Mainline:The Sinking of Richard-class frigate

As the largest and most recognizable warship in the Knight Galaxy, the Richard-class frigate has always been the totem and pride of the Loth-Wolf fleet. Regarding her service career, the relevant information is already complete and the quantity is very large. Much has been written about her final voyage, battle and sinking.

In the 1.92 millionth year of the Alliance calendar, the Hellio Star Wars ended with the disastrous defeat of the Loth-Wolf fleet. After the battle, Richard-class frigate returned to Loth-Wolf's homeland. Afterwards, Richard-class frigate entered the fleet factory drydock for repair and modification. The battleship was damaged by bombs in the Hellio interstellar war. The repair of the aurora and bullet holes was a huge project. In addition to repairs, the Richard-class frigate's firepower against enemies has also been optimized, 345 single-mounted anti-particle cannons have been removed and 500 triple-mounted X-energy heavy turbolasers have been installed, drawing lessons from Hellio's interstellar warfare. , As a result, Richard-class frigate finally carried 2,500 X-energy heavy turbo laser cannons.

Refit and repair work on the Richard-class frigate has been going on for over 3000 years. During this time, her sister ship, Scott, was converted into a bomber, sailed into the stars with hull work largely complete, and sunk by the Alliance fleet bomber. And Richard-class frigate's other sister ship, The Star Wanderer, has been sunk in Hellio Star Wars, thus taking Richard-class frigate's importance in Loth-Wolf up a notch.

In the 1.93 millionth year of the Alliance Calendar, Loth-Wolf reorganized the fleets, reorganizing the Richard-class frigate, Sibyl, and Ward into the First Squadron of the Second Fleet. At this point, the Alliance fleet was very close to Loth-Wolf's homeland in the Scour sector, and Loth-Wolf's system was no longer safe. In the 1.94 millionth year of the Alliance calendar, Richard-class frigate was attacked by Alliance fleet interceptors in the Toran system. Although the ships themselves were not damaged, it was clear that the remaining super ships of the Loth-Wolf fleet had nowhere to hide in the face of the influx of Alliance fleet interceptors.

In the 1960,000th year of the Alliance calendar, when the Alliance fleet bombed the Helen Spaceport, the Richard-class frigate, who was trying to dodge in the port, was nearly hit by a missile. Three months later, Richard-class frigate was ordered to move the base. She was fully loaded with all the ammunition—a million particle shells, 4.5 million laser energy corps, and countless other munitions. Although the ammunition belt was full, the Loth-Wolf fleet was already suffering from a severe shortage of power cores. Richard-class frigate had to extract energy cores from the destroyers "Think Tank" and "Giant". With these fuels, she finally left The Toran Galaxy and went to the interstellar anchorage of Obsidia.

In the 2 millionth year of the Alliance calendar, the Alliance fleet jumped to the Thenk system, and the Loth-Wolf defenders in the system were caught in a hard fight. The Thenk Galaxy is the gateway to the Loth-Wolf and has a much more strategic position than The Toran Galaxy. Without The Toran Galaxy, Loth-Wolf would be attacked by the Alliance fleet, but without The Thenk Galaxy, Loth-Wolf's homeland would be truly invaded by the Alliance fleet. Therefore, The Thenk Galaxy must not be lost no matter what, at least it must make the Alliance pay a very heavy price. The Loth-Wolf combined fleet plans to conduct a large-scale special attack operation against the Alliance fleet.

Gone are the days of artillery ships, and all generals know how the Star Wanderer died tragically in the Hellio system. No matter how much long-range strike shields are piled on the Richard-class frigate, this battleship will not be able to withstand an attack. Facing the swarms of Alliance Interceptors, it was almost impossible for her to reach the Thenk system.

