The loss of Chrono-Translation Echelon 3 left Commodore Vardon and Commander Graves with no choice but to sail hard and fast for Esposito’s position at the Secondary Rally Point in mid-ocean. Advising the Senior Captain of the situation, Vardon turned the remaining Mistweaver fleet south and set off.
The flight of Mistweaver tested the nerves of the Antarctican crews to the highest level. It was fortunate that Vardon and her compatriots had kept calm under the extreme stress and maintained the standard order of evacuation. As a result, although the Mistweaver fleet and its aerial cohort was left with only a quarter of the force strength, virtually all was composed of either undamaged or only lightly damaged craft.
Nonetheless, the speed of their flight strained even the sturdy Antarctican powerplants, and with good reason. The harassment of the fleet by Russian aircraft from both Kamchatka and Alaska was virtually constant. Although the fleet’s ships suffered little damage from the enemy strikes, Vardon knew that they were on the edge of catastrophe.
Despite the lack of immediate pursuit by sea, the weakened Mistweaver force would by no means have a straight run to freedom. Vardon’s flotilla underwent several other brushes with Russian naval patrol forces from units of the 55th Sea Battle and 41st Patrol Brigades, engaging numerous enemy vessels.
Although these skirmishes led to little telling damage on either side, every fight threatened to delay Vardon and her fleet by a few more precious hours.
ALLIES OF CONVENIENCE
Although shaken, Semyonovich was more concerned about consolidating his primary fleet for continued operations against
the Blazing Sun forces on Russian territory than he was with trying to chase down a fleeing enemy with resources he could ill-afford to spare.
However, he was not content to let them go unhindered. He wired Blomqvist’s headquarters at Archagelsk-Novy, informing him fully of what had transpired. He also gave orders to Vice-Admiral Fyodor Stark, the senior naval commander in Alaska, to draw together a flotilla from the available units based there and sail to intercept the fleeing Covenant forces from the east. “We need to turn their speed against them,” his message to Blomqvist and Stark on January 6th read. “We cannot chase them down. Instead they must come to us!”
Semyonovich then made one last move – he informed the American high command directly of what had transpired; that Covenant forces were at large in the north Pacific and constituted a threat to Grand Coalition operations in the region at a crucial time.
The Russian admiral’s intentions were twofold; to enlist American aid against another opponent and to use that opponent to deflect growing American curiosity about what was going on in the Russian Far East.
Of course, he could not have known just how enthusiastically his proposal would be greeted by the American military command. The Americans were as secretive about their hostile aims towards the Covenant as the Russians were about their Far Eastern predicament.
Nonetheless, within hours, Vice-Admiral Duckworth had been ordered to direct the 3rd Carrier Group and its escorts to ‘render assistance as required to the forces of our Russian associates in hunting down the pirates of the Covenant in the north Pacific.’
Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide
PART 10PACIFIC HEAT
PACIFIC CYCLONEThe remnants of Mistweaver race southwards from Petropavlovsk towards their last translocation point, with a Russian fleet in hot pursuit. Blazing Sun and American forces are also drawn into the area as all sides join battle in desolate northern waters. Meanwhile, far to the south, the FSA Ranger forces join with their Britannian allies to open a new front in the Solomon Islands. However, a notorious legend apparently resurfaces, with potentially
By January 7th, therefore, three separate fleets were converging on the same featureless region of water several hundred miles south of the Aleutians. Much to Commodore Vardon’s dismay, although actual attacks by Russian aircraft ceased towards the end of the 7th her flotilla found itself unable to shake off the dogged Russian aerial scouts for more than a few hours at a time.
“I fear we may not be able to make the Rally Point without further action against one opposing force or another”, she related in her message to Captain Esposito that day, as Mistweaver’s ships and aircraft scythed south-east. “You must be ready to respond to any calls for assistance. The gates must be kept open.”
Esposito himself had not been idle during this time, confronted as he was by the challenge of keeping his force concealed in mid-ocean without recourse to movement – for any movement of the Callimachus would throw off the pre-set co-ordinates for returning to Hooke’s Reach.
His only defence was a number of small barges equipped with Camouflage Generators that had been part of the specialist equipment sent along for his force. Even these had to be employed carefully, for they had only limited endurance before requiring re-setting – one reason as to why they had not been allocated to the Mistweaver force proper.
So far luck had been with him, with only the occasional scare as a stray aircraft or transport flew overhead – Esposito surmised that these units were on their way to Hawai’i. Unfortunately, the Blazing Sun would not remain unaware of the captain’s tenuous position for very long.
