Subject: Star Destroyers Rampant: Episode 1 Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2000 10:34:50 +0800 From: Kazuaki Shimazaki Newsgroups: alt.startrek.vs.starwars Episode 1: Contact ISD Conquest It had been six weeks since the hyperdrive had failed, sending the Conquest and its crew into hyperspace and keeping them there. The engineering crew, working three shifts, had finally managed to get the hyperdrive, which was sabotaged by a cowardly Rebel, back to full operation, but when they came out of hyperspace, they were in a completely different galaxy. "Where the hell are we?!" demanded an angry Ctain Toniv. Commander Fel, the navigation officer risked his superior's anger, "I'm sorry I can't pinpoint our exact location. However, according to our course when we entered hyperspace and the length of time we were in it, and accounting for the concentration of particles outside of galaxies, we should be somewhere near or in the Milky Way Galaxy." "Yeah, now how do we get back!" demanded Captain Toniv. "It is highly dangerous to get back, sir. As it is, we were very lucky not to have had any run-ins with dangerous phenomena. We'll probably have to get some kind of astronavigational data on this galaxy, and program it into our computer. Then we can get out of the galaxy safely, and plot a course close to our own Galaxy, where we use our astronavigational data to complete our journery!" replied Commander Fel. "What you're telling me is that we're stuck here unless we find ourselves some starships in this region," said Captain Toniv. "Absolutely right, sir." "Now, where do we begin," groaned Toniv. Either Q and his friends or the Force had apparently thought that maybe the two galaxies should know each other a little better. A sensor operator on the Conquest spoke up. "Captain, I have a new contact, thirty-two by forty relative, range 20 light years, speed approximately 1500c." "Can we intercept them?" asked Toniv. Commander Fel looked carefully at the charts, then replied, "It is possible to conduct a microjump to cut off the incoming vessel on its vector. It will be risky but possible. Course...laid in." The Sienar Systems navicomputer had already analyzed navigational and other data and deduced the best available hyperspace course. "Engage!" The helmsman pulled the lever the ship sprang into hyperspace, and appeared a few seconds later on the approaching ship's approach vector, now 12 light-years away. There, they scanned the ship more precisely, getting a better approach vector. Another microjump brought them within 300,000 klicks of the unidentified vessel. USS Enterprise-E, Sovereign class starship Captain Picard was calmly reading Shakespeare, one of his hobbies, when the call came in from Bridge. "Captain, Bridge, we have detected an enormous warship, real close!" "I'm coming. Put in onscreen! Yellow alert, raise shields!" ordered Picard. As soon as he came in, he joined the others at staring into the massive dagger-shaped vessel. Snapping out of his trance, he ordered, "Data, report!" Data replied, "Captain, this spacecraft's characteristics does not correlate with any of the starships registered in our database. It is 1600m long and 8 or more times our mass. Its technology is not known to us. We can scan many unknown elements and materials in the hull. Captain, they're jamming us, and we can't get detailed data on them. I can still detect over a hundred weapons placements and unknown, but well over 20000 lifeforms. There weapons are armed and their shields are raised." "Thank you for your report! Tactical, arm phasers, but do not lock on target. This is standard first-contact, and I don't want to provoke them yet." "Captain, they're hailing us." "Put in onscreen." "Unidentified Frigate, this is Captain Toniv of the Imperator class Star Destroyer Conquest! You are ordered to stop engines and heave to immediately!" came Captain Toniv's voice. That was what he said, in Basic, but the Federation universal translator could not translate this unknown language, so it remained a little babbling. Captain Toniv's voice sounded a little intimidating and that was also a factor. "This is Captain Picard of the Enterprise. You have violated Federation space. You shall either state your purpose, withdraw or be destroyed!" The Conquest's personnel of course could not understand what Picard said, in English either. Captain Toniv was already stressed out by the stresses inherent in first-contact situations in a galaxy only observable with high-powered telescopes. He only knew if he didn't get some ship to stop by with its nav info fast, he is screwed. So he repeated his demand, even harsher than before. Captain Picard was more diplomatically-trained and had more first-contact situations than Captain Toniv. But he was also stressed out by the sight of this behemoth. The fact it was medium-sized by Imperial standards doesn't mitigate the fact it was way larger than a Federation battlecruiser. The human mind tends to regard "big" as "dangerous". Compounded with the not-too-friendly voice speaking in unfamiliar language over the communications systems did it for Commander Riker. "Sir, I feel that this ship is hostile! I recommend that we respond immediately! If the energy levels we're picking up are accurate, we'll be finished if we let them hit first!" said Riker. "And we are the aggressors?" asked Picard, but he was already wavering toward that himself, "Counsellor Troi!" Troi began her mental intrusion of the Imperial vessel's crewmembers. She reported, "I am having great difficulty reading their emotions. There are too many of them. I'm trying to concentrate on what seems to be the Captain. He seems both angry and frightened at the same time. He really might lash out any second!" That did it for Picard. He gave an order, "Fire on them using all weapons at maximum yield! Raise all shields to maximum! Mister LaForge, give me all you got on the impulse drives!" The Enterprise was armed with 12 phaser banks totalling 85000 terawatts, as well as 1100 photon and quantum torpedoes, capable of throwing 54 gigatons at the enemy (the rest is wasted). Now, she began to unleash this massive firepower at the Imperial vessel. ISD Conquest The two vessels had closed to within 20 kilometers of each other during their verbal exchange and had just been matching speeds with each other for any action necessary when the Enterprise fired. "Sir, the unidentified frigate has opened fire on us! Ten torpedoes, no twenty, thirty!" "What?" shouted Captain Toniv, "how dare they?!" Captain Toniv had been expecting something similar to the heaviest yield MG7A type Imperial directional charge proton torpedoes. With these weapons, enough of them could overwhelm even Executor's shields. Though there was no way he could have known that (the timeline here decreed that it was a little after Episode IV, when Vader's flagship was still the Devastator. All of Conquest's shields had been raised to full, and she was at full Red Alert, ready to fight in every way. The only thing that had been left was the fighters. The deck shuddered as the quantum and photon torpedoes began hitting the forward shield. Captain Toniv fought to retain his balance and shouted, "Damage Report!" "No damage, Captain!" "Energy and Particle Shields holding up perfectly, sir! They're hardly being scratched." The torpedoes didn't have enough kinetic energy to overwhelm the particle combat deflector shields, and so the weapons exploded on the spot, where the ray energy shields effortlessly took the blast. In fact, the torpedo's yield didn't even cause strain on the shield, and no overloads were occuring in the generators. Captain Toniv was about to scream "Fire!" when he changed his mind. These enemy weapons were not hurting his ship significantly. He would probably get a better idea of their weapons capabilities if he just sat still, so he gave a most un-Imperial order, "All batteries hold their fire but track the ship. Maintain power to deflector shields, boost power to bow shield, drop power by five percent from all others. Acceleration point one! Kill the jammers! Let's just sit back and analyze their weapons!" The crew stared at him. All the while a moderate earthquake was going on with all those torpedoes hitting the shields and exploding harmlessly but it was about all the effects all that phaser and torpedo fire were causing. USS Enterprise "How are we doing?" asked Picard. "Sir, we've expended over half our torpedoes and their shields are as strong as ever!" "What? Could it be because we're too close?" "No sir, they're exploding perfectly! We're monitoring the impacts but the ship itself doesn't seem damaged in any way. The enemy ship is not returning fire at all. It has just boosted power to the forward shields, and I'm reading slight drops in power to the other shields!" "Can we beam through onto the ship?" "No Captain," replied Data, getting a little emotional, "Their jamming seems to have stopped. I am reading thirty-seven thousand lifeforms on the ship. Their shields are way too powerful." "Geordi!" yelled Picard, "Can you remodulate the transporters?" "I'm afraid not, sir. The enemy vessel is way too heavily shielded! We can't drag anyone out, we can't put anyone in! I know we have succeeded sometimes in the past, but then we've never faced off enemies half this powerful before. Based on energy readings, even the Borg cubes are no match for this behemoth! We can't put anything into the engines, there is too much ion interference. They seem to be using ion drives. We can't get too much out of them, but they did!" replied Geordi. "Goddamnit! Its too late to stop now! Keep firing, full power. Reinforce the forward shields! Geordi! Keep trying to find a way around those shields! Data, tactical analysis!" yelled Picard. Not too many minutes later, the Enterprise exhausted its entire load of torpedoes. Because of the relative closure rates, at that very moment, the Enterprise almost collided into the ISD, and Captain Picard ordered a hard pull-up to dodge the behemoth. ISD Conquest Captain Toniv said, "They've stopped! Damage report!" A lieutenant reported, "Minor damage only. One turbolaser tracking mechanism got misaligned from the constant shock. No hull breaches. No casualties. Turbolaser targeting system is realigned, Captain, all reporting normal." "How much firepower did those weapons have anyway?" asked Toniv. Commander Fel and a few other senior officers went and coferred with damage control and sensors, all the while ignoring the Enterprise, who was strafing the ship with continuous bursts from its phaser, but was so pathetic that the shields were being damaged slower than they could be replaced, something that almost never happened to warships of even remotely the same class. Commander Pekalic, first officer presented the report, "Captain, we have analyzed the weaponry used in the prior attack. Their laser- like weapon apparently is phase-coherent, and has a firepower of approximately eighty-five thousand terawatts. It seems to work by converting matter into neutrinos, making it more effective against shields and rock, but almost useless against armor. Their torpedoes seem to be of two types. One is a matter/anti-matter reaction torpedo, the other seems to use some quantum principle. The second type seems to have twice the yield of the first. Both seems to be omnidirectional, releasing their energy in all directions rather than unidirectional like our weapons. It would seem that we've been hit one thousand one hundred times with torpedoes, but based on the amount of depletion the shield suffered, their total effective yield can't be over fifty point four gigatons, or a little less than three of our heavy turbolaser guns, not turrets firing one shot. The breakdown seems to be 24 effective megatons for photon torps, 64 megatons effective for quantum torps." Captain Toniv allowed a smile, "Good work, Commander. Now that we know they can't hurt us, there is a good probability that their shields can't stop our weapons. But I don't want the ship destroyed, only immobilized. Use the ion cannons on them. Where are they anyway?" Commander Pekalic replied, "Aft and above, sir." "All ion stations, all ion stations, Captain speaking. Target the frigate, fire!" The ISD-I subclass houses its heaviest ion cannons aft. There were a total of 4 on two twin heavy turrets. One good hit would punch through even an ISD shield that just painlessly stopped 1100 primitive, omnidirectional Federation torpedoes. USS Enterprise Data suddenly reported in some terror, "Captain, the enemy has targeted us! Energy transient! They've fired some kind of weapon." "Evade them, Cheng! Divert power to shields aft! Full impulse!" Picard screamed to his helmsman. Only after his ineffectual attack did he realize the power of the behemoth in front of him. He should never have provoked them. The ship had absorbed all his torpedoes without one wince, and logic would have decreed that its weapons were similarly formidable. He didn't get the chance to have another thought. One of the heavy ion cannons found them. Despite the fact substantial portions of circuitry on the Enterprise had been replaced by plasma conduits, substantial amounts of electrical activity still existed. The Star Destroyer's attack wiped all of them out. The entire ship shimmered blue from the ion blast, then went black, all systems. "Damage report!" But no one answered. Everyone was too busy trying to bring their dead ship under control. There was no choice in the matter. Everything aboard Federation ships require power. I am serious, warp core management, antimatter containment, turbolifts, even the hull doesn't hold together very long without the structural integrity field. Even the emergency systems require some sort of electrical power. Would it kill these people to build some kind of hydraulic systems or something? Apparently. Even the warp core ejection required some sort of power, let alone antimatter magnetic containment. When even the artificial gravity went bad and everyone started floating, LaForge knew the ship was doomed. Even the escape pods were computer controlled, and of course the computer was dead! The ship was doomed. Only one man escaped. Picking up a phaser rifle, he worked his way through the doors that could not be opened without power. He somehow managed to find one escape pod which miraculously didn't have its electronics wiped out (such was the wonder and unpredictability of EMP that this is not completely impossible). He rode on it and escaped. His name was LaForge. ISD Conquest Aboard the Star Destroyer, the tractor beam crews had just begun a track on the Enterprise and were starting to bring it in. "Captain, I have a single escape pod coming from the enemy ship," reported the sensors operator. In a way, LaForge's impulsion saved Conquest from considerable damage. While Captain Toniv of course had no idea the enemy would have its systems blow up and disintegrate just because of a power loss, the single escape pod made him think that they might have some kind of self-destruct running. Trying to bring the hulk in might result in a substantial portion of decking to go when the destruct charges went off. "Wait a second. Hold it. Tractor beam crews! Full repulsion on the enemy ship immediately! This is an order. Evasive maneuvers! Sublight engines ahead flank! Full starboard rotation, perpendicular to their course! Divert power to aft shields! They might be trying to take us with them!" ordered Toniv quietly but with a slight trace of urgency. The tractor beam crew of course reversed their tractor beam polarity into repulsion mode against the Enterprise. The Enterprise was so fragile with all its structural integrity fields down that the tractor beam had actually been holding it together. When the tractor beam switched to Repulse, it ripped the ship apart. Captain Toniv rewarded himself silently in his mind five minutes later when the warp core expired and the Enterprise blew up. Sensors came in, "Sir, the lifepod..." "Bring it in. I doubt they will have a self-destruct on a lifepod," said Toniv. They brought the lifepod in, but they still weren't very relaxed. While a self-destruct device on a lifepod won't kill a ship, it can still wreck the confined hangar bay, and that wouldn't do at all. They grabbed LaForge, took him off the ship, and flung that escape pod into space with tractor beams set on full repulsion. As soon as they were satisfied with the distance, Captain Toniv ordered, "Fire." A single light turbolaser belched out a 400 terajoule beam, effectively vaporizing the remnants