[Starhawk]

A Battle Of Necessity

From: Captain Thomas Rothman (commander INSS Denmark [LC].
To: Fleet Admiral Lord Frank Renner
Subject: Battle of Winep System

The Goul'd had finally declared open war on the Empire and it was just at that time that our sensors discovered a force of six Norak battleships that had apparently been taken over by the Goul'd Empire and that they were inbound on heavily populated regions of our space. Unfortunately my ship INSS Denmark is only a Gerard 2 class light cruiser and I knew I could not stop the enemy fleet by myself.

Knowing that my light cruiser didn't stand a chance I sent a distress signal for any Imperial Ships of the Line to come to my aid, after an hour I had managed to get hold of Captain Park aboard the super monitor INSS Unrelenting, Captain Anders of the INSS Liberty a General class battlecruiser and Commander Gorvochev of his majesty's heavy cruiser INSS Rightious Fist.
It is my beleif that the swift intervention of these ships saved millions of Imperial Citizens from death, enclosed is the combat recording report of the action as recorded aboard INSS Liberty.

(begin playback)
"Sir signal from Unrelenting we are to cover the left flank..accelerate at full thrust with the rest of squadron and engage on Captain Park's command." The Young Ensign Raleigh reported from his station as the screen displayed 6 distant orange blips showed the engine flare of the enemy ships as the engaged max thrust towards the Imperial squadron.

"Alright Ensign follow on Park's left, and start scanning for targets." Anders was calm but also nervious, three Imperial warships against six advanced enemy battleships didn't look good but he had to trust in his crew and comrades on the other two ships to pull off the victory no matter the cost.
Three of the enemy approached from the left and the other three from the right, a classic flanking maneuver Anders noted and a rather dangerious one considering how few ships the Imperials had.

"Sir Unrelenting has signalled, all ships are to target the three ships coming up from the right first, then we are to neutralize the left flank." Raleigh said crisply as he listened to the comns officer from the flagship inform the other imperial cruiser of their plans.

In a matter of moments the three Imperial warships had managed to close the gap before the enemy could fire, and several green beams jutted from Unrelenting, within a split second the targeted battleship's shields had failed and the reactor had gone critical, within another split second a small nova appeared where the battleship had formerly been. It was still too far away for the other two Imperial's weapons to get involved or even for a direct visual of what had just happened over a light second out.

"Sir the other two battleships in that squadron are closing, they're firing!" Ralleigh said methodically as the screen lit up with bluish pulses from the nearest battleship, the mighty battlecruiser rocked as it's shields absorbed the enemy fire, fortunately the second battleship had focused it's fire on the massive Super Monitor who's shields didn't even flinch under the fire they had taken.
"Sir the other three ships are closing, firing!" The shields flared again and the ship rocked and then the sound of an explosion roared through the ship.
"Sir! Impact on hull I repeat they've struck home, shields down." Ralleigh was trying to stay calm but the shock in his voice was clear, no one expected to be hit so quickly in the fight.
"Damage reports coming in Captain, we lost C battery and the gunnery crew manning it, armor took the rest of the fire sir." Brevet Commander Saunder reported as he braced himself against the next volley from the enemy.
"Sir we are within range." Ralleigh reported brightly as the Liberty moved within 100 miles of one of the enemy battleships.
"Well then, Miss Dale give them a volley would you." the Captain tried to sound smug and unworried so that his valiant crew would know that they could emerge victorious.

