StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Keying off your description of me as having stubble growing, I'll be a surly, cynical ensign who the commander suspects of having a drinking problem, but never gets caught drunk on duty. That should give you some room to play around.

Actually, I was just stealing from your Gordon Frohman avatar.

But I can go with that!

Also, if you guys wanna add your own little character vignettes, go right ahead. It'll help me in the long run, and make this thread one of more active participation.

Lets see, I'm the kind of guy who tries to do everything perfectly, and then gets a bit distracted when it doesn't work.

I'd be formal to a fault on the bridge and on duty, but off duty am the guy sitting on the chair in the lounge reading a technical manual.

Think about a prideful nerd with a lot of self confidence in a few areas, but none in others. The kind of person who falls back on rigid rules to define behavior because he is not confident he can figure out the more fluid ones correctly.

You can directly inline the images as long as they're not huge. 800 x 600 would be preferable but 1024 x 768 should be ok, virtually everyone should be using monitors large enough that you can embed that without breaking the site layout.

Test image with resolution of 1028x768. If it looks a little big, I'll reduce the resolution in-game. Although I still have two posts to work out before you guys see an improvement.

*crossesfingers*



Does that look good to the rest of you guys? Not gonna murder bandwidth or the like?

JonB looked over his bridge for the thousandth time since his shift began. It was his! He passed! His own ship! Sure, it was only an obsolete DDG+, but she still flew, and that's what counted. He also had orders to proceede to the Klingon border. What awaited him was a picket post under the command of the Dreadnought USS Star League. Also, he got promoted to Lt. Commander!

But first, a convoy also going in the same direction needed escort.

Oddly enough, the alpha shift bridge crew was the same as his simulator exercise. Ensign Sharp, with his permanent stubble and beady eyes looked for all the galaxy like he was possibly, maybe, slightly hungover. But his breath was clean, and he kept the ship going in a straight line. He had a talk with Sanchez about his suspicions, and the XO said he would look into it without really saying anything.

Then there was Starglider... The Skorr native had made every conceivable effort to automate everything he could get his hands on. From the fuel injectors (reasonable) to the missile rack loading devices (possibly helpful) to the the creation of auto-firing weapons for the Marines - even going so far as to try and replace the marines themselves with mobile gun platforms.

Mojor Kendall had words with him. No one from the Engineering Staff were willing to talk about what happened that day, and after being stonewalled, JonB let it go. Hopefully, that would be the end of the Marine/Engineer wankfest, but privately he expected it to flare up again before too long.

He knew each ship had its quirks, but JonB slowly came to the realization that he surrounded by... interesting people.

And so, it was slightly cathartic to hear Ensign Miles call out his contact report. "Unidentified Space Monster! Bearing 043 mark 345, range 985kk! Contact! Unknown vessel - frigate sized - bearing 330 mark 12, range 785 kilo klicks. Both contacts are closing on the convoy!"

"Red alert!" JonB yelled out. "Sanchez, alert the convoy, and tell them to disnegange at best speed, we'll hold them off. Samuels, keep the photons to standard levels, and tell the shuttle deck to prep a scatterpack! Miles! Send a probe when one is armed at that frigate! Sharp, turn to intercept the enemy frigate, warp 2.5! Sanchez! Hail the frigate and see who they are! Kendall, get your men ready to help defend the convoy from any capture attempts!" He hit the comm button on his chair, connecting him to the Engine room. "Starglider! Discretionary power to the shields!"



Almost a minute passed as the flanked convoy tried to get away from the attackers. But they were both faster than the freighters, and with only himself to defend them, JonB needed to prioritize. "Captain!" Miles reported. "Probe identified the Frigate as a Kzinti Mirak Police ship! No Y175 refit! Her hull indicates she is the 'Skin of Sea', a ship reported captured by the Orions three years ago!"

JonB cursed. But the Mirak frigate was even more obsolete than his own ship. And even then, without the missile refit, it had very limited stocks of drones. "Starglider! use both tractor beams for anti-drone work! Samuel, phasers and anti-drones locked to defensive firing. We can use the extra phasers and photons on the pirate vessel. And keep that scatterpack on the shuttle deck for now." Wouldn't want to waste it against a wild weasel JonB mentally added.



The Mirak vessel approached, and fired off a three-set of drones. Samuel noted that they were outdated drones, very slow. As they approached, our anti-drone system chattered to life, filling the space around the incoming ordinance, and the kitetic kill systems more than proved their worth, dropping the trio of drones in the space of seconds. With them out of the way, JonB ordered all facing weapons to fire on the captured vessel.

Only to discover that the right-side phasers were the only ones that bore on the enemy. In the heat of the battle, the enemy commander had slipped out of my forward arc, and the available firepower wasn't enough to drop the facing shield.

