27 June 4008
This date marked a significant advance in the Legion Navy’s combat capabilities as the first two of the Invincible-class light cruisers were commissioned in Duratus orbit. Invincible and her sister ship Imperator, completed at the same time in a minor feat of project management, displaced 15,000 void tons each and immediately became the largest warships in the Legion Navy thus dethroning the venerable Defiant-class light cruisers which had served the Legion well in the past decade. Less noteworthy, yet noted all the same by some observers, the Invincible class represented a tangible advancement in Legion combat capabilities rather than being yet another reconnaissance fighter.
5000 km/s Armour 6-54 Shields 0-0 HTK 95 Sensors 8/8/0/0 DCR 12 PPV 72
Maint Life 2.31 Years MSP 1,061 AFR 150% IFR 2.1% 1YR 271 5YR 4,062 Max Repair 375 MSP
Captain Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Morale Check Required
Hyperion Drive Yards H-750 Cruiser Engine 'Minotaur' (2) Power 1500 Fuel Use 32.66% Signature 750 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 568,000 Litres Range 20.9 billion km (48 days at full power)
Arcadia Weapons Systems 152 mm Medium Battery Mk III (8x4) Range 90,000km TS: 5,000 km/s Power 9-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 15
Arcadia Weapons Systems 102 mm Defense Battery Mk III (8x4) Range 30,000km TS: 5,000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 5
Arcadia Weapons Systems Medium Battery Director Mk III (2) Max Range: 192,000 km TS: 5,100 km/s 95 90 84 79 74 69 64 58 53 48
Arcadia Weapons Systems Defense Battery Director Mk III (2) Max Range: 96,000 km TS: 5,100 km/s 90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Chryson Dynamics 12 TW Induction Drive Cell Mk VI (4) Total Power Output 48.4 Exp 5%
Scamander Corporation Series XVI Onboard Targeting System (1) GPS 16 Range 6.4m km MCR 574.5k km Resolution 1
Scamander Corporation Series VIII RF Wave Scanner (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
Scamander Corporation Series VIII Infrared Scanner (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Despite being the largest class of warships in the Legion Navy, the Invincibles were still classified as light cruisers as they retained the 152 mm railgun batteries as their primary armament, thus while representing a marked increase in capability over the Defiants they would serve in essentially the same roles. Officially the class had been developed in response to recommendations made in the well-circulated Report of the Legion Battle Assessment Committee on Naval and Ground Force Performances at the Battle of Gliese 1, which had among other conclusions made the case for 15,000-ton cruisers equipped with point defense as well as main weapon batteries. Unofficially, however, the concept had been floating around the hallways of the Legion high command since before the first Defiant had even been commissioned, thus by the time the Report Committee had published their recommendations there was broad agreement on what such a warship should look like and consequently the design process had proceeded quite rapidly, certainly the Invincibles had none of the tortured development history as, say, the Hellfire class was known for.
In spite of this idyllic design process, the resulting Invincible class was not without design curiosities when the first two ships were commissioned on 27 June. Some observers noted the lack of improvement in the armor thickness compared to the Defiants, a comment generally lacking teeth as thus far the earlier class of cruisers had proven to be if anything over-armored. Others complained about the reliance on 12 TW induction drive cells to power the weapon batteries, when more efficient 16 or 24 TW cells could have been introduced, however even fierce critics would concede that this was a quibble at most as any tonnage lost to the smaller reactors was not particularly missed. In fact, the most glaring flaw of the Invincible class was the omission of boat bays for reconnaissance craft, considered essential after recent experience in the Belaire War as no one in the Legion Navy was terribly thrilled about the idea of relying on the extremely slow JR-1014s as workhouse scouts. This flaw, while inarguable, is entirely explicable, as the I/J project which had culminated in the Invincible class had been originally intended to fight against the Mongolicans particularly in heavily-fortified systems such as Eta Cassiopeiae, in which scenarios the Bellerophon-class sensor frigates had proven largely adequate as reconnaissance craft. In any case, given the large numbers of Defiant and Grand Cross-class cruisers still in service, there would be ample time to address this concern before it became pressing - a sentiment which was judged by the Lords Admiral as unlikely to become in the future a well-known final statement.
