And it seems Tie parts are in demand by the crew of Black Prince her thinkering devision.
Hull 721, plot arc the second
Moderator: LadyTevar
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Yeah, a update.
And it seems Tie parts are in demand by the crew of Black Prince her thinkering devision.
And it seems Tie parts are in demand by the crew of Black Prince her thinkering devision.
Nothing like the present.
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Well, it seems that some "surplus" of TIE parts will be relegated to other uses.
Simply brilliant. I am eagerly looking forward to even more.
Simply brilliant. I am eagerly looking forward to even more.
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New-Shadow
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
I've been following this story (and the previous one) fairly closely, and have been enjoying it thus far. I hope it stays good and that ECR never loses interest in it.
A suggestion for the XO problem: first, does anyone remember the name of one of(if the only) Star Destroyers that were shot down over Hoth? 'Cause if no one knows the name, let's just switch it to the name of the SD that the Skipray they met in the asteroid field came from. Considering that SD was probably a Total Constructive Loss, and the XO would not be in the command tower while the ship was at battle stations (if they were smart), why not offer the XO a job on Black Prince (the Skipray Squadron too if we can manage it/they want to leave)? Though I've got to ask, what's worse: the Death Squadron and Vader's temper/reputation, or BP's unique brand of crazy and the crapstorm that is inbound from Force alone knows where and when?
A suggestion for the XO problem: first, does anyone remember the name of one of(if the only) Star Destroyers that were shot down over Hoth? 'Cause if no one knows the name, let's just switch it to the name of the SD that the Skipray they met in the asteroid field came from. Considering that SD was probably a Total Constructive Loss, and the XO would not be in the command tower while the ship was at battle stations (if they were smart), why not offer the XO a job on Black Prince (the Skipray Squadron too if we can manage it/they want to leave)? Though I've got to ask, what's worse: the Death Squadron and Vader's temper/reputation, or BP's unique brand of crazy and the crapstorm that is inbound from Force alone knows where and when?
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Eleventh Century Remnant
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
The destroyer that took the heavy ion cannon hit over Hoth was the Tyrant under Xamuel Lennox; the force- choked Lorth Needa was in charge of Avenger, which had formerly been Vader's personal ship. The ship that took the asteroid hit is listed on Wookiepedia as unidentified- and destroyed, which I would say is overegging the pudding a bit- bridge tower ripped off perhaps, but the main hull?
(The Hoth asteroid field in general- many people have said that it's density is absurdly high, which is true in a balanced, established system of a main sequence star; the only thing like it we have in Sol is the rings of Saturn. During the process of formation, however- how many loose rocks were there wandering about during the Late Heavy Bombardment? If the field consists of something like the Jovian satellite system in mid formation, as the loose rock is clumping together into moons, it might be possible to get that many lumps of rock in that small a space and on non- parallel orbits. Just a thought.)
I do have a half written segment about the Avenger at least, which would be a missing scene;
Lost contact. Lord Vader briefly considered how, if he had been in Solo's place, he would have broken free of the sensor nets of the fleet, and found a way.
With a ship as capable of withstanding abuse as the Millennium Falcon, cloaking devices would not have been his first thought- his hands twitched a little as he imagined the moves that would have been necessary, to ride down the after structure of the destroyer and slide into the flare of the main engines.
Double shields aft, shunt all power to them, effectively drift- stabilised and centralised, a smoothly dynamic shape riding in the ionic torrent, hidden from sensors, able to shut down most normal space flight controls, shunt all computing power to calculating a short jump away. The Falcon would have been capable of such a move.
That at least is how I would have done it, accepting the risk that all that thrice damned buffoon Needa would have to do to uncover it, Vader thought bitterly, was a simple helm order. Turn round to see what was behind him. No one else thought of it, or at least dared to, either.
That ship had, once, been Vader's personal command- he had thought he needed one, and looking at the performance of most of the death squadron he felt that he had been right. It was not micromanagement, it was not back seat driving; he wanted a ship trained and tuned and pitched to his standards for much the same reasons as, as a young Jedi (and apprentice Sith), he had made his own lightsaber.
To have something that fitted perfectly in his hand, that moved as an extension of his will, a truly personal weapon in which confidence and trust could be placed. It had not been easy- the tools he had to do that, to forge that, did not sit well in his hand at all. Forgiving the limitations of others was more than a thing he had never learned, it was a gaping vulnerability for a Sith.
Progress, given that overcoming self was the one thing the dark side could not do, was slow, halting, frustrating. He had little inspiration to give; had overflowed with it once, but that was then, a lifetime ago. The tools of command that had been his then, or at least that other person- crysalis from which he had emerged, and arguably left half his wings behind, were his no more. Anakin Skywalker had, at least, had charisma.
Darth Vader had to reinvent everything, drive and lead and command in darker, dourer ways. Then there had been the Executor, and he was sure, now, that he had been given this enormous, intrigue- filled ship not because of anything to do with power and majesty, but because he was succeeding.
The largest threat to the Empire, after all- the real, dark side Empire, not the one in the holos- was the sith apprentice. A bitter, angry, frustrated, murder- happy psychopath (and Palpatine did very little to suppress those rumours) was very little threat at all.
A man achieving, a man who had learned to transpose the part of the Hero with No Fear into the key of the dark side, he would be a real and credible threat- a sabre pointed at Palpatine's heart. No permanent commands for the Dark Lord of the Sith, then. No chance to settle, to build a following, to rebuild some of the missing parts of a self- always on, up and out. Vader could only admire Palpatine's political craftsmanship at the same time as cursing him for it.
Death Squadron was an unavoidable operational necessity, but Palpatine had- in the best old principles of being careful what you wish for- made it as difficult as possible for him by overdoing it, staffing the squadron with a strange centrifugal un- alloyable mix of new order careerists, rulebook brained functionaries and arrogant prima donnas, and hard to tell who was more difficult to deal with.
There were days- bad days- when this wasn't a formation at all, it was a mobile prison for ambitious apprentices; and the Executor was the largest poison pill in the universe.
Adding Avenger to the squadron was adding insult to injury, especially under the command of a man who, he was certain, had been given unofficial but highest level orders to undo everything he had done. Watching that ship's efficiency numbers degenerate to merely average had been slow torture, and Lorth Needa had been on his personal grievance list for a long time.
Something can at least be salvaged from this, Vader thought. An excuse to keep the squadron together perhaps long enough to overcome Palpatine's rigging of the dice and mould them in my own image, after all, in addition to a personal revenge.
(ed. for fumblefingers- misspelt "Palpatine" as "Palaptine". I really need to do typo- killing expeditions more often.)
(The Hoth asteroid field in general- many people have said that it's density is absurdly high, which is true in a balanced, established system of a main sequence star; the only thing like it we have in Sol is the rings of Saturn. During the process of formation, however- how many loose rocks were there wandering about during the Late Heavy Bombardment? If the field consists of something like the Jovian satellite system in mid formation, as the loose rock is clumping together into moons, it might be possible to get that many lumps of rock in that small a space and on non- parallel orbits. Just a thought.)
I do have a half written segment about the Avenger at least, which would be a missing scene;
Lost contact. Lord Vader briefly considered how, if he had been in Solo's place, he would have broken free of the sensor nets of the fleet, and found a way.