ON THE HUNT
For, as Mistweaver raced on and Russian and American forces, with their own reasons but a united cause, strove to catch them, the commanders of ‘Musashi’ Division were also becoming aware that something strange was going on in the region.
Totally unaware of any Covenant presence, Rear-Admiral Masahiro of 4th Naval group at Midway was concerned at the movements of the American and Russian forces which seemed to him, and Fujiwara in Oahu, to be signs of a possible combined attack on Midway.
Masahiro petitioned Fujiwara for leave to form a strike group from the forces of 4th Naval and Aerial group based in Midway to mount a strike on the Americans before they either attacked Midway or attempted to put greater pressure on the Hawaiian theatre’s northern supply routes. Assured that his forces had now been able to stabilise the situation in Hawai’i itself, Fujiwara assented to the plan.
So confident was Masahiro in his decision that he had already made preparations, and within 24 hours of Fujiwara’s acceptance, on January 7th, a combined Blazing Sun naval and aerial task force, under Masahiro’s own command, had sailed north from Midway. As of that date, no fewer than four separate fleets, only vaguely aware of the presence of some of the others, were now roaming the same desolate ocean.
SAVAGE SEAS, SAVAGE SKIES
All of the fleets involved, even the reduced Covenanters, had substantial reserves of naval airpower available. Even Stark’s flotilla included one of the Far East Fleet’s Kostroma Class carriers, the Velikiy Kniaz.
With so many scout aircraft flying from so many different carriers in an area becoming increasingly small, it was inevitable that contacts would eventually be made. On January 10th, aircraft from the Velikiy Kniaz made contact with Mistweaver force, just as it rendezvoused with Esposito’s outer picket ships. Skirmishes between the White Navy Interceptors and the massed drones launched by the two Covenant carriers lasted for several hours, and would prove to be the opening act of a battle that would last more than two days.
To Vardon’s horror, Esposito reported on the same day that the Callimachus Orb of Chrono-Translation Echelon 4 was suffering from technical faults. The machine’s crew were working ceaselessly, but the Senior Captain reported that a further delay of at least twenty-four hours was likely.
It seemed like there was no choice but to stand and fight, to cause enough disruption to their enemies so that if it proved necessary to have to escape by conventional means, they could gain a head start. However, Vardon was relieved that she had a working fleet to employ once more, now that Esposito’s reserve detachment was available.
The aerial engagements intensified throughout January 12th as more and heavier Russian and American aerial units began to strike at Mistweaver’s forces. The sky was filled with great cloud formations, and aircraft of all sides stalked each other through these towering formations.
Russian Interceptors and American naval fighters dived down upon drone formations, only to have them scatter and then retaliate from all directions, guided by ‘pilots’ ensconced aboard armoured warships leagues away. Graceful Icarus skyships tailed their brutal Russian-built cousins through gigantic agglomerations of clouds, dwarfing the machines. Salvoes of shells and hissing energy beams streaked back and forth across the skies.
The swirling engagement continued all through the day, with the Covenant units desperate to keep their opponents away from the vital Callimachus. Concealed by camouflage generator barges working in shifts, technicians struggled with the nightmarishly complicated innards of the Orb’s’ Generators.
The following day, the engagements between the warships of both sides began. Stark’s fleet, benefitting from the best aerial guidance, found the Antarcticans first. However, it quickly became clear that, unlike at Petropavlovsk where she had found it necessary to close the range for her attempts to capture her chosen target, this time Commodore Vardon was determined to keep the enemy at arms’ length. Preserving her forces was the commander’s top priority, and she had seen too much of the Russian gunnery to risk closing.
Stark’s fleet therefore found the battle frustrating in the extreme. “Again and again, they would close with us, slicing great chunks of ship and crew away,” the Russian commander recounted. “Only to rush back out of range when we made any attempt to follow. It was like trying to bring the Pacific wind itself to battle.”
In truth, neither fleet suffered much damage in these early exchanges. The long reach of the Antarctican energy cannons was mitigated by the immensely heavy multiple layers of armour cladding the heavier Russian ships, while the long range Russian bombardment weapons did not possess the accuracy to consistently strike the weaving Covenant capital craft. What hits struck home were more often than not warded away by highly efficient shielding, much to the relief of their crews.
However, for the light forces of both sides, matters were much more ferocious. The Covenant sailors quickly came to respect the unusual circular frigates of the Russian Patrol Brigades. Their formidable firepower and extreme agility made them a match for even the swift Tertiary Echelon vessels of the Mistweaver force. This deadly game of aquatic ballet would see on each side many light ships of various types crippled or sunk. The sea around them churned with torpedo trails, shell splashes and plunging spigot rounds.