Snarling, JonB added a pair of medium speed drones to the battle to chase down the Skin of Sea before her weapons could cycle. Before being ordered, Sharp began to spin the ship around as fast as he could. But with the enemy maneuvering faster than the old destroyer, Sharp turned away from the enemy, using distance and converging turns to bring the offside weapons back into arc.



The racks cycled, and another pair were sent downrange into the loving care of the Skin of Sea. In the distance, the monster unleashed fusion fury at medium range on a helpless freighter, barely scoring the shields. As the missiles closed on their intended target, Samuls and Stark managed to bring the heavy weapons to bear on the enemy, and without waiting for orders, fired again. The phasers, and one photon hit, while the second one missed. Typical for the range involved. "Damage to the rearquarter of the enemy ship, sir!" Sanchez informed him. "Space Monser is moving at Warp 3.1, and barely damaged.



But it seemed that the cowardly pirates had turned their faces towards less capable defenses, and fired their drones on one of the fleeing merchant ships.

Only for that ship to drop the blast panels covering their own anti-drone system, and proceed to chew through the offensive ordanince!



JonB made his descision in a split second. "Launch the scatter pack, targetting the cosmozoan!" At his command, a lone shuttle was deployed from the shuttle bay, pointed at the monster some 150kk away.



"Helm! Bring us around to face the police ship!" The rear view on the main screen showed the shuttle destroyed by the launching of its six submunitions. As his ship turned, JonB watched the half-dozen warhead slip around the frieghter in their path, and impact solidly on the space monster. It didn't do as much damage as he had hoped, but he was thinking ahead to stopping the monster after dealing with the pirate.



But the Mirak frigate had swung past his ship while they were focused on the monster, and fired another set of drones at a defenseless freighter. However, the drones were still in range of the ADD aboard his ship, and the auto-targetting on them shot down two before the third impacted on a freighter, leaving it venting consumables into the depths of space.



While waiting for his weapons to cycle, JonB ordered Sharp to create some distance between them and the enemy. Samuals fired another pair of drones to keep the ship busy, and was just as suprised as anyone when the pirate ship blew up.



Sanchez and Miles conferred for a few seconds before reporting. "Sir, it appears that the Skin of Sea suffered a core breach when their engine casings were ruptured. No survivors." JonB grimaced. He would have prefered to take the pirate alive, but piracy in a time of war was still a terminable offence, even in the Federation.

"Very well, note it in the log, and helm, get us facing the monster so we can finish this. Status on the Convoy?"

"Sir, the freighters are all relatively intact. Only one is showing significant internal damage, while one more has sealed the breaches caused by the drone." Sanchez offered up after a moments consultation with Miles. "We should focus on the Monster now, sir."

JonB agreed, and the ship set its sights on the mindless monster.





The monster was dead, and the convoy, with all ships still flying, continnued to the Klingon Border.

-----
Sorry for the quality of post. Short on musepower at the moment.

Cool update. As for the new resolution, My connection can handle it, but I don't know about those with slower connections.

The resolution works well for me.

Great update.

Thanks guys. Next update is a little bigger, and involves multiple cruisers.

Also - I need a name for our ship. Any suggestions?

The Benjamin Franklin Pierce?

I'm on a MASH kick right now.

Resolution's fine.

A good ship name would be the Juan Ponce de León, or the Ralph Abercromby.

Jason L. Miles wrote:The Benjamin Franklin Pierce?

Well if we named it 'Frank Burns' we'd get commendations from the enemy.

The USS Jean Ponce de Leon (NCC 532, DDG class) pulled up to the Klingon Border Battle Station #2, a recently constructed bastion on the border between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Within easy sensor range of the antiquated destroyer lay enough firepower to devestate worlds a dozen times over. The Jean Ponce didn't dock to the base, but rather was ordered to rendevous with the USS Trusteeship, a Heavy Dreadnought that replaced the Star League while JonB's ship was in transit.

Lt. Commander JonB reported to the Flag Bridge of the Trusteeship in full and proper uniform. He knew full well he was the little fish in a big war, and didn't want to step on any toes. He was greeted by Fleet Admiral Cole, who welcomed him to this little paradise.

"Sorry to cut the greetings short, but we're short shipped at the moment. Normally you and your ship would be still in the interior, but one of our War Destroyer squadrons got shot up pretty badly by the Klinks. But right now, I need you to join the NCL Moreno, and go out to rendevous with the CVL Sagan. Her escort got picked off by a Klingon PFT, and we need you to go out to get her. Long range scans indicates the Klinks only have a Cruiser and a Frigate in the area. Command goes to the Moreno, then the Sagan when you rendevous with her. Dismissed."

JonB made his way back to his ship, and alerted his senior staff to the mission at hand. There was the usual grumbling about supplies and such, but a mission was a mission. They had a job to do. They met up with the Moreno, and the war cruiser took the lead as they flew in formation for the rendezvous. Once again, JonB had suspicions about his navigator, but nothing he could prove. He still flew in a straight line.

