"Operational Tricks"
Previous Post: "Things Are Never As They Seem To Be…"
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Stardate: 60298.1452
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Bridge
Approaching the area that would become the battleground between the Dragon-Class Battleship and the Scarab-Class Intel vessel with great caution, the extent of the Breen's deception became increasingly clear thanks to the sophisticated array of sensors available to the Federation officers. No one in their right mind would have gone rushing in to meet the ship that they had picked up on the edge of the system, not unless they had the backup support of an entire fleet of battle ready troops, and as the ANUBIS reduced the distance between the immense sensor shadow and themselves, the menacing Dragon they were expecting to find slowly turned into nothing more than an illusion meant to scare more than anything else.
Counting on their reputation and the impression that their ship would give once it had come out of warp speed, the Breen had probably expected that all of the ships in orbit of TOLAR IV would proceed with a hasty retreat the moment the Dragon-Class ship appeared. The Ferengi had done just that even though they had outnumbered the Breen ship 2-to-1, making the Romulan/Terran hybrid suspect that the reason why the Orion scout had made a visible change of course while trying to stay ahead of the Hirogen had been for this same reason. Dealing with the bloodthirsty hunters had been more than enough for the smaller ship, so they had likely not wanted to make matters worse for themselves by getting too close to what they believed to be a Breen battleship.
Suspecting that no one else had figured this little trickery out based on the technology available to them, the COO was perplexed by the lack of reaction observed from the Cardassian ship, true its antiquated sensors were nowhere as high-powered as those of the ANUBIS, but surely would have been enough to allow the Galor-Class ship to detect the Breen by now. So why had they done nothing? Even if possessing the most basic of tactical knowledge, those in command of the Cardassian ship should have reacted in some way to avoid becoming a sitting duck. The Gul had been observed bluffing his position against the Ferengi, and the Romulan/Terran hybrid began to wonder if the same thing had been happening against the Breen. It was either that of the Cardassian Gul actual held something in his grasp that made him believe that he could win such a confrontation.
Returning her focus to the tasks at hand, the COO resumed monitoring the movements of what their sensors could barely identify as a Dragon-Class Breen battleship now. Their proximity to the source of the energy field made it increasingly less effective, a fact that was made clear to everyone when the XO made her report from the IGC. =/\= Rikar to bridge, it took a little time but we did it, we pierced the energy field. The ship emitting it is nothing more than a Breen Frigate with a crew compliment of maybe 30 officers. Unless they have sacrificed all of their cargo containment capabilities, there should not be any more troops on board. =/\=
The Sec/Tac jumped in immediately on the tail of the XO's report, adding his own perspective on the situation. "Even if the Breen only matched the number of Cardassians troop on the planet, they would have a distinct field advantage since TOLAR IV is the kind of world those faceless things live in. Allowing them to reach the planet would not make things any easier for us."
Nodding his agreement, the CO moved to the edge of his seat contemplating all of the possibilities available to him. They had come here ready for a fight that they would be talking about for weeks afterwards but if they could resolve the situation without actually destroying the Breen ship Captain Simmons would be more than pleased. "Lt. Seth, have they detected us?"
Looking at his instruments, the Sec/Tac officer shook his head, "Negative, the field interference is such that I doubt they would be able to detect us at this distance ever if we had our cloaking armor off."
Quickly turning to face the back of the bridge, the CO presented the CEO and CSciO with a theory that he had based on his own knowledge of engineer. "David, Maya, would it be possible to have that energy field create a feedback pulse back to that Breen frigate?"
Scratching the back of his bald head, the CEO thought carefully about what the Captain had just proposed before giving his reply. "With an energy field of that magnitude it should be easy to cause some sort of feedback, but it would require a great deal of power from our side. I doubt that even the pulse cannons would be able to pull that off since the energy would be too highly focus, and if we modified the phasers to fire a wide spread shot, the strength of the beams would likely be too weak."
Looking as if she had thought of something else, the CSciO began to work at her science station like the mad scientist that some of the crew believed her to be. "The problem is to hit the energy field with sufficient energy to create a feedback, but our problem is that we would either have enough power and not enough surface area or the opposite, enough area and not enough power. What if we combined the ship's largest surface with the required power to make this work?"
Staring at the CSciO as if the floor had been pulled from under him, the CEO hesitated for a moment before confronting the Shillian with her ramblings. "What are you talking about? The largest surface area this ship has is its shields, and there would be no way to shunt that much power into them without making ourselves glow like a star about to go supernova and blow every relay on board the ship.
Smiling in a way that the CSciO had not been accustomed to being seen doing, Maya turned back to look at their CO to clarify the plan that she had devised. "Being made of energy, the shields do not actually have a physical area; I was referring to the ship's external hull. In theory we should be able to divert more than enough power to the ablative armor itself leaving us with the simple task of bringing the ANUBIS in contact with the energy field to create the desired feedback."
Looking as if he had been hit by the proverbial starship, the CEO gazed wide eyed at the CSciO unable to put into words the shock and surprise he felt after having heard what he had. Eventually david managed a few words that barely scratch the surface of what he was thinking, "Are you nuts!"
Intrigued by what Maya had suggested, the CO turned to the ANUBIS' CEO. "David, could we do it?"
Not willing to tell the Captain that he could not do something, even if it was a task as ludicrous as the one mentioned by Maya, the CEO nodded hesitantly. "It could be done with a lot of time and some major recalibrating of the internal energy distribution systems."
Grinning, the CO looked at the two officers at the back of the bridge, "can it be done before the Breen reach TOLAR IV?"
Never having been one to refuse a challenge, and confident that the CSciO would not have proposed something that she had not been certain they would be able to do, David nodded once again before receiving the go ahead of their Captain who turned back to face the front of the command deck. "Lt. Serenna, please assist Lt. Dawson and Lt. Maya. I have the feeling that they will need all of the help they can get."
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Serena Switt {serena1141@yahoo.com.au}
Lieutenant Serenna
Chief of Operations / Second Officer
USS ANUBIS
