Custer's Carnival - 2649
| Custer's Carnival | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Terran-Kilrathi War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Terran Confederation | Empire of Kilrah | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| G'wriss Assault Force TCS Tiger's Claw |
Defensive Forces | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| TCS Tiger's Claw heavily damaged and suffers fifty percent pilot casualities | |||||||
Custer's Carnival was a 2649 rearguard action between the Terran Confederation and the Empire of Kilrah.
Terran Command, using information on Kilrathi fleets and deployments gained through their breaking of encryption methods, assembles a force consisting of 60% of the Vega Sector Fleet aimed at invading and occupying Kilrah itself on 2648.189. Given the overwhelming superiority in force and information as well as strategy, a victory seems well in hand.
Terran ground forces launch an attack on a fortified Kilrathi colony in the G'wriss system, only to be routed by unexpected Kilrathi fighter support. The TCS Tiger’s Claw is detached from its previous station and assigned to intercept the pursuing fighters in a three day long delaying action eventually known as Custer’s Carnival. Swarmed and badly damaged by Kilrathi fighters, the carrier distracts Kilrathi forces long enough for the Terran fleet to reach safety.
Despite the fact that three-fourths of its engines are destroyed and half its pilots are listed as casualties, the heroic efforts of the Claw’s crew allow the carrier to make it back into Terran space. Two Gold Stars, one awarded to James Taggart, and numerous other medals - many of them posthumous - are awarded to the ship’s personnel. The carrier itself spends six months in spacedock for repairs and refitting.
