In an office chair on M'Raa...

[KAT MRess]

EDITED FOR CONTENT...

[KAT MRess]

Hee hee, you still remember that.

I could always repost the entire story to remind everyone else...

[Soreyes]

Hee hee, you still remember that.

I could always repost the entire story to remind everyone else...

     please do

[KAT MRess]

Decisions, decisions...

To flash back the story here...

Or to start a new thread altogether.

[KAT MRess]

Hmm, I know what I can do...




“What do you mean Unidentified?” M’Ress demanded. “Does it not have a subspace transponder?”

In Wartime it was common for ships to not immediately broadcast their ID’s, especially on covert missions. But this was peacetime. Everyone should be readily identifiable.

“No Sire.” Came the response, “There is no recognizable transmission from the vessel.”

“On screen” The display came to life with a display 2 dimensional display of all the ships in the area. The cluster in the bottom right was the convoy and their escort, while a single blip appeared in the top left. It was definitely on an intercept course.

Damn strange. As he pondered the possibilities, he realized everyone else was paying attention to the situation. Tr’rin was now standing behind his chair, holding the back, gazing at the viewscreen as she was truly seeing it in use for the first time. He had to give his crew credit, as distracting as her presence was, they were able to set it aside and give their full attention to a possible threat while still carrying out their responsibilities.

On the screen, the smaller lone blip moved slowly closer to his position.

“Can you get a visual?”

The tactical officer acknowledged the request and moved his hands across the console. The unknown was still at long range, with residual interference from the Nebula he may not be able to. M’ress waited patiently.

“Visual coming in sire.”

The top right of the screen opened up a new view. It was grainy and the ship itself was small, but the dual hull was unmistakable.

Lyran.

[KAT MRess]

M’Ress swore to himself. Behind him, Tr’rin’s ears twitched and her eyes widened at the ferocity of the oath.

The detail was difficult to make out, even the size was tough to gauge due to the fact there was nothing to compare to. They couldn’t even discern markings at this distance.

“Can you get a fix on the size of that vessel.” He asked the Tactical officer.

“Working…” came the reply. M’Ress had to give then some time to work as all the sensors were still battling the residual interference from the Nebula. After several seconds the reply came… “Mass indicates the vessel is a Light Cruiser, however I’m having trouble locking in the exact class.”

That was to be expected as the image was poor at best.

But the main question was why were they flying with no beacon? And why were Lyrans in this area close to the Kzin border?

“Sire, incoming transmission from the Convoy. They are requesting your intentions toward the intruder.” So they noticed it as well.

Regardless of intent, he had to protect the convoy.

“Helm move to intercept.”

[KAT MRess]

“Take a direct course and get us away from the Nebula so we can get a clearer picture.”

Tr’rin quietly cursed herself for the bad timing. She had come to the bridge simply because she was bored, only to find herself in the middle of a developing situation. The ship that had appeared did not look friendly and she recognized the race. Lyrans. The age old traditional enemies of the Kzin.

Although back in the office there were pictures of M’Ress with certain Lyrans (he had defended their Homeworld in a previous War against a mutual enemy), they had never come to amicable terms. Indeed relations were still strained at best.

This was all confirmed by the oath that she heard come out of M’Ress’s mouth. She’d had heard bad language before, but never quite that venomous. She quickly debated leaving the bridge to let everyone do their jobs but found herself rooted to the spot out of some kind of morbid fascination.

“And Helm, make sure you keep a distance between us and them.” M”Ress was saying, “I don’t want that damned Generator touching us.”

“Aye aye Sire.”

[KAT MRess]

I'm gone for a week... enjoy.





The distance between the two ships closed slowly. Whoever it was, they were in no hurry.

“Comm, try to hail them. Use Standard code and the Secure ones we know of. ”

There were several beeps followed by silence. Then the process was repeated.

“No response sire.” Damn!

“I don’t like this at all,” M’Ress said under his breath, only loud enough for those closest to hear.

“Yellow alert.” was the immediate response from his Exec, who was one who did hear. Normally he would cut the Exec off for “Jumping the Gun”, but this situation did warrant that reaction.

