War in Practice (Part 3 of 4)

Posted on 31 May 2015 @ 3:36pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Andreus Kohl & Ensign Annikafiore Szerda & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant JG Emmarie (E'Ma'ri) & Ensign K'os Beaumont & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones & Lieutenant JG Drusilla McCarthy & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Luke Wyatt

2,723 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: Sector 053 - Various Starships
Timeline: MD 02 - 1523 hrs

Previously, in War in Practice (Part 2)...

Luke frowned at the view screen of which the USS Nautilus was shown, artificial damage across its hull. "Sir I believe if we fire a volley of modified torpedo's we will be able create an electromagnetic field disrupting the Klingon s ability to use their shield effectively and if we are lucky it might be down some of their other low energy sub systems as well" A young ensign sat at tactical explained.

"Make it happen I want them ready to go as quick as possible" He said now turning back to the view screen "We need to have a plan set and ready for the admiral before we loose this battle before it has even begun!" He said almost with a bark.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

USS Nautilus - Bridge

Lieutenant Commander Kohl had been giving the order for evasive maneuver pattern delta three when the deck beneath his feet dropped out beneath him. As intended by the training protocols, the Nautilus rocked under the onslaught of mere training torpedoes bouncing off the shields. Kohl fell back into the command chair, hitting it hard. Considering that pain in his backside, he supposed now was a proper time to get comfortable in the big seat. He gripped the arms of the chair, while the overhead lighting went out. The viewscreen went dark next. Pulsing red lights were all that illuminated the bridge, until a test pattern returned to the viewscreen.

Reading from the damage alerts popping up on windows all over her companel, Ensign Szerda stated, "Shields are down to 75% strength. EPS fluctuations are impacting all systems, including the warp core. I'm fortifying anti-matter containment, defensive shields and tactical systems with full power from the secondary grid." --As if the computer understood irony, there was a loud LCARS feedback tone from the aft of the Bridge, and then the entire Tactical station went dark, because the computer supposed an EPS conduit behind that console had been overloaded by the attack-- Szerda continued her report, "Sickbay is responding to casualties. They report eleven wounded; one KIA."

Naois cursed under his breath, something which was very uncommon for the hybrid Vulcan medical officer. "I have lost helm control," he reported, "I have to switch to manual control in the hope I can keep us from drifting. Also..." The hybrid hesitated, looking over his shoulder. "I have lost targeting control, and my sensors are down. IF we are flying, we are flying blind sir."

"No," said Kohl, from where he was seated in the command chair. He said it quietly, but with absolute conviction. "No, that's unacceptable. No. Did you hear me, Szerda,? I said, that's unacc--"

Concerned the captain's tirade would continue indefinitely, Szerda reported on her actions before they were complete. "I've assumed tactical control," Szerda said. "I'm shutting down the tachyon beam. Between the navigational sensors, the deflector dish, and the tactical scanners, Mercy is about to get more sensor data than he'll know what to do with..."

"This wasn't..." Kohl started to ask in all seriousness, "the kind of equipment malfunction that caused you to crash into a starbase, was it?"

"No sir," Naois answered through gritted teeth, "my malfunction was navigational only, there was no attack." But as he turned back briefly to look at Kohl, the captain could see genuine fear in the hybrid's eyes. "There are wounded sir, my place is in sickbay...with so much damage, it is unlikely the EMH will function." He shifted his gaze to Szerda. "I know how to fly," he said acidly, "I used to teach cadets how to fly shuttles. A long time ago but still, one does not unlearn how to fly."

Moving to stand behind the CONN, Kohl said, "Mercy, it's time to trust your people. You've spent the past week preparing your Sickbay staff to take care of the crew. You've been their father, now it's time to let them stand on their own. I'm trusting you to fly."

Naois nodded and returned his attention back to his console, fighting the controls to keep the ship from going adrift. It was obvious from the expression on his face that he would rather be in sickbay, however.

"As for Szerda," Kohl said, tilting his head to face her, "I'm trusting you to scale back your initiative a smidge or two. I need that tachyon beam back on until we're ordered otherwise. Engage it now."

"Tachyon beam re-initialized," Szerda reported, at the same time her hand landed on the LCARS contact.


USS Galileo

Allyndra watched the sensor sweeps. "There!" she thought but had little time to say anything as two quick moving gravitational signatures sorted out of the background. The results on the Nautilus were quick and devastating.

"Track those gravity signatures!" Allyndra shouted.