For the time being, the two Invincibles would remain at Duratus for working-up activities and crew training, having been judged non-essential for operations against the Belaire at present.
5 July brought disturbing news to the Legion high command, as a report transmitted from Gatekeeper 1 was received detailing the destruction of the survey frigate Ascendant Might in the 82 Eridani system at the hands of none other than the hated Mongolicans. While initially disturbing, as the loss of a survey vessel was never received well at the Legion high command, a sort of morbid curiosity soon overtook grief and rage. Sensor readings transmitted to Gatekeeper 1 from Ascendant Might in the seconds before the demise of the latter suggested that the Mongolicans had fired energy weapons rather than their usual missile barrage. Furthermore, no sensor signatures from any warships had been detected in the system, leading the Legion high command to conclude that the energy weapons had most likely been fired by ground-based facilities on the planet 82 Eridani II, a capability unknown to that point. While the lack of mobile defenses in-system would in theory make an assault on the Mongolicans rather easy to pull off, as the bulk of the Legion Navy was otherwise occupied this would be postponed until a more opportune moment in the future. Meanwhile, Gatekeeper 1 was ordered to recover the life pods from Ascendant Might as the planet would pass out of range due to its natural revolution about the star. Gatekeeper 1 would report back to the Legion high command on 16 July that these orders had been carried out with no difficulty.
As preparations for the campaign against the Belaire home world continued, a pair of exceptional events involving the Survey Fleet briefly captured the attention of the Legion high command. The first of these occurred on 30 August, when the survey Frigate Argumentative transited a jump point leading out from the nondescript WISE 1639-6847 system, and found herself in the familiar, if equally nondescript, system of WISE 1506+7027. This therefore created a second loop in the Legion galactic map, twice as long as the five-system Olympia Loop as it included ten unique star systems. This would require a significant re-drawing of the maps adorning the walls of the Legion Navy’s headquarters offices, and furthermore indicated that the Mongolica system would hold significant strategic value in addition to its archeological wealth.
Highlight of the soon to be named “Mongolica Loop” discovered on 30 August 4008, shown prior to the reconstruction of the Legion’s stellar maps as a result of this finding. While Legion Naval officers were quite eager for the map to be redrawn to make future operational planning less visually-challenging, significant opposition to the map redrawing directive was found from the schoolteacher’s guilds, which loathed the prospect of having to purchase all-new maps and textbooks. This led to vociferous street protests which were only ended once the Legion high command promised to subsidize purchases of the new materials, along with quietly directing the allocation of additional future funding to equip schools with electronic media which could be more cheaply kept up to date.
Shortly after this, at 0734 on 1 September alarms went off throughout the Kuiper 79 system and the fleets stationed there, as the JR-1014 stationed at the WISE 0350-5658 jump point reported a transit into the Kuiper 79 system. Fortunately for the fleets, and indeed the Duranium Legion at large, these alarms were rapidly silenced as the transiting contact turned out to be none other than the famous survey frigate Adamant, captained as always by the interminable Captain Achlys Tartarus and escorted by Recon Fighter Osprey. This was nothing less than a major propaganda coup for the Legion Navy, played to full effect across all imperial media services even if the reality of Adamant’s escape had been somewhat less than the harrowing drama it was portrayed as. Immediately, however, both Adamant and her ad-hoc escort reported very low fuel stores, and as such were recommended to proceed without delay to the fleet headquarters at Kuiper 79-A II to refuel, after which Adamant would depart for Duratus to receive a heroine’s welcome.
The evening of 22 September saw the final shipment of materials needed for the new fleet headquarters unloaded on the surface of Kuiper 79-A II. The new Kuiper 79 Base facility was formally commissioned by now-Lord Admiral Absolus Criasus, who had in a rare feat been promoted directly from captaincy to the admiralty at the behest of the Emperor - and with much support from his superiors - expressly for the purpose of commanding the new headquarters. Lord Admiral Criasus was now charged with conceiving and executing an ambitious operation which would see the Legion Navy strike into the heart of the Republic of Belaire to deal a crippling blow to their hated foes. Following a brief ceremony to commission the new Kuiper 79 naval headquarters facility, Lord Admiral Criasus turned his attention to the task at hand.
