From voyager@massmed.org Mon Jun 22 23:44:25 1998 Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 16:48:05 -0600 From: "Michael A. Natale, MD" To: Dante Expeditionary Force List Serve Subject: [DANTEXF] SB ALIGHIERI: Death Reigns Down Upon Us [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] DANTE Expeditionary Force Official E-mail BEGIN TRANSMISSION Location: SB ALIGHIERI, DS-230 Stardate: 100603.0025 GMT FMD: 5.1543 Scene: Command Center Tao watched in horror as thousands of lives were snuffed out instantly. He closed his eyes as he sensed tgeir souls crying out for justice. He rocked under the weight of what he sensed and, for one brief moment, envied those who were not in tune with the mystical wonders of the universe. The tactical display had registered first the loss of the DETROIT then minutes later the final destruction of the SINGAPORE. The MOBILE had jumped into warp during the first attack and was no where to be found. The remainder of BATRON 2, along with the YORKTOWN and the fighters, sought refuge in Dante's belt. Three destroyers had been eliminated by BATRON 2 and the fighters while a fourth had fallen victim to the YORKTOWN. But the Starfleet vessels had not come out unscathed. The MARATHON and VENICE had lost their warp engines and were maneuvering on impulse while the CONSTANTINOPLE reported widespread power outages due to vaporized plasma conduits. The BELLEROPHON had high-tailed it out of there at warp nine for OMEGA in hopes of alerting CINCINDIGO of what had happened and maybe secure some supplies for the battered Dante Expeditionary Force. And those left on ALIGHIERI were preparing for an attack of their own. ****************************************************** FMD: 5.1630 Scene: Bridge, RDNV OSPREY (RDNV-Royal Dalriadan Naval Vessel) ****************************************************** Captain Garr slammed his fists on the arm of his command chair as an ensign had read off the damage to the fleet. He had been sent to this insignificant system in a failed attempt to draw Starfleet forces away from their real objective, SB OMEGA. He had been assured by his superiors that this 'ragtag group' would offer no resistance. Yet they had managed to destroy one quarter of his squadron! First the freighter a few days earlier and now four destroyers today with unknown weapons their intelligence had obviously failed to relate. *And this system's accursed solar winds are wreaking havoc on our instruments* he thought to himself. His crew and the captains of the other ships had wanted to follow the remaining Federation vessels into the asteroid belt and finish them, but he had put an end to that foolishness. This group obviously knew the system better than they and were using that knowledge to their advantage. His ships would be 'sitting ducks'. Another suggestion had been to flood the belt with Pulverizer missiles. He had considered this idea and decided it would be their best route of attack. They could send enough missiles to destroy that space station and take out most of the Starfleet vessels and still have enough to bring to the attack on OMEGA. They had a supply ship full of missiles for the coming battle. They would launch the missiles as soon as all ships were in position, careful to keep the supply ship far behind, safe from those Federation dogs. *********************************** FMD: 5.1650 Scene: Ops, SB ALIGHIERI *********************************** The ominous glare of red lights filled the room as emergency lights came on to replace the usual bright lights. Tao theorized that many systems must have been shattered by the xray lasers, but the station was still in one piece. Their first priority were shields and weapons, and Merlin Roebucks teams were already on it. Lt LeBeau and the medical department were already inundated with casualties, and medical teams were responding to calls from throughout the station the best they could. LCDR Garm Ulfsson, the INTEL officer, called to CDOR Mirtox and CDR Yssar from the still functioning tactical display. Tao was amazed anything still functioned after that attack but was greatful life support was one of them. A quick glance at a console revealed there were many areas of the station that had lost life support, and SIF fields were keeping the vacuum of space at bay in other areas. "Commodore Mirtox, Commander Yssar, the Dalriada are on the move again," shouted Ulfsson over the cacophany present on the bridge as departments reported in. "What are