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The Zunker Incident was an incident between elements of the Royal Manticoran Navy and the Solarian League Navy Frontier Fleet that occured near the Zunker System in April 1922 PD, in the early stages of the Solarian-Manticoran War.
Prelude[]
In response to increasing tensions between the Star Empire of Manticore and the Solarian League following the New Tuscany Incident, Second Battle of New Tuscany, and Battle of Spindle, the government of the Idaho System closed the Idaho Hyper Bridge and its terminus associated with the Zunker System to all Solarian military and merchant traffic at the request of the Star Empire.
In response to the closure, Office of Frontier Security commissioner Hirokichi Floyd of the neighboring Solarian Genovese Sector dispatched elements of the SLN Frontier Fleet to challenge the closure of the terminus and escort the Solarian-registered freighter Zambezi Treasure through the terminus.
Order of Battle[]
[]
Zunker Terminus picket - CO, Captain Hiram Ivanov
[]
Battlecruiser Division 3065.2 - CO, Rear Admiral Liam Pyun
Course of Incident[]
Battlecruiser Division 3065.2 and the Zambezi Treasure translated out of hyperspace 50 million kilometers short of the terminus with a residual velocity of less than a thousand kilometers per second. The Solarian vessels began to accelerate toward the terminus at a rate of barely 2.037 KPS squared, a rate that would require more than two and a half hours to reach a zero/zero intercept with the terminus for transit.
In accordance with his orders, Captain Fergus Arredondo of the Zunker Terminus Astro Control Service hailed the Solarian vessels to advise them that the terminus was closed to all Solarian warships and Solarian-registered merchant traffic. Furthermore, he advised the Solarians that his instructions from the RMN required him to inform all shipping approaching the terminus to activate their transponders and that all Solarian vessels were prohibited from approaching within one light-minute or eighteen million kilometers of the terminus.
BatDiv 3065.2 did not respond to Arredondo's transmission or his instructions and continued to escort the Zambezi Treasure toward the terminus.
Subsequently, Captain Ivanov transmitted his own hail to the approaching Solarian warships ten minutes later as they came almost a million kilometers closer to the terminus and reached a velocity of 2,200 KPS. Ivanov repeated Arredondo's advisory that the terminus was closed to Solarian military and merchant traffic. Further he informed the Solarians that should they continue to close without activating their transponders and to a distance of less than thirty million kilometers, he would engage their ships.
When the Solarians continued to ignore his instructions, Ivanov chose to implement his Volley Alpha operations plan should the Solarian breach his designated thirty million kilometer boundary. Once the Solarian crossed the thirty million kilometer line, Ivanov's three Edward Saganami C class heavy cruisers used their off-bore capability and superior fire control to launch quadruple broadsides, launching 240 Mark 16 dual-drive missiles at the Solarians[3].
In response to the Manticoran launch, BatDiv 3065.2 activated their Halo decoy platforms and missile defenses. Meanwhile, the Manticorans chose to cut the stealth on their deployed Ghost Rider drones, revealing their presence to the Solarians[4]. When the Manticoran missiles reached the Solarian's counter-missile zone, the Dazzlers and Dragon's Teeth in their formation activated, blinding the Solarian sensors and producing false targets[5]. The Solarian's were able to stop exactly 17 actual shipkillers with counter missiles and another 12 with point defense lasers, leaving 163 shipkillers.
Then at the last minute and with 30 seconds remaining of their drives, the Manticoran missiles executed a perfectly synchronized maneuver and detonated in a single explosion in a deliberate demonstration. SLNS Retaliate suffered a single hit while SLNS Impudent suffered two, but the remainder of the Manticoran laserheads wasted themselves on the wedges of the Solarian battlecruisers.
Ivanov used his ship's FTL communications capability to hail BatDiv 3065.2 a second time and informed the Solarians they had ten minutes to reverse acceleration or leave into hyperspace or he would resume firing. (HH13, SI4)
Aftermath[]
Rear Admiral Pyun ordered his ships to reverse acceleration and BatDiv 3065.2 and the Zambezi Treasure departed into hyperspace without further incident.
References[]
- ↑ Three Edward Saganami C class units: HMS Sloan Tompkins, HMS Bristol Q. Yakolev, and HMS Cheetah.
- ↑ Four Roland class units.
- ↑ Volley Alpha utilized only the heavy cruiser's internal tubes. Both the missile pods of Mark 23 multi-drive missiles tractored to their hulls and their Roland class destroyer consorts were not used.
- ↑ Most of the drones were less than 10,000 kilometers clear of SLNS Belle Poule, BatDiv 3065.2's flagship.
- ↑ 50 of the 240 Mark 16s were penetration aids.
| Operations of the Solarian-Manticoran War | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Lacoön | Buccaneer | Raging Justice | Fabius | Nemesis | |||
| Battles of the Solarian-Manticoran War | |||
First New Tuscany | Second New Tuscany | Spindle | Zunker | Saltash | Second Manticore | |||