Scratch one flattop!

[burndaddy]

Captain's Log

Captain Jon Allen
Commanding officer...Cruiser Demolisher.

Operation Firestorm was in it's 29th day and beginning to wear on all of us. My squadron, with the cruiser Honesty and the Destroyer Parks remaining, had done nothing but patrols for days. The Marakan Hegemony forces in the region have all but been obliterated and we've achieved space superiority over several regions of space.

The one exception was the Marakan Carrier Baldreed <sp?>. The flagship of the Marakan fleet we destroyed in this region, the Baldreed survived by virtue of staying on the run, jumping from sector to sector to evade us. By day 15 her supporting ships were gone and she was down to just a handful if any fighters at all. Our forces were spread across 4 sectors, patrolling and looking for the Baldreed.

On eight different occasions my squadron located her, but she would Quantum out before we could get into range. The last three times we planned for the jump, and attempted to guess which sector she would pop up at. Each time the Baldreed would jump and I would order my ships to follow, ready to fire as the Quantum drive spooled up. Each time we arrived to an empty or friendly filled sector.

The fourth attempt would be the lucky one.

I was initially in another sector, but on a hunch, ordered my squadron to jump to Adentar. After we arrived in-system, I spotted the Baldreed against the backdrop of the nearby planet, still far out of sensor range.

This time I was ready with a plan, looking at the sector maps, I noted that we had no ships in the Solna sector, which was in jump range. Betting the Baldreed would jump there, but not taking any chances, I prepared to send my 3 ships to 3 different sectors, determined to find the Baldreed at one of them and corner her before she could recharge her quantum drive and jump again.

Sure enough, well out of range, she disappeared against the backdrop of the planet in a brief flash. I worked quickly, sending the cruiser Honesty to one system, and the Destroyer Parks to another, choosing Solna, my top choice, for myself, I counted down the jump...

When the twisting light of the Quantum jump returned to normal, sure enough I found the Baldreed there. Only I was already on top of her. She immediately began pattering my shields with point defense lasers. I detected a single hostile fighter nearby but ignored it.

Working quickly, I targetted the Baldreed's Quantum drive and fired athena class missiles and gamma class lasers into it, then began switching subsystems, targetting the ship's point defense lasers and other systems as fast as I could cycle. To keep my distance I cut my engines, traveling at a fairly slow 300, my Demolisher was about 38km out from the Baldreed approaching from her starboard side.

I fired and fired as fast as my weapons would cycle, sending missile after missile, many of which got shot down, but plenty got through her point defense weapons and impacted on the hull. With great anticipation I watched her hull go red, then to nothing. An orange glow was highlighting much of the ship in flames. I stopped firing.

There was a long pause before she exploded, like a deep breath before a sneeze. Then suddenly a bright yellow flare lit up the screen, expanding and then fading in smooth slow transition. When it had faded, the Baldreed was gone, her broken bow spinning and burning through space. The enemy fighter I had detected earlier was also gone, presumably destroyed in the explosion that also slightly damaged my cruiser.

The long chase of the Baldreed was over. Scratch one flattop.

Captain Jon Allen
The Demolisher
commanding

[Zanthras]

Nicely done Captain!
&nbsp;
time to give those men some R&R...carry on

[Moriartie]

Day 29? Dear god man what were you doing?

** Captains Log **

Day 1
1000hrs, Nice late start to the war.
1200 - Finally getting up.
1400 - Decided to go back to bed, we'll come back tomorow.

Day 2
0900 - Early start.
1000 - Off to shoot up a few of the enemies. Hope they don't return fire much, what?
1015 - Done with the shooting. How very exhausting. I think a quick nap is in order.
1200 - Going to go and have a nifty picnic with those friendly marakan types. I hope they remember to bring the marmalade.
1400 - Seista.
1710 - Going to go and take another couple of pot-shots at the enemy.
1720 - After such a hard day I think I'll just go to bed early.

Day 3 to 29 - See day 2.




Oh, and you can "give chase" of carriers. They only jump once per mission, so just quantum between the systems and you'll find it eventually.