of the Enterprise. "So, we're back to where we started. We'll just have to microjump in ten-light year hops and hope for the best," said Toniv. Episode 2: 1 vs 40 ISD Conquest "So, Mr LaForge," asked the interrogator, "what is your position on the ship?" "I'm the Engineering Officer," answered Mr. LaForge. He had been struggling to keep quiet for the past twelve hours now, and doing pretty well. The Imperial officers had used both threats and interrogation devices to force his cooperation and so far he had resisted, even as the Conquest made constant microjumps in a desperate search for possible starships. Still, some of the stuff they used in the Empire for interrogation is somewhat harsh to say the least, and Mr. LaForge had reached the end of his endurance. All the loyalty to the Federation was already washed out with mind-weakening drugs. And he simply couldn't bear being tortured by that sphere thing in front of him, armed with shockers, prodders and a list of other torture tools. And once he had started talking, it was over. He might as well tell them everything he knew. The Imperials had studied the universal translator and deduced how to speak English. They programmed Basic into the translator, and had a protocol droid learn to speak English so they can begin the interrogation. "Can you describe the size and extent of this Federation, Mister Laforge?" asked the interrogation officer. Once the guys knew he was an officer and not some ignorant grunt, they were overjoyed. Even though they can't get the ship, this LaForge character probably would tell them tons about the "Federation." Laforge should have given in three hours earlier. Back then, he'll still probably have a mind clear enough to make up some fake data to fool the interrogators. Now, his mind was so cloudy that he could speak nothing but what came most easily to the mind - the truth. "It is quite a large organization, one fifty major systems in eight thousand light years," mumbled Laforge. The interrogation officer stifled his laughter. This sounded like a few sectors in the Empire at the most! But he was too professional to allow himself to leak any data about his own organization to a prisoner. It took them another hour before they got hold of approximate strengths of various combatants in this Alpha Quadrant. They found out about the Federation's industrial capacity, the number of ships they had (which pretty allowed them to figure out a limit on the number of ships the Federations' enemies had, assuming they had roughly equal tech, which they did!) They tried to stifle their laughter as Laforge talked of Deep Space Nine proudly as a "large" space station - only the thought of what happened to the Death Star sobered them somewhat. Another fit of nearly unstoppable laughter erupted when they considered the Cardassians, with 170 systems as a major power. The Borg sounded a little better, and they hoped they wouldn't have to face them. They still hadn't got a map, but now they knew the approximate direction to Earth, and they began focusing microjumps more to that direction in the hope of finding a starship. The next hour concerned brief introductions on propulsion technologies in the Alpha Quadrant. The interrogation officer rumbled, "So, Mister Laforge, you mention that the Federation achieves superluminal travel with this thing called a warp drive. Can you tell us some things about it?" They didn't exactly learn enough to build a warp drive of their own when the hour ended, and in any case the interrogation officer did not specialize in engineering. But they did learn about the subspace mass-lightening tech used in impulse drives and more about its limitations where there is a gravity mass. They learned about Warp Drive and how pathetically slow it is, but agreed with its usefulness for tactical operations. Transwarp conduits technology of the Borg again impressed them, but they saw its weakness in that it requires some arrangement, almost like a hypergate. They even learned that an interdiction field would stop warp (too bad we don't have a Interdictor cruiser with us, they thought). The third hour confirmed what they suspected for phasers and torpedoes - they were pathetically weak compared to high yield directional proton torpedoes and heavy turbolasers. They learned some things about theoretical and practical ranges for the weapons (especially the difference between those numbers). And it didn't take too many questions after that to confirm how weak the shields are - it wasn't because that "frigate" was unprepared. It took eight more hours to finish the summary of the interrogation. It was concluded that except for the Transporter (a grotesque device) and a few others being of some use, Federation tech was pathetic. After receiving the interrogation report from Commander Pekalic, Captain Toniv said, "Change in plans. We're still getting the maps, but this is a glorious chance to extend our Empire's influence. We shall demand surrender from the people in this so-called Alpha Quadrant. I'm sure the Emperor would be most pleased to the fact we have added another sector or two to his power." Commander Pekalic objected, "Demand surrender, Captain? We are one ship, and they are many." "You heard me, Commander." "Yes, sir!" "Let's analyze the facts. Their fleet had been badly battered by the Dominion and the Cardassians and are down to half strength. The Klingons and Romulans got a working cloak but those CGT sensors we have can probably pick them up. We're one ship to their four thousand, but they are dispersed. As long as they don't put something like half their ships against us, we can survive attack and if we're badly outnumbered enough, we just split!" Somewhere in the Typhon Sector The Conquest came out of hyperspace another time. The sensor operator said with some alarm, "Captain, I have detected approximately 40 contacts. They're in a spread, dead ahead! They're moving at what they call Warp Factor 6, in a formation." "Yellow alert, raise shields," ordered Captain Toniv, "Charge all turbolasers!" "The enemy fleet is coming out of warp, returning to sublight velocities!" reported the sensor operator. "Very well," said Captain Toniv coolly. The ships had, in astronomical terms, bumped into each other. With the range under 3 million kilometers, both sides regarded each other cautiously. "Do we have a classification?" "Sir, based on size data, we seem to have 1 Sovereign class frigate. He is flanked by 4 Galaxy class frigates, 8 Nebula corvettes, 17 Akira corvettes and 10 Defiant class heavy fighters," reported the operator, "They're closing rapidly." "Engines back full! Match speeds with them. Pilots to their fighters! All turbolaser crews stand ready! Stand by to open fire!" ordered Captain Toniv. The comm officer broke in, "Sir, the Sovereign is hailing us. We can pick him up on aural only, since our visual systems are incompatible." Which was so true. Federations used flatscreens on the main viewer, the Empire used holographic images. "Unidentified ship, this is Admiral Keyes of the USS Tanaka!" "This is Captain Toniv of the ISD Conquest." "We have received intelligence that you and your ship had attacked one of ours. We demand that you immediately withdraw," came the voice of Admiral Keyes. "And if I don't, Admiral," replied Captain Toniv, whose protocol droid had no trouble translating it into English for Admiral Keyes. "Then you shall be destroyed. Your ship is large, Captain, and I'll admit it appears to be heavily armed and shielded. However, it is a fact that you are outnumbered forty to one," replied Admiral Keyes. "First, I want to make it clear that it was your own Captain who fired first. I think he was called Picard. Second, I should point out that this is an Imperator class Star Destroyer. In case you need to know, this ship can defeat an entire Fleet of vessels like yours. I have 136 guns ready to go, and a full wing of TIE Interceptors and Bombers. I urge you reconsider," said a cold Captain Toniv. "Go to hell, Captain, you're completely surrounded! You have ten seconds," said Keyes. Toniv turned to his officers, "Had our fighters deployed yet." "Yes, sir, all Interceptors and Bombers deployed." We'll now modify a trick used in Michael Wong's FanFic to represent how the battle was started. This time, it would be a composite account from all the Conquest's systems and it will all be in CAPITALS. ISD Conquest, its Computer Systems, All This is Simultaneous to within 0.5 seconds. 40 TARGETS IDENTIFIED BY SENSORS, CLASSIFICATION TAGS, 1 SOVEREIGN, 4 GALAXY, 8 NEBULA, 17 AKIRA, 10 DEFIANT. CURRENT STATUS: NO DAMAGE DETECTABLE ON ANY SHIP. ALL TARGETS IN WEAPONS RANGE. AUXILLARY THRUSTERS FIRE. ALL TURBOLASERS FULLY CHARGED. FULL SHIELDS AVAILABLE. REROUTE POWER FROM MAIN ENGINES TO SHIELDS. POINT-DEFENCE LASER CANNON HOLD FIRE. ALL ION CANNON EXCEPT THOSE SPECIFIED HOLD FIRE. TARGET #1 OF 40 SOVEREIGN ON 000/000 ON DEAD-AHEAD INTERCEPT VECTOR, RANGE 300KM, CLOSURE 300M/S. COMMIT PORT LIGHT TURBOLASERS 1-2 AND STARBOARD LIGHT TURBOLASERS 1-2 TO TARGET AND LIGHT ION CANNON 1-4 TO TARGET. SET POWER OF TURBOLASER TO MAXIMUM, HOLD FIRE ON ION CANNON. FIRE. TARGET #2 OF 40 GALAXY ON 345/000 ON INTERCEPT VECTOR. RANGE 295KM, CLOSURE 300M/S. COMMIT PRIMARY TURBOLASER TURRETS A AND B TO TARGET AND PORT LIGHT TURBOLASERS 3-6. SET ALL TURBOLASERS TO MAXIMUM FIREPOWER. FIRE. TARGET #3 OF 40 GALAXY ON 015/000 ON INTERCEPT VECTOR, RANGE 293KM, CLOSURE 300M/S. COMMIT PRIMARY TURBOLASER C AND D TURRETS TO TARGET AND STARBOARD LIGHT TURBOLASER 3-6 TO TARGET. SET TURBOLASERS TO MAXIMUM POWER. FIRE. TARGET #4 OF 40 GALAXY ON 330/000 ON INTERCPET VECTOR, RANGE 330KM, CLOSURE RATE 450M/S. COMMIT PRIMARY TURBOLASER E TURRET, PORTSIDE HEAVY TRENCH CANNON AND PORT TURBOLASERS 7-10 TO TARGET. SET TURBOLASERS TO MAXIMUM POWER. FIRE. TARGET #5 OF 40 GALAXY ON 030/000 ON INTERCEPT VECTOR, RANGE 330KM, CLOSURE RATE 450M/S. COMMIT PRIMARY TURBOLASER F TURRET, STARBOARD HEAVY TRENCH CANNON AND STARBOARD TURBOLASERS 7-10 TO TARGET. SET TURBOLASERS TO MAXIMUM POWER. FIRE. TARGET #6-9 OF 40 NEBULA ON 270-330/000 ON INTERCEPT VECTOR, RANGE 270-315KM, CLOSURE 300M/S, COMMIT PORT TURBOLASERS 11-22 TO TARGET. SET TURBOLASERS TO 256500TW EACH. FIRE. TARGET #10-13 OF 40 NEBULA ON 030-090/000 ON INTERCEPT VECTOR, RANGE 270-315KM, CLOSURE 300M/S, COMMIT STARBOARD TURBOLASERS 11-22 TO TARGET. SET TURBOLASERS TO 256500TW EACH, FIRE. TARGET #14-21 OF 40 AKIRA ON 240-265/000 ON INTERCEPT VECTOR, RANGE 250-275KM. CLOSURE 300M/S, COMMIT PORT TURBOLASERS 23-54 TO TARGET. SET TURBOLASER TO 187650TW EACH, FIRE. TARGET #22-30 OF 40 AKIRA ON 90-120/000 ON INTERCEPT VECTOR, RANGE 250-275KM. CLOSURE 300M/S. COMMIT STARBOARD TURBOLASERS 23-54 TO TARGET. SET TURBOLASER TO 187650TW EACH, FIRE. DO NOT COMMIT WEAPONS ON TARGETS #31-40. STARFIGHTERS ON LAG INTERCEPT VECTOR AGAINST THEM. And with that, the 30 heavy vessels of Keye's fleet was targeted. Green hails of turbolasers started stabbing out of the Conquest even as Keye's fleet tried to retaliate with photon and quantum torpedoes. The next scenes are concurrent, and did not happen one after the other. USS Tanaka "All ships open fire! We're under attack!" yelled Keyes, "Initiate Evasive patterns!" "Sir, we're targeted!" "Evasive!" "Too late, sir, they've got a lock on us!" Every second they survived meant 5 more quantum torpedoes, their most powerful weapon hitting the Conquest's formidable shielding. Every two seconds meant that 10 photon torpedoes were shot out of the Tanaka's dual photon-torpedo tubes. The Tanaka shook violently as the first turbolaser blasts found them. Admiral Keyes struggled to stay seated and ordered, "Report!" "Shields are being rapidly depleted, sir. Our sensors are getting badly degraded by the enemy jamming. It is blanking out our scopes. We're almost firing blind, dammit!" yelled the Tactical Officer. "Divert more power to forward shields! We must have time!" "Too late, sir! Our shields are downed!" ISD Conquest Computer TARGET #1 OF 40'S SHIELDS DESTROYED. DE-COMMIT ALL TURBOLASERS. COMMIT PORT ION CANNON 1-2 AND STARBOARD ION CANNON 1-2. MAXIMUM POWER. FIRE. USS Tanaka "Comrade Admiral! They've switched to attacking us with another weapon!" "All our systems are going off line! Weapons, sensors, communications! Main computer is being affected sir! The warp core will soon disintegrate!" "Jettison the warp core!" ordered Keyes. "Warp core jettisoned!" reported Engineering, "Antimatter fuel containment is being badly affected. Jettisoning now!" From beginning to end of this engagement, it took about twenty seconds. A grand total of 100 quantum and 100 photon torpedoes were fired. And how can we forget the grand total of 1,700,000 terajoules of equivalent phaser energy fired! ISD Conquest Computer TARGET #1 OF 40 IMMOBILIZED. PHASER IMPACT ON BOW SHIELD STOPPED. NO DAMAGE. NO DETECTABLE ELECTRICAL EMISSIONS. ALL ENEMY WEAPONS EMPLACEMENT STOPPED. ALL GUNS DECOMMIT. 200 TORPEDOES ON INTERCEPT VECTOR. COMMIT BOW POINT DEFENSE LASER CANNONS. FIRE. USS Galaxy "We're targeted!" yelled sensors. "Evasive pattern omega three!" There was no time for anything. The entire engagement took 10 seconds or less. A grand total of 75 photon torpedoes were fired before the heavy turbolasers found the Galaxy and turned it into a hulk. The other Galaxies didn't last any longer. In all, precisely 250 photon torpedoes were shot by four Galaxy ships. And let's not forget 2,800,000 terajoules of equivalent phaser energy fired! ISD Conquest Computer TARGET #2-5 OF 40 DESTROYED. PHASER IMPACT ON PORT AND STARBOARD SHIELDS STOPPED. NO DAMAGE TO HULL. NO DETECTABLE ENEMY ACTIVITY. ALL GUNS DECOMMIT. 250 TORPEDOES ON INTERCEPT VECTORS. COMMIT BOW PORT AND STARBOARD POINT DEFENSE LASER CANNONS. FIRE. USS Hera USS Hera, an upgraded Nebula class Explorer had somewhat more time to react. Still, it didn't save them. "Evasive pattern Riker Four, Zebra Seven!" ordered the Captain. "Turbolasers still tracking us! Shields are depleting rapidly!" yelled the Tactical Officer. With the turbolasers set at the specified power level at 2 sec/shot firing rate, they were pumping 513,000 TJ with each bolt, it took precisely 5 bolts to exceed a Nebula's energy capacity. Which is less than those four turbolasers each firing one bolt. The engagement took 6 seconds for each ship executed concurrently, during which precisely 240 torpedoes were fired 8 ships. And of course the shields had to take 2,400,000 terajoules of equivalent phaser energy! ISD Conquest Computer TARGET 6-13 OF 40 DESTROYED. PHASER IMPACT ON PORT AND STARBOARD SHIELDS STOPPED. NO DAMAGE TO HULL. NO DETECTABLE ENEMY ACTIVITY. ALL GUNS DECOMMIT. 240 TORPEDOES ON INTERCEPT VECTORS. COMMIT PORT AND STARBOARD POINT DEFENSE LASER CANNONS. FIRE. USS Rabin Aboard the Rabin, the ship's Captain was trying to encourage the crew to no avail. "We're killing them, guys! Way to go!" But even these words sounded most hollow in his own ears. The turbolasers set for this less powerful ship class were on lower settings so as to conserve valuable fuel! Not that the maximum power was necessary. They were all killed in the same 6 seconds. However, the Akira class were more plentiful in this battle. And they had a huge number of torpedo launchers - fifteen. They managed to squeeze out 2550 photon torpedoes between them before they died. And of course, 2,295,000 terajoules were fired as well. ISD Conquest Computer TARGET 14-30 OF 40 DESTROYED. PHASER IMPACT ON PORT, STARBOARD AND AFT SHIELDS STOPPED. NO DAMAGE TO HULL. NO DETECTABLE ENEMY ACTIVITY. ALL GUNS DECOMIT. 