Jared was breathing through his nose, his brow furrowed in concentration. He didn't have a lot of formal training in such things, but he did have a bit of an innate ability.

"Aye, aye," he said in an even tone, not raising his voice, "Tracking now." he paused focusing fully on the screen in front of him. "The Signatures are changing course, coming to 045 Mark 3"

"Nautilus has lost twenty-five percent of it's defensive shields," Gyce announced and was just about to comment on the latter, when she saw her console flicker. "Looks like they've taken mild damage, but still in the water."

Stace could feel the simulated vibrations of the shock of the impact on the Nautilus and she gripped her arm rests as the Galileo easily weathered them. She was a tough, little ship and her small size allowed her much more ease and agility in flight. Now knowing that the physical attack was upon them, Stace quickly flew into action.

"Conn, keep us in formation. We lose that and we're done for."

Wintrow's fingers were white from pressure as he held on to his console to keep himself from falling out of his seat. "Trying ma'am," he responded once he recovered.

Back in open space, the two cloaked Klingon warships quickly came around for another coordinated strike, this time against a less heavily-shielded and more vulnerable target -- Galileo. Closing at three-quarters impulse, they moved into optimal firing range then to no-escape range, and unleashed another ripple of torpedo fire against the Nova-class, sending another six torpedoes streaking at the small silver hull.

Once Gyce knew what she was shooting at, she had to make her shots count. Hitting ships while they were cloaked, was no easy task. And as she pointed out before with her friend, this class of ship was not made for fleet battled.

"At the current rate of fire, we'll be out of torpedoes in thirty seconds," Gyce told Stace. "We need to really make the shots count."

This is why you don't use support ships on the front line, Gyce thought to herself with frustration. Setting up the damn tachyon grid was a fool's errand and exposed everyone that took part in it.

Stace looked out onto the viewscreen, hearing Gyce's words cut through her like a knife. The least combative of the task group, she swallowed hard and had to ask fast. "Ops, transfer all available power to our port shields!"

Emmarie's hands raced over the console as she struggled to route power appropriately such that she could comply with her orders. "I threw everything we've got over there!"

Luckily for Galileo, the starship was small enough that it presented a very small targeting profile, and combined with the new secondary deflector array's built-in self-protection jammer, the majority of the torpedoes lost their lock on the veseel and streaked harmlessly past the ship and out into the stars. One of them, however, found its mark and scored a direct hit on the port nacelle shield grid.

Losing control, and trying to compensate, Wintrow overcompensated and he felt the Galileo bump into..something after he entered new directions. He felt the ripple through the ship, saw the collision alarms flare up on his console. He desperately tried to correct himself, trying to find out what they'd hit, aside from the volley of torpedoes that had just struck the port side of the ship. "I can't keep formation!" he called out as he continued to work, slender hands flying across the board.

"We're wasting energy on shields when we don't have a target lock!" Stace screamed, turning her head to Emmarie. "Work with Engineering quickly to get us full power back to the engines! Cadet! Keep. Us. Steady!"

"Remember," Allyndra standing behind the science station said to the Cadet, " this morning, body will follow mind, feel what you want."

"I'm trying," Wintrow replied, though his panic was visible on his face and his entire body was tense as he was fighting the ship for control.

Emmarie worked to switch the flow of power, this time to the engines. "I transferred all auxiliary power to engines; Engineering, can you free up any power from subsystems?"

K'os was already sprinting through the main level of Engineering, making his way to the primary propulsion system controls. Thankfully, K'os had started his career as a propulsion specialist and had a few things up his sleeve. He slapped his com badge, "Bridge, this is Beaumont. You're doing great at keeping power levels up, but our primary issue is that Petty Officer Copper has identified extensive damage to two sections of electro plasma flow regulators for the driver coils. He is rectifying the issue now." K'os' voice was clear and calm though you could tell he was running. As soon as he got to the propulsion systems console he began entering commands. He then added to the bridge, "I am now attempting to increase the flow rate for the remaining operational subspace field emitters. Just need a minute to reroute plasma."

"You'll get a tolerance and safety warning on the fourth junction in the EPS grid from the coils when you reroute the plasma Engineering, keep an eye on the thermal signatures, it should cause no real issues. If it does, bleed a little of it out into nearby relays, say two percent. Nothing noticeable, but enough to keep those areas cool." Grayson instinctively responded.


USS Chronos - Bridge

"Sir, Nautilus had taken six direct hits on her ventral flank," Cadet Yuulik reported with great urgency. Given that these were wargames, she was probably too worked up for the first blood of battle. There would be more blood to come. "Sir, she-- it looks as if she may be drifting. The efficacy of the tachyon grid is fluctuating, sir."

