IKC FHew 7C6110
Operation Tourniquet – Preparations for war
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Post Details
The red glow faded and Jared, May'bel and Marie looked around the transporter room of Starbase 20. The facilities were modern and well maintained, but obviously not designed for the strain they were now being put under. A Klingon beq was waiting for them. He glanced at the human and Vetus who both wore Sogh'la (Lt Cmdr) pips but opted to speak to the Giant Klingon, even though he was a much lower rank.
"Sir, I have been asked by Sogh'la Hurn to escort you to the command centre. There you will be able to help with the management of our defenses and resources."
“You, beq,” Marie spat. “Look at me. See this insignia? I’m a Sogh’la. I presume you know what that means. It means you address me. I need supplies and equipment. You will take me to them. Now!”
The crewman snapped to attention, "Sir! All equipment delegation is being done from the command station. I will inform them that you intend to handle the matter personally from the Cargo bay. This way."
It was obvious this station was not used to the volume of people it was facing; people were milling about doors and in corridors without knowing where to go and getting into people's way. Marie was thankful for her escort. He might not want to be there but his anger made him all the more intimidating as he pushed people aside. It made for a quick journey to the cargo bay.
A couple of stations were being hastily erected. The first showed lists of supplies and demands of the fleet and station. In truth, there was not much cargo here. Most of what was needed one one ship was being sourced from another vessel without going to the station first. Marie's eyes flashed down the list of Needs, wants and would likes. She also looked over the much shorter lists of Have Spare, and Can Sacrifice. There were big gaping holes and, even with Tell's list of square pegs for roundish holes, it was going to be a task to get half of the supplies filled.
“Right,” she said, without bothering to turn to the beq. “Ignore this and this,” she said, indicating the lists of ‘wants’ and ‘would likes’. We haven’t got the resources to fill them. Concentrate on these two,” she continued, pointing to the lists of ‘have spare’ and ‘can manage’.
Marie turned to May’bel. “I note stuff is going straight where it's needed. Good. All we’ll do is co-ordinate so that one item isn’t being sent to ten different places at once. We’ll rank them in order of priority to make sure they get where they’re most needed. I recommend putting defenses on this base at the top of the list,” she added in a vaguely conciliatory tone, remembering that May'bel technically outranked her.
The second station was a tactical breakdown of the fleet and defenses of the base for May'bel to appraise. There was not much. It had good shielding, but minimal weapons. It did have a supply of service shuttles that could be pressed into operation as fighter craft. Few of the ships were even at full crew, and weapon payloads were scarce. Battle damage was everywhere. This was the remnant of a fleet that had already failed to turn back the Gorn invaders.
The third station was pulling sensor data from the fleet and trying to compile a sensible set of logs of the battle. This was freed for Jared to use to come up with some strategy to help when the invaders came again. One of the most obvious threats was a giant weapon ship which was basically a bridge and engine strapped to a giant cannon. It would make short work of most ship's shields and punch sizable holes in a station. Smaller ships were often fast enough to avoid being in front of the barrel, as the ship was slow to maneuver, but at least one Negh'var had been destroyed completely by it.
"Pulse wave Graviton Emitters," Jared mused looking at the data. "It's as if they create a giant virtual fist and simply overwhelm shields and armour with brute force. How very Gorn."
Marie noticed May’bel grinning at her, for all the world like the cat that had gotten the cream. "The USS Prospero has arrived with supplies," he reported.
She looked at the readout; the list had doubled in size. She was about to make some acerbic comment when May’bel’s face just as quickly fell. He punched a switch on the control and the red alert sounded. A voice called over the Comms.
,'. The Gorn have entered long range sensors. Battle stations. ,'.
Marie looked at the beq. “This can wait! Where do we go on this gods benighted station?”
"You have no assigned station, Sogla', but your rank grants you access to Command and Opperations if you wish."
Marie realized that effectively she was one of the highest ranking officers on this station. She was finally giving the orders instead of taking them.
She turned to May’bel. “Right, big boy, this is your field now. How are we going to play this?”
May’bel glanced at the tactical displays, "Release all ships from moorings. The Gorn's primary target will be this stations, so no moored ships will be safe, regardless of their condition. We must assume that they will be using that gun-ship-fist-thing on us, which means they will try and overwhelm our Shielding. Route all power to the side that faces that ship. We need to keep that shield up to avoid boarding parties. Pull our forces out of the facing side of the station. It will take a beating, but there is no reason to sacrifice our people during the bombardment."
A distant rumbling could be heard. The bombardment had started.
