Current location:	Rhoose, South Wales
Current mood:	calm
Current music:	While My Guitar Gently Weeps Vol2: What It Is, Mark Knopfler

Original Fic: A.S.P 13Dragon Rising
Chapter 13: Dragon Rising

It didn’t take a genius to guess, judging by the equipment and personnel that were sent to reinforce us, that command really hoped that we had captured the shipyard intact and that we could potentially construct our own reinforcements. Otherwise, why would they send extra shipyard and shipboard personnel, tons of parts such as shield emitters, thruster modules and the like?

We were lucky in that respect, the station was intact and we had a number of hulls that could be swiftly completed and brought into service. We also had other damaged hulls that could be refitted or stripped for parts but all these supplies would not last forever and we would need a steady stream of those parts we could not make ourselves shipped in.

That meant arranging such supplies, which meant somebody would have to be sent back. Sending a civilian ship without a guard was a bad idea, but so was reducing our defences here.

Reluctantly, Ross was forced to order the two newly arrived Dauntless class ships back to Alpha Centauri along with their two merchantman, now stripped of their supplies. The intention was simple; they would take back the report from the operation as well as the bulk of the intelligence we had managed to gather so far, including the extremely valuable schematics for the new Cruiser design and the Dnepr refits and hopefully return with news that command was preparing a supply pipeline to keep this remote but potentially valuable facility online.

In the meantime, we had five hulls to assign personnel too from the shipboard personnel we had available, the four Devourers and the light cruiser, these ships would be a very valuable addition to our defences once they were completed.

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On our twentieth day in the system, the light cruiser was commissioned, its name, the Liberation was determined by the freed population of Newest Hope. This vessel to all appearances was a development of the Pearls of Tears class of Destroyers, having an almost identical if lengthened internal infrastructure and superstructure however that extra space means lots of room to improve the sensors, power generation systems, increase the size of the munitions stores and add an extra pair of turrets making the Liberation a formidable six turret hull. If it wasn’t for the relative weakness of her armour and a limited endurance, she would most likely be classed higher then Cruiser, our initial guess of light cruiser based on remote sensor data was very definitely off though.

Being the most powerful ship in the group, Ross was swift to transfer his flag across as soon as she had completed a week long proving trial, not that that was truly long enough to test all her systems but time was not entirely on her side and we needed that hull operational.

By the time Liberation completed her trials, the Damn Skippy had launched and rejoined the fleet and the Dnepr that had rammed and destroyed the Chatham had been moved into a destroyer slip and was bring carefully broken up.

A second slip was being used to break up other salvage from the battles, mostly shattered hull segments, but all containing usual and valuable parts. The hull alloys themselves would be melted down and reworked where they were primarily metal. If they were a synthetic, then for the most part they had to be discarded.

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On the twenty-third day, merchantman appeared on the edge of the system and proceeded to move confidently inwards. We raced to intercept her, but before we could reach her the vessel abruptly slowed, then turned and fled the system.

We didn’t know what had spooked the ship, has Dauntless and Damn Skippy were both occluded by a planetary mass as we moved to intercept and the other ships should have been out of identification range but it was irrelevant. We now had to assume our capture of the system was known and as such, be ready for possible counter-attack.

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On the thirtieth day, the first of the Devourers, named the Hope’s Halberd launched and joined the budding fleet we were gathering, she was swiftly joined by the merchantman we captured during that first battle to hold the system, That merchant, called the Phoenix of Wrath had not been a priority job and as such it had taken a while to declare her safe, bombs and timed self-destructs as well as other surprises always being a risk with captured cult vessels.

It was at this point that Ross ordered our civilian vessels away, to take a circumspect route back to friendly dominated territory, which meant the Phoenix of Wrath, the Pride of Solstice and the Lady of Sol. The two liners could be better used elsewhere, the same with the merchantman.

