Meerclaw at the Count's Starbase
In common with many of our personnel, I watch the initial stages of our defence against the Lyran attack on the vidlinks. We are mostly assembled at a pre-arranged rendezvous point, ready to feed ships and fighters into the ongoing series of combats as and when they are required. Count R'rorash leads a rousing defence from the Flag Bridge of the Starbase itself, co-ordinating everything with flair and the calmness in battle for which he is famous. It turns out that Commodore (now Constable) C'rorish is his cousin, which explains the similarity in names; he leads the fleet from a Battle Tug that has just been assigned to our front, and which is easily the largest single ship we have available. The Count has no named heir, and the message is clear: he is intending to go down with the Starbase if necessary, and C'rorish will carry on the fight.
My newly constructed and painted Kzinti Starbase, with its full complement of fighters.
The first battle goes relatively well for us, as we trade fighters for Lyran ships crippled. The only ship that we have badly damaged is the Light Cruiser Mystic, which I know from my very first battle. Unfortunately, its Captain, R'nesint the Firebrand, is killed in action. This saddens us of course; for me personally it is the first time I have been touched by the death of a reasonably close comrade-in-arms. It is, though, exactly the way he wanted to go - spouting venom at the enemy from the burning bridge of his ship. Our resolve strengthens.
We all continue to watch as two more engagements take place, with the fighting becoming fiercer as time goes on. Many of our fighter waves are destroyed, with heavier craft taking a great deal of damage. Mostly this is not enough to cripple them, but it does remove them from the list of available ships. The same seems to be happening to the enemy, but they have more vessels available from their reserves. Both sides have now had a Battle Tug heavily damaged - that is how intense it is becoming. It looks like it is only a matter of time before our flight is called forward, probably on planetary defence duty.
Another engagement takes place, and this time the intensity of the fighting is astonishing. We watch as the Lyrans deploy in four main groups: a War Cruiser squadron; a large contingent of three Heavy Cruisers plus a Command Cruiser; three Destroyer-class ships fronting a lone Jagdpanther carrier; and a command group composed of an enormous Battle Tug replacing the one we just damaged, plus a Battlecruiser and another Tug carrying large scout pods. The Red Claw leads from the Battle Tug, with his son on the Battlecruiser. Their cruisers spend the first part of the battle tearing apart our fighters, then stripping away our Battlecruisers one by one. We lose two crippled and another destroyed in quick succession. There then comes an amazing moment which will probably go down in history. The Lyrans have at this point lost a War Cruiser destroyed and another crippled, when their command group surges forward. Their War Cruiser Leader sacrifices itself to damage our Command Cruiser, opening it up to a salvo of disruptor and phaser shots from their heavy cruisers, crippling it. Almost immediately, their command group uses ESG rams to vaporise our Command Cruiser and an entire fighter squadron from the Starbase. In return, our Light Dreadnought (with the Baron himself on board, having turned up to help us by strategic movement), together with an accompanying destroyer and scout drone frigate, sends out a huge drone wave that cripples the enemy Battlecruiser. Also, the enemy have ventured a bit too close to the Starbase, which cripples their Battle Tug at the same time. These are serious losses, and it turns out that we have severely hammered their command structure too. The Red Claw Duke himself was on that Battle Tug, and his son was on the Battlecruiser. Both of them have been killed in action!
Songs will be sung of this campaign; apparently the Lyrans have already composed an epic poem called The Death Ride of the Red Claw in honour of his sacrifice. Our dwindling number of reserve pilots continues to watch as yet another engagement unfolds. This time, the Strike Carrier that arrived with the Baron is retired from the front lines. It has served in no fewer than five separate combats, and has no fighters left. In fact, we are starting to run out altogether, which means that my supposition is going to be realised; it will not be long now before our Flight is called forward to action. The Baron's Carrier is replaced with our very own Sabre, belonging to Count R'rorash himself, although he is still directing matters from the Starbase. I find myself watching the video feed with even more trepidation; three of my old mates from the Seer will be taking part after being promoted to the Sabre's second Wing. The Lyrans stand off from the Starbase this time, which reduces the effects of its heavy batteries - they probably don't want to repeat what has just happened to the Red Claw and his son. This allows them space to destroy our fighter squadrons, but it also gives us time to build what surely must be the most massive drone attack of the war so far. The Baron rides his Dreadnought behind the missiles into the heart of the enemy fleet, and his assault is so powerful that it cripples two enemy Heavy Cruisers and destroys their Command Cruiser. Elsewhere, a squadron of three lighter Lyran vessels initiates a suicidal ESG run against our own cruiser squadron, crippling two Battlecruisers, one of which is the Pulsar from my first battle - this is the second time it has been crippled in a year or so. All three Lyrans are completely destroyed in the exchange, however: a Heavy Destroyer and two Light Cruisers go up in flames. I now find myself with my heart in my mouth as I watch Lyran firepower tear into the Sabre's fighters, leaving only three of them intact. However, this gives the strike carrier an opportunity to take the fight to the enemy, and the Sabre's group closes to very close range. The Lyrans have used up quite a lot of their power on the fighters, but even so they give as good as they get, crippling one of our Light Escort Cruisers and heavily damaging the other, in return for their Battlecruiser taking enough heavy damage to remove it from this campaign. The Sabre even manages to get through the enemy Dreadnought's front shield and score some superficial damage. The Lyrans warp out, honour apparently satisfied.