With a ship as capable of withstanding abuse as the Millennium Falcon, cloaking devices would not have been his first thought- his hands twitched a little as he imagined the moves that would have been necessary, to ride down the after structure of the destroyer and slide into the flare of the main engines.
Double shields aft, shunt all power to them, effectively drift- stabilised and centralised, a smoothly dynamic shape riding in the ionic torrent, hidden from sensors, able to shut down most normal space flight controls, shunt all computing power to calculating a short jump away. The Falcon would have been capable of such a move.
That at least is how I would have done it, accepting the risk that all that thrice damned buffoon Needa would have to do to uncover it, Vader thought bitterly, was a simple helm order. Turn round to see what was behind him. No one else thought of it, or at least dared to, either.
That ship had, once, been Vader's personal command- he had thought he needed one, and looking at the performance of most of the death squadron he felt that he had been right. It was not micromanagement, it was not back seat driving; he wanted a ship trained and tuned and pitched to his standards for much the same reasons as, as a young Jedi (and apprentice Sith), he had made his own lightsaber.
To have something that fitted perfectly in his hand, that moved as an extension of his will, a truly personal weapon in which confidence and trust could be placed. It had not been easy- the tools he had to do that, to forge that, did not sit well in his hand at all. Forgiving the limitations of others was more than a thing he had never learned, it was a gaping vulnerability for a Sith.
Progress, given that overcoming self was the one thing the dark side could not do, was slow, halting, frustrating. He had little inspiration to give; had overflowed with it once, but that was then, a lifetime ago. The tools of command that had been his then, or at least that other person- crysalis from which he had emerged, and arguably left half his wings behind, were his no more. Anakin Skywalker had, at least, had charisma.
Darth Vader had to reinvent everything, drive and lead and command in darker, dourer ways. Then there had been the Executor, and he was sure, now, that he had been given this enormous, intrigue- filled ship not because of anything to do with power and majesty, but because he was succeeding.
The largest threat to the Empire, after all- the real, dark side Empire, not the one in the holos- was the sith apprentice. A bitter, angry, frustrated, murder- happy psychopath (and Palpatine did very little to suppress those rumours) was very little threat at all.
A man achieving, a man who had learned to transpose the part of the Hero with No Fear into the key of the dark side, he would be a real and credible threat- a sabre pointed at Palpatine's heart. No permanent commands for the Dark Lord of the Sith, then. No chance to settle, to build a following, to rebuild some of the missing parts of a self- always on, up and out. Vader could only admire Palpatine's political craftsmanship at the same time as cursing him for it.
Death Squadron was an unavoidable operational necessity, but Palpatine had- in the best old principles of being careful what you wish for- made it as difficult as possible for him by overdoing it, staffing the squadron with a strange centrifugal un- alloyable mix of new order careerists, rulebook brained functionaries and arrogant prima donnas, and hard to tell who was more difficult to deal with.
There were days- bad days- when this wasn't a formation at all, it was a mobile prison for ambitious apprentices; and the Executor was the largest poison pill in the universe.
Adding Avenger to the squadron was adding insult to injury, especially under the command of a man who, he was certain, had been given unofficial but highest level orders to undo everything he had done. Watching that ship's efficiency numbers degenerate to merely average had been slow torture, and Lorth Needa had been on his personal grievance list for a long time.
Something can at least be salvaged from this, Vader thought. An excuse to keep the squadron together perhaps long enough to overcome Palpatine's rigging of the dice and mould them in my own image, after all, in addition to a personal revenge.
(ed. for fumblefingers- misspelt "Palpatine" as "Palaptine". I really need to do typo- killing expeditions more often.)
Last edited by Eleventh Century Remnant on 2013-06-06 01:59pm, edited 1 time in total.
The only purpose in my still being here is the stories and the people who come to read them. About all else, I no longer care.
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Crazedwraith
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
It's been ages since I watched ESB but didn't all of Death Squadron meet up for a bit before the Falcon jettisoned itself with the Garbage, just before the fleet hyperjumped? If Vader looked at the report and immediately knew where the Falcon had gone wouldn't he be able to capture it immediately.
Still given Vader's piloting skills it does make a lot of sense and the idea of the Executor and Death Squadron being a loadstone for him is an intriguing example of your 'Empire's politics is shooting itself in the foot' concept. And the idea of Needa already being on his shit list as well.
---
As for the last 'real' update, I had a bigger comment typed up at the time, but decided not to post it. Suffice to say, you weren't wrong about it taking the scenic route in regards to plot, and while I admire the creativity that goes into the Black Prince's department of tinkering, I don't feel they add to the story positively.
Firstly, because they are so rarely plot critical. Even after all the word counts devoted to fighter designs and support craft. Does it really matter to the story if the stormtroopers are flying assault shuttles or super-duper stylish customised YT-EU models?
And secondly when you have lines like this;
That said the on going story line is in interesting and I often wonder where its going. Giving the way Lennart is setting himself up and his goals which seem vastly more than a single ISD Captain could hope to acheive, it makes me wonder how much of it he can do, especially if you are trying to keep the canon as much as possible. As you have been.
Still given Vader's piloting skills it does make a lot of sense and the idea of the Executor and Death Squadron being a loadstone for him is an intriguing example of your 'Empire's politics is shooting itself in the foot' concept. And the idea of Needa already being on his shit list as well.
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As for the last 'real' update, I had a bigger comment typed up at the time, but decided not to post it. Suffice to say, you weren't wrong about it taking the scenic route in regards to plot, and while I admire the creativity that goes into the Black Prince's department of tinkering, I don't feel they add to the story positively.
Firstly, because they are so rarely plot critical. Even after all the word counts devoted to fighter designs and support craft. Does it really matter to the story if the stormtroopers are flying assault shuttles or super-duper stylish customised YT-EU models?
And secondly when you have lines like this;
It's the kind of thing that triggers alarm bells about original characters and mary sues. That they so often realise things that are 'perfectly obvious' to anyone who really knows the tech, yet no canon character has ever realised.'Lennart looked at it and wondered, why has this not been done before? It's so obvious. Looking down from the point of view of space technology it is, anyway. Ah.'
That said the on going story line is in interesting and I often wonder where its going. Giving the way Lennart is setting himself up and his goals which seem vastly more than a single ISD Captain could hope to acheive, it makes me wonder how much of it he can do, especially if you are trying to keep the canon as much as possible. As you have been.
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Eleventh Century Remnant
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
That was just rattled off- would take place, assuming nothing else changes and it all comes out as per when I get around to that bit, after Needa's reporting lost contact and before the fleet jump; some time around the time he's riding over to the Executor on the TIE type shuttle.
Time for another general blither on the late Republic/ Imperial economy. Now, I am basically a Saxtonite- and have written far too much on that basis to go back on it now, even if I didn't think the bones of it are correct. But- it's clear the galaxy didn't exist entirely, or even largely, on that basis. Very few people in universe have stellar engineering as a hobby, which should be within the means of the rich in a universe with that much power to throw around.
Some of them live as dirt farmers, when you get down to it. To my mind the most elegant solution to all of this is regionalism and protectionism; trade barriers existed, limited power and authority for intervention existed- only the central state and a handful of major worlds (Corellia among them) controlled power on the level of the usual upper estimates, most people existing at what their own local cluster, local civilisation, individual member state of the republic, could support, and making their own way accordingly.
