| Author |
The Battle of Luyten |
YIIMM
Grand Admiral
Joined: June 16, 2005
Posts: 851
From: Barcino, Hispania Tarraconensis
|  Posted: 2011-02-23 19:25
Foreward
One aspect of DarkSpace I've always enjoyed reading about is its un-universe history. It's easy to forget when you're playing that there's a story behind the factions, and the ships, and the systems you play in.
One of the events in DS history that seems to crop up a lot is the Battle of Luyten. It's a pivotal battle and has huge repercussions in the story. And there's almost no detail given on it.
The last fan fiction piece I wrote was set right after the war this battle features in and went over how the UGTO learned their lessons and at the time I wanted to go back and flesh out the story of the battle itself and now I've finally got around to doing it.
My intent with this is to try as best I can to give all the details of the battle but also the events leading up to it and its aftermath. I've tried to keep it as neutral as possible, I guess in the style of something like a Wikipedia article.
I've tried to make it as believable as possible and also compatible with current DS history and for certain things that means eschewing things in the game mechanics that are taken for granted.
With the exception of the American Civil war, if some parts of this bear resemblence to real world events or people, it's likely intentional. I mention the American Civil war because I had to come up with alternative demonyms for the UGTO and ICC and "Union" and "Confederate" made sense.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading 
The Third Stellar Conflict ran from the 23rd of July 2258 to the 12th of May 2260 and marked a watershed between the United Galactic Trade Organisation and the then-nascent Interstellar Cultural Confederation. It was the first engagement between two legitimate, interplanetary, sovereign states. Though, by most measures, a short war, the events and lessons learned continue to influence foreign policies and military practises for both sides.
The Third Stellar Conflict has had an instrumental role in history and the Battle of Luyten was its most pivotal battle. Over the period of a few days, the ICC, though badly outnumbered, managed to strike a crippling blow against the Union fleet and shifted the balance of balance of power massively in the ICC's favour. Though the war officially ended in armistice, it was crushing military and political defeat for the UGTO and it was lost at Luyten, with the Union successfully brokering a ceasefire less than three months later.
Shortly after UGTO Chancellor Falicia's declaration of war against the ICC the Union fleet was dispatched to rapidly fortify the border systems in preparation for a massive, simultaneous attack. After several weeks of light skirmishing and relative quiet, this assault finally occurred on the 3rd of September 2258 and caught the Confederate fleet off guard, with the UGTO making numerous territorial gains with the Second Fleet, led by admiral Fisher, succeeding in taking Ross 248 in December 2258, perilously close to the ICC's capital world of Exathra.
These strategic advances, however, came much more slowly and with far higher cost than the large disparity in forces would have suggested. Analysis of the battles fought showed that despite the UGTO facing an enemy not yet fully mobilised, the loss ratio between the two navies was almost one-to-one.
This realisation came as a shock to UGTO naval commanders; though the bulk of the ICC forces were converted civilian vessels, they were fitted with far more advanced technology than their purpose-built Union counterparts. A single shield generator - devices shunned by the UGTO - when fitted to a passenger liner or obsolete destroyer, could double their resilience. Weak, rapid-firing lasers mounted on an ICC frigate would never penetrate even the thinnest armour, but they could wipe out a wave of missiles or a flight of fighters in the blink of an eye.
This latter detail had proven particularly worrying for the UGTO; ICC point defence was far more advanced, both in detection and weaponry. Standard Union naval doctrine up until this point had not been vastly different to that of sea-based warfare of centuries past: large, heavy fighter carriers protected by an array of light picket ships and anti-ship vessels. The primary firepower of the fleet lay with these carriers and specifically the craft they launched. These had overwhelmed the disorganised, militia forces the UGTO had faced in previous conflict, but now they were facing an enemy who could neutralise their primary weapon.