“Do it,” Marie yelled. Something told her it wouldn’t be enough though. The Gorn were not stupid, not by reputation anyway. They wouldn’t send their ships in unless they figured they would win. Not unless....
“Is there any sign of other activity on long range scanners?” she called. She turned to Maybel. “This might just be a feint,” she said. “We’re insignificant in the scheme of things. I want to make sure we’re not committing all our forces here when they’re needed elsewhere.”
"Sir," the Beq next to her reported. "There are no other forces in the area. This is everything we have been able to rally. If we do not stop the Gorn here they will overrun this sector completely."
“I don’t mean our forces, beq,” Marie replied tersely, “I mean Gorn. I doubt we’re the main focus of their attack. I don’t want to committ everything we’ve got here if we should be mobilising elsewhere.”
Outside some of the bigger ships were powering up trying to move away from the station, hindered by fire from some of the smaller and faster Gorn vessels. The B'rel and K'vort were doing what they could, but it wasn't until the Neg'var class ship Kut'luc was able to deploy it's weapons that any real headway was made to engage the enemy fleet.
The Kut'luc took the lead, flanked by the D'vorsa and NiH'tah. The Gorn ships fell away from the arrowhead; a little too conveniently it would seem. As it turned out they were opening a neat firing column for their biggest gun ship at the back. This was the mammoth weapon ship Jared had been interested in. It was slow and hard to aim, but the three big ships were not very maneuverable, and were now contained in a column of enemy ships.
White light lanced out at the Klingon ships which had realized the trap a moment too late and were trying to get out of the line of fire. The front section of the NiH'tah dissolved in an instant; shields, armour, hull, all vanishing like paper under a blow torch.
"It's going to take time to recharge that weapon," Jared observed, "but eventually they are going to start using that on this station we are standing on."
“Then we should try to flank it,” Marie said. “If we can catch it in a crossfire, we might be able to disable it.”
"We are in a Space station," May'bel replied. "We will not be flanking anyone. As for the Fleet they are out numbered, out gunned and demoralized. They have been beaten once, they will not win here. To flank that ship they expose themselves to fire from the rest of the Gorn. Nothing bigger than a B'rel could get through."
"And that Gorn armour is enough to make a Neg'var struggle," Jared supplied. "Maybe if it came close enough to the station our combined weapons could damage it, but it has a better range than we. It is more likely to pull us apart at a distance."
Tag:
May'bel pointed to a group of ships that had broken of from the main fleet and were heading unopposed towards the station. "Boarding parties. They will be heading around to the rear of the station. We either concentrate out fire on them and leave the remainder of the fleet exposed, or we support the fleet and prepare for Hand to hand fighting."
He glanced at Marie, "You're Tactical officer; how do we do this?"
....nothing but a.... “Get me ‘Ro!” Marie yelled.
“If anyone can get inside that monster’s range, it’s ‘Ro. If he can distract it long enough, we could bring those bigger ships into play. It’s not very manoeuvrable so we might stand a chance of catching it from the sides. Meanwhile, the Kut'luc and the D'vorsa can concentrate on those Gorn transports.”
“Oh, and....” she added, “organise some parties to repel boarders.”
May'bel nodded. He started working at the controls and issuing orders. "Reroute power from the shields in section 14 D and 27 F through to Forward defenses."
The accompanying beq looked horrified, "But sir, that will leave gaps in the shields. We would be inviting boarding parties!"
May'bel continued working, "Our ships are not strong enough to hold them back; but our warrior's hearts are still strong. Gorn LIKE close combat, and so do we, but we invite them in on our terms. 14 D is an empty Cargo bay which will give us free field of fire as they try and reach us. That should reduce numbers. 27 F runs past the EPS heat exchange. We open the vents and flood the tunnel when it is full. And once their people are on board they will be less likel to use that cannon ship on us."
"Are you... Are you thinking?" Jared asked in shock. "That almost sounded like logical and strategic thinking."
May'bel shot his superior officer a warning glance that told him he could find himself inferior if he pushed it too hard.
"Well, I will see if I can do something about that cannon then." the TiQ responded sitting down at the controls for the navigation deflector." It is too powerful to block with a standard Field configurations. It is a gravity pulse based vector induction, with a incrementally small focal acuity. If we can induce a para sympathetic resonance to..."
He glanced at the faces who either weren't listening or wouldn't understand his explanation any way. "I will warp the laws of physics so the weapon may miss fire and detonate earlier on it trajectory. Worst case scenario it hits us anyway and we loose all our shields in a single blow."
