Chinks in the Armor

Posted on 24 Oct 2016 @ 8:28am by Lieutenant JG Catherine Cooper & Commander Terry Walsh

3,624 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Click Three Times
Location: Flight Deck and Pilot's Briefing Room
Timeline: MD 8 || 1245 hours

Cooper moved as she often did, quickly but gracefully as she dodged other crew. She usually looked like a woman on a mission, this time even more so as she arrived in pilots country. She played, and sometimes lost cards with a few of them so wasn't completely an outsider but only pilots were truly accepted. Still at least they didn't steer her wrong as she asked one of them where she could find Lt. Commander Walsh, given a choice one did not make a senior officer come to them. So here she was for their meeting to study the sensor data from the enemy vessels and perhaps come up with some options for a few integrated defense/attack plans using ships systems and the fighter squadron.

She headed over, taking care to slow herself down, "Sir if you've a moment?" She asked taking in the area and the apparent items still needing to be done.

"Just a sec," replied Terry to the voice behind him. He finished looking over the PADD and handed it back to the Chief of Fighter Maintenance. "Show this to Lieutenant Kilmartin so he'll know which fighters to put near the end of the escort rotation. But I still want your people to figure out why the gap in the variance is so big. And I want it done yesterday, Chief."

The Chief nodded, "Four hours, Commander. I'll give 'em four hours and then I'll see I can do." With that, he headed over to the bird the Commander wanted ready.

Terry could hear the man shouting at a couple of Diagnostic Engineers to follow him. He grinned and turned to the feminine voice that had addressed him a minute ago. "Lieutenant Cooper, I do have a moment. Have a couple of them at the, heh, moment. What can I do for you?" Terry suspected he knew what her visit was all about, but still.....

"I was hoping we could talk about the sensor data now, in regards to the enemy ships? I told you'd be expecting me. Another pair of eyes is always good and I thought we could work out some options for an integrated defense/attack plan for the Brass...". Traditionally Tactical, if there was a squadron component to a ship, did have working relationships with their squadron. If they were smart that is, since they were a vital component of the defense grid and it was just a good idea to develop a solid working relationship with them. Besides only an idiot annoyed the pilots of mobile weapons platforms. Her mind did its usual whirl of activity thing but she'd been doubling down on the self control and sounded almost normal, not that she couldn't burst into activity at a moments notice however.

"Oh yeah, the Captain said that in the Senior Stafff briefing," said Terry. Okay, we'll get started on that. But I think that maybe the Pilot's Briefing Room in Flight Ops might be a better place. We have a large monitor in there and can still access whatever we need. It's down just one level on Deck Eleven. And I like the idea of an integrated attack and defense plan. They may not go for it or switch it up, but we can still put it out there. The Captain will need all the options he can get."

"Aye Sir, is plan..." She immediately turned started to walk to the tl, realized she should wait and paused to glance at the Commander, a hint of a sheepish expression flittering across her face at not letting him lead, "Makes sense for non combative perimeter patrols, how many can we field just now anyway if I may ask?" She said once they began walking together, her mind following several rabbits holes of thought but she did manage to keep to Walsh's pace despite her desire to just go. She was glad he appeared to be suffering no ill effects from the first time they'd met. She'd felt for the poor guy and was glad he seemed well over it.

Terry caught up the eager Lieutenant as they neared the lift. "With the raw materials from the Chimera, we've been able to repair the fighter's that were damaged during the battle and before that. Unfortunately, we can't replace the six that were destroyed until we get back to wherever or whenever we need," he said. "So currently, we have fifteen Valkyries and one Peregrine mission ready." Terry allowed Cooper to enter the turbolift first. "Deck Eleven," he said as it whirred to life for the brief trip.

Cooper nodded, everyone had gotten hit hard and the Squadron was no exception. She made a note of their capabilities. "It was bad enough but I'm glad it wasn't worse, I still can't believe. One minute all is on track, the next..." She shrugged then the lift stopped and she paused to allow him to get out first.

