posted
So... has there been some attack on Starfleet Command that was omitted from my weekly intelligence briefing?
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I've been abducted into Real Life for the forseeable future. My thesis defence date has been set for December 17th; I'm afraid that the accelerated timetable means I won't be able to siddown and hack out the next question until after then. Sowwy...
posted
No problem, I just wanted to make sure we hadn't been forgotten. And to make sure that Starfleet Command hadn't been overrun by some alien enemy again -- because that would probably ruin my day somehow.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged
Valles
Ex-Member
posted
This should properly go in the Sector Beta thread, but for some reason Flare is claiming that that doesn't exist, and I don't have the energy to sort it out and put this where it should be. So it's here, which is at least close. Enjoy, I'm going to go pass out now.
Step One
A) As with Sector Alpha, define what Starfleet's priorities in this sector should be. Note the political nature of the planets in this sector have not changed, nor of the Klingons. Also, note any gaps in the information provided and where you'd want to focus your intelligence-gathering.
1.) Defend Ulia. 2.) Enforce the PD w/regards to Dawson's Planet. 3.) Improve diplomatic relations with the Driians. 4.) Maintain diplomatic relations with the Klingons.
B) Following the Dominion War, resources are stretched pretty thin, with both the Feds and the Klingons wanting to focus on the rebuilding of more important sectors. However, the Klingons do want to have a more permanent presence in here, and want to build a space-based Starbase equivalent to the one you had back in Sector Alpha (think the ones over Ty'Gokor) containing a new comm station, and to assign one Vor'cha and two B'rels to it. Likewise, Starfleet is assigning you enough resources to either upgrade the Ulian starbase to a larger facility with heavier orbital defences and Starfleet repair facilities, or to build a small outpost-like station somewhere in the sector, smaller than SB375 and with moderate defences and support facilities. Choose which option you'd like to pursue, and recommend where the Klingons should put their station. Justify your answers.
Upgrade Ulia Base, and ask the Klingons if they'd be willing to allow other parties to use their base's facilities. That being the case, and with current relations between the Empire and the Federation being so friendly, the ideal location for a base would be the Black Dwarf system. An open base there, no matter who it was officially operated by, would be of benefit to all who use the system's resources, as it could easily provide security and support as needed.
C) The ship that transported you to Sector Beta from your previous assignment is now part of the fleet you'll have to use in this sector. In addition to that ship, recommend to Starfleet what a reasonable number and breakdown of ships should be deployed to this sector to accomplish your goals, and what their primary duties will be. A fleet based on your recommendations will be assigned there AFTER the events of question two. Assume NO MORE than a dozen starships of any kind will be assigned to the sector, and that in addition to this force a number of Federation and Klingon transports will be making regular runs into and out of the sector. At present, in addition to your ship there are a small number of runabouts and auxiliary craft assigned to the Starbase. If you're joining us here without having come from Sector Alpha, you've got a generic Excelsior-class ship.
Excelsior II class, one; Epiphany. Saber Class, six; Kris, Dagger, Claymore, Tachi, Nodachi, Rapier. Steamrunner Class, two; Azland, Foglio. Intrepid Class, one; Victor. Sovereign Class, one; Drakon. - on shakedown deployment Moon Inn Class Construction vessel, one; Tasuki. (this is a concept of mine - basically, it builds orbital emplacements, subspace relays, whatever. For fellow Homeworld players, think of it as a Carrier.)
Step Two
B) Assume that the fleet you requested for Sector Beta was granted to you in full. However, it will not arrive until Question Three, although the Starbase upgrade/construction will have happened, as well as the Klingons building their Starbase where you recommended it and equipping it with their forces. Given the forces currently deployed to your sector, for the following scenarios recommend (1) what you would do, (2) what you think the Klingons would do, and (3) what you would recommend the Klingons to do, if you had the chance. The Klingons' priority is obviously to safeguard their mining investments, and their new comm array.
i) After the invasion was repulsed, the Allied forces had effectively bottled up the Driians in their Empire, where one of their planets suffered battle damage to several military and civilian targets as a result of a Klingon attempt to occupy that planet (they were repulsed). Now, elements of the Driian commercial fleet are rigging to commence mining operations in the BDS under heavy escort. The only explanation they are giving is that they need to rebuild after the war, but insist on doing it themselves.
The Klingons will sneer magnificently and ignore it. I'll grin happily and officially cheer them on, then start my spies infiltrating their empire.
ii) The people of Dawson's Planet still generally want to be left alone, and don't appreciate the bright lights in the sky as your ships run patrols in the area. Still, a loose council of their settlements has appointed an Ambassador to Ulia and to Driia, and request the Federation give them the infrastructure to communicate with those two planets.
Blink and set up a small automated comm station wherever they ask for it, then put a manned subspace relay in orbit (with a couple of defense sattelites to keep things honest).
iii) Romulan scouts are spotted in the area. The Romulan Empire is some distance away.
Invite their captains to dinner. Offer to help out with resupply. Put on a 'sorry, orders' face and ask them what the official story for their being here is. Pump them subtly for information, while being as confusingly cheerful and friendly as possible.
D) When your fleet arrives in the sector, Starfleet wants you to start off by running a series of wargames with the Klingons. In addition to simulating combat engagements with the Klingon forces, you'll also practice joint operations and get the crews of your ships used to the sector and each other. One of the big things Starfleet wants you to do is to plan for two major contingencies, should a renewed Driian conflict be apparent: an attack on the Klingon Starbase or on Ulia, or an assault on the Driian Empire by Allied forces.
Plan for how you would deploy your fleet to meet one of these two scenarios, and expect to deploy your ships in those same maneuvers when your fleet gets here. If you want to take the simulated attack on the Driian Empire, you'll do it in empty space away from Ulia or the BDS -- you choose where.
Deploy the fleet in three task forces. Force I will have Kris, Dagger, Tachi and Foglio. Force II, Nodachi, Rapier, Claymore, Azland. Force III, Epiphany, Victor, Drakon. Stage Force I in patrols out of Ulia and Force II doing the same thing out of the BDS. Force III will escort the Tasuki as it sets up a network of relays and sensor platforms across the sector. Once that's done, Force III will take up commerce protection duties while the Tasuki adds defensive sattelite nets to Ulia and the BDS (approx 150 lightweight weapons platforms around Ulia and nearly 500 scattered around the Black Dwarf System).
Step Three
C) Guess what? Your fleet has finally arrived, and will be moving into their positions as you outlined in Question One. Given the following scenarios, maneuver you fleet accordingly (if required) and describe your reactions to the governments of the various factions, and what you'd want to do.
i) The Driians step up their mining efforts, still with the explanation that they are using it to rebuild. However, Starfleet inteligence reports that the amount of stuff they're exporting from the BDS far exceeds their ability to refine it to useful construction materials. Also, long-range telescopic probes from the border indicate that they are rebuilding their shipyards to construct their larger, Konyac-class battleships.
Presumably, the Federation has designs for battleship-sized orbital construction and refinery ships less advanced than my own Tasuki. Send a message to the Driians including plans for both same and orbital hydroponics farms. Indicate that the described ships should be well within the capabilities of their new construction yards. This allows me to warn them off, without appearing threatening or agressive. Hopefully they're not stupid enough to think that I really -don't- realize what they're up to.
And bright enough to take the hint.
ii) The Klingons decide to build up their fleet to match their own increases in BDS mining, and send in two more B'rels and a couple K'tiingas. The commander of this new Klingon squadron also happened to be the officer in charge of a failed Klingon invasion if one of the Driian planets during the war. To make matters worse, the General's house is a longtime rival of the Klingon station commander's house, were on opposite sides during the Civil War, and they don't really like each other. The General's squadron sets up shop with a small re-supply outpost around the star "south" of the Driian Empire, and starts to conduct patrols around the border with alarming frequency.
That's a Klingon matter, although certainly every effort should be made to promote harmony in our ally's command structure. Indicate politely (for a Klingon value of politely) that starting a war with the Driians, while perhaps offering opportunities for vengance and glory and all those nice things, would be a bit more nasty than is really called for, seeing as how they haven't had time to really get on their feet yet. Kicking them while they're down surely isn't honorable, right?
iii) The Romulans show up at the head of a coalition of four races from Romulan territory, and declare their interest in mining the BDS for the construction of a resource-poor colony or two in the sector directly south of yours. For the protection of their coalition, they unilaterally stake out a full quarter of the Black Dwarf System and declare it Romulan territory. They set up unmanned sensor and defense platforms, build a small command station on one of the asteroids, and use three or four Romulan scout-type vessels (like the ones seen in "The Next Phase") to patrol their territory. While 75% of the BDS is still available and resources are plentiful, the Romulan-claimed territory includes several pockets of especially-rich resource asteroids. As a result, civilian Federation and Klingon mining ships are making dips into Romulan space to swipe the goods.
First, greet them cheerfully and offer help if they want it. If and when they complain about the claim jumpers, indicate that a similar flexiblity on the part of their own miners wouldn't be taken amiss. Balance, and all that. If they still complain, gather together all the various Fed/Klink mining groups and have a gentle chat about Why We Don't Poke The Romulans.
D) The big one: A message comes in from Dawson's Planet. The Ambassador reports that a man named Jed was shootin' at some food, when up from the ground came a bubblin' ancient remains of a colony. Driian colony, that is. The remains of the colony significantly predate the Dawsonites' presence there, and conclusively show that the Driians once maintained a population of several million there. The Driian Empire has intercepted this communication. Within days, they declare Dawson's Planet as Driian sovereign territory, and that the current population is no longer welcome. To enforce their point, they send five of their Noynac-class ships and a bunch of freighters and proceed to set up a military base on top of Jed's farm. The Dawsonites demand help from anyone, including the Romulans, who are the first to offer troop support and a couple Warbirds to face down the Driian threat, in exchange for a permenant outpost on an unpopulated continent of the planet. The Dawsonites have yet to respond.
Indicate to the Drii that a lapsed colony does not garauntee rights in perpetuity, and that if they want to move onto Dawson's they had damn well better ask the natives permission first. Deploy Force III into orbit around Dawson's, with orders to be polite to the Roms and as forceful as neccessary with the Driians.
i) Outline the top threats in the sector. What are the most likely military conflicts to occur, and which would be the priority for Starfleet to focus on preventing?
