G'Day & G'Bye

[Kansas 0]

Note:This log is set during the 10 minute Time Between Sims.

 

10.08.09

USS Agincourt NCC-81762

“G’Day and G’Bye”

 

Location: Alpha Quadrant

Area: Front Line Skirmish

Ship Setting: USS Brisbane NCC-1023

 

The battle to hold what was now ground zero and the new front line location for the aggressive and continual Soltan incursion into the Alpha Quadrant was not going poorly, but nor was it going entirely in the favor of the Federation Starfleet forces protecting the quadrant; a few of the lead warships such as the Agincourt and the Defiant class escorts such as the Lexington had been forced to pull back off the main line due to damages sustained.

 

Like the Lexington -- her sister ship -- the defiant class ship USS Brisbane had been assigned as tactical support vessel to some of the larger warships in the defensive formation, yet somewhere during the battle, the tide had taken a turn, and the 50 man crew operating the little warship now found themselves in a desperate game of cat and mouse with a rather aggressive predator.

 

One of the Soltan ships, a scout class judging by its basic appearance and smaller design lines, had engaged the Brisbane one on one early on in the fight campaign and the two vessels had been going at it ever since. Captain Hogan, commanding officer of the Brisbane, had suspected that the run and gun and aggressive tactics employed by the scout ship’s Soltan commander were being effectively used the Federation crew and their ship away from the Fleet at large and therefore unable to perform their assigned duties of flank protection and rotating backup along the front skirmish line.

 

And the delay pattern itself was simple and working marvelously in the favor of the enemy, much to Hogan’s chagrin.

 

Captain Hogan had ordered a tactical retreat so the Brisbane could fall back to the relative protection of the satellite moon attached to the nearby colony world of Sigmus Prime. The colony planet and its semi-distant moon sat just off the edge of the larger space battleground, and could only provide so much cover from the enemy pursuers; the deadly game of hide and seek would come to an end very soon once the Brisbane ran out of planetary bodies to hide herself behind. The main skirmish line still echoed off in the distance, showcasing the brutality of war as fire blossoms set against the black of the star field ignited one after the other as the ships on both sides continued to pound one another with energy weapons.

 

And the Brisbane could do nothing while they were outgunned and pinned down along the outskirts of the front line battle.

 

Using the moon as cover had given the Federation ship and crew a few minutes to handle what repairs could be implemented as well as some general regrouping time in order to try and figure out how the heck they were going to get out of this tactical grade mess.

 

Hogan was currently speaking with the lead officer of the Sciences department -- or rather, the current lead officer for the Science department after the previous department head had taken some exploding console shards to the face -- about various methods of combating the subspace drive and weapons that the Soltan scout ship employed, which seemed to be the standard hardware for most of the enemy ships involved in the skirmish. The research and shared Intelligence on the Soltan and their equipment that the USS Agincourt had shared with her sister ships was thorough and well done and the Agincourt crew had had the most experience dealing with the Soltan, but for the most part the subspace technology employed by the blue skinned freaks was difficult to understand and even more difficult to avoid once you tried to go up against them in practice. One second, a Soltan ship or phaser beam weapon wasn’t there hurtling towards you, and the next few seconds one or both of the problems had impacted against your hull.

 

The conversation was interrupted by the tactical officer when the sandy haired Human female’s voice carried easily across the smaller control bridge of the Defiant class ship, concern dropping her tone and timber down a few tense octaves from her normally chipper and perky voice

 

“Captain! Our sensors show that the scout ship is…well, I’m not entirely sure what they are doing, but the control crew seems to be shifting the position of their vessel around the planetary body sir. Not sure if they’ll pass right through the mass or what have you. Our sensors, even with the data from the Agincourt uploaded and in use, are still a bit iffy when we try and track these SOBs.”

 

The tactical console bleeped a warning and the short haired woman paled considerably at the update readings that she spotted on her console viewer. “Oh God…”

 

The Soltan ship promptly registered visually on the forward view screen a mere second later after the announcement, setting off a new set of alert alarms that blared an alert on all decks of the ship, and shortly thereafter, twin beams of weapons energy slashed towards the semi-crippled Brisbane. It was very difficult *not* to notice the twin subspace beam weapons as they hurtled right at the forward bridge area as showcased by the outbound sensors directly to the main bridge viewer.

 

Hogan pointed a frantic though demanding finger at the secondary engineer that had been assigned to bridge duty for this shift cycle. “Jenkins! Get me at least ten to fifteen percent more power to the forward…”

 

Captain Hogan’s order was never completed and lost to the sound of rending metal couplings and bulkheads; the phaser-like weapons pushed clear through subspace and several decks, impacting with the warp core and igniting it like a candle.

 

The USS Brisbane and her entire surviving crew went up in an explosive ball of flame just off the fringe of the moon world that they had been orbiting in an attempt at some cover from the enemy.

 

The Soltan scout ship merely plowed through the debris, further scattering the smoking and fiery remains that had once been the Brisbane and her loyal crew, and the sleek vessel did what amounted to a U-turn, and streaked back towards the main area of the fighting at the still constantly shifting front lines of the main quadrant battle.