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Admiral Skyblade had handled the Erindani defense forces and drones with ease, but the Battle at Centauri was a different story. The Confederation, though still heavilly outnumbered, had thrown massive amounts of capital ships into the defense of Centauri. The Rebel fleets under Skyblade and Macavenger's command then gave a crucial order to get rid of the defense drones first at all costs. Thousands of torpedoes plastered the drones from longe range, where the numerous turrets carried by the drones didn't pose a threat. Manta casualties had rocketed to the hundreds from defense drones alone, and were therefore ordered to swarm the cruisers as they had done with incredible success during the Battle of Sol. While the Rebel capitals dealt with the drones, the thousands of fighters from the two Rebel fleets were too numerous for the Confederation. Defense drone numbers were staggering, and hostile cruisers and frigates were being destroyed by entire squadrons of fighters. The Confederation fleet was certainly well-equipt, but so was the Rebellion, and they had come...in numbers.
If the Confederation continued to lose warfleets at such an alarming rate, the Rebellion could win the war simply by overwhelming the Confederation in ship manufacturing. Ever since Capella and Matar had fallen to the Rebellion, raw material was coming into the Rebel shipyards in large quantities. If Centauri fell to the Rebellion, the Confederation would lose a fourth of its natural resources, and in the process give that fourth to the Rebellion.
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Macavenger- I prefer for my fleet to be composed of the older Rebel ship designs, but they are heavilly upgraded. I can give you details on my fleet if you like.
CEO of the Corsair Development Team (url="http://"http://tmgmedia.net/jpayne")Corsair Homepage(/url) | (url="http://"http://pub57.ezboard.com/bcorsairdevelopers")Corsair Web Board(/url) | (url="http://"http://pub101.ezboard.com/bstarbasedelta")Starbase Delta(/url)
Okay, we have a few problems here.
Macavenger, I'll deal with your post first. You seem to have misunderstood the defence drones; they can detect the Rebel ships on their own. In fact, defence drones are currently the only Confederate structures that have gravitic sensors onboard. Second, they do not need to receive a fire order, but rather have a built-in AI. The most you would achieve by sending out white noise would be to prevent the Confederation from changing the drones' orders, but the drones would still continue firing on Rebel targets. Third, the drones aren't tied to a specific FTL frequency any more than any other comm system, so even if you jammed one frequency, they could just re-establish communication on another frequency.
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Originally posted by Captain Skyblade: Admiral Skyblade had handled the Erindani defense forces and drones with ease...
Uh, that sounded a lot like a one-post battle , not to mention an implausible one, since Eridani is guarded not only by its normal defence forces but also by two whole CSN fleets.
Originally posted by Captain Skyblade: The Confederation, though still heavilly outnumbered, had thrown massive amounts of capital ships into the defense of Centauri.
Again, with the number of fleets that are arriving at the battle zones, I'm not sure where you're getting this 'heavily outnumbered.'
Originally posted by Captain Skyblade: ... where the numerous turrets carried by the drones didn't pose a threat...
You're forgetting the numerous missiles and torpedoes carried by the drones, which have just as long range as your missiles and torpedoes.
Originally posted by Captain Skyblade: The Confederation fleet was certainly well-equipt, but so was the Rebellion, and they had come...in numbers.
As has the Confederation. Didn't you read my earlier post about how the Confederation has been expanding its fleets during the Rebel withdrawl?
Originally posted by Captain Skyblade: Ever since Capella and Matar had fallen to the Rebellion, raw material was coming into the Rebel shipyards in large quantities.
Raw materials from Capella and Matar? Capella's economy is based almost entirely on tourism, and it has little to offer for any other purpose. Hodgson's World is known primarily for its lobster. Neither tourists nor lobster are natural resources of any importance to the construction of warships.
------------------ David Arthur (url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/talon-ev/")Talon Plugin for the original Escape Velocity(/url)
(This message has been edited by David Arthur (edited 07-20-2001).)
Originally posted by David Arthur: **Uh, that sounded a lot like a one-post battle, not to mention an implausible one, since Eridani is guarded not only by its normal defence forces but also by two whole CSN fleets.
