Meerclaw's War Continues.

 Our battered forces regroup and withdraw to the Count's Starbase. Fortunately, Count R'rorash has survived the damage done to the CVS Sabre, and is in fine fettle as he supervises preparations and logistics for what we all expect to be a major showdown with the Lyrans at the Starbase itself.

Reports are coming in of various battles that have been taking place all along the borders with the Lyrans and Klingons. We did quite well on our front, with Commodore C'Rorish being promoted to Constable of the Count's Marches after his excellent performance against the Lyrans at Battle Station One. Although his forces were eventually degraded to the point where he had no choice but to withdraw, he managed to evacuate the entire station before blowing it with demolition charges to prevent it falling into the claws of the Lyrans. Our own battle against the Red Claw himself went rather less according to plan, but between us and the unexpected success at Battle Station Three, we have inflicted substantial attrition on the enemy forces. Our fleet managed to fend the Lyrans off at Battle Station Three, albeit at the cost of the station itself being crippled. Rather than leave these ships in exposed position at the frontier, Count R'rorash orders its evacuation and demolition.

A similarly mixed story of success and defeat trickles in from the Klingon Front. Here, the boneheads launched a series of six attacks all along our border, and suffered even greater attrition than the Lyrans. The Klingons failed at three of our Battle Stations, but managed to destroy another and, most importantly, conquer our important planet Zelkrath as well as the neutral planet of the bird-men, Zursk. The actions against our stations were really just feints intended to keep large proportions of our forces in place, but even so the damage done to the invaders has been significant, including the destruction of a C8 Dreadnought and the death of its admiral in the skies above Zursk.

All of this is in accordance with our overall strategy, and my assumption is that the High Command will be taking advantage of any time we buy to upgrade the home world's defences. In the meantime, as we approach what would be mid-summer back home, we regroup and repair the larger vessels crippled in the initial defensive battles. Various forces amalgamate under the Count's command at his Starbase in anticipation of a major Lyran assault. Since the majority of our forces were out of alignment due to retiring from the frontier defences, we retire upon the Starbase and find large amounts of strategic materiel waiting for us. The crippled lighter ships from the various fleets simply retire to the home world for less costly repairs at one point in the future. We assume that similar preparations will be taking place on the Klingon Front.

Much happens in our little part of the war. The Sabre suffered significant losses among its pilots, so the entire first flight of our Escort Carrier Seer is promoted to the much larger Strike Carrier. My own Flight Commander, C'rorri, is promoted to Wing Leader on the Seer, and I am promoted to his Second Pilot. My old friend S'resint from our academy days, who is slightly senior to myself, is promoted to replace C'rorri as leader of the Seer's second flight. We are joined by three of the pilots saved from Battle Station One. P'Mille fills out our First Flight as Third Pilot behind me, while H'Rall and M'Masha take position with S'resint. All three are veterans of the frontier battles, and it is good to meet them.

We now wait for the inevitable Lyran attacks.