Category Archives: Adventures

Second Battle of Kawdl-Kit (K’tsa-Kar) – FY61.347

Earlier today, in the space around Kawdl-Kit, Task Force Cassidine engaged the invading sathar forces. After nearly an hour and a half of fighting, the last of sathar forces were destroyed.

While almost all of the Spacefleet vessels sustained serious damage, battle losses were light with the Task Force only losing three fighters and three assault scouts.

Hours after the battle, repair work for the heavily damaged assault carrier and battleship are still ongoing.

Vah’zen’rk – Kawdl-Kit Global Reporting

This one was a doozie. This was the longest lasting battle as far as number of turns of play go. Although that’s partially because the combination of speeds, damage, and lack of maneuverability caused everything to get spread out. You’ll notice the maps shift around a bit, especially toward the end as I shifted the view to keep the main part of the battle in view. I might have to shift to a larger map grid. As always this fight held a few surprises, not the least of which was the final outcome.

Background

Reinforced with some additional ships from SCC#10, veterans of campaign against the saurians, SBF-B2 reenters the K’tsa-Kar system with the intent to wipe out Task Force Cassidine.  The UPF forces, while somewhat outgunned, are determined to hold the line here.

Order of Battle

Task Force Cassidine

  • 6 Fighters
  • 3 Assault Scouts
  • 2 Frigates
  • 1 Light Cruiser
  • 1 Assault Carrier
  • 1 Heavy Cruiser
  • 1 Battleship

Sathar

  • 7 Fighters
  • 1 Frigate
  • 6 Destroyers
  • 1 Assault Carrier
  • 2 Heavy Cruisers

The Battle

Setup

Task Force Cassidine elects to hold the battle around the planet, hoping to use the planet’s gravity well to their advantage even though there is no longer a station there.  With no station to defend, the UPF form up in a broad line far back from the planet and the oncoming sathar forces to give them time to study the sathar deployment before committing.  The capital ships are moving at speed 15 while the fighters and assault scouts are moving at speed 25.  The six seeker missiles (from the battleship and heavy cruiser) are deployed in an arc on the side of the planet the sathar are approaching from.

The sathar, also cautious for this major battle, come in relatively slow, with their capital ships moving at speed 10 and fighters at speed 20.  The assault carrier, escorted by the frigate, take the center position with a heavy cruiser on either side which is in turned flanked by a trio of destroyers and a flight of fighters.

Deployment at start of battle with seeker missiles shown for reference (they will only show up later when activated). Click for full size image.

Turn 1

While the sathar destroyers all accelerate to speed 13, the rest just drift forward at their current speed.

Closing ranks to defend against the expected oncoming flights of fighters, the light cruiser and assault scouts join the battleship while the frigates join up with the heavy cruiser and assault carrier.  The fighters slow to speed 20 to remain out of range of all of the approaching sathar ships except possiblly the lower flight of fighters.

No shots are fired as everyone is still out of range.

Both sides approach the planet. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

Yhe upper flight of sathar fighters accelerate to speed 25 and make a pass at the upper group of ships, firing on assault rocket each at the assault scouts and light cruiser.  The lower flight make a pass at the UPF fighters and fire an assault rocket at three fighters in that group.  The sathar destroyers accelerate to speed 16 and fly out to the flanks with the upper group turning to head back into the fight while the lower group keeps their forward firing weapons aimed at the UPF fighters.  The heavy cruisers accelerate to speed 12 and turn to cross in front of the planet while the frigate and assault carrier remain at speed 10 but turn to pass below the planet.

Defensively, all of the UPF ships fire at the upper group of incoming fighters, while the more distant ships don’t connect, it adds to the crossfire and shots from the closer ship manage to destroy three of the four fighters while almost destroying the fourth (it has 1 HP left).

The surviving fighter fires at the light cruiser and knocks out its engines, it will be stuck at speed 17 until it can get those repaired. The lower flight of sathar fighters all hit with their assault rockets destroying three of the UPF fighters (half the flight).

The UPF activate two of the previously placed seeker missiles.  Upon activation, each of them detects the nearby heavy cruiser and accelerate, driving home into the ships. Both cruisers fire 3 ICMs to attempt to intercept the missiles but they fail.  The upper cruiser has its ICM launcher knocked out while the lower suffers a devastating hull hit (76 HP – double damage) nearly destroying it.

Ignoring for a moment the fighters and the upper group of destroyers, the UPF ships focus on the other capital ships.  The remaining fighters, the assault scouts, and the frigates and make a pass at the lower group of destroyers.  The heavy cruiser and assault carrier go after the severely damaged heavy cruiser and the sathar frigate, while the battleship and light cruiser go after the other heavy cruiser.

Defensively, the frigate, upper heavy cruiser, and assault carrier focus their fire on the UPF light cruiser damaging its maneuvering, taking out its laser and proton battery, slightly damaging its hull, and starting an on-board fire. The heavily damaged heavy cruiser fires at the UPF assault carrier knocking out its engines (stuck at speed 16) and severely damaging its hull (a little over 1/3 of hull integrity lost).  The lower flight of destroyers focus their fire on two of the assault scouts. One is lightly grazed suffering a 20% hull integrity reduction while the other is destroyed. 

Under combined fire from the UPF light cruiser and battleship, the upper sathar heavy cruiser has its maneuvering and proton battery knocked out, and suffers a 43% hull integrity loss from multiple hits. While the UPF assault carrier misses, the UPF heavy cruiser finishes off the heavily damaged sathar heavy cruiser with it’s pair of laser batteries. The shots by those ships at the frigate are much better. The frigate manages to intercept the heavy cruiser’s torpedo with its ICMs, but the sathar vessel is hit with the cruiser’s disruptor cannon and rocket batteries from both vessels damaging its damage controls system and reducing its hull integrity to only 8%.

The lower flight of sathar destroyers doesn’t fair much better. The lead destroyer is hit by an assault rocket and laser battery inducing a navigation control hit and suffering 28% hull integrity reduction. The second is hit by an assault rocket from one of the fighters which scores a critical hit and the laser cannon from one of the frigates and is destroyed by the damage inflicted. The last destroyer is hit by two laser batteries and an assault rocket knocking out 54% of its hull integrity.

First shots fired. Click for full size image.

Turn 3

The surviving heavy cruiser, having no MR, accelerates to speed 14 to come in range of the assault scouts and frigates.  The seriously damaged frigate just drifts forward at speed 10 and the assault carrier follows it but accelerates to speed 12 and turns to cross its path near the end of its move  All three ships fire at the UPF assault carrier.  The upper flight of destroyers swoop down and are joined by the surviving fighter from the upper flight.  They unleash everything they have at the UPF battleship.  The lower flight of fighters loop around and fire on the UPF frigates (2 AR at one and 1 at another) while one of the destroyers loops around to fire at the lead assault scout with everything but it’s torpedo which it fires at the second frigate.  The destroyer with the navigation control hit loops away from the fight but fires at the remaining assault scout as it passes by.  The fire on the UPF light cruiser damages its combat control system.

Defensively, the frigates and assault scouts fire their laser batteries at the oncoming fighters destroying one and lightly damaging another. The frigates fire their other weapons at the damaged destroyer making the attack on them knocking out another 30% hull integrity and short circuiting out its screens and ICMs.

The UPF heavy cruiser and assault carrier fire their laser batteries at the sathar frigate (short circuiting its screens and ICMs and inducing a navigation control failure) and all their other weapons at the passing heavy cruiser.  The battleship and light cruiser fire their disruptor cannons at the heavy cruiser, which combinded with the fire from the heavy cruiser and assault carrier, destroy that ship. They fire 2 laser batteries at the incoming fighter but miss and concentrate the rest of their weapons on the lead destroyer damaging its damage control system, inducing a fire, and nearly destroying it with a critical hit (only 8% hull integrity left).

The lone sathar fighter fire a salvo at the battleship. While most of the shots miss, the ones that hit are significant. The fighter’s assault rocket knocks out the battleship’s ICMs, the lead destroyer’s torpedo scores a critical hit knocking out 25% of the battleship’s hull, and the second destroyer scores a critical hit with its rocket battery taking out another 22% of the hull.

The UPF assault carrier is hit by both the sathar frigate and assault carrier knocking out its proton and laser batteries and multiple hull hits knocking another 40% off of it’s hull integrity. Shots at the surviving assault scouts destroy the lead assault scout while completely missing the other one. The lead UPF frigate is hit by an assault rocket damaging its engines while the other is hit by an assault rocket and torpedo knocking out nearly half its hull and acceleration ability.

The UPF light cruiser, with its engines nearly completely off line, turns to starboard and drifts down toward the lone sathar destroyer at the bottom of the map.  The battleship turns hard to starboard and flies down over the wounded sathar frigate and flying past the assault carrier.  The surviving UPF fighters and assault scouts loop around and make a run at the sathar assault carrier.  The two frigates go after the lone sathar destroyer at the bottom of the map and loop back toward the main fight.  The UPF assault carrier, severely damaged and with its engines disabled, drifts away from the fight escorted by the UPF heavy cruiser.  The fire on the sathar destroyer rampages through the ship knocking out its engines and damaging its combat controls  system

Defensively, the upper flight of sathar destroyers once again concentrate all their fire on the battleship, hoping to do better defensively than they did offensively.  Their hope is in vain however as only one hit does hull damage (reducing it by another 10%) but they also induce a navigation control malfunction, knock out its stasis screen, and damage its combat control systems.

The lone sathar destroyer in the middle of the fight fires at the UPF assault carrier short circuiting its defensive systems and reducing its damage control capabilities.

The lone destroyer at the bottom of the map with the navigation control malfunction focuses its fire on the more damaged frigate knocking out it’s laser cannon.

The sathar frigate and assault carrier fire their energy battery weapons at the incoming UPF fighters (one is hit for a 38% hull integrity reduction) and the frigate fires its rocket battery at the assault scout (critical hit destroying the scout) and laser cannon at the battleship as it flies by (that’s the shot that induced the navigation control hit mentioned above).

The UPF fighters fire at the sathar assault carrier but only connect with one assault rocket knocking out the carrier’s maneuvering. The frigates work to finish off the damaged destroyer with the navigation hit but only manage to hit with a single laser battery inducing an onboard fire.

The light cruiser fires at the second destroyer in the upper group as it flies away hitting with its laser, proton, and electron batteries damaging it’s hull and weapons before the light cruier’s torpedo slips past the ICMs launched by the destroyer and scores a critical hit, destroying the sathar ship. 

The battleship fires it’s disruptor cannon and a laser battery at the frigate hitting the laser battery and destroying it, two laser batteries at the damaged destroyer in the upper group, one of which connects destroying that ship, and the rest of its weapons at the third destroyer connecting with the electron battery and torpedo and knocking out 70% of the sathar vessel’s hull integrity.  

Finally, the assault carrier and heavy cruiser fire at the damaged destroyer in the middle of the map destroying it with multiple hits.

While the UPF ships are fairly damaged, they are definitely in control of the fight at this point.

Positions after the first half hour of battle. This is the first of the map shifts (moved up slightly this time for that destroyer at the bottom to stay on the map). Click for full size image.

Repair Turn

On the UPF side, the damaged fighter fails its repair attempt on its hull which will have to be repaired at a shipyard, luckily it is still over 50% hull integrity and doesn’t have to worry about breaking up. The second UPF frigate and the battleship both manage to repair some of their hull while the battleship also effects repairs to its combat control system. The light cruiser gets its fire under control while the assault carrier repairs its damage control systems.

On the sathar side, the two damaged fighters repair their hull while the surviving destroyer from the upper group fails its hull repair, leaving it permanently damaged below 50% hull integrity. The other surviving destroyer gets its fire under control while the assault carrier repairs its maneuvering and combat control systems.

Turn 4

Recognizing that they can’t win, the sathar attempt to at least finish off the already damaged ships. To that end, the upper destroyer and 3 fighters go after the assault carrier. Though severely damaged, the destroyer manages to hold together (rolled 37 with a 30% breakup chance).  The assault carrier turns away from the battleship and accelerates as much as possible.  The other sathar destroyer, although it put its fire out, still has a problem with its navigation control system and pulls a turn to port. It also accelerates.

Defensive fire:

The UPF assault carrier and heavy cruiser fire defensively at the sathar fighters, using their ICMs to defend against the incoming torpedo, managing to destroy two of the three fighters. The battleship fires everything it can at the assault carrier causing significant system damage (all maneuvering, navigation control damage, half engine capabilities, and knocking out its ICM launcher) and some minor hull damage (20%). The UPF light cruiser and frigates fire long distance shots at the other destroyer but the shots all go wide.

The sathar fighter fires its final assault rocket at the UPF assault carrier knocking out that ship’s masking screen system. The sathar destroyer hits the assault carrier with its laser battery and a rocket battery but only causes minor hull damage (15% hull integrity reduction). The sathar assault carrier hits the UPF battleship with both of its energy weapons inducing a loss of navigation control and some minor (~6%) hull damage. However, that is enough to put the battleship below 50% hull integrity and with the navigation control damage, it could break up

At this point, I really thought we were going to loose the battleship. Especially when it takes even more damage as part of sathar defensive fire phase of this round. But that same destroyer saved the battleship as well. This is where the damage to all the ships combined with their high speed, really started to spread things out. Any of the ship staying in the fight (mainly the UPF light and heavy cruisers) I tracked on separate maps so they could loop around and come back in if the fight lasted that long.

