<div dir="ltr">Nice wright up</div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Sep 4, 2021 at 1:34 AM Matt via SFBdrama <<a href="mailto:sfbdrama@lists.mattnet.org">sfbdrama@lists.mattnet.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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"Drop out of high warp, Navigator." The captain of the light
strike cruiser <i>Taranto</i> said. <br>
<p>"Aye sir. We have dropped out of high warp. Now traveling at
warp three point zero", the navigator replied smartly. Now that
the main sensors weren't addled by the energy required to travel
so fast, other stations around the bridge were reporting.</p>
<p>"270,000 miles from the Hydran colony." A gaseous planet with a
green atmosphere, rich in methane, hung in the display at the
captain's elbow.</p>
<p>Fire control signals began to wash the metal-hulled Jindarian
ship. "Sir! Several orbital defenses are present. I see half a
constellation of defense satellites, a small commercial base,
and a ship."</p>
<p>"Sir, the ship has the warp signature of a cruiser -- she
appears to be a command cruiser!"</p>
<p>"The base is hailing us. It's a system activity base, and we
found our target planet."<br>
</p>
<p>"Give her no reply" The captain said.</p>
<p>"The ship is speeding up, sir."</p>
<p>"So much for a quick in-and-out raid", the captain thought and
then he smiled. <i>Time to dance among the stars</i>.</p>
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<p><br>
</p>
<p>The captain began laying out his plan to the crew manning the
stations around him. "Helm", the captain said. "I want high speed
until we get to about 150 K-miles, then slow down and pop the
drogue." "Tactical, that ship is going to make a lot of trouble
for us. Hydrans like to charge. I want you to hit it in the nose
and keep hitting it. Stay off the flanks." "Sensors. I expect them
to make a lot of noise. Particularly that base of theirs. For this
approach, I want you to cut through it. Give tactical their edge.
We'll see if they have the power for it later."</p>
<p>The bridge was briefly filled with a chorus of "Aye." "Helm," the
captain returned to her, "Stay out of overload range. That ship is
going to accelerate like a space banshee. Stay ahead of it so
tactical can smack them around. Don't you let them smack us
around."</p>
<p>The <i>Taranto</i> kept up just a touch below her entry speed
while the Hydran swung wide around the planet and then took on a
bearing to intercept the raider. The Jindarian ship curved around
to centerline the system activity monitoring base. The Hydran ship
also curved her course to come in ahead of the Jindarian.<br>
</p>
<p>Just as the <i>Taranto</i> reached 150,000 miles to the base,
she slowed down to warp 2.3 and a tethered drogue slide out of the
hatch. The base activated it's specialized sensors to blanket the
<i>Taranto</i> with subspace static. The computers on the drogue
analyzed the patterns in the static and were able to pull the
truth from the randomness. Feeding the signals-analysis back to
the <i>Taranto</i>, fire control firmed up again.</p>
<p>But the Hydran ship was getting to close. The <i>Taranto</i>
swung steeply across the defender's bow. One of the orbitals spat
a hellbore at the raider and a pair of phasers lanced out from the
defender. The hellbore arrived half a second before the phasers
and warmed the shields without finding a weakness to focus on. The
phasers created the weakness on the Taranto's port flank, but only
for later shots. The <i>Taranto</i> bucked as she fired a rail
gun at the defender, hit, and scored half damage against the
forward shield through the reinforcement.</p>
<p>Now the two were far to close for the captain's plans. The helm
officer had waited a second or two too late to perform her swing
away from threatening the orbitals, and now was well within
overload range with the Hydran. Fortunately, the Hydran captain
must not have expected the <i>Taranto</i> to engage as closely
and had not pumped the extra power to the torpedoes.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the raider did not care to be so close to so
powerful an adversary. She brought in the drogue and sped up a
touch. Another orbital fired their hellbore while the defender
added another pair of phasers. The <i>Taranto</i> bucked as the
weakened shield became moreso. Making the best of the unexpected
range, the raider returned fire with her full phaser array and
further damaged the Hydran's forward shielding.</p>
<p>The two ships were engaged in a furious knife fight as moments
later, the defending ship fired a hellbore and more phasers. The
hellbore missed but the phasers continued to weaken the
already-damaged shield of the Jindarian. The raider kicked again
as a second meteorite streaked out and collided with the Hydran's
nose. Moments later, another ship-borne hellbore struck the
fleeing raider. That weakened shield was down to half strength but
the Hydran's forward shielding was down to a third of it's
original strength.</p>
<p>Both ships accelerated, nearly doubling their speeds but keeping
a rough parity in distance. The defender was hampered because she
was in orbit a few minutes ago, which allowed the raider to match
the known acceleration curve. The Hydran ship was spending her
power lavishly on recharging the weapons systems used moments ago
and on her engines. This was seen by the raider when the Hydran
could no longer maintain her jamming. The Jindarian, on the other
hand, couldn't keep full reserve power and left the phasers
uncharged. Both ships were breathing heavy, in their own ways.</p>
<p>The Hydran turned slightly, to bring her last hellbore into play.