Galactically, economically and technically the Old Republic and the early Empire were a wildly uneven patchwork, Clarkean magicians on one end of the spectrum and bone swinging apes on the other, most people somewhere in the middle, and if the Clone Wars and rise of Empire did one genuinely good and progressive thing, it was knocking down a lot of the legal and cultural-traditional barriers that kept things that way and thereby opening the galaxy up to change and growth.
One of my background arguments is that this bonus in effect justifies the empire to a lot of the common people and effectively hides what I did refer to as "the real, dark side Empire, not the one in the holos"- for almost a generation, until it becomes more obvious to those with eyes to see exactly who is profiting from it all, and that is when popular support for the rebellion starts to swell.
The other thing is- in that situation, with barriers falling, cross fertilisation left right and centre, it really should be a time of great inventiveness. Of lots of people, not just the central cast, realising things are possible that were not before, of blinkers falling off and twos and twos being put together. Tone it down? Hm. Maybe. Spread it more widely- now that appeals. Other people need to have some good ideas too, there should be more of this in the galaxy at large, and if you look at the department of military research and some of the things rebel spec ops come out with, arguably there is.
Two further things; first of all, my inner child is still kicking and screaming and playing with toys, and the main concession to adulthood is playing with designing them now; as part of the group I am part of I occasionally do a spot of amateur metal- bashing, and I know full well, in practise, even at mid twentieth century tech levels it's nowhere near that easy. (Yes, given the vintage of most of the machine tools involved, I meant that.)
That and if they have progress and innovation to demonstrate, some of the crap along the way might not land on them quite as heavily.
Time for another general blither on the late Republic/ Imperial economy. Now, I am basically a Saxtonite- and have written far too much on that basis to go back on it now, even if I didn't think the bones of it are correct. But- it's clear the galaxy didn't exist entirely, or even largely, on that basis. Very few people in universe have stellar engineering as a hobby, which should be within the means of the rich in a universe with that much power to throw around.
Some of them live as dirt farmers, when you get down to it. To my mind the most elegant solution to all of this is regionalism and protectionism; trade barriers existed, limited power and authority for intervention existed- only the central state and a handful of major worlds (Corellia among them) controlled power on the level of the usual upper estimates, most people existing at what their own local cluster, local civilisation, individual member state of the republic, could support, and making their own way accordingly.
Galactically, economically and technically the Old Republic and the early Empire were a wildly uneven patchwork, Clarkean magicians on one end of the spectrum and bone swinging apes on the other, most people somewhere in the middle, and if the Clone Wars and rise of Empire did one genuinely good and progressive thing, it was knocking down a lot of the legal and cultural-traditional barriers that kept things that way and thereby opening the galaxy up to change and growth.
One of my background arguments is that this bonus in effect justifies the empire to a lot of the common people and effectively hides what I did refer to as "the real, dark side Empire, not the one in the holos"- for almost a generation, until it becomes more obvious to those with eyes to see exactly who is profiting from it all, and that is when popular support for the rebellion starts to swell.
The other thing is- in that situation, with barriers falling, cross fertilisation left right and centre, it really should be a time of great inventiveness. Of lots of people, not just the central cast, realising things are possible that were not before, of blinkers falling off and twos and twos being put together. Tone it down? Hm. Maybe. Spread it more widely- now that appeals. Other people need to have some good ideas too, there should be more of this in the galaxy at large, and if you look at the department of military research and some of the things rebel spec ops come out with, arguably there is.
Two further things; first of all, my inner child is still kicking and screaming and playing with toys, and the main concession to adulthood is playing with designing them now; as part of the group I am part of I occasionally do a spot of amateur metal- bashing, and I know full well, in practise, even at mid twentieth century tech levels it's nowhere near that easy. (Yes, given the vintage of most of the machine tools involved, I meant that.)
That and if they have progress and innovation to demonstrate, some of the crap along the way might not land on them quite as heavily.
The only purpose in my still being here is the stories and the people who come to read them. About all else, I no longer care.
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Perhaps a bit out of nowere, that second piece with Darth Vader, but overal good.
Most ship designers stay with ship designs, Mirrannon ain't, he sees the ships complement of small-crafts as part of the ship.
This includes the fighter crafts, bombers, shuttles, tanks and anything in between.
And if things keep spinning out off control, maybe even a support base of some kind.
Would Mirrannon have a couple of Civil Industrial I-C2 Construction droids for the more basic jobs?
Does the ship still have it's pre-fab base onboard or not?
Remnent, you want less supperstructure in hight, right?
Make it run longer, then.
Most ship designers stay with ship designs, Mirrannon ain't, he sees the ships complement of small-crafts as part of the ship.
This includes the fighter crafts, bombers, shuttles, tanks and anything in between.
And if things keep spinning out off control, maybe even a support base of some kind.
Would Mirrannon have a couple of Civil Industrial I-C2 Construction droids for the more basic jobs?
Does the ship still have it's pre-fab base onboard or not?
Remnent, you want less supperstructure in hight, right?
Make it run longer, then.
Nothing like the present.
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Simon_Jester
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
I doubt it; the damn things are huge. He probably has all the equipment of such a droid aboard the ship somewhere, so putting it all on a giant rolling automatic chassis is redundant.
Moreover, it's very unlikely that a civil engineering droid could do the really tricky work an ISD required, since it's designed to build apartment buildings, not recoil mounts for thirty-teraton turbolasers.
Moreover, it's very unlikely that a civil engineering droid could do the really tricky work an ISD required, since it's designed to build apartment buildings, not recoil mounts for thirty-teraton turbolasers.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
True, but it can break those buildings down and build new ones with lower lvl factories in them, that you need to build the factories that build the factories that can build the spaceyards and so.
At the very least, they can use them to turn scrap metal back into bars again, they just need to ad their factory equiptment to it, while removing it's chassis.
A easy place to mount one, would be the garbage shute in the bridge tower it's neck.
Lets you get rid of you biological waste as well.
At the very least, they can use them to turn scrap metal back into bars again, they just need to ad their factory equiptment to it, while removing it's chassis.
A easy place to mount one, would be the garbage shute in the bridge tower it's neck.
Lets you get rid of you biological waste as well.
Nothing like the present.
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Simon_Jester
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Again, I suspect that Black Prince's machine shops already have the equipment to do all these things.
Normal warships routinely carry a machine shop capable of just fabricating certain classes of parts, simply because it's more trouble to have to ship in a replacement than it is to be able to make the thing yourself. Given the tricks Mirannon's demonstrated during this story arc, I'm quite sure that shop can turn scrap metal into bars any time it wants to.
Normal warships routinely carry a machine shop capable of just fabricating certain classes of parts, simply because it's more trouble to have to ship in a replacement than it is to be able to make the thing yourself. Given the tricks Mirannon's demonstrated during this story arc, I'm quite sure that shop can turn scrap metal into bars any time it wants to.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
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Grand Moff Tim
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Hmm, I have an idea on a possible replacement for Black Prince's AT-ATs: take the HAVw A5 Juggernaut and remove the sentry tower(replace with extendable sensor mast if needed), install the reactor out of a Lambda shuttle, replace the original weapons with a pair of heavy fighter-weight lasers on dorsal turrets, four autoblasters; 2 on each side, and maybe a few light concussion missiles in VLS tubes if space can be found. Adding some repulsorlifts should help mobility and reduce ground pressure, maybe even add limited flight if you can squeeze in powerful enough ones. Adding a shield generator should add a lot more survivability as well. And the A5 Juggernaut is about the same size as the AT-AT as well.
