused to continue firing. This presented Captain Criasus with a dilemma: on one hand, he had the option to close the range against an enemy which was likely to be heavily armed with beam weapons that outranged his railgun batteries; on the other hand, he had the option of retreating through the jump point to Adamantine, giving the best odds against the Belaire who would suffer jump shock to pursue First Fleet, but allowing the Belaire to instead occupy the Kuiper side of the jump lane and fortify it against the Legion. Notably factoring into the Captain’s assessment was that minus the frigate squadron, First Fleet massed only 30% greater displacement than their opponent, offering little margin for error should the enemy beam weapons prove particularly devastating.
Ultimately, Captain Criasus determined that a middle ground approach would prove most advantageous, issuing his orders at 0423. The bulk of First Fleet would fall back toward the jump point, while the frigate squadron would send a communication through to Adamantine before burning toward First Fleet. Second Fleet, currently based at Adamantine Base, would make for the Jump point to serve as backup in case the Belaire squadron emerged victorious - while they would not be able to arrive nearly in time to interdict a transit, they would be in position if the Belaire stopped to regroup before pressing into Adamantine.Once First Fleet had recovered the frigates, they would turn about and press the attack against the Belaire with their full advantage. Implicit, but for obvious reasons unspoken, in this plan was the fact that the frigates were essentially being used as ablative armor for the larger vessels, should they succeed in distracting the Belaire gunners. By 0545 the frigate squadron had rejoined First Fleet, which turned to once again confront their foe, and by 0602 the fleet again held the range at 550,000 km as Captain Criasus gave the order to charge boldly forward.
Not ten seconds later, as First Fleet had closed within 500,000 km of the Belaire, missile launches were again detected, now clearly identified as originating from the Slava-class escort cruisers. Taken aback, Captain Criasus gave the emergency order to hold the range at 400,000 km, hoping that the Belaire had changed their tactics and might again empty their magazines before First Fleet closed in. This seemed to in fact be the case, as another missile barrage was fired ten seconds after the previous just as before. Holding the range open, over the next eleven minutes the destroyers of First Fleet effortlessly shot down another 68 waves of the Belaire missiles, the final wave proving that the Belaire had exhausted their stocks as only 33 missiles were fired. While tactically the missile onslaught had been worse than useless for the Belaire, Captain Criasus did note that the aliens had managed to buy some precious time to get closer to the jump point. It thus became imperative that First Fleet mount a charge sooner than later, and the Captain gave the order at 0613 to resume the offensive accordingly.
As First Fleet closed to 190,000 km, the first energy weapons fire from the Belaire squadron was detected, in the form of one laser blast from each of the four *Sovremenny-*class cruisers, confirming that these were indeed beam combatants. As range was further closed to 150,000 km, each Sovremenny fired an additional seventeen lasers which were presumed to be of a smaller type judging by the shorter range, fifteen of which scored mild armor damage against Deadly Poison. Knowing that the lasers would only gain power at close range, Captain Criasus hoped to close the range for his own railguns before the Belaire lasers would recharge. With the primary enemy beam combatants clearly confirmed, each combat squadron of First Fleet was ordered to target a single Sovremenny, while Frigate Squadron 1 would harass the Osa-class escort. As First Fleet closed under 64,000 km, the cruisers holding their fire until nearly point-blank range, the Belaire heavy lasers fired again, this time scoring a single hit delivering an estimated 4 TJ to the armor of the frigate Barbette, enough to burn a hole through her armor but not to reach any internal components.
Five seconds later, all Hell broke loose.
Pictured: All Hell, having broken loose.
