The Fifth Epidose - War Games

Participants:

Capt. Carla Laville

Lt. Commander Cale Solo

Lt. Commander Maxine Forrest

Lt. Carla Shackleton

Admiral Valeria Strzelecki

Admiral Valeria Strzelecki (via ship to ship radio): hails the ISS Defiant from my office at Terran Battle Fleet Headquarters "Defiant, this is Fleet Command. I am interrupting your routine with a surprise engagement. The ISS Cuyahoga is en route to you now for war games. Fleet Command out." /me disconnects and then changes the view on my monitor to a live stream courtesy of the Cuyahoga's onboard cameras.

Maxine Forrest: sits idly at her ops station filing my nails; the Defiant is currently in orbit around Cestus 3 and Starbase K-69; when my console suddenly lights up with a priority message from Fleet Command; I pull up the message then react "Captain, priority one signal from Admiral Strzelecki at Fleet HQ."

Carla Laville: lounges in my command chair then sits up earing the Lt. "On screen, Lt. Commander Forrest"

Carla Shackleton: /works quietly in the background checking readouts on my tactical panel as the bridge suddenly goes from sleepy to busy.

Maxine Forrest: works my controls shifting the main viewer to the Admiral and her message about war games

Naughty Laville: gets up from the bridge station she'd borrowed and starts toward the turbolift "I'm already on my way Boss sickbay will be ready in a few minutes"

Carla Laville: nods to our doctor as she heads out then turns back to the front and stands up hands on my hips "Knowing the Admiral the Cuyahoga most likely won't be running with reduced weapons. Expect the unexpec...."

((the Captain is cut off as suddenly the entire ship rocks and pitches under a heavy disruptor barrage))

Carla Laville: "Shields up red alert all hands battle stations!" moves to my chair and flops down gripping the arm rests firmly continuing to bark orders "Tactical, get a weapons lock on that ship now! Helm, evasive pattern Laville 3."

Maxine Forrest: works my console entering the requested evasive pattern as ordered "Aye, Captain initiating the "old bob & weave" maneuver!"

Carla Shackleton: quickly scans the surrounding space for signs of the 'enemy' ship and finds none "The Cuyahoga must be cloaked, Captain sensors aren't picking up much of anything."

Cale Solo: stomps over to the science station and starts a more specialized scan of the space surrounding the Defiant; the sensors suddenly chime as a localized anomaly is detected "Cap! Anomaly 78 degrees starboard range 3500 kilometers!"

((The Defiant rocks from another heavy barrage of weapons fire the lights flickering overhead))

Carla Laville: leaps to my feat waving an arm and pointing forward "Tactical target that anomaly. Full spread of photon torpedoes on my mark!"

Carla Shackleton: re-targets the anomaly after a brief hunt on her own sensors arming a full spread of torpedoes and bring the phasers online too just in case "Weapons armed and ready Captain"

Carla Laville: "Fire!"

Carla Shackleton: finger stabs down hard on the touch console as twin beams of bright red phaser fire leap out towards the anomaly then slapping the torpedo launch button smiling thinly as a spread of 8 torpedoes thrum loudly as they exit the ship "Phasers firing! Torpedoes away!"

((The phasers strike first and on the view screen the flash of deflector shields can be seen briefly as the Cuyahoga is temporarily visible; then the spread of torpedoes strike midship and the Cuyahoga can be seen listing in space, the old Soyuz class cutter with shields down and starting to drift))

Carla Laville: "Good shooting weapons to standby but stay ready" I say as I move back to my command chair

Cale Solo: runs another sensor sweep focused on the now visible starship "Cuyahoga is venting drive plasma, Captain. We hit them hard. Sensors are showing they're 30 seconds from a catastrophic warp core breach!"

Carla Laville: eyes widen and I leap to my feet "Ops, hail the Cuyahoga. Stand ready to beam their crew over here!" turns and stabs a button my my command chair "Transporter room lock on to the crew of the Cuyahoga and start beaming them aboard double time!" doesn't wait for the transporter chief to say anything and switches the channel to sickbay "Doc, we may have wounded ready triage."