2550 TORPEDOES ON INTERCEPT VECTORS. COMMIT PORT, STARBOARD AND AFT POINT DEFENSE LASER CANNONS. FIRE. TARGET 31-40 OUT OF WEAPONS ENGAGEMENT ZONE. ENEMY HAD ACTIVATED SUPERLUMINAL TRANSIT SYSTEM, SPEED 392C ON PERPENDICULAR VECTORS TO OUR SHIP. TRANSFER POWER TO AFT SHIELDS FROM FORWARD SHIELDS. ALL GUNS DECOMMIT, REDIRECT ALL WEAPONS POWER TO SHIELDS WITH EXCEPTION OF POINT DEFENSE LASER CANNONS. CONTINUE FIRING AND ECM. ISD Conquest "Transfer power of aft shield. Damn! I didn't think those little ships can do that! Can we evade them?" "Would be fairly difficult sir," replied the first officer. "Order out interceptors to shoot them down." The 48 Interceptors aboard Conquest did well. They shot down over 300 torpedoes, including all the quantum torpedoes fired in the battle. The point defence guns shot down over a hundred torpedoes also. But that still left two thousand eight hundred and forty torpedoes. The combined yield of all these torpedoes equalled roughly 68.16 gigatons - almost precisely equivalent to one salvo from four heavy turbolasers. The phasers added 9.195 million terajoules to this equation (some had suggested phaser power vs shields is a lot less than the estimates I used, so I'm being generous) which is oh, approximately one heavy turbolaser turret, with only one of its two turbolasers firing at one quarter power. These shots splattered throughout all the various shields at varying time periods, and at no point did any power worth talking about cause a local penetration or temporary shield collapse. So it shouldn't be too surprising that the Conquest suffered no damage from all these "very powerful" Federation weapons - the shields absorbed all of it! If you would like, Trekkies, I'll give you a minor hull breach that got sealed off in three seconds. The gigatonnage level yields were absorbed by the shields. Since the yield was substantially less than even one broadside from another ISD, it is obvious that the energy, routed into the shield generators, caused only minor strain on the systems. "OK, we've been surprised once," admitted Captain Toniv, "I don't want that to happen again. Where is that Tanaka?" "Still around, sir!" "Ready the stormtroopers. Take that ship by force." "Yes, sir!" That didn't take long at all. The Sovereign was completely down. A battalion of stormtroopers engaged a hundred Fed security personnel. Once those were down, the ship surrendered. Any attempts of a self- destruct were foiled when the computer went down. Keyes got himself taken back to the ship for a substantial debrief. They learned a few more things this time. Now they got a decent navigational chart, plus they learned more about the strategic picture of the Alpha Quadrant than they would have been able to get from an Engineering Officer. "Navigator, plot me a course to Deep Space 9," ordered Captain Toniv. With navigational data converted from the Tanaka's computers, the Sienar Systems plotter took just 7 seconds to plot a course for Earth, near the center of the Federation. "We've got it." "Engage." Episode 3: Ambush ISD Conquest "Captain, we have detected what we think is the Deep Space 9 Space Station, range 14 light years." "Very well, plot me a microjump. Get me in range." "Yes, sir." There was another pull on the lever as the great Star Destroyer closed in a little more on its prey. :"Acceleration Point 3," reported Commander Fel. It didn't take too long before they were in range. "Hail Deep Space Nine," ordered Captain Toniv. "Yes sir." "This is Captain Toniv of the Imperator Star Destroyer Conquest! Who am I speaking to?" boomed Captain Toniv. "This is Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine. We understand that your ship had destroyed over forty of our warships. What do you want," came the reply. "I want the Deep Space Nine space station. It is a strategic point for the Federation. Its loss would be deeply felt, I believe," rumbled Captain Toniv. "And if I don't?" asked Captain Sisko. "Then you will witness the incredible firepower of this vessel under my command. I shall conduct a Base Delta Zero operation on that plane you call Bajor. When it is completed, in approximately one hour, that entire planet will be nothing but molten rock!" came a cold voice. Captain Sisko said, "I'll have to discuss this with my command staff. I will have a reply to you in fifteen minutes as long as you don't bombard anything." There was a short silence on the other end of the line. Captain Toniv was an Imperial officer, and as such he had no qualms about killing the Empire's foes or doing anything necessary to bolster the Empire's power. But he was not a blood-hungry maniac. He would do what he had promised if necessary, but that does not mean he would do it just to save fifteen minutes - especially when a Base Delta Zero operation took an hour of constant 610 million TW output and was a great drain on energy reserves. "Very well, Captain, I'll grant your request. But the fifteen minute period starts now. We will activate full power on all jammers to degrade your subspace communications, so forget about calling anyone for help. Should you attempt a communication or attack my ship, you'll find that my Star Destroyer is a tougher target than you may think," came back Toniv's voice. "Thank you, sir," said Captain Sisko. As if I don't know that, he didn't add. Captain Toniv ordered, "Charge up heavy turbolasers! Increase power to bow shields!" Deep Space Nine Space Station Command Center "This is the situation. Is he capable of doing what he said. After all, the energy required to melt the entire surface of a planet is not small, even for a ship like that," said Captain Sisko. A Commander spoke, "Based on Starfleet Command's analysis of weapons firepower from our last battle with this so-called Destroyer, I would say it is feasible. We don't know much about this Star Destroyer or how much a drain it is going to be on its fuel, but based on what it did, I will say there is a high probability that his weapons would be able to fire at the high power levels required for such operations for the required time period." Another Commander spoke, "I disagree with your assessment. We still do not know how this ship managed to destroy forty of our best starships. It may be it employed some trick to do so. We know that our phasers are more effective against light than heavy elements. There is at least a possibility that their weapons are the inverse, more effective against shields and heavy elements than such things as rocks." The first commander broke in, "I must protest. Is there any reason to believe that? From our surviving Defiant-class ship's sensors, it is obvious that the enemy is firing some kind of hybrid particle/electromagnetic radiation weapon. These are simple heat- transfer weapons of remarkable efficiency!" "Still, this Station is too valuable to give up!" "And the billions of civilians on Bajor aren't?" Captain Sisko pondered, and finally favored the first commander, "I don't think we have a choice. We'll just have to go along with them. ISD Conquest "This is Captain Sisko. I have conferred with our command staff and we have agreed to surrender the station on two conditions," came the signal from Deep Space Nine, again being capably translated by a droid. Captain Toniv was surprised. He thought they would surrender unconditionally. But he decided he might just as well listen to what kind of conditions they're talking about. "What are the conditions?" he answered. "I wish to contact my headquarters. The message will consist of my intention to surrender the station to the party you represent and also a request for a diplomatic solution of this conflict between our two nations," said Sisko. Captain Toniv pondered. Certainly a peaceful admission to the Galactic Empire was better than pounding all the systems into molten lava or killing millions of people. It was certainly worth a shot, he decided. "Very well. We're sending our stormtroopers over to officially take over this station and disarm all its weapons and shields. And one more thing, tell them I don't want some low-grade diplomat. I want the highest grade people you can find, people with some real power in this Federation!" demanded Toniv. "Thank you." Fifteen minutes later, it was settled. The USS Sovereign, near Earth, immediately picked up the President and proceeded at maximum warp toward Deep Space Nine. And so did over 200 starships, stripped from other sectors. The Conquest to show its goodwill, is to move a little further from the planet... USS Sovereign The Federation fleet hung in the middle of a piece of unoccupied space just out of the estimated range of the Imperator class Star Destroyer Conquest's sensors. In the middle hung the flagship of this fleet, the Sovereign, nameship of its class and the most powerful combined arms ship in the fleet. In a sphere just under forty thousand kilometers in radius, 200 other starships assembled. Some had come here on maximum warp, others on cruise warp and yet others having such short runs that they had to run at cruise warp, then slow for other ships to show up. But they had all arrived, and all were ships chosen with specialties allowing them more advantages against the Imperial vessel. The Sovereign and her sisters had the best phasers and were some of the few ships with quantum torpedoes in the fleet. Their 600 quantum torpedoes were equivalent to over 1200 photon torpedoes. And they had some of the best shields. In combined performance, they were no doubt the top-of-the-line Starship in Federation space. However, the previous combat had proven this to be ludicruous. Federation type shields were almost useless against turbolasers. They can be collapsed in seconds even by one light turbolaser, and one hit from a heavy turbolaser has been observed to simply obliterate modified Galaxy class ships. It is obvious that the Imperial vessel had an enormous advantage in its number and power of guns. There were only two ways to beat that - maneuverability or quantity - lots of it. The Federation did have Peregrine fighters, but only in relatively small numbers and there was no evidence to show that they can outmanuver the TIE Interceptors observed by the surviving Defiants from the last battle. The Defiants were manueverable, but they still would not elude the light turbolasers for long. And so now Admiral Halsey was onboard the Sovereign, along with his top aides and thinking of a strategy to defeat the Conquest. From the way the briefing went, you'll think that they were trying to kill the Death Star or something. The briefing officer began her briefing based on what limited data they had on the Conquest,"Comrades! I am very honored to be here today to brief you on what we know of our latest enemy. This is a picture of our enemy," said the Commander, putting up a fairly decent picture of a Star Destroyer. "As you can see, it is a very large vessel, approximately one point six kilometers long and with a mass eight times of even a Sovereign class ship. As far as we can determine, this vessel is extremely heavily armed. We have detected over one hundred and twenty major weapons emplacements on this vessel. We've also detected signs of unknown numbers of smaller weapons which we must assume to be close-in defense weapons. These weapons seem to be a combination of electromagnetic radiation and particle weapons. They are not as we believed, gas lasers. Even one of the so called "light" turbolasers can exceed a quantum torpedo in you and can collaspe our best shields and chew through a hull in less than one minute," reported the Commander. "Do we know of any other capabilities, Comrade Commander?," asked Admiral Halsey. "Yes Comrade Admiral. It is quite obvious that these ships have substantial shielding ability as well. They have separate particle and energy shielding, but the most important fact is that they are very powerful. The shields took, as near as we could determine, approximately three thousand torpedoes without collaspsing. They also have superluminal capability so fast we can't detect them. Deep Space Nine never even knew about this enemy until it appeared right in front of them," replied the briefing officer. "Would this superluminal capability have anything to do with transwarp?" asked a fleet captain. "It is possible, but we don't have enough knowledge for know for certain. If it is transwarp, they have it on a more advanced level than the Borg. At least we can detect the Borg going superluminal. We can't detect this ship going superluminal. It may have to do with the second transwarp domain. They do not seem to require transwarp conduits. But the displayed speed is definitely less than Warp twenty-nine," replied the briefing officer. "But it is still something faster than Warp nineteen, yes?" asked Halsey. "I'm afraid so, Comrade Admiral," replied the Commander. "Brilliant. So they're at least strategically fast, their weapons exceed our best by orders of magnitude in firepower and so do their shields. Is that it?" asked a second fleet Captain. "I'm sorry, sir. But I also have to say that they pack at least seventy-two fighters. We have no data on the fighters other than the fact that some seem more manueverable and faster than others. The more manueverable fighters seem to be interceptors, and they had destroyed dozens of torpedoes headed for the ship, and the ship's point-defense cannons also shot down substantial numbers of them. Their electronic countermeasures are extremely advanced. Our fleet had a very difficult time targeting them well enough, and most of the torpedoes had to be fired straight-running. Had the ship been maneuvering more or the range been greater, most of them would have missed. Oh, and they also have some kind of disruption weapon that can disable our electronics. That's how they got the Tanaka," replied the briefing officer. "What about the range of their weapons? Can we outrange them?" asked another Captain. "Indeterminate Comrade, but may I remind you that despite of our claims of wonderful weapons ranges, it hardly ever works out that way. The Star Destroyer seems quite capable of targeting our large ships 300km away. Also, remember that with its weapons advantage, we can shoot it with phasers all day long and not do a scratch, while all it needs are a few lucky hits. And if you are thinking of long range photon-homing torpedoes launches, may I remind you that at long range, our targeting problem against the Star Destroyer would become even more complex. A longer range also makes it easier for his defenses to shoot down our torpedoes," replied the Commander. "Look, are there any weaknesses about this behemoth we're facing?" asked a despairing operations officer. "We don't have any confirmed weaknesses. However, when our Defiants went to warp, he didn't immediately pursue them. That might say something about the reaction time for their superluminal system. Looking at the pictures and limited intel on the Star Destroyer, we have found that it seems the aft is the most vulnerable part of the ship, even more so than most. Except for their heaviest ion cannons, the aft part only has a few light turbolasers able to reach it. The ventral side is less heavily armed than the dorsal side with its heavy turbolasers. It may be that we can outgun them if we concentrate enough ships aft and under the midline of the enemy vessel. Their heavy turbolasers seems to be optimized for hitting large ships, so again there is a possibility that a Defiant can operate relatively safely above the vessel without fear of heavy turbolasers or ion cannon. Our analysis had also shown a fair probability that those two dome things on that tower are some sort of shield generator. If we can get past the shields enough to knock them out, then the entire dorsal side can lose shield power. A battle of maneuverability should favor smaller ships like us," said the briefing officer, "And also, it would seem that they don't have transporters, if it helps any in a combat situation anyway." "Thank you, Comrade Commander. That was a most brief and concise briefing," said the President, who was also on this little meeting, "so, are we going to surrender?" "No, Comrade President. Allow me to brief you on Operation Barrage Fury," replied the Admiral. "Barrage Fury," said the President. "Its an operation designed to put our forces in a best possible position to destroy the enemy," replied the Admiral, "The main weaknesses of this ship can be summarized as follows - it is relatively weak aft and to ventral, it is incapable of tactical superluminal operations and it is not very manueverable. We've devised a plan to take advantage of these weaknesses." "How so?" "First, we shall put the Sovereign in front of the Conquest and request permission to board for negotiations. While negotiations are taking place, our ships will split into two groups," began Admiral Halsey. "Wait a minute. If we can board them, why don't we just try and take control of the ship?" "That is unlikely, Comrade. A vessel this large will have many security troops. Our transporters don't beam through shields or jamming. We have counted over thirty thousand lifeforms on this vessel. It is quite likely that it can repel an invasion of great size even if we transport into strategic locations. And if they begin their superfast superluminal travel, the security troops would be cut off," replied Halsey. "And the two groups will..." "We don't have any detailed information about the enemy sensors, but it would seem they're as good as ours. So we'll first send a few people aboard to negotiate, one of them masquerading as the President. How would