As night fell on January 12th, Vardon’s lookouts sighted more warships on the western horizon. Some of them were quite obviously American, with their squat hulls sitting between tall side paddlewheels. A sense of doom fell over the Covenant sailors. Esposito’s latest report stated that several more hours at least would be needed to conclude repairs.
But fickle providence chose to smile upon the Antarcticans once again, for the Americans did not arrive alone. Air-General Parkes, the senior American officer, later recalled his frustration:
“I saw our latest wave lift off from the decks of my flagship. For some reason the Covenanters weren’t running away, but insisting on standing up to the Russkie ships and planes. No matter – while they butted heads, we could pick those varmints off. It’d be fish in a barrel, we thought. No such luck.
The torp squadron had barely lifted off when tracer fire ripped across ‘em from port. Three blew up like firecrackers, and a swarm of bogies tore over my bridge low enough that I almost ducked. Suns! Our aims changed in a flash.”
Mistweaver’s unexpected saviour was Masahiro’s task force from ‘Musashi’ 4th combined Naval and Aerial groups. Following up the waves of fighters and light bombers came four gyros of the 6th Scout Group, hammering at the American naval craft and slower airships with equal abandon.
Masahiro, aboard the Assault Carrier Shingen, had sailed his fleet hard and fast on an interception course for the Americans. Thanks to the enemy’s focus on searching the seas ahead of them, ‘Musashi’s’ scout planes had managed to shadow the Americans undetected.
The newly arrived Blazing Sun forces had, as their commander later recounted, “an embarrassment of targets.” However, with the Russians and Covenanters fully engaged, he chose to focus on the American forces, as they posed the most direct threat to the Empire’s present and future position on Hawai’i.
Unlike the Covenanters, the Blazing Sun forces, well-versed in night-fighting, had no hesitation in closing with the Americans, and their naval forces clashed much more quickly, due in large part to the speed advantage the Blazing Sun vessels had over their American counterparts.
The battle continued all through the night of the 12th to the 13th of January, and devolved into what seemed to be many ship-to-ship actions, as individual craft hammered at each other at close ranges. At least, this was what happened between the American and Blazing Sun forces, as they duelled with gusto. Vardon’s fleet and Graves’ aerial forces continued to lead the Russians to and fro like a matador baiting an enraged bull.
The night saw some spectacular casualties. The American cruiser Dupree was almost blown in half by the Shingen after inadvertently crossing her bows to avoid a massed torpedo salvo from 4th Naval group’s 3rd Cruiser Squadron. The elusive Icarus CAS Lamplighter, which had survived Petropavlosk wholly unscathed, finally ran out of luck, blasted from the sky with all hands by Russian gunships as she passed overhead and was illuminated by their searchlights.
As dawn began to break, Vardon finally received the news she was longing to hear – the Callimachus was operational once more. Ordering all Covenant ships and aircraft to move within transit distance, for there was no time to assume proper translocation aspects, the Custodian Commodore ordered the activation of the Orb’s emergency mass recall programme after a fifteen minute countdown.
The resulting spectacle was later recounted by General Parkes, who witnessed it as his Sky Fortress Tornado was beset by Blazing Sun gyros:
“An almighty flash lit up the whole horizon, like a second sunrise opposite the true one. A great dome of brilliant light burst forth. I saw the darkened shapes of ships, aeroplanes, even heavy flying engines as it engulfed them. And then...they were gone, simply gone. The air seemed to shudder, shaking even the Tornado and throwing planes about like confetti.
I saw the surface of the sea heaving, like water in a basin that’s been kicked. I heard later that whole ships below were drawn off course by a few degrees in that great heave. What power did the Covenant have, to shift an entire fleet who knew where? I still think of it now, and even after all the ruin and destruction that I’ve seen of war, that sight, that flash, stays with me the most vividly.”
Vardon’s defence and the struggles of the Chrono-Translation engineers had paid off. The enormous emergency transit flare had caught all but a few stray drones, and encompassed all of Mistweaver’s remaining units. The great heave in the sea was caused by the immense displacement of translated seawater along with the war engines.
The disappearance of the Covenant fleet left all the remaining combatants in a state of utter confusion, particularly the Russians, whose gun crews were left staring at empty sights and in some cases, shelling targets that were no longer there. In many instances, large numbers of gunners and crewmembers, who had been observing enemy targets when the incident occurred, suffered from temporary blindness from the effects of the flash, severely reducing their combat-effectiveness.
