Convoy Attack

 28-10-2176 (3rd Solar War)

NAC Back story
Captain Pittman was in command of the RNS Serpent, A Furious Class escort Cruiser and they had spent the last three weeks escorting two Heavy freighters and a Tanker to Grendel.
The tanker, high tide, and Freighter, Scarlet Ring, docked with the orbital station to start loading, while the Downtown established Orbit and its cargo was shuttled up.

The Serpent allowed small groups of personnel 24 hours shore leave but stayed alert in the planets vicinity.
It took six days to load the merchant ships. On the fourth day two Destroyers, Mystic and Oracle, arrived. They were on a three month Patrol and stopped off to replenish supplies.

The merchant vessels undocked and broke Orbit with RNS Serpent. The Destroyers decided to join them to the jump point.

Captain Pittman was in his office going over the ships status reports when his XO, Philip Deards, called him to the bridge.
"What is it Phil" he said
"We detected four jump spikes about a minute ago, something has jumped in, scan-techs are trying to ID now"
"Put us on Yellow One and get us in a position between the contacts and the Convoy. I want Mystic to stay close to the Convoy and Oracle to form up with us until we confirm what those contacts are"

Within Eight minutes everyone was ready at Yellow One Alert positions, Captain Pittman hailed the unknown ships asking them to identify themselves but no reply came. But it did seem to get their attention as they started heading towards them at increased speed.

"Sensors, report"
". . . Getting better confirmation Sir, Military ships, One Cruiser, Three Escorts . . . ESU drive signatures confirmed"
"Red Alert, we have hostiles, they know we are here, scan those ships and get me some intelligence on them"
The crew scrambled to battle stations, he could hear the throb of the reactor increase as systems came to life, weapons powered up and the screens went active.

"Scan confirming three Destroyer class vessels and a Heavy Cruiser"
Damn, the ESU had the advantage in displacement, he opened the channel to the freighters,
"Merchants, make full speed to the jump point, we will delay them here"

NAC Convoy

>RNS Serpent Furious Class Escort Cruiser.
Captain Trevor Pittman

>RNS Mystic Ticonderoga Class Destroyer
Captain Barry Smythe

>RNS Oracle Ticonderoga Class Destroyer
Captain Catherine Chilcocks

>MSS High Tide Heavy Tanker
Captain Henry Adams

>MSS Scarlet Ring Heavy Freighter
Captain William Newport

>MSS Downtown Heavy Freighter
Captain Christopher Hudson

ESU Back Story
His head felt fuzzy as he came back to 'Reality', the urge to Vomit was strong but fortunately he didn't.
He slowly became more aware of the bridge around him and could see others coming back round, he had lost count of the number of Jumps he had done and it never got any better.

"Status" he croaked.
The bridge crew went into autopilot as their training kicked in.
"Reactor back online . . . systems nominal"
Well, the ship came through OK.
"What's the status of the Destroyers?"
"All within 60'000km"
As jumps go, that was a good result, multiple ships jumping usually ended up with some drastically off course, He would commend the navigation teams.

"Captain, we are being hailed"
A second later six contacts lit up on the sensor screen, three merchants, two Escorts and a Cruiser.

He opened a comms channel to his group,
"All ships, red Alert, we have our first target"

ESU Raiding Force

>VKK Stalingrad Gorshkov Class Heavy Cruiser
Captain Lev Kamkin

>VKK Strogiy Warsaw Class Destroyer
Captain Fyodor Ambrosov

>VKK Azov Warsaw Class Destroyer
Captain Ivan Kuzmin

>VKK Kerch Warsaw Class Destroyer
Commander Igor Dybenko

The battle

>Turn 1

The ESU ships close in, the Serpent and Stalingrad exchange fire, the Stalingrad takes some bad hits which is added to by the Oracle.

The Stalingrad launches all it's Salvos racks, the volley targeted at the Serpent are all shot down, but the Scarlet Ring is hammered.

The Destroyers on both sides take pot shots which does little.

>Turn 2

Both fleets close in as the Merchants go flank speed to try and reach the jump point.

The Strogiy finishes off the Scarlet ring, the Mystic and Oracle both target the Azov, the ESU ship takes Heavy damage and the bridge is smashed leaving command in disarray.

The Serpent and Stalingrad continue trading shots with the Stalingrad taking Heavy damage and also taking a Beam to the bridge killing the command crew.

>Turn 3

The Azov and Stalingrad drift past the still accelerating Convoy, the Oracle and Serpent take some long range shots which do little.

The Mystic damages the Kerch but the Kerch and Strogiy return fire tearing the ship to pieces.

>Turn 4

The Kerch and Strogiy go full power and accelerate away from the area.

>Aftermath

NAC

-Serpent: Minor Damage

-Oracle: Undamaged

-Mystic: Destroyed

-Scarlet Ring: Destroyed

-Downtown: Undamaged

-High Tide: Undamaged

ESU

-Stalingrad: Heavy Damage, Captain lost

-Azov: Heavy Damage, Captain lost

-Strogiy: Armour Damage only

-Kerch: Light Damage