[FT] AAR -- Cygnus Fleet Proving Exercise (L-O-N-G) Part 2

AAR - Cygnus Fleet Proving Exercise

http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/ft/pbem/cygnus/

<part 2>

Turn 16: CJ1 and SS1 intercepted Ftr-Gamma. The two fighters of CJ1
opened
up and destroyed the last fighter of Ftr-Gamma, just as the low fuel
warning
sounded. The last fighter of CJ3 burned in on Archamedies ducking below
the
6 PDS arrays to lay open armor and penetrate to the hull of the massive
war
ship. AD237 fired at long range at Claim Jumper, but the shot went wide.
Bogata, however, opened up with a full broadside breaking the carrier
into
debris. Fleet Random Effect (Noam) opens up all ships on Fleet Stray
Cat's
Missouri. Schrodinger's Hammer ekes one past the screens to blister some
paint. Shot Noise's beam is mostly stopped by Missouri's screens, but
does
manage to blister more paint. Reality Graft's mighty beams penetrated
the
screens to begin to do some real damage. Mojo Filter fired its beam
through
the hole that Reality Graft opened in the screens to score superficial
damage. Untidy Intentions beams tore through the screens to vent
atmosphere
from Missouri. Division by Zero's beams, however, only glanced off the
Mighty Missouri's screens.

Turn 17: "Vampires locked on!" was the call on the deck of Missouri.
Immediately the command was given "counter measures". But the call was
too
late as the Point defense system swept the sky clean of both the
offending
missiles. Reality Graft (Fleet Random Effect [Noam]) fired its heavy
beams
at Missouri (Fleet Stray Cat), but the weapons bounced harmlessly of the
thick screens of Missouri. Archamedies' (Fleet Aron) main guns cut
through
Atlanta's screens as if they were not there scoring on the craft half
its
size. Firing at long range Untidy Intentions, Mojo Filter, and Shot
Noise
(Fleet Random Effect) managed to shred the screens of Missouri that
Reality
Graft could not penetrate. Iowa and Atlanta (Fleet Stray Cat) returned
fire
upon Archamedies punching past both screens and armor. Division by
Zero's
(Fleet Random Effect) heavy beam also fails to penetrate Missouri's
screens.
Bogata (Fleet Aron) scored on Atlanta for minor damage. And
Schrodinger's
hammer bashed through the screens of Missouri.

Turn 18: A momentary lull in the action was observed in the Cygnus Fleet
Proving Exercise today. Fleet Random Effect fired on Missouri of Fleet
Stray
Cat for minor damage. And Fleet Stray Cat saw two additional ships leave
the
arena.
Bill withdraws from the game as he feels that he cannot overcome the
disadvantage of 3 black flags (and more to come as he cannot slow his
fleet
enough to avoid exiting the arena).

Turn 19: A momentary lull in the action was observed in the Cygnus Fleet
Proving Exercise today.
Fleet:	Target:
Aron		Brendan
Brendan Noam
Noam		Aron

Turn 20: A momentary lull in the action was observed in the Cygnus Fleet
Proving Exercise today.
Fleets reposition to get in range of their new targets.

Turn 21: More maneuvering

Turn 22: Reality Graft of Fleet Random Effect (Noam), clawed into Rose
(Fleet Brendan), but its sister ship Untidy Intentions failed to
penetrate
Rose's screens. Schrodinger's Hammer, Division by Zero and Shot Noise
scored
minor damage on the Rose. Mojo Filter's shot missed Rose.

Turn 23: Reality Graft of Fleet Random Effect (Noam), clawed into Rose
(Fleet Brendan), leaving it streaming atmosphere. Untidy Intentions also
tears open the side of the beleaguered ship. Hit by Shrodinger's Hammer
for
minor damage. Division by Zero poured salt, in the guise of heavy beam
fire,
into the wound in Rose. Shot Noise and Mojo Filter's shots failed to
find
the deflowered Rose.

Turn 24: Reality Graft of Fleet Random Effect (Noam), bounced 3 beams
off
the screens of Rose (Fleet Brendan), leaving it no worse for wear.
Untidy
Intentions mirrors the effects of its sister ship Reality Graft.
Schrodinger's Hammer manages to punch one beam through the screens.
Immediately sensors detected a Power Spike from Rose. Rose was hit by
Division by Zero, Shot Noise, and Mojo Filter for minor damage.

