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Start Log
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"Chimera this is the Serpent, we are proceeding on schedule. ETA in
five minutes."
Walters opened a comm channel from Chimera's Bridge to the shuttle
Serpent "We're about to start our run now. Wait till we have their
attention then head on in at low power. Above all else obey the
eleventh commandment...Thou shalt not get caught. We'll be signing
off now, good luck Captain."
"Good luck, Major. Serpent out."
{It's probably you who require the luck more Captain} Walters
thought. "Leftenant Dior prepare to maneuver to coordinates at
waypoint Cobalt programmed into the navigation system then follow the
waypoints into the asteroid field at the best impulse speed you can
manage."
"Aye sir." Dior quickly replied. She focused intently on her duties -
which served her well at taking her mind of the dull ache in her chest
after hearing Cropa's voice on the comm. She said a silent prayer as
she engaged the impulse drive.
With the port engine written off, Dior could only reach a maximum
cruising sub-light speed of .58 c - and she had to keep the port RCS
thrusters on stand-by to keep from listing to the left. "Steady as she
goes sir. Two minutes 'till cobalt."
"Commander Levison, charge phasers and have Quantum Torpedoes ready
for launch in the tubes. Prepare the Stealth Resonance Armour to
engage Mode B." Walters ordered. "Leftenant Vaughn when I
give the order to activate the SRA build power slowly through the SRA
from 2.5% and rising."
"Aye Commander." Ian said bringing up the SRA onto his console and
setting it to exactly what the Commander ordered once he got it he set
his console to beep when it his 2.5% and then to beep every time it
increased a 1.5% this way he wouldn't accidentally forget about it but
he knew he wouldn't but another safety measure couldn't hurt.
"Major, Mode Beta on the Stealth Plating will light our hull up like a
Christmas Tree," Levison began protesting but then considered it for
himself for a moment. 'But of course, you want to pull every enemy
ship in the vicinity into our firing range so that the Serpent can
sneak through. Clever,' he thought to himself, before speaking once
more: "Weapons armed and ready, sir. Mr Kilbain and I have adjusted
phasers for long range, narrow beam firing. We're good to go."
"I'm more than aware of that fact Commander in fact I'm counting on
it." Walters replied before ordering the communications officer.
"Officer Montesque, send a message to First Task Force Command using
encryption code Theta-212 informing them 'Bravo Group Operations have
failed. Samson Option has been initiated.' "
"Sir," concern was evident in the heavily French accented voice of the
half-Bajoran Communications Officer, "Theta-212 was reported
compromised by the enemy --"
"Four days ago...thank you I received the briefing. It's all part of
the trap." Walters said allowing himself a slight smile.
Montesque nodded and went about his orders. It seemed the new XO had a
few tricks up his sleeves as well. "Communique sent, Major."
Walters spoke aloud to the entire bridge crew "For those of you not in
the know Samson was a character in an ancient Earth holy book called
the Bible. Samson was a favorite of god and enemy priests captured
him and planned to kill him, whilst in the enemy temple Samson pulled
together two of the pillars bringing the temple down on him and the
enemy priests. Long story short, If I'm going out I'm taking you with
me. Erassian Counter-Intelligence put out communications for enemy
intercept with the code word Samson every so often. They've heard it
and now they have to come after us lest we unleash some terrible
super-weapon upon them."
Walters turned back to the helm. "Leftenant Dior once in the asteroid
field take as erratic a course between waypoints as possible. I want
to minimize our exposure to long range enemy fire as much as possible
but coordinate with tactical so they can fire off some clean shots."
"Aye sir." Dior replied. She hated asteroid fields - especially with
maneuverability being cut in half. "Waypoint epsilon. Forwarding
flight plan to tactical."
Walters watched as one of the pursuing Cruisers entered the asteroid
field. " Commander Levison the moment that cruiser gets in range start
hitting it with all you've got. You don't have to score major damage
every time so focus on accuracy over quantity of shots. By luring
them into this dense asteroid field we've negated their advantages of
speed, numbers and weapons range. I doubt they'll use the Thelaron
Cannon either as they would risk a rebound from the mineral types in
these asteroids. Classic Sun Tzu use the terrain to defeat the enemy."
"Confirmed sir," Lieutenant Carpenter reported from the science
station. "The minerals these asteroids are comprised of would
destabilise the thalaron beams; they'd risk a remittent cascade that
would destroy their ships."
"Firing for effect," Levison called out as soon as the Chimera's
erratic flight path shifted it out from behind the asteroids and into
a clear firing pattern. The modified phasers that he and Kilbain had
been working on began to charge along the length of the weapons arrays
on the outer hull before discharging and lashing out across the much
greater distances. Although still powerful, the phasers were not as
effective as they had been when the Starfleet vessel had been
dogfighting earlier and they merely chipped away at the enemy vessel's
shielding, slowly but surely.