Tomorrow, they would reach the rendezvous. But the CVL had sent them a tight beam communication. It had been detected by the Klingon ships in the area, and all three forces would meet within a minute of eachother.



-----
Teaser for the next mission. And while I'm going for the Jean Ponce de Leon, I must note that there will be plenty of ships to name in the future. Also in the works after the next mission is a pure RP/story post where I go back and explain things for people who haven't played SFB or SFC2, like ADDs, MCIDS, drones, phasers, and the like.

The USS Jean Ponce de Leon (NCC 532, DDG class) pulled up to the Klingon Border Battle Station #2, a recently constructed bastion on the border between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Within easy sensor range of the antiquated destroyer lay enough firepower to devestate worlds a dozen times over. The Jean Ponce didn't dock to the base, but rather was ordered to rendevous with the USS Trusteeship, a Heavy Dreadnought that replaced the Star League while JonB's ship was in transit.

Lt. Commander JonB reported to the Flag Bridge of the Trusteeship in full and proper uniform. He knew full well he was the little fish in a big war, and didn't want to step on any toes. He was greeted by Fleet Admiral Cole, who welcomed him to this little paradise.

"Sorry to cut the greetings short, but we're short shipped at the moment. Normally you and your ship would be still in the interior, but one of our War Destroyer squadrons got shot up pretty badly by the Klinks. But right now, I need you to join the NCL Moreno, and go out to rendevous with the CVL Sagan. Her escort got picked off by a Klingon PFT, and we need you to go out to get her. Long range scans indicates the Klinks only have a Cruiser and a Frigate in the area. Command goes to the Moreno, then the Sagan when you rendevous with her. Dismissed."

JonB made his way back to his ship, and alerted his senior staff to the mission at hand. There was the usual grumbling about supplies and such, but a mission was a mission. They had a job to do. They met up with the Moreno, and the war cruiser took the lead as they flew in formation for the rendezvous. Once again, JonB had suspicions about his navigator, but nothing he could prove. He still flew in a straight line.

Tomorrow, they would reach the rendezvous. But the CVL had sent them a tight beam communication. It had been detected by the Klingon ships in the area, and all three forces would meet within a minute of eachother.


-----

For the second time, JonB called out for Red Alert in reality. The Jean Ponce de Leon and the Monero had rendezvoused with the Sagan, and were trying to make a break back for Federation lines when two Klingon ships, the expected cruiser and frigate dropped out into tactical warp.



The Sagan ordered the Monero and the Jean Ponce to attack the Klingon Cruiser while it dealt with the Frigate. The captain of the Sagan promised he would help them out once he had finished with his target. To JonB, this made sense. The CVL could crush the enemy frigate while the NCL and DDG held off the... "Miles, what kind of heavy cruiser are we facing?"

Miles fired off a probe, and Sanchez consulted with the XO of the Monero on how the two ships were to handle the cruise. Starglider worked at usual efficiency, politely trying to coax extra ergs of power from the engines. But not being a miracle worker, nothing truely came from his efforts. Stark slipped in behind the heavier ship, knowing that if the Jean Ponce went first, the more fragile vessel would take the brunt of the firepower. It was easier to repair a crippled NCL than to replace a DDG.

"Samual, weapons?"

"Everything hot, sir. Standard torpedoes. Wish we could fire a pair of proxies, but that won't do us any good."

"Captain, report from the probe! D6K!" Miles sounded very surprised, a sentiment echoed by many on the bridge.



"Confirm that!" JonB snapped out. If they were dealing with a mere D6, even with the K refit...

"Monero confirms, D6K. The IKV Nemesis. The captain of the Monero gives us discretion to aid the Sagan, sir." Sanchez shook his head slightly, and JonB agreed. Sagan had tactical control, then the Monero. "Begin attack run on the Nemesis, fire off a pair of drones."



"Aye sir, drone in flight. Nemesis launching drones, aimed at us, no doubt." Samual reported the weapon launch, and JonB went with the usual response. "Starglider, power to the tractors incase the drones get through the ADDs."



"Should we prepare a wild weasel, sir?" Starglider's voice came back over the comm.



"Negative." From both ships, the kinetic weapons sought out the nuclear missles, 2 from the Jean Ponce, and 1 from the Nemesis, which turned to bring its back to bear as it sought to keep the drones in optimal ADD range. "Samual, we reach 40kk, fire everything at the Nemesis, then Stark, get us some distance and slow us down to recharge all the weapons."



Beams of crimson light shot out from the Jean Ponce's right. A glimpse at the tactical display indicated that the short squadron of fighters from the Sagan had decided to fly all the way over here to help out, rather than stay with their carrier. "SANCHEZ! Why are those fighters here, and not there?" He swore if he ever got command of a Carrier, that he would never let his pilots roam around like that. The Hawks pours a little more fire into the Klingon ship, but their phasers weren't enough to drop the facing shield.