The cleanup crews go about their work, and it just so happens that the Sabre's pilots were fortunate in only losing one of their number in the devastation of their squadron, a squaddie I did not know. This means that my old compatriots from the Seer have survived, but we are now called forward to fill the ranks as they recover. This will be the first time I have served on board a carrier other than our small Escort the Seer; Sabre is majestic by comparison. There is an additional surprise in the shape of a sleek, deadly looking black craft that appears alongside - Count R'rorash has engaged the services of an Orion mercenary to help with the attrition of our forces. I have never seen one of these before, but apparently this Battle Raider has been living up to its name behind the enemy lines, raiding their logistics convoys while we have been fighting at the Starbase. Maybe the Orion captain holds a grudge against the Lyrans; certainly, we are not that far from the WYN star cluster at the junction of Lyran, Klingon and Kzinti territory, and the Orions are known to be sometime allies of the WYN. We tend not to talk about this, though, because of that star cluster's part in our rather chequered history. They will quite happily play one power off against another, but in this instance the presence of another heavy ship is a welcome addition, regardless of its origin. Apparently the Terrans have an old saying that seems quite apposite: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," even if that friendship takes the form of a mercenary contract.
The Count deploys our fleet in anticipation of the next Lyran attack. Our carrier group is set up well off to the left of the Starbase, comprising the CVS Sabre, the Baron's CVL, and two Light Escort Cruisers, with our fighters to the front. Our Wing from the Seer has been combined with the wing from the Baron's Escort Carrier in order to fit out the CVS Sabre with a full squadron. Near the Starbase is the Orion Battle Raider. The rest of our fleet is to the right and right rear of the base itself. As the Lyrans warp in to engage us, their dispositions become clear. A small flotilla of lighter vessels faces us: two Destroyers and a Light Cruiser, with another flotilla of the same composition facing the Orion. The remainder of their fleet will combat our main forces - battle of the titans.
We fly toward the Lyrans' closest ships behind quite an impressive drone wave, with more missiles following. Behind those and in reasonably close support comes the carrier group. The Lyrans deal quite easily with around half of the drone missiles with a combination of tractors and phaser power, and open up on our squadron with overloaded disruptors, destroying three of our fighters. The two destroyers leading their group take quite heavy damage to their front shields from our carrier group.
I catch an intense flare of energy on my screens near the Starbase. That Orion is taking the combined firepower of two Destroyers and a Light Cruiser at overload range, together with longer shots from the enemy BattleCruiser and Dreadnought. The Battle Raider's energy signature goes off the scale as it takes the whole lot, then warps out with heavy damage, but no more than that. Like other cadets, I was briefed on the mercenaries' famous ability massively to increase their warp engine output, but this is the first time I have ever seen it in action. That ship is no larger than one of our Medium Cruisers - in fact, it is probably a bit smaller - but it took the whole lot on two shields without flinching. Remind me never to get into a fight with an Orion!
Closer to us, the Lyran flotilla changes tack to present their undamaged number two (front right) shields. This saves both of their destroyers from complete destruction as our missiles impact, but both are rendered hors de combat and drift off, crippled. Their Light Cruiser initiates a suicide attack against our fighters, determined to remove us from the campaign. Anticipating an ESG overrun, I eject, and just in time as my fighter and most of the rest of the squadron is vaporised. The last thing I see before I am injected by my life pod's safety mechanism is that Light Cruiser exploding from overloaded disruptors and phaser-1 fire from our carrier group.
That is all I know until I am awakened by medics on the Sabre a few hours later. Apparently the main part of the action on the other side of the Starbase from us became really intense, with the enemy destroying one of our Light Cruisers and crippling another two. They paid heavily for this, though, as our heaviest ships (the Baron's old Dreadnought and the Carrier Tug) led the rest of the fleet in a determined attack of their own, destroying a Lyran Heavy Cruiser and crippling two others. It looks as though their Command Cruiser also took heavy damage before the remaining Lyrans warped out to safety. The Starbase got the last laugh, crippling both of the Destroyers that had attacked the Orion ship.
The Lyrans are taking a pounding, but they still have enough reserves to push the offensive, at least according to our long range base sensors. We are down to our last seven fighters, and the Count has to commit all of our carriers to the next phase of the defence, using them as Battlecruisers. This will be a critical phase. We still do not really expect to hold the position, but can we inflict more damage without losing one of our prime vessels...
