U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901

/||\ ----------------------------------------------
/ || \ UCIP Starfleet Command, Eighth Fleet
/ || \ U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
.-/ || \-. Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, Commanding
./ || \. ----------------------------------------------
.-_-. || .-_-. Simulation Teaser
-_ \||/ _-. -[ SD 240203.11 ]-

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It was easy to get caught up in the moment, but Lieutenant Marcy finally
allowed himself a few minutes away from shooting at German positions to
actually *look* at what was around him. On the beach, literally thousands
of allied soldiers pressed forward, attempting to establish a foothold on
Hitler's Fortress Europe. The cold waters of the English Channel literally
ran red with blood as they washed up on that beach, festooned with mines and
barbed wire and metal barbs designed to chop up the underside of a landing
craft. Beyond them, great siege towers and artillery positions pounded the
allies into the sand.

But the German position was fixed... stationary... and that was a
disadvantage, wasn't it?

Marcy had always been taught that was the case at Starfleet Academy, but
couldn't seem to apply it in practice here. He continued waving more and
more men -- holographic men, to be sure, but once they had been real -- he
kept waving men forward to die.

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The main problem with Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, Kari later decided, was
that calm voice of his could hide the worst kinds of deception.

She had been sitting in Seventh Heaven, ignoring a drink and working on a
particularly nasty problem in VirIM that one of the crew of Blackrazor had
challenged her with. VirIM was Ma'Aru's own modification on Vim'Geman, an
ancient Vulcan strategy game. Every planet seemed to have a variation on
this particular game, which involved the use of "armies" used to take over
the various territories that made up the planet. Earth's version was called
Risk and was hundreds of years old. Vim'Geman was eons old, but Ma'Aru's
variant VirIM was many times more complex than the original game. Once upon
a time, there had been groups of students at Starfleet Academy that had
played Ma'Aru's variation, and unbeknownst to the young Lieutenant, one of
them was on Blackrazor.

So, Kari had been fighting with the problem he'd sent her when a voice
behind her said, "ve'hamat, tu, right two, back seven."

"No," Kari said, voice almost impatient. "That would be a bad move
because--" Ma'Aru turned to find the Captain looking down at her, a mug of
dark beer in his hand and an amused expression on his face. Standing,
Ma'Aru blushed. "Captain--! I'm sorry, sir, I didn--"

Lora Kor raised his free hand and chuckled. "No, I'm sorry, Lieutenant, I
shouldn't have interrupted you." The Captain paused, still with that odd
little smile on his face. "But I was serious," he said.

"But Captain," Ma'Aru said, starting to object again, then stopped herself.
What could this man *possibly* know about her game? The desire not to
contradict her commanding officer fought with the desire to know what he
could be talking about.

The Captain smiled more openly now. "Perhaps pick up a game from that
point? I'll take red and olive, and show you what I mean. You take yellow
and rust... what do you say?" Lora Kor's expression was unreadable.
Clearly, it was part amusement and part curiosity, but part... something
else.

"If you wish, Captain," Ma'Aru said, exhaling, "but I'd hate for you to--"
She clipped her opinion off again, frustrated.

But Lora Kor acted as if he knew exactly what the young officer was
thinking. "Oh, I don't think it will be quite as bad as all that," he said
simply. Taking the other side of the table, he keyed in that ridiculous
move. Three formations of troops fell back in good order, but falling back
from the enemy Vir was stupid, and suicidal! Fine then. If he insisted,
then Kari would simply have to show him what her variations in VirIM meant.

Kari's moves came more and more quickly, with greater confidence, and she
continued to ignore her own drink. Calmly and with that same odd little
smile on his face, the Captain gave way before the younger Lieutenant's
ferocious attacks, his own mug emptying only to be refilled and emptied
again. Doubly frustrating, though Ma'Aru was clearly driving the Captain
back, she couldn't seem to land any real solid blows... his troops just
seemed to vanish before her, retreating in good order toward his own Vir.

When the Captain did attack, it was with nasty slashing flank attacks that
seemed to slice off a chunk of her army and then grind it to meat up against
his own Vir. She couldn't seem to stop these attacks, and suddenly realized
that while her own supply lines were dreadfully long, the Captain didn't
have to do much more than throw food out of his Vir to keep his own troops
supplied. The Captain took advantage of this with his ve'hamat cavalry,
which danced just out of her range -- go after them, and her own supply
lines lay exposed to artillery from the Vir. Ignore the dancing cavalry and
they sliced off another of her flanks and chopped it up.

The game soon stalemated: the Captain couldn't launch an assault from his
Vir, but Kari couldn't seem to drive him off that fortress, either. Lora
Kor watched the younger Lieutenant's growing frustration still with that
same serene look. "Siege warfare," he said at last.

"What?" Ma'Aru said, looking up suddenly. "What did you say?"

"Classic siege warfare," Lora Kor said. "It's the one disadvantage to going
fully on the offensive -- when you retreat, your supply lines become
virtually impregnable, and when you fortify a position, it becomes VERY
expensive for the enemy to take it, especially on hostile terrain. The
Russians on Earth are particularly good at this... they draw the enemy into
the snows before Moscow and then let him starve there," he said, then
pointed at the board. "I'm just letting you do the same," he said.

"And since I have superior position and troops, yet you're still alive..."
Ma'Aru said, suddenly seeing the Captain's objective. He nodded, chuckling.

"As long as I can hold you off, I win... according to the rules of VirIM,"
he confirmed with a smile. "Your own rules say that you should be able to
crush me. If you can't, I win the game."

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Crew Roster:
Commanding Officer: FCapt. Tebrun Lora Kor (Jester)
Executive Officer: Cmdr. William Daren (Daren)
Marine Commandant: Col. Jeremy Ironside (Fraser)
Command Liaison Interface: Cmdr. Savant (Savant)
Chief of Operations: Cmdr. Olme Tlaloco (Tlaloco)
Chief Tactical Officer: LCdr. Sieven Drexler (Brad)
Assistant Tactical: Lt. Kyle Marcy (Marcy)
Intelligence Officer: Lt. Kariasa Ma'Aru (Kari)
Chief Science Officer: Lt. JG Kathleen Hammond (Kath)
Company Commander: 1Lt. Jacob Prescot (Shadow-FjP)
Wing Leader: 1Lt. Craig Serrold (Aggie)
Chief Engineer: Cmdr. Zunite Oswald (Sonya)
Assistant Engineer: LCdr. Jack C. Farley (CCC)
Assistant Engineer: Lt. Aramis Skylooker (Skylooker)
Systems Specialist: Lt. JG Caring-Thoughts (Alffred)
Chief Medical Officer: Lt. Jason Thompson (Thompson)
Civilian: Alados ha-Soron (McC)

On Extended Leave of Absense:
Chief Flight Operations: Lt. JG Ananda Wilk (Baralu)
Wing Leader: 2Lt. Andrew Stylus (JadeFalcon)

Positions Available:
None!

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Ross Glenn aka Jester
Fleet Captain Tebrun Lora Kor, U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/