"Both our drones in flight killed by ADD fire, sir." Samuel reported. "Sir, Nemesis turning to port, range decreasing rapidly!" Stark added in.

"Hold to 20kk, then fire everything! Keep us centerlined!"



"Minor Damage!" Miles reported. "One phaser mount down, and their ADD appears to be suffering from a failure!" Stark swung the ship around to make space while Starglider poured power into the phasers and photons. The ship halved its velocity to spare power for the hungry weapons.

"Monero firing!"



The NCL took a midrange shot on the D6K, facing the strong forward shield. But the aim of the photons was horrible, and of the four fired, only one hit - the rest sailing off into deep space. But with the Klingon's ADD out of the way, JonB ordered another pair of drones to be launched.

"Monero maneuvering for phaser shot, captain!"




"Alert! Nemesis has deployed a mine from the shuttle bay!" "Nemesis tractored both of our drones!" Miles and Samual reported in. JonB made a decision, and turned to the Marine Major.

"Kendall, get your men to the transporter rooms. I want you to knock out those tractors!" A nod, and the Major gave orders to his men as he left the bridge to take command of one of the commando teams himself, leaving a pair of marine guards on the bridge in his absence. "Helm, bring un into transporter range, Samual - prepare the phasers to knock down the shield. Sanchez, alert the Monero to the plan, and make sure Starglider saves some power for the transporters!"



A chorus of "aye!"s came back to him from his orders, and Stark swung the ship around to face the larger cruiser. As they passed 50kk, the half-dozen phasers lashed out from the Jean Ponce, knocking down the shield damaged earlier by the Monero. A split second later, the two transporters beamed their deadly cargoes onto the cruiser. A few tense seconds later, and the marines returned. Kendall's voice came over the comm from the transporter room. "Negative on the Tractors captain. The Klinks were ready for that and fought us off! My men want another go at those bastards, can you give it to us?"



Starglider's voice came onto the same line. "Must wait for Transporters to cycle. Again in 20 seconds?"

JonB spared a thought for that as he ordered a fresh pair of drones to be fired at the Klingon. With the phasers either uncycled or damaged, the tractors in use with the current drones he fired off another pair at point-blank range into the damaged forward shields.



"Do it!" he ordered, then closed the comms, just in time to watch plasma fires spray out across the top of the Klingon's hull. "Sir, they lost a tractor! Additional drone impact!" Sanchez eagerly reported. Although that drone hit only shields, and not ship.



It was at that point that the Monero decided to swing right over the Jean Ponce to take advantage of the down shield facing them. The heavier ship barely cleared the Jean Ponce, JonB was certain if he was standing on the saucer of his ship, he could have reached up and touched the underside of the NCL. "Sanchez! Tell the Monero to watch were she's flying! Stark, keep us clear of them, I don't want anything like that to happen again!"

Seconds later, Samual reported that the photons and phasers were armed, while Starglider alerted Kendall that he could make another attempt on the tractors again.



Both photons solidly hit, ripping huge gashes into the hull of the Klingon cruiser, while Kendall's men stormed the ship once more. Seconds later they returned, triumphant! "Tractor controls destroyed!" he said victoriously, and JonB could hear Marines congradulating eachother in the background.

Sanchez looked to JonB. "Sir, the Monero is giving us permission to finish the job. The Klingons have refised to surrender." A slightly somber tone in his voice, but it was still war. "Samual, phasers please."



The Klingon ship detoned, her core breached by the energy weapons from his own ship. There were some cheers from the crew, as they got their first official kill in the war. But JonB felt a little sick in his stomach. The Orion/Mirak vessel was an accident. Too much firepower in the heat of battle. This... This was deliberate. Murder even, despite the orders, and the refusal of surrender.

As Stark turned the ship around to face the duel going on some 30kk away, between the Sagan and the F5B, it was quickly seen that the helpwasn't needed - the Sagan finally destroyed the smaller ship.



The fighters landed on their carrier, and the three ships regrouped for the voyage back to the safety of the Battle Station. JonB spent most of it in his cabin.

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Really guys, write a little from your character's perspective, please! It'll help me with characterization later!

Next post from me will be imageless as I go through the promised techincal side of things.

Jean Ponce de Leon

Juan in English is John, I believe. Or isn't?

Short Mission is Short!
-----

The Admiral's orders were clear. The USS Jean Ponce de Leon was to go around the sector containing the Klingon Battle Station just across the frontlines from it's Federation equal. The mission of the DDG was to raid the rear areas to try and draw units away from the sector contianing a fortified Klingon world and Base in order to give the Admiral a chance to attack the base directly.



JonB relayed these commands to his officers, and Sanchez noted that the target sector was one back from the front lines. "A shallow raid" was his comment. Miles noted that the Base, with it's advanced sensors would be able to spot them on their planned route, while Stark was thankful there weren't any major terrian features to worry about.

They made a dash-warp run around the edge of the sensors of the Klingon Base, and reached the target destination with no problems.

