Intense fighting against the Klingons: Julia and the "Darius"

 The Klingons are pressing deeper into our space now that our forces are stretched by the Romulan invasion. Basically, High Command has three choices for reinforcements: to help the Kzinti stave off the capture of their capital; to shore up the defences against the Klingons; or to stem the Romulan tide. I know from my studies as a cadet in training - oh how long ago it now seems - that we will probably rely on the internal strength of the Federation economy to outlast the Coalition. This means that new builds will be sent in batches at different times to different sectors.

It certainly seems as though we need some help in the Rimward marches of our territory. The Orions have declared neutrality, and we are being forced back in this region away from our frontier stations and planets, leaving them ripe for the picking. This is a necessary calculation, because we cannot allow the superior numbers of Klingon vessels to get behind us, but it is heart-wrenching. In a typical engagement for this part of the war, I command the Darius for the third time as the Klingons attack a Battle Station on the interior lines. 

I am leading a flotilla with two Frigates on the port side of tour fleet deployment, near the Battle Station itself. The remainder of our fleet is deployed well to the starboard and so, fortunately for my little squadron, is the majority of the Klingon fleet, led by a monstrous Battle Tug. They also have some ships I have never seen before, an Orion group that looks like a strike carrier force centre on what surely must be a recently constructed Battle Raider configured for fighters. Unfortunately for my flotilla, however, facing our three small vessels is a full D5 War Cruiser squadron. 

A Klingon Battle Tug in mean mood. Picture is from the Shapeways site.

The fighting is intense. The initial pass with our adversaries goes well for us, as our overloaded photons strike well, vaporising a D5. In return, however, the enemy destroys one of our Frigates and cripples the other. At this point, though, we are all ordered to leave; our admiral is obviously under orders to sacrifice positional defences in order to keep our precious ships intact on this front. Even so, we have been heavily mauled. In total, we have lost a Frigate, a Heavy Cruiser and a Light Cruiser all destroyed, together with another Heavy Cruiser and three more Frigates crippled. Klingons losses are also considerable: two D7 hulls destroyed in addition to the D5 we accounted for. Such are the vagaries of combat on the Klingon Front.

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