The activity on the bridge increased causing Tr’rin’s claws to clamp into the back of M’Ress’s command chair. More screens flashed on, coloured lights flashed and troops appeared around the bridge. She tried to make sure she was out of the way.

Combat?! Her timing really was bad.

[KAT MRess]

“Comm, issue a warning not to approach. Any closer to us or the convoy and they will be fired upon.”

The communication officer relayed the command, but was met with silence.

“Repeat the warning.”

Again no response. The Cruiser still continued it’s course closer.

“If that’s the way you want it, then no more Mr Nice Kzin,” M’Ress said to no one in particular “Tactical, Red Alert! And warm up the Scatter packs!”

This time the reaction was more explosive. Yellow alert merely changed lights, added some troops and some screens, but Red Alert was far more drastic. First off a loud klaxon sounded seemingly right in Tr’rin’s ears, causing Tr’rin to start more than a little. Her claws dug into the chair even more, her ears flattened right back and her tail started to twitch so bad she couldn’t control it. At the same time more screens lit up, activity exploded as everyone seemed to start talking at once and consoles started to make even more noise and flash even more. All of this emphasized by the lights dimming down.

The sharp tug on the back of his chair reminded M’Ress that she was still there. He turned to tell her to go back to her cabin, but at that moment all hell broke loose.

[KAT MRess]

Hey, I got to typing and I was on a roll ... so here is a bonus for you.




Several events happened in rapid succession so fast Tr’rin could barely comprehend what occurred.

The ship on the screen flashed briefly, seemingly in an explosion of energy. Almost at the same time it leapt forward so fast it seemed to be in two places at once. One was where it was supposed to be and the other impossibly close.

So close it could touch them with all that crackling energy.

In the few brief moments between the energy pulse and the sudden movement, M’Ress was barking commands, something to do with launching and firing. Then her entire world seemed to lurch from under her and she unwillingly let go the chair.

*****

The instant M’Ress saw the flash out of the corner of his eye, he knew what was happening.

“Launch scatterpack! Fire all drones!” was all he could get out before the ESG hit.

The ship surged violently to the side as the Lyrans sphere collided with his shields. He was thrown out of his chair by the motion. The Lyran captain must have set the Sphere to close range, anticipating being able to execute this manoeuvre judging by how much damage was inflicted. Proximity alerts and shield alarms were immediately sounded.

“Shields down!” came the confirmation from the Tac officer.

“Where are my drones?!” M’Ress demanded as he made his way back across the deck to his chair.

“6 drones away sire!”

Kshat, 6 won’t be enough!

“Target that generator with phasers and fire the moment the shield drops!” he bellowed above the noise at the weapons officer then turned to the tactical, “Status on the Scatterpack and where’s my last drone?!”

[KAT MRess]

“Scatterpack away! Drone number 7 launching now!”

Number 7? By the maker he would have someone’s hide for this.

Another surge sent him reeling again, this time in the other direction, as streaks of light from the Lyran ship cut into them. M’Ress was flung face first against his chair, but he was able to get a grip on it and hold on. Something collided with the back of his knees almost sending him down again. Even more alarms were sounding.

A bright light from the screen indicated that the first of the drones were making contact with the other ship. In rapid succession there were 6 explosions, however the shimmer of the others ships shield was still there.

M’ress couldn’t wait for the shield to drop, he needed to get through that shield. “Fire all phasers.” he ordered above the cacophony on the bridge.

Immediately streaks of light came from the Katnip. Most were dissipated on the shimmer but the last few made in and hit various points on the hull of the other ship. An explosion larger than the rest registered. A last trail of ions made it’s way quickly in and scored an ineffective hit on the hull as the area was already dark from phaser fire.

[KAT MRess]

Another pulse from the Lyran ship and the Katnip surged again. Consoles and panels exploded around him on the bridge.

A couple more flashes from the Katnips remaining phasers and another explosion erupted from the other hull. The pulse died away.

“Warp power down!” “Main computer offline!” “Outer hull breach!” came the rapid reports.

Just then another flash of light filled the screen.