The battleship, with its navigation control damage pulls a turn to port. Luckily its damaged hull holds together (rolled 24 on 14).  The frigates, unable to reach the assault carrier, go after the destroyer at the top of the map.  The light cruiser, with its limited maneuverability turns to try to come back around to the battle area.  The UPF fighters make a final run at the sathar assault carrier before turning to return to their assault carrier.  They also activate two more seeker missiles, one accelerates and slams into the remaining sathar fighter destroying it.  The second starts to go after the battleship but as the battleship flies away, turns its sights on the sathar destroyer.

Defensively the sathar assault carrier misses its shots at the UPF fighters while the sathar destroyer hits the battleship for another 5% hull integrity loss and knocks out all of its maneuvering. The sathar destroyer connects with the damaged UPF frigate knocking out some of its engines and nearly destroying it.

Two of the three assault rockets from the UPF fighters connect with the sathar assault carrier, one of which scores a critical hit and between the two of them reduce the carriers hull integrity by another 64%. The UPF frigates, assault carrier and heavy cruiser all fire at the remaining sathar destroyer at the top of the map connecting with multiple weapons and destroying it. The battle ship hits the destroyer at the bottom of the map with a laser and electron battery reducing its hull integrity by another 24%.

Start of the cleanup phase for the UPF. Click for full size image.

Turn 5

The two remaining sathar ships are heavily damaged.  The assault carrier just drifts away while the destroyer, with its navigation control system damaged pulls a hard turn to starboard and accelerates to speed 19.  It doesn’t break up from the strain.

Defensively, the battleship is the only ship in range and it opens fire on the destroyer hitting with all of its battery weapons damaging its combat control system and short circuiting its defensive systems, knocking out its torpedo launcher, reducing its maneuverability, and slightly damaging its hull (6%).

Offensively, the destroyer fires back at the battleship and hits with both its rocket battery and a torpedo (the battleship’s ICM launcher is damaged) which both damage the battleships hull and nearly destroy it. It has only 6% hull integrity left.

If the destroyer hadn’t knocked out the battleship’s MR, it would definitely have broken up from the strain of the turn this round.

The seeker missile reverses course and heads after the battleship and sathar destroyer, the undamaged UPF frigate turns and accelerates to speed 24 to chase after the sathar assault carrier.  The UPF heavy cruiser (off the top of the map) with no foreseeable danger to the damaged UPF assault carrier, turns and starts to pursue the sathar assault carrier as well. The light cruiser (off the bottom of the map) continues to slowly turn back to the combat area and the damaged battleship, frigate, and assault carrier just drift on their current course.  Finally, the fighters start to close with the assault carrier to board and rearm.

Defensively the assault carrier fires at the oncoming frigate but misses.  The destroyer takes its final shots at the battleship hitting with its laser battery. Unfortunately for the sathar, it only damages the battleship’s engines instead of damaging its hull.

Offensively, the battleship fires its final salvo, including a torpedo at the destroyer but only hitting with an electron battery damaging its engines and a proton battery knocking it out its rocket battery launcher .  The UPF frigate fires at the sathar assault carrier but doesn’t hit at the extreme range.

Chasing down the stragglers. Click for full sized image.

Turn 6

The sathar assault carrier continues to drift while the destroyer’s navigation damage causes it to pull to port and fly up toward the planet, its reduced maneuverablity reducing its chance of breaking up and spreading out its movement.  Defensively the frigate fires once again at the assault carrier, this time dialing in the range and hitting with both the laser battery (damaging the combat control system) and the laser cannon (16% hull integrity), nearly destroying the ship.  The assault carrier returns fire but misses.

The UPF frigate chases down the assault carrier and surviving the defensive fire (laser battery hit for 18% hull integrity), hits the carrier with its laser cannon for 20% hull integrity and a rocket battery knocking out is proton battery and destroying it.  The seeker missile continues to pursue the destroyer.

Main battlemap after an hour of combat. Most of the surviving combatants are off the map which has shifted down to keep the sathar assault carrier in view. Click for full size image.

Repair Turn 2

The two UPF frigates, assault carrier, and battleship all repair some of their hull while the assault carrier also repairs the short circuit in its defensive systems and the light cruiser restores complete maneuverability.

The sathar destroyer manages to repair 18% of its hull

Turn 7

The destroyer’s navigation control damage causes it to turn to port toward the light cruiser and it accelerates to continue to stay away from the seeker missile.  The light cruiser, its maneuvering repaired continues a wide turn to avoid the seeker as well, otherwise, it could have closed on the sathar ship.  The frigate turns after destroying the assault carrier, accelerating to chase after the destroyer.  No shots are fired.

The map has shifted up again and the UPF light cruiser is back in view. It would have been visible last turn except for the map shift. Click for full size image.

Turn 8

Continuing to accelerate, the sathar destroyer’s navigation damage turns it to starboard and it passes within 40,000 km of the light cruiser.  Defensive fire from the more distant frigate misses, but the light cruiser connects with its electron battery knocking out the destroyer’s masking screen.  The destroyer returns fire and hits with its electron battery knocking out the cruiser’s ICM launcher.

The seeker missile continues to chase the ships but can’t catch them at their high speed.  The light cruiser turns to run parallel to the sathar destroyer’s path.  The frigate loops around and comes up directly behind the destroyer and the heavy cruiser completes it large turn and comes in directly at the destroyer.

Defensively, the destroyer fires at the frigate as it closes but misses with everything.

The light cruiser can only fire it’s EB and misses.  The frigate fires its energy weapons (everything else is expended) and scores critical hits with both knocking out 52% of the sathar destroyer’s hull integrity (it only has 6% left).  The heavy cruiser opens up with all of its energy weapons but misses as well.

Final positions of the ships still in view at the end of the end of the fight. The UPF heavy cruiser, has managed to turn around back to the battle area. Click for full sized image.

Turn 9

Now severely damaged after the hits from the frigate, and with the navigation control damage causing it to pull to starboard, the strain on the sathar destroyer’s hull is too much and the ship breaks apart as the crew tries to save it.

Task Force Cassidine has won the day, and while most of the capital ships are damaged (the heavy cruiser is the only one unscathed), they have only lost 3 fighters and three assault scouts. The crews get to work immediately upon field repairs.

Final Repairs

The frigate still in the fight completes its repairs in another half hour and just needs a reload to be fully operational. An hour an a half later the light cruiser finishes its repairs. An hour after that the other frigate completes as much repair as it can, its hull is only at 73% integrity but the rest of the work is going to need to be done at a shipyard. Another hour and a half (4.5 hours after the battle ended) the assault carrier completes all of its repairs. Finally, 6 hours after the battle is over the battleship completes the repairs of all its systems except for its stasis screen which is going to require a work in a shipyard.

Lessons Learned

I was really surprised the UPF did as well as they did. I really thought the sathar were going to win this one or at least leave Task Force Cassidine gutted. From a purely hull point perspective, the sathar had the advantage 631 to 518. Some lucky damage rolls, like the seeker missile doing 76 HP to the heavy cruiser on round two, and bad rolls on the sathar’s side, definitely helped tip the scales in their favor.

The other problem was that the sathar just couldn’t manage to finish off the UPF ships. The UPF battleship, one of the frigates, and the assault carrier were all nearly destroyed. They all were down to single digit hull points during the fight. The sathar just couldn’t manage to get the killing blow in. Those low hull points were late in the battle (expect for the assault carrier) so eliminating the ships would not have made much difference in this fight but eliminating them would have definitely helped the sathar’s war effort later on. As it is, Task Force Cassidine is almost completely intact. They will have to replace some fighters and assault scouts, but that’s relatively easy compared to having to replace a battleship and assault carrier.

What did you think of this fight? What should either side have done differently? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Battle of Theseus – FY61.346

A lone sathar frigate, detected three days ago shortly after it entered the system was engaged today by two militia assault scouts. While one of the assault scouts was heavily damaged in the encounter, the militia ships eliminated the enemy vessel in a single assault run.

Speculation rages as to the origin of the sathar vessel. There are unconfirmed reports that Spacefleet has established routes outward from Theseus toward the Great Void. Could it be that the sathar are coming in along those routes?

Victoria Sorensen, StarPlay News

Background

A lone sathar frigate jumped into the Theseus system as part of an effort by the sathar to chart a route to the Frontier from the Liberty system.  Due to an alert that the ship was headed in that general direction from the forces of PG Liberty, the Minotaur militia was on alert and patrolling the system.  The frigate was detected by two of the militia assault scouts and they vectored to intercept.  Unable to jump out of the system before being caught, the frigate turns to fight the oncoming militia ships.  This battle occurs in deep space.

Order of Battle

Minotaur Militia

  • 2 Assault Scouts

Sathar

  • 1 Frigate

The Battle

Setup

The opposing forces enter from opposite sides of the map.  The militia are moving at speed 30 while the sathar frigate is moving at speed 20.  The militia are the attackers in this scenario and will move first.  The sathar are not necessarily trying to destroy the militia ships but rather escape the battle.

Initial positions of this fight. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The two forces close with each other but no shots are fired.  The militia ships swing wide to flank the sathar and maintain their speed.  The sathar frigate changes course to go after the upper assault scout and uses its maximum acceleration but remains just out of laser canon range.

Initial closing movement. Click for full size image.

Turn2

The closer assault scout turns to avoid flying into range of the frigates laser cannon and loops around, remaining at speed 30 and ends in a position to fire its assault rocket at the frigate.  The farther assault scout accelerates to speed 34 and makes a pass at the frigate firing its assault rocket from the same position where the other assault scout ends its movement but flits out of torpedo range to end its move.

The frigate focuses its fire at the closer assault scout while firing all of its ICMs at the incoming assault rocket from that ship.  The laser battery hits for 8 HP of damage.  The ICMs are ineffective and both assault rockets slam into the sathar frigate.  The laser battery from the second assault scout also hits the sathar vessel. The combined damage from both ships obliterates the sathar frigate and that quickly the fight is over.

Final positions when sathar frigate is destroyed. Click for full size image.

Repairs

Unable to repair the hull damage, the wounded assault scout heads carefully back to Minotuar where it will enter the starship construction center for repairs.

Lessons Learned

The sathar should have matched the militia ships’ speed. Or at least started at speed 25. If it had, it could have brought at least its laser canon and laser battery to bear on the lone assault scout on turn 1 and possible even its rocket weapons (if it had started at speed 30). That would have significantly changed the outcome of the fight as it would have had another salvo at the militia and could have possibly eliminated one of the ships right away.

Once again this went faster than I expected. The damage rolls for the attacks were 18 and 20 HP for the assault rockets and 10 HP for the laser battery.  While I rolled well for the damage effects (all of the hits did hull damage which I wasn’t suspecting), I actually rolled really low on damage for the assault rockets as both of those were double damage rolls!  They should have done more on the order of 30 HP each.  But it was still enough.

The sathar have part of the route to the Frontier from Liberty mapped, but because of the misjump the frigate made, the route in not complete.

Battle of Ken’zah-Kit (K’aken-Kar) – FY61.296

Arriving from the recent engagement in the K’tsa-Kar system, the local militia ships, together with elements from Spacefleet arrive back at Ken’zah-Kit just as the sathar arrived at the planet. Arriving just too late to prevent the destruction of the fortified defense station in orbit, the militia and Spacefleet vessels made quick work of the sathar invaders, destroying all five ships in just twenty minutes of fighting.

While several ships will need time in a starship construction center to complete repairs, the only loss, beyond the station, was one of the militia assault scouts which was lost with all hands.

With Task Force Cassidine in-system and only three days out, it feels like Ken’zah-Kit is secure for now.

Rak’tal-ka, StarPlay News

Background

The UPF forces had wanted to engage the sathar in deep space, but having jumped in on the opposite side of the system, they were only able to intercept the attacking forces as they approached the planet. The frigate UPFS Flying Cloud, which has been on a continuous high speed transit from the Liberty system before the fighting started, finally joins up with the rest of PG Meteor just a day before the sathar are engaged. Task Force Cassidine is also in the K’aken Kar system. However, they just jumped in a day ago and are too far away to participate in this fight.

With Task Force Cassidine coming in behind them and the militia and PG Meteor ahead of them, the sathar have to fight and intend to take on the smaller group first, hoping to defeat them and then join up with SBF-B2 that is currently en route from the K’tsa-Kar system before taking on the UPF task force.

While the UPF have more ships, the sathar have a slight hull advantage in this fight.  It was supposed to be a tough fight for the UPF forces.

Order of Battle

K’aken-Kar Militia

  • 2 assault scouts
  • 1 fortified station

UPF – PG Meteor

  • 3 assault scouts
  • 1 frigate
  • 2 destroyers

Sathar

  • 1 frigate
  • 2 destroyers
  • 1 light cruiser
  • 1 heavy cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The station is on the side of the planet facing the invading sathar forces and orbiting counterclockwise.  With both fleets racing to intercept and coming directly from jumps into the system from opposite directions, they are starting on opposite sides of the map. The K’aken-Kar militia and PG Virgo are coming in fast on the left side of the map moving at speed 30.  The K’aken-Kar militia assault scouts are high above the planet with the UPF assault scouts are below the planet. The frigate and destroyer are flying in formation in the middle and come in just above the planet.

