Post by rarcher on Jan 23, 2022 14:18:09 GMT -7
Here is the overview of the first mission featuring the intrepid crew of the Silentmeister on their lone voyage to gather intelligence on the mysterious Tordell Empire at the dawning of 2268! For reference we're using the custom one off design of the Silent Dog Class IV Intelligence Scout found here. I'll eventually also post up the Tordell ship combat sheet they encountered shortly.
2268 dawned for most people in the Unity with a look of hope and energetic peace back home. But for the handpicked crew of the KUSN's Intelligence Arm aboard the Silentmeister things were different. Their task under the command of Commander Rachel Charles, her XO and CE Lt Tom Baker, the ship's CSO and intelligence agent Lt Frank Furter and the ships security/tactical and helm officer Lt Gok Son. As well as the 16 other crew and 20 marines on board were far more tense. When they had left word of the mysterious Tordell Empire had only been released to a select few for fear of overly worrying the civilian populace and the Unity's trade partners. To this end the ship had set off on their mission to find the current boundaries of the Empire, and where possible gather intelligence in one form or another. Now two months into their mission the crew seemingly had found their first hope of a target. Up to this point the crew had surveyed a few systems, ran into a few traders who had directed them on their way deeper to the Empire, and generally done peaceful gathering of information that was sent by long range relay beacons back to the Unity. But as 0900 hours ticked over on the bridge of the Silentmeister long range scans by the CSO Lt Frank Furter broke the stillness.
"..Commander, we're picking up an energy emission within the system ahead, scans seem to match those used by the Tordell destroyer encountered by the Pride Of Fire.." Furter said.
"..Drop us out of warp outside the system, then power the stealth system, helm proceed in system once the stealth system is online at a quarter impulse.." Charles said.
"..Got it Commander.." Son replied.
Quitely the ship moved into the system. Further scans soon came in and Furter and Son chimed in on their results. "..Correction seems like we found a slightly smaller ship then the destroyer the Pride Of Fire encountered. They are in orbit of the second planet using some kind of mining laser and tractor beam to mine the planet's small moon.." Furter said.
"..By the weight class I would say the ship is some kind of scout vessel, given its actions maybe a mining ship or science ship?" Son said.
"..How many life signs?" Baker inquired having come onto the bridge by this point from the ship's engine room.
"..Showing 15 on the ship, and another 5 on the moon about a mile or so from the drill site. Looks like they're used as a beacon point for the ship drill.." Furter answered.
"..Son, bring us closer, slow and steady. Let's try to get a read on how good their sensors are compared to ours. The Pride Of Fire's analysis of the destroyer seemed to imply theirs are worse then ours.." Charles ordered.
Slowly the Silentmeister crept forward on impulse with the stealth system still powered. They got within 500 miles of the Tordell ship when Son brought them to a halt at the order from Furter who reported some scans had been directed their way by the possible enemy ship. Everyone held their breath for long minutes before Furter reported the scans had stopped. "..Ok close enough I think. Don't you think Commander?" Baker inquired.
"..Yeah, we're well within transporter range. So how do we want to approach this? Thoughts?" Charles asked his staff.
"..We could easily board them from here with our marines. Drop the stealth system beam them over, raise shields, and use our weapons to disable their comm array. We'd likely overpower the ship and crew before any real response could be managed.." Son and Furter both suggested in some form or another.
"..We could also beam up the five on the moon, it is likely their capture would be less detected by the ship for some time giving us a chance to interrogate and slip away with them without any danger. We could send down at the same time a small group of demolition charges, make them explode like some kind of accident happened. Benefit of this is we wouldn't need to drop our stealth system given the lower power draw.." Baker suggested.
Charles rubbed her chin, both plans had their merit and risks. The question she pondered was how in depth did she want to take this mission of information gathering within the Empire's borders? "..As long as we can manage I think.." she thought, "..Alert the transporter room, rig up the demo charges, and send a marine detail to the transporter room to receive our 'guests'. Soon as they're onboard and the demo charges away back us out of the system quick but quiet. Then set course for that rogue comet we passed an hour back.." She said.
