Capacity - 12/12
12x B-294-L Series "Hussar" Bretonia Light Fighter
Repair and Refit Log
>01-08/04/828 : Vessel commissioned and completed its shakedown cruise.
>25-30/04/828 : Vessel's hangar bays are undergoing repairs after 'Skirmish near the Cambridge's fields'.
>01/05/828 : Vessel lost one of its 'Cerberus' turrets in Omega 49. Hastily replaced by 'Mortar' turret. Major Events
>01/04/828 : Vessel commissioned with commanding officer Anna Kwiatkowska and executive officer Nigel Darrow.
>21/04/828 : Vessel accepted in the Bretonia Royal Fleet.
>05/05/828 : Vessel accepted in the Bretonia Armed Forces, Auxiliary Fleet.
Primary Sensors - 2x Active/Passive "Dover A" BB-BC Sensor Array
Backup Sensors - 2x Passive "Oculus" Backup Sensor Array
Fire Control - 3x BR-BT-FCD Mark IIa "Priest" Fire Control Director
Capacity - 12/12
12x B-294-L Series "Hussar" Bretonia Light Fighter
Repair and Refit Log
>00-00/00/000 : To be completed Major Events
>00/00/000 : To be completed.
Notable Crew - Commanding Officer Anna Kwiatkowska, Flag Officer
Full name: Anna Kwiatkowska Date and place of birth:18/02/801, Planet New London Citizenship:Bretonian Specialization:Commanding officer Physical description: White hair, Green eyes, Fair skin, 191cm Height, 75kg Weight, simple "two-lines" tattoo on left cheek. Medical records: Myopia (wearing glasses), Synthetic heart and circulatory implants due to inherited degenerative condition of circulatory system, High-G sickness. Fit for duty as Bridge Officer.
Brief history:
Born on Planet New London in middle-class, slavic minority family. From her early childhood, she has suffered many health issues caused by the New London's polluted atmosphere. Spending most of her childhood in bed or in house, studying her elementary and part of the high school remotely, she developed a strong mental discipline that helped her to pass with excellent grades.
Around her teens - her health was deteriorating quickly, suffering more and more health related issues. With public healthcare unable to provide any noticeable assistance - her family took a major mortgage on their house, which helped them to fund advanced and expensive healthcare provided by Cryer Farmaceuticals. Treatment resulted in replacing most of her circulatory system by synthetic organs and telomerase therapy, which helped her body to recover from pollution induced health issues.
Her recovery allowed her to pass physical tests and got accepted at the Royal Naval Academy. As her family had to pay off mortgage, this was possibly the only chance how to get a stable and steady income in numerous Bretonia's economical issues. It was also a way how to get off from the surface and fly among the stars on her "own" ship. With her excellent study discipline, she managed to get one of the best grades among her classmates. With her grades, she become one of the "best and brightest" cadets and was accepted into prestigious and infamous cadre of future commanding officers, who positions are backed by their academy results and by not actual combat or commanding experience.
She graduated, got promoted and became one of the unexperienced commanding officers among her peers. While she was never truly respected by more seasoned officers, especially those who served their time at the front line during Gallic-Bretonian war, their opinions mattered little against desk-ranking admiralty. She started off as commanding officer of gunboat vessel, but was eventually promoted to be commanding officer of freshly launched HMS MInotaur.
While her military career was faster than usual, her private life isn't that great. Being the best paid member of her family, she inherited debts from her medical treatment and repaying those debts takes almost all of her income, leaving her living off BAF issued meals, wearing issued clothing and living in issued apartments and officer quarters.
Notable Crew - Executive Officer Nigel Darrow
Full name:Nigel Darrow Date and place of birth:22/07/803, Planet New London Citizenship:Bretonian Specialization:Commanding Officer, Marine Officer Physical description: Brown hair, Green eyes, Tanned skin, 183cm Height, 78kg Weight. Medical records: Minor food allergies. Fit for duty. Brief history:
Born on Planet New London in higher-class family with strong military tradition, his father wanted to him to be involved with land army. He studied at prestigious private schools before enrolling to military academy, although he was involved in unspecified incident in marine corps. To escape his disgrace, he requested to be accepted within BAF as naval officer. He served aboard destroyer HMS Inflexible as junior bridge officer, before being transferred as XO to the HMS Minotaur.