The sathar, moving fast at speed 25, appear in their standard diamond formation headed straight at the station and planet.  They intend to make a fast run at the station before engaging the smaller ships.

Initial positions for the battle. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The sathar maintain their speed making a full frontal assault on the station, veering off just 20,000 km away to avoid colliding with the planet and turn toward the UPF capital ships and the militia.

Defensively, the stations fires all of its weapons at the closest sathar destroyer hitting with its laser batteries knocking out the destroyer’s masking screen launcher and causing an electrical fire. It also fires all of its ICMs at the salvo of incoming torpedoes.

Offensively, the sathar fire every weapon they have at the station. The UPF and militia forces can only watch helplessly as 17 of the 26 weapons fired, including 3 torpedoes that made it through the ICM screen, connect with the station and obliterate it.

Angered by the destruction of the station, the Frontier forces swoop in to exact their revenge. The UPF assault scouts use their maximum acceleration and swing up from below the planet to fire at the lower destroyer. The militia assault scouts line up for an assault rocket run at the sathar frigate and then veer off behind the planet, accelerating to speed 34. The frigate and destroyers slow to speed 29 to just come within rocket battery range and fire on the sathar heavy cruiser; they turn away from the planet at the last moment to prepare to fire at the sathar ships as they fly by.

Defensively, the sathar frigate and light cruiser fire their energy weapons at the militia assault scouts, each targeting a single ship, and their rocket batteries at the UPF frigate. The other three ships target the lead UPF destroyer. The sathar frigate misses completely but the light cruiser connects with its laser battery and electron battery damaging the assault scout’s engines and causing a loss of navigation control. It also hits the frigate with the rocket battery knocking out its laser cannon. The other sathar ships don’t do much better with the far destroyer and heavy cruiser missing completely while the closer destroyer only hits with its electron battery shorting out the UPF ship’s defensive systems.

While the gunners on the sathar vessels were not very effective, the same cannot be said for the gunners on the Frontier ships. The militia ships hit with one laser battery and both assault rockets destroying the sathar frigate. Similarly, the UPF assault scouts hit the lower destroyer with a laser battery and two assault rockets destroying that vessel. The UPF capital ships fare nearly as well. While the torpedoes didn’t make it through the screen of ICMs fired by the heavy cruiser, the large ship was still hit by a rocket battery from the frigate and each destroyer hit with their laser cannon, laser battery, and a rocket battery. Combined, the damage from the weapons disabled the cruiser’s distruptor cannon, damaged its engines, knocked out its maneuvering, and seriously damaged it, leaving it’s hull integrity at a mere 26 percent.

Courses and positions after the first round of combat. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

Seriously damaged, the sathar heavy cruiser just drifts away from the battle firing at the UPF frigate as it passes.  The light cruiser and surviving destroyer loop around the planet (speed 25 and 26), buzzing the UPF capital ships and firing their torpedoes at the lead destroyer. They then train all of their energy weapons on the militia assault scouts and fire their rocket batteries at the UPF assault scouts.

Defensively, the UPF frigate fires at the heavy cruiser and connects with its laser cannon, cutting the large ship’s remaining hull integrity by over half but not quite destroying it. The UPF destroyers fire at the remaining sathar destroyer only missing with a rocket and laser battery. The weapons that do hit knock out the destroyer’s electron battery before ripping its hull to shreds. The assault scouts all fire at the light cruiser and two of the UPF assault scouts hit knocking out the light cruiser’s laser batter and causing significant hull damage with maximum damage laser battery hit (20 HP).

Of the weapons brought to bear, only the heavy cruiser’s electron battery misses the UPF frigate with the torpedo slipping through the ICM screen. The frigate has its damage and navigation control systems comprised and its hull severely damaged, knocking its hull integrity down to just 32 percent. The torpedo from the light cruiser misses the UPF destroyer, but it hits the trailing militia assault scout with it’s proton battery and distruptor cannon destroying it. It also hits one of the UPF assault scouts with the rocket battery knocking its hull integrity down to less than half.

The 3 UPF Assault scouts chase after the Heavy cruiser while the destroyers and surviving militia assault scout go after the light cruiser.  The UPF Flying Cloud (frigate) with a damaged navigation control system, pulls a hard turn to starboard, looping around the planet.  It manages to hold its damaged hull together and not break up from the strain of the maneuver.

The heavy cruiser fires at the incoming assault scouts but only hits one with a laser battery knocking its hull integrity to just 33 percent. The light cruiser fires at the militia assault scout hitting with an electron battery knocking out half of the small ship’s hull integrity. It fires its rocket battery at the lead UPF destroyer but misses.

The UPF assault scouts hit the heavy cruiser with 2 of their assault rockets finally destroying the larger vessel. The other ships combine their fire on the light cruiser hitting with 2 laser canons, a laser and rocket battery, and an assault rocket and torpedo. The torpedo took out the cruiser’s proton screen but the other weapons all ripped into its hull destroying it.

Final moves and positions. The heavy cruiser and assault scouts are an additional 8 hexes off the map with the assault scouts veering of at a range of 4 hexes after making their assault rocket attack. Click for full size image.

Repairs

The UPF frigate manages to hold together after another hard turn to port and then gets its navigation control issues fixed despite its reduced damage control capabilities. Over the next 3 hours it repairs the rest of its systems but can only get its hull to 75% without spending time in a shipyard. The militia assault scout repairs some of it’s hull but only gets it back to 66% before running into issues that will require a shipyard. The UPF assault scout hit by the heavy cruiser repairs most of its hull but has a little (13%) that needs attention in a shipyard. The other assault scout and the damaged destroyer get all their systems back online in under an hour.

Lessons Learned

This one didn’t go anything like I expected. With the ships staring out on the opposite sides of the map, I knew the sathar would get a free round on the station. I expected them to take out the station (it was a primary target) but maybe not as spectacularly as they did (170 of 140 HP with three weapons, including 2 torpedoes, doing double damage).

From there everything went pear shaped for the sathar. Their tactics were actually pretty sound but their gunners couldn’t hit to save their lives (literally). The sathar light cruiser gunners did just fine, constantly hitting their targets but the other ships, beyond hitting the station, were not so accurate. This really didn’t help the sathars’ cause as they were unable to eliminate the assault scouts and suffered a few more assault rocket hits than they would have liked.

That, combined with the absolutely amazing firing from the UPF, both just in accuracy in hitting and also some well-placed double-damage rolls on the first round (two AR for 34 HP each on the frigate and destroyer, a LB hit for 14 HP on the destroyer, and a RB hit for 34 HP on the heavy cruiser), destroyed two of the sathar ships and seriously wounded a third right off the bat shifting the balance of power to the UPF. Had those ships survived that first round, the UPF would have probably still won but the casualty list would have been much higher. The rapid destruction of the ships on round one allowed the UPF to focus their fire on round 2 and keep the engagement short.

The incoming SBF-B2, being a just slightly larger version of the fleet destroyed here (an extra destroyer plus an assault carrier with 7 fighters) doesn’t have a chance against the combined forces of Task Force Cassidine (which is roughly the same strength, substituting a frigate, 3 assault scouts and a battleship for the three sathar destroyers), PG Meteor, and the surviving militia assault scout. The sathar are going to have to reasses their strategy.

Second Battle of Stenmar (Kazak) – FY61.293

This will be the last battle I report that occurs in the Rim. I had these two battles set up in the timeline already so I’ve been reporting them. And while I really should have handled the sathar and Rim interaction in this timeline, the truth is I have never really worked out what the Rim has in terms of ships and ship production capability. So that will have to be a project for a future date.

A second sathar force was engaged today in the space around Stenmar by the surviving Flight elements in the system. Lacking reinforcements from the core Rim systems, the Flight forces were severely outnumbered and succumbed quickly to the sathar onslaught with only a single fighter surviving to seek shelter in the outer system. Before being overwhelmed, Flight forces managed to destroy a sathar light cruiser and a new vessel never seen in the Rim before.

Limited reports from the battle indicate this new sathar vessel falls in size between an assault scout and a frigate and seems to sport dual laser batteries. Not much more is known due to the limited engagement and savagery of the sathar attack.

Kaarln Duggart – Stenmar News Syndicate

Background

Intended to reinforce the original fleet sent to the Kazak system, this battle fleet was already preparing to depart when the first battle occurred. Surprised by the initial resistance in the Kazak system, the sathar committed their four new Cutter-class vessels to the conflict as well to boost the firepower of the fleet.

Worried about sathar incursions into the core Rim worlds, no reinforcements for the Kazak system were readily available so the surviving elements of the Flight from the first battle were all that remained to face the new onslaught. Seriously outgunned, they hope to pull off another victory relying on the success they had in the first battle with their assault rocket attacks.

The sathar have other plans.

Order of Battle

The Flight

  • 10 Fighters
  • 2 Assault Scouts
  • 1 Frigate
  • 1 Fortified Station

Sathar

  • 4 Cutters
  • 1 Frigate
  • 3 Destroyers
  • 2 Light Cruisers

The Battle

Setup

The station is on the side of the planet directly opposite the sathar, orbiting counter clockwise. The Rim forces form up close to the planet with the frigate and a wing of 5 fighters above the planet and the assault scouts and remaining fighters below the planet. They are all moving at speed 20.

Having learned from the engagement at New Pale (Truane’s Star) four days earlier, the sathar forces come in fast, starting at speed 25. They form up directly opposite the Flight forces allowing them to bring their forward firing cannons to bear in the initial engagement, knowing that in later phases of the battle, this might not be possible due to the higher maneuverability of the Rim ships. The cutters form a flight to square off against the upper flight of fighters, a frigate and destroyer line up opposite the Rim’s frigate, the remaining two destroyers go after the assault scouts and the light cruisers plan to take on the lower group of fighters.

Initial setup for the conflict. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The sathar all fly straight toward their intended targets. The cutters accelerate to speed 29 to come into point blank range with their laser batteries while all the other ships accelerate slightly to speed 26 to bring them within range for their rocket batteries.

Defensively the frigate and station fire at the sathar frigate hitting with a laser cannon and rocket battery from the frigate and a laser battery from the station. They manage to damage the frigate’s engines, knock out its masking screen launcher, and reduce its hull integrity by over half from a well placed hit with the rocket battery. The assault scouts fire at the lead destroyer and manage to inflict some minor hull damage with one of their laser batteries.

The sathar cutters open fire on the upper flight of fighters with their dual laser batteries, nearly destroying the lead fighter, damaging and reducing the maneuverability of her wingman, and destroying a third fighter. They missed the other two.

The sathar destroyer hit the Rim frigate with its laser weapons starting a fire and damaging the ship’s engines. The gunners on the sathar frigate must be veterans or well trained as they landed a hit on the Rim frigate with nearly every weapon fired, only missing with the laser battery. They knocked out the Rim vessel’s masking screen and damaged it’s hull with the laser cannon and rocket battery before it was obliterated by the torpedo.

The two fighters and remaining assault scout, all seriously damaged, just drift forward. The other fighters accelerate to 25 and loop around remaining out of range of the sathar energy weapons. They all fire at their closest target as they fly out.

Defensively the sathar continue to fire at the same targets expect that the frigate and two of the destroyers shift their fire to the station. The cutters finish off the two wounded fighters in the upper group and hit a third for serious hull damage an a navigation control hit. The fourth fighter remains unscathed. The light cruisers are not as effective with the first hitting one fighter for some minor hull damage, and another knocking out its engines. The other light cruiser misses with all weapons. While the destroyers both miss the station, the frigate hits with is laser and rocket battery doing some significant hull damage.

The assault scout hits the lead sathar destroyer with its assault rocket damaging its maneuvering. One of the cutters is hit with 2 assault rockets damaging its engines and nearly destroying it. The lead light cruiser is hit by all four assault rockets which rip through the hull destroying it.

Initial round of combat. Click for full size image.

Turn 2

The damaged sathar cutter and frigate drift away from the battle hoping to survive and get repairs done while the other ships finish off the Rim forces. All the other sathar ships loop around the planet to attack both the station and the surviving Flight vessels.

The surviving cutters loop around to go after the larger group of fighters below the planet. The two destroyers go after the group of fighters above the planet. The remaining light cruiser and third destroyer go after the Rim assault scout. The ships use their energy weapons on the smaller ships while firing their rocket batteries and torpedoes at the station.

Defensively the station fires at the cutter and frigate that are drifting away attempting to finish them off. The laser battery hits the cutter inducing a navigation control hit while the rocket battery hits the frigate knocking out some of its acceleration ability. The assault scout fires at the destroyer chasing it cause some significant hull damage with its laser battery.

The lead sathar destroyer in the upper flight only hits the lead Rim fighter with its laser battery inducing a loss of navigation control. The other destroyer is much more effective hitting with all three energy weapons destroying the other fighter.

The cutters eliminate two of the four fighters in the lower group, completely missed a third, and damaged the navigation control system on the the fourth. The third sathar destroyer hit the lone assault scout with its laser canon, destroying the smaller vessel.

The station fires all its ICMs at the incoming torpedoes. Despite this, 3 of the 5 torpedoes, and an equal number of rocket batteries slam into the station from different directions completely destroying it.

