From: John Fox <jfox@v...>
Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 09:55:02 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: FT Battle Scenerio
Dear Gang: MSgt Mike Stevens hauled his sorry butt into the seat in front of the FTL sensor scope and sighed. Damn was he tired. Usually he could handle the wine, women and song but age was catching up to him. He was not 18 anymore and his body was letting him know it. As he gazed at the scope his vision focussed and Mike mentally reminded himself, for the third day this week to lay off the booze. This shift was going to be hell to get through but at least it was his last for a couple of days. Mike punched in the calibration routines that were run at every shift turnover. SOP, "Run your calibration when you first come on duty that way you know the equipment is working!" he could remember the CMSgt at training admonising everyone. Mike could do them in his sleep. MSgt Stevens then entered his security codes to pull up the latest intelligence. He also pulled up the schedule of what was suppose to be arriving in sector today. Would not want to have an alert because you called you own ship a hostile. The brass did mean nasty things to people's career when you cause them to scramble everything and then find out it was there own vessel. "Don't even go there!" he mentally thought as the schedule came up. There were no arrivals expected this shift so he could set the sensors on automatic and sorta cruise through the shift. Mike's body and mind breathed a sigh of relief. As he put in the tripwire program to notify him when the sensors went over a certain threshold amount MSgt Stevens went into daydream mode. Boy it was nice to be in a locked facility where inspections were rare. Three hours into the shift the tripwire program sent a shrill noise through the room. MSgt Stevens was awake instantly as he reached for the sensor controls. The FTL sensors had detected a mass entering the system. Quickly scanning for any shifts in phase from the signal and pulling up the Edge of System (EOS) sensor droid output showed nothing. Just to be sure he ran a quick diagnostic of both systems and found everything 5x5. Nothing. "False Alarm!" he said as everyone else in the room relaxed. "Hmm, must have set the thresholds for the tripwire program to low. Darn background radiation." he muttered as he reinitiated the program. "I will up it another mass or two, that should do it. Now if I can just get back to that daydream with the blond." he thought. One hour before shift change a quiet chime pulled Mike from the redhead. He had got tired of the blond already. This was his reminder to fill out all the paperwork and get everything ready for shift change. As MSgt Stevens was fifteen minutes away from end of shift the shrill alarm returned. This time it was no accident. The FTL sensors were picking up large masses entering the sector. Quickly he pulled up the EOS sensor droid only to say "SHI!@#$%^&*()" when he saw the video output just before the droid was destroyed. Kra'Vak, with more on the way as his hand decended to the red alert button. As he keyed in his headset he watched the dispaly showing the mass entering the sector. Most people used the digital readout but MSgt Stevens prefered the old analogs for real detailed work. As he spoke with TACOPS he tweaked the gain and sensitivity as best he could. Maybe he could get individual readings for each ship that entered. In order the following came out of FTL. Mass 64...Damn..Big Mother, had to be a battleship, Mass 32, Mass 16, Mass 16, Mass 32, Mass 16, Mass 16. A couple of cruisers and destroyer escort. Msgt Stevens was relaying the information when he pulled up the latest intel report on what ships his side had in the sector. They had 1 Mass 64 battleship, 4 mass 32 cruisers and 6 mass 16 destroyers. Damn was this going to be a close fight. Had a moment or two to spare so I thought I would throw this out for your enjoyment and possible use for a battle.