Amazingly, none of our pilots was killed by the initial disruptor attack by the Lyran light ships, nor by their Light Cruiser's ESG, and I am one of those declared fit enough to return to duty. This means our Wing will provide six of our final seven pilots, and this time around our fleet is looking quite sorry for itself, at least in terms of composition. Gone are the original methods of deploying proper carrier groups and battlecruiser squadrons - it is now all about scraping together whatever we can without dipping into the reserves of much smaller vessels. Even so, a refitted Frigate is one of our number this time, which shows that we must be getting to the point of no return. Here's hoping we can hang in there just a bit longer.
This one is an even shorter battle for me. Our forlorn hope of seven fighters deploys with most of the fleet to the rear and right of the Starbase as a massed group. Count R'rorash has set the two Escort Carriers and a couple of accompanying lighter ships well off to the left of the Starbase. Unfortunately, however, the Lyrans have had a similar idea. Both sides have decided which ships they want to try to preserve for as much of the campaign as possible, and it just so happens that our Escort Carriers have ended up facing the Lyran heavy command ships: a Dreadnought and a Heavy Cruiser, accompanied by a Combat Tug equipped with scout pods to deal with drone waves. The main part of the Lyran fleet advances on our position, and we fly towards them. We do vaporise a Frigate with our missiles, but the combined firepower of the Lyran War Cruisers and other light ships rips our squadron apart completely. I eject again, along with all of my compatriots. The only good thing about this is that it saves me from seeing the destruction of our Escort Carrier Seer by the Lyran Dreadnought.
When I awake, I am briefed on the situation. Again, none of our pilots was killed during the battle, and I am informed that our Wing from the Seer is now to be assigned to the Count's CVL Light Carrier Tempest. Assuming it survives the next battle, that is. We will be sitting out on this one at the rendezvous point because the fleet has no fighters left at all. In the meantime, I get to see at first hand the famous Long Lean, the Destroyer class ship that was used as the concept prototype for the development of our carrier doctrine after the Four Powers' War. It has arrived along with the rest of the Baron's Fleet to aid in our defence at the Count's Starbase, but it was decided not to risk it in battle after its fighters were fed into the action. Unlike the Escort Carriers, the Long Lean has little offensive capability, lacking the disruptor suite that was kept on the Cruiser hulls that served as the basis for subsequent carriers. The Long Lean's capacious shuttle bay, however, can take a dozen fighters, and we have been assigned to pop-up quarters in the empty bay along with various other pilots from the campaign.
There is another surprise. We are ordered to assemble for formal parade in dress uniform before the Lyrans are expected, and apparently this order has been made to our entire fleet, including the various damaged vessels that are sitting at the rendezvous point. We are called to attention, and the Voice of the Patriarch himself is fed through the audio loop in accordance with tradition - we do not see the face of the Patriarch as he makes a typically short address:
"Honoured comrades of the Count's and Baron's Fleets, we salute your valiant defence. We hereby publicly confer upon Count R'rorash the War Medal First Class for conducting a masterly tactical defence of the Count's Starbase. As you all know, this is the highest award we can confer and we do not do this lightly. We wish to make it known that we expect the honoured Count to leave the Starbase in the hands of another officer should it be necessary for the fleet to fall back to the next defensive position at the planet Zamyan. We fully understand any desire he might have to go down with his Starbase in the traditions of our forefathers, but he is too valuable a commander for us to permit this to happen. Again, honoured comrades, we salute you all."
The broadcast over, the murmuring immediately begins. I keep my counsel to myself, but it seems to me that by making one of his rare public announcements, the Patriarch is clearly rendering it impossible for the Count to do anything but comply with his orders - these are commands that come directly from the Patriarch himself. R'rorash has probably calculated that even if we do not lose any of our heavier carriers in the upcoming battle, we just do not have the reserves to maintain position. All of this is of course in accordance with our overall strategy, but knowing this necessity does not make it any more palatable. Even so, it is clear that the Lyran forces are also suffering from attrition, since their small frigate class is beginning to appear in their fleet. It is all a numbers game; they simply have more ships at their disposal than we do, and we are going to continue to do as much damage as we can before making a strategic withdrawal.
And indeed, the is what happens next, since this engagement turns out to be the last. The main Lyran command group thunders towards the two newly-built Medium Cruisers deployed in front of our Carrier Tug. They unload absolutely everything they have into our ships at very close range: ESGs, overloaded disruptors and all phasers. They even use the phaser-3s intended for point defence. Our ships don't stand a chance against this kind of power, coming as it does from a Dreadnought, a Tug and a Heavy Cruiser. Both of our Medium Cruisers simply cease to exist, and the Carrier Tug is crippled. It doesn't all go the Lyrans' way, though, as several of their lighter vessels are destroyed or crippled elsewhere. The attackers warp out, satisfied.
The voice of Count R'rorash sounds over the comms link: "It is now time to leave, gentlemen."
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