**
And maybe you happened to forget that not only is the 17th Rebel Warfleet big, but massive. Take it to thought...Do you really expect some 700+ Rebel warships to get slaughtered in a single battle against two Confederation junkfleets (no offense :))?
Originally posted by David Arthur: **Again, with the number of fleets that are arriving at the battle zones, I'm not sure where you're getting this 'heavily outnumbered.'
And I'm not sure where you're suddenly getting all these ships to crush the Rebel assault. The entire Confederation Navy would have to be massed together to destroy the combined Skyblade and Macavenger fleets...Go back and read the fleet numbers if you like.
Originally posted by David Arthur: **You're forgetting the numerous missiles and torpedoes carried by the drones, which have just as long range as your missiles and torpedoes.
Ok, my mistake. I thought these defense drones just carried massive numbers of turrets.
Originally posted by David Arthur: **As has the Confederation. Didn't you read my earlier post about how the Confederation has been expanding its fleets during the Rebel withdrawl?
Yes, I read that. But who says the Rebellion wasn't doing the same? With all that the Rebellion owns, they can produce more ships then the dying Confederation worlds can.
Originally posted by David Arthur: **Raw materials from Capella and Matar? Capella's economy is based almost entirely on tourism, and it has little to offer for any other purpose. Hodgson's World is known primarily for its lobster. Neither tourists nor lobster are natural resources of any importance to the construction of warships.
I'm sure those worlds atleast produce minor amounts of raw material. And if Centauri is taken, the Rebellion will most certainly have plenty of extra raw materials...
Originally posted by David Arthur: Macavenger, I'll deal with your post first. You seem to have misunderstood the defence drones; they can detect the Rebel ships on their own. In fact, defence drones are currently the only Confederate structures that have gravitic sensors onboard. Second, they do not need to receive a fire order, but rather have a built-in AI.
I understand them fine, part of this is again the conflict between what I know and what Admiral Macavenger knows. I'm starting to think of this as more of an RPG than a webstory, where Admiral Macavenger is my character. As for not needing to recieve a fire order, this is curious, since I got that from one of your own posts:
Originally posted by David Arthur: (ED. Admiral Innes in the Confederate Monitoring Center in Sol) "Set the defence drones to fire on it, and keep a watch on the gravitic sensors," she commanded. "If you see anything that looks like a cloaked ship, fire on it."
So it looks to me as though they were set to wait for fire orders from Sol before attacking gravitic anomolies.
Originally posted by David Arthur: the drones aren't tied to a specific FTL frequency any more than any other comm system, so even if you jammed one frequency, they could just re-establish communication on another frequency.
I said frequencies. FTL comm arrays would have a finite number of channels to choose from, you know. It wouldn't be hard to figure out what the drones can reach, especially whan they transmit on some of them, and jam those. The Rebels have good equipment too.
Anyway, if you're positive that the Drones can fire at cloaked ships after all this, I have alternative plans for dealing with them. Let me know and I'll put those into effect instead. Also, you've used the term battlefleet pretty freely, what sort of numbers are we looking at on those? Are they a 30 Cruiser 70 Frigate type thing, as was mentioned earlier somewhere? Anyway, let me know about the drones and when the reinforcement fleets arrive, then I'll do the next section of the battle.
============
One other note, Captain Skyblade, please let me handle the tactical aspects of my fleet. I was only doing a very basic overview of yours, and only because you haven't been here much. I have a very good plan for how the Battle of Centauri here is going to work out, and unless David does something truly unexpected and radical, I can win it on my own. If he does, we'll probably be retreating to Sirius, with or without your help.
------------------ Almost doesn't count, but barely does. "The problem with the designated driver program, it's not a desirable job. But if you ever get sucked into doing it, have fun with it. At the end of the night, drop them off at the wrong house." - Jeff Foxworthy
Originally posted by Macavenger: ** One other note, Captain Skyblade, please let me handle the tactical aspects of my fleet. I was only doing a very basic overview of yours, and only because you haven't been here much. I have a very good plan for how the Battle of Centauri here is going to work out, and unless David does something truly unexpected and radical, I can win it on my own. If he does, we'll probably be retreating to Sirius, with or without your help.
