Greetings! The following is a narrative battle report for a game I played recently with MBS forum member Ulric the Grey. Enjoy!
The planets of the Vestibius system hung in their orbits around their star. Dozens of large transports clustered around the orbital facilities that wreathed its primary planet, which glowed like a blue-green jewel below them. Hundreds of light craft fretted to and fro, carrying cargo, supplies, people, and even mail to and from the transports. Vestibus was a busy port of call, the midway point between Loak’s Hub and Forge World Armus. Commander Wil Goodenough took in the vast industry from the green-tinged augor displays that surrounded his command throne on the bridge of His Divine Majesty’s light cruiser Ranger, before taking a moment to observe the disciplined work going on around him. As he did so, he did his best to stifle a satisfied smile. He had taken command of Ranger only months before, after her previous captain met a messy and untimely end at the muzzle of a commissar’s bolt pistol. As a result, morale and efficiency of the ship was something of a mess. Since then, though, Goodenough had pushed his crew to their limit, with constant drills, exercises, and devotions. His tactics had produced the desired results; not only was Ranger far more efficient than she had been, but her crew was coming together as a real team. Which was good, because if Admiral Gunthrop, the officer in charge of Imperial Navy forces in the area, was correct, war was coming to the Armus Sub-sector.
“Captain,” the communications watch said,”Vestibus orbital command has cleared us for transit in-system.” “Very well,” Goodenough replied. “Helm, coordinate with Vigourous and match their course to the Flare Region.” The Vigorous, a Dauntless-class light cruiser like Ranger, was the other component of the two-ship Imperial patrol. Goodenough suppressed a grimace as he observed the Vigorous’s clumsily maneuvers on his augor. The captain of the Vigorous was one Commander Nathanius Martin, a old rival of Goodenough’s from their time together at the Fortis Naval Academy, nearly twenty years before. Goodenough found the fact that Martin had achieved command to be distasteful; in Goodenough’s estimation, he was barely competent to lead a platoon of armsmen in a boarding action, let alone one of the Emperor’s warships. The fact that he managed to get as far as he had was no doubt due to his family’s political connections, which probably also explained why the Vigorous had been selected as the lead ship of the patrol. This had the unpleasant side-effect of placing Goodenough and Ranger nominally under Martin’s operational control. To add insult to injury, the sloppy way in which the Vigorous was moving spoke volumes on how poorly Martin had been drilling his crew.Goodenough shook his head; he knew such thoughts had no place on the bridge of a warship, especially one on a mission as important as the one Ranger and Vigorous were pursuing. He could almost hear the disapproving tone of Fleet Commissar Greene, whom he met many years ago on his first fleet assignment. Green had taken the young Goodenough under his wing, and showed the young naval officer what true courage and leadership meant. If there was any consolation to be had, it would be found in the fact that Greene was now assigned to ride herd on Martin as the Ship’s Commissar on Vigourous. Goodenough permitted himself a small, almost predatory smile on that point. He knew that Greene was undoubtedly making life very difficult for the vain and pompous Martin. His own Commissar, a stern man named Markhem, certainly made his life difficult at times.
The two Imperial light cruisers had been in-system for three days already, under what was being announced as a routine patrol of the Loak Passage. However, there was more to their tasking than met the eye. According to a secret annex to their patrol orders, a small group of unidentified vessels, possibly pirates, had been spotted deep in the inner system of Vestibius. Here, in what was known as the Flare Zone, solar activity from the Vestibius star made long-range augur detection of ships difficult. Vigorous and Ranger were therefore tasked to scout out the area, and try to ascertain the truth of the situation. It was the kind of mission light cruisers were built for, and Goodenough relished the opportunity to show what his ship and crew could do.
12 hours later, the two cruisers were finally approaching the boundary of the Flare Zone. Goodenough picked up the small microphone attached to the side of his throne, and pressed a stud on its side that actuated the ship wide voxcasting system. Speaking clearly and confidently, he said “Crew of the Ranger…today, we are undertaking an important task on behalf of the loyal Imperial citizens of the Vestibius system. A suspected band of pirates has been spotted in the Flare Zone, and it is up to us to smoke them out and, Emperor-willing, destroy them. Man Battlestaions!” With that, large alarm klaxons began to wail, and the very air of the ship seemed to hum with frenetic energy as the Ranger’s crew raced to their posts, weapons were loaded, and equipment double-checked. Goodenough was satisfied to see that the runes on the small display panel to his left that indicated the readiness of various parts of the ship went from red, to amber, to green, indicating full battle-readiness, within a few minutes.
