Battle Royal

                    Series Empire vs. Federation
           Imperial Fleet vs. Starbase and Two Starships
                                v.1.1


Premise: The Empire and Federation exist in the same galaxy.  The Empire
controls half the galaxy and the Federation is its current size.  They
have only recently discovered each other.  They know each other's ships
on sight.  They know they are enemies.  The emperor has sent the 1st
Fleet commanded by Grand Admiral Thrawn into Federation space to test
their defenses and probe as deeply as they can before meeting
appreciable resistance.  The 1st Fleet consists of 10 Destoyer based
battle groups.  Each battle group has 1 Star Destroyer, 2 Callimari
Cruisers, 3 Frigates, and loose/support ships.  Battle groups 4 and 8
have corvette squadrons.  The flagship, with Thrawn in it, is a Super
Star Destroyer.  In the starbase, commanded by Cpt. Jellico,  is docked
the U.S.S. Defiant, commanded by Cpt. Sisko and company, and the U.S.S.
Pheonix commanded by Cpt. Maxwell.

Lets Rock:

The Imperial Fleet jumps out of hyperspace on the far side of the planet
the starbase is orbiting.  They don't know that there are any ships
inside.  Thrawn: Our mission is simple, determine the starbases's
capabilities, destroy it, and eliminate any future Federation military
capability in this system.  All ships hold position here, we'll send in
battle group 3 and 250 fighters and bombers each from battle group 2.

Meanwhile on the starbase:  "Captain Jellico, we've detected a spatial
distortion on the far side of the planet, but it seems to have
stablized.  "Raise the Defiant.  "Sisko here.  "Captain we've detected
some kind of spatial anomoly on the far side, we were wondering if you
boys could check it out on your way back to DS9.  "No problem captain,
we'll be launching momentarily.  Sisko out.

The Defiant leaves starbase and proceeds toward the anomoly.  Before
they get 10 feet, they see the Imperial battle group come over the the
lim.  Sisko: "Red Alert! Shields up.  Sisko to Jellico, we've got an
Imperial invasion on our hands. "Acknowledged Defiant, raising shields
and readying Pheonix for launch.

The Star Destroyer radios Thrawn and informs him that the Defiant is
present and engaging them.  Thrawn: "Hmm.  This may not be as easy as I
first thought.  Star Destroyer 2, join battle group 3 at once. Remaining
Battle group 2 ships standby for immeadiate engagement.

Battle ensues.  Captain Scruggs in field command on SD3 orders the
fighters and bombers to attack the station as well as the frigates.  The
SD and cruisers will attempt to deal with the Defiant.  He knows a large
sitting duck like a SD won't last long against the type X+ phasers on a
starbase.  The fighters and bombers swamp the starbase like gnats.
Small groups of 3 fighters continually dive bomb the station and back
off for another swing.  They were well dispersed so photon blasts would
not be effective.  The phaser banks were firing at their maximum rate
destroying several fighters a second.  The frigates were relentless in
their elliptical orbit attack pattern, yet their size spelled their
doom.  They were all destroyed in minutes.

The SD and cruisers broke formation and attempted to stay on the
Defiant's blind sides.  The SD let loose with punishing volleys of
dozens of blasts per second, about half meeting their target only when
the Defiant was ahead of them.  The Defiant immeadiately went for the
biggest target, the SD.  It came around for a run from behind to wax the
SD's rear blind zone.  Just when a few rounds were shot off, one cruiser
came in and nearly rammed them, with all weapons firing.  The cruiser
commander knows that his shields can withstand a collision with the
Defiant and that the Defiant will back off in a game of chicken.  Those
few rounds were enough, though, to totally destroy the SD's rear shield
generators, leaving a tender area exposed.  Scruggs orders all fighters
to be launched at once.  He knows they'll be cannon fodder but is hoping
they can give Defiant something to do while he pounds it with his 60
turbolasers.  As the cruiser pursues Defiant off its run, guns blazing,
Sisko executes a tight backward loop at full impulse.  The commander's
jaw opens as he see's a manuever that should turn a person into paste.
He orders pitch +60 degrees and full power in an attempt to undercut
Defiant's loop.  He fails.  Sisko sees this, stops mid-loop, turns and
heads full speed toward the cruiser from above and behind.  "Lock
phasers on maximum.  Fire!  The cruiser's shields, the most powerful in
the Empire, buckle and fall after 3 bursts hit.  The remaining phaser
blasts impact and send shards of white metal exploding into space.  The
part of the cruiser facing the Defiant no longer exists.  A second later
it is vaporized by a combination of the terrible phaser fire and its own
reactor core exploding.

