Time to do some Shooting (USS Yorktown)
Posted on Sun Jul 20th, 2014 @ 6:56pm by Vice Admiral James K`Temoc Bremer & Captain Torilla Yamaguchi & Lieutenant Commander Holly Gillo & Lieutenant Nuala Takabe & Ensign Natia Nechayev & Master Chief Petty Officer Mark Branson & Chief Warrant Officer Xelonul Blackthorne
2,033 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Mission 86 - Discovery
Location: USS Yorktown
Timeline: MD2, 1140 hours, following 'Fire All Weapons'
Torilla rose from Tactical Two as she relieved Chief Branson before resuming her seat at Conn, she then checked their destination along with the best route to get there. "Range Three Beta, we're on our way... one quarter impulse." she commented
"Time 'till arrival, two minutes, eight seconds." Yamaguchi added a moment later, she felt she could fly quite well but she wasn't a career pilot but she was finding that she was enjoying this assignment.
K’Temoc looked over the info the Range’s Operations had sent over. “Okay, listen up. This will by far be the most challenging test. We’ll enter the range at one-quarter impulse. There will be three vessels we’re to engage. One is a simple target drone designed to simulate a small maneuverable vessel like a Defiant or B’rel type Bird of Prey. The second is an Excelsior class, formerly the USS Odin, and the third is a New Orleans class, formerly the USS Jazz. We don’t know how they will be positioned, their speed, or if they will be coming in one at a time or in formation. We are limited to short range and tactical sensors only for this exercise. Once we enter the range, it’ll be up to use to choose an attack pattern, targets, and eliminate all three as quickly as possible.”
He paused a moment, then continued, “Yamaguchi, be ready to increase speed and initiate attack maneuvers. Nechayev, have the weapons ready. I want to use the ship’s weapons targeting, let’s see if the issues are resolved. Gillo, Takabe keep an eye on the ship’s systems, power flows and regulation, and any anomalies that could indicate problems with tactical systems, the computer core, and any other system. Questions?”
Torilla turned her head. "Do you want me to do something fancy or by the book sir?" she inquired, under normal circumstances it would have been something of a stupid question but she didn't know how Captain K'Temoc thought or how he wanted things done.
"Let's go by the book, we'll keep the fancy on hold for now." K'Temoc replied with a smirk.
"Aye Captain." Yamaguchi answered as she checked her range to destination. "Destination in one minute."
'By the book? riiiight, Nothing has been by the book so far.' Natia thought to herself as she knew that if everything went by the book nothing could actually get done, she also knew finicky phasers have no book to go by. "Yes sir, by the book." Natia said as she rolled her eyes more out of amusement if things went wrong again. "Phasers powers, launchers ready, no power fluctuations yet." she reported keeping an eye the phaser and launchers as well as kept an eye on the targeting sensors.
Nuala, who was not used to working on the bridge, felt a little overwhelmed by all the tactics talk. "Power systems operating and regulating normally sir." She wasn't entirely sure about the tactical systems. Takabe's experience was with sensors not weapons or shields.
Yamaguchi checked the display before her. "Ten seconds to arrival at the range." she reported evenly as she turned to Nechayev. "Go ahead and take all the sensors asides from short range and tactical offline... per the test requirements."
Holly worked her panel for a few moments before reporting out. "Ship is meeting test requirements. Sensors are limited to short range and tactical only." Looking at her board she read the power display. "And, the ship is responding normally power wise sir from what I can tell." Naturally slower than normal for her as she as fighting from a night of being up but her marine training was helping her press her systems farther for longer.
“Very good.” K’Temoc replied as he sat up a little higher in his chair. A moment later the Yorktown slowed to a stop at the entrance of last test range. He looked over the ship’s status on his left panel, then focused back on the Bridge.
“Commander, take us in, half impulse. Nechayev, ready weapons and begin short range scans of the area for our targets and any obstacles that might be around. Takabe, keep an eye on the computer core and relays, make sure everything is processing normally and at designed speeds for the Positronic Core...also keep an eye out for any anomalies that might be related to the possible self-awareness we saw earlier. Gillo, keep an eye on power flow to the weapons, we don’t need a repeat of the power loss issues we had earlier either...and also keep an eye out for any power spikes to the computer core, that could explain some of the weird ‘behavior’ we saw before too.” K’Temoc ordered of the Bridge crew.
Yamaguchi nodded as she tapped the display before her a few times. "Half Impulse." she commented, waiting for Nechayev to tell her where the first target was, the Yorktown was unusual in that she was very front heavy in her weapons deployment, a feature of the Defiant class, so Yamaguchi needed to keep the Yorktown face on to her enemy.
Meanwhile in Engineering. Lieutenant Lasky was taking a moment to drink a cup of coffee, his people were deployed and were looking after things which permitted him to have a moment to himself. "Okay girl... show me what you're made of."
Holly didn't bat an eyelash at the Captain's command and responded almost immediately after he spoke it, "Aye, sir." Her eyes were on the panel the panel as she studied it with the same precision that she had been taught to do when she was just starting out on things. This was going to be a test as to just how far the ship was going to press being 'unusual' with them.
Nuala sat for a moment thinking. Then she started at her station. On her display screen she had the energy signatures for Defiant class computer cores. In particular, she was looking at when the ship fired its weapons. "Alright, let's see what happens." she told herself.