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On the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth days, the last three Devourers launched, taking the names Hope’s Fire, Chatham II and Sword of Hope. The Chatham II was used to fill in the gap the loss of its predecessor had caused in the 4th Rapid Reaction Force whilst the other three were formed around the Cruiser Liberation¸ forming the core of a second squadron which Ross assumed command of, leaving me as senior Captain in operational command of the 4th Rapid Reaction Force.

It was at that point that the hulks from the previous battles, that is the ones we considered could be brought operational were finally moved into the shipyard, which at first amounted to just the type 42 Destroyer, the HMS Glasgow, knocked out of the fight during the initial assault. That ship needed a new prow which was pretty major work, the Dnepr’s were a more controversial issue, whilst we needed the hulls our options for crewing such ships were now limited by the fact that the bulk of the personnel we had available for assignment aboard ships had already been assigned. It didn’t help that even refitted; the Dnepr’s seemed to be second rate hulls.

In the end, it was decided they would be broken up for parts and the station would start work in the other slips on newer designs. Normally, such orders would be given by the joint Admiralty but given our distance from command and our orders, we were effectively operating as an independent entity, as such, Commodore Ross was the highest authority and his decision was law.

It would at the least be four months before the hulls were ready to launch though, even considering the wealth of parts we had ready and waiting.

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On the thirty-seventh day, the new squadron under Ross intercepted and attempted to seize a pair of merchantman that literally just walked into their laps. The first merchantman attempted to flee but self-destructed when it realized it had no chance of escaping, the second attempted to ram the Liberation and was put down.

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On the fifty-first day a patrol of cultist warships entered the system, their first communication signalling that they were here for supplies and would carry mail out. The familiarity of their message suggested that they were semi-regular visitors and Ross used this to draw them in closer to our guns where they would be forced to surrender. It helped that Ross could safely (and truthfully) claim a change of command when the enemy ships questioned why they were not responding as per usual.

Unfortunately, but not perhaps unsurprisingly the enemy did not just waltz into our net, they got suspicious just out of our weapons range and attempted to back off and run full a full counter-sign check. Ross knew we had little chance of successfully fooling them and ordered the assault, our two groups of ships rapidly closing on the shocked cult forces.

It was our biggest shock when the patrol surrendered, but interestingly enough, our intelligence officers were not surprised, they would not elaborate as to why but they were not surprised.

That made me curious, and I checked the official dispatches, none of which showed up in the search as having anything relevant, the historical archives however were far more informative.

The beginning of the war it was like a plague had swept across space, spinning a hundred worlds into chaos and darkness in a swift matter of months, starting from…

The truth surprised me, the chaos had started very near to here, it was the human inhabited worlds furthest from here that were now most corrupted, the most fanatical and strong in the worship of the cult. I tried to get the computer to project a timeline of the effected worlds; it refused, flashing a security override.

This, to put it mildly, made me intensely curious indeed but the business of group command meant I had little time to engage in idle curiosity, doubly so when it appeared at least someone in the Command chain had a clue as to what was going on.

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On the sixtieth day after liberation, the local cult forces made the first probe of the system, a full squadron of destroyers, early model Devourers by their flight profile, waltzed confidently into the system, transmitting a request for full security verification and ordering us to stand ready for inspection. They seemed more the mildly surprised at the aggressive posture our ships took, leading us to believe that whilst they were investigating a claim that this system was no longer in friendly hands, that they had not believed the claim. That however was plain conjecture.

Either way, we still hadn’t found the proper responses in the computers and files from the cultists and if they hadn’t been found by now, it was almost certain they never would be as such Ross had no real option then to order an obvious assault as bluffing the enemy without the codes they had requested would be difficult.

Unsurprisingly, given our aggressive approach, our superior numbers and the lack of any Cult verification codes, the enemy warships fled and we failed to engage.

The enemy know knew this system was out of their control, all we had to wait for now was their response.

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On the sixty-fourth day, a reinforced patrol arrived in system, carrying mails, a handful of supplies, parts and new personnel and new orders.