Sisko:  "O'Brien report.  "Shields holding at 90% sir.  All weapons on
line and ready.

At this time the Pheonix is ready to launch, her crew snatched from R&R.
Jellico:  "Your phaser banks are perfect for this kind of combat
Maxwell.  Those fighters are like flies.  "We're ready Captain.  "We're
going to take some damage when we drop shields to let you guys out so
get the hell out of here fast!  "We're in position now to shoot out of
here at full impulse.  "Right.  Ensign, open space doors... Drop
shields... now!

The Pheonix comes out like a bat out of hell.  At the exact same moment
SD2 enters the battle.  It fires all weapons at the starbase.  Blue fire
balls erupt from the wide habitation area as power conduits explode.
The facing shield generators are reduced to 50% power.  Shields are
restored as Pheonix clears the perimiter and she raises her own shields,
but not before she takes several laser blasts.  The Pheonix goes to town
immeadiatly, like a hungry frog in a net full of mosquitos.  Her 16
phaser banks (8 dorsal 8 ventral arranged in pairs) light up space.  The
fighters, faced with a moving target, group into larger formations so
that their combined fire power will at least affect the Pheonix.
Maxwell responds by saying "ah, we get to use some manuevers and
tactics; this is finally becoming interesting.

Scruggs reports to Thrawn that the Pheonix has also joined the battle.
Thrawn orders remaining battle group 2 ships to engage immeadiatly and
sends battle groups 9 and 10 around the back of the planet to mount a
surprise attack from behind.  The rest of battle group 2 arrives, and
Sisko quips "how many ships do they have back there?!  The Defiant is
surrounded by hundreds of fighters and the war ships.  Sisko uses the
superior manueverability of the Defiant to skirt in and out of the
bigger ships while picking off fighters and heavily damaging them.  As
he flies straight down between a SD and cruiser with phasers blasting,
taking out port and starboard sheilds repsectivly and doing significant
damage, another cruiser is waiting for them underneath.  With little
room to manuever, he orders fire phasers and hard positive pitch.  The
second cruiser from battle group 3 now lies dead in space.  Sisko now
finds himself surrounded by a sphere of Imperial ships all firing at
once.  He knew those two ships were too easy a target...  He hails
Maxwell: "We could use a little help over here captain!  "We're already
on our way.  We have the fighters mopped up to a point where the station
can finish the job.  Ben we're going to blow a door open for you on your
bearing 272 mark 30.  Standby with your quantum torpedoes.  "Understood.

Scrugg's ship has just entered Maxwell's cross hairs.  Maxwell: "Lock
photons on target full spread maximum yield.  Fire!  Sisko: "Lock
quantum torpedoes on that cruiser and fire... now!  Several white pearls
leave the Pheonix and make for the SD, cruiser, and fighter formation.
Scruggs exclaims: "All hands brace for impact.  Three torpedoes
broadside the SD and pierce its remaining shields in milliseconds.  The
blast vaporizes the Star Destoyer completely sending millions of white
metal fragments in all directions.  None of Maxwell's photons made
contact with the cruiser but exploded nearby enough to wipe out its
shield capability and cause heavy damage.  The incoming quantum
torpedoes from the Defiant sent the cruiser into a fray of car sized
chunks of debris.  Two photons detonated within the fighter formation
destroying 85% of them.  In 5 seconds the two ships had sliced away a
third of the Imperial sphere trap.  Defiant burst forth and headed for
the station to get it bearings back and do some brief damage conrol.