Goodenough whispered a short incantation to the Machine Spirits, and pressed the com stud on the armrest of his command chair to activate the Command Link to Captain Martin. After a few seconds of green static, the image on his private screen resolved into Martin’s face. “Ranger is at full battle readiness, sir” Goodenough informed him, per Imperial Navy protocol which demanded that subordinate vessels inform their formation leader of any change in status. Goodenough strained to keep his voice calm and professional. Upon hearing his words, Martin’s face took on a briefly puzzled expression, followed by dawning recognition, then a look of mild panic, as if he had forgotten something. “Very well, Goodenough. Martin out.” The comm screen abruptly went blank. “Throne!,” Martin thought, “has that imbecile really not brought his ship to battlestations yet?”
A mere 30 minutes later, the two cruisers were approaching the second planet in the Vestibius system, a barren rock blasted by heat from the system’s star. With the Vigourous in the lead, the Imperial patrol rounded the planet. Shortly afterwards, the young officer manning the tactical watch on the Ranger announced “Contact!” Goodenough looked to the officer and demanded “Report! What is the classification of the contact?” “Unknown at this time, sir,” the watch replied, “though, the strength of the contact indicates a destroyer-sized vessel.” Goodenough looked over to Commissar Markem and nodded, saying, “I believe we have found our pirates.” Markem’s face betrayed no emotion, but he did give an almost imperceptible nod in return. “Sir!” the sensor watch exclaimed again, “Additional contacts! Three, Five…no, six. Six destroyers have been identified. They are altering course towards Vigourous and accelerating to combat speed!”
Goodenough’s attention whipped to his tactical augor repeater, and he at once saw the danger. The small destroyers were individually no match for an Imperial light cruiser. A whole pack of them were another thing entirely. Their combined fire could absolutely decimate even a line cruiser, with far heavier shields and armor than anything Vigorous or Ranger mounted. The enemy destroyers were streaking in towards the Vigourous, only seconds from their gunnery range. Strangely, the Vigourous seemed to be taking no action; she did not alter course, and she did not launch a torpedo spread to try and break up the charging formation of enemies. Goodenough stabbed the comm stud, establishing the link to Martin once again. Martin’s face reappeared on Goodenough’s screen, looking pale and stressed. “Martin! What are you doing? You have to brace and take evasive action. Your ship can’t take the brunt of that attack unprepared!” Martin looked into the display, his mouth working but no words coming. Clearly, the other captain had been paralyzed by the sudden peril he found himself in. “Damnit man!” Goodenough roared, “You have no time! Brace now!”
“Too late,” Commissar Markhem noted, pointing at the tactical augor. Goodenough forced himself to look, a sick feeling in his stomach. The squadron of destroyers opened up with their weapons batteries, easily overwhelming the Vigorous’s light shielding and gouging deep craters into the light cruiser’s vulnerable hull. Suddenly, the entire forward half of the ship seemed to crumple in on itself. “Vigorous has suffered a bulkhead collapse!” the sensor watch announced somewhat redundantly. “Augors indicate her power core is stable and she remains under control.” Cursing an oath under his breath, Goodenough looked back to his comms window, ready to give Martin a piece of his mind. However, Martin’s face had been replaced by the face of Fleet Commissar Greene. “Commissar” asked Goodenough, “where is Captain Martin?” In reply, Green brought his still-smoking bolt pistol in the field of view of the comm link, and said, “I have dealt with his cowardice. Permanently.Most of the rest of the bridge officers are dead; I have assumed temporary command.” Goodenough’s expression turned grim as he nodded, saying “What is your condition? Can you warp out of here?” Commissar Greene grimaced, but said “We can if you can keep these bastards off us for a few more minutes.” Goodenough noded, saying “By the Emperor, you will have our best.”
