Star Wars Fleet Battle: The Fleet Emerges
Star Wars Fleet Battle Report #5
Wow, two reports back to back! Anyways, this will be the final report I put up before I begin work on the Rules Video people have been requesting: Where me and a friend will play the game with video surveillance, and explain in a non-boring fashion how this game works.
Again, if you haven't stayed updated on the story up to this point, I highly recommend you read my first post and work your way up: enjoy the story and the game!
Story: A spy within the Imperial Command Infrastructure has reported to Admiral Salira of the Sunbelt Rebel Cell that an Imperial Communications Cruiser has been disabled in an isolated Asteroid Belt. Carrying and filtering millions of Imperial Communications across nearby systems, this could be the perfect opportunity to plant a spike, and listen in on Imperial Communications.
Aboard the Frigate, Ilums Redemption, Salira, along with Captains Galan and Andor, decide to hatch a daring plan: board the still full Communications Cruiser and install a spike, then retreating back into Hyperspace. Escorted by Fighter Squadrons headed up by Desmond Mil'k and Kareda, they don't see what could go wrong.
That is, however, until Admiral Tren's and Captain Osprey are sent to recover and rescue the same Cruiser.....
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The Rebel Fleet is in full display today, with Admiral Salira commanding from his Pulson D Class Frigate, and supported by Corellian Corvettes headed up by Captains Galan and Andor. Desmond shall once again be leading the main fighter force, while Kareda heads up support and defense of the Y-Wing Squadron.
Our Imperial rescue force is being headed up by Admiral Trens, with support from Captain Osprey, once again aboard the Intervention. Leading the TIE Force is the Ace Pilot known merely by his code name, 'Dynaco'.
Thinking fast, alarms are raised, and TIEs are quickly scrambled to gain control of the Belt and hold it until Tren's Star Destroyer can come in to take out the Rebel Command.
Knowing that the Empire was onto them, Salira ordered Desmond's fighters forward, along with Kareda's. The Bombers were tasked with remaining near the Frigate.
Lead by Dynaco, the TIEs rush to intercept the X-Wings, with Osprey closing in on the right side of the Cruiser in an effort to take out Galans Corvette, who is equipped with the Trained Marines tasked with boarding the Cruiser.
The TIEs are able to beat the Rebels to the Belt, swarming it and attacking the Fighters and Corvettes. Red 3 (Salazar), would be the first casualty of battle, being killed by Dynaco himself. Osprey, his Turbolasers aiming at the Tribune, instantly take out Galan's shields.
Due to the TIEs blocking off the narrow pass to the Cruiser, Galan is forced to push towards Osprey's Frigate instead of boarding as planned.
The Rebel turn would result in the deaths of many TIE Pilots, with the Tribune and the Redemption taking out 3 TIEs each. The X-Wings took out an additional 2 TIEs.
With the Tribune being forced to make a loop around, Galan is forced to confront the much more powerful Frigate. Osprey, unfortunatly, misses most of his shots, able to at least deplete his shields again.
As Trens closes in on the Asteroid belt, he begins firing at the fighters as they prepare to loop around from their attacks on the TIEs. Red 6 (Zahrac) is instantly blown into a fireball as he veers and collides with an asteroid.
The TIEs instantly start targetting Salira's command vessel, firing onto Ilum's Liberator as Osprey moves onto the frigate. Trens opens fire onto Galan as well, damaging one of his Engines.
Osprey smirks as he starts to close in on the Rebel Vessel, confident in his victory and knowing the defeat of the enemy commander would boost his ranking. That was, until Salira deployed his secret weapon: Anti-Shield Missiles. Osprey then realized that all of his shields were suddenly taken out by Salira's missiles, leaving him open to imminent attack.
Realizing Galan wasn't going to be able to dock, and knowing that time was running out with Trens coming in, Captain Andor decided to take a risk and board the cruiser. Despite his crew being untrained in Marine tactics, the boarding party was able to fight for the main hallway into the cruiser. After many rolls, the Rebel Boarding party was able to win each time, fighting their way to the ships Communications Center with almost no drawbacks.
As the Rebels attempted to defend the boarding party, they would lose 4 more pilots to the Imperial TIEs. Osprey and Salira, with shields and shield generators now depleted, began firing into each others sides
The Boarding crew fights back to Andor's Corvette, right as Trens enters the belt. Andor's Corvette disembarks from the cruiser, and the Rebels now have one objective: escaping the field with the information intact. And Trens isn't going to let that happen.
The Bombers, who had been seperated from the frigate in the ensuing commotion, were now being targeted by the TIEs. Trens, meanwhile, was homing in on Andor, destroying two more of his engines and reducing his speed.
With Andor crippled, Galan places his own corvette in the line of fire, protecting him and taking on fire meant for Andor. Salira, meanwhile, fires his Turbolasers into the bridge of the Intervention, killing Osprey in fire storm.
The TIEs kill another Y-Wing, with Saladin (Yellow 1), now scared that he has been abandoned. The rest of the Rebel Force continues their retreat, with the TIEs firing into the engines of the retreating Ships, just about crippling Saliras command vessel.
They were almost to the point where they can jump. With Andor down to two engines, Galan makes the ultimate sacrifice: he flies in front of Trens, attempting to block his fire. It would be Dynaco, however, that fires the killing blow to the Tribune.
The others don't have time to mourn however, and use the bought time to reach the finish. With orders from Salira, Andor, along with Blue 1 (Desmond), 2 (Corin), and Blue 4 (Kassus) escape the battle.
Despite urges from Salira, Kareda, the sole survivor of Red Squadron, decides to not jump, opting instead to cover the still retreating Salira. She doubles back, firing and destroying 2 TIE fighters firing on Ilums Liberator. Dynaco, the last remaining member of his Unit, flies right behind Kareda and, despite Salira's calls and warning, is shot in her rear engine. Her fighter spirals out of control, before floating in the space. Despite his attempts to reach the Rebel Hero of Sunbelt Squadron.... she never responded back.
With a reluctant sigh, he crosses the line, escaping into hyperspace from the battle, and leaving behind the unknown fates of Kareda and Salladin.
This was one of my favorite battles to play out. I loved being able to implement actual command cruisers and ships for the rebellion, instead of just Fighters. This was also the closest I believe a battle has ever been, with the tensions even higher than the last one! It was only thanks to the sacrifice of the Tribune that the Redemption was able to get away, even when majorly crippled. I was also worried Salira would be killed in his first appearance, but what delighted to find he would survive to fight another day.
So to recap, these kind of battles are always my favorite: where the ending is not certain until the very end actually happens. While this was a Rebel Victory, it wasn't without some major losses for them. Dynaco proved to be a very Competent TIE Pilot, scoring 2 X-Wing Kills and delivering massive damage to the bigger cruisers. Desmond didn't really shine in this battle, besides surviving.
Next Time: The spike placed by the Rebel Boarding Party revealed some very interesting information: Imperial Transport schedules, factory locations, base placements, etc. The most interesting, however, was a supposed Prisoner Transfer happening from the planet of Sylcara, where there supposedly wasn't even an Imperial Base. The prisoners engaged in the Transfer proved to be more interesting, however, especially to Desmond. Included in the exchange were multiple Rebel Sympathizers and Pirates. Included on the list were several members of Desmond's old Squadron, most of whom he had originally presumed as dead.
He needed to get to that transport..... before it leaves for the Spice Mines of Kessel.