Under his command were First and Second Fleets, both reinforced with additional squadrons from previous engagements, as well as several auxiliary groups including the JR-1014 jump scouts currently monitoring each outgoing jump point. To manage these forces, the Kuiper 79 Naval Corps headed by the Lord Admiral possessed three subordinate departments. The majority of forces were presently held under the Naval Base Department commanded by another recently-promoted flag officer, Lord Captain Damon Tegyrios who was another hero of the previous battles in Kuiper 79. In fact, Lord Captain Tegyrios was the only officer in the entire Legion Navy up to that time to have been granted Battle Lordship by virtue of having commanded Double Edge to the sinking of an impressive 250,000 tons of Belaire warships. This hallowed title had conferred Lordship on its recipient even prior to his promotion to Lord Captain, marking the bearer of that title as a man to not lightly be reckoned with.
Lord Captain Damon Tegyrios was arguably even more highly-decorated than his superior, Lord Admiral Criasus, leading some observers to question the promotion of the latter above the former. However, despite his hard-won prestige the Lord Captain lacked command experience beyond a single cruiser, thus the assignment to oversee the Kuiper 79 naval base operations department was seen by the Legion high command as a necessary stepping stone to a future place in the high command itself, albeit a place all but assured.
The Kuiper 79 Mission Control Department, which was assigned responsibility for jump point monitoring as well as any future missions out-of-system, was initially commanded by Lord Captain Epimetheus Gelos, a career veteran of the Legion Navy battle planning division, but he was soon replaced by another newly-promoted Lord Captain, Selene Styx, on 8 November. Another well-decorated veteran of the Kuiper 79 battles, Lord Captain Styx would take charge of devising the battle plan for the immediate jump point assault into the Belaire system. Most importantly she would develop a system of event chains which would enable commanders and crews to react as quickly as possible to the developing and highly-dangerous situation immediately after transiting the jump point. At present, however, the Mission Control Department only held command over the JR-1014s and Frigate Squadron 3 which was on-station near the Belaire jump point.
Finally, the Fleet Auxiliary Department was headed up by Lord Captain Emily Seelix, a career logistics officer with a reputation for quickly adapting to new situations. While the Department controlled quite few resources, namely a motley three-ship auxiliary flotilla along with the 100,000-ton behemoth barracks station Bastion 1, the Lords Admiral anticipated her posting to Kuiper 79 to be a precursor to a long-term, more prestigious posting at the expanding Adamantine fleet base.
Turning to the actual resources at hand, Lord Admiral Criasus initially estimated that it would take about three months before an offensive could be launched. This was due primarily to a number of overhauls keeping the majority of First Fleet out of action, the latest of which would see Destroyer Squadron 5 reactivated at Duratus in early December. While somewhat of an annoyance, given that time was of the essence in launching a critical strike before the Belaire could rebuild their fleets, the Lord Admiral was determined to make the most of the intervening time. The first order issued from the new fleet headquarters was therefore to detach the frigate Hellfire from Frigate Squadron 4, which was now up to full strength with four of the Hellfire class on active duty. Hellfire would briefly travel to Duratus for armor repairs before rejoining First Fleet. Additionally, after reviewing the situation and consulting with Lord Captain Gelos, the Lord Admiral sent a request to the Legion procurement office seeking new solutions for the problem of reconnoitering the far side of the jump point without risking a (slightly) valuable reconnaissance craft.
