Battle of the Prime-Ajay Hyper Bridge

The Battle of the Prime-Ajay Hyper Bridge was a battle between Task Force 47.3 of the Royal Manticoran Navy and Task Force 1027 of the Solarian League Navy in August 1922 PD.
The battle was a multi-system battle as armed action occurred on both sides of the hyper bridge. ()
== Prelude ==
In response to rising tensions with the Solarian League, the Royal Manticoran Navy dispatched Task Force 47 to execute Operation Lacoön by forcibly assuming control of wormhole termini within its reach, including the Prime-Ajay Hyper Bridge while in route to the Agueda-Stine Hyper Bridge.
Despite protests by the senior most elected official of both star systems, Task Force 47 successful seized the Prime-Ajay Hyper Bridge, leaving Commodore Martin Lessem behind with Task Force 47.3 to hold the bridge before departing for the Agueda System.
Meanwhile, the Solarian League Navy began Operation Buccaneer, its campaign of targeted strikes against the deep space infrastructure of independent neutral star systems seen as friendly to the Grand Alliance, including the Ajay System, Task Force 1027's target. ()
== Order of Battle ==
=== Royal Manticoran Navy ===
Task Group 47.3 - CO Commodore Martin Lessem
* Prime picket - CO Commodore Martin Lessem:
** Cruiser Squadron 912Without Cruiser Division 912.2 - 10 heavy cruisers, including HMS Clas Fleming, HMS Shelly Ann Jensen, HMS Margaret Mallory, HMS William S. Patterson, HMS Oliver Savander, HMS Rich Rucholka, HMS Jennifer Woodard. - CO Commodore Martin Lessem
** the destroyer element:
*** a pair of Roland-class unitsHMS Ajax and HMS Honda Tadakatsu.
*** Destroyer Division 94.2 - CO Commander Tearlach Aamodt
** HMS David K. Brown (FSV) with her LAC group - CO Captain Harriet Amberline
* Ajay picket - CO Captain Jessica Rice:
** HMS Echidna (CLAC) with her LAC group
** Cruiser Division 912.2 - CO Captain Jessica RiceHMS Lisa Holtz and HMS Peregrine S. Faye.
** service train units
=== Solarian League Navy ===
Task Force 1027 - CO Admiral Jane Isotalo
* Task Group 1027.1 - CO Vice Admiral Lamont Bonrepaux
* Task Group 1027.2 - CO Vice Admiral Elvis Tsukahara
* Task Group 1027.3 - CO Vice Admiral Helmut Santini
* Task Group 1027.4 (train) - CO Commodore Millicent Quigley
== Course of Battle ==
=== Initial Attack ===
Task Force 1027 translated out of hyperspace in the vicinity of the Prime Terminus of the hyper bridge, directly on top of the outer platforms of the Manticoran's surveillance shell, and proceeded to head in the direction of the terminus at a 375 gravities.
In response to the arrival of the Solarian task force, Commodore Lessem decided not to call his second division of Edward Saganami C class cruisers forward from the Ajay side of the hyper bridge. Instead, he directed HMS So-po to stand by to transit with a complete tactical upload for Captain Jessica Rice, the commander of Cruiser Squadron 912's second division, while the remainder of the destroyer's division mates evacuated all Manticoran personnel from the Prime Traffic Control platform near the terminus and transit to Ajay. Meanwhile, Captain Harriet Amberline of HMS David K. Brown was directed to begin deploying and enabling the FSV's missile pods per Pattern Able.
Ninety-four million kilometers from the terminus, Admiral Jane Isotalo, Solarian League Navy, though surprised by the presence of the Manticorans nonetheless chose to continue to her objective, ordering the deploying of Huskies, a new weapons system similar to the Republic of Haven Navy's Donkey system.
While the Manticorans detected the launch of the Huskies, they were initially uncertain of their purpose until the task force's Ghost Rider drones determined that each of the Solarian battlecruisers was towing a chain of missile pods outside their impeller wedges. In all, TF 1027 deployed 5000 Huskies, all of which were towing a total of 30,000 unpowered missile pods for a possible load out of 180,000 to 300,000 missiles. Once TF 1027 reached 36 million kilometers, it launched an opening salvo of 6,000 missiles, expending 20 percent of their embarked pods.
Lessem ordered TG 47.3 to initiate Missile Defense Reno and the task force began to track the incoming Solarian strike with their Ghost Rider drones while activating their bow walls. TG 47.3 began to launch Mark 31 countermissiles 205 seconds after TF 1027's launch, one second after the second stage of the Solarian Cataphracts activated. TG 47.3 launched five successive waves of countermissiles for a total of 2,080 Mark 31s before rolling ship to present the bottom of their wedges to the Solarian missiles. Once their rolls were completed, the TG 47.3 activated their Dazzlers.