Naughty Laville (via ship's intercom): "Aye Captain we'll be ready. Have the chief beam any critical directly here"

Maxine Forrest: looks worried working my console furiously "Captain, the Cuyahoga is \*not\* responding on any channel!"

Carla Shackleton: looks up from her tactical board semi confused "Captain, I'm suddenly showing no life signs aboard the ship. They just... disappeared."

Cale Solo: turns to face the Captain nodding in agreement "She's right, Cap there is no one aboard that ship.."

((Cale is cut off as the main viewer suddenly flares brightly and the Cuyahoga explodes on screen in a fantastic flash; the screen fades then returns to open space and a view of Cestus 3 and Starbase K-69 in the distance))

Carla Shackleton: "Cuyahoga destroyed, Captain" I say grimly

Maxine Forrest: ops console suddenly lights up with an incoming hail Captain, Fleet HQ hailing audio only"

Carla Laville: slumps back in my chair a bit before answering "Put them on, Lt. Commander."

Valeria Strzelecki (via ship to ship radio): "Captain Laville, my compliments to your crew. HQ sensors are showing the Cuyahoga was a total loss. However, you should have tried the new quantum torpedoes. Those have only had one live fire test so far under the command of Captain Shaw."

Carla Laville: starts to protest arms going wide "But Admiral, we just wasted a perfectly good starship with a crew of 180 aboard! For no good reason!"

Cale Solo: "Captain, remember the crew disappeared before the ship was destroyed"

Valeria Strzelecki (via ship to ship radio): "That's exactly what I wanted you to think. These are war games and simulations only prepare you so much, Captain. The crew of the Cuyahoga is safe aboard their ship. Currently on the opposite side of Cestus 3 from the Defiant." a brief pause.. "Defiant Ops, adjust main viewer to the coordinated coming to you now"

Maxine Forrest: adjusts the screen and suddenly a view of the Soyuz class Cuyahoga fills the screen hanging in space as if nothing had happened and whispers "I don't understand, Captain but there she is"

Valeria Strzelecki (via ship to ship radio): "Welcome to the 25th century, Defiant. You were just attacked by our newest stealth drone." pauses and makes some adjustments to my own Starbase desk console piping a live stream over to the Defiant "As you'll see, you destroyed nothing. The new training drone is covered in holographic projectors and is also sensor resistant. Almost like late 20th century stealth technology. Only better.

((The Defiant's main viewer shifts view to a long and dark colored compact ship with two very powerful looking over sized nacelles slung low beneath the main hull, looking like a ridiculously overpowered Soyuz class ship))

Valeria Strzelecki (via ship to ship radio): "Defiant, return to Starbase and await further orders. Again, excellent work and my compliments to your crew. The first round of drinks at the Starbase lounge are on me. Strzelecki out."

Carla Laville: sighs and leans back in my chair as the Admiral signs off; grabbing my cup of now cold coffee before opening a shipwide intercom channel "Helm, standard orbit around K-69 please. All hands, this is the Captain. Stand down red alert. Stand down from red alert. There will be a quick debrief in the main briefing room and then a few hours leave over on Starbase. Admiral Strzelecki passes on her compliments for your actions during today's drill. Nice job everyone  Laville out."

Maxine Forrest: relaxes a bit and enters the commands as the ship responds slipping into a standard orbit around the planet and Starbase "Standard orbit, Captain."

Cale Solo: "Damage control reports minimal damage to the aft deflectors and a ruptured EPS conduit on deck 7 near the computer core. Engineering is on it and repair ETA is less than 30 minutes. All systems show green across the board"

Carla Shackleton: re-checks her console then announces "Weapons systems secure, Captain and in stand by mode"

Naughty Laville (via ship's intercom): "Sickbay to Captain Laville, we're back in stand by mode here Boss."

Carla Laville: stands up as ship's activity returns to normal quiet "You heard the Admiral. First round is on her. Don't drink cheap" I smirk as I head for the turbolift and exit the bridge...