It seemed Admiral Lee had a Plan, one he felt could win us the war. He wanted the Cultists to lose the support of their periphery systems; he wanted the supplies and resources of these systems flowing into allied hands. Of course, in the immediate term, the enemy would likely not notice or care about the loss of a few stars so far away from the fighting, but by the time they realized such systems were deliberately being taken from them and reacted, hopefully there would be a noticeable impact on their available resources.

Of course, the resources provided by one world settled a mere sixty or so years could not hope to meet those of the long settled and densely populated worlds like Alpha Centauri and Serendipity, but if you could take enough away from the Cults and hold them, it would erode their power base.

It would be a long and slow process and given the need to maintain the frontline fleets at full readiness, support would be limited requiring us to capture as much as we could, that means the industry base and the defensive platforms as well as warships, intact.

Newest Hope was the test; if we could hold here then the full force of the joint Admiralty would come behind the plan, welcoming any change from the relative stability and massive resources required by the front.

The plan was solid, but if we were to go on the offensive we would need more ships then we currently had available. There were off course two captured Devourers undergoing safety and security check in the shipyard which would be available in about a month, the two Dauntless hulls we had started construction on, and the Type 42 HMS Glasgow we recaptured which needed a rebuilt nose but those alone would not bring us up to offensive strength. We had to hope the Admiralty could find extra ships to join us and soon, at least with all the debris and salvage we were storing away, we were not short of parts.

We also received of the front; the Cult forces had successfully landed on Serendipity and pushed our forces off, however it was not believed they had the forces remaining to hold the system. This would be the twenty-third time in the fifty year old war that Serendipity had changed hands that I was aware of.

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It wasn’t until the hundredth day after Liberation that the Cult forces first seriously attempted to retake the system, but we had used the time well and not only we were well drilled but both squadrons were at full operational strength with the launch, a mere two days ago admittedly, of the two seized Devourers, now labelled the Striking Tiger and the Pouncing Lion. The locals were having difficulty deciding on ship names that were not already used by an in-service ship, but the Striking Lion had also had three ‘safety devices’ disabled and removed during her safety checks, proving the need for such caution.

The attack force consisted of two reinforced squadrons of Destroyers, the squadron designated ‘Threat Alpha’ consisted of eight Tears of Pearls, an aging but still front-line capable design whilst ‘Threat Beta’ amounted to four Devourers and a full ten Dnepr’s. Behind them, screened by a further six Dnepr’s was Threat Charlie, a trio of liners, no doubt loaded to the gills with troops.

We were officially outnumbered, but given the number of older hulls in the enemy fleet, perhaps not outgunned. Rapid Reaction Force 4, my squadron was ordered to provide cover for the shipyard, the only truly valuable thing within the system whilst Ross took his squadron, still not officially designated by the Admiralty but informally named Liberation Squadron, forward to attack.

The choice was logical, I after all had the City of London to deal with, and at that point in the war, a carrier was still considered of little use against warship hulls and was primarily an assault support hull, albeit and expensive and valuable assault support ship.

Ross engaged Threat Alpha first; the more numerous batteries of the Liberation, supported by the other warships of the group quickly tore through three of the Tears of Pearls before the squadron was forced to reformate to cover the wounded Hope’s Halberd. At this point, Threat Beta was moving to support their embattled comrades and Ross broke off the close engagement, moving far enough away to be free to engage at his choice. The Tears moved to follow and Ross matched their speed, starting a running engagement.

The Hope’s Halberd fell back at this point; its damage meaning it was unable to keep up withy the rest of Ross’s squadron and was abandoned. The ships of Threat Alpha, now reduced to four ignored the life pods and shuttles scrambling from the Halberd, intent on engaging Liberation Squadron, but the ships of Threat Beta coming up behind allowed their CIWS batteries to destroy anything that came within their limited range.