“Scatterpack away!” was the response from the Tac officer.

Finally, something in his favour. With 6 secondary drones bearing in on the side with no shield at this range, it was unlikely that the other captain could counter it.

M’ress was having trouble standing as something was wrong with his legs. Experience told him to ignore it for now so he focused on the screen.

“Helm, full impulse! Get some distance!”

Time seemed to slow as the wave of drones bore down. The distance between the two ships increased with agonizing slowness.

The drones passed the energy perimeter and crept on.

They made contact with the hull

They exploded in succession, all in the same location. Each one ripping further into the hull.

[KAT MRess]

The resulting explosion caught the Katnip full on, but at least it was on the opposite shield, which was at full strength. The Helmsman not only maximized the distance but managed to turn the ship to take the brunt of the impact on a fresh shield.

Once again the Katnip surged. Normally the inertial dampeners would have compensated and made a smooth ride, but with main systems offline, it was chaos. It was all M’Ress could do to hold on to his chair. As a result he was the only one standing when it all settled.

He looked at the screen, which amazingly was still active, where there was only debris left.

“Secure from Red Alert.” he said through clenched teeth and keeping his eye on the screen just in case something else appeared. Also because he didn’t want to look down at his legs, “Damage assessment and repair crews.”

There was a pause before the Tac officer answered.

“Aye aye sire”

He looked over and saw that his Exec was down near the Tac officer. As he quickly looked around the rest of the bridge, he saw that several others were down as well. He reached over and touched the console on the arm of his chair.

“Medical teams to the bridge.”

As he scanned the bridge he could see that consoles were in ruins and panels were non-existent. Small fires were being extinguished by some of the bridge crew while others helped the wounded. With the entire crew accounted for and active on duties, he finally ventured a look down at his legs.

A still form, bleeding and unconscious was lying between his legs, limbs tangling his own.

It was Tr’rin.

[KAT MRess]

What was he thinking!

Bringing a civilian on a warship when peace was still not established. He would have to explain this to her family if something seriously happened to her. He carefully removed his legs from her entanglement and bent over her. He cradled her head in one hand while he checked on her. She was still breathing, thank the maker for that, but she was bleeding from a gash on her head.

He sat knelt down on the deck beside her and straightened her out gently. From the movement of her limbs nothing appeared to be broken and there were no other sign of trauma.

Just then the medical teams arrived on the bridge. He was about to hail one over but bit off the request. He must follow protocol. She was not military and therefore the crew had to take precedent.

Fortunately the Med crew was very efficient. It only took a minute for them to quickly triage the ones who were down. Upon a command from the lead medic the bridge marines were engaged to take the more serious ones to the medbay, the exec included. It was then that he saw M’ress kneeling over the figure, gently holding her head.

“Who’s this?” Medic asked.

“My personal assistant.” A quick glance from the medic showed his disapproval, but that was all.

“Let’s take a look.” A triage scanner was passed over her.

“Hmmmm. Only a light contusion to the head here, she’s lucky. She’ll have a headache for a while but that’s it.” He cleaned up the gash on the side of her head and then administered an analgesic. “She’ll sleep for a while.”

The medic motioned for a marine, but M’Ress interrupted.

“Belay that. I’ll take care of her.” He glared back at the medic quietly answering his disapproval, “She’s entirely my responsibility.”

The medic seemed satisfied with that. After all he didn’t really have the bedspace to care for civilians.

[Soreyes]

More More

[odb]

In the hands of the light, how much does it cost to say on riza?
                                                                Hemah

[KAT MRess]

M’Ress crouched down and picked her up. She was much smaller than a marine or any male for that matter and so he hefted her easily. He carried her to the turbo lift and then down the hallway to her quarters.

Just outside her doorway, however, he was stopped by repair crews. The lead engineer saw his approach and snapped to attention with the hand coming up in a raking salute.

“I’m sorry sire,” he began to report “but the passageway ahead is impassable. There is a hull breach in that cabin.” And he motioned to Tr’rins cabin.

“Thank you, Sergeant.” M’ress looked back down the passage. There was only one choice now. He headed back to his own cabin.

