Captain Mueller of the Federated States of Europa Navy glanced at the yoeman as she offered him a cup of strong Ching tea, never quite withdrawing his attention from the forward viewscreen. 'We're nearing the asteroid field, Captain. Sensors still reading four unknown ships bearing down on us from directly ahead. We've also picked up Captain Al An's force moving to intercept as well." "Thank you, lieutenant." Mueller continued to regard the screen, mentally picturing the relative positions of the three groups of ships converging with the instability of the asteroid field. "Flag on the bridge!" The cry interrupted Mueller's contemplation of the coming confrontation with an unknown force. He stood and turned to face Admiral Scott Wady Ko, "Status, Captain Mueller?" "We're on an intercept course, Admiral. Al An is closing on our flank and ......" "Sensors have detection values on ferrous alloys in the asteroid field." The warrant paused in her report, then added. "The values are suspicious. sir." "Ignore the asteroids and concentrate on those ships, Mister." Admiral Ko interjected. "What can you tell us?" Mueller glanced at the warrant and nodded. He proceeded to look at the tactical plot as the warrant answered Admiral Ko. "Readings indicate two capital class ships and two smaller escorts, Admiral. No readout on weaponry, but comparable engine characteristics - and speeds. Indications of heavy armor. The ship configurations match no known class." Admiral Ko, having taken Mueller's command seat, did not look worried. "Mueller, how soon before Captain An's force joins us. That will give us twelve ships to their four. Battle Stations, Captain. Standard two-one deployment." Ko regarded the oncoming ships with a grin. This is shaping up nicely, he thought to himself. The hooting claxton mixed with the voice of the master-atarms calling Mueller's crew to battle stations. Most of the crew had already drifted in that direction when word from the bridge leaked that the patrol had found something unusual. Now they manned their stations with an a clarity that made Captain Mueller proud to command the FSESN Brietenfeld. This far out, no one wanted to take any chances. Mueller was particularly pleased with the speed at which each section reported manned and ready, secretly hoping that it impressed the admiral as well. Suddenly, a momentary reflection from the asteroid field caught his eye. "SHEISSE!" Captain Mueller exclamation cut through the admiral's compacency. "There, sir .... Do you see it? In the field. That's a reflection off of a ship!" As if to emphasize her captain's observation, the sensor warrant quickly added: "Engines and weapons powering up in the asteroid field, Captain. Four ships. Comparable configurations to the others. The first four have increased speed. Whoa!" Four blinding beams of light flashed out of the asteroid field, bracketing the Flanders, the battle cruiser following the flagship. "Comms, send to Captain An: "Close on us at flank speed!" The admiral's voice shook with the visible tension that had suddenly engulfed the bridge crew. "Damage to Flanders?" The warrant replied as if she was participating in a tactical exercise, not a battle. "Direct hit on engineering. Flanders is slowing. Some breeches in the hull, sir." "Nav, come left five degrees and close the distance. Weapons, fire on the closest target as it clears the asteroid field." More bright flashes. The bridge of the Biietenfeld shook once, twice, a third time. Its own weapons beamed out in response. The weapons officer added a salvo of missiles on his own initiative. Alarms sounded as a variety of warning lights flashed at various consoles on the bridge. "Damage control reports hull breeches between frame two-three alpha and two seven. Secondary fire control has been knocked out. All decks reporting casualties, sir." The engineering watch officer's voice lacked the calm of the sensor warrant's. "What have we run into, Mueller? Look at Flanders! Com, can you raise her?" The bridge crew stared in horror as the stern half of the Flanders disappeared in a silent blast, spewing broken human bodies amid debris. The weapons officer kept firing. For a moment, those crew members throughout the ship with access to a view screen cheered in triumph as one of the strange ships disintegrated. But more flashes of light came as the Brietenfeld exchanged shots with the oncomers. "Captain.... I mean Admiral.... Life support is down. Heavy casualties in engineering. Primary fire control inoperative. Power lost to main bat..." Death cut the engineering watch officer's report off in mid sentence. A shaft of golden light punched through the Brietenfeld's hull, opening the bridge to the cold depths of space and sending the ship plunging out of control toward the asteroid field. When the Brietenfield smashed nose first into a large asteroid minutes later, the failure of life support systems knocked out throughout the crippled ship had already killed her crew. Aboard the P'Tann, the captain smiled at his command crew. His executive officer, a scarred veteran of a dozen border clashes, grinned back. The tactical plot told the storythe two surviving alien craft were fleeing around the far side of the asteroid field, one limping along at half sublight speed. The remaining aliens were a mix of debris fields, drifting hulks, and dying cripples. "A great victory, Captain." The PTann's exec growled through his grin. "A shame about the P'Telm and the Y'Ernst." The exec nodded in the direction of a screen showing two fields of fragments and debris that had once been proud cruisers in the P'Sha's small, but welltrained navy. "The Captain of the PTerr reports that he will need at least three hours to repair the damage to his engines. A third of his crew are injured or dead. Captain An Thon Yi requests damage control assistance. Your orders, Captain?" The communications officer waited for a response. "Sensors, status of the hostile ships?" "Sensors show that the four capital ships are dead, sir. One hit an asteroid and is completely destroyed. Of the eight escorts .... Two are fleeing; one of them is heavily damaged and will be overtaken shortly. Three of the escort craft are totally destroyed. The three remaining all show heavy damage. Two of those show no life signs .... One of the fleeing cripples just shifted to FTL drive." "Communications, send to the PTimm. Pursue and take the cripple. I want prisoners. Tell PTerr that help is on the way. Engineering, prepare to assist the P'Terr. Communications, to all ships, good work- Let's go see what we can learn about these aliens." And would you believe that all the carnage occurred in seven turns? The P'Sha, led by Anthony and Carl cleaned the federation Navy's proverbial clock. Alan and Scott with four capital ships and eight escorts, went down fighting, losing eleven of twelve ships. Scott lost all of his ships. On the P'Sha side, Anthony lost a light cruiser and a heavy cruiser; his battle cruiser and destroyer suffered heavy damage. Carl had heavy damage to his destroyer and insignificant damage to his heavy cruiser. Lot's of fun, but the weaponry on the P'Sha side outclassed that of the FESN. Well, let's see if this gets the juices flowing in Bryant to continue the F.T. campaign several of us have been involved in .... MB Back to Dispatch March 2002 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com