Hit and Run - 12/09/2015

Postby Kalquien » Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:59 pm
Tactical Officer Turluk's Log:

The Aquarius had faced many such dangers before. In her long and stories service history the old girl had faced many dangers and defeated a number of foes. Here however was a new tactical challenge for her and our hardest since I became the Tactical Officer. A fleet of twenty Cardassian vessels had entered a Federation system whose colony was in near open revolt. In fact the colonists only agreed to the evacuation if they were allowed to peaceably leave the Federation. Since no one deserved the fate of the tender mercies of the Cardassians the Aquarius and her crew agreed to their terms and assisted with the evacuation of the planet. They only just managed to get the last transports away when the Cardassians closed in and began to attack the system. They knew however that unless they could give the Cardassians a bloody nose they would likely follow the Colonists and wipe them out in their new home. The decision was made to stall and distract the enemy for as long as possible using the Aquarius and give the Colonists a chance at the clean get away. I called it the 'Hit and Run tactic but, newly reinstated Commander Rand referred to it as a 'rope a dope', and the Captain regarded it as a 'cowardly ploy worthy of the Carthaginians.' I believe she was in jest as no where in the history of Nova Roma could I find any references to Carthage.
Our first move was to seed the various planets and moons of the system with all of Aquarius's shuttles and most of her probes. Standard Cardassian assault doctrine states that they never consider a system secured until all traces of the enemy electronic signals have been removed and they would only pursue our fleeing colonists if they believed the system secure. By giving them multiple signals to chase I believed that we could separate some of the ships from the main body of the fleet to investigate those signals while the flagship and the troop transports remained behind to consolidate their control of the planet and wipe out the few colonists who remained either because of their own stubborn pride or ill luck. The probes would emit the Aquarius's own electronic squawk and make it appear as if we were using the planet or moon to shield us from detection while we spied on the Cardassians. They would undoubtedly send a small squadron of ships to investigate. Once isolated we could use the shuttle as a wild weasel to block their communications back to their own ships while we attacked and destroyed the smaller groups and whittle them down to a more manageable size.
The plan worked like clockwork the first two times. The crew preformed up to a standard that I had never before witnessed. Commander Rand had charge over the decoy elements of the plan and maneuvered the probes and shuttles with consummate skill keeping them alive and active far longer than I had imaged. Commander Madison Cunningham maneuvered the Aquarius with skill giving the old girl the agility of a ballet dancer. Many times I believed the Cardassians had lined up the shot that would cripple us and allow them to close in for the kill and we were simply not there to be hit. Along with that was the superb performance of Lt. Janelle manning the science station. Not only was she able to maintain my phaser locks and keep the photon torpedoes tracking their intended targets and not getting suckered by decoys but she also managed to interfere with the enemies equipment so that some of their shots simply missed or they never achieved a good lock. Our new Chief Engineer deserves a notation here as well. I know I have his name in the files here somewhere but it escapes me as I record this. He was able to move the ship's power from one critical system to another allowing me to utilize our full weapons array when I needed to but also keep the shields up when they were taking a pounding and still eek out enough power for the navigational sensors. As the day wore on and the Cardassians became more savvy to our tactics our damage and our casualties began to mount. Dr Ferron performed her miracles as usual in the insanity which is a sickbay of a ship actively engaged with the enemy. The number of wounded crew she was able to return to duty and keep in fighting trim allowed us to keep vital stations crewed throughout the engagements. The same must be said of Dr. Powell who was able to return shocked and grieving crew to duty and keep us in the fight.
At the end of the first full days battle we had successfully destroyed or damaged almost half the combat ships in the battle-group. This forced them to leave the damaged ships behind to protect the troop transports and commit the five remaining combat vessels along with the flagship to try to come out and get us.
"God between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk."
-Captain John Sheridan, B5