He had some difficulty opening the door as voice systems were down and he needed a free hand to open the lock on the door. But he managed it by hiking her higher up his shoulder. Once inside he eased her onto the bed, arranging her so she was comfortable. The medic said she would sleep for a while so he now could attend to what he needed to.

He was angry. He pulled out the bottle of bourbon he kept, for medicinal purposes, and swallowed a belt. Not too much, he needed to stay sober, but the burn helped him focus. That battle should not have happened. So many things went wrong. Nothing against protocols, but wrong nonetheless. If only…

The thought struck him hard. If he had given her the command to return to her cabin, she would have been dead. Even worse, she would have been pulled into space and he would have had nothing to return to her family. That took a lot of the sting out of the situation. Still, her she was, injured. But she might not have been if everything had executed properly, which brought him back to the events of the battle.

He stalked out the door. He was still angry. But now he had a target to vent on. One that would rightly deserve the wrath he was about to vent.

[KAT MRess]

The turbo lift hummed as it moved to it’s destination. It took a longer than usual, but considering the damage the ship had just absorbed it was not at all surprising. It also gave him a little more time to review the battle in his mind. One detail kept standing out.

Drone #7.

Why didn’t it launch with the others?

IF the drone had launched properly, he wouldn’t have wasted phasers on the shield. Those phasers would have been used properly to target phaser and ESG emitters. If the shields had dropped before he fired phasers, the proper threats would have been neutralized and the second ESG wouldn’t have caused so much damage. As is was, #7 was completely ineffective as it neither tore down a shield or inflicted significant damage. It was only the proper timing of the Scatterpack that saved them. That and the fact the Lyran captain had incorrectly ignored the shuttle. Two pieces of luck that could not be relied on.

The turbo slowed. By now he was seething again, but he had to maintain some semblance of control. He clenched his hand into a fist in an effort to focus his control.

The door hissed open and he stepped out into the hall. Turning along the length of the passage he headed to the drone racks.

The door to the drone bays was damaged in an open position and he could see in before he arrived. Several crews were attending the various levels of damage. The Port side had sustained more damage as they had turned the take the explosion on the fresh shield.

#7 was a centrally located rack and therefore had little damage. But as he approached a figure he did not recognize immediately, detached, dropping a tool in the process, and moved toward him.

“I’m glad you’re…”, it never finished as a clenched fist flashed out.

The fist caught the figure in the jaw and spun him around to face the opposite direction. The figure then slid to the floor unconscious.

[KAT MRess]

M’ress glared at all the activity around him. Completely ignoring the prone figure on the floor he surveyed the damage. Eventually his eye fixed on rack  #7 where a familiar older Kzin was supervising the inspection of the launcher.

“Report!” he bellowed. One head from each rack turned, however, only the one he was looking at responded. Immediately the sergeant moved over and snapped a salute.

“Rack #7 reports minor damage, but still…” M’Ress cut him off.

“Cut the offal, what happened? Why did your rack not fire with the rest?”

He had to give this Sergeant credit, the return stare was level and even. It was still a nervous stare (his pelt rippled) but it was steady.

“The targeting mechanism needed resetting before launch, Sire”

“Targeting mech? That is the responsibility of the Targeting officer, unless I am mistaken.” The sergeant nodded, he knew better than to contradict his Captain, let alone the Patriarch. He was also becoming aware that his commanding officer already suspected the cause of the misfire and was merely verifying.

M’Ress drew in a sharp breath. “That targeting officer wouldn’t happen to be new and recently of my acquaintance would he?”

The sergeants eyes flicked down toward the inert form on the deck. “Yes Sire, a very brief acquaintance.” At least he wasn’t contradicting or disagreeing.

“Very well, carry on.” The sergeant turned and continued the minor repairs.

M’Ress gave one last visual inspection before he turned. In order for the targeting mechanism needing to be reset, standing procedures on not locking targets until the order to fire was given, had to be disregarded.  He moved rapidly toward the door and in the process, kicked the prone figure on the floor.

“Would someone clean up this mess?” he gestured at the floor and then left.