Orders were carried out over the next 10 minutes, once everyone was in place and ready, the plan went into motion. Without a hitch the Silenmeister got away clean. Their long range scans showed the Tordell ship had not even at first noticed the loss of their moon crew and the explosion till almost 3 minutes after the Silentmeister had left the system and gone to warp. The marines had secured their 'guests' in the ship's tiny brig and an hour later the staff were deeply engaged in information gathering. By three days in though all five of their guests had failed to break under the various means employed by the staff. Ranging from truth serums, to mind probes, to mind melds, to outright torture. The only true discovery that the staff had made after these three days were that the Tordell people were highly resilient physically and mentally speaking to these methods. In the end unwilling to risk their escape or discovery by another force, Baker himself made the painful choice of vaporizing the five prisoners.
With no further recourse left to them, the Silentmeister and her crew set out back to the system the scout ship had been in attempting to discern where it had gone. Scans soon picked up a fading energy trail which led the ship to another nearby system 3 days away. Entering the system again they found the scout ship had been joined by another similar sized ship. This one though seemed more a transport and resupply vessel. "..Slow and steady Son. Alright let's get our scans. Furter seem if you can launch those subspace beacon tags onto both ships without us being detected.." Charles said.
"..Aye ma'am.." Furter said.
Unfortunately for Furter this task failed. While he was able to tag the transport and resupply vessel without a problem, the scout ship it seems had slightly better sensors then the first and by happenstance picked up the beacon's impact. Both enemy vessels now alerted to the presence of and outside force in the system raised shields and the crew soon found another tactic of Tordell ships. Their sensors while general individually weaker then those by other known powers, were more on par with those powers in groups. Working on concert the two ships were able to track down the Silentmeister as it attempted to sneakily round the nearby planet in the system to make its escape. "..Can we take them in a fight?" Baker asked.
"..Probably.." Son answered performing evasive maneuvers still to keep the ship safe. "..But if we're going to turn and fight or try to make a run for it someone decide quickly! They're closing fast.." She added.
"..Drop stealth, combat alert! Bring us about and prepare for battle, Son, target both ship's commn arrays before they can signal for help!.." Charles said.
Battle Begins:
1x Silent Dog Class Intelligence Scout vs 1x Tordell Empire Class IV Scout & 1x Tordell Empire Class V Transport/Resupply Ship
Silentmeister Objectives:
1) Disable or destroy both ships by any means necessary
2) Failing this break off contact by reaching the map's 'eastern' border and escape (The right side of the map opposite where they were now basically!)
Tordell Ship Objectives:
1) Disable or destroy the unknown alien ship by any means necessary
2) And/Or one Tordell ship make it to any edge of the map and hold position for 1 full turn to send a signal for help, reinforcements arrive within 2 turns
Outcomes:
1) Both Tordell ships are disabled/destroyed
2) The Silentmeister escapes intact
3) The Silentmeister is disabled/destroyed by Tordell forces
4) The Silentmeister is trapped within the system by the arrival of reinforcements and automatically captured intact
The first round of combat began with the Tordell transport ship in a slight lead ahead of the Tordell scout. Their forward arc armor plating was energized and their energy weapons charged, missile weapons remained unpowered by both ships. The Silentmeister finished coming about at the start of combat and began play with the stealth system powered down, shields in forward arcs powered, both fp/fs disruptors powered and armed, and their forward torpedo system at the ready. Moving in close all three ships opened fire, the transport ships beam weapons lanced into the forward port bow of the Silentmeister causing light damage but otherwise absorbed. The scout's beams hit the Silentmeister to the forward starboard bow and did a bit more damage reducing them to minimal levels and lightly damaging the ship's hull. The Silentmeister returned fire, its forward/port disruptors impacting the transport ship. The energized hull plating absorbed most of the impact but were greatly weakened overall. The Meister's forward starboard disruptor bank and torpedoes launched at the scout. Both impacted as the three ships made passing runs on the other. The scout's hull plating in that arc were damaged, and the torpedo broke through to impact the hull directly but strong armor reinforcement or quick repair action by the ship's crew prevented deeper penetration.
