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Message Class: Audio-Visual

Encryption: Ceylon
To: Her Majesty's Government, BAF Admiralty
From: Governor-General Commodore Elizabeth Hall, BAF

The camera and the recorder are on, but she is not saying anything. The smoke from Elizabeth's cigar dances graciously in the air as she takes a fume after fume, slowly, in perfect silence and tranquility, as if she is resolved from everything in this world. Not looking at the camera, but somewhere indistinct instead, she finally utters a word.

I knew this would happen and I should have prepared to have this conversation, but I kept convincing myself I would never need to. Templars and Challengers with holes are arriving to the spaceport one by one. Not many, it seems. And no capital ships yet. What I have warned about before, again, again, again, has happened. The Stirling...

She aids herself with the calming properties of nicotine to say this.

...is no more. It was the Coalition. Casualties are... what was the word... yes, insurmountable. I don't know how it happened yet, I was on the planet, but I am going to send you a report when all the facts are brought in line. There is an orbital bombardment on the way, I expect, so I'd better have my wardrobe moved into that bunker. And myself, of course. Please tell McKinley to stop procrastinating, we really need the Ark Royal here. Until next time, chaps. If there is a next time...

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Message Class: Audio-Visual
Encryption: Bourbon Straight
From: Admiral John Redmond

Commodore Hall,

The communicator points to very somber John Redmond, half empty bottle on his desk, but somehow his words remained crisp.

Hall, you must not panic. Stirling, a museum piece of a battleship was not going to survive any real conflict. You think your warnings were ignored?

John paused to down the remainder of his drink, as he felt he was about to give the Commodore a dressing down her fragile mental state would not take well.

But the men and women onboard, as well as the escorts and snubs that protected her and fell doing so, their loss is still a painful one, and as a newly appointed commodore I am sure this is a heavy burden, but one I can attest, is something you can move past, if not for yourself but for your subordinates.

My frank assessment of the current situation is this; the Coalition, despite reports of being heavily invested in Omega 47 in defense of their Hessian allies, have called upon a considerable force from what I can assume is home defense units. We know they are not a huge military power like Gallia, so in taking down the Stirling they, considering their ongoing presence in Omega 47, has spent the majority of their power. While we lost, I can assume that the Coalition took considerable casualties, and will need time to recover. For now, Exeter the planet should be safe. They will need to first take down Gran Vista too, which can serve as a bulwark for the planet.

The Ark Royal is ensuring that the gate to Exeter is finished, but it will extend its patrols to Exeter. That being said, if say, Corsair or Coalition forces stationed in Omega 47 make a serious move on the planet, the Ark Royal will enter the system and take revenge for the Stirling in the most brutal of fashions.

Hall, you must re-establish local control based upon the planet, maintain space control together with the Ark Royal forces operating remotely. Reinforce the Crimean Privateers, and seek outside aide from the Core and anyone else willing to offer it. Perhaps Liberty or Rheinland can be persuaded to send convoys. Meanwhile, we are stepping up military production to fully reinforce our damaged fleets and look to building a new fleet to replace the many battlegroups we have lost in this last year.

John began to look fairly exhausted, perhaps the speed at which he consumed the bottle of hard liquor was too much for even his well tested constitution, and he made his farewells abruptly.

Regards,

Admiral John Redmond
Dreadnought Venerable, Essex Battlegroup
Bretonian Armed Forces

Transmission Terminated

Message Class: Audio-Visual

Encryption: Ceylon
To: Her Majesty's Government, BAF Admiralty
From: Governor-General Commodore Elizabeth Hall, BAF

#######ome on, come on... Finally! By God, the signal from this bunker is...

Anyways, Redmond, I've been able to stabilize the situation somewhat. It is still severe, but not as much as I thought. The planetary garrison fleet couldn't arrive on time, so this has saved... one Fortitude, two Crecies, four Churchills and just short of 150 snubcraft. Only a fraction of the Stirling Fleet has returned, at least half of those ships damaged, but it's better than nothing. One moment...

She reads something from a piece of paper.

One Crecy, damaged, three Churchills, two of which damaged, and 84 snubcraft. Two Challengers returned with both wings shot off, so they couldn't land, but at least the pilots were saved. So this makes it 82 snubcraft then, I suppose... Still numbers we can somewhat work with. We can protect the system from pirates and Zoners, but should a determined attack find its way to Exeter... God forbid, should the Athos see the opportunity... We can delay them at best. The Coalition was also hurt though, as Selim's sources say, and they will likely not commit to a full attack, but they do have nearly total liberty to traverse the system as they wish if they avoid the planet and the jumpgate. But potentially, at the cost of their operations elsewhere, they very well can finish us off. I would still like to urge McKinley to hurry, there's millions of Leeds refugees at stake here. We don't have enough underground shelters for even one million and some are still living in tents. They are still shaken from what happened to Leeds, and containing a mass panic depends on the timely arrival of the Ark Royal. I can't keep lying to them for weeks...

