In the Heat of Battle

Posted on Sun Jul 28th, 2013 @ 2:14pm by Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Morgan Kelly & Lieutenant JG Allison Price & Commander Brian Ratchford & Lieutenant Commander Sean O'Connell & Lieutenant Commander Le Austin & Lieutenant Commander Miranda Keller MD, MBBS & Major Alexandria Somers & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D.

Mission: Reindeer Games
Location: Orbit - Garus IV
Timeline: Following "Target Acquired"

[ON]

---USS Carthage---

"Shields up! All hands, begin simulated battle drills." Liarra turned in her chair to see O'Connell and Griffiths enter the bridge.

Sean moved to the tactical station getting ready for the engagement. He had chosen the tactical station mostly because he felt ill at ease in the XO seat. in his opinion he was a security officer not a command officer.

"They found us. They must have seen through our ruse. Ready phasers. They're going to be quick. Lt. Le, give me all available power to engines. Let's try to distract them and make a run for it. Mr. Exeter, evasive manoeuvres."

Sean was readying weapons and looked around and grinned.

"All power to engines, Captain, ready to run," Austin replied.

Not yet knowing what kind of attack pattern the Jackal was going to use, Exeter decided to stick with something simple to begin with, and executed an Alpha-2 manoeuvre, making the Carthage climb 'vertically' on the field of battle, trying to bring them out of harms way as quickly as possible, and away from the gravitational pull of the planetoids.

A message came up from Sickbay. "Attention all participants in this exercise." Melissa noted. "As of this moment, Sickbay is now neutral ground. That means that we get the 'wounded' from both ships. For those of you who are sent here. We have some cookies as your reward. Play nice boys and girls." She grinned.

Naomi looked at the Captain and rolled her eyes in amusement.

Austin chuckled in spite of himself. Despite the serious nature of the _reason_ they were doing these exercises, war games were always enjoyable to the Bajoran.

"Captain, I want to fire spread of photon flares across their bows which will act as a distraction. They think we will attack them and they will go into standard tactical defense posture. Mister Exeter I want you to hit warp after my shot. Lieutenant Le can you get me full warp power after I fired?" Sean looked around the bridge then at the captain.

Liarra nodded. "That sounds like a plan. Let's make it work."

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead." Griffiths said quoting Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth. She received a strange look from those in earshot, including the Captain.

"I hope it doesn't come to that, Captain. I don't intend to have any dead, not on my watch."

---USS Jackal---

"OK, let's see what the Jackal can do," Brian said, leaning forward in his command chair as he did so. "Helm, engines full ahead. Attack pattern Omega-3. Tactical; strafing runs on the target; aim to take out their engines, and stop them from warping away."

"Aye, Captain." Kelly checks his station. Now that the ruse was over, they knew that the so-called Bajoran freighter was the Carthage. The sensors were still fooled, at least for the moment. "Ensign Price, adjust sensors to cut through their disguise. If I'm going to hit them, I'm going to need an accurate target."

The young engineer didn't look up from her station. "Aye, Lieutenant. I'm already on it. You should have accurate sensor information in three...two...one..."

Kelly's display changed from the Bajoran freighter to that of the far more familiar Excelsior class. "Thank you, Miss Price. Captain, we have targets. Ready to fire on your command."

"Fire at will, Lieutenant," Brian commanded, watching on the viewscreen as the perspective of the Carthage shifted with the smaller vessel's maneuvers.

Morgan's display changed as his targeting computer prepared his shots. With the ship starting to veer back and forth, it was tougher to get a bearing on the Carthage. But at the same time, it was harder to get a lock on them. The nimble Defiant class darted like a swallow, quickly closing the distance between the larger ship. The Jackal's simulated phasers shot out across the blackness of space as torpedoes exploded around her.

Miranda sat at the back of the bridge, holding on as the ship jumped this way and that. If it wasn't for the inertial dampeners, she was sure they'd be on the ceiling by now

---USS Carthage---

The ship's comm system toned to simulate phaser hits on the Carthage. The simulated damage was not great enough to disable the engines, but it was clear that Ratchford was not about to just let them run away. Liarra watched as the viewscreen showed the Jackal's attack run, and how she seemed to be dodging most of the explosions. "I forgot how maneuverable she was. We'll have to go with a less subtle approach. Prepare to target them directly with simulated phasers. They have us beat when it comes to movement, so let's hit them with overwhelming weapons fire. Commander O'Connell, Lieutenant Exeter, Attack pattern Omega 4."

"Aye-aye, Cap'n" Sean quickly powered up all the phaser arrays and waited for Exeter to start his run.

As Exeter executed the manoeuvre he was ready to fire all available weapons aiming mostly for the jackal's propulsion systems. The small ship had speed and manoeuvrability over the carthage so his aim was to disable that advantage.

oO Okay this is unexpected Oo Naomi thought grabbing onto something to stop herself from falling.

---USS Jackal---

Morgan tracked the movements of the Carthage. "Captain, she's coming around, bringing her weapons to bear. It looks they're ready for a fight."

"We've got their attention," Brian said, grinning with satisfaction. "Arm forward quantum torpedo tubes-"

The comm panel beeped from Lieutenant Kelly's console, interrupting the order. "Captain, we've just received a Priority One message from Starfleet!"

Brian frowned at that. They weren't supposed to have any contact from Starfleet until the exercise was over, but... a priority one message was not something you could just ignore. Whatever the message contained, it was highly important. "Put it through, Lieutenant. On-Screen."

Miranda looked over Brian's shoulder as the message came through. She knew whenever a priority message came through, the medical staff would be very busy

---USS Carthage---

"Cap;n, the jackall is hailing us. She requesting we lower shield and open a channell. I suggest we humour them,ma'am"Sean was ready to drop shield in a flash.

Liarra smiled and shook her head. "I'm sure they'd like that. It might give them a chance to get the upper hand. Target their engines and prepare to jump to warp."

Jackall is powering down and continuing to hail us,cap'n."

Von studies the image on the viewscreen carefully. "Let's see what their up to then, but keep our shields and weapons ready."

"Shields and weapons are still up I am keeping weapons lock on her for now." Sean raised an eyebrow as he looked at the viewscreen.:Opening a channel now,ma'am"

The viewscreen changes from the battle zone to a view of the Jackal's bridge. Lieutenant Commander Ratchford rises to speak.

"Commander Von," the man said, as he approached the viewscreen. "I have just received a Priority One message from Starfleet. There has been an emergency; we are to report back to Starbase 332 immediately. The exercises are over."

"So starfleet command saved you bacon, eh, commander." Sean sported a small grin.

Liarra turned back to O'Connell and shook her head. "Priority One messages are not to be joked about, Commander. Set a course for Starbase 332, maximum warp."

-----------------------------
Commander Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
USS Carthage

Lt. Commander Sean O'Connell
Executive Officer
USS Carthage

Lieutenant Le Austin
Chief Engineer
USS Carthage

Lt. Commander Melissa Daniels
Chief Medical Officer
USS Carthage

Captain Naomi Griffiths
Tactical Adviser
USS Carthage

Lt. Commander Brian Ratchford
Commanding Officer
USS Jackal

Lieutenant Morgan Kelly [P: Von]
Executive Officer
USS Jackal

Lieutenant Miranda Keller
Chief Medical Officer
USS Jackal

Ensign Erica De'Havean [P: Akiashiro]
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Jackal