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Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #50 –
[Wolf 11]

Thomas was still eying the Harbinger hen he noticed something orange doom up in the corner of his eye. The next minute he could hear the multiple comm chatter of numerous fellow pilots shouting for evasive manoeuvres. He just managed to look back to Miles and his squadron as the Douglas his shuttle got blown to bits, sending parts of the ship into the dead cold grasp of space. "Fucking hell!" He shouted as he saw numerous bursts of projectiles flung towards his group as well "Taking evasive manoeuvres!" He warned as he throttled up and felt the G-force kick to his stomach.

He was happy he had done some fiddling with the ship in the past few days. The tiny improvements seemed to pay off as his fighter evaded shot after shot. He rapidly typed in a command on his leg console, allowing him to activate his TVD. He looked around him now while continuing to spiral his ship in seemingly random movements to evade fire. Some of the orange bursts seemed too close for comfort and alarm signals made it perfectly clear to Thomas that his bird was getting scorched.

He received the messages that Miles had sent out to reconfigure their shield harmonics. In a matter of seconds his shields got recycled and Thomas was getting pissed off by the continuous barrage. "That's it, screw this party!" He muttered and he jerked the joystick. His Valkyrie took an impressive turn and now flew directly towards the orange bursts, head on. "Just like training..." He whispered to himself to calm his nerves while he swooped from the left to the right jerking up and down to evade fire. Opening comms to all the Wolves he stated "This is Wolf One-One, flying head on hostile fire will attempt to make visual contact when..." He had to break contact as the ships had noticed him too. He swooped his ship around and made a run back, hoping someone would form up behind him to cover his six. "Multiple bandits on my tail! Looks like I'm bait!" He answered and looked behind him, trying to get a visual lock for his squadmembers to hunt them down.

[Amelia Duv|Harbinger bridge]

As the first explosion hit the bridge, Amelia had a hard time to stay on her feet. She tapped her combadge and warned the med bay that possible injuries would be heading their way momentarily. She also asked for the triage teams to head out as soon as possible and to keep her posted in case they needed help from engineering to clear debris or security to help with them. She than walked over to the man who used to sit at tactical and took out her stuff to check his vitals, she asked how he was feeling and assured him that everything would be alright.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #51 –
[Nathaniel "Maverick" Isley - Valkyrie]

Nathan had been awestruck by the appearance of the new fighters, a model he had never seen before.  The mark III Valkyrie was meant to be the cutting edge in flight technology, and yet this new model, these Reavers, were superior in almost every way conceivable.  His targeting computer couldn't even get a lock on the things, making attacking almost impossible.  "Computer, display crosshair on screen," Nathan said, leaving a odd noise from the computer and the request to, "specify."  It didn't understand what he said.  "Display a targeting reticule on my screen that will aim my weapons."

This time, there was understanding, and a small cross shaped reticule appeared.  If he couldn't target, he was going to have to fire manually upon the ships, and the crosshair would help him know when he lined up his shots.  From there, he began the fancy movements that saw him dodging weapon fire.  Dog fights weren't often seen, but when they did occur, they were spectacular.  During the outbreak incident, he had only flown a shuttle, nowhere near the level of precision and speed that a Valkyrie was capable of.  This was when he felt most comfortable, in the seat of his personal Valkyrie, the one which shared his call sign of Maverick.

The enemy ships performed all their attacks with a ruthless efficiency, but there was something lacking in their movements.  They were rigid rather then fluid, almost mechanical in nature.  That's when Isley realized what they were fighting.  He opened a Comm channel to his fellow Wolves, and said it out right.  "These ships are automated!  They don't have organic pilots!"  That was their one advantage.  Technologically, they were bested, but they had adaptability and quick thinking.  If they could recognize the attack patterns being carried out, they could put their training to good use.  They had been learning to counter Federation attack patterns, so that they might be ready to engage fellow Starfleet officers in combat.  Machines couldn't be creative, but they could be.


[Edena Rez - Theurgy Bridge]

Edena, taking charge of managing the Lone Wolves from the bridge, coordinated them with the Theurgy herself.  She had chosen to wear an earpiece which gave her the ability to hear the pilot chatter without broadcasting it over the ship's systems.  Theurgy had her own tactical maneuvers to deal with, and didn't need to be mixed up with the fighters, only worked to create some form of synergy between fighters and ship.  "Wolves, you need to keep moving.  The enemy ship is in range and could target a phaser lock on you."  There was a difference between getting hit by a fighter ship's weapons and a full-blown starship.  They couldn't risk allowing the new ship to acquire them as targets.  Moveent speed was their advantage at impulse, so they had best use it to keep themselves alive.

"Captain," Edena said, stepping towards the viewscreen where the new ship was staring right at them.  "That isn't a Theurgy-class.  It's slight, but there are differences.  It's smaller then us, it's overall shape a bit sharper.  That isn't the kind of thing done in a retrofit."  Edena knew what she was suggesting, that this was a new model of ship, something that would be considered insane.  They would have heard about it, especially with how long a time it took to develop a new starship class.  The Theurgy-class was still too young to be replaced when other classes of ship still needed improved models to be designed.  "Can we get a closeup on the hull?  Look for a registry number on the ship, something that might tell us about it."



[Declan Vasser - Harbinger Bridge]

"Tactical, initiate Vasser 03 and keep it facing forward!"  Declan issued orders for tactical to initiate a tactic he had become well known for.  Harbinger would focus her shields towards a single location, the one facing an enemy ship, in order to bolster shield strength.  The tactical officer had to stay on top of it, keeping the shields always between their hull and the enemy, while the helm kept presenting only the side they wanted to show.  Again, they kept themselves small, showing only the nose as they readied to return fire, presenting a small target that tactical would fortify much more easily.  "Target the nearest vector of that ship, and communicate to the Theurgy that will take responsibility for that part.  The other two will be up to her."  Theurgy still had her own MVAM to make use of, and could makes a three-on-two assault of the remaining two vectors while Harbinger dealt with the third.

The first row of phaser fire displayed a new feature on that ship which Vasser had never even heard of before.  Their phaser fire struck, only for the shields to ripple and distort, spreading the beam wider across the shield and reducing the overall effectiveness.  With a look of uncertainty, he felt the need to ask, "how much damage did we do to their shields?"  He knew it had to be some, but not as much as he would have hoped for.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #52 –
[Miles Valk: 01: Iron Fox]
Miles cursed to himself as he felt a few more blasts of energy hit his fighter.  Thankfully his shields had been reconfigured and were taking the brunt of the punishment. "computer stitch to manual fire mode and give me a Heads up Targeting display for my line of sight compensating for Inertial drift. "he keyed the cm system for a second and spoke up. Kestral Get on my wing and stay with me.  Arm your Tetrion cannon and target anything my weapons register a hit on.  I'm switching my pulsers to chatter cannon mode.  As he said this he entered a command into his Kneepadd.  Within seconds his pulse phasers were set to fire one at a time and fire the minimal amount of energy as possible.  In simulations this setting had resulted in a increase in the rate of fire to approximately 50 rounds per second comparable to the Pre-Eugenics wars Gatling gun type armaments used on most USAF fighter planes of that time.  More appropriately for him it was the a similar rate of fire that he was familiar with on the small arms of the old Vulpinian birds he used to fly.  He just hoped this configuration worked as well as it had in the simulations he had ran to test it out.  Now was the time to try it for real for the first time.

Within seconds he had spotted one and throttled up to engage it firing the pulse phasers in a spread around his targeting reticule weaving his aim in the few seconds of fire at least a few shots would hit it.  All he needed was one to cycle over those shields and Skye would have a clear shot as reliable as a sensor lock on the fighter.

Wolf-06 Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley [NPC]

She heard the request from her SCO to join up with 9 and 10 but as she went to intercept them she heard 11's com traffic.  she cursed to herself as she diverted course from her orders.  "Fuck it." she said throtteling up towards 11 as she opened a com channel with him "Razor I see them behind you!  Intercepting the sonsabitches now!"  she said as she closed in getting within firing range.  "Get the hell out of my way before I vape you too! On three pitch up and preform a Cochrine Deceleration.   With any luck my Hellbores will take all of your tails out.   One...Two... THREE!"  she said as she fired two of the 4 hardpoint mounted weapons setting them to detonate where the enemy ships should be at if they continued on strait.  With any luck Razor would be just out of the explosion range when they detonated.

[S'Iti Aisha: Harbinger Bridge: CONN desk (now Tactical and CONN]
Not much captain. about half what we should'a done with out weapons.  It don't help that i'm having to fire blind.  Wait, looks like the readings are coming back from that probe I took the liberty to launch. Looks like Vector Three is bearing down on us.  I don't have a true lock but i can compensate for the half second delay pretty well.  Concentrating fire now." She said pressing a button sending their phasers arching to hit the enemy ship repeatedly hammering their shields each blast seming to whittle them down.  "Shields are starting to fluxuate. Firing a photon spread captain!"  she said as she fired the spread of torps as they began to hammer the enemy's shields one of them piercing through and impacting the hull as the one after it seemed to hit shields again.  "One got through but it didn't do as much as I had hoped. Still we can sort of see them now recommend we feed the data to our birds and stream our probe's data to the Theurgy and her birds too."