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Message Class: Textual
Encryption: Ceylon
To: Her Majesty's Government, BAF Admiralty
From: Governor-General Commodore Elizabeth Hall, BAF

To whom it may concern,

I promised that I would send a report explaining how it happened once I had all the necessary information. Testimonies from the survivors have been compiled, the site of battle along with the remains of the Stirling has been superficially examined and a number of black boxes has been recovered. My team of experts and I have come to the conclusion that this was how the events unfolded, according to Sirius Mean Time:

17:07: A Coalition Hurricane-class is spotted by patrols in D2.
17:14: A bomber wing fires torpedoes at the Hurricane.
17:25: After two bombers shot down and minor damage having been inflicted to the Hurricane, the wing commander decides to disengage and call for reinforcements.
17:56: The entire Stirling fleet arrives.
18:04: After unsuccessfully trying to hold off the Fleet, the Hurricane retreats to D1.
18:12: A large fleet, including three Tempest-class carriers, is sighted emerging from the northern Barrier Nebula, at the Stirling's left flank.
18:15: Fire is exchanged. The first casualty is one of the Coalition snubcraft, inflicted by Premier Selim's gunboat, the HMS Sudak. Perhaps because of this, Captain Edward Neville, who I had appointed as my executive officer aboard the Stirling for the day as I had matters to deal with on the planet, decided to accept battle with the Coalition fleet, which allegedly outnumbered the Stirling Fleet two to one.
18:37: A SOS signal is sent from the Stirling by the ship's radio operator.
18:38: The Stirling's entire front section detaches. The cause is unclear, but in a report about the ship's woeful state which I had sent months ago it can be seen that the recoil of the ship's own prow turret was causing intense vibrations in the front section. This produces a number of short circuits, one of which occurs in the magazine. This detonation of the magazine from within destroys the ship entirely. We have not found the body of Captain Edward Neville, but I presume he was killed either by the explosion, or by the depressurization of the front section.
18:40: The remaining forces organize a retreat. The vanguard is keeping the enemy at bay so that the rest of the fleet can withdraw to Planet Exeter and join with the garrison fleet.
18:46: Planet Essex receives the Stirling's SOS.
Sometime around 18:50: The vanguard is overrun by the massive numerical superiority of the enemy. The organized retreat becomes a disorderly rout.
19:02: The last of the Stirling's battlecruisers is destroyed. Reportedly much of the enemy fleet returns to Omega-52, but two battlecruisers keep pursuing our survivors.
19:50: The two battlecruisers make a show of force in Exeter's orbit, but they go back after the planetary garrison fleet launches.
5:37: The last survivors arrive to Planet Exeter.

Based on our findings, this is my theory of why this could have happened:

The Stirling was over 250 years old and her place was not on a battlefield, but in a museum. I sent a report about the ship's deteriorated state months ago, but the Admiralty did nothing.
The Ark Royal fleet is late and they have still not arrived.
I was not present. I had important business to do with Premier Mehmed Selim and then Keeper Revenant from Auxesia, so I was in Chateau d'Or that day.
Nothing indicated that the enemy would be ready for an attack with all their forces that day. Nothing was out of the ordinary the day prior. We even performed a successful raid into Omega-52 that week, which I led personally, where we destroyed two Typhoon-class and their escorts. Premier Selim used to have access to the most secret Coalition channels, which gave us an advantage in the opening phases of the war, but the Coalition knew this and they eventually changed the access protocols. That day, the premier only had access to the least secured Coalition channels, most of which were used for no more than propaganda broadcast.
The enemy fleet reportedly outnumbered the Stirling Fleet two to one.
It was my mistake to appoint Captain Edward Neville as acting fleet commander. He used to command the HMS Thunderer, aboard which I served and where I met my father's former crew, who helped me learn a lot. Thus, I had much confidence in Captain Neville, but this was short-sighted. Captain Neville was an old, formerly retired captain, but called back into service during the desperate Battle of New London. He suffered from alcoholism, although that problem was not only limited to him, but seems to permeate deeply throughout our war-weary officer cadre. Something ought to be done to address this issue. Furthermore, although Captain Neville, as he once told me, "regained the wish to live" when he was called back into service, he thought that was because he would defend New London. However, he was sent to fight "rabble" in Exeter instead. Captain Neville was a commander who sought to make a name of himself before his death, which was on the horizon, having his age and his drinking habits in mind. This made him reckless and that, I believe, is why he decided to fight the Coalition ambush, although he had the option to retreat, or brought the entire fleet to fight a single battlecruiser in the first place. I was unaware of the dangers of Captain Neville's state of mind and I accept that appointing him as the acting fleet commander was entirely my fault.

If I am called for a court martial, I assure you that I would answer, but Exeter is currently cut off and in a critical state, so I would, firstly, be unable to arrive until the Ark Royal Fleet ensures a safe corridor, and secondly, our forces in the system would be left without a commander and I fear appointing someone to replace me again. On the bright side, the orbital bombardment which I feared seems not to be coming, so I will spend daytime in Chateau d'Or and resume my duties normally. I will, however, spend nighttime in the bunker, so please do not call me during Chateau d'Or nighttime, because the signal inside is weak.

Commodore
Governor-General of Exeter
Bretonian Armed Forces

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