So you basically want my last post skratched? If so, that's your call. I'll continue the battle at Eridani.
How about we have David tell us what he has at Eridani(hint), then you run Eridani like I'm running Centauri. Of course, if David continues as I expect I may have some requests for you from time to time. You'll understand when I do, if I do, don't worry.
BTW David, it looks like America Offline chose to delete your Battle for Sol Map too, which needed updating in any case. Don't know if you want to do anything with that or not.
Originally posted by Macavenger: **How about we have David tell us what he has at Eridani(hint), then you run Eridani like I'm running Centauri. Of course, if David continues as I expect I may have some requests for you from time to time. You'll understand when I do, if I do, don't worry.
Alright. Sounds good to me.
America Offline? Hehe...Probably the better name for AOL.
Heh, that was partway a private joke for David, you can figure it out if you read through the plug development topic.
Originally posted by Macavenger: **Heh, that was partway a private joke for David, you can figure it out if you read through the plug development topic.
I didn't read the topic. But America Offline certainly sounds like a fitting name.
Anyway, you or David make the next post related to the current battle, then I'll post.
Originally posted by Captain Skyblade: With all that the Rebellion owns, they can produce more ships then the dying Confederation worlds can.
First of all, the Confederation worlds are not dying. It still controls the most developed worlds in the galaxy. Second, previous Rebel posts seem to imply that the Rebellion is concentrating more on refitting existiing ships than building new ones.
Originally posted by Macavenger: So it looks to me as though they were set to wait for fire orders from Sol before attacking gravitic anomolies.
If the drones detect an enemy ship - cloaked or uncloaked - within range, they fire on it automatically. However, if there is a cloaked ship out of range, they can detect it, but not fire on it. Therefore, the Confederate technicians watch the drones' sensors, and if they see a cloaked ship out of the drones' range, they relay its position to the fleet.
Originally posted by Macavenger: I said frequencies. FTL comm arrays would have a finite number of channels to choose from, you know. It wouldn't be hard to figure out what the drones can reach, especially whan they transmit on some of them, and jam those. The Rebels have good equipment too.
The drones have at least as good FTL transmitters as you do, so unless you're blocking all transmissions - which would, I believe, greatly hinder your attack - the drones can still communicate.
Originally posted by Macavenger: BTW David, it looks like America Offline chose to delete your Battle for Sol Map too, which needed updating in any case. Don't know if you want to do anything with that or not.
The (url="http://"http://members.aol.com/darthur1/battleforsol.gif")map(/url) is still online, I just changed it from a JPEG to a GIF the last time I uploaded it.
(This message has been edited by David Arthur (edited 07-22-2001).)
"OK, looks like our cloaks aren't going to help much. So, Firefoxes, your target is now the drones. Break into ten groups, each take one drone, go one at a time." He turned to Captain Thramer. "Relay orders to the fleet. After the Firefoxes have picked off all the Drones at range, we go in."
Group by group, the Firefoxes raced in, each time unloading 240 torpedoes into a Defense Drone, destroying it utterly. After the first ten runs, the Firefoxes from the first group had rearmed and were preparing to go in and destroy another drone.
(edit) And David, Captain Skyblade still needs the Eridani defenses, and I want to know what you mean by fleet in numbers, since there are 2 in the Eridani system, according to you, I think it's fair that you tell us.(/edit)
(This message has been edited by Macavenger (edited 07-22-2001).)
Originally posted by David Arthur: **First of all, the Confederation worlds are not dying. It still controls the most developed worlds in the galaxy. Second, previous Rebel posts seem to imply that the Rebellion is concentrating more on refitting existiing ships than building new ones.
But still, try looking at the worlds owned by the Rebellion. They outnumber the Confederation worlds by a good-sized margin, which would normally mean extra raw materials.
As for re-fitting ships, the Rebellion has been doing so, while at the same time building large numbers of new vessels to make up for and even surpass losses.
Originally posted by Macavenger: **And David, Captain Skyblade still needs the Eridani defenses, and I want to know what you mean by fleet in numbers, since there are 2 in the Eridani system, according to you, I think it's fair that you tell us.
Agreed.