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #53 –

[Diadeniera - Harbinger Bridge]

In stoic observation the Ktarian half-breed could almost feel the tension in the con with the notorious USS Theurgy.  This infamous ship that they had been ordered to hunt down now seated squarely in their sights that had they been the good little Starfleet officers blindly following orders would not be having this conversation.  How ironic that nothing in life was ever as straight forward as the authorities would have you believe.  She did not care for the Captain's decision to have a small party of their Senior Officers board blindly onto another ship even if they were in theory on the same side.  They were in a sense providing potential hostages where if the Captain of the Theurgy was as ruthless and sinister as they had been briefed to believe.  These thoughts gnawed at her gut and screamed objections but from a logical standpoint she understood that to gain the trust of a cornered animal sometimes you had to show a little throat. 

The familiar hiss of the decompression from the lift caught her attention as the stiff-jointed woman turned to see a familiar blonde stepping out onto the bridge.  She caught the glance at T'Rena but the Chief of Security was already on the move stepping into the path of the bartender's abrupt demands and extending one hand to press against his chest halt his forward movement.

Her face was not a stranger to him; she often would come by the bar when he would share his Earth heritage through song.  Just the night before she had sat at the bar smiling brightly at the way his fingers strummed the strings of the old guitar but all the sweet looks she may have afforded him before were absent in the cold-eyed stare she gave him now.  When he did not heed the gentle warning she released the hand against his chest allowing him one step forward before her arm would move to grab him by the wrist and pull his arm behind his back in an arm-lock as her other hand would grab his shoulder to spin him back to the lift.  "Come, friend, let us discuss your demands somewhere more enjoyable."

OOC: Sorry for the delay folks, work project is coming to an end so hopefully no more long delays :)

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #54 –
[ Wolf 09 "Nightmare" | Hromi Cluster ]

As fanned out as they were, most of the initial barrage slipped through the Lone Wolves and the Harbinger's fighters like sand through spread fingers. Yet Hannah "Nightmare" Slaverton saw Hardtop disintegrate, while her own Valkyrie got caught no less than three consecutive times. She heard Fox screaming something over the din inside her cockpit, barely overriding the mutliple warnings going off, yet Hannah eventually managed to compensate for the impacts - her gloved hands cramping around the gears to restore control and get out of the enemy's sights.

Her fighter screaming in high-velocity escape, Nightmare shook her head free from the lingering synthehol intoxication - meanwhile avoiding the deadly cascades dealt between metallic beasts in the spatial vacuum. Razor was being pursued, yet thanks to Ghost, he got assisted even if their flight wing had become scattered. She could not get a target lock! Her sensors screamed in alarm at the unleashed torpedoes all around. The noises and the flashing lights were like awls into her ears and eyes, yet still she bared her teeth in determination - regrouping by Maverick's side. Her wingman had escaped any greater harm and she had to follow. Now was the time of reckoning... and to let one's fear say its laments. 

For as their base ship's plaque said; courage was fear when it had said its prayers.

[These ships are automated!] shouted her wingman, [They don't have organic pilots!]

Barely did she have time to acknowledge this with two quick taps on their element intercom before Mission Ops broke in, [Wolves, you need to keep moving.  The enemy ship is in range and could target a phaser lock on you.]

"Acknowledged," said Hannah with gaze fixed upon the fiery lights ahead; a ferocious scowl clearing her wits while she also enabled her own cross-hairs. Her shields got their new harmonics algorithm, and she took a deep breath. Then began the dance with the Reavers - as the name was the only thing distinguishable on their sinister hulls. She flew in sync with Nathaniel, interlacing sinuous curves screeching towards their common targets. Seconds felt like instants, and then another torpedo cannonade met them like a slap in the face - dealt with an iron gauntlet.

Nightmare yanked her gears to dive in the last moment, ejecting counter-measures - thus escaping the blunt force of concentrated micro-torpedo fire. Wolf-12 was also executing an evasive pattern. Ghost was firing Hellbores in a tactic to get Thomas Ravon out of his dire straits. She did not see the outcome, since Hannah opened fire and managed to target a photon torpedo heading Ravon's way with her phasers - causing a detonation that almost sent her off course and right into one of the Reavers. She screamed ferociously over the ear-splitting noise as she wrestled her gears back into a steep climb lest he would have joined Hardtop in the dead-waters.

With her wolves, she set her phasers ablaze with orange light. Not taking her thumbs away from her phaser cannons, she barrel-rolled in order to target two Reavers heading away from them  - only to have to cease fire in order to let Fox and Kestrel pass, followed by two fighters from the Harbinger. There were moving starfighters everywhere in the perimeter that the enemy had exacted with its ordnance. Fox wings seemed blackened with phaser fire, much like her own. Rawley was drawling terse murder over the comm in her faded Scottish accent. Hannah resumed fire while sparks suddenly shoot out of her flickering HUD, drawing a hit from the Reavers' base ship high above. "They pinned down my harmonics, I lost my shields again!"

No time to investigate further, for everyone was smiting the enemies' shields with manual phaser fire, but Hannah saw that gradually... their calibrations were nullified. More of the wolves get  hits that slipped clean through. "Rotate harmonics again! Rotate!" The collective assault pounded as an arrhythmical bass drum. Meanwhile, Hannah was tearing at the shields of one Reaver that tried to roll away. She predicted the course, armed and discharged one Mk XXVII photon torpedo at far too close a range - breaking away to leave the trajectory in time. No manual trace, skilled yet pore guesswork. Instants felt like aeons, and she almost lost, until the detonation split the Reaver's shields like wet paper - immobilising it.

"I repeat," she said and yanked her vulnerable and scourged bird away from another barrage from her port side, "they can access our systems somehow! Its as if we are hacked!"


[ Yridian Shuttle | Hromi Cluster ]
Things had become far too hostile for Rihen's taste. She had hoped to plead her case and get help in restoring her industrial replicator to its designed capacity. Yet now, she found herself in an insane situation where Starfleet attacked Starfleet and she piloted an anonymous little shuttle in a hornet's nest of high-powered energy weapons and torpedoes lighting up the Hromi Cluster with chaos and destruction. The smaller ships were flying so fast she could not keep track on which was which, only that none of them seemed to have any greater interest in her shuttle. At least for the time being.

As she sat there, heart pounding and heterochromatic eyes wide, her eyes fell upon something in the debris directly ahead.

"What is that...?" She leaned forward, frowning... until she realised what she was looking at. Quickly, her gloved hands moved over her controls, trying to hail the closest of the starships - the one which had chosen to answer her hail. While she waited to get patched through, she opened her air-lock and power up her tractor beam. "Hello? Can anyone hear me?" she called, eyes wide and her easy-going attitude having receded a bit, "I don't know who he belongs to, but I am pulling aboard a pilot I found. Don't worry, I won't run off with him, but his suit looks burned and torn, so he needs a doctor, okay? Permission to dock so that your doctors can take a look at him, please? I will do what I can, but I am no physician and I am not in the most comfortable of spots out here. Can you spare a moment to tractor me into your shuttle bay?"

The green beam lit across Khorin Douglas' body where it drifted in space. It was not her ulterior motive to come aboard the starship, since she'd rather plead her case with those whom had conned her. For just as she was a humanitarian at heart - having wished to rebuild Paradise City as best as the situation there allowed - she had a good-natured disposition and did not care to see someone die unless she could help it. If saving a life also meant that Starfleet would help save her city, she would not save him any less just because people might think the act devious of her.


[ USS Theurgy | Main Bridge | Deck 01 ]

While T'Less was sending written attack pattern commands to the other two Vectors, and Natalie was struggling to restore their collective shields, Jien Ives had gritted his teeth and come to stand next to Edena - watching and listening as events unfolded. The damage reports voiced from Nicole Howard was disconcerting, yet even more so that their rotating shield harmonics could be foreseen. The Harbinger had communicated a rudimentary plan of attack, one vector singled out, yet they both suffered damage when their defensive tactics could not escape the enemy fire. At least their class two probe sent the Theurgy chronoton-readings to pinpoint them against the overhanging star.

"Captain, that isn't a Theurgy-class. Edena, standing by his side, "It's slight, but there are differences. It's smaller then us, it's overall shape a bit sharper. That isn't the kind of thing done in a retrofit. Can we get a close-up on the hull?  Look for a registry number on the ship, something that might tell us about it."

Thea spoke up behind them, the ship's image enhancement software having worked this out from visual surveillance. "It is a Federation starship, Commander. It is named USS Calamity NX-79995, Calamity-class. The ship and its class not registered in my database, yet it seems to me evident that Lieutenant Sarresh is right. There has been a temporal incursion, because the Calamity-class and its new line of starships is only in the very earliest of theoretical planning stages. As far as my records show, it merely shows up in official protocols from Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards as sketches and in hypothetical specifications."

"So our enemy has sent a superior ship to best the Theurgy-class," said Jien, not liking this one bit, and if Declan Vasser was truthful, the enemy considered the Calamity to be of such a calibre that it could take on both an Akira-class starship along with the Theurgy, including all of their Valkyrie fighters out there. It was a chilling thought, and one that Jien chose not to share. "Yet that does not explain how it has hacked our shield harmonics. Thea, can you shut it out?"

"There is no link between the Calamity ship and I," she said frowning at the view screen from her position at the back, "There is no insertion underway in my systems as far as I am aware. No signal between us that holds an encrypted data package. The frequencies are my own, generated from my systems and yours to use however you see fit."

Natalie Stark relayed two things. "A hail from the shuttle, Captain. The Risian has salvaged an injured pilot from the debris. Identity confirmed. One of ours, sir.  She wants to be taken aboard, but we'll have to lower our shields for that..."

