Chapter 3 - The Coruc-Tel System

Fleet Intelligence Personal Log

It is said that the more things change, the more things stay the same. With the Turanic Raiders and the Imperial Taiidan, this is definitely the truth.

Immediately upon arriving at the Coruc-Tel system, we realized something was wrong. The Clee-San was not visible to our sensors. We did pick up a transmission from them, but it was being jammed.

Clee-San: Thi-. . .-ee-San. We have be-. . .-aider for-. . .-inned down behi-. . .

While the transmission was jammed, the Kuun-Lan was able to approximate the location of the Clee-San. Recons 070, 071 and 072 were dispatched to investigate. The three fighters split up into a wide triangle formation with a 50 km between each fighter, and traveled toward the signal source.

At this time Tactical decided to put Engineering to work and started work on an upgrade for the Ramming Frigates. The Engineers were to create an afterburner system to help increase the power (and speed) of the Ramming Frigate when it strikes. It was hoped that with this upgrade that the Spirit Quest would be able to push even large capital ships.

Recon-071 detected a minefield after travelling 75 km. Soon after, the remaining Recons also detected mines as well. These were anti-capital ship magnetic mines, often used by the Turanic Raiders. Thief Corvettes would tow the mines into position, and then activate the IFF, which would target any non-Turanic (or Imperial Taiidani) ship. They also chase after fighters, but have a limited range that many fighters can easily outrun, though corvettes would prove vulnerable with their lower speeds. Ramming a mine would be instant death for any fighter or corvette; in fact, even a Ramming frigate would suffer heavy damage after hitting one.

It was unlikely the Turanics had created a globe of mines around the region. Instead, they probably lay several walls of mines in different regions. The minefield was within 20 km of two clusters of harvestable asteroids (it is by belief that the Turanics had not mined the field as they dislike doing actual "work"; it's much easier for them just to capture a mining ship or a Worker with a full load than to do the work themselves. They also tend to exchange captured ship crews for resources, and (depending on the tribe of Raiders) tend to honor their exchanges. That is not to say they won't come back 15 minutes later with a strike force to try and capture both former prisoners and their rescuers.

The Tough Luck was dispatched to the asteroid belt, along with the four Workers and both ACV squadrons. I find it almost amusing; the Somtaaw, even when not on an active mining mission, will take advantage of any resources found and harvest them. Jaana points out that we did the same on our trip to Hiigara, and that was part of the reason we came into conflict with the Kadeshi. I still see a major difference between the two situations; we were actively at war with the Taiidani as we traveled toward Hiigara and needed every advantage we could get. The Somtaaw use their resources in trade with the Bentusi and to purchase land on Hiigara (which is quite expensive).

20 km outside the minefield, Recon-071 reported contact with two squadrons of Turanic Raider Bandits. She altered course to evade them, and 15 km later detected two additional squadrons of Bandits. At that point she altered course to flee back toward the Kuun-Lan. Tooth and Fang Squadrons were dispatched to wait on a negative Y vector under the asteroid fields to wait for the enemy.

Lt. Stelfai proved quite cunning with her pursuers. She stopped her Recon several times to let the Raider forces almost catch up. Unfortunately, one point she stopped under the minefield and had a mine almost collide with her Recon fighter. She was able to evade it, however, and soon skimmed past the ACV squadrons, which had powered down their ships to hide from Turanic sensors.

The trap was successful. The Raiders had just begun to pass the ACVs when they powered up and fired upon the Bandit squadrons. Five Raider fighters were destroyed before the Turanic Raiders even realized they were being ambushed. The remainder were destroyed before they could adjust their attack vector to deal with the ACVs.

This appears to be a further bonus for the ACV program. While the lack of a turret makes the ACV less effective than traditional turrets (and in fact, the ACV acts more like a heavy fighter instead of an actual corvette), its maneuverability and speed make up for this drawback.

The remaining two Recons continued toward the Clee-San, keeping a distance of 55 km between them. Recon-070 encountered another minefield but was able to avoid the mines easily. Finally, both Recon craft were approximately 20 km behind the suspected location of the Clee-San. They started to return toward the Kuun-Lan, with an approach vector that would bring the transmission contact within range of the Recons sensors. On their inbound vector, the Recons detected several Brigand corvettes and a number of mines in a spherical location. Finally, the Recons spotted the Clee-San

Captain Sjaar studied the sensor reports and moved Recon-072 as close to the mines as possible without activating them. The Clee-San was then able to tight-beam a message to the Recon.

