Solo Mission 1 - Mercy Flight - PART 1

The Uranian fleet commander received urgent notice that a civilian pleasure cruiser, the UMV Celeste, had suffered a SLAP-transition failure, dropping it at the edge of Vultic territory. The Vultists would hold the passengers captive and random them for obscene sums of the Uranian patrol couldn't rescue the ship first.

In this mission, I had to get to the stranded vessel, board it and get it moving back to the jump point before the Red Fleet could close on and destroy it.

The Red Fleet would only shoot at the civilian vessel once it was boarded, but until then it would certainly shoot at me!

At the start of the mission only my two MAS1/POW 1 vessels deployed (scenario rules) as a scout screen, dropping out of SLAP space as close to the target as they could. One immediately began to make a flanking move, prompting a red Fleet scout to make an appearance from the Vultic jump point. The other made steady headway towards the stranded vessel, throwing screening fire at the enemy.

We were then alarmed by the emergence from the Vultic jump gate of an enormous heavy cruiser! The scout screen sent urgent messages requesting support and their pleas were answered by the rapid arrival of their flagship, the UCS Behemoth (MAS 3, POW 3), which immediately laid a withering (but ineffective) belt of fire down upon the approaching enemy capital ship.

Thankfully, with the Behemoth's arrival I also gained a hand of cards with which to influence the Control Deck.  To minimize the impact of the enemy capital ship I needed to draw out the Red Fleets low and mid-level vessels and then resist deploying my own reserves unless absolutely necessary.

I called in the Behemoth's sister ship, the Leviathan, and the pair of them began to bracket the light scout heading to rescue the stranded civilian cruise ship, pouring fire into the enemy lines.

Sure enough, not only another light scout but also a pair of medium cruisers emerged from the Vultic jump gate.  And first blood was to the enemy, as the crew of the light scout sent ahead to draw fire gave the ultimate sacrifice.  But the Uranian strike back was decisive as wave after wave of fire ate away the shields of the approaching heavy cruiser, breaking its back in a catastrophic explosion.

Meanwhile, within the shadow of its mighty sisters, the light scout Daring finally made it to the stranded vessel and performed a masterful set of manoeuvres to achieve docking on its first attempt! (I rolled two 12s!) [PHOTO 1]

In the wake of their flagship's annihilation the Red Fleet seemed to have fallen into disarray, with the vessels emerging from the jump gate reluctant to close with the intimidating firepower of their numerically-inferior enemy. [PHOTO 2]

It looked like the Uranians had the advantage of their opponents at this halfway point.  But with only a skeleton crew transferred to the civilian liner, both the Daring and the Celeste would be struggling to make swift return to the jump-gate.  The Uranians were not out of the woods, yet!

TO BE CONTINUED...