that Captain Toniv know the difference, eh?" he asked with some contempt. "Meanwhile, we have fully one hundred Akira class warships waiting twenty-five light years off. On our signal, they'll hit maximum warp, regardless of fuel expenditure to close as quickly as possible on their aft and ventral side. Negotiations will proceed, lulling our enemy into a false sense of security," went on Halsey. "We also have a bunch of Defiant-class ships, twenty-five to be exact, as well as some other improved Nebula and Galaxy class ships. We'll conduct a time on target bracket on the enemy so both would enter their maximum shown turbolaser range of three hundred kilometers at the same time," proceeded Halsey. "Wait, our photon torpedoes got more range than that," said the President. "True, but we have to consider the fighter defences. A longer range may allow them to intercept the weapons. Besides, the ship is armed with very heavy jammers. At long range, we must target by computer, and even at three hundred thousand kilometers, our range and power are suboptimal, as is our accuracy. Most of the torpedoes in the last battle either went out straight-running or had their sensors overloaded - only at point-blank range could we hope to hit the ship," replied Halsey. "I see, please proceed with your plan, Comrade Admiral," intoned the President. "So when we suddenly bracket the Star Destroyer, our negotiators should do their best to assure Captain Toniv that our ships are just there as a precaution. With luck, we'll fool him until at least some of our torpedoes are fired." "Our Akira class ships will drop out of warp and fire from ventral and as far aft as possible in close formation, so their shields may overlap and fire all their photon torpedoes as fast as they can. The Star Destroyer has a very competent crew, as we had seen by the lethal accuracy of their shots. I'm sorry to say Starfleet officers often aren't half so competent in accuracy," Admiral Halsey went on. There was some grumbling from the Captains, but they all knew it was true. Almost every turbolaser bolt had hit in the last batte at hundreds of kilometers, while very often Starfleet officers miss at a couple of kilometers at similar angular velocities. "We count on the shield overlap to help us. The Star Destroyer only has about 4 or 6 light guns capable of firing in the quadrant. Even at maximum power, they can't hope to destroy an overlapping, modulated shield immediately. And even when they break through, they have to kill one hundred ships with six guns. The odds are clearly to our favor! Our ships will employ hit and run tactics. When any of their shields are saturated and collapse, they are to engage warp and run at maximum warp in a large circle, repairing any damage, reloading launchers and recharging the shields for another go," said the Admiral confidently. "And what if this ship runs into hyperspace," asked the President. "He won't. He is so confident in the abilities of his ship that he probably won't. But that's where the Galaxies, Nebulas and Sovereigns in our fleet come in. They'll close and lock tractor beams at the Star Destroyer to keep it from going anywhere," replied Halsey. "But according to our intelligence, the Star Destroyer can blow them up in seconds even using only the light ventral turbolasers!" "Every second it doesn't leave means a lot more torpedoes hitting the hull. I know there will be tremendous casualties, but we have no choice," whispered Halsey. "I'm afraid you're right. But what are the Defiants there for?" asked the President. "They're there to provide a distraction for the TIE Interceptors, so they can't concentrate on killing our photon torpedoes. They will attack the dorsal surface of the Conquest, using their manueverability to defeat the heavy turbolasers. Again, their role is to buy time. If the shields on the dorsal side get weakened, they can hit those domes on the Star Destroyer. We think they're the shield generators, and if that's right, after destroying dorsal shields, we just pump torpedoes into the dorsal side and take away its fangs," concluded Halsey. "I see that we have no other choice. This enemy is too powerful to allow, even if it means peace. It will surrender or die. I approve of your plan, Comrade Admiral Halsey," said the President. ISD Conquest "This is the President of the Federation. We wish to speak with your senior commanding officer!" said the medium-grade diplomat masquerading as a President. "Captain Toniv speaking. It is an honor to speak with you, Mr. President," came Captain Toniv's voice. "We wish to come aboard your ship to negotiate the conclusion of hositilities between my nation and yours," said the mid-grade diplomat, Cheng. "This is easy. Your Federation shall accede to the Empire!" Captain Toniv said. Cheng bristled aboard the Sovereign, but his briefing said that he was not to disagree with Toniv whenever possible. Doing so might alert him, and in any case, the planet Bajor is too close to risk pissing Toniv off and having him do his "BDZ thing" on it. So the reply that came was, "We can negotiate terms for that as well. I suggest that we can do so aboard your ship. Please lower your shields and deactivate your jammers so we can transport ourselves aboard," said Cheng. Captain Toniv was no Jedi - they had all been killed by Palpatine, Vader and their minions. And he didn't even have the potential to become one. He was also no telepath or even with empathic capabilities. But he was still an Imperial officer, and was quite suspicious of this arrogant Federation. "Along with about four thousand of your troops, correct, Mr. President? I know all about your transporter tech from that LaForge and Keyes. You guys can't beam through my shields and jamming, and that's why you requesting that they be lowered. And as soon as I lower them, I can just see you traitors beaming bombs and troops onto various vital regions of my ship, trying to destroy or capture it. I am perfectly aware that this is an ambush of some sort, not a real negotiation. Speaking personally," continued Toniv, getting personal for just a couple of seconds, "I have worked very hard to get this command after my first-officer tour on a Dreadnaught, and I don't intend to see it seized by anyone." Cheng shivered. Toniv had hit way too close to home. And this plan was equally workable, "I assure you this is not the case, Captain Toniv." Captain Toniv answered coldly through his protocol droid, "In that, I shall require proof of your honesty. I shall lower our docking bay particle shields so several shuttles with my first-officer, Commander Pekalic and some stormtroopers could leave. I shall have then proceed to target my heavy turbolasers on your ship. If you attempt to break your word in any way, that puny frigate will have a short and exciting end to its life." Cheng looked at Halsey uncertainly. Halsey shivered. Was this how all Imperials thought? Most cultures would have assumed peaceful intentions. But this guy was being very cautious. And he sure knew a lot about Fed tech - enough to know that if the particle shields were up, the Fed transporters were worthless. Halsey finally decided, "Agree to the shuttle, but request that the negotiations take place in their ship." Cheng relayed the request, and Toniv relented. An hour later, the negotiations began. Commander Pekalic whispered into Toniv's ear, "I'm sure that there is a trap somewhere in all of this." Toniv groaned, "As if I don't know that. Have the crew stand on yellow alert. Maintain shields at all times. Prepare some escape vectors for hyperspace!" ISD Conquest, 36 hours later Captain Toniv was tired. He had been negotiating with these bastards for thirty-six hours without result. It is pretty obvious that they had been hiding something. He said to the fake President, "I think we should take a twenty minute break at present." "Agreed," said Cheng. Captain Toniv walked up to the bridge. He asked, "Any change in the situation." Commander Fel spoke, "Captain, we've been detecting several auspicious signs. We've been tracking several targets for several hours now. We are now tracking a fairly large formation just over five light- years away from us. They're coming in at approximately two thousand times the speed of light, on an intercept course. They seem to want to ambush us from behind. They probably think we don't have superluminal sensors." "That is to their misfortune, Commander. Can we do a microjump to ambush them?" asked Captain Toniv. "It is possible, sir. I've already plotted an intercept vector. They are approaching at about zero point two two light years per hour. We can intercept them with a speed of our choosing. At Point Five in this region of space, we cover about one hundred and fifty light years per hour. At Point Four, we make about fifteen light years per hour, which will still bring us into range in under twenty minutes. At Point Three, we make one and a half light years per hour, which means we'll still traverse four and a half light years in three hours. Again, they'll see us," explained Commander Fel as he drew a hypothetical line using the navicomputer, "right on top of them." "Very well, we'll travel at Point Three. Rotate the ship to the appropriate vector. Prepare to make the jump to lightspeed. Commander Pekalic, invite the Federation President and his entourage to the Bridge," ordered Captain Toniv. "Yes sir," replied Commander Pekalic. When the Federation "President" and his "aides" came up to the Bridge, Captain Toniv had to actively restrain himself from showing any emotion for their treachery. It was most obvious to anyone that this large formation was 99% Federation, and that they were trying a cowardly attack on his vulnerable ventral ass. But he pasted a smile on his face and explained politely, "Mr. President, we will now be conducting a short microjump using our hyperdrives. Do you wish to observe?" "It will be a pleasure, Captain," replied Cheng, who by then was sweating. Why are they feeling the need for superluminal travel now? he asked himself. Few of the alternatives he considered sounded good. "Ready, sir," reported Commander Fel. "Engage hyperdrive." Episode 4: Breakout ISD Conquest The Imperator Star Destroyer Conquest came out of hyperspace perfectly on time - right in front of the Federation fleet. "Captain Toniv, I have one hundred sensor contacts. They seem to be in a ten by ten square formation and are fairly close in together. They're still at superluminal speeds, sir," reported the sensors operator. "Reinforce the bow shield," ordered Captain Toniv, "All turbolaser crews stand ready. All pilots to their fighters, ready to launch on my command. All ahead flank, refine our course to intercept the center ship of the formation." Cheng protested, "What are you doing, Captain? I thought we're negotiating a peace settlement. Why are you preparing for combat?" Toniv said coldly, "You and your Federation thugs should have known better. What are those ships doing except to try and launch a withering, cowardly sneak attack on my ship, eh? Guards!" Needless to say, Cheng and his entourage was arrested in seconds. ABOARD THE SOVEREIGN, FIVE LIGHT YEARS AWAY "Comrade Admiral! Our Akiras report a Star Destroyer appearing in front of them! They're closing very rapidly!" "What? Confirm that!" yelled Halsey, who was still in some wishful thinking that he can still trick the Imperial. "Probable Imperial (already they're getting into the bad habit) Star Destroyer, sir! It is approaching at sublight!" "Do you think they can try a warp strafe using photon torpedoes?" The tactical officer shook his head, "I'm sorry, Comrade, but that is just wasting torpedoes. It might be possible if they could get a proper computer sensor lock - even then, tracking sublight targets at warp is a desperate proposition. With the kind of jamming this ship is putting out, our sensors can't get a proper lock until we're so close to the Star Destroyer that warp strafing is superfluous - we'll be in and out of sensor effective range before we can set a shot!" "How about a Picard manuever?" Halsey didn't like using his mortal enemy's manuever, but it might just work. "That is somewhat more possible, sir. But not by much. Even the late Captain Picard only tried it twice. This ship must have great FTL sensor capability or it would not be able to intercept us! Our window of advantage is also too small. If we fire at sublight at long distances, our hit chance is small with no precise weapons lock and they can use their TIE Interceptors to bring them down. If we close to a point where we can lock on, we must still send the weapons blindfire because the jamming will probably fault the torpedo's circuitry, and the Star Destroyer will cut us to pieces. Our accuracy stinks at relative speeds above 300m/s and close range, or else we wouldn't keep fighting in those ranges and speeds historically!" replied Tactical. "Come on, there ought to be some attack options!" asked the Admiral. "We do have a rough location. Maybe we can blow past on a slow warp, execute a tight turn against his ventral stern and then commence firing dropping out of high relativistic speeds!" "Sounds like our best option. Do it!" ordered the Admiral, "I'm taking command of the fleet now. You will all adjust our courses to..." he droned on about attack coordinates, "Slow to Warp two on my mark. Three, two, one, mark!" ISD Conquest "Captain, the enemy is slowing down. Approximately at 10 times lightspeed. They will pass us in twenty seconds," reported Sensors. Captain Toniv pondered this. The enemy was using his tactical superluminal advantage to the full. Will they try a warp strafe was the first consideration. Probably not, he decided, warp strafe is highly inaccurate and incurs great losses in firepower according to both LaForge and Keyes especially with so much jamming on. The so-called Picard Manuever against his front then - no, they know that as soon as they slowed to sublight against his bow, his dorsal and ventral turbolasers would rip them apart. That left one possibility. There was only ten seconds left before the formation would thunder over his dorsal hull. "Helm, port emergency yaw rotation. All back full! All turbolaser crews stand ready! Fighters ready to launch on my command. Stand by to drop docking bay shields," ordered Captain Toniv. "Yes, sir." "Enemy ships overhead, passing through, now!" droned the sensors operator. He was nervous, but his training was still holding. "They've strafed us with phaser fire, sir. Very low power. No damage reported," reported Commander Pekalic. Again the shields weren't even strained by the impacts. "Very well, have they stopped firing?" "Yes, sir." "Pause rotation! Drop docking bay particle shields, boost power to all others. Have the Interceptors deploy to cover us as soon as they're clear, the TIE Bombers ready to attack with proton torpedoes," ordered Captain Toniv. "Enemy ships turning, Captain, they're slowing down and coming into a wide arc," reported the sensors operator in the crew pit. Commander Pekalic came in, "All fighters launched and clear sir." "Continue port rotation! Invert the ship! Do not stop until we have reversed from our original course! Reapply power to docking bay particle shields! All turbolasers select targets and fire as soon as they hit below sublight," continued the order. "Captain, they are approaching on our ventral bow, sublight speed now, closure approximately 0.3 kilometers per second! We're aligned on their center ship, one hundred light turbolasers and all heavies in LOS. Ready to fire," reported Commander Pekalic. "Fire." Aboard an Akira class Cruiser "Shit, and I thought we'll be able to get into attack position before they could get their bow around. Target the Star Destroyer! Fire! Helm, engage warp in six..." Torpedoes started lashing out of the Akiras. Each torpedo carried 24 megatons of effective yield. Each ship carried three thousand of them, for 72 gigatons yield. If successful, a total of 7,200 gigatons will hit the Star Destroyer's shields, all on more or less the same spot. The effectiveness of a shield is rated in several ways, total capacity and burst capacity. It is also possible to penetrate a shield prematurely by attacking on one fine point, causing local penetration. The StarFleet could not have overwhelmed the burst capacity using only normal tactics. Even if one hundred torpedoes hit the same shield at the same point at once, they'll still only deliver 2.4 gigatons to target. That is less than a fifth of one of Conquest's heavy guns. There is no way that they will burn through even for one point and get anything worthwhile through. Besides, the jamming made an successful attack unlikely. The next option was to attempt to overwhelm the one shield's overall burst capacity at one point in time. A full salvo using all of 136 turbolasers each firing one shot will be 288.56 gigatons. It'll take about 24.5 shots from each gun to exceed 7200 gigatons! That can be achieved in 50 seconds, based on a firing rate of 2 seconds per shot! The Akira class had 15 torpedo launchers, each with 200 torpedoes, for a total of 3000. Assuming they can each fire 5 torpedoes in two seconds, it'll take eighty seconds to empty one tube. If set normally, the result is obvious - it'll take longer for all the detonations to hit than it would for another Star Destroyer to pump an equivalent amount of energy into Conquest's shields. Therefore, the torpedoes on this trip were set to come all at variable speeds. The firing range was pre-set at 4000km well in advance for a Time on Target Attack. The first torpedoes will accelerate slower than the last ones, so overall, if successful, the entire barrage of torpedoes should impact the hull within a space of twenty seconds, though it will still take eighty seconds to launch them. In theory, if all went well, that may be enough to cause a temporary failure of the shields, perhaps by overloading the shield generator with the sudden shock of absorbing over 300 gigatons of energy. It won't last long, but it may be enough to allow some torpedoes to hit the hull and cause substantial damage. The problems were myriad. How many would the Interceptors kill? Would the increased concentration of torpedoes cause them to kill some of each other? Would the torpedo concentration on one point be adequate? Would the TIE Interceptors kill over half of them because they're so close together? The torpedoes this time could not be set to auto-homing. There are too many other torpedoes in the space and the jamming from the Star Destroyer was still too great. The most they could do is compute a lead-computing solution and hope the straight- running photon torpedoes would actually hit something. And how fast would the Star Destroyer kill them all? In any case, they would know in less than two minutes. ISD Conquest The battle was going fast. The total shield capacity of 100 Akiras was 187.65 million terajoules. 