Astyanax sees more combat

 This will be my fifth fleet action, and again it is in defence of one of our Battle Stations on the Klingon border. Our fleet is most impressive: a Paladin Dreadnought leads, and the Inevitable and another Knight Destroyer are assigned to accompany the flagship, along with a Scout Frigate. The remainder of the fleet is composed as follows: a Lord Bishop Command Cruiser and a Thoroughbred Fast Cruiser acting as a team; a Heavy Cruiser Squadron comprising a Dragoon and two Rangers; our Uhlan Carrier Group, reduced somewhat because one of their Escort Frigates was crippled on a previous occasion; and three Lancer Destroyers. Command has decided not to bother engaging the Klingons at a remove from the station, figuring that concentrated force will allow us to do the most damage.

It will be touch and go as a series of battles, because although we have the advantage of powerful ships, fighters and the station, the Klingons outnumber us significantly. We don't expect them to be led by a Dreadnought, since we destroyed a C8 and crippled a C5 earlier, but we have had to spread our forces on this front to cover the two remaining border stations. The Klingons will seek to wear us down over several engagements, removing our fighters in an initial series of passes, followed by more serious attacks on our ships. We will try to keep them as far from the station as possible and hurt them as much as we can.

From: http://starfleetgames.com/ArtGallery/Demotivationals.shtml

We don't quite manage the above, which is a propaganda poster that went out on all Klingon networks after our people hacked into them, just as news of the new generation of fearsome Stingers would be reaching their homeworld. We do, though, have a good time. Our command group manages to close to a range of three tentacles on a flotilla of the lightest ships on the enemy line: a couple of F5 Frigates in front of an F5V carrier. Our Stingers destroy their fighters and force the two Frigates to warp out or suffer a similar fate, but our firepower simply overwhelms the little escort carrier. The Paladin and ourselves open up with fully overloaded hellbores in direct fire mode and completely vaporise it. Any time we can remove an enemy carrier has to be a good thing, because their fighters try to tie ours up in dogfighting. The other main enemy casualty is a D6M Mauler Cruiser, which fries quite a few of our fighters before its unreliable (if powerful!) cannon malfunctions, crippling it. As usual, our main losses are in fighters - 35 of them, to be exact. The Klingons are doing their jobs well, but then so are we.

The second time around, however, it really does not go well for the enemy. Our fleet orgnisation is the same as before, with all fighters replaced from the Fighter Conveyor pallet on a reserve Caravan Tug. The Klingons have replaced their previous losses, except that another D7 Battlecruiser has been substituted for the D6 Mauler. Unfortunately for the Klingons their command group of a D7C Command Cruiser and a D6S Heavy Scout is at the rightmost end of their line, and they are destroyed by a combination of Stinger attacks and Heavy Cruisers. More to the centre left of their line is their light flotilla and D6CV Carrier group, and we have a merry time chasing them off and away from the station. As their carrier warps out, its Captain broadcasts a final message to our fleet: "Battle Group Blood wishes you well!" Sensors show the entire Klingon force heading back to their own space; it is distinctly possible that this fleet no longer has any decent command ships. They will, of course, be back another time.

Battle Group Blood is the name the Klingons give to a fleet that is sent to distract a much more powerful enemy at extreme risk to their own lives, and of course that is what has happened here. We have destroyed another two important ships in this engagement. However, because we have had to defend the Battle Station, the chances are that the other Klingon force that is reported to be heading to our other remaining Battle Station will have much more of a chance, because our forces there are weaker - no carrier group. And even if we succeed in holding that one as well, the Klingons will be massing for an attack on our main regional Starbase.

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