From nitefitr@cyberhighway.net Fri May 1 09:10:35 1998 Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 08:43:39 -0600 From: Mike Groner To: INDIGO FLEET List Serve Subject: [COMDANTEXF] [DANTEXF] Attack on DANTE ---OFFICIAL INDIGO FLEET TRANSMISSION--- Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 08:43:09 -0600 From: "Mike Groner" Subject: [COMDANTEXF] [DANTEXF] Attack on DANTE ******************************************************************** SD: 100424.1531 GMT Scene: Starfleet imposed protected corridor, Dante system ******************************************************************** FMD: 3.0800 Lieutenant Joshua Porter was flying command of his three-ship flight. He in an A-111 assault shuttle and his wingmen in the more maneuverable but less heavily armed and armored F-4 fighters. He was tired, well into the 35th hour of his 50 hour patrol, and was just now eating some dinner after a nice 4-hour nap, after which he'd take command of the flight and let his #2 man take his turn at some rest, slaving their autopilots to his craft. So far, on this patrol it had been pretty routine. They had escorted 3 ships through the outer cordon zone of the corridor and handed off to another patrol closer to the station. These craft carried supplies and important repair resources for the still slightly damaged Starbase ALIGHIERI, remnants of the last missile attack from the Kraggons and Pirates. They also had 2 unauthorized vessels enter the corridor, but those disappeared before they could be intercepted and could not be pursued by the sublight combat shuttles. They were either pirates from too small a clan to worry about, or a couple of kids out for a spin and playing with the authorities. "Status report, Black 10." Porter asked scarfing down another ham and cheese sandwich. He was talking with his mouth full, and swigged down some water to try to get the bread from sticking to the roof of his mouth as it was. Black 10 was piloted by Ensign Jeremy Chase, an even newer member to the newest of the three squadrons assigned to SB ALIGHIERI, Naval Fighter Squadron 38 (NF-38). [All's clear, sir. We're scheduled to rendezvous with Black 6 and his flight who will be handing over the escort of the CARLOTTA back out of the corridor. After that, we'll be on our way home. Rendezvous is in 4 hours.] Porter finished his sandwich and his water, then put the bottle and the container that held the sandwich away. He'd eat the replicated apple on the flight home. "Very well. Now I'll just scan and make sure the coast is kept clear. I'm disengaging my autopilot, and transmitting the code for yours to lock onto mine. Are you alright back there, Tank?" Mark Elliot piloted an F-4 with the official designation of Black 11, but was known by all as "Tank". Black 6 on the other hand, was the commander's callsign (thus the number "six", which tradition holds for commanders), who was LCDR Patrick "Skippy" Wilson. [I'm fine, 10. I'd be even better if ya hadn't woke me up. I was dreamin' of Peggy Jackson!] Porter's headset told him. Peggy was the latest superstar model who was the official spokeswoman for Revlon and IBM these days. "Well, slave to my ship instead of Longbow's if ya don't want to end up crashin' into me, and I'll let you and her alone to each other again." [Black 11 locked and slaved.] [Black 10 locked and slaved.] "Very well. Nighty night, boys. I'll be switchin' over to channel 14 for a sitstat and then turnin' us around to meet the CO and the CARLOTTA." [click-click, click-click] [click-click, click-click] The "double click" was a quick and silent way of saying "roger" or "I understand". Porter made the frequency change and made his report. "Black six to mother goose, Amber flight reporting negative sit-stat two hundred fifty clicks from the mouth of the corridor, no contacts. do you copy?" There was a slight pause, then the voice Porter knew belonged to LCDR Ariana Basek in operations replied, [Roger Amber flight. Understand you five by five and understand no contact. We'll see you again in 2 hours.] "Roger, Mother Goose. We're turnin' around and headin' toward Magenta flight to rendezvous for escort handoff." [Understand, Amber flight. Mother goose out.] Porter made the freq change to his internal freq for the formation, and plotted the new course. Although he could still listen to the radio tuned into operations, he was set to transmit internally to his men. His sensors could not pick up "Skippy" and his men yet, so knew they were on the inner portion of their route awaiting the CARLOTTA themselves. There were 4 different patrols between the mouth of the corridor and SB ALIGHIERI. It was a good 8 hour flight at 2/10 the speed of light to get from the mouth of the nearly 2 billion km corridor to the base due to the hazards of Dante's belt, the large asteroid belt that ran between Dante VII and VIII. Commodore Mirtox put a speed limit of 0.2 c because of that. It just so happened that it was Porter's and his flight's turn at the duty that took them the farthest