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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)

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To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest) Starfleet Ship Design Bureau, Refit ("To Boldly Go...")
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When I do 'battle stories,' they tend to take the sequence of events from the log and play creatively with the details.

The AHS Pride really did perform extremely well, scoring two frigate kills and managing a damage/HP ratio even better than Enterprise (although Enterprise had about three times the HP pool and did much, much more total damage).

The explorers really did take down two little Licori frigates, then Shanghai blew up, then Enterprise heavily damaged the Licori cruiser Insight and Liberty finished it off with a shot to the warp core.

Then Enterprise did some very heavy damage with a couple of shots to Pride, and Pride managed to disable the frigate Nugruch and do hull damage to Liberty in the two turns immediately before Enterprise finished it off.

While I may be exaggerating just how much of the damage was inflicted by certain ships in a single blow, I didn't misrepresent the sequence of events, subject to the constraints of turning a 300-turn combat log into a convincing narrative.
 
Great omakes :)

I didn't look closely at the combat logs, other than the WTF Enterprise part, so I didn't realize how deadly Pride was in that battle. Fortunate that she merely got disabled with survivors rather than obliterated in M/AM annihilation.


Also, I didn't get the opportunity to say this back when this battle was first shown, and I'm not going to waste this new one...

It will be a fucking travesty if ka'Sharren does not advance to Tactical Command directorship in her career.

At least three times has she demonstrated her tactical battle prowess. The Battle of Kadesh showcased her promise at fleet command. The Battle at Fujit, the very peak of her lone ranger combat career, was no fluke (...okay, technically it was). Her first long-term commodore-level fleet command at the head of the Amarkian Task Force was just as successful. etc. And now this accomplishment out of nowhere.

She may not have saved the Federation as many times as Kirk did (and not from as many obscure science-y threats), but she is arguably one of the best (if not the best) tactical commanders that the Federation has ever had the fortune of having.
 
Well, she's certainly got Warmaster Halkh's respect! :D

Also, his attempts to plunder her liquor cabinet while telling amusing war stories. Halkh can be kind of fun when he lets his lack of hair down.
 
So the quantum torpedo was another Licori invention. I wonder if the Federation develops it independently in fifty years, or if some of Tarenda's notes turn up in a few decades.

I liked the cultural implications of Halhk's choice of targets. Both his assumption that the "noble" enemy admiral would be hiding aboard the less aggressive, less exposed capship while their peasants died for them, and his decision to target the battle bridge with his last quantum torpedo salvo. Most races would try to hit the deflector or torpedo bays, but to the brainpower-reliant Licori killing the enemy commander would seem like the best tactic.

Did Halhk die from the Enterprise's return salvo? I was kind of hoping to see his reaction when he realizes he attacked the wrong ship, due to the Starfleet commander being much more like himself and less like the Emperor.
 
Leila Hann said:
So the quantum torpedo was another Licori invention. I wonder if the Federation develops it independently in fifty years, or if some of Tarenda's notes turn up in a few decades.
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The bulk of Tarenda's notes are on flammable, flammable paper in her quarters and lab, which were placed close to the torpedo room so that she wouldn't waste valuable minutes traveling back and forth. They are ash flecks. Plus, people with eidetic memory tend to keep really freaking fragmentary notes.

She still had a hell of a lot of notes... but as noted, ash flecks.

I liked the cultural implications of Halhk's choice of targets. Both his assumption that the "noble" enemy admiral would be hiding aboard the less aggressive, less exposed capship while their peasants died for them, and his decision to target the battle bridge with his last quantum torpedo salvo. Most races would try to hit the deflector or torpedo bays, but to the brainpower-reliant Licori killing the enemy commander would seem like the best tactic.
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Conveniently, the main deflector dish and battle bridge are in the same general part of the ship- the engineering hull.

Given the shape of the Excelsior engineering hull, it's also fairly likely that Battle Bridge is relatively far forward within that part of the ship, too. After all, most of the engineering hull's volume is loaded towards the bow, not the stern, and since a large share of the volume towards the aft part of the engineering hull is necessarily occupied by the shuttlebay.

I will further note that there is little reason NOT to put an auxiliary bridge relatively far forward in the engineering hull, because the bare fact that said auxiliary bridge is in the engineering hull at all serves the main purpose- making it hard to knock out the ship's command and control in a single attack. After all, any attacker who is capable of targeting the main bridge (on top of the saucer) will be unable to target the front of the engineering hull. Because the saucer or the bulk of the engineering hull itself is in the way.

Halkh had an intended target- the general vicinity of the auxiliary bridge on an Excelsior. However, he had no way of guaranteeing the weapon would actually hit that exact part of the target. By chance, his second torpedo (the one that mostly penetrated the shields) was right on target- or at least, hit what he wanted it to hit, since he himself may not have known exactly where to aim. But it could have been off by some considerable distance either way, without any great difficulty.