The lone Rim fighter above the planet, spinning out of control, manages to line up for a shot on the sathar destroyers, but the destroyers hit it with an electron battery that knocks out the assault rocket launcher before it can fire. The undamaged fighter in the lower group, hoping to eliminate the crippled ships to prevent their repair and subsequent use, races off after the damaged frigate and cutter, unfortunately, it is hit by two laser batteries from the cutters, destroying it before it can catch the crippled ships. The final fighter, its navigation control system damaged, spins to port and manages to get an oblique shot with it assault rocket launcher at one of the cutters, scoring serious hull damage on the ship (just over 60% of its total). Amazing, the fighter flies through the barrage of laser batteries unscathed.

Positions and courses at the end of the second round of combat. Click for full size image.

Turn 3

The damaged seriously damaged cutter with the navigation control damage pull a hard turn to port and breaks up from the strain of the maneuver. The sathar light cruiser and destroyer chase down the fighter that escaped the cutters and eliminate it with their energy weapons. The sathar allow the other fighter to escape.

Repairs

The damaged Rim fighter gets its navigation system repaired and, realizing it is no match for the combined sathar fleet, heads out to the outer system to find somewhere to take shelter.

Over the next hour and a half, the sathar repair what damage they can. All of the damage to internal systems are repaired but the three ships with hull damage (a cutter, the frigate, and a destroyer) all require time in a starship construction center to fully repair, the cutter and frigate are seriously damaged with less than half of the their hull integrity intact while the destroyer only has a small bit of damage.

Lessons Learned

The Rim leaders were forcibly reminded that while the fighters and assault scouts pack a serious offensive punch, they have little to no defensive capability and quickly succumbed to the overwhelming sathar fire without being able to return much of their own. With a lack of capital ships by Flight, the sathar effectively got two shots for every one that the Rim forces had.

The rapid advance of the sathar forces, here and at New Pale, have shown that the Rim and UPF fighters are quite vulnerable to a first strike by sathar forces that target them. They are going to have to stand off further from the beginning of the battle in future engagements so that the sathar cannot have that first strike advantage.

The sathar cutters seem to be effective against the small ships with their pairs of laser batteries and could proved to be quite useful in an anti-fighter role.

Battle of New Pale (Truane’s Star) – FY61.287

This battle actually occurred two days ago in the timeline. However, since I was still catching up on the battles from the opening day of the conflict, this posting got delayed. Going forward, the battles will be much less frequent and the battle reports will arrive on they day they occur.

After a nearly an hour of intense battle around New Pale, militia and UPF forces manage to drive off the invading sathar fleet destroying two sathar vessels and seriously damaging the other three.

Unfortunately, due to heavy losses and critical damage, the UPF and militia forces were unable to pursue the fleeing sathar ships which began accelerating out of the system for a jump back to Zebulon shortly after the battle ended.

While the sathar have been driven off, the losses around New Pale represent the most damage to militia forces yet seen in this conflict and the second highest loss of ships overall, coming in only after the massive battle at Prenglar two days ago.

Goolar Nadd, New Pale News

Background

The Truane’s Star militia is supported by the remaining elements of Patrol Group Virgo which just returned from being stationed in the Kazak system in the Rim days before the sathar fleets appeared. Bolstered by the Spacefleet forces, and having seen the success of the UPF forces in the other systems two days prior, confidence is high that they can defeat the sathar ships.

The sathar have learned from those other engagements as well. Knowing that there is a second fleet en route just 11 days behind them, this battle fleet has some very specific orders: Eliminate the fighters and assault scouts!

Order of Battle

Had Patrol Group Virgo not been in the system, and the militia not had the extra assault scout, this would have been the scenario I presented as “A Pale Prospect” in the Stand Your Ground article in issue 3 of the Frontier Explorer (p30) back in 2013. Before starting this timeline project, this is how I thought the first fight in Truane’s Star would play out.

However, the additional ships completely change the dynamics and with the sathar’s new tactics, this turned out to be the most interesting battle for me so far as it did not go at all as I expected. And the high speeds meant that the ships were flying everywhere on the map.

Truane’s Star Militia

  • 4 Assault Scouts
  • 1 Frigate

Note that this is one more assault scout than described in the order of battle for the game in the KH Campaign Book. They captured this assault scout from the Star Devil pirates early in the timeline so it is available in the fight.

UPF – PG Virgo

  • 8 Fighters
  • 2 Assault Scouts
  • 2 Light Cruisers
  • 1 Assault Carrier

Sathar

  • 1 Frigate
  • 2 Destroyers
  • 1 Light Cruiser
  • 1 Heavy Cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The UPF and militia forces, deploying tactics that have worked in the other systems, set up in a broad line with the smaller ships on the outside, the two LC near the station at speed 15, with the assault scouts split into a flight of 4 (below the planet) and 3 (above), both groups at speed 20, and a flight of 4 fighters on either wing at speed 25.  The assault carrier is on the far side of the planet orbiting at speed 10 with the militia frigate acting as escort.  The station is in on the far side of the planet from the approaching sathar and orbiting counter clockwise.

The sathar, however, are not using the tactics they have used in other systems. With their new directive, they come in fast, high above the planet at a speed of 25! Additionally, they are formed up in an inverted form of their standard diamond formation with the heavier ships leading and headed straight for the upper group of fighters.

Initial positions of the UPF and sathar forces. Click for full size image.

Turn 1

The sathar ships advance straight at the fighters and at the last moment turn toward the upper group of assault scouts. The heavy cruiser remains at speed 25, while the light cruiser and frigate accelerate by 1 and 2 respectively to join up with the larger ship. They fire all weapons expect their torpedoes at the flight of 4 fighters. The destroyers accelerate to speed 27 and 28 and join up directing all their fire at the flight of assault scouts.

Defensively only the upper light cruiser and flight of assault scouts are in range and they fire everything at the lead destroyer. Only the light cruiser connects with its laser battery doing some minor hull damage.

The sathar open with a devastating barrage at the smaller ships. The light cruiser’s disruptor cannon vaporizes the lead fighter, while the disruptor cannon from the heavy cruiser knocks out the assault rocket launcher on his wingman. The third fighter is hit by a pair of laser batteries and the sathar frigate’s laser cannon damaging its acceleration and navigation control system and nearly destroying it. The final fighter is hit by an electron battery and destroyed.

The destroyers do just as well. The lead militia assault scout is hit by a laser battery, electron battery, and laser canon destroying it. The second assault scout is hit by a laser battery and laser cannon and also destroyed. The last assault scout in the group is hit by an electron battery and rocket battery knocking out its assault rocket launcher and nearly destroying the ship.

The sathar have done well, eliminating four ships and knocking out the assault rocket launchers on two others and severely damaging the last. Caught off-guard by the speed of the sathar advance and initial devastation, the UPF and militia forces scramble to react.

The surviving assault scout, heavily damaged, just drifts away from the battle at speed 20. The fighter with the damaged navigation control system pulls a hard turn to starboard remaining at speed 25 and flies away from the battle. Luckily, it doesn’t break up from the maneuver. The other fighter, relatively undamaged but unable to fight due to the loss of its assault rocket launcher, loops away from the sathar ships back toward the assault carrier and slows to speed 20.

The assault carrier and frigate accelerate to speed 12 and turn away from the oncoming ships. All of the other UPF and militia ships loop around and head toward the group of sathar ships centered on the heavy cruiser, the ships coming from below the station accelerating to get in range.

Defensively, the sathar continue to focus on the smaller ships firing all their energy battery weapons at the incoming fighters and their cannons at the wounded assault scout as it drifts by. They fire their rocket batteries at the light cruiser that has come into range.

All five cannons hit the assault scout causing a fire and damage to its maneuvering and damage control system before destroying it. Three of the five rocket batteries slam into the UPF light cruiser disabling its ICM launcher, completely knocking out its maneuvering and doing significant hull damage. The lead fighter is hit by a laser battery reducing its acceleration ability while the shots at the second fighter completely miss. The third fighter is hit by a laser and electron battery and destroyed. The final fighter takes a hit from an electron battery which starts an electrical fire on-board.

The surviving fighters with operational assault rockets fire at the light cruiser, three of which hit doing significant hull damage and causing a power short circuit knocking out its screens and ICMS. The assault scouts and more distant light cruiser fire at the heavy cruiser. Only two of the assault rockets from the assault scouts hit but cause significant hull damage (65% of total). The light cruiser hits with its laser battery and disruptor canon knocking out the heavy cruiser’s distruptor canon and acceleration capability. The other light cruiser hits the sathar frigate with its laser, electron, and proton batteries knocking out most of its acceleration ability and causing a fire.

Positions and courses of the ships at the beginning of the battle. Click for full image.

Turn 2

Unable to accelerate, the sathar heavy cruiser drifts down toward the assault carrier. It fires at the militia assault scouts with its energy weapons and its rocket weapons at the damaged light cruiser. The sathar destroyers decelerate and make a run at the undamaged light cruiser. The sathar light cruiser and frigate loop around and fire all their energy weapons and rocket batteries at the fighters and UPF assault scouts while they fire their torpedoes at the damaged light cruiser. The fire on the UPF fighter burns through over half of the small ship’s hull.

Defensively, the two UPF light cruisers focus their fire on their sathar counterpart hitting with multiple weapons reducing its acceleration ability, inducing a navigation control failure, knocking out its ICMs, and doing more damage to its hull but not destroying it. The assault scouts fire at the sathar frigate and hit with 2 laser batteries causing some minor hull damage. The station fires at one of the destroyers as they pass but misses and the assault carrier and militia frigate take long range shots at the heavy cruiser but also miss.

The militia assault scouts are both hit by a laser battery which knocks out all the maneuvering capability on one and slight reduces the maneuvering on the other. The lead (damaged) UPF light cruiser is hit by a rocket battery and torpedo doing some minor hull damage and shorting out its screens and ICMs. The trailing UPF light cruiser is pummeled by the destroyers having its screens and ICMs disabled and losing over half of its hull integrity.

The three fighters are each hit with a battery weapon destroying one, reducing the damage control capability on the second, and damaging the navigation control system on the third. The two UPF assault scouts are hit by a rocket battery and distruptor cannon respectively that knock out just over half of the first’s hull integrity and damages the assault rocket launcher on the second.

The seriously damaged fighter (off the top of the map) continues to spin out of control but still manages to hold together. The fighter with the disabled assault rocket launcher continues to approach the assault carrier, and the other fighter with the navigation control spins hard to starboard and flies off the top of the map. The assault carrier accelerates to speed 14 and loops down under the path of the heavy cruiser. The militia frigate splits off from the assault carrier and turns to engage the heavy cruiser. The lead light cruiser, its maneuvering knocked out, decelerates to speed 12 and drifts straight, currently out of the fight but trying not to get too far away. The other light cruiser turns to follow the heavy cruiser and manages to hold together through the maneuvering. The militia assault scout with no maneuvering left, decelerates as much as possible to avoid passing the sathar light cruiser and coming in range of its disruptor cannon. Unfortunately, it is now only 10,000 km away. The fighters still in the fight fire at the frigate while the assault scouts fire at the light cruiser. The fire on the sathar frigate does some minor hull damage.

Defensively the frigate and light cruiser fire at the assault scouts and fighters, destroying one of the fighters and seriously damaging the hull of the non-maneuvering assault scout and causing a fire on the same ship. The heavy cruiser fires at the militia frigate and knocks out its masking screens and reduces its acceleration ability.

Offensively, the frigate is hit by one assault rocket knocking out its laser battery, the light cruiser is hit by an assault rocket and two laser batteries destroying it, and the heavy cruiser is hit by the militia frigate’s laser canon knocking out its ICMs.

Courses and final positions after 20 minutes of fighting. Click for full image.

Turn 3

The sathar frigate accelerates and makes a pass at the assault scouts. The destroyers loop around to fire at the UPF light cruiser, and the heavy cruiser turns to strafe the assault carrier and flies out of the battle. The fire on the UPF assault scout burns through the hull destroying it.

Defensively, the assault scouts fire at the frigate and hit with a laser battery knocking out its laser canon. The station scores a long distance hit on the lead sathar destroyer knocking out its ICM launcher. The assault carrier hits the heavy cruiser knocking out its maneuvering engines. All other defensive fire misses.

Offensively, the sathar frigate hits the lead assault scout with a rocket battery, destroying it but misses with the torpedo aimed at the other assault scout. The sathar destroyers hit the UPF light cruiser with nearly everything, including both rocket batteries and torpedoes, and destroy it. The heavy cruiser hits the assault carrier with all of its energy battery weapons but the torpedo is intercepted by ICMs launched by the carrier. The hits knock out its navigation control system and causing some minor hull damage.

The two UPF fighters off the map continue to spin out of control but the damaged one doesn’t break up. The assault scouts make another run at the sathar frigate. The militia frigate strafes the sathar destroyers focusing its fire on the lead one and then loops around the planet. The lone UPF fighter continues to follow the assault carrier. The light cruiser off the map slows to speed 9. The assault carrier’s damaged navigation control system pulls it to port and it fires at the lead sathar destroyer as it passes by. The fire on the sathar frigate does some minor hull damage.

Defensively, the sathar destroyers fire at the militia frigate and while the lead frigate misses, the other hits with its laser and electron batteries knocking out the frigates laser cannon and maneuvering engines The defensive fire at the assault scouts miss.

