An epic campaign

 It seems a long time since I began as First Officer of a Frigate. Now Captain of the D5L Command Cruiser Rabblekiller, I am tasked along with another D5L to front the Battleship Invincible - in other words, to take any hits for her. The Eastern Fleet has been massively reinforced with a "swarm" of attrition units - 200 extra fighters plus another 18 gunboats, in addition to the already formidable force itself. In addition, a new wave of technology has seen the development of so-called "X-ships", advanced technology vessels with superior capabilities. We expect the Federation to deploy similar ships as we move to assault their main Starbase on the Eastern Fleet's sector. 

Fighting has been going backwards and forwards in this region for years now and the wear and tear on the planets and Battle Stations is testament to the increasing severity of the war. Further to rimward, we have been able to maintain lines of communications with our Romulan allies. There are some in the higher echelons who wanted to take this opportunity to crush the Tholians once and for all, but wiser heads have prevailed. It would be far too costly to try something like this, so instead we are mostly concentrating on the war against the Kzinti and Federation. The Hydrans have successfully retaken their capital, but are in no condition to mount any major offensives into our space. That front has therefore settled down into desultory skirmishing punctuated by extreme bouts of violence at fixed locations.

On the approach to the Federation Starbase, we deploy at the centre of the port wing of the fleet. Immediately to our port at the outside edge of our formation is a huge display of carrier power: a C8V Heavy Carrier supported by a new F5W Escort Carrier, along with six gunboats and an extra 24 fighters supplied by a CVA tug in the rear. To our starboard is a squadron of three brand-new D5X Advanced Technology Cruisers. I must admit I am looking forward to seeing them in action; I would really like to get my hands on one of those for myself!

The enemy has stationed a formidable CVA group and a squadron of lighter ships shielding a Heavy Scout Cruiser - one of their Galactic Survey vessels recalled from deep space exploration to serve on the front lines. This is a powerful contingent, but they are still not quite so strong as our own. I note that facing the D5X group the Federation has placed two new X-Cruisers of their own, based on their Battlecruiser designs. These look formidable to say the least and have been supplemented by the presence of an Orion mercenary Heavy Battlecruiser. The Federation therefore has superiority in this part of the battle; I hope the new D5 X-variants can at least hold them off for a while. I pretty much ignore what is happening on the far starboard wing of our fleet - I'm busy enough enough as it is.

In the event we successfully brush the Feds aside. Our local preponderance of force sees off the enemy light ships, destroying all of them and crippling the Heavy Scout. Our own two D5Ls do their job of shielding the Invincible, taking a photon volley from their CVA group, including its A10 Warthog fighters. The D5L has good front shields, so although we lose them we only take minimal internals. In return we vaporize a squadron of F14 fighters - they are always a priority target for us because we cannot afford to allow them to close with all those gatling phasers. They are relatively expensive craft and we know from experience that a Federation fleet will have a limited number of them.

We now proceed towards the Starbase itself. Out of the corner of my eye I was watching developments between the X-ships. Those Federation Advanced Cruisers can put out a huge volume of fire but even so our D5Xs absorb the lot, losing shields and taking some internal damage. They would be at a severe disadvantage if the battle were to continue, but the enemy warps out to set up at their Starbase. 

I wonder why the Federation has relatively fewer X-vessels, but as we advance upon their base we soon see why: this is a fully-fledged X-generation Starbase! Clever, that. The Federation admirals are not known for their tactical flair, instead relying on the power of their designs and logistics to carry the war for them. Playing to their strengths, instead of building a large number of X-Cruisers, they have instead updated their main Starbase. This is shaping up to be an epic confrontation.



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