Kronstadt memory database.
CptLenin personal log file.
Input date... 2810817
28 October 817 A.S.
Number of files: 1
Select file... 1
////FILE BEGINS////
Finally, my ship was reequipped. Previous configuration did not show itself good enough and upgraded armor would surely be handy.
...
text corrupted, restoration not possible
...
It was the time to strike again. Revolution won't happen by itself, we must help it - force it sometimes.
The basic strike force has been assembled. It consisted of 2 Vidar class cruisers, "Kronstadt" under my command and "Aurora" under command of captain Leo Trotzky, 1 Heimdall class gunboat "Grozny" under command of captain Volgin and numerous fighter and bomber vessels. Border World intelligence has informed us about two Bounty Hunters Guil Core capital ships in one of the systems nearby, possibly a cruiser and a battleship. Perhaps they had more firepower, but we had speed and maneuverability on our side not to mention fighting for a good cause, so the path was clear. We have set a course to Omega-15 jumphole.
Flying through an asteroid field between our base and the destination is a slow and difficult process not really good for flying in single tight formation so we were too far from each other when suddenly our scanners indicated a Rheinland Military Battleship "Rheinland Tiger" almost under our nose. Cutting down the cruise engines and ordering the fleet to power up weapons followed, but due to the hard navigation in the asteroid field we were unable to strike simultaneously but we could not allow such a vessel to be present in Dresden, so I ordered all vessels to engage the enemy and fire at will.
However, first minutes seemed to be grim. Both the gas cloud and the asteroid field forced us to fight the battleship in close combat and I can assure you that it is not the kind of vessel you want to see nearby Shields of both cruisers have been failing as we were maneuvering in order to get a good position for attack while all other vessels tried to distract the enemy from us. But as soon as we managed to get some range between us and Tiger the situation has started to change. While RN cruisers are appropriately named "flying coffins", RN battleships should be called flying crypts, as they aside from obvious reasons have the maneuverability of those buildings. Sadly, this one had enough speed to move close to the Leipzig station, so when the inevitable end came and our weapons told him a lesson about flying in Dresden all the crew members who survived the destruction of ship were taken to Leipzig. Our path to revolution doesn't include bombarding civilian population so we had to leave them be.
// actually, he docked before dying, but hey, how can a battleship dock to a station the size of it?
Anyway, a victory is a victory.
The need for resupplying and repairs has forced us to forget about Omega-15 and its bounty hunters for some time so we have set our course back to the Vogland. While ships were having the necessary routine operations made we were contacted by Bundsuch comrade who wished to get along and joined our strike group and by LWB comrade in New Berlin reporting a lone RN cruiser not far from his location - exactly the thing we were looking for. As soon as preparations were made we moved to the NB jump hole and initiated jump sequence.
// and no, we didnt speak russian from the point he joined
Soon we had a pleasure of our LWB comrade taunting and making fun of this military oppressor on the open channel while communicating him privately for the coordinates. However, at some point cruiser's captain finally got it that he was being made fun of and, as military people do, silently disappeared from system to cry in some dark hole of the galaxy.
We had nothing else to do but to search for the enemy here, but we didn't have much success in it. Our long range scanners indicated an enemy capital ship once but then it vanished along with jump-hole activation readings, and the quick recon of Braunschweig jump hole had shown no sign of the enemy. Actually, New Berlin was a wrong system for us to stay for long as it has too much defense to feel comfortable, so by this time we were going to disengage from it and move back to Dresden. We even encountered a very lucky stationary defense turret which badly damaged our LWB comrade forcing him to get out of operation and move to his base for repairs.
However, on our way we have detected two military strike vessels. One of them did not run and I ordered our strike vessels to engage him - after all, one should be grateful for any target practice with a real target he can get.
While our fighters were taking him out - the honor of the last shot went to comrade Petrov - I went to try and get the position of another craft which was on the edge of scanner range, being to far to determine his location. By the time I found him the rest of the fleet was ready so the hunt began.
In his pathetic run he nearly died from moving too close to the sun, while I was on his tail and ordering the rest of the fleet to meet him at his destination which he was constantly changing in attempts to avoid us. Finally we managed to get close to him, but in response he managed to get close to battleship Strausberg, which was by no means a usual battleship. With engines taken away and additional armor in complect with additional guns mounted it was more of a star fortress which we were not able to destroy with our force at the time. It was useless in New Berlin defense, true, but still it had some bright moments of usefullness - like now. Closing to it with full fleet in an attempt to shoot down a single fighter would be quite a stupid move, but this little vessel really should land on the Strausberg. It was his choice to stay and taunt, and it was our choice to make a little encouraging overkill show for any witnesses, so I ordered both my Kronstadt and Capt Trotzky's Aurora to target him with artillery and close down to 3.2K. At this point the Strausberg was able to fire at us, but we didn't have to stay here for long, so as soon as we both were in position I ordered to open fire.
I wonder why didn't this little militaryman engage his engines when he heard the first targeting order. I know he heard it - being so close to such a powerful vessel as Strausberg means there would be no sneak attack as it was surely able to hear everything I was talking on the bridge. Perhaps he had engines malfunctioning after his small sundive?
It was quite a lovely sight to see - simultaneous hits of power strong enough to reduce him to dust. Sadly, it didn't reduce him to dust - Aurora's hit happened about a second later then mine and the enemy managed to use shield batteries to minimize the damage. In that case minimizing the damage meant pulverizing the ship but ejecting and being alive at Strausberg, I must add.
Anyway, we still had no enemies matching our force so we moved back to Dresden.
Also, on our way back we had an Unioner comrade joining our force, which was good. So after all the nessesary repairs and resupplies were completed we were able to continue our trip to Omega-15. This time the road to it had nothing to think about, exept of some routine evading of another engineless battleship stationed in Dresden in the middle of nowhere.
We had some good fun with fighters chasing down a lone bounty hunter in a hope that it will lead us to BH capital ships in the area, but he didn't and i dont think it was so because of some honor or something like that. Being a bunch of killers means a bad organization and i'd bet a barrel of beer against a glass of milk that he just didnt know it was here.
By the way, at this point our long range scanners showed presence of only one capital ship vessel but this was still better then zero so we started a search for it. Strike vessels started to act as a recon ships while capital ships were staying in reserve with all power ready to go to the engines. After some time enemy capital ship was detected - it was not a battleship but a battlecruiser - and we moved to intercept.