The assault scouts hit the sathar frigate with a laser battery and assault rocket damaging its hull and knocking out its masking screens. From all the shots at the lead sathar destroyer, it is hit by a proton, rocket, and laser battery doing some significant hull damage.

Positions and courses at the end of the first half hour of battle. Click for full image.

Repair Turn

Almost every ship in the fight has some damage at this point. The only one that isn’t is one of the sathar destroyers.

On the UPF side, the fighter trailing the assault carrier, as well as the second UPF assault scout, repair their assault rocket launchers. The fighter that’s been spinning out of control from the beginning of the fight manages to repair its navigation control system as does the assault carrier. The carrier also repairs some of its hull. The militia frigate restores some of its maneuverability as does the light cruiser off the map. Unfortunately, the light cruiser’s hull repair runs into significant problems and its hull can only be repaired in a shipyard.

The sathar frigate puts out the fire while the other two ships repair some of their hull damage.

Turn 4

The sathar heavy cruiser, unable to maneuver and not wanting to risk acceleration and breaking up with its weakened hull, continues to drift away from the fight (its already off the map). The frigate, out of rocket weapons and with its energy weapons knocked out, is unable to fight and turns to follow the heavy cruiser, accelerating as much as possible with its damaged engines. The destroyers loop around the planet and strafe the assault scouts each firing all their energy weapons (their rockets and torpedoes are depleted) at a different assault scout.

Defensively, all ships fire at the lead sathar destroyer. The assault carrier and station hit knocking out its navigation control system and electron battery and causing some minor hull damage.

The lead sathar destroyer hits the surviving militia assault scout with it’s laser canon nearly destroying it. The other destroyer hits the UPF assault scout knocking out half of its hull integrity with it’s laser battery and damaging its combat control system with its electron battery.

The seriously wounded UPF ships continue to drift away from the battle or spin out of control while those that can, converge on the sathar destroyers again firing at the lead destroyer. The light cruiser (off the map) accelerates and starts to turn back toward the battle now that it has some maneuvering capability restored. With its limited maneuverability the militia frigate turns and takes long distance shots at the destroyers.

Defensively the destroyers fire their laser cannons at the militia frigate (which miss) and their energy batteries at the fighter and assault scout. Th trailing destroyer hits the assault scout with its electron battery slightly damaging its hull.

The UPF fighter and assault scout both hit the lead destroyer with their assault rockets. The fighter, frustrated at being out of the battle from the start, scores a massive hit knocking out nearly half of the destroyer’s hull integrity. The other assault rocket damages the destroyer’s combat control system. The gunner on the militia frigate lands an amazing long distance shot with the laser battery scoring a maximum damage hit and destroying the sathar vessel.

Positions and paths at the end of the fourth round of combat. There aren’t too many ships left and many have left the battle. Click for full sized image.

Turn 5

Knowing that it can out run the assault carrier, the destroyer fires its laser battery at the fighter and electron battery at the assault scout attempting to take them out of the fight and accelerates at maximum thrust to fly off after the heavy cruiser and frigate.

The assault scout and assault carrier return fire hitting with all of their batteries damaging the destroyer’s engines slightly and weakening its hull. The sathar’s electron battery connects with the UPF assault scout and destroys it. The laser battery misses the fighter.

With all of their ships damaged (expect the fighter) and many seriously out of position, the UPF commander calls off the pursuit of the sathar ships. The surviving UPF and militia vessels begin repairs and return the station.

Final ship positions and path as the sathar retreat. Click for full sized image.

Repairs

Over the course of the next thee hours, the UPF repair what they can and the assault carrier collects its scattered fighters. In the end most of the ships are fully repaired but the UPF light cruiser has hull damage that will require time in the shipyard.

The sathar form up and manage to repair most of their systems but all three ship have hull damage that will require time in a starship construction center to fully fix. While the damage to the destroyer is relatively minor (only 24% of its hull), the damage to the frigate and heavy cruiser is much more significant, 43% and 61%. Since they lost the fight here, they cannot use the local shipyard and must return to SCC#5 for repairs. They start accelerating out of the system being careful of the heavy cruiser’s hull.

Lessons Learned

When they want to, the sathar can do significant damage to the smaller UPF ships. Their tactics worked out quite well. In fact, much better than I expected. I really thought the UPF would win this one and eliminate all the sathar ships but would take significant damage. I never expected that the sathar would get away with three of their ships, although heavily damaged. The time to get those ships back into the fight will be much shorter than having to build new ones.

While the UPF and militia “won” and drove off the sathar, this was really a victory for the sathar in many ways as well. In the end, if you factor in the damage that requires a shipyard to fix, the sathar lost 198 hull points in this fight while the UPF and militia lost 228. If you just look at ships destroyed, then the sathar lost 2 ships for a total of 120 hull points while the UPF lost 12 ships, most of them fighters and assault scouts, totaling 200 hull points. Either way the sathar came out ahead. And they achieved their goal of taking out most of the assault rocket capability of the UPF forces in this system in advance of the next sathar attack in 11 days. While it doesn’t make up for the beatings they took in some of the other systems, it is definitely a boost to their morale.

There really isn’t much the UPF could have done differently other than be placed a little closer together for mutual support. The small fighters and assault scouts had no defense against the initial onslaught and paid the price. The only real defense there would have been to be further back from the station but then the sathar may have made a run at the station instead. This battle will definitely shift the tactics of both sides, at least somewhat. We’ll have to see what develops.

Battle of Kawdl-Kit (K’tsa-Kar) – FY61.285

Due to the amazing skill of the Clarion and Ken’zah-Kit militias and UPF Spacefleet crews, the sathar invaders were quickly overwhelmed but not before they managed to destroy the armed station orbiting the planet.

Rescue operations are ongoing for the station’s crew and the hearts of the people of Kawdl-Kit go out in sympathy to the families of those who lost their lives and gratitude to the militias of the neighboring systems who came to their defense.

The CMS Osprey is the only ship that experienced lasting damage and will be returning home to effect repairs due to the lack of a starship construction center here in the K’aken-Kar system.

Vah’zen’rk – Kawdk-Kit Global Reporting

Background

While K’tsa-Kar doesn’t have any militia of its own, the K’aken-Kar assault scouts, under the ZKKDA, risk jump into the system to help defend it.  From the other direction, the available ships of Patrol Group Meteor, along with the Clarion Royal Marines, arrive from White light.  Both groups make a high speed risk jump to get there in time. The UPF have many more ships than the sathar but only a slight hull point advantage (and that’s only if you count the armed station) as most of the ships are small assault scouts.  This might be a tough battle.

While the sathar were only expecting to fight the armed station, they are confident that they can handle the swarm of small ships.

Order of Battle

K’aken-Kar Militia

  • 2 assault scouts
  • 1 armed station

White Light Militia

  • 4 assault scouts
  • 1 frigate

This is +1 assault scout compared to the Order of Battle in the Knight Hawks Campaign book due to events occurring in the timeline.

UPF – PG Meteor

  • 3 assault scouts
  • 2 destroyers

Sathar

  • 1 frigate
  • 2 destroyers
  • 1 light cruiser
  • 1 heavy cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The militia ships deploy above the planet with the Clarion frigate and a single assault scout taking the inner position, the other Clarion assault scouts (lead by the CMS Osprey) out from there and the two K’aken-Kar assault scouts on the wing.  Below the planet the two UPF destroyers form a flight with the three assault scouts on the wing.  The assault scout groups are moving at speed 30 while the capital ships (and the single assault scout) are moving at 20.  The station is orbiting counter clockwise.

As they have done in the other systems, the sathar are formed into their diamond pattern with the frigate, LC, & HC in the middle and the destroyers on the sides.  However, unlike in the other systems, the sathar are moving at a speed of 15.

Initial positions at the start of the battle. Click for full sized image.

Turn 1

The sathar frigate, light cruiser, and heavy cruiser accelerate to speed 17 and at the last minute, turn to head toward the K’aken-Kar assault scouts.  The destroyers accelerate to 18 and 16 respectively to remain in the diamond formation.  Unknown to the UPF forces, the sathar heavy cruiser deploys its seeker missiles along its route.  The sathar ships all fire at maximum range at the station.

The station returns fire defensively with its laser battery but given the extreme range misses. The sathar, on the other hand, have a good maximum range shot with both the light cruiser and closer destroyer connecting with their cannons and a laser battery each. The station has its laser battery knocked out and nearly half of its hull integrity destroyed.

With the sathar turning toward the militia ships, the UPF vessels loop around and hit the heavy cruiser from behind which fires ICMs at the incoming torpedoes.  The Clarion militia ships maneuver to stay out of the forward firing arc of the sathar vessels and unleash everything at the sathar destroyer closest to the station, which fires ICMs at the torpedoe from the frigate as well.  The Kaken-Kar militia ships pass in front of the sathar ships but out of range of their canons and loop around to hit the destroyer on the far side of the formation.  With its laser battery damaged, the station deploys a masking screen.

Defensively, the sathar light cruiser, frigate, and destroyer further from the planet fire at the K’aken-Kar assault scouts hoping to take them out of the fight before they can engage. The destroyer closer to the planet fires at the Osprey, and the heavy cruiser fires at the lead UPF assault scout. The lead K’aken-Kar assault scout is hit by two laser batteries damaging its hull while its sister ship is hit by an electron battery knocking its laser battery off-line. The CMS Osprey is hit by an electron battery damaging its hull and the lead UPF assault scout is hit by another electron battery causing serious hull damage and reducing the hull integrity to less than half.

The training of the the UPF and militia forces is evident as they press home their attack. All three assault rockets connect with the heavy cruiser along with two laser batteries and two electron batteries knocking out various weapons and other systems and doing some hull damage. But the gunnery award goes to the torpedo gunner on the second destroyer. They threaded their missile through the ICM screen and impacted it right above what must have been the heavy cruiser’s torpedo magazine. The resulting explosion ripped the ship apart. The destroyer targeted by the White Light militia was hit by three of the four assault rockets and four of the five laser batteries knocking out it laser cannon and masking screens before ripping the ship to shreds. The K’aken-Kar militia, not to be shown up, hit the other destroyer with both assault rockets, each scoring critical hits and between the two of them destroying the sathar vessel.

Positions and maneuvers for the first 10 minutes of battle. Click for full sized image.

Turn 2

The two remaining sathar ships loop around and bring everything to bear on the station, the light cruiser accelerating to speed 18.  The station fires a screen of ICMs at the incoming torpedoes.  The sathar also activate the seeker missiles laid down by the heavy cruiser which both go after the UPF destroyers.

Defensively, the UPF ships focus their fire at the sathar frigate. Most of the fire is ineffective with only one of the UPF destroyer connecting with a laser battery damaging the frigates engines and the CMS Flitter scoring an amazing maximum-range laser battery shot that takes out a quarter of the frigate’s hull integrity.

The sathar ships manage to hit the station with a disruptor cannon and laser battery from the light cruiser and the frigate hits with its missile weapons. The hits sabotage the station’s damage control systems and reduce its hull integrity to almost nothing. Between the two UPF destroyers, they fire a massive swarm of ICMs at the incoming sathar seeker missile and manage to catch it before it can impact one of the ships.

All of the UPF and militia ships loop around and converge on the sathar vessels firing everything they have at them with the assault scouts focusing on the light cruiser while the capital ships focus on the frigate.

As the station pulls away, the sathar ships fire at it once more and while the frigate misses completely, the light cruiser hits with every weapon except its laser battery, destroying the station which begins to break apart.

Angered by the loss of the station, the assault scouts, while only hitting with one of their laser batteries, connect with eight of the nine assault rockets fired doing enough damage to destroy the light cruiser two times over. The sathar frigate is hit by two laser canons and a laser battery causing an electrical fire and damaging its hull. Then one of the torpedoes slips through the defensive screen of ICMs slamming into the ship and destroying it.

After twenty short minutes, the battle is over.

Positions and maneuvering at the end of the battle. Click for full sized image.

Repairs

Over the next hour and a half, most of the ships are able to repair their damage. However, part of the hull damage to the CMS Osprey is beyond a battlefield repair and will need to be handled in a ship yard. With the system secured, the Osprey begins acceleration and calculations for a jump back to Clarion.

Lessons Learned

This didn’t go anything like I expected. Defensive fire by the sathar on the first round was not all that great. When I rolled the attacks and damage results, I thought the lead K’aken-Kar assault scout was going to be destroyed as both laser batteries did hull damage and one of them was a double damage roll. But when I rolled the damage, I rolled a 2 for the double damage die and a 1 for the regular damage so instead of suffering the 15+ HP of damage I was expecting and being destroyed, it only suffered 5.

Then there was the UPF fire that turn which was the exact opposite. At first I thought the heavy cruiser was going to get off easy since none of the assault rockets did hull damage and only one electron battery did (although that was for 10 HP, the maximum). I thought it was going to get off with a bunch of ancillary and weapon damage but then I rolled a hit with the torpedo, rolled double damage, and then rolled 35 on 4d10 for a total of 70 HP from that single hit. That combined with the 10 it had suffered from the electron battery was enough to destroy it.

