So those disappeared mysterious aliens weren't all that disappeared. They'd just wandered out of range of the sensors of the civilian mining colony on Dione during a big time step so I didn't realize what they were doing.
A little later, they turned up in Jovian orbit and ripped through most of my civilian shipping, which was delivering life support infrastructure and colonists to the developing outpost on Europa. (Future mining colony, but currently just focused on terraforming.) Packing 4 10-point laser cannon with a 15 second cycle time, despite its apparent size slightly smaller than my Suluth class attack craft the raider clearly outgunned any ship I was prepared to build. Though at 5035 km/s it wouldn't be able to dictate the range of engagement. Which is critical considering the pitiful range of my railguns. (10,000 km is the shortest range possible in Aurora. The lasers absolutely had to have at least ten times as much range, probably twenty or more times.)
Unfortunately, I hadn't developed the components to support any strategy other than charging into the laser fire and hoping they missed long enough for me to get into my own range Fortunately, I did have a significantly improved attack craft in the works using my cutting-edge fusion thruster technology:
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Suluth II class Attack Craft 976 tons 18 Crew 155.2 BP TCS 20 TH 160 EM 08199 km/s Armour 2-8 Shields 0-0 HTK 7 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0-0 PPV 3Maint Life 1.13 Years MSP 100 AFR 195% IFR 2.7% 1YR 79 5YR 1,187 Max Repair 80 MSPLieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Morale Check Required Soemardjan & Yani Aeromarine Magneto-plasma Drive EP160.00 (1) Power 160 Fuel Use 70.0% Signature 160 Explosion 10%Fuel Capacity 60,000 Litres Range 15.8 billion km (22 days at full power)Martohartono Weapon Systems 10cm Railgun V20/C3 (1x4) Range 20,000km TS: 8,199 km/s Power 3-3 RM 20,000 km ROF 5 Baizura-Sudiro Beam Fire Control R84-TS8400 (SW) (1) Max Range: 84,000 km TS: 8,400 km/s ECCM-0 88 76 64 52 40 29 17 5 0 0Prasetyo-Sudiro Aeromarine Stellarator Fusion Reactor R3-PB20 (1) Total Power Output 3.1 Exp 10%Prasetyo & Prasetyo Active Search Sensor AS12-R20 (1) GPS 240 Range 13m km Resolution 20The first set were still in the shipyard, but that's where the magic of saved instant build points lets me just drop half a dozen into play. One of my Abraham bar Hiyya scouts kept track of the invader while the new attack group sprinted from the inner system.
Two Suluth IIs never made it into range, shattered by long-range laser fire. Four opened fire, tore through the intruder's apparently paper-thin armor, and began inflicting internal damage. Which didn't stop it from unloading another cataclysmic laser blast and utterly annihilating a third attack craft. This wasn't plausible. No ship so small could not only survive but keep fighting after that many internal hits...
A few rounds of fire later (thankfully not answered, likely the rail guns had finally found the enemy fire control system), the raider's cloaking system collapsed revealing that I was actually bombarding the battered remains of a 9,621 ton warship.
A month later the second one showed up, again passing near Dione. The regular shipyard production Suluth IIs were still unavailable, so I quick built another six and threw all nine at it. Anticipating that it would again hit the Europa traffic, I was able to reach the scene just minutes before it could attack my liners. Again, three attack craft died to bring down the intruder.
3000 tons of attack craft for 9000 tons of stealth raider may be a good exchange rate, but my shipyards couldn't possibly replace three attack craft per month. Nor could I develop the paraphanalia of an alternate doctrine quickly under that kind of pressure. Thankfully, the apparent trend didn't hold - it's been a year and a half since the second raider without a third appearing. And if they come back with the same ships again, they'll find I'm very ready for them.
Cramming in the entire offensive payload of a Suluth II in half the overall tonnage at half again the speed, the Adders give up a lot of endurance and the sensor system, but are small enough to be built in groundside factories instead of orbital shipyards. And with the increased agility, they'll likely suffer fewer losses despite their frail construction.
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Adder class Heavy Fighter 500 tons 10 Crew 110.1 BP TCS 10 TH 128 EM 012811 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 HTK 4 Sensors 0/0/0/0 DCR 0-0 PPV 3Maint Life 1.10 Years MSP 25 AFR 100% IFR 1.4% 1YR 21 5YR 313 Max Repair 64.00 MSPLieutenant Commander Control Rating 1 Intended Deployment Time: 9.6 days Morale Check Required Sosrodihardjo-Martohartono Aero Engines Magneto-plasma Sprint Drive EP128.00 (1) Power 128.0 Fuel Use 626.10% Signature 128.00 Explosion 20%Fuel Capacity 16,000 Litres Range 0.92 billion km (19 hours at full power)Martohartono Weapon Systems 10cm Railgun V20/C3 (1x4) Range 20,000km TS: 12,811 km/s Power 3-3 RM 20,000 km ROF 5 Baizura-Sudiro Beam Fire Control R84-TS8400 (SW) (1) Max Range: 84,000 km TS: 8,400 km/s ECCM-0 88 76 64 52 40 29 17 5 0 0Prasetyo-Sudiro Aeromarine Stellarator Fusion Reactor R3-PB20 (1) Total Power Output 3.1 Exp 10%This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interactionThis design is classed as a Fighter for auto-assignment purposesAnd while I haven't yet put together a launch platform, I have all the necessary components developed to switch to expending uncrewed munitions:
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Soemardjan-Sugiantoro Kinetics Addragwyn Anti-Ship MissileMissile Size: 4.0000 MSP (10.00000 Tons) Warhead: 4.000 Radiation Damage: 4.000Speed: 28,800 km/s Fuel: 917 Flight Time: 8 minutes Range: 13.98m kmRetarget CapableCost Per Missile: 4.3799 Development Cost: 330Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 288% 3k km/s 96% 5k km/s 57.6% 10k km/s 28.8%One 500 ton attack fighter (not yet in production) could deliver as many as seven of these relatively primitive but relentless weapons, against which the raiders haven't revealed any strong defenses.
And colony sites throughout the solar system now watch the skies through the fire controls of ground to space laser cannon:
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15cm STO Laser 2031Transport Size (tons) 347 Cost 79.68 Armour 20 Hit Points 30Annual Maintenance Cost 10 Resupply Cost 0Suprapto-Budiarto 15.0cm C3 Visible Light LaserRange 120,000 km Tracking 3,000 km/s Damage 6 / 1 Shots 1 Rate of Fire 10Maximum Fire Control Range 240,000km Chance to Hit at Max Range 50%Maximum Sensor Range 2,018,503km Max Range vs Missile 181,665 kmNon-Combat ClassOutranged by the raider's huge beams and at most sites outnumbered as well, these entrenched batteries do offer the possibility of a vicious surprise punch and could be quite difficult to silence.. The raiders haven't attacked colonies so far, but they have passed within striking range.
