"Lieutenant?"
"Yes", replied Lt. J.G. Sheila Blair looking up from her screen.
"There's something big coming out of hyperspace just outside the system gravity well."
"Wake the OD and alert fleet ops. Let's see what you've got."
Lt Blair left her console and walked across the narrow passage to check Seaman Horbeck's screen. The greenish blob was starting to separate into individual dots of brighter light. "Looks like the Ents have finally gotten here" she said almost to herself.
On the Command Deck of his Flagship, Hivemaster Skretchklack paced on four of his six legs. "Have they seen us yet?" he asked. One of the Drones replied emotionlessly that the fleet was being scanned. The Hivemaster rocked back on his last four legs and thought "I wonder what we will find..."
Skretchklack had been part of the disastrous attack on Earth. What should have been a surprise turned into a massacre when it seemed like thousands of little attack craft rose to defend the planet. At first they thought they were under attack by scout ships, the only use the Entomalians had for one-being ships. But these little gnats turned out to have a vicious bite. Despite destroying six of every twelve, the others got close and launched the fearsome Terran Neutron Torpedoes. One hit and an Assault Transport turned into glowing vapor. Star Destroyers and even Capital ships suffered heavily. By the time Master Hivemaster Grathkrack called for the retreat, three Dreadnaughts, five Battle Cruisers and dozens of Cruisers and Star Destroyers were lost. The few Terran Star Ships in orbit spent their time mopping up the Entomalian cripples.
Skretchklack ground his mandibles as if biting the head off one of those terrible Terran pilots. "This time it will be different" he thought "now we have fighters!"
In the concealed sensor station Lt. JG Blair watched a small fuzzy cloud form in front of the Ent fleet as it approached Eustis 6. "What the hell is that?" Lieutenant Commander Akers, the Officer of the Day, asked. Blair kept looking at it then it suddenly hit her. "Shit, call the Admiral, they've got fighters!"
Using 4-sided dice this battle turned out to be between the Entomalian 2nd Fleet and the Terran 1St Fleet - two of the most powerful in my 4 Fleet system.
| Ship | Terran 1St Fleet | Entomalian 2"d Fleet |
|---|---|---|
| Dreadnought (GD) | 1 (old) | 2 (one old, one new) |
| Carrier (GAC) | 1 | 1 |
| Battlecruiser (GB) | 1 | 2(1 Scorpion, 1 Roach class) |
| Cruiser (SC) | 3 | 2 |
| Destroyer Leader (SDL) | 3 | 3 |
| Destroyer (SD) | 12 | 12 |
| Star Bomber (SB) | 3 | 2 |
The concept behind the battle is simple: the Entomalians want to get past the Terran force to land on the planet and eat the inhabitants. Neither side is allowed to retreat into hyperspace until at least 2 capital ships have received enough damage that they are unable to do so. I set up my Terran fleet in a standard formation; three SCs (cruisers) in the center, the GD (dreadnought) on the left and the GB (battle cruiser) on the right with the GAC (carrier) in the rear guarded by one SD (destroyer) squadron. Die roll determined that the Entomalians would attack in the "Claw" formation.
Battle
Both sides launched their fighters. Since the Terrans were not expecting enemy interceptors, all my fighters were armed with 1 laser shot and 1 neutron torpedo. Six of the Entomalian fighters were armed as interceptors (3 laser shots) and the rest with 1 laser and 1 missile. The Terran fleet also held their Star Bombers (SB) back for use later while the Entomalians led the fighters with theirs.
After several turns of maneuvering contact was made by the two fighter waves in front of the main fleets. Apparently my pilots really were surprised by the presence of Entomalian fighters as I lost 9 Star Fighters (SF) to 6 of the enemy and one hit on a Star Bomber. Although four of the lost Ent fighters were the Interceptor configuration. Since all these craft are moving at 5, you need to roll a 15 or less on two 10-sided dice, not easy.
Turn 2 continued the poor Terran shooting, getting 2 Ent fighters and scoring 2 hits on one SB and 1 on the other while losing 4 more SFs. On turn 3 only the remaining two Ent fighters configured as interceptors could fire and they missed. All other attack craft passed through each other and headed for the main fleets. My plan was to take out the left SD squadron with my fighters while the Ents rolled a normal dice to see who they went after. They went for my Battlecruiser.