The effects of this soon began to take their toll; the Union fleet was relying far more heavily on its escort ships for direct fire during battles than it was used to. These ships were variably classed as destroyers or cruisers, but none exceeded 400 metres in length, the ICC, by contrast was regularly fielding warships almost twice as long and over six times as massive. UGTO fighter pilots, though well trained and experienced, were facing a high attrition rate.
In spite of this, however, the ICC was in a dangerous position, with only a narrow band of deep space separating Exathra from the UGTO 2nd fleet. Fortunately, the greater part of the Confederate fleet was intact, though scattered and ineffective in its defence. That changed when former ICC High Councillor Admiral Shi Jie Sheng, in command of the First Fleet stationed in the capital system, rallied his forces and launched a brutal counterattack against the UGTO Second Fleet, driving them completely out of Ross 248 by the 4th of January 2259.
As Sheng continued to spearhead a number of major military victories, the galvanised Confederate forces on the other fronts began to have similar success. The Union government looked on in horror as system after system fell to the ICC advance. Despite the now-apparent problems with carrier warfare, the UGTO Navy failed to switch tactics and paid dearly for it. By January 2260, Luyten 726-8, the central hub in known space, was in enemy hands.
Captured UGTO territories that were relied on for resources were now supplying them to ICC forces. This only helped push the conflict more in the Confederates' favour and the Union military leaders, realising the gravity of the situation, knew that they must immediately launch a counterattack and regain the initiative or they would lose the war. Luyten was chosen as the target.
[ This Message was edited by: YIIMM on 2011-03-14 12:24 ]
_________________
|
YIIMM
Grand Admiral
Joined: June 16, 2005
Posts: 851
From: Barcino, Hispania Tarraconensis
| Posted: 2011-02-23 19:27
With its central location, Luyten was, strategically, a vital system, being a major hub for merchant shipping and the planet Mycopia having a vast array of orbital shipyards and supply depots. In spite of its importance, Luyten had always been sparsely populated; though tens of millions passed through its spaceports each year, few called it home. The majority of its inhabitants were construction workers, miners or stationed at military installations and were always outnumbered by those using the system as a way station.
As the frontlines had neared Luyten, much of its population fled earthward ahead of the ICC advance and commercial shipping had dried up. The UGTO was unable to mount a cohesive defence when the invasion began and so the system fell with only a token exchange of fire between sides. The shipyards and defence bases had been sabotaged by the Union in a display of scorched earth tactics.
All this contributed to the situation that the ICC needed few troops on the planets and moons to keep the local population in line but had few military assets besides their own fleet to aid in its defence. Bringing the shipyards back online was given top priority and work had been underway since mid-January 2260 but ICC engineers estimated that six weeks’ worth of work was needed. By the 10th of February 2260, repairs were well underway and on track for completion within two weeks. While this continued, the First and Sixth fleets of the Confederate Navy – under admirals Sheng and Thompson respectively – were charged with holding Luyten.
An UGTO Fleet, meanwhile, had been amassing in deep space in preparation for retaking the system. The Second, Fourth and Seventh fleets were all battle hardened from the past sixteen months of fighting. All had been bolstered from the remnants of the Third and Fifth fleets, which had lost too many ships to continue effectively as independent flotillas; the Seventh Fleet, in particular, had accumulated most of these vessels, to the point of constituting almost half of the entire task force. Admiral Fisher, responsible for the Union’s early successes in the war, was chosen to head the armada and devise a battle plan to drive out the occupying forces in Luyten.
The difficulty in this was that Sheng knew ability to mount a credible defence against a determined foe was limited. For all their successes, the ICC were still outnumbered and now, with sweeping territorial gains, were stretched thin. Sheng anticipated that any UGTO offensive would rely on numerical superiority. Rather than station them in orbit, he decided to hide his forces a short way beyond the system’s edge, a short jump away, lest they be subjected to a surprise attack.