The other ships did just as well with two double damage laser battery hits on the first destroyer (one of which did 20, the maximum possible) and both assault rockets by the K’aken-Kar militia at the other destroyer doing double damage and just enough (52/50 HP) to destroy it. With 3 of the 5 sathar ships destroyed on the first turn, the UPF victory was assured. The only question was if the station would survive as the sathar were gunning for it.

I was amazed at how well I rolled for the UPF attacks and damage. Had they not rolled so well, this fight might have gone very differently. I think the UPF would still have won, but they would have suffered significantly more losses.

Battle of Zik-kit (Kizk’-Kar) – FY61.285

Facing overwhelming odds, the local militia assault scouts are annihilated after inflicting serious but non-fatal damage on one of the sathar vessels. The sathar then proceeded to destroy the armed station orbiting the planet as they approached and settled into orbit themselves.

Strangely, they have made no move against the planetary surface as they did against Pale 62 years ago. Rather, they remain in a high orbit around the planet. The population of Zik-kit wait in fear of what may come.

T’katt’ska – Zit-kit Wire News

Background

The rules of engagement for militia ships is that they have to make at least one attack against the sathar when defending their home system before they can retreat, after which they just become part of Spacefleet if the stations in their system are destroyed.

With the K’aken-Kar militia head off to help in the K’tsa-Kar system, and the Fromeltar milita tied up with sathar forces in their own system, the two assault scouts are left to face the on-coming sathar attack by themselves.

With no chance against the overwhelming odds, the plan was to get an assault rocket shot off at the sathar ships and slip away to the K’aken-Kar system where they hoped to meet up with other ships as reinforcements.

Order of Battle

This setup is the one presented as the Hopelessly Outgunned scenario in the “Make a Run For It” article found in issue 1 of the Frontier Explorer (p37). As I mentioned in the Battle of Terledrom post, I’ve had this opening planned for a while.

Militia Forces

  • 2 Assault Scouts
  • 1 Armed station

Sathar

  • 1 Frigate
  • 2 Destroyers
  • 1 Light Cruisers
  • 1 Heavy Cruiser

The Battle

Setup

The militia assault scouts are high above the planet moving at speed 30 and planing on swooping in on the sathar from above. The station is orbiting counterclockwise (I always roll randomly to see which hex the station happens to be in to start).

The sathar appear in their diamond formation with the frigate, light cruiser, & heavy cruiser in the center and a destroyer on each wing. They are moving at speed 10.

Ship positions at the start of the conflict. Click for larger image.

Turn 1

The sathar advance, decelerating to speed 8 as they approach the planet. The assault scouts accelerate to speed 32 and sweep in to make a maximum range assault rocket attack on the upper destroyer.

Defensively the sathar focus all of their fire on the lead assault scout hitting it with a laser battery (from the heavy cruiser), and two electron batteries (one from each cruiser) doing a total of 16 HP of damage destroying the assault scout before it has a chance to fire.

The surviving assault scout hits with its assault rocket taking out nearly half of the destroyer’s hull integrity.

Positions and paths after the first 10 minutes of combat. Click for full sized image.

Turn 2

The sathar frigate and damaged destroyer turn off from the main group and pursue the remaining assault scout, which now regrets not using its full acceleration previously as it is in range of torpedoes and rocket batteries from both ships.  The other three ships continue toward the station and decelerate to speed 7. Unfortunately, the assault scout misses its defensive laser battery attack on the destroyer.

The sathar frigate and destroyer fire their energy weapons and rocket batteries at the assault scout but elect not to fire torpedoes. Unfortunately for the militia ship, the sathar gunners are well trained and the small ship is hit by both laser canons, a laser battery, an electron battery, and a rocket battery. Together the weapons start an electrical fire, take out the ship’s combat controls system, and do enough hull damage to destroy three assault scouts. The small ship is nothing more than a small debris cloud.

The station is at the extreme range of the light cruiser’s particle weapons but they all miss.

Positions after the second round of combat and destruction of the militia ships. Click for full sized image.

Turn 3

With the militia ship destroyed, the frigate matches speed with the destroyer (11) the two ships loop around to return to the main group.  The rest of the sathar vessels decelerate to 5 as they approach the planet.  With the station shielded by the body of the planet, no shots are fired.

As the station emerges from behind the limb of the planet, the closer sathar vessels fire their energy weapons at it hitting with a laser canon, laser battery, electron battery, and proton battery and reducing the station’s hull integrity by nearly half. The station returns fire with its laser battery but misses.

Positions after the first half hour of combat. Click for full image

Repair Turn

The sathar destroyer and the station both manage to repair a bit of their hull.

Turn 4

The sathar ships closest to the planet decelerate to speed 3 as they approach.  The other two ships decelerate to speed 8 and turn toward the station and planet.

With the sathar vessels just out of rocket battery range, the station fires its laser battery at the approaching destroyer but misses.

All of the sathar ships fire their energy weapons at the station and the light cruiser and destroyer fire torpedoes.  The station fires 2 interceptor missiles at each torpedo.  Unfortunately, both torpedoes hit as well as several of the energy weapons. The weapons damage several of the station’s system but more importantly, overcome the station’s hull integrity and it breaks apart as the sathar ships settle into orbit around the planet.

Sathar positions at the end of the battle. Click for full image.

Repairs

The only damaged ship is the sathar destroyer and it works to fully repair its hull damage over the next hour.

Lessons Learned

Two assault scouts are no match for a massed group of capital ships. Against a single, isolated opponent they are probably fine but not up against a large group as they were here. To survive and escape to fight another day, they should have just taken a maximum range shot with the laser batteries and flown away. They had the speed and acceleration advantage over the sathar ships and would have made it, possibly unscathe but also probably not inflicting any damage on the sathar. However, they wanted a shot at the destroyer (and with 2 AR and 2 LB had a reasonable chance to take it out or at least do significant damage) and got a little too close.

Plus, the dice for the sathar were hot for this fight and the Frontier forces couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with their energy weapons.  The elimination of the assault scout before it could fire was pure luck of the dice that every weapon did hull damage.  I wouldn’t have expected the two electron batteries to both do hull damage but they did and it was just enough to take out the small ship. 

This one goes to the sathar.

Battle of Terledrom (Fromeltar) – FY61.285

There are four battles occurring on this day in the timeline and I debated which one to post first. I settled on this one as it was interesting for how quickly it was over. The other three, plus the battle that occurs on day FY61.287, will be showing up one a day for the next four days.

The Fromeltar militia, supported by the the Inner Reach and Outer Reach militias from Dramune that arrived yesterday after a high-speed risk jump, engaged sathar forces today around Terledrom.

In an intense battle lasting only twenty minutes, the militia forces overwhelmed the sathar forces, which consisted of five capital ships. Militia forces sustained damage and causalities resulting in the lost of the Inner Reach militia destroyer and severe damage to both frigates of the Outer Reach militia.

A memorial service will be held tomorrow for the crew of the lost ship. Our hearts go out to their families and we thank them for their dedication to defending the Frontier.

The damaged frigates have been given top priority to move into the local shipyard for repairs as soon as space opens which is expected to occur tomorrow.

The surviving militia crews remain vigilant as we await the arrival of Task Force Cassidine some time tomorrow evening.

Kat’kst’kll, Terledrom News Service

Background

The Fromeltar system has one of the larger militias with a frigate and 3 assault scouts on the roster. When news of the sathar ships went out across the Frontier, both the Inner Reach and Outer Reach militias in the adjacent Dramune system decided that it was in their interest to help Fromeltar and both militias risk jumped to the system arriving a day in advance of the sathar forces. They hope to stop the worms here and prevent them from ever entering the Dramune system.

Similarly, Task Force Cassidine was dispatched by Spacefleet and ordered to make a high speed risk jump to the Fromeltar system. Unfortunately, coming from two systems away, they are still a day away from Terledrom when the militia forces engage the sathar. They will be able to clean up the remnants of the sathar fleet if the militias can’t hold the line, but won’t be any help in this battle. This fight will be completely between the UPF militias and the sathar.

All of the battles are going to be run using the Advanced Combat Rules from the Tactical Operations manual and the combat table that represents the “average” skills. It would be interesting to run this using the specific skills provided by the Second Sathar War rules for the different groups (or even individual skills per ship), but I decided that would be just one more complication that I didn’t want to have to track.

Order of Battle

This setup is nearly identical to the Banding Together Knight Hawks encounter that I published back in Jan 2013 in issue 3 of the Frontier Explorer (p30). The only difference is that in that scenario, there was an additional UPF destroyer. This opening gambit by the sathar and the UPF response is something I’ve been thinking about playing out for a while now and that article and some of the others I’ll reference were specifically based on this opening of the Second Sathar War. As you’ll see, the UPF ship isn’t needed.

Militia Forces

With the arrival of the Dramune militias, the UPF have a definite hull point and ship number advantage although most of their ships are small.

Terledrom (Fromeltar)

  • 3 Assault Scouts
  • 1 Frigate
  • 1 Armed station

Inner Reach (Dramune)

  • 3 Assault Scouts
  • 1 Frigate
  • 1 Destroyer

Outer Reach (Dramune)

  • 2 Assault Scouts
  • 2 Frigates

Sathar

  • 1 Frigate
  • 2 Destroyers
  • 1 Light Cruiser
  • 1 Heavy Cruiser

This is a standard mix that the sathar are employing to start off the battle. You’ll see it in several of the upcoming battles. While it should have been enough to deal with any of militias they encountered, they didn’t figure on high risk jumps to support neighboring systems.

The Battle

Setup

With the recent animosity between the two Dramune worlds, the ships from those respective militias line up on opposite sides of the planet with the Terledrom militia arrayed between them.  The Outer Reach militia and Terledrom assault scouts are “above” the planet with the other ships “below”.  The assault scouts have an initial speed of 30 while the capital ships start at speed 20.  The station is at position 4 and orbiting counter clockwise.

The sathar start at speed 10 and are arranged in a diamond formation with the center consisting of a frigate in the lead, followed by the light and heavy cruisers with the destroyers above and below the main line. They are headed straight toward the planet.

Starting positions for the battle. Click for full sized version.

Turn 1

The sathar vessels accelerate and veer down to engage with the ships that are “below” the planet. However, due to the extreme range, no shots are fired.

The UPF sweep in closing in from both sides. The Outer Reach militia focuses on the two destroyers with the assault scouts making an assault rocket pass and then flying out of range of the sathar’s energy weapons while the frigates fly into torpedo range and keep their laser canons trained on the sathar vessels.

The Inner Reach militia converges on the sathar light cruiser, with the destroyer and frigate coming in from the aft port quarter and the assault scouts making a pass on the forward port quarter and then flying out of range to prepare for another pass.

The Terledrom assault scouts loop around and come in from behind to make a pass at the sathar heavy cruiser and then fly off. Trying to avoid a direct shot by the sathar frigate and light cruiser, the Terledrom frigate accelerates, rolls to port, and lines up for a shot on the sathar destroyers, electing to shoot at the same ones as the Inner Reach assault scouts.

Defensive fire by the sathar is practically ineffective with the only damage being the light cruiser’s electron battery which disables the ICM launcher on the Inner Reach destroyer.

The militia are much more effective.

The heavy cruiser is hit by 3 assault rockets damaging its combat control system and reducing its hull integrity by over half. One of the destroyers is hit by an assault rocket severely damaging it and reducing its hull integrity by nearly half. The other destroyer gets away nearly unscathed as both of the torpedoes fired at it are neutralized by its interceptor missiles (ICMs), only being scratched by a laser battery for minimal hull damage. The sathar light cruiser is hit by a torpedo, 2 assault rockets, and a laser battery taking out nearly half of its hull integrity and its ICM and torpedo launchers.

Ship positions and paths at the end of turn 1. Click for full sized image.

Turn 2

The sathar heavy cruiser turns to go after the Inner Reach frigate. The light cruiser and frigate turn to go after the Outer Reach frigates focusing all their fire on the leading one. The sathar destroyers swing around to go after the Inner Reach destroyer.

The defensive fire by the Inner Reach frigate and destroyer focuses on the sathar heavy cruiser and is devastating – hitting it with both laser batteries, both laser cannons, and a rocket battery knocking out the cruiser’s distruptor cannon before completely destroying the massive ship. The Outer Reach frigates are not quite as effective. Firing their laser canons at the lead sathar destroyer they only knock out its laser battery, The other weapons are fired at the frigate as it approaches and only do some minor hull damage even though they hit with two rocket batteries.

The sathar destroyers are quite effective hitting the Inner Reach destroyer with a laser cannon and two torpedoes which don’t have to worry about a screen of ICMs as the militia’s ICM launcher was damaged. The torpedos completely destroying the militia destroyer. Similarly, the sathar frigate and light cruiser focus their fire on the the lead Outer Reach frigate hitting it with a laser and distruptor cannon and a rocket battery knocking out all of its defensive systems and 75% of it’s hull integrity.

The Terledrom assault scouts loop around to fire at the lightly damaged destroyer. The Inner Reach assault scouts make a run on the sathar light cruiser. The Outer Reach frigates fire at the damaged sathar destroyer and the frigate with the heavily damaged one just drifting away from the battle as it fires. The Inner Reach frigate splits its fire using its laser cannon on the light cruiser and the other weapons at the damaged destroyer. The Terledrom frigate also loops around to fire at the light cruiser. The Outer Reach assault scouts loop around to fire at the frigate.