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| Ship Log #1 - 9/4/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #1 Location: HMS Minotaur Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #1:
I'm not going to lie, this promotion and position was pleasant surprise, but I understand that - Bretonia is launching ships as fast as it can and several non-critical parts of this vessel are still in construction - for example, one third of my crew are missing doors for their own lockers and we have a serious shortage of proper chairs and tables. Some wall and ceiling lining are not fitted too, so some parts of this vessel look like it's still in construction. Nevertheless, critical systems like propulsion, shielding and weapon systems are fully operational and during our shakedown cruise there were no particular issues with them.
I have some smaller personal issues with my executive officer Nigel Darrow - maybe because of my accent or something else, he thinks that I'm Coalition's spy. Luckily, we are both professionals and our personal problems are gone when we are at our stations. I must be careful, as he will use any my mistakes against my command.
My chief engineer, Elizabeth Blake, is trying her best to lessen the tension between us. And she is doing good job as well - our propulsion had some hiccups during our shakedown cruise, mainly caused by hastily adjustments on your propulsion by shipyard. She managed to keep our engines going and we avoided embarrassment.
We are currently assigned to BAF Reserve Fleet as my crew, and be honest - me included, is green and we don't have any experience operating vessel like this in combat situations outside of simulations. And even if we were, this vessel is new and crew on a vessel like is still not properly coordinated.
I'm ordered to provide assistance to any authority vessel in need and provide escorts for larger and significant civilian vessels. Wystarczajaco proste, at least, for now.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
| Ship Log #2 - 22/4/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #2 Location: HMS Minotaur Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #2:
21/04/828, New London System - rather uneventful day, we spend most of our day patrolling through Leeds System. We've spotted suspicious cruiser-sized vessel Vile Scorn moving deeper into the Taus, but we weren't able to intercept it in time as our encounter with it was only brief. Nevertheless, we issued warning about it to any passing vessel, especially civilians.
Later during the day, when we returned to New London's orbit, we've met an interesting unarmed survey vessel NX-01. We exchanged a few words and it helped us to test our onboard jump drive successfully without any incidents, although my crew will need a lot more experience to use such technology in more volatile situations.
And in the end of the day, there was a pleasant surprise for us - by order of Admiralty, we have been admitted into the Bretonia Royal Fleet's ranks. I toasted with my senior officers to these good news, even Nigel wasn't complaining about my glass of vodka that day.
22/04/828, New London System - Our first real engagement. At first, we have received report about Molly's capital vessels lurking through southern Bretonia and we joined forces with auxiliary vessel HMS George Orwell, although this report was outdated or incorrect and no such pirate vessels were found. We parted our ways and returned to the New London System to resume our patrols.
Later, while on our patrol from Planet New London and Belvedere Refinery, we were ambushed by two corsair battlecruisers CNS Triunfante and CNS Tribunus. In a brief exchange of fire and despite our best efforts, one of their shots pierced our armored citadel and disabled our main power at 1852, wounding 32 crewmen and killing 4, leaving us disabled.
Before they were able to board us or finish us off, HMS Majestic and HMS Black Prince came to our rescue and managed to inflict critical damage upon the corsair vessels, resulting in their mission kill and forcing them to withdraw to avoid complete destruction.
We were towed back to the Waterloo Station, where we managed to restore our main power and done much needed repairs.
I found our combat performance unsatisfactory and we will resume our operation as soon as possible.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
| Ship Log #3 - 24/4/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #3 Location: HMS Minotaur Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #3:
24/04/828, New London System - While most of our days are rather uneventful, this day was packed with interesting encounters and lessons.
Our daily patrols through New London System were disturbed by BAF alert at 1200 - sightings of rogue Liberty Navy vessels in Cortez System. We joined forces with HMS Vindictive at Curacao's orbit, although save for brief sight of Order Unto Nightfall cruiser - there were no bandits present, so we accompanied HMS Vindictive on its patrol to Omega 3 gate and back. We haven't encountered any bandits, but BAF commander Seeley French from the HMS Vindictive was pretty talkative fellow and our patrol went smoothly. We parted our way at Planet Curacao and I've ordered HMS Minotaur to head back to the New London after short routine gunnery trial at Barrier's ice fields.
