From themuirs@interlog.com Fri Jun 19 12:40:08 1998 Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 23:40:02 -0400 From: David Muir To: Jeffrey Jenkins , "Jeffrey (alternate) Jenkins" , Dana Loeblich , Conor Healy , Anna Cordray , Brian Suskind , Christian Stark , "Eric (alternate) Scott" , "Eric V. Scott" , Erin Kenny , Gabrielle Bubis , John Luerding , "Joshua J. Young" , Kevin Richter , Michael Natale , Mike Groner , Paul Menz , ### , Tim Fath , "Wendon B. Pettey" , "Treena L. King" , J'ymle Koretz , Yoni Levanoni , Mark Palumbo , Frank O'Conor , Tom Gladstone , Stefan Wiedner Subject: [DANTEXF] SB ALIGHIERI: Sound and Fury [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] SD 100521.0330 FMD 4.0915 Scene: Command Meeting Room, Starbase Alighieri (DS-230) Yssar watched Mirtox leave the room and then smiled inwardly. He was starting to learn how to deal with the gruff Bolian. Although he would never gain the man's respect the way Pappy Miller had -- the pilots' unspoken bond at work -- he at least had gained his ear. The engineering teams had been doing an incredible job... they had managed to get the Yorktown into fighting shape in less than 24 hours, and now they were being asked to turn their attention to the production of as many high yield warheads and their busy hands could muster. Windstar and his old Science team had done a great job, but Yssar knew that Tao had let Ryan Heath do much of the creative problem solving on this task. Heath was working out very well, but it looked like a fleetwide search for a new Science Officer would be required to fill Tao's vacated shoes. Yssar leaned back in his chair. He could hear the reports over the muffled PA system, and he knew that the Dalriadan threat continued to encroach, but he afforded himself a little time for reflection. The worst fears and problems could sometimes be solved when you stopped concentrating so hard on them. Ariana stepped into the room and cocked her head inquisitively at her boss. "Taking a break, sir?" she asked sarcastically. He squinted at her, waiting for her to say what she intended to. She sighed. "Well, the Kraggon delegation has left without so much as a 'Thank you' or even a 'Screw you'. The talk of an alliance was some kind of time-buying scheme that was as transparent as a phase-shifted glass. It was a washout, sir." Ariana couldn't help but wonder about the presence of a counselor at the negotiations and what a difference it would have meant. "I want a preliminary report, but I want you in the Command Center, fresh and ready at 0400 tomorrow morning. You can start relieving all of the nitwits who think they function at top efficiency on no sleep." "Aye sir." She grinned and spun out of the room, thinking of ways to word her failure to secure more cooperation from the Kraggons. FMD 4.1930 Scene: Shuttle Bay Four After reviewing the progress of both the Dalriadan advance and the re-arming of the combat shuttles, Yssar thought a walkabout was in order. The 45 Class IV probes had all been converted into two-stage missiles. The EM pulse stage would take down as much of the Dalriadan shielding as possible. But would it be enough to defeat the gravitic devices Greyclaw had heard so much about. Chief Frank grinned up from under one of the F-4s. He was handling the standard repairs while the rest of his team and most of the engineering staff were working on the missile attachments. "Well, well, well... the brass finally pays a visit." Yssar had heard about Thomas Frank. He was a hardass, but everyone respected his way with machines. Miller said NASW-716 couldn't fly without him. "I heard you were screwing up all the rides and I came down here to show you what's what, Mister Frank." Fury leapt into the weathered man's eyes only for a moment before he caught the humor in the felinoid's green eyes. "I see. Well here you go, sir." Frank handed Yssar a device that looked a little like a tricorder, but had two long prongs sticking out of the end of it. "Knock yourself out." Yssar handed the device back to Frank. "You know I would ground the whole squadron in a matter of minutes if you let me loose with that thing, Mister Frank." Yssar looked up under the F-4. It was the closest he had been to one of the shuttles since NC-17 had arrived. The phaser and plasma burns streaking the side of the hull were a testament to how close the battles had been. Yssar sniffed at the sickly smell of carbon that lingered in the air. "I know I should have come down here sooner, but I am going to tell you personally that you're doing hell of job Chief." "How would you know, sir?" "You get good marks from the people who matter, Mister Frank. The pilots trust you with their lives." Frank looked pleased, but put on a melodramatic pout. "If she trusted me with her life, you'd think the Barbie would let me rock her soul." Then he laughed to himself and went straight back to work without a salute, a so-long, or a shove-off to Yssar. FMD 5.0600 Scene: Starboard of Dalriadan Fleet Captain Sylvia Sanders called for a sitrep on her embattled Batron group. The destroyers had done a fabulous job of drawing missile fire away from the minefield and her own efforts with the BELLEROPHON had managed to knock out many of the oncoming missiles. "They can't keep up the missile barrage forever, Reg," she commented to her XO, who stood beside her watching the viewscreen overlaid with minefield monitors. Commander Reginald Farnsworth had been in several battles with Jem'Hadar warships, but this was his first experience with the Dalriada. "They must have a weapons replimat on board." It was a weak joke but they both giggled momentarily. "Commander Basek on ALIGHIERI has given us a 1400 hour 'go' for a counterattack. I'd like to coordinate with the YORKTOWN if we can. Get it touch with them and call the FRANKLINs into formation. We'll give the Dalriada something to think about before we start pelting them with big honking missiles." Batron 2 started to come together as a fighting unit, with the DETROIT, CONSTANTINOPLE, SINGAPORE, VENICE, and MOBILE forming a lopsided V behind the BELLEROPHON. Ahead on the sensors was the cluster of twenty Dalriadan ships. They were to the starboard side of the cluster, and it was facing ALIGHIERI, firing its endless supply of missiles towards the station. As the MOBILE pulled into final position, a quadrangle of four Destroyer-sized Dalriadan ships peeled off from the cluster and gained azimuth on Batron 2's position. "They won't attack from high and to the front," Farnsworth stated. Then his voice quavered: "Will they?" Sanders ordered VENICE and MOBILE to take a flanking position. "Don't let them rush us without giving them lots of harassing fire!" she ordered. "Tell ALIGHIERI that we've precipitated a response from the Dalriadan fleet. And burst another SOS to OMEGA if you can overcome the jamming." The XO looked at the astrometric readout for their position. He knew the Batron destroyers could seek some sanctuary in the maze of astronavigational obstacles in Dante's belt, but the BELLEROPHON herself would have to stay out in the open and fight it out. They'd need help from ALIGHIERI's fighter squadrons as soon as possible. <<>> Well, I advanced it to a battle. I'd like to see a bunch of stuff leading up to this point, and I'd love to do a joint post with someone to work out the mechanics of the battle. FMD 4.0915 Kraggon delegation leaves Dave M. FMD 4.1930 Yssar sees the missile progress firsthand FMD 5.0600 Batron 2 shakes up the Dalriada a/Cmdr. Ezekiel Astratus Cmdr. Greyclaw Yssar XO, USS Leviathan CO, SB Alighieri -------------------------- David Muir ------------------------- --------- http://www.interlog.com/~themuirs/asr.html ---------- -------------------- themuirs@interlog.com -------------------- Lieutenant George Cordoba Instructor, ALB