"They are certainly not helping us anyway," snarled Jien as their ship rocked from a torpedo detonation just off their hull, "Get her to the shuttle bay as quick as possible, but get those shields up by whatever means necessary, do you understand? Otherwise, we will have to retreat and make a run for it. The Federation cannot afford our demise. Commander Rez, stand ready to call back the Wolves. Concentrate fire on Vector One. Send everything we got at the times we can get guaranteed hits."


[ USS Harbinger | Main Bridge | Deck 01 ]

T'Rena stood by Captain Vasser's side, not a hair ruffled nor an eyebrow raised as the Harbinger suffered devastating phaser fire, be as it might that they answered in kind. The Vector they had singled out may have fluctuating shields from their concentrated bursts, yet they were still there - something which was far from what they could claim. Her stare upon their Spaniard Operations Officer's back was certainly cold enough to make her live up to her epithet 'the Winter Queen'.

"Mr Trujillo, if you cannot assist Chief S'Iti with recalibrating our shields successfully, then I will have you replaced with someone more fit for the task. Please confirm that you are capable."

"Yes, Yes, ma'am, I mean, I am trying!" he called, seated next to the Cardassian pilot who had to step in for their downed Tactical officer.

"'Trying' is not good enough, because we may soon die whilst you are 'trying' to do your duty. Either you will accomplish this, or you won't. How will it be, Mr Trujillo?"

"I will, as soon as possible!"

"As soon as you can make it possible, which might be too late." T'Rena raised her eyes to the view screen again, her syllables precise incisions in the thick air, "Your crewmen are dying for each second that goes by. Mistakes are not an option and delays are unacceptable. Make it happen, now."

"A hail..." came the answer from Mr Trujillo, "from the enemy base ship, hailing us, the Theurgy and all of the Valkyries! Should I patch it through?"

Glancing to the Captain, T'Rena now did raise an eyebrow, "If you can spare the moment, please proceed."

On the view screen, three people appeared, all wearing some kind of black Starfleet uniform-variations. At the forefront stood an older man with a balding head and dark, thick eyebrows. He smiled with his mouth, yet his eyes did not. "This is the Captain of the Federation starship USS Calamity," he said in a voice gritty with age, "your efforts are futile. In minutes, we will manage to target your life support systems or your Warp core. Your surrender is moot, yet you should resign to the end that is coming for you. The order of your deaths and the destruction of your ships was given with the highest priority. We will not negotiate. We will agree to no terms set forth. If you try to flee, we will never give up the chase."

Cold words dealt with that blood-curdling smile, so detached yet convincing in dispassionate determination. T'Rena, however, found it a comforting voice of reason. There was the sharp deliberation and intent she strived for.

"We have plenty more in stock in our armoury," said a younger Commander standing next to the Captain, seemingly the First Officer and with a winning smile on his face, "Even another squadron of Reavers, since you seem to have had luck with destroying a few of them. Our weaponry is vastly superior, your shields are ineffective against us, and you have nothing to set against us that will make any difference. Accept that this is simply not your day. Stand down now and the destruction of your ships will be swift."

The third one was a woman, and she just stood there, silent, looking straight at one of the image feeds on the Calamity's view screen. T'Rena did not know whom she might look at, but she did not introduce herself. Had she been on the Theurgy's Main Bridge, she would have seen Thea meet that gaze with profound recognition and understanding - for once at a loss for words.

OOC: Besides forthwith desperate fighting and reactions to the above - along with Rory having to deal with Dee outside the Harbinger Bridge - Brutus will post soon with something from Sarresh that will help immensely. After Brutus posts, its time to lay in the sixth gear and carpet-bomb the enemy with everything that can be mustered.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #55 –
[ USS Theurgy | Main Bridge | Deck 01 ]

Sarresh stared in dismay, watching on the screen as what he could only describe as a nightmare descended from the nebula clouds and into the rapidly expanding field of combat. he'd been knocked into the empty captains chair, half slumped on his side, head tilted, taking in the horrors on the view screen. He was seeing without really seeing, his mind lost in a heady rush of memories that he should, by no rights, have any more. But there they were, like a flood gate opening.

<<Calamity Class,>> he mumbles, barely audible in his native tongue. <<Crew compliment 150, Length: 400 meters, Height: 60 meters Width: 150 meters,  commission date,>> his voice trailed off, his mouth moving in complete silence now, his eyes flicking back and forth rapidly, a bit of drool clinging to the side of his lips. His neck gave a little twitch every few seconds, and his hands gripped the chair with white knuckles.

Natalie, meanwhile, was sweating bullets. Any happy thoughts had gone out the window when the mystery ship opened up fire on the Theurgy, blowing away a fighter and basically ignoring the shields, such as they were. The ship rocked, and it was all Natalie could do to stay in her seat. Taking a few precious seconds, she pulled her hands away from the console activate the built in restraints in her chair. Belts slapped down, tugging her back against the seat proper, with a soft grunt. It would keep her in place, but Starfleet hadn't designed the restraint deployment system with comfort in mind, not at all.

Pulling her attention back to her controls, the chief of operations patched herself into the Tactical console, bringing up sensors and shield harmonics. She sent both on a random rotation, noting with dismay that as fast as Thea processed the commands to shift the shield harmonics, the enemy ship seemed to adapt. This was as bad as a Borg attack, she thought to herself, feeling the same, sickeningly cold fear grasp her chest. The sensors were even more useless, never once fixing in on the enemy long enough to get a useful reading at all.

The Ash'reem temporal officer continued his silent, in coherent babble, his fingers twitching across one of the access panels on armrest next to him, seemingly at random.

Annoyingly distracting was a hail from the private shuttle that had blundered into the whole mess. Less annoying, however, was the message. Not bothering to turn in her seat, Natalie once more called out to her CO: "A hail from the shuttle, Captain. The Risian has salvaged an injured pilot from the debris. Identity confirmed. One of ours, sir.  She wants to be taken aboard, but we'll have to lower our shields for that..."

"They are certainly not helping us anyway," snarled Jien as their ship rocked from a torpedo detonation just off their hull, "Get her to the shuttle bay as quick as possible, but get those shields up by whatever means necessary, do you understand? Otherwise, we will have to retreat and make a run for it. The Federation cannot afford our demise. Commander Rez, stand ready to call back the Wolves. Concentrate fire on Vector One. Send everything we got at the times we can get guaranteed hits."

"Aye aye, sir," Natalie said softly. Frowning, she patched herself into the Yridian shuttles comm channel. "Yridian shuttle, this is USS Theurgy. Come about bearing 227 mark 5," the Ops chief called out, sound far more calm then she had any right to feel, "Tractor beam will engage at 4 kilometers out. Kill all engines. " she sucked in a deep breath, then called out to Lt. T'Ress, "Dropping aft shields in 20 seconds."

<<shield rotation variance to .004558752>> Sarresh mumbled, his whole body giving a jerk, and sitting up straight in the chair now, his eyes still starring blankly from behind his goggles.

OOC: just a teaser to set up what's left. I can post the rest later.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #56 –
Wolf One-One Thomas Ravon


Razor heard Ghost's voice as she instructed him about the oncoming hellbores "Great to hear Hellbores heading towards me..." He murmured in his mic and waited a few seconds after she counted down. He performed his Cochrine Decelaration, his ship suddenly being jerked at the handbrake froze up on it's position, the reavers flying past him. A small smile formed on his lips as he saw the engines of the reavers, yet his smile faded as he saw the hellbores miss his hull by just an inch "Oh this is gonna hurt..." He whispered. A second later the hellbores detonated sending a vast shockwave towards his fighter. He spun into space now, alarm signals ringing and warnings flashing in his HUD. He let out a loud scream as he throttled up again and tried to regain control.

He wondered what Rawley would have seen and figured she'd only see the detonation, if she was lucky she'd see him spin out away from the explosion, yet the reavers would be gone. "Thanks for saving my ass Ghost!" He said with a grin, his nose bleeding from the shock. Yet his comms seemed to be damaged, unable to communicate with the other wolves. He tried to figure out where he was in relation to the other fighters and he bursted forward to get back into the fight,  enabling his crosshairs and arming everything he had to cause some damage.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #57 –
[Rory - Harbinger Bridge]

Rory was pissed and yet terrified as he saw the hail of orange and explosions on the screen before him.  The ship rocked with impacts and suddenly he knew he was going to die, out here all alone where no one cared one damn bit about him.  This was definitely not how he thought his life would be and it seemed too late to even lament.

"ACH!!  WATCH THE ARM ... FINGERS ..." he protested and found himself being spun around and out of the bridge.  He turned enough to see the beautiful chief of security, the one who'd given him such tantalizing looks the night before now so cold as she marched him away.  "The only place comftr'ble is me bed an' I think ye don' have th' time right now, Darlin'," he replied in a softer tone, part flirting and yet it was obvious he was on the verge of needing clean underwear.


[Eve - Main Sickbay]

The ship rocked and casualties were already spilling in quickly.  Even those barely trained with first aid were called in and sent around to the various triage sites.  There was hardly any time to think about what was going on outside of the main sickbay, let alone the fact that all their attempts could be futile and this was the end of all her running.

Lucan had not arrived and in between patients she would pause and tap her com badge.  "Lieutenant Commander Nicander you're needed in main sickbay ... "  After several attempts as she rapid fire evaluated and treated patients, relying on those beneath her to triage and direct her to the worst cases first, she paused again.  "Computer, please locate Lieutenant Commander Lucan Nicander."

