Rogue Trader, the tales of Tallis Saro -The Engagement over Gravin
Corvax Ascendent
Engineseer Prime – Luna M100168
Lancer Gunner
Battle report for the initial confrontation at Gravin – Forge world in the Seycelids.
A week after the Chaos Tech-Marine was taken down in the ships ‘lost barracks’, with an Ork Kommando on board and the Astropath Choir Master Omar behaving even more oddly than usual, (it’s great timing to have to confront the Dom’Varr Hilesh.)
Mission objective: to assess the Dom’Varr Hilesh presence around the planet Gravin and if possible take out any ships in the system – intelligence suggests one has been in dry dock for some time.
The Dom’varr Hilesh do not appreciate our interest in their trading monopoly, as our previous encounters with them have proved. We have however had some success, with victories on Bodom’s Loss, in halting their harvest of medical plants and having defeated two of their smaller trading ships.(what happened after those victories was an illogical waste of resources and life.)
Gravin is in perpetual civil war both fuelled and controlled by the Dom’Varr Hilesh, both sides providing the DVH with armaments amongst other things.
Further notes: – Rogue Trader Captain Talis Saro, in hiring the Xeno Tyrolians offered them in what I can only assume was a moment of sheer human madness, which was possibly swayed by the Tyrolians being 8 foot tall with power swords to match, – a choice of planet in the Seycelids as payment once they were taken, unsurprisingly they choose the Forge world Gravin, so they have a particular interest in the outcome. The Tyrolians are only in it for the honour and glory, and will kill us all if we are found unworthy. Their Captain, known as The Sharon promised this when we (rightly or wrongly) hired them at Slice Flesh Station.
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Fleet jump successful, The Corvax Ascendant, The Spear of St Delphine (our transport ship), the Honour of Arton (Tyrolians) and the Breakwater (a Q ship) re-entered normal space together (at Corvax speed, 8hrs out of system), thanks to Navigator Loka.
Note: the Spear of St Delphine does not take part in the battle as it is transporting value items.
The Breakwater, as an unknown ship with no previous connection with Tallis Saro, was used to scout the system to report on numbers of DVH ships, Gravin ships and orbital platforms, (the 2 latter potentially neutral dependent on who controls them,) via a predetermined radio code (each sentence was to be the length on the determined subject). It has been assumed the planetary sensors would be working, therefore all ships from the fleet jump would be noticed, the cover story being the fleet jumped while fleeing from a pirate attack in the Juno system, hopefully made more convincing as the Breakwater was still damaged from our previous encounter with the Ork ship at Slice Flesh Station.
The Breakwater’s journey into system stopped after about 8 hrs in (at their speed) after being hailed by the planet, shortly after Captain Lucen reported:
2 DVH ship (one in dry dock): 8 Gavin ships:15 Orbital platforms
The Corvax Ascendant and the Honour of Arton moved into system, leaving the Spear of St Delphine behind. The unidentified DVH vessel in orbit moved to scan the Breakwater. Once in range of the planetary communications the Corvax Ascendant was immediately hailed by both factions on Gravin.
The visible division of the civil war was clear, to the left of the equator was the Southern Mega Corporations and the right the Northern Conglomerate.
Note: The war I understand was started by the Northern Conglomerate (NC) but the South Mega Corporations (SMC) currently prevail, the DVH provides trade to both factions and it is to their advantage that the war continues. The second DVH ship was in one of the NC dry docks.
The NC chairman Julian Tavas, who had expensive augmentations and various systems wired in, cordially invited all ships to utilise expert repair skills in their dry dock. He explained there was a civil war on the ground but a truce was in effect in orbit around the planet, the NC made no attempt to scan any of the ships with us but it appeared the NC did not having control of their long range sensors and several orbital defence platforms were not in working order.
The SMC was represented by a dark skinned gentleman, who did not introduce himself (however neither did captain Saro), he also had an interesting 12 plug strip arranged around his head. He invited the Captain to enjoy the technological marvel of the SMC and not to bother speaking to the perfidious NC, who attacked them first but had been beaten back by the SMC’s glorious ground troops, They confirmed the orbital truce had been brokered by the DVH, we detected sensor sweeps from the SMC sensor arrays.
The Breakwater began to power up its engines again, having stopped on initial contact, the Corvax Ascendant and Honour of Arton continued to accelerate forward the planet, when in range the DVH ship scanned both ships and immediately broadcast this message:
“All ships, approaching is Talis Saro a war criminal and banned by the DVH… factions of Gravin, we require you to fight in accordance with our contracts or your planet will be cut off from the trade network and your industry will be reduced to nil. Captain Joe Rivian,Out”
The Captains reply was“This is Captain Talis Saro of The Corvax Ascendant……to all Gravin vessels, we do not have a quarrel with you or your planet, our quarrel IS with the Dom’Varr Hilesh, we ask you do not get involved in this conflict otherwise we will defend ourselves”.
