Persei-Aries War Resumes
Russian Assault on Nakir's Riddle (14 Hercules 5.22)
FROM: ADVISORY OFFICE, UN HERCULES SCS REGIONAL COLONIAL CENTER
023:40 SOL GMT, 24 MARCH 2522
BREAKAUTH: 181072.18J
CLEARANCE: NATIONAL COMMAND AUTHORITY
SUBJ: RUSSIAN ASSAULT ON NAKIR’S RIDDLE (14 Hercules 5.22)
By now the naval intelligence bureaus of the Holy Russian Empire have confirmed and re-confirmed reports of a building British effort against their regional capital at Krasnaya Nadhezda (Red Hope – 72 Hercules). After their latest victory at Belinda’s Promise (Mu Hercules C6-Beta), the Royal Navy is ready. However, the Admiralty wants to ensure an allied naval power shares in the glory (read: bloody cost) of assaulting the Russian stronghold. In a vein less mercenary, the British Foreign Office is also convinced that the United Nations and Jerusalem Council would never let the British Empire alone control such a vast swath of the Hercules Rim in perpetuity. At least on the surface, the British would have to share the spoils of such a victory lest they be seen as blatant neo-Victorian imperialists. And if they’ll have to share the spoils, all the more reason to share the cost.
This puts the Admiralty in a tough spot, as now they’ll have to wait until one of their allies in the region, either the Arab League or the Japanese, are similarly poised for a final strike on Krasnaya Nadhezda. The Japanese are winning, sure enough, having handily driven off a recent American raid at Katajima (Zeta Hercules A3). But they’re already deep into launching a counter-assault into Ragnarssonland, the Corporate Consortium system from which the Americans launched their Katajima raid. As for the Arab League . . .
. . . they’ve just been assaulted by the Holy Russian Empire at their Khaizan’s Haven caliphate (14 Hercules).
Indeed, Russian intelligence knows the British are waiting for either the Japanese or Arab League to join with them in a converging assault, and head-on attacks against the Royal Navy have been less than successful as of late. Therefore, the Russian Navy has resolved to strike British allies. Since the Americans are tying up the Japanese, the choice is predictably simple: a full-on smash and invasion directly into the Khaizan Caliphate at 14 Hercules.
The strike lands at the frozen outer ice giant of Nakir’s Riddle (named for the legendary Islamic angel who queries souls of the dead to learn their worth). Specifically, it lands at Nakir’s Riddle 5.22, twenty-second moon on this ice giant. Large enough to mask the approach of a Russian invasion fleet in its eclipse shadow, and close enough to the planet to threaten caliphate installations and infrastructure if the Russian naval infantry are able to establish a presence here.
The Russian fleet is blunt and deadly in its purpose. The flagship is the CPK (Holy Russian Ship) Tatiana Mikhailovnya, eldest daughter of the first Romanov czar. The Zhukov-class strike carrier Novorrosysk provides aerospace support (flying the elite all-female “Night Witches” naval strike squadron), the battlegroup screened by three deadly K-56 class torpedo corvettes.
The emir of the Khaizan caliphate has no choice but to send the Mutamid battlegroup to meet the threat, under the flag of Captain Rashid al-Maghrebi. At under 98,000 tons, his flagship Mutamid is outweighed by Tatiana Mikhailovnya almost two-to one. But both the Mutamid and the light carrier Abu Bashir can launch almost double the Night Witches’ number in aerospace strike craft, the Russians have no answer to the destroyers Kashan and Jeddah, and the Arab League fleet is much, much more maneuverable than their Russian opposites.
It’s another jaguar vs. grizzly matchup, speed and tactical agility stacked against weight, armor, and sheer firepower. The question of who will win is perhaps the latest riddle the angel Nakir will ask in this cold, lonely corner of the Hercules Rim.
Holy Russian Empire – @oriskany
Arab League – @muakhah
ASSAULT VICTORY CONDITIONS (244 points)
The general situation of the Third Hercules War in March, 2522. In order to deny any British opportunity for a joint, multinational strike against the Russians at 72 Hercules, the Russians are striving to keep British allies off-balance. What better way than to seize and outer planet of the 14 Hercules system, and force the Khaizan Caliphate to mount a counter invasion to take it back? 
As we often see, the Russians are making a fast approach run out from behind the night terminator, hoping to close distance with the League as quickly as possible. At shorter engagement ranges, their heavy plasma and rail gun batteries will hit harder, and their slower P-500 torpedoes will have an easier time reaching their targets. Captain al-Maghrebi, for his part, pivots to present a long-range broadside, hoping his accurate long-range gunfire can pick off the tiny K-56 class corvettes. Learning the lessons of Pamzhdoye (72 Hercules Phi-16), al-Maghrebi means to pick off those corvettes in order to whittle down the huge torpedo waves they’ll send at him. The plan starts to work, the K-275 has her bow almost completely blown off just as she slings out her torpedo spread, kicking down her forward shields and blowing both torpedo arrays clean out of the hull.