Clee-San: Repeat. . .This is th-. . .-lee-san. We have been atta-. . .by raider for-. . -and pinned down behind. . .-all of mines. . .-ave code but canno-. . .

Tactical: The Raiders have pinned the Clee-San in a globe of mines. If the Clee-San moves the mines will activate and destroy her.

The Clee-San is trying to transmit some kind of coded data but the jamming is too strong, we need to send a mimic in past the mines to establish a direct link

The jamming was still too intense for us to break through, though we were able to decipher more of their message. The Recons had to immediately leave as the Brigands powered up their engines, and two additional squadrons of Bandits started pursuing the Recons.

The possibility of another ambush was too tempting, and Recon-070 was soon playing cat-and-mouse with the Brigands, slowly luring them and the Bandits toward the Spirit Quest, and Tooth and Fang Squadrons. The Bandits were the first to fall to the ambush; within minutes the first three Brigands had arrived. The Spirit Quest proved effective at destroying Brigand corvettes, though she had to perform some emergency maneuvers to avoid drifting too close to the minefield.

Final combat reports claim six Brigand corvettes and 10 Bandit fighters. While it seemed likely we had destroyed the majority of the Turanic forces guarding the Clee-San, Colonel Sareni felt that the possibility of an ambush from Turanic Assassin-class Ion Arrays and additional Brigand corvettes was too great without further information that our Recons were unable to bring us.

This is a legitimate concern. I have heard rumors from my contacts within Fleet Intelligence that the Raiders have modified the Ion Arrays, possibly with improved ECM packages to hide them from long-range sensors. Captain Sjaar has told me that the Kuun-Lan's computers are currently strained keeping track of our current fleet

Captain Sjaar ordered the retirement of Recon-072, and ordered the launch of Mimic Prototype-000. Test runs show the ship should be able to duplicate the IFF signatures of enemy ships. Unfortunately, the laser holograph technology takes up too much room; the Mimics are unarmed.

I truly feel that the Mimic program should have been using a Corvette-class chassis. It would not be incredibly difficult for the engineers on the Kuun-Lan to design an effective corvette for the Mimic; we could even plagiarize the design from the Raiders Thief corvette (where we gained the Mimic technology in the first place). Captain Sjaar and Colonel Sareni were unwilling to risk a more expensive ship on an unproven technology. And considering that all we needed to do was send the ship inside the mines around the Clee-San and establish a direct link to them, I suppose their decision has merit. For now.

Mimic-000 took the form of a Brigand Missile corvette (which was logical, seeing how we had a recent run-in with these ships, and the Raiders could assume one escaped destruction) and headed toward the Clee-San. During the flight of the Mimic, Captain Sjaar examined the battle schematics of our fight against the missile corvettes before deciding on a course of action.

Fleet Command: We're a big target for those Raider Missile Corvettes. We need some more firepower of our own. Have engineering pull up whatever they can find on missile technology and have them begin researching it now.

Construction was started on a Weapons Module, where the Somtaaw would work on missile technology. I naturally assumed the Somtaaw would create a missile corvette of their own (I keep forgetting about their lack of docking space for corvettes) or possibly a missile frigate. I was surprised when the Weapons Module was completed and plans were initiated to install missile launchers in the wings of the Acolytes.

The placement of the exhaust vents for the missile launchers on the Acolyte wings would unfortunately keep the ACVs from using missiles. When linked, the exhaust vents would vent into the ACV rather than into space.

In addition, the Acolytes would only carry two missiles, and would need to return to the Kuun-Lan to reload. This limited the effectiveness of the missiles to one larger target; it was doubtful that the missiles would be an effective anti-fighter weapon. It would increase their effectiveness against capital ship.

As with all JOATMAL (Jack of all Trades, Master of none) fighter designs, the Acolyte will prove outperformed by specialized craft; Bombers will be more effective than Acolytes against capital ships, while Interceptors would be more effective than Acolytes in dogfighting. And naturally, corvettes with their turreted design improves their versatility compared to the ACVs.

Research on modifying the Acolytes to carry missiles had started when Mimic-000 reached the Clee-San. The science frigate was able to establish a direct link to our ship.

Clee-San: Thank the Maker you got through to us, Kuun-Lan. We've been able to use our advanced scanners to access the mine transponder codes. Now you'll be able to see all of them on your sensor manager.

