Part 47: Turn 306

TURN 306


The revolution on Caldos is a watershed moment. If one system seceded, it could be written off as a freak occurrence. Two forms a pattern. Perhaps the people of Ingraham B are not crazy, but are the beginning of a new movement?


Caldos is located just south of our core, and two sectors from Ingraham B. Like most of our systems, it has no defenses.


Ingraham B has no defenses either, but it has a large population and could theoretically repel an invasion by the few Troop Transports we have available. President Janeway orders the unthinkable: A straight-up bombardment of a Human system.


With nearly 60 million people dead, Janeway clearly intends to send a message.


TURN 307. Predictably, the Federation is outraged beyond belief. Civil war breaks out in Lamenda, killing 17 million. The rebels succeed in blowing up some infrastructure but not taking over the system. Meanwhile, a general strike occurs in Relva. The President is also notified of continued starvation in some systems, but she is unmoved. "When children misbehave, they are sent to bed without supper. If the people of those colonies are going to act like children then they will be treated as such. Starvation will continue until morale improves."


But morale does not appear to be improving, especially since fewer Cardassian ships means fewer spaceship victories. Nearly every system in the Federation is now at risk of revolution.


The population of Ingraham B was thinned by the bombings, and new Troop Transports have arrived, so an invasion of the rebel system will commence immediately.


TURN 308. Officially, this action is characterized as a "liberation" even though the system was independent. President Janeway delivers a moving speech about how even though there was bloodshed, the people of Ingraham B are still part of the Federation family.


The population's reactions are considerably mixed. Some are horrified, but some actually believe it was a liberation.


The remaining people of Ingraham are actually the happiest in the Federation, with a morale classification of "content". Perhaps this is because the unhappy people were killed.


TURN 309. As Janeway orders the rebellion on Caldos be crushed as well, another system goes into revolution. The Relva system in the far north has seceded.


TURN 310. Caldos is next for liberation/invasion, but it's an open question whether all of these seceding systems can be conquered before even more break away.


TURN 311. Having no defenses, Caldos is easily recaptured.


Unfortunately, yet another system has declared its independence from the Federation. The Lamenda system still wears the scars of civil war violence.


One Troop Transport is still on its way to Relva, but the rest of the fleet will be sent to attack Cardassian space in the west. "I'm tired of playing whack-a-mole," says Janeway. "I will not allow the Cardassians to rebuild their empire while I'm busy swatting flies."


TURN 312. Before they were destroying Starbases, but now the Cardassian fleet is reduced to small raids.


As always, the Defiants arrive at the destination first, and blow up a few Cardie ships.


TURN 313. Holberg 917G, the system known for being twice wiped out by the Romulan death fleet, has declared its independence from the Federation. It is interesting how the revolting systems tend to be in the north, and they're all Human systems. Perhaps the end of the Klingon and Romulan empires means those species are incapable of revolution?


The lone Troop Transport will conduct an invasion of Relva. It has no defenses but a population of 140 million, so it should be interesting to see what happens.


TURN 314. In fact, the lone Transport manages to take Relva with little apparent difficulty. This "liberation" may be a net positive for Federation morale, but who knows?


Rebels continue to create civil war all across the Federation, blowing up infrastructure and killing people.


We are at our lowest point. Our entire core, including Sol itself, is classified as rebellious.


Our fleet arrives on a Cardassian system in the far west and orders a bombardment before the slower Troop Transports arrive. We have no Scouts left, so the Dreadnoughts will bear the brunt of the 2 Orbital Batteries.


TURN 315. The bombing of Tyrellia is brutal. Both Batteries are destroyed. Interestingly, no attacking ships were destroyed.


It seems we've found a use for Dreadnoughts after all. Their shields alone were sufficient to protect them from the Orbital Batteries, so they didn't even suffer any hull damage.


TURN 317. The Troop Transports arrive and we scratch one more Cardassian system off our list.


In the southeast, we had one remaining Troop Transport from the Cardassia invasion fleet. It finished building a Starbase next door to Ferenginar. That leaves just one Defiant and the RNS Moth in that area of space. The Starbase's scan strength allows us to detect a nearby Outpost.


The Defiant and the Moth have no trouble killing the Outpost. Hopefully this victory will provide a slight morale bonus.


TURN 318. Another Cardassian system will be invaded. There are 4 Batteries, but luckily we can reuse the Dreadnoughts to deal with at least the first two.


TURN 319. Delta Vega is captured. The Dreadnoughts survived without a scratch, but 2 Troop Transports of all things were killed by the Batteries, apparently due to the order the ships were listed.


TURN 320. We had not seen one of these messages in awhile, but another system has broken away from the Federation. It is another system located just south of the core.


TURN 321. We bombard the next Cardassian system in the west, losing one Defiant in the process.


TURN 322. Another Cardie system bites the dust and the Federation takes another morale hit. But there have been so many atrocities committed lately that the people are almost numb to it.


President Janeway has every intention of conquering the remaining Cardassian-controlled systems, most of which are in former Ferengi territory. Troop Transports are being bought in the core now because building them is too slow due to poor morale. One of Janeway's advisors tells her, "The people need a hero. Someone to believe in. May I suggest the crew of the Moth? The people are fascinated by stories of this exotic Romulan ship that cannot die."


TURN 323. The Romulan Destroyer is ordered to attack a Destroyer next door and pave the way for the incoming Troop Transports. The Defiant could have gone with the Moth, but for propaganda purposes it will fight the battle on its own. The Moth decloaks and delivers an opening round attack.


The power of the decloak turn is clearly seen here. The Moth has maximum experience and was able to strip away all of the Cardassian Destroyer's shields and much of its hull.


The Cardassian Destroyer, by contrast, seems to have been built recently, as it has no experience. Both are Destroyers, but the Moth is vastly superior.


An invasion fleet arrives at the Cardassians' last remaining system in the west. In the southeast, a steady stream of Troop Transports begins arriving at their destination.