Of the forces involved, it was Masahiro’s Blazing Sun flotilla that regained the initiative. Furthest from the flash, and with his ships and aircraft maintaining relatively tight formation, his fleet remained the most cohesive. However, he recognised immediately that his forces, without the Covenanters to distract the enemy, would be seriously outmatched should both the Russian and American fleets turn on them.
The Rear-Admiral ordered the laying of smoke as his squadrons began executing the sharp battle turn-away barely twenty minutes after the spectacular Antarctican vanishing act. He also requested further long range aerial units, in particular heavy bomber wings, to scramble immediately from Midway in order to ward off pursuit.
As the Blazing Sun forces broke away, General Parkes found himself in a quandary. Many of his more aggressive staff advised a pursuit of the retreating ‘Musashi’ forces. However, with his own assets badly mauled, especially in terms of the numbers of aircraft available to 3rd Aerial Carrier Group, he felt this to be inadvisable – any approach on Midway would undoubtedly be faced with overwhelming airpower.
Instead, he ordered aerial and naval units to regroup, and requested to Stark that their fleets should reform jointly for the journey. Admiral Stark, with many incapacitated crew and a number of ships badly damaged and taking on water, assented.
That was not the end of the tribulations for the combined fleets, which sustained three attacks by Blazing Sun bomber wings before moving beyond their range of operations. Although between them, the Russo-American forces sustained only five larger ships sunk, the Russian light forces and both fleet’s aerial assets had been badly mauled, with some squadrons aboard the Tornado especially no longer battleworthy at all. At reduced speed, the combined fleet returned to safer northern waters, reaching Archagelsk-Novy by January 18th.
Masahiro’s fleet lost no large warships, although every single major Blazing Sun aerial and naval unit had suffered damage ranging from light to extensive. The gunship Tama had to be taken under tow after two days of travel, when her engines ceased to function. Like the Russians, the main casualties had been amongst the fleet’s lighter forces, especially the frigate squadrons which had mounted close-range attacks on the Americans. No fewer than eight frigates and two destroyers were damaged or sunk during the course of those attacks.
Masahiro’s aircraft contingents had also been hammered as they pressed home their attacks. Like Parkes, very few of his forces’ conventional aircraft remained operational, with even those that made it back to safety on carrier decks damaged utterly beyond repair, with several falling to pieces the moment they touched down.
The arrival of the surviving Mistweaver forces back in the vicinity of Hooke’s Reach was as spectacular in its own way as their departure from the north Pacific had been. Mechanist First Class Vincent DuLac was one of those keeping watch from Ryker’s Standpoint when, on January 14th, the remaining vessels of the raiding force had began to manifest:
“Normally, the translocation process is slow and steady. First the focal Orb appears and then those units it takes along for the journey appear individually or in small groups, sailing or flying
steadily outwards into allocated holding positions around the focal point, so that they can be easily accounted for.
Not so with an Emergency Recall. A piercing glow filled the sky, emanating from water level as the Orb appeared, shining like a second sun. The air and water churned as displaced materials manifested first, sending large waves crashing down upon the shores before Cordell’s Standpoint and washing vigorously against the islet beneath us.
Then the Mistweaver fleet appeared, in what seemed a great pulse of ships and flying machine flaring into existence, scattered all about and facing every which way. Horns and sirens sounded as some vessels collided with harsh crunching noises that echoed across the waters to us on Ryker’s Standpoint. My comrades and I exchanged glances, our expressions grim. It would take us days to sort through the tangle.”
DuLac was not exaggerating, for the mass of Mistweaver’s naval forces especially was chaotic. Five collisions were recorded, but the most spectacular consequence of the emergency translocation occurred upon Vardon’s own flagship. The Deliverance From Darkness reappeared with a Tertiary Naval Echelon frigate sitting on her decks, its prow facing aft, wedged firmly between the great sets of vertical drone launch rails that towered above the carrier’s hull!
Mistweaver had ended in failure, and the entire operation had cost some three hundred lives – a steep price for the Covenanters. However, Vardon and Graves had nonetheless managed to bring the majority of their forces home again successfully, although many of the raiding force’s ships and heavy aircraft would require extensive repairs.
The Free Australians had gotten off remarkably lightly, with only one cruiser, the Price of Liberty, suffering crippling damage during the course of the raid. The most expensive material loss to the Covenant had been the two Callimachus Orbs – for the machine of Chrono-Translation Echelon 4, though it survived more or less intact, had completely burned out its generator array with the strain of the emergency translocation, its infinitely intricate mechanisms nothing more than a great heap of deformed cogs and fused cables.