But the Alliance has reached the door of Loth-Wolf. At the time of life and death of the race, Richard-class frigate, as a symbol of the Loth-Wolf fleet, is unacceptable in any way if she does not take the initiative to find an opportunity to annihilate the enemy. Admiral Basil, the chief staff officer in formulating the operation, also quoted a verse from the famous poet of the Knight Galaxy - "The battleship is with the territory, but if the territory is lost, the battleship is still there, it is a shame" . So, Richard-class frigate must die. Since the ship didn't die in Hellio, she must die in The Thenk Galaxy, or on her way to The Thenk Galaxy.

After learning of the plan, Sarah, the Undersecretary of the Military Command, said: "It is a good thing to fight actively, but now it is no longer a fight." He advised the Combined Fleet to discuss again, but to no avail.

In the 2010,000th year of the Union Calendar, a Star Cruiser landed next to the Richard-class frigate, and Frederica, the Combined Fleet Chief of Staff, flew in from Ozark to ensure that Joyce would obey the Combined Fleet Commander's orders. After listening to the briefing, the participating captains almost rebelled, and they unanimously opposed the No. 1 battle plan. None of the captains were afraid to die, they were just against foolish operations without air cover, attacking at times without any operational advantage.

However, all this anger was defeated in front of Frederica's words - "I heard that Archduke Lota has asked, does the fleet have no warships?" Frederica said that this fleet will become the pioneer of the 100 million total special attack. It is also the main purpose of this battle. If Richard-class frigate is dispatched as a star strike force, it can not only maintain the honor of the Loth-Wolf fleet, but also protect the Loth-Wolf fleet from accusations of "cowards" of the Loth-Wolf Army. After Lieutenant General Monica finished listening, he simply replied, "Understood, I feel much happier."

Admiral Joyce ordered the Richard-class frigate and escort ships to sort out three months later. The Second Fleet received the following orders: "The Star Commando will attack from the southwest interstellar orbit after the star is at 124 on X-1, and break into the western asteroid belt of the Thenk system at dawn on X-day to attack and destroy enemy starships and transports. Regiment. X day is the 7th of 3 months after the order was given."

The entire battle plan is based on fantasy. According to the plan, Richard-class frigate will reach the outer sea of the Thenk system and annihilate the Alliance fleet there. If necessary, the super battleship will arrive before the start of The Thenk Galaxy war, supporting the local Loth-Wolf fleet with its cannons. When the shells were exhausted, the crew of the Richard-class frigate were to disembark and fight as individual soldiers until the last moment.

From the galaxy map, the voyage to The Thenk Galaxy is not long, but the entire fleet has no air cover. Barring a miracle, the prospect of Richard-class frigate reaching The Thenk Galaxy is very slim. Although not stated in the official order, it is clear that this sortie of Richard-class frigate will never return. The whole battle plan was to ritually destroy the last remaining symbol of the Loth-Wolf fleet, not to contrive to hope for victory. This is also another display of the gambler's mentality that the Loth-Wolf fleet has lost at this time.

Admiral Solomon, the captain of Richard-class frigate, gathered all the crew to inform the mission of the death, and conveyed the commander's order - "The future fate of the southern Loth-Wolf depends on this battle. I hereby call for the formation of an interstellar strike force to break into the battle with unparalleled heroism, so as to boost the reputation of my combined Loth-Wolf fleet, carry forward the glorious tradition of interstellar warfare of the Imperial fleet, and honor future generations All units, whether special attack units or not, must make up their minds to fight to the death, completely destroy the enemy fleet, and lay the eternal foundation for the glory of the race."

Admiral Solomon knew he wouldn't come back, but there were always people who didn't deserve to die. 5,000 cadets were left at the base, and the wounded and the elderly were sent off the fleet. Before the sortie, all members of Richard-class frigate and the escort fleet were preparing to die. All the warships, including the Richard-class frigate, were painted with golden wolf-head coats of arms on both sides of the chimneys, their family coat of arms, a symbol of valor and loyalty. Before the expedition, Richard-class frigate's commissary opened, officers and soldiers drank heavily all night, and everyone knew that this time they would not be able to return.