Round two of combat began with the Tordell transport making a hard turn around the nearby planet vanishing from sensor lock by the Meister. The scout ship in turn came about on the Meister this time arming the port and forward arc hull plating, their disruptors and missile systems. The Meister banked to starboard changing shielding to that arc as well as forward and aft. Disruptors in those arcs were also primed, and the aft torpedo readied for launch. As the two ships closed, the Meister found another trait of the Tordell ship's it seemed. When working in concert somehow the ships worked jointly to empower each others weapons in both accuracy and damage output. So since the transport had drifted out of sight the scout's beam attack on the Meister missed by a large margin. But their missile weapon struck home along the starboard shield arc penetrating by half and bleeding through to the hull causing minor damage to crew with injuries in that area. The Meister returned fire with disruptors which lanced along the scout ship. The hull plating was knocked down and bleed through caused damage along the outer triangle structure which seemed to make up their version of impulse motors causing power loss and a small plasma leak. As the round came to an end, the Meister finished its maneuvers with its aft quarter to the scout ship launching its readied torpedo. The torpedo struck home along the aft starboard quarter of the scout which it was found though strongly armored was unenergized. There was also no sign of any aft weapon ports on the scout. The torpedo strike caused heavy hull damage in that quarter and likely crew injuries/fatalities.
As the the third round of combat began the Meister accelerated power to their engines for more maneuverability to get some distance. Charles orders had been to test the scout ship's range of attack. To this end, no weapons got powered this round on the Meister, all power being shunted evenly between movement and shields. At the same time the scout ship finished its own turn and gave chase to the Meister but due to the damage suffered previously it seems it's Captain's orders to power again the forward arc hull plating, energy weapons and missile system were harder to carry out. This meant that when the firing phase began, the Meister was able to dodge all incoming attacks from the scout, finding that missile system had less accuracy then the beam weapons. And in turn the scout's weapon systems overall while damaging up close or in groups died off quickly at range. This though did not prevent the Tordell transport from finishings its earlier flanking attack maneuver around the planet. Coming in from the port forward quarter the Meister was struck in concert by four direct hits of the transport's energy weapons. Missile fire was not used this turn. The direct close strikes collectively broke through the Meister's forward port quarter and bleed through not only to the hull causing moderate damage, but also damage to the ship's port nacelle reducing power there.
As round four began, the Meister now found itself pinned between both closing Tordell ships. Charles ordered power shunted to the forward, forward port, port, port aft, and aft arcs of their shields. Equally power to all disruptor banks was given and forward and aft torpedoes primed. With little power left for movement the ship sluggishly came about to face to forward/port aft/port arcs both approaching enemy ships. The Meister opened up first, the forward disruptors and torpedo hitting the transport. It seems the transport's captain had made the choice to devote all their power to weapons and movement this time with only minimal power to the hull plating. The combined forward fire of the Meister ripped through the hull plating and armor, piercing deep into the transports superstructure. Resounding secondary explosions tore off the transports single embedded warp engine housing, and destroyed the transports sublight maneuvering capabilities. Massive crew casualties meant that the ship was effectively adrift and seemingly out of the fight. But this was not without a return strike. In its death throes the transport had let loose its own four concentrated beam attacks again, and a single missile volley before the Meister's impacts had done their work. The strikes again battered through the Meister's shields, this time knocking the forward and port side shield arrays offline without significant repairs. Further the missile strike had done further damage to the Meister's port nacelle reducing it barely a quarter of operational capacity coupled with several more crew injuries being reported. At the same time, the Meister had opened up its aft complement of weapons upon the fast closing scout. This ship's captain had powered only their forward arc hull plating, and missile weapons. The Meister's fire here buckled the scout's forward plating causing it seems significant damage to the scout's energy weapon arrays in the entire forward arc coverage pattern. The torpedo in turn also pierced deeply into the scout's hull causing massive secondary damages which crippled the ship's warp power, leaving it only on impulse. But like the transport the scout had gotten off its dual missile shots upon the Meister. The twin volleys impacted the aft/port quarter the first missile absorbed by the shields but knocked down, the second missile slammed home into the hull of the Meister finishing what little power the port nacelle still could provide and causing several hull breaches and loss of crew.
