War in Practice (Part 1 of 4)

Posted on 31 May 2015 @ 3:35pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Adora Jerek & Lieutenant Min Zhao & Petty Officer 3rd Class Veri RN & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Emmarie (E'Ma'ri) & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Andreus Kohl

2,504 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: Sector 053 - Various Starships
Timeline: MD 02 - 1510 hrs

[ON]

At exactly 1500, the much-anticipated KDF-Starfleet war games commenced with all eyes watching from both groups of amiable combatants and their superiors. Though the actual outcome of the battle would not necessarily be as heavily scrutinized, the individual performance of the crews, select officers, and new technology was at the utmost importance for each government, and there was much at stake for the military balance of power as 2390 progressed.

As was typical in most Starfleet versus KDF simulated scenarios, the task group of Klingon warships were now under cloak with only the Negh'Var-class flagship decloaked due to the limitations of Klingon cloaking devices. It currently resided far outside of weapons range, but its current heading put the massive warship on a direct course to intercept the Federation task group. A direct course, but at a relatively leisurely speed, indicating other elements were now at play which the Klingons intended to use to their advantage.

In contrast, the Starfleet vessels remained visible and tightly-knit as they now came about to face their Klingon opponents and plan their pending tactical maneuvers.


USS Atlas - Bridge

"Helm, set course 045-mark-02, one-third impulse," Lirha quickly commanded from her seat in the Sovereign-class' center chair while viewing the tactical display imbedded into her chair's armrest console.

"Yes, sir," Adora said, easily punching in the calculations. She'd spent much of her morning in the holodeck, getting used to the way the Sovereign-class handled. It was far bigger than she was used to. As she thumbed up the speed to one-third impulse, the deckplates beneath her feet began to vibrate ever-so-slightly.

"Miss Zhao, instruct our forces to assume standard defensive formation and put Galileo and Chronos on a forward sweep of our position." Hopefully with the larger and more durable starships at the center of the formation and the addition of the Nova-class' new secondary deflector array, they would be able to spot any incoming hostiles before they were able to enter weapons range under cloak and ambush any of the Starfleet vessels.

"Understood Admiral." Keying in the Admiral's instructions, Min watched her comms board as each ship reported receiving the instructions.

Lirha then added a second command to her list. "Please remind all vessels to set weapons parameters to simulation and to confirm training ordinance has been loaded into their torpedo bays." The last thing Lirha wanted was for an accidental armed quantum torpedo to be detonated and to deal with the fallout of such an action. Both Starfleet and the KDF's training ordinance was specially designed with advanced sensors to fire a physical projectile the same shape and size as a regular torpedo, but upon impact, it would simply break apart and only the embedded sensors in the weapon would communicate with the starship's computer core to register the impact and simulate it.

Min keyed in the further instructions. As each ship's Ops station reported in the weapons were in training mode, Min looked up from her console. "All ships report weapons are locked to training mode and kinetic training ordinance are loaded. Fleet is moving into tactical formation."

"All hands report to emergency action stations. Red alert," commanded Saalm over the ship's intercom, her voice echoing through every deck and room in the Sovereign-class starship.

A small smile spread across Adora's face, and her posture stiffened ever so slightly. She was primed and ready for whatever came next. Don't screw this up, she thought. The last thing she wanted was to end up assigned back to a transport.

In the Sickbay of Atlas, Veri was busy in the massive supply room. A bald, oblivious female Deltan at first sight, testing out hypos with cartridges of sugar water. Veri was very much aware of what was going on. That possibly simulated wounded would be coming in.

Veri was excited by her first combat mission too, given her medical ship experience. So naturally, she kept diligent with her supply work. Discarding broken equipment, restocking the good. Ever ready for that medical alert, she was.


USS Galileo - Bridge

Allyndra all but hovered around the science station. This was going to be a good test of the modifications and work on the new array. Sensitive it had to be but the simulations they had tried earlier had seemed to pan out that they could detect the slight gravitational waves given off by a moving cloaked ship.

"The majority of Klingon ships have cloaked, do we detect movement yet?" Allyndra asked.