The gunners aboard the mighty battlecruiser picked their target well and fired, the orange beams of the phased poloron cannons sliced into the shields of the enemy ship reducing them to less then half strength, but the gun crews had no choice but to cease fire or risk overheating their cannons.
Thankfully Commander Gorvochev of the Rightious Fist fired on the same battleship, knocking out her shields and gouging several holes in the hull, a breach on the port side sent Jaffa spilling out into space flailing and unprotected against the vaccum.
"They don't even wear pressure suits in battle?" The voice of a bridge officer behind Anders sounded shocked and amused by the folley of the Goul'd. The entire crew of an Imperial warship donned hard pressure suits, and marines donned battle armor whenever entering battle so that if the hull breached they would still have a chance of life but then again the navy actually cared about it's spacers while the snakeheads saw their jaffa as little more then slaves.
As the fire from the Heavy cruiser rent the Battle ship the Unrelenting managed to aquire a target from the squadron approaching the Imperials from the right and within seconds another ship went up in a brilliant fireball unfortunately for the Imperials 3 battleships remained and two of them fired directly into the Rightious Fist bringing down her shields and knocking out most of her guns, all along the Heavy cruiser the hull began tearing open spilling crew and debris into space.
The Imperial counter attack proved nearly useless as most of their fire missed and the shots that did strike home did little damage to the battleship's shields.
"Sir the Rightious Fist is being pounded, what are your orders?" the ensign knew that there was little his ship could do but it was just human nature to try and save one's comrades.
Anders didn't reply because he knew the answer would only demoralize his crew, it was likely that most of the other cruiser's crew was already dead and there was nothing that could be done for them now.
It was then that the ship rocked again and the bridge lit up with a brilliant flash and the sound of crashing wreckage, Anders felt himself flying for an instant then a solid impact on what must have been the forward helm station, Anders managed to pull himself up and realized that his arm was badly broken, as he looked across his bridge he saw a pair of legs in his XO's seat and a massive peice of hull where the rest of the body should have been. Trying to survey the damage Anders saw that most of the bridge was a wreck and most of the crew there were dead.
"Any survivors?" Anders asked in a horse voice as he reached for a handheld fire extinguisher to put out the flames nearbye.
"Aye aye Captain." It was Ralleigh still at station and Private Weiss of the marines who was walking over to the helm."
"Weapons, shields, are all gone sir, I am reading multiple hull breaches and casualty reports are coming in from all over the ship sir." Weiss looked rough, his marine armor had clearly saved his life though as a sharp peice of metal stuck clean out of the side of his armor, just barely stopped by the pLasteel layers.
"Sir the Rightious Fist" Ralleigh uttered as he pointed at the screen displaying video feed from the ship's backup camera.
It was even worse off then his ship, barely anything was left except superstructure and a few sections of hull, but even that was not enough for those bloodthirsty snakeheads as one of their battleships fired another volley of Mesons into the wreckage tearing it apart, ther was so little left of the cruiser that there wasn't even explosion as the hull just fell apart and bodies floated away.
The enemy battleship didn't have time to celebrate their victory however as the Unrelenting fired her main cannons into their rear blowing the reactor the seconds the shields failed, a new star was briefly born and then died out as the enemy ship exploded.

Anders watched with grim satisfaction as the flagship took hit after hit on her armor but didn't even flinch as she kept advancing on the Last remaining ship firing her powerful guns into it's shields, it was clear that Park was putting his own ship between that snake bastard and the crippled wreck that was Liberty and within minutes the massive warship had closed within boarding range and latched onto the hull of the enemy ship. Fifteen minutes later and another Gou'ld ship had been taken by the Unrelenting adding two to her tally.

Shuttles from the Super Monitor scoured the area for survivors as their mothership docked with Liberty to take the survivors off and tend the wounded.

After two hours the search shuttles came in from the void of space carrying only 28 survivors and all of those were from Liberty, a prize crew had taken over the enemy ship and repair teams were already working on the damaged sections of Unrelenting but Anders felt miserable, more then two thirds of his crew had been killed or wounded by the enemy and his ship was left floating until a salvage vessel could be sent to recover her. He was likely to be facing a court martial reviewboard within a week and he was very unsure of what his future would be.
(recording ends)

From: Captain Charles Anders former captain INSS Liberty
To: Fleet Command Gamma Sector
Subject: The Captain and Crew of his majesty's ship of the line INSS Unrelenting.

Sir I recomend you put Captain Park in for the star cluster for saving the lives of me and my crew, their bravery in putting themselves between the enemy and ourselves saved the lives of 400 Imperial spacers and marines and it is my strongest desire that even if my career is ended that Park's crew and my crew as well receive comendations for accomplishing their duties under the worst conditions possible. They did nothing less then save several million colonists from certain death and many of those brave spacers died to do it.

Captain Anders
6th fleet Gamma Sector

From: Captain William Park CO INSS Unrelenting
To: 6th Fleet Command
Subject: Casualties suffered at Winep

My Lords the following is a list of Imperial assets involved and casualties taken.

INSS Rightious Fist
Captain: Commander Alexi Gorvochev
Crew: 1,500 officers and ranks
Classification: Heavy Cruiser
Status: destroyed
Casualties: 1,500 dead

INSS Liberty
Captain: Captain Charles Anders
Crew: 2,150 officers and ranks
Classification: Battle Cruiser
Status: Abandoned until salvage ship arrives.
Casualties: 1,700 dead, 50 wounded.

INSS Unrelenting
Captain: William Park
Crew: 10,000 Officers and ranks
Classification: Super Monitor
Status: Escorting prize back to shipyards
Casualties: 85 dead, 189 wounded

Total Imperial casualties: 3,285 dead, 239 wounded, 2 imperial warships lost or abandoned.

Enemy losses: 5 battleships destroyed 1 captured, 6,000 dead.

[ July 04, 2004, 22:09: Message edited by: Starhawk ]