As the Yorktown moved cautiously forward, K’Temoc calmly looked over at his Tactical Officer. “Ensign, anything on sensors?”
"COULD YOU SPEAK UP SIR?" Natia screamed as her ear drums seem to be filling with air. "SIR!, I think the environmental controls are whacky, my hearing isnt working well, feels like when you go up to an elevation quickly and your ears are gonna pop!" Natia said as she yelled at but to her she was speaking normally.
Yamaguchi blinked as she felt hear ears pop with the change in air pressure. "What the?" she commented as she winced in pain, she tapped her combadge. "Bridge to Engineering?"
"Fives... you okay Commander?"
"I've felt better..." she muttered. "We're having issues with the environmental systems up here, could you have a look?"
"On it." he commented. "Need two minutes."
Yamaguchi's response was simple but effective. "I feel like I'm ten miles above sea level..." she was whispering but to herself she sounded like she was shouting, Torilla then cleared her ears as she heard a loud popping sound.
She instantly felt a wave of pain as she moaned softly. "Dammit.." she muttered. "Fives... I don't mean to be a pain....?"
"Working on it Commander.... and.... there.." he commented as her ears returned to normal as she sighed. "Bloody hell, that hurt." she muttered. "Thanks Fives... bridge out." she tapped her combadge twice. "Sickbay, this is the Bridge, Siaxx.... could you come up here please... bring your medkit.."
"On my way Commander." Dvald responded.
K’Temoc shook his head, he had a little ringing in his ears, but it wasn’t serious. He looked at his XO for a moment, who’d taken charge of the situation quickly. He thought about ordering the ship to stop, but if this was combat, there wouldn’t be time to stop.
“Commander, continue on course. Gillo, see if you can track down the source of air pressure issue with the environmental systems. Ensign, can you continue at your position?”
"Wasn't expecting that." Nuala said quietly to herself. She quickly scanned her display screen. "And there it is." she told herself aloud.
"Captain, almost the same time we had the air pressure problem there was a spike in computer activity." Takabe informed K'Temoc.
"What kind of spike...across all systems or isolated to the environmental systems?" K'Temoc asked.
"The spike was located entirely within the computer core, Sir." Nuala responded. She began running her fingers across the display. "Looks like the computer ran a lot of analytic programs." Takabe stopped to study her display. "Umm . . . not sure exactly what programs the computer ran. I can recognize a few because I used to run the same ones during my time at the science station." Nuala looked up from her display. "The same type before we would run an experiment Captain."
K’Temoc narrowed his eyes, he didn’t like the answer, even though it was the correct one, it mean the computer was doing something on its own. “Thank you, keep an eye on it please.”
Meanwhile the turbolift doors opened and out stepped Lieutenant Dvald, medkit in hand, she looked around as she walked onto the bridge. "Captain?" she inquired. "Who needs me?"
K’Temoc pointed at his Tactical Officer and XO, “They reported the most discomfort.” He waited a moment as the Doctor began to scan them with a medical tricorder. “Do either of you need to be relieved?”
Dvald nodded. "I'll have them ship shape quickly." she turned and went over to the Commander first.
Yamaguchi shook her head. "No sir... I'll be alright." she said quietly. "Siaxx"
"Sir... let me have a quick look at you." the Bolian responded with a smile, as she proceeded with her check then she gave Torilla a mild painkiller. "You should be fine in a few minutes." she then turned and went to the other woman. "Ensign... how are you feeling?" she smiled.
"WHAT?!" Natia said as she smiled. "Yeah im fine, glad you got it fixed, I am ready to shoot something, sir." Natia said trying to ignore the doctor who was waving the medical scanner around her.
Lieutenant Dvald raised an eyebrow. "I was going to pronounce you fit for duty." she commented before turning to Captain K'Temoc. "Sir, permission to depart the bridge?"
“Granted.” K’Temoc replied, “thank you.”
Siaxx smiled warmly at the human before she departed the bridge.
He waited for the Doctor to leave, then refocused on the task at hand. “Ensign, locate those ships, let’s do a little shooting!”
"Yes sir." she said as she scanned the immediate area. "Located the targets in grid 406." Natia said as she decided to use a grid to target things instead of relying on sensors all the time.
"Commander, take us in, full impulse, attack pattern beta-three. Ensign, target the closest ship, fire phasers when ready" K'Temoc ordered.
"Yes sir, Firing phasers for full obliteration intended." Natia said as she smiled as she embellished the order and fired all phasers as they flew close, but the limited phaser arcs made it impossible for all phasers to hit the same target at once.
Yamaguchi nodded her head. "Aye Captain." she commented as she kept the ship on the courses requested for the weapons tests, she was distracted and she knew it, she also knew that everyone else knew it too.
“Ensign, target the lead…” but before K’Temoc could finish this sentence, one of the ships ‘fired’ back at the Yorktown.
“Simulated phaser hit on the forward shields, no damage. Shields holding at ninety-four percent.” Gardner reported from his position.
“We’ll, it appears these will be shooting back!” K’Temoc commented with a smirk on his face, “Ensign, shift targeting to the last ship in the line, disable their engines with extreme prejudice!”
"See now your speaking properly, sir." Natia said as she redirected phaser fire towards the last ship and hit the button to fire phasers, 'torpedos we need torpedos' she thought to herself as she was enjoying sending her frustrations in a wrathful manner.
tbc...