(This message has been edited by Captain Skyblade (edited 07-22-2001).)
Well, I have all the data I need to continue at Centauri, so I guess I will.
"Still no response from the Confederation sir," said captain Thramer.
"Very well. Pick ten new targets for the Firefoxes, and send them in a group at a time."
The first group of Firefoxes screamed in at a drone, unloaded all their torpedoes, and sped away again before the Confederate ships could do anything about them, leaving the drone exploding in their wake. Then followed the second wave as the first wave returned to dock, with a similarly successful run. And so on. After ten runs, most of the bombers had already redeployed from their respective Carriers, and Landfall's defense was down 20 drones.
"I don't understand these tactics by the Confederation, sitting back and doing nothing," Macavenger mused to himself. "If they continue this way, the drones will all be gone inside an hour and we can just get in close and annihilate them with the Supercruisers. The fleet has to come out." He turned to Captain Thramer. "Set the fighters up for the next attack run."
Originally posted by Macavenger: **Well, I have all the data I need to continue at Centauri, so I guess I will.
It was at this point that the Confederate 72nd and 91st Fleets dropped into the Centauri system, wasting no time to begin engaging the Rebel vessels. Squadrons of Lightnings began chasing down the Firefoxes, and battlegroups of Class III Ospreys engaged the Rebel supercruisers, dodging their heavy weapons while firing on them with their particle beam turrets. Class II frigates and Class III cruisers moved in numbers against the assault carriers and F class cruisers. Meanwhile, a huge Confederate dropship, guarded by several frigates, began deploying further defence drones around the planet.
Dodging the heavy weapons? The heavy weapons are beams, David. I'll agree that pretty much anything else in the game you can dodge to an extent, but beams are pretty much automatic hit weapons unless they're wildly inaccurate, which none of ours are.
"So, the Confederation has arrived. firefoxes, target the Cruisers, Devil Rays, cover them. Supercruisers, go for the Ospreys - no problem there, they're coming for us too. Must be too used to seeing us run."
As the first Osprey slipped into range of the R.S.S. Victory , both ships fired their beams. While the Victory mostly shrugged off the Particle Turret with it's advanced shields, return fire ripped through the Osprey, sending it away burning in a matter of seconds.
Other Confederate ships that attacked the Supercruisers met with similar fates. Attacking the other Cruisers wasn't much better, since they were all F-Class. They couldn't absorb near the damage that the Supercruisers could, but they still had 2 Heavy Fusion Turrets each, giving them rather nasty firepower.
The Assault Carriers also proved more vicious than the Confederates might have expected. All were dueces, so they had a heavy Fusion beam. They seriously outgunned even Class II Frigates, and if a Class II Cruiser came at one of them, they would dance away, and the Cruiser soon found a wing of Firefoxes dancing around it, covered by a few Devil Rays. The Carrier could then easily finish up with turrets and Fusion beam.
"Looks like we're doing OK here, but we seem to be fighting some sort of central control system," Macavenger said. "Let's see if we can do that literally." He moved to a large strategic board and began tapping systems. "OK, we've got sector defense fleets at Sirgil, Adhara, Tiber, Atropos, Palshife, and Apollo. Let's see... OK. Comm, call Admiral Skyblade on FTL. Tell him that if he can spare the ships, I want him to throw a 40 to 50 ship task force to feint at each of the Sol, Procyon, and Vega systems. If he can only spare one or two tell him I really want one at Sol, and have him tell me his decision. Next," he tapped a few dots again, "Next, contact Sirgil Starport. Order them to send two-thirds of their fleet to feint at Regulus. Then have Port Oread send two-thirds of theirs to feint at Antares. Next, contact Sentinal Station, they're to send two-thirds of their fleet to attack the Alcyon system, and if they can break through there, they should attack New Japan at Pollux."
"Sir, could you slow down a -"
"I also want Sirius Station to scramble half it's defense fleet to feint at the Tau Ceti system." Looking at his board, Macavenger mutters to himself, "Anything else i can do from here? Ah, yes. Comm, also hail Hogdson's World. Commodore Vaten's X-Group is still there. I want him to take his fleet and attack New Britain at Rigel. Tell him I'll join him as soon as I can. Finally, call Capella, I want half their defense fleet to feint at the Barnard system. Remind everyone that the point of these feints is not false bravado, their first order is not to gt killed if possible, second is to distract the Confederation, and third is to take all military targets of opportunity."