The sathar’s defensive fire is again mostly ineffective. The undamaged Outer Reach frigate is hit by several energy weapons from the frigate and light cruiser damaging its engines (both accelerating and maneuvering) and doing some significant hull damage (about 40% of the hull). The sathar destroyers fire at the Inner Reach frigate knocking out its ICM and torpedo launchers.

The return fire from the militia obliterates the last four sathar vessels. The frigate is hit by a rocket battery, two assault rockets, and two laser batteries knocking out its laser battery and doing enough hull damage to destroy a heavy cruiser. The damaged sathar destroyer is hit by a laser canon igniting an electrical fire and then a torpedo makes it through the ICM screen and hits a weapon magazine causing a massive explosion that destroys the ship. The undamaged destroyer is slammed by three different assault rockets that rip it to shreds (and a laser battery that knocks out some of its acceleration). Finally the light cruiser is hit by a laser battery starting a fire and then slammed by 3 assault rockets that rip its hull to pieces.

The savagery of the assault rocket damage surprised even the militia crews and the battle was over in less than 20 minutes.

Ship positions and paths at the end of the battle. The map has shifted to keep the drifting Outer Reach destroyer on the map for visualization. Click for full sized image.

Repairs

The damaged ships immediately begin working on battle repairs but the hull damage to the second Outer Reach frigate is beyond space repairs and needs to be completed in a shipyard. Similarly for the damage to that ship’s thrust. The other Outer Reach frigate is able to repair enough hull damage to prevent it from breaking up as it begins to maneuver and decelerate to return to the planet but it too will need time in the repair yards. The other ships are able to repair their minor damage over the next 2.5 hours.

Lessons Learned

I’ll admit, I expected this fight to go a bit longer and cause more damage to the militia. Between really good rolls for the militia and lousy rolls for the sathar, this fight was amazingly short.

Both sides leaned just how effective the assault rockets could be, especially if you roll well. The sathar seem to focus their ICMs on deflecting torpedoes but not the assault rockets which can do significant damage. Unfortunately for the other sathar fleets, this lesson was learned a little too late as all the sathar ships were obliterated in a single round and there was no time to transmit that information out. It wouldn’t have affected the other battles occurring today, but may have been useful for future encounters.

The sathar also learned (again) that they should probably focus on the smaller vessels to reduce that assault rocket threat. That information was transmitted from the Battle of Stenmar but the commanders of this battle fleet seems to have ignored it, focusing on the larger vessels first.

The militia were extremely lucky in this fight. It could have gone much worse. I rolled really bad for most of the sathar defensive fire which could have eliminated some militia ships before they could fire and the dice were extremely hot for the militia with double damage being generated for 6 assault rockets, 1 laser canon, 1 laser battery, and 1 torpedo. Even some of the regular damage rolls were really high (a torpedo hitting for 26 HP, laser batteries hitting for 9 & 10 HP, a RB hitting for 16 HP, and assault rockets hitting for 19 and 21 HP). Plus they took out the heavy cruiser before it even had a chance to deploy its more effective weapons. It only got one round of defensive fire and missed with everything.

On to the next battle being reported tomorrow.

Skills For Hire – Lab Crawl

So last week I wrote up the location of the GODCo bio-lab. This week we’re going to look at what my players found when they got there. First I’ll provide my game notes with the details of what had changed, and then so a short write-up of the players’ actions. “Lab Crawl” is the title I gave this scenario in my notes.

Background

GODCo has been operating the lab on Pale for about 20 years now.  The lab is a location the GODCo scientists are studying the Pale flora and fauna and looking for ways to adapt various yazirian plant species to the environment as well as improving flora and fauna used by Frontiersmen to be more adaptable to the Pale climates.

A few days ago the quarterly supply delivery to the “secret” base left but the drivers and vehicles (two ground trucks) never returned.  Yesterday an aircar flew out to the site and was shot at by the site’s defenses (heavy laser).  The PCs are being sent in (on the ground) to investigate. Their objectives are:

  • Figure out what happened
  • Rescue any personnel trapped and still alive in the lab
  • Secure the site if possible.

What Happened

In my game, there are still sathar on Pale from the First Sathar War (referred to as the Great Sathar War on Pale as the second one is just now brewing). While a few of the sathar on the planet are holdovers from the war, many more have actually slipped to the surface over the intervening years. They have been working to subvert the society and develop new bio-weapons (e.g. lesser quickdeath, sathar poison squirrel). It is to do some work on the poison squirrel that they have capture the lab.

A few weeks ago, a team of sathar attacked and captured the base. They needed access to the equipment and facilities to complete some work that they had been doing in more makeshift labs elsewhere on the planet. The staff that survived the attack are being held as prisoners and used as test subjects (and food) for the creatures they brought with them.

Changes From Last Post

In my previous post, I described the lab during “normal” operations. Here is what changed when the PCs arrived

Staff

There are only 1d5+5 of the original 44 staff members still alive, all scientists. They are locked individually in the living quarters and isolated from one another. They are all malnourished and weak. They will not be able to assist the PCs in any fighting.

I put them in the rooms farthest from the elevator/stairs but you could put them anywhere. The sathar have changed the computer security system so that none of the staff ID cards work to open the living quarters doors.

Vehicles

There is a ground transport in the garage (area 3, ground level). It is only partially unloaded.

Robots

All of the security robots were destroyed in the original attack. The sathar have reprogrammed all the maintenance and service robots to have attack/destroy programs and will attack any non-sathar beings on sight. These robots are all level 3 and have only their mechanical hands as weapons. The security locks have all been removed by the sathar as they modified them. They have the following stats:

STA: 100 ATT: 60 IM: 6 DMG: 2d10 Move: 30 m/turn

The remaining robots are located in the following areas:

  • 2 service robots – Ground Level in hallway (area 5)
  • 4 maintenance robots – Level 1 area 30. There is a random 10% change per minute that one will emerge and go about some maintenance task. If attacked, it can summon the others.
  • 4 maintenance robots – Level 2 area 11 (at the far end of the lab area). There is a random 10% change per minute that one will emerge and go about some maintenance task. If attacked, it can summon the others. They can also be called by the sathar on this level.

Sathar

There are 10 sathar at the facility.

Two are security officers and will be in the security office on that level (area 8). If the robots start fighting they will emerge and attack the intruders. These sathar have laser pistols with 3 power clips and a level 3 skill. Their stats are:

STA: 45 ATT: 50 IM: 5 DMG: 2d10 PS: 3 Move: 30 m/turn

The other eight are in the lab areas on level 2. Divide as desired among 3 labs. These are all scientists and will only have improvised melee weapons when attacked but do have a level 1 melee skill. Stats for these sathar are:

STA: 40 ATT: 30 IM: 4 DMG: 1d10 PS: 2 Move: 30 m/turn

In addition to the sathar on level 2, there are a number of sathar attack monsters with them in some of the labs. There are 2 cybernuks in one of the bio-labs, although only one has the cyber implant, and a caged juvenile quick death in another (use the Lesser Quickdeath stats).  A third lab has a cage containing 10 tailless squirrels.  If freed, any of these creatures will attack the PCs.  If they can, the sathar scientists will release the creatures into the lab hall (area 14) to attack the PCs as part of their defense.

Place the sathar and creatures in the labs as desired. In my game, I had them all in labs on the right side of the map. The first lab had 3 sathar, the second had 2 sathar and the nuks, the third had 3 sathar and the squirrels, and the fourth lab had the quick-death.

Other Notes

The computer is level 4 with a level 3 computer security program.  Lab doors have level 5 locks, bedrooms have level 1 locks.

Something got out and the power generator level is overgrown with a blue fungus/moss that is mildly toxic to the touch (S1/T20) toxin. This is currently growing on all the walls on level 3, part of the stairwell between level 2 and 3, and in the elevator shaft near level 3.  It has not yet traveled to Level 1 or 2.  Due to the fungus, the power occasionally will short out and brownouts occur occasionally around the lab.  There is a 5% chance any minute that the power will temporarily go out or lights will dim in any given room.

Loose Ends

Some things I left open ended and which didn’t really come up when playing that you can flesh out as desired for your game:

  1. Where’s the other ground truck? There were two in the convoy but only one is here. I honestly forgot about there being two when I was running it but it never came up directly. This is an opportunity to expand the scope of this encounter if you want your PCs to possibly pursue the sathar across the planet.
  2. The fungus/moss on the generator level – Was this something the sathar brought with them? Was it something GODCo was working on?

Running the Adventure

This adventure played out over two game sessions.

The PCs had no idea there were sathar involved when they were hired. The job was simply to go to the lab, investigate what happened, rescuing any survivors, and secure the facility. GODCo offered a generous bonus of 500 cr. per staff member recovered alive.

After about six hours of travel, mostly in an explorer, the PCs arrived at the facility to find the gate closed. As they got close to the site, however, they noticed that no radio communications were working. The site appeared deserted. The humma decided to jump the fence and got shot at by the heavy laser for his trouble. Luckily, it missed him. He was able to open the main gate and the explorer entered the compound.

They gained access to the garage and discovered the partially emptied ground transport. Exiting into the hall, they were attacked by the robot stationed there. They took some damage but were able to quickly deactivate the robot. (Since the sathar removed the security lock, I only required a DEX roll – the robot was attacking them after all – to switch it off. Their roboticist has a high DEX but still missed a few of the rolls throughout the adventure.)

As they rounded the barracks (not knowing what they were) they encountered the other robot and after starting to engage that, the two sathar emerged and started firing at them. A well tossed tangler grenade captured both sathar (although one was killed by laser fire the same round). Realizing it was caught and the robot deactivated, the captured sathar committed suicide.

Clearing the rest of the level, they opted to take the stairs down and not alert anyone else by using the elevator. As they emerged into the hall on level 1 they experienced their first brownout of the power. They entered the security office and found a number of CCTV cameras looking at different parts of the lab including the hallways on level 1 and one into each lab on level 2. They saw the 8 sathar and the attack creature but didn’t know where in the complex those images were coming from.

Examing the hallways, they ran into two maintenance robots coming out of area 30 on the fall left hall way. A fight ensued with those robots and the other two that were called out of room 30 after the fight was engaged. They managed to deactivate two of the robots while the other two were destroyed.

The fighting was occurring at the end of the hall by area 30 and the prisoners in the rooms there heard them and tried to get their attention. They proceeded to open (via tech or brute force, depending on the player) each of the doors and discovered that 9 of the scientists were still alive, although is fairly poor shape.

From the scientists they got the information about the attack and current situation as they understood it. They also learned that the brownouts only started occurring after the sathar arrived. Speculation began on what the sathar were doing that needed that much power.

With the scientists found, they shepherded them up to the surface, planning on driving them out in the ground transport. At this point a discussion ensued on what was next. Fighting sathar is a job for Star Law and really above their pay grade and several PCs were all for bugging out with the scientists, reporting what they found, collecting their rewards and walking away. However, one of the PCs is a member of the Anti-Satharian League (ASL) and floated the idea that they might be able to get some reward from that group for the sathar if they took them out themselves.

In the end, they decided that the Anti-Satharian League PC would drive the scientists out and call in for medical pickup once he got out of the radio jamming. He would report the sathar presence and request instructions from Galactic Task Force (GTF). He’d also contact the ASL and see what he could negotiate. That discussion ended the first session.

Session 2 started with finalizing the plan. While the ASL PC headed out with the scientists, the other PCs set about exploring the rest of level 1. They realized part of the way through that they should have asked the scientists for a tour. Meanwhile, the PC with the scientists, after about 40 minutes of driving, got out of the jamming range. Calling in GTF immediately dispatched some flying transports to pick up the scientists and told him to stand by on the sathar situation. While he waited, he called ASL and got the same response. After a few minutes, GTF told him that if the team chose to go in after the sathar, they would be deputized by Star Law for the operation (Star Law couldn’t get anyone there for many hours and didn’t want the sathar to get away) and offered a bonus of 1500 cr. each. Just after that conversation, he was called by his ASL contact and offered a 250 cr. reward for each sathar killed plus and additional 500 cr for any sathar data collected from the computer systems.

With the offers in hand, he headed back to the compound once the medical team arrived to escort the scientists. Having been gone a couple of hours, the rest of the team was getting a bit antsy and debated exploring the generator level but decided to be patient and wait. They also reprogrammed the two maintenance robots to obey them and attack sathar while they were waiting. When the offers were presented, they decided to take on the sathar and collect the reward from both sources.

Not wanting to walk down 50 m of stairs, and figuring they had the drop on the sathar, they opted to take the elevator. They quickly examined the areas outside the decontamination airlocks on that level. Hoping to reduce the odds, they hacked into the life support and ventilation systems for the labs (all 10 individually) and dropped a doze grenade into each system to try to knock out the sathar. They had to do all 10 because they didn’t know which system went to which lab or even which labs the sathar were in. Luckily they had 11 doze grenades between the 5 PCs.

Doze grenades dropped and hoping they worked, they went through the cleaning rooms into the lab area. Upon entering and seeing into the labs, they found that the sathar in the lab with the cybernuks had been knocked out but the other were still up and about.

They rushed the robots over to the first lab and had them block the door preventing the sathar from exiting while the PCs headed down the the third lab where the three sathar were working with the tailless squirrels. As they were approaching, the sathar let the squirrels out and there were suddenly several critters attacking most of the PCs.