The Jindarian ship shuddered as three hydran phasers played along
a new shield and then the hellbore struck again. Only the use of
reserve power was keeping the Hydran fire from knocking down that
shield. The jindarian weapon's officer was doing a good job,
though, as yet another rail gun sent a collection of rocks into
the Hydran's front. That shield was now a hair's breadth from
folding.</p>
<p>Both ships had exhausted their weapons systems and streaked
out-system. The Hydran was trying to keep up with the Jindarian,
who was trying to open the range. Very quickly, the Jindarian was
approaching the point where the defending ship would chase her
right out of the system!</p>
<p>The Hydran accelerated again, to warp 3, while the Jindarian
pushed her speed all the way to 3.15. At these speeds, the Hydran
only loaded one weapon so that she could protect that faltering
shield. The Jindarian could only load half her rail guns and could
not reload the phasers. To make up the lack, the Hydran launched
her Stinger fighters and tried to bracket her quarry. The <i>Taranto</i>
reached as far as she was willing to go from the planet and begun
to swing around.</p>
<p>As the opportunity allowed, she fired another rail gun at her
adversary, but the energy was completely absorbed by the
reinforcing energy. Later, the raider was able to repeat the
attack and scored a hit. Rock at superluminal velocities sliced
through the protective energy field and slowed only enough to keep
the resulting collisions from being catastrophic. The Hydran took
hits on all of their forward weapon systems. Overloads in the
power grid damaged the warp engines. an instant before, the Hydran
fired her only charged hellbore and hit the Jindarian with a flare
of energy. Reserve power again slowed the erosion of the
Jindarian's weak flank shield.</p>
<p>The two ships streaked along at about 450,000 miles from the
planet that anchored them together. For many seconds, the two were
maintaining a distance of about 100,000 miles. Suddenly the <i>Taranto</i>
pulled into a wrenching turn that put her pursuer going the wrong
direction to keep up. Knowing that the Hydran could not perform
the same trick at the speeds they were going, the Jindarian opened
the range again and forced the defender to sweep around. For a
moment, the helm officer of the <i>Taranto</i> played with
staying on the Hydran's flank. She was reminded otherwise when the
Hydran fired several phasers into the Jindarian's weak shield.
Afterward, the Taranto flew away from the defending ship, which
took them into range of the long-suffering and wholly-abandoned
Stinger fighters. Those fighters had their day, firing a full
alpha-strike at 100,000 miles and severely weakening the <i>Taranto</i>'s
front shield. Without the phasers to deal with them properly, the
raider simply allowed them to be left behind the speeding ship. <br>
</p>
<p>The Hydran slowed down, having expected things to go quite
different than the sharp turn the Jindarian made. The raider used
her speed to keep the distance comfortably outside of overload
range and traded shots with her adversary. The hellbore hit and
the rail gun did not. This time the mushy medicine-ball feeling of
the shields absorbing another smothering hellbore was punctuated
by an explosion in the right engine-deck. A moment later, the
Taranto fired another rail gun at the Hydran and missed.</p>
<p>With her shields beginning to fail and facing a ship that is
technically two ship-classifications larger, the light strike
cruiser <i>Taranto</i> reached for the orbital limit. Having
achieved it, she dropped into high-warp and was gone. At the end,
she failed to raid the colony but succeded in harassing the Hydran
forces. The defending Hydran ship is going to spend a couple of
weeks in the dockyards, getting her weapons repaired.</p>
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