Dramatic SFB: Convoy Escort gone wrong

[Charles Carroll]

#2913 Convoy Raid

The day started out like usual. With the admiral drunk. Annoyed yet again
at having his ship guarding a stupid convoy. All because he mentioned
something about the Grand Admirals Wife's outfit looking like something a
Orion Slave Girl would wear. I mean really...it was just a joke. He drug
himself out of bed...wondering why he was awake...as he got to the bathroom
the intercom alert came on again making his head pound even more than it
had been. He wandered on into the bathroom..ignoring what was probably the
third time it had gone off...and climbed in the shower.

As he tried to wash all the pain in his head away...and it was finally
starting to feel better...he heard a knock on his bathroom door. "Admiral",
a rather frantic voice cried out. "They need you on the Bridge right away."
Muttering to himself he turned the water off...dried himself off....then
yelled through the door. "Go away!!!". And he heard whoever it was wander
off. He got his underwear on...correctly...on his second try. And was
working on getting his shirt over his head when someone started banging on
his bathroom door again. He got the shirt pulled down and staggered over to
the door throwing it open. His Executive Officer Alionus Pontious...starred
at her Commanding Admiral with a look of horror on her face.

"What, never seen a man in without his pants?" The Admiral
exclaimed...rather amused at his humor. "Admiral", she replied. "Per your
standing order to never again take any action involving alerts or weapons
status, your presence is needed on the bridge immediately"! He looked at
her..."What the Hell for??? Nothing ever happens on this God Forsaken
Mission. Another Free Trader cant find his ship?" Again he was amused at
his outstanding wit.

With as proper a face as she could maintain, she replied. "No Admiral. It
would be more in line with what we have been trying for the last 15 minutes
to get you to come see and that would be the Federation Heavy Command
Cruiser and the 4 ships accompanying it that are coming in weapons hot and
loaded for Us it seems. SIR" The look she gave him may have been slightly
less than polite for a subordinate officer.

The Admirals mouth fell open...and he grabbed his pants as he staggered off
to the lift tube. He raced onto the bridge and realized just how badly he
had messed up. But...he knew if he just retreated. He would never live it
down. So he made a hasty...possibly ill advised decision to stay and fight
for a turn...launch some torps...and prove he had not just turned tail and
run. This was known from ancient days as showing the flag.

"Red Alert"...he commanded...wincing as the alarms began to blare and his
head started really pounding. "Bring all ships to battle stations. Prepare
to launch torpedoes." "Um....Sir...we do not have any torpedoes ready to
launch other than the Fs that are always on hold. Remember you said not to
bother charging anything. They wouldn't be needed." "He grabbed his
head...turned and called out. "Someone shut that damn Alarm off...I can't
think." Mercifully, silence returned to the Bridge. "Fine...then launch the
Fighters...they can hold them off while we charge the torpedoes. And
prepare to fire phasers." "His weapons officer looked like he was
swallowing something truly disgusting as he replied. "Sir...again per your
orders. All fighters are off duty, none are prepped and the phaser banks
are just on warm. No energy is in them at all."

This day is just getting worse and worse he thought. "Ok...bring us to top
speed." Um....that will also take a bit sir...we have half the panels
broken down for maintenance. As you instructed."
"Well do what you can and lets speed up some. Keep pace with the Free
Traders and lets look like we are prepared. Have the Frigates increase
speed and the Malinius stay with us and someone get those fighters armed
and crewed and get the torps charging and phasers loaded."

So as the turn began...He realized just how bad this was about to go as the
Incoming Feds came running close to their max speed. He could not begin to
outrun them. And he knew. Someone...was not going to make it home.

The turn went as expected....he tried to keep range. But the Feds just
relentlessly closed. And closed...and Closed....(Jaws music plays in the
background.)

They got to range 8 on his Frigate Crassius and he just knew it was dead.
But no...they seemed to ignore it. Hmmmm...wonder why...then they got to
range 8 on his ship. The Gladius...and the lead ship the Lexington unloaded
an alpha strike into his #3...which had slipped unnoticed...to that shield
just....now. Fortunately...a lot of damage missed. And he took only 54.
Blocking 3 with batteries. Internals were not great...but he lost just a
torp, and 3 phasers. And 6 warp and half his impulse. He immediately
ordered a HET to bring new shields to bear.

He launched all the Free Traders D torpedoes. and had 4 Fs launch at the
BC. The BC turned off. The rest closed. Amd a few impulses later as they
got to range 5 of the Crassius. Unloaded into his rear shield since all
ships were now running away. Doing 49 damage to a 20 point shield. Crassius
handled it ok...and continued trying to escape...bringing his cloak on
line. Then more ships fired. And another 44 damage through the down shield.
Crassius ceased to exist.

At this point the Feds satisfied with how things were going turned off from
the pursuing plasma.
Leaving the swarm of drones they had put out at long range...slowly closing
on the Romulans at speed 20.

As the turn ended...the Romulans announced they were done with this...and
abandoned their Free Traders. As they advanced at high speed to the
rear...Admiral Mcree was already thinking his name would from now on be
known as Pants Down Mcree.

So ended the rather abysmal showing of this particular Romulan Fleet.

Chuck
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