Battle of Kalyke

The Battle of Kalyke was a Division War naval battle which occured on 3 February 2615, as part of Operation Arms Phoenix.

The battle was the largest in the old solar system during the Division War prior to the Battle of Galatea.

Background
Operation Saber Resurrection was the name given to the extremely complicated system of convoys and recovery ships sent to the planets Earth and Mars, and the moon Luna, to recover and reuse weapons from the Devastation War, hundreds of years in the past. These convoys fell under various attacks, starting on October 16th, 2614 with the Battle of Kakhovka. Shortly after a number of protective escort fleets where dispatched to protect the convoys and their essential cargo

The first of these was Task Force Sol-17-A, lead by Rear Admiral Drake Sopwith from his flagship the SS Longstreet, along with the destroyer SS Wright, and the destroyer escorts SS Queensmith, Caleighway, Kelly, and Alfred W. Johnson.

To respond to the protective fleets, and particularly Sol-17-A, Commodore Wiel and his Island-class Corvettes CFS Barkwurth, Deluns, Goldy Amaranth, and Jadespring, and the torpedo boat XT-14, with the CFS Deluns acting as his flagship

Battle
Early that day, the battle began with Wiel launching a high-speed hit-and-run attack on the SS Wright with the CFS Jadespring and Deluns, while his other two corvettes would shadow and engage the destroyer escorts. while under the initial attack run, before Wiel had any time to attack anyone, a previously scrambled flight squadron from the Longstreet had picked them up and attacked the two corvettes, causing them to be in immediate disarray, and although damage was inflicted on the Wright, it was slight and resulted with the Deluns and Jadespring both damaged. Jadespring, far more damaged than the Deluns, and thought to be the flagship by Sopwith since it lead the attack on the Wright, was pursued by the Wright and the two destroyer escorts Caleighway and Kelly. The three ships exchanged shots with the small Jadespring, and although the Jadespring was far more accurate with its shots, inflicted small damage on both the Wright and the Caleighway, it was useless as torpedoes fired from the Kelly destroyed the Jadespring 's aft turret and heavily damaged the life support systems. Shortly after power being cut, shots believed to be from the Kelly found their mark into the Jadespring 's broadside, severing the ship in two.

Meanwhile, the Barkwurth and Goldy Amaranth focused efforts on the Longstreet, again being engaged by fighters, Barkwurth was able to score hits on the Longstreet 's flight deck, while the Goldy Amaranth was shaken off by the Queensmith and Alfred W. Johnson. A bombing unit launched from the Longstreet targeted the Goldy Amaranth and bombed the ship ruthlessly, causing a critical power shutdown and forcing the ship to be abandoned. With the Goldy Amaranth destroyed, the two destroyer escorts pursued the Barkwurth, which at the time had cut off its attack to pick up survivors of the Jadespring, leaving the Longstreet to scramble fighters to engage the Deluns.

With the ship unprotected and most of its spacecraft in flight, the Longstreet made itself an easy target for the previously unseen XT-14, who fired a salvo of four torpedoes at the light carrier. Of the four fired, three found their mark into the side of the Longstreet, causing massive engine failure and preventing the ship to attack, the ship was abandoned shortly after scrambling its last fighters to engage the XT-14. The fighters harassed the ship until various hull breaches were reported, and the vessel retreated into the asteroid belt, where the fighters broke off to aid in the pursuit of the Deluns and Barkwurth. XT-14 was lost in the asteroid belt, and failed to return to Phaedra. With the Longstreet wrecked, but with three of the five Circadian warships out of action, the Barkwurth and Deluns retreated to Callisto where they returned to Phaedra without accomplishing their mission.