From Wiedner@gateway.verlagoesterreich.at Sat Jun 20 09:57:43 1998 Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 09:41:52 -0600 From: wds To: Dante Expeditionary Force List Serve Subject: [DANTEXF] USS YORKTOWN: lots of probes [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 SD: 100529.1630 FMD: 5.1430 Scene: Main Dockbay ------------------- *The estimation had been almost wrong. Maybe out of things for too long.* he thought while sqeezing himself into a small conduit with some tools in hands to adjust the emergency-close-systems of the dockbay for being used as a fighter-deck. "Commander, the bay has been cleared of all unnecessary stuff but Alighieri-OPS is shipping over equipment of an amount not handleable with the other two bays." Gibson crawled out of the conduit turning his eyes on the middle aged CPO standing before him and glancing down to the XO. "Well, I'll speak to Mr. Johg." "What will that be good for Commander?" "He may give the base permission to beam the stuff directly into our stow-aways." "I see, Commander." "Gibson to Johg." [Johg here, Sir. What is it?] "Can you please organize a direct beam-in of our supplies from Alighieri to our stow-areas? Should be scheduled for not to interfere with intern-ship activi ties." [Aye, Sir. May I ask for the urgency of this order?] "On a ten-scale give it a 2." [Aye.] "Make sure that we don't get anything aborad which doesn't really belong to the YORKTOWN. Somehow I have a strange feeling about Dalriadan underground activities on the base." [Control-protocol Alpha-3 will serve us well, I think.] "Agreed. Gibson out." "What is all that stuff, Chief." "Most of it are modified probes for use as missiles against the Dalriadan fleet. resupply for the fighters and for our own use. The second big part of it are supplies for the fighters such as fuel spare-parts and so on." "So we're changed into a carrier." he answered with an ironic touch. "Seems exactly like that, Sir." "Thanks, Chief." With a nod the crewman stepped off and went on with his usual work. Mike had noticed the shadows under his eyes very well. He had seen this and a lot of other signs of exhaustion on the people on the YORK and on the base too often in the last 3 days. He knew that the total collapse of the crews was not far ahead. On the other hand they had an invincible enemy-fleet in the system breaking slowly through the belt of mines and approaching the base and the inner system of Dante. He spent the chief a look who crossed the dockbay on his way issuing orders to subordinates and looking here and there. Suddenly the sound of a breaking rope cut the background noise of the bay. It sounded like a whip when the sharp and broken end of the metal cable cut the air with a faint hiss and tore a hole into the wall of the bay. Then the stack of goods wich had been fixed with the rope came to life and rushed through the bay. Men and women were jumping and running to avoid becoming overrolled by the heavy parts which had become loose. Mike noticed a single cylinder of oxygen lifting from the floor. Something must have opened or cut off the valve. The cylinder launched like a rocket, changed course, and raced towards the chief from behind. Gibson noticed it but there was no time for a warning which would have been never heard in all the noise. He jumped up from the ground and crossed almost the whole bay with a few jumps. On the last one he stretched his arms to the sides and grabbed the man with his full power. The impact threw them both off the feet and to the ground. A fraction of a second later the cylinder raced half a meter over them across their position. Then it hit the wall of the bay and was deflected. Mike noticed the new heading of the _rocket_. "Computer, open main dockbay now." [Affirmative.] The forcefields came to life and the doors opened. A few seconds later the cylinder left the ship like a torpedo. All: where are you all? Still dizzy from your last party (I had one yesterday)? --- respectfully submitted, CDR T. Tank, FO/XO, USS STONEWALL, RedFleet "Cross of Alexander", awarded on SD 090918 for leadership among the crew LCDR M.T. Gibson, FO/XO, USS YORKTOWN, Indigo Fleet LCDR R. Chavasse, CEO, USS SORANUS, RedFleet Outstanding Unit Citation for outstanding role play 1stLt Francis Drake, Squadron Leader Bravo, 21st Marine Fighter Wing "Pike Medallion for Heroic Injury" awarded on SD 100514 "Posteal Combat Action Ribbon" "Battle of Centerpoint Action Ribbon" "Player of the Month 1997/10" "Player of the Month 1998/03" --- Stefan Wiedner ÖeSD, Amtl. Publikationen u. Digitale Dienste wds-nospam@verlag.oesd.co.at >> SPAM ALERT << Remove "-nospam" from the adress above to respond! This message sent by an official member of the Dante Expeditionary Force Are you also posting your messages to the newsgroup?!!! END TRANSMISSION