Plot Log | "The Battle of Sigma Ceti" (Part 2)

Posted on 241410.02 @ 6:11pm by Fleet Admiral Kerry Malone

Mission: Insurrection [Fleet Plot]
Location: Sigma Ceti System
Timeline: Following the events of "The Battle of Sigma Ceti (Part 1)"

= USS Ticonderoga =

The ship jarred slightly as a torpedo impacted against the shields. It resulted in no actual damage, but it could still be felt through the inertial dampeners. The fleet had engaged against the UFP forces, and Starfleet ship fired on Starfleet ship. It was pure chaos out there, and the only way to really figure out who was who, was a special feature on each ship which provided its friend-or-foe prefix. Malone had specifically set his on a special frequency that could not be duplicated on the 'fly', but rather would require hard reconfiguring of the transponder. This ensured that his people were not 'duped' by the enemy.

Admiral Targus was clearly not an experienced fleet commander, as he'd maintained his ships in a tight formation. He was following an old method of fleet combat, where he kept his ships in tight formation to provide heavy fire-power in a concentrated fashion. It might have worked - in 2260 - but in 2414, it was just stupid. Malone watched as three Galaxy class starships flanked behind Targus's Akira section, and their phaser beam banks lanced out and struck the torpedo pods on the top of the rear arch - taking out their most potent weapon system.

The Akira's were the torpedo-boats of the fleet. Always had been, and no real design had come along to replace them. They were also able to be fitted with flight pods instead of the traditional torpedo pod, giving the option of having a light carrier. In this instance, the five Akira's on Targus' left flank were torpedo variants - and Jessops Galaxy section was tearing them to pieces.

On the extreme right flank of Targus's forces were his Steamrunners. Traditionally, Steamrunners had been used as escort ships for capital ships in fleet formations, or system defence boats. They rarely strayed out on their own, but were good in a fight. Small, manouverable, and armed much more heavily than a ship of that size typically would be - they did tend to suffer from a power shortage issue when taxed in prolonged combat. Armed with three phaser beam arrays, a dual beam bank forward and one forward facing torpedo launcher, they were designed to fly in and hammer the enemy - not sit there and volley fire - which was what Targus was doing.

Malone instructed Kelvin's Defiant section of eight Defiant class starships to move in on the exposed right flank, and go to town. Malone wanted to cripple Targus's flanks, to give a clear run at the heavier ships that Targus had concentrated in the middle - so as to protect his own flagship. He'd deployed his forces as would a child - the big heavy ships were all in the middle, with the smaller weaker ships fanning out to form the outside line of his formation. It was a foolish move, and one that Malone had seen done a hundred times at the war college, and each time the instructor - Admiral Takagi - had defeated the students with simple strategies with an inferior force.

Takagi had taught his pupils that it was not the size of the force, the strength of the ships or the brilliance of the commander that won the battle. But the ability to see the battlefield in your minds-eye, to see what the enemy commander was thinking, and to outplay him. Takagi had forced all his students to understand the nuances of chess, and the ability to see what their opponents moves would be three moves ahead, so as to anticipate. Anticipation was the key to victory, and the ability to provide solutions to every conceivable move of the board. A truly great Commander could break through that with something truly revolutionary - but no one in Kerry's class had been able to outplay Takagi - not even himself.

Even when he thought he'd anticipated five moves ahead, and every conceivable action and counter-action Takagi could play - he did something so off-the-wall, that it had thrown Kerry off his game, and he'd become flustered and made a mistake, that cost him his Queen, and then the game. The old Admiral had smiled a knowing smile, and congratulated Malone on a well played game. Despite that setback, he'd still passed the course, thus allowing him to enter the flag ranks oh so many years ago.

Now he was putting theory to practice. All he had to do was anticipate what Targus was going to do - and outplay him at every turn.

As the battle progressed, it became clear to Malone that either Targus was a monumental fool, or he was biding his time. The former was possible, but the latter was disturbing. So far, Targus had lost eighteen ships to Malone's two. Yet all Targus was doing was sitting there, taking it. He'd made absolutely no move against Malone, except to pound at his ships from range with torpedoes and energy weapons.

"Ops, give me a tactical analysis of the enemy fleet." Malone instructed, feeling a sense of foreboding.

"Tactical readouts on the holo-display, Admiral." The Ops officer replied, providing the feedback to the main holo-projected display of the battlefield. Malone flagged Captain Gomez, and asked him to come over and look at these readings.

"Andreas, do you see what I see?" Malone said, as he reviewed the data.

Gomez looked over the figures, and then double-checked himself. "Are those...?"

"Yes, they are." Malone frowned. "Pull the fleet back. Get them out of extreme projectile range."

"Yes Admiral!" Gomez replied, running over to the comms unit.

"Do it now, goddamnit!" Malone exclaimed, imagining the smug grin on Targus' face. He'd been played, and he knew it. Targus had done something that Malone had not considered as a possible move, just as Takagi had shown him - that the most brilliant commanders think outside the box.

The fleet began to withdraw, but it was slow going for the larger vessels, and became obvious to the UFP forces what they were doing.

Three of the enemy ships fired a single torpedo each, that detonated three KM's off the rear flanks of the fleeing Starfleet formation. They formed subspace ruptures that began chasing after the ships, and when they caught up with them, caused them to explode with a fierce ferocity. The wave followed the fleet, forcing Malone to order three of his Galaxy class ships to eject and detonate their warp cores. This halted the ruptures, but scattered his wing, causing damage to systems across the fleet.

"Malone to Fleet! They're using Subspace weapons! I repeat, they're using subspace weapons! Avoid their forward firing arcs!" He broadcast to his remaining forces, who would now move in behind Targus's fleet, and hammer him in his exposed rear flank.

He might not have anticipated subspace weapons - but he had a back-up plan. Did Targus?

= To be continued... =

Fleet Admiral Kerry Malone
Starfleet Commander-in-Chief
Commander, 1st Fleet
UCIP