Fisher, being unable to find the enemy fleet with covert reconnaissance sorties, decided to lure out Sheng by targeting the ICC’s main strategic asset in Luyten: the Mycopia shipyards. Though the purpose of the attack was as a feint, Fisher was committed to their destruction as insurance should his plan fail. While the Union had industrial facilities elsewhere, a forward base of operations such as Luyten was something the ICC could not afford to lose. Once the defenders responded to this attack and jumped in, the UGTO task force would spring their trap and overwhelm them.
The assault would consist of a massive carrier strike executed from extreme range at the limits of the system. Fisher’s intent was that the ICC would assume his task force was much closer to Mycopia than it actually was and would come directly to its defence. In space, fighter craft had a theoretically unlimited range but were only capable of sustaining their pilots for a maximum of seventy two hours. With optimal fuel usage from the chosen launch point, the flight would take almost two days and the UGTO carriers would therefore have to jump in-system in order to recover their squadrons at a predetermined waypoint. By this time, however, the battle was expected to be well underway above Mycopia.
Though, up to this point, overreliance on fighters had paid little dividends for the UGTO war effort, they had begun to change their tactics. Electronic warfare craft were now routinely deployed alongside combat squadrons to mitigate the damage done from ICC point defence systems and the titanic Agincourt carriers were now mounting small numbers of capital-grade guns to fend off attackers unaided.
Unbeknownst to Fisher, however, Confederate cryptanalysts had broken the Union’s codes several weeks beforehand and Sheng had prepared a trap of his own.
UGTO Second Fleet – Admiral Yan Fisher
Combat:
- 7 fleet carriers
- 19 destroyers
- 15 frigates
- 9 corvettes
Auxiliary:
- 7 supply vessels
UGTO Fourth Fleet – Vice Admiral John Wallace
Combat:
- 6 fleet carriers
- 17 destroyers
- 19 frigates
- 12 corvettes
Auxiliary:
- 5 supply vessels
UGTO Seventh Fleet – Vice Admiral Chen Zhigao
Combat:
- 12 fleet carriers
- 33 destroyers
- 35 frigates
- 20 corvettes
Auxiliary:
- 10 supply vessels
The final count for the task force the UGTO had assembled totalled two hundred and twenty six ships. The general make up of the armada was based around carrier groups supported by numerous picket ships. The combat destroyers were the largest dedicated ship-to-ship combatants fielded by the Union and, given the muted success fighters had had, Fisher knew he would be relying on them in battle more than he would have preferred. It was hoped, however, that the step-up in electronic warfare and arming of the carriers would help address this and ease the destroyer captains’ burdens. Nevertheless, these alterations in tactics were recent and had yet to be tested in a large scale battle.
Vice Admiral Chen Zhigao’s Seventh Fleet was chosen to initiate the first strike and was stationed away from the rest of the task force; one hundred and ten ships strong, Chen was in command of the largest individual military fleet in UGTO history. His twelve carriers were to launch their entire complement of fighters and EW craft towards Mycopia and then jump in to recover them once they had completed their objective and cleared the vicinity. The Fourth Fleet under Vice Admiral Wallace was to remain with Fisher’s First Fleet and spring the trap upon the ICC.
ICC First Fleet – Admiral Shi Jie Sheng
Combat:
- 2 dreadnoughts
- 8 combat cruisers
- 2 carrier cruisers
- 12 destroyers
- 16 frigates
- 11 corvettes
Auxiliary:
- 5 supply vessels
ICC Sixth Fleet – Admiral Nathan Thompson
Combat:
- 2 dreadnoughts
- 9 combat cruisers
- 1 carrier cruiser
- 15 destroyers
- 11 frigates
- 10 corvettes
Auxiliary:
- 4 supply vessels
Mycopia ground forces – Commander Hendrik Westenberg
Combat:
- 15 fighter squadrons
Auxiliary:
- 2 heavy troop transports
- 3 light shuttles equipped for electronic warfare
The ICC’s entire forces totalled one hundred and ten ships, less than half those of their enemy. Additionally, Sheng had far fewer heavy warships at his disposal with only four of his fleet exceeding a kilometre in length. However, unlike the lightly armed Agincourts, which relied almost totally on fighters, these behemoths were true battleships – some of the earliest modern dreadnoughts, now common in stellar fleets. While unable to hold more than one or two squadrons of their own, they sported multiple gun batteries and missile launchers and were over sixty times as massive as the UGTO’s largest combat destroyers. Furthermore, the Confederates had at their disposal numerous cruisers which could engage multiple destroyers at a time and, when working together, bring down even an Agincourt with ease.