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #58 –
[Skye/Kestrel - Dogfight]

"It's not about competition, Ghost," Skye retorted to Rawley though she figured the woman wouldn't believe her.  No, there was just something not honorable about Rihen that made her skin crawl.  "And Fox ... Perv?  No more than you," she snarked.  Then the gates of hell opened and she screamed "Fuck me runnin'! Delta Four!!" as her ship jerked starboard and dipped into a shallow dive to line up better with Fox.

Hearing the others screaming about sensors being nonfunctional, she bit of a few curses.  "Computer initiate Top Gun Snoopy."  On the screen, a targeting reticule popped up and it was time to rely on her reflexes and instinct.  On the suggestion that they keep moving, she continued to zig and zag, climb and dive.  Even with that she felt her bird shake as hellfire exploded all around.

Thankfully she and Miles had worked together in simulations and when she saw what he was up to she grinned.  "Alright partner, light 'em up for me," she said to him and when he set off a few rounds she got one in her crosshairs and fired.  "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!!" she screamed as one exploded and then she weaved a little and targeted another.  "BOOYA!!!" she exulted as another went up in flames as Fox finished that one.

An open hail began then, obviously the captain of the ship attacking them and the Harbinger.  The cold tone made her eyes blaze and her lips pursed as she evaded and clipped another Reaver.  They'd taken out Hardtop and were so callously going to take out both the Theurgy and the Harbinger.  "Like hell," she snarled.  When it fell silent, her voice growled over the airwaves.  "King Leonidas said it best ... This is where WE fight!  This is where THEY die!!!" she howled and blasted that Reaver to smithereens.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #59 –
Wolf-06 Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley [NPC]
Rawley watched as the missiles hit seeing the radius of the blast going much further than she had thought it would have.  She quickly veered off trailing behind her fellow pilot keying the com system to him, I got your back seems you took a little damage, Guess I'll owe you a drink when we get back. She said cheerfully before she noticed she was getting no response from his fighter at all as he regained control.  Damn looks like He's gone deafmute.  she said as she keyed up the com to Miles.  "Fox can you confirm Seems like One-one has gone com-dead."

[S'Iti Aisha: Harbinger Bridge: CONN desk (now Tactical and CONN]
She heard the voices and hung her head in a bit of shame, There wasn't a fear in her eyes but a feeling of being let down that she would hear such calm voices of reasoned violence from her enemy.  No apologies, No posturing just that cold deceleration of their deaths.  She had heard that calm once before and it was eerie hearing it from someone with a Federation uniform.  "My god, they talk like Borg."  she simply said as she Made every adjustment she could on her tactical and Conn screen to attempt to cause as much damage to the enemy vessel as the Akira class ship could.

[Miles Valk: 01: Iron Fox]
Miles smiled as he heard Skye's jubilation, "Thatta Girl!  Scratch One Bandit he said as he pegged onto the next and chatterd its shields before locking on via energy echo to it basting it via full force with a full charged quad burst of Pulse Phaser fire dumbfireing two of the micro photons to its trajectory and manuially detonating them as he saw them streak near its line Vaporizing the fighter.  Scratch Two Bandits." without a moments notice he noticed the com from Rawley.  Yea, Ghost I hear ya, I see Razor on sensors; shields are weak Hull has minor damage could be having equipment malfunctions  I don't read any com signals from him and my ship feed is dead on him. Get in front of him and get into close formation and try and establish visual signal communications with him.  Hold on I am getting an open hail from the enemy ship."

"This is the Captain of the Federation starship USS Calamity, your efforts are futile. In minutes, we will manage to target your life support systems or your Warp core. Your surrender is moot, yet you should resign to the end that is coming for you. The order of your deaths and the destruction of your ships was given with the highest priority. We will not negotiate. We will agree to no terms set forth. If you try to flee, we will never give up the chase."

Miles had but one response to the hail as he sent a reply to reply to the Calamity.  "Pardon my French, but, Merde"*

Saying that he switched back over to squadron frequency as he watched Skye expertly vape another fighter. He then noticed a strange object located in space. "Computer what is that object?" he said bringing up its location via the Knee PADD.

"Object is a class Two Probe Registration is to the USS Harbinger N. C. C..." Piped up the standard computer interface voice.

"Can it, What data is it collecting; why would the Harbinger have it out?"

"Second query unknown, It is sending Scans of Chronoton particles detected within its sensor range to the Harbinger on an unencrypted Federation frequency."

Those clever bastards,  "Display probe current data and update with each transmission, Add it to my sensor display."

He smiled as he saw his sensors come to life with new contacts They were delayed by about 1 second but it was better than anything they had before.  At least now he could see his enemy somewhat.  With that he transmitted the frequency numbers to both mission Ops and every fighter in his squad so they could all do the same as himself.  "Fox to Mission Ops, Harbinger has a Class 2 probe broadcasting on an unencrypted Federation band.  Sent you and my squad you the frequency data.  Tell me if you like what you see MisOps." 

OOC:
*When asked to surrender the Imperial Guard during the Battle of Waterloo, General Cambronne is recorded as replying: La Garde meurt, elle ne se rend pas - "The Guard dies, it does not surrender". Some sources also record his response as the single word Merde (literally, shit, but it can also be roughly translated as "Go to Hell".). Merde is still euphemistically referred to in French as le mot de Cambronne- Cambronne's word.

**Someone NPC Ghost in their next post please I just don't like talking to myself too much.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #60 –
[Diadeniera: USS Harbinger: Turbo Lift (between bridge and Deck 5)]

Once inside the turbolift she released Rory's arm and as the doors shut behind them she announced in a clear voice, "Deck 5".  There was a tension in the woman even as she took half a step back from the blonde-haired civilian.  She felt a little sorry for him; having foolishly come on what he thought would be a joy ride only to get swept away when things went sour.

"This is not a cruise ship and even on those you don't go barging into the bridge without permission.  You must ask permission to enter the bridge because everyone in that room has no time for you, no time to be distracted by the safety of someone who is not prepared to die for the protection of this vessel and her crew.  Not to mention," she paused her hand lifting to wiggle at the throbbing lights above their head, "Those things? They mean something is up.  Yellow for caution but this red?  This red means eminent danger.  When red is flashing you need to get yourself somewhere away from the outer hull oh say, like your lounge which comfortably sits in the center of Deck 5."

Her fingers reaching out to push into the front of Rory's chest to emphasize her point, "Also, there are no escape pods connected to the bridge of the ship.  The officers up there are prepared to die if need be so should the order come down that people like you need to abandon ship you definitely want to make sure you're located in a place to do so.  The lounge is perhaps one of the safest places a man like you could be.  Next time you want to demand to know what is going on use the com."

When her lecture was over she forced bright smile, her shoulders relaxing as she would stop pointing and instead rest her palm against his chest, "Now I know you're a brave man, brave enough in fact to be there in the lounge cause when all this is over a lot of people are going to be in need of a stiff drink and someone to smile for them."

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #61 –
Harbinger:
"All fighters, use visual targeting only," Phanatos shouted over the comm as he sent his small fighter into the melee.  The reticule popped up, and, while difficult, he managed a few shots against their opponents, each time just barely.  Not that he hadn't trained for this type of situation, of fighting nearly blind, but it was not something frequently done.  As it was, he lost three of his own, owing to the technological advantage of their enemy being able to see them, whilst they only saw their enemy at the last second.  Then he heard it, the cry from the Theurgy's fighters, and realized it wasn't just the being able to target that gave their enemy an advantage.  Scrambling, he did his best to rework his shields on the fly, while informing his pilots to do the same, yelling at them to pull back until they were finished and to keep out of range of the attacking ship's weapons.

Theurgy
T'Less struggled fiercely with the console in front of her, fingers flying as sweat began streaming down her forehead.  It had taken her a moment to realize their harmonics were being tracked and another half a minute to figure out she'd have to rewrite the subcommands on the fly, to make them her own form of random.  It was difficult, finding the strings of code, rewriting them, adding her own, deleting others, until she had a workable solution.  As she called out to Nicole for assistance in implementation, she could only try to calculate that she hadn't taken too long.  As she worked, it never occurred to her that she was completely blocking off all emotion, her face impassive, whatever fear she felt entirely buried.

It took Nicole another half minute to review the code, then open up access to the computer and implement.  As the new programming went into effect, she looked up at the ceiling and wondered if it would work.

While Nicole worked, T'Less heard Jien's order and began work on carrying it out.  There had been only a few times the Theurgy had used its MVAM mode, and it was a challenge to keep them all moving in conjunction, she'd found.  As she initiated the commands, the separations started smoothly enough, the tertiary hull parting easily from the secondary, but a warning light flashed on her console as the primary hull tried to disengage from the secondary.  As Vector 03 turned and started on its programmed attack run, T'Less looked at her console calmly and shut down second separation, shouting out, "Lieutenant Howard, your assistance is required."

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #62 –
[Bridge | Deck 01| USS Theurgy ]
He sat in the captains chair, hands twitching across the small control panel, starring off into the distance. Numbers, words, figures, diagrams, they all seemed to flood his vision, whiting out the rest of the room and leaving Sarresh Morali with a constant stream of color and data. Every sense was overloaded; he could taste mathematic equations (they tasted blue), smell time warp (rather like cabbage mixed with kittens), and hear the sweet music of shifting shield harmonics (or was it Klingon Opera?). All at once.

He shot upright, hand still gripping the panel, as he finished entering the equation his mind had been wrapping itself around. Stunned, he stared out at the view screen again, watching, and seeing now, the horror that was the holographic crew of the USS Calamity. Overloaded with information, Sarresh jammed his thumb down on the comm override, one of many useful buttons  that adorned the center seat. Anything said on the bridge now wouldn't transfer over to the enemy ship.