"Slow to tactical warp." JonB told Stark. "Miles, what's out there?"

The science officer hunched over the displays on his console. "Checking captain... Contact! I have a Klink war cruiser on sensors. She's putting out some serious EW, so she's either a D5S, a -D, or a -E."


JonB scowled, while Samuel was almost beside himself with glee. The D5 class was twice the size of the aging DDG, despite being about the same age as far as the designs went. He wanted to kill it dead.

But Sanchez rushed to the Science station, yelling out "Behind us!" A moment's confusion reigned across the bridge as Starglider put power into the shields and into bringing the ship up to combat speed. A couple seconds later, JonB found out the problem.

"Captain! It's a trap! Enemy vessels fore and aft! D5D and B11K! IT'S A BATTLESHIP."



The blood of every crewbeing on the bridge ran cold. Battleship. Mobile fortresses the likes of which could take on small fleets by themselves. The Klingons has many. The Federation - not as many. JonB's decision was instant. "HELM! GET US OUT OF HERE!" He didn't mean to yell. Really, but this was too much.

They may have had luck with the D5D, but the B11 was the king of space, and if he stayed, the Jean Ponce de Leon would be crushed without a second salvoe.

Sanchez, moving efficently, next appeared over the shoulder of the comms officer. He was offered the earpiece, and listened in. Finally, he returned the earpiece, and addressed JonB. "Captain. The Klingon Battleship IKV Invincible is demanding we heave-to, lower our shields, and prepare to be boarded. Our reply?"

Stark was fast, swinging the ship around to face away from both enemy ships. "Captain, 90 seconds to disngagement!" The little ship poured all spare power into the engines, having just enough to spare for a slight ECM bonus to mitigate long range sniping. The B11K and the D5D moved to intercept but the little old ship could accelerate faster than the behemoth or her escort.

JonB looked to his XO. "Sanchez, tell them they can have us when they catch us."

True to his word, Stark managed to get the ship out of danger, accelerating to high-warp while the Battleship was still over 50kk away.



Safe at over warp 8, JonB took a breath to calm himself. "Send a priority message to the fleet and to base. Tell them the Invincible is coming."
-----
A quick note here. I went into a patrol mission, and depending on what is in the secotor/hex, different missions can be generated. In this case, my single ship went into a sector with a DN and a CL, and the randomizer said 'B11K and D5D', then the game looked at the difference in capacities between the two forces, theirs and mine.

And then SFC2 said "Screw You" and got me ambushed. The only goal of that scenario is to survive, and while escaping normally means a loss of prestige (the in-game currency for buying new ships and toys), in this case, escaping gained me prestige.

The next mission has 297 images in it, so I think I'll do two things. First is turn them into a RAR file for sharing, but that's 41Megs. Next is try to find time to trim that down to 30 or less images.

24 July Y183

JonB was called to the bridge by the Gamma shift duty officer, an Andorian who handed over the communications received from Border Station #2. JonB read it and swore aloud, something that didn't surprise the officer of the watch. He looked at the chronometer. "A couple hours until our rendevous with the Jackson. No need to wake the alpha shift." He nodded to the watch officer to keep her post until the end of the shift, and returned to his cabin, mulling over the message.

The attack on the Klingon base had failed with the arrival of the Invincible. The Trusteeship was heavilly damaged in the confused melee that followed, and needed to return to the Alpha Centauri shipyards for repair and refit. There was no word as to a replacement ship yet. To that end, once the Jean Ponce had met up with the BCF Jackson, they were to return to the base for future updates.

This wasn't a good date in the war against the Klingons. But at least he could get anouther hour of shuteye before reporting for duty.

That hour passed by without much rest, dread at the continnued presence of the heavy Battleship in the nearby sector. They were still in Klingon space, and were attempting to bypass patrols and the like to reach the relative safety of the cruiser.

JonB pulled himself out of his bunk and got a new uniform from the fresher. He put it on, and swung by the messhall to grab something to eat before heading to the bridge where he releived the officer of the watch. He saw that there were no new messages waiting for him, and waited while the department heads arrived at their stations for the Jackson's arrival. They were the ones early.

About half an hour later, they got a message from the Jackson. They had run across a transmission indicating an Orion meeting with the Klingons, and decided to crash the party. They would meet up at altered coordinates, appraoching from different directions to best surprise the enemy, hopefully with their pants down.

The Jean Ponce accelerated to warp 7 to make it in time, soon picking up the signals from the Jackson. It was further status updates from the more powerful sensor suite on the Heavy Battle Cruiser. As they came into range, the Jean Ponce slowed down to combat speeds, detecting an Orion Viking class freighter aborting the docking procedures with the Klingon frieghter adjacent to it while the Orion Light Raider patroled the edges of the illicit meeting. It was out of position as the Jackson and the Jean Ponce began their attack run.

But all good plans don't survive the enemy - and this was no exception. "CONTACT!" Miles cried out. "Dreadnought! C9B! It just dropped from highwarp, and is on an intercept course!"