[KAT MRess]

Is it just me or has this become one of the most popular threads on this board?

It appears to be about number 15 on the all time list (by number of reads), behind only technical threads (reporting and updates).

I'm flattered everyone. Thanks.



Stay tuned, I figured a way to have a "flashback" as requested.

[Soreyes]

Well at least it's not as bad as my disrupter crew on my DF. They couldn't hit a planet with overloads at a range of 2

I guess thats why they are the Fleet Poker Champs.

[KAT MRess]

Ro’gr opened his eyes, that was his first mistake. The pain that throbbed through his head immediately made him close them again. What was worse, was the pain seemed cycle from the back of his head to his jaw and back again, making brief stops in the backs of his eyes.

A vague memory of something colliding with his jaw explained that pain. The explosions from the battle explained the eyes aching, he’d never seen such bright ones like that before. But the back of his head? That puzzled him.

Slowly he opened his eyes again. As the light around coalesced into shapes he recognized the ceiling of the drone launching bay. Immediately it became apparent that he was lying on the floor. He tried to sit up and failed. But the motion caught the attention of someone. A face appeared above him.

“That’ll teach ya not to speak unless spoken to.”

The face matched that of the older sergeant who was in charge of the crew manning the launcher. Ro’gr recalled having an argument with him before the battle about his targeting procedure.

The ‘tosh just wouldn’t listen to reason. How could it be more efficient to target by not locking until the fire command? No matter what reason he used, the sergeant just would not accept any change in procedure. He even tried to pull rank over the sergeant. Technically, he was the superior officer. But even that was resisted by quoting some other regulation. He finally gave up arguing and vowed to take it up with their superior.

He rubbed his jaw and glared at the sergeant, who stared evenly back.

“You are to report to the Med bay immediately and then to the bridge in one hour.” The sergeant said.

[KAT MRess]

Out of the Drone bay, M’Ress toured around the rest of the ship personally receiving the damage reports. Normally he would have received them on the bridge through his XO, but he needed to walk off his rage.

He was angry. Angry at himself for his shortsightedness in the battle, why hadn’t he seen the battle before it happened like he usually did? Anger at the weapons officer, for changing procedure without proper authorization. Anger at the Lyran, for the unwarranted attack.

The damage was centered on the port side as he knew, but good fortune had paid a visit by not affecting the structural integrity of the main body, however, the pylon of the port nacelle had taken the brunt of the ESG. The rest of the systems were also a mess, with just about everything else affected. The port nacelle was functional and still supplying power, but without the structural stability from the pylon, warp speed was out of the question. They would be limited to impulse for a while, until they could stabilize the nacelle and then balance the warp field.

The number of casualties was also alarmingly high. Because of the large area affected, several bulkheads had ruptured. While losses were to be expected, it always affected him to read that list. Especially, when names he readily recognized appeared. A few of them had served under him for a while and would be hard to replace. While this initially served to fuel the anger, it melted into introspection and he was able to regain his poise.

Next on his list was the meeting with the Weapons officer responsible for the misfire.

[FPF-Paladin]

(Sorry to interrupt, just wanted to say this is currently as close to a sci-fi novel I'm interesting in reading, would love to see more    )

[KAT MRess]

M’ress was not happy as he waited for the Weapons Officer to arrive in his ready room. Already he was two minutes late.

After he had summoned his Exec and appraised him of the meeting, he had sent off a couple of preliminary reports. The Exec saw to executing the necessary orders to allocate the resources to the correct areas of the ship. All of this occupied their time until the meeting was supposed to take place. The last thing he did was to pull up the report from the Academy on this officer.

Both of them sat and stewed until the anticipated doorchime signalled the arrival. The Officer did not wait for the guard to show him in and immediately walked in.

“Sire, I wish to…” was all he got out before the Exec sprang out of his chair, hitting him squarely in the midsection with a textbook tackle takedown. The struggle was very brief, the officer seemed to have very little, if any, alertness about him. The Exec was able to not only catch him by surprise, but also was able to flip him over and apply a hold. With the Exec virtually sitting on his chest with an elaborate chokehold cutting off his air, Rog’r could do nothing.

