Part 64: Turn 151

TURN 151


The Sheliak smile from behind their diplomatic immunity, and our invasion fleet is forced to sadly turn back home. A new Klingon aphorism is coined by the fleet's leader: "First, kill all the lawyers. Second, kill all the Sheliak."


TURN 152. Gul Damar is pleased with us, as we are in an affiliation treaty with them and have caused nobody harm. Again we turn down a war pact offer.


We need to give our soldiers something to do anyway. We have 3 Birds of Prey, and we're going to send them down to have some fun in Federation territory.


TURN 153. A rare positive Random Event occurs in Caldonia. "L" class jungle planets have one of the largest capacities, so Caldonia can cram a few more Caldonians in.


Our intel officers are stunned into silence when they actually catch a Romulan spy in the act. So it wasn't just the Cardassians who are causing trouble. The Romulan was targeting our economy, so perhaps the Romulans have been stealing from us!


TURN 154. Durenia has been terraformed and will be colonized. We'll build wind turbines and the Klingon science structure.


Along with our 3 Birds of Prey, we'll send a Scout around in the southwest to get a look at the galaxy. We actually spot a group of Ferengi ships that aren't parked next to Shelia. Hopefully they'll tie down the Cardassians.


Our Birds of Prey arrive at Romulus. We don't have enough scan strength to see their cloaked ships, but we can see that their Outpost has been destroyed. Looks like the Feds brought it to them--but couldn't take any systems.


TURN 155. Another scientific breakthrough, this time in energy.


Next stop is computer research. We should get the Strike Cruiser upgraded into the Strike Cruiser II soon, which would be a slight boost to those Starbases we've been guarding with Strike Cruisers. We're still far away from being at the level where the other empires began.


Our Scout in the southwest spots a Cardassian Outpost. We have an affiliation treaty with the Cardassians, so we can roam around a little. This will make a good opportunity to see what's up with them.


TURN 156. We saw a Vulcan ship in a Federation fleet a long while back, but we finally make first contact with them. Their system is a pocket of Federation space in the middle of Cardassian territory.


To the south of Vulcan and next door to Cardassia is another intergalactic traveler, the Tarellian Vessel. It's kind of like a Battleship, and the Cardies shouldn't have any trouble dispatching it soon.


The Feds offer us 4,600 credits to end our war, but our Birds of Prey haven't had their fun yet, so we ignore the offer.


We must be careful here. As we venture toward the Federation core, we could run into a lot of hardware. Our Birds have cloaks and can simply retreat if the odds don't favor them, but we would take a morale hit for running away.


TURN 157. The Birds attack an undefended Federation Outpost. These are always good for boosting morale.


The Birds decloak and kill it easily. It's nice to blow stuff up again.


TURN 158. This is what I hate about alliances. As its alliance member, the Cardies must express their disapproval of our expedition through Federation territory. So much for being "cordial" with us.


TURN 159. The Birds of Prey ambush a Federation Troop Transport and blow it up.


TURN 162. We move toward the Federation core and accidentally arrive on the Federation homeworld. Birds of Prey have little scan strength, so they can't see where they're going. Luckily, the Fed homeworld has only a handful of light attack ships guarding it. Our Scout in the southwest has caught up with the fleet and will guide them from here on.


Our ships will kill the Fed Destroyers in the first round, since the Outpost obviously cannot run away. We'll leave the Cardassian Troop Transport alone. Even though we have an affiliation treaty with the Cardies, we can attack their ship because this is a three-way battle and the Feds have a higher-level treaty with them.


After our decloak round, we smash the Federation Outpost and the Cardassian Troop Transport retreats.


Klingons are made proud by their warriors across the galaxy. Meanwhile, intel reports that we've lost a little scientific data--twice. At first it looks like a double-post. On further reflection, it would seem that we were sabotaged by both the Cardassians and the Romulans this turn.


Our Scout was pleased to share in the victory with the Birds of Prey. Now it is the Scout's turn to make a contribution. We can see one sector in each direction. Quazulu has an outpost and a few ships, and to our west a fleet of 17 Federation warships is in hot pursuit. Our ships are almost completely penned in, as we're near the southeastern corner of the galaxy. It's time to make a graceful exit from Federation space.