JonB's decision was usurped by the commander of the Jackson. "We'll destroy the C9 as well" it read.



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Yep. An obsolete DDG and a top of the line BCF against a Dreadnought, two pirates and a freighter. It was a fun battle, but seriously hard to cut down on images. I went from 297 to 53, and am still trying to cut corners here and there. It's coming, and I may have to divide it into a couple parts to make it all fit. Don't want to break something by accident.

Also, inbetween mission writeups, what sort of RP/technical stuff would you all like to see? Give me something to do while pondering image choices.

The Jean Ponce de Leon fell in behind the USS Jackson, and JonB's bridge crew could see the extent of the forces in the battlefield. The Viking had seperated from the Klingon Freighter, and was trying to make for the Light Raider, and the protection it could offer.



The massive cruiser fired the first shots of the battle, sending a salvoe of four proximity fuzed photons at the Viking. Only two hit, but that was still average accuracy, and the forward shield of the Orion cargo ship collapsed.



The two Federation ships got closer, and on orders, the Jackson fired the facing phasers while the Jean Ponce used her drones as a distraction. But the damage from the phasers had disrupted both the tractors and the phasers on the Viking, leaving it helpless as a plasma torpedo launched from the neck of the Jackson hit a second before the the Ponce's drones.



"Sir, she has hull breaches on all decks, and all her systems are not operating correctly!" Miles reported as the Viking tried to turn away, only to face more fire from the Jackson. "Captain, Scatterpack shuttle is approximately 20% complete, I'd suggest saving it for the C9."



JonB accepted these reports, and watched as the shield started to fail on the Viking. Sharp swung the ship around behind her, putting the DDG off the rear arc of the crippled Viking. Miles called out that the ship was attempting to repair her engines, and escape.

Decision made, JonB ordered Samuel to finish off the pirate – and the weapons officer wisely saved the photons and drones, using only a fourset of phasers to core and detonate the pirate. At the last second, the crew of the pirate tossed a mine out of their shuttlebay, perhaps thinking it would deter persuit.



"Sharp, go around the mine, Samuel, make sure the photons are fully overloaded. Kendall, gimme a status update. Sanchez, get on the horn with the Jackson. Ask them what the plan is for the dreadnought. And someone tell Starglider to put all spare power into the shields once we've taken care of the freighter." He didn't need to add that a C9 had enough weapons to vaporise his ship in a single salvoe, and that the amount of energy he could put into his shields would be negligable at best compared to the energy incoming.



The crew busied themselves with their activities. Sanchez reported back first. "Captain, the Jackson is ordering us to stay in loose formation with them; after we destroy the frieghter, we are to engage the C9 and LR. Once enganged, we are to use our discretion for weapons."

"Destroy, not capture?" JonB asked for confirmation, and got one from his XO. "Aye sir, the Jackson took readings off the Freighter earlier – and they want it destroyed."

JonB cast a glance at Miles. "Science! Take scans of that freighter as best we can."

"Captain!" Stark alerted his commanding officer. "We are closing past 60 kk from the Freighter!"

"Fire drones!"



"Less than 20 kk!"

"Samuel! Photons!" He would have ordered the use of the phasers as well, but they were still incompletely cycled from the destruction of the Viking. A split second later, the two cases of anti-matter few through the small distance between ships, one hitting cleanly, while the other sailed off into deep space.



"Forward shields down! Feedback on the forward shield! Adding phasers!" Samuel called out as he fired the in-arc phasers through the down defenses of the freighter, scoring even more damage to the large superstructue.

But the freighter didn't let the Jean Ponce away scot free. It fired off its phasers into the rear shield of the Destroyer, reducing her rear shields by 75%.



The Jackson, meanwhile, had swung around, and added phasers and a pair of drones to the battle. The phasers cut deeply into the ship, while the bulk of the freighter protected the solitary tractor beam which caught one of the Jacksons drones. "Samuel! Another pair of drones!"



Samuel gave the fire order, then turned to his captain. "Sir, we only have two more drones in the racks! The rest went onto the scatterpack!"

"Save them for the Dreadnought then!" JonB ordered back. "Miles? Where's the Dreadnought and Pirate?"

"Still 750kk away, sir!"

JonB overheard Sanchex mutter "What's taking them so long?" - a sentiment that JonB shared.

"Drones impacting – tractor bean off line!" "The Jackson's drone is free, and has impacted! Range of 29.1 kk!" Miles and Samuel gave status updates for the battle.



"Sharp! Overrun the freighter! Samuel! Phasers at point blank range!" JonB braced himself as the DDG came within a hairs bredth of the Klingon freighter, pouring all her weapons into the unprotected hull.

Seconds later, he had the answer to his tactic – "Sir! The Freighter is still alive!" JonB cursed when Miles added "Jackson! 20kk to the starboard aft!"