"I think I have all that," said the comm tech.
Meanwhile, the battle was raging. The Confederates had come in right by the Rebel fleet, and engaged it in a short range brawl, probably the worst choice given the Fusion weapons of the Rebel fleet. By this time, about half the Confederate attackers had been knocked out, in no small part by the Supercruisers. All 6 Supercruisers were still present, and thanks to their incredible shield systems, none was even in danger, with shields all over 75%. A couple F Class Cruisers had been lost, along with several Carriers, plus a cross section of the fighters, except Devil Rays, of which only 2 were missing. As incredible as the Cruisers were, the Devil Rays perhaps shocked the Confeds more than anything else. They tended to fly in pairs, and if no Rebel fighters nearby needed help, they'd just look for the nearest batch of Confed fighters and take them, even if that group was three Lightnings from an Osprey. Both fighters would invariably survive these encounters. If they traveled by full squadrons, as they sometimes did, any fighters in their way were just dead. The only casualties had been fighters separated from the rest that got jumped by 5 or more Gunboats.
The Confederate Ospreys in particular had been hit hard, as they had been the first line of attack against the Supercruisers. They'd also been surprised by the fact that the Rebel ships didn't run from them as usual. As a result, all the new ones had been destroyed. Most of the Confederate Class IIIs were also gone, as any Cruiser revealing Particle Turret technology tended to get hit hard by Firefoxes and/or have a Supercruiser come up at them, at which point it was over. The Supercruisers, for all their incredible firepower, could still outrun any of the Confederate fleet ships.
Alarms began rining again in the monitoring center.
Commodore Henderson groaned and said, "What now?"
A technocoan gulped and said, "Sir, I have Rebel fleets all over. I've got about 70 Destroyers at Barnard. I've got about 70 Destroyers at Tau Ceti. We've got groups of rooughly 120 ships each at Alcyon, Regulus, and Antares. The Group of Rebel Experimental ships has returned to Rigel, but it's about twice the size it was before." Another alarm sounded. "Sir, another thing, the 72nd and 91st at Centauri report that they're getting hammered, and need assistance."
"Get Innes in here, now," snapped Henderson.
Well, looks like the Confederation underestimated my fleet a little David. Rmember, we're outside the area guarded by the Drones, so don't expect them to help you any. Your turn. Three things for you to consider in closing.
(This message has been edited by Macavenger (edited 07-24-2001).)
err... if the rebels have all these resources to create all of these new ships, construct this massive fleet, and still have even more ships defending their colonies, dont you think that they would have won by now? How can the rebels so easily defeat ships that are supposed* to be more powerful than their own? Where did the rebels get alien fusion beam tech? And while we're at it, whos representing the aliens?
*This is open to speculation, but i believe its generally assumed that Fed ships are more powerful.
------------------ If its not forced, ill do it!
(This message has been edited by ErsadtSF (edited 07-24-2001).)
Perhaps you should read the whole topic. Everything is explained at some point. Both sides have new ships, and in general the Rebel's newest ships are more powerful, particularly the Supercruisers. No one represents the aliens, they have been ignored and are not part of the story.
I thought you guys gave up.
So who's winning and what's going on?
and macavenger. How the hell did you get more posts than I did?
------------------ You have been overriden by Overrider. Prepare to die evil scum! -Me rookie's smiles:(url="http://"http://www.ezboard.com/help/help_howto_useemoticons.html")Cool Smiles(/url) (url="http://"http://community.theunderdogs.org/smiley/gallery.htm")Cooler Smiles(/url) AIM: Ferazel17
you realize a mod or andrew is going to come along and lock this soon
Originally posted by Overrider720: **you realize a mod or andrew is going to come along and lock this soon
I would have done that myself at the 200 post mark if I were a mod, but we'll keep going until a real moderator closes this off, and then maybe we'll start a new thread.
David, I can't really post anything until I know the numbers of the Eridani defense fleet.