Issued: Draconis, 3199:032.00:00
Task Force 72 was despatched to the Draconis system to investigate the loss of the destroyer ESS Delhi, and possible Berserker activity insystem.
Initial investigations were unable to find any trace of Berserker activity, and it became suspected that the Draconians had captured the Delhi and released a nuclear charge to attempt to cover the action.
The fleet was subsequently approached by a Draconian military vessel, the ISS Invincible. The Invincible subsequently attacked elements of TF72 in a completely unprovoked manner, and was consequently disabled and boarded.
In return for this act of piracy in International Space, elements of TF72 carried out a retaliatory attack upon Draconian military installations on the major inhabited planet. Precision low orbital bombardments were made against an airfield outside the capital and the Imperial military headquarters. This was accompanied by the landing of a small force of Imperial Marines, who entered the Imperial headquarters and placed senior members of the Draconian government in custody.
Imperial casualties sustained were: one Marine slightly injured. Some members of the Draconian Imperial Guard were also injured in a brief firefight, some seriously. A fighter attack was also made by the Draconians against the incoming Marine transports. This was intercepted and destroyed by Imperial Pacifiers operating from the ESS DiGriz. Five Draconian fighters were downed without loss. Draconian casualties arising from Imperial ground strikes are not known at this time. However, it must be stressed that only purely military targets were attacked, and it is anticipated that Draconian civilian casualties will be minimal.
Efforts to discover the fate of the ESS Delhi and her crew are continuing.
Authorised: Rear Admiral Pellew, IN.
Scene: ESS Agamemnon Ops Room
13:25 Shuttle TB1109A: Hello Earther fleet - this is Shuttle TB1109A. We are 4 political prisoners of the evil Krakken regime. We have just escaped from the notorious Black Gulag Prison in the capital. We plead for your help and asylum. We request permission to dock with your big carrier ship.
13:26 Duty Officer ESS Agamemnon: Attention TB1109A. This is Earther Star Ship Agamemnon. Message received. Your trajectory has been logged. Wait one.
[Delay while the ops room consults the Captain.]
13:30 Duty Officer ESS Agamemnon: Attention TB1109A. On achieving stable orbit you are to manoeuvre to the attached co-ordinates and abandon ship. We will pick you up.
13:31 Shuttle TB1109A: Roger Agamemnon.
13:42 Duty Officer ESS Agamemnon: Attention TB1109A. You are deviating from the required course. Please manoeuvre to the required co-ordinates.
13:44 Shuttle TB1109A: Sorry Agamemnon. We are having some difficulty with our control systems.
13:47 Duty Officer ESS Agamemnon: Attention TB1109A. You will cease acceleration. If you have not ceased acceleration or abandoned ship towards the fleet within 20 seconds we will target you as a potentially hostile vessel.
13:47 Shuttle TB1109A: Agamemnon - please don't do that, we are having trouble with our systems - we'll have it sorted out in a few minutes.
13:48 Duty Officer ESS Agamemnon: Attention fire control. Commence main battery targeting on incoming shuttle designation TB1109A. Range 24km, vector +10 / 271 / 005. You may fire when ready.
13:48 Duty Fire Control Officer ESS Agamemnon: Power Control - operational emergency. Max power on conduit 17.
13:48 Duty Power Control officer: Fire Control - roger. Powered up.
13:48 Duty Fire Control Officer: Bridge from fire control. Target acquired by main PAD battery, range 20km. Cleared to fire?
13:49 Captain Rackham: Silly buggers. Fire.
13:49 Duty Fire Control Officer: All hands - firing now.
13:50 Duty Ops Officer: Target destroyed. No escape pods. No survivors.
14:02 JIM9000: Analysis indicates a very much higher than expected proportion of weapons grade uranium in the debris.
Shame about those 'poor innocent political prisoners' then?
From: Rear Admiral Pellew, CinC TF72.
To: Captains, all vessels.
Subject: Next steps, Task Force 72. 3199.032
So, gentlemen, ladies, a brief summary of where we are, now that I've managed to catch up on signals traffic (thanks to Capt Rackham for updating me).
The Draconians still have a 'fleet' in being, with a new 'flagship', which we can fairly safely assume is the Delhi. If the worst we have to face is a destroyer then I'm not too worried: domestic manufacturing capacity looks to be pretty limited. The only worry is exactly how many ships they have. The 'Invincible', when captured, tried to signal a point at the M25, which is obviously where this fleet currently resides. I want continual observation to try and locate them - send out a few sensor drones in a standard search pattern. They can't hide for ever.
Meanwhile, following their little game with the nuclear shuttlecraft, all vessels in-system are to be treated as hostile until proven otherwise.
Well, following our little demonstration, either they will hand over the Delhi and its crew, or they won't. I'm assuming for now that they won't hand it over voluntarily.
If the Delhi is at the M25, a sustained burn outwards by our entire fleet is likely to lead to it running to another system, which would be a very suboptimal outcome. We need to entice it back in somehow. I can't do the maths in my head, but assuming we had a decoy out that the Delhi was heading for, I would have thought that it would be difficult for us to intercept from a standing start in-system. Might we need the fleet back out at the M25 for this to work (and run it like a rerun of the Battle of Flypaper)?
The other question is what they have done with the crew. I'm not sure exactly what naval expertise is available to them (can we have a guess based on interrogation of the Invincible crew?). It may be that they need some or most of the Delhi's officers to help them run the thing. Failing that, they will probably have them somewhere on-planet. I'd like Jim0000 to keep monitoring sigint to see if we have any idea as to if and where they might be keeping such people. We shall of course be asking the 'Emperor' and his cronies to help us out with that, too.
As usual, bright ideas and inspired comments are welcome.
Pellew.