With these and other initial orders issued and the chain of command established, Lord Admiral Criasus and his senior staff turned to the problem of a battle plan to defeat the Belaire Navy. While the string of successes to date had been devastating, the Republic still possessed at least a dozen each of the Kirov and Sovremenny classes along with nearly three dozen each of the Slava and Osa escort types. These would potentially pose a significant threat if massed against the Legion fleets, most importantly the missile throw weight of the Slavas would likely overwhelm even several destroyer squadrons and cause a repeat of the Battle of Gliese 1 in the best case. On the other hand, the Legion retained a significant speed advantage, and should the Belaire split their forces or be found to have scattered their forces throughout multiple bases or systems a defeat in detail would be a not-unlikely outcome. These and other questions continued to occupy the staff of the Kuiper 79 Naval Corps as they set about their duties.
As battle planning began in earnest, further buoying of morale occurred as the out-of-contact survey frigate Apollo transited into the Kuiper 79 system from Luyten 302-89. Her journey back had been largely uneventful, aside from an amusing anecdote in which the unarmed survey frigate, plodding through space at 1,500 km/s, had managed to scare a Belaire stabilization ship squadron away from a jump point, despite her Slava and probable Osa escorts easily outmatching Apollo. Artistic renditions of this encounter quickly became circulated on officer’s mess bulletin boards fleet-wide, although senior officers ineffectually tried to discourage this for fear of overconfidence in the ranks. Less happily, Apollo reported coming across the wreckage of the erstwhile Recon Fighter Eagle, a fact quietly glosse over in the official public relations release.
One early artistic rendition of the “Bold Charge of the Apollo”, reconstructed from sensor logs as the survey frigate approached the jump point leading back to Legion space.
Shortly after this, on 18 October the Salvage Flotilla reported that every wreck in Adamantine and Kuiper 79, save for the large cluster of wreckage left after the climactic Second Battle of Kuiper 79, had been recovered, and the flotilla’s salvage ship holds were at nearly full capacity. The flotilla would therefore return to Duratus to unload their cargo before returning to Kuiper 79 to clean up the wreckage from the most recent battle. While the lengthy list of recovered components andmodest data store of technological findings would prove interesting to Legion research crews, the most eagerly-awaited cargo was easily the 45,000 tons of salvaged TNEs, most prominently 12,500 tons each of duranium and gallicite that would go a long way towards addressing the persistent economic struggles of the Legion in the short term. These would be offloaded at Duratus by 30 November, arresting what had been another developing duranium crunch for the planetary industry and buying more precious time for new mining infrastructure to be constructed and deployed. The salvaged Belaire components would also prove to be surprisingly useful to Legion researchers; most notably, discoveries made from dissembling the Belaire missile launchers immediately led to drawing-up of possible future Legion launcher designs which would fire at triple the speed previously thought possible, though these designs were of largely theoretical interest at the present time.
Author’s Note: students of historical Duranium Legion economics should be aware of the conversion factor: one Trans-Newtonian Unit (TNU) of any given TNE displaces the equivalent of approximately 2 void tons.
Tragedy struck the Kuiper 79 Naval Base on 14 November, when while conducting a routine inspection Lord Captain Emily Seelix was struck by an unsecured crate of replacement parts for the gravity wave generators of the PEL-4 cannons, which had been overloaded and unwisely stacked on a high shelf. Lacking quality logistics officers, Lord Admiral Criasus reluctantly tapped Lord Captain Phobos Pandia as the replacement commander for the Kuiper 79 Auxiliary Department. A quick-thinking officer who had come up through the Legion’s economic and industrial espionage division, Lord Captain Pandia was considered knowledgeable, but not particularly skillful, when it came to logistics operations. The Lord Captain himself was hardly interested in the posting, considering it little more than a stepping stone to a more permanent posting in charge of a mining corps in Adamantine or Alpha Centauri.
While not immediately relevant to operations against the Belaire, sailors across the whole Legion Navy were cheered by news on 5 December that the lead ship of the Judgment Day-class light jump cruisers had been commissioned. There were the jump-capable compliment to the mighty Invincible class, and unlike the preceding Grand Cross class these were equipped with a full armament of 102 mm railgun batteries for point defense, thus ensuring that the ships of this class would not be dead weight in an engagement. However, with only half the armor of a fully-equipped Invincible the Judgment Day class would not be well served in a close beam encounter. Making up for this limitation, the class did include hangar space for an AR-56 Osprey recon fighter, providing a modicum of independent reconnaissance capacity for the Legion’s most modern cruiser squadrons.