Drii/Alliance - most likely, given that the Drii are backed into something of a corner. Romulan/Alliance - less likely, but much more worrying, seeing as how the Romulans are a Power and the Drii are, well, a banana republic.
ii) Is your fleet sufficient to face down at least two of these threats? If not, what would you ask Starfleet to send you, if anything, for help?
I wouldn't rate the Rom threat as terribly likely. Still, three or four, say, New Orleans class would be a welcome addition.
iii) While you're mulling this over, the Driians announce their own independent findings: some of the tools found in the colony remains are composed of alloys of minerals unique to Ulia. What do you think each faction's next move will be?
Invite them to review my message RE: Dawson's World.
General Hothead will see an opportunity to start a fight and move his force into Dawson's, which is fine because I'm already there and can keep an eye on him.
The Roms have already reacted.
The Drii will probably back down. They're not ready for another war yet, and if I'm not willing to start one then the Klingons or Romulans certainly are.
Step Four
1400 hours: Your second-strongest starship reports a disastrous collision with the Klingon cruiser during high-speed impulse maneuvers. A drive failure has left them on unstable orbits, heading for the star. Evacuation will become necessary in twelve hours (one grid square of travel), and repair time estimates for your ship are gloomier than that. Your captain also estimates it will take the resources of a full starship to tow even one of the ships to safety within the time limit. Contact with the Klingon cruiser cannot be made. The BoP that was also supposed to be participating in the exercise under cloak does not respond, either. The tired voice of a low-ranking underling of General Vargh on the Klingon channel expects you to handle the emergency, as the Klingons have more pressing matters to attend to.
This would be the Epiphany, probably. Given that she, Victor and Drakon are deployed as a group, I assign Victor to drag Epiphany to safety and have Drakon do the same for the Klingon. After that's done, render aid to both.
0600 hours: The damaged Klingon cruiser and your starship impact the star and are consumed, provided you didn't tow them to a safe trajectory. If you did, either ship should be good enough for warp tow now, but their own drive systems are still down. You have also located the debris cloud that was the Rokash. The ship seems to have suffered a core breach while at full stop at (E3). Vargh doesn't answer the phone, and Ren'Qo denies any knowledge of the incident. He acts surprised when he hears your report on the wargames accident -- he wasn't even informed, he growls, before cutting the channel.
Bring them to the BDS, to take advantage of the starbase facilities there.
1800 hours: Vargh finally acknowledges you. He says that three of his mining rigs are rebelling, and that there are humans on all of them. He'd hate to kill them when he mows down the Klingon strikers, and in general he'd like to avoid killing valuable laborers. Perhaps you could personally come to (I5) and negotiate a peaceful outcome?
Happily, I'm already on my way. Tell him about the Rokash, and enquire with worry about what she was carrying. Wonder out loud in a not-too-offensive way if he's heard about the accident.
At the end of day 3, Vargh is ready to talk shop with you. He assures you that his strikebreakers did not use excessive force the first time around: the human casualties must be due to some freak accident. He also vehemently denies that his forces caused the explosion of the other rig. He swears on the honor of his sword that he aims for a peaceful solution, and that spies and saboteurs are at work here to undermine him. He hesitates to name any names yet, though. As a gesture of trust, Vargh places his resident BoP under your command. The other ships are "on assignment," supposedly trying to find out more about the saboteurs, whom Vargh considers to be a greater threat than the Driians at the moment. And no, the ship that fired on the wreckage wasn't one of his.
'Honor of his sword'? He's for real, then. Offer to have my ships pass on anything they can find on the sabotage. If he accepts, give the order. Ask if the saboteurs may have gotten to his internal communications net - Ren'Qo seems to be out of the loop.
0900 hours: Your missing transport finally makes contact from (A8), caught in a "Force of Nature" style subspace pothole. The ship is trying to get out at impulse speed, and will undoubtedly succeed in a week or two. The transport crew launched out a warp-speed distress beacon, but even that caused the rift to expand and destabilize alarmingly. You could try the LaForge maneuver: coast in with your nacelles saturated and beam out the crew and/or the crucial spares, then coast out. But it might take several passes, and even strand your rescue ship in there.
Task Victor with the rescue run, with orders to be -careful- how they do it - more passes is better than having them trapped too.
2300 hours: The Driian ore convoy reaches BDS and heads for the main Driian ore loading port there, at (H5). Unless you object by force, the transports will begin loading, and the Noynacs will deploy defensively. It looks innocent enough. Two Romulan scouts in the area make passes and sensor sweeps of the Driian expedition. They don't bother your local assets.
Have Drakon and the BoP keep an eye on them, but leave them be.
0400 hours: The Driians are compelled to act: their transports abort loading and blast out from the asteroid field at somewhat reckless speed, escorted by two Noynacs only. The other seven form an attack squadron of typical Driian tradition and intrude deep into Klingon mining turf, shrugging off the occasional mine detonation and making it difficult for anything but a starship of Defiant or Intrepid agility to follow. Seeing that it's futile to try and reach the Klingon main base, they instead surround the richest motherlode in the field, fire at the feeble sessile defences of the largest Klingon mining rig there, and then turn their guns at the habitat domes of the rig. These guys are not above taking hostages. They proceed with raiding the installation; their ships fight back while broadcasting an ultimatum "Back off or the miners bite it."
Dispatch Force I to intercept the transports, less Foglio, which is Warp-Drive-less for the moment.
0421 hours: The looting of the mining rig is interrupted when a BoP decloaks, swoops past the base, drops shields for a moment and then tries to recloak. The Driians fire back, though, and the BoP is wounded. Another decloaks, slices up a Driian ship, drops shields and then cloaks, while the first one continues the fight. Driians start to withdraw. Depending on your response, they will have 3 to 6 surviving ships as they pull out of the asteroid field and head for Driian space. Vargh yells in frustration: his Vor'cha is still at (F4), heading for home, and its chances of intercepting the Driians are slim. He still won't tell where his other BoP is, except that neither of those two was it. And speaking of those, the wounded BoP elects to blow up in battle (defending the mining base) rather than surrender either to you or to Vargh. It's posthumously ID'd as the one that went AWOL from the wargames.
Force II and Drakon act, with the BoP in support. Three surviving Drii. Dispatch Azland and Drakon and her escort to Dawson's, leave Epiphany and the Sabers in the BDS.
0500 hours: The Driians issue at least three different statements. Your base at Ulia receives an elaborate and pompous recording saying that superior Driian forces are about to evict Klingons from Drii-�zak, a star that rightfully belongs to Driians and was not yet occupied by these vile wrinkleheads when the Driians in good faith agreed to the terms of a Federation presence. The fight is purely between Driia and the said scum, and the Feds are instructed to stand aside.
The Klingons prefer things that way anyway.
The Driian High Command also sends a curt message saying that the Starfleet counterreaction to recent Driian operations in the BDS was wholly inappropriate and may be avenged in kind in the near future.
Yaaay. We're -so- impressed. First point, the Klingons are close allies of the Federation, and we are morally obligated to support them in whatever way possible. Second point, using threats against innocents for personal gain is an abomination and will be treated as such.
Finally, the head of the Driian mob at Dawson's enthusiastically declares that the days of the Federation there are over. He's dragged away by Romulans in the middle of his speech, though.
Have Drakon's captain give the Rom commander a couple bottles of really good booze, with my compliments.
And even a (Vargh spits) Driian might figure out how to use it, given enough time.
Triple bugger.
Also, by this time you may have learned the hard way that the Driian ore transport distress was a trick. If your ship drops shields for transporter use too close to the convoy, the ore carrier under tow blows up on your face. Expect even a heavy ship to suffer some damage, and a light one to lose either weapons, shields or warp for a dozen hours at least. The rest of the transports again scatter and try to run for Driian space.
Say that it was Tachi, and she's lost warp. Given that she's in no immediate danger, the other two go hunting transports.
2000 hours: The two Konyacs first seen at (E5) have come to join the various Noynacs, which appear to be doubling back and converging at (F5). Together, these ships might cause problems even for a large number of your ships. Apparently, the Driians can improvise tactics like this on the run.
The mobile parts of Force I break off pursuit and begin to take turns towing Tachi to the BDS. Have Victor break off from her rescue attempts and return to the BDS.
2300 hours: Unless you actively helped at Lone Star, this is when the remaining Driian fleet hits Dawson's. The Klingons are in hot pursuit with one cruiser and two BoPs, but the two Noynacs and one Konyac are still in a condition to devastate the planet. Ren'Qo shouts revenge: his garrison has been bombarded, his two backup cruisers are crippled, and he himself is prepared to ram the Konyac when he catches up. Which will probably happen on low Dawsonian orbit, with the associated fireworks.
Alas for them, Drakon, Azland and the borrowed BoP were waiting for them. Pretty explosions.
Dispatch the BoP to Lone Star with instructions to capture or, if neccessary, destroy the ship carrying the starkiller. Send a message to Driian Central Command regarding the starkiller and its probable intentions. Hopefully they'll listen if I'm wrong about what the cloaked BoP knows.
0200 hours: As the Driian main fleet is now observed in the middle of (G4), it seems apparent that the BDS is their main target. The mining installations go to red alert, but they do not stand much of a chance against starship attacks. It's up to you to handle the Driians.
Order Drakon and Azland home to the BDS at a dead-flat run.
1300 hours: The Driian main fleet hits BDS defences. The smaller cruisers make use of the cover of the asteroids, while the big battlewagons concentrate their fire on your largest vessel, maintaining their distance from the asteroids and possible minefields.
Fortunately, I have plenty of firepower there by now. I'll assume that the Force I sabers made it in time - one Excelsior (my flagship) and six Sabers against two heavies, two kludges and three lightweights.
Send Epiphany and a Saber into the asteroids after the Noyacs - after all, I know where the mines are, I helped set them up. The quarters are a little tight for an Excelsior class, but presumably this -isn't- one of those ridiculously dense SW:ESB-style "asteroid belts". Have the other Sabers play wolfpack against the Konyacs' bears, and hopefully lure them into the defense net the Tasuki set up earlier.
The freespace battle is, on paper, against me - two Konyacs and two of the new ships against five Sabers. Fortunately or not, in the face of my decision to take Epiphany into the asteroids, they choose to follow.