Captain Raynor of SD2 was one of the most arrogant and bravado officers
in the Imperial navy.  He had a reputation for brutal directness.  He
was now in command of the operation.  He informed Thrawn of SD3's
destruction and he was furious.  "How dare they destroy one of *my* Star
Destroyers!  Battle groups 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, attack at once; attack at
once!  Utilize attack pattern noose.

Raynor ordered the corvette squadron of BG 4 to engage the Pheonix and
the Defiant.  With speed and agility rivaling the Federation ships, they
swooped and fired, swooped and strafed.  Each starship managed to pick
off a corvette on every 1 or 2 passes, while also evading cruisers and
swatting fighters.  They caused more damage and were more effective than
the entire first wave up to that point.

The starbase has had time to repair most of the shield damage and damage
to the type X+ phaser arrays.  The starships are taking minor but
accumulating damage.  Jellico decides that a little more involvement on
his part is prudent.  He opens up the phaser banks and Imperial ships
start exploding again.  His effectiveness is limited, though, becasue he
can't risk hitting one of his own ships zipping around at high speed.
Seconds later two Destroyer battle groups appear around the lim and open
fire.  For some reason, the SD captains have decided to get into a
slugfest with the starbase.  Jellico orders phasers to ignore the
smaller ships and concentrate all fire on the big boys.  The massive
type X+ phaser banks on the station leisurly wipe out one ship after
another.  The battle becomes very consuming as the few, but powerful,
phasers alternate targets.  Raynor, still mixing it up with the
starships sees an opurtunity to attack the starbase while it is
distracted.  He sets full power toward the station but doesn't fire,
saving it for a point blank strike.  Only Raynor would have the audacity
to challenge a starbase mono e mono.  Jellico has taken out half the
larger ships and seriously damaged both Star Destroyers when the alerts
sound that a ship is closing fast.  Jellico: "The bastard's trying to
sneak up on us.  A wide smirk crosses his face.  "Cease all fire
redirect all power to the facing phaser array and fire.  The phaser
beam, twice cascaded over the firing array, rips through the shields and
digs down deep into the ship like a pressure garden hose spraying loose
soil.  The beam carved up the Star Destroyer and when it played over the
bridge and engineering sections the ship's reactors exploded tearing
what was left of the ship in half.  About 25% of the ship remained
intact, floating dead in space.

The Defiant was acting like a big corvette, following them after attack
runs.  The battle seemed to be a space dogfight.  Maxwell was cruising
back and forth at about half impulse picking off fighters and shooting
the remaining larger ships when the chance arose.  Both captains had
underestimated the effectiveness of large numbers of small agile craft
against starships.  The cruisers and frigates of BG 4 - 8 were now fully
engaged.  The Star Destroyers were hanging back taking up positions that
were out of normal firing range.  They launched 1000 fighters to harang
the Defiant and Phoenix.  The fighters all of a sudden pulled back, and
the frigates, cruisers, and corvettes fought exclusively.  They were
drawing the starships in toward the starbase.  As the starbase became
more involved in the battle again, several Imperial ships lay dead.
Suprisingly, all the Imperials bugged out in a hurry and the reason soon
became clear. 3000 TIE fighters swarmed in and surounded the station and
ships with an impenatrable field of ships.  The starbase began sweeping
its phaser beams through space as the fighter density permitted such a
tactic.  Maxwell decided to do a little clearing with his photons and
fired directly ahead.  The torpedo got 1000 feet before it hit a fighter
and exploded.  The explosion destroyed 500 TIE fighters but was still
close enough to the Phoenix to drop her shields by 20%.  The SD's were
now in position surrounding the battle field, bows pointed, to the
center to bring all their firepower to bear.  The cruisers and frigates
were taking up similar postions.  Then the hell came.  Every ship was
firing all weapons at the station, Defiant, and Phoenix.  They were
destroying as many fighters themselves as the Feds, but Thrawn didn't
care.  Thats the beauty of the noose manuever, you use your own ships to
keep your enemy from escaping.  The Defiant or Phoenix would have to fly
through a mile of fighters to get out.