from the base. With his autopilot set and his scanners active, there was nothing he could do now except watch his scanners and listen for possible intercept commands from SB ALIGHIERI's flight operations, who had much more sophisticated sensors that could reach well out of the Dante system if the asteroid belt permitted. He wouldn't have to wait very long. ************** FMD 3.0810 ************** [Mother Goose to Amber flight. Come in, please.] It was operations, but it wasn't Commander Basek. It was LCDR Naeve Sevril, who was the base's operations officer. Porter made the freq change to transmit on her freq. "Black 9 here. Lieutenant Porter. What can I do for you, ma'm? I just checked in with you guys." [Sorry to inconvenience you lieutenant, but if it wouldn't be too much, I'd like to do my job.] Porter realized he'd been sharp. Well, let HER stay out here strapped to a hunk of metal for 50 hours straight without as much as a bathroom break. "Sorry Commander. What can I do for you?" [We're picking up a disturbance right at the mouth of the corridor. We'd like you to go check it out and report what you find.] "What kind of disturbance?" Porter said, disengaging the autopilot and turning his craft, and thus the other two in tow behind him, around. [What's up, 9?] Tank asked on the other freq in response... guess he wasn't dreamin' yet Porter mused. [It's some kind of gravitational spike. Wasn't there 10 minutes ago. Spike profile registers as unknown. We're crossreferencing the database.] "Right at the base of the corridor?" Porter asked, tweaking his own sensors to confirm. [Hey, what's going on?!] Tank again asked. "Tank and Longbow wake up, and stand by... and both of you monitor mother goose. They're pickin' up a gravitational spike outside the corridor." Porter said having made the quick knob change back and forth. [click-click, click-click] [click-click, click-click] [No, not at the mouth of the corridor. It's actually right in front of the asteroid belt, but infront of the mine field.] "I've got the echo from it on my sensors now, Mother Goose. Turning to intercept as close as I can." Porter increased speed to maximum, and plotted an intercept course with the anomally that was reading now quite a reading. There was no way it was there when he'd first reported in. Even his sensors would have picked them up. "I'll reach the mine field in 10 minutes." The mine field surrounded the corridor from the outer Dante system to Federation space staion, SB ALIGHIERI. The mines were of 2 varieties... the kind that fired Photon Torpedoes and had a range of 500,000 kilometers, and the closer-ranged phaser firing mines, with a range of only 150,000 kilometers. The mines were well stealthed and served to create a safe zone around the starbase. [Roger. Can you see anything out there?] Porter strained his eyes, which were quite good... 20/20 uncorrected, 20/15 with contacts. He was wearing his contacts. "Negative, Mother Goose... I'm just now starting to pick out the mine field, but it's too deep for me to even see through them." [Still no match on the gravity spike and we're picking up more of them.] "What is it?!" Porter asked. **************************************** Scene: Operations, SB ALIGHIERI **************************************** FMD 3.0815 "What the hell is it?" Commander Yssar asked. As station commander, himself as well as Commodore Mirtox, the force commander, and LCDR Garm Ulfsson, task force INTEL officer, were made aware of the situation. "I have no idea, Commander," Sevril said. Mirtox was dressed in a flight suit, as usual. He refused to wear the standard Federation uniform unless there was someone like his boss on board, or some other dignitary-type function was happening. There was something about how it smelled like the remnants of burnt aviation fuel, and the inside of a cockpit, which to him, was the greatest cologne a person could wear. If a woman could copy that fragrance, he'd be wrapped around her little finger. His arms were folded, showing his light blue hands sticking out of the grey flight suit. His bald Bolian head turned toward the Commander. "Let's play this safe." Yssar, a Caitian, nodded. "Yes. Go to Red alert. Notify the CAG and have the standbye combat shuttle launch." "Aye, sir." Sevril said, turning to a person nearest her and nodding her head. Soon later, the Klaxons went off, and a faster pulsing red light appeared in every operational deck on the station, replaced by the slower strobing yellow ones that had been strobing for days as per CINCINDIGO's orders. This automatically triggered the ready 5 fighters on the flight deck, and after they launched, another flight readied itself to also be launched. The perimeter defense system which surrounded the Starbase also activated. After the last missile attack, some of the mines had been refit to function as battle sattelites. They were slaved into fire control centers on the base and would function to intercept at least some incoming fire. Of course anything at the edge of