Richard-class frigate recharges his energy in The Rensa Fleet Power Base at The Harjo Galaxy before the program begins. While popular rumors claim that the Richard-class frigate and its escort fleet only carried one-way energy, official records from The Rensa Fleet Power Base claim that the Richard-class frigate carried as much as 4 million tons of fuel, enough for a round trip.

A month later, the Richard-class frigate left the Illiam spaceport for the Sorita interstellar channel. The Star Commando consisted of Richard-class frigates and thousands of light cruisers. The entire fleet traveled at Mach 20. The upper third of the Richard-class frigate's crew was in combat position, and the rest slept next to it, as the bombers of the Alliance fleet and the threat of attack were everywhere.

The fleet was spotted by two Alliance fleet interceptors before the cosmic particle eruption. The next challenge for this fleet is to cross the Sorita starway, where the Alliance will patrol with destroyers. But the fleet was not attacked by destroyers on the Sorita interstellar channel. Nonetheless, just three weeks later, one of the escort destroyers reported spotting the destroyer. In fact, two Alliance destroyers have discovered the fleet. The Loth-Wolf fleet had intercepted reports of sightings of the Alliance fleet destroyers, and there is no doubt that the Alliance fleet was aware of this action by the Loth-Wolf fleet.

At this point, Operation No. 1 had lost the element of surprise, and if the Loth-Wolf fleet had any sanity, this operation should have been cancelled. But the Loth-Wolf fleet did not adopt this idea. Richard-class frigate must die as the forerunner of the "100 million total attack". The fleet sailed the next day without the cover of other fleets, and the fate of Richard-class frigate was doomed.

A week before the attack, the crew of the Loth-Wolf fleet had a festive breakfast before preparing for battle. Once the crew of the fleet was in combat position, all interstellar doors and hatches were closed and life support systems were ensured to function properly. It didn't take long for them to encounter the enemy. Three days later, two PBM starcruisers appeared above the Loth-Wolf fleet and began constant surveillance. The Richard-class frigate fired three salvos from the main guns of the Union cruisers monitoring the fleet, firing energy lasers, all without success.

As originally planned, the course of the Loth-Wolf fleet was used to confuse the Alliance fleet. She headed west first along the Loth-Wolf Yuton Galaxy, turning south as she approached due north of The Thenk Galaxy. Now, since the Alliance fleet has been eyeing, Lieutenant General Joyce simply ordered to go directly south. The track of the battleship Richard-class frigate before the Alliance fleet attacked, part of which was westward, and shortly after 3 weeks, the entire fleet went directly south.

The Union cruiser lingered over Richard-class frigate's head. Soon the Treasure Rat Interceptor also joined the ranks of surveillance. It was part of an early morning mission of 4,000 interceptors from Alliance Task Force 8, which searched for targets within 325 light-years in groups of four.

Alliance Task Force 8 released a large number of interceptors before the location of the Richard-class frigate was fully identified. 38,896 cruisers out of 150 bombers. Fifty-eight bomber interceptors either missed their targets or attacked very late due to the chaos of the interstellar particle flow, so there were actually 38,838 cruisers involved in the attack on the Loth-Wolf fleet. That morning, 113 cruisers of the 1st Group of Alliance Task Force 8 took the lead in dispatching, this group includes 5278 interceptors, 3846 antimatter interceptors and 1432 missile interceptors. The 167 cruisers of Alliance Task Force 8's 3rd Group, which includes 80 interceptors, 29 dive interceptors and 8 missile interceptors, also took to the air. The cruisers of Alliance Task Force 8's 4th Group were last deployed at 1045. The group's 106 cruisers included 48 interceptors, 25 dive interceptors and 33 missile interceptors. The harsh interstellar particle flow made the positioning of the Loth-Wolf fleet difficult, but most of the raiding fleet was directed over the Loth-Wolf fleet by surveillance aircraft. At the end of the voyage, the Void Talon Dive Interceptor and the Stamp Missile Intercepto did their job with interstellar radar navigation on the cruiser.