"I'm seeing something subtle," Emmarie said, looking over her console. "Perhaps small signs of motion, or something atmospheric, I'll try and pin it down a little better." She toggled on a few comprehensive scans in an attempt to identify just what she was seeing.

"We are detecting slight gravity waves," Allyndra said. "Alright seems to be working. Helm let's keep up with the Convoy." She turned back to monitor the slight waves as they moved as well. That was going to be harder and it put a big strain on the power as they had to turn up the gain.

Still feeling a little nervous about flying a starship, Wintrow did his best to keep his focus as he listened to his orders. "Adjusting course to keep with the convoy," he reported as his slender hands flew over the controls.

"That's good kid, good..." Lamar mumbled in a low voice while standing on the bridge and supervising the cadet's helm work. It wasn't often that the chief support craft pilot was allowed on the bridge or near the helm console, but his new job as a temporary cadet instructor and chief warrant officer required him to evaluate the future-commissioned officer and help his acclimate to the situation.

Wintrow didn't look up as he murmured a shy 'thank you', choosing to keep his attention on his controls. He was terrified of making any kind of mistake, he was desperate to show he could fly a starship, and that he had every right to be here at this station. That he had earned it through his hard work and dedication.

An indicator flickered on at the corner of her console, and Emmarie pulled up the message, noting that it was from the superior officer she still hadn't met yet. After the wargames, that was first on Emmarie's list of priorities. Running a quick check of Galileo's weapon systems, she verified that the proper ammo was in place, and responded affirmatively to Min.

Stace then turned to the security/tactical station behind her with a flick of her head and then nodded her orders to Gyce.

"All simulated ammo has been loaded," Gyce announced from the security console. "I would also like to suggest we run an active anti-proton sweep throughout the games, so that we reduce the probability of cloaked attacks."

Stace quickly weighed up the drain on the systems with both the new deflector being online, plus red alert and the proton sweep. But she fell down on the side of tactical advantage and then gave the nod back to the Bajoran. "Limit it to a sweep every five seconds instead of continuous, Lieutenant. Let's try to keep our power levels down."

"Aye Captain," Gyce nodded to Stace and began to program a five second looping scan into the console.

"Mr. Grayson, how is our new deflector holding up?"

"Green across the board, currently working well. I'm going to monitor the power flow though. Since it is the first real combat test, I want to watch it is able to pull enough power from available reactors and reserves." Grayson called out from his station, his eyes hardly looking up from his console.

"Keep me updated if anything changes, Lieutenant." Stace then nodded to Allyndra as she settled back into her seat, the simulated anxiety now welling up in her belly. Her and her entire crew knew that this was merely a drill; but something about the rumble of the engines beneath her set her nerves on edge. She checked her own console one more time before allowing her attention to settle on the viewscreen before her.

"Lieutenant Emmarie," Stace then called out, "display the forward aspect of the ship on the screen. Let's see what we're dealing with out here."

"Yes sir," Emmarie said, toggling the display. To the center, but at some distance, was the IKS CharghwI', which was continuing it's approach. To the sides, the other Federation vessels were visible. Emmarie studied the empty space curiously. Somewhere in there were Klingon vessels. She glanced back at her sensor readouts, looking for anything of interest. "Sir, I recommend working with the other vessels to create a tachyon grid."

"Go ahead, Lieutenant," Stace called out, smiling a little as she nodded. The resourcefulness of her crew made her job that much easier. Slipping back into command was like putting on an old pair of slippers on a cold night. Comfortable and familiar. And almost apart of you. She gripped the armrest and then accessed her control panel quickly.

"Stace to Sickbay," she called out over the internal comms. "We're moving to engage the enemy. Prepare to receive simulated casualties.

=^=acknowledged Bridge. Sickbay out.=^= came the quick response of the holographic doctor manning the fort in the bowels of the ship. Her program was designed to function in almost any battle conditions, and as such she was not worried about a few simulated cuts and bruises.

Allydnra continued to stand near the science station. She touched the Lieutenant on the shoulder. "Let's put up those slight signatures as well and give a feed to the other ships. We are going to be their eyes as well." She then paused and nodded.

"Excellent job Lieutenant."

