Gratuitous Federation & Empire

 I take part in two engagements as we launch a huge assault on the Hydran Starbase that stands between us and their Old Colonies. Our forces are decimated in the attention, and the Klingons also take heavy casualties, as do the Hydrans. However, they manage to hold us off. For some reason their Starbase has been named 'Midway' in honor of a naval battle famous from Terran history; it remains to be seen whether this campaign is a similar turning point. The Dark Fury  is destroyed in the intensive fighting, and as a trimaran specialist I am given command of one of our clan's few War Cruisers, the Cold Fang . Image of a Lyran War Cruiser from Deviant Art.

 We are joined at the second main Battle Station on the Hydran Border by the Enemy's Blood Fleet and the Foremost Fleet, which has just been constituted by new builds from the homeworld. It seems to me that the Emperor is being especially canny, because there is an old Lyran proverb that a three-legged cat is more stable. Roughly, this means that three relatively balanced Dukes provide stability, while two or four tend to cause civil wars and unwanted alliances. If three are in the same sector, none will ally with any of the others for fear that the third will call upon the Emperor. The Foremost Fleet was in reserve awaiting events on our front, and the fact it has arrived suggests that the Hydrans are heading this way. Their preponderance of fighters gives them the opportunity for a decent counteroffensive, and we are still building our forces here - the Foremost is just the first of a series of scheduled reinforcements. The Hydrans are going to try to keep us off balance. Sensors...

 Although we do not as yet have enough force on this front to mount a major offensive against the Hydran enemy, the combination of our own Far Stars Fleet with the Enemy's Blood Duchy gives us a decent shot at one attack. The Hydrans have been forced to divide their fleets here in two in order to cover both of their Battle Stations that are within striking distance of our vessels, so we pick one and go in. Whichever one we hit will probably put up a stout defence before falling to our local superiority in numbers. In the event, the two Dukes do a deal to split the honours. Our Far Stars Duke M'Muran graciously agrees to wait out the first attack; after all, the Hydrans have destroyed one of the two Enemy's Blood frontier stations, so it only seems fair to give them first shot. The Enemy's Blood Duke leads from a Battle Tug equipped with new Klingon battle pods - these are functionally the same as our own pallets, but they do look cool. He is directly supported by a Dest...