"It all makes sense. Perfect bloody sense," he said, rapidly, still sounding slightly unhinged, "They aren't hacking our systems, they know our systems, Inside and out. They have our schematics, they have every standard variance of our shields, of our phaser's, torpedo's, hell, everything. They know it all, its in their computer banks, and they're all computers! Its genius!"

"Don't sound so thrilled," Natalie muttered under her breath, not even sparing the crazy Ash'reem a second glance. She had to admit that what he was purposing was scarily feasible, once you accepted the reality that the ship attacking them was from the future. Which was pretty hard to argue at this point.

Sarresh, having not heard Natalie's quip, jammed his webbed thumb down on the control panel once more. The equation he had been working on triggered a self sealing encryption script, buried deep within Thea's internal programing. It seemed to self mutate, and then the encrypted code package was flash burst to the Operations and Tactical consoles, as well as out to the Theurgy's fighter squadron. "Quickly, activate the code packet. that'll fix the shield and phaser harmonics for now." he was sweating, panting, and his head was splitting with a throbbing ache near the brainstem.

"Cycle the entire shield buffer, drop them then hard restart. It'll expose us for 15 seconds. Helm, come about bearing 228 mark 4, drop us under the enemy with the Kappa 0-2-0  maneuver. Tactical, target their shield generators. The coordinates should be uploaded now." His voice had gone from manic to eerily authoritative, barking out orders. "Run the third harmonic shifter for the phaser's, and set them to microbrusts of no more then...2.776 seconds," he added, not caring that he was ordering around officers of a higher rank. He stared right at the view screen, and smiled, slow and wide, "Got you now you bastards..."


OOC: he's a little loopy and on a power trip what can I say?

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #63 –
[Rory - Deck 5]

Rory listened to the woman, part of her speech feeling just a little bit patronizing.  Of course just about anyone who talked to him was patronizing unless they were talking drinks or music.  He wanted to rant and cuss but the truth was she was the first person to even take a moment to try to explain even the little bit she did, even if it did make him feel completely worthless.

"The comm?"  He gave a half-laugh, half-sigh.  "I've tried the comm.  I've tried talking face to face with people.  The captain saw me once when I first boarded and ever since I might as well not exist for all I've tried to get him to talk to me," he said running his hands through his hair.  "I may not be Starfleet but I'm not stupid either.  Figured out the yellow blinkies meant somethin' was up but maybe nothin' bad and red means I should tuck me head between me knees and kiss me bum goodbye," he didn't quite wail.

"I shouldn't be here but I am an' no one gives a shit.  Anytime I ask what's goin' on, I get told to pour another drink and sing a song."  In fact, she had just pretty much told him the same thing though the delivery made with her hand on his chest helped ease the hurt pride a wee bit.  He reached up and placed his own over hers, keeping it pressed against him and she could feel his heart beating hard and fast.  "I used to think I was brave but all this ... I'm man enough to admit ... I'm scared," he said and swallowed hard.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #64 –
OOC: The USS Theurgy entered MVAM a long time ago in one of my posts, with Tactical control of all three Vectors transferred to T'Less after the establishment of that fact. Also, Natalie Stark has been helping T'Less out a lot with the shield harmonics and sensors since you posted last, so this should reflect upon T'Less' work as well, not to mention the chronitron readings sent by the Harbinger probe, which IronFerrox alluded to be sent to the Theurgy both by Aisha and Miles Renard. No worries about it, but please update your post first thing next time around, Taguiera. :)


[ USS Theurgy | Vector 01 | Main Bridge ]

Thea watched the view screen, and she frowned, murmuring under her breath. "Internal sensors operating... but I... I am blinded. The last hit took out the security surveillance system."At least the optical sensors of her projection worked just fine. She could not follow the progress in shuttle bay on camera, but right then, that was the least of their concerns. As quickly as possible, the Yridian shuttle was tractored in for docking, the shields coming up as soon as it had passed through.

Meanwhile, the feed from the Calamity-class ship had been shown on the view screen - Jien's glare meeting the three people who did not even introduce themselves before the feed was cut. Then again, it had been made clear that the enemy consisted of holographic officers.The USS Calamity bridge crew were not even interested in hearing their retort since they cut the feed, evidently confident to see what choice their antiquated prey would make by monitoring their actions.

Thea seemed perplexed by the encounter, and it did not last many moments until she spoke. "The woman in the background... I cannot convey in words how I can tell this right here and now, but that woman is the same as me. It was like looking into the eyes of a mirror. She was another Ship AI hologram. I would surmise that she is a later version of me."

Bad news at the worse of times. Things were certainly beginning to look sour. Meanwhile Thea spoke to the bridge crew, the Ash'reem Temporal Affair Officer seemed to be recovering from kind of seizure. At least the rest of the gathered crew would think that, but Jien Ives knew what was about. He just could not spare the time to explain it. Too bad he had come to them much too late.

T'Less was doing a great job with the evasive manoeuvres, even though they were still being hit by phaser fire to and fro. It was when the Calamity's or one of the Reaver's photon torpedoes detonated just off their hull or caused a hull breach with a direct hit that sent them all stumbling and re-routing powers to seal off the affected decks. The damage reports from Nicole Howard continued, and their newly repaired ship was taking a heavy toll. Still, had it not been for T'Less' talent and cold mindset in her approach to her task, they would have perished minutes past. The Vulcan's affinity for these situations was the main reason that Jien had promoted her after Lieutenant Commander Augarath Thenaljpar died on his post one month ago.

Now, all things considered, they had reached the end of the line. It was either die trying to overcome the Calamity ship or fall back / to escape in order to safeguard the truth.

"Commander Rez, we sh-" Jien trailed off, seeing how Junior Lieutenant Morali shot to his feet - now quite lucid. Evidently, he had come to terms with the effects of the treatment he got before coming aboard. Circumstances that had to be discussed with him and with Jien's First Officer at a more opportune moment. Shouts of conviction and clarity rang in the Bridge from the Ash'reem - the solution seemingly so simple. He got the attention from everyone on the Bridge, yet in the end, they all deferred to Jien - looking towards their Captain before doing anything.

"You heard the specialist," barked Jien, expecting everyone to snap to it when he left the go-ahead to do so. There were no time to explain why he held such profound trust towards the blabbering Ash'reem that had barged into the bridge. "Spread the word. Both to the Harbinger and its fighters as well, we need their help if we are about to turn the tide in our favour!"

While Jien was neither a programmer nor an engineer, he thought he understood why their many different tries to rotate their shield harmonics did not work. With their 24th century systems, their foe could adapt their superior systems to their crude defence technology no matter what kind of personal variance they put in. No, they needed to alter the way their defence systems worked at the core, and this... was what Sarresh Morali now had done, recalibrating the Theurgy's systems with codes not of their century. The temporal repercussions was something they had to address afterwards.

Already, the phasers from the Reavers did not cause the bridge to tremble any more - Nicole Howard's fully functional shields working at last. One by one, the Valkyries on their side flashed white when hit with enemy fire - their shields protecting them too. And their own phasers arrays...

Oh, but the tables had turned completely around. Junior Lieutenant Morali's recalibration made their phasers decimate the Reavers one by one - nothing in in the way for the Wolves' teeth as they tore through the space of the Hromi Cluster.

"Set a course towards the Calamity starship," said Jien with a cold voice, a small smile on his lips. "Lieutenant T'Less. Strike hard and fast before it decides to retreat. Commander Rez, please make sure the Wolves do not loose the scent. Now is not the time to fall back and regroup."


[ USS Theurgy | Vector 03 | Battle Sickbay ]

[Lieutenant Commander Nicander, you're needed in main sickbay...]

Lucan did not answer right away, and he might not have heard the Computer answer Eve Jenkins in Main Sickbay, yet he answered her as soon as he was finished with the last spot on the floor. After all, there was no way he could get to Eve at that point anyway. The Theurgy was in MVAM-mode, and Lucan was stuck on Vector 03. "Nicander here, I am in surgery," he said after pressing his combadge with his thumb further away on the floor. Truth in untruth, he was in Surgery Suite 02 "I think Ship Counsellor Nelis here needs me more than you do, m'dear."

Not just any bleach would do after his second shower. When old-school chlorine-based bleach was splashed all over blood-stains, and even if cloth was washed ten times over, DNA residues could still be detected. No, it was the oxygen-producing detergents that would get rid of any incriminating evidence for good. Old-fashioned forensic tests such as luminal tests, as well as modern day methods, relied on the ability of blood to uptake oxygen. The protein hemoglobin reacted with hydrogen peroxide and gave positive test result. Chlorine-based detergents contaminated blood, yet left behind intact hemoglobin. The detergent that Lucan replicated - log conveniently erased - produced oxygen bubbles, which caused the blood to degrade and no longer uptake oxygen. The scene of the crime was made absolutely clean. Anything else would be a liability.

"One of the first hits to the ship took him out. Overload through a plasma-conduit he passed by. Shrapnel passed through his gut.  Oh, and we are in MVAM-mode, right? The way things unfolded, I ended up on Vector 03, clearly unable to come to help you, being as I am several kilometres of space away from Main Sickbay. Please, Eve, you can do this. I really need you to pull through, okay? Nicander out."

Smiling, Lucan rose to his feet - casting a brief glance towards Garen Nelis where he lay on the operating table. He used to be such a handsome man. Shame on that pretty face of his.