On the second round of the fight, the four robots emerged from the robot storage area and started to advance on the PCs as well. An on the next round they realized the flaw with having the robots block the sathar in the first lab as one of the sathar deactivated one of the two robots.

With enemy both in front of them and behind, they started to fall back and regroup trying to deactivate robots, kill sathar, and fight the squirrel critters. A well placed frag grenade managed to kill most of the squirrels as they fell back but not before a couple of the PCs were bitten and poisoned.

Just as they were starting to get the situation under control, one of the sathar in the nuk lab woke up (I had rolled for the time each were going to be out and rolled low for that one). After spending a round trying to rouse its comrade (with no success), it then headed to the doors to let the nuks out into the fight.

The sathar and squirrels turned out to be the easy targets with the nuks and robots providing the most challenge. They managed to take out the sathar that had freed the nuks before it could let the quickdeath out or things might have been really bad for the team. As it was, two of the team members, wounded and cornered, retreated into the lab that the squirrels had come out of pursued by one of the robots. They trapped one of the nuks in the entrance to another lab, and then finished off or deactivated the remaining robots and creatures.

When the fighting was over, they had deactivated two more robots, killed seven sathar, 10 squirrels and one nuk. The last sathar never woke up and they hit it with a StayDose to keep it sedated. They left the trapped quickdeath and nuk for StarLaw and GODCo to deal with. They decided to report that there were only 7 sathar (they had miscounted) and secret the live sathar away to turn over to the Anti-Satharian League for a 2000 cr. reward.

It was touch and go there in the middle of the battle with a couple of PCs getting down to single digit STA, but they pulled through in the end. Each PC ended up with 6 XP and 3600 cr. They also ended up with 7 damaged service and maintenance robots that they took with them as well.

Final Thoughts

It was a good adventure. It just took longer to finish than I had hoped due to scheduling conflicts (on my part) and not being able to get it all done in a single session (or I would have posted this sooner).

I actually completely forgot about the quickdeath in the heat of the battle which is why the sathar didn’t immediately make a bee-line for that lab to try to get it out. But that was probably just as well. Had the quickdeath came into the fray it might have been too much. As it is, the fight went well. They PCs were a little worried there for a bit, but managed to pull it out in the end. I actually thought the squirrel were going to do a bit more damage but the frag grenade really did a number on them, only three of the 10 survived the initial blast.

The activating and deactivating of the robots was a bit of humor (at least for me) during the big fight. There was a bit of a go around of the sathar turning their robots off, them trying to turn the sathar robots off and also trying to turn their back on, and fighting the robots that weren’t deactivated. And the moment when I said that the sathar turned their first robot off definitely seemed to catch them off guard and ratchet up the tension.

This will be the the last Skills for Hire post for a while. As I talked about in my “What I need is … more focus” post back in August, I have a lot of things going on and that was the main cause of the scheduling conflicts. As such, I’ve decided to put the game on hiatus for now. My players are going to take up the GM mantle and run games for each other in the meantime but I won’t be doing anything for a while.

Did you like the adventure? What might you have done differently? What changes or additions would you make? How could you use this in your game? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Skills for Hire – Rescue

I always forget how long it takes me to get back into my regular routine after a big family vacation. Which is why this post is going up a little later in the day than normal.

Two weeks ago the players in my Skills for Hire game finished this adventure so it’s time to post up the adventure notes. This time around, I’m going to post them as is, exactly as I have them written down, so you can see what I was working off of. I’ll also provide a quick summary of the way it actually played out. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll get the audio of the session on-line as well.

Adventure Outline

What follows are my notes for the adventure, as I had them written down for me to use. As you’ll see, there isn’t a lot there, just some basic notes and names and general events that I wanted to happen. These are literally my crib notes.

The setup

The daughter (Brandi) of a prominent politician (Carter Albach, wife: Melody) has been kidnapped by organized crime bosses that the politician won’t bow to.  The police, probably in the crime lord’s pay, are taking too long and not making progress.  The mercenaries are being hired to get the young woman (22 years old) back.

Major segments

This list was my original idea of the major segments of the adventure, the PCs pretty much skipped over 2 and 4 was really short as well due to the actions they took.

  1. Finding the location
  2. Surveillance
  3. Springing her free
  4. Getting safely home

Details

She’s being held in a manor house in Myra’s Beach.  The manor is owned by a yazirian, Gornar Welnat, who owns several of the larger hotels/resorts in the city.  He is also the head of a local organized crime operation, the Tristars. 

Tristars are a known organization in the city but no one knows exactly the extent of their operations.  Some members are known for generally bullying but there are other members that are more into more sophisticated endeavors including controlling some of the local police and businesses in town.

Brandi and her friend (Jula Keray) were visiting Myra’s Beach for the weekend and met up with a group of others their age.  Heading back to their hotel from the beach with two young men (Karl, tall blond, & Christian, shorter, dark haired), they were accosted by a group of thugs who hit them with a doze grenade.  Jula woke up alone a few minutes later in the small street where they were ambushed.  Neither Bandi nor the two young men (who are part of the gang) were anywhere to be seen. 

This list was the breadcrumb trail that I had envisioned for them finding the location of the Julia at the manor. They mostly skipped over #2 but otherwise this was the path first session of the adventure took (except for #6; they didn’t find that out until they were in the manor).

  1. Jula can describe/identify the tattoo of the three stars the young men had (https://starfrontiers.info/pics/SkillsForHire/TriStarLogo0.png)
  2. Showing that mark around will identify the Tristar group but people won’t say much about it beyond that it’s a local group/gang.  They either don’t know anything or are afraid to talk.
  3. After poking around, the team will get accosted by a group of young thugs from the Tristars
  4. Capture of one of the members will point them to a bar where they hang out.
  5. At the bar they can catch a middle level member of the gang (dralasite, Garzdan) that can point them to the manor.
  6. Brandi is being held in the upper rooms of the left tower.

The manor

As I noted in my write-up of the manor, a lot of specifics were left unstated so the Referee could customize it as needed for their adventure. This section was my specifics for this adventure and the PCs I had on hand. I didn’t want it too tough as they are early level characters but I didn’t want it too easy either.

Level 2 locks on offices

Level 1 locks on bedrooms except on master bedroom – level 4 there

The door to the room where Brandi is being held is level 3

During the day, there are typically 15-20 beings in the manor.  Mostly business men or staff with a five being security detail in the manor and five more about the grounds.   There are 2 security robots, 4 maintenance robots, and 2 service robots.

At night, there are 8 people living at the manor, Brandi, and a 2 man security detail in the building and four on the grounds.  Plus the 2 security robots.

Running the Adventure

That was everything. Combined with the work I had done on the city of Myha’s Beach, the Brekstoone Manor, and the Tristars, that was what I used to run the adventure.

When I was creating the adventure, I suspected that in this case, the challenge was going to require to sessions. I just didn’t see a way for them to get through it all in a single 4-hour block. And it turned out I was right.

I had my biggest group yet for the first session with 8 players. However, due to audio difficulties, one of the players had to drop out. The PCs got to their start point in Myha’s Beach, and after talking with Jula, investigated the location of the attack. They correctly surmised that the two young men were part of the organization that had captured Brandi.

A pair of characters then went looking for groups that were rivals of the Tristars (something I hadn’t anticipated and had to make up on the spot). However, their investigation rolls went so badly that they found a group of Tristars instead and a fight ensued (#3 from above). They wounded several of the thugs and drove three of the four off. The fourth had been knocked out so they took him back to their base of operations for questioning. Under Telol, he revealed the location of a couple places that the Tristars liked to hang out (#4) as well as some other information about the organization including his contact up the line.

They picked one of the locations (the closer one), a restaurant/bar near the old town and planned a raid. Three of the team members went in and got a table to scope out the establishment and try to identify the upper level member identified. The others took up positions around the building including Joey, the humma, watching the back door.

Only about 1/3 of the beings in restaurant were members of the Tristars but they were are clustered to a side of the dining area. With their target identified, the three PCs in the building all tossed doze grenades into the area where the Tristars were seated. At this point pandemonium ensued as the diners all tried to get out of what appeared to be a battle scene. Luckily for the PCs all but 3 of the gang members succumbed to the doze gas. Unfortunately, their target (a dralasite) was one that didn’t. They waded in with stunsticks and electrostunners while other PCs tried to get into the building through the outflow of panicked diners.

Despite several successful attacks on the target, he hadn’t be knocked out, although they had knocked out the other two gang members. At that point, one of the PCs who had gotten in from the outside, a vrusk, fired his laser rifle into the ceiling (set at 1 SEU) and bellowed “Stop!” A very successful (rolled a 1) Leadership check and everyone in the building froze, including their target as he was about to slip out the door into the kitchens. The other PCs hit him once again and he collapsed. Scooping the dralasite up, they slipped out through the kitchen and the back door. They made their way to a place they could be picked up by aircar and flew back to their base of operations.

Questioning the new prisoner with Telol, they learned that he was not involved in any way with, nor had any knowledge of, the kidnapping but that if it had happened, they would probably be holding the girl in Brekstoone Manor. They also gained a bit more information about the organization. That ended the first session.

The second session opened with them trying to decide how to best assault the Manor. Calling several different pizza parlors to schedule a delivery to the manor gates at the same time to create a diversion, they went around to the forested region of the grounds and used the trees, the yazirian gliding ability, and some rope to get them over the walls and onto the grounds. Slipping through the forest, they watched the house from the edge of the trees where they discovered two security robots making rounds around the manor and the occasional random patrol by a human guard as well.

Timing the robot patrol, the roboticist dashed across the open space and attempted to disable the lead robot. Failing to remove the security lock on his first attempt, the robot smacked him with it’s hands doing a good amount of damage. The roboticist got the security lock off on the next round and after taking some more damage, disabled the robot. They dragged it into the garage and everyone else joined them there. In the garage they found a nice sports car, and explorer, and two hoverbikes. I considered having the robot sound an alarm, but since they were doing so well, I decided to give them until the second robot came back around and would have it sound the alarm. But they got under cover before it spotted them.

When the second robot came around they jump it in the same manner. The only complication was that just as that was happening the human guard came walking around the manor from the opposite direction. Luckily, one of the PCs was waiting for this and hit him with anesthetic needler darts and knocked him out. Dragging him in the garage along with the other robot, they relieved the guard of his id card and keys and the roboticist went to work reprogramming the robots to go patrol the outer wall instead of around the manor (They didn’t have time to do anything more complicated and didn’t want the robots completely off-line.

Using the guard’s keys, they entered the manor from the back on both the main level and the first floor balcony. Carefully working through the rooms of the manor, they found someone in the library who they stunned and tied up. They heard noises coming from the stairs to the basement and posted a guard there. They also heard noises from one of the offices on the second floor. Tossing in a doze grenade, they knocked out the occupant there. That turned out to be the security offices and since the occupant didn’t have time to react, the computer was still logged in. They were able to turn off all the door locks and alarms.

Checking the rest of the rooms they discovered that this floor was just offices and took the elevator up to level 3. While one group covered the hallways, a couple of PCs opened on of the doors to discover a bedroom. The noise of the door opening woke the person sleeping and the first PC took a shot with his needler rifle and while he hit, it did not knock the occupant back out. Kneeling down so the person behind him could take a shot as well, he discovered that it was the humma who only had a laser rifle and no non-lethal weapons. The humma took a shot (3 SEU) and hit the occupant squarely in the chest who cried out from the injury. They asked th injured occupant where the girl was and he told them across the hall. The first PC then took another shot with the needler and this time knocked out the occupant. However, the occupant’s chronocom came to life asking if he was okay. They texted back that he was fine.

Quickly moving across they hall, they tried the door into the tower and found a small sitting room with stairs going up. Ascending the stairs they found Brandi sitting on her bed in the room at the top of the tower. First thinking that they were more Tristar goons, she gave them a bit of lip but after discovering who they were, she went with them.

While they were in the tower getting Brandi, Gornar, the owner of the Manor and head of the Tristars, came out of his suite, electrostunner in hand to investigate the noises come from the room right below his bedroom (and he didn’t believe the text). However, the group watching the hall were ready and got the drop on him. Hitting him with an electrostunner of their own and knocking him out.

They left him lying on the floor and made their way down to the ground floor of the manor. While they were searching the building, the roboticist had finished reprogramming the robots, parked the explorer blocking the front door with the explorer’s side door open, and then went into the building. They made their way to the front door and loaded Brandi and part of the team into the explorer. The others went out the back door to the garage and some took the sports car while one of them climbed on a hoverbike.

They they headed for the main gate of the grounds and back into the city. They were expecting to have to ram the gate with the explorer but the gate’s sensors recognized the vehicles and opened for them. They ducked into the the first public parking area near the grounds and the beach and called for their aircar pickup. Being the middle of the night, there was only one other car in the parking lot and no one to be seen nearby. They dumped the keys to the Tristar’s vehicles in the lone car, loaded into the aircars, and flew back to Point True.

Amazingly, they managed to do the entire adventure without actually killing anyone. It was a close thing in the manor and they definitely roughed up a few people but no one was actually killed. It was a fun adventure and I enjoyed seeing how they PCs handled the various situations.