LtJG Jovenan – You take fries with those fried sensors?
Jovenan
((Bridge, USS Artemis))
Yalu: Target their sensors and prepare to fire.
Silveira: Target acquired, I can’t guarantee a clear precision shot on their systems though. Computer point to a 40 percent plus chance of success. Targeting difficult.
The klaxon of red alert rang on the bridge as they flew across the dust clouds towards their opponent. They didn’t have a solid visual on them yet, but the neutrino pulses had revealed their approximate location. Now they had to hope the Berlin hadn’t noticed the probes yet.
Lt Silveira didn’t lie. Scanning absolutely anything in the Nebula was difficult, but the Berlin seemed like it was transparent, only partially there. If Jovenan hadn’t been so nervous of the situation, she might had found humour in describing her friends’ ship the same way Starfleet spoke of the God of her people when they first had contact with them. Instead, she focused and found the reason for the Berlin’s divine-like powers.
Jovenan: Their shield resonance is close to that of the plasma flares! They’re trying to hide, locating them exactly and aiming will be difficult. I’m trying to compensate!
Silveira: Get my eyes on target Lieutenant. I can't fix a lock on their systems.
oO I’m trying! Oo
Operating sensors – beyond navigational and tactical ones, at least – often fell to the science division, but on days like these, Jovenan was happy that she had taken the ComOps minor at the Academy. That being said, she regretted not taking more Engineering courses. Those might have been handy.
Vedic: Diverting remaining auxiliary power to sensors, Commander.
Yalu: ::to Vedic:: Good work, Ensign. Reduce power to non-essential decks if necessary.
Thank you, Kole.
Jovenan: I can’t do much to counter their shield resonance shift, but I’m initiating short range multiphasic scan to reduce the interference between us and them.
Kader/MacKenzie: response
Kole’s extra power helped both scientific and tactical sensors, but it seemed that they were still falling short. Lt Silveira must be struggling with the tactical console. They might need to fire by hand.
Silveira: I don’t want to waste this chance, permission to fire? I have a crazy idea.
Oh no.
Yalu: ::nods:: Take your best shot, Lieutenant. Let’s get crazy.
Oh no!
MacKenzie: response
The launchers let out a valley of torpedoes, shining bright in space but quickly disappearing within the Nebula’s dust and plasma currents. The arc was quite large, Silveira was shooting practically everywhere except for where they had come from. What was that for?
Silveira: Torpedoes away. Dozen wide spread in a 220 degree angle ahead from our position. I am going to detonate them, tell me if we hit something.
Jovenan perked up. That order was given to her and Kole.
Vedic: Remote detonation armed and ready.
It would take a few dozen seconds for the torpedoes to reach a point where they might damage to the Berlin. But detonating them too early or too late would do no good. Patience.
Yalu: Status?
She knew how fast the torpedoes could move within the medium. She knew how far the Berlin approximately was. It was a game of probabilities, but most probability distributions had a local supremum.
Jovenan: Torpedoes reaching the optimal position in… eleven seconds!
Kader/MacKenzie: response
Silveira: Detonating in three, two, one… Fire in the hole.
The ship shook mildly as the shockwave from the detonations travelled in the dust and gas around them. Again, something they should consider when fighting in a cloud instead of open space.
Silveira: Phasers ready for a counter attack, tell me you got something from my torpedo probes?
Vedic: Two failed to detonate, sir. And the explosion took out one of the probes as well. ::looking at Jovenan:: Sending the remaining two’s data of the torpedo detonation to you, Lieutenant.
Oof. Those were good planetary probes. She turned back to her console and tried analysing the data they were receiving.
Jovenan: Umm… The Berlin’s shields fluctuated right after the detonation. We hit them!
She was happy that their drill was turning into a success for them, but she also felt sad thinking how her friends on the Berlin might be panicking or even hurt. It wasn’t fun shooting your own friends, or anyone else for that matter.
Yalu: Status of Berlin? Did we at least manage to take out her sensors? Or even hit her at all?
Silveira / MacKenzie: response
Yalu: Berlin have full power to their aft shields. We won’t land another hit from our position. ::to Kader:: Ensign, what do you recommend?
Kader: response
Yalu: Let’s do it.
A violent shock. Jovenan hadn’t expected it nor braced for impact, and lost her balance, hitting her right shoulder to the console. It ached, continuing to do so in pulses, but she could get up, and, upon inspection, her combadge remained green. What was that!?
Yalu: What happened to the shields?
Oh no.
Jovenan: Uhh… I don’t… I’m not sure, our systems are going haywire! It looks like one of the torpedoes hit too close a plasma stream and caused a magnetic imbalance. We were hit by a plasma ejection wake.
Vedic: Response
Yalu: If we don’t get them back, we’ll have no way to keep Berlin from transporting over a boarding party.
Oh no…
MacKenzie/Savel/Silveira: Response
Her interface was full of seemingly random numbers. The data stream from the sensors had been almost continuous, but the figures she received made little sense. It didn’t take long for her to recognise white noise over her data.
Jovenan: The plasma wake fried some of our primary sensors! Switching to secondary!
Kader/Vedic/Yalu: Response
Jovenan: I recommend moving slowly from now on. I can’t guarantee we can spot all hazards if we move fast. Going the same route we came in is the only safe direction until the sensor pod gets fixed.
This could turn out to be a very bad day for them.
MacKenzie/Yalu/Savel/Silveira/Vedic/Kader: Response
TAG/TBC
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Lieutenant JG Jovenan
Science officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11