the system was unlikely to be Kraggon, but anything might help. At least the IFF system on which the targetting algorithm was based had already been built into the mines. All that was needed was an adjustment to the targetting filter that would allow them to engage missiles. Engineering was still working on designing a series of point-defense turrets similar to the ancient Phalanx system, but it was not yet ready. Still, any moving target within 150,000 KM of the station that did not carry an IFF code or was specifically blocked by operations, would be fired upon by the reprogrammed mines. Hopefully, their "primitive" tracking systems, aided by human eye in the rapidly added point-defense command centers on the base, would do the job. "The ready five reports being launched." Sevril said to the Commander. "I want everything documented, Commander. This could prove vital intelligence later on." Commander Ulfsson stated. "Is that fighter flight recording?" "I'll check." Sevril said, returning to the flight ops station. "Mother Goose to Amber Flight. I show you 1 minute from the mine field. Are your cameras recording?" [Aye, Mother Goose. Would you like a feed?] Commodore Mirtox went to his comm panel and notified the Captain of Batron 2. "Get your ships strategically placed in the corridor, Captain. And watch the flank. This could be some Kraggon trick, and I don't want to get flanked!" [Yes sir. We'll be underway in 5 minutes.] was the Commodore's response. Mirtox nodded, as did the others. "Yes. Please transmit your cameras." Sevril stated. "What's going on?" The command staff turned and saw Commander Miller, the Commander of the 716th NAW, and thus all 3 fighter squadrons. He looked up and assumed another Kraggon assault was taking place. "We're tracking a stationary gravitational anomaly just outside the minefield to the east from out perspective. Amber flight is there now, recording. We've gone to Red alert." "Let's see... that means that Cort O'wood himself launched in the Ready five.... it was his watch." Mirtox was impressed that the CAG knew exactly WHO was in the ready 5 launch.... he had almost 40 fighters in three squadrons to care for, including "backup" non-line unit pilots. ********************** Scene: SF Corridor ********************** FMD: 3.0820 [Holy..... do you see that?!] Tank's voice spoke through Porter's helmet. "Mother Goose... I have some visual now on the far side of the mine field. Negative contact. "Wait, I'm picking up with my sensors what appears to be a ship... two.... three..." What he saw was what appered to be 3 long, flattened cylinders with a flaired, flattened mushroom-cap head that gave the vessel an appearance something like the Terran hammerhead shark. Porter paused, and then he could see them. "I can see..... holy shit! If Commander Ulfsson was correct on his INTEL reports to us, there are two, no, make that three Dalriadan warships.....no, more! they're still coming!" With each gravity pulse, a new ship emerged into normal space. Porter kept looking at the ships appearing in the system. He got really nervous. It was obviously an invasion force. The other two pilots on his wing were screaming and complaining, scared to death. He shut them out and continued to concentrate, sweat forming on the lining of his helmet and dripping onto his nose and eyes, stinging. Funny, it wasn't that hot, but he was sweating like he was in a Sauna. He turned on the fighter's air conditioner and set it to blow right on his face. "Mother Goose, this is Porter... er, Black 9. I see a total of 28 Warships... I repeat... 28 Warships!... The big ones are larger than INTEL data, almost the size of a ZEUS. My best guess, I'd say that we have three battleships, six light cruisers, six...seven... eighteen destroyers, and one frigate.... all of them have the cylindrical shape and hammer-head like ends......" He swallowed hard. "I need some help out here...." ************************************************* Scene: Operations Center, SB ALIGHIERI ************************************************* Everyone was quite nervous. Analysis of the gravity spike indicated that there was a greater than 90 percent probability that it was a dimensional warp drive of some king making a transition out of hyperspace. This was completely not expected. For one thing, the Dante system was supposed to be on the FAR side of INDIGO space from the Dalriadan Alliance. For another, no one had recorded the existence of a Dalriadan hyperspace drive in 50 years of contact. "Red alert." Yssar said immediately. they were already at Red Alert, but nobody said anything. [Streak'r Six ta' Mother Goose.] The strong Irish accent, as well as the call sign, could only mean Cort O'wood. [Me' squadron can be airborne in 5 minutes.] "Do it." Miller said. "Launch the entire air group." Sevril repeated the command, but everyone in the room knew it would take 5 hours even at maximum speed to intercept them. On the flight decks, over 300 people began sprinting when the launch alert went off... pilots, co-pilots (for the A-111's), crew chiefs, armament, fuelers, mechanics, security, everyone that had anything to do with the aircraft were scrambling to their positions to help get the squadrons into space. Mirtox and Ulfsson, as well as Commanders Miller, Yssar, and Basek, all went to the battle control room portion of the bridge where they could see a tactical situation in real time. Right when they got there, they heard "I'm picking up additional bogies... twelve... 