With one ship crippled, and the second on its last legs. Commander Charles sat among the fumes of the smoky damaged bridge. Bleeding from several explosive injuries of her own, she barked out orders to Son at helm, to put all remaining power to their aft quarter shields and weapons, then perform emergency evasive maneuvers in reverse! The badly damaged Meister's superstructure strained to answer the demands of the helm, but held together as the round began. The scout as mentioned barely held together and the Captain with their last effort it seems used what little power remained to power the scout's two missile launchers for a last defiant strike. Meanwhile the transport adrift spun uselessly closer to the planet nearby likely about to enter its atmosphere, if any crew remained alive they would soon fry in the coming minutes. The Meister finally in position opened fire in concert with its aft weaponry. This time their strike was hoping to simply disable the scout not destroy it utterly. The strikes impacted along its flanks shearing off the last power sources and offensive systems. Somehow by a thread the scout had survived (It literally at this point of the fight was down to 1 SS!! LOL) but as before the dual fire missiles of the scout had gotten off towards the Meister. Son in their evasive pattern was thankfully able to barely dodge the first volley, but the second struck home in the aft quarter blowing clean away the aft quarter shielding array and one of the two impulse motors.
As the round ended the Meister now realizing their bare luck of survival (The Meister itself was down to 4 SS!) limply came about and after securing the scout in a tractor beam dropped their shields and quickly beamed over their 20 marines and 5 of their remaining security officers lead by Lt Son. The fighting was fierce and difficult but in the end the marines and security team were able to secure the ship, the remaining 3 crew members including the ship's second in command (the CO having gotten killed in a last ditch fire fight!), and disabled the scout's self destruct system. With this in hand, the Meister turned their attention to the now crashed remains of the transport on the planet. Using carefully timed disruptor torpedo, and demolition charges planetside, they vaporized 99% of the remaining wreckage to hopefully prevent any search party from learning more about either ship's fate. Charles had the Meister's crew tow the scout ship out of the system and were able to limp at low warp back once more to the rogue comet they had encountered before. There under its cover the Meister crew once more tried to interrogate the three surviving crew. But once more found little success, in the end once more all three got vaporized. Because of the severe damage to the Meister towing the scout ship's hull back to Unity space was deemed unfeasible. The Meister's crew then spent the next two weeks downloading everything they could from the ship's computer core that was still intact, taking samples of surviving weapons, engine, armor/plating systems, and sensor systems. As well as a variety of other tasks to gather a full range of information on the Empire. With this done bits of the scout were able to be jury rigged to get the Meister repaired enough to hold a warp factor of 4, making the original limited warp of 2 trip back to Unity space take years, instead only take once more a few months. Using the comet itself the Meister maneuvered the hulk of the scout into its path and with the comet's impact and the last of their torpedoes destroyed the scout to make it hopefully look like it had ran into the comet......somehow.
With all this done the Meister came about and by April 4th of 2268 limped back home to a secretive heroes welcome and debrief of their findings by Fleet Admiral R'Archer and the intelligence bureau. The Meister having served its purpose, it was decided would be too costly to refit/repair/restore to service and so was broken up of its serviceable systems and the rest broken up and melted down for repurposing elsewhere.