Any problems with this idea I can't think of(other than cramming all that stuff in and getting it to work without losing too much troop capacity)?
Any problems with this idea I can't think of(other than cramming all that stuff in and getting it to work without losing too much troop capacity)?
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
I think putting starship-grade defenses on a ground vehicle might be counterproductive - it'd be too resilient for normal weapons, so orbital strikes would have to be used to get rid of it. At the same time, a shuttle-grade shield generator won't stop a turbolaser bolt, so you'd have a vehicle which attracted fire it can't resist as a matter of course. Giving the enemy reasons to lob gigaton-level weaponry at every tank you have seems like a bad idea.
“Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
It's worth noting that the Empire, like any sensible Starfleet, doesn't deploy ground forces until it has achieved control of local space, so resisting orbital bombardment shouldn't be a pressing issue. If, on the other hand, the enemy is willing and able to employ gigaton-level weaponry against the surface of a planet, then any ground force is well and truly screwed.Esquire wrote:I think putting starship-grade defenses on a ground vehicle might be counterproductive - it'd be too resilient for normal weapons, so orbital strikes would have to be used to get rid of it. At the same time, a shuttle-grade shield generator won't stop a turbolaser bolt, so you'd have a vehicle which attracted fire it can't resist as a matter of course. Giving the enemy reasons to lob gigaton-level weaponry at every tank you have seems like a bad idea.
Plus, we have to assume that there is at least some reticence to that kind of escalation, or there'd be little point having "heavy" ground forces at all.
A hard target does not justify causing massive collateral damage.
"Only a fool expects rational behaviour from their fellow humans. Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have designed?"
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Simon_Jester
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
There's another objection to starship-scale weapons on a ground combat unit: endurance. In ECR's version of Star Wars, an ISD has combat endurance of at most a few hours. By implication, no one's going to do much better than that at starship power-to-weight ratios.
The AT-AT replacement needs to be able to stay in the field, with its shields up and weapons online if not firing, for longer than that. And it has to do that without gulping tons of hypermatter that cost massive amounts.
Using shields that use power to the tune of megatons per second to run, on a battlefield where the platform never gets shot at with anything over ten kilotons, is a losing game.
The AT-AT replacement needs to be able to stay in the field, with its shields up and weapons online if not firing, for longer than that. And it has to do that without gulping tons of hypermatter that cost massive amounts.
Using shields that use power to the tune of megatons per second to run, on a battlefield where the platform never gets shot at with anything over ten kilotons, is a losing game.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Those replying beforma me have already stated some of this, I1m going to spell it out clear. Warfare is not one-dimensional. War is not only fought on the battlefield, but inthe hearts and minds, by logistics, by economy, etc. You can field the latest and greatest, but that didn't wok out in real life. E.g. Germany in WWII. Let's oversimplify for the sake of the example: The Tiger tank was a superb tank, easily the "best" of its time. THEY STILL LOST. (Look up the battle of Kursk.) It didn't matter that they killed 10 soviet tanks for every tank lost, because building One Tiger tank required as much resources (manhours, raw materials, fuel, oil, maintenance, training, skilled workers, etc.) as building 15-20 (some sources even indicate 25-30) T-34's. The better equipment doesn't help you if you lose the numbers game.
On of the reasons why I really like this story is because these things are there, NOT swept under the rug. Black Prince is a superb ship, BUT for the perfromance they get out of her they PAY. Endurance is lower (even after they expanded bunkerage), she needs much more maintenance, and a much better trained and drilled crew.
ECR, thank you for giving us such a great story!
On of the reasons why I really like this story is because these things are there, NOT swept under the rug. Black Prince is a superb ship, BUT for the perfromance they get out of her they PAY. Endurance is lower (even after they expanded bunkerage), she needs much more maintenance, and a much better trained and drilled crew.
ECR, thank you for giving us such a great story!
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Eleventh Century Remnant
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Hm. Some hares started seem to take on minds of their own 
Main Machinery-2 is the ship's workshops, and includes quite a lot of foundry and manufacturing gear, there are very few things they couldn't manufacture on board, given the raw materials. Main engine bells, the primary reactor vessel, that's really it. Not that it would be fast, or easy, or convenient, or necessarily cockup and misadventure free, just possible.
I usually budget on the basis of ten thousand seconds at full power for an ISD, which is probably about as much of being engaged at that intensity as the crew can stand anyway; lower power, longer in operation, obviously. AT-ATs, well, there should be some ground fighting coming up. For the moment, a look from the other side.
Hull 721 arc 2 ch 29
While some plotted, some searched, and some resorted to increasingly wild and unpredictable contraptions, others stared problems in the face. The officers and men of His Imperial Majesty's Starship Swiftsure were doing some very hard thinking.
They had a target, and now what they needed was a realistic operations plan. That was the hard part. The command team were well aware that they had basically been given an assassin's job, against a target that promised to be rather tricky. Kill HIMS Black Prince,their near- sister, another early batch Imperator- I extensively refitted.
Senior Captain Perad Olghaan was looking at two holo images spinning side by side, contrast and compare, weighing the odds. 'Single ship action, a straight fight- depending on which set of estimates you choose to find the most reliable, we might have an even chance. I don't like purely even fights.
I positively despise the idea of giving a proven maniac anything like a straight shot at me. If their official ratings are remotely like the truth, they're not far off as good as we are. Considering our published numbers are pure disinformation, and I believe theirs are as well, the truth could be anything. So, how do we avoid a fair fight? Options?' The senior captain asked of his command team.
'What authority do we have to call for support?' The navigator and tactical officer asked. Swiftsure had the conventional department breakdown, Weapons under the chief gunnery officer, Engineering with the chief engineer, Supply which included administration, regulatory, medical,life support and stores headed by the executive officer, and Systems, com scan, shields and all sorts of odd techno gubbins headed by the nav or the com scan chief, whoever was senior.
Unlike Black Prince, the special operations ship from Oversector Central rotated crews on a far closer to normal schedule. Something close to twenty-five percent a year, which her current commander on his third year of assignment thought was essentially optimum. A four year tour was long enough for continuity, to preserve the corporate spirit that had made the ship elite, for the old hands to instruct the youngsters;
Short enough to rotate a ready supply of experienced personnel back to the rest of the fleet to raise their standards too, and to preserve contact with the greater whole, avoid complacency, stagnation, or the utter deviant lunacy and unprofessionalism bred by the familiarity of the ten years' long service crew of the ship they had been tasked to remove.
'The ops order is the usual, succeed and no questions asked, fail and no excuses accepted. They're operating in the zone of Anoat, and the sector group's already been gutted to support Death Squadron. Officially they have been assigned in support, as have we. Vader's ignoring the situation, which is interestingly dangerous.' Some things the navigators of the two ships did have in common, a tendency to understatement being one.
'We could probably get ships from the neighbouring sector groups, as long as it's not a coherent force with a flag officer. Three or four battle squadrons should be enough to bury them, if their flag officers can be left behind and they can be coordinated.' The executive officer, looking forward to his own destroyer after this, said.
The captain said nothing as yet, silently presiding, turning options over in his mind. The fact that these picked men leapt more or less instantly past the possibility of a single ship duel, however pre- rigged, said a lot, and they were not wrong. It was too close to call, far too close for anyone with the responsibilities of a star destroyer captain to bet on.