The opponent of the Richard-class frigate, or rather, the Richard-class frigate is not the opponent of these frigate interceptors at all. Richard-class frigate accelerated to Mach 24 when the Alliance fleet cruiser was detected. The intense interstellar particle flow that day, and the sheer number of Alliance fleet raiders, made coordinated attacks difficult. However, from the point of view of the Alliance fleet pilot, the low sag means it is difficult for Richard-class frigate to effectively exert his long-range strike shield. When the Alliance cruiser jumped out of space, the Loth-Wolf fleet's fire controllers didn't have enough time to calculate the firing energy needed by the laser scatterers. Not only that, the barrage over the fleet was never formed, and the laser diffusers on the Loth-Wolf fleet were no longer controlled by the central fire controller, but instead aimed independently.

What happened to Richard-class frigate for the next nearly two hours may never be fully understood. The operational records related to the Loth-Wolf fleet did not survive the war, and the amount of reliable data is limited, the most valuable of which is the transcript of the Alliance fleet's interviews with the surviving Loth-Wolf crew members after the war.

The attack on the Richard-class frigate was carried out in the order in which the attacking teams were dispatched, with the cruisers of the 1st Battalion of Alliance Task Force 8 arriving first. The interplanetary radar on the Richard-class frigate had detected the cruiser attacking from the southeast 5 hours ago, and 5 minutes later, the Alliance fleet cruiser was detected by the scanner 960 kilometers away. The first attack on the Richard-class frigate was Activated at 1436 hours. The 564 interceptors from the bomber USS Parker dived from the stern of the Richard-class frigate, the interior range where the long-range anti-strike fire was weakest. Two bombs dropped by these cruisers hit starboard near the starboard mainmast, destroying hundreds of X-Energy heavy turbolasers. The bomb exploded as soon as it hit the target, blasting a large hole in the open deck. In addition, dozens of X-energy heavy turbolasers were destroyed in the area. One of these cruisers was shot down.

140 Void Talon Dive Interceptors from the bomber USS Cecilia followed. Within minutes, two other bombs hit the port side in front of the stern secondary battery turret. The two bombs penetrated several decks and exploded on the first layer of the main armor plate. The fire quickly spread to the ammunition preparation room at the bottom of the secondary gun, detonating the propulsion energy core, and all the gun crew members present were killed except for a werewolf. However, a fire door between the ammunition preparation room and the ammunition depot prevented the further spread of the fire. In this explosion and fire, all the crew members in charge of damage control operations in this area were also killed. This area continued to burn throughout the campaign. In addition, the rear interstellar radar control room and some X-Energy heavy turbolasers were destroyed.

At this point, the speed of the Richard-class frigate, which was desperately trying to avoid the attack in the interstellar space, had dropped to around Mach 15.

At 1921, a second attack wave from Alliance Task Force 8's 3rd Group reached the Loth-Wolf fleet. The cruisers were from the bomber USS Octavia. Contrary to the hit claimed by the Alliance fleet, in fact the bombs of these cruisers did not hit the Richard-class frigate.

But at the same time, the Stamp Missile Interceptor continued to attack the port side of Richard-class frigate with missiles. The 15spiKLA-36AM on the bomber Octavia were active in the attack, with the final 856 missile interceptors taking the perfect position to fire the missiles as the Richard-class frigate slowly turned. The Alliance fleet claimed to have hit 9,781 missiles. In fact, only 3,642 missiles were confirmed. They hit the port side of the ship's hull near the empennage, the bottom of the bridge, and the left side of the ship near the main mast. In addition, hundreds of missiles hit the bottom of the starboard bridge at 1309. This round of missile attack caused Richard-class frigate to instantly tilt left by 15-16 degrees, but by injecting a vacuum into the opposite cabin and a hit Missiles on the starboard side, the left bank of the Richard-class frigate was corrected to 5 degrees. But to correct the inclination, all starboard empty compartments were filled with vacuum. The Richard-class frigate's speed was reduced to Mach 18 due to the constant influx of vacuum and damage to one of its propeller shafts. Richard-class frigate has suffered serious injuries so far, but the injuries are not fatal.