Outcome: Total Unity Victory On All Fronts!
Hope you all enjoyed this little story/ship combat scenario, I'll be posting more Tordell highlights from these findings and a break down of the Tordell Empire that were salvaged when I can!
2268 dawned for most people in the Unity with a look of hope and energetic peace back home. But for the handpicked crew of the KUSN's Intelligence Arm aboard the Silentmeister things were different. Their task under the command of Commander Rachel Charles, her XO and CE Lt Tom Baker, the ship's CSO and intelligence agent Lt Frank Furter and the ships security/tactical and helm officer Lt Gok Son. As well as the 16 other crew and 20 marines on board were far more tense. When they had left word of the mysterious Tordell Empire had only been released to a select few for fear of overly worrying the civilian populace and the Unity's trade partners. To this end the ship had set off on their mission to find the current boundaries of the Empire, and where possible gather intelligence in one form or another. Now two months into their mission the crew seemingly had found their first hope of a target. Up to this point the crew had surveyed a few systems, ran into a few traders who had directed them on their way deeper to the Empire, and generally done peaceful gathering of information that was sent by long range relay beacons back to the Unity. But as 0900 hours ticked over on the bridge of the Silentmeister long range scans by the CSO Lt Frank Furter broke the stillness.
"..Commander, we're picking up an energy emission within the system ahead, scans seem to match those used by the Tordell destroyer encountered by the Pride Of Fire.." Furter said.
"..Drop us out of warp outside the system, then power the stealth system, helm proceed in system once the stealth system is online at a quarter impulse.." Charles said.
"..Got it Commander.." Son replied.
Quitely the ship moved into the system. Further scans soon came in and Furter and Son chimed in on their results. "..Correction seems like we found a slightly smaller ship then the destroyer the Pride Of Fire encountered. They are in orbit of the second planet using some kind of mining laser and tractor beam to mine the planet's small moon.." Furter said.
"..By the weight class I would say the ship is some kind of scout vessel, given its actions maybe a mining ship or science ship?" Son said.
"..How many life signs?" Baker inquired having come onto the bridge by this point from the ship's engine room.
"..Showing 15 on the ship, and another 5 on the moon about a mile or so from the drill site. Looks like they're used as a beacon point for the ship drill.." Furter answered.
"..Son, bring us closer, slow and steady. Let's try to get a read on how good their sensors are compared to ours. The Pride Of Fire's analysis of the destroyer seemed to imply theirs are worse then ours.." Charles ordered.
Slowly the Silentmeister crept forward on impulse with the stealth system still powered. They got within 500 miles of the Tordell ship when Son brought them to a halt at the order from Furter who reported some scans had been directed their way by the possible enemy ship. Everyone held their breath for long minutes before Furter reported the scans had stopped. "..Ok close enough I think. Don't you think Commander?" Baker inquired.
"..Yeah, we're well within transporter range. So how do we want to approach this? Thoughts?" Charles asked his staff.
"..We could easily board them from here with our marines. Drop the stealth system beam them over, raise shields, and use our weapons to disable their comm array. We'd likely overpower the ship and crew before any real response could be managed.." Son and Furter both suggested in some form or another.
"..We could also beam up the five on the moon, it is likely their capture would be less detected by the ship for some time giving us a chance to interrogate and slip away with them without any danger. We could send down at the same time a small group of demolition charges, make them explode like some kind of accident happened. Benefit of this is we wouldn't need to drop our stealth system given the lower power draw.." Baker suggested.
Charles rubbed her chin, both plans had their merit and risks. The question she pondered was how in depth did she want to take this mission of information gathering within the Empire's borders? "..As long as we can manage I think.." she thought, "..Alert the transporter room, rig up the demo charges, and send a marine detail to the transporter room to receive our 'guests'. Soon as they're onboard and the demo charges away back us out of the system quick but quiet. Then set course for that rogue comet we passed an hour back.." She said.