Looking at the tactical display, Goodenough could see that the enemy destroyers were coming about to finish off Vigorous. However, in their haste, they had ignored Ranger, and lined up almost perpendicular to her course. Goodenough’s lips pulled back in a wolfish grin. “Full power to engines! Stand by torpedoes!” he ordered. The Ranger surged ahead, drawing abeam of the raiders. “Hard to Starboard! Launch torpedoes!” At the last minute, Ranger turned towards the raiders, now identified on the tactical display as Idolator-class destroyers, and loosed her full torpedo salvo into the enemy squadron. The deadly missiles streaked out, quickly turning two of the Idolators into expanding balls of plasma and debris, and spoiling the attack run of their fellows as they took wild evasive action. “Two down!” exclaimed the sensor watch. “Well done! Reload ordnance, all tubes” Goodenough replied. “Looks like we may have bought Vigorous the time we need.”
Those words turned to ashes on Goodenough’s tongue even as he said them, as two beams of coruscating energy pierced the void and slammed into the Vigorous’s hull. “Lance fire!” reported the sensor watch. “Bearing 083 mark 12. Scanning…new contact! Emperor’s mercy…it’s a Chaos cruiser!” The atmosphere on the Ranger’s bridge seemed to grow several degrees colder. “Damn” muttered Goodenough. “What is the Vigorous’s condition?” he asked. “The Vigorous has gone silent. No major power output detected” came the reply. Goodenough’s mind raced. Clearly,these were no mere pirates. This was a raiding party sent by the Archenemy, and the first confirmed sighting of Chaos forces in the system. Ranger could not hope to stand against such an enemy; that left only one option. Disengage, and get his report back to Admiral Gunthrop.
“Brace for Impact! Navigator, get us out of here. We must report this action to higher headquarters” he ordered. “Sir!” the sensor watch called out, “Enemy cruiser is a void-craft carrier. She is launching enemy bombers, 30 seconds to intercept.” Captain Goodenough nodded grimly, checking his augor display and seeing from the warp jump countdown timer that this would be a very close call. “Very well. Turret crews to full alert!” Gradually, almost painfully slowly it seemed to her crew, the Ranger began to hum with the telltale build-up of energy that preceded a jump to warp. Onward, the Chaos bombers came, crossing the gap between the Ranger and the enemy cruiser at an alarming rate. “Hostile attack craft are entering turret engagement range” announced the tactical officer. As he finished that report, a steady staccato of small blasts could be discerned, almost felt more than heard, as the autocannon turrets that studded Ranger’s hull opened up in a last-ditch attempt to divert or destroy the incoming bombers. The enemy craft had reached engagement range, which meant that any moment the Ranger would be rocked by the impact of their missiles.
Suddenly, the Navigator’s voice rang out, cutting the tension on the bridge like a chainsaw. “Warp engines at full charge. Gellar field stable. Commencing transition to Warp. We commit ourselves to the Emperor’s Mercy,” he intoned. Outside, the space around the Ranger roiled with the arcane energy of the Warp. The ship seemed to be pulled forward into the hellish maw before it, then winked out of reality as it tore into the Immaterium. The missiles launched from the Chaos bombers, which would have easily penetrated the hull of the Imperial light cruiser to cause untold havoc amongst the crew and equipment contained within, crossed paths harmlessly in the empty void where the Ranger had been just an instant earlier.
Once the Ranger was safely at warp, Commissar Markem approached Goodenough’s command throne. Goodenough looked up at him as the Commissar raised an eyebrow and began speaking. “ What do you mean by running away? What of avenging Vigorous? Of Avenging Commissar Greene?” Goodenough’s core iced over at the stern demeanor and harshly demanding tone of the Commissar. Nevertheless, he looked Markhem in the eye and said “I vow before the immortal Emperor that I will. But not today. For now, we must get our report to the Admiral. The fact that the Archenemy is present in Vestibius is vital information that could determine the future of the sector.” At that response, the Commissar nodded in approval saying, “Very good Captain. It pleases me to hear that you have a clear understanding of your priorities. If you had tried to make some sort of foolish last stand, or if your retreat was done out of the concern for your own safety, the consequences would have been…unpleasant.” Goodneough grimaced at that, knowing exactly what the commissar meant by the comment. “I have a feeling this will be a long war, Commissar. There will be time enough for vengeance.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
Good read!