The new ships are respectably well-shielded for something of their size (a bit bigger than a Sovereign), but dead slow and almost completely lacking in maneuverability. Being essentially scaled-up Konyacs (which are in turn built to much the same plan as the smaller Noyac class), they suffer the same limited fire arcs. They'd be at their worst in a close quarters dogfight like the asteroid battle will become - and be too clumsy to avoid threats from the environment, on top of that.
On the other hand, their weapons array is massive, and anything they manage to get a bead on is going to know it's been kissed. In open space, they'll have a much better chance of managing to come to grips with their opposition.
And five Sabers, in the mind of my opponent, aren't much threat. Thus, he splits his force again - letting the Konyacs slowly work their way in after Epiphany and leaving the new ships - call them the "Nightwish" class - to deal with my lights.
The Sabers start out with a pattern of long-range fencing and evasion, poke and retreat, poke and retreat. It's unlikely to cause much damage, but the Nightwishes are an unknown factor and the entirety of their capabilities isn't immediately clear.
In the asteroids, the initial fight goes poorly, with one Noyac drawing the Saber off into a twisting, intricate dogfight and leaving the other two to dodge in and out of cover, taking snapshots at Epiphany before the larger ship can respond.
This lasts until one of them gets a little too bold, during which shining, single moment Epiphany takes the shot and it is discovered that, ageing and out of date or not, an alpha strike from an Explorer grade starship will take a good sized chunk out of anything. The Noyac wobbles away, trailing plasma and air and generally looking perfectly ready for the wrecking yard.
The other Noyac swoops in to provide cover fire, secure in the knowledge that a volley like that won't be repeated for at least a minute. Epiphany locks it down with tractor beams and plays pinyata with an asteroid instead of a candy-filled paper-mache doll and a Noyac instead of a baseball bat. Unfortunately, asteroids are as much tougher than Noyacs
as paper-mache is -not- tougher than a Louisville Slugger, and we don't get our Asteroid Candies. It is at about this point that the damaged Noyac, sensors almost blinded, stumbles into part of the automated defense network and is destroyed.
The third Noyac latches onto the Saber's tail and stays there, pounding away, through a series of extreme maneuvers and in the face of heavy fire. Eventually, the Saber's captain dives through a (well described on his charts) minefield. The Noyac attempts to follow, but lacks the data to avoid the mines and blunders into nearly a dozen in quick succession. Boom.
It's at this point that the two Konyacs who broke off from the external battle finally manage to work their way in through the close quarters to face Epiphany and her returning consort.
Switching fields again, it becomes apparent to my Sabers that the Nightwish must still be in the prototype stages, because its systems display a level of instability that would never be accepted in a production starship. Its Structural Integrity Fields are overworked, its manuevers are jerky and uncoordinated instead of properly smooth, and its power systems are so overloaded as to actually make its shields -flicker- when it fires.
All of which does them exactly -no- good if they get hit.
The plan, then, is to swing wide apart and come in from such divergent vectors that the 'Wishes can only hope to engage two of the five... waitaminute. The shield flicker would make the firing ships easy meat for the other Sabers, but I'd still likely lose two.
Instead, they send a message that sends the defense platform network to silent running mode, and start a tightbeam update of targeting data with instructions to fire as soon as it stops.
In the busy space of the BDS, those platforms will just vanish into the clutter... until they fire.
Then the Sabers start to coax the Nightwishes in under the guns of the hidden platforms.
In the belt, Epiphany beams a dozen-plus photorps outside her shields and locks them into position with her tractors. As the Konyacs close, she uses the tractors to fling them at the nearer ship simultaneous with a full volley from her forward launchers for a total of twenty-two photorps. Accuracy is lower than usual, but enough still hit to hammer the Konyac's forward shields flat and cause major structural damage.
Alas, not enough damage to take the ship out of the fight, but the volley of precisely targeted phaser fire that follows immediately afterwards is aimed entirely at her weapons systems, and does a pretty good job of pulling her teeth.
(This tactic is not standard because of the chance that some clever fellow on the other side will see the external torpedoes and zap them before you 'fire'... the backblast of which is Not Nice to be near. I was gambling that the Driians, being uninterested in the expertise of others, wouldn't have heard of it... and I was right, too.)
The other Konyac promptly expresses her displeasure with this course of events. Shields hold, this time, but given the number of Excelsiors that have suffered metal-fatigue related structural failures under circumstances -just like this- (under fire and heavy manuevers), discretion is definitely the better part of valor.
Naturally the Driian persues, but with the asteroids and the after torpedo tubes to keep her honest, Epiphany is able to lead the Konyac a merry little chase through the asteroids.
Hey, that's kinda swell - they really should have picked a better trained helmsman if they were gonna try a slalom course through the asteroids like that... really pretty splat mark, though.
Now to finish the other one.
Out in space, the running battle goes just as intended and the first two examples of Driian Battleship, Starfleet Recognition Code "Nightwish" vanish under volley after volley of 100mt fusion tipped warp missiles (chosen for the defense platforms because, without the space issue you find on actual starships, they're a lot -cheaper- than all the antimatter you'd need to equip all those defense platforms with photorps. True, you need ten times as many hits, but when a single unmanned sattelite carries a hundred of the things, you don't want to have to spend that much AMAT...).
And so, the Battle of the Black Dwarf System comes to and end.
Simultaneously, the three Noynacs and the scoutship move in on your ships at Ulia, ignoring the starbase entirely. You find that they have a reason to do so when the first volley from the starbase's big type-11 arrays immediately loses focus. Collapsing nadion cascades burn out the emitter crystals. Internal fires erupt at the phaser installations. Your ships have to fight on their own for a while.
Ship, singular. Have the station's runabouts launch in support, and divert Victor to Ulia. Direct Foglio to fall back inside the defense net's support range (the net is -not the same- as the starbase, n'kay?).
Among the names are some of Vargh's closest assistants in the BDS mining project. More to your interest are the human names, including two key people in charge of Ulian defences!
Kuso! That explains a few things.
However, if your forces appear victorious, the cowardly Romulan veruul will simply slither away. Too bad that their warbird hits a Klingon mine on the way out, revealing its presence to you... Can you know whether they know that you know? Do you avoid confronting this vessel for now, or do you grasp the opportunity?
I won, yes, but my ships were hammered in the process, and Drakon and Azland aren't there yet. And it's a -Warbird-. Let them go.
At the same time, a Driian agitator wanders into Dawson City Hall, bloodied and exhausted. She rants about treason and betrayal and says that her superiors must be mad to persist with the attacks now that Romulan support has been withdrawn. Romulan police forces move into the city, saying they are looking for an escaped criminal, but Dawsonites lock the doors of the City Hall. A rather one-sided firefight ensues, but the Mayor has called for help, from you and the Klingons.
The Klingons send down marines, and the Relay Station starts to play Nasty Transporter Tricks. The Romulan forces attempt to go to ground, but have a very hard time doing so when portions of their cover keep vanishing from in front of them and reappearing to fall from overhead.
Step Five
i) Starfleet has ordered a consolidation of forces until the Tac Wing gets there. Your priorities will be to safeguard Ulia and any fleeing allied transports. Rearrange your fleet accordingly.
Presumably, I have my spare parts by now. Consolidate my two shiny new New Orleans class with Force III and station them in Ulia - given that Force III's ships took most of the damage in the Driian offensive, they need the drydock time.
Force I to the BDS.
Force II to Dawson's. Have the Tasuki reinforce all three defense nets, then set up a repair station at Dawson's - tack it onto the comm relay already in place.
ii) General Vargh's forces are to safeguard the BDS, per an order from the High Command. He assures everyone that he'll be able to do so. Is he correct?
Probably. As long as the Roms keep being sneaky, instead of playing rough.
i) The Romulans make it clear they will not tolerate any Driians coming into Dawson space. The Dawsonites acknowledge that the Federation and Klingons will have other things to worry about right now, but publically declare their intentions afterwards to become a Federation protectorate or something afterwards. What will you do in response to this?
Send a frostily polite message to the Roms thanking them for their efforts against Driian agression, but seeing as the owners of the planet that they're on have made their position quite clear would they kindly -shove off-, before we finish the other things on our priority list and have to -make- them. Then forward a report on the situation to SFC - a war against the Roms isn't a decision that's in my scope to make, really - with the recommendation that their diplomacy people talk the Praetorate out of this thing -fast-.
ii) The Romulans however, still claim their stake in the BDS, and have left behind a number of specialized cloaked mines there. At their command, should anyone violate their space to the point that they won't be able to come back, the mines will be detonated. This will not destroy their stake; rather, it will irradiate an unspecified area of the whole place with enough radiation to make the raw materials there useless to mine. Vargh is furious at this, and asks that you get your miracle workers to find a solution to this -- but not necessarily to use it.
Answer yes, provided that he doesn't push the Roms into actually doing anything and enforces a similar restraint on the local civvies.
i) Two of your least maneuverable ships (you choose which ones) are fired upon point blank and are destroyed. Everyone else manages to dodge the attack, but then it's revealed that the ships were merely "in the way" -- the target is the planet behind them. The plasma overloads the orbital defenses and strike the planet, causing heavy damage, and thousands of casualties. Your forces easily dispatch the unmanned ships, but the damage is done. What will your immediate priorities be?
@#$^&#$%^@#@!!!!
One of the New Orleans is lost, along with most of her crew. Drakon takes crippling damage and has to be towed into drydock, where she will remain for the next six months (or as long as the rest of the scenario takes).
ii) Three Konyacs and seven Noynacs are detected leaving Driian space, heading for Ulia. If you chose to write up a defensive scenario in the earlier question, enact it now. If you did not, take one of the others' scenarios and use it as your own. What forces do you lose? What forces would they lose? Assume that the Tactical Wing will arrive some time after the Driians fight their way to the planet. I'll post what forces the Driians really have left by the time they get there.
Epiphany, Victor, Nova Scotia (New Orleans class), a refurbished Starbase Ulia and a -very dense- planetary defense net vs. 3 Ks and 7 Ns. Have the starships hang together and well within support range of the net. Leave the net's scanners down for now.
They obviously haven't learned from my use of defense nets in the BDS, and come straight in at my starships. The net comes up and opens up. It's not enough to handle them on its own, but it's more than sufficient distraction to overcome the imbalance in mobile forces. Epiphany and Nova Scotia take moderate-to-heavy damage and are brought into drydock for express repairs.
iii) The Romulans cloak their ships. Are you too busy to worry about that? What about the Klingons?