Terry stepped out and headed down the hall to Flight Ops, where the Pilot's Briefing Room was housed. "Life in Starfleet, Lieutenant. That's all I can say. We're on track one minute and off the next. It's what we signed up for, though. And I'm glad that the casualties weren't worse either." The duo cleared the entrance to Flight Ops and was about to step inside the briefing room. Terry paused for a second and stepped back. "After you, Lieutenant."

Cooper nodded and entered moving so he could enter as well. She looked around, she didn't often have cause to enter the pilot's briefing area and it was nice. "I'll agree there, as an Irish friend of mine said, it can always be worse. With your permission I'll call up what we have and we can get going?" She said politely, forcing her need to constantly move down. Fortunately she'd had enough caffeine that her hyperness was slowed, something about the way it interacted with her system. A little helped keep her awake, some slowed her down, a lot put her to sleep.

Terry walked up to the platform with the Lieutenant and gestured towards the lectern with two LCARS screens on it. "You have the floor, Lieutenant. Let's see what we've got to work with."

"Sir..." She immediately went over and began tapping keys calling up a large ship, "They are as big as Jem'Hadar Warships... the BIG ones. Like twice the size of Galaxy. Not as well armed apparently as a Jem'Hadar ship and we can give a couple a run for their money but five to one are long odds." She sounded like she really hated to admit that. The large holographic ship floated there, "And they have Phased Polaron based Beams..." She said not pleased, pointing out where on the hologram their weapons were and calling up what was known about them as part of the hologram. Phased Polaron Beams were well known for eating through shields like they didn't exist, a common weapon of the Dominion.

"Those are certainly some big ships," said Terry. "And I agree, we have to find some way around being outnumbered. And outgunned for that matter. Dodging polaron weapons from five ships isn't going to be easy. They'll take out the Black Hawk and the Valkyries in minutes. Unless we can find some chinks in their armor, so to speak. What about weaknesses? Powerful weapons take a lot of energy. When they fire, does it drain energy from other sources? Or do they have to allocate it? Regardless, is that something we could use to our advantage? I mean, the fighters are highly maneuverable and can go in with pinpoint accuracy to target whatever we need."

Cooper nodded, “Yes Sir, I should point out there are also torpedo bays fore and aft but those seem to be more of a standard design. In regards to the main weapon…” She shifted toward a nearby table meaning to climb up, then caught herself and shifted her body attention back to the hologram. And she ordered her thoughts, “Seems to draw power from the impulse drive and auxiliary fusion generators which would normally be fine but the phased polaron beam, runs hot as it were, operating at a double normal phaser operation, 10.2 mw per, in short they have to put more power. So they have to move a bit slower or fire a bit slower but they can’t do both quickly. Also good news is late in the Dominion War the Federation were able upgrade shields against these kinds of weapons, I would have to talk to someone but I think we can at least make our shields resistant though I’m not sure we can manage full protection.” She paused there to glance at Walsh.

This was the first time Terry had actually worked with Cooper and he was finding that she was...well, like a warp core almost ready to breach. "I don't think we could get full protection, either. Resistance, yeah, I'd agree with that. But it all depends on if we have everything on board that Engineering would need and how long it would take to revamp the shield generators. As far as an on offense, I'm hearing that the fighters would be able to move in and target the impulse drive and auxiliary fusion generators. Two birds with one stone...if we could destroy one or both, then it would weaken the polaron beam and take out their ability to move. And the Black Hawk could also fire at those locations. If they're not too busy dodging fire and holding themselves together."

Cooper nodded, keeping up with each point, "I'm not an engineer so I wrote a proposal to run by them..." She handed a small PADD she pulled out of a leg pocket, "For your review before I send it to my Boss who will send it on...if she approves." She continued, "We're lucky we have Ablative Armor which will help resist a few shots but when it comes to this I prefer the belt and suspenders technique..." She looked thoughtful and pulled out the next point, "Right that scans, if you'll look here..." She tapped a few keys and highlighted certain areas of the ship, "This is were those are located, here.." She pointed, "and here." She pointed again, "Impulse and fusion generators respectively. The generators would be further inside the ship so damage would have to be deep to get to them and the impulse drive is protected but by its very nature is at least partial exposed to space, I think that may be target one." She moved on to his next point, "I'd like to discuss merging fields of fire in in regards to your last point but first.."