The four Sovremennys had split their fire between two of the Bellerophons, viciously shredding both Barbette and Bloodsucker. The Osa destroyer escort had fired ten shots of a light laser weapon type at Braggart, scoring through her armor with five hits but failing to deal internal damage. In exchange, First Fleet had given better than they received, with Cruiser Squadron 3 succeeding in obliterating the first of the four Sovremennys with Double Edge claiming the kill. The destroyer squadrons had fired on two other Sovremennys, failing to kill either but scoring a handful of penetrations against each; given the high rate of fire the 102 mm batteries could put out it was doubtful that these two Sovremennys would survive a second volley. Cruiser Squadron 3 took aim at the fourth and final Sovremenny as the gunners reloaded for a second salvo, though they would likely not fire in time to prevent their opponent from dealing further damage.
Five seconds later, the two opposing fleets had closed to point-blank range. Destroyer Squadron 5 succeeded in destroying their target, with Caliban claiming the fill. However Destroyer Squadron 1 amazingly failed to take out their own target, leaving one Sovremenny limping onward albeit at half speed, and they were thus temporarily detached from the main fleet formation to eliminate their target before its laser battery could be brought to bear. Destroyer Squadron 5 would turn their guns against the Osa, hoping to take out its fast-firing light lasers which were harassing the remnants of Frigate Squadron 1.
Destroyer Squadron 1 wasted no time finishing their task, shredding the Sovremenny with a third salvo even as it fired its heavy laser at the frigate Braggart. Braggart in turn suffered hits from the heavy lasers of both Sovremennys as well as a half-dozen strikes from the Osa, suffering significant internal damage including losing both of her engines and dropping out of formation with First Fleet. The Osa at least was made to suffer for its sins by concentrated fire from Destroyer Squadron 5, which scored several penetrations but did not appear to damage any vital components. Five seconds later, Cruiser Squadron 3 fired once again on the fourth and final Sovremenny, taking out the last of the Belaire beam cruisers. Unfortunately, this came half a second too late, as the villainous Belaire warship was able to fire off one last round of medium lasers against Braggart and eliminate the last sensor frigate of Frigate Squadron 1. The severity of this loss was only partially compensated, in the eyes of Captain Criasus, by the simultaneous destruction of the Osa as she succumbed to a hail of 102 mm railgun fire from the destroyers of First Fleet.
This left only the two now-disarmed Slavas, which were dispatched as a matter of course by the vengeful destroyer squadrons. The furious firefight had lasted scarcely a minute and a half, and had seen 100,000 tons of Belaire military vessels destroyed for the loss of only 22,500 tons of Legion vessels, albeit these being the valuable sensor frigates without which continuing to defend the jump point would be considerably more challenging. In any case, however, while the need for long-range firepower such as provided by the new Hellfire-class frigates had been dramatically reinforced, the battle was nevertheless a convincing Legion victory. As the cherry on top of this, Captain Criasus ordered the Double Edge detached to carry out its original mission: the destruction of the annoying Krivak scout which had been detected at the outset of the encounter. This was done with aplomb, and by 1015 no Belaire vessels remained within the admittedly reduced detection range of First Fleet.
In the aftermath of the battle, Cruiser Squadron 3 was detached to recover both friendly and enemy life pods and shuttle these to Duratus. As usual, the preliminary intake interrogations provided little of real value, notably as the surviving Belaire officers refused to comment on the earlier tactical malfeasance of their comrades in arms. However, a terrified science officer from one of the Slavas was persuaded to divulge the name and astrographic data of a system known to the Belaire as Alder Lake, adjacent to the Belaire system itself. Based on this data, Legion astrographers were able to identify the system as Giclas 9-38 according to Legion star charts. The reduced First Fleet, now consisting only of two destroyer squadrons and the jump frigate Excelsior, would remain at the jump point until relieved by Second Fleet to provide at least passable monitoring in the absence of a proper frigate squadron.
In addition to the Belaire Campaign Ribbon already commissioned after the outbreak of hostilities on 7 July, the Kuiper Encounter Ribbon was commissioned to commemorate the first true battle of the conflict, though it was expected to see some reuse as the Belaire would not give up on their attempts to force the Kuiper 79-Adamantine jump point so easily.
Systems Discovered
Giclas 9-38: Belaire interrogations, 2 August 4007