[FT] Kra'Vak AAR of Adler Tag

After weeks of translation.... <G>

Photo Recon is available at:
http://www.erols.com/los1/ft/sawmill.htm

-=Kr'rt

-------------------------
(From the translated logs of K'zirt, 4th Rank Commander)

After gaining some initial sensor data, the fleet was ordered into Confront.
1st Commander In'har kept the fleet together but ordered my squadron, my
Ti'Dak and 2 Vo'bok hunters, into a wider arc to engage the weaker Hu'man
flank. The main part of the fleet was to cluster together as it proved
effective in defeating the missile salvoes of previous encounters. Our initial
confrontation proved this point as none of their missiles found targets.

3 tu'runs into the conflict, we had crippled one of the opposing battle
cruisers with repeated railgun attacks. We lost 1 Vo'bok to a malfunctioning
power core that exploded when struck by enemy fire. Sadly, my flagship was
struck a lucky blow to the command center. The beam weapons of the Hu'mans cut
deeply and severed all intership and intraship communications. I had to spend
precious time relocating to auxiliary control. My Vo'boks effectively screened
us as we drifted. They scored again and again with their railguns, crippling
one of the Hu'man battlecruisers.

Meanwhile, the heart of the fleet was engaging the four Hu'man
Superdreadnoughts. By positioning our fleet the way he did, In'har was able to
concentrate fire on the Hu'man capital ships, one at a time. 1st Commander
In'har directed all fire on what we believed to be the flagship of their
fleet. After doing a significant amount of damage, he shifted fire to a second
of the huge ships. Strangely, the crippling damage to their flagship did
nothing to the Hu'man morale. Surely they saw that their ship was useless and
they still did not surrender. The second Human SD was then crippled and still
they fought on. 1st Commander In'har then ordered the fleet into Slay as it
seemed that the Hu'mans simply did not think as we do. Destroying them utterly
is the only course of action.

At this time, we were also confronting the Hu'man killercraft. We were
seriously outnumbered on this level of the conflict and our own killercraft
were unable to strike. Instead, they were ordered into Protect and assigned to
our own Yu'kas class Superdreadnoughts. At this time, the Hu'man missiles
found their mark and a coordinated attack by both killercraft and missiles
wrought horrible damage on the heart of our fleet. Our scatterguns completely
destroyed 4 full attack groups of enemy killercraft and did serious damage to
the remainder. However, the missiles kept coming.

After 4 tu'runs, the mighty Yu'kas under 2nd Commander Ta'sin was completely
destroyed by the Hu'man attack wave. There was no time for them to even signal
their doom. One moment they were there, and the next they were not. I have
never seen such a thing. More distressing than this was the crippling of our
own flagship. 1st Commander In'har was slain as the enemy missiles destroyed
the Flag Bridge, Auxiliary Control, Life Support and the Engine room. 3rd
Commander Ti'ree took command of the fleet and, in his fury, completely
destroyed the crippled Hu'man SD and crippled 2 others. The coordinated
Railgun fire tore through their hulls even as a second wave of missiles and
killercraft came in.

The Hu'mans have also developed a horrible new device that allows for small
craft to remain unseen by our scanners. They seem to be ahead of our own
Science Clan in this area. They mounted cloaking devices on small ships that
carried more of their missiles. Using this cloaking technology, they were able
to launch missile strikes from behind our main fleet and wrought more damage
upon us. Several of our Ti'daks took severe damage and attempted to withdraw
but were hunted down by the remaining enemy killercraft. The fleet was ordered
into Flee and those ships that were capable moved to disengage. Those that
could not follow bravely held back the Hu'man ships and another of their SDs
was destroyed. During this time, 3rd Commander Ti'ree and his ship were lost
as the last of the enemy killercraft concentrated on him. His last act as
commander was to approve the pleas of our own killercraft pilots who were
screaming for vengeance. Thus released, they made straight for the Hu'man
fleet, using their last moments of life to strike at the enemy.

With me now in charge, I gathered what was left of our fleet and warped out.
Only five of our ships made it out but we carry back crucial information about
Hu'man tactics and technology.

My recommendations and observations to our Science Clan are as follows:
1) Cloaking and anti-Cloaking devices.  If we can not cloak, we must at
least be able to penetrate theirs 2) Extended Point Defense. If we had
available scatterguns that could support another ship, we would not have
fallen prey to the Hu'man missiles so easily. Several ships had no choice but
to watch as their brothers died. 3) Upgrading our existing scatterguns to
allow for reloading during combat.
They proved very effective but very short-lived as well.

My recommendations and observations to our War Leaders are as follows: 1)
Increase the use and production of killercraft. If only to screen our capital
ships. They proved vital but, in the end, futile due to being horribly
outnumbered. 2) A change of doctrine is needed. Confront is no longer a viable
tactic. Slay is the only course that can be followed when fighting the
Hu'mans. They do not follow our ways and we can not think that they would
surrender to us. 3) Close maneuvering has served us well in defeating initial
waves of the Hu'man missiles. However, we must be able to lend support between
ships. Scatterguns should be reserved for Point Defense use and not as a ship
to ship weapon. 4) Targeting priority should be changed to destroy the missile
capable ships as soon as they are detected. The missile salvoes are much more
deadly than their beam weapons.

4th Commander K'zirt