At 1640, New London System, when we were approaching New London's orbit, we encountered HMS Hood and HMS Constant facing a lone gaian destroyer Artio. I've almost sounded red alert, but situation was far from hot conflict. It turned out that Artio as willing to exchange some information with BAF in the topic of Gallic royalists. While we waited for our admiral Oliver Myles aboard HMS Majestic to show up, HMS Black Prince and BPA Cromartyshire joined our little party. BPA Cromartyshire was confused by the whole situation and unwillingness of BAF to respond in immediate violence, but this calmed own by our admiral's order to escort Artio to the edges of Cambridge System. Gaian vessel obeyed and everything went well.
After Artio exchanged some last pieces of information with admiral Oliver Myles, we returned to the New London's orbit, when we parted our ways with exception of HMS Black Prince.
At 1745, New London System, NSE Sauron entered orbit and reported pirating Molly destroyer in Cambridge System. After a brief exchange of information, we and HMS Black Prince moved to investigate Cambridge System and intercept any pirating vessels if necessary.
At 1755, BRR Banshee was found near Omega 3 jump gate and accurate gunnery fire from HMS Black Prince swiftly forced Molly vessel to withdraw with some serious damage. I wish that my gunnery crews were that accurate as well.
At 2000, Leeds System, BAF taskforce gathered at Leeds' orbit with mission to seek out any Gallic royal remains in Taus. Battleship HMS Sovereign was leading our taskforce made from our HMS Minotaur, HMS Cambridge, [b]HMS Constant[/b], HMS Camelot and several Maquis vessels, that joined forces with us. A strange alliance I must add, but I'm in no position to question admiralty.
We flew trough Taus and in Orkney System, where we've located remnants of royalist forces and their allies around old Enclave installation. Although our admirals tried to reason with them, it was clear that the destruction of said installation was something they are not going to allow.
Both sides opened fire at each other and we were caught flat-footed by strange vessel Vatan, that appeared on our six from some purple mist and opened fire from point blank range. While its strange weapons weren't able to pierce our citadel bulkheads from that angle, despite the short distance, it managed to score several hits on our sensor equipment and fire directors, leaving us almost blind and unable to return accurate fire. With imminent threat from larger vessel and our greatly reduced tactical value of HMS Minotaur, I ordered retreat and broke formation at 2047, heading back under the cover of Macduff's battlegroup for emergency repairs before returning to the Waterloo Station for further replacements.
Despite our vessel was mission-killed early on, our combined emerged victorious - managing to force hostiles to withdraw and regroup, while inflicting some damage upon the installation.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
| Ship Log #4 - 25/4/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #4 - 'Battle at Cambridge's fields' Location: HMS Minotaur Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #4:
25/04/828, New London System - while our ship was performing refueling at Thames Station, we received priority message at 1847 from admiral Oliver Myles of HMS Defiance - to set our ship into combat ready state, crew to battle stations and sound red alert. HMS Minotaur was combat ready at 1901.
Battleship HMS Defiance was spearheading our taskgroup and while we were assembling at New London's orbit, admiral told us about large Corsair taskforce spotted by Norfolk's reconnaissance. Admiralty decided to split BAF forces and seek an destroy all of the Corsair forces, preventing them to strike deeper within our House. With our smaller fleet we were to engage highly mobile Corsair unit, that managed to evade Norfolk's main forces.
Prior our leave, we've been hailed by vessel USI Ghazriel, which commended our valiant duty and donated funds to BAF accounts. Shortly after, we left to the Cambridge System to intercept our foes, which were located near Planet Cambridge, closer to the ice fields.
Upon arriving, battleships HMS Defiance and HMS Cambridge were forming core of our fleet, while battlecruisers HMS Minotaur and HMS Menzies were guarding their flanks. Gunboats HMS Castle and HMS Monitor were providing effective point defense against smaller craft and supporting our larger vessels. Along us, there were also several smaller snubfighters, launched from our capital vessels or bases.
Core of Corsair fleet were three large capital ship of unknown class, designated as CNS Moral Compass, CNS Santa Muerte and CNS Triumfante, accompanied with smaller support gunship and bombers.
We issued formal request upon our foes to politely leave our House, which they've predictably refused. Facing no other options, admiral Oliver Myles gave order to move forward and engage hostile as 1912.
