09-18-2026, 03:17 AM
Morad listened intently as the bridge hummed with sharp, tense focus. Amila’s note to Cortez and Keti was exactly the snap back to reality the room needed. Out here, with the tactical grid burning red, academic curiosity had to take a back seat to raw survival.
He stepped down into the center of the command well, his gaze sweeping across the displays.
"Lieutenant Ra'an is right," Morad said, his voice level, carrying steady command weight. "No fifteen hour coding marathons, no Trojan horses. We don't have the luxury of time. Cortez, Keti, keep your arrays locked onto the Hutet's real-time shield telemetry. When we strike, I want the oscillation frequency shift mapped the instant their secondary generators scramble to compensate."
Turning toward Operations, Morad met Petty Officer Molina's gaze and gave her a sharp nod.
"Good initiative, Molina. A zone defense is exactly how three smaller ships survive against a dreadnought and three battlecruisers. But we stay completely dark until the trigger is pulled. No active hails, no emissions. The split second we break silent running and light our main impulse drive, open that encrypted channel to the Aquila and the Yeager. Feed them our live firing telemetry, establish coordinated strike sectors, and initiate real-time tactical integration."
Morad stepped down between Krandall and Powl, gesturing at the chaotic swirl of weapon fire and expanding sensor signatures on the forward viewer.
"Look at that display," Morad pointed out quietly. "Disruptor fire, quantum spreads, collapsing shields, and expanding plasma blooms from the Inaieu. With all that electromagnetic violence lighting up their tactical boards, a dead-drifting Steamrunner running ice-cold won't register as a threat to their weak sensors. To Cardassian fire control, we’re just another tumbling chunk of debris from that fallen Inaieu, floating harmlessly through the field."
He paused, his engineering eye locking onto the propulsion readouts. Morad knew every creak and stress tolerance in the Zephyr’s aged superstructure.
She will give us all she's got... but it won't be enough... not for a plan this ambitious...
"Here is how we play it," Ameen ordered. "Lieutenant Krandall, keep us drifting on pure inertia until we align with that fractured forward shield seam. The moment Powl gets target lock, light main impulse to combat power. Powl, empty both forward burst tubes; maximum-yield quantum spread straight down their throat."
Morad leaned toward the conn, his expression hardening.
"Lieutenant Krandall, have bearing one-four-zero mark twelve pre-set for an immediate micro-warp hop the second those warheads clear the tubes. Another reality check; we are not a fresh-off-the-yard escort; these spaceframes and aged warp coils weren't built for repeated tactical hops. I estimate we have one, maybe two clean micro-jumps in her before we blow an EPS manifold or shear a field coil. So make this jump count."
He looked back to the viewer, visualizing the attack run.
"We fire forward, jump across their retaliatory firing arc, and drop out with our aft launcher bearing down on the Hutet's engines, or peeling the Hidekis off the Yeager's stern. We dump our aft payload, and only then evaluate whether to drag this fight into Starbase 214's defensive grid."
Morad straightened, settling into the center chair.
"Stay cold, people. Wait for the solution."
Hopefully, we can buy Star Fleet enough time to bring the main force here... if that dread manages to get within range of Starbase 214 and open fire... I don't even want to imagine the outcome.
== Tag All ==
== GM Input: As the Zephyr drifts through the debris field on pure inertia toward weapon range, do the Cardassians mistake her for Sovereign wreckage, and does the forward firing solution on the Hutet's weakened shield arc hold? ==
He stepped down into the center of the command well, his gaze sweeping across the displays.
"Lieutenant Ra'an is right," Morad said, his voice level, carrying steady command weight. "No fifteen hour coding marathons, no Trojan horses. We don't have the luxury of time. Cortez, Keti, keep your arrays locked onto the Hutet's real-time shield telemetry. When we strike, I want the oscillation frequency shift mapped the instant their secondary generators scramble to compensate."
Turning toward Operations, Morad met Petty Officer Molina's gaze and gave her a sharp nod.
"Good initiative, Molina. A zone defense is exactly how three smaller ships survive against a dreadnought and three battlecruisers. But we stay completely dark until the trigger is pulled. No active hails, no emissions. The split second we break silent running and light our main impulse drive, open that encrypted channel to the Aquila and the Yeager. Feed them our live firing telemetry, establish coordinated strike sectors, and initiate real-time tactical integration."
Morad stepped down between Krandall and Powl, gesturing at the chaotic swirl of weapon fire and expanding sensor signatures on the forward viewer.
"Look at that display," Morad pointed out quietly. "Disruptor fire, quantum spreads, collapsing shields, and expanding plasma blooms from the Inaieu. With all that electromagnetic violence lighting up their tactical boards, a dead-drifting Steamrunner running ice-cold won't register as a threat to their weak sensors. To Cardassian fire control, we’re just another tumbling chunk of debris from that fallen Inaieu, floating harmlessly through the field."
He paused, his engineering eye locking onto the propulsion readouts. Morad knew every creak and stress tolerance in the Zephyr’s aged superstructure.
She will give us all she's got... but it won't be enough... not for a plan this ambitious...
"Here is how we play it," Ameen ordered. "Lieutenant Krandall, keep us drifting on pure inertia until we align with that fractured forward shield seam. The moment Powl gets target lock, light main impulse to combat power. Powl, empty both forward burst tubes; maximum-yield quantum spread straight down their throat."
Morad leaned toward the conn, his expression hardening.
"Lieutenant Krandall, have bearing one-four-zero mark twelve pre-set for an immediate micro-warp hop the second those warheads clear the tubes. Another reality check; we are not a fresh-off-the-yard escort; these spaceframes and aged warp coils weren't built for repeated tactical hops. I estimate we have one, maybe two clean micro-jumps in her before we blow an EPS manifold or shear a field coil. So make this jump count."
He looked back to the viewer, visualizing the attack run.
"We fire forward, jump across their retaliatory firing arc, and drop out with our aft launcher bearing down on the Hutet's engines, or peeling the Hidekis off the Yeager's stern. We dump our aft payload, and only then evaluate whether to drag this fight into Starbase 214's defensive grid."
Morad straightened, settling into the center chair.
"Stay cold, people. Wait for the solution."
Hopefully, we can buy Star Fleet enough time to bring the main force here... if that dread manages to get within range of Starbase 214 and open fire... I don't even want to imagine the outcome.
== Tag All ==
== GM Input: As the Zephyr drifts through the debris field on pure inertia toward weapon range, do the Cardassians mistake her for Sovereign wreckage, and does the forward firing solution on the Hutet's weakened shield arc hold? ==