Lt. Ryan Horn:"Going all in"
Mike Walberg
((Main Bridge - Deck 1, USS Columbia))
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.
G’Renn: Are they in range for visual contact yet?
Colquhoun: They’re within viewing range, sir.
Duyzer: ?
Colquhoun: Aye aye, sir. ::his fingers flicked across the console::
::The alien ship appeared on the viewscreen. It was fairly close to what the Losarian intelligence had described. He couldn't believe the look of it. It had no shortage of weapon encampments on its surface, and a large unwieldy drill. The power requirements for the ship must be insane, especially when considering they were maintaining the cloak as they fired. ::
Kano: By the prophets that's…
::Another volley of disruptor fire rocked the ship, but Ryan was already gripping the console and managed to rock with the ship. What was more concerning was the rate of the shields dropping. It was far more than he'd expected from the intelligence.. and quite concerning. ::
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: ?
Horn: Compensating on shields. Repair crews are en route.
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.
Colquhoun: Enemy’s shields are holding, I’m unable to assess how much damage that did.
Duyzer: ?
:: The acting Chief engineer attempted to identify the impact, or lack their phasers had on the ship. The details came back quickly, but.. were not what he'd expected. ::
Horn: Sensors are showing.. wait.. What…
Kano: Its going to ram us.
Any: ?
Kano: Yes sir, I'll lead the breach defence team.
Kano: ::Tapping her com-badge:: =/\= defence teams report to deck 12. =/\=
Colquhoun: Good luck, ensign.
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: ?
Any: ?
:: Recognizing the phase signature, Ryan tried to come up with something, but was quickly running out of ideas. ::
Horn: 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: ?
G’Renn: How might we take advantage of having that variance?
Horn: Optimally, if we could fire a torpedo, phased at their original variance, behind them.. and then detonated it? I would expect it would prevent them from cloaking for a time, and likely do far more damage than normal. :: He shook his head:: But that would take time to setup.
Duyzer: ?
Any: ?
Horn: Inner shields are configured and holding to keep out any boarders, but as soon as they notice.. they are going to drop them quickly as well. Not sure what the right choice is, but we don't have a lot of time to make it..
Any: ?
G’Renn: How long would it take to configure a torpedo to fire it at the proper phase variance?
:: This kind of time crunch was more than even he was used to. Were they expecting him to perform magic?!? He took a quick breath to calm himself before giving a more rational answer. ::
Horn: I could configure one fairly quickly, perhaps five or ten minutes. :: He gestured to the screen:: Assuming nothing else breaks..and we fire the torpedo manually.
Any: ?
G’Renn: I believe it might be worth a shot, sir.
Duyzer: ?
Any: ?
::The ship shook as the Ya-Grhan ship let out another series of disruptor shots. Half a second later, there was another impact. But something very specific caught Anath’s attention. Despite Junu doing his best to carry out evasive maneuvers, the shaking of the ship seemed to originate from the same spot both times.::
G’Renn: It seems like they are focusing fire on a particular section. ::She glanced back at the tactical officer.:: Are they trying to bring down a section of shielding?
Horn: They've dropped external shields and internal. Looks like we have multiple hull breaches on Deck 12.
Colquhoun/Duyzer: ?
Horn: Anything I can do to raise the shields at this point is at best slowing them down. Their disruptors are carving them down as quickly as I work to shift emitters or reroute power.
Colquhoun/Duyzer/Any: ?
:: They couldn't run, it'd leave the people on the surface at the Ya-Grhan's mercies, fighting them wasn't working.. what was left? :: Horn: Sir, I have a horrible idea. What if we blew up the ship?
Colquhoun/Duyzer/Any: ?
Horn: I'm not thinking to literally do so. But we need to stall for time, and prevent the boarders on the ship from doing who knows what. But if we were to send an urgent message to the Captain, and echo the message to the decks they are boarding on.. well a warp core breach would destroy their ship too.. they'd need to back off or risk it.
Colquhoun/Duyzer/Any: ?
Horn: If you can't win, bluff and hope. :: He chuckled softly:: Not saying it's not a horrible idea. But on the plus side, they likely wouldn't see it coming.
Colquhoun/Duyzer/Any: ? (tag)