| Author | Message | ||
     RAdmMarshall |
The direct sunlight from the Reorsan star glinted off the face shields of the swarm of officers and engineers buzzing over the hull of the U.S.S. Vanguard. Sparks from plasma welders and fusion torches dotted the ship’s surface as replacement ablative armour sections were attached overtop of the hull. As a former pilot, Marshall loved being out amongst the stars. The view was always stunning, and the sense of absolute freedom that came with the view of a planet a thousand kilometers distant was enchanting. Unfortunately, he hadn’t had the time recently to enjoy it; his time had all been occupied with getting the Vanguard back up to operational spec following its tussle with the Pfhor Battleship. As he helped guide one of the last sections of armour into place with his chief engineer, even the view of Reorsa beneath them couldn’t keep his thoughts from wandering back to the battle, weeks ago. Vanguard had thrown everything she had at the behemoth of a vessel and had hardly made a dent. Phasers, Torpedoes, not even the Phaser Lance could penetrate the seemingly endless layer of biometallic armour covering the Battleship’s hull, especially when the damned material regenerated itself if it was left alone for long enough. In return, the Pfhor vessel’s secondary weapons had peppered Vanguard with near constant fire. So many of the weapons lined the massive vessel that no matter where Vanguard had attacked from, there was a battery of the blasted weapons ready to tear through his ship’s shields and gash the hull. Feeling utterly useless was not a feeling Marshall was used to. But the past few weeks had been productive. As the last piece of ablative armour snapped back into place, the Admiral reflected on the work they’d completed on the ship. The two standard torpedo launchers at the fore of the catamaran hulls, as well as the rear launcher, had been converted for False Matter torpedo use while the forward tactical launcher in the nose remained in place. False Matter shield generators had been installed and fully integrated with Vanguard’s power systems and were working in fine form. As a backup to the FM shields, Marshall had also been working on updating and possibly applying the ancient ‘polarized hull’ shielding idea to Vanguard’s hull as yet another method of attempting to reduce the effectiveness of Pfhor weaponry. Then there was the ansible. Marshall had spent the better part of his life creating, testing, and working on new and emerging technologies and the scientific theories and applications behind them. He liked knowing how things worked so he could use them effectively, and in new and alternative ways. False Matter torpedoes he understood. False Matter shielding he understood. False Matter itself he had a good handle on. The ansible drove him absolutely bonkers. When Vanguard’s compliment of the devices had arrived, he had locked himself away in one of the science lab in an attempt to figure out at best what made it tick, and at worst how it worked. As the days wore on, officers passing by the lab were treated to an increasingly large amount of frustrated yelling that seemed to be directed at the little baby-blue boxes that had arrived without fanfare on a cargo shuttle. Marshall had eventually emerged, managing to retain his composure long enough to hand over the devices to his chief engineer before retiring to his quarters, where more frustrated yelling wafted out into the corridors. That was two days ago. It was only by getting into an EVA suit and hopping outside to help the crew get the final pieces of armour into place that he had been able to forget about the unusual devices. But as he made his way back into the ship with his CEO after having completed the effort, the Caitian turned to him just as the outer airlock hatch opened. “Oh, and Admiral, we have kompleted the inssstalation of the ansssiblesss as per your ordersss” he reported, the harsh C’s and extended S’s normal to his species’ English pronunciation wafting through Marshall’s EVA helmet. To the CEO’s surprise, the Admiral simply nodded. He had half expected Marshall to start yelling in frustration again (and was partly expecting to be amused by it). What he didn’t notice was that Marshall had turned off his communicator and was visibly was saying some not-too-polite things about the devices through the visor of his helmet. |