M'rr'shann at Hydrax
Although our combined Coalition forces were unable to reach the Hydran capital itself, the Klingons were able to destroy the last remaining major installation, the Hydran Starbase. This means they have no real repair capacity in the region, which is confined by our fleet sensors showing a steady stream of crippled ships heading towards the Hydrans' staging point to their Old Colonies, a newly constructed Starbase.
After regrouping, we go in again, and I am in the thick of it right from the outset. High Command has agreed with the Klingons that our vessels will lead the assault as we have better anti-fighter capability due to our ESGs. The usual strategy will be in place: degrade their fighters and hopefully take out some ships as well, or at least do enough damage to remove them from consideration.
The Hydrans are determined to make us pay for every parsec, and engage us as soon as they can at the approaches to the planet. They want to delay our arrival at the capital itself for as long as they can. My War Destroyer the Dark Fury is deployed at the extreme starboard point of our formation, along with all of the other light ships in the fleet. This means that the heaviest craft are all concentrated together on the other wing, along with a reasonable number of fighters. I don't envy them; all they will do is die against the Stingers, but hopefully they will take some with them as well as slowing them down.
This is what happens, and our fleet and fighters smash huge numbers of Hydran fighters. The climax of the engagement comes when the enemy's main command element crashes into our right ships, scattering them in all directions. When the flashing lights die down before my eyes, I realize that the Dark Fury is the only one left - and two full Stinger squadrons are coming directly for us. Fortunately, though, at that point the recall is sounded and we warp out to safety. It turns out that our heavy contingent did quite well on the other wing; as well as vaporizing Stingers, they managed to cripple a Command Cruiser and heavily damage a War Cruiser. So in we go again, this time accompanied by a Klingon Frigate squadron. This makes sense, because the attrition on our light ships has been horrendous, and we would be down to Frigates already. At least the Klingon Frigates are superior to those.
I see a couple of tactical moves I have never encountered before. The first comes when the Hydrans actually attack the centre of our fleet with their Cavalier carrier group; presumably the intention is to use these ships to take the brunt of our firepower so that their Stingers and combat ships can follow. It doesn't work like that, though, as our own fighters sacrifice themselves to absorb all those gatlings; launching a huge wave of drones helps. Then our fleet opens up, and the entire carrier group drifts off, crippled. We go onto the attack, and this is when I see my second tactical innovation; a properly executed oblique attack by the Klingon squadron, which helps to remove a Ranger Cruiser from the enemy line. Klingon ships have phasers pointing in every direction, and they often make use of this design feature to attack at an offset angle. This brings more power to bear on the enemy, and the Klingons can then turn in on their front shield or head off to try another attack later. The Hydrans exit in a hurry, leaving the way to Hydrax open at last. Our only casualties in this battle are our fighters and an Escort Frigate destroyed - a major victory.
We arrive at Hydrax with the same fleet composition, and the sight that greets us is simply amazing. There seem to be more fighters than stars. Our orders are strict: sweep fighters and then leave quickly. Rinse and repeat several times until we get a breakthrough. In order to do this our fleet is divided into two widely spread wings. My light flotilla, now comprising ourselves plus a Destroyer and a Light Cruiser, is joined by the Klingons and our carriers: a Jagdpanther modular cruiser configured for fighters, and a Yaguarundi carrier. Our lost fighters have been replaced with pilots and craft courtesy of the Klingons, which makes sense: they supply our forces with exactly the same fighters they use themselves. The fleet's Scout Tug is located in our part of the battle; the planet is off to our starboard as we approach. I make out only (!) five Stinger squadrons facing us, and no ships, which means that almost the entire Hydran fleet is facing our big ships. We expect to be taking heavy losses before we disengage; as well as the ships and fighters, you can bet that planet is positively bristling with Phaser-IV emplacements.
As it happens, though, this is the only time I fight at the capital planet. We wipe enormous numbers of fighters, but our light ships pay the price, and again ours is the only one left intact enough to be able to warp out with the rest of the fleet. We do our job protecting the fleet's scout. The damage to our experienced crews and officers is tremendous, and after this battle orders arrive for me to leave for the rear echelons to take over as Captain of a crippled War Destroyer awaiting repair. The previous commanding officers died when the bridge was hit, a story that is becoming common enough as the war continues.
This means that I miss the rest of the Hydrax campaign. As well as the two approach battles and initial encounter at the planet (the three in which I played a part), another seven battles take place at the Hydran capital before their ships grudgingly retire. Their tenacity has been incredible, but they just do not have the resources to stop us ejecting them.
As I oversee repairs to my new command, I take advantage of my status as Captain of a relatively large ship to access the Intelligence briefings. As well as the huge losses we took in the first series of attacks on the Hydrax region in the autumn, we lose two Frigates; a Destroyer; a War Destroyer; a Light Cruiser and a War Cruiser, all destroyed. Crippled ships are seven Frigates; a Jagdpanther Cruiser; two Heavy Cruisers; a War Cruiser Escort; the new Sabre Tooth Tiger Mauler Cruiser; and a Battle Tug. Our Klingon allies lost three F5 Frigates and a D7 Battlecruiser crippled, with an F5 Frigate and an F5C Frigate leader both destroyed. Their losses are comparatively light because we did most of the heavy lifting this time. The idea was that we would absorb the damage from the Hydran fighters, and then the Klingons would help against the enemy's main ships. However, the Hydrans minimized their losses and withdrew to keep their major combat ships intact for the future.
We reckon the Hydrans are too exhausted to mount a meaningful counterattack, so they will probably do what happened the last time they lost their capital - operate from the more secure, distant bases in their Old Colonies region of space. This front should calm down for a while as both sides rebuild. We will eventually want to remove the Hydrans from the Spinward regions of their main territory, but that will mean taking on the defences of another planet, not to mention the new Starbase the little guys have situated on the way to the Old Colonies. And that doesn't count any other surprises they may have in store. It will take us a while to get the forces together for this sort of additional offensive. In the meantime, of course, the Hydrans will be preparing to wrest their capital from us again.
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