RANGER IN THE INDIES
While ‘Cogent Paradigm’ was assessing the losses of Mistweaver, their erstwhile opponents of the previous month, the American forces of the Ranger fleet, had entered battle with new opponents far to the west of Hooke’s Reach; the Blazing Sun defence forces holding the southern flank of Imperial territory in the Solomon Islands.
After their withdrawal from Hooke’s Reach, the reduced Ranger fleet and their somewhat humbled commanders had continued to sail west, counting the costs of the abortive High Jump assault, and consolidating their forces for their final posting at the end of their long voyage.
Vice-Admiral Rawlins in particular had engaged in much soul-searching during the remainder of the journey to Britannian New Zealand. His obsession with the conflict over Hooke’s Reach had played a large role in the extension of High Jump beyond its original scope. He therefore resolved to act with far greater caution in the prosecution of Ranger’s operations in the East Indies.
A fair number of Ranger fleet’s captains had cast suspicious eyes back towards Hooke’s Reach ever since their departure. However, although scout patrols and aircraft had reported a number of suspected Covenant vessels shadowing the fleet’s progress, no further offensive actions against the fleet were carried out, and it was with substantially improved morale that the Ranger forces finally put into the friendly New Zealand ports at Wellington and Christchurch between January 12th and 14th.
Despite the battle-scarred nature of some of the Ranger fleet’s ships raising some concern, the arriving Americans received a hero’s welcome, as if returning from a victorious campaign already. The Britannian imperial territory’s small military were engaged with Blazing Sun forces on the Solomon Islands, leaving New Zealand itself worryingly undermanned. The new American presence promised to boost local morale considerably.
The American commanders were received in Wellington by Lord Nigel Dinsley, the Royal Governor of Her Majesty’s Australian and New Zealand territories. The aged Dinsley, who at seventy-four had delayed his scheduled retirement to provide steady political leadership to the remote territories with the advent of the war, chaired a planning meeting between the Ranger fleet’s commanders, Rear-Admiral Falconer and Vice-Admiral of the Land Fleet Sir Alan Mercer, Commander-in-Chief of the colonial forces in the theatre, on January 16th.
Galvanised by their welcome, not to mention the need to shore up a resolute but relatively resource-poor ally, the commanders of the Ranger forces quickly made their forces battle-ready. While Air-General Hart awaited the arrival of the heavy bomber wings and Special Air Recon Groups allocated to the Ranger forces, Rawlins and Cortez formed up the necessary forces for the first American intervention in the theatre.
BUCKWHEAT IN THE SOLOMONS
By January 22nd, the necessary forces for the Solomon Islands intervention, dubbed Operation Buckwheat, were ready to move. Cortez had formed a new force for the interventions, called the 1st Combined Brigade, which consisted of fresh troops and armour drawn from the New Mexican and southern American regiments under his command, the 1st and 2nd New Mexico Armoured and 3rd and 5th New Mexican Infantry.
These would form the core of the army’s offensive forces, while the regiments left understrength from High Jump would reinforce the defences of New Zealand.
Mercifully, the 1st Combined Brigade would be landing on territory under friendly control. The Solomon Islands were contested, but a tenacious defence had been conducted by Royal Australians and New Zealand forces, supported by considerable numbers of Portuguese mercenary troops.
The first American landings took place on January 28th, with American forces quickly becoming engaged on the islands of San Cristobal, Guadalcanal and Malaita, the only three islands of the chain where Grand Coalition forces still had a presence.
The contrast with Hooke’s Reach could not have been more marked, with the tropical heat and moisture permeating the warzone. With the terrain dominated by jungles, swamps and extensive uplands, the islands proved to an infantryman’s battleground. The American heavy armour soon found itself being employed to form artillery firebases, while Air Cavalry detachments from the 34th Combined Federated Army were in constant demand for the arduous task of carrying out raids on remote enemy positions.
The islands were also heavily contested by air and sea. Although there was a marked lack of very heavy enemy naval and aerial
units in the theatre, numerous smaller vessels of up to destroyer weight were operational, their crews exceptionally adept at lightning strikes by night.
In the first few days of their presence off Guadalcanal island, the 9th Bombardment Group of 34th Federated Reserve Fleet, covering the anchorage for several valuable transports, lost three destroyers to long range rocket attack, while the battleship San Fernando suffered extensive damage to its engines from aerial rocket strikes.