If you're going to break us out, it will have to be soon though. This Raider force is just pinning us until a larger fleet can get here and board us.

Tooth and Fang Squadrons immediately moved forward to clear a path for the Kuun-Lan. While this put us at greater risk, Captain Sjaar felt it would take too long for the Clee-San to reach our position. In addition, the Kuun-Lan would prove better able to resist attacks from enemy frigates; it was likely that the Turanic Raiders would sooner destroy the Clee-San than let us recover her. To maximize their effectiveness, Tooth Squadron was unlinked into Acolyte fighters, while Fang Squadron remained in ACV form.

The squadrons began destroying the larger mines directly in front of the Kuun-Lan. While this drew the attention of the surrounding mines, the Acolytes were able to shift fire against each mine in turn. We suffered minimal damage and no casualties in clearing out a large hole in the mine wall.

Beyond lay several walls of mines created from the Taiidan minelayer corvettes. This would prove to be much more dangerous to the Acolytes than the larger, unwieldy capital-ship mines that the Turanic Raiders favor. In the initial pass, Tooth-04 had an unfortunate collision with a light mine. These mines are easily powerful enough to destroy an Acolyte; unfortunately, Lt. Dlaan's Acolyte was struck in the cockpit, killing him instantly.

Soon after, Lt. Forban was badly injured and had to eject from his Acolyte, Tooth-07, after a collision with another mine resulted in his engine overloading.. Fortunately, the R/R shuttle was able to retrieve him and return to the Kuun-Lan. There was not enough left of Lt. Dlaan to recover.

Work was started on two replacement Acolytes while Tooth Squadron continued on minesweeping detail. They eliminated four additional groupings of mines when Tooth-03 reported a sensor contact: six Taiidan Minelaying corvettes on an intercept course.

Tooth Squadron ignored them while eliminating another mine field, and then when the Taiidan approached within 3 km, turned and concentrated fire on one corvette. The Taiidan immediately retaliated with a forced drop of mines; one corvette took moderate damage when its own mine slammed into its hull. The Acolytes ceased fire and started concentrating on the new mine threat.

Fang Squadron was called off mine sweeping detail (it was focusing on larger mines off to the side, which were considered a minor but possible threat to the Kuun-Lan when we passed) to assist Tooth Squadron, but I knew that the battle would be over before they reached their squadron-mates.

Tooth Squadron proceeded to chew through the new minefield and turned on the fleeing Minelayer corvettes. They remained on evasive patterns to avoid any new mines dropped; the corvettes were more interested in fleeing than dropping additional mines. Even with concentrating firepower on one corvette at a time, it took nearly two minutes to destroy the first corvette.

I suppose this is another reason for loading a small number of anti-capital ship missiles on the Acolytes, instead of a larger number of anti-fighter missiles. A traditional bomber squadron would likely take time reaching an enemy location, while the Acolytes could easily perform a missile run, softening up their target. I still argued with Colonel Sareni about a dedicated bomber for the Somtaaw. Her arguments that limiting themselves to three fighter designs is logical. Until you realize the third fighter, the Mimic, cannot fight at all.

Research on modifying the Acolytes was finished at about the same time that the Acolytes destroyed the final Taiidan corvette. Curiously, no additional fighters had joined the fight. It appears the Turanic Raiders had enough faith in their minefields that they left the Clee-San undefended. While the eight missile corvettes would have proven a danger had they attacked all at once in formation, the Raiders are not known for their military precision. We are just fortunate that the only Taiidan presence was the minelayer corvettes (which remained in formation even while fleeing; sometimes military discipline is not so suitable for the situation. If the corvettes had divided while fleeing, some of them would have survived).

Tooth Squadron went forward to the mines encircling the Clee-San and destroyed the six between the Kuun-Lan and the Clee-San, allowing the research ship to join us. After docking with the Kuun-Lan and sending a science team over to us to examine the alien probe, Clee-San undocked and our fleet hyperspaced out. There were no signs of a larger fleet. We were likely fortunate to escape before they reached the system. I just hope they are unable to track our hyperspace wake.

While the scientists work on the alien probe, I am going to get some sleep. While it's early... I've had disturbing dreams lately, and haven't slept well. I'm not as young as I used to be! And... I guess I've just been around my wife too much. Still, I have an uneasy feeling, like something is going to happen.