From alton.reich@snet.net Sun Jun 7 11:20:48 1998 Date: Sat, 21 Mar 1998 13:08:08 -0500 From: Alton and Elizabeth Reich To: distribution:@snet.net; (see end of body) Subject: USS YAMATO: Time Flies NRPG: I asked Jeff J. about a time line for the fleet wide mission and he told me that we should try to maintain a pace of 1 game day per 2-3 real days until we get to MD5. I don't need to tell you that that is a frantic pace. This post gets us through MD2. I want you all to contribute what you can. Feel free to elaborate on things that I mention, but don't get bogged down in details. You should also feel free to pick up the torch and move things forward. The next big milestone is about MD4.2300 where we get the message directing us to Tabillin. PRG: MD:2.0600 CAPT Isaac Stern stepped out of the turbolift on to the bridge. The activity level seemed to be normal and he considered that to be a good sign. LT Driver stood up from the center seat and turned to face him. Isaac waved him back down and walked across the aft end of the bridge to the tactical station. ENS Tami Gladden was seated at the tactical station checking the status of the half-dozen sensor bouys that the YAMATO had released during the night as she had made her way parallel to the border. "Anything interesting ENS?" Isaac asked. "We detected a couple of Orion trader ships coming across the border about 3 hours ago. Our scans showed nothing out of the ordinary about them. Other than that, it's been a very quiet night." "Under different circumstances, I'd consider that to be a good thing," Isaac replied. "Aye, Sir. The waiting is harder than anything else." "Until something happens, ENS, then you miss the waiting." "You're probably right, Sir." Isaac continued around and down the horseshoe and assumed the watch from LT Driver. As he sat in his seat, he weighed the odds of it remaining quiet for the rest of the day. *** [Thruster bay 6-90] "How are you progressing, LT," CMDR Connor asked LT Bal's rear end as he walked into the cramped compartment. Bal started and banged his head against the newly installed sensor processor. The Ferengi crawled slowly backwards along the EPS conduit he had been laying on top of, and hopped off of it to stand in front of Connor. He rubbed his left lobe, "Do me a favor, Sir, and don't sneak up on me like that." "I'll try not to, LT. How's it coming?" "Not bad. We had a few problems with the first couple of installations, but I think we have the problems worked out. We should have a dozen installed in various parts of the ship by the end of the watch," Bal reported. "How does it work, LT?" Alex asked. "It's fairly straight forward, Sir. We've mounted a wide angle optical sensor above the thruster exhaust port. It feeds data to the processor, here. The processor has just enough computing power to determine the range and velocity of the object. It feeds that information to the phaser emitter that we cut through the thruster housing here and mounted on the outside of the ship. The phaser then fires a fairly wide angle pulse at the target, hopefully destroying it." "It sounds fairly sophistocated, LT." "I can assure you, it isn't. The sensor has not recognition routine. It will fire at anything. We'll have to be careful not to turn the system on if there are shuttles outside the ship. It also hasn't got any real target acqusition routines to speak of. It will fire at the first thing it sees until that thing is destroyed or out of the firing arc. Then it will pick another target at random. That's bad because there is no way to specify target priority. It's good because an optical sensor won't be affected by the kind of ECM jamming that the PROMETHEUS experienced. The only way to defeat that is with a cloaking device, and the Dalriada don't seem to have those." "Very good, LT. It seems like this will solve most of our problems with swarms of Dalriadan misslies." "Maybe. There are a couple of problems, still," Bal said ticking them off on his fingers, "The first is that they have a limited field of fire. The second is that a lot of them operating at once could represent a serious load on our power systems. The third is that the range isn't very great. This isn't a panacea, Sir." "A few minutes ago I was optimistic, LT. Thank you for changing that." "Your welcome, CMDR. Just remember to tell CAPT Stern that I'm a genious. He needs to hear that regularly." Alex laughed, "I will. Just try to live up to your reputation." *** [MD2.1800 - Bridge] The day had been uneventful. Where the YAMATO had detected a few ships during the night, they had detected none during the day. If the Dalriada were going to attack the Federation, they were certainly taking their time about it. "CAPT, I'm picking up a distress signal from the Federation outpost on Melkor Prime," LT D'artgnan announced. Isaac shot out of his seat, "On screen." A dark haired man appeared on the view screen, "I'm Dr. Mosbert, head researcher at the Federation research base on Melkor Prime. We've just detected a Dalriadan ship dropping out of warp within the system." "I'm CAPT Isaac Stern of the YAMATO. Our ETA at warp 9 is..." "35 minutes," LT M'gan offered. "Just remain calm, we're on our way." "Thank you, CAPT." The transmission ended and the crew sprang into action. "Red alert," Alex called out. "Course laid in, CAPT," LT M'gan said. "Engage at warp 9," Isaac ordered. He felt the vibration in the deck plates change frequency slightly as the ship accelerated from warp 2 to warp 9. "Weapon systems ready," LT Trisx offered. "Raise shields, there may be other Dalriadan ships lurking about," Isaac ordered, then he turned to Alex, "I hope we don't have to use the point defense system. I have using stuff Bal comes up with untested." "He assured me it will work," Alex replied. "Usually his creations do, but when they fail, they do so in spectacular fashion." "CAPT, there's an incoming transmission from the USS ALEXANDRIA," LT D'artgnan reported. "On screen." "I'm CAPT Robert Watson of the USS ALEXANDRIA in the Melkor system." "I'm CAPT Isaac Stern of the YAMATO. Should I guess what's going on here?" "I'll save you the trouble. We're the Dalriadan ship that had Dr. Mosbert so excited. Apparently INDIGO staff neglected to inform the Melkor Prime research outpost we were coming." Isaac laughed, "I guess everyone is a little nervous. Stern out." The transmission ended, "Cancle red alert," Isaac ordered, "Resume our previous course and speed." NRPG: Well, there's day 2. As I said above, feel free to pick up where this leaves off. Bal's device is modled after the Navy's phalanx system. In the early days it would literally shoot at anything including flocks of birds. The idea is that if it moves, it's bad. Les: Take your time and back post the exam. Pat and I will contribute what we can. I'm moving forward assuming that Morgan passes. I think that's it for now. Respectfully submitted, CAPT Isaac Stern CO - USS YAMATO (NCC-1705-E) Alton Reich -- Alton & Elizabeth Reich alton.reich@snet.net "Dreams are sometimes catching / Desire goes to my head / Love responds to your invitation / Love responds to imagination / Respond, Vibrate, Feed Back, Resonate" -- Rush, Chain Lightning %%% overflow headers %%% To: Alter Ego , Josh Young , Pat Schumacher , Les Chappelle , Janis Hill , Vicke Denniston , vicden1@yahoo.com, Kristine Berg , Karen Fainges , Alexs Thompson , Jim Littleton , Jeffrey Jenkins , Jeffery Trock , George Harmon %%% end overflow headers %%%