The F-refitted Heavy Battle Cruiser closed with the frighter, and unleashed a torrent of phasers and plasma into the defenseless ship, casusing to to detonate violently, scoring damage from the explosion on the shields of the two federation vessels.



"Captain – The Jackson is ordering us to take up a position behind her as we engage the Klingon and Pirate." Sanchez said from the Comms panel.

"Acknowledge the orders. Miles, get a lock on the pirate, and Probe her. I don't want any surprises."



"Aye sir." Miles said.

"Sharp, pull us in behind the Jackson, best speed. Samuel – get the photons to full overload status, we'll need all the punch we can get against a C9. And someone tell Starglider to get the shields repaired as fast as he can!"

"CAPTAIN!" Miles almost yelled out. "Klingon fire!"

"On the Jackson?" That shouldn't be possible, JonB thought, they were still too far away that any weapons fire would be ineffective at best...

"No sir! The C9 just destroyed the Pirate Light Raider!"


-----
End Part 1!

A new post, and more action! You're really doing good, despite the wait.

Thanks man. I try, but RL issues such as (real word replaced with less objectionable:SILLY) bosses, as well as getting Post Seconday stuff worked out. Also, I'm running one of the major events at the local Anime Con this weekend, so that's... interesting.

<requisite plug>
If any of you guys are in Edmonton this weekend, come to Animethon, and visit the Room of Mystery!
</plug>

But my biggest issue with this is building a tactical narrative out of a game that has less than X-Com in that regard. Sure, there are stragegic plot missions, but beyond that... Argh.

Part 2 coming soon. Worst case, someone message me Thursday morning to GETITDONE on my day off.

32 images in this update, so I'll go back to thumbnails for the rest of this mission. Sorry for the inconvenience.
-----

With her more powerful engines and spare power, the Jackson pulled ahead of the Jean Ponce, going far outside the ability of the smaller ship to act as consort to the larger one. JonB mentally glared at the captain of the BCF, reprimanding him for acting like a glory seeker in the face of the larger Dreadnought.



The Jackson spoke first, unleashing everything she had into the forward flank shields of the Klingon – now identified as the IKV Direslayer. Phasers struck after Photons and the Klingon took light internals.



Miles spoke up with the damage report on the Direslayer[\i]. "Sir! One third of the Klink's disruptors are damaged – as is a single phaser mount." His voice rose in excitement. "Anti-drones and tractors disrupted!"

The counterfire from the Klingon was wasted on the cruiser – EW and shield reinforement held back the worst of the enemy fire. "Launch the scatter pack!" JonB ordered Samuel as he imagined the wrath of the Klingon commander at his own weapons officer. Was there any truth to the rumors that Klingons would execute incompetant officers?



The SP barely had time to clear the shuttledeck when some enterprising Ridgehead fixed the anti-drone system – just in time as the Jackson fired a pair of drones. The kinetic kill system knocked out one nuclear warhead, but the other slipped past all defenses to impact on the rear port shield.

Behind the Jean Ponce, the scatterpack blossomed, deploying its payload of a half-dozen drones which started to overtake the DDG. Samuel locked out the last pair of shipboard drones because of limited control channels. The ship could only control a half-dozen drones at once, and firing they had reached that limit in one swift action.

"Sharp, bring us behind the Direslayer. Samuel – when we get off her rearshield, and within overload range, fire everything." Klingons tended to have weak rear shields, although wartime refits helped correct that error. "And someone tell Starglider that we'll still need power for overloads on the photons.



Seconds later, the shot was made – and to JonB's disgust, both photons missed! At the range they were firing from, he could have expected one to hit, but to watch both sail past the Direslayer while the phasers lightly scored the shield was a blow to the gut. Samuel took it harder, slamming his hand against the control panel in frustration.



But the Jackson had taken the opprotunity to turn back into the Klingon. The C9B had slowed down, and poured extra power into shield reinforcement. The BCF closed to within 50KK, and fired her remaining weapons – the plasma from the ship's neck. The two plasma raced towards the down shield, and the Klink desperately fired phasers into the seeking weapons to reduce their effectiveness.



But the angle that the weapons approached was bad for the defender, and the two weapons impacted damaging more weapons and once again dirupting the transporters and tractors on the Direslayer. The Jackson dropped a mine out her shuttlebay, and the dreadnought maneuvered to give it room. Had it continnued to turn back towards the BCF, it would have detonated it off the down shield, and JonB approved of the maneuver.

Sanchez noted that the Jackson would pass between the the Jean Ponce, and signaled the cruiser if it had any drones to use to add into the incoming wave. The response was negative.





Instead, the Direslayer launched it's own drones, and the ADD on the Jackson chattered to life. Two of the Jean Ponce drones were shot down, another two grabbed in tractors, while the last two impacted on the shields of the dreadnought. Even after reinforcement, the shield was heavilly damaged.

