A Hydran and an Aarakocra walk into a bar...

 ... well, something like that. When I started to run some ship captain biographies as part of keeping my interest going, I half expected a couple of them to end up on opposing sides. At one point I had the bright idea of including a survivor from a neutral planet, Kooth the Bird Man, who ends up working as an Orion mercenary. The vagaries of space fighting have meant that he and my Hydran Hero Astyanax have ended up fighting in the same desperate battles at the last remaining Hydran Starbase before Hydrax against the Klingons. My imagination is telling me that after Kooth's rather grand entrance uncloaking an Orion CA and saving some Hydran ships, he and Astyanax would get together in the Starbase bar for some comradeship before heading out to war again.

Kooth actually has a good experience in this campaign. The Hydrans are really up against it, and when his CA was repaired after its bruising encounter with a Lyran police flotilla, I rolled randomly to see where he would be deployed next (Orion stealth is no good against ESGs). Fortuitously, or perhaps as planned by Fate, he fetched up in Hydran space, and the little guys were only too glad to take him on as a mercenary. I decided his Cruiser the Deathblow would be refitted with fusions and gatlings in its option mounts, to take best advantage of his cloaking device. So he ended up meeting Astyanax.

Orion CA, from Starfleet Store. I have an idea how I'll paint the Deathblow when I eventually get the appropriate miniature.

As well as the one where he makes his surprise appearance against his old foes the Klingons, Kooth helps out in the last two battles at the Hydran Starbase, escorting the Cavalier carrier group. Now that the space dust is clearing and the Starbase is no more, the Coalition is retiring to regroup for a final assault on Hydrax itself. Kooth is delighted to be here - he has a grudge against the Klingons for conquering his neutral home planet, and he really hates the Lyrans for causing the death of his mate in battle. 

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