Lt. Ryan Horn: "If we had a little time.. I've got a great idea!"
Mike Walberg
((Bridge - Deck 1, USS Columbia))
Duyzer: It’s time, then. ::he moved to the helm, looking over the Saurian’s shoulder:: We’re moving into the tundra orbit. We want to hover above the colony, but let’s try to hide from their sensors as much as possible as well. Make use of the planet’s magneticity, ensign.
Junu: Aye, sir.
Duyzer: Slow and steady. ::he smiled and looked over his shoulder:: Ensign Kano, I want you to keep monitoring our orbit, and especially the colony. If the jamming signal was coming from the espers, we definitely want to keep an eye on them while we deal with these Ya-Grhan. Also, ::beat:: try to see if we can possibly re-establish communications with the away team.
Kano: Yes sir. ::She paused.:: I'll get started now.
Duyzer: ::he turned around, away from the viewscreen, as he continued:: Colquhoun, Horn, we’re going to send this communication. I want it to be text-only; we want to make this appear as a regular, not at all special in any kind of way, automatic transmission. I agree with mister Colquhoun, let’s send this out in a range of point eight. ::beat:: Monitor all variances, we want to know when they respond, of course.
Colquhoun: Aye, sir. I’ve kept our passive monitoring at that band. I’ll switch to active monitoring after they’ve made the first move.
Horn: Setting it to be on an automatic repeat. Should be similar enough to a distress beacon to at least get their attention. oO What they do with it is the real question though Oo
Duyzer: Ensign Owens, since we’re moving into orbit we won’t be able to monitor the Ya-Grhan ship using the method we’ve been using. I’d really like to know their location, though. Would there maybe be a way to circumvent the magnetic disturbances, or compensate for them in our scanning?
Owens: ?
Duyzer: ::he returned to his seat, and approached G’Renn:: Doctor, ::he said, quietly:: how do you feel about the situation down there? It seems the captain had a lot of faith in these espers… And now our communications are jammed. ::beat:: I don’t know.
G’Renn: ?
Duyzer: I agree, but- ::his voice was overwhelmed by a sudden wailing sound::
:: James grimaced as the automatic alert system kicked on, the Bridge suddenly aglow in pulsating red. His eyes confirmed, a split second later, what triggered the alert. ::
Colquhoun: Sir, the Ya-Grhan ship has pinged within one million kilometers of us. They’re still out of variance with us. ::beat:: But I don’t think that’ll last.
Duyzer: Well, I’m glad we could detect them. ::he smiled thankfully to lieutenant Owens:: Alright, people. Stay alert.
G’Renn: ?
Kano: Sir, although I've not found the source of the jamming signal its definitely not coming from the planet. It's got to be from the Ya-Grhan ship.
Any: ?
Duyzer: Any sign of a response from the Ya-Grhan already?
Horn: No sir. Nothing to indicate they are sending anything out on any band.
Duyzer: Is there even a way to confirm they got our message, then?
Horn: No Sir. Even if they weren't out of phase, it would be nearly impossible to tell without some response.
:: Ryan shook his head in disbelief. The concept that someone would simply attack without any attempt at communication was completely foreign to him. ::
Duyzer: ?
Kano: I still cant get communications with the planet. ::She looked back at the console.:: the jamming signal is definitely coming from the Ya-Grhan ship. ::pausing:: it looks like as they phase closer to normal space, the jamming signal is getting stronger.
Horn: oO Wait.. for them to jam us, they need to be sending out some form of energy across the phase variance. And that would be different than recent scans... Oo
:: Excited, he turned to his console, fingers flying as he focused on the problem at hand. ::
Colquhoun: It appears they’ve started some sort of phase shift, they might be decloaking if I’m reading this right. Let’s stay ready.
Colquhoun: Sir, we’ve officially got company.
Duyzer: ?
::His words were cut off as the ship shuddered and rocked, James held onto his console reading it as it started to feed him data. ::
Duyzer: ?
Colquhoun: Outer shields holding at 70%. Looks like disruptor pulse fire.
Horn: Inner shields weren't touched. If they act as expected, it'll be enough to keep us from being boarded. :: He didn't want to raise any hopes, but Ryan was fairly certain he was closing in on the phase they'd decloaked from. ::
Kano: The Ya-Grhan have attacked us.
Any: ?
Colquhoun: They’re within viewing range, sir.
Duyzer: ?
Colquhoun: Aye aye, sir. ::his fingers flicked across the console::
::The viewscreen came to life as the Ya-Grhan ship materialised on screen. James glanced up to verify and gets eyes on the ship. It was certainly a warship, the alien design gave him a moment’s pause. ::
Kano: By the prophets that's...
:: Suddenly the disruptor cannons mounted on the top of the ship loosed another volley, moments later the Columbia rocked again by the impact. His fingers were a blur as he rerouted overloaded power junctions and did his best to stabilize the shields. ::
Colquhoun: Outer shields at 50%... based on the data they’re not firing a full volley. Might be testing our defenses. They’re within weapons range.
Duyzer: ?
:: Ryan's normally jovial face became a tight mask as he worked the engineering controls. Almost like a real time strategy game, he sent orders for engineers to handle various locations throughout the ship. Simultaneously, he diverted power from less required systems to begin stabilizing the shields. ::
Horn: Compensating on shields. Repair crews are en route.
:: The ship rocked again as another volley of disruptor fire hit their shields. ::
Colquhoun: I’d suggest we prepare for boarders, sir. The way this goes, shields aren’t going to hold much longer.
Duyzer/Any: ?
Colquhoun: Aye aye, sir. Firing forward phasers.
:: As he armed and fired their phasers, the viewscreen showed the orange beam firing at the Ya-Grhan ship. It connected towards the front of the ship, near the drill. The Ya-Grhan’s shields absorbed the impact. ::
Colquhoun: Enemy’s shields are holding, I’m unable to assess how much damage that did.
Duyzer: ?
Horn: Sensors are showing.. wait.. what... oO If this is right, then it'd explain why their shots are more effective and our's less. But how would a partial cloak even work? I've got to be missing something. Oo
Colquhoun: Good luck, ensign.
:: Just then the ship rattled again, sparks flew across the console that Kano had just vacated. He grimaced, looking at the damage readout. ::
Colquhoun: Sir, that volley was a bit more powerful. Outer shields down to 20%. The uplink to the torpedo bays has been fried. ::he paused, noticing Una:: Petty Officer, get me that uplink back.
Qualunque: ?
Duyzer: ?
:: Ryan turned toward the tactical officer and cocked his head to the side in confusion for a moment, before going back to his own work. ::
Horn: oO Things must be different in combat. Guess I wasn't getting to it fast enough. That last blast... if I treat the energy like a spectrum from a full phase variance to normal space.. the shift looks like it takes a microsecond which at this range means the disruptors are half passing through the shields, which is shredding them. Oo Sir. It looks like their disruptors are aligned to their phase variance systems. I think if we start firing the "chaff", it'll reduce the effectiveness of their weapons.
Duyzer: ?
Horn: Actually we do now sir. In order to jam comms, they had to send a signal from the variance they were at to us. Sending the specific variance used to all consoles. I'd expect that everything within 0.2 variance of that is going to be far more effective.
Duyzer: ?
Duyzer: ?