So as it happens, the quantum torpedo hit the 'cheek' of the engineering hull and the bulk of the blast was channeled through into the vicinity of Battle Bridge. Where it took out a bunch of systems, some of them pretty important, but none of them crippling given that the ship wasn't being conned from Battle Bridge at the time.

And as it happens, the quantum torpedo strikes on Liberty inflicted negligible damage to the deflector. This is a testament to the shock bracing on the Excelsior-class main deflector, frankly.

However, if the torpedo(es) had impacted some tens of meters off in one direction or the other, they might well have caused massive damage to the deflector, instead of (or in addition to) destroying Battle Bridge. Or they could have hit Main Engineering and damaged or disabled the warp core. Or (for all I know) they could have, say, touched off an explosion in the aft torpedo magazine.

Halkh would have been quite happy with any of these outcomes, needless to say.

Quantum torpedoes hit really freaking hard, and these are ships fifty years less advanced than the TNG-era designs that were already very vulnerable to quantum torpedo impacts. They just are not as durable, so even one hit has the potential to cause very widespread damage. Halkh couldn't target them in a pinpoint fashion- but then, he didn't need to.

Did Halhk die from the Enterprise's return salvo? I was kind of hoping to see his reaction when he realizes he attacked the wrong ship, due to the Starfleet commander being much more like himself and less like the Emperor.
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Warmaster Halkh is completely fine, though his cabin got disintegrated.
 
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lbmaian said:
She may not have saved the Federation as many times as Kirk did (and not from as many obscure science-y threats), but she is arguably one of the best (if not the best) tactical commanders that the Federation has ever had the fortune of having.
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Well, you have to remember, the first time Kirk saved the Federation in the show was actually Balance of Terror, fifteen episodes in, and that was all about his tactical acumen.

(Also there was the whole accidentally timewarping a major Andorian historical figure thing.)
 
Huh?

Balance of Terror wasn't an existential threat to the Federation. It was a lone Romulan ship flying around blowing up Federation outposts near the Neutral Zone. Sure, it was a terrible threat to the outposts themselves, but unless the Romulans had a plan for conquering the whole Federation that hinged entirely on that one ship, which seems unlikely... not so much.

Eddie Leslie:

"How many times did we save the Federation... uh. Let me think. There were a couple of time travel mishaps where we avoided accidentally breaking history, I don't know if you're counting those. And, hm. There was the time with the robot duplicates maybe. There was the antimatter guy who almost blew up the universe, I swear I'm not making that one up. There was that time on Deneva with the brain parasites- guess if I had to get hurt, getting hurt saving the galaxy isn't the worst thing... There was that time with the crazy planet-murdering robot probe- no I mean the first one, not V'Ger or the whale thing, those were after my time. There was the giant planet-eating space monster. There were the evil alien overlords from Andromeda who turned me into a rock, though I guess if they'd gotten away with it it would have been kind of a slow-burning 'the Federation is doomed' situation. There was the M-5 incident, I don't know if that counts, probably not. And, uh... well, aside from Kirk and the big kids going on and handling V'Ger and keeping Khan from grabbing Genesis, oh and the whale thing, and Khitomer... yeah that's it."

"So, uh... Kirk and the gang saved the Federation, um."

[counts on fingers]

"Thirteen times tops, BUT some of those probably don't count. At least four times during the '65 five year mission plus three or four more after that. Assuming you count 'stopped something that's already killed at least one planet and seems to be hankering for more' as 'saving the Federation.' "
 
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Simon_Jester said:
Huh?
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The Romulan commander was actually quite explicit about his mission being a prelude to full-scale war if successful during the episode. And it's doubtful his was the only ship in the Romulan navy, y'know?

As it was, Kirk's victory convinced the Romulans not to send a fleet over the border, a fleet which would have honestly been a lot more dangerous to ships without Spock at the science station and Kirk's tactical acumen in command.
 
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Leslie:

"No, that was Nomad. The big neutronium windsock with the antiproton halitosis was the one I mentioned after that."

Night said:
As it was, Kirk's victory convinced the Romulans not to send a fleet over the border, a fleet which would have honestly been a lot more dangerous to ships without Spock at the science station and Kirk's tactical acumen in command.
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"Eh? Okay. You can count that one too I guess."
 
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I quite enjoyed the little details in that one Simon, from the reference in title itself to the fact the a mentat is off-offhandedly referred to as a 'firing computer.'

