March 8th

On this gathering of our weekly game we had a great crew, even if it wasn't a full crew. Junior Lieutenant first banana Larry 'Chiquita' Arellano, Captain Jim Grindrod, Ensign Michael Kanarski, and Commander William Feil.

Before we started playing we had a dinner of Penne Rigate, tomato sauce, meatballs, italian sausage, and chicken sausage. With our bellies filled with pasta, tomato, and meat we got to our stations.

For the first game I had the Captain's chair, along with Science and Comms. Jim was helm after expressing not having enough experience piloting any of the UES vessels. Michael had the weapons console and Lieutenant Chiquita was our chief Engineer.
Our ship was a Scout, christened the UES Luna.

In the Luna we used our jump drive to hit a few different enemy formations. Dropping mines in front of the packs and shooting ECMs into their ranks. While we did our best it soon wasn't good enough. Three of our four support stations were destroyed while we tried to take care of the threat proactively. All of the large fleets were soon destroyed but we suffered great damage from incoming fighter craft. A mine was dropped to destroy them but they closed the distance faster then expected and The Luna was caught in the blast.
It was only through the quick work of our chief engineer that we survived. We tried to jump after the blast to the remaining space station to effect repairs but we were horribly damaged. The jump only moved us a fraction of the distance we input into our jump drive control. Lieutenant Chiquita ordered his dam con teams around the best he could with many of them dead from the blast. He got just enough of our jump engines back to make it within 100 of docking distance. The opposing ships were closing fast but our first banana got the impulse drive working enough for us to limp into docking distance. Once docked we got fresh meat for the grinder in the form of new dam con members who set to work mending our half destroyed ship.

After undocking we fired an ECM on the closing fleet and got their attention away from the space station. We got them to follow us far enough away before dropping mines and taking them out. Above all this win belongs to our Chief Engineer. Without him we wouldn't have survived.

For the 2nd game we did a crew rotation. Jim remained at helm, Michael got to step into the big chair as well as comms and science, Larry took a turn at weapons, and I was on my worst station. Engineering. Capt. Michael named our ship, a dreadnought, the UES Just_The_Tip. We wanted to protest but that would be mutiny so collectively we roled our eyes and started our mission.
Sadly this mission was very routine. Our Captain's strategy could be summed up with this quote from him "Why aren't there any nukes!?"
On difficulty 5 the enemies were face rolled. No stations destroyed and no real damage done to the Just_The_Tip.

After this adventure it was getting late and Michael had to depart. The remaining trio soldiered on.

For the third game we decided to try something a little different. Each of us controlled a ship single handed. Larry Captained a Missile Cruiser he named the UES Bananas. Jim was also in a Missile Cruiser named UES Cupcakes. I was in a Light Cruiser named UES Muffins. My ship was the only one with a warp drive. Bananas and Cupcakes were equipped with jump drives. We decided on the easy difficulty of 3 due to the handicap of controlling all the stations unaided.
I found that I was at more of a disadvantage then I first thought by using a warp drive. Without a dedicated science officer to help navigate I could only move around the rather busy map in warp for a little bit at a time before I had to stop, check my science screen, change heading, and start again. Larry and Jim's jump drives allowed them to avoid this annoyance. While dropping mines after a group of enemies attacked faster then expected, Larry flew too close to one of his own mines and was destroyed. Jim respawned him from the server and together we three cleared the aliens from the map.

Game four had us in the Muffins which was refitted into a Battleship. Jim was Captain and Helm. Larry took Engineering and Science. And I was Comms and Weapons. This was mostly to practice at being a three man crew. We successfully finished the mission.

Game five was much of the same. The Muffins was refitted once more, this time into a Missile Cruiser with a jump drive. Jim had Engineering and Science, Larry was Weapons and Comm, I was Capt. and Helm. The Skaarans were a source of constant harassment. It wasn't long until I was tired of the Skaarans running from a whoopin' and ordered nukes into the tubes. As soon as they were dealt with we attempted to jump in front of an enemy fleet flying toward our space stations. Unfortunately our jump coordinates were off and we found ourselves directly in the center of the enemy fleet. Fortunately we survived long enough to fly away from fleet while dropping mines. The mines annihilated the fleet completely and the mission was finished.

The sixth and last game had us in the UES Muffins Light Cruiser with jump drive. Larry was Capt. and Helm. Jim was Weapons and Comms. And I was Engineering and Science. We sadly died this time out. We were trying to get close enough an incoming formation when they launched fighters. We ignored the fighters and kept flying at the main force. The fighters picked apart our rear shield quickly and we were forced to try and run. We didn't get far before we were dead in the water and destroyed. The lesson we learned. Fighters get priority.

I will be posting pictures shortly.
Commander and First officer of the UES, William Feil, signing off.