I'm busy. The Klingons have orders to stay put.
Step Six
# A single, heavily-damaged Bird of Prey emerges from the Driian jamming zone. Immediately, Ren'Qo's daughter broadcasts on all frequencies that Vargh has betrayed everyone, starting with Ren'Qo's forces. Citing various Klingon customs, she challenges Vargh to single combat, and that her supporters in the BDS hold him until she can get there. She's intent on killing him, and seems confident in the ability to do so. Another officer on the BoP will be filling in the reasons behind all this.
It's a Klingon thing, although I'd -very- much like to know for certain what's going on.
All the accusations are making my head spin.
# The Driian jamming system goes down, allowing your sensor network to get a look to find out what's going on (refer to the map above). What is seen is several Romulan ships occupying the Drii-Grak system, and significant damage done in the Drii-Oban system. The Klingon officer reports that their fleet had attacked the two satellite systems around Driia Prime simultaneously, and had taken the Drii-Grak system (the smallest system of the three) with the help of sudden Romulan reinforcements. However, they had discovered a much larger force than they'd anticipated at Drii-Oban, and were defeated there. However, the combined forces managed to take a significant part of the mobile Driian fleet out with them. A large number of damaged Driian ships are being repaired in the drydocks.
Oooo-kaaaaaaayyy...
# The Romulans had been running an independent investigation since they knew they may be implicated by the cloaking devices. They found out via their own means that it was Vargh who'd been in secret cahoots with the Driians, and had given them the plans for the old Romulan cloaks and plasma weapons. He wanted to use them to implicate any of the three major powers, as all three had access to that older technology; it was also Vargh that had goaded the Drians in to attcking when they had the ships, but not necessarily the manpower to attack Ulia. The remaining Klingons from Ren'Qo's fleet have confirmed this.
So, the Roms have been running a sabotage campaigne against Vargh to gain control of a good-sized sector of the BDS. Vargh has been intriugeing with the Driians and selling them tech. Ren'Qo was building a superweapon for use against the Driians. Glah?
This is the point where the man on the scene should admit he's beat and ask his bosses to send a specialist to look into the matter.
A) Rear Admiral Roland Royce has arrived aboard the USS Hawke, and declares that he's ready to kick Driian tail. Royce is an experienced combat veteran, having spent the Dominion War commanding this tactical wing, and through actions as far back as the Cardassian War. His ships have been with him for several years now, and function well together. However, Starfleet did not specify who should be in charge. How will you solve the command dilemma, since you are in command of the sector, but he has superior combat experience? You technically have the same rank, though he did receive his promotion first. You many choose to ignore the Janeway rule that the tactically-superior ship has anything to do with it, if you wish.
Beta Sector Fleet and the 26th are different formations, and would probably have a hard time working together. Thus, we'll operate seperately. Since he likes my mission plan, we'll go by that, but in worst case he's the senior officer, and hence my superior.
B) Plan the assault on Driian space.
With two more Sabers gone, leaving four, and Epiphany in drydock beside Drakon.
i) What are the objectives in attacking Driian space? Are there secondary objectives? How long do you anticipate your operation to take? Bonus points for those who derive a rough timeline of anticipated events.
Destroy the Driian ability to wage offensive war. Create a settlement that ends in the removal of the -need- for Driian expansion.
ii) How will you divide up your forces,or will you launch a single assault? Assume
that the Drii-Grak system is stable and that the Romulans will not help. What will be your basic plan of attack? Justify your answers.
The 26th is used to working as a unit. Tossing my forces into the bargain would just make things awkward, so Royce and I will operate in seperate forces. On the other hand, the possibility of defeat in detail means that we should operate close together for mutual support.
First, use the Tasuki to equip some reasonable-sized asteroids with impulse drives, basic guidance systems and Driian pseudocloaks. While we wait for that to finish, concentrate the Beta Sector fleet in Ulia and split the 26th into two forces, one in BDS and the other in Dawson's.
Then, once everything's ready, in Drii-Oban, Beta Fleet will hit Oban II's defense station simultaneous with the 26th hitting Oban II itself (this assumes that there is a substantial distance between the two). If the Oban I forces choose to reinforce, that will be acceptable. Otherwise, the 26th will move on to I after things have been settled in II's local space. If the Vyrsac's on the defense stations don't oblige by coming out to fight, that's fine, they don't have warp, they don't matter for our goals. Give them time to evacuate the shipyards, then destroy them.
Next, the Driian system (given that it's still there, I guess I must assume that the Driians managed to stop the sunbomber BoP). Warp tow the self-throwing invisible rocks that the Tasuki built into the outskirts of the system and let them run up close to lightspeed before they hit the defense stations (note that the initial positions will be set so that the rocks strike as close to simultaneously as can be reasonably reached).
Boom, that's settled. Now invade the system. The 26th goes to Driia Prime, and the Beta Sector Fleet takes Driia II. Once the defensive fleets have been destroyed, have the Tasuki install some monitoring stations while the two fleets move on to Drii-Oban.
Thank you, Yang Wenli.
The rock strike and first invasion should take place in -immediate- succession, with the goal that neither will be early enough to set the enemy on alert for the other. Given that the timing of the rock strikes is a simple matter of orbital mechanics, this shouldn't be too hard.
If I'm -reaaaaaaally- lucky, the Driians will dispatch their superluminal fleet in a suicidal bid to relieve Oban. I'm not expecting it, but it's worth dangling the lure.
With the defense nets I have in place and Starbase Ulia back online, my rear sectors are secure. Dawson's might be exposed, but I somehow doubt that the Driians are going to expend forces to try and take such a strategically -useless- place when their situation is as far in the pot as it is.
Anyway, Oban is on the way to Driia from Ulia, so why not? There's the argument that I could take advantage of sheer enemy -shock- after losing all their defense platforms like that, but I think that the -waiting- for an end that they know is inevitable will be more effective.
iii) The key to the plan lies not in how you will conquer the territory, but in how far you believe you should go. Devise a fallback plan should your primary objective(s) fail. What's the minimum acceptable success?
Given the amount of firepower available to myself and Royce, the only failure point I can see is if the Driian stations see the rocks coming and destroy them in time. This makes operations in Driia much more complex.
If the rock toss game doesn't work, then I'll borrow a page from the books of my compatriots and start in with superluminal photorp bombardment passes by Beta Fleet, starting with the big station in Driia Prime orbit and working around to take out any station in support range. Hopefully, the superluminal forces will allow themselves to be drawn out from under the guns of the harbor, so to speak, at which point they'll have to face the entire 26th, which will be lying doggo along Beta's extract vector in anticipation of just such an opportunity... I'm operating on the presumption that the Federation's emphasis on technical developement and exploration has paid unequaled dividends in fields like surveilance and such, with the Driians falling well behind 'standard' in that field. Preferring firepower over balanced forces is a classic minor power mistake.
After that, things are simple.
C) Given your remaining assets and predicted outcome of the assault, recommend to Starfleet what they should send after you're done. Whatever they send won't arrive for at least a month, as you're already draining their resources for starships. Also recommend to the Klingons what they should do.
A diplomatic and economic recovery team, and all assets they request after studying the situation.
D) Okay, everything's ready. Your forces are about to drop out of warp at their first target(s). Weapons are hot, and there are red lights flashing everywhere. All the fleet needs are motivational words from their Admiral before they go into battle. A short speech, evocative of the finest commanders in Starfleet, must be uttered to ensure victory. The bosun's whistle sounds, and you confidently say to all hands...
"We talk about justice. We talk about freedom. We talk about duty, and rights, and free crazy bread for all.
"What does it really mean, if a world where every time we try to live up to it we get kicked in the teeth?"
Pause.
"The Klingons say it best, I think. 'If there are gods, they do not help, and victory goes to the strong. But all things done beneath the naked stars are remembered.'
"We stand, here, now, today, because there are those that believe that they need have no concern for right, for justice, no concern for anything but the fact that they have the guns and the power to take, to take, to take whatever the -hell- it is that they've decided they want this week! We're here, and we'd -be- here even if it -wasn't- a member world they'd attacked.
"We'd be here because, they're -wrong-.
"They're wrong.
"They -don't- have a right to just -take- whatever they want.
"And we have the power to stop them. Which means that it'd be -just- as wrong to stand aside and do nothing.
"So, we'll do it. Do the right thing. Let's roll."
Five minutes later, the T-minus clock on the rock strikes finish, and the fleets move into Drii-Oban. The Driians refuse all initial orders to surrender.
On my end, Kris and Claymore take heavy damage, and Foglio takes moderate damage. Most of Rolls' ships take light damage, with heavier damage to Hawke, Warwick and Onokoro. T'Rel and Charles V are lost in the fighting.
Beta Fleet finishes its mission first, just in time to dash past II and intercept the relief forces that have been dispatched from I. That's taken care of rather quickly.
In the end, all that's left of the in-system forces are the other defense stations. Given that they still haven't figured out how we managed to destroy the stations in their home system, and that our starships can rip apart their Vysac's any time we please, they elect to surrender under the generous terms that the Federation has been offering from the start - immediate end to local hostilities, temporary Starfleet occupation of command centers, no retribution against combatants or innocents, democratic elections required at the end of five years, Federation oversight of Driian military construction and operations for the next twenty-five years.
Halelujah! The rock strikes worked as planned! Well, almost. Out of the stationed ships, the superluminals at the big station survived the destruction of their base - they weren't in dock when the hits happened. These ships have concentrated around Driia Prime.
Okay, fine, we can deal. The defenses around Driia Two are pretty light, actually - only fifty defense sats.
Hm. Lets be sneaky. Warp the 26th to the edge of the system, then send them creeping in towards II under silent running. Given how -big- a solar system actually is, and how reliant even the Federation is on a target ship's continued emission of -stuff- to find same, the Driians shouldn't catch them until they're pretty close. Not close enough for a surprise attack, but that's all right by me. The Driians won't know where they are, and thus won't be willing to run the risk of an offensive operation with a large enemy force hidden somewhere in their home system. Once the 26th is, say, four or five light-seconds away from Driia II, Beta Fleet warps in to hit II.
