Tactically Compromised.

Posted on Thu Nov 16th, 2017 @ 4:31pm by

825 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Unknown Life, Unknown Dangers
Location: First Officer's Office

I managed to get told the plan, I didn't like it but the Commodore had signed off on it so I had to roll with it now. As I saw it the loss of the nacelle compromised the ship, only problem was to what extent? I had run tactical simulations and based on my own actions if I were attacking our Starboard flank would be horribly compromised. Still, I had to report this in, I had to make sure that the Command Authority knew what the ship was capable of if we got into a fight. Seconds could make a world of difference in a firefight.

I walked to the XO's door, a Commander Yashui. Never met but seen her on the Bridge before.

*** Door Chime ***

Glancing up at the sound of the chime, the faint line of concentration between her brows faded to the smoothness of youth. "Enter!"

When the doors open I step in. This was the first time I was really getting to meet the new XO.

"Good morning Commander Bawden" she greeted the man she knew only in passing. "Can I get you a beverage?" a deep red glass with a mint leaf floating idly in its depths sat placidly on her desk, sending condensation down the side.

"Thank you, no." I walked to the desk. "As you know with the damage taken to the ship and the loss of the nacelle its created a number of tactical problems." I took a breath because it was a pretty long list. "Compromised shield systems, Starboard quarter is obviously weak because of the damage. Phasers in that section, emergency fields and structural integrity grids are weakened too."

Shaking her head, causing black curls to tremble against her olive skin; Anika sighed as she read the report. "I suppose we should't have expected much else with the loss of a nacelle on a ship this large. Have we had any losses of containment secondary to the initial one?"

"Not that sensors have reported however I would suggest consulting with Lt Bradshaw on it. Tactically however we are in a difficult position on the starboard side. Weapons sensor pallets are down so weapon lock stability is questionable, energy distribution is compromised so weapon recharge has a delay."

Making a note to ask Lt. Bradshaw about containment, she cocked an ear towards what he was saying. "I am sure that weight distribution and inertial dampers are also having difficulty with the load changes."

"Helm and Engineering would be better suited to answer those question Commander, from a tactical standpoint we have lost nearly a quarter of our phaser arrays, while some may not be destroyed the damage has rendered them almost unusable. Lt. Bradshaw has informed me that on estimates, assuming that damage is only contained in the missing area, repairs should take 2 months if they have a spare nacelle available."

"I assume if they do not that they will find one." Annika chuckled a little, shaking her head. "It does seem to be the trend for the Array. Is there any way of making the currently unusable phaser banks useful again?"

"No, the subsystem damage is extensive to the targeting suites and even if they were without Lt Bradshaw signing off on it there is no way to know if its safe to use them. I'm no engineer but I know weapons, its risky at best to use one in a damaged state, cause more injury to yourself than the enemy." I replied answering the question. "I doubt the Array will have any supplies for us since its a decontamination array only."

"We'll see what we can do. They might have to become more than that, as if we power down..." leaving the phrase unsaid she tapped her lips with one finger. "Well, once we get decontaminated, I would like you to run diagnostics on each one individually. We might have some that are easy to repair, or not actually damaged."

"We will need clearance from the array that we have been cleared and from Lt. Bradshaw that the systems are safe to diagnose. That is also assuming that SFE doesn't want to crawl all over the ship too, the Ascensions are fresh off the block they are no doubt going to want to peek around, not much we can do about it if they do." I replied. Testing all 26 phasers, not a problem but considering what happened we'd need ever I, ever T dotted and crossed or we may never see space again.

"Yes, yes of course. As far as I am concerned you have permission to do so. " Licking her dry lips she glanced across her desk at the other man. "As for SFE, we'll deal with that when the time comes."

"Yes Commander." Seemed like a fair enough answer to me, could only wait really anyway.

Off:

Commander Anika Yashui
Executive Officer
USS Dreadnought

&

Commander Mark Bawden
Chief Tactical Officer
USS Dreadnought

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