Turn 25: Reality Graft, of Fleet Random Effect (Noam), opens up on
Harley,
of Fleet Brendan, shaving the last of its armor off and defoliating its
side. Untidy Intentions blasted through the now thin skin of Harley's
side,
leaving it streaming atmosphere. Hit by Schrodinger's Hammer and
Division by
Zero for minor damage. Shot Noise pounded on the injured Harley. And
Mojo
Filters beams sliced through the gaping hole to penetrate an inner
bulkhead,
leaving the hapless Harley disgorging atmosphere and debris. This was
enough
for the judges to declare Fleet Brendan out of the competition.
While Fleet Random Effect brought Fleet Brendan low, Fleet Brendan was
not
the designated target fleet for Fleet Random Effect. Thus Fleet
Brendan's
flag goes to Fleet Aron, transferring the lead from Fleet Brendan to
Fleet
Aron (see box scores). Fleet Aron and Fleet Random Effect now face off
in
the final showdown.
Fleet:	Target:
Aron		Noam
Noam		Aron

Turn 26: A lull has settled at the Cygnus Fleet Proving Exercise as the
two
remaining fleets reorganize and begin to stalk each other. Fleet Random
Effect (Noam) has also deployed drones to, hopefully, draw off the ships
of
Fleet Aron.

Turn 27: Intercepted from Fleet Aron:
<Fizzzitttt, snappp> "This is the control calli <ssstt> LB <sss> tt8 or
BC 5
<wrr . . .> acknowledge, please."
Commander Clark considered the Holo projection before him. Amazing we've
lasted this long, he thought. This entire engagement had been a series
of
crossed lines of death, as fleet trajectories crossed one another's. Now
it's come to this, only the Yellow fleet remains, and the holo display
overloaded by data simply displays the final enemy as one blurred
object.
Well at least we have time to maneuver, "Ensign expect enemy fire at 50
mu
minimum".
"Aye sir."
No hesitation, now there's a sharp lad. Damn those heavy beams, they've
just
overwhelmed previous targets, and were down right shocking to see
engagements at such ranges. Well it's all going to come down to timing,
if
we can just get our attack run coordinated properly. Though, the
computers
were have little success in running the calculations.
<Snap, snap, ssss> "BC 531, we read you . . . prepare for data dump."
Explanation: I goofed the orders for Aron, and could not fix them in
time
for the next turn. No damage resulted. He opted to play it out.

Turn 28: The last half hour has not seen much in the way of fire fights
as
the fleets close to weapons range. However, both fleets have launched
numerous drones. While drones have no offensive capability, they can
draw
enemy attention (or even fire) away from the actual ships.

Turn 29: [From bridge of Reality Graft]
"Are they charging us Admiral?!"
"No...no. I don't think so, Nav. Look at AD. I think it's turning with
the
pack."
"You sure?"
"Never and always, Ensign. I just don't think they're eager to charge
down
our main barrels. Main gun status?"
"All crews report green, Sir"
"Then open up on BC 531b. He's got at least one more unfired missile
than
AD. Gunners! See if we can't take one of them out in the launch tube."
"Main Guns FIRE"
"Sensors, lets be sure. Scan both BC 531's. Is either LBJ or York in
range?"
"LBJ-b is"
"Good, scan it. Now, Full Thrust!"

Turn 30: Archamedies, of Fleet Aron, launches 2 heavy missiles, and BC
531
(Fleet Aron) also sends a heavy missile streaking out into space.
Reality
Graft, of Fleet Random Effect (Noam), opens up on BC 531, stripping hull
away where there was once mighty armor. Untidy Intentions fires 3 beams
into
the same opening that Reality Graft created, smashing bulkheads and
causing
BC 531 to vent atmosphere. Schrodinger's Hammer also laid one beam into
the
hole, to be rewarded with additional atmosphere venting. Division by
Zero
and Shot Noise also pounds the hull of BC 531, but fail to find the hole
created by the other attacks. And Mojo Filter's shots locked on pieces
of
debris from BC 531, and failed to further damage the target.

Aron had turned to face the drones that Noam had launched. When this was
revealed, Aron resigned with the following kind message:
>From Admiral Aron Clark:
I find myself in an untenable position, unable to strike an opponent who
will continue to batter my position with superior range. I must now
surrender myself to that superior position ...
 Brian, you've certainly worked very hard on this game. I can imagine
the
time and effort you spent simply setting up the web pages to handle all
of
this. Thank you, I'm glad I had the chance to play in this PBEM game.
 Noam, my hat is off to you. Who would have thought class 5+ beams.
Regards
to you both - Aron

Thanks again to everyone who made this game much fun!

---
Brian Bell
bkb@beol.net
http://members.xoom.com/rlyehable/ft/
---