My ships will each be carrying a varying number of Federation defense satellites (conveniently provided by the Tasuki) bolted to their hulls. Once they warp in, but before the fight starts in earnest, they'll dump these off in the middle of the Driian Defense Network. They won't be enough to take it out, but they certainly should make things easier for me, right? Seeing as how I'll -win- if they don't, Home Fleet will come out (because it's only a minute or so to warp between the two planets, and the defense net can hold of -anything- for that long) and hit -me-... at which point the 26th stops lurking and warps in. So, I'm between Home Fleet and Driia II, but Home Fleet is between me and the 26th.
So, now it's a clusterfuck, a point-blank slugging match. This is actually good, because Federation ships have heavier shields and better fire arcs than Driian ones, not to mention better computer systems (and, therefore, better targeting). This also negates the Noyac's mobility advantage. Most importantly, even the Saber class ships can engage several Driian vessels at once - which, in turn, means that each Driian ship will be engaged by several Federation ones.
For the record, this is three Konyacs, fifteen Noyacs and twelve Vyrsacs (the other twenty survivors are staying home) against a Galaxy, an Ambassador, an Akira, two Excelsiors, three Mirandas, four Steamrunners, two New Orleans, five Sabers and an Intrepid. Leave the Shelleys out of it, and the fighters as their escorts.
None of the Konyacs survive, and the two Noyacs that win free and retreat to Driia prime are damaged. Unfortunately, so are Diefenbaker, Formidable, Vandal, Trafalgar, Ayers Rock, Dagger, Tachi, Azland, and Nova Scotia, though none of them so badly as the Noyacs.
Actual ships lost is relatively low, for the Federation - Galatea, Warwick and Nodachi, all of them but Nodachi lost only in the sense of 'not moving or salvageable'.
Driia II surrenders shortly thereafter. A long, ranting message from Driia Prime High Command is cut off by a phaser whine and a nervous voice enquiring about the exact conditions offered for surrender.
Step Seven
B) Assume that the Driian campaign succeeds, with the loss of no more than 40% of your fleet (the actual numbers lost aren't terribly relevant at this point). The Federation is shipping a peacekeeping force and a variety of facilitators to monitor Driian activities -- consider this a similar situation to the United Nations occupation and monitoring of Iraq following the Gulf War.
Well, except that in this case, the dictator was executed by his own bodyguard before the wolves could close in. Turns out he had been reacting to downturns in the war by instituting progressively bloodier purges, and the Driians are so fed up with the mess (and the starvation rations and neglected infrastructure and...) that -any- new management is looking good, even if it is run by a bunch of stinking aliens.
The new Federation Ambassador being assigned to the Sector has asked you to consult on the occupation of Driian space. The Federation does not want to commit too many resources here after the assault; Admiral Royce's tac wing will be leaving. The current plan calls for the Driian governmental system to remain relatively intact for the foreseeable future while the Federation presence becomes gradually indroduced to the xenophobic Driians. The leaders of the current government will be removed and extradited to Ulia for trial. A number of Federation/Ulian inspection groups with carte-blanche authority to monitor any Driian activity will be formed, plus a token Starfleet garrison of several hundred in the capital city of each Driian world.
i) Would you consider this an acceptable plan? What minimum Starfleet presence would you recommend for the garrison given what the Driians have left following your assault, and that the Federation does not want to commit too much here? What other points should the Federation consider in the occupation and monitoring?
As long as the inspectors do their jobs, fleet assets can safely be cut back to basic sector security levels. Given that a garrison large enough to supress actual -problems- would be prohibitively large, the described force should be more than adequate. The two surviving Noyacs should be crewed by and put into use for the defense of the Driians, with Federation veto and supervision.
ii) War crimes trials will also take place on Ulia, with security provided by Starfleet. Odds are that at least several hundred Driian officers and soldiers will face imprisonment. However, a problem arises when the Klingons demand to remove prisoners also guilty of war crimes against the Empire to their prisons, facing certain death, while the Ulian government instead insists on keeping them on Ulia against future prosecution. Suggestions?
Specify that the trials shall take place according the Driian's -own- laws and code of conduct (which are presumably pretty reasonable, if only for propoganda purposes) and be judged by a tribunal made up of -objective- representatives of all concerned parties and chaired by the Starfleet rep.
iii) The Romulans and the Klingons are also interested in monitoring the Driians and offer participation, though obviously given Starfleet's largest role in the attack grants the Federation primary jurisdiction. What kind of joint operation would you recommend, if any? What do you think they are entitled to do given their role in the assault, and what should they be willing to do in order to get more responsibility?
The Driian Commission should be a tri-governmental group made up of officers and forces drawn from all three militaries on a six(Fed - took two systems)-three(Rom - took one)-one(Klink - as a courtesy, since they did fight, if badly) basis, with 'say' in the guidance of policy and such apportioned on the same basis. It's powers and duties should be to ensure that Driian government sets up operation as a peaceful democracy or other reasonable system of government and doesn't begin to construct warships until it is no longer likely that they'll use them for more than police work. Also, the Commission should organize the aid and rebuilding efforts pouring in from the Federation.
C) Time to pick up the pieces. Comment on the following, and what should or shouldn't be done.
i) Sa'ral doesn't get her chance to kill Vargh and avenge her father -- Vargh jumps the gun and commits ritual suicide, saving what little honor he has in the books for his children. Sa'ral's husband takes over the house of Ren'Qo, and both of them head for Qo'noS to petition Martok to take over Vargh's house too. They leave behind the outpost, whatever ships both houses have left, an inexperienced paper pusher in charge, and no real power structure except for what the High Command tells them.
I don't know -what- to think about Klingon politics, and I don't really care. Have my TF commander in the BDS (Beta Sector Fleet having split up into its three nodal patrol fleets once again) keep an eye on things there and help out if he can. Fortunately, the Klingons really won't have much to do (wrong).
I can't wait to hear what the investigation committee comes up with.
ii) The people on Dawson's Planet kick out the Romulans for essentially abandoning them during the attack, and apply to be a Federation protectorate. The Romulans return to their old digs in the BDS, but a remnant faction of Driians sets off the mines in the Romulan-claimed territory, rendering a sizeable chunk of the BDS unsuitable for mining.
This pisses off a lot of miners, as now the remaining space will need to be regulated by someone -- there's no longer more than enough for all people interested.
Wire a chewing-out to the local Rom commander about letting that happen, and ask SFC to send a -very- strong protest to the Praetorate about their handling of the entire Black Dwarf System affair.
iii) There's an awful lot of wreckage and such left after the fighting, and salvage business is bringing lots of non-Federation types into the sector to pick through the leftovers. No truly sensitive Federation asset are known to be missing, but bits of other races' technology may be floating out there for the picking. Salvagers include the Humans, Yridians, and Ferengi.
Use the previously emplaced sensor net to figure out where all the interesting bits are, then mark them off limits and have the Tasuki pick them up.
iv) What other loose ends are there to worry about? Anything specific to your replies?
Spies in allied control structure. Origins of Driian cloaking devices. How the -hell- to keep the starkillers under wraps from now on. Fortunately, the investigation I've requested from SFC should take care of most of this.
D) Once again, it's time to move on -- Starfleet commends your job here, and promptly orders you to pack up your office and take off. The incoming Rear Admiral will need a briefing however before he continues your work, and that is your final official duty. As with Sector Alpha, read over your responses to all the previous questions. Define what Starfleet';s priorities should be in this sector, and your recommendations to your replacement as to what he should concentrate on. Also recommend a reasonable set of additional ships to complement your remaining fleet to that end.
Saber Class, three; Dagger, Tachi, Rapier. Steamrunner Class, two; Azland, Foglio. Intrepid Class, one; Victor. New Orleans Class, one; Nova Scotia. Moon Inn Class Construction vessel, one; Tasuki. Sovereign Class, one; Drakon. A shitload of defensive sattellites and monitoring stations, scattered everywhere that could possibly be useful.
Given the elimination of the Driian threat to this sector, current resources -should- be adequate to meet mission requirements, those being:
-Assistance with rebuilding of Ulia and the Driian worlds.
-Getting things organized in the BDS.
-Continuing the slow, slow reclamation of Dawson's World.
-Coming up with a way to reclaim for use the Romulan Sectors of the BDS - additional science vessels might be called for for this purpose.
-Supression of piracy and so forth across the sector.
The Klingon presence in this area -was- heavily political. That seems to be mostly settled, now, but that doesn't mean they're done being a pain in the ass.
The Romulans are still around, and still inclined to be paranoid, sneaky, and disloyal. Business as usual, with them, in other words.
E) Choose one of the remaining ships in your fleet (probably your personal ship), as long as it's not your largest remaining ship. You'll be riding it to Sector Gamma, and at your discretion will be incorporated into your fleet there. Alternatively, a Centaur-class starship will pick you up and ferry you there.
I think I'll stick with that old friend and workhorse, the Epiphany (Excelsior II).
Critiques! (I imagine MinutiaeMan is tired of me singling him out, but he makes it so easy!)
His initial fleet offers more combat power than mine, and is actually reasonable given the sector's location. On the other hand, the Tasuki's ability to create and place various automated platforms will be a major advantage, allowing me to make my deployments with full knowledge of the location and actions of everything else in the sector.
Basically, even if I don't have so big a hammer, I can concentrate my forces, secure in the knowledge that I won't be blindsided.
His defensive wargame planning is sound and takes good advantage of his hardware. Likewise, by concentrating his forces he avoids any possiblity of defeat in detail and stands an excellent chance of annhilating the Driian force if they choose to press. One wonders about his intended course if they break off the attack or switch targets, but that's not part of the scenario.
As for his late-war assault plan, the probe decoys and high warp torpedo bombardments are excellent ideas. It might be a good idea to precede the actual attack with hit-and-fade operations against the other defense stations in system, probably by means of the same high-warp firing passes used against the polar station in Drii Oban - not neccessarily because the stations themselves would be a problem, but rather to hopefully take out potential reinforcements (which would be individually inferior, but -awefully- numerous) in their docks.
Shik's website seems to be down. I can't see his Q6. ;_;
Scenario Responses! (Ditto)
One Federation starship (pick one), while on patrol near the Driian border, comes across a seriously damaged Driian ship. The ship is on the far side of the border (inside Driian space) and is leaking plasma. A warp core breach appears imminent. There are no other Driian ships within sensor range, although they may be lurking nearby. The starship captain calls you for instructions. (Assuming you're not personally commanding the ship.)
