Introducing - Gatling Fighters!

 The Lyrans have enough forces on the Hydran Front to attack one Battle Station, but not two. The Hydrans have spread their fleets here across the two main possible targets, so basically the Lyrans can't afford to attack both, but will probably destroy one due to local superiority in numbers.

As usual, the Hydrans are extremely powerful, but without any real reserves. The Lyran force is the best they can produce from the combined Enemy's Blood and Far Stars Duchies. Led by a Battle Tug, they have six Heavy Cruisers and six Light Cruisers.

Although the defence is being conducted by a Hellbore fleet, the presence of a Battle Station still makes the Hydran deployment formidable. Of course, what the Lyrans don't yet know is that the Hydrans have deployed Stinger-II fighters for the first time. The results are astonishing: the increased speed and hit points of the Hydrans gets them through the usual phaser and disruptor attacks, and also the local ESG fields. The attacking fighters take a hammering, but not as much as usual, and then they open up, ably supported by three hellbore-armed Stinger-H fighters, equally brand-new, from the station's complement. The result is carnage: two Heavy Cruisers and a Light Cruiser crippled, with another Light Cruiser heavily damaged. The rest of the Lyran fleet quickly pounds the last of the fighters into space dust before leaving.

Strangely enough, though, the attackers did just enough to force the Hydran to withdraw from the region. The fighter assault was led by the three frigate-class ships on the Hydran side, and all three have been either crippled or damaged so heavily that further combat is out of the question. The Hydrans don't have enough reserves to mount a credible defence, so they shrug their rounded humps and leave the vicinity, evacuating the base before blowing it so that the Lyrans can't make use of it.

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