Alliance moves in Autumn Y172 and the Coalition offensive of Spring Y173
The Kzinti mount a spoiling attack on the Klingons' main forward base, the planet of Lumien. The Klingons are quite happy to give this up, though, because they know the big cats will not be able to keep hold of it due to the strategic situation. The Boneheads are determined to make the Kzinti pay first, and this they do in fine fashion. As well as the usual slew of mangled and destroyed ships, the main events are the destruction of a Kzinti Strike Carrier by a close assault from a C8 Dreadnought in combination with a D6M Mauler Cruiser - the first major loss to the Kzinti carrier force in the war. The next engagement sees the Klingons ejected from the planet, and the Kzinti get their revenge by crippling the Mauler with a close pass from their own Dreadnought after the Mauler's batteries have been depleted blowing up some smaller ships. The costs the Kzinti too, though, because their Dreadnought is heavily damaged and old Admiral Mr'iarr killed in action.
Basically, the Kzinti are alternating attacks on the Lyrans and Klingons to disrupt any further preparations the Coalition might have for another series of strikes on the Kzinti home region. The Klingons retaliate by launching an assault in the spring on one of the few remaining installations the Tiger Men have outside their home region, the Marquis' main planetary base. The idea here is to whittle down what is left of the Marquis' terrirory and so drive a large wedge between the Kzinit and the Federation.
On the Federation front, the Klingons lose Sherman's Planet again to the Federation 3rd Fleet, although here again they manage to extract a heavy price: the total destruction of a CVL Light Carrier by this fleet's D6M Mauler, as well as crippling a Command Cruiser. The Feds also remove the Klingons from the planet known as the Bezwell Index, which was fast becoming an important logistics node for the Boneheads - they lose a Fleet Repair Dock here. This costs the Federation two Heavy Cruisers among other, lighter vessels. The Klingon response in the spring is to go in again at both locations, keeping the Feds pinned on this front. The reason for this becomes clear as the Romulans swarm across the thinly-defended Federation anti-spinward border, starting a major offensive of their own as full members of the Coalition.
In the meantime, the Hydrans prepare as best they can for another major attack on Hydrax. Their infrastructure was hammered by the Coalition in the autumn, but even so they manage to scrape together enough resource to produce another Cavalier carrier group. That's about it, though, because the destruction of the main capital Starbase by the Klingons means they cannot repair the many crippled ships at the capital, so those are forced to withdraw to the new Starbase en route to the Old Colonies. And then in the spring the Lyrans and Klingons arrive again...
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