Let's see what she's got...Part 4
Posted on 12 Jun 2018 @ 1:01am by Captain Ricardo (Rico) Montoya & Lieutenant Commander Cevel Th'raran & Lieutenant Marion Kent & Admiral Ayana Varon
1,326 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
M-14 New Beginings
Location: USS Phoenix
Timeline: MD 3 - 1200
--- Gas Super Giant ---
The Phoenix was now reaching the out sections of the star system and a rather large Class-S planet was drawing closer. “That is one big ball of gas.”
“Let’s see what’s in there,” Zitla said, “Commencing scans.”
Ayana gave more power to the sensors to help science. Her role here was minimal, so she could spend a few moments looking out the viewport.
Kent had to ‘Bird Dog’ the power panel this time; the demands would be for shielding; not warp so a well-padded pool of power by using only the Impulse Engines left him the power they needed. He had routed to the special shielding and expected it to be like combat; the power demand to rise as the ship progressed into the corona, and add some heavy use of sensors equaled to a near Combat level of demand.
Power systems were an easy definition to him; combat, high warp or combat made nearly equal demands upon the Warp Core and power Grid; only the specific systems utilized varied to denote which actions were being demanded of Engineering.
He could cope easily with that.
Zitla was transfixed by the images crossing her screen - solar activity could sometimes be hypnotic and the calibration on the Phoenix systems made this particularly so, “Lively winds out there, nothing out of the ordinary for its class but the lens we’re looking through will give us some interesting data once we’ve analyzed it,” she said. No information she could glean would be useful right now but with a closer look in the future it might yield fish.
It was well know that gas giant had various chemical compositions as well as being notorious for their high winds. “Helm, take us into the upper atmosphere.”
Looking back over his shoulder. “Sir?”
“This was your idea. Time to see if she can handle a little rough weather. Take her in.”
The Phoenix began its descent into the planet’s upper atmosphere and immediately began to be buffeted.
Zitla’s screens lit up.
The Phoenix turned into the winds and the buffeting stabilized. Without having to be told the helm took the ship into neighboring latitude and even into deeper layers of the planets atmosphere.
As the ship approached a massive wall cloud to a planet sized super storm Rico called for a report on exactly how the Phoenix was holding up. "Status."
Captain, the winds within that wall cloud are nearing 3,000 kph the sheer forces alone..."
Rico agreed. "Understood...no reason to temp fate today. Helm stay ahead of the frontal boundry and take us out of the atmosphere."
"Aye sir."
--- Oort Cloud Weapons Test ---
The ship and crew had performed admirably thus far; there were a few kinks to iron out but that was to be expected. Finally they were approaching the systems ort cloud, the leftovers of the systems formation billions of years ago.
“Mr. Miller are your weapons ready?”
“Ready Sir.”
“Prepare a few class 5 probes as tactical dro….”
“We’re experiencing interference with communications,” Ayana said.
Turning back forward towards Ops. “What kind of interference?”
"Static is causing degradation and distortion," Ayana said. "Range has dropped by one quarter. Adjusting now." She activated a signal booster and a buffer to help improve comms. She also ran an analysis of the composition of the Oort cloud to see if anything there was causing the problem and adjusted accordingly.
Deciding to take advantage of the interference he continued with the weapons test. "Launch 3 class 5 probes as tactical drones and prepare to pursue."
“Lt. Varon if you would please control the drones and give Mr. Miller and his tactical systems a run for their money."
"Yes, sir," Ayana said. She couldn't help grinning as she prepared and launched the drones.
Several minutes later, she had the drones ready to start their first run on the ship.
He was tempted to take the ship into Multi-Vector Assault Mode but decided that could wait. “Helm…half impulse and take us into the cloud, standard search pattern. Let’s find our prey.”
Ayana had programmed the drones to work together to keep their numbers from being easily counted. That meant using the cloud to help mask sensor readings, and going two-by-two in single file so that if one was detected, the other could get one attack in before the ship could counter. At least, that was the plan. She was curious to see how it actually worked out.
Upon entering the cloud the flew straight for several kilometers then turned hard to port as the shipbegan it's search grid.
Miller hadactivated the sensors after the probes had been launch and now had them looking for any indications of the probes. No doubt she was going to be using the planetoids and othe debris to hide until she made her move. If it were him he would strike when they were close in order to minimize the time ithey would to lock on.
Phasers were ready and he had the computer set to target any incoming object...natural or otherwise.
The ship detected an object directly above them as it came out from behind a cluster of debris and fired on the ship.
Rico has been eyeing a particular cluster, the shattered remains of a planetoid had created a beautiful collection of massive to miniature fragments...perfect cover for an ambush.
The "fire" from the probe...little more than a focused scanning beam struck the forward hull just as the dorsal phasers fired, ending the probe in a baze of glory.
Just as the ship fired, another drone attacked.
The second probe, firing from a cover position, was destroyed as the ships phasers obliterated the asteroid it had been hiding in.
It was almost too easy. "Very good Mr. Miller but you were anticipating the attack and had targeting active yes?"
"Yes sir."
"Well....where is the challenge in that?" Rico asked rhetorically.
Popping up out of his seat he moved forward, "Helm all stop." As he came around to the front of Ops he looked down at the Lieutenant. "How much time do you need to redeploy the remaining probes?"
"Twenty minutes, max," she said.
[Engineering]
Kent monitored the power fluxuations from his console; nothing had really gotten out of the ordinary, he had to admit the 'fix it' job he and his crew had done while aiding the construction crew had paid off with the ship systems and power grid running like a fine machine that the Lady was, he could not be more proud of the Ship if he tried.
[Bridge - 20 minites later]
Rico had ordered the the tactical sensores taken offline so that the next engagement would be a true surprise. "Helm resume course."
The first time, Ayana went for the quick attack, hoping to catch him off guard. Now, she was going to bide her time and plan her attack. And this time, it would be a surprise.
She let the ship continue for a while, then three drones attacked the nacelle pylon where it connected to the hull, three attacked the sensors to blind the ship, and ten went right between the engines.
She wanted to see how this attack went before plotting her next move.
:: FOLLOWING THE TEST ::
Rico grinned as he recalled the attack...very well coordinated and effective though a bit unfair. He had limited he tactical officer by blinding the sensors and giving Lt. Varon addition time. He had failed to put similar limits on her and she had used her knowledge of the ships systems and vulnerabilities. Something he would definately keep in mind when piting one officer against another.
Making several annotations in his report of the tests he picked up the padd to review the varios reports of the battle stations drill.
Captain Ricardo Montoya
CO
Lieutenant Commander Cevel Th'raran
Executive Officer
Lieutenant Ayana Varon
Chief Operations Officer
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