A sathar light cruiser, detected three days ago by a pair of patrolling militia assault scouts, was engaged today by the full force of the Minotaur militia after a long, high-g boost to intercept the alien vessel. A thirty minute battle ended with the complete destruction of the sathar ship while only one of the militia assault scouts sustained some minor hull damage.

An anonymous source has confirmed that Spacefleet has assets in systems beyond Theseus that alerted the militia to the possibility of the sathar vessel arriving in system. Our thanks go out to those brave souls risking their lives to watch the sathar movements.

Victoria Sorensen, StarPlay News

Background

After the failed attempt by the frigate to chart the course into the Theseus system, the sathar dispatch a light cruiser (the remains of SBF-J2) to attempt to complete the route.  Detected after three days of deceleration by two patrolling militia assault scouts, the light cruiser attempts to evade and jump out of the system before it can be attacked.

Unsure of their ability to take on the light cruiser by themselves, the two militia assault scouts report in and begin to trail the light cruiser while the rest of the militia ships begin a high-g boost in an attempt to intercept the light cruiser before it can jump out of the system.  After three days of grueling pursuit, the militia ships overtake the light cruiser and engage.

Order of Battle

Minotaur Militia

• 4 Assault Scouts
• 1 Frigate
• 1 Destroyer

Sathar

• 1 light cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The militia are the attackers in this fight and will move first.  The militia deploy in three groups: the destroyer and frigate together in the middle to take the light cruiser on directly while the assault scouts deploy into two pairs on the wings to make strafing attacks with their assault rockets.  They start a speed 20.

Out gunned, the light cruiser plans to focus on the smaller faster ships in an attempt to disable the militia ships enough to escape.  The light cruiser also starts at speed 20.

Turn 1

The assault scouts accelerate to speed 25 while the destroyer accelerates to 23 and the frigate only accelerates to 22 allowing the destroyer to catch up to it.  The sathar light cruiser accelerates to speed 23 and veers to starboard to go after the upper flight of assault scouts.  All ships are out of range this round.

Turn 2

The militia ships continue to accelerate and close on the light cruiser from multiple directions with the assault scouts accelerating to a speed of 30 and the capital ships accelerating to a speed of 26.  The light cruiser fires all of its beam weapons at the lead assault scout in the upper group.  It only hits with the electron battery but induces a fire on the small ship.

The militia ships fire everything they have except their rocket batteries as they are out of range.  The light cruiser fires two ICMs at each of the incoming torpedoes both of which are intercepted by the ICMs.  The gunners on the destroyer are having a bad day with none of their weapons connecting.  The frigate scores hits with both its laser cannon and battery knocking out the cruiser’s proton battery and slightly damaging its hull (6%).  The four assault scouts only connect with one of their laser batteries damaging the cruiser’s hull (10%) but three of the assault rockets slam home knocking out 20% of the cruisers hull integrity, it’s electron battery, and a third of it’s engine capability.

Unable to bring its disruptor cannon to bear, the sathar light cruiser pulls a turn to port, accelerates to a speed of 25, and fires broadside at the militia ships.  It fires a torpedo at the frigate, a rocket battery at one assault scout, and its laser battery at the other assault scout.  Defensively, the militia ships fire their energy weapons again with the destroyer and frigate also firing rocket batteries at the cruiser. 

Both militia rocket batteries connect damaging the hull (22%) and its combat controls systems.  The frigate hits with its laser cannon knocking out the cruiser’s disruptor cannon while the destroyer with its two batteries, damaging the hull (10%) and knocking out the electron screen. The assault scouts connect with two of their laser batteries taking out the torpedo launcher and scratching the hull (1 HP).  The cruiser misses with all of its weapons.

Turn 3

The militia ships continue to pursue the carrier with the capital ships slowing to speed 23 and the assault scouts slowing to speed 25.  They continue to stay outside of rocket battery range which limits the heavily damaged cruiser to just its laser battery.  The fire on the assault scout knocks out its laser battery.  The cruiser fires at the scout with the fire hitting it but only slightly damaging the hull (1 HP). 

Once again the militia ships fire all their energy weapons and the scouts fire their assault rockets.  Given the damaged state of the cruiser, the capital ships elect not to fire torpedoes.  With no torpedoes incoming, the cruiser elects to fire an ICM at each of the assault rockets but it doesn’t make any difference as three of the AR impact the cruiser while one goes off course.  The militia ships also hit with one laser cannon and two laser batteries.  The assault rockets take out the cruisers stasis screen and ICM launcher while the laser cannon takes out the laser batteries take out 13% of the cruises hull (leaving it with only 4% hull integrity and damage its navigation control system.

The navigation control damage causes the cruiser to pull to starboard.  Amazingly, the heavily damaged cruiser holds together through the turn but is then obliterated by the laser fire from the militia ships before it has a chance to get a shot off.

Final repairs

The scout manages to get the fire out immediately but its hull damage will require a day in the shipyard to repair.

Lessons Learned

The sathar cruiser really didn’t have a chance in this one against the full militia roster.  Its only real hope was to get lucky and damage the engines on several of the ships to allow it to even the odds a bit and get away but that didn’t happen.  Unfortunately, it was detected in the system while it was still decelerating to jump back out which greatly increased the chance that the militia, with their faster ships, could catch it. Had it been detected outbound, it would have either gotten away or, if the militia decided to press their luck, only had to engage to the two assault scouts.