Several of our smaller vessels were disabled in destroyed, but our formation proved very effective and Corsair ranks dwindled and they've been forced into defensive maneuvers while we were chasing them and inflicting damage upon their larger vessels. We managed to score multiple hit CNS Triumfante, silencing its artillery, blasting open several compartments and forcing it withdraw within ice fields. As our vessel was damaged in return, we chose not to pursue and remained within formation. Then, HMS Defiance and HMS Cambridge inflicted similar fates upon CNS Santa Muerte and CNS Moral Compass respectively, although HMS Menzies was severely damaged by them and forced to disengage.
While Corsair forces were routed and forced to retreat, on our way back to Planet Cambridge we've encountered strange living alien vessel, which was speaking to our minds. As our capital ships disrupted its cloaking abilities, it began to flee, so HMS Monitor, HMS Castle and HMS Minotaur were ordered to intercept it. While we have been chasing it, it was speaking to our mind so loud, that my vision blurred for a moment.
As it was speaking to our mind, it suddenly turned around and opened deadly amount of firepower upon our already damaged ship. Its hail of fire pierced through our hangar plating and detonated stored ordnance, causing massive fire, disrupting weapon power lines and killing 8 crewmen, while wounding 34. Valiant gunboats HMS Castle and HMS Monitor noticed our crippled state and distracted creature long enough to allow our escape to Cambridge's orbit, where repair and support vessels assisted us in damage control and repairs. Despite that, they've still managed to pin the creature down long enough before heavier vessels moved in and dealt with it.
Overall, our action was successful - Our combined forces defeated both Corsair and alien threats.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
| Ship Log #5 - 26/4/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #5 - 'False Beacon in Newcastle' Location: HMS Minotaur Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #5:
26/04/828, Newcastle System - After the 'Skirmish near the Cambridge's fields', our vessel is still damaged. Our damage control crew and engineers are working day and night to make our hangar bays operational again.
At 1100, our engineers managed to make our weapon systems operational again. A patchwork job, I must add, but that will be solved after our vessel will receive routine maintenance at Portsmouth. With our performance severely reduced and repairs still underway, I've requested patrol duty through much calmer systems.
We began our patrol at 1200 and we have been monitoring situation in the Newcastle System. At 1453, we've received a strange system wide transmission from contact named as Planetary. It was calling on civilian emergency frequencies, so I've sounded yellow alert and moved to investigate. Its signal was coming from Northumberland Ice Field, an infamous staging point used by Gaians. Despite unfavorable navigational hazards posed by ice rocks, we've moved in at half impulse with all power in shields.
What we have believed to be a civilian vessel in distress, was Corsair bomber, luring us into the trap. As soon as we approached, he stated his intentions to destroy us and opened fire. With severely limited maneuvering options, we've been forced to slowboat of there while our gunners kept him at bay. Several torpedoes impacted our shields, knocked out lights in several compartments and send powersurges through non-critical systems, but weren't able to pierce them.
At 1555, our primary batteries managed to hit Corsair bomber and destroyed it. With our vessel safe, we moved out and returned to Carlisle's orbit to calm down a bit and run full systems diagnostics.
At 2151, when we were stationed above New London's orbit, we encountered Corsair capital vessel CNS Triunfante with clearly hostile intentions. We issued formal request to leave Bretonia peacefully, but they refused. With no other options at hand, I ordered helm to get us closer and gunners to fire at will. We have been supported by destroyer HMS Campbeltown from reserve fleet, whose captain clearly knew his job. He managed to take full brunt of Triunfante's firepower without taking too severe damage. Few minutes afterwards, near Cornwall Asteroid Field, we inflicted enough damage to force corsair vessel to withdraw deeper into the fields and disappeared within some gravitational anomaly. Without taking any serious or critical damage, both HMS Minotaur and HMS Campbeltown returned to New London's orbit shortly afterwards.
At 2257, when were were checking ships entering and leaving Bretonia in orbit above Planet Leeds, we have found Corsair vessel CNS Triunfante again, seemingly repaired and ready for combat again. Its captain was probably in a good mood, as he was threatening us to board our ships to get a way more cooks for Corsair burrito kitchens. I ordered helm to get us in and gunners to open fire.