She tapped a few more keys, "This is a break down of their hull..." Information flowed near the vessel showing the main makeup of the alloys in the hull. "As you can see it's similiar in various types to hulls we know, what works works I guess, but the ratios are different." The list was Duranium, Electroceramic, Tetraburnium, Titanium and a few others.


"Between the shield modifications and the ablative armor, hopefully the Black Hawk can survive long enough for all of us to do something," said Terry. "I mean, yeah, they have one powerful weapon, but from what I see, they don't look too full on military. That gives us a bit of an advantage, I think. Especially if we target their exposed impulse engines." He watched as the data came up. "That looks interesting. I don't think I've ever seen that kind of combination."

Cooper nodded, "This one..." pointed to Electroceramic and Polyduranide alloy, "Are from the Delta quadrant, others from Alpha. It's an odd mismash that seemed quite effective but I'd need to talk to the experts to determine just how what the combination would have done to their hull, my theory is strength based on the tactical applications if I'm reading this right..." She looked intently at the hologram as though she was hoping to magically 'will' engineering knowledge into her brain.

"Okay," said Terry. "Strength based on tactical applications. Let's get some of them settled. Number one, weak points. Number two, offensive strategy. And number three, defensive strategy. Number one, we have partially exposed impulse engines that energy is drained from when they fire their primary weapon. So, oddly enough, the goal will be to get them to fire it."

Cooper nodded, her mind whirling with plans and options. "I think that will be our job, we can dance pretty well when we choose, very distracting. Your job will be to stick one up the tail pipe.." She changed the hologram seemingly unaware she slipped into slang, "For defensive and offensive it will be important to coordinate evasive maneuvers, that's standard..." And it was, during the times when coms worked and the fighters were out they were tied into the comm net so when and how the ship made a move they would know and could react accordingly. They were also going to be tied into the tactical net so they could see all the real time data . "For defensive I have several ideas for fire support, interlocking fields of fire and maneuvers. In addition to hopefully us not getting shot it would force them to keep moving on their own..." She tapped a few keys that now made the enemy ship smaller but still on scale with the holographic Black Hawk and these little fighters. "This is their field of fire if we can avoid the worst of those spots a modified gyroscope plan may be an option...". A few more clicks high lighted likely areas of immediate doom and highlighted the movements.

"I like it," Terry said. He could tell that Cooper was a go-getter when it came to tactical situations. "Let's get it boiled down to some basic points for the higher-ups and ready for an official recommendation. We can get into the details of each point in a subpoint if necessary. But I want to have something lined up that we can take to the Acting XO. Sound okay to you?"

Coopers eyes roved over the hologram like a chess master, even her mind couldn't follow every little aspect but it did manage to track the dozens of core vital stats and aspects. She began to walk around the hologram table, slowly her eyes never leaving it. "The gyroscope plan works best as offense against a single target..." She paused to tap a few keys to illustrate the idea, "For best coverage and support we need to maintain a distance between each set of fighters figuring you'd want to group them? And the Black Hawk. of course it would be more ideal if we can force combat in an area of our choosing with cover for the fighters to be annoying behind, we'll need to get as much advance notice of the target area as possible...." Part way through the speech she started walking again her eyes flicking over the hologram, "What about multiple enemy targets..no in a minute this first..."

She said last almost to herself, a part of her mind wondering if they could engineer enemy friendly fire incidents. She wished they had more intel on this group, part of combat was knowing what the enemy was likely to do because even the most effective equipment was still reliant on some sentient being operating it and it would help to know more about this enemy to help gauge responses. Still couldn't be helped, one was not going to go into combat with all their ducks in a row, heck sometimes it was a good day if they were in the same pond.

Terry grinned and chuckled to himself. He would've hated to see what her mind looked like at times like this. But she was getting some good tactical ideas. "Okay, so our single target attack plan is the gyroscope plan. And I'll be sure to keep the fighters at their prescribed distance as we make our attack runs at the impulse engines. We'll keep the ideal plan of yours as backup? Because advance notice of the target area for starfighters usually amounts to 'Hey! The spot's open! Let's go!' and that's about it." He paused for a second. "So, multiple targets or did you have something else you wanted to address?"