The enemy forces were a striking mixture of varied units. The core units were composed of forces from the 2nd and 8th Combined Combat groups of the Crucible Army’s 3rd Division ‘Yoshimitsu’, commanded by Major-General Masato Koda, a veteran of campaigning against the Britannians in Malaya.
Notably, his land forces were exceptionally strong in infantry and light armour, and made extremely aggravating opponents for the Americans, also strong in infantry, but with a greater reliance on heavier vehicles for their fire support.
However, Koda also had a substantial contingent of auxiliary forces under his command. In particular, the 9th Reserve Division, heavily engaged on Malaita, had large numbers of Dutch soldiers, some units utilising Prussian-sourced armour. Cortez initially thought that these soldiers were fighting for the Blazing Sun as mercenaries, but was quickly assured by both his allies and the performance of the Dutch units in the field that this was not the case. The Dutch troops were Blazing Sun imperial citizens.
Moreover, given the news that the Netherlands had been attacked by Britannian forces earlier in the year, they were certainly not inclined to commit a double betrayal of both their current rulers and their homeland by siding with those they considered outright enemies. Engagements between the 9th Reserve Division forces and the Portuguese units fighting for the Britannians proved particularly bitter, for they had been rivals for influence in the East Indies for centuries, and old habits clearly died hard.
The Ranger forces had a greater preponderance of heavy naval gunpower, which they made good use of in their strike against Honiara on Guadalcanal, the largest city in the islands, on February 1st, when an audacious amphibious assault by New Mexican troops captured the town and began to threaten the flank of Koda’s forces on the island.
However, Koda’s use of 2nd Army group’s Taka-Ashi walkers as heavy artillery positions, combined with a constant stream of aerial attacks, managed to keep the attacking Americans pinned firmly in their lodgements.
Nonetheless, Operation Buckwheat had both established a firm American presence in the Solomons and stabilised the theatre by February 5th 1872. However, the constant Blazing Sun attacks against Ranger fleet naval forces would take an exceptionally strange turn as the second month of 1872 began.
RETURN OF A LEGEND
On February 7th, at dawn, a powerful Blazing Sun naval attack struck the American forces off Honiara. However, unlike previous raids, this ferocious assault was carried out by what appeared to be a relatively small number of powerful vessels of
an unusual aspect, including one Dreadnought-sized unit and a large squadron of vessels identified as Tankui Class Gunships. About a dozen light craft of various weights and configurations were reported as operating with this powerful flotilla, but no aerial units were observed as directly supporting it.
According to eyewitnesses, all the craft involved seemed to be remarkably battle-worn – highly unusual for Blazing sun vessels, whose crews were well-known for keeping their vessels trim and tidy even in adverse conditions. Their camouflage painting was also unlike those of the ‘Yoshimitsu’ flotillas and the only markings they bore were prominent emblems unfamiliar to the American sailors; snarling gargoyle-like faces that put some observers in mind of stylised sharks.
Their tactics were also unlike previous raids, whose forces had relied upon long range rocket and torpedo bombardments, targeting smaller or less well-protected ships. This powerful fleet of capital ships directed all of their considerable firepower at the largest of the FSA ships.
It was again to be the 9th Bombardment Group that bore the brunt of the attack. Although the San Fernando had been partially repaired in situ, the battleship San Diego had been drafted in to reinforce the group, which had been trading heavy fire with Koda’s artillery inland.
The two Battleships headed the force consisting of the 55th and 56th Cruiser Squadrons and a small flotilla of Destroyers, acting in a bombardment role. These extra vessels had boosted the force’s size to that of a full Battle Group – a necessary precaution as it was positioned furthest to the north. All vessels were under the command of Commodore George Duggan of the 24th Federated Fleet.
However, despite their heavy firepower, the group remained mostly stationary in order to carry out its artillery role, which made the enemy attack, a ferocious bombardment lasting no less than six hours, all the more devastating. Tightly-grouped salvoes crashed down on the American ships as they struggled to get up steam. The San Fernando in particular was subjected to the full force of the Blazing Sun shellfire at ranges of no more than two miles, succumbing to a magazine explosion two hours into the attack and taking a great proportion of her crew with her.
Duggan frantically tried to co-ordinate his forces in response, even as panicked reports came in of destroyers overwhelmed by waves of ferocious enemy Rocket Corps troops in brass armour decorated with the same motif as the warships.
Nonetheless, the enemy force did not come off unscathed. American counter-fire was seen to strike several ships, which were left trailing plumes of smoke and flames. Several nearby American aerial units also attempted to engage the enemy but they were met with such a ferocious storm of ack-ack fire and cluster-rockets that they reported inflicting nothing but superficial damage, for loss of several aircraft. One enemy gunship was reported sunk, along with three smaller vessels, but the loss of the San Fernando, the cruisers Lawton James and Fenton and three destroyers proved a high price to pay.
