Orion Federation

Part Fourteen

By the year 485 one thing has become painfully obvious. The gas bags REALLY WANT the Archird system back. Every ship the can bypass Ruchba is and they are all headed for Archird. Right now they have nearly 1,000 ships in the Archird system waiting to attack. Hoping that our enemy begins treating Archird much like they did Joseki, that is sit with a large force but not fight, Admiral Greer decides to intercept and destroy as many enemy ships passing through Ruchba as possible. He gets yet another chance to have his fleet hurt the enemy this year as ten more enemy armadas with 160 ships engage the defenders of Ruchba. Once again our forces are victorious, but the increasing strength of the enemy fleets tells very dramatically in this fight as they destroy 87 of our ships in the battle!

In 486 Greer pulls two new armadas to Ruchba hoping to bring them back up to fighting strength and luckily there is no battle here this year. Not only that, there are no battles at all this year and he feels a bit of hope that a period of at leas a semi peace might be beginning. This idea/hope is shattered in 487 when, even after placing his newest and most powerful carrier armada in Archird, the massive fleet there attacks our defenders destroying over 150 of our ships and smashing our entire fleet with few losses of their own! Our colony of Archird II is lost to enemy bombardment.

With this the worst and most devastating defeat in the history of the fleet Admiral Greer is forced to abandon the defense of Ruchba in order to consolidate his defenses at Tefnut. If Tefnut falls, then the next target will be our home system. The two armadas at Archird that did not fight in the battle of 487 are ordered to abandon the Archird system and head towards Tefnut for a final defense. Hoping against hope to find a way to bring th eInaro into the war on our side, Ambassador Williams offers Archird III as a gift to them. Given that we have had to abandon this system, the worst that will happen with this gift is that we lose the world one year early. Ambassador Williams tries desperately to find either a lasting peace with the gas bags, or aid from the other empires in the galaxy. With our fleet crumbling and defenses failing, peace may be our only remaining hope.

Because Tefnut no longer has a mobilization center, reinforcements are forced to be diverted to the Pavone system. Two years later it appears as if the Auarhciniala are pulling back as we gather more and more forces for the defense of Tefnut. Looking over his tactical and strategic situations, Admiral Greer can only pray that this apparent relenting is true.

Sadly, just months after believing that the final war may have been averted, a large enemy fleet arrives over Tefnut. Hoping they might just be passing through being that Tefnut connects two separate portions of the gas bag empire, Geer elects to keep his forces deep inside the system hoping to avoid a fight. Sadly though the enemy fleet is intent on attack our colony here. The resulting battle is yet one more major victory for our fleet as 149 enemy ships are destroyed and our losses are held to a mere 20 ships. Considering losses lately, what was considered terrible losses in men and material is now considered quite a success.

The next year the fight for Tefnut continues as another 10 armadas engage our forces and we destroy another 159 enemy ships losing but 17 of our own this time. Now, in 492 two new armadas, 1 missile and 1 carrier are brought to Pavone and Admiral Greer checks the relative strength of our two fleets. This yields yet more sad and disturbing news. Our enemy, the Auarhciniala have a total of 2,338 ships, nearly the same as the last time we checked, while we are down to a mere 202, a better than 33% reduction from previous levels! Worse yet, between their fleets at Archird and Tefnut, they have 2,061 ships, nearly their entire fleet with more armadas still coming in from our frontier!

Later in 492 there is yet another fight for the control of Tefnut where we destroy another 115 enemy ships losing an irreplaceable 45 of our own! We also learn that the Ruchba system is bombed to death. Their fleets are obviously grouping around our last remaining fortress system protecting the core. Fighting has been a little less intense, but our losses are such that fighting at all will be questionable before too long.

Curiously in 493 they send a mere 11 ships to attack Tefnut, we obligingly destroy them without loss, and at the same time hope that this will signal the end of fighting for a while. Then one year later, pulling two new armadas from reserve, Greer prepares for the day he hopes will never come. Then, like many years before yet another battle forms. However, this time our forces meet with disaster. Every enemy armadas in this fight is filled with the stronger more powerful classes of enemy warship and our entire fleet is destroyed! We lose 168 warships to their 87 and once again our survivors are forced to retreat. This time, they have cut us nearly in half. They can now attack our near core worlds or come straight after our home system.

By 495 everything is feeling hopeless. Greer orders two more armadas from reserve, 1 missile and 1 Carrier to Awenn, but even with this addition, we do not have a full fleet. Even at this rate, it will take a few more years to build another full fleet to fight their horde. When news that Tefnut II is bombed to death, President Winters is forced to consider the unimaginable. She contacts Ambassador Williams and orders him to do what he can, one last time to get us some help.

In 496 with one more carrier armada assigned to Awenn and Tefnut I being bombed, Alicine Winters decides all is lost militarily and orders Ambassador Williams to start gifting our worlds to our allies. Planetary governors are orders to cooperate with the transfer in authority, and the fleet is ordered to hold Awenn as long as possible until all of our remaining worlds (80+) can be safely transferred to the stewardships of our friends. With this last act our president hopes to spare as many lives as possible. For her, her generals, and the government, everything is lost. For the billions of lives lost in the frontier and other world, fleets and armies lost during the war, all is lost. The war is over. Their world and dreams have come to an end.

For those who hope to seek vengeance, there is always that hope that their new leaders will allow them to continue the fight against the gas bags simply wearing new uniforms. Based on promises from the alien ambassadors, those among us who desire revenge will have their opportunity!

So, I lost this one. For a while, I thought I might pull it through, but his fleets were just too large and his obvious industrial capacity was too great for us to overcome. I have not added it up, but I am quite sure we destroyed over 2,000 gas bag ships. However, with these tremendous victories we were still not able to degrade his fleets noticeably at all.

I hope you enjoyed the AAR, and at least for some games, I think this proves that the AI has the ability to really put it to ya.

THE END