100 turbolaser batteries gave off 58 million terajoules per volley. In merely three well aimed salvoes, the guns had already given off 174 million terajoules. Aboard another Akira "We have 8 percent of our bow shield remaining!" "One, engage!" Just as the ISD planned to fire the fourth salvo, all the Federation ships engaged Warp and raced to the other end of the ship. During that time, they've fired off 13,500,000 tactically equivalent terajoules of phaser fire. That was of no concern. But they also fired had fired 3/40 of their torpedoes against the bow shields, equalling 540 gigatons, or just over fifteen heavy turbolaser turrets each firing a shot, or roughly twice the firepower of the ISD's heavy turrets. They were all set to impact on the shield in the space of approximately 1.5 seconds. ISD Conquest "Bow shield slightly damaged, sir. 22500 torpedoes inbound, sir! The enemy fleet is now manuevering towards our aft at superluminal speed!" "Starboard emergency rudder! Reinforce port shield! Stand by all port laser cannon crews! Order fighters to intercept! Torpedo time to impact?" asked Captain Toniv. "Indefinite, sir, however it would seem that they would all impact at the same time." The TIE Interceptors, already in optimal intercept positions, did well. Their acceleration was superb. With the torpedoes so close, they killed over a thousand of them. The point defence cannons on the port side of the massive Destroyer fired off a withering number of shots. With the concentration of torpedoes so high, over a thousand torpedoes were shot down. But that still left 480 gigatons to impact on the shield almost simultaneously. The ship shuddered as it tried to handle that ponderous amount of energy at once. Had it been spread over six seconds, its strength would have been only 160 gigatons in three waves, well within those horrendously powerful shields to handle, but with so many torpedoes hitting almost simultaneously, the shield had too little time to adapt. A holographic schematic for the ship was displayed for all to see. As the shield was hit by 160% of its maximum burst rating of over 1.28E21 J (roughly 300 gigatons), the shield generators could not dissipate the energy in time. They overloaded themselves trying to handle the energy, causing the shield to collaspe, even as the ship continued to turn. Immediately, the schematic showing the port shield blinked red, and a alarm sounded. There was one disadvantage with this TOT attack. Because the torpedoes hit almost simultaneously, the shield collapsed but most torpedoes got eaten up by the remnants of the shield. While with a twenty second impact period it still let some torps hit the hull, with only a 1.5 second impact interval, all the torpedoes got wasted on the shield, and almost no energy got to the hull. "Damage report! Kill those alarms!" ordered Captain Toniv. The alarms that had come on to show a drastic lost of port shields fell silent. "Port shield generators has overloaded and is currently recharging. No significant damage to generators themselves. Superficial damage to hull only, we retain full integrity, no hull breaches. Sir, I can reroute power to the port shield to rebuild it more quickly at the expense of some other shields," reported the damage control officer. "Very well, divert power from starboard shield, rebuild the port shield," ordered Captain Toniv, "target the Akiras on their next attack run! This time, I want them killed. Looks like we underestimated them a little." ABOARD THE AKIRAS "Are you sure we want to go back now, Comrade Captain?" asked Tactical. "What's the problem?" asked the Captain. "Comrade Captain, sensors report that we might have depleted their shields, but now we're attacking the port bow again---" "No buts, Comrade Lieutenant Commander. We're already committed. Warp tactical manuevering is not as easy as some people think. We cannot just change our aimpoint," said the Captain. "But our own shields are nearly depleted! Even diverting all the other shields to bow only leaves us with under 75% charge on our bow shields. The next blast from the Star Destroyer will kill us for sure!" "So? We'll leave after two bursts then. Signal the other ships. This time, only a four second firing cycle." ISD Conquest "They're coming back within firing range, Captain!" "Target them, fire!" Again they exchanged fire, and again, just before the shields are depleted. "Report on the enemy?" "Sir, they've engaged their superluminal propulsion system! But we've killed two more with our heavy turbolasers. Warning! 14400 torpedoes inbound!" "Pitch rotation up 40 degrees! Reinforce the bow shield! We cannot afford to let port or starboard take another hit! Target bow point-defence lasers. Fire!" ordered Captain Toniv, "Have the Interceptors intercept them the best they can!" He knew that he was playing into the enemy's hands by this. He can see what's happening now. The enemy was trying to put enough firepower on his ship to exceed the burst capacity of his shields. The Star Destroyer was designed to dissipate up to 300 gigatons of energy in two seconds - just soon enough before they next blast hit the shields. But now, they were asked to take 345.6 gigatons in less than that time. In somewhat less optimum positions this time, and with fewer point defences, enough torpedoes got through to cause another temporary failure of the bow shields. "Bow shields are down, sir. But no other damage and we're currently recharging. We can still divert power from other shields to re-establish the bow shield." "Very well. Face them with the dorsal face of our ship. Divert power from ventral shields! Engage them when they drop back into sublight, all guns. Redeploy our TIE Fighters!" ABOARD ANOTHER AKIRA CLASS STARSHIP "Comrade Captain! Our shields are completely depleted this time! The first burst by the enemy would kill us!" reported a breaking Tactical Officer. "Be calm Comrade Lieutenant Commander. We're winning! We've already caused momentary losses of shields from all his quadrants! He is diverting power from other shields to re-establish the lost ones. Engineering, re-establish the bow shield! Divert all power from phasers to shields! Overload the warp core if you must, but I want that bow shield re-established immediately!" ordered the Captain. It took several minutes to re-establish the bow shield to 2/3rds strength, and they timed their move so they would all come in to assault the dorsal surface. "Sensors, report on enemy shielding!" "Dorsal and aft shields intact! All other shields show at least some depletion." "Coming out of warp...range...four thousand! Fire!" ISD Conquest This battle was certainly a lot more interesting than the last one, thought Captain Toniv. They must be learning. They're sending small ships out and at longer ranges so our heavy turbolasers can't pulverize them. They're now emphasizing on torpedoes rather than phasers, as they should have a long time ago. But he was still confident. He had already boosted power to his dorsal shield, and in any case, dorsal shields were quite powerful due to the large surface area. This time, he only had 12 heavy and 60 light turbolasers firing, but it was more than enough. Three ships got clipped by his heavies and blew apart. Another got a direct hit from one of the heavy ion batteries and drifted in space. "We've depleted the enemy shielding, sir." The tactic was predictable, but also a good one. They're now learning to use what is to their advantage. He had no doubt that his dorsal shield was about to collapse. "Order the TIEs to intercept." This time, the TIEs were in good positions. And dorsal side was just filled with point defence cannons. The ship shuddered as those torpedoes hit, but when Captain Toniv asked, "Damage report!", a pleasant news came. "Captain, our shields have handled the enemy barrage!" The shield generators for the dorsal side made some unpleasant sounds when they absorbed the blasts, and for a moment it seemed as if they would allow the shield to collapse, but they held. "Very well. They'll probably try one of the sides next. Most likely they'll try ventral, where there are no heavy guns. Turn by both pitch and yaw to present our bow to them, restore bow shields to full ASAP! Order the TIE Interceptors to stand by!" "Yes, sir!" answered Commander Pekalic. ABOARD THE AKIRA CLASS CRUISER Captain Toniv was either just experienced from his fight with smugglers at Nar Shaddaa, or he actually had some Force potential. For aboard the commanding Sovereign several light years away, indeed an order was being passed out to all the Akiras to target the ventral side. The ventral shield was depleted to fill the bow shield, and at such was at the lowest strength. It also lacked all but the equivalent of two heavy turbolasers targeting them. But the bow shield was already getting recharged and was already facing them. "Comrade Captain, the enemy's bow is now facing us!" "I don't care, fire!" yelled the Captain. They had no choice. A pause would kill them now. All they can hope for is that they can deplete the shields faster than they can be replenished. There were only 90 Akiras left now, and that meant they must fire for 7 seconds to get enough firepower on the target. 3 got blown up by heavy turbolasers. Still, 594 gigatons worth of photon torpedoes lashed out. This time, they were reset into two echelons, the first one having 2/3rds of the strength to promise penetration of the enemy's burst capacity, the second to strike the hull, now that better knowledge of the enemy was available. ISD Conquest "Sir, we've picked up lots of torpedoes! They're in two-echelon attack pattern!" "Order the interceptors to destroy as many as they can! Concentrate on the first echelon! Brace for impact!" The first echelon as planned, hit the shields and collasped them. The fighters failed to kill enough torpedoes. The second wave went straight through, striking the hull and detonating. Warning alarms shrieked on the bridge of the Conquest along with a more severe shuddering. "Damage report!" screamed Captain Toniv. "Bow shield is down. They've damaged a pair of turbolaser targeting systems. Ten light turbolasers without ranging data, five on each side! We have several hull breaches, crews are sealing them off! Casualties reported. Shield generators one and two have suffered damage, ETR twelve minutes, shunting from thirteen and fourteen, putting them both on redline," reported damage control. At last some generators were not coping with the strain and/or shock and required quick repairs to bring them back on line. Generators 1 and 2 concerned themselves with the bow shields and those had failed, so the shield was "slaved" to the docking bay generators 13 and 14, with those generators pushing above normal output, but still quite safe, to compensate. Captain Toniv could have pushed it - the two bow generators weren't damaged that badly, but he knew it could cause a progressive problem which might turn a repairable generator into something due for replacement. And replacements were scarce when you're in a galaxy millions of light years from home. "Very well," said Captain Toniv finally. This really was going a lot worse than last time. He would really have to kill them fast. Fortunately, the enemy probably lacked the firepower to completely destroy him, at least so far. He knew the enemy had 3000 torpedoes in each ship. They've expended approximately 800 torpedoes each. They had 87 ships left now, each with 2200 torpedoes. "Re-establish the bow shield as soon as possible! Any ideas where they might strike next?" "Our stern. It has an intact shield but it has the least firepower!" "Port emergency rotation ninety! I want something other than my stern facing them. Divert the power from non-operational turbolasers to shields. If they kill our engines, we'll be in trouble," ordered Captain Toniv grimly. ABOARD USS SOVEREIGN Admiral Halsey was pleased. His plan was working. For the first time, they were actually damaging the Star Destroyer! All they had to do was nibble away at the shields, and eventually the Destroyer must fall! "All ships, attempt to attack the stern!" he ordered, "Come to courses..." ISD Conquest "Eighty-seven ships coming in on our port bow, Captain. We're opening fire." "Very well," replied Captain Toniv. Again, the enemy tried the 7 second, two-echelon barrage with 87 ships. A total of 6 heavy guns and 55 light turbolasers engaged them. The double ion cannons aft also had good fields of fire and opened up. By the time the enemy went to warp, five ships were destroyed in the exchange. Again, shots destroyed the shields and the second echelon poured through. Because they were unguided, their accuracy was limited to barrage bombing. "Damage report!" yelled Captain Toniv. "Port shield is down! Multiple moderate hull breaches! We're still operational but five more light turbolasers had suffered damage! Generators three and four are still operational" reported damage control. Generator 3 and 4 sustained the port shield. "Very well, engage them with starboard guns on their next pass," ordered Toniv. The contest was now one of attrition and the situation now nearly fair. The tactical initiative was with the Federation, with their ability to FTL at will while coming back to fire again. But the strategic initiative was in the Conquest's hands - any time Captain Toniv doesn't like the odds, departure was only one move away. Both sides were slowly losing firepower and having to take bigger and bigger risks to damage the other side. As shield power dropped on Conquest, more and more torpedoes can be diverted to the second echelon to do more damage on the hull, but as more Federation ships go down, their torpedo launching rate slows and they have to fire longer to achieve penetration and get a reasonable number of torpedoes through the shield, meaning more chances for the heavy turbolasers to nick them, as well as longer for the lethal light turbolasers to chew through the shields and come in. "Enemy ships coming on our starboard side. Range 5000, 4000, fire!" Another pass killed six more Akira class cruisers, and damaged another five starboard turbolasers, and Generator 6, one of the starboard generators suffered damage and Generator 3 