15.... 100?! Hundreds of ships making n-space transition!" came the excited call from the flight operations station. "What the...?" Miller said, his heart sinking, along with everyone else's. "Mother Goose to Amber Flight. How many ships do you see?" There was a pause, and then some static. [We still see twenty...........ships, ...ut our sens.........icking up............dreds.] "ECM. They're transmitting ghost images, and jamming our frequencies." Mirtox said. He said, slamming his fist down. "Get a message to SB OMEGA immediately priority one with my authorization and inform them of the situation. And recall the YORKTOWN and have her report back to ALIGHIERI as soon as she can get here.... have half of Batron 2 position themselves in the corridor between the Stabase and the invasion force. The rest should be using their sensors for deep penetration sensing in the entire circumference around the Starbase" "Yes, sir." Yssar said. He then turned to Sevril. "Do it." She nodded. "Aye, sir." And got her operations staff working on the orders. ************************************ Scene: Back at the SF corridor ************************************ FMD: 3.0823 "NC-17's been launched to help us out, guys. But there's no need... there's no way those ships will make it through 10,000 kilometers of mines." Porter said. "I don't know... I see the explosions, but I don't see 'em slowin' down none!" Tank said. "Wait! Only 4 of them are moving forward... the other ones are staying stationary!" "Well, we'll just have to show'em who's boss after that then, won't we?" Porter looked on. His cameras zoomed in as much as they could onto the 4 slowly advancing cylinders. The remaining warships spread out into a defensive and stagnant posture, daring anyone to come within range. The reality was, Porter's flight was DEFINITELY in range. But no one fired on them. The 4 ships, light cruisers by the mass projections, though they were the size of Federation destroyers, had moved into a diamond formation with the ships as close together as their gravity wedge propulsion sytems would allow. This let them overlap defensive systems and effectively shielded one hald of each ship from attack from the sides. With what the battle tapes from LEXINGTON had shown, the top and bottom of the vessels did not need much protection. Sensors couldn't quite read it, but the gravity drive that seemed to be the main sublight engine for the Dalriadan warships created a band of gravity above and below the ship so intense that no weapons fire could penetrate it. "Mother Goose, are you getting our readings?" [Roger, Amber flight.... they are degraded due to the jamming, but we are compensating.] "I'm reading some sort of gravity field several hundred kilometers in front of each ship. It appears to be some sort of shield system. This has got to be what INTEL said stopped the LEXINGTON's weapons volley." [We copy, Amber flight. Just log as much as possible and stay between them and the base.] "Roger that, Mother goo...... shit! Incoming!" Porter saw several missiles that were launched from the first ship. Twenty four to be exact, but he couldn't count that fast.. He had more important things to do. Audio and visual alarms were going off on his console and in his helmet, with recommended evasive maneuvers coming up on the screens. The mines began reacting immediately and firing at the missiles. "Stay alert, stay alive, men. Deactivate your slaved autopilots and prepare for evasive action!" None was needed, however, because the mines blew up enough that before the last missile got within 2,000 kilometers, it was destroyed. The fireballs were tremendous. The mines were firing so many Torpedoes, and phaser fire, that it was a literal "wedge" of fire that consumed the single volley of missiles fired by the cruiser. Still, the cruiser was safely beyond the range of the mines' weapons. It was if the ship was probing the weaknesses of the field. [More incoming!] Tank interrupted. Twenty four more missiles launched from the huge fireball that had intruded in their domain. "Right. Prepare for evasive again, but they won't make it through. "These appear to be a different kind of...." These missiles, when exploded, created a massive explosion of phase modulated X-ray lasers slammed their way through the mine field. The detonation of a single warhead tore through half a dozen mines before expending all of its energy and each of the cruiser's missiles carried four warheads. Mines exploded and fired in vain. The x-ray warheads were detonating more