Was Jorian Lennart that kind of gambler? Unlikely- that so much nonsense was built up around the man made it hard to sort truth from the bodyguard of lies he had no doubt taken a hand in spreading, but that was in itself not the act of a wild man, rather that of a man with a system to beat the apparent odds.
'So tactically, we need to find them and converge on them. Operationally, avoid seniority issues by piecing together a force with no command elements but ourselves- which is an open invitation.' The gunnery officer pointed out. Like her fractionally older sister, Swiftsure - originally number 1121- was more or less upgraded to Tector class standard, and actually something like the configuration; port and starboard main batteries, each five triple 170's.
It was going to be an interesting exercise matching a uniform battery of capable very heavy guns against the eclectic mix their target mounted. Interesting and highly dangerous, which was why he would prefer not to be their primary target. No fool would choose an even fight if it could be avoided; ambush would be a good plan, but going in mob handed was more certain of effect.
'Going to happen anyway. They know us by name, and we know them.' The executive officer pointed out. Many of Black Prince's operations of late had made the news. Several of Swiftsure' s had made the rumour network. They had a good idea how each other operated. Their assignment had not been kept as quiet as it should have been.
Operational surprise was already forfeit, and as both ships were as noisy as any of the Imperator class and both had ELINT gear- one officially and one not- tactical surprise would be unlikely too.
'Then we have the last and hardest part. Do it, kill the man and the ship, without making a martyr of him. Isn't it going to be spectacularly obvious why the system wants him dead? How do we rig it, what do we tell the support craft, to make it not play out like that?' The exec wondered. No doubts about the mission, no more than putting down a mad dog, but there were always doubters, rumour- mongers, conspiracists.
'To all intents and purposes he has gone renegade. Refusing lawful orders. Everyone's going to know, but nobody's going to know out loud, he's off in cloud cuckoo land, nobody cares. Jam comms and brush the whole business under the rug.
It doesn't matter if it looks like the rug just ate a sarlacc that it's having difficulty digesting. That's all, it's just a mission to kill, that's all.' The com-scan officer was coming close to the end of his tour. Many dirty jobs lay behind him, and a certain lack of faith.
'The units involved are going to know they've been sent to kill an out of line hero. What else can we do except hope that by the time he's finished shooting at them, they revise their opinions. There'll likely be fewer of them left to persuade, anyway.' The gunnery officer pointed out.
'The force is going to take casualties, if it presses home home at all. We'll need to be very careful about picking people who are willing to go into the fire, and there isn't that large a pool. The surrounding sectors will need to be combed carefully for the willing, for the loyal and competent. Death Squadron has already chosen the best of them. Any possibilities there?'
'Poaching from Lord Vader? That would be, no, I think we can get what we need from him without his consent, which is a useful first cover story. What's more likely than that Lord Vader would lose his temper at some point and have him killed? I know the explanation has been used a lot, because it works- it is as believable as the sun coming up in the morning.'
'Playing sabacc with death is one thing as a profession, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it as a hobby as well. Vader may not be pleased.'
'Even in those terms, Vader is the lesser evil.' The captain pointed out. 'The Emperor's word outweighs even his, and while it is not His Majesty's word on the ops order, it is his will, and he knows it. He has no choice, and yes, he may choose to take that out on us. Departure will be a significant phase of the operation.
Start with the order of battle. If we are going to recruit henchmen, let us at least do it with style. Take one each of the neighbouring four sectors, go through them looking for likely candidates. Be back here in one hundred minutes.' Olghaan ordered.
As the core command team left to be about that, he looked over the last known activity reports from the renegade destroyer. Most of her small craft were busy, tied down? That was a strength that could overeach itself into weakness, they had enough independent combat power to be sent unsupported into harm's way.
Lennart could and would take risks that no sane Imperial- or Alliance- commander would, not that there were many sane men in the rebel alliance, and would probably move to support them if they were cut off; one of the four sectors must have an interdictor.
Vader hated interdictors, refused them no matter how useful they could have been on occasions like trying to trap the alliance fleet. It was an irrational dislike that no-one really dared to call him on and find out why; any there would have been left unappropriated and available for more technically minded operators.
In fact he distrusted most such options, there was that much of his former self still in him- technology was technology of course, on some level it was all fancy gubbins, but he placed his trust in skill and dexterity rather than radical innovation. On how rather than what.
On those things in particular, he may have had a point. The current line interdictor class, Immobiliser-418, was not a heavy warship in it's own right; could be kitbashed into one, but as it stood one or two salvos from a destroyer would be enough to eliminate it.
Which could be used to advantage- interdict and hold in place the deployed small craft, trap them in the complex moon system they were besieging, force their parent to come to their aid, englobe and destroy.
Hardening the plan to survive contact with the enemy was the next step. Once the interdictor was gone, they would regain manoeuvre independence, which- Swifture had the speed and reflexes to play hyperspace games with the renegade, but their support craft would not.
If the plan was to stop it coming to that, one interdictor wasn't going to be enough. Three or four might be necessary, because the first was going to die. They couldn't survive the attention they got; too many of them had gone off the air suddenly with their last transmission being something along the lines of "MC80-". A renegade destroyer could do as much, and probably faster.
Interdictor crews tended to be fairly low grade, partly because their high loss rate was only officially secret, actually widely rumoured on the lower deck. Competent spacemen avoided them, novices and fanatics were the usual portion.
There were heavy fleet interdictors based on an Imperator hull that could withstand the abuse, but they were so few and far between Swiftsure would have had to bring one along from Oversector Centre. There was a light destroyer type designed for hot pursuit with a single dome, that kept it's full armament and fire arcs, but they were even rarer. Have to make do.
Recon best accomplished at arms' length, no point sending probe droids that announced to the target that they had been found when a larger and more expensive droid that could stand off out of the target's sensor range would achieve as much information, at vastly greater security.
One hundred minutes was an eternity in combat, but a short time indeed in paperwork. The rest of the command team were soon back, the skeleton plan would be fleshed out from what they had found. 'Reports?'
In descending order of seniority, the Exec began. 'Tector class Ineffable; bored, frustrated, excellent exercise record, no combat, many discipline incidents. Captain's ex Azure Hammer, and it seems as if he's been trying to whip the rim rats into shape.
First attack line consisting of an Ecliptic, two escort carriers, two strike cruisers; second a Victory-II, two Dreadnaughts, two Munifex; heavy recon line consisting of two Carrack, two Servator.'
Good; something else with the ability to give and take punishment. A lot of fighters in that force, partly to make up for the lead ship Tector's lack of them, but that did not necessarily add up to a good thing. General purpose might work if it turned into that kind of fight, but it was still a basically conventional formation, not tailored for hunting big game.
The navigator was next to report. 'Two interesting candidates; a relatively new built Imperial II, Harridan, with a string of court martials behind her- the survivors of the command team are marked men seriously in need of rebuilding their political reliability ratings. They would be willing.
An older Imperator I, Falcata-' the image came up, repositioned and very different main gun fit- 'formerly High Admiral Diebst's personal flagship, which explains the superlaser turrets and Lord Vader's choosing to pass her by.
The rest of the formation- there's very little point in sending lighter craft to engage directly, Black Prince would simply eat them. We could piece together a few ships with at least heavy turbolasers from the rest, and enough carriage to overwhelm her fighter wing and perhaps put bombers through.
