Gratuitous Federation & Empire

 The 2nd Fleet is ordered to contest the planet known as the Bezwell Index again, with the intention of hurting the Klingon Southern Fleet. It will be even better if we can eject them. The Darius  is one of a flotilla of three destroyers, and I take part in two engagements, one at the approaches to the plant and one in the space near it. The Klingons seem strangely unwilling to contest too heavily, and all we lose is a Heavy Cruiser crippled on the way in, and one of our other Destroyers crippled by a D5 War Cruiser in orbit around the planet itself. The Klingons leave quickly. It would seem that they are happy simply to skirmish with us on this front while their Romulan allies make inroads on our anti-spinward border. I have now fought in four engagements as First Officer of the Darius .

 Our coreward spring offensive netted our forces Dimitris, the last planet remaining to the Kzinti outside their main home region. This leaves their Marquis with only a single Battle Station; if we can remove that, we will have driven a substantial wedge between the Kzinti and their Flathead allies. While our main fleet retires to keep an eye on the big cats' central command before we gear up for another series of attacks, a large contingent is left to defend Dimitris against an expected counterattack by the Marquis and the Federation 4th Fleet. My F5C Frigate command ship Axe Leader  is one of them. Sure enough, the enemy appears on the long range sensors, and forward elements of our forces are deployed at the approaches to Dimitris. The enemy obviously means business, roughly brushing aside our screening force and inflicting heavy casualties, including the complete destruction of a Carrier Tug. I then take part in a sequence of five engagements at Dimitris itself before the ...

 Julia is my latest hero in the campaign. She comes from an Italian family with a very long, perhaps even legendary, history. She makes her appearance just as the General War really starts to kick off... Starfleet Academy is at full stretch, rotating new officers through the system as fast as possible. The First Officers of older ships up to Destroyer class are being promoted to command their own new vessels as soon as they roll off the production lines, and people like me are being sent to replace them as soon as we graduate.  The overall strategic situation is delicate. The Coalition offensive against the Kzinti has ground down to a sort of stalemate, although the Klingons are grimly reducing our direct geographical links with our erstwhile allies piece by piece. The Hydran capital is reported to have fallen; rumors abound about the little guys fortunately managing to extricate much of their fleet before it met its demise. From  http://www.ussalbion.co.uk/hermes.html In...

 Although our combined Coalition forces were unable to reach the Hydran capital itself, the Klingons were able to destroy the last remaining major installation, the Hydran Starbase. This means they have no real repair capacity in the region, which is confined by our fleet sensors showing a steady stream of crippled ships heading towards the Hydrans' staging point to their Old Colonies, a newly constructed Starbase.  After regrouping, we go in again, and I am in the thick of it right from the outset. High Command has agreed with the Klingons that our vessels will lead the assault as we have better anti-fighter capability due to our ESGs. The usual strategy will be in place: degrade their fighters and hopefully take out some ships as well, or at least do enough damage to remove them from consideration.  The Hydrans are determined to make us pay for every parsec, and engage us as soon as they can at the approaches to the planet. They want to delay our arrival at the capital ...

 The Kzinti mount a spoiling attack on the Klingons' main forward base, the planet of Lumien. The Klingons are quite happy to give this up, though, because they know the big cats will not be able to keep hold of it due to the strategic situation. The Boneheads are determined to make the Kzinti pay first, and this they do in fine fashion. As well as the usual slew of mangled and destroyed ships, the main events are the destruction of a Kzinti Strike Carrier by a close assault from a C8 Dreadnought in combination with a D6M Mauler Cruiser - the first major loss to the Kzinti carrier force in the war. The next engagement sees the Klingons ejected from the planet, and the Kzinti get their revenge by crippling the Mauler with a close pass from their own Dreadnought after the Mauler's batteries have been depleted blowing up some smaller ships. The costs the Kzinti too, though, because their Dreadnought is heavily damaged and old Admiral Mr'iarr killed in action.  From https://w...

 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...