was put to redline and power was shunted to compensate. "OK, we have to re-think this. Next time they come by...." ABOARD ANOTHER AKIRA CLASS CRUISER Aboard one of the Akiras conducting the assault, a young Captain by the name of O' Connor was thinking of some new tactic. He asked his ship's doctor, "Do we have any bio-agents on board? Really lethal ones?" "Sure, Comrade Captain, but why?" asked the medical officer. "I've got a new strategy. On our next pass, we'll engage them on the aft side. We'll pierce their shields and during the gap, we'll all try and teleport as much drug as possible!" "But, Comrade Captain! Their jamming is too heavy for precise fixes. Substantial amounts of torpedoes are missing the hull altogether. How can we possibly do a transport accurate enough?" asked the Engineering Officer. "I don't care, get it done. Over-ride the fail-safes! We're just transferring bio-agents. Someone get the word of this new strategy over the radio," ordered O' Connor. "That would be the end of them," O' Connor thought. In a minute, Admiral Halsey approved the plan. ISD Conquest "Sir! They're attacking us ventral and aft! They're closing!" "It's too late to turn by yaw! Commence hard pitch up and left yaw rotation! Now! Fire with all available guns!" Only a few guns of the Conquest can be used aft, its only true weakness. This choice of tactic for the Federation was good, but it could only succeed on one angle, aft. With only the heavy ion cannons and less than half a dozen light turbolasers usable, it was the most vulnerable side. 76 ships fired a constant volley of torpedoes. They each had 1650 torpedoes at the start. This time, they cannot run, cannot manuever, cannot do anything until the torpedoes hit the hull and collasped the shield. They fired a double pair of two-echelon bursts, bringing them down to 1100 remaining torpedoes ship. The light turbolasers, however, were no slouches. This time, they concentrated their fire. The ion cannons managed to get two ships, and eight fell from concentrated light turbolaser fire. The surviving 66 ships tried to teleport. All 66 failed to get anything meaningful on board. The ion engines were glowing a bright blue. The torpedoes damaged the port auxillary thrusters, but the attempt failed - the ion wash and solar ionization reactor Worse, they had stayed still far too long. The ship had begun a rotation. More and more guns locked onto them as the ship turned and more and more guns achieved clear of fires. Six more ships died from hails of concentrated fire before they managed to escape. The fact that shields had to be dropped before transportation could begin didn't help anyone either. "We've lost the port auxillary thrusters! The fail-safes shut the starboard thrusters down also!" "Might as well. Divert that power to shields! How much firepower and propulsion did we lose?" ordered Captain Toniv. "We've lost twenty light turbolasers, that is one-sixth of our guns, less when you incldue our ion cannons and factor in the yields of different turbolasers. The engines are down to eighty-five percent, manuevering down to maybe seventy-five percent if we use main engines for manuever. Shield is down by approximately fifteen percent after compensation, twenty two percent without compensation," reported damage control. "Very well." And with that, Captain O' Connor's "brilliant" transportation viral attack plan fell into little pieces. Aft, the only angle in which most guns could not aim against is protected by ion wash from the engines. Port and starboard had the solar ionization reactor protecting them. The ions would do tons to wreck transportation. It is slightly worse for dorsal and ventral. Worse, the enemy was also adjusting, now concentrating their fire on certain ships. They never knew beforehand which ships were targeted, limiting their response. They were down to 60 percent of their original firepower. An attack on the bow would bring almost all the heavy firepower to bear and is just suicidal! It wasn't surprising, therefore, that Admiral Halsey ordered, "Abort the second attack wave. We'll resort to conventional tactics." Several more passes commenced, but the side of attrition was turning badly against the Federation. Two passes along port and starboard took out two dozen ships for another ten turbolasers. The enemy has 90 light and 16 heavy turbolasers, and 45 of 60 ion cannons operational. Starfleet is down to 36 ships. "Damage report, we have more hull breaches, port and starboard! Crews are sealing them off!" reported Damage Control, "However, full shield capacity is still possible!" USS Sovereign Admiral Halsey did some fast figuring. With only 36 ships left, he could only reasonably expect his ships to deliver less than 240 gigatons of yield to the enemy's shields. The enemy's burst capacity was firmly established at about 290 gigatons. The implication was clear, it is unlikely that the next salvo would even strain the shields. Burst capacity is kind of like a blow to the head. You hit a shield (or a head as the case maybe) with a relatively high amount of force in the right spot with one blow (or several blows within maybe a second for the shield) and you can knock a man or a shield down without wasting a proportionate amount of effort. But if you fail to exceed the burst capacity, you're left to bombard the target to submission slowly. It would take a large portion of Starfleet to exceed the total capacity of an Imperial Star Destroyer. With only less than forty ships left, the task was impossible, especially when the remaining ships have expended most of their torpedoes. "Retreat," ordered the Admiral wearily, "All ships go to maximum sustained warp and regroup near Earth." The Akiras went to over warp eight and fled. ISD Conquest "Well, that's that," said Captain Toniv. The Federation had been trying to ambush him, that much was clear. Fortunately, they didn't have enough firepower to seriously harm him. "How much time to repairs?" he asked next. The damage control officer answered coolly, "None of our systems had been destroyed. It'll take two weeks, no more, and we will be back to full operationality. Only one hundred crewmen died, mostly in the turrets that got blown up." "Very well, can we make a hyperspace jump?" "We're running, sir?" asked Commander Pekalic, "Now? We've won." "No, just a tactical withdrawal to more advantageous conditions. Just a short jump, not a long one, just enough to clear datum. They might have more ambushers, and we've been hurt, if not seriously. If we don't make repairs, this attrition business would slowly kill us. Turrets that were repairable may become destroyed if we continue fighting. Now, give me a hundred light year jump to these coordinates," Captain Toniv stabbed the plot. "We've got it ready," answered Commander Fel, navigator. "Engage hyperdrive," ordered Captain. And with the elongated starstreaks inside and the elongated ship for those who looked on the outside, the ship accelerated to lightspeed and disappeared as if it had never been... USS Sovereign "We've lost contact with the Imperial Star Destroyer, Comrade Admiral," reported a communications officer, "They've engaged their superluminal system, which seems to use a different principle from warp, so we can't track them." "I want all the data of this combat analyzed. We seem to have found a way to hurt them. I want to see exactly how we hurt them, how much it takes to hurt them, how badly we can hurt them and any other operational weaknesses they may have! Next time, we'll meet him with an even larger fleet and kill him! And analyze that superluminal travel system of his. I want to know how we can stop it from jumping and I want it now!" ordered Admiral Halsey to his aide. "Sir, our great Comrade the President wants to see you in one hour," reported an aide. "Tell him I'll be on time," he snarled. "Sir, they would adjust their tactics, and next time they'll be less vulnerable to our repeated Picard manuevers!" groaned an aide. "So will we, Comrade Commander. Analyze that data!" Halsey reiterated his order. One hour later, Admiral Halsey went to brief his President. And it wasn't a pleasant experience. "I thought you said that this strategem would work, Comrade Admiral! Instead, I have sixty four dead ships out there! I demand an explanation!" screamed the President. "There is no explanation, Comrade President!" pleaded the poor Admiral, "But that thing's much more powerful than even a Borg cube! You know we're stretched to the limits as it is dealing with a Borg cube." "Yes, I'm aware of the power of a Borg cube," drawled the President. "This "Star Destroyer" we're talking about packs one hundred and thirty six guns in it. There are 16 bigger than the rest. We've evaluated the power readings, and the heavy turbolasers, which aren't phasers and don't use the Nuclear Disruption Force, but brute power, each has more than four times the firepower of all the Borg cube's armament! Each gun!" answered Admiral Halsey. "Um, I recall that we already knew about this before you suggested your plan. You said it'll work then! Why didn't it work, Comrade Admiral!" demanded the President. "Comrade President, most of the plan worked. We discovered the limits of the enemy shielding. The Star Destroyer is not invincible, Comrade, we have hurt it!" replied the Admiral, a tone of pleading and exhiliration in his voice, "All we have to do is hit them harder, and we'll succeed!" "Your original plan said the Star Destroyer would get destroyed or at least badly damaged. You said we'll lose less than two dozen ships! So what went wrong, Comrade Admiral?" asked the President. "Comrade President, we hadn't considered that they can array more than one gun per ship! They've never done that before! Also, we expected to be able to destabilize their power systems and have the power system blow up the ship. Everyone knows that more than half the time, we destroy the target with torpedoes by having them destabilize the enemy's warp core and letting it blow up the ship. We thought that the immense power outputs mean that its highly unstable and vulnerable to hits," answered the Admiral, a little weakly. The President began to simmer, "You and your fellow Starfleet officers are idiots to have assumed the enemy to have the same weaknesses as we did. Just because our engineers are failures and can't design a warp core that would take more than a karate kick without blowing up doesn't mean the Empire can't! Let me ask you. Why is that ship so big? Everything on it is big - the domes, the tower, the engines, the reactor, the hull in general. Why, Comrade Admiral? You're an expert in military affairs, you should know about this." Admiral Halsey, not realizing that his career would depend on his next words uttered, "Its probably because they have no choice, Comrade President. They don't know how to miniaturize things. They can't make ships smaller than that! They're primitive in everything but weapons! Their size shows it." The President began to boil, "I suppose you hadn't thought of how much more engineering it takes to build a big ship. Structural strength is based on surface area but mass is based on volume. And as you build bigger, volume tends to increase faster than surface area. So at a particular acceleration, their hull is stressed much more than this ship's. That means that his ships have better structural bracing than we do. Which is not surprising, considering that our ships barely hold together without that "structural integrity field" technology which only shows we can't build a decent hull!" Admiral Halsey, a little dazed, replied, "I had no idea of it, Comrade President. Again I am enlightened by your presence." "You are enlightened by my presence for the simple reason of the pathetic scheme of Starfleet education. If you've studied physics, then you should know this simple thing. But you don't know, so you probably had never had a course in physics. The reason why you didn't have a course in physics or engineering in the Academy is obviously because Starfleet officers like yourself study Shakespeare when you should be studying Newtonian Physics! And why do you think the Star Destroyers uses a dagger shape and multiple turrets that seem to be manually operated?" sneered the President. "I thought that it was an impractical design. The triangular shape is plain ugly and was too massive, and the gun turrets are just things begging to be picked off by an equivalent opponent. I bet they lose all the time back home," replied Halsey, who was proud of Starfleet and believe it to build the best ships in the universe. The President detonated, "Admiral Halsey, you have demonstrated yourself to be a complete idiot when it comes to naval strategy and even simple geometry! If you had studied geometry, you can see that this dagger shape is designed for optimum fields of fire. Our ships only have a torpedo launcher aft, and have many blind spots because of all those warp nacelles and others blocking the way, while their design allows firepower in almost every region. Gun turrets may look ugly, but unlike us, they actually would continue shooting after the main computer, which is probably in the bridge tower gets blown out. Unlike our ships, their ships don't stop just because of hits so minor you can't even a mark on the hull, but they continue firing. Unlike our crews, they can target and fly manually, based on their so called TIE Interceptors and Bombers. If I were a gambler, Comrade Admiral, I'll bet that a majority of their ships back home follow this design, and you know what? This isn't the best they can do. I can feel it." Halsey asked, "How do you know? For all we know, we've bumped into their most powerful ship already." "You idiot! Don't you remember what Destroyer means? A destroyer means a small ship. There are probably cruisers, and battlecruisers and even battleships where that ship came from! You're dismissed, Comrade Admiral Halsey. You have failed the state!" ordered the President. "Yes, Comrade President," Halsey finally realized his mistake - too late... "Admiral Gracios, you're the new commander. I want a new attack plan drafted up. I want this warship sunk at all costs!" demanded the President. "Yes, Comrade President," replied the Admiral. Episode 5: Base Delta Zero, The Order With No Ambiguity ISD Conquest, One Week Later "Captain, the Conquest had been fully repaired," reported the damage-control officer, "All hull-breaches sealed. We've exhausted a significant percentage of our spares, but the Conquest's turbolaser batteries and shield generators are fully operational. The ship is at your command. What do you wish to do, sir?" Captain Toniv was still seething from last week's sneak attack. His orders were specific this time, and with no mercy. He's not about to endure more DS9 delays. Sure, he was kind of half-expecting the sneak attack anyway, but somehow he still felt betrayed - a very common trait of humankind. "I intend to order a Base Delta Zero on my authority and my authority alone. Commander Fel! I want you to plot a course to Earth immediately. Maximum hyperdrive speed! Commander Pekalic! Do we have any geological data on Earth?" "Yes, sir." "Get with our weapons officer! Plot the most efficient BDZ on Earth. I want something accomplishable in an hour's worth of bombardment. Plot our necessary approach vectors and orbital trajectories for maximum possible efficiency," ordered Captain Toniv. "Yes, sir." "Communications! Just for the formality, draft up a message. I intend to give it to the United Federation of Planet's leadership, whoever it is right now, explaining why the heck are we bombing them into little pieces," ordered Captain Toniv. "Yes, sir." "We've got the most expeditious course to Earth plotted, sir!" reported Commander Fel. "Very well, punch it!" The starlines streaked and elongated, then the mighty Star Destroyer leapt into hyperspace, course for Earth. ISD Conquest, Near Earth Orbit "We've just come out of hyperspace, Captain. Hyperwave, subspace and EM sensors are fully operational. We have detected five hundred warships! But don't worry too much about them. They're all at least five hours away even at what they call maximum warp," reported Commander Pekalic. "Our guns?" "They're all fully operational, sir. Hardware alterations are complete, and we can cycle to full BDZ mode in one minute," reported the first officer. "Why didn't you do it before?" "Sir, Base-Delta-Zero mode is different from normal antiship mode. Normal antiship mode involves setting the turbolaser bolts into tight bolts using magnetic containment