A Demolisher, an Interdictor- necessary- an escort carrier and two fighter optimised strike cruisers; a Meridian, an Illustris and two escort carriers; a small boat mothership Acclamator, two recon Carrack and two recon Bayonet.'
'Are you saying that I got it wrong?' The exec demanded, with an edge to the tone that suggested that while he could be taken as joshing, it probably wasn't.
'There is a reason we begin by studying the issue.' Captain Olghaan pointed out. 'Formation orthodoxy, in the face of a highly unorthodox target? If we were the hunted party, what would we do to ships like Dreadnaughts and Carracks? We'd crush them, and so would they. All they would achieve is to feed their score and make them look more like the forces of evil.'
Thinking further for a moment, it was just possible, the exec was callous enough. 'Was that what you had in mind?'
'No, it was just orthodoxy, but if the casualties are too high then we could pretend that we meant it as a sacrifice for the glory of the Empire.' The executive officer confirmed, opportunistically. 'We might need flank and rear protection against stray rebels, and that orthodoxy already includes their role against a line destroyer or larger- trail, suppress fighters, act as sensor and fire control relays, do not engage directly.'
'The target no longer appears to give a kriff about proper doctrine. They won't waste targeting time on the irrelevant, but as soon as any of the small ships does anything useful or effective, acting as a sensor or firecon relay, they'll get evaporated. In this list I haven't gone far enough, anything without HTL isn't going to be worth taking along.' The navigator countered.
'The other two sectors?' Olghaan asked, he could see the gunnery officer trying not to bounce up and down, he had something.
'Sneaky one here, sector reserve fleet has a ship listed in it- look at this.' projected from the datapad up through the main display.
That was a surprise. 'Is this legitimate? Not disinformation, not garbled data?' It certainly didn't belong there. It was a torpedo sphere, which inevitably made it almost brand new, probably not fully shaken down. How had they managed to break it badly enough to send it down to the reserves, or was it just a dodge to keep it away from Vader?
Siege platforms were a dubious and touchy subject. Many had been developed during the great reduction of the separatists, and very few had actually done anything useful. Widespread civilian shielding against navigational accident and astronomical incident set the bar high enough that most military attempts to break through failed, and the old traditional options of starvation, blackmail, sabotage and treachery saw much use.
Usual procedure was to park a platform or an amphibious flotilla nearby and keep up a slow bombardment, wait for the people under the shield to get tired or screw up. Starvation was usually of reactor fuel to power the shields, unless the world was particularly badly favoured or something strange happened. Which with the combination of tension and boredom that pervaded both sides, it frequently did.
The now vanished Death Star was the ultimate expression of frustration with the process, and there probably would be something like it again. The spheres which looked strangely like death star spawn were actually moderately effective shield breakers- when they were in good working order, which wasn't that often.
The specification had been ambitious and had been revised several times through the project- that had led to numerous production cockups and delays. They had originally been supposed to be produced widely enough to give one or two to each sector fleet, but they were actually about as rare as surfing space slugs, their place in the order of battle taken by the older platforms they had been supposed to supercede.
'I think we have our first piece of bait. They're prosecuting a siege on a shoestring- offer them assistance, send the platform. That should bring the renegade out of hiding and into the ambush.'
Main Machinery-2 is the ship's workshops, and includes quite a lot of foundry and manufacturing gear, there are very few things they couldn't manufacture on board, given the raw materials. Main engine bells, the primary reactor vessel, that's really it. Not that it would be fast, or easy, or convenient, or necessarily cockup and misadventure free, just possible.
I usually budget on the basis of ten thousand seconds at full power for an ISD, which is probably about as much of being engaged at that intensity as the crew can stand anyway; lower power, longer in operation, obviously. AT-ATs, well, there should be some ground fighting coming up. For the moment, a look from the other side.
Hull 721 arc 2 ch 29
While some plotted, some searched, and some resorted to increasingly wild and unpredictable contraptions, others stared problems in the face. The officers and men of His Imperial Majesty's Starship Swiftsure were doing some very hard thinking.
They had a target, and now what they needed was a realistic operations plan. That was the hard part. The command team were well aware that they had basically been given an assassin's job, against a target that promised to be rather tricky. Kill HIMS Black Prince,their near- sister, another early batch Imperator- I extensively refitted.
Senior Captain Perad Olghaan was looking at two holo images spinning side by side, contrast and compare, weighing the odds. 'Single ship action, a straight fight- depending on which set of estimates you choose to find the most reliable, we might have an even chance. I don't like purely even fights.
I positively despise the idea of giving a proven maniac anything like a straight shot at me. If their official ratings are remotely like the truth, they're not far off as good as we are. Considering our published numbers are pure disinformation, and I believe theirs are as well, the truth could be anything. So, how do we avoid a fair fight? Options?' The senior captain asked of his command team.
'What authority do we have to call for support?' The navigator and tactical officer asked. Swiftsure had the conventional department breakdown, Weapons under the chief gunnery officer, Engineering with the chief engineer, Supply which included administration, regulatory, medical,life support and stores headed by the executive officer, and Systems, com scan, shields and all sorts of odd techno gubbins headed by the nav or the com scan chief, whoever was senior.
Unlike Black Prince, the special operations ship from Oversector Central rotated crews on a far closer to normal schedule. Something close to twenty-five percent a year, which her current commander on his third year of assignment thought was essentially optimum. A four year tour was long enough for continuity, to preserve the corporate spirit that had made the ship elite, for the old hands to instruct the youngsters;
Short enough to rotate a ready supply of experienced personnel back to the rest of the fleet to raise their standards too, and to preserve contact with the greater whole, avoid complacency, stagnation, or the utter deviant lunacy and unprofessionalism bred by the familiarity of the ten years' long service crew of the ship they had been tasked to remove.
'The ops order is the usual, succeed and no questions asked, fail and no excuses accepted. They're operating in the zone of Anoat, and the sector group's already been gutted to support Death Squadron. Officially they have been assigned in support, as have we. Vader's ignoring the situation, which is interestingly dangerous.' Some things the navigators of the two ships did have in common, a tendency to understatement being one.
'We could probably get ships from the neighbouring sector groups, as long as it's not a coherent force with a flag officer. Three or four battle squadrons should be enough to bury them, if their flag officers can be left behind and they can be coordinated.' The executive officer, looking forward to his own destroyer after this, said.
The captain said nothing as yet, silently presiding, turning options over in his mind. The fact that these picked men leapt more or less instantly past the possibility of a single ship duel, however pre- rigged, said a lot, and they were not wrong. It was too close to call, far too close for anyone with the responsibilities of a star destroyer captain to bet on.
Was Jorian Lennart that kind of gambler? Unlikely- that so much nonsense was built up around the man made it hard to sort truth from the bodyguard of lies he had no doubt taken a hand in spreading, but that was in itself not the act of a wild man, rather that of a man with a system to beat the apparent odds.
'So tactically, we need to find them and converge on them. Operationally, avoid seniority issues by piecing together a force with no command elements but ourselves- which is an open invitation.' The gunnery officer pointed out. Like her fractionally older sister, Swiftsure - originally number 1121- was more or less upgraded to Tector class standard, and actually something like the configuration; port and starboard main batteries, each five triple 170's.