This time, however, we were clearly missed support of HMS Campbeltown. Without such small and agile support vessel as that destroyer was, Triunfante focused all its firepower on us and while we exchanging fire almost equally, my gunners overloaded our power relays and we lost our heavy and primary battery power. Having only point defense weapons operational against large capital vessel, we've been forced to withdraw into the Leeds' smog clouds and hide from our pursuer in order to avoid destruction or capture. We powered off our vessel's systems and drifted silently while damage control teams were repair our vessel.
Two hours later, while our systems have been restored, CNS Triunfante was nowhere to be seen. We returned to the Thames Station at 0301 next day.
Our combat experiences so far revealed several weaknesses on our vessel.
Firstly - it's is our "Harvey"-type armor plating, which is inferior when compared to the rest of BAF vessels. I understand that our vessel was launched as cheaply as possible, but we will have to fill out request for proper armor plating in the future. Probably when we will be accepted into Auxiliary BAF fleet.
Secondly - it's our lack of long range weaponry. While HMS Minotaur has sufficient firepower up close, shortages in 'Cryogenic Anti-matter Projectors' means, that our ship was launched without one. Refitting our vessel with one of these would give us some long range abilities.
I'll post my requests when we've proven ourselves to my commander.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
| Ship Log #6 - 29/4/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #6 Location: HMS Minotaur Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #6:
29/04/828, Waterloo Station - As my vessel is in repairs again, I have time and opportunity to write this log file to sum up our last two days.
28/04/828, was rather uneventful day for us. We've spent most of our time patrolling Newcastle System and Leeds System, as our damage control teams worked to make our hangars operational again. The only notable moment was, when HMS Majestic requested our company on its patrol, so I've had quite some time to talk with admiral Oliver Myles. He was intrigued in our encounter with Vatan, but all available information from that encounter was rather sparse, so my report was very vague and inconclusive.
Our patrols took us form Leeds System to the Cortez System. Nothing else to report.
29/04/828, we have been patrolling through Newcastle, Leeds and Edinburgh systems. While the first ones were rather ordinary, we had two notable Gaian encounters in Edinburgh System.
At 1936, Gaian snubcraft Grian appeared in our scanner range. It turned out, that it's from Gaian destroyer Artio we have escorted out of the New London System several days ago. We have exchanged few pleasantries, but then I issued a formal request for the vessel to leave the area, in which it complied. No use of force was necessary.
At 2102, we have met another Gaian vessel, a destroyer in this case, identified as Carnwennan. We exchanged a few pleasantries as well, but then we issued a formal request to leave the area, which was denied. Then it wanted us to leave, which we denied at first, but were forced to leave nevertheless, as during the brief exchange of gunfire, our gunnery was off the mark and we weren't able to score any significant hits, while Carnwennan's guns, while smaller and less powerful, managed to score numerous hits upon HMS Minotaur. While neither of these shots proved to be able to pierce through our armored bridge or citadel, it managed to disable our fire directors, making our gunnery even worse. I've called for backup and withdraw from Edinburgh for repairs at 2126. HMS Majestic come to our rescue while we disengaged from the battle, allowing us to not receive any further damage from our pursuer.
Overall though, my gunnery teams have a lot to improve. I've already planned several gunnery simulations and trial in upcoming days.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
| Ship Log #7 - 01/05/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #7 - 'Busy Day' Location: HMS Minotaur Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #7:
02/05/828, Waterloo Station - HMS Minotaur is moored at Waterloo Station and undergoing repairs. As I'm sitting at the station's café and enjoying regular, non-rationed breakfast, I'm finishing this report on my tablet.
01/05/828, started slowly for us. We have been sent to the Leeds System again and we have been patrolling along the tradelanes and paid two visits to the Halifax Freeport in there. Aside from few traders - nothing else to report.
At 1500, we have been scrambled to the Omega 49 System by admiral Oliver Myles from HMS Majestic. When we arrived at the scene, HMS Fascinating joined us as well. The source of distress were two corsair capital ships - CNS Orunmila and massive CNS Kolkan. Strangely, scans of their ships revealed nomad remains. HMS Minotaur and HMS Majestic were ordered to intercept while HMS Fascinating suspected more Corsair raiders and was guarding our flanks. Our combined firepower forced CNS Orunmila to withdraw, while HMS Minotaur was distracting and harassing CNS Kolkan. However, our luck run out when Kolkan's gunners finally found their mark and crippled our main battery. 3 crewmen died and 12 wounded. We have been ordered to withdraw for repairs at 1520.