By 10am on February 7th, the mysterious enemy flotilla was making hard and fast for open sea between the islands of Nggela Sule and Malaita, leaving chaos in their wake. However, despite his surprise at the speed and ferocity of the attack, Duggan noted
that at no point had there been signs of a fully co-ordinated assault – no major air attacks, concentrated land artillery fire or ground push against Honiara. This was at extreme odds with normal Blazing Sun offensive doctrine.
Only when news of the raid reached General Cortez at his command post aboard the sky fortress Gulf Stream later that day was some light shed on the mystery. Cortez himself related what transpired when he showed the contents of the air-courier’s parcel to his staff and the Britannian imperial officers:
“We were all clustered around my desk next to the main map-table when I unpacked the messenger’s bundle of papers. As I sorted through the sheaf of documents comprising Commodore Duggan’s first report, a stiff piece of cartridge paper slipped out and landed on my desk before I could catch it. Unlike the other sheets, this had a picture drawn on it – a rough sketch of a fearsome-looking face, drawn in distinctive oriental style.
However, although it meant very little to me, the effect of its unveiling had a dramatic effect on our allies. The Portuguese contractor-colonels let loose a stream of what I assumed were curses in their native tongue, while Vice-Admiral Mercer, as steady a fellow as I’d ever met, went very pale behind his thick black beard.”
“What is this, Vice-Admiral? Why the shock”, I asked. Mercer stared at the symbol as he replied. “General Cortez, that emblem belongs to a dark legend in the East Indies. It’s the symbol of the Wani – the Sun Division that sacked Singapore. It’s the emblem of General Oni.”
The possible reappearance of even fragments of the old Blazing Sun Sword Army 3rd Division caused shockwaves on both sides in the battlefields of the East Indies. The notion that one of the
Blazing Sun’s most notorious generals and his followers might be present in the region in any strength dealt a blow to the morale of both the imperial Britannian and American forces in the area, even though no further confirmed reports of the mysterious flotilla were received.
Nonetheless, Admiral Rawlins did not dismiss the possibility of repeat performances, even if he was characteristically bullish in his response. “Just because the Pacific seems to have swallowed ‘em up, don’t mean it won’t spit ‘em out again somewhere,” he remarked to General Cortez during a meeting of Ranger’s commanders in Wellington later that month. “But we hunt sharks back home, and this one’ll be no different.”
However, General Koda was also shaken by the apparent reappearance of, if not the entirety, then certainly significant elements of the Wani. Of particular concern was the way the strange fleet had apparently disguised its true nature and used wholly correct identification codes to pass ‘Yoshimitsu’ naval patrols unnoticed.
That suggested to Koda that, at the very least, the vessels were manned by Blazing Sun military personnel and not mere pirates or hired mercenaries. Furthermore, rumours of the Wani’s intervention boosted the morale of Blazing Sun forces throughout the region as much as it depressed their enemy’s.
Thus Koda was very troubled as he made his report to East Indies headquarters in Jakarta. “On the one hand, they undoubtedly helped us, in their own way, for stories of the ‘Demon of Singapore’s’ return spread fear and doubt through our enemies, far beyond the immediate impact of their actions,” Koda wrote. “But on the other, the very fact that they made no attempt to contact us means that we can by no means consider them true allies.
Oni, or whoever leads them now, is still patently unwilling to face the Empress’ justice. And so I must, in good conscience, report the presence of the Wani in this region, so that Her Divine Majesty’s agents might be sent to aid my fleet officers and I in finding and apprehending these rogues once and for all.”
PACIFIC STORM
The opening of a second Pacific front against the Blazing Sun by the forces of the Ranger fleet marked the effective end of the first great American expansion into the Pacific. The positioning of American forces successfully in firm footholds on both the Hawaiian Island chain and in the East Indies, linking up with their main Grand Coalition allies in the process, fulfilled President Adams’ primary aims for these first operations.
For the Blazing Sun commanders, and indeed the Empress and her High Generals, the arrival of American forces in the East
Indies served to confirm their decision to adopt a more open policy in regards to allies. Although the siege of Vladivostok looked increasingly like it would drag on at least as long as that of Hawai’i, Generals Kojima and Takeda were now confident that they could stabilise all fronts and conserve the Empire’s integrity even in the face of new opponents.