It was going to be an interesting exercise matching a uniform battery of capable very heavy guns against the eclectic mix their target mounted. Interesting and highly dangerous, which was why he would prefer not to be their primary target. No fool would choose an even fight if it could be avoided; ambush would be a good plan, but going in mob handed was more certain of effect.
'Going to happen anyway. They know us by name, and we know them.' The executive officer pointed out. Many of Black Prince's operations of late had made the news. Several of Swiftsure' s had made the rumour network. They had a good idea how each other operated. Their assignment had not been kept as quiet as it should have been.
Operational surprise was already forfeit, and as both ships were as noisy as any of the Imperator class and both had ELINT gear- one officially and one not- tactical surprise would be unlikely too.
'Then we have the last and hardest part. Do it, kill the man and the ship, without making a martyr of him. Isn't it going to be spectacularly obvious why the system wants him dead? How do we rig it, what do we tell the support craft, to make it not play out like that?' The exec wondered. No doubts about the mission, no more than putting down a mad dog, but there were always doubters, rumour- mongers, conspiracists.
'To all intents and purposes he has gone renegade. Refusing lawful orders. Everyone's going to know, but nobody's going to know out loud, he's off in cloud cuckoo land, nobody cares. Jam comms and brush the whole business under the rug.
It doesn't matter if it looks like the rug just ate a sarlacc that it's having difficulty digesting. That's all, it's just a mission to kill, that's all.' The com-scan officer was coming close to the end of his tour. Many dirty jobs lay behind him, and a certain lack of faith.
'The units involved are going to know they've been sent to kill an out of line hero. What else can we do except hope that by the time he's finished shooting at them, they revise their opinions. There'll likely be fewer of them left to persuade, anyway.' The gunnery officer pointed out.
'The force is going to take casualties, if it presses home home at all. We'll need to be very careful about picking people who are willing to go into the fire, and there isn't that large a pool. The surrounding sectors will need to be combed carefully for the willing, for the loyal and competent. Death Squadron has already chosen the best of them. Any possibilities there?'
'Poaching from Lord Vader? That would be, no, I think we can get what we need from him without his consent, which is a useful first cover story. What's more likely than that Lord Vader would lose his temper at some point and have him killed? I know the explanation has been used a lot, because it works- it is as believable as the sun coming up in the morning.'
'Playing sabacc with death is one thing as a profession, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it as a hobby as well. Vader may not be pleased.'
'Even in those terms, Vader is the lesser evil.' The captain pointed out. 'The Emperor's word outweighs even his, and while it is not His Majesty's word on the ops order, it is his will, and he knows it. He has no choice, and yes, he may choose to take that out on us. Departure will be a significant phase of the operation.
Start with the order of battle. If we are going to recruit henchmen, let us at least do it with style. Take one each of the neighbouring four sectors, go through them looking for likely candidates. Be back here in one hundred minutes.' Olghaan ordered.
As the core command team left to be about that, he looked over the last known activity reports from the renegade destroyer. Most of her small craft were busy, tied down? That was a strength that could overeach itself into weakness, they had enough independent combat power to be sent unsupported into harm's way.
Lennart could and would take risks that no sane Imperial- or Alliance- commander would, not that there were many sane men in the rebel alliance, and would probably move to support them if they were cut off; one of the four sectors must have an interdictor.
Vader hated interdictors, refused them no matter how useful they could have been on occasions like trying to trap the alliance fleet. It was an irrational dislike that no-one really dared to call him on and find out why; any there would have been left unappropriated and available for more technically minded operators.
In fact he distrusted most such options, there was that much of his former self still in him- technology was technology of course, on some level it was all fancy gubbins, but he placed his trust in skill and dexterity rather than radical innovation. On how rather than what.
On those things in particular, he may have had a point. The current line interdictor class, Immobiliser-418, was not a heavy warship in it's own right; could be kitbashed into one, but as it stood one or two salvos from a destroyer would be enough to eliminate it.
Which could be used to advantage- interdict and hold in place the deployed small craft, trap them in the complex moon system they were besieging, force their parent to come to their aid, englobe and destroy.
Hardening the plan to survive contact with the enemy was the next step. Once the interdictor was gone, they would regain manoeuvre independence, which- Swifture had the speed and reflexes to play hyperspace games with the renegade, but their support craft would not.
If the plan was to stop it coming to that, one interdictor wasn't going to be enough. Three or four might be necessary, because the first was going to die. They couldn't survive the attention they got; too many of them had gone off the air suddenly with their last transmission being something along the lines of "MC80-". A renegade destroyer could do as much, and probably faster.
Interdictor crews tended to be fairly low grade, partly because their high loss rate was only officially secret, actually widely rumoured on the lower deck. Competent spacemen avoided them, novices and fanatics were the usual portion.
There were heavy fleet interdictors based on an Imperator hull that could withstand the abuse, but they were so few and far between Swiftsure would have had to bring one along from Oversector Centre. There was a light destroyer type designed for hot pursuit with a single dome, that kept it's full armament and fire arcs, but they were even rarer. Have to make do.
Recon best accomplished at arms' length, no point sending probe droids that announced to the target that they had been found when a larger and more expensive droid that could stand off out of the target's sensor range would achieve as much information, at vastly greater security.
One hundred minutes was an eternity in combat, but a short time indeed in paperwork. The rest of the command team were soon back, the skeleton plan would be fleshed out from what they had found. 'Reports?'
In descending order of seniority, the Exec began. 'Tector class Ineffable; bored, frustrated, excellent exercise record, no combat, many discipline incidents. Captain's ex Azure Hammer, and it seems as if he's been trying to whip the rim rats into shape.
First attack line consisting of an Ecliptic, two escort carriers, two strike cruisers; second a Victory-II, two Dreadnaughts, two Munifex; heavy recon line consisting of two Carrack, two Servator.'
Good; something else with the ability to give and take punishment. A lot of fighters in that force, partly to make up for the lead ship Tector's lack of them, but that did not necessarily add up to a good thing. General purpose might work if it turned into that kind of fight, but it was still a basically conventional formation, not tailored for hunting big game.
The navigator was next to report. 'Two interesting candidates; a relatively new built Imperial II, Harridan, with a string of court martials behind her- the survivors of the command team are marked men seriously in need of rebuilding their political reliability ratings. They would be willing.
An older Imperator I, Falcata-' the image came up, repositioned and very different main gun fit- 'formerly High Admiral Diebst's personal flagship, which explains the superlaser turrets and Lord Vader's choosing to pass her by.
The rest of the formation- there's very little point in sending lighter craft to engage directly, Black Prince would simply eat them. We could piece together a few ships with at least heavy turbolasers from the rest, and enough carriage to overwhelm her fighter wing and perhaps put bombers through.
A Demolisher, an Interdictor- necessary- an escort carrier and two fighter optimised strike cruisers; a Meridian, an Illustris and two escort carriers; a small boat mothership Acclamator, two recon Carrack and two recon Bayonet.'
'Are you saying that I got it wrong?' The exec demanded, with an edge to the tone that suggested that while he could be taken as joshing, it probably wasn't.
'There is a reason we begin by studying the issue.' Captain Olghaan pointed out. 'Formation orthodoxy, in the face of a highly unorthodox target? If we were the hunted party, what would we do to ships like Dreadnaughts and Carracks? We'd crush them, and so would they. All they would achieve is to feed their score and make them look more like the forces of evil.'