Levison hated to waste the ordnance, but he also followed up with a
brace of quantum torpedoes, one of which destroyed an asteroid near
the cruiser rather than striking its target. The second did some
damage to the cruiser's outer hull, opening parts of it to space, but
it was still far from destroyed. "Minimal damage thus far... I need
more juice for the phasers please, Ops."
Copy." Ian said moving some of the power which meant decreasing the
SRA slightly but he figured that it had done it's job already,
"alright that's as much as I can give you right now." Ian said
deciding if they needed more he would have to find it else where.
"Reroute the power from the shield grid not facing the enemy. We
shouldn't need those yet." Walters said before opening a comm channel
using the controls on the Captains chair although he used another
uncracked encryption code. "Walters to Xerxes. Is everything set up
for the party?"
Anya replied from the cockpit of Lancer One positioned deeper into the
asteroid field. "Just waiting on the guests to arrive Walters. They
should arrive in just under a minute. Lancers are holding Waypoint
Iron and Windhover are in reserve at Waypoint Mercury. Sun God is
maintaining relative safe distance for forward observation."
"Very good Major transfer firing control to the Chimera. Chimera out."
Walters watched the viewscreen as Dior threaded the Chimera through a
group of large asteroids and headed towards a large asteroid.
"Leftenant Dior loop us around that asteroid and bring us in for a
head to head with the cruiser. Commander Levison prepare a full
phaser barrage with the forward arrays and give them a full salvo of
Quantum torpedoes. Double barrel."
"Standard orbit!" Rana called out as she set a course around the
asteroids gravity well. The maneuver should take some of the strain
off of the Chimera's ailing RCS systems. She brought the ship around,
planning to use the asteroid's gravity as a sling shot.
Walters waited till Chimera was safely behind the large asteroid
before typing in a code into the command chair and then transmitting
it from Chimera towards where the Romulan Cruiser was making its way
through the group of large asteroids Chimera had gone through just
moments before. The signal however was not intended for the Romulan
Cruiser but the three 1.2 Gigatonne Tactical Fusion Warheads planted
there in advance by the Windhover Squadron. The explosion was bright
as the sun battering the Cruiser's shields into oblivion.
Outside Anya raced her Lancers in towards the stricken Romulan Cruiser
at breakneck speed and ordered her squadron to arm the A1 Verteron
Missiles preferring to keep the deadlier Anti-Ship Missiles and full
size torpedoes for the second Romulan Cruiser who would now be wise to
the strategy being employed within the asteroid field.
Back on the Chimera's Bridge the viewscreen showed the moment Chimera
rounded the large asteroid heading straight towards the damaged enemy
vessel. Walters kept his order simple. "Commander Levison...Fire."
"With pleasure," Mike smiled grimly, his fingers simply tapping the
firing activation onto his pre-programmed attack spread. The extra
power to the phasers made them far more deadly once again and the
marginally closer range only helped in damaging the enemy warship. The
scalpel-like beams drilled and incised the hull of the cruiser with
deadly efficiency, carving it to pieces before the quantum torpedo
spread that Levison had launched reached the enemy vessel's hull. The
detonations sheered the hostile ship in half and then made it blossom
into a giant fireball, adding another kill to the Chimera's already
impressive total for the mission thus far. "Enemy ship destroyed,
Major."
"Major, long range sensors are picking up a gate activation,"
Carpenter reported. "I can't tell yet if there are any ships coming
through, the interference is too much."
'What now?' Levison thought to himself, a sinking feeling in the pit
of his stomach. If the Chimera had to face even more enemy ships...
well, the chances of success were slim. Checking the ship's weapons
compliment, Mike winced: eighty-four Photon Torpedoes, sixty-two
Quantum Torpedoes and phaser energy at roughly thirty percent. The
Commander glanced across at where Carpenter was sat and waited for the
rest of her report, not daring to look at his own sensor panels.
Walters watched the viewscreen as it changed to display the activating
gate and the remaining Romulan Cruiser turning to head back towards
the gate...towards the away team and their would be rescuers. It left
him with no decent choices. No tactics were going to help now. "Lay
in a course for the gate, best speed. Any and all power we have from
non-essential systems including the SRA reroute to weapons and
shields."
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End Log
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Major Scott Walters
XO
Commander Mike Levison
CTAC
Lieutenant Ian Vaughn (NPC Aza)
(A) COPS
Lieutenant Mercedes Carpenter (NPC Bren)
DSCIO
Lieutenant Rayna Dior
CFOO