than 200,000 km from the minefield and still having devastating effect. Few could be intercepted by the mies. The fighers started to withdraw deeper into the minefield to see safety from the warheads and shock waves created by exploding mines. All three of them were thrown like a car in a Tornado. Tank and Longbow collided with each other, killing Ensign Chase (Black 10), and bounced, and tumbled for almost 1,000 kilometers. Luckily, the force of the blast was reduced at that time to only do that kind of damage. They all would need radiation treatment when they returned, if they made it alive that is. ************************************************* Scene: Operations Center, SB ALIGHIERI ************************************************* FMD: 3.0828 "Get those fighters save those providing close air support to the Marines on the surface in the air, Commander Miller." Mirtox said, realizing that more than likely, these cruiseers seemed to be able to make it through the mine field at will. All they needed to do was to increase their rate of fire. One ship had followed two volleys with more delay that their systems could possibly need in between. And if those battleships got involved with their larger Pulverizers with even more warheads aboard, the minefield would be wiped out very quickly. "They're on it, sir.... ships are launching as we speak." Miller said. "Sir, I'll be taking my leave and commanding the air units from my own fighter... are you going to be joining me?" Mirtox frowned. YES, he'd join him.... if he could. Unfortunately, despite his massive "pilot Ego" and his want to go out there and fight in a combat shuttle, he was feeling the weight of his command. "No, I'm afraid I'm of more use to the force from here, Commander. However, should the situation change, I'll join you in a heartbeat. Right now, I've got to get a hold of what is going on, and what is about to happen." "Understood, sir. Good luck." "And to you, Commander." Mirtox watched the CAG leave, zipping his flight suit up and heading toward the flight deck.' "What's the status of my pilots out there, Commander Sevril?" Mirtox asked. Sevril repeated the question to Porter and his crew. [Ensign Chase is dead, sir. No life signs. Us two have our engines, shields, weapons offline. Life support barely online.... Tank is....] A broad band transmission blanketed all of the communications channels, [*This is His Majesy's Ship RHYFELBRYELL (NRPG: BATTLEAXE), Royal Dalriadan Navy. You are ordered to surrender your vessels and starbases.*] "Let me in there!" Mirtox barked. "This is Commodore Mirtox of the United Federation of Planets! This is a peaceful Starbase conducting a peaceful operation. You have no right to be hostile, and have not been provoked into being hostile. Stand down and we will escort you safely out of this sector, and we will let our mines allow you safe passage back to your wormhole." [*You will surrender your vessels and starbase or be destroyed,*] replied the accented Federation standard of the officer, presumably the Dalriadan fleet commander, speaking to them. The situation reminded him of an ancient battle fought on a foreign world, Terra, several hundred years ago. One word came to mind, and he spoke it to over the comm system... "Nuts!" He then turned to the station commander, Commander Y'ssar. "Prepare for battle, commander. I will be in my office going over the data we have such gathered. Commander Ulfsson, you're with me. Let me know the moment the destroyers break out of the minefield, Commander Yssar, at which time I will need to know the time for intercept. If this turns out to be anything like what happened at Tabilin, wer'e in for a rough ride..... Commander?" Mirtox said, nodding his face toward his INTEL officer. The two of them departed the flight operations deck, and let the Commander command his station. Even as he sat down, lights on the display montoring the minefield began to blink out as the Dalriadan bombardment began.] Respectfully submitted, Commodore Dirkas Mirtox Commander, Dante Expeditionary Force (COMDANTEXF) SB ALIGHIERI (DS-230) Indigo Fleet _________________________________ <<>> Now we have an offensive happening on Hulad (the storm on NECESSITY) and now this! :) More to come later! All DANTEXF personnel should now be on FLEET mission dates. FMD: 3.0800 Amber Flight all operations normal Mike G 3.0810 A gravitational distortion is discovered Mike G 3.0815 Dalriadans arrive via hyperspace Mike G 3.0820 Over 20 Dalriada arrive Mike G 3.0823 Amber Flight is attacked Mike G 3.0828 The Dante Expeditionary Force goes to war Mike G Mike Groner nitefitr@cyberhighway.net AKA's CDOR Dirkas Mirtox, Commander, Dante Expeditionary Force CAPT Marcus Delaney, Commander, USS HERAKLES NCC-25001 CDR Mudoro Bochu, Executive Officer, USS CONSTELLATION NCC-1017-F LT Tholar Sheltaz, ALB Instructor, Holodeck 3 END TRANSMISSION ***This message sent by an official member of Indigo Fleet*** Are you also posting your message to the newsgroup?!!! ---END TRANSMISSION---