Rubik at Zursk

 All Klingons are taught from an early age that there is a tide in the affairs of war, and what is now being called the General War is no exception. Having reached the high water mark against the Kzinti home systems, our Coalition with the Lyrans is now on the defensive as the big cats and their Federation allies launch a major counteroffensive, driving us back on both fronts. Our opponents have chosen their moment well, with many of our ships still crippled in the yards and bases scattered across our domains. They have also increased the momentum of the arms race by fielding the first in a new generation of superheavy carriers. Designated as the CVA, these huge ships usually carry two full fighter squadrons or their equivalents on adapted dreadnought hulls. 

Although I have not seen our own new large vessels, I do know from reports from the main front against the Federation that not only have we responded in kind, but that our High Command has deployed a new class of battleship against the Flatheads, designated the B-10. I hope we see some of the new generation of warships in our sector against the Kzinti Marquis and the Federation 4th Fleet. Having spent a considerable amount of time training replacement crews while my command, the D5 Rapier lies in the queue awaiting repairs, I receive the welcome news that the list has finally reached our class of ships, and the Rapier is repaired. We rejoin the Northern Fleet just in time to engage the combined Alliance forces at the major staging point of Zursk, an important planet in what was formally the Neutral Zone.

Our forces fight with our customary capability at the approaches to Zursk, inflicting far more damage than we receive. Sheer weight of numbers presses us back to the planet itself, and at this point the Rapier joins the active fleet component. We are deployed to starboard of Zursk as part of a full D5 Wing; between us and the planet is an F5 flotilla, comprising a Command Frigate, a standard Frigate, and an F5 Light Carrier. To our port is the command element of our fleet, combined with our main carrier force: our C8 Dreadnought flagship; a D6D Drone Cruiser; and a D5V Strike Carrier accompanied by a D5 Aegis Cruiser. The rest of our forces are deployed on the other side of the planet.

As it happens, we are facing a powerful combined Federation and Kzinti force. The Flatheads have a Heavy Cruiser of some kind, a Command version of their own War Cruiser, and a Dreadnought, one of their earlier designs. The big cats are supplying two Battlecruisers and four Frigates. These ships are supplemented by three Orion mercenary Light Raiders, one of which is a Scout.

The fight is an especially intense one, but our ships work well together. The enemy is slightly offset to our starboard, which puts our squadron in prime position to mount a classic oblique attack on the Federation Dreadnought in concert with our Frigate flotilla. The enemy destroys our fighters, but medium range fire from a D7 Wing that swings around Zursk in our direction combines with our Frigates at close range to down the facing shield on the enemy capital ship, and inflict some quite major internal damage. At precisely this point in the sabre dance we slide in and destroy the Dreadnought; we also inflict considerable harm to their War Cruiser ship. In return, the opposition heavily damages our own Dreadnought, but they are forced to leave to regroup for another try. I have been too busy to pay much attention to the combat on the other side of Zursk, but in the debriefing I see that the Federation used their CVA with a single fighter squadron - they must be running out of fighters after the attrition on the way to the planet. I note with satisfaction that our brave crews destroyed this last squadron, twelve of their powerful (and tough!) photon fighters. Hopefully this, combined with the destruction of a Dreadnought, will have removed the main Federation ships from the equation - they won't risk a valuable capital asset like a CVA in combat without any fighters. 

However, in the next battle we see a newly minted Kzinti CVA group instead. A pattern is emerging: the Federation takes the brunt of the fighting in the early stages of a campaign to protect the Kzinti from damage for as long as possible. Once attrition takes its toll, more and more Kzinti ships appear in the main line, which is the case on this occasion. There seem to be only two battle worthy Federation ships, a Fast Cruiser and a Battle Tug - everything else is Kzinti, apart from the Orion mercenary Scout we encountered previously.

Again, the fighting goes in our favor. Our D5 squadron is deployed far to port of Zursk, and we slide in towards and around the planet, linking up once more with our heavier contingents. The combination shreds the Kzinti fighters, and our squadron has a field day in conjunction with our command and carrier group; we cripple a Kzinti Escort Frigate and a Medium Escort Cruiser. Elsewhere, our main D-Wing destroys the Federation Fast Cruiser and that pesky Orion, and also crippled a Kzinti Battlecruiser. It does not all go our way, however, as our Frigate flotilla is entirely crippled in return and our D7C Command Cruiser is forced to retire due to heavy damage.

We win the next one also, but at heavy cost, particularly to our squadron. Again we are deployed to port of Zursk, but this time the rest of our fleet is on the other side of the planet from us. We skirmish as best we can against superior enemy forces, but the Rapier is crippled again, the other D5 is destroyed, and the D5C is forced to withdraw with heavy damage. In return, though, our Battlecruiser wing is able to cripple the Federation Battle Tug. The damage to the Rapier forces us to sit out the next round - except there isn't one because the Alliance forces retire. Intelligence estimates that the severe damage to the Federation contingent has forced the enemy to reconsider, since anything else we inflict will all go on Kzinti vessels, which is what they are trying to avoid.