3 August 4007
Second Fleet arrived in the Adamantine system at 0417 on 3 August. However, by this time new orders had come in from the Legion high command which was now apprised of the situation, and had recommended that First Fleet should transfer its destroyer squadrons to Second Fleet to act as a reserve in case the Belaire tried to send a heavier missile fleet to retake the system. Cruiser Squadron 3 and the remaining frigate Excelsior would be relieved and proceed to Adamantine Base to offload prisoners and undergo a short overhaul before things heated up too much more in the Kuiper 79 system.
Second Fleet would not have to wait long for things to heat up a bit, as Frigate Squadron 2 reported active sensor emissions from a pair of Kirov-class Belaire battlecruisers on 9 August. Captain Jocasta Gelanor, now commanding Second Fleet since the promotion of Lord Captain Ceto Echetus, received this report with some trepidation, knowing that while the Legion had previously destroyed four Kirovs in battle, these had been using the inexplicable tactic of not returning fire, which the Belaire had now learned was a poor strategy. The prospect of facing off against 23,000-ton flagships which actually fired their weapons was daunting, to say the least. Nevertheless, as Second Fleet was reinforced by two additional destroyer squadrons Captain Gelanor was confident in her fleet’s ability to defeat whatever the Belaire could throw at them.
Interestingly, however, the sensor contact from the Kirovs disappeared, only to reappear in the same position eight hours later, apparently holding position 123 million km from the jump point. As this was nearly double the suspected range of the active sensors carried by the Kirov class, Captain Gelanor suspected that the Belaire were sensing the active sensor emissions from her frigate squadron and maintaining a healthy distance. This appeared to be the case, as the pattern repeated again eight hours later and for some time thereafter. For now, Second Fleet would tolerate this state of affairs, as the Kirovs were completely out of range to detect anything but the frigates and thus could not gather any useful intel at their present position. In the meantime, while Captain Gelanor did consider mounting an offensive, ultimately it would be best to wait for Cruiser Squadron 1 to return to the zone of operations to ensure that the Legion had ample forces on hand to deal with any unexpected surprises.
However, the Captain was more than a little anxious to do something besides watching a blip on her radar, and thus authorized a small reconnaissance maneuver to try and ascertain the composition of the enemy formation. Quietly, the frigate Battery powered down her active sensors and advanced at one-eighth speed to a waypoint 42 million km from the jump point, directly between Second Fleet and the position of the Belaire battlecruisers. This would put her just inside of the range for her active arrays to detect the Kirovs and their presumed escorts, allowing Second Fleet to at least be aware of the force opposing them. This went off without a hitch, and Battery reported a Belaire fleet composition very similar to the one which had previously “attacked” Adamantine on 19 July while escorting a stabilization ship - four Kirovs, three each of three cruiser classes, and five destroyer escorts of two types, all totaling in excess of 260,000 tons of warships. Despite being detected by what was obviously a very loud sensor, the Belaire fleet made no move to retreat out of active sensor range, apparently no longer interested in trying to conceal their true strength from the prying eyes of the Legion. Doubling down on the advanced monitoring position, Captain Gelanor ordered the remaining “reserve” of Second Fleet forward to rendezvous with Battery, expecting the two destroyer squadrons to provide sufficient defense against any long-range missiles the Belaire might decide to throw at the annoying frigates. As this hardly qualified as a “reserve” mission, these ships were redesignated as the Second Fleet scouting force for the duration of the operation. Second Fleet itself, the bulk of the force by a slim margin, would remain at the jump point for the time being.
Cruiser Squadron 1 reentered the area of operations on 17 August, attaching to Second Fleet which remained under the overall command of Captain Gelanor. After this, an uneasy stalemate descended upon the Kuiper 79 system.
26 September saw the arrival of a new tool in the Legion Navy’s arsenal, albeit not a well-heralded one, as the first flight of four AR-56 recon fighters transited the jump point to Kuiper 79. The AR-56 had been, in blunt terms, a hack job, having been rapidly designed on the basis of the R-56 hull for compatibility with the existing boat bays on the Legion’s cruisers. The infrared and RF scanners of the R-56 were torn out and replaced: the former with various essentials to extend the mission range of the fighter, and the latter with the Series XVI traffic scanner usually found in the Gatekeeper-class vessels. The result was a rather slapdash long-range active reconnaissance fighter - crew complaints regarding the externally-mounted auxiliary fuel tanks, where once the thermal scanner had been mounted, were frequently countered by superior officers with insinuations that the AR-56 had not nearly enough armor to worry about such trifles. Crew attitudes aside, the AR-56 would serve well enough to cover the gap in small craft reconnaissance left by the short-range, passive-only configuration of the R-56.