Come to think of it, this was actually the first crewman he had to kill beyond an infected or two back during the Niga Incident. The vulnerability lay in the security surveillance system, it having been able to see both him and Counsellor Nelis enter the Surgery Suite. Therefore, he had to use one of his keys. A permanent solution, crude, yet very timely since the ship was under attack. A cascade failure spreading through the computer core - an overload through the surveillance devices. Erasure of all records of the past day, and permanently cutting the means to which make new recordings of events on board.

"And thus, all the eyes closed, and the memory was lost forever."

A chirp acknowledged his command. It sounded like freedom to him.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #65 –
[Rennan Cooper, Weapons Scientist: USS Harbinger - Shuttle Bay]

Rushing back into the shuttle bay, Rennan Cooper stood alone, his gaze fixed on the shuttle craft in the middle of the bay. Hurrying over to it, he dropped the large box in his left hand beside the craft and slipped on his welding visor as he unsheathed his phaser torch. Beginning to cut into the hull of the craft, he watched the metal peel away with ease under the precise heat of his torch. "Computer, transfer schematic M114-330-127¤A5 from my tricorder to the bridge." He said as he stepped back from the craft, allowing the circular chunk of hull that he'd just cut out to fall into the floor.

Taping his communicator badge as he opened the large box he'd brought in, he tried to compile his thoughts. "Lieutenant Cooper to the bridge, I need the Captain, XO or highest ranking command officer for authorization of an improvised strategy. Please acknowledge." Pulling a large spherical core from the box, he used all of the strength that he had to lift it into place, sliding it into the hole that he'd just cut out. As soon as he received affirmation that he was put through to the bridge, he began welding the core into place. "Sir, I've  begun a somewhat unauthorized modification of a shuttlecraft. You should have a schematic waiting for you to better explain what I'm doing." He said, smoothing out his weld and beginning to configure the core.

"If we want to hit these guys hard, we need more power than our standard phaser banks can offer. As you know, phaser systems are routed through the warp drive as sort of a pre-gain amplifier. I am currently outfitting a warp-capable shuttle craft with a monode phase induction core. This shuttle is capable of remote control from the ship. If we are able to slingshot the craft to our fore, and then target the monode phase induction core with our own phasers, it will begin to overload the warp drive of the craft as we remotely lock onto the enemy vessel with its' phasers, using the craft as a phase amplifier, thereby amplifying the phaser's effectiveness by approximately 78%."

Crawling into the warp drive maintenence hatch, he began to wire the induction core into the drive. "The phaser on the craft will overload after twenty seconds of continuous fire, or twenty-six seconds of pulse fire. I consulted the chief of engineering, and he agrees that the shuttle's warp drive should fail at about the same rate. So, as the craft goes critical, we can use our repulsor beam to thrust it towards any enemy vessels. The resultant electromagnetic pulse should be enough to confuse the enemy computer systems for approximately seven to ten seconds. We won't be in the affected range, and as long as all friendly fighters modulate their secondary debris shields to the frequency specified in my schematic, they will be fine as well."

Finishing all of the computer modifications to the craft, he stepped back and wiped the sweat from his brow. "The craft is ready now, sir. If I am due any disciplinary action for the unauthorized modification, I am willing to accept it as long as you try my idea."

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #66 –
[Dogfight: Miles "Iron Fox" Renard 01 and Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley 06 (NPC)]
Miles recieved the code packet and immediately began its activation making sure it had also been sent to his fellow fighters.  Just as he looked at that he tapped into the com. "Roger that. By the way Ghost have you contacted Razor?"

Rawley responded, "Been trying to, By the way I got the packet not sure he did."

Miles sneered in a bit of frustration over the scenario, "Figures. Keep on trying to get into contact with Ghost soon as you do make sure He gets signal You two join up with flight groups Beta and Gamma and target the enemy ship and take down those shield generators.  Alpha Group Form up with me. We're flying cover Pick up a Fighter and wax it.  I'm reading 6 left of this squad and if the enemy is to be believed they have another 16 in reserve.

  Beta, Gamma." he was interrupted as he picked up another Reaver and lined up his sights on its location and fired sustained volley of pulser fire at them blowing the ship apart.  "Target those shield generators on the Two vectors attacking Thea then launch Hellbores at them.

He smirked as he spotted another "Skye, one at your three O'clock vectoring towards Oh-four.  Take it I've got the one heading towards Thea.  Never-mind that, Damn Thea you pack a punch when you get pissed off."  He said noticing the fighter practically melt into liquid scrap as a sustained phaser blast from the Theurgy enveloped the fighter.  Group Alpha we have four more fighters Pick a target and pounce.

With that he juked his fighter around noticing a fighter before keying in the other SCO's frequency,Harbinger SCO please advise The incoming data packet contains Shield and phaser re-config data. and intel on the shield generations systems locations on the vectors of our enemy capital ship.  Recommend you take out that generator Also please advise, what are your Type two's carrying on their hardpoints?"

[S'iti Aisha Harbinger Bridge]
S'Iti looked to her captain as she noticed an incoming transmission.  "Captain I am receiving a transmission from Theurgy's. It's a data packet. containing shield Re-sequencing Intel and Phaser frequency recommendations. Should I implement their recommendations Captain?"

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #67 –
[ Hromi Cluster | Wolf-06 ]

Such a feeling of power, to possess shields again and to be able to shoot past the enemies' like they were not there.

"Razor!" called Evelyn Rawley and yanked her gears to the side, making one last try to reach him over the comm. He passing high above her, but Rawley did not have time to climb up to his side - chased by the luminescent bursts of a Raver's phaser. It was uncanny how it could predict flight-patterns - as if the targeting system had a sixth sense.

However, she had only a few kilometers left to the saucer section of the Calamity, target lock imminent, and two torpedoes left. She had no choice. So, she bared her bloodied teeth, something having torn inside her with all the g-forces pressing her into her seat, and whilst screaming, she yanked her gears towards her flat abdomen and climbed steeply - warnings going off that she was in a collision course with Razor's Valkyrie. Yet she thrust herself to the side in the last moment, then gritted her teeth together with a consecutive barrel roll - flying on instinct rather than the textbook. It caused stress on her vulnerable bird, her shields not helping her during manoeuvres like these, yet in the end, with a brutal yank that made her do a second climb, she came up towards be belly of the pursuing Reaver. She ground her her thumbs into the top of her gears - firing her phasers at almost point blank range.

Through the cascade of plasma and debris, she shot through, appearing next to Razor. Their cockpits aligned, she turned her helmet and raised her first, signalling that he were to follow her. She counted down with her gloved fingers and then kicked off - blasting her way towards the imposing Saucer Section straight ahead. There was one Reaver that tried to intercept her, yet he was much too late. The Calamity began firing upon her, yet she dived, and climbed just when she came into target range. No time for somehing fancy. She flicked fingers over her controls and her last external hard points went off - the loud noise heralding twin emission that soared into the kidney of the monster. The Hellbournes penetrated and went off, tearing apart the ablative armour. Screaming in elation, fury and hidden fear,  she punched a button to switch to her remaining micro-torpedo ordnance - consecutively spewing a full spread into the already tearing defences of the enemy.

She would damn well not bring her firepower back with her. She used the fiery cloud to make her escape, hoping that Razor would follow suit.


[ USS Harbinger | Main Bridge | Deck 01 ]

T'Rena absorbed the evolving events without her heart-rate rising the slightest bit.

The Harbinger might shake and get tossed around by the severe impacts they suffered, the damage reports heard quite grave, yet still she stood, swaying and bending her knees to keep her centre of gravity low. Like a rock, she remained where she was, her level orders and words of advice never trembling the slightest. Fear was no more than a choice, and one she had made more than half a century ago.

The arrival of the re-calibrated data package did not cause any hesitation. The Theurgy-class ship was not in a position to try and fool them given the tactical situation of having a common foe. She stepped up to Aisha's station and looked over her shoulders at the information. "Shields and phasers. Defence and offence. Based on our visual on what their Valkyries are doing, it would seem the Theurgy has found a solution."

Turning to her Captain, she raised her chin and spoke her words on the matter. "I strongly advise the recalibration, and that we act immediately - enforcing the Theurgy and it's fighters' advance."

Then came the communications from the shuttle bay, and it would seem the Human Weapons Scientist they had aboard had an idea to deliver a decisive killing blow. She listened to the details, did the calculations in her head, and advised her Commanding Officer. "Captain Vasser, I believe the odds for Lt. Cooper's plan to be successful has a rate of 87 %. It has to be executed within the minute, as the new calibrations will give us the tactical advantage needed for the shuttle to reach the Vector we are targeting."

It was up to her Captain now - the possible path to success paved out.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #68 –
[Declan Vasser - Harbinger Bridge]

This was the crunch time that Declan and his crew seemed to thrive in.  They were a warship above all else, fighting with tremendous focus.  They didn't often take diplomatic missions, scientific jobs, or anything else that didn't require a fully charged phaser bank and a shield array.  It was why their outdated Akira class even carried Mark II Valkyries when other vessels didn't have any fighters whatsoever.  They were warriors, and when the chips were down, that was when his crew came through.

"Institute the shield and phaser corrections.  Power down life support from any areas where there are currently no inhabitants and have all unnecessary areas evacuated.  We're going to divert whatever energy we can to both the shields and the weapons, 60/40.  When Mr. Cooper's shuttle craft does it job, chase it with some photon torpedoes to take advantage.  I also want some torpedoes calibrated for a wide spread, and aimed to detonate between the enemy fighters and the Valkyries.  Let's give our fighters some breathing room to pull back."  They couldn't keep fighting, not in their current situation.  A tactical retreat was in order, but they would have to work to cripple the Calamity class vessel first, to make their pursuit a little more difficult.