While the rest of our ships were covering our withdraw, we moored at Portsmouth Shipyard for emergency repairs. While our main battery was made operational again, one of our 'cerberuses' was severely damaged and needed complete replacement. As our presence was required later that day in Taus, we have been given one of those TL-12 Cryogenic Antimatter Projectors, nicknamed as 'Mortars'. The issue was, that there was no time to properly reconnect the weapons with the rest of the ship. As such, this weapon is running on its local fire control only and its ammunition is in limited quantity - without proper support equipment installed, we are using 'antimatter cartridges', slowing our rate of fire considerably.
It was decided, that our marine marksman Ernest Wellington will be in charge of this weapon, before HMS Minotaur can get its proper refit.
At 1800, we have been expected at Leeds' orbit to join taskforce under the command of HMS Venerable. While the rest of the taskforce was assembling, CNS Triunfante appeared from the smog cloud and we have been sent to intercept it. In a brief exchange of fire, we have been able to damage it severely, but we lost our main power temporarily and had to be towed back to the taskforce. While it looked that we might have to leave for repairs, combined effort and expertise managed to re-engage our drives. With few extra teams of engineers onboard, we remained with assembled fleet of our carriers and one battleship.
We have been tasked with screening duties along with lighter vessels, while our mighty heavy bretonian carries did their job of providing heavy firepower and taking hits. Once all ships were ready, HMS Venerable activated its tactical jump drive and jumped our fleet within target system, where supposed royalist station is. Once in there, we have been met with maquis cruiser VG Flamberge with its escort and even Gaian snubfighter Grian, which was assisting us with scouting.
Our fleet landed several 'mortar' hits on the royalist installation before defenders begin to assemble. Several gallic battleships responded to our skirmish. Their fleet of roughly equal size in the number of battleships, slowly approached us. Our commander gave order to charge the defenders before they can outmaneuver us. We were at the front of our formation to draw fire away from our heavier capital ships and to outflank their capital vessels. With excellent leadership and cooperation, we have been able to outmaneuver them and break their formation. Their vessels were force to withdraw or were disabled.
As our vessel suffered some damage as well, our fleet left the combat area while HMS Minotaur, HMS Avalon, HMS Venus and VG Flamberge remained to cover our main forces withdrawal, before we left as well.
At 2100, while we were repairing our vessel at Waterloo Station, we have received order to scramble from high command, as Corsair raiding party entered Bretonian space. I've sounded red alert and ordered all crew to the battlestations. We've met HMS Fascinating at New London's orbit and awaited HMS Defiance.
These reports proved to true, as our long-range scanners revealed several Corsair snubfighters circling around New London's defense grid. Our forces launched their own fighters in response and we managed the locate bulk of their raiding party above Cornwall Asteroid Field. There was battleship CNS Naxos and smaller capital vessels CNS Triunfante and CNS Orunmila.
After issuing an order to leave Bretonian space, which they refused, we moved to intercept them. HMS Defiance was serving as the main body of our formations, while HMS Minotaur andHMS Fascinating were covering its flanks. The skirmish was basically decided, when CNS Naxos over extended its position from its supporting vessels and was exposed to our combined firepower. One by one, we focused on one Corsair vessel at the time - we scored critical hits on them and forced them to retreat, while our snubfighters were fighting for space superiority. Nevertheless, HMS Minotaur lost its fire control and main battery power to Triunfante's barrages, and was ordered to withdraw to the New London's orbit for repairs.
Battle was won and Corsair raiders retreated back into their Omegas. As would my old instructor from Royal Academy said - "Now, there is time for tea and medals.". This was a difficult day for me and my crew, and especially for my vessel, and now we will spend quite a lot of time to re-do all those hasty repairs properly.
There is nothing to be done for our 'Mortar' battery at the moment, as that would require proper dry-docking at shipyard for barbette replacement.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
| Ship Log #8 - 05/05/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #8 - 'Promotion' Location: HMS Minotaur Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #8:
02/05/828 and 03/05/828 - These two days were rather eventful for us. We spent all our time patrolling through Bretonia's space or performing repairs on our vessel. While we managed to keep most of our systems operational, there are still some issues with missing parts of non-critical equipment. There is nothing we can do about it right now until we receive proper resupply.
