Gratuitous Federation & Empire

 The war against the Lyrans and the Klingons continues to be a cat and mouse game, with the front lines flowing backwards and forwards. In effect, it is stalemate, although the casualty lists continue to mount. So does the loss of heavy ships as the Lyrans destroy the Dreadnought Hegemony  and kill the Baron. His heir is ordered to replace him on our front by the Patriarch, and he turns out to be very able indeed, destroying a Battlecruiser and a Mauler Cruiser in revenge. There is no end in sight to the fighting and we know that our economy is about to crash as a result of over a decade of pressure. Fortunately, so will that of our enemies - and we have the economic force of the Federation helping us.

 Count R'rorash is dead. A Lyran counterattack has crippled the Dreadnought Hegemony , killing our heroic leader in the process. The Baron takes over command of our forces against the Lyran enemy. Nobody doubts his bravery, but we are all aware that he is not of the same calibre as the giant who has lead us for ten years now. My command, the Light Carrier Tempest , is also destroyed in the fighting. A powerful Lyran command group hits us with ESG rams. Anticipating their move though, I manage to save most of my crew by initiating emergency evacuation procedures. Ships can (slowly) be replaced, but veteran officers cannot. We regroup and I find myself promoted to command of the Strike Carrier Sabre  by the Baron; he says he remembers my valuable contribution to intelligence about the new Lyran gunboat ships. This means I now command the largest carrier that originally belonged to the County; indeed, I fought my first few engagements as a fighter pilot in the same battles as thi...

 The Count and I return to the main conference chamber. The fleet Captains greet our arrival with another shout of "Honor!" and R'Rorash calls the meeting order. He motions to the fleet's Chief Science Officer to begin. I remember C'Nisar from guest lectures on theoretical fighter and small ship designs from the academy; this should be interesting. He has a knack of making difficult information digestible to warriors such as ourselves. I also have more than a sneaking suspicion that his presence as main scientific advisor to the Count on the Lyran Front is no coincidence; no doubt he has had more than just a paw in the new fighter design I have just been shown. The Count notes my interest and his whiskers twitch in amusement. "Gentles," says C'Nisar, "My team has been tasked with analyzing the wealth of information provided by Ser Meerclaw and his Science Officer on the Tempest, Commander  C'Taia . The stratagem of pooling information from t...

  Debriefing at Zamyan The fleet reconvenes at our recently reconquered planet of Zamyan, which also happens to be my home. Count R'Rorash calls a war council on the Titan  for all of the senior Captains, including myself. Also present is the Baron, who has been our Count's second-in-command for several years now due to his seniority as a nobleman and, most interestingly, the fleet's Chief Science Officer. He watches the proceedings carefully. The vid feeds play the course of events of our encounter with the new Lyran ships at their Battle Station, and the Count calls us to order. We all stand to attention and then the voice of the Patriarch of all Kzinti is broadcast into the room: "Our highest honor, the War Medal First Class, is hereby awarded to Captain Meerclaw, currently of the Light Carrier Tempest,  for audacity and initiative in the face of overwhelming odds. He not only saved two ships from the Lyran enemy, but has gathered military intelligence of such a sig...

 Our part of the fleet warps into position, with the Lyran Battle Station just off to starboard front. My Helm Officer is pleased with his efforts and justifiably so; the Medium Cruiser squadron is at our port and our two (New) Heavy Cruisers are screening us. As commander in our part of the battle, I have already set up a conference screen with the Captains of these ships. This turns out to be a useful initial precaution because it saves valuable time when we see what we are up against - and it isn't pretty. Our fighters are launched as per standard operating protocol. A quick viewscan shows that the enemy has committed large numbers of fighters in our vicinity. Off to our port they have a pair of War Cruiser class carriers, fronted by a Scout-class War Cruiser; this alone gives them two dozen fighters and a lot of phaser power, although they lack the longer ranged disruptor suite. Inside them is their main fleet command element: a Dreadnought, a Battlecruiser and one of their New...

  Captain's Log, Stardate 178.5.12 We are on approach to a Lyran Battle Station that has been placed near the site of one of our County's old border stations from before the war - the same one, in fact, that we defended against the initial wave of invasion almost ten years ago now. It feels strange to be revisiting this region. Much has happened during the intervening time. Our forces have managed to keep the Coalition at bay after their major assault on our capital planets destroyed much of our military infrastructure. Painstaking efforts have combined with timely financial aid from the Federation to stabilize our situation, albeit at great cost. Much of Kzinti space is now an open battlefield as fleets criss-cross in various attempts to advance beyond a stalemate. Our current strategic situation is quite good, with the combined Count's and Duke's Fleets now attacking towards the original border zones for the first time. The Marquis' Fleet is operating in conjuncti...