Admiral Potter sat in his Command Chair on the bridge of his flagship, the dreadnought Adama, watching the fighter strikes develop. He had great confidence in the ability of his fighters to cripple the Bug's left wing destroyer squadron. Then his fewer but more powerful ships could smash the Bug attack. The fact that the Entomalians had fighters had been a surprise and he hoped that that was the only reason the fighter battle had gone the way it did. But that was not to be. In the next few moments (2 turns) 21 Terran fighters were lost and only two torpedoes connected with their targets. Potter derived more satisfaction in seeing that the Bugs were attacking the Battlecruiser Kirk which meant that they would have to fly through the overlapping fires of a number of ships. The entire Bug fighter unit and both of their Star Bombers were destroyed but 1 missile got through and hit the Kirk. (Special damage was rolled resulting in an extra speed loss, it now cost 25 power units [PUs] to achieve a speed factor of 4)
Skretchklack watched emotionlessly as his entire fighter force except the 6 he kept back in reserve were destroyed.
"Note that fighters should reframe from attacking where many ships can use their LIDS against them," he spoke to his personal Drone. "Record that on a message rocket and send it to home world." Forgetting the Drone he turned back to the screens as the fleets closed into laser range.
Commander Cunningham felt the Kirk shudder under her as beams from the whole left wing of the Bug fleet converged on her ship. The cruiser next to her also seemed to be getting hit badly.
She was pleased to see the massed fire of the cruiser squadron punch through the screens of the Roach class Battlecruiser next to the New Mantis GD, that ship would be badly damaged. Destroyers on both sides were also taking hits.
(The first 2 turns of fleet-to-fleet fighting saw each SD squadron gang up on one or two of their counterparts. The capital ships also focused on their counterparts. For the most part the Ents did most of the hitting and the Terrans most of the missing. On turn 5 a Terran SD Squadron closed to particle weapon range to attack the Scorpion and New Mantis. On that turn only three hits were recorded by 20 Terran ships, but the particle weapons did better. At the end of the turn the Terrans had lost 3 SDs and 2 Cruisers. The Old Mantis had been crippled but no Bug ships had been destroyed. Turn 6 was worse, the Starbombers were committed and 2 were lost. The other did destroy an Ent SD. But 4 more Terran SDs were destroyed.)
Potter no longer sat in his command chair. He watched unbelievingly as ship after ship was blown out of space with little damage inflicted upon the enemy. Things were getting desperate. He called in the Carrier, the Spock, not so much for her offensive firepower, but for her extensive shields to draw off some of the accurate Bug beams. There was one hope however; the rearmed fighters had been launched from the Kirk and the Spock.
Skretchklack was pleased, the Terran fighters had not been as devastating as he expected, although he saw another wave being launched. The Terran gunnery had been abysmal and his own nothing short of outstanding. The Terrans were now even committing their Carrier to the fight, a sure sign that battle was won. He turned to his Drone, "Send the carrier into hyperspace and tell the invasion fleet to advance."
(Turn 7 saw one more Terran SD lost and 1 Ent SD and one SC destroyed. This was also the first turn the Adama was hit.)
Potter was in a quandary. Firing at the capital ships was bleeding off too much of his firepower against their shields. He quickly decided to try something else. He split the Adama's considerable firepower against 2 Bug Star Destroyers. He was pleased to see both of them severely damaged. It also looked like the rest of his fleet was starting to make some hits.
(Turn 8 saw the Terrans lose another SD and have another crippled but with the fighters attacking the widely scattered ships the Ents lost the Old Mantis, the Scorpion, their last cruiser and an SD. On turn 9 concentrated fire on the carrier missed [her defense factor of 7 reduced the offensive factors tremendously] the Adama was crippled in exchange for 2 Ent SDs destroyed. Apparently both sides were confused by the closeness of the battle on turn 10 because neither side did much. Turn 11 saw the surviving Terran fighters relaunch close enough to their targets that they engage on the same turn. The poor laser shooting continued by both sides but one torpedo fired by an Ent SD hit the last Terran cruiser. Normally that would cost 10 PUs, but I rolled a 98 for special damage resulting in the loss of another 40 PUs which took the 50 the cruiser had left. The cruiser was dead in space, but since the damage was not above the remaining Pus, it remained on the board as a potential target.)