Judgment Day class Light Jump Cruiser 15,000 tons 449 Crew 2,150.3 BP TCS 300 TH 1,500 EM 0
5000 km/s JR 4-100 Armour 3-54 Shields 0-0 HTK 84 Sensors 8/8/0/0 DCR 15 PPV 24
Maint Life 2.29 Years MSP 1,343 AFR 120% IFR 1.7% 1YR 348 5YR 5,215 Max Repair 514.4 MSP
Hangar Deck Capacity 250 tons
Captain Control Rating 2 BRG AUX
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months Flight Crew Berths 20 Morale Check Required
Legion Gravitic Corps LG-300 Gravity Drive 'Calypso' Max Ship Size 15000 tons Distance 100k km Squadron Size 4
Hyperion Drive Yards H-750 Cruiser Engine 'Minotaur' (2) Power 1500 Fuel Use 32.66% Signature 750 Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 594,000 Litres Range 21.8 billion km (50 days at full power)
Arcadia Weapons Systems 102 mm Defense Battery Mk III (8x4) Range 30,000km TS: 5,000 km/s Power 3-3 RM 30,000 km ROF 5
Arcadia Weapons Systems Defense Battery Director Mk III (2) Max Range: 96,000 km TS: 5,100 km/s 90 79 69 58 48 38 27 17 6 0
Chryson Dynamics 12 TW Induction Drive Cell Mk VI (2) Total Power Output 24.2 Exp 5%
Scamander Corporation Series XVI Onboard Targeting System (1) GPS 16 Range 6.4m km MCR 574.5k km Resolution 1
Scamander Corporation Series VIII RF Wave Scanner (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
Scamander Corporation Series VIII Infrared Scanner (1) Sensitivity 8 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 22.4m km
Strike Group
1x AR-56 Osprey Recon Fighter Speed: 5008 km/s Size: 4.99
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
By 5 December, all vessels were assembled at Kuiper 79-A II or the vicinity thereof which would be assigned to the offensive against the Belaire home system. Final refuelling and resupply commenced, and by 12 December this had been completed and Lord Admiral Criasus gave the order to take up final staging positions on and around the Belaire jump point.
On 13 December, these plans were suddenly and rudely interrupted by a motley collection of familiar characters.
Shipbuilding
2x Invincible class Light Cruiser: Invincible, Imperator
1x Judgment Day class Light Jump Cruiser: Judgment Day
1x Charybdis class Destroyer: Credulous Counsel
1x Furious class Jump Destroyer: Felstalker
1x Hellfire class Frigate: Halberd
1x Salamander class Troop Transport
2x Obsidian class Orbital Mining Platform
1x Obsidian Mk II class Orbital Mining Platform
3x Gatekeeper class Traffic Monitor
2x B-108 class Buoy Layer
12x Scamander Type I class Probe
Research
Railgun Launch Velocity 40,000
Alien Autopsy = Belaire
Boat Bay - Small
Systems Discovered
HIP 14754: FS Apollo, 21 July 4008
Gliese 257: FS Apollo, 1 August 4008
GJ 1123: FS Amalgam of the Void, 30 August 4008
WISE 0146+4234: FS Argumentative, 1 September 4008
Gliese 798: FS Aeryn Sun, 5 October 4008
Gliese 588: FS Argumentative, 30 November 4008
The Galaxy According to the Duranium Legion: 22 September 4008
Not shown are the pair of systems discovered between 22 September and 13 December 4008, namely Gliese 798 branching off from GI 339.1 and Gliese 588 branching off from WISE 0146+4234.
OOC Note: In addition to the above events, it is slightly worthy of note that I did encounter a base of Rakhas in Gliese 588, fortunately on active sensors at a safe distance so that I did not lose a survey frigate to STO fire. However as this is 1.12 and Rakhas are bugged, I saved and reloaded to continue rather than deal with the extra micromanagement of trying to survey around their planet. That is all.