The NC was first to contact us, they had a duty to defend any ship in their dry dock, if trade stopped people on planet would die, the Captain made it clear our ships would only fire if shot at first.
SMC also made contact again, they had recognised our ship from previous reported encounters with the DVH from their scans and only wanted to know one thing…..why we had a Xeno vessel in the fleet? The reply was that allies were required to fight the DVH. The SMC wanted proof that trade would continue without the Dom’Varr Hilesh and they would make a show things. (This was hardly the time for trade negotiations but they had a point, trade was their only function. When the time comes to get involved in this civil war, it’s going to be hard to choose the better side)
Talis Saro checked in with the Breakwater and the Honour of Arton, to confirm they knew that it was only the Dom’Varr Hilesh vessel that was the target here, the HOA immediately shot torpedoes straight towards the planet
We continued to move towards the planet matching the speed of the now moving Breakwater, to get into range of the DVH vessel, which was on a diagonal course to us. The DVH ship with its Sun spear weapons got to fire first, as it had the greatest range, aimed at the Breakwater, who deftly performed defensive manoeuvres to avoid the bolts of plasma.
HOA locked onto the DVH ship and fired but also missed, its torpedoes fail to change course and the SMC’s closest orbital platform destroyed the incoming torpedoes.
At our macro battery controls Macarius’ shot disabled the DVH’s shields and I was able to put a clear hole through the ships hull plating with a clean lance strike. Meanwhile the NC, in a show of force powered up their ships and platforms but did nothing else. The DVH ship which only had dorsal weapons, concentrated its fire on the damaged Breakwater, it did further visible damage on the hull plating from a lance strike.
The Honour of Arton unexpectedly turned on the planet but as if an internal fight was going on hesitated and didn’t fire. As expected this event lead to the SMC contacting Tallis Saro, who explained the torpedoes were out of control, the SMC warned if any ship came closer to the planet they would not hesitate to fire the defensive lasers, this was relayed to the Tyrolian vessel. The Charon was angry that many warriors had been killed and these humans were idiots. The Tyrolians do not fear their puny human weapons but Captain Saro was able to calm the Sharon and persuade him that was a foolish course of action at this moment (Talis Saro’s face palm as soon as the communication was over said it all)
The Corvax ascendant turned to a better position and fired at the slightly damaged DVH ship, both macro battery and lance strikes hit, after the light from the hits subsided, a good amount of damage was visible down one side. As before the DVH concentrated fire on the Breakwater but their shields held for now. (Assessment: Going well but a 3:1 ship ratio should have been easy and we haven’t yet completely ruined relations with either faction on Gravin, even with the best efforts of the Tyrolians)
Out of nowhere the HOA was hit by 3 separate Lance strikes, from the DVH vessel in dry dock from extreme long range, (it was an impressive and unexpected sight and made us sit up and take notice of the Sun spear batteries mounted on each side)
HOA now had a problem, they had to move towards the plant or turn towards the DVH ship in dry dock. The Charon wisely decided to turn, head away from planet and take the chance, to get as much distance between it and the second DVH, (which was wrongly assumed to be have non-functioning weapon systems as it was in dry dock. How wrong can you be!)
While that was happening the Breakwater had manoeuvred right up behind the first DVH ship and fired at point blank range, a number of the shots rocked the ship and a scan showed it to have several failed systems.
The SMC continued to track the HOA with its guns. The Corvax Ascendant had manoeuvred so it was at right angles to the DVH ships mid section.
Tallis Saro called for this ship to be taken out as the other was ……..unpleasant to say the least and we were there to send the DVH a message.
Our Macro battery inflicted further visible damage to the DVH ships systems and my shot with the lance was a lucky one, it was just in the right place to slice the bridge clean off the ship, the 2 sections floating away from each other in almost slow motion.
Command received a further communication from the NC, they were still obliged to defend their clients ship in dry dock if required in this stand off.
Thinking better of taking on the NC and the second DVH ship, Tallis Saro ordered the Corvax Ascendant, the breakwater and the Honour of Arton to manoeuvre out of range of the dry dock vessel and orbit the planet,(or what we thought was safe distance).
The DVH ship in dry dock got a lucky shot in on the HOA, it took a small amount of damage just before actually getting out of range.
A scan on the way past showed the dry dock vessel had no warp core currently, so there was plenty of room for sun lance and sun spear broadside batteries. It would be incapable of leaving the system without being towed – after some discussion we have come to the conclusion that it is being up graded from a frigate to a heavy cruiser, possibly by adding a super structure with the warp engine on. Whatever Talis Saro does next, it needs to be done by the time this ship is finished.
The Omnissiah protects………even when the flesh is strong.
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