"oh... good?" the beq responded.
"Best case, the charge detonates inside the Gorn vessel and they do."
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Post Details
| Title | Preparations for war | |
| Mission | Operation Tourniquet | |
| Author(s) | HoD Ro' Matlh & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene | |
| Posted | Mon May 16, 2016 @ 1:15am | |
| Location | Tengchah 20 |
"Sir, I have been asked by Sogh'la Hurn to escort you to the command centre. There you will be able to help with the management of our defenses and resources."
“You, beq,” Marie spat. “Look at me. See this insignia? I’m a Sogh’la. I presume you know what that means. It means you address me. I need supplies and equipment. You will take me to them. Now!”
The crewman snapped to attention, "Sir! All equipment delegation is being done from the command station. I will inform them that you intend to handle the matter personally from the Cargo bay. This way."
It was obvious this station was not used to the volume of people it was facing; people were milling about doors and in corridors without knowing where to go and getting into people's way. Marie was thankful for her escort. He might not want to be there but his anger made him all the more intimidating as he pushed people aside. It made for a quick journey to the cargo bay.
A couple of stations were being hastily erected. The first showed lists of supplies and demands of the fleet and station. In truth, there was not much cargo here. Most of what was needed one one ship was being sourced from another vessel without going to the station first. Marie's eyes flashed down the list of Needs, wants and would likes. She also looked over the much shorter lists of Have Spare, and Can Sacrifice. There were big gaping holes and, even with Tell's list of square pegs for roundish holes, it was going to be a task to get half of the supplies filled.
“Right,” she said, without bothering to turn to the beq. “Ignore this and this,” she said, indicating the lists of ‘wants’ and ‘would likes’. We haven’t got the resources to fill them. Concentrate on these two,” she continued, pointing to the lists of ‘have spare’ and ‘can manage’.
Marie turned to May’bel. “I note stuff is going straight where it's needed. Good. All we’ll do is co-ordinate so that one item isn’t being sent to ten different places at once. We’ll rank them in order of priority to make sure they get where they’re most needed. I recommend putting defenses on this base at the top of the list,” she added in a vaguely conciliatory tone, remembering that May'bel technically outranked her.
The second station was a tactical breakdown of the fleet and defenses of the base for May'bel to appraise. There was not much. It had good shielding, but minimal weapons. It did have a supply of service shuttles that could be pressed into operation as fighter craft. Few of the ships were even at full crew, and weapon payloads were scarce. Battle damage was everywhere. This was the remnant of a fleet that had already failed to turn back the Gorn invaders.
The third station was pulling sensor data from the fleet and trying to compile a sensible set of logs of the battle. This was freed for Jared to use to come up with some strategy to help when the invaders came again. One of the most obvious threats was a giant weapon ship which was basically a bridge and engine strapped to a giant cannon. It would make short work of most ship's shields and punch sizable holes in a station. Smaller ships were often fast enough to avoid being in front of the barrel, as the ship was slow to maneuver, but at least one Negh'var had been destroyed completely by it.
"Pulse wave Graviton Emitters," Jared mused looking at the data. "It's as if they create a giant virtual fist and simply overwhelm shields and armour with brute force. How very Gorn."
Marie noticed May’bel grinning at her, for all the world like the cat that had gotten the cream. "The USS Prospero has arrived with supplies," he reported.
She looked at the readout; the list had doubled in size. She was about to make some acerbic comment when May’bel’s face just as quickly fell. He punched a switch on the control and the red alert sounded. A voice called over the Comms.
,'. The Gorn have entered long range sensors. Battle stations. ,'.
Marie looked at the beq. “This can wait! Where do we go on this gods benighted station?”
"You have no assigned station, Sogla', but your rank grants you access to Command and Opperations if you wish."
Marie realized that effectively she was one of the highest ranking officers on this station. She was finally giving the orders instead of taking them.
She turned to May’bel. “Right, big boy, this is your field now. How are we going to play this?”
May’bel glanced at the tactical displays, "Release all ships from moorings. The Gorn's primary target will be this stations, so no moored ships will be safe, regardless of their condition. We must assume that they will be using that gun-ship-fist-thing on us, which means they will try and overwhelm our Shielding. Route all power to the side that faces that ship. We need to keep that shield up to avoid boarding parties. Pull our forces out of the facing side of the station. It will take a beating, but there is no reason to sacrifice our people during the bombardment."
A distant rumbling could be heard. The bombardment had started.
“Do it,” Marie yelled. Something told her it wouldn’t be enough though. The Gorn were not stupid, not by reputation anyway. They wouldn’t send their ships in unless they figured they would win. Not unless....
