Operation: Guadalcanal - The First Battle - Part Two

Posted on Mon Mar 9th, 2020 @ 8:12am by Rear Admiral Carl "Thunderhead" Patterson & Division Admiral Thomas Lasky & Captain Mathis "Payload" Lasky & Department Master Chief Petty Officer Laneli "Gearbox" Lasky PhD & Brigadier General Jorge "Noble Six" Sinclair-Di'Tomasso

Mission: Mission 79: Sound Trumpets! Let Our bloody Colors Wave
Location: Various Locations - Goranar System
Timeline: 1010hrs - Apr 12 2392

K'miras quickly ordered his fighters to back up the Akurian fighters, prioritizing any harm carrying Klingon fighters. Fortunately, his experience dealing with Akurian HARM guided missiles in the fighter corps exercises had taught him and his pilots in how to deal with them, and immediately, his own craft and Akurian craft began actively taking anti HARM techniques. However he couldn't help but notice, they still had some catching up to do, as the Akurian fighters had better ECM than his did. He took note of that so he could bring it up to R&D later, all while studying Akurian ECM techniques. The second problem, however, was the toughness of the Klingon fighters. While his had the maneuverability edge, that was about all they had. Those monster Klingon fighters were far tougher and had much more firepower than his own, so he directed his own forces to be sure to work as a team. Fortunately, supporting fire from the Federation and Akurian long-range anti-fighter missiles really helped out.

Most of 4th brigades EWAC craft were forced to switch to passive sensors, but they were able to provide sufficient warning of a cloaked group of Klingon fighters attempting to flank. For now, they were winning the fighter battle, but this didn't stop the Klingon from fighting stubbornly.

Lasky was watching the starfighter battle develop as he vectored a group of his own fighters go after the cloaked group that had been spotted. "Bombers?"

Torilla Lasky turned her head. "More then likely."

Once the Klingon attack craft knew they were spotted, they proceeded to fire their entire missile payloads from the extreme range of nearly 4 million kilometers, targeting several of the screening destroyers. They then turned tail and ran away from the intercepting fighters, and since they had dropped their payloads they were able to move faster. The extreme range that they had fired their missiles meant multiple missiles ran out of power before they hit, and even more of them had been shot down. However, more than enough missiles had reached their target's, crippling six Federation destroyers and heavily damaging two Akurian ones, while inflicting minor to moderate damage to nine other destroyers.

Patterson calmly ordered several smaller ships to go out and rescue the damaged destroyers, including one which had been almost bisected with both warp nacelles being removed due to weapons strikes.

Meanwhile, Thomas Lasky watched the development. "Hmmm... seems the Klingons have learned some new tricks.."

Kumirae had been taking notes on the effectiveness of the Akurian ECM systems. the akurian Destroyers had just as many missiles shot at them as the Federation ones, but their ECM systems had prevented them from being crippled like the Federation destroyers had. "I think we need to light a fire under R&D's ass to get them to develop strong countermeasure systems of our own, it will certainly help alleviate casualties from massed missile volleys."

Patterson raised an eyebrow. "I'll have a word with them as soon as I get the chance," he responded. "But that might be awhile." however the man pulled a PADD to him and with one hand, he quickly jotted down a note looking into better countermeasures for ships, fighters, and bases to be started as soon as possible.

K'Miras looked as his displays while the akurian fighters began to pursue the retreating enemy fighters. The Klingons had finally figured that trying to fight Federation and akurian fighters while in the missile range of their ships was a good idea.

Meanwhile, in the fight itself, Wukari lost her second drone wingman, she was down to just one with her. She poured weapons fire into the offending Klingon fighter, but the thing didn't easily go down. It wasn't until six fighters from Noble Six's wing came in and concentrated on the Klingon fighter that the thing finally went down.

Sideswipe commented over the radio. "Damn, these things are tough as hell to take down."

Noble Six nodded his head. "Yeah... They have plenty of armor and plenty of speed too." he rumbled. "We need something to counter this."

"Well, look on the bright side," Wicked witch added," These things may be tougher than the Akurian drones, but they don't have very good ECM, so they aren't too hard to hit."

Wukari sighed, thinking just what will happen when the Klingons do get around to addressing that deficiency. Then she added," Well at least they are the ones in retreat."

Noble Six gave voice to his misgivings. "For now.." he rumbled. "We need to tell R&D to cure that.." he added.

Over the com system. Patterson meanwhile heard the comment via the com system. He simply smiled.

K'Miras however, suspected a trap as the Klingons retreated, so he had his fighters hold their position, ordering them not to pursue.

Meanwhile on the IKS Gorkon. Klag smiled as he watched the Federation fighter force sweep around and break off. "Break off with our ships."

"Sir. We have them.." replied his aide.

"Do as I say," Klag responded in a dismissive tone. "The commander is not acting as I expected.." he narrowed his eyes as he watched his aide to go to work in recalling his trap. "Mmmm... Patterson isn't commanding that fighter force... Who is commanding it?"

"Xaixx Garalar sir." came the expected response.

"No.. it isn't," Klag responded in a flat but annoyed tone of voice. "He would have charged at me and I would have killed his entire brigade..." he turned to another officer. "Find out everything you can about the Federation force facing us, makeup, commanders.. everything. Go now!" Klag ordered, his second aide withdrew.

K'Miras gave his next set of orders to his fighters. "Alright, squadrons that are in the greatest need for rearming, go rearm, everyone else, stay on station, for now, we will cycle squadrons out for rearming." He then mentioned to Kumirae and Carl Patterson," Alright, I recommend that we focus on the objective, securing an orbital space around the planet, let's not split our forces chasing cloaked Klingon ships around the system."

Kumirae nodded. "I concur." She didn't like handing the initiative to the Klingons, but they didn't have a lot of choices.

Nevanzi added his two cents. "Alright since my ships are better at dealing with concentrated missile barrages, I'll have them form a perimeter around the Federation ships."

Patterson sighed. "Alright, guys... Eventually, we're going to need to drive the Klingons out once and for all.." he commented. "We don't need to chase Klag around the system... We'll hold Goranar and deal with the troops planetside."

Meanwhile back on the IKS Gorkon. Klag was watching the Klingon force as he narrowed his eyes. "Impressive... Very well. concede the orbital space to the Federation for now... We'll need to supply our troops via other means."

"Whats that sir?"

"How else..?" Klag responded in a sardonic tone of voice. "We have transporters for that... You are an idiot."