 Heavy fighting continues across our former territories as we fence mightily with the Coalition forces. Our homeworld itself seems to be safe, and the damage previously wrought to our infrastructure by the invaders has mostly been repaired; it is rumored that we have even been able to re-establish some defensive installations on the planets nearest Kzintai. I fight in several more engagements before being promoted to Captain of the CVL Light Carrier Tempest . Our previous captain is promoted to command of the CVS Strike Carrier Sabre , which has been crippled in one of the many combats that have been taking place. As usual, our forces allied with the County are facing the Lyrans, and it shows in the list of crippled heavy ships. Unfortunately, the Count's heir C'Rorish is killed in action as the Sabre  is crippled, so a replacement captain is needed. The toll among our crews and noble officers continues to be high; although we would not say that the situation has stabilized, w...

 The Coalition has arrived again on our central regions with a massive combined force. Partly thanks to financial aid from the Federation, plus our own earlier building efforts, our defences are in reasonable shape. We do not expect the enemy to be able to take the capital itself, but they will degrade our main planetary installations even further - economic warfare, in effect. The CVL Tempest , whose fighter force I command, is assigned to system defence at Kuballus, which is uncomfortably close to Kzinti itself. On this occasion our main enemy will be the Lyrans. We have a good concentration of force here, including the recently commissioned CVA Dreadnought-class carrier Olympus . The fighting is fierce in the first engagements, and then the Tempest  is called into the main line. Our immediate force is very powerful: an Early Dreadnought; a Battlecruiser; and a Scout Tug as well as ourselves. We are off to port from Kuballus, skirting orbit; the main enemy facing us is simil...

 I have not seen direct action for quite a while now, but that is because our fleets are mostly consolidated at Homeworld. As a Light Carrier, the Tempest  is not considered to be a front line ship, more as a feeder of fighters forward to the heavier Strike Carriers as and when they are needed. This suits me because it gives me time to familiarize myself with the logistical workings of a carrier vessel, knowledge I am sure will come in useful in the future. The Coalition offensive stalled after devastating several of our outermost home system planets, and then we received a respite when the Klingons decided to attack the Federation. The Flatheads were beginning to make signs of entering the war on our behalf anyway, so the Boneheads must have decided to pre-empt that decision and strike first. While the Lyrans retire to their main forward staging post of Zimdars, the Klingons divert their main effort on our front against the Marquis' Starbase, which has been cut off from direc...

 Campaign losses have resulted in my being promoted; I am now Leader of the Second Flight of three assigned to the CVL Light Carrier Tempest . CVL is something of a misnomer in this case; it is a Light Carrier because it only carries nine fighters, but it also has the firepower of a Battlecruiser. Sr'esint is Squadron Leader. We wait our turn in the fleet reserves as the Lyrans attack the planet of Zimdars, the last bastion between them and our home systems. The initial Lyran attack almost breaks through to the planet itself, but is only just beaten back. Attrition mounts as our pilots are fed into the defence in waves, until eventually, for the fourth engagement, the Tempest  is assigned to the main line. We deploy together with a Fast Battlecruiser and the flagship, a fully-kitted Battle Tug, and set up well off to the port side of our defensive line. The Lyrans opposite us comprise a War Cruiser Squadron; the rest of their fleet is heading straight towards Zimdars. We are g...

 It's all a bit of a fizzle, really, at least where I am concerned.  Along with the other pilots on the CVL Tempest , I watch as the Lyrans overpower our forward lines and then sweep in towards the planet in multiple waves. Our ships give them a hard time as usual as we try to fend them off, with especially high casualties among the pilots. As has been the case in previous positions, the superior numbers of the Lyran force eventually grinds us down, and we have to commit carriers as cruiser equivalents. Our turn comes, and the fleet is deployed in a relatively wide formation; our admiral the Count is obviously intent on following his orders to preserve the carriers as much as possible. Our own position is at the far end of the port wing of the formation, which can best described as a loose line abreast. The Lyrans, however, really mean business this time, as they come in almost entirely together on a heading directly for the planet.  Our squadron turns in towards the plan...

 Since we are on the strategic defensive, any lulls in the Coalition offensive are filled with logistics, re-organisations and refits. So far we in the domain of Count R'rorash have fought every clawnail of the way as we are forced inexorably back towards the homeward, and the same can be said of what is happening on the Klingon Front. Having lost our border Battle Stations and, most recently, the Count's Starbase, we are now in orbit around the major planet Zamyan. The steady trail of crippled vessels returning home to await repair demonstrates that we are in no fit state to mount a counteroffensive. Count R'Rorash oversees the minutiae of every tiny detail, while we pilots get a chance to try tune up our replacement fighters, as well as getting to know one another better. The destruction of our old Escort Carrier has saddened us, as has the lost of her crew complement, but we have now been assigned to the larger CVL Light Carrier Tempest , ably commanded by Captain M'...