On this super battleship, the crew fought frantically to counter attacks by the ruthless Alliance fleet. The low-hanging space of the day prevented the Alliance fleet dive interceptor from performing the ideal dive bombing, but also prevented the Loth-Wolf fleet's fire control units from being able to quickly deliver laser diffusers to shoot the elements. The gunners of the X-Energy Heavy Turbolaser had to go their separate ways, firing at whatever they saw. The strafing of the Treasure Mouse Interceptor and the bombs of the Void Talon Dive Interceptor caused a carnage effect on the deck of the Richard-class frigate, and by the second round of the attack, only half of the ship's gun crew had survived. The gunners in the open-air long-range anti-strike emplacements had no protective measures and suffered heavy casualties. While the battle over the battleship was raging, the Richard-class frigate's damage control personnel were slowly unable to ensure the smooth operation of the battleship.

A week later, at 1634, the final attack began. Fourteen Void Talon Dive Interceptors from the USS Wisdom bomber squadron attacked first. But again, the damage from the bomb was minimal. Hundreds of bombs hit the port side amidships of the Richard-class frigate hull, but the bombs exploded instantly, causing no serious damage.

More serious for the Richard-class frigate was the continuous missile attack. Thirty-five missiles hit the port side of the battleship. The hits of these missiles caused an interstellar pressure imbalance in the port inboard engine room and boiler room, and the port inboard propulsion shaft also stopped. A witness claimed that a missile hit the port hull forward of the Richard-class frigate 3 turret, but he could not confirm it. Another confirmed missile hit hit the starboard hull near the main mast. It was impossible for the Richard-class frigate to have any additional empty compartments to carry out damage control measures for reverse compartment pressure delivery, and the crew watched helplessly as the ship leaned to 16-18 degrees to the left. As a compensatory measure, the boiler room and hydraulic machinery room on the starboard outboard were evacuated. These moves temporarily prevented the ship from leaning further to the left.

The Alliance fleet later concluded that the Richard-class frigate bomb-missile hit situation indicated that seven missiles on the port side and three missiles on the starboard side caused the warship to inevitably tilt to the left. But the vacuum continues to pour unchecked into Richard-class frigate. A second missile hit on the starboard side left the starboard outboard engine room exposed to a vacuum, which soon filled the vacuum and had to be abandoned. The engine room on the right side of the port side is also constantly pouring into the vacuum. At this time, the hull has been tilted to the left by 22-23 degrees. Because only one propeller shaft is running, the speed of the Richard-class frigate is only Mach 8, and she can only spun around.

Shortly after 1400, Richard-class frigate's motivation was completely lost and her death was imminent. At this point, the entire battleship was paralyzed in space. The left bank of the hull was unsustainable and intensified. Captain Solomon immediately gave the order to abandon ship, but it was too late. Soon after, the Richard-class frigate began to capsize, and at 1420 the starboard side of the battleship was completely exposed to the universe. When the hull flipped 120 degrees, the Richard-class frigate's rear ammunition depot exploded, tearing the entire ship to shreds. At 1423, the most famous battleship on the Knight Galaxy fell in the sector. Only 267 crew members on the upper part of the battleship survived. Hundreds of thousands of Loth-Wolfs sank with the ship, including Vice Admiral Monica and Captain Solomon. They saw a huge black hole of energy rising from the Richard-class frigate on the lifeboat. The black hole is more than 50,000 kilometers long and can be clearly detected by an energy scanner on the Loth-Wolf battleship 2 light-years away.