Gratuitous Federation & Empire

From https://www.scottbieser.com/HydranSB.htm As expected, the Coalition mounts a massive assault against our Starbase. Standing between the capital and the Old Colonies, this was an extra installation built in the early stages of what is now being called the General War before the enemy took over our territories. We may not be able to weather the storm, but at the very least we will start to bleed the Coalition dry. The Lyrans are fighting on two fronts, and the Klingons on three (!); we have the strategic advantage of short lines of supply. I am heavily involved at the outset. Our first battle is an easy victory - we exchange fighters for the crippling or outright destruction of five Lyran Frigates. The enemy is leading with the Lyrans because the Klingons are the ones occupying our capital and other major planets; they obviously want our damage to be deflected from the Boneheads for as long as possible. The second engagement, however, goes against us. My Traveller Cruiser the En...

 It is now Autumn Y175, and our forces are ready to go onto the offensive. It has taken three years, but all vessels have now been repaired and the Old Colonies shipyard re-established. At on point we will be able to aim for the Klingon forces occupying our capital, but at the moment we need to make a demonstration in force. My friend the Bird-man Kooth has been busy gathering intelligence on the Lyran fleet dispositions in his cloaked Orion Heavy Cruiser Deathblow , and he joins the fleet as we bear down on the Lyrans at Phthaa III, their main forward base in our territories. The Deathblow  is heavily damaged in the initial exchanges, and then it is my turn as Captain of the Traveller Cruiser Entangler , a Hellbore ship, as we reach towards the planet itself. My first engagement is very successful. The Entangler  leads two Horseman Cruisers in close proximity to a Destroyer flotilla. Our main enemy is a War Destroyer Squadron and a Carrier Group based on their War Cruise...

 ... well, something like that. When I started to run some ship captain biographies as part of keeping my interest going, I half expected a couple of them to end up on opposing sides. At one point I had the bright idea of including a survivor from a neutral planet, Kooth the Bird Man, who ends up working as an Orion mercenary. The vagaries of space fighting have meant that he and my Hydran Hero Astyanax have ended up fighting in the same desperate battles at the last remaining Hydran Starbase before Hydrax against the Klingons. My imagination is telling me that after Kooth's rather grand entrance uncloaking an Orion CA and saving some Hydran ships, he and Astyanax would get together in the Starbase bar for some comradeship before heading out to war again. Kooth actually has a good experience in this campaign. The Hydrans are really up against it, and when his CA was repaired after its bruising encounter with a Lyran police flotilla, I rolled randomly to see where he would be deploy...

 The Coalition have finally made their move. Large numbers of Lyran vessels are converging on our outer planetary systems, while a large Klingon fleet heads directly for our home worlds. I am in the thick of it from the outset in my Knight-class Hellbore Destroyer, the Inevitable . We take up position well to port of the planet of Hyerark, the final staging point on the way to Hydrax itself. The Inevitable  is part of a light flotilla along with another Knight and a Crusader Frigate Leader; the combination gives us respectable Hellbore power. Off to our immediate starboard is a Caravan Tug carrying a Scout Pallet, accompanied by a Thoroughbred Heavy Cruiser. Next to them is our Paladin Dreadnought flagship, with two Ranger Cruisers. I assume that the rest of our fleet is stationed on the other side of the planet. We make rather a grand sight, especially with all the fighters escorting the Paladin and Dragoons, but we are well aware that the Klingons are going to try to degrade...

The Klingons are clearly massing for a major offensive on our front, so once again we make a lightning thrust to disrupt their logistics. I take part in the only engagement that is needed, as we easily vaporise their last remaining border Battle Station, if you don't count the ones supposedly controlled by the Vudar. The Klingons are still hampered by their lack of a Dreadnought-class command ship, but they are learning how to deal with our Stingers as best they can. However, by concentrating their fire on the littlest guys, they present an opportunity for our Heavy Cruisers simply to drive up and blow the station away. Even we are astonished. The Klingons leave hastily. In the aftermath, we realise that not a single ship was actually damaged on either side. This means that my seventh fleet combat is a bit of a no-show. Not that I'm complaining...

 This will be my fifth fleet action, and again it is in defence of one of our Battle Stations on the Klingon border. Our fleet is most impressive: a Paladin Dreadnought leads, and the Inevitable  and another Knight Destroyer are assigned to accompany the flagship, along with a Scout Frigate. The remainder of the fleet is composed as follows: a Lord Bishop Command Cruiser and a Thoroughbred Fast Cruiser acting as a team; a Heavy Cruiser Squadron comprising a Dragoon and two Rangers; our Uhlan Carrier Group, reduced somewhat because one of their Escort Frigates was crippled on a previous occasion; and three Lancer Destroyers. Command has decided not to bother engaging the Klingons at a remove from the station, figuring that concentrated force will allow us to do the most damage. It will be touch and go as a series of battles, because although we have the advantage of powerful ships, fighters and the station, the Klingons outnumber us significantly. We don't expect them to be led...

 High Command decides that we can afford to mount a counter-offensive, so all of the ships on the Klingon Front are amalgamated into one fleet and ordered to descend on an enemy Battle Station at "The Elbow". This is the bend in the border at the narrowest point of Klingon space, and I know from my studies at the Academy that the station here is a possible major staging-point for any Klingon offensive towards our Homeworld. It seems to me that we are going to take advantage of three factors that are, at the moment, in our favour: the Coalition is not yet fully ready to mount an offensive, which means we have a moment of opportunity to make a lightning attack that could disrupt their plans even further; we have the new generation of impressive Stinger fighters; and we have the first true carrier in the navy. Although the Uhlan is only a Destroyer-class ship, it carries twelve Stinger-IIs and four Hellbore fighters, supplemented by another six fighters on its accompanying Escor...

 In common with other officers from the Inevitable  (and, indeed the rest of the fleet), I am granted some shore leave - well, what passes for it on a Battle Station on the Klingon Border. The orders go out in quite large batches, which confirms my suspicion that our long-awaited ship refits will take place while most of the crews are not present, to preserve secrecy.  However, when I return nothing seems to have been done to the  Inevitable at all, and even some sneaky use of my privileges as First Officer to make a quick scan of the other vessels reveals nothing out of the ordinary. I don't have more time to ponder, though, as the alarms wail - the Klingons are coming. This will be my second proper fleet engagement. The crippled Knight from our little Destroyer flotilla has not yet been repaired, so it is replaced by a Lancer from the very few reserves we have in this area. We are deployed at the extreme left of our feet's defensive formation, although overall the ...

 Astyanax is the name of the Hydran character I'll be following through the General War, and his story begins rather auspiciously. I am Astyanax, son of Hectax, son of Priax Troiax. My grandfather is something like 100th in line to the Hydran throne, depending on which day of the week you are on, which makes me a typical Hydran officer: minor aristocracy with a touch of royal blood in here somewhere. I am Heavy Weapons Officer on the Knight Destroyer Inevitable , so I am Second Officer and third in command overall. Like everyone else, I have been watching the vidcasts of the Coalition attack on the Kzinti with mounting trepidation. We always knew the smaller cats and the boneheads would eventually attack either us or our erstwhile allies, and the big cats drew the small straw. They are giving up territory very grudgingly, using fighters in ways similar to us at fixed installations to make the invaders pay, but they are slowly losing ground. It is only a matter of time before we are...