The UGTO’s fighter arm vastly outnumbered the defenders’ but it was hoped that ICC anti-fighter technology would prove as effective as it had done thus far in preventing the Union from establishing space superiority. In addition to this, the Confederates had at their disposal formidable attack craft of their own and their pilots were just as well trained.
All this meant that either ICC fleet could engage the UGTO Second or Fourth fleets individually with relative parity (or even a slight advantage) but would need to work together if they were to face the Seventh Fleet with any hope of success. Fearing he might fall foul of a Union reconnaissance flight and have all his forces discovered in the same location, Sheng placed the First and Sixth fleets at opposite ends of the Luyten system but well poised to jump in on a moment’s notice. A very small portion of the flotilla – a single carrier cruiser and three frigates – was left stationed at Mycopia to aid the ground-based fighters in their defence. The intent was that they might be able to limit damage to the shipyard facilities from fighters without Sheng having to show his hand.
[ This Message was edited by: YIIMM on 2011-03-14 12:24 ]
_________________
|
YIIMM
Grand Admiral
Joined: June 16, 2005
Posts: 851
From: Barcino, Hispania Tarraconensis
| Posted: 2011-02-23 19:28
Battle and Aftermath to follow.
_________________
|
Thernhoghas
Grand Admiral
Exathra Alliance Fleet
Joined: September 18, 2010
Posts: 243
From: somewhere in Germany
| Posted: 2011-02-24 04:36
Due to a lack of time atm I could only read small parts; but so far:
<3
Edit:
Now that I'm finally home and have time, I could read the whole thing. I'm impressed and can't wait for more
[ This Message was edited by: Thernhoghas on 2011-02-24 10:45 ]
_________________
It is not the beard on the outside that matters. It's the beard on the inside.
|
Blackjack [DBL]
Grand Admiral
Faster than Light
Joined: February 25, 2011
Posts: 344
From: The land of venomous reptiles.
| Posted: 2011-03-14 04:41
looking good, keep it up.
_________________
Names I used: Da Bes Loser, Perseverance, Loyalty.
|
Sens [R33]
Admiral
Joined: September 27, 2008
Posts: 1020
From: Edge of th...
| Posted: 2011-03-14 11:56
Well done!
_________________
Proud member of the Order of the Gaifen
Founder and former Club chair of the Shigernafy Fan Club
Co-founder of the Doran Judication Comittee
![Email Sens [R33]](http://www1.palestar.com/gamecq/phpBB/images/email.gif)
|
Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
| Posted: 2011-03-14 23:45
Nice.
DS History Channel. 
_________________
... in space, no one can hear you scream.....
|
Entil-Zha the Starkiller
Chief Marshal
Ravenous Wolfpack Clan
Joined: May 02, 2005
Posts: 261
From: Arizona - Where DST is a myth
| Posted: 2011-03-14 23:58
Lets just say it looks like the ICC will take Luyten this day...at long last from their perspective. But the UGTO will be back...
_________________
\"Oh you could do that. And I could nail your head to the table, set fire to it,
and feed the charred remains to the Pak'ma'ra.\" - Capt. John Sheridan
|
Axianda The Royal
Fleet Admiral
Terra Squadron
Joined: November 20, 2001
Posts: 4273
From: Axianda
| Posted: 2011-03-15 08:10
extremely well made but WHY!!! does it have to be a "to be continued"
gimme the battle! 
_________________
- Axi
|
|
English
Deutsch
Nederlands
)
