Battle of New Korea

The Battle of New Korea was one of the opening battles in the First Hydran War. Parts of the Auroran 2nd Fleet engaged and forced back parts of the Hydran's 3rd Fleet.

Background
The Hydran Empire declared war on the Star Kingdom of Aurora on 14 April, 420 P.E (2881 A.D), convinced that theHydran Imperial Navy would be able to swiftly overcome the much smaller Royal Navy, and invade and occupy several worlds and systems between the two nations which had only months earlier allied themselves with the Aurorans, forming the Royal Alliance.

Admiral Duchess Catherine de Chandlier was placed in overall command of the RAN 2nd Fleet and tasked with performing a pre-emptive attack on the Hydran Empire, before the Hydran Imperial Navy had time to completely mobilize and form their forces. She split her fleet in two, Task Force 2.1 and 2.2 respectively. Vice Admiral Felipé Torrington, commander of the 3rd Battle Squadron, was appointed to command Task Force 2.2, while the Duchess commanded 2.1 herself.

De Chandlier planned to attack and occupy the strategically important systems of Se-Huang, New Korea and Chian, to maximise the effect of her available forces and disrupt enemy movement until more RAN units could be moved to the front. The capture of these systems would force the HIN to re-deploy radically, and concentrate their forces further back from the border to the Star Kingdom and the Royal Alliance.

Torrington was ordered to take his smaller task force and capture the New Korea system, while de Chandlier went for the much larger and more heavily defended Se-Huang system. In the end, New Korea would prove a much tougher nut to crack.

Task Force 2.2's arrival
Task Force 2.2 exited the Light Way close to the system's periphery, and spent several hours moving further into the system. Torrington had only a single battle squadron and a single battlecruiser squadron which formed his main line of battle, with a medium-heavy screen protected and supported the heavier ships. His lack of carriers and on-board fighter wings also slowed down his advance, the lack of advance scouts in form of fast small-craft convinced him to advance as carefully into the system as possible.

The Hydran forces, parts of the HIN 3rd Fleet, were stationed in high orbit on Schi-Manchuria II, one of the planetary bodies in the system (though none of them were inhabited, all having a very unsuited climate for human settlement, due to the placement of the system's sun), but were at first oblivious to the Aurorans' presence. Vice Admiral Sun Han-Li, commander of the Hydran forces, had none of his fighters out flying reconnaissance, still unaware of the Star Kingdom's declaration of war on his own Hydran Empire. He was under orders to move to the Se-Huang system to support Admiral Sochii's 15th Fleet which was still forming and not yet activated. Unbeknownst to the Vice Admiral and all other personnel of the 3rd Fleet, however, was that the Se-Huang system had fallen to Duchess de Chandlier's Task Force 2.1, and the 15th Fleet had been destroyed.

Opening moves
After about five hours of moving into the system, Torrington finally got a look at the Hydran fleet, and noted that his own forces outnumbered those of the enemy, though there was a slight discrepancy in size and class configurations. He opted for a standard approach and engage the enemy ships, most of them still docked in orbit, with a vee-formation of ships of the line with the cruisers and destroyers providing support and engaging the Hydran screen.

The RAN ships quickly took up their designated attack positions and bore straight at the HIN fleet concentration at flank speed. A scouting HIN destroyer spotted the incoming RAN ships and alerted the rest of the HIN fleet, which quickly came to battle stations and turned around to meet the incoming RAN fleet. The Hydran ships, however, had no time to form a proper formation and was forced to meet the Auroran's organized attack in a clustered mass of ships.

The RAN ships opened fire at about five million kilometers out, their superior torpedoes having almost 20% longer range than their Hydran equivalents. The torpedoes bore straight into the HIN formation, and crippled the two Manchuria-class battleships Quan-Xi and ''Nanjing. ''At this stage the HIN fleet had come in range and returned fire. Han-Li had ordered his ships to fire as dispersed as possible, but the majority of the ship captains, desperate and panicking after watching the Aurorans cutting down two of the mightiest vessels in the HIN, fired at the lead RAN ship in the vee. The ship in question was the Queen Emily-class battleship HMS Valour which was hit at least seventeen times by torpedoes. Visual and written records describe how the huge battleship was more or less gutted from bow to stern by the enormous amount of torpedoes before she exploded with all hands.

Main battle
After the destruction of the Valour, Torrington ordered the vee to disperse and engage the HIN ships independently. The battleships and the battlecruisers went straight for the centre of the HIN formation, while the heavy cruisers went around to the Hydrans' left to engage the lighter ships of the screen which had so far hung back, watching the battle unfold. The RAN light cruisers and destroyers advanced slowly forward while firing torpedoes, opting for long-range combat compared to the mayhem of close quarters.

As the twelve RAN heavy cruisers passed the HIN formation, they fired off a broadside while the heavier HIN battleships were preoccupied with the RAN capital ships. The concentrated barrage of railcannon rounds ripped apart further two HIN battleships and caused the HIN carriers to focus their attention on the cruisers, launching waves of fighters and bombers at them. By this time the cruisers had come into range with the Hydran screen and in the fighting, three RAN heavy cruisers were destroyed and five severely damaged at the cost of one of the carriers, six light cruisers and three destroyers.

Han-Li, realizing that he was being flanked, ordered his screen to make a run for the system's outer gravity limit and make the transition to the Light Way and warn the Hydran leadership that the Aurorans had attacked the Empire. He would command the rearguard of battleships and allow the smaller ships time to escape.

As the HIN fleet split, Torrington ordered his heavier ships to plow straight through the cluster of battleships, firing as they go, and try to catch up with the fleeing screen. As the heavy RAN ships attacked the centre of their formation, several of the HIN battleships were destroyed, and the remaining were mostly heavily damaged. Han-Li realized he had no chance and ordered all his ships to flee while he took his damaged flagship, the Sanjing, on a death run into the Aurorans' formation. The Sanjing rammed straight into the battlecruiser Terror which broke in two. This signalled the end of the battle, and the waiting RAN screen sped forth and harassed the fleeing HIN ships, destroying or crippling three destroyers and two light cruisers.

Aftermath
The destruction of the HIN fleet at New Korea opened up the front for the Star Kingdom, and created a forward base for Sir Joseph Pennefeather's 1st Fleet to operate from when it arrived three weeks later. Torrington assembled what combat-ready units he had left and set course of the Tau Ceti V system to rendevouz with de Chandlier's Task Force 2.1. The ships which had been damaged were ordered to set course for the Star Kingdom for repair and refit. The Battle of New Korea was the first battle in history where battleships had gone toe-to-toe against each other, the First Hydran War being the first interstellar war between nations of sufficient size to have such vessels in its order of battle.