This is Captain John Khatri reporting about a large battle fought yesterday in the Leeds System.
Border patrols registered a Gallic fleet that was potentially preparing to invade. We attempted to assemble one of our own, but it was going slower than expected. We called our allies from the Crayter Republic, who responded with three Deimos-class and one Zephyr-class. We managed to assemble two Invincible-class, one Dunkirk-class, one Crecy-class and one Challenger-class. Admiral Richard of the Crayter Military was the highest ranking officer present, so according to the Curacao Treaty, he was supposed to take command, but for whatever reason, he decided to bestow it to me. Perhaps he did not want to be blamed for a defeat and the loss of Bretonian lives. But, I was happy to take command. I noticed that the Gallic invasion was not happening as fast as we had foreseen, so I assumed that they, too, were having problems to gather enough ships. I ordered George Teeze from the Merchant Navy, our Challenger, to scout ahead. With him reporting it clear, we headed to Leeds via the jump hole. There we rallied. Teeze was sent to check Planet Leeds. The rest of our fleet headed to our second rally point, about 15K south of the planet. Teeze warned us that there was a large enemy capital fleet in its near orbit, and that is the last we heard of him.
We spotted them when we arrived to the rally point. They were five Valor-class, one Obstinate-class, one Triumph-class and one fighter of unknown class, which appeared to be firing at Teeze. I left the diplomacy to Admiral Richard. It failed. Teeze then got shot down. Admiral Richard ordered me to coordinate our advance. We proceeded forward. This was our strategy:
We arranged the Tornado (Crecy), the Rodney (Dunkirk) and the Nemesis (Zephyr) at the front. Our heavy battleships were behind. The first line was supposed to attract the enemy fire and then turn away, luring them to fire at ships that would dodge the fire, thus making them waste damage potential and energy. Our heavy battleships would then ram into them like a hammer. However, the first line moved with a slight delay, while the second line moved on time, which reduced the distance between us and the effectiveness of this strategy. The HMS Rodney was the first to come under enemy fire, but instead of proceeding and turning only when our own ships were close enough to fire their primary turrets, which I failed to mention to the Rodney's captain as I was convinced it implied, they turned away at once. This prompted the enemy to fire at the Poseidon, a Deimos-class. Our fleet had already fired heavy mortars at an enemy battleship, managing to score one hit into her bare hull. The enemy battleship then reversed. Another was slightly protruded from their formation and heading towards us, so we, all of us, quickly redirected fire to them. Our fleets collided. The HMS Londrino (Invincible), which had cloaked against my orders, uncloaked now and began firing at the Gallic battleship. I do not think that this has had any real effect, but it might have hit their morale. I will still object to cloaking in the future, because the mere presence of one cloaking device disruptor in the enemy fleet can foil the strategy and cause our doom.
The Gallic battleship was disabled surprisingly quickly. We targeted the next one. Nearly before we disabled her, too, we lost the Poseidon. The battle became a mess, but our fleet managed to stay focused. My ship, the Dover, became a target when three Gallic battleships were still floating. The RNS La Bagarreur (Valor), already damaged, was destroyed before much damage was done to us. I managed to maneuver the Dover above the next one, the RNS Ressentiment, so that my ship would be in their blind spot and so that they would block the incoming fire from the other battleship, the RNS Die. The Dover scored the last shot on the Ressentiment. The Londrino was, during most of the battle, firing at the Die, and they managed to destroy their target. The Gallic battlecruiser (RNS Chanzy) found themselves in the middle of our formation, and they were put out of action quickly. There was also a Molly Scylla-class lingering around, named "Born to Kill". I do not know what their business here was, but it is possible that they fired at our forces. The Londrino put them out of action. The remaining Gallic destroyer and their fighter fled in the direction of the Edinburgh Jump Gate.
When the dust settled, we counted our ships and counted that we lost two Deimos-class, the Poseidon and the Scotus, while the Dover was heavily damaged. The Gallic fleet lost five Valor-class and one Obstinate-class, while the Mollies lost one Scylla-class. We stayed in orbit of Planet Leeds a little longer, as we spotted a known Valor-class at the edge of our radar range, the RNS Tonnant II, but then they disappeared. Anticipating that the enemy might be trying to gather another fleet, a much larger one, we headed back to the Manchester System. No incidents occurred on our way back. The Dover should be repaired and ready by now.
I credit our relatively low casualty rate to our fleet being armed mostly with Cerberus Turrets, while their mostly had Mons Meg Turrets.
Camera Shots:
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Allied Units Involved:
1) BAF|HMS-Dover (Invincible-Class; Heavily Damaged)
2) HMS-Londrino (Invincible-Class; Undamaged)
3) HMS-Rodney (Dunkirk-Class; Undamaged)
4) =CR=FV-Olympia|01 (Deimos-Class; Undamaged)
5) =CR=FV-Poseidon|02 (Deimos-Class; Destroyed)
6) =CR=FV-Scotus|08 (Deimos-Class; Destroyed)
7) =CR=FV-Nemesis (Zephyr-Class; Undamaged)
8) BAF|MN-HMS-Tornado (Crecy-Class; Damaged)
9) BAF|MN-George,Teeze (Challenger-Class; Destroyed)
Enemy Units Involved:
1) MRG|RNS-Ressentiment (Valor-Class; Destroyed)
2) RNS-Die (Valor-Class; Destroyed)
3) RNS-La.Avignon (Valor-Class; Destroyed)
4) RNS-ThunderBolt (Valor-Class; Destroyed)
5) RNS-La.Bagarreur (Valor-Class; Destroyed)
6) MRG|RNS-Chanzy (Obstinate-Class; Destroyed)
7) GRI|RNS-Bourgogne (Triumph-Class; Damaged)
8) [M]-"Born_to_Kill" (Scylla-Class; Destroyed)
9) GRI|Francois.Lecocq (Fighter; Lightly Damaged?)
जॉन खत्री
Captain
Bretonian Armed Forces
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