Dire Straits

Mission:	Dire Straits
Location:	In orbit around Raesvelg in the Valhalla system
Date:	197.04.12
The Hegemony mining outpost of Raesvelg in the Valhalla system is blockaded by the Tri-Tachyon Corporation in the midst of the Second AI War. The local Hegemony system fleet has orders to prioritize defense of the military complex orbiting Valhalla's secondary, the dwarf star of Ragnar, leaving the populated moon of the gas giant Yggdrasil vulnerable to Tri-Tachyon attack. Raesvelg's ground-based defenses are strong and difficult to target, hidden as they are among the many derelict hab-domes and cold refineries. With the fragile hydroponics farms bombarded to uselessness from long range and the regular convoys from Jangala cut off, the Hegemony garrison is running low on supplies and is even having difficulty controlling the increasingly panicked civilian population. Raesvelg may be forced to surrender if not relieved. The Hegemony-appointed magistrate, Gan Bowen, has used several emergency bonds backed by refining futures to raise an auxiliary supply fleet to slip through the Tri-Tachyon blockade. He has also used his newly-granted power to commission privateers to find mercenaries to protect the supply fleet in their desperate mission. The lead mercenary ship is the newly recommissioned ISS Black Star, a Hammerhead class destroyer fitted out as a favour to Magistrate Bowen by the heir of House Rao of Eventide - who, anyway, needed to find an opportunity for advancement for a third-born son who had got himself dishonourably dismissed from the Sphinx naval academy. If enough supply ships can punch through the blockade, Raesvelg can hold out until the naval task force from Samarra arrives to drive off the imperious Tri-Tachyon executives and their piratical minions. And if the ISS Black Star survives, Orcus Rao may yet distinguish himself enough to win back his naval career. The war is on and this is no peace-time navy of politicians and bureaucrats; the Hegemony needs officers as ruthless as they are ambitious. Excerpt from "In The Midst Of The Storm": "Whether the appalling cost of the victory, the complete inversion of his mission orders, or the act of commandeering a Hegemony cruiser from its CO in the midst of combat, any one of Orcus Rao's actions during the breaking of the siege of Raesvelg would have earned a court-martial had he been within the Hegemony chain of command."
Tactical Briefing
-ISS Black Star must survive -At least 25% of the Hegemony forces must escape
Your Flagship
Name:	ISS Black Star
Type:	Hammerhead-class

Order of Battle
Escaping	1x Hammerhead 1x Dominator 2x Monitor 1x Buffalo Mk.II 2x Kite 2x Hound 2x Colossus 1x Condor 1x Valkyrie 2x Tarsus 1x Hermes 1x Mercury	Attacking	1x Astral 3x Medusa 1x Sunder 2x Wolf 2x Tempest 3x Dagger 1x Xyphos 1x Broadsword 2x Terminator Drone Wing
Hegemony relief fleet with mercenary escort		Tri-Tachyon containment task force