that can easily vaporize large asteroids and achieve partial penetrations of local areas of shields. This is why our heavy turbolasers can cause damage even on an enemy with intact shields, even when we don't overload their shield generators. But the same firing mode would be a severe wastage of firepower when we're going for area destruction of non-hardened targets like planets," reminded Commander Pekalic, "Besides, I want to know how deep you want the BDZ before ordering it. The software change is the last interlock for full BDZ efficiency." "Let's melt off one meter of crust off the entire planet. I don't want to say world because some people actually believe its only the cities. Get the turbolasers reconfigured for that immediately. Order the sensor operators to be alert for ambush. Get engineering to be ready for the jump to lightspeed at all times," ordered Captain Toniv, "And get those shields up!" "Yes, sir," replied Commander Pekalic. "All bomber crews to their TIE Bombers, ready to launch on my command, armed with bombs," Captain Toniv ordered next. "Very well." "And hail Earth," ordered Captain Toniv. The communications officers hailed Earth. The ship was already approaching what Commanders Pekalic and Fel as well as the more junior weapons officer had decided as the best attack trajectory, while the gunnery crews re-cycled their guns to optimum settings for ground- attack work. "This is Admiral IXJac of the United Federation of Planets," came the voice. "Hello, Admiral," sneered Captain Toniv, "Can you explain about that ambush your government and military attempted to pull on my ship?" "I have ordered no such thing, Captain Toniv. I must most strongly protest at your provocative actions," replied Admiral IXJac. "Stuff it, Admiral. I know perfectly what happened. And your puny Federation would have to be punished. I plan to order a Base Delta Zero on your planet," Captain Toniv replied, then turned to his officers, "Drop docking bay shields, launch the TIE Bombers, armed with heavy bombs." "Oh, what can you do? You may like to think that your ship can melt my planet, but you can't. Other people have misinterpreted your words. All you can do is blow out our cities and infrastructure, but you can't melt the Earth, and definitely not before our fleet arrive," replied Admiral IXJac. "Truth or not, Admiral, you have the honor to be one of the first people to be destroyed in my operation," shot back Toniv. "Open fire when ready." "We're opening fire now, sir." "Send the TIE Bombers to blow out major cities on the other side of the planet. The ones that we'll have attacked last. Raise the dock-- -" "Sir, a shuttlecraft of ours is escaping! Its a small TIE shuttle, but it does have hyperdrive capability," reported Commander Pekalic urgently. "Have it shot down immediately! Raise the tractor beams!" "We cannot effectively shoot down the shuttle using our guns in the BDZ mode, and the tractor beams would be too late to stop it," reported the weapons officer. "Then order a TIE Bomber to destroy it!" "Can't sir," replied the squadron commander, "Our heavy bombs would never hit a shuttlecraft." "Oh, forget it. Just say it got into an accident. Damned Rebels. They must be responsible fot this joke. Continue the Base-Delta-Zero operation. Slag the planet!" screamed Captain Toniv. TIE SHUTTLE Aboard the TIE Shuttle, the Rebel undercover officer was surprised that he could escape so easily. There was quite a large complement of Rebel spies and saboteurs hidden in this thirty-seven thousand men Star Destroyer crew, meant to sabotage it enough at an opportune moment to allow for a live capture. A Star Destroyer was a fine catch for a resource-strapped Rebel Alliance. But the plan fell apart. The Imperator Star Destroyer had, on that fateful day, bumped into a helpless Rebel transport escorted only by two Corellian corvettes and a few Y-wings. The Star Destroyer had opened fire with its light turbolasers, inteding to capture all three. And one of the saboteurs in Engineering had panicked. In his fervent, well-meant but ill-conceived quest to save the transport, which was packed with troops, he hastily sabotaged the hyperdrive and hot-wired the sucker, causing the Star Destroyer to leap into hyperspace all of a sudden, without any pre-planned course. It goes without saying that the saboteur was quickly put down. The Star Destroyer pummeled through the realm known as hyperspace at around 500 light years/hour, over Point Five and the damage also jammed the time-distortion device. The Milky Way Galaxy was around 10.08 million light years away, a 2.3 year trip at 500 light years per hour. Normally, 500 LY/h was a little faster than a Star Destroyer could do, but then vaccuum space sometimes made it easier by reducing obstructions, allowing for straighter routes. The time dilation devices took this two point three years and turned it into 6 weeks, thus causing this catastrophe. Had the device been set normally, they'll have stopped it after six weeks worth of travel and they wouldn't be this far from home. During those six weeks, rigorous checks had caused most of the Rebels spies to be discovered and promptly disposed of. This pilot was one of the last, and he knew what he had to do. He suspected the Empire had already won the war "on the other end" and as soon as the Star Destroyer Captain got home, and the Empire recovered after the civil war, they would invade this Federation. This Federation may be primitive, but he still somehow felt obliged to help it, and so now he took this shuttlecraft and fled. Who knows? Maybe they'll have something, someone or some miracle that would allow them to defeat the Empire. He winced as he saw another turbolaser bolt wipe out a significant portion of the planet the Feds called "Earth", and then he forced his eyes away, saw that the plotter had already gotten a hyperspace solution, and pulled the lever... PLANET EARTH The first city to go was San Francisco, the capital of the UFP. Unfocused, wide-beamed heavy turbolaser fire turned it into a hellish place where people screamed and died. TIE Bombers quickly reached the other side and wiped out cities such as Moscow and Beijing. The groups advanced quickly, strafing and bombarding. Over 288 gigatons were released per salvo. They were set to cause vast amounts of damage to a depth of an average of one meter. Only a few lucky sentients managed to get themselves onto any kind of transportation to leave. Montgomery Scott, a beloved character of TOS, managed to get off the planet, for one, but most others were killed. The Star Destroyer completed its work in one hour. When it was done, the entire planet had been slagged into lava. The entire surface was literally glowing. Admiral IXJac died without ever knowing which idea of what BDZ meant was right, for he was one of the first casualties. ISD Conquest "Bombardment complete, Captain," reported Commander Pekalic. "Very well, what's our fuel situation," asked Captain Toniv. "Just a hair under fifty percent, Captain..." answered Pekalic, "We do have enough to get back, but not if we keep firebombing planets like this. Besides, we're under half load for most of our consumables." "Understood. Commander Fel, plot us our course home, maximum hyperspace speeds." "Yes, sir." And with a flourish, the Star Destroyer began its long journey home... [Episode 6 coming soon] Episode 7: Assaults and Defences SSD Aggressor Admiral Graeme Dice, newly appointed Commander of the Executor class command ship Aggressor stared into the holographic image. The image was of a man, one of a familiar sihouette, with a dark cape. "Lord Vader, our fleet has moved out of hyperspace outside of detection range of the enemy," reported Dice, "The Federation had not been alerted to our presence." "Good," came back the deep, menacing voice of the Dark Lord himself, "You may deploy your fleet and commence the attack." Fully aware that Lord Vader could easily choke him even in his meditation chamber aboard another SSD, the infamous Executor, nameship of the class - and he was in the Beta Quadrant, a whole quadrant away, no less, Admiral Dice hastily replied, "Yes, my Lord." "Do not fail me, Admiral." And the Dark Lord disappeared from the hologram. The Aggressor was currently deployed with a Sector Fleet's worth of Star Destroyers, as well as support ships - Interdictors and a few Lancer frigates USS DEFENDER Aboard the nameship of an entire new class of warships built by the Federation in case the Empire tried to make another assault, Admiral Chris O' Farrell sat in his command seat, pondering when the feared Empire would attack again. Soon after the feared (and hated) Star Destroyer Conquest have left the system, after coldly murdering over one hundred Federation warships and millions of times more men than the ship's own complement worth of civilians, as well as wasted a major section of the UFP government, they had managed to get their hands onto a resistance agent aboard the Star Destroyer. Only after interrogating him did they realize the full predicament of their situation. The enemy had a Navy of at least 25,000 of those damn things by now. All current Federation weaponry may as well be peashooters in the face of the threat. Some had speculated up to two million of the things based on some descriptions of the Rebel of Imperial production rates, but Chris definitely didn't believe that. He didn't know whether it was a premevial mental block against the concept of two million of the damn things existing, or whether it was a logical thought. All he knows is that it must be wrong! It can't be that way. In any case, with one of them easily capable of frying one hundred of us, that obviously needed a change in tactics and equipment. First, a batch of surviving Federation officers and diplomats made desperate trips to the Klingon and Romulan governments appealing for an Alliance and a knowledge exchange. The Klingons immediately agreed. The Romulans didn't, but then the pictures of dead Federation warships showed up. The Romulans decided that making the Alliance was the "logical" thing to do. Production was immediately streamlined. All three Navies still had their own classes of warships. But they basically gotten the idea that only a very big and well-built warship or a a very small and agile warship even had a flicker of a chance. Each of them were armed only with quantum torpedoes, and in the Romulan case, plasma torpedoes. Cloaks became universal, but the phasing-cloak never seemed to work every bit as well as it should, and was abandoned. He was confident that the new generation of quantum torpedoes should do the trick. Each had a nominal yield of 600 megatons, and his ship carried over 4000 of them. His ship was a full mile long, as long as an Imperial Star Destroyer (to him, it'll always be an Imperial, not Imperator Star Destroyer). "Sir! We've got an intelligence report! Subspace relays on boosted sensor output had detected faint indications of unknown contacts. Detailed identification is unavailable but it is highly likely that our friends may be back." "Good, then let's go and greet them. All ships, this is the Defender. Maximum warp to these coordinates....engage!" Allegiance Star Destroyer Loyalty Captain Negalic of the Loyalty watched calmly as the vortex of hyperspace shifted back to starlines. His ship had been at a Point Four cruising speed for several hours after resupplying from the Aggressor, which as an Executor-class ship possessed impressive refit and other abilities for smaller ships like an Allegiance. They had fueled them up with a full load of the precious fuel needed for the conquest of the puny Federation. Captain Negalic was one of those people who planned their careers from the time he was some Cadet presenting "Economics of Hyperspace Troop Movement" presentations and learning about "Nonlinear Hyperspace Geometry". He had planned to kiss whatever ass needed to be kissed, do whatever had to be done to move up to command of a fleet as an Admiral, maybe even make Grand Admiral. He almost wished he had been the one flung toward hyperspace that fateful day. Captain Toniv had been an average XO and an average CO at best throughout his career. But thanks to this little Federation adventure, he was now promoted to Admiral, and that little brat is a whole two years younger than me, he thought. He wished that this trip would bring similar results. Based on intelligence provided by Captain Toniv and the Federation engineer and Admiral, the Federation's weapons are weak. But they had also shown a rapid capability of growth in time of despair, so after so many years wasted fighting the hated Rebellion, God knows what they're capable of this time. Therefore, caution was the order of the day. Captain Negalic turned to one of the crew pits and ordered to his communications officer, "Get a message off to Admiral Dice. Tell him our fleet is now advancing on a Federation Starbase." One minute later, the officer reported, "Done, sir." "Very good," complimented Negalic. He turned to the ratings manning the shielding and weapons board, "Raise deflector screens. They ought to have a defensive force here somewhere. And I don't want to get bushwhacked. Anything on our sensors?" "Not yet, sir." "Very well, maintain full alert. We're now closing on the Starbase. How long to weapons range?" "Five minutes, forty seconds to weapons range," replied the Gunnery Officer. "Very well. What mode are our guns set in?" asked the Captain. "They're set in antiship mode, sir," reported the Gunnery officer, "As per your orders." "Very well," replied the Captain, "Engines all ahead flank!" "All ahead flank, aye!" This was going too smoothly, thought Negalic. Plans never survive first contact with the enemy. It was one of the first things taught at Imperial Academy. They would be ambushing us any time.... And his thoughts were broken by a scream from the sensor operator managing the EM spectrum, "Captain, inbound torpedoes!" Just as I thought, decided the Captain, "Why haven't we detected the ships firing them? Give me a proper contact report!" "Raid count fifteen hundred torpedoes! Bearing one eight zero by zero zero zero - dead aft. They're waiting for us," commented the sensor operator. "Shit. Why can't we see them? How long to impact?" "Fifty-two seconds, sir," reported the sensors operator. "Good! Hard down pitch rotation! Boost the ventral deflector and reangle all our shields to protect the ventral side! General quarters! Order all light turbolasers to engage as many as they can. Sensors, focus scan the vector 180 by 000. Report all contacts! Shit, they've got stealth ships now! Communications, alert our task force! Order Immobiliser-578 to get her interdictor fields up. I don't want anything leaving the system! Commence electronic countermeasures!" The Loyalty quickly pivoted in space, altering course at several degrees per second. More and more guns got LOS and began shooting. USS DEFENDER The Defender's commanding officer, Admiral O' Farrell was smiling. So it was true, the Empire cannot detect cloaked ships. Using passive sensors, they had managed to obtain a track on the Empire's ships, and the one hundred ships promptly released a full spread of five torpedoes each. "Sir! The enemy ships are taking evasive action," reported a Lieutenant, "They're going active on all sensors and beginning electronic countermeasures." "They will not pick us up," Chris O' Farrell said confidently. "Sir, the enemy seems to be targeting our torpedoes and they're currently taking them out," reported the tactical officer. "Don't worry, our quantorps travel faster than anything they've shot down before. Estimated time to impact?" "Best estimate now, thirty point four eight seven three four five seven six four two seconds, correction, twenty point four one three five eight nine seconds." "Sir! They're shooting down our torpedoes!" said a concerned tactical officer. "Awwww...WTF? They can't do that!" "That's what they're doing, Admiral. Doesn't matter. They won't be able to get them all. Torpedo impact, sir." ASD LOYALTY "Report!" ordered Captain Negalic, clambering to his feet after the shock. The officer manning the battle analysis computer said, "Stand by, sir." The computer would take in all sensor input and assess unknown quantities about the enemy. Fifteen seconds later, he got his answer, "The enemy has fired fifteen hundred quantum torpedoes, five hundred at each vessel! They're significantly stronger than the torpedoes reported. They are each assessed at 600 megatons. But they still hadn't fixed their directional problem, so