[after-action report from a game of Armada played 12 February, following on the initial set-up ... I've been painting up 3D-printed Star Trek ships that are essentially at-scale with Armada's Star Destroyers, and finally got a chance to surprise my friends with them and some custom-written ship cards!]
CAPTAIN'S LOG -- STARDATE 2892.5
Disaster!
Having passed through the interspatial anomaly at system Gamma Hydri, we encountered a distressed vessel requiring repairs, and made friendly contact with them. They appeared to be a cosmopolitan society, much in the nature of our own United Federation of Planets, a mix of species working together toward a greater goal.
Unfortunately, they are involved in some kind of interstellar war with an Empire not unlike the Klingon, Romulan, or Kzinti Empire. After repairs were completed on the Providence--a "battlecruiser" far larger than any vessel in any Alpha Quadrant fleet!--another task force of huge dreadnoughts warped into the system by unfamiliar propulsion and hailed us to surrender in the name of the "Galactic" Empire.
I explained to the representative of this Empire that we were a neutral party, and had only responded to a distress call as any spacefaring vessel is obliged to do. The other scoffed at this explanation, and goggled when I truthfully denied any knowledge of a "galaxy-wide" civil war. I know not how large the holdings of these polities are, but their vessels certainly are vast. Unfortunately, the imperial commander pronounced that any harboring or abetting "rebel scum" were as good as scum themselves and so we were to consider ourselves nothing more than slag--transmissions were then cut, and the now-enemy squadron moved to intercept us.
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| Hornet bottom right, Antigone next up, Argo approaching from top, Zulfiqar partially obscured behind Rebel Providence |
Our crews were stalwart in the face of these seemingly overwhelming odds. Red alert sounded, shields went up, enemies were scanned. Their weapons were massed batteries of laser-cannon, their shields similar in design to our own. Unfortunately, they deployed some technology unknown to us introducing gravitic fluctuations that slowed our vessels. Damnitall! Zulfiqar and Argo were hamstrung, and unable to stoke our to get into the fray early enough to even attempt to turn the tide. Hornet meanwhile leapt ahead, trusting her shields and the sure hands of their chief engineer Lt. Commander Sher'Kana.
As Hornet sped ahead and met the teeth of the imperial wolf--and vicious they proved to be--Antigone's captain wisely chose to turn aside and begin withdrawal, perhaps to turn and fight again, but mindful of the need to warn the Federation of the new presence of these violent aliens upon our border. As she turned away, she gave well with her torpedoes and phasers, but the massed batteries of the enemy dreadnought wreaked havoc on her shields.
Meanwhile, as Antigone did her best to keep speed despite the strange gravitic fluctuations produced by the ship with strange bulges along its length, Argo and Providence moved in to engage the enemy and block him from Antigone's escape route out of the system and back through the interspatial anomaly. I watched in helpless rage as the burning hulk of Hornet tumbled through space, far too distant for any transporter rescue of her gallant crew.
Argo and Providence turned their fire from the enemy flagship to attempt to destroy the ship producing the gravitic fluctuations that were playing such havoc with our ships' engines. Argo's captain flew straight in against the enemy, prow-to-prow, while Providence angled in behind, and then swung around for a devastating broadside.
As Antigone passed the enemy's fighing-shuttle group (with strange "wing" structures like parallel solar panels), the captain noted that they had no shields and in a stroke of intuition, dropped energy to phasers and shunted everything to the transporters instead. Two squadrons worth of these small fighting-crafts' pilots are even yet in her brig, to be interrogated on our return to the nearest Starfleet outpost for information regarding this belligerent Empire we have just faced.
Before she had passed out of range, the captain of Argo ordered her own crew to also transport to Antigone--all except the skeleton crew necessary for the continued maintenance of shields, weaponry, and tending the warp core. Nose to nose with the enemy, held in a grip of gravitic manipulation, phasers flaring and torpedoes flying, she and Providence buckled the shields of the enemy and scored her hull with rupture after rupture ...
But all to no avail. The combined firepower of the enemy ultimately shattered both ships. At this point, there was no way I could order my crew to continue into the fray. Damning the enemy's strange gravitic manipulations once again, I ordered Zulfiqar out of the system, to guard the rear of Antigone as we withdrew.
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| Providence wrecked, and USS Argo moments from the same fate; Antigone (middle right top) and Zulfiqar (top right) withdraw for the anomaly |
I am ashamed at my inability to bring my ship to bear to aid my comrades in their sacrifice. I only hope that this mission has proved not in vain, as news of this belligerence will help the Federation prepare for what may be terrible war.
~Captain Mehmet Elqataani, Captain of the USS Zulfiqar
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