Thinking further for a moment, it was just possible, the exec was callous enough. 'Was that what you had in mind?'
'No, it was just orthodoxy, but if the casualties are too high then we could pretend that we meant it as a sacrifice for the glory of the Empire.' The executive officer confirmed, opportunistically. 'We might need flank and rear protection against stray rebels, and that orthodoxy already includes their role against a line destroyer or larger- trail, suppress fighters, act as sensor and fire control relays, do not engage directly.'
'The target no longer appears to give a kriff about proper doctrine. They won't waste targeting time on the irrelevant, but as soon as any of the small ships does anything useful or effective, acting as a sensor or firecon relay, they'll get evaporated. In this list I haven't gone far enough, anything without HTL isn't going to be worth taking along.' The navigator countered.
'The other two sectors?' Olghaan asked, he could see the gunnery officer trying not to bounce up and down, he had something.
'Sneaky one here, sector reserve fleet has a ship listed in it- look at this.' projected from the datapad up through the main display.
That was a surprise. 'Is this legitimate? Not disinformation, not garbled data?' It certainly didn't belong there. It was a torpedo sphere, which inevitably made it almost brand new, probably not fully shaken down. How had they managed to break it badly enough to send it down to the reserves, or was it just a dodge to keep it away from Vader?
Siege platforms were a dubious and touchy subject. Many had been developed during the great reduction of the separatists, and very few had actually done anything useful. Widespread civilian shielding against navigational accident and astronomical incident set the bar high enough that most military attempts to break through failed, and the old traditional options of starvation, blackmail, sabotage and treachery saw much use.
Usual procedure was to park a platform or an amphibious flotilla nearby and keep up a slow bombardment, wait for the people under the shield to get tired or screw up. Starvation was usually of reactor fuel to power the shields, unless the world was particularly badly favoured or something strange happened. Which with the combination of tension and boredom that pervaded both sides, it frequently did.
The now vanished Death Star was the ultimate expression of frustration with the process, and there probably would be something like it again. The spheres which looked strangely like death star spawn were actually moderately effective shield breakers- when they were in good working order, which wasn't that often.
The specification had been ambitious and had been revised several times through the project- that had led to numerous production cockups and delays. They had originally been supposed to be produced widely enough to give one or two to each sector fleet, but they were actually about as rare as surfing space slugs, their place in the order of battle taken by the older platforms they had been supposed to supercede.
'I think we have our first piece of bait. They're prosecuting a siege on a shoestring- offer them assistance, send the platform. That should bring the renegade out of hiding and into the ambush.'
The only purpose in my still being here is the stories and the people who come to read them. About all else, I no longer care.
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Very, very interesting...
Sounds like it's going to get very exciting very quickly very soon.
Sounds like it's going to get very exciting very quickly very soon.
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
As in using the same type of weapons disks as main weapons?An older Imperator I, Falcata-' the image came up, repositioned and very different main gun fit- 'formerly High Admiral Diebst's personal flagship, which explains the superlaser turrets and Lord Vader's choosing to pass her by.
I'm starting to wonder how many of those ships crews might have had any dealings with Black Prince in the past.
That could cause quite the backfire.
And offering help with a torpedo sphere?
Are they nuts?
If Lennart can capture those interdictors or get his own on the scene, he could use that sphere to completely tear Swiftsure her group appart without having to be afraid they would escape.
Do wonder were Trawn is.
Mirrannon might like all the extra spare parts, I could see him asking Lennart to not shoot-up the Falcata too much, because of that weapons fit.
Nothing like the present.
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Don't forget Black Prince now has her own tractors/gravwells.
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Not nearly enough to start playing with that spherical pressent. 
Nothing like the present.
Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Hmmm, looks like there is a serious shooting gallery in the making. Only question is, who gets to do the shooting?
I also seriously doubt Vader is only in the story as a showpiece, I'm sure he has a serious role to play.
Looking forward to the insanity once the shooting starts
I also seriously doubt Vader is only in the story as a showpiece, I'm sure he has a serious role to play.
Looking forward to the insanity once the shooting starts
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Crazedwraith
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Nice chapter ECR, its very interesting to see what some of Lennart's contemporaries are like. You did a decent job of differentiating them from the Black Prince's assortment of madmen.
I wonder though if they're being told the whole truth. There some appeal to the possibility of a wheels within wheels approach with Lennart's real foe using the Swiftsure as a stalking horse. Waiting to pounce when Black Prince has worn itself out beating down Swiftsure...
eta: I am wondering about this ISD with superlasers. Is is that it has composite-laser turrets replacing its broadside HTLs? (and of comparable size) or does it have larger structures built into the hull else where? Like those big guns on Grevious' ship in The Clone Wars.
I wonder though if they're being told the whole truth. There some appeal to the possibility of a wheels within wheels approach with Lennart's real foe using the Swiftsure as a stalking horse. Waiting to pounce when Black Prince has worn itself out beating down Swiftsure...
eta: I am wondering about this ISD with superlasers. Is is that it has composite-laser turrets replacing its broadside HTLs? (and of comparable size) or does it have larger structures built into the hull else where? Like those big guns on Grevious' ship in The Clone Wars.
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Simon_Jester
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Swiftsure is more than a stalking horse in any plan to take down Black Prince; it's entirely possible that in a ship to ship duel, she'd win. Given even a modicum of competent support she'd have a good chance. If I'm not badly wrong, her plus one other well-crewed and well-manned ISD would be a fight Lennart would be wise to run from.
Olghaan is just trying to pile on three or four others to make it a lopsided battle, plus Interdictors to make sure Black Prince can't escape. Olghaan views that combination of forces as pretty much a sure thing, and I rather suspect that he's right.
Olghaan is just trying to pile on three or four others to make it a lopsided battle, plus Interdictors to make sure Black Prince can't escape. Olghaan views that combination of forces as pretty much a sure thing, and I rather suspect that he's right.
This space dedicated to Vasily Arkhipov
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Crazedwraith
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Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
Oh yeah i get that Simon. I'm just thinking whoever's going after Lennart here could easily have set this up as a win/win scenario. If the Swiftsure is victorious, yay no more Black Prince. IF not, BP is weakened for a follow up attack or maybe the footage can be used to utterly discredit Lennart as it shows him blasting loyal Imperial forces.
With the calibre of opponents Lennart has made himself, I'm expecting something more than a straight up bushwhacking. Though I fully expect Lennart to prove triumphant no matter what the numbers say. Oh, maybe he could reform his squadron from the end of Arc 1? I'd like to see Faldiss again. Clear for Action! Roll out the HTLs Mr Gibbs! Full broadside on my command!
With the calibre of opponents Lennart has made himself, I'm expecting something more than a straight up bushwhacking. Though I fully expect Lennart to prove triumphant no matter what the numbers say
. Oh, maybe he could reform his squadron from the end of Arc 1? I'd like to see Faldiss again. Clear for Action! Roll out the HTLs Mr Gibbs! Full broadside on my command!Re: Hull 721, plot arc the second
To ad even more confusion, I bet both Trawn & Vader to have inserted units in the local sectors.
Especialy Trawn, I can see him doing something like that.
Then there is the ISB, when will they do something right for a change?
Especialy Trawn, I can see him doing something like that.
Then there is the ISB, when will they do something right for a change?
Nothing like the present.