Battle Report: Yamato vs. NAC II

Charles and my rematch, with him commanding the Yamato.

**********

To:  Earl Sean Delvin, Second Star Lord.

From:  Commodore Dakkar Singh SDN Thunderchild 5 March 2187.

Milord, as per the boards orders dated 4th February 2187, I raised by
pendant on the Thunderchild for a patrol through the Draconis Sector.
On the 1st of March the Sappho suffered a major environmental systems
failure two hours out from Epsilon Draconis, and remained in orbit
around Novaya Kornwall to make repairs with the assistance of the
General Dynamic yard.

Total Squadron Strength as of 3 March 2187

RN Squadron 104:

SDN Thunderchild			Captain Elizabeth Shenafe
 416 Interceptor Squadron	Group Captain Rupert Harris
 1047 Interceptor Squadron	Squadron Leader Rinji Gurung

42nd Cruiser Division
CA Wellington			Captain Rebecca Stormhawk
CL Kennet			Captain The Earl Arthur Kennedy

22nd Destroyer Division
DD Crownhill			Captain Richard Aubery
DD Newhaven			Captain Stuart Ball

33rd Frigate Division
FF Raven			Commander Jennifer Tzi
(FF Sappho still under repair)

92nd Frigate Division
FF Freya			Commander The Lord Alexander Delvin
FF Medsua			Lieutenant Commander Stephanie Drake

Turn 1-
	Two days out from Epsilon Draconis  we detected anomalous
tachyion
emissions similar to a Janeway event from the vicinity of Hawking IV.
Warping in in standard tight echelon to investigate we discovered a
pair of spacecraft at approximately 56Mm. These immediately vectored
to intercept broadcasting a demand for our surrender in Japanese.
	Bogey 1 was of extremely unconventional design resembling a
early C20
naval vessel, its approximate mass being about 30000 Tones. SigInt
gave her name as Yamato.
	Bogey 2 was of more conventional design and had a mass similar
to a
Majestic class BC. SigInt gave her name as Mogami.

	I immediately accelerated to engage deploying 416 Squadron to
close
escort HMS Thunderchild, while 1047 squadron screened HMS Wellington.
The Yamato launched two fighter squadrons screening herself and the
Mogami. Our velocity was 10Km/s directly towards the hostiles at this
point. They were on a reciprocal course at 12Km/s. Sensors indicated
extreme levels of neutrino emission from the Yamato as we closed.

Turn 2-

	Upon reaching extreme range HMS Thunderchild took Mogami under
fire
with Pulse torpedoes and Main batteries. resulting in the Mogami
streaming air. At this point the neutrino emissions from the Yamato
reached a peak and she fired what appears to be a spinal mount plasma
wave weapon. This hit the centre of our echelon damaging HMS
Thunderchild, HMS Wellington and HMS Kennet. Both squadrons of
Hellhound Interceptors were destroyed attempting to evade the
shockwave and HMS Kennet suffered Major structural damage disabling
her shields drives and half her close in weapons. The Mogami took HMS
Thunderchild under fire but was unable to penetrate our shields.

Turn 3-
	The Squadron accelerated to 12Km/s and turned to starboard,
while the
hostiles reached 17 Km/s and turned to their starboard separating
fighters for a close attack on the Thunderchild. Close in point
defence measures destroyed 2/3rds of the first squadron to engage and
they were unable to press home the attack.
	The Mogami brought HMS Wellington under fire with heavy energy
weapon
fire causing structural damage but no loss of combat effectiveness. It
also  hit HMS Crownhill with an Pulse Torpedo. HMS Thunderchild then
successfully ranged her with both beam weapons and pulse torpedoes
causing major structural damage and disabling her forward turrets. The
Yamato brought HMS Wellington under fire with all batteries leaving
the Wellington with no operational weapons. She also launched short
range missiles at the Crownhill disabling her main battery.
	HMS Kennet locked weapons on the Mogami disabling her bridge
turret,
pulse torpedo launcher remaining firecontrol arrays and cripling her
drive systems.
	Captain Aubery then brought the Yamato under co-ordinated fire
from
our light escorts causing the Yamato to start streaming Air.
	Damage control parties on board HMS Kennet were able at this
point to
bring her shields back up.

Turn 4-
	At this point the squadron broke echelon with the lighter
vessels
decelerating to 10 Km/s and steering hard to starboard while HMS
Thunderchild and HMS Wellington turned hard to port with the HMS
Wellington on HMS Thunderchild's unengaged flank. This sissored the
squadron to ensure the enemy could be brought under fire. The enemy
decelerated to 14 Km/s and turned to engage the escorts. A Second
fighter attack on HMS Thunderchild was driven off for no damage on
either side. HMS Thunderchild laid fire on the Yamato for minimal
damage, while the Yamato destroyed HMS Raven with her lighter
batteries, while failing to penetrate the Kennet's shields with her
Primary and secondary turrets. HMS Freya and HMS Crownhill kept the
Mogami under fire while HMS Kennet and HMS Newhaven suffered from
gunlaying problems.
During its respite from fire HMS Wellington restored power to its main
battery.

Turn 5-
	The squadron turned in on the enemy with the intention of
bringing it
under fire. HMS Freya was destroyed by a salvo of long range missiles
from the Yamato on the way in while HMS Thunderchild destroyed half
the enemies remaining fighter strength with point defence and tertiary
batteries, the remaining fighters managed to damage her point defence
systems.
Beam engagements at medium range between the remaining combatants are
mostly inconclusive with HMS Wellington destroying the Mogami's
remaining turret.

	At this point the enemy scuttled the Mogami and taking her
survivors
and the remaining fighters aboard the Yamato and broke contact.

After Action Report-
	The Plasma Wave system appears totally lethal to fighter
squadrons
and I doubt whether even Stormwolf Heavy fighters could survive within
its field of effect. Despite this I believe due to the apparent
requirement to route all weapon power to this system and its spinal
mounting that the enemy, whoever they are would have been better
served by deploying a higher ratio of ships similar to the Mogami at
the expense of the massive Yamato class. the Mogami's have more than
half the short range fire power and identical long range fire power
disregarding this system and the extra firepower thus deployed would
make up for their lesser survivability. It may however be that the
enemy suffers some constraint that produces deployments like this or
that they consider the Mogami to be an escort class. It should be
noted that for much of the battle the system was apparently ready to
fire but an inability to bring it to bear prevented it use.

	The enemies concentration on a small number of wide arced weapon
turrets maximises there ability to utilise what weaponry they have and
the effect of their damage control parties.

	My condolences about Alex, He fought his ship well but without
some
ability to interlock ships point defences light combatants do not have
the capability to intercept enough of a missile salvo to survive.

Signed,

Commodore the Maharaja Dakkar Singh KCMG

***********

Charles still has problems with his threshold checks.
Adam Canning
--
"I have this feeling something is terribly wrong." Londo Mollari
"You are at war with everyone in the known universe, perhaps you were
thinking of that?" G'Kar