"T'rena, plot some trajectories for us to fire on.  Those shields are acting like a cyclone, pulling away and dispersing our fire.  If we fire simultaneous beams in close proximity, they should overlap and do some more significant damage then a single shot.  Let's see if we can weaken their shields a bit before that shuttle is in position to deliver the major blow."


[Nathaniel "Maverick" Isley - Valkyrie]

Nathan was a graceful flier, weaving in and out of fire with sharp reflexes he had gained from his maternal DNA.  Because of this, he took the job of decoy, providing his fellow wolves with better opportunities, while diverting most of his own phaser power to his impulse engines, allowing for quicker evades, easier acceleration.  He would also vented his plasma to create a smokescreen, just to test if the enemy ships, AI controlled as they were, were using the visual sensors or just telemetry from the ship.  When then smoke had no effect, he knew it was the latter.  "There's a stubborn little hornet I can't shake off my six.  Whoever wants to get it off my case is gonna have a drink on me waiting for them back on board," Nathan spoke over his open comm channel, twitch movements helping him avoid phaser fire.  Against a machine, most of the usual tricks for shaking a bogey were ineffective.  It was faster in processing speed then a person's reaction time, and wasn't taken in by smoke screens or blinding light.  All maverick could do was keep moving.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #69 –
[ USS Harbinger | Main Bridge | Deck 01 ]

"Yes, Captain," said T'Rena and walked away to the tactical station. Chief Aisha would still have her tactical controls, but the Harbinger's XO needed the interface to come up with the optimal firing trajectories. Next to her, Amelia Duv was busy with the downed tactical officer, but T'Rena spared them no words.

Before she began to plot the trajectories, she contacted Lieutenant Cooper and made the arrangements required. "Commander T'Rena to Shuttle Bay. Tactic approved, Lieutenant. I repeat, tactic approved. Make haste for we have a limited window of opportunity to coordinate the strike together with the Theurgy and our collective Valkyrie Fighters. Your security clearance is now raised to Lv. 6 so that you may access the repulsor beam and the controls needed to plot a course for the shuttle. You must access the port control panel in the bay area now. All the sensors and visual guidance you require has been made available."

Two Reavers were engaging the Harbinger at close range, doing their best to penetrate the restored shields with their phasers. A torpedo made T'Rena grab on to the station, the damage causing the lights to flicker in the Main Bridge. She could just imagine how...interesting it would be down in the Shuttle Bay area with everything tossed about constantly. She had paused, but continued her message to Lieutenant Cooper.

"You need to have that shuttle out of here within one minute, and with a course laid in towards the Calamity's closest Vector bearing Sigma-Zero-Five-Two," she said with her words still dangerously halcyon, "You are weapons free, and make sure this plan works, Lieutenant. There will be no second chances."


[ Hromi Cluster | Wolf-10 ]

"Roger that, Maverick!" called Hannah "Nightmare" Slaverton to her wingmate and broke away from her set course towards the Calamity's secondary hull.

Leaning her Valkyrie to starboard and flying low, her computer gave a warning signal as one of the Reavers' phasers locked onto her. "Shit!" she dropped her nose further and switched from her Type XII phaser cannons to the tetryon pulse cannon. Then she pulled back - climbing towards the Reaver that was after Maverick. Getting the belly of the beast between her crosshairs, she tightened her gloved finger around the trigger. The canon couched violently and the jarring bursts tore the ventral hull of the AI-controlled fighter to pieces, granting Nathan escape.

Still, there was the matter of her own pursuer, and whilst she ignored the blinking lights and warnings, praying that she wouldn't be too late.... Until she throttled back her speed at the last moment before overshooting the passing enemy fighter, her thumb flicking the trigger that released two guided micromissiles from her bird at nigh point-blank range. Already, she dove to safety. With the Reaver's shields previously damaged, Hannah never saw nor heard the impacts, neither did she feel the shock wave that rippled out in circles around the destroyed enemy, but a small HUD message informed her dispassionately of her kill.

...before being replaced with a multitude of warnings of torpedo search sensors. Her fighter had drawn near the Calamity. "Maverick," she called, "I am in range!"

Hannah levelled her nose a bit and flicked the switch on the stick to her torpedoes. She was hit by a phaser burst, the shields keeping her alive still. The computer beeped, indicating a lock and she gritted her teeth as she let two fly. They impacted with the shields just as Hannah escaped - coming up and around the farther of the starship. The hits clouded the sector even further, and it was impossible to tell how much damage she had done. More phaser fire continued to cascade across her, throwing her around in her seat as she tried to escape.

[Shields at 20 percent,] informed the computer, barely audible.

"Some bloody cover fire here, please!" she said and rolled at a steep angle, almost overheating er impulse engines in the attempt to break away from the phaser range of the Vector.


[ USS Theurgy | Upper Shuttle Bay | Deck 06 | Vector 01 ]

After settling upon the deck, the distal end of the Yridian vessel opened up and out emerged Rihen Neyah - dragging with great toil and effort the smoking halfbreed Klingon pilot out of her shuttle. With a grip upon his charred Class-B flight suit's shoulders, she tugged and yanked on the dead weight - calling out across the open area for help.

"Someone, please! Transport him to your doctors!" To her dismay, she thought they would already have done so if the man had still been in the possession of his nifty little combadge-thingy. She was careful not to touch the injuries directly, but what more could she do but to try to get the man to someone who could help him? They were all busy fighting, it seemed. "Anyone?"

The farthest doors opened, and out of them ran a tall blonde man and a dark haired woman, both with golden-collared Starfleet uniforms and serious expressions on their faces. They were carrying big phaser rifles too, and it did not so much frighten her than it angered her that they were not teal-collared medical personnel. Hardly engineers, these two. Security guards. Was she being arrested?

"Commander Grayson to Sickbay," said the blonde man, someone who Rihen would certainly not mind getting to know a bit more intimately if she could, "Prepare Medical Transport. Two people. Lock on to Ensign Marija Ferrik's combadge and energize immediately."

As the woman shot past to kneel by the pilot - preparing to leave for Sickbay - Rihen walked up to the handsome man with her hands spread and a smile bright as sunlight. "Am I under arrest, officer?" she said and made her eyes very big and pleading, "I promise I won't be a naughty girl while I stay aboard."

The man began to smile... only to loose all colour from his face and raise his rifle. "Intruder alert!" he called, "Ferrik!"

Rihen whipped around, only to see a shadow behind the dark-haired security guard. The panicked woman tried to turn around and fire at the same time, only her head turned three times quicker than her body - the sickening noise of her neck being twisted around something that would stay with Rihen forever. Ghostly pale hands let the woman's head go, picking up her Type III assault rifle instead - changing the setting. A remote thought that circled Rihen's shock was how she could have picked up a passenger without knowing it. It was a woman in a black body suit and dark hair - the only colour to her being two ice-blue eyes.

"Run!" called the man who called himself Grayson, firing his rifle on the intruder with rapid bursts - the posterior of Rihen's shuttle gradually destroyed by the onslaught. Yet the shots that hit the woman seemed to only make her image flicker and waver in the air, before she raised the rifle that she had taken. Then, Rihen ran, but could not help looking behind. It all happened so fast, yet the fear made Rihen see everything as if it took forever.

With inhuman skill, the image of the woman fired without needing time to aim. David first, the blonde man going down with a hoarse grunt form a shot to the chest, then, the smoking muzzle went for Rihen, and that was the last she remembered.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #70 –
[Rennan Cooper, Weapons Scientist: USS Harbinger - Shuttle Bay]

Running out of the bay and into the control booth, Rennan was grinning from ear to ear. Showtime. "Acknowledged, Commander. Beginning launch preparations." he said, pecking away rapidly at the computer panel. "Computer, isolate bay." he said, looking through the thick blast glass into the bay as a force-field was raised around the modified craft's bay. "Divert all power in bay 3 to slingshot. Lights, life support, equipment power and inertial dampers. Prepare to divert positive pressure field to slingshot as you activate the slingshot on my mark." Rennan quickly accessed cartography and current viewscreens, as well as sensor probe readouts. "Calibrate slingshot - Relative Gravity: -∞, Absolute ambient pressure: 3

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #71 –
[Miles "Iron Fox" Renard: Wolf 01 ((NPCs wolf 03 and 04)) ]
"Got yer back Night, he called out as he spotted the enemy on her tail.  On my mark fake a left turn then Execute a sharp 90 Degree turn to your Right.   Intercepting in Five. . . Three, Two , One, MARK!"  Miles said as he throttled up to her position.  He lead the target with a twin shot of micro torps to distract the enemy shields
then pierced through them with a sustained burst of Quad linked pulse phaser fire.  "Way to keep em distracted Nightmare.

Miles spoke up again "I see two more fighters on the scope, Oh-Three and Oh-Four Engage the Calamity's third vector with pulse-fire, target the location of her shield generators, scratch that looks like the Harbinger took care of that for us.  Engage her with Hellbores until you only got 1 left each.   Kestrel and I will keep the Remaining two fighters busy."

He couldn't help but wonder though why the Calamity hadn't launched her other squadron.  There had to be a reason and part of him knew that whatever it was, with their machine logic, it could be devastating. 