Assume that this happens when Force III is in the area. That being the case, it's good excercise for Drakon (not to mention that she's the single ship best able to handle a doublecross)
Move to intercept, and transmit an offer of assitance. See if there's anything to be done to help stabilize the core - if not, beam them off and put them in the nicest digs available. Send a message to Driian High Command asking how they'd like to arrange the transfer of their personell back home.
For Question Three - A group of immigrants arrive in the Black Dwarf System and announce their intention to set up a permenant orbital colony there. They haven't made any claims to permanant ownership of anything in the area, but the Klingons and Driians are still not at all pleased to see them.
Hmm. I -know- there are some goofs and internal inconsistencies (not to mention misspellings) in there, but I can't bring myself to care. Not to mention I was using WAGs for travel times in Q4...
The Moon Inn class is contemporary to the Ambassador class, and built around an organization very close to that used in the much later Sovereign class explorers - primary and secondary hulls, nacelles on about the same plane, no neck. The nacelles and primary hull are externally identical to the Ambassador class, but the secondary hull has been expanded to the point of representing about half the ship's mass. While not defenseless, mounting the same phaser compliment as the formidable Ambassador class, they carry no photon torpedoes, relatively weak shields, and are quite slow - not combat ships at all.
posted
Holy Hannah! You get bonus points for the LoGH thread - I'm so glad SOMEONE still remembers that fantastic anime featuring some of the BEST fleet combat scenes ever.
And no, Sector Gamma has NOT been abandoned. I'm re-reading it now, so we can get going again. We should be rolling again next weekend. I hope.
*crosses fingers*
Mark
[ January 25, 2003, 11:14 PM: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
*blinkblink* Since when is my little sister divine? ^_^
quote: You get bonus points for the LoGH thread - I'm so glad SOMEONE still remembers that fantastic anime featuring some of the BEST fleet combat scenes ever. [Smile]
I've only seen the first third or so, but I quite agree.
And it's a good tactic, no?
quote:And no, Sector Gamma has NOT been abandoned. I'm re-reading it now, so we can get going again. We should be rolling again next weekend. I hope.
Sweet. I'll have my take on Gamma up sometime... later today. Yike. Sleepy time.
Blessed be. -n (Really does have a younger sister named Hannah.)
IP: Logged
Valles
Ex-Member
posted
Q1
A) Evaluate the sector, and determine what Starfleet's priorities should be. Note that unlike previous sectors, you're coming into an area where Starfleet has had a small but significant presence for some time. Now that the Federation has a member world in the sector, how should Starfleet's priorities change? Summarize your thoughts, note any gaps in the information that you were provided, and where you should focus your intelligence-gathering efforts.
1.) Defend Jovalis. 2.) Defend Lucrezia. 3.) Support the Jovalis upgrade project. 4.) Enforce the Prime Directive around G'Sall. 5.) Improve relations with Joval. 6.) Improve relations with Bifour.
B) Though Jovalis has benefited from Federation trade for several years now, their new membership will allow for a full-scale upping of their society to the latest technologies. One of the greatest tasks is the upgrading of almost one hundred of their old rotating colony cylinders with artifical gravity, upgraded power systems, and so forth, which are antiquated despite their otherwise current technology level. Starfleet can only allocate so many resources to this far-off sector, and much of it is going to this task, which will absorb hundreds of Starfleet personnel for several years. With what's left, Starfleet will allow either a DS9-style upgrade to the DS12 station, making it into a full starbase within a year's time; or to begin construction on a larger starbase of Starfleet design, which will take at least three years to build using a combination of components shipped in or built on-site. Given that this will be your headquarters for the foreseeable future, what would be the best option? A Starfleet starbase can be built anywhere in the sector you choose.
Presumably, the Jovalisi have their own shipyard facilities, drydocks, etc. In a worst case scenario, these can be requesitioned for Starfleet use.
That being the case, upgrading DS12 is more cost effective, and -certainly- faster.
C) Starfleet sees this as a relatively stable sector, and while they want an expanded presence in the area they will not commit many ships to the sector. There will be a steady stream of Federation freighters coming into the sector for the Colony Upgrade Project, in addition to the expected influx of Federation trade.
1) Recommend a fleet of no more than SIX starships to be assigned to the sector. This fleet will be evaluated back at Starfleet Command, and if approved will arrive in-system AFTER the events of Question Two. However:
Two Excelsior class, Epiphany and Rougepelt. While the Excelsior class is rapidly approaching (some say, has already passed) obsolescence, and more tellingly is approaching the point where metal fatigue of their structural members begins to represent a significant threat to day-to-day operation, they are still full Explorer grade starships, with the attendant power and flexibility. The seeming slight of sending such old starships on diplomatic missions can be considered as balanced by the fact that both of the ships specified have served with great distinction over careers long enough to create very respectable lists of accomplishments. Additionally, Epiphany is one of the Excelsior II subclass, with the attendant high-grade sensor systems.
One Moon Inn class fleet construction vessel, Subaru. These massive, mostly automated ships are designed to turn raw resources into usable hardware at for fast and for cheap. Leaving aside the usefulness of an extensive physical plant in supporting mobile assets, its capabilities would be of great assistance in the Jovalis upgrade project. While it might be considered as falling above the mass limit set on my requisitions, I'm going with the idea that those are set as limits on -first line- starships.
Two Steamrunner Class, Southwest Chief and Twentieth Century Limited. These vessels will provide both additional area coverage and basic firepower if hostilities should break out with either Joval or Bifour.
One Sequoia Class, Fulminant. For fast response purposes.
Eight additional Runabi, to cover all the little things that don't rate a starship.
2) Until your fleet arrives, the only ships that will be assigned to the sector are the USS Rigorous and the ship you arrived in from Sector Beta (if you didn't participate in that scenario, you're arriving on a generic Excelsior-class starship). At your discretion, the ship you arrived on can be incorporated into your fleet. Where will you deploy your two ships until then? What will the deployment of your fleet be when they get here?
Rigorous will provide security for Lucretiza, on the assumption that Jovalis' defenses can hold until relieved. Epiphany will escort the supply ships for the Jovalis upgrade.
D) The USS Rigorous will not be a part of your fleet, as she is scheduled to be decommissioned after a long and eventful life; Captain Nall herself is retiring from the Fleet. However, her command crew need not be sent away as well. The Rigorous' command crew is a good team, and includes:
* First Officer -- Commander Michael Boston (Human, 12 Years of Service) -- Excellent Service Record. Experienced Diplomat. * Tactical -- Lt. Laura Kardon (Human, 6 Years of Service) -- Good Service Record. Native of Zechs. Little Combat experience. * Science -- Lt. Commander Shezef (Andorian Male, 15 Years of Service) Excellent Service Record. Expert on the Pink and Purple Nebulae. * Medical -- Commander Taris Sani (Bajoran Female, 20 Years of Service) -- Fair Service Record. Married to a Jovalisi diplomat on DS12. * Engineering -- Lt. Commander Sayl (Betazoid Male, 8 Years of Service) -- Good Service Record. * Helm -- Lt. (j.g.) Walter Shumar (Human, 40 years of Service) -- Excellent Service Record. Legendary pilot. Has convinced all but one of his commanding officers never to promote him.
Hmmm. Keep them together. Say that Fulminant is new construction, have her ferryed out by a skeleton crew and reassign the Rigori to her. Their experience, rapport, and local credit are too valuable to mess with.
* DS12's CO -- Commander Stalek (Vulcan, 20 Years of Service) -- Good service record. Known to the Jovalisi, though not terribly popular.
Solid, reliable, fair. Leave him in place, I think. Find him a nice, diplomatic 2IC to smooth things over.
1) As the new Admiral in the sector, you have the option of assigning this crew to your command. Do you want to keep them around, and what would you do with them? Justify your reply.
See above.
2) The Rigorous is to be decommissioned, but a group of Jovalisi citizens wishes to keep her around as a museum ship for their nation. Another group from Lucrezea also wants her, but as the flagship for a new militia they are creating. While the ship will be stripped of any sensitive technology in either case, the selling off of such an old starship to friendly concerns would not be unheard of. Recommend to Starfleet what they should do with the requests, and if any conditions should be specified to either party.
Rigorous should go to the Jovalisi (personally, I'd ask that she be kept in flyable condition, just because any ship that faithful deserves better than just being left to rot), and offer the Lucrezians an orbital defense net, instead.
Q2
Tactical Planning:
Assets: Epiphany Rigorous 4 runabi 12 frieghters
1. Up to half of the Cardassian threat forces in the sector.
That'd be a Galor and either another Galor (a) or the fighters (b).
(a): Given that the local system is small enough to cross in a few seconds of warp, I'd have the freighters keep clear during the initial stages. Once they commit to a specific target, warp the other ships in between the Cardies and the cluster. Engage in coordination with the defense sattelites. If they split up, come out as a fleet and -mob- the closer one, trusting the sattelites on the other target to hold for as long as it takes. Commit the freighters, in kamikaze runs if neccessary.
(b): The defense stations would be more of a problem for fighters than a cruiser, I think. So, have the runabi wait among the weapons platforms and use their support to take on the fighters. Have the starships team up against the Galor, with platform support if possible.
2. Up to twenty smaller vessels as though from a Maquis attack.
Epiphany in Piranti, Rigorous in Deval and the runabi in Cluster. Four freighters to each area. If the Maquis split their forces, settle in for a siege. If they commit everything to a single target, use warp drive to pull all of our forces together to meet them. In both cases, make the maximum possible use of platform support.
3. Just for fun, a Borg sphere entering the system.
1. Pray. Repeat Step 1 whenever a free moment comes up. 2. Yell at the Jovali for help, 'cause we all know where the Borg will go after they finish Jovalis... if they don't go there first. 3. Load every ship I have to the bulkheads with antimatter. Crew the freighters with volunteers. 4. Link up with the Jovali, unless the Borg are coming on too fast for that to happen. If so, jump to Step 5. 5. Dogpile on the Borg, with combat ships trying to cover the freighters on kamikaze runs. Hope that either that works, or help arrives before it's too late.