"O'Brian report.  "Shields down to 60% sir.  We've got to get out of
here.  "Sisko to Maxwell whats your status.  "This is Maxwell our
shields are down to 73%.  I have an idea.  If we come along side each
other we can fire wide spread phasers and cut a path out of here.

On board Star Destroyer 4 with captain Thebes now in command of the
battle:  "All ships: concentrate fire on the Defiant.  We need to bring
this battle to a close.  All fighters: enter flight plan theta.  We need
room to let our weapons in.  5 Destroyers worth of turbolaser and ion
cannon fire began raining down on the Defiant.  O'Brian: "Sir we're
taking heavy fire.  Shields are dropping.  Sisko: "Damn.  Engage cloak.
"The cloak is malfunctioning sir, but I think it will hide us from their
sensors.  The Defiant wrinkled away and caught the Imperials off guard.
Imperial: "Captain, the Federation ship has disappeared.  "Damn.  They
must have an invisibility device.  Continue fire on the remaining ship
and the station.  Maxwell: "Terrorific Sisko, they're firing more at us
now!  "Don't worry Captain, when we decloak it'll throw them off guard
long enough for us to execute our manuever.  "Roger.

The Defiant moved under cloak next to the Phoenix.  As it decloaked the
Imperial fire dropped so they could retarget her.  Both ships flew
forward with full phasers.  The deflectors took care of as many ships as
the phasers.  But, the Phoenix still hit 4 fighters and the Defiant 2.
They shot out in oppisite directions.  The Defiant's shields were at
critical because they took several hits while cloaked.  She cloaked
immeadiatley and headed for the far side of the station to make repairs.
This left the Phoenix and the starbase alone to hold off the Imperial
ships.  Maxwell was very happy to have manuevering room now.  But
shields were down to 59%.  Thebes cursed.  "All fighters engage the
station.  The remaining fighters got re-enforcments and surrounded the
starbase once again.  Their proximity to the station left photon
torpedoes useless and phasers were toasting several per second.

The Phoenix headed away from the planet toward a Star Destroyer and a
nearby cruiser.  The SD was giving maximum fire but Maxwell was taking
it.  "Shields down to 50% now sir.  "Lock photon torpedoes on that
Destroyer, pattern beta, ... fire!  Three torpedoes made toward the SD
about a second apart.  The first one impacted and penetrated the shields
and blew away the entire front third of the Star Destroyer.  The second
one, essentially exploding inside the ship, destroyed the rest of the it
leaving large chunks retreating from the ship's former location.  With
no target left the third torpedo just sailed on.  A few chunks were
still nearby Phoenix's flight path so Maxwell took some pot shots with
phasers to clear the road.  Thebes ordered all ships to break formation
and remaining corvettes and frigates to attack the Phoenix at close
quarters.  He reported back to Thrawn that the Defiant had disappeared,
he couldn't be sure if it was destroyed or it had used its invisibility
device, and one more SD had been destroyed.  The Phoenix just destroyed
another cruiser with phasers and was coming around to sit at long phaser
range to start mac-ing (/mack' ing/).  The phasers had much greater
range than the turbolasers.  Thebes ordered 3 cruisers to attack at
point blank range on high speed runs.  If the Imperials were going to
take heavy phaser fire, they might as well have a chance to fire back.
The starbase had destroyed another 2000 fighters leaving about 1000 left
in the attack.  Soon, once the fray had cleared, it could bring its big
guns to bear on the heavy ships once again.

Onboard the Defiant: "Chief how are the repairs coming. "I have the
shields stablized at 75% phasers are at 90%.  The cloaking device is
fully functional.  "Excellent.  Helm take us back in, around the back
way and sit us on the blind side of that far Destroyer.