"Thank you sir." Emmarie pressed in a few commands, and superimposed the slight fluctuations of gravity overtop the images already on the screen. "I'm removing some that are obviously not Klingon vessels based on location and trajectory. Once the tachyon grid is in effect, I'll add that to the display as well." Inside her, her heart was fluttering. This was exciting, and it catered to her strengths, which made her love it all the more.

Allyndra turned to look at Lamar. He was intent on his observation of Win. The cadet seemed slightly nervous but who would not be. Still she hoped his little lesson of the morning would be of use of trusting instincts.

"Captain, we have added the gravity signatures on the viewscreen with feeds to the other ships and our own tactical as well."

"Relay the entire telemetry to our allies. Let's see if we can hone in on our enemies as a unit." Stace remained pricked and now moved to the edge of her seat. She cleared her throat and then crossed her legs as she leant to the side. "Let's hope we can light then up like Christmas trees. Keep us steady, Helm."

"Aye ma'am," Wintrow replied, eyes fixed on his controls, his hands resting on the console and his feet firmly planted against the deck. The teenager was tense, but trying not to show it. "Steady as she goes." He tried to remember what Allyndra had told him about flying, real flying and finding a balance. But a holodeck was nothing like flying a ship, and he knew it'd take time to apply to his job, what he had learned earlier today.


USS Chronos - Bridge

The tension on the bridge was thick enough to be able to cut with a knife. Sarah herself was in her element, this was what she had trained so long for...battle. As she read her console, she monitored the energy being supplied to her weapons, watching for any drops which would cause her to loose it with engineering. Right now nothing other than the weapons and shields mattered. "Shields are at one hundred percent and weapons stand at ready Captain."

"Excellent. Sound red alert, all hands report to your battle stations."

Jonathan called out as the computer automatically picked up his command and dimmed the lights to combat stats, as the sirens began to sound throughout the ship, he knew that the motley group of Cadets would be at least attempting to do their duty correctly.

"All stations report in."

At the forwardmost post, Cadet Yuulik said, "Operations and CONN operational and ready for orders, sir." Her voice was crisp, and perhaps a little too loud.

"Helm - move us into position under the flagship's ventral hull. Stand by to cloak on my order. Signal the Admiral we are ready to proceed."

Cadet Yuulik was sitting closest to the viewscreen, her chair tucked in close to the curved flight control & operations console. As an Arcadian, her features were distinctive with porcelain-like skin, impenetrable dark eyes, and two thin stripes of dark hair crowning the top of her head. "Aye, sir, changing course," Yuulik replied, a little stridently. "Taking position..." she started to say, but said nothing more while she manipulated the LCARS interface beneath her fingers. She waited for the view on the viewscreen to change, waited for Chronos to respond to her ministrations and swoop into the desired formation. Only when it had done so, did Yuulik finish with, "Under Atlas' ventral hull, sir."

A distinctive feedback tone sounded from Yuulik's console, while she spoke. She tapped at the flashing indicator on her companel and then tilted her head slightly to speak over her shoulder to the Captain. "Sir, we've received a message from Galileo," Yuulik said, relaying the communique. "We're receiving instructions for establishing a tachyon grid between our vessels, sir."

"Thank you Cadet. Tie in our deflector control to the Galileo - if she's going to be leading the pack then it makes sense for us to follow her lead. Advise the CO aboard however that we will at some point be making use of our cloaking device, and as such will have to shut down our deflector."

Holliday replied looking down at the readout to his right. The fleet was moving itself into a standard grid formation with the intention of projecting a tachyon field between the vessels. The Defiant-class would be able to contribute as long as she remained decloaked, but the minute the tactical advantage presented itself, she would have to depart.

"Aye, sir," Yuulik replied. She inputted the necessary commands on her interface panel. "Deflector control," Yuulik reported, "transferred to Galileo, sir."

=^=Holliday to Sickbay - Lieutenant Voutilainen - I presume your team is ready to go? =^=

=^=Of course, captain,=^= replied Tuula. =^=Let's just hope my services aren't necessary -- either simulated or real.=^=

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Various Characters aboard:
USS Atlas
USS Aventia
USS Nautilus
USS Chronos
USS Galileo

HoD Valkris
Commanding Officer
IKS HarqSith
[PNPC Warraquim]

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