Shadow Squadron, a group of mercenaries consisting mostly of disenfranchised Federation officers and Dominion War veterans, has successfully conducted their first raid against the Klingons. A federation squadron, having failed to intercept them before hand, has tracked them to a planetary cluster. Unfortunately for the Federation, so has a rather angry group of Klingons.
Shadow Squadron:
Federation Squadron
Klingon Squadron
Shadow Squadron began placed along the center of the south edge, while the Klingons and the Federation set up in opposite corners of the North edge.
Round 1
Shadow Squadron begins to orbit the nearest planet by circling to the east, screening their movements from the Klingons. The Federation Enterprise turns south-southwest, beginning to approach the Shadow Squadron, the massive Galaxy class dwarfing the smaller ships. The Klingons, detecting the warp signature of the Shadow Squadron ships, move south along the edge and Cloak. The Federation Defiant and the Hathaway head south, around another planet headed for the center of the three planetoids.
Round 2
The Shadow squadron breaks formation to engage the Enterprise. The Klingons continue south, deploying mines between the North Western and Southern planet. the Enterprise moves to engage Shadow Squadron at range 3, while the Hathaway and the Defiant inch their way into orbit around the North Eastern planet. Only the Shadow Equinox and the Enterprise can exchange fire, stripping away 4 shields from the Enterprise and 1 shields from the Equinox.
Round 3
The Klingons reach the southern edge of the board and begin to orbit the southern planet, headed east. They deploy another set of mines just east of the Southern planet. Shadow squadron continues to move for better firing positions on the enterprise, creating a kill box and activation Admiral Hayes effect, while the Shadow Reliant Scans, the Shadow Defiant target locks the Galaxy, and the Shadow Equinox locks on as well. The Enterprise, uncertain of the shadow squadron's movements, advances at a 1 straight... Directly into the line of fire of all three ships. The Hathaway and Defiant continue their slow orbit of the North eastern planet, protected from both the Klingons and the Shadow squadron. The Shadow Equinox fires, rolling 1 crit and 3 hits. The enterprise rolls their defense, a battlestations. spending the lone evade token, the Enterprise loses their last two shields and takes a significant hit to their structural integrity, causing the ship's agility to drop to a 0. Sisko sees an opening, and returns fire (special ability), inflicting one damage on the Equinox. He returns fire, catching the Reliant unprepared, and fires into it with 5 dice, rolling 2 hits, 2 crits. the Reliant zaggs when it should have zigged, and takes all 4 damage to the forward shields. The Shadow Defiant opens fire, rolling 7 dice and landing 2 Crits and 5 hits. The Enterprise erupts into a massive fireball, taking all hands with her.
Round 4 (Things started getting hazy around this time)
The Klingons round the Southern planet, spying the Federations dogs come to aid their cowardly allies, and begin target locking the Hathaway and the Defiant. Picard and sulu perform evasive maneuvers, and using protocol, Riker in the Defiant double evades. The Shadow Squadron ships move behind the North Eastern planet, once again screening their movements. the Equinox repairs its, shields. the Federation and Klingons exchange fire, the federation taking damage to the shields while the Klingons take several hits to their hull.
Round 5
The Hathaway attempts to move past the Southern planet, but ends up trapped. The Defiant blasts through the Klingons, almost getting clear. The Klingons continue to move most of their forces into firing positions on the gap between the planets, while 1 ship breaks formation to pursue the Defiant. At extreme range, Kor activates his ability, forcing the Shadow Defiant to fire on him instead of the Target Locked
Ch'Tang. The Shadow Reliant Fires on the
Ch'Tang, dealing significant damage, and once again reducing the agility of its target by one. Kor's cruiser takes major damage to the hull, stripping away his shields as well, and effectively dropping his skill to 0.
Round 6
The Shadow Squadron advances, Manuevering in on Kor to prevent him from interrupting anymore shots. Kor moves up by one, closing the gap and bringing him within range 2 of the Shadow Defiant. The
Ch'Tang moves up, firing its projected stasis field on the Equinox, exposing it to fire from every other ship in range. The Federation Defiant Drops a target lock on the Pagh, and the Hathaway prepares to fire on the other Bird of Prey. The Shadow Equinox skips its attack, as the computers reboot from the stasis field. The
Ch'tang fires, missing the Equinox by a handspan. Admiral Hayes effect grants the Defiant and the Reliant the additional firepower they need to punch through the enemy. The Federation Defiant fires Quantum torpedoes, heavily damaging the Pagh, While the Reliant destroys the
CH'Tang and the Shadow Defiant destroys the Maht'tat. The surviving Klingons go to warp, and the Hathaway and Defiant follow suit, knowing that they are in no state to handle unknown enemies.
Shadow squadron heads home, proud in the success of destabilizing Klingon-Federation relations...
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So, after some terrible rolls, the guy playing the Klingons bailed, and the Federation player was in a TERRIBLE spot to try and turn around and face my fleet. I dare say I flew with expert stragegic skill, though I did bump once or twice. I was yet again reminded that the Reliant is not a hard ship to hit, and it desperately needs boosts to its agility to remain in any kind of prolonged firefight.
Additionally, Spock and Valentine are either an amazing combo, or an illegal one.