Orders were carried out over the next 10 minutes, once everyone was in place and ready, the plan went into motion. Without a hitch the Silenmeister got away clean. Their long range scans showed the Tordell ship had not even at first noticed the loss of their moon crew and the explosion till almost 3 minutes after the Silentmeister had left the system and gone to warp. The marines had secured their 'guests' in the ship's tiny brig and an hour later the staff were deeply engaged in information gathering. By three days in though all five of their guests had failed to break under the various means employed by the staff. Ranging from truth serums, to mind probes, to mind melds, to outright torture. The only true discovery that the staff had made after these three days were that the Tordell people were highly resilient physically and mentally speaking to these methods. In the end unwilling to risk their escape or discovery by another force, Baker himself made the painful choice of vaporizing the five prisoners.
With no further recourse left to them, the Silentmeister and her crew set out back to the system the scout ship had been in attempting to discern where it had gone. Scans soon picked up a fading energy trail which led the ship to another nearby system 3 days away. Entering the system again they found the scout ship had been joined by another similar sized ship. This one though seemed more a transport and resupply vessel. "..Slow and steady Son. Alright let's get our scans. Furter seem if you can launch those subspace beacon tags onto both ships without us being detected.." Charles said.
"..Aye ma'am.." Furter said.
Unfortunately for Furter this task failed. While he was able to tag the transport and resupply vessel without a problem, the scout ship it seems had slightly better sensors then the first and by happenstance picked up the beacon's impact. Both enemy vessels now alerted to the presence of and outside force in the system raised shields and the crew soon found another tactic of Tordell ships. Their sensors while general individually weaker then those by other known powers, were more on par with those powers in groups. Working on concert the two ships were able to track down the Silentmeister as it attempted to sneakily round the nearby planet in the system to make its escape. "..Can we take them in a fight?" Baker asked.
"..Probably.." Son answered performing evasive maneuvers still to keep the ship safe. "..But if we're going to turn and fight or try to make a run for it someone decide quickly! They're closing fast.." She added.
"..Drop stealth, combat alert! Bring us about and prepare for battle, Son, target both ship's commn arrays before they can signal for help!.." Charles said.
Battle Begins:
1x Silent Dog Class Intelligence Scout vs 1x Tordell Empire Class IV Scout & 1x Tordell Empire Class V Transport/Resupply Ship
Silentmeister Objectives:
1) Disable or destroy both ships by any means necessary
2) Failing this break off contact by reaching the map's 'eastern' border and escape (The right side of the map opposite where they were now basically!)
Tordell Ship Objectives:
1) Disable or destroy the unknown alien ship by any means necessary
2) And/Or one Tordell ship make it to any edge of the map and hold position for 1 full turn to send a signal for help, reinforcements arrive within 2 turns
Outcomes:
1) Both Tordell ships are disabled/destroyed
2) The Silentmeister escapes intact
3) The Silentmeister is disabled/destroyed by Tordell forces
4) The Silentmeister is trapped within the system by the arrival of reinforcements and automatically captured intact
The first round of combat began with the Tordell transport ship in a slight lead ahead of the Tordell scout. Their forward arc armor plating was energized and their energy weapons charged, missile weapons remained unpowered by both ships. The Silentmeister finished coming about at the start of combat and began play with the stealth system powered down, shields in forward arcs powered, both fp/fs disruptors powered and armed, and their forward torpedo system at the ready. Moving in close all three ships opened fire, the transport ships beam weapons lanced into the forward port bow of the Silentmeister causing light damage but otherwise absorbed. The scout's beams hit the Silentmeister to the forward starboard bow and did a bit more damage reducing them to minimal levels and lightly damaging the ship's hull. The Silentmeister returned fire, its forward/port disruptors impacting the transport ship. The energized hull plating absorbed most of the impact but were greatly weakened overall. The Meister's forward starboard disruptor bank and torpedoes launched at the scout. Both impacted as the three ships made passing runs on the other. The scout's hull plating in that arc were damaged, and the torpedo broke through to impact the hull directly but strong armor reinforcement or quick repair action by the ship's crew prevented deeper penetration.