Potter knew his fleet was in serious trouble. The surprise loss of the cruiser seemed to be the last straw. He knew the Mantis couldn't be left intact if there was going to be any hope for this battle. He also knew that very soon his own damaged ship would be destroyed.
Quickly deciding what to do, he ordered everyone not engaged on working guns to evacuate the ship. He then ordered all remaining power to be used to power the guns and ordered all the ships in the fleet to target the Mantis. Then he sat back down in his chair, knowing his own ship was defenseless.
(Turn 12 took an interesting turn [hee, hee...OK, bad pun]. The concentrating of all offensive firepower on the Mantis scored 95 power units of damage and two torpedoes also hit adding 20 more PUs to the damage total. The Entomalian flagship went from 140 PUs to 25 in one turn, effectively taking her out of the fight. Additionally, 3 Terran Starfighters attacked a damaged Bug SD and destroyed her with missiles.
Of course the cost was high; the Terran Flagship was destroyed. Once again, the carrier's 7 defensive factors bled off enough incoming beams that she did not suffer much damage. On turn 13 the Entomalians concentrated on the Battlecruiser and caused significant damage, but not enough to destroy her. Only one ship was destroyed, an Ent SD. Since the GB had not been destroyed by beam fire she was able to launch her last 2 missiles, both of which hit the Ent GD leaving her with 5PUs.)
Skretchklack stood shaking his head in disappointed amazement. "How could everything have gone so wrong so fast?" he wondered. His proud flagship was now dead in space having only 2 beam units left, one of his SDs was dead, her lost PUs equaling 0 and another had only life support. He ordered the only remaining ship that could to go into hyperspace and warn off the invasion fleet. With the Terran carrier still launching fighters, the transports would be easy meat.
As the carrier and the 2 remaining Terran Star Destroyers closed on his ship, he thought that he would have liked to meet the Terran Admiral who had done such an Entomalian-like maneuver, sacrificing his own crippled ship to destroy the enemy. "Another time, another place, we could have been friends," he mused to himself.
On the last turn the Mantis and the last functioning Ent SD were destroyed. Of the two Ent SDs drifting, the one that still had life support was blown up by its crew. The battle ended with only the Ent carrier and one SDL surviving, having gone into hyperspace. The Terrans ended with their carrier and one SD fully operational, one SD damaged but functioning and the GB maintaining life support and little else.
This was an unusually bloody battle. A lot of that had to do with a bizarre group of special damage rolls. Five times I rolled special damage against an Entomalian ship and every time it came up "reduce maximum defensive value by 2". This roll is completely useless the way I play the Entomalians. On the other side, the speed loss to the Battlecruiser and the surprise destruction of the last Terran Cruiser almost cost the Terrans the game.
Commander Cunningham slumped in her chair. Around her the bridge of the Kirk was a shambles. The stench of ozone hung heavy in the air and tendrils of smoke drifted around the room. Only a few of the monitors were still working and as she turned to one of them, it went black in a shower of sparks. The main viewscreen showed the scarred hulk of the Adama slowly rotating along the axis of its last hits. In places you could see completely through the once great ship. She felt something on her cheek and was not surprised when her hand came away bloody. The small screen on her chair arm crackled into static-clouded life showing the fuzzy image of Captain Hans Haas, captain of the carrier Spock.
"Cunningham, it's good to see you still alive" he said.
"Thank you Hans, likewise. Do you think he got out?" she said looking back at the Adama.
"I don't know," the drift in his voice said no. "There are a couple of thousand life pods out there. It will be a day at least before we have recovered them all. I've got tugs coming from Earth for you and a resupply ship should be here soon with more fighters in case we need them. Additionally, the Reserve Fleet is on its way."
"Thanks for the tugs, engineering tells me we've got at least two months in spacedock to repair all this." She waved her hand around the bridge. "I think that Bug Destroyer is really dead; Intel will want to look it over. I'm going to land my remaining fighters on you if you don't mind."
"Not at all, I'll use them as tows to help get the bigger pods in faster. My recovery ships have more than enough to keep them busy." Hans looked at the screen covered with almost 2000 blinking red dots, each one a 2, 5, or 10-man lifepod. Anything else you need now?"
"No thanks, we'll handle it." Commander Cunningham switched off the monitor and looked about her. "We have to handle it."
Related
Battles in the Stars Sci-Fi Solo Rules by George Sivess
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