Quoted By:
At the same time as the tide of battle between the Lucrehulks and Maelstrom finally shifts in your favor, the Republic line planetside begins to break down. First, the prow guns of several Munificents and a slower-firing Recusant rip through the thick frontal armor of the Acclamator nearest Anx Minor, finally destroying one of the delta-hulled assault ships. The explosion is distant on the monitor transmitting that section of the battle, beamed in from the engaging Recusant, but it’s clear that the nearly-bisected ship is already caught in the planet’s gravity well, doomed to crash somewhere on the surface. At the same time, the combined fire of Hardcells from several angles breaks the back of a Dreadnaught, scattering its accompanying fighters and similarly sending it slowly tumbling towards Anx Minor’s atmosphere.
In the aftermath of the battlecruiser’s retreat, your line reforms itself, concentrating ships and fire against the Republic formation further from the planet. <span class="mu-i">Longest Haul</span>’s small and medium batteries are dedicated to this purpose as well, with her larger batteries sending parting shots after <span class="mu-i">High Gravity Empress</span>, which is now in full retreat. <span class="mu-i">Bountiful</span> pulls back towards Anx Minor, turning faster thanks to her shields being at lower intensity, and adds her guns to the fight against the Republic fleet.
Another Acclamator, also a part of the planetside formation, is destroyed by one of your Recusants, the light cruiser’s turbolasers catching the assault ship’s jutting rear fin, as well as one of its engines. The Republic vessel spins awkwardly, before its other engines are filled with turbolaser fire from the rest of that section of the fleet, coring the ship when its reactor buckles and bursts under the massed fire.
The censors indicating <span class="mu-i">High Gravity Empress</span> is jumping to hyperspace engenders a bittersweet feeling. On one hand, it’s an admission that the Republic has lost this system, and the rest of Anx Space, especially as the battlecruiser’s vector indicates that it is not jumping back to Gravlax Med. On the other hand, your fleet had been unable to destroy the larger warship, even while you had it outnumbered. Your losses in regards to Hardcells have also been relatively high, though after action reports throughout the war already indicate this is normal, when the pickets are opposing larger warships.
>(2/3, votes in the next post, which will be in the morning because I'm quite tired. This is the end of the space battle, in the future I suspect they'll be more like 5 turns).