Round two of combat began with the Tordell transport making a hard turn around the nearby planet vanishing from sensor lock by the Meister. The scout ship in turn came about on the Meister this time arming the port and forward arc hull plating, their disruptors and missile systems. The Meister banked to starboard changing shielding to that arc as well as forward and aft. Disruptors in those arcs were also primed, and the aft torpedo readied for launch. As the two ships closed, the Meister found another trait of the Tordell ship's it seemed. When working in concert somehow the ships worked jointly to empower each others weapons in both accuracy and damage output. So since the transport had drifted out of sight the scout's beam attack on the Meister missed by a large margin. But their missile weapon struck home along the starboard shield arc penetrating by half and bleeding through to the hull causing minor damage to crew with injuries in that area. The Meister returned fire with disruptors which lanced along the scout ship. The hull plating was knocked down and bleed through caused damage along the outer triangle structure which seemed to make up their version of impulse motors causing power loss and a small plasma leak. As the round came to an end, the Meister finished its maneuvers with its aft quarter to the scout ship launching its readied torpedo. The torpedo struck home along the aft starboard quarter of the scout which it was found though strongly armored was unenergized. There was also no sign of any aft weapon ports on the scout. The torpedo strike caused heavy hull damage in that quarter and likely crew injuries/fatalities.
As the the third round of combat began the Meister accelerated power to their engines for more maneuverability to get some distance. Charles orders had been to test the scout ship's range of attack. To this end, no weapons got powered this round on the Meister, all power being shunted evenly between movement and shields. At the same time the scout ship finished its own turn and gave chase to the Meister but due to the damage suffered previously it seems it's Captain's orders to power again the forward arc hull plating, energy weapons and missile system were harder to carry out. This meant that when the firing phase began, the Meister was able to dodge all incoming attacks from the scout, finding that missile system had less accuracy then the beam weapons. And in turn the scout's weapon systems overall while damaging up close or in groups died off quickly at range. This though did not prevent the Tordell transport from finishings its earlier flanking attack maneuver around the planet. Coming in from the port forward quarter the Meister was struck in concert by four direct hits of the transport's energy weapons. Missile fire was not used this turn. The direct close strikes collectively broke through the Meister's forward port quarter and bleed through not only to the hull causing moderate damage, but also damage to the ship's port nacelle reducing power there.
As round four began, the Meister now found itself pinned between both closing Tordell ships. Charles ordered power shunted to the forward, forward port, port, port aft, and aft arcs of their shields. Equally power to all disruptor banks was given and forward and aft torpedoes primed. With little power left for movement the ship sluggishly came about to face to forward/port aft/port arcs both approaching enemy ships. The Meister opened up first, the forward disruptors and torpedo hitting the transport. It seems the transport's captain had made the choice to devote all their power to weapons and movement this time with only minimal power to the hull plating. The combined forward fire of the Meister ripped through the hull plating and armor, piercing deep into the transports superstructure. Resounding secondary explosions tore off the transports single embedded warp engine housing, and destroyed the transports sublight maneuvering capabilities. Massive crew casualties meant that the ship was effectively adrift and seemingly out of the fight. But this was not without a return strike. In its death throes the transport had let loose its own four concentrated beam attacks again, and a single missile volley before the Meister's impacts had done their work. The strikes again battered through the Meister's shields, this time knocking the forward and port side shield arrays offline without significant repairs. Further the missile strike had done further damage to the Meister's port nacelle reducing it barely a quarter of operational capacity coupled with several more crew injuries being reported. At the same time, the Meister had opened up its aft complement of weapons upon the fast closing scout. This ship's captain had powered only their forward arc hull plating, and missile weapons. The Meister's fire here buckled the scout's forward plating causing it seems significant damage to the scout's energy weapon arrays in the entire forward arc coverage pattern. The torpedo in turn also pierced deeply into the scout's hull causing massive secondary damages which crippled the ship's warp power, leaving it only on impulse. But like the transport the scout had gotten off its dual missile shots upon the Meister. The twin volleys impacted the aft/port quarter the first missile absorbed by the shields but knocked down, the second missile slammed home into the hull of the Meister finishing what little power the port nacelle still could provide and causing several hull breaches and loss of crew.