they up to now?" barked Mirtox. "They seem to be forming a line along Dante's belt. They may be planning to launch another volley of missiles!" "What do you make of this ship back here?" asked Greyclaw. "My guess would be that it is a supply ship of sorts. They are keeping it back out of harm's way." stated Mirtox. "If we could destroy that ship, it might change the tide," added Ulfsson. "I'm not sure the station can survive another missile volley. Shields are just coming back on line but they won't be at 100%," stated Tao, who had been waved over by Greyclaw to listen to the discussion. Suddenly a blue blip appeared out of nowhere just beyond the lone Dalriadan ship. "That's Kennington in the MOBILE!" Ulfsson exclaimed. "Where the hell did he come from?" "He must have been observing the Dals from just outside the system, away from the solar winds so his sensors were more efficient. He probably surmised the same thing we did about that lone ship," Mirtox stated as the four of them watched the MOBILE approach the supply ship. ******************************** FMD: 5.1705 Scene: RDNV OSPREY ******************************** Red alert klaxons boomed throughout the ship as the MOBILE appeared out of nowhere behind the enemy ships. Captain Garr had cursed the sudden appearance of the Federation ship, ordering three of his ships to break their formation and intercept the renegade ship. The destruction of the other Federation ships would have to wait. The OSPREY lurched ahead with the other two ships in close pursuit. As they moved toward the supply ship's defense, Garr made the calculations in his head and realized they would not be able to intercept the renegade ship in time. If the supply ship was lost, they would have to save what missiles each ship had left for the battle at OMEGA. This would not look good to his superiors. The bridge crew watched as the MOBILE descended on the supply ship MANX, her phasers arcing out to impact on the rear shields of the supply ship. Garr ordered his COM officer to open frequencies to the MANX. Once he had the other ship's captain on screen, Garr ordered him to make a jump into hyperspace and rendezvous with the rest of the fleet before the Federation ship could cause any more damage. The MOBILE came about for a second attack as the MANX powered up her hyperspace jump drive. She made a desperate attempt to strike the fleeing ship once more before the other Dal ships could arrive, hoping to accomplish the impossible. It seemed today was a day of the impossible. Miraculously, one of the MOBILE's phasers hit a hyperspace jump node on the MANX in the split second the shields were down to form the jump gate. The node began to glow and suddenly imploded, sending a shock wave along the ship's axis to other nodes. A chain reaction was set in motion and soon the MANX was torn apart by the assymetric forces in the jump gate. The ship exploded in a brief fireball and was gone. Garr jumped up in anger and ordered his ships to destroy the MOBILE. The three Dal ships opened fire, pummeling the poor MOBILE until her shields fell and she exploded under the barrage. But the damage had already been done. ************************************ FMD: 5.1720 Scene: Ops, SB ALIGHIERI ************************************ "He did it!" shouted Mirtox as the Dalriadan supply ship was destroyed. His delight was muted moments later as the MOBILE fell to the Dalriadan onslaught. "Fascinating, " exclaimed Tao from behind. "The readings from that ship indicates she in the process of forming a jump gate when the MOBILE hit a hyperspace jump node. They hit it at the one brief moment it was vulnerable. The loss of the the node destabilized the jump gate and ripped the ship apart. This information may help us devise a defense or weapon against the Dalriada in time." "If you think it's that important, then get on it as soon as you can, Tao," stated Yssar. Tao nodded and downloaded the scans into his PADD for later review. Timeline: FMD: 5.1545 Tao's reaction to the destruction Mike N FMD: 5.1630 Dals plan another attack Mike N FMD: 5.1650 MOBILE returns Mike N FMD: 5.1705 Dal supply ship destroyed/MOBILE lost Mike N FMD: 5.1720 New information Mike N NRPG: All: Some more on the battle. Respectfully submitted, LCDR Tao Windstar (aka Michael Natale) XO, SB ALIGHIERI, DS-230 voyager@massmed.org This message sent by an official member of the Dante Expeditionary Force Are you also posting your messages to the newsgroup?!!! END TRANSMISSION