Unfortunately for the Tears of Pearls, Ross had chosen the distance of separation between the two groups of ships carefully, the Tears did not have the range to fire upon Ross’s ships as they didn’t have the range to cover both the distance between the two ships and the distance Liberation squadron would move whilst the projectiles were in flight. Liberation squadron on the other hand was being chased; the required range was the distance between the two groups of ships minus the distance the Tears of Pearls would move whilst the projectiles were in flight, the accuracy was degraded by the long range, but Liberation squadron could fire and successfully killed a fifth Tears of Pearls.

Now outnumbered and having no way to close the range without diverting power from shields or weapons, the surviving ships of Threat Alpha fell back and formed up with the as yet unengaged Threat Beta.

The Commander of Threat Beta was more canny and had placed the Dnepr’s between Ross’s forces and his more effective warships, hoping to force Ross to waste ammunition and energy on those ships allowing his Devourer’s and the surviving Tears of Pearls to engage on their terms, not Ross’s.

Unfortunately, Ross had little choice to bite, wasting his munitions on such relatively low threat targets as he couldn’t risk the combined squadron reaching the station and us at full strength. Still maintaining a running engagement, Ross destroyed five Dnepr’s before being forced to admit his ammunition was critical. At that point, he ordered his ships to accelerate at best speed away from the Cultist ships, diverting power from the depleted weapons to provide more speed.

Tied down by the slow Dnepr’s, the cult forces did not actively pursue, instead choosing to head directly for my squadron, the liners and their escort following a good distance behind.

Five Dnepr’s, Four Devourers and three Tears of Pearls and I had just five combat effective warship to take them out with, the City of London and the troopships did not count. This, I remember thinking, should be fun.

I suspect I was being sarcastic.

Luckily, the Dnepr’s were now outnumbered, making it difficult for the other ships to hide behind them, using the Dnepr’s as ablative armour. As such, I ordered my five ships to fire past the Dnepr’s, first concentrating fire on a Devourer then when that died, a Tears of Pearls. The two troopships meanwhile had opened fire on the Dnepr’s, as far as space to space combat capability goes, excluding the Troopships longer reach, they were pretty equal but I was aware that if we held here, the troopships would almost certainly be needed for future operations. As such, with the Tears of Pearl now dropping back I ordered weapons fire turned to the Dnepr’s.

This was the opportunity the Cult Commander had been waiting for and his three Devourers and both surviving Tears popped up above the Dnepr’s and opened fire. Their initial salvo killed the unlucky HMAS Damn Skippy but our return fire had destroyed a Dnepr and knocked two others out of the fight. The final two were broken, fleeing the battlefield.

I ordered weapons fire turned back to the more capable warships, concentrated fire from all the available vessels killing a Devourer even as the Chatham II disabled. At this point, I ordered my ships to stop closing the enemy and heel over, presenting our full broadsides to the enemy. That gave us the advantage of being able to bring every gun to bear but it also meant we had presented our largest aspect to the enemy, greatly decreasing their chances of missing.

The final two Devourers were killed in short order, but not before the Sword of London took major damage and the crew were forced to abandon. By this time, the final group of Cult warships, the six Dnepr’s assigned to guard the Liners were moving forward, no doubt thinking that there support might just turn the tide of the battle but they were intercepted by Liberation Squadron and not wanting to guess how much ammunition the group had left, surrendered.

That broke the back of the cult assault, and the final enemy ships surrendered on the dawn of the hundred and second day after the liberation of Newest Hope. The battle had reduced the Rapid Reaction Force Four to a mere three operational warships, Liberation Squadron to five but altogether we had destroyed five Tears of Pearls, crippled one and captured two, destroyed four Devourers and six Dnepr’s, crippled two more and seized eight as well as three ships we had identified as liners, but turned out to be mixed cargo-passenger ships. They had been carrying a grand total of nine hundred troops; all there support equipment and numerous other supplies.

The battle was a victory for us, but it was more marginal then I would have liked. If the local Cult Sector commander had managed to arrange a second wave, we could be in serious trouble.