The combined fleet weighed anchor at Sol Station mere hours after the declaration - 10 destroyers, 50 corvettes, the AI corvette s875.1 warform, and the cruiser CNS Salvage. Their objective, Operation Crossbow. After eight month's sail via Altair and 61 Cygni, battle was joined with Task Force Kampas, 5 destroyers and 40 corvettes, under the command of Qwe'Pulci admiral Galdrig den Aramik in the Helam system. Kampas was forced to retreat into hyperspace with a loss of 9 corvettes. The Commonwealth Navy loses 10 corvettes in return. Helam Station is engaged and captured, with s875.1 warform lost in the attempt.
With nothing standing in the way, the Navy translates into the Qwe'Pulci home system of Uklapp'korr. The battered Kampas drops out of hyperspace near the Helam hyperlane, but they are too late. Uklapp Station is attacked and taken in March 2255 and the Qwe'Pulci army transports burned at anchor. Kampas attempts to escape the system but is run to ground by 1st Fleet and engaged, forcing it to make another emergency hyperspace jump. Crossbow is a success. The Commonwealth Navy subsequently undertakes Operation Downspout - outlying systems are captured, while 2nd Fleet makes its way Coreward, capturing starbases as it goes.
The tipping point of the war comes with the invasion of Uklapp in 2256. 4th Crusade Army is destroyed, with the 5th taking heavy losses, but Uklapp is nevertheless taken, the Gaia world immediately falling under Commonwealth rule.
A world way from the fighting to Spinwards, the Science Division is uncovering stranger and stranger worlds. The location of the Zroni homeworld was understood in 2247. Now, in early 2251, the Arbiter finds Zron Prime to be a world wracked by psychic storms, the like of which has never been seen. And yet, somewhere down on the surface, the ubiquitous Zroni data-crystals are clamouring to be found ...
Mere months later, the listening post at 61 Cygni Station picks up an alien distress call. By pure chance, as it would seem, the signal is tracked down to the Grunurr home system, those nemeses of the extinct Baol. The Asperity is sent to investigate. The crew find a dead world devastated by nuclear war. Nothing sapient lives. The distress signal leads to a hidden research facility. Within, preserved among the ancient equipment, is the last Baol.
The Last Baol
Commentary
Thank god the Qwe'Pulci weren't smart enough to dig in around their Helam fortress, otherwise this might have been a costlier war. As it stands, I'm not quite sure where so many of their ships went. I know I destroyed 15 ships of Task Force Kampas, but the others seem to have disappeared somewhere. There should have been 30 that re-engaged in Uklapp'korr. I can only assume they must have suffered terrible losses in the initial emergency hyperspace jump.
I'm beginning to realise that this mod doesn't quite preserve relative speeds with the larger system sizes. It's particularly obvious when you're racing an enemy fleet for the tactical high ground. Travelling under the default chemical thrusters is never quick, but it's quite a slog when you have to cover a trinary star system, put it that way.
The Qwe'Pulci are already prepared to settle this at status quo, and under another circumstance I might consider a quick and decisive victory good enough. But I have the ships to be able to grab much more