05/05/828, started to be exciting when the red alert was sounded at 1400, when suspicious activity was detected in the Edinburgh System near Gallia's borders. It started to look bleak, as the number of available warships was very low and without seasoned fleet commander to begin with.
We assembled small group of warships and headed to Leeds' orbit, but our situation looked bleak. Suddenly, we received orders from admiral Oliver Myles aboard HMS Defiance to join him at Perth Station, which we did as fast as we could. Once there, we had a sizeable taskforce with four Dunkirk-class battleships and two Fortitude-class battlecruisers and one destroyer. Our fightercraft began patrolling Edinburgh System, while we were slowly moving at the Gaia's orbit.
Shortly after, a smaller similarly 'aggressive recon' taskforce composed of gallic warships appeared on our scanners. They refused our order to withdraw from Bretonia's space, so admiral Oliver Myles gave order to attack at 1600.
Resulting skirmish was relatively fast - our battlecruisers managed to chase off and eliminate their screening vessels, which gave our smaller and nimbler battleship a more room for maneuver. Gallic large and slow battleships were then quickly surrounded and routed, forcing them to leave Edinburgh System in haste.
After all was done, we moved back to at the New London's orbit.
05/05/828 - Greatest news so far. I've received high priority message from admiral Oliver Myles, that we have been transferred and integrated within Bretonia Armed Forces, Auxiliary Fleet. Not that only means a small increase in my paycheck, which could help me to repay my debts quicker. It also means, that we are taken more seriously, so we there might be a chance how to get our ship finished.
I'll be putting together a requisition form to Auxiliary Fleet high command. My chief engineer Elizabeth Blake is examining HMS Minotaur as I write this log and completing the list of parts and equipment we are still missing. I just hope that our request will be resolved in timely manner.
Until then - time to have some small celebration with my senior officers once we are off duty. I've saved a bottle of very good vodka for occasion like this.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.
Posts: 829
Threads: 67
Joined: May 2020
Staff roles: Story Developer
| Ship Log #9 - 08/05/828 |
Sender ID: Flag Officer Anna Kwiatkowska Recipient ID: HMS Minotaur Subject: Ship Log #9 - 'Re-assignment' Location: HMS Tiger Priority: Low
Ship log, entry #9:
06/05/828 - As planned, I've submitted our refit and requisition request to BAF Auxiliary command. - most of request were approved and HMS Minotaur will receive fully functional 'Motart' barbette and improved armor plating, along completed crew amenities.
Works are scheduled to be finished by 21/05/828, but there might be some delay I believe, as usual.
At this moment, we have been transferred aboard HMS Tiger, a veteran 'London Interdictor' battlecruiser from the Gallic-Bretonia war. I'll be under direct supervision by more senior officer, who will be evaluating my combat performance and instructing me when necessary. I don't know who it will be, but I'm quite curious - that could be a very good opportunity to hear stories about past wars and battles.
While HMS Tiger is older vessel, it's more comfortable and roomier than HMS Minotaur. Libertonians build their ships with more crew comforts in mind and we have even cinema and library onboard. This is will be more than welcome experience, especially if we will be sent on longer patrols.
08/05/828 - We left Scarborough Shipyard in Newcastle System and moved slowly through Leeds, New London, Manchester, Cortez and back through Manchester to Scarborough Shipyard. All systems are operational and there were no failures so far.
The only notable event was, when we joined forces with HMS Majestic in Cortez System, and we intercepted Outcasts' warship Maltese, a medium sized capital ship. I'm not sure if it was some large battlecruiser or small battleship - I'm not familiar with their ship classes. We were ordered to engage vessel ourselves, but I've ordered a bad maneuver and we got too far from HMS Majestic, which allowed Maltese to engage it. When I've managed to close the distance, HMS Majestic already won the battle.
Later in Cortez, we joined forces with LNS Shenandoah, Overlord-class battleship, and we patrolled wilder parts of the Cortez System as one small taskforce. After our patrols was one, we parted our ways and returned back to the Newcastle System.
Anna Kwiatkowska,
CO of the HMS Minotaur,
Signing off.