Cooper laughed, "Yeah no plan survives contact with the enemy, that's why we tie you into our tacnet so you can see our changes asap, who knows it may help...." She changed the screen to include multiple enemies, "For this I feel we need certain levels of fire, say the Black Hawk for one or two with no less than 5-6 per other vessel if the enemy is 5 or less maybe. We need concentrated fire but I don't want to leave anyone untouched if I can avoid it. Fortunately your guys can maneuver like fish in water so that will help with being able to improve target acquisition on more than one nearby ship."

She looked consideringly at the hologram."Of course depending on distance and orientation aka they will have a main target and will take potshots as possible..."She grinned then continued, "And of course hopefully not getting shot. How many per vessel do your fighters need to stick it to them?" She trying to confirm, "I was thinking if we placed groups here and here..." She gestured, "That would allow for some flexibility in fire support but focus fire on multiple vessels. We could even have a team on 'harass mode' as the rest went in for their shots." She cut herself realizing she was running off with too much detail again and turned to the Squadron Chief.

"As far as really sticking it to them, I'd need quite a few," said Terry. They had come pretty far in putting together some plans, but still had quite a ways to go. Terry knew that plans were good to have going into battle. But he also knew that in combat, things could go different that plans suggested. Working with Lieutenant Cooper was good, too. His only meeting with her had been when he went off the deep end in Sickbay. But that was then and this was now.

It was like she read his mind, "It's going to be impossible to cover everything but I think we can get a few solid plans fleshed if we keep at it. Let's bring this down, how much fire power would we need per enemy vessel for them to feel it. That information with the rough outlines we've compiled should be a reasonable start considering the sheer number of options battle involves...." She said, calling up the data, her mind was spinning with all the possibilities but she focused herself to focus on the essentials. They both studied the hologram and continued their work. A plan for a single attacker, a plan for 2-5 attackers (adjustable), and a defensive plan. Detailed but not too much so they were locked into it. "We want flexibility..." She muttered her eyes scanning the hologram as they bent their heads and experience to the task before them.

"Well, considering that these aren't military grade vessels, I'd say that four or five Valkyries could put a decent hurt on them depending on what they're targeting," said Terry. "The whole squadron once damaged a warp nacelle on a Starfleet ship. Non-military ships though...I think that amount could get their attention. We should keep in mind, too, that we only have sixteen fighters to spread out for a multiple target plan. As far as a defensive plan, the safety of the Black Hawk is priority. We need a ride home."

Cooper nodded they went over the offensive plans again to flesh it out and then went into the defensive plan. "Fortunately with these options, it allows for things to flow organically so we can mod it depending on the needs of the moment..." And she went into detail, both of them working together to create and expand on the different configurations that could be done until finally they nailed out a few solid options that would work with their resources that they were at least reasonably happy with. "I think we're as ready as we can be..." Cooper finally said standing back, "I can follow up with operations and my Chief. I may have a few other options but I want to make sure its possible before I pass it along..." She was thinking mainly of the sensor ghost idea, it could be resource heavy and wasn't always an option. She paused glancing at Walsh to make sure he didn't have anything more to add.

Terry walked around the holographic representation and nodded. "That sounds like a plan, Lieutenant. I think we've got some good ideas that should cover a wide range of events that could happen. You're a sharp one for Tactical. Keep it up." He walked back around to where Cooper was standing.

Cooper nodded and sm8led a thanks, "Great to work with you Sir. I better get this information passed along. If I learn anything new I will let you know immediately so we can update as we go, if you'll do the same we'll be good I think."

"Of course," he said. "We'll keep each other in the loop. So if there's nothing else, we both have some things to do in preparation. I'm sure you can find your way out easily enough." Terry smiled and nodded.

Cooper smiled again, nodded and picking up her PADD took off quickly to the next thing, already contacting Lt. Marion.

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