B) The following are several situations that occur on your watch. For each scenario, describe what the nearest (or most relevant) starship to that event should be, what that ship should do in response, and how your fleet status could or should change as a result. Describe also any diplomatic efforts your staff should be making. NOTE: Assume that events from one scenario will not directly affect the others.
1. The first Federation delegation arrives in the sector to welcome its new member world. Several of the delegation wish to tour the sector to meet key parties on all the worlds, including a diplomatic mission to Bifour IV at the invitation of their government. Recommend how the delegates should go about their plan, which of your assets should be used, and how the rest of them should be deployed. The delegates arrive aboard the USS Ki, an Intrepid-class starship, and will return to the core systems on another ship. The Ki is on her way through Bifour space (with their permission) to explore the sectors beyond.
Schedule them for a tour of the sector aboard the Rigorous, which presumably hasn't been retired -quite- yet, (for prestige reasons). Make the appropriate arrangements for meetings with the various leaderships, as well as laying the PR groundwork. When they arrive, brief them on what's been done and what else they might do to help Federation membership seem like a positive option for the Jovali and the Lucrezians.
2. Miscalculating a warp equation, one of the Jovali cruisers creates a wormhole and drops itself right in the middle of the Pink Nebula, where it is disabled. The Jovali ask for help; however, Cardassian ships are closer and offer to respond. The Jovali aren�t terribly fond of the Cardassians.
Transfer Lt. Commander Shezef to the Epiphany, on a temporary basis, and send it on the rescue mission post-haste. Indicate that Cardassian aid in the Federation's rescue operation for our ally's starship would be appreciated. That way, they either sneer and ignore me because trying to get involved would make them subordinate to me in the operation, or they'll have to at least seem to play by my rules. Either way, I win.
3. The �duck blind� ground station is raided by pirates. They steal the station�s cloaking device, cloak suits (see �Star Trek: Insurrection�), and bioneural computer system. The pirate ship escapes, integrating the cloak into their shields. The mission crew cleverly bumps their heads in the right places and are hiding among the population, but need help before they are found out.
Bugger. Borrow a freighter from the Jovalisi and send it to pick them up by transporter, with a couple of combat-config runabouts for escort.
D) The USS Ki fails to check in on the far side of Bifour space. She sent a regular report through the DS12 comm network on schedule when she was more than halfway through their space, but they are more than a week late with their scheduled report. All the Bifour Cadassian ships are accounted for, and they report their last contact with the Ki a couple days after their last check-in. The Cardassians realize that you will want to send someone in to search for them and will let you do so; however whatever you send in will be escorted by one of their Hidekis who will aid in the search. Detail your plans, deployments, and search priorities.
Configure my last two runabouts for long range work, add in one of the escort runabouts and another borrowed Jovalisi freighter with some technicians, spare parts, and empty bunks. First priority is to find and ensure the safety of the Ki's crew, next is to find/salvage the ship itself. And, oh, if they see something interesting about the Bifouri that's just fine, but they're not to go out of their way.
Q3
C) The fleet you requisitioned in Q1 arrives in full, with an additional present: the USS Aristophanes (Miranda-class, Saratoga-refit, NCC-31923). The Aristophanes is a Starfleet Academy training ship, and carries about a hundred cadets and a regular crew of twenty on a second year field cruise. They'll be spending a few months in Sector Gamma, helping out with routine assignments while having cadets spend a couple weeks at a time on your ships. So, adding the Aristophanes into the mix, maneuver your fleet according to the following scenarios. Make note of any political reactions from involved parties that may occur. The Rigorous has now gone to whatever fate you've recommended in Q1.
1) The Lucrezeans get their act together and purchase some ships to head up their militia. Their patchwork fleet includes a smattering of customized shuttles, two surplus Klingon Birds of Prey (D-12 class) from the Ferengi, and a Yridian destroyer. In response, the Bifour fleet moves a Galor and two Hidekis around Zechs, despite repeated statements that the Lucrezean government has no interest in expansion/retaking the former Federation colony.
Dispatch Rougepelt and Aristophanes on a nice-nice type visit, express some very quiet concern about their intentions, and have Subaru start setting up a network of monitor stations all around the Federation side of the sector, starting with the border.
Have my intelligence staff/spies/etc. (I -do- have some, right?) look into public opinion on Zechs and Lucrezia.
2) Whatever search party you sent out to find the USS Ki finds a gaggle of escape pods close to the pulsar in the adjoining sector, containing about a third of her crew. Your people eventually reconstruct that the Ki struck a gravitic mine left over from the Cardassian conflicts of the 2340s. The mine stuck the bridge, wiping out the command crew along with most of the saucer. Some wreckage of the ship is located where it should be, and the energy signatures match that of a larger-than-usual, but not unheard-of, Cardassian mine.
Frell. Okay, load the crew on the freighter and bring them home. No proof to be found, alas alack. Request that the Bifouri locate and mark whatever minefields are to be found in their space.
3) The separatist elements in Jovalis space are mostly concentrated in the Cluster, though no more than a third of any colony cylinder there is interested in separation. However, a bombshell is dropped when a cylinder holds a referendum not to separate, but to move -- separatists in a Deyal group cylinder want to move their home to the Cluster. The vote succeeds, and the municipal government requests that Starfleet tractor their colony to its new home. Such an action will tie up your largest ship, or two of your smaller ships, for a couple months. However, the Jovalis government sees this as a legal action, so...
Hmmm. Well, I'd have at least that much stationed in system for defense purposes -anyway-, and they can always just drop the thing if there's an emergency, so there's really no reason not to, is there? Set the Steamrunners to it.
Q4
B) A civil war breaks out on Joval. In the past few years a pro-democracy movement has gained strength on the homeworld, particularly on the western continent which is the most industrialized region of the mostly-agricultural planet, and maintains the strongest off-world ties. Numerous local leaders call for the establishment of a planetary parliament and a full constitution. Monarch Ypaha Hrrays (supported by many of the more traditional politicians in his court) accuses the reformists that they are betraying the Jovali way of life, and refuses to allow the formation of a parliament. The provinces on the western continent respond by declaring independence. The monarch in turn accuses the rogue provinces of jeopardizing the security of the whole planet by instigating such division. However, when the provinces refuse to back down, Monarch Hrrays sends in ground troops to pacify the continent.
*sigh* Nothing is ever easy.
1) Provided is a map of the Joval Star System. How will you redeploy your task force once you hear of the fighting? As far as is known, all ships of the Jovali Royal Stellar Navy are in orbit of Joval -- for now.
Pull the Aristophanes back to Jovalis.
2) The Jovalisi government urges the Monarch to accept reforms, but he refuses. Although he's not violently xenophobic, he's clearly wary of outside influences. However, Monarch Hrrays does agree to a brief private conference with you as the local representative of the Federation, to discuss the situation. What will you tell him, or ask him, at this meeting?
Ask him to ask -himself- what was important to the basic identity of the Jovali people (as opposed to their political structure), what could be afforded to keep it, and where efforts to keep every little thing the same became counterproductive to the greater good. Those are questions that every society must ask, and answer for itself. Point out how often it has been seen that the identity of a people is a completely different thing from the language they speak or the way they govern themselves.
C) Despite declaring independence from Joval and joining the Federation, the Jovalisi have always maintained strong cultural and economic ties with the homeworld. The civil war on Joval threatens to spread to the various Jovalisi habitats -- it's obvious that many Jovalisi citizens will to get involved somehow. The majority of Jovalisi favor the rebels because of their common democratic beliefs, but there is a vocal minority of pro-monarchy activists, as well.
The local Jovalisi government's official position is in line with Federation policy -- the civil war is an internal matter, and they'll remain neutral. Of course, in practice that policy isn't worth much at all. Since the Federation does not have any high-ranking civilian officials in the region, it falls to you to set the Federation's policy and make sure that Starfleet is not dragged into any local conflict.
1) Both sides of the conflict on Joval are receiving support from various "interest groups" on Jovalis. They're sending medical supplies, foodstuffs, power cells, ships, weapons... even some troops (completely unofficially). However, not all of the materiel that's being sent is home-grown Jovalisi equipment: you start receiving reports of Federation-built phasers used in battles, and even a few small Federation ships used in limited space combat. There's also a vague reference to a rogue group called the Jovalisi Freedom Brigade which is using a group of Federation-built small craft (think Maquis-type ships here) to aid the rebel cause. What will you do in response to this intelligence?
Find out where they're getting them and end the pipeline. If the equipment is being accquired illegitimately, reclaim it (using Fulminant and the runabi) and return it to its rightful owners. Information about the goals and relative success of this measure will be available for anyone who asks (but no actual operational data).
Any JFB ships caught by Starfleet will be impounded until the bona fides of their purchase can be verified - for diplomatic reasons, this can be read as, 'for the duration'.
2) In order to stop the flow of materiel to the rebels, the Jovali monarch orders a planetary blockade -- all incoming ships are stopped and searched. No vessels are allowed to land on the western continent where most of the rebels are based. The Jovalisi local government protests this blockade and demands it be lifted immediately. The western continent is the source of most of the trade between Jovali and Jovalis, and could seriously hurt Jovalis's economy if contact is cut off. A few Jovalisi ships try to run the blockade, but unsuccessfully. The Jovalisi Merchants' Guild requests Starfleet protection of their ships near Jovalis and the immediate lifting of the blockade over the western continent for neutral vessels.
Offer to use Aristophanes as an inspection ship to ensure that no war materiel is landed if the Jovali will allow the resumption of trade.
3) In a surprise operation, a squad of rebel commandos manages to commandeer the Jovali heavy cruiser Dralliw -- apparently with the assistance of a number of mutineers on board. They escape from Jovali orbit, destroying one of the royal fleet's smaller frigates on the way out. The ship disappears into the asteroid belt, and Jovali forces do not pursue at the moment -- short of sending every remaining vessel in their fleet (one cruiser and three frigates), the Jovali are not likely to recapture their cruiser through conventional means. The rebels waste no time in proclaiming their victory and announce that the commandeered cruiser will be launching reprisals against the royal forces and any of their supporters.
Nothing for now, save to write up and send off a strongly worded condemnation of any attack on civilians by either party, and a warning of how darkly Starfleet and the Federation will look on such actions.
4) Hostility is brewing between some of the more vocal pro-rebel and pro-monarch factions in some of the Jovalisi habitats. Several riots have erupted in colonies, especially in the Deyal Group, and there have been reports of roving gangs attacking supporters of the opposite faction. Leaders from several of the habitats ask you to provide assistance in order to maintain security.
