Second Battle of Yeltsin's Star
From Honorverse
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Second Battle of Yeltsin's Star, also known as Second Yeltsin, was fought between the Masadan battlecruiser MNS Thunder of God and ships of the Royal Manticoran Navy.
Contents |
[edit] Prelude
Following the failure of the assassination attempt on Protector Mayhew and the loss of the rest of the Masadan fleet at the Battle of Blackbird, the Council of Elders decided to seize control of MNS Thunder of God from her People's Navy officers and carry out a nuclear bombardment of Grayson before Manticoran reinforcements could arrive to help defend the Yeltsin System against further attacks.
Captain Alfredo Yu, alerted to the fact that Masadans were trying to take control of the ship by force, implemented a plan called "Bounty Forty-One", which was to try to scuttle the ship, or at lease disable it, in order to allow the Havenite crew to disembark and flee, hopefully to rendezvous with a Havenite battle squadron which was on it's way to Endicott. Computer locks were established, which temporarily paralysed the ship.
Yu and less than two hundred of his crew managed to escape via pinnaces, and fled. Sword of the Faithful Matthew Simonds took command of Thunder of God and left for Yeltin's Star.
Admiral White Haven was alerted to the attacks on Grayson by Captain Alice Truman, who had raced home as fast as her safety-disengaged ship could take her following the Battle of Blackbird. White Haven sped to the Yeltsin's Star System with two squadrons of battlecruisers, hoping to arrive before Fearless and Troubadour were wiped out by either Havenite or Masadan forces. (HH2)
[edit] Order of Battle
[edit] Star Kingdom of Manticore
- Captain Harrington's force:
- HMS Fearless, (CA), CO Captain (SG) Honor Harrington
- HMS Troubadour †, (DD), CO Commander Alistair McKeon
- Admiral White Haven's task force:
- two battlecruiser squadrons[1]
- a screennig element[2]
[edit] Navy of Masada
MNS Thunder of God[3] (BC), CO Sword of the Faithful Matthew Simonds †
[edit] Course of Battle
[edit] First Engagement
The Fearless and the Troubadour engaged the Masadan cruiser in what would later become known as the Second Battle of Yeltsin's Star. During the engagement, the Fearless performed a Yankee-Three to evade incoming missiles. The Fearless initiated Plan Delta in hopes of taking down a majority of the Thunder of God missiles. Ensign Carolyn Wolcott was able to stop every incoming missile at the Fearless. While the Thunder of God focused on the Troubadour, the Fearless inflicted severe damage on the enemy vessel. The Masadan crew were very green, and relied on the ship's computers. After the first engagement, the crew was able to start being more self-reliant. The Thunder of God was damaged at Missile Two, Missile Twenty-One, and Graser One. (HH2)
[edit] Second Engagement
In the second phase of the battle, the Thunder of God focused the attack on the HMS Troubadour while throwing some missiles in the direction of the Fearless. The Thunder of God was hit by multiple missiles with damages to more lasers, a radar array, two more tractor beams, and another missile tube. The Fearless went on the offensive after the destruction of the Troubadour leading with an Hotel-Eight. The Fearless was heavily damaged in especially in the impeller ring, Frame 312, and the communications department with no survivors. Lt Commander Cardones fired nine missiles at the Thunder of God using the vessel's ECM drones as beacons. One of the missiles was equipped with a nuclear warhead, which was able to get through and forced the Thunder of God to retreat. The Fearless was too damaged to finish off the Thunder of God and watched the enemy vessel leave. (HH2)
[edit] Third Engagement
In the aftermath of the second engagement, the Fearless' entire impeller ring was down, only one graser and eight missile tubes were operational on the starboard, the missile complement was down to one hundred, the main radar was half gone, the secondary radar arrays and two-thirds of the passive sensors were gone, and one-fourth of the crew were killed or wounded. In the aftermath of the second engagement, there was over twelve hundred dead, including soldiers, the port broadside was reduced to six lasers and five missile tubes; which half of them were on local control, the vessel's maximum acceleration was reduced to twenty-one percent, half of the gravitic sensors and the other half of the sensor suite were gone, including everything on the port side, the sidewall generator on the same side was nearly destroyed, but everything on the starboard was untouched. Sword Simonds ordered an immediate course for Grayson. The Fearless was able to repair its impeller ring enough to engage in an intercept course.
The Fearless and the Thunder of God battle each other in last round. The Fearless lost missile six and graser eight with compartment forty-two opened to space. The compartment was an emergency ward for the sickbay.
The HMS Reliant and the Manticoran relief arrived in the system. The Reliant and her squadron fired all of their missiles and broadsides at the Thunder of God, but the Fearless was unaware because of battle damage to the communications array. The missiles reach and destroyed the Thunder of God, which narrowly missed the Fearless at the same moment that the Fearless unleashed her entire surviving broadside on the Thunder of God. (HH2)
[edit] Losses
[edit] Star Kingdom of Manticore
HMS Fearless suffered heavy damage. HMS Troubadour was destroyed, although Captain McKeon managed to get himself and a hundred crew into a pinnace following the breakup of the ship.
The two battlecruiser squadrons suffered no damage at all, as Thunder of God was too damaged to even detect their presence. (HH2)
[edit] Navy of Masada
The MNS Thunder of God was lost with all hands. (HH2)
[edit] Aftermath
In the conquest of Endicott by Manticoran forces that followed, Captain Yu and his surviving crew surrendered to Admiral White Haven. Knowing how his government dealt with failure, and ashamed at his inability to save more of his crew from the Masadans, Yu did not want to be sent back to Haven. He formally requested asylum from the Crown.[4] Captain Harrington became Steadholder as well as Countess Harrington and was inducted into the Order of King Roger and awarded her first Star of Grayson as a result of her conduct in this battle. (HH2)
Many years later, the Invictus-class superdreadnought HMS Second Yeltsin was named after the battle. (HH11)
[edit] References
- ↑ including: including Battlecruiser Division 17 or 18 and HMS Reliant, Admiral White Haven's flagship
- ↑ twelve lighter ships
- ↑ a Havenite Sultan-class vessel, officialy sold to the Navy of Masada
- ↑ He eventually became a Grayson citizen and a flag officer in the GSN.