With one ship crippled, and the second on its last legs. Commander Charles sat among the fumes of the smoky damaged bridge. Bleeding from several explosive injuries of her own, she barked out orders to Son at helm, to put all remaining power to their aft quarter shields and weapons, then perform emergency evasive maneuvers in reverse! The badly damaged Meister's superstructure strained to answer the demands of the helm, but held together as the round began. The scout as mentioned barely held together and the Captain with their last effort it seems used what little power remained to power the scout's two missile launchers for a last defiant strike. Meanwhile the transport adrift spun uselessly closer to the planet nearby likely about to enter its atmosphere, if any crew remained alive they would soon fry in the coming minutes. The Meister finally in position opened fire in concert with its aft weaponry. This time their strike was hoping to simply disable the scout not destroy it utterly. The strikes impacted along its flanks shearing off the last power sources and offensive systems. Somehow by a thread the scout had survived (It literally at this point of the fight was down to 1 SS!! LOL) but as before the dual fire missiles of the scout had gotten off towards the Meister. Son in their evasive pattern was thankfully able to barely dodge the first volley, but the second struck home in the aft quarter blowing clean away the aft quarter shielding array and one of the two impulse motors.
As the round ended the Meister now realizing their bare luck of survival (The Meister itself was down to 4 SS!) limply came about and after securing the scout in a tractor beam dropped their shields and quickly beamed over their 20 marines and 5 of their remaining security officers lead by Lt Son. The fighting was fierce and difficult but in the end the marines and security team were able to secure the ship, the remaining 3 crew members including the ship's second in command (the CO having gotten killed in a last ditch fire fight!), and disabled the scout's self destruct system. With this in hand, the Meister turned their attention to the now crashed remains of the transport on the planet. Using carefully timed disruptor torpedo, and demolition charges planetside, they vaporized 99% of the remaining wreckage to hopefully prevent any search party from learning more about either ship's fate. Charles had the Meister's crew tow the scout ship out of the system and were able to limp at low warp back once more to the rogue comet they had encountered before. There under its cover the Meister crew once more tried to interrogate the three surviving crew. But once more found little success, in the end once more all three got vaporized. Because of the severe damage to the Meister towing the scout ship's hull back to Unity space was deemed unfeasible. The Meister's crew then spent the next two weeks downloading everything they could from the ship's computer core that was still intact, taking samples of surviving weapons, engine, armor/plating systems, and sensor systems. As well as a variety of other tasks to gather a full range of information on the Empire. With this done bits of the scout were able to be jury rigged to get the Meister repaired enough to hold a warp factor of 4, making the original limited warp of 2 trip back to Unity space take years, instead only take once more a few months. Using the comet itself the Meister maneuvered the hulk of the scout into its path and with the comet's impact and the last of their torpedoes destroyed the scout to make it hopefully look like it had ran into the comet......somehow.
With all this done the Meister came about and by April 4th of 2268 limped back home to a secretive heroes welcome and debrief of their findings by Fleet Admiral R'Archer and the intelligence bureau. The Meister having served its purpose, it was decided would be too costly to refit/repair/restore to service and so was broken up of its serviceable systems and the rest broken up and melted down for repurposing elsewhere.
Outcome: Total Unity Victory On All Fronts!
Hope you all enjoyed this little story/ship combat scenario, I'll be posting more Tordell highlights from these findings and a break down of the Tordell Empire that were salvaged when I can!