only forty-eight percent of the energy hit the shields. Of that, seventy-two percent was absorbed by the ray shields and twenty-eight percent by our particle shields. Our CIWS cannons succeeded in bringing down approximately one-third of their torpedoes. We've decoyed another third with our ECM deceptive jamming. But between our ships, we've gotten hit by approximately five hundred torpedoes, all on our ventral shields. We've gotten hit by one hundred and sixty seven torpedoes, as near as we could determine. Our particle deflectors have a total capacity of 2.2E20 joules. The total particle energy hitting the shields just now is approximately 5.4E19 joules. Therefore, our particle shields had suffered an overall 25% impact. Minor damage to ventral decks. Hull breaches being sealed off. The ventral shields were lost, as well as port and most of starboard! We're recycling them." The communications guy came in, "Captain, Captain Pellaeon of the Chimaera reports that his shields have suffered 1/3rd damage, and Commander Darron of the Direption reports the same!" "Goddamn it! Find those cloaked ships!" ordered Negalic. "Second torpedo wave coming in, sir!" "Fuck! We might lose this thing," thought Negalic. ASD LOYALTY, SHIELD CONTROL STATION "Recycling" a non-rechargeable deflector shield in combat was risky business at best. But with several shields so badly depleted, it was the only way. The shield control officer first shut down the generators and projectors for the collapsed and badly damaged shields. He then waited ten seconds, accumulated a charge off the powerful Solar Ionization Reactor, then powered the system back up. He prayed that the deflector systems, which usually took longer to raise than that, would be agreeable. The process was somewhat like putting a new wall or door up after the old one had been destroyed, but sometimes the shield generators, unhappy at being switched off and back on abruptly, would protest and refuse to operate, and sometimes, hastily hammered in walls and doors aren't very sturdy, too. Seconds later, the shield schematics for the Loyalty returned to all greens. The shield control operator said, "Captain, shields back up at full capacity." But this "recycling" was hardly a solution to allow infinite shields to be put up long there was power. With each of these "rapid recyclings", the shield generators accumulate a varying amount of damage that would have to be repaired after the battle, caused by the sudden stresses of turning them on and off. The probability of a recycling failure increased significantly with each recycle. Eventually the fail-safes would not allow this for safety. Attempts to override the safety would probably result in USS DEFENDER A faint shudder shook the Defender. "What the fuck was that?" asked Admiral O' Farrell. "Sir, we are in the middle of a gravitic distortion! Our artificial gravity is compensating but we can't use anything involving warp now. Our impulse drives would be greatly impaired!" "WTF? A mere gravfield can't do that. We have faced stronger gravfields before," protested Chris. "No good, sir. The problem is the varying nature of the gravfield. We can attempt a warp, but if the gravitic distortion curves change, our warp drive would not take well to the sudden change and probably rip itself apart!" reported the engineering officer. "Fire the second wave of torpedoes!" "We've already fired, sir. As soon as we got updated coordinate information from the Starbase's sensors," replied Tactical "What? Why wasn't I informed of this?" "It was in your plan, Admiral." "Now I remember. Sorry, we all make mistakes. What's the enemy doing." "Enemy is now showing their port beams. They've changed their scanning pattern." "They can't detect us," said Admiral O' Farrell confidently. Generally, passive scanning is not as accurate in ranging as an active sensor, but with the Starbase providing the data, it didn't matter. ASD LOYALTY The second wave of torpedoes slammed into the three destroyers port shields again reangled so the damage was spread out among all the shields Again Captain Negalic was thrown to the deck and climbed to hear of more of his men wounded and decks damaged, as well as another shield depleted. Again he screamed for the shields to be recycled... "We really can't take much more of this, Captain," yelled the damage-control officer, "Sooner or later, our shield generators won't take this!" "Come on, sensors, you got them yet? We're focus scanning, we've got no contact yet. But we've picked up a subspace communications from the Starbase. They could be using that to attack us passively." "Take that link down." "Yes, sir," reported the Electronic Warfare Officer. 1ST OCTUPLE HEAVY TURBOLASER BATTERY, PORT "REGIMENT", ASD LOYALTY Ensign Tschel sweated as he struggled to use his own independent targeting systems to search for the enemy. He had heard the intercom screaming for damage reports and he knew it isn't good. Unless someone finds those stealth ships soon, they'll snipe his ship, and the task force to little pieces. All of a sudden, a faint contact appeared on his fire-control scopes. It was quite weak, but it was definitely an anomaly. He reported, "Possible contact on three five seven by zero zero three relative...range....one thousand fifty kilometers...contact is firming up. Definite contact!" He stabbed some buttons, and the fire control computer and short range Predictors began to develop a lead computing solution on the target with the turbolasers. He dialled up the line that would connect him to bridge, "Sir, I've got a gunnery contact, on vector three five six by zero zero four, range one four three seven kilometers. Request weapons free." BRIDGE, ASD LOYALTY The Gunnery Lieutenant looked up, "Captain, one of my batteries report a probable contact on an enemy warship. He requests permission to engage." Captain Negalic smiled, "Finally. Tell him to engage, but only after getting a good solution. "Yes, sir." 1ST OCTUPLE HEAVY TURBOLASER BATTERY, ASD LOYALTY "You may fire at will," came the reply. "Yes, sir!" Ensign Tschel was an enthusiastic as any ensign ever punched out of Imperial Academy. He came out of the Academy too late to have any real part in destroying the Rebellion, but now the Force itself is giving him a second chance. He was now having a chance to strike a blow for his beloved Empire. He watched the indicators as they showed the developing solution to the totally stationary target - relatively so, anyway, for it is hard to be truly stationary to the true absolute points of the universe. Getting better...nearly perfect track now...adjust power level. The Loyalty, like all Imperial warships, were ordered to conserve their gun barrels - they can be hard to fabricate this far away from the Empire's Kuat Drive Yards and Taim&Bak. Even selecting a slightly lower power than absolute maximum can dramatically extend the life of a barrel, both due to reduced thermal stresses and the kinetic stresses of recoil. On its part, the fire control computer evaluated the distance to target and the bearing. It then computed the proper lead solution - an easy solution, for the target had neither significant bearing or range rates. It then assessed the status of the barrel - which was also easy, the barrels was freshly retrofitted from Taim&Bak, and its temperature. Sensors gathered an entire catalogue of data needed to refine the solution, and the barrels and turret made minute adjustments. Tschel slew another few switches to set up the firing rate. For heavy turbolasers against relatively weak targets...highest possible ROF, 2 sec/round. The computer-assisted targeting system got a solution and blinked the appropriate indicators. "Fire. Hey, take over." He motioned to the Senior Gunner of the battery. It may be fun to fire the first shot, but any half-wit knew that you really should leave all the gunnery things to the enlisted, and he knew he had used his commander's perogatives too much already. The Octal-barrel turret belched out eight bolts. The bolt streaked through the sky. The barrel recoiled, and countless bracings and shock absorbers contained the recoil. The computer rapidly assessed the recoil's offset, compensated, and a second wave of eight were shot. After three shots against what the computer predicted was the impact point, Tschel ordered the computer assisted targeting system to bracket the area. 2ND OCTUPLE HEAVY TURBOLASER BATTERY Ensign Conclazature also had his own target. Making the adjustments, his guns also belched out green bolts of hybrid particle/electromagnetic radiation energy (more commonly known as a turbolaser bolt). USS DEFENDER "Admiral! The enemy had located us!" yelled the Tactical Officer. Admiral Chris O' Farrell let his jaw drop. This wasn't the way he'd thought it'll happen. He had just lost coordinate data from Starbase and was pondering his move when this hit him. Not at all as he planned. He screamed, "What?" "Sir! We have incoming TL bolt fire!" "Order all targeted ships to evade! Now!" screamed the Admiral, "All ahead flank, best we can without using AMRE. Engineering, you found a way around the gravwell yet?" "Sorry sir, it plain isn't working. Projection shows a sixty four percent chance of losing our warp drive and another sixteen percent chance of losing the entire ship if we force a warp of any sort." "All ships! Attenuate shield modulation! Return fire! Evasive pattern Chris Tango Three Four Seven! Starburst and deploy! Get between the Star Destroyers, that way they can't use their heavies without severe risk of hurting themselves!" At least ten percent of his force got blown up by heavy turbolaser fire, the rest began the plan of attack, firing as fast as they can. 1ST OCTUPLE HEAVY TURBOLASER BATTERY This is finally getting fun, thought Tschel. He began to efficiently direct his crew. The sensors now had all of them on focus scanning now, and datalinks were passing data left and right. His first turbolaser bolts had just hit the target... "Target, cease fire!" Tschel ordered his senior gunner, who had taken over the seat, "Target, Corvette, eleven o' clock, twenty degrees up!" "Identified!" replied the gunner. He had found the target on his instrumentation, designated it and allowed the fire control sensors to help the FCS develop a fire-control solution. Tschel screamed, "Fire!" The battery went into rapid fire. The target fired a full spread of quantum torpedoes, then turned as abruptly as it could and increased speed. The first few shots missed, unable to track the rapidly moving target... But then one of the bolts found the mark. Inside, its crew was preparing to fire another spread of quantum torpedoes while in furious evasive manuevers, or at least as furious as an ST ship ever attempted. The turbolaser bolt sliced like hot knife through butter through the shields and decimeter or so of ablative armor, then the SIF reinforced tritanium/duranium hull, went straight through the innards, and came back out the other side. The devastation onboard the 145 meter long USS Guerilla was complete. The TL bolt wrecked all the equipment on board and the inertial compensators went nuts, losing all Artificial Gravity in seconds. The warp core's containment system was completely wrecked. The antimatter onboard reacted furiously with the matter, and the ship blew itself into pieces. Nobody survived. "Target, Cease fire! Good shooting. Target Corvette, between nine and ten o' clock, right along our pitch line!" "Identified!" yelled the gunner. "Fire!" bellowed Tschel, and another burst of rounds flew out. They caught the ship eventually, causing another catastrophic kill. "Target....shit! They're going below us! They're outside our LOS, sir." "Oh, well, at least I got three ship kills today," said Tschel. USS DEFENDER "Is everything in position?" asked Admiral Chris O' Farrell. "Yes, sir. We lost a third of our ships, though." "Doesn't matter. Tell them to concentrate all quantorp fire on the Star Destroyer to the starboard ventral of the bigger ship." "Yes, sir." The three Star Destroyers had advanced in a slight alteration of the regulation wedge on a vector of 180 by 000 relative to their Starbase target. The two lagging Imperator-II Star Destroyers, Chimaera and Direption were also slightly below the Loyalty so as to provide cover fire for Loyalty's less heavily armed ventral side, with Direption, taking the starboard ventral covering position being slightly "above" Chimaera, at a angle centered at 090 by 10 relative to Chimaera. The surviving corvette sized ships had taken cover in one of the zones where they are right below Loyalty, so no dorsal guns can fire until it tries to invert. The Direption had the ships below its centerline, so the HTLs aboard also could not depress to that position. The Chimaera could engage them with her starboard HTL "regiment" of four octuple turrets, but then any miss would hit Direption, and those HTL turrets possessed enough firepower to force local penetrations of an ISD-II deflector and chop away at the armor. So all three ships were limited to about half its guns, all light. Simplified diagram (Conceptual aid only, not drawn to scale, canonicity below story text): ----Loyalty (Federation Corvettes) ---Direption ---Chimaera The corvettes under the command of Admiral O' Farrell aboard the USS Defender could strike at all three ships. They could strike Loyalty's ventral shields and her hull beneath, and they had been weakened in the first attack. But as the flagship, she obviously had the strongest shields of the three. They could strike Chimaera's starboard flank's shielding, but her starboard shielding were undamaged and maybe tough to break...that left Direption weakened port flanks. "And what do we do, sir?" "The enemy had been ignoring us. Maybe they can't see us. But more probably they were concentrating on the corvettes. Now that the corvettes are gone all below...Shit! Engage maximum warp!" "But we're in a fluctuating gravfield, Admiral," screamed the engineering officer. "I don't care. The fluctuating gravfield might kill us. The heavy turbolasers will kill us! I gave you an order!" "Yes, sir!" The ship hit maximum warp, warped...and the gravfield changed slightly. The warp drive tore itself apart and flung the ship several light years away. At least the warp core containment didn't break. "Jettison the warp core!" yelled O' Farrell. "Yes, sir!" ISD-II Direption It didn't take long for Commander Darron to realize that his prized ship was in deep shit! Several barrages of quantum torpedoes had smashed at the shields. His shields had started at a full strength of approximately 1.6E20 joules. NIne hundred torpedoes were fired at his ship weakened port shields, and again the CIWS defences of all three ships preformed superbly. But a gun doing CIWS work was a gun not shooting at the ship. One third of the torpedoes were killed, a good record by any reasonable measure, but that still left 600 torpedoes. This close in, electronic countermeasures were worthless - the torpedoes were fired blindfire. Forty had a poor aiming solution and missed. Five hundred and sixty others hit the hull. The ray shields took the brunt of the ray energy. The particle shields weren't so lucky. They took the energy and failed almost instantly, with over 1.8E20J of particle energy impacting the shield with a remaining capacity of approximately (1 1/15) E20J of energy. More than (7/15)E20J of energy made it through (nothing better than a fraction for these numbers). Roughly equivalent to eleven point six two gigatons worth of energy, they punched through the armor and made major hull breaches in the hull. Hundreds of crewmen died as the ship lost atmosphere. 4.66E20J of ray energy were stopped, equivalent to 116.12 gigatons of TNT energy. There was leakage, but it wasn't nothing compared to the other damage. Commander Darron ordered, "Have the breaches sealed off! Continue the engagement! Recycle the shields!" "Sir! We cannot recycle the shields! The generator's damage is too great and we cannot recharge." It didn't take long. Without the shields, torpedoes hit the Direption, and they slowly ate away at the great ship. Finally, they destroyed the SIF and the ship blew up. ASD Loyalty "Sir, we have them." "Commence firing!" It didn't take long. With the destruction of Direption, the other two Star Destroyers had few qualms left. They opened fire with heavy and light turbolasers. In a few minutes, the remnants of the Federation Task Force laid in ruins. "All enemy ships destroyed sir," reported a XO. "Good, advance on the enemy's main base and destroy it...