 In common with many of our personnel, I watch the initial stages of our defence against the Lyran attack on the vidlinks. We are mostly assembled at a pre-arranged rendezvous point, ready to feed ships and fighters into the ongoing series of combats as and when they are required. Count R'rorash leads a rousing defence from the Flag Bridge of the Starbase itself, co-ordinating everything with flair and the calmness in battle for which he is famous. It turns out that Commodore (now Constable) C'rorish is his cousin, which explains the similarity in names; he leads the fleet from a Battle Tug that has just been assigned to our front, and which is easily the largest single ship we have available. The Count has no named heir, and the message is clear: he is intending to go down with the Starbase if necessary, and C'rorish will carry on the fight. My newly constructed and painted Kzinti Starbase, with its full complement of fighters. The first battle goes relatively well for us,...

 Our battered forces regroup and withdraw to the Count's Starbase. Fortunately, Count R'rorash has survived the damage done to the CVS Sabre , and is in fine fettle as he supervises preparations and logistics for what we all expect to be a major showdown with the Lyrans at the Starbase itself. Reports are coming in of various battles that have been taking place all along the borders with the Lyrans and Klingons. We did quite well on our front, with Commodore C'Rorish being promoted to Constable of the Count's Marches after his excellent performance against the Lyrans at Battle Station One. Although his forces were eventually degraded to the point where he had no choice but to withdraw, he managed to evacuate the entire station before blowing it with demolition charges to prevent it falling into the claws of the Lyrans. Our own battle against the Red Claw himself went rather less according to plan, but between us and the unexpected success at Battle Station Three, we hav...

 Spring Y169 sees Meerclaw's second experience of combat as a fighter pilot. He is the most junior of the six pilots assigned to the Escort Carrier Seer and currently holds the rank of Pilot, 1st Class. This is the part he plays in the combat at Battle Station No.2 on the Lyran border: Meerclaw's Journal,  8.1.169 Our forces are spread relatively thinly across our border stations and planets because we expect to be facing the Klingons as well as the Lyrans. Our ship and its accompanying Escort Frigate remain with the main forces of the Count's Fleet. Count R'Rorash keeps his flag on the Strike Carrier Spectre , which has its own Escort Light Cruiser and Escort Frigate. The other ships here are the three Battlecruisers Quasar , Nova  and the Pulsar , fully rebuilt after its previous run-in with a Lyran Battlecruiser. We also have the Light Cruiser Mystic and a supporting Scout Frigate. This is not a full fleet by any stretch, but we should be able to give a good ...

 These are the deployments for the second battle of Spring Y169, a Lyran assault on a Kzinti Battle Station.  The Kzinti deploy in two zones. This is the first, well off to the left of the position of their Battle Station. Here they have concentrated a CVE Escort Carrier with accompanying Escort Frigate, followed by the CL Mystic  and a Scout Frigate. I decided to put the two latter ships together to try to increase the Scout's chances of survival. My Kzin hero Meerclaw is the no.6 pilot in the CVE's fighter wing. The Battle Station is glinting in the sunlight at the top centre of the photo above, with two pairs of admin shuttles deployed. Immediately behind is the station's fighter squadron. Behind and to the left is a CV Strike Carrier Group, and to the right is a squadron of three Battlecruisers. There is nothing further to the right of this lot - that's all the Kzinti have here. The right wing of the attacking Lyran force is comprised of two Heavy Cruisers and a Bat...

The Lyran Red Claw is about to launch a grand assault on Kzinti Battle Station No.2: The Combat Value of the attacking force is over 100 points, which makes this the strongest fleet I have seen in action during the campaign so far. But then, it's not entirely surprising given the force composition: a Battle Tug; a Command Cruiser, four Heavy Cruisers, a Fast Heavy Cruiser; a War Cruiser Squadron, three Light Cruisers and a Destroyer Scout. Nasty. The defending Kzinti have a Strike Carrier Group, together with a supporting Escort Carrier Group, three Battlecruisers, a Light Cruiser and a Scout Frigate. Their combat value is 10 points lower than the Lyrans, and that includes the Battle Station and all of the fighters. This is the fleet to which my Kzin protagonist Meerclaw belongs, so it's going to be fun writing about what transpires from his viewpoint. He is currently the no.6 pilot in the CVE fighter contingent. He might be getting promoted after this fight... I rolled very we...

 The initial burst of activity by the Lyrans has ceased, and this is how the situation looks:  The two halves of the Red Claw fleet have retired to their main Starbase to regroup and repair, while another two fleets have arrived, waiting to join in the next wave of attacks. Here are Meerclaw's comments: As a combat veteran, and having survived my first mission, I am promoted to Pilot 1st Class. This makes me of equal rank with my old friend Sr'esint from the Academy, but since he was commissioned before me, technically he will be first in line for any further promotions. In wartime, there are two ways this can happen. The first is by becoming part of a cadre of experienced pilots fitting out a new arrival at the front. The other is dead cat's boots. We all know that this is a temporary lull as the Lyrans ready themselves for a major offensive, and we expect the Klingons to launch an invasion in the early spring just to make matters worse. We do get some shore leave - well, ...