AR-56 class Recon Fighter 250 tons 6 Crew 39.5 BP TCS 5 TH 25 EM 0
5008 km/s Armour 1-3 Shields 0-0 HTK 3 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0 PPV 0
Maint Life 18.15 Years MSP 24 AFR 2% IFR 0.0% 1YR 0 5YR 2 Max Repair 16 MSP
Subcommander Control Rating 1
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
Hyperion Drive Yards HF-25 Fighter Engine 'Erinys' (1) Power 25 Fuel Use 178.89% Signature 25 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 20.2 billion km (46 days at full power)
Scamander Corporation Series XVI Traffic Scanner (1) GPS 2400 Range 33.9m km Resolution 150
This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction
To accommodate the new arrivals, four of Second Fleet’s older R-56 craft were dispatched to Adamantine Base to take up station there. After sorting out hangar assignments and refuelling, the first two of the AR-56 fighters were deployed on a mission considered by the Legion high command to be of vital importance.
Legion star chart of the systems beyond Adamantine, dated 26 September 4007. Belaire presence had been previously detected in each of the marked systems, which now presented an existential threat to two survey frigates and their associated Warden and Gatekeeper traffic monitors, the status of which at this time was unknown.
The first AR-56, designated “Eagle” and commanded by five-year Navy veteran Subcommander Cassiopeia Zephyrus, would plot a course around the sensor range of the Belaire fleet and make a stealth approach into the Kuiper 79 system to check the planets of each star for evidence of a Belaire fleet base. After this, Recon Fighter Eagle would probe the gated jump point to Luyten 302-89, hoping to discover a clear path to recover the survey frigate Apollo if it still survived. Simultaneously, a second AR-56, designated “Osprey” and commanded by six-year veteran Subcommander Thetis Hyperion, would evade the Belaire fleet and make for the gated jump point to WISE 0350-5658, hoping to find a similar escape route for the far-afield Adamant. This latter mission was privately considered the highest priority by the Lords Admiral, given the great prestige and propaganda value attached to Adamant.
Recon Fighter Eagle was the first to reach her designated target, approaching within 25 million km of Kuiper 79-B II on 8 October. Pulsing her active sensors for a full minute and finding nothing, Eagle resumed stealth operation and proceeded towards Kuiper 79-A II to repeat the procedure. In the intervening period, Recon Fighter Osprey approached within 25 million km of the WISE 0350-5658 jump point at 0134 on 9 October, executing the same active scanning procedure as her sister ship had done. Also like her sister ship, Osprey detected no Belaire vessels within 34 million km, and with this assurance began to approach the jump point for transit. Ninety-one minutes later, Subcommander Hyperion bid Second Fleet farewell and disappeared through the gated jump point. Her fate would not be known for some time following - indeed, if ever.
Ten and a half hours later, Recon Fighter Eagle reported no detectable Belaire presence around Kuiper 79-A II, either. It thus appeared that the Belaire had yet to attempt to colonize the system, a positive result for the Legion which would therefore not be required to conduct operations against planetside forces in this system. With the first phase of her mission complete, Eagle set a course for the jump point to the Luyton 302-89 system, with a similar if less fraught mission description to that of the recently-departed Osprey. For the third time, Eagle pulsed her active scanner and detected no Belaire signatures in range. This constituted an all-clear signal, and Subcommander Hyperion reluctantly gave the order for her crew to approach the jump gate. At 0732 hours on 10 October, Recon Fighter Eagle transited the jump gate into Luyten 302-89.
Recon Fighter Eagle would never be heard from again.