“We are indeed surrounded by a ring of fire,” General Takeda remarked to his peers at a meeting of the Council of Seven. “But now we have ensured that it is our enemies who will burn should they attempt to cross it.”
And so, as the year 1872 dawned, only one thing was truly certain. The Great War was no closer to its conclusion, and its fires had consumed yet another portion of the world.
Composition: Up to 300 Points of Covenant of Antarctica Aerial and Naval models.
Deployment: Mistweaver Task Force Remnants - Wave 2 enters from Area 1 at the
beginning of Turn 4.
Scenar io 5
As the sun rose on the morning of the 13th of JAnuAry 1872, it found A fierce And frAntic bAttle rAging deep in the northern pAcific. the new pArtnership of the federAted stAtes of
AmericA And the russiAn coAlition Are beset by An empire of the blAzing sun strike force As they chAse down the remnAnts of the mistweAver fleet.
savage skies, savage seas
Game Length: 6 Turns with Variable Game Length.
Deployment: The Covenant of Antarctica and Empire of the
Blazing Sun MUST deploy first. Initiative:
The Russian Coalition and FSA have the Initiative on Turn 1.
Scenario Rules: Initiative: Each Turn, Initiative between the two
sides should be determined first, followed by initiative between the nations within those sides. The
order of play always alternates between sides.
For example, the Grand Coalition forces roll higher than their Blazing Sun and Covenant opponents
and then the Russians roll higher than the Federated States, while the Covenant roll higher than the
Blazing Sun. For that Turn, the order of play would therefore be: Russian Coalition - Covenant of
Antarctica - Federated States of America - Empire of the Blazing Sun.
Scenario Special Rule: The Enemy of my Enemy...
Orders of Battle: Empire of the Blazing Sun ‘Musashi’ Div. 4th Naval/Air Group
Up to 500 Points of FSA Aerial and Naval models. Deployment:
The 16th Federated Fleet enters the from Area 3 at the beginning of Turn 3.
In this battle, for a brief few hours the Covenant and the Blazing Sun shared an unspoken alliance, each ignoring the other to focus their efforts on their common foe. Likewise, with the Northern War a vivid memory in the mind of every Russian Coalition and FSA captain, the Coalition alliance was similarly tenuous. The result was a well above-average number of reports in the wake of the battle, telling of ‘stray shells’ and ‘friendly fire incidents’, as long held rivalries died hard. If an FSA model begins its activation within 8” of a Russian Coalition model, or a Covenant of Antarctica model begins its activation within 8” of an Empire of the Blazing Sun model (or vice versa in both cases), roll a dice. On the roll of a 6 the activating model
MUST make a Ranged Attack with one weapon system that can draw a line of sight encompassing the ‘allied’ model that is within 8”. Note that if multiple models in an activating squadron are in this situation, this roll is made for each affected model in the squadron individually. If there is more than one ‘allied’ model within 8” of the activating model, the player controlling the activating model may choose which ‘allied’ model becomes the target of the Attack. This Attack takes place immediately, before the activating model moves. It does not prevent the model’s affected weapons from being used in their normal fashion during the shooting segment of its activation. Additionally, this attack does not use any Firing Options.
VICTORY CONDITIONS The Covenant of Antarctica - Mistweaver Task ForceCampaign Points (CPs) are awarded for each model that ends the game (at least partially) within 12+D6” of the Callimachus Time Dilation Orb.
1 CP is awarded for each Small model, 2 CP for each Medium model and 5 for each Large or Massive model. Roll for the distance after at the end of the game. The Orb and its attendant barges do not score any CP at the end of the game.
If the Callimachus Time Dilation Orb is destroyed, the Covenant of Antarctica score ZERO Campaign Points in this game.
Empire of the Blazing Sun – ‘Musashi’ Division 4th Naval/Air Strike GroupCPs are awarded for each FSA or Russian Coalition model that is I, Lost, Prized or left Derelict by an Empire of the Blazing Sun model.
The Russian Coalition - 55th Sea Battle BrigadeCPs are awarded for each Empire of the Blazing Sun or Covenant of Antarctica model that is Destroyed, Lost, Prized or left Derelict by a Russian Coalition model.
The Federated States of America CPs are awarded for each Empire of the Blazing Sun or Covenant of Antarctica model that is Destroyed, Lost, Prized or left Derelict by an FSA model.
SCENARIO SPECIAL RULE: THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY...
NOTE: For this game the following Stats should be used for the Covenant Barges: DR 4, CR 6, HP 4, AP 2, AA -, CC -, RR, - and the Barge has an external Camouflage Generator.