"Maintain position - the whole point of a detection grid is that the ships remain fixed relative to each other. Get me a damage report on the Nautilus

Holliday looked at the readout coming in - the Miranda-class had taken a battering from her assailant, and already he could see the Starfleet contingent being on the back foot.

With a sigh, the Captain thumped the arm of his chair - already the Klingons had managed to deal damage to one of their vessels, whilst the Starfleet ships had yet to even identify where their attackers had come from. The Klingons were masters of hit and run tactics and as such, the Starfleet ships would have to match them on that playing field.

=^=Chronos to Atlas- we're gonna get our asses kicked out here at this rate ma'am - request permission to disengage from the detection grid and engage cloak?=^=

As Sarah listened to all that was going on, her hands moved across her control panel as she ensured that the tugging and pulling they were under going did not comprimise the shields in anyway. Her fingers were itching hard to start deploying weapons but she understood tactics were as important as action.


USS Atlas

Aboard her relatively large and protected command cruiser, Lirha agreed wholeheartedly with Holliday's assessment of the situation. Without enough starships to cast a wide enough net, it was hard for the tachyon grid to be effective, and it was now apparently resulting in the Starfleet formation's perimeter ships being targeted and picked off.

Another communique came through from the Akira-class, this one from Lieutenant Wyatt.

=^=Admiral this is the Aventia, we believe we have a plan to counter the Klingon's guerrilla tactics. We have modified a volley of photon torpedoes so that when they explode they will create a temporary electromagnetic pulse disabling the Klingons cloak, the pulse could also effect smaller subsystems.=^=

Luke continued =^=I also suggest taking up a diamond formation with the Aventia and Nautilus flanking both the Galileo rear and your ship forward facing the main Klingon task force allowing the Chronos to do a bit of its own hit and run mission=^=

"Acknowledged, Aventia and Chronos," confirmed Lirha who was now scrambling to re-deploy her forces into a new formation in an attempt to adapt to the changing circumstances. "All vessels, this is Saalm. Disengage the tachyon grid and assume formation Saalm-Epsilon-zero. New heading, course three-two-three" she instructed, giving the order to tighten the group's formation to allow more mutual cover.

She then continued to delegate commands as best she could, her green forehead now covered in light beads of sweat from the tension and pressure. "Captain Holliday, sweep to starboard bearing two-six-five under cloak, and find those warships! Mister Wyatt, stand by with torpedoes to engage the next point of fire with a proximity spread. And Commander Stace...I think now would be a good time to test your new deflector array?"

"The Aventia acknowledges and are changing course now ma'am" Luke replied on short and then watched as the fleet began changing formation the Klingons knew just how to hit them.

"We're still with you, Admiral," came the voice of Andreus Kohl from over the communications systems. "Nautilus acknowledges. We're changing course."

"This is Stace to the Fleet. We are moving into position to complete the diamond formation. Our power distribution has taken a bit of a beating! As soon as we are in position, I will bring the prototype secondary deflector online. Standby." As she said this, she turned to Jones and gave him the unnecessary nod to carry out the order. She gripped armrest and then glanced at the small power distribution readout on her console. "Don't fail me now, you little bastard," she muttered to herself of the ship.


USS Chronos - Bridge

As the order came in from the Admiral, Holliday let a wry grin spread across his face. Looking down at the command console he could see the other ships in the fleet starting to reposition themselves accordingly.

"You heard the lady - break formation and take us under cloak - full starboard thrust, begin sensor sweeps. Start shadowing the rest of the fleet."

=^=Atlas this is Chronos. Order acknowledged - wish us good hunting.=^=

Yuulik acknowledged the new orders with an, "Aye, Captain. Full starboard thrust." Her ministrations on the CONN sent the starscape on the viewcreen spinning as the Chronos changed direction.

John knew Klingons - specifically their fighting style. They preferred to strike in packs, deal damage, and then run. Therefore he knew the most likely tactic they would use, especially against the larger ships in the fleet, including the Admiral's flagship.

"They'll try to engage the Atlas from one of her flanks - most likely her ventral side where her shields are weakest. Keep us within weapons range and ready a full barrage of quantum torpedoes."

As the helm moved them away from the rest of the fleet, Sarah activated the cloak, watching as the ripple effect was momentarily reflected on their view screen, the lights on the bridge dimming accordingly. Soon their chance to shine would come.

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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