Starbase Report – May 5, 2158 – Vindicator Fleet Status: Docked
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MISSION BRIEFING
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Commander Hayes – “Everyone, please be seated. Captain, I trust you’re doing well following your most recent mission?”MISSION BRIEFING
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Captain Zelnick – “Still alive, yes. Doing well? No. As you’ll soon see, we had our fair share of struggles in Crateris before running into a dead end. Commander, the battle logs prior to Delta Crateris?”
Tactical Officer – “According to my reports, we engaged both the Ur-Quan and Kohr-Ah forces on several occasions in Theta and Gamma Crateris, usually resulting in numerous casualties during each encounter in Gam-Crat for a total of 36 losses, even though I’m just going off the report I made in an alternate time line. As far as I can remember, we exited QuasiSpace with full company and crew and immediately set course for Delta Crateris.”
Captain Zelnick – “That’s because we were attacked again after leaving Gamma Crateris, and then we were stuck in HyperSpace, left with no way to retreat as reinforcements kept arriving, so I used the time portal and headed straight for the next star on the list: Delta Crateris. Fortunately, we immediately knew we had found what we were looking for by the time we entered the system.”
Commander Hayes – “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
Science Officer – “Upon system entry, our scanners immediately detected a large swarm of both Kohr-Ah and Ur-Quan, mostly Ur-Quan; hundreds of ships in a far orbital range, flying together in a synchronous, circular pattern.”
Captain Zelnick – “I ordered us ahead into the Ur-Quan ball, and after we defeated a large group of Dreadnoughts, we slipped past the quote/unquote Circle Guard and made our way towards the planet. That’s when we caught our only glimpse of THE BEAST!”
Commander Hayes – “The beast?!”
Chief Medical Officer – “Our dear captain thinks himself a Captain Ahab, but this whale comes with a massive school of sharks!”
Captain Zelnick – “But as we approached, a massive wall of Dreadnoughts jumped in and blocked our path.”
1st Officer – “There was no way we were getting past that!”
Science Officer – “It would appear the Chmmr’s recommendation is prudent. We may very well be unable to penetrate the Sa-Matra’s seemingly endless supply of Dreadnoughts without a proper distraction.”
Captain Tinkafoo – “Yes, a diversion would be… helpful.”
Commander Hayes – “So you never saw it for yourself?”
Captain Zelnick – “We barely even got to take a look at it.”
Science Officer – “We were however able to conduct a brief series of short-range scans upon our approach before we experienced Ur-Quan interference.”
Captain Zelnick – “Check it out. Computer, display image from file Sa-Matra-Scan1.”
Captain Zelnick – “Commander, did your analysis reveal anything useful?”
Science Officer – “Negative. At that range the sensors have only begun to detect the object; we were unable to penetrate whatever is encasing the vessel, but perhaps if we were able to get closer.”
1st Officer – “Well, that’s neither here or there. There’s no way we’re going back, right Captain?”
Captain Zelnick – “At least not right away. But perhaps we can still learn something… Computer, scan the image in section C-7, and enlarge.”
Captain Yeep-eep – “Weel keptin, ’at thaur picture be a mighty bit fuzzae if Ah dornt be sayin’ sae myself! Whit’s fur ye’ll no go past ye. Yer bum’s oot the windae!”
Chief Medical Officer – “Does anybody know what the Yehat just said?”
Science Officer – “Honestly, I have no idea.”
1st Officer – “Something about the picture being fuzzy… I think.”
Captain *Singer* – “Disappointing *conclusions*. It is not *smooth*!”
Chief Medical Officer – “And we never know what you’re saying!”
Captain *Singer* – “Nnnnnngaaaa!!!!”
Captain Zelnick – “At any rate, it does just seem to be a big clump of colors. Can we make any determinations from this picture?”
Science Officer – “Only conjecture, Captain. The central blue section appears to inside some kind of encasement, the surrounding grey ovoid part, which also contains a bright green bar.”
Captain Zelnick – “What could that green section be?”
Science Officer – “Potentially anything. It could be a shield grid and the most reinforced protected area, or in contrast, it could be their most vulnerable point. For all we know it could be their main thruster unit, or even their main weapon. Our analysis is practically useless without more information. Didn’t the Chmmr share some insights?”
Captain Kztztz – “WE ONLY SAW IT ONCE WHEN IT DEVASTATED OUR MOST POWERFUL FLEET. IT WAS SEVERAL TIMES THE SIZE OF YOUR VESSEL WITH A HOST OF UNUSUAL WEAPONS PROTRUDING FROM ITS SCABROUS HULL.”
Tactical Officer – “Those must be the numerous red sections on the outside corners.”
Captain Kztztz – “BUT THE MOST DANGEROUS FEATURE OF THE SA-MATRA WAS ITS ANNIHILATION TOROIDS… WITH THIS WEAPON THEY COULD VAPORIZE SHIPS FROM THE FAR SIDE OF A SOLAR SYSTEM OR CUT BROAD SWATHS OF DEVASTATION ACROSS A PLANET IN SECONDS.”
Chief Medical Officer – “What do you mean by toroids? Would the thing be shooting rings at us?”
Captain Kztztz- “I HAVE NO IDEA. IT’S JUST WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN DOWN ON MY NOTES.”
1st Officer – “Perhaps something similar to the Marauder’s ‘Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction’?”
Commander Hayes – “Maybe. Captain, considering the number of casualties you’ve recently acquired, I have to ask… are you planning on continuing in this timeline or regressing back to another time spot?”
Captain Zelnick – “In truth, I’m not sure. Even though it is vitally important that the Chmmr are ultimately freed, I still have trepidations about sending the Ilwrath to their doom in order to accomplish that task. I will probably end up reverting things back to the way they were before tricking the Ilwrath into attacking the Thraddash, but I’d like to investigate more on that avenue beforehand. Besides, who are we to dictate the demise of an entire species, even it is such a deplorable, evil race like the Ilwrath?”
Commander Hayes – “How can you be sure they’re going to all be wiped out?”
Captain Zelnick – “See for yourself. Computer, upload file Ilwrath-shrinkage8 and display image.”
Captain Zelnick – “We have kept an account of the progress of the Ilwrath’s diminishing sphere of influence ever since they arrived in the Draconis region. This is the most recent scan and, as you can see, if it doesn’t cease shrinking, soon it will disappear altogether, and I think we all know what that means.”
Tactical Officer – “Yeah, it means we’ve severely underestimated the Thraddash.”
Captain Zelnick – “The next mission objective would be to travel up to Draco and investigate the Ilwrath invasion for ourselves, although I’ll admit things look pretty bleak from the Ilwrath side of it.”
Science Officer – “Which is quite curious, by the way, considering how we’ve heard from multiple sources about the Thraddash are supposed to be weak.”
Chief Medical Officer – “Yeah, even by the Spathi!”
Captain Fwiffo – “Hey!!”
Captain Zelnick – “I’d like to bring along a good variety of ships with us into Draconis, so I believe we can afford to decommission a few Avatars and replace them with a Scout, Stinger and a Cruiser.”
1st Officer – “Indeed, and Captain, speaking of which, we should consider the continuation of training simulations against Thraddash Torches for our newest alliance members, all things considered.”
Captain Zelnick – “Very well, see to it Commander.”
1st Officer – “Yes sir.”
Captain Zelnick – “Well, if there’s nothing more? No? Dismissed.”
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