Part of the Crew, Part of the Ship

[Einbeck]

10th April, 834 AS, Sigma-15
Several hours after passing by Hammersee

Valhalla's defence was a disaster. The Wild Hunt turned, in just a matter of hours, from a proud, revitalized, movement, into a mere shadow of its self; across Thuringia, into Frankfurt and even Sigma-15 lay wrecks as testament to the ferocity of the battle. On a first glance, it seemed like their purpose had been accomplished, with the Kolleda suffering significant damage, but the unforgiving reality was the opposite.

The "clash of titans" was done, largely, by smaller ships such as gunboats and bombers, which did indeed allow the battleship and cruisers to maintain longer ranges during the first exchanges and even well after the battle had begun in full, with a window of time being prepared to escape as it became increasingly obvious that no complete victory would be achievable. It was this escape that put a swift end to any plans within Rheinland as both the Einbeck and the Schiller came under the combined fire of multiple ships, ranging by class, but still sufficient in number to cause major damage to several sections. On that day, history was not kind to them. Still, the relative chaos that followed in the wake of the Kolleda receiving the order to fire the weapon meant that neither the Rheinlanders nor The Wild took the risk of engaging and being wiped out by the subsequent pulse.

As the dust settled, one large effort was made to break into Frankfurt and beyond while there was still time, with the majority of the snubcraft sent onto one last mission to delay the main force. It worked, if briefly, and allowed the now-cloaked warships to escape in relative safety to Frankfurt. Here, however, they couldn't do the same, they had to battle whatever force would appear to try and stop them.

Perhaps by luck, perhaps by mere coincidence, still, only the odd corporate convoy buzzed far-away into the distance, keeping clear of the Westerwald. It seemed, for a time, as if all of Frankfurt's defence forces went to Thuringia -- unbeknownst to them, this was the exact reality; only Schwerin's light fighter patrols could now catch up and alert the rest. But despite this, there was no time for sitting idly by, and the retreating ships made haste towards Sigma-15, diverting whatever power there could be diverted from weapon systems and shields towards the cloaking veils.

It took a whole day to reach past Hammersee, in Sigma-15, to finally allow the overworked crews some rest. Amongst them was even the Captain of the Einbeck, planning to write down what had taken place...

"This is Meyer, writing a report on post-combat action in Rheinland space during the defence of Valhalla Shipyard. It is the 10th of April 834 A.S., and we are currently retreating into the Sigmas.

If indeed there exists a God out there, he has not been kind to us these past days. We departed with the Schiller, the Einbeck, five gunship drones and some thirty fighters and bombers spread across, on the first hours of the 8th. It is now the 10th and we have only one operational drone and a mere seven fighters left to spare for scouting runs after detaching a distraction force to buy ourselves some additional time. Half the Schiller's front and mid sections are missing and the engine of the Einbeck has suffered so many hits that, only since our entry in Sigma-15, it has stopped working three times. The crews have it even worse, with casualty rates going into the forty-fifty percents.

We have badly miscalculated the numbers the Military and MND scrambled together, so much so that the Alsace ambush seems like child's play. Fortunate or otherwise, it does not yet seem like the Direktor has understood that von Strauss works hand-in-hand alongside us, but perhaps still she will figure out and come crashing down on Stulingen.

The fleet passed Hammersee only a few hours ago, we could see the planet from afar. It is a miracle that no patrols have stumbled upon us, but it is expected as this patch of space is so far away from the usual traffic. On our current trajectory and speed, we'll rendezvous some 20 clicks from the entry point to Sigma-17 tomorrow at around this hour. Once there, we shall, at last, understand in full what options this remnant of a fleet still has as far as getting back safely goes."