The K-275 veers away, hoping to hide her savaged bow amidst the asteroid debris orbiting alongside the ice giant moon. Captain al-Maghrebi sidesteps away from the Russians, keeping them in his broadside and hedging toward the asteroid debris while keeping a wary eye out for possible collisions. The Russians close formation and turn to starboard, setting up for a hard rake across Arab sterns in the next minute or so. The Russians also send in their full aerospace / torpedo strike, no less than 52 P-500 torpedoes and a hail of aerospace missiles and torpedoes from the MiG-103 “Tunguska” fighters and Tu-97 “Zvesburya” (Star Storm) bombers of the Night Witches. Yet here is where al-Maghrebi makes an unconventional move with his own larger aerospace wing. He forgoes an immediate strike on the Russians, holding back and using his fighters defensively to shoot down huge numbers of the Russian warheads. Yet the Mutamid is still crippled, instantly knocking out the League flagship. Also, Russian scouts are able to get at the League bombers, the Night Witches shooting down three of them, thus diminishing the delayed League torpedo strike. Yet the Russian “Sunday Punch” could have taken out the Mutamid and at least one of their destroyers as well, so al-Maghrebi may have saved his overall battlegroup even as he lost his task force. League torpedoes, meanwhile finish off the K-275 and maul the K-271, while they have absorbed the main firepower of the initial Russian strike.
Confident in that the aerospace strike has done its job, crippling the Mutamid and thus leaving the League battlegroup with just two destroyers, the Tatiana Mikhailovnya thunders in for a point-blank dust-up with Arab survivors. But this just allows the two League destroyers, Kashan and Jeddah, to loop around behind the big Russian cruiser for a double broadside across her tail. Outmaneuvered, the Russian behemoth flails behind her, her aft guns managing to knock out the Jeddah even as both League destroyers maul Tatiana’s stern. In fact, the Russian cruiser gets off very light, only 25% of the Arab guns hit despite the point-blank range. Meanwhile, the fighters and surviving bombers line up for a strike on Tatiana’s stern but again, the big Russian lady survives. Her armor, her shielding, and her sheer size weather the storm (although she’s lost one sensor suite and her engines and reactors are badly damaged). More ominous news for the League comes when the Night Witch’s MiGs start carving down Arab “Mylekinir” (Fire Angel) fighters, and her bombers all land aboard the Novorrossysk to be rearmed for a second strike. 
Desperation beings to spread through the officers and crew of both battlegroups, either can simply leave because this is an ASSAULT, the Russians mean to put TROOPS on Nakir’s Riddle and the League HAS to stop them. The Tatiana Mikhailovnya heads right for an asteroid and then comes hard about, hoping to screen her stern from further League attack. It doesn’t work, even as the Jeddah careens out of the battle area, burning and crippled, her sistership Kashan pivots around behind the Russian cruiser for a second try. League torpedoes slam into the K-271 so hard she actually explodes, killing about half her crew including her skipper, Lt. Commander Oleg K. Konstinokov. The last Russian corvette, K-273, is badly mauled astern by a League torpedo but stays in the fight long enough to loose her very last torpedoes (yes, this battle has lasted long enough where both sides are running out of ammo). The Kashan pays a brutal price for her point-blank attack across Tatiana’s stern, in fact she’s crippled by more Russian torpedoes, fighter strafing attacks, and hammering guns of the Tatiana’s aft batteries. But it’s worth it, Tatiana is crippled and set adrift, in fact she’s nearly lost after the battle (it’s another Russian ship that has to tow her clear of the moon’s gravity well). 
Exhausted and out of torpedoes, the two light carriers (they’re practically all either side has left) duck for cover as the last torpedoes launched last round race toward their targets. The Novorossysk is hit but weathers it well, the Abu Bashir isn’t so lucky. She survives and maintains power, but is forced to raise steam and break off the fight (crew casualties are very bad after a forward magazine explosion and a Night Witch fighter strafing attack ALMOST knocks out the damaged bridge). 
At last, the furious Battle of Nakir’s Riddle is over. As the Abu Bashir powers out of the area and the Russians begin rescue and recovery operations, its clear that the Russians hold a narrow, bloody, hard-fought yet unmistakable edge in remaining operational naval assets. The Nakir’s Riddle orbital zone is theirs. Another Zhukov-class assault destroyer, the trop ship CPK Katukov, comes in with four grav tanks, two APCs, and 96 troops, enough to take the orbital installation over Nakir’s Riddle and the small surface installation below. The moon has fallen, the Holy Russian Empire has a foothold in the Khaizan caliphate. 
Needless to say, the Russian plan to disrupt British-League cooperation against 72 Hercules seems to be working for the moment. To redress this setback, the League will have to launch another assault back into Nakir’s Riddle and WIN that battle, by which time the Americans may win against the Japanese in Ragnarssonland and the Russians may finally receive the long-awaited heavy reinforcements in the form of the Peter the Great class battleship CPK Kuznetsov. The Russians are still on the back foot, and their still playing for time, but for the moment it seems to be working. Stay tuned for further updates as the Third Hercules War continues to rage! 
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