The Final Act (SL341)

## The Final ActPart of Klingon-Kzinti Front General War

In Y185 negotiations were underway to establish a cease­ fire of The General War. Virtually all of the empires in the Alpha Octant were nearing exhaustion. The Coalition empires were willing to fight on if only to hold on to what they had (they knew victory was no longer possible). The Alliance, however, was looking for a way to end the fighting even if it meant accepting a draw rather than victory. It was more than probable that if the Alliance continued to attack, the Coalition would be defeated. The expenditure of resources and lives needed to attain that goal, even if the probable outcome would be long‑term peace rather than a future resumption of hostilities, was no longer politically feasible. The political leaders of the Alliance's democracies faced probable loss of political power if the war continued, as their populations were becoming increasingly unhappy with the burdens of the conflict.

Ultimately, for the Alliance, this meant the two great democracies, The United Federation of Planets and the Confederation of the Gorn, were no longer willing to bear the war's cost. The Confederation (perhaps the major empire least damaged by the conflict) was also concerned with the burgeoning presence and unknown intentions of the new empire on its eastern border: the Inter‑Stellar Concordium.

The Kzinti Hegemony's leadership was not in favor of ending hostilities on terms of less than total victory. Unlike the Federation and the Confederation, the Hegemony was not a democracy, and as long as its leaders remained in power they could direct their population to war. The fighting had ravaged the Hegemony, Coalition forces having overrun and occupied much of its territory during the first decade of the conflict, and its core worlds subjected to Coalition assault, inflicting immense economic and humanitarian damage. However, the Hegemony's leadership believed the Federation and Confederation economies could prop them up until complete victory was achieved. The Kzinti Crown Prince (who was politically weak and had not been elevated to the patriarchal title after the previous occupant's death) wanted to visit on the Klingons the pain of occupation and on the Lyrans the cleansing scourge of annihilation (and also thereby cement his place on the throne).

The Crown Prince ordered the Hegemony's commanders to look for opportunities to engage Coalition forces in relatively low­ risk combat situations, which Kzinti ambassadors would then blame on Coalition treachery, in hopes of triggering a resumption of the war.

The Coalition, on the other hand, had ordered its combat units to avoid large‑scale confrontations, but not to be seen as unwilling to defend Coalition territory. The Coalition stance led to many confrontations with all the Alliance forces, but the Kzinti policy resulted in many more (comparatively, given the shortness of their frontline) as the cease‑fire talks proceeded.

With the signing of the cease‑fire only a week away, the commodores of two carrier groups clashed on the Klingon‑Kzinti front line in the former Klingon-Kzinti neutral zone between the two empires. It began simply enough. The Kzintis sighted a Klingon fighter patrol and launched their own fighters to intercept it. There was nothing of value to fight for, except the bragging rights of saying who had driven the other off. Neither commodore was willing to allow the other side to make that claim once the shooting started, and both committed their groups piecemeal in hopes of avoiding a larger escalation.

The sad part was that if the Kzinti strike had been launched only a handful of minutes later than it was, the Klingons would have already withdrawn. A pair of G1Fs had just arrived to pick up the Klingon fighters when the Kzinti fighters were detected.

## Aftermath

Subsequent analysis of what caused this battle to grow out of control showed that the major factor was an intelligence failure on the part of the Klingons.

The Klingon Empire's Galactic Research Unit was aware that the Rapier carrier group was the opposing force patrolling the sector, but were unaware that the 182 had been attached to augment the group, or that all but one of the Needles supporting the group were in fact combat variants. The Klingons believed the Rapier group might have two or three Needles or Needle‑Ds, but that the other five or six Needles were there to sustain the Rapier by picking up and delivering supplies, i.e., Needle‑Cs, possibly one or two Needle‑Gs, possibly a Needle‑F (to pick up replacement size‑1 shuttles). The commander of the Decimation group committed to the battle in the belief that in a fight with the Rapier he held a significant advantage in overall combat power, whereas the two groups actually had relative parity.

The Kzinti Hegemony's Whiskers intelligence organization kept the commander of the Rap1er group better informed on the Decimation group. Knowing that he had relative parity, he be­ lieved that the Decimation group's commander would not esca­late the situation, i.e., the Klingons would choose not to risk a full battle with a virtually equivalent force. As such, he believed he could achieve a low‑cost victory over the Klingons, which the Hegemony could then use to claim the Klingons would not up­ hold a cease‑fire. Pursuant to his orders from the Crown Prince, the Rapier group's commander would not pull back from the battle once it began. Where Whiskers failed him was that they did not realize that the Klingons thought they had the upper hand, i.e., the Klingons were unaware that the Rapier group had been augmented.

Both commanders were aware that the other's group had an attached forward carrier resupply ship. These ships normally did not remain with carrier groups, but as there had been little action the ships had remained close with their stores of replacement materials, and were dragged into the battle.

What should have been little more than a shot or two for "the honor of the flag" rapidly developed into a full on brawl with nei­ ther side willing to give ground. The outmatched Klingon fighters would doubtless have fled the heavier Kzinti fighters (once they identified them as heavy fighters) but for the presence of the G1Fs whose size, shields, phaser‑2s, anti‑drone racks, and tractor beams helped even the odds.

Both commanders committed other elements of their groups in an effort to gain control of the situation without escalating it.

In short order both groups were fully involved in the fighting. When it was all over, both sides had suffered the loss of all engaged fighters and fast patrol ships, but the Klingons are regarded as having "won the day" by destroying the Rapier, even though every surviving ship on both sides was crippled, including the Decimation itself. The Klingons "held the field," and recovered several POIS capsules from both sides' fighters and a number of survival pods from the various fast patrol ships.

With the exception of the loss of the Rapier, the battle changed little beyond that several hundred Klingons and Klingon subject race personnel and Kzintis did not live to see the cease­ fire put in place a week later. A month after the cease‑fire went into effect, the Klingons began repatriating Kzinti prisoners of war, and among the first to be returned to the Hegemony were the Kzinti survivors  of the Rapier s last battle.

The loss of the Rapier may have, in the end, had more far­ reaching consequences, although not on the outcome of the General War. The Rapier group was a powerful combat formation, and its commander (given his assiduous effort to accomplish the Crown Prince's subterfuge to continue the General War) would likely have taken the Crown Prince's side against the Usurper in The War of Return that broke out the following year.

## References

1. ↑ Various (26 March 2015). *Captain's Log 50*. Edited by Stephen V. Cole. (Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.), pp. pp. 46–49.
2. ↑ Various (26 March 2015). *Captain's Log 50*. Edited by Stephen V. Cole. (Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.), pp. pp. 46–49.
3. ↑ Various (26 March 2015). *Captain's Log 50*. Edited by Stephen V. Cole. (Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc.), pp. pp. 46–49.