Samuel added the last pair of rack drones from the Jean Ponce, but JonB realized the error. The Dreadnought was turning to bring the mine layed earlier between the incoming ordanince. And then he saw the danger his ship was in, and yelled at Sharp to turn them away.




The old ship turned sluggishly, and not fast enough. The drones detonated against the space mine, and the effects were told. The mine wiped out the four drones in flight, releasing the tractors for other uses. But everyone was close to the explosion, and the subspace pulse knocked down the facing shields on both ships, scoring more damage to each!



But the damage was mostly cosmetic, both ships only had their hull scored. Atmosphere vented from the holes in the hull from unoccupied sections of the ship and played across the upper engine, igniting into a pretty purple plasma trail behind the ship.

"Weapons cycled!" Samuel noted, and JonB ordered the phasers to fire as they bore.



The only two facing weapons fired, but the damage was far beyond expectations. A half dozen weapons on the larger ship were disrupted as the energy lashed the deep green hull. Samuels and the rest of the Bridge crew were pleased with this minor success.





Sharp continnued to swing the ship around, revealing his own rear shield to the Klingon. The enemy took the invitation and fired some weapons into the shield, but it held under the blow. Only for an unexpected photon to sail over the hull of the ship, illuminating it under its own light.

"Ensign Sharp, you may want to take us up 30 degrees. The Jackson wants a clear shot." Sanchez deadpanned from the comm console. To his credit, the navigator pulled the ship into a steep vertical to clear the larger ship. Barely.




As the cruiser swung past the smaller destroyer, it fired off a pair of drones to cover the withdrawl of the Jean Ponce. A few seconds later, the two ships traded broadsides – despite neither of them being built for the tactic. The Klingon took the brunt of the exhange, but the Federation Battle Cruiser saw her facing shield collapse, taking minor damage in the process.



The deperate Klingon captain fired off another pair of drones, and the defending ADD sang to life, knocking down one before falling silent. "Captain, Jackson reporting that they are bingo on Anti-Drones." The kinetic weapons were a limited resource, and the smaller Jean Ponce carried twice as many due to her construction. They weren't in danger of running out yet.

"Sharp, turn us into the Klingon. I want him to overshoot us, and let us get onto his down port shields."

"Aye captain."



But the enemy had other plans. The dreadnought swung it's bulk back towards the smaller destroyer, dropping a mine out the shuttlebay in the process. "Abort! Turn us out!" JonB yelled at Sharp. "Starglider! Drop a mine of our own!"




The dreadnought had too much momentun on it's side, and JonB barely had time to brace himself when the Direslayer opened up at point-blank range.

The rear port shield collapsed and the ship shook as fire played across the hull. The bridge shook, and a second later, Starglider's voice came back over the intercom. "Port phasers at 50%, transporters disrupted. Reparing."

JonB watched as the Klingon ran over the mine, her inertia unable to stop it from happening. But the ship simply took the blow to the chin, and began to turn to the port, both to protect the down shields, and to turn back towards the Jackson.




But the Jackson had other plans as long range phaser fire dropped the barely repaired shields that faced it in a brilliant display of midrange firing, causing electircal sparks to short across the hull. The shorts affected some of the systems on the dreadnought, and disruptors fired prematurely, neatly knocking back down the hastily reinforced rear shield on the Jean Ponce.



"Sharp, swing up to the starboard. Starglider, how are those repairs coming?"

The responses were cut short by Sanchez. "Sir, Jackson firing drones. Negative impact."

"Captain, phasers bearing!" Miles reported as the ship swung around. "Samuel!"



Four phasers lashed out at mid range, followed a second later by a pair of photons. They all scored true, and the crew cheered as they saw the engines venting fuel and plasma from the larger ship. "She's crippled sir. She can't escape." Miles reported, and Sanchez echoed his assesment.




The klingon made a last gasp of firepower. The phasers and disruptors were feeble against the Federation starship, which continnued to sail around the doomed vessel.





The Jackson sailed around the Jean Ponce, the two ships firing phasers as they bore, and the Klingon helpess to stop them. Finally, the Jackson flew straight at the halpless dreadnought, and when her overrun with phasers failed to kill the ship, a pair of drones finished the job.



"Sir. Jackson offers congradulations on the kill. And orders up to make best speed for Border Station #2. Our job here is done." Sanchez communicated the message from the larger ship.

"Ensign Sharp. Make for friendly space. Best speed."

Excellent job JonB, that's no easy thing fighting a dreadnought and winning with minimal damage. Getting a few upgrades or a better ship later on would be nice for racking up more kills.

Thanks!

Oh, I got a new ship, so I need a name for an NCL class War Cruiser. Two new mission recorded!

JonB wrote:Thanks!

Oh, I got a new ship, so I need a name for an NCL class War Cruiser. Two new mission recorded!

Some naming suggestions:

*USS Shenzhou
*USS Vindicator
*USS Udaloy
*USS Adequate - 'because it's adequate for the job'