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 Inconclusive Engagement
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| Methuselah |
Posted on 12-10-2005 22:55
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 Posts: 53 Joined: September 07 2005 |
Excerpt from the private diaries of Jak'Phi Malkai Tsona ...but I didn't expect to see one so soon. We were prepared for it, of course, but at the same time we were unprepared for it. Who expects to encounter a Qwaar-Jet in transit to a forward staging area? Of course we'd seen the briefings about Taiidani capital ships being constructed and sold to the Vaygr, and I suppose that in hindsight this must have been one of the first out of the slips, but as I said. Entirely unprepared. Entirely. Despite its Vaygr crew, it didn't fight like a Vaygr warship, aad I suspect that the Taiidani are providing advisors to 'assist in smoothing over any technical problems which may arise'. Or so my report states. To put it more candidly, I believe the Taiidani are putting their own people aboard for their own reasons. Not having fought a full-scale war in some years, they lack a hard-core of combat veterans which both we and the Vaygr possess. It was travelling light; three flights of Taiidani-built Shamshiir corvettes in close, outriding fighters as a travelling picket. Again, I believe that the complement of strke craft represents the maximum capacity of the CHV which would account for the lack of supporting capital vessels and frigates. We engaged them as per standard orders. Our Lavi-class assault frigates dashed in on a rolling-eight engagement, trying to break the cohesion of the Qwaar-Jet's escort while I ordered the Resolute to 'attract their attention'. Our Blades swept up the vessel on its main axis, aiming for an early strike on its propulsion systems, one which was thwarted by the surprising manouvreability of the ship. For a big vessel it moves quickly, and I believe that I was allowed to see this through the captain's inexperience with his ship, had he held his swiftness in reserve he may well have surprised me at an inopportune moment. The Qwaar-Jet is certainly more manouvreable that the Al'Khalid, or indeed my flagship, the Deliverance-class Resolute. Regardless, with our two vessels well matched in terms of support craft, and their surprising swiftness and heavy armament I gave to order to disengage. In my younger years I would have held on for longer, but there was nothing to be gained by allowing him to pound my ship into wreckage while his strikecraft kept mine from giving me the advantage. A number of my observations have already been reported to Command, but I shall note a few of them down now for future reference. The Qwaar-Jet was swifter than anticipated, able to bring its numerous railguns to bear easily, and based on this I would advise Hiigaran captains to keep their engagement with a QJE on a horizontal plane, doing their best to keep to one side of that bruiser. Also, I noted its weakness in terms of CIWS and fighter-suppression gear. If this is a Taiidani influence, or simply a future direction of the Vaygr warfighting system I cannot say, but I intend to use strikecraft to overwhelm the beast in my next engagement. I am frustrated. With a little more preparation, I believe we can slay this particular dragon. For future reference, the transponder code of this Qwaar-Jet has been tagged with the designation Tiamat. |
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| TelQuessir |
Posted on 14-10-2005 10:11
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 Posts: 2598 Joined: August 30 2005 |
Great stuff as usual! This counts as a short story for Manual II. I'm doing similar things. |
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