That was insane.  When I joined the imperial fleet had clashed with the rebel corvettes and won.  While they licked their wounds and tried to organize (boost really puts ships out of place now!) our Nebulon B started steaming towards the mass of imperial capships.  We harried the closest of their lancers until it went down with some help from a couple Xwings.  But unfortunately for us the captain of the nebulon seemed a bit green and we quickly ended up with our Nebulon facing the exact wrong direction and in the line of fire of all the enemy craft.  Thankfully I was able to take command of the ship just in time to escape a series of deadly torpedo volleys from a carrack bearing down on us from directly above.

Quite literally flipping our nebulon upside down we returned fire whilst boosting out of the firing arc of the carrack's torpedo launchers.  As our big guns focused their final in-range shots on its bridge section a squadron of xwings and bwings swept in to shatter the imperial cruiser.  Far seperated from the rest of the imperial fleet the carrack died alone in space behind us.

Not that we were doing so well ourselves.  Several volleys of torpedoes found their mark and-combined with a couple successful bombing runs and a few broadsides from their surviving lancer- we were reduced to only 32% hitpoints left.  To make matters worse, though our gallofree was still alive the remaining lancer and bulk freighter now firmly seperated the two of us.  As we sat there, helpless, enemy bombers decimated our gallofree.  It had drifted too far to the imperial side of the map and close to where their bombers came in.  Soon the ship fell, leaving our nebulon alone.

Not wanting to risk the ship further we quickly righted ourselves and changed course again; this time away from the repaired surviving imperial fleet.  We started to flee back towards our fighter cover, shouting for the a-wings to cut down the bombers as they approached.  While they were able to intercept many of them, two of them were able to cut our health down to only 8%.

At this point we were desperate.  Our bombers were trying their hardest to bring down the imperial ships but enemy fighters were intercepting them.  Our awings broke off to cover those ships, leaving us silently alone.  For a while a deathly calm came over our stricken nebulon B.  No enemy blips were on our radar but we knew that if even one bomber got through we wouldn't survive.  And so we waited.  I dared not cut the throttle in case we needed the engines, so we circled.  Waiting.  Watching

And then a blip appeared on the radar.  A TIE bomber had gotten through the cloud of fighters between us and the enemy fleet and was now heading straight towards us.  We started screaming for the a-wings to get back but they were too far out and hadn't seen the bomber.  Quickly I rolled our craft and brought it about broadside so that our capship gun turret and anti-fighter turret would both have clear shots on the craft.  As it got within torpedo range I immediately hit the boost engine and engaged emergency maneuvers.  The shots passed silently behind our engines just as our turret opened up on him.

The TIE Bomber pilot, now realising that he was suddenly flying straight towards our blasters, immediately turned towards the front of our Nebulon to try and dodge the flak.  It was in that moment our capship turret fired, with one of its shots ripping through the bomber's hull.  In flames, the TIE bomber seemed to lose control.  In that instant it stopped maneuvering and a split second burst from our AF turret finished it off.

Not that we had time to breathe a sigh of relief.  Immediately a second bomber appeared on our radar, already close.  I started maneuvering our ship to try and point our turrets towards the new threat, but our boost engine was expended.  Unable to maneuver fast enough, a series of torpedoes tore into our engine section and knocked us down to 4% health.  Just as we expected the ship to blow, the TIE bomber came under fire from a couple of fighters which had returned.  Them, combined with our AF turret were able to stop it before it could launch another torpedo.

The alarms were really going off now.  Our engines were drained, our maneuvering had us now heading towards the enemy fleet, and even a few good blaster shots could knock us out.  It was then that we saw the first explosion.  Ahead of us the lancer, panicked by the assault from our fighters, had apparently hit its boost engine and moved away from the bulk freighter.  Taking that opportunity our ships tore into it with torpedoes, cutting it down. 

At that moment the radar registered several new blips: two interceptors and a fighter.  As soon as they got within range they opened up on us with their blasters.  Dispite having a-wings trying to engage them our hull started taking hits from the green tracers.  We were screaming over the radio to hurry, and we heard on the voice comms for everyone to focus on the final bulk freighter.  Our turret operators were returning fire but nothing seemed to be stopping these fighters as they pressed this final assault.  And as if in slow motion we watched, feeling helpless dispite the sheer hailstorm of fire that was flying around us.  We put our all into it but seemed to be able to do nothing as our health slowly dropped.  4.... 3..... 2.... and just as we hit 1% health left and I turned away, hope lost, there was a mighty cheer over the radio.  I opened my eyes from the grimmace I had pulled and looked.  Unbelievably, the imperial total had dropped to zero.  The blaster fire stopped and the map ended, with us hanging there at 1% health left on the ship.

All in all not a bad match.  It was long, and arduous, but seriously the closest space battle I've ever seen.

Fear the Woodzilla