Frack! Thank goodness for stun settings on phasers. Have the Steamrunners' security detachments outfitted for riotbusting and attached to those departments asking for help.
D) Things start going south. Jovali ground forces are advancing across the planet, and refugees are streaming into the Jovalis colonies by the hundreds, then thousands. The various orbital habitats can handle the newcomers for the time being, but the longer the situation goes on, the more difficult sustaining them will be. Although the habitats are already close to their maximum, the flow of refugees shows no sign of decreasing as the fighting continues. The general estimate for the habitats as a whole is 3 weeks before a supply shortage develops. This estimate includes life support capacity, food supplies, and overcrowding, and assumes that the situation is not resolved and the flow of refugees does not diminish.
Double frack. Okay, bring both Excelsiors into base and have the Steamrunners drop that colony where it is - it should be plenty safe in its current orbit, but tow a couple of defense sats into place to keep it company.
Strip the Excelsiors and the Steamrunners down to skeleton crews, then get permission to move the extra refugees to some uninhabited part of Lucretzea. Once that's done, set those four ships up shuttling refus out at maximum cruise. This is a stopgap, but what else to do? They'll have pretty good capacity, with the crews gone. Move Subaru to Lucretzea and have her set up some reasonably comfortable refugee camps, expanding them as needed. Presumably, Federation technology is sufficient to turn bulk vegtable matter of whatever type into something nutritious and vaguely paletable - we can repair the ecological damage later.
Send Starfleet a message asking for enough basic food and medicine to take care of the refugees for the duration after the refugee camps run out of trees and before the problem is solved, and additional transport resources to make things move easier and give me most of my fleet back.
1) The vast majority of incoming ships carrying refugees are loaded past capacity and were built by Jovali, meaning that sending the refugees out of the system on the ships they cam in is not an option -- they simply aren't fast enough for a true interstellar journey, especially considering the overcrowding on board. What will you do with them?
Decrease the passenger loads to something that their enviro systems can sustain and use them for extra housing.
2) A Jovali passenger ship enters Jovalis space, pursued by one of the surviviing Jovali frigates, the Llenrup. The large passenger ship has taken heavy damage; there are several hull breaches, their warp drive is offline, their shields destroyed. The captain of the Jovali frigate claims that the passenger ship is smuggling a cell of known rebels away from Joval; the passenger ship captain says that the Jovali navy is trying to keep refugees from leaving Joval.
Impound the liner, her crew and her passengers, then ask the Jovali for descriptions of the rebels and assure them that they'll be placed into custody.
3) A group of raiders have taken advantage of the confusion in the past weeks, and have started raiding Federation freighters carrying agricultural products to Jovalis, and on to the rest of the Federation. It's possible that the raiders are operating out of the asteroid field... and may even be using the cloaking technology that was stolen from G'Sall a few months back.
Load -all- the runabi (with my initial four, plus the eight I asked for, that gives me twelve of the little nasties, yes?) for combat and send them and the Fulminant in to search through the asteroid field and root out the pirates.
Pirates die.
4) There are a series of bomb attacks in various Jovalisi orbital habitats. Although none has resulted in a major loss of life, the docking facilities of one station have been severely damaged. The attacks have been confined to the Cluster -- so far. How do you ensure the security of your home base, Deep Space Twelve? (Keep in mind the ongoing refugee situation, and the fact that many of the refugees may need medical attention at a Starfleet facility.)
Frell. DS12 will just have to scan incoming ships for explosives before allowing them to dock. Medical emergencies will be transported directly to sickbay, with transporter filters to pull out any hidden bombs and such.
E) After weeks of fighting, the royal faction's ground forces prevail. All of the major cities in the rebel provinces are occupied and placed under martial law. Monarch Hrrays begins issuing strict new edicts to ensure the "pacification" of the provinces. News from the provinces is scarce as the royal forces almost completely cut off the region from any offworld contact -- even after the war is declared to be over and the provincial governments surrender. The Jovalisi local government isn't happy with the developments and cuts off diplomatic relations with the homeworld, although they take no other action.
Bring up a couple of historical cases of crackdowns causing widespread revolution - the American Revolution, say, and my version of the Driians. No need to be particularly blunt about it - they're not Fed members, or even really allied, and I don't want to go getting their backs up.
However, it seems that a guerilla war is still going on in some out-of-the-way areas, and the monarch is using this as an excuse to crack down. The Jovali royal navy has also failed to track down and capture the cruiser that was captured in Part (C). They seem to be laying low for now.
Well, now that the refugee situation isn't getting any worse, the Subaru can go back to her monitoring network. Before very long, it'll be finished and she can add the promised defense net around Lucretzea, then move on to thicken Jovalis' defenses. Likewise, I can bring my Excelsiors and Steamrunners back to full crewing.
And that monitoring network would, naturally, see the cruiser the instant it does anything. I might not tell the Jovali about it - it's still an internal matter, the way I see it - but it'd be nice to know what the sucker's up to.
Diplomatically... *sigh* It's an internal matter, so all we can really do is encourage leniency and an attention to finding those who are actually -guilty-, as opposed to simply disgruntled or unlucky.
Critiques! (Picking on MinutiaeMan throughout, because he's been kind enough to pull all his answers together on one page.)
Defense planning, Scenario One - I wouldn't have expected the Jovali to have -time- to come in aid, even assuming they were willing. Personally, I'd have put the Jovali on point and had the faster Starfleet ships perform the flanking - the Jovali heavies, if they really are matches for Starfleet's Sovereigns, should be able to handle the Galors on their own, but the flannking move requires a degree of mobility that I doubt they have.
Scenario Two - I doubt that a single starship could be quite -that- decisive, but Cerberus would have plenty of support, so no problem.
Scenario Three - They're Borg. All you can do is the best you can, and hang the butcher's bill. Good job.
Scenario Responses! (ditto)
Scenario: A Cardassian Hideki-class warship emerges from the Purple Nebula, heading on a "southeast" vector. However, once it's clear of the nebula, it changes course towards Zechs... at Warp 2.3. Long-range scans indicate that the ship may be damaged, but the Hideki is transmitting no distress call, or any other messages for that matter.
First, send two messages, one to the Hideki itself and another to Bifour IV expressing concern over their apparent distress and offering any assistance within my power. Then dispatch Rigorous and a couple of Runabi to 'help' and poke around the nebula to see what it ran into.
Over the past four weeks, a large number of freighters from Bifour have been heading into and out of the Pink Nebula. The Cardassians say that they have discovered a brown dwarf star system within the nebula which contains a resource-rich asteroid belt, which includes dilithium. Soon, the Cardassians shift one Galor and two Hidekis to patrol the border near the nebula.
Well, it's in their space, and I already have that area under surveilance, so what's to do? Not much - I already have all my targets defended, and I'll see them coming no matter what.
New Scenarios (fruits of a twisted mind)
Rigorous and initial ship: A Hideki comes screaming over the border at maximum warp, broadcasting a request for asylum. A Galor and all six of it sister ships are hot on its tail, bellowing about traitors and punishment and internal affairs that Feddies had -better- not get involved in.
Full Fleet: The second eldest of the Jovali Monarch's daughters dissapears on her way to a diplomatic visit to Lucrezia. All but one of the Jovali Fleet's ships move out immediately, and the Monarch transmits a formal request for Starfleet aid in the search. The first ship on the scene will find residues from a very short fight between her yacht and a ship with Cardassian made weapons, hull, and engines. The Jovali don't declare war, but their 'diplomatic' exchanges with Bifour IV are fast becoming anything but.
I think there was a discussion about this earlier and it was decided that since this had started here it'd stay here.
Registered: Feb 2002
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Once upon a time the consensus was that this forum was for discussing trek technology. However, recently the consensus has shifted and this forum is now more restrictive (though pleanty of non-canon stuff - like Sternbach's magazine articles - is still discussed here).
And things like tactics and fleet deployments have always been treated as technical by a large portion of the fanbase - you know the ones who like starships and stuff, rather than the ones who froth at the mouth over every detail of Riker and Troi's relationship.
This means that the Designs, Artwork, & Creativity forum now carries pure discussion on non-canon technical matters where there's no actual creative input from any of the members.
Does anyone think it's worth asking for a non-canon forum in the Trek section? Where discussion of Novels, Treknical fandom, RPGs, computer games, etc. could be discussed?
Timo has already stated that future "You're the Admiral.." threads should go in the Designs, Artwork, & Creativity forum but that he wasn't going to move this one.
-------------------- "My theories appal you, my heresies outrage you, I never answer letters and you don't like my tie." - The Doctor
Registered: Mar 1999
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I'm offline for two minutes and a) a question pops up which I'm supposed to answer and b) some smartass types faster than me...
Consider whatever I was going to say said.
Yeah, Sector Alpha is idle and Sector Beta is dead. Sector Gamma should be finished with the next question or two, if we ever get around to those - and Sector Delta or the "You Are the Commodore" thing promised by a certain individual will have to start at the Creative forum and not here.
quote:Originally posted by Identity Crisis: (though pleanty of non-canon stuff - like Sternbach's magazine articles - is still discussed here).
Thin ice subject... many people consider Sternbach the authority on all treknology issues and thus just as canon as the show.
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
posted
I'd also contest the need to put this stuff in the creativity forum. The overwhelming majority of stuff in these scenarios revolves around starship operations -- combat, diplomacy, interstellar deployment strategies. As Mark said at the start of Sector Alpha, this is kind of a quantum upgrade of the "What Starship Would You Send?" threads on one of the old newsgroups.
Or should the weekly new tech threads be moved to the Enterprise forum because they're about ENT?
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Identity Crisis: And things like tactics and fleet deployments have always been treated as technical by a large portion of the fanbase - you know the ones who like starships and stuff, rather than the ones who froth at the mouth over every detail of Riker and Troi's relationship.
I frothed at the mouth over Riker/Troi relationship, though not the good, friendly frothing.
Hey, someone mentioned LoGH in this thread earlier! They definately get brownie points from me.
-------------------- "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world."
Registered: Apr 2001
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I'm surprise no one used the Nebulas or the Holoship from Insurrection here. Then again, I would have if I knew this was going on. I'll just join the next game later.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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