He smiled to himself seeing the list of fired Hellbores and listings of impacts on the Calamaty's hull.  By now there were at least 8 decent cracks in the Ablative armor of each of the calamity's other two vectors.  Most of the holes were unfortunately in places that if she were to reintegrate into a single ship there would be but maybe 5 cracks total exposed.    Still it was now a choice that was given to the Calamity.  Reintegrate and lose the MVAM advantage, or leave themselves much more vulnerable to phaser fire piercing her once impregnable armor. 

"Squad, leave yourselves one Hellbore each.  In case our enemy joins back together I want to make sure 12 good holes get punched in the outer surface of that pretty little armor of hers.  On that note, once you are down to 1 Hellbore break off from attack and get in Thea's shadow. Three and Four, hide in the Harbinger's shadow after your volley"

[S'iti Aisha Harbinger Bridge]
"Reading you loud and clear Cooper."  She said as she Keyed in the information into the tactical display bearing the Harbinger down on the vector of the Calamaty that had bore down on them moments before.  "Phaser fire penetrating shields but no hull damage..." she said looking over as she tried to piece it all together 'That armor.  I've seen this armor before.  Voyager had it when she returned from the Delta quadrant.  Its built to shrug off even Borg weapons.  Still The other vectors I am seeing some hull damage around these areas.  Of course, the Valkyries.' she said to herself her mind racing. 

"Dammit,  The Theurgy's SCO is using an old Maquis trick!"  She said remembering the trick well.  "Captain I have their shield generators and I'm concentrating all fire there.  She said as she fired the initial weapons spread and smirked as she watched as the Calamity's shields seemed to collapse in on themselves and saw 03 and 04 of the Wolves join the fray and launch a total of 6 warheads.  Each of them registered an impact on the vector they were facing against.  

"Readying a 2 Hellbore spread and powering up all phaser arrays and targeting per Cooper's plan.  Locked on...Initiating tactical Maneuver Cooper 01!"  she said as she pressed the button and the weapons blazed to life.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #72 –
[Nathaniel "Maverick" Isley - Valkyrie]

Hannah's quick actions left the fighter on his tail taken out, freeing Nathan up to support his team again.  When Slaverton's own shields dropped dangerously low, Isley felt the need to be blunt with her, but only out of concern.  "Nightmare, you'd best pull those tight buns of yours out of the fire before they get burned!"  She could regain shield strength if she avoided taking any more fire until then.  Best she use her faster impulse engines and smaller size to keep out of harm's reach while they did so.  With the order to fire hellbores into the vector, it gave her a chance to back off and let the others release their own payload first, hers being the last to go so that her shields should have been able to climb back to at least sixty percent, if she hadn't diverted too much of her shield's regenerating power to other systems.

Isley was impressed with the damage they did to the vector, leaving some hull breaches that could have resulted in a need to affect repairs if the ship managed to get out of the fight without being destroyed outright.  They sure as hell couldn't go to warp like that without ripping themselves apart.  But that was also when Nathan noticed a practice that was very uncommon on a Starfleet vessel.  "Maverick broadcasting to all members of the flight team.  Does anyone see any force fields erected on any of the breaches we opened?"  Breaches meant that the ship's life support systems would be leaking atmosphere out into space, depriving the crew on those decks of precious oxygen.  The only way a ship wouldn't put force field up to contain the atmosphere was if it was empty.  "Computer, using the Theurgy as a base template for the enemy vessel, are there any vital ships systems in place where any of the open hull breaches are?"

They were already fighting automated fighters, and a Theurgy-class prototype was successfully piloted by a pair of EMH at one point.  What if the only crew on that ship were the ones who appeared on the Comm channel?  The ones on the bridge?  They wouldn't need to worry about life support on any other deck of the ship.


[Edena Rez - Theurgy Bridge]

When Grayson declared Intruder Alert, the bridge was immediately notified of that fact, leaving Edena to spring into action.  It took everything in her not to let out a little curse.  As if their luck hadn't been bad enough, now they had an enemy on board!  "Security team to deck six, upper shuttle bay!  Exercise caution!" He ordered, sending a security detail to try and control the situation.  Rez made her way to a comm station that went unused, where she could pull up data on what was going on on Deck Six.  Without visual sensors, data was all she had to go by.  The ship detected no life signs, that were moving, but the sensors did up up a hologram.  The ship's sensors were redesigned to pick up photonic lifeforms as a means of being able to detect where Thea's form was when needed.  Their intruder was a hologram as well.

"Deactivate Holo-emitters on Deck six!" She stated, watching as the power down was confirmed by the comm system, and yet the hologram kept moving.  Temporal incursion had proven one thing at least.  Lin Kae's mobile emitter worked.  The enemy had one of her own.  "Commander rez to security team, be advised that the intruder onboard is a hologram that is not making use of the holo-emitters.  Repeat, the hostile Hologram has some form of mobile emitter.  Adjust your tactics accordingly."


[Declan Vasser - Harbinger Bridge]

"A Federation fighter using a  Maquis trick?  That's one way to fool Federation created AI."  If this vessel was from the future, from a time when the Maquis were no longer around, the Reaver ships wouldn't be programmed to respond to those tactics.  It was a smart move, one that Captain Vasser could applaud.  "Bridge to Shuttle bay.  Mister Cooper, I hope that this plan of yours goes off successfully,   Our Tactical officer just named this as tactical maneuver Cooper 01.  I doubt you want your name associated with a failed tactic," Declan said with a smile, giving the final authorization to see the plan put underway.

"The fighters will have spent most of their payload, and may be looking for some cover.  If we get any Valkyries, ours or Theurgy's, extend the shields to protect them should they need it," he advised S'iti.  The Valkyries had fought hard and well, and deserved a harbor to shelter them from the storm if they came looking for it.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #73 –
[S'iti Aisha: Harbinger Bridge] 
"Already on it. "  She said with a soft smile. as her hand glided over the controls extending the shields around Wolf 03 and 04 who had taken up a bit of refuge putting the harbinger between them and the Vector that they had just pock-marked with a bout 8 small holes.  Not very big but big enough that a good shot with a phaser would get through strait to the hull of the ship.  The calamity wasn't wounded, but there were now several chinks in its armor.    "Still I never thought I would see this tactic used again.  Much less against ablative armor.  Hell, I didn't know any Federation pilots even knew about it other than Paris.  Besides We always thought it was a tactic that made up for our lack of effective weapons, not a legitimate strategy with a proper starship's arsenal at your disposal."

She remembered the old tactic well.  During the Maquis rebellions the Cadrassian forces always had the upper hand.  Their own ships were small outdated and their armaments were few and far between. But they had one edge.  The Maquis were not warriors in the same sense.  They were cornered animals, unpredictable, ferocious, wild, cornered animals.  Being cornered and without proper resources had a strange effect on some.  There were those who saw hopelessness.  Others saw the brilliance in unpredictable tactics.  Her favorite had always been what she considered the best use of limited resources in Federation weapons history.

The Cardassian warships had always been very heavily armored.  Hell even by Federation standards their hulls were notoriously hard to punch through.  With the Raiders they had at their disposal and even if they got through the shields, their phasers weren't even up to the task of punching through that armor.  For a Federation captain who had the supplies of nearly limitless torpedoes the answer was simple bombard the enemy ship with torps.   However, the Maquis were hardly that lucky.  They were always notoriously short on those particular weapons.  So one Clever Maquis had devised a tactic.  Overwhelm the Cardassian shields with phaser fire from multiple Raiders.  Assign one Raider the task of launching a single photon torp at a critical location. If they were lucky a weak point in the shields would end up being over their warp core.  After that Target every phaser at the crack in the armor and fire until the hull was blazing from within.  If it had hit nar a critical system the symbol of Cardie arrogance would be a drifting hulk in moments.  If it had weakened the warp core, well from experience she recalls no more beautiful light show.

It didn't always work but when it did the news of a full size Cardassian warship exploding from the limited weapons of a small group of Raiders was more than enough to brighten the day of most any colonist.  And here she saw that tactic taken to the N'th degree.  She didn't know who the Wolve's Alpha was but whoever it was they had just brightened her day.

Re: EPISODE 03: Shades of Truth [Prologue: Out of the Night That Covers Me]

Reply #74 –
[ Hromi Cluster | Wolf-11 ]

Razor tried to figure out where the hell he was supposed to go as more systems seemed to be turning off than functioning. He cursed loud and looked around him, he saw Rawley below and she made her way up to him it seemed. The explosion of the exploding Reaver blinded him a bit yet he was happy to seethe package he had received, enabiling shields and the advatange that they could penetrate with phasers. He looked at Rawley and nodded as she signaled him manually to follow her. Her bird seemed in a dire shape as it was yet he dove straight towards the Calamity. "Crazy bitch..." He murmured to himself and throttled up to keep up with her. He saw the Reaver that was attempting to intercept her and he broke off to deal with it. He lined up his shot and fired away.

He looked at Rawley getting shot at by the Calamity now and he bursted forward to get back to her. It looked like a suicide run from his point of view yet she magistrates her flight perfectly. He enabled his hardpoints and waited for the lock on himself now. He was dodging the fire from Calamity itself and than saw the torpedoes from Rawley impact. The bright cloud served as her escape and Just as he lost sight of Rawley, Razor fired away his hard points. The EMPs first followed by two photon torpedoes in just a few seconds. He broke off the collision course and didn't wait to see the effect of his weapons. Nor would he heard it due to his dead radio.

He dove down to where Rawley should have been and he looked around trying to spot her. In the meantime he used his standard evasive moves to stay clear of the Calamity firing waves. He spotted Rawley and formed up behind her, putting the pedal to the metal to get the hell out of the Calamity's range.
 
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