Momentarily blinded by the Manticoran Dazzlers, the Solarians were unable to detect the activation of TG 47.3's Lorelei platforms and were surprised to see the number of Manticoran ships quintuple when the jamming cleared. 1,000 of the Solarian missiles were deceived and pulled off course by the Loreleis. TG 47.3's Mark 31s began their interceptions shortly thereafter, the first wave of 520 countermissiles intercepting 152 Cataphracts. The second wave intercepted another 260 missiles.The third intercepted 300 missiles, the fourth intercepted 393 missiles, and the fifth and final wave intercepted 471 missiles. In all, TG 47.3's Mark 31s intercepted 1,183 Cataphracts. Another 3,800 made it passed the Mark 31s and into range of TG 47.3's point defense lasers. In the end, TG 47.3 intercepted 75 percent of the Solarian Cataphracts while receiving only light damage and losing four personnel killed and 14 wounded.
=== Second Attack ===
Following the demonstration of Manticoran missile defense in the first attack Admiral Isotalo continued to approach TG 47.3 and began planning to execute a micro-jump to close the distance to attack range. Sensing this, Commodore Lessem ordered HMS David K. Brown, HMS Minion, and HMS Lancaster to hyper out of the combat zone. At 7 million kilometers, TG 47.3 fired over 800 missiles at the Solarians. At launch, Admiral Isotalo to order TF 1027 less TG 1027.3 to initiate the micro-jump. At the moment of the jump, HMS So-po and HMS Obusier were ordered through the wormhole to Ajay. TG 1027.1 and 1027.2 translated out of hyper around the wormhole 4 minutes and 30 seconds later. Due to the latent inaccuracies of a micro-jump, the nearest eight Solarian battlecruisers exited hyperspace 700,000km, just beyond energy weapon range, from CruRon 912 with the rest scattered. The nearest 8 Solarian ships including Admiral Isotalo flagship, SLNS Foudroyant fired 224 missiles at CruRon 912. Despite the short 40 second missile flight time, TG 47.3 hypered out 14 seconds before the Solarian missiles could reach attack range. The Solarians aborted the engagement and proceeded to have all Solarian ships in TF1027 concentrate to transit the Prime Terminus to the Ajay Terminus. 
=== Third Attack ===
Admiral Isotalo fortified the Prime Terminus of the Prime-Ajay Hyper Bridge with 70,000 missile pods and ordered TG 1027.3 to hold the terminus. Admiral Isotalo also ordered four destroyers through the wormhole to scout ahead of the rest of TF 1027. The destroyers detected HMS So-po and HMS Obusier accelerating away from the terminus and one destroyer reported back their findings to Admiral Isotalo while the remaining three destroyers continued to scout the area around the Ajay Terminus. 
The scouting Solarian destroyers SLNS Chamberlain, SLNS Timberlake, and SLNS Voltigeur had failed to detect the RMN Shrike-B class LACs of LAC Group 117 hidden around the Ajay Terminus. Three hours after this report, TF 1027 began making transit through the terminus. SLNS Hindustan led the transit with SLNS Ocean following. All Solarian ships made the transit at 25 second intervals. Two squadrons totaling 24 Shrike-Bs fired their grasers as SLNS Hindustan emerged from the terminus destroying the ship with all hands. The Shrike LACs had been placed at all angles allowing them to fire into the armored broadside and unarmored top and bottoms of each ship. Each of the SLN destroyers had one LAC squadron detailed to attack them following the initiation of the engagement and SLNS Voltigeur was destroyed 20 seconds later by missile fire. SLNS Ocean, Ohio, Neptune, and Minotaur were subsequently destroyed with all hands after making transit. Following the massacre of the first five battlecruisers, the Shrikes shifted their fire to the hammerheads of the remaining transiting ships to disable their impeller wedges and offered a chance to surrender. 
TF 1027 less TG 1027.3 was lost with no word reaching Vice Admiral Helmut Santini of their fate.
=== Fourth Attack ===
Unaware of the destruction or disabling of the rest of TF 1027 in the Ajay System on the other side of the hyper bridge, Vice Admiral Helmut Santini and TG 1027.3 continued to hold the Prime Terminus with 16 battlecruisers, 14 destroyers, and the missile pods Isotalo deployed before transiting the hyper bridge while TG 47.3 held position 27 light-minutes from the terminus.
With the loss of contact with the rest of TF 1027, Santini began preparations to send a dispatch back to Winote to alert the Admiralty about their situation. Meanwhile, Commodore Lessem ordered the execution of Descabello. 44 LACs left behind when the David K. Brown translated out began their approach to TG 1027.3 while TG 47.3 translated into hyper for a micro-jump to the terminus.
TG 1027.3 detected the Manticoran translation and Santini ordered his own ships to prepare to translate out as well. Sixteen minutes later, TG 47.3 translated back into normal space 2.1 million kilometers from the terminus. Santini ordered his ships to abort their translation, but standby to reinitiate it. Moments later, SLNS Kilkis was destroyed with all hands by the arriving Manticoran LACs.
Distracted by the maneuvers of the TG 47.3, Santini and TG 1027.3 never noticed the Manticoran LACs approach. The 44 LACs opened fire at 500,000 kilometers and passed through the heart of TG 1027.3 in 61 seconds. Seven Solarian starships managed to translate into hyper and escape while the rest of their consorts were either destroyed or disabled.
== Aftermath ==
== References ==
Category:Solarian Battles
Category:Manticoran Battles