M’Ress watched the action with an interested eye. He had cold cocked the young officer in the Weapons bay, but it was obvious he had been caught off guard. Now, even with the threat of an audience with a senior officer, he STILL was not on guard and offered almost no resistance. He also really needed to work on the respect thing of not speaking out of turn. He let the struggle continue until he could see the young officers eyes start to bulge.

“Enough. Let him up.”

The Exec, released the hold and the younger officer slumped to the floor. As the young officer gasped for air, he grabbed his scalp and tilted the head up to face him.

“Do NOT speak until you are addressed.” He said evenly.

[KAT MRess]

Rog’r rubbed his aching throat. The last thing he expected when entering a meeting was to be attacked. He had heard that discipline on military ships was strict, but he had always dismissed the stories as exaggerations of the imaginative minds of old soldiers. The thought was beginning to take hold that they may not have been exaggerating.

The one who attacked him backed off to stand at the end of the desk. Rog’r slowly stood up and moved opposite the other Officer behind the desk. That Officer, the one who had entered the weapons bay, was looking at him with an expression he had never seen before. It seemed to be anger and curiosity mixed together.

He opened his mouth to speak but immediately thought better of it. With a sideways glance at the Exec he moved toward the available chair and swivelled it to sit.

“You were not given permission to sit.” came the cold, hard voice of the standing officer. “Didn’t they teach you at the academy, STAND at attention until told otherwise?”

Rog’r took his hand off the chair and remained standing. By now the seated Officer was leaning forward with folded hands under his chin, that lone eye still staring at him.

*****

M’Ress stared hard at this young officer. Was he really THAT ignorant?

First he ignores established weapons protocol. Then he speaks when his input is not requested. And now he presumes to sit when other more senior officers are standing?

Did he even realize this a discipline hearing and not a meeting? He finally broke his gaze and read the last part of the entry on the young officers file. Two words stuck out.

IGNORANTLY ARROGANT.

[KAT MRess]

Arrogant.

No wonder his younger sister had been so angry with him. But aside from any personal grudges he may have felt, the more immediate problem was the actions of this young officer during the recent battle. It was downright insubordinate to disregard protocol. Even worse to complicate it with his outbursts.

His eye narrowed as the officer squirmed.

“Do you know why you are here?” he asked in a flat voice.

“To file my report on the disobedience of my crew.”

It was all M’ress could do to keep a straight face. Anger, disbelief and even some confusion suddenly welled up inside him. He paused for a few seconds to make sure he had control before he cut a glance over to the Exec.

The Exec was downright ready to kill. M’ress could see the restraint he was exerting. The flexing of the muscles, the faint ripple of his pelt all displayed the rage that was surging. It must have taken more effort than he was exerting to keep control.

“And who told you that?”

The officer was still rubbing the circulation back into his throat. He voice was a little stronger when he replied.

“No-one. I just assumed that was why I was called after the Drone Rack misfired.”

[KAT MRess]

If M’ress thought it couldn’t have gotten worse, he was just proven wrong.

He had seen the performance and trajectory of the drone. He had also seen the condition of the rack for himself. He also had the first hand report of the trusted crew chief. There was no possibility that the rack misfired. This officer was either completely ignorant or trying to cover up his own blunder by blaming the crew. What was indisputable was the fact the targeting mech needing resetting, the weapons log confirmed that.

Problem was, which was it? Ignorance or clever politicing.

Since he had been able to surprise this officer twice in just over an hour, he decided it was ignorance. His sisters opinion seemed to also confirm it. He unfolded his hands and sat back.

“You are not here to file a report. You are here to answer charges of insubordination. This is a disciplinary hearing.”

Rog’r opened his mouth to protest but was cut off by a very menacing growl from the Exec. One thing he was learning is if those around here didn’t approve of something you did, they were VERY capable of making you pay for it.

M’Ress was actually a little surprised at the restraint finally shown by this junior officer. He waited for further reaction, but did not get it.

[KAT MRess]

The rest of the hearing went as could be expected. Rog’r was completely devastated. No