Meanwhile, under the persistent specter of cold war the various operations of the Legion continued as ever. On 1 November, the Salvage Flotilla transmitted a mildly interesting report to the Legion high command. Having arrived in the Adamantine system some week prior, the salvagers had begun to process the numerous wrecks littering the Adamantine side of the jump point to Kuiper 79, beginning with the 70,000-ton Svobodny-class jump stabilization ship. Inspection of the salvage indicated that the Republic of Belaire ships were in fact equipped with improved nuclear pulse drive technology, this raised a few eyebrows at the Legion high command which had taken the low fleet speed of the Belaire units to indicate a rather more basic level of that technology.
3 November proved to be a slightly auspicious day for the Legion. Most relevant to the military situation in Kuiper 79 of course was the commissioning of the frigate Harrier, second in the Hellfire class of beamships. After a brief working up she would join her older sister in Adamantine, where Legion battle planners would begin plotting for a potential attack against the Belaire fleet guarding the Kuiper 79 jump point. As important as the Harrier would likely prove, it was the official activation of the Legion’s new Combat Engineers Brigade which drew the most attention on this date. Composed of three newly-raised engineering companies brigaded with and escorted by a mechanized infantry battalion in following the tradition of the previous special brigades, this newest brigade was equipped with the heavy, military-grade construction equipment necessary to begin excavating the alien ruins in Mongolica and Devil’s Hand. Finally, Legion observers hoped, the mystery of the aggressive combat mechs and their missile-armed battle stations would be solved. In service of this aim, the Combat Engineers Brigade was immediately shipped to the Mongolica system, a process which would require approximately three months before the excavations could begin in earnest.
Approved organization for the Legion Ground Forces combat engineering company. By this time, others in the Legion high command had begun to tire of the uncreative organizations by the Legion Orders of Battle Directorate, however the latter continued to tout the “benefits of modular organizations” as their primary, if not sole, counterargument. In spite of this ongoing row between the administrative commands, there were some differences from the similar Geosurvey and Xenoarcheology companies, notably both the headquarters unit and the combat engineer vehicles (CEVs) themselves were more heavily armed than those of the previous special company types as the engineering companies were expected to see battlefield service.
Mammoth Mk I CEV
Transport Size (tons) 208 Cost 16.64 Armour 32 Hit Points 32
Annual Maintenance Cost 2.1 Resupply Cost 8
Construction Equipment: Construction Factory Equivalent 0.05
Medium Anti-Aircraft: Shots 1 Penetration 16 Damage 32 AA Value 4
Non-Combat Class
Salvage operations in Adamantine continued at a rapid pace. Processing of the first Sovremenny wreck indicated, much to the dismay if not surprise of the Legion admirals, that the Belaire fire control technology was on par with that of the Legion, if lacking in accuracy due to the relative difference in fleet speeds between the two navies. This would in theory have thrown a severe wrench into emergent plans to use the new Hellfire-class frigates against the Belaire fleet; in practice, however, the weapons range of the Belaire fleet was already known from the previous engagement, and Legion battle planners had been working on solutions to this problem for some months by this point in time.
On 19 November, Frigate Squadron 4 consisting of Hellfire and Harrier transited into Kuiper 79, taking up positions alongside Second Fleet and awaiting the arrival of Cruiser Squadron 3, carrying the flag of First Fleet, which followed on 20 November. By now, the Legion was beginning to tire of the persistent Belaire presence in what was clearly Legion territory, and had constructed a reconnaissance-in-force type of operation to test the capabilities of the new Hellfire class. Accordingly, First Fleet under the command of Captain Absolus Criasus would sally forth once again, this time representing the largest concentration of Legion Navy firepower in a single engagement to date. As First Fleet formed up at the position of the Second Fleet’s scouting detachment, the infrared signature of the Belaire fleet suddenly flared up. The Belaire forces having discerned the Legion’s movements were now moving to engage the Legion Navy in what was unexpectedly shaping up to be a titanic clash.
The battlefield situation in Kuiper 79 at 1003 on 20 November 4007.
Shipbuilding
1x Charybdis class Destroyer: Cobalt
1x Hellfire class Frigate: Harrier
8x AR-56 class Recon Fighter
2x JR-1014 Jump Scout
2x Phaeton class Freighter
1x Bastion class Barracks Station
Research
20cm Railgun
Improved Command and Control
Systems Discovered
EQ Pegasi: FS Adjudicator, 28 August 4007
WISE 1804+3117: FS Amalgam of the Void, 6 September 4007
NN 3667: FS Athena, 20 November 4007