Drums of War (Part 9)

ORIGINAL WRITING This page was originally published elsewhere as part of a joint sim or fleet effort. It has been duplicated here for posterity.

Characters:	Captain Brian DuCard
Location:	USS Maketu, Saber Class
Date:	August 2388
Author:	Kai
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“You’re frakking kidding right?” Captain Brian DuCard launched his data PADD across the small bridge of the Saber-class ship he commanded and watched it shatter on the port site wall as those on the bridge of the small ship grimaced and exchanged concerned glances with each other at the irate expression of emotion their commanding officer displayed.

“It would appear not Captain, no,” came the retort of the ships Vulcan Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Commander Torvik, who doubled as the Captain’s executive officer and advisor. “Commodore O’Connell’s words were quite clear and our targets defined.”

“It’s god damn suicide, Torvik!” DuCard fumed as he rose from his chair. The ship was at warp and would not be there for long as they headed to their target. The Brazil, a Galaxy-class starship, was a big enough target for a Saber-class ship like the Maketu but to target the Tiananmen too? Crazy. A Galaxy as a target was a bad to die. An Excalibur like the Tiananmen? Pretty crappy day to die. It was no wonder that the Captain was somewhat ‘annoyed” at the orders he had received.

“Regardless sir, those are our orders,” Torvik told as he returned to his station at the side of the room and completed the weapons readiness protocols to ensure the ship was combat ready for when they came out of warp.

DuCard strolled a few laps of the bridge of the Maketu, deep in thought as he often did until he reached his command seat again and sat down. That was a sign for his crew that the thinking was done and it was time to act. “Display firing arc of the Tiananmen’s weapons system and identify any potential blind spots.” Soon enough, a schematic of the Excalibur-class ship appeared with overlay after overlay of the different weapons systems. “Give me your eyes,” the Captain called, signalling for everyone to glance over the schematics.

The Excalibur was a beast, there was no other way to describe it. But every beast had its weakness, someone just needed to spot it. The ships helmsman obliged.

“There,” pointed Lieutenant Thalia tr’Survek, the Andorian’s antennae moving upon the top of her head. The spot the woman pointed at was directly between the two massive nacelles of the ship and it was the place where the ships weapons arcs overlapped the least, and therefore the place the Maketu could most likely survive the longest.

“We’ll come out of warp as close as possible, position our self as best as possible and batter her nacelles. If we can cause enough damage, we can disable her, but we are the only ship that can get close enough to do this,” DuCard spoke, his gruff voice quite quiet as he formulated the plan in his head as he went along. It made sense to him and he trusted his crew enough to tell him if they had any issues or spotted a flaw in it. They remained silent, even the Vulcan.

Flashes of light signalled the arrival of the loyalist combat group arriving in position and within seconds of dropping from warp lances of orange phased energy began to streak through space as torpedo shaped bolts of lightning hurtled in the direction of different targets as the two enemy forces clashed in what was sure to be an eternal struggle for supremacy. The larger less mobile vessels of the different factions took hit after hit as their advanced shields absorbed the brunt of the weapons fire. This allowed the smaller vessels to manoeuvre in and out of the fighting, dodging volley after volley of phaser and torpedo fire, the Maketu itself moving into the position that the Captain had ordered.

Closing in on the warp nacelles of the starship Tiananmen, the Maketu began to launch volley after volley of phaser fire at the shielded area in an effort to make the engines of the massive Excalibur vulnerable to torpedo fire.

At first, the much smaller Saber avoided any retaliatory weapons fire until the aft torpedo bays began to launch a hail of orange orbs in the small crafts direction, forcing them to abandon their plan. From then on, Captain DuCard didn’t need years of experience to tell him the outcome of this particular battle. With the ship at maximum impulse, the Maketu sped between the different vessels of the engaging forces, her shields lighting up every time a beam of phaser fire impacted them.

On the bridge of the small ship consoles began to explode, shards of debris hurtling in every direction and sparks showering those in place. As a medical team escorted the injured from the command centre, DuCard remained resolute in his command chair, gripping the arms of the trademark duty station of the ships commanding officer. With another explosion ripping through the port side shields the Captain was sent tumbling from his chair. When he eventually came too again and pulled himself up, smoke was filling the bridge and a fire raging. The viewscreen was showing nothing but a static filled display with the occasional glimpse of the fire fight occurring outside. With blood dripping down his left cheek from a wound on his forehead, the Captain collapsed into his chair, the ship shaking all around him. On the viewer before him the static subsided just long enough for him to spy the torpedo hurtling towards his ship.

With a deep breath, the Captain muttered a few words under his breath and closed his eyes tight…

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Accreditation

This post was originally written by Kai for Bravo Fleet and posted on the Bravo Fleet forums. Use of Bravo Fleet's Drums of War (Part 9) is permitted under the Creative Commons 4.0 License and has been modified to suit the story and purposes of the USS Black Hawk Star Trek Role-Playing Simulation.