The Defiant soared in and leisurely posistioned itself behind the Star
Destroyer.  "Decloak and fire phasers on maximum... now!  The Defiant
wrinkled back into view and alarms sounded like mad on the SD bridge: "A
ship has appeared behind us!  "Get us out of here helm!  It was too
late.  The Defiant opened up with continuous fire from its pulsed
phasers.  The shields fell after 2 hits and the remaining energy dug
into the engineering section sending fire into space.  The reactor
exploded, vaporizing the bridge and splitting the ship lengthwise down
the middle but not entirely.  The Defiant kept it up for another few
seconds until it was not recognizable as a Star Destroyer.  It next
locked quantum torpedoes on a nearby cruiser which turned and tried to
run behind a mediumly distant SD!  The Defiant fired and the torpedoes
hit in the center of the ship on the side.  The shields took one hit but
the other two hit the hull leaving a gaping hull in the ship.  The
cruiser had minimal power and could no longer fight.

The Phoenix had taken out 3/4 of the corvettes and frigates that were
attacking it and Thebes ordered all Destroyers and cruisers to take up
noose positions around the Phoenix.  Maxwell saw what Thebes was trying
to do and executed high speed long distance evasive manuevers.  The
Defiant came around another SD and did a run right up its front door.
Sisko went in at full impulse from the beak to the stern with full
phasers.  He left a trail of destruction along the front of the ship,
wiping out 3/4 of the gun enplacements, and destroying the bridge.
Because it stuck up it got extra fire.  It and its two shield generators
exploded in orange fire balls.  The auxilliary bridge near the ships
center took control and made do with what was left.  The Phoenix was
coming by on an evasive manuever and let loose with port phasers on what
was left of the battered hulk.  The phaser beams burned into the hull
leaving colored heat marks next to where it passed and sending fireballs
into space whenever it met a power conduit.  The Imperial ships didn't
have the high density of power transfer conduits like a Federation ship
does so they could take intense poundings without totally exploding with
just a few hits.

The starbase was nearly TIE fighter free now.  Nearly 9000 fighters had
been destroyed.  Jellico ordered fire at will on the SD's and cruisers.
The type X+ phasers hit one cruiser on the underneath rear.  Shields
fell in a second and the beam carved right through the ship and came out
the other side!  The cruiser listed and the reactor exploded shredding
the rear half of the ship.

Thebes radioed Thrawn and told him that they would be destroyed if they
didn't withdraw.  Thrawn called him a coward for not fighting to the
last man.  "Excellency, this was to be a reconnasience mission not a
full scale war.  Our fighters are depleted and our ships can not compete
with or evade their energy weapons.  "Your incompetence has led to our
downfall.  This is Thrawn.  All ships withdraw.  Repeat, all ships
withdraw, return to base.  "Thank you Excellency.

For some reason, the Imperial ships all headed up toward the planets
north.  One by one they apeared to elongate and disappear.  The station
and ships measured intense spatial distortions.  During the retreat
combat was still going on.  Maxwell followed one SD right up to the
pole.  He detected the ships jump engines producing some kind of space
tearing effect.  Just as the ship was going to hyperdrive, he fired
phasers into the SD's rear weak zone.  It hit while the Star Destroyer
was in the transitional state and the explosions from the phasers
destablized the ship and every inch of it exploded in a gigantic
fireball of white hot fragments and orange fire.

The Imperials were now gone.  4 of the 9 Star Destroyers were destroyed
and 3 were dead in space and captured.  8 of the 18 cruisers were
destroyed and 2 were dead and captured.  20 of the 27 frigates were
destroyed and the rest escaped.  83 of the 100 corvettes were destroyed
and 7 were captured.  Nearly 9000 fighters were destroyed; none were
captured.  Thrawn's battle group did not take part in the battle, he was
keeping it in emergency reserve.


        Total   Destroyed       Dead    Escaped
SD's    9       4       3       2
cruisers        18      8       2       8
frigates        27      20      0       7
corvettes       100     83      7       10
fighters        9000    9000    0       0