“Is there any sign of other activity on long range scanners?” she called. She turned to Maybel. “This might just be a feint,” she said. “We’re insignificant in the scheme of things. I want to make sure we’re not committing all our forces here when they’re needed elsewhere.”
"Sir," the Beq next to her reported. "There are no other forces in the area. This is everything we have been able to rally. If we do not stop the Gorn here they will overrun this sector completely."
“I don’t mean our forces, beq,” Marie replied tersely, “I mean Gorn. I doubt we’re the main focus of their attack. I don’t want to committ everything we’ve got here if we should be mobilising elsewhere.”
Outside some of the bigger ships were powering up trying to move away from the station, hindered by fire from some of the smaller and faster Gorn vessels. The B'rel and K'vort were doing what they could, but it wasn't until the Neg'var class ship Kut'luc was able to deploy it's weapons that any real headway was made to engage the enemy fleet.
The Kut'luc took the lead, flanked by the D'vorsa and NiH'tah. The Gorn ships fell away from the arrowhead; a little too conveniently it would seem. As it turned out they were opening a neat firing column for their biggest gun ship at the back. This was the mammoth weapon ship Jared had been interested in. It was slow and hard to aim, but the three big ships were not very maneuverable, and were now contained in a column of enemy ships.
White light lanced out at the Klingon ships which had realized the trap a moment too late and were trying to get out of the line of fire. The front section of the NiH'tah dissolved in an instant; shields, armour, hull, all vanishing like paper under a blow torch.
"It's going to take time to recharge that weapon," Jared observed, "but eventually they are going to start using that on this station we are standing on."
“Then we should try to flank it,” Marie said. “If we can catch it in a crossfire, we might be able to disable it.”
"We are in a Space station," May'bel replied. "We will not be flanking anyone. As for the Fleet they are out numbered, out gunned and demoralized. They have been beaten once, they will not win here. To flank that ship they expose themselves to fire from the rest of the Gorn. Nothing bigger than a B'rel could get through."
"And that Gorn armour is enough to make a Neg'var struggle," Jared supplied. "Maybe if it came close enough to the station our combined weapons could damage it, but it has a better range than we. It is more likely to pull us apart at a distance."
Tag:
May'bel pointed to a group of ships that had broken of from the main fleet and were heading unopposed towards the station. "Boarding parties. They will be heading around to the rear of the station. We either concentrate out fire on them and leave the remainder of the fleet exposed, or we support the fleet and prepare for Hand to hand fighting."
He glanced at Marie, "You're Tactical officer; how do we do this?"
....nothing but a.... “Get me ‘Ro!” Marie yelled.
“If anyone can get inside that monster’s range, it’s ‘Ro. If he can distract it long enough, we could bring those bigger ships into play. It’s not very manoeuvrable so we might stand a chance of catching it from the sides. Meanwhile, the Kut'luc and the D'vorsa can concentrate on those Gorn transports.”
“Oh, and....” she added, “organise some parties to repel boarders.”
May'bel nodded. He started working at the controls and issuing orders. "Reroute power from the shields in section 14 D and 27 F through to Forward defenses."
The accompanying beq looked horrified, "But sir, that will leave gaps in the shields. We would be inviting boarding parties!"
May'bel continued working, "Our ships are not strong enough to hold them back; but our warrior's hearts are still strong. Gorn LIKE close combat, and so do we, but we invite them in on our terms. 14 D is an empty Cargo bay which will give us free field of fire as they try and reach us. That should reduce numbers. 27 F runs past the EPS heat exchange. We open the vents and flood the tunnel when it is full. And once their people are on board they will be less likel to use that cannon ship on us."
"Are you... Are you thinking?" Jared asked in shock. "That almost sounded like logical and strategic thinking."
May'bel shot his superior officer a warning glance that told him he could find himself inferior if he pushed it too hard.
"Well, I will see if I can do something about that cannon then." the TiQ responded sitting down at the controls for the navigation deflector." It is too powerful to block with a standard Field configurations. It is a gravity pulse based vector induction, with a incrementally small focal acuity. If we can induce a para sympathetic resonance to..."
He glanced at the faces who either weren't listening or wouldn't understand his explanation any way. "I will warp the laws of physics so the weapon may miss fire and detonate earlier on it trajectory. Worst case scenario it hits us anyway and we loose all our shields in a single blow."
"oh... good?" the beq responded.
"Best case, the charge detonates inside the Gorn vessel and they do."