One thought:
"Four decks burned through, structural integrity flickering around sixty percent... Battle Bridge and the auxiliary computer core are gone..."
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I wonder if UESPA would have a different term, like "Auxiliary Control Center" or something? I picture them as being slightly more strictly Naval/NASA in terminology than even regular Trek.
 
Iron Wolf said:
I quite enjoyed the little details in that one Simon, from the reference in title itself to the fact the a mentat is off-offhandedly referred to as a 'firing computer.'
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If Star Trek were 1940s sci-fi, that would be a perfectly normal thing to call him! He computes, and he fires. He's a firing computer.

For example, did you see the movie Hidden Figures? Well, if you didn't, shame on you, literally everyone ever should see that movie. If you did, well... the protagonists' actual job title was "computer." They did computing, they were computers. Simple.

One thought:

I wonder if UESPA would have a different term, like "Auxiliary Control Center" or something? I picture them as being slightly more strictly Naval/NASA in terminology than even regular Trek.
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Good point. Fixing!

EDIT:

You'll also note that Liberty has an operations officer on the bridge during combat, whose job appears to be similar to the TNG-era Starfleet role. Enterprise doesn't. For the Enterprise-B, the task of relaying critical information about the ship's status is left to Lieutenant Beekeru, the metaphorical redshirt who's staffing the Excelsior's version of the same console Leslie used to sit at during all those TOS bridge scenes.
 
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Simon_Jester said:
Could be that it's Just A Thing for some highly specific Licori cultures, without being A Thing for all of them?

It could be, like, the Licori equivalent of sky burial. Rare and weird but not unheard of.

I say this mainly because I just wrote Straaji Halkh, my first attempt at a sympathetic Licori character, and I can't really imagine him chowing down on deceased relatives. :p
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A bit late to the discussion, but here as an idea:
It's not that cannibalism is a niche thing among the Licori, but the pageantry around the cannibalism that makes the Kortonnen weird/vile in Licori eyes.

A Kortonnen will make a full meal of their enemies in a sumptuous feast with the body proudly on display.
A Tarsesis, as part of a funeral, will eat a quarter-sized coin of flesh, seared on an iron plate that was heated in the funeral pyre, in a ritual with all the pageantry of Catholic Communion.
The Bene practice is similar to that of the Tarsesis, only every single aspect, from where the meat is cut from to the hand it is accepted with to the number of times you chew, is rife with symbolism and social posturing.
("Did you hear? The second son of Valois Barteste accepted his cut from the right arm and accepted it with his left hand!" "Oh gods, are you certain? Do you know when the duel is scheduled? Will the heir fight himself, or will he use a champion?"
"Did you hear? At Szaraen Y'tael's funeral Balon Vo accepted a cut of heart with the first two fingers of his right hand! And he performed a Syzalo bow for a full twelve seconds before leaving the altar!" "But those families have been feuding for generations! Are you certain it was a Syzalo, not a Val'tis? They can look very similar from behind." "My cousin was with the second quarter witnesses, and saw it perfectly. What's more, Banvale did Val'tis, after accepting the same cut!")
The Ix just pass out a bit of jerky. They have more important things to be focusing on.
 
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thamuzz said:
A bit late to the discussion, but here as an idea:
It's not that cannibalism is a niche thing among the Licori, but the pageantry around the cannibalism that makes the Kortonnen weird/vile in Licori eyes.

A Kortonnen will make a full meal of their enemies in a sumptuous feast with the body proudly on display.
A Tarsesis will eat a quarter-sized coin of flesh, seared on an iron plate that was heated in the funeral pyre, in a ritual with all the pageantry of Catholic Communion.
The Bene practice is similar to that of the Tarsesis, only every single aspect, from where the meat is cut from to the hand it is accepted with to the number of times you chew, is rife with symbolism and social posturing.
("Did you hear? The second son of Valois Barteste accepted his cut from the right arm and accepted it with his left hand!" "Oh gods, are you certain? Do you know when the duel is scheduled? Will the heir fight himself, or will he use a champion?"
"Did you hear? At Szaraen Y'tael's funeral Balon Vo accepted a cut of heart with the first two fingers of his right hand! And he performed a Syzalo bow for a full twelve seconds before leaving the altar!" "But those families have been feuding for generations! Are you certain it was a Syzalo, not a Val'tis? They can look very similar from behind." "My cousin was with the second quarter witnesses, and saw it perfectly. What's more, Banvale did Val'tis, after accepting the same cut!")
The Ix just pass out a bit of jerky. They have more important things to be focusing on.
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Oneiros, I think we're overdue for a story post. The thread is starting to get weird again.

 
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"Brains..." :V

Surely there are mentats in kitchens who spend their life in the pursuit of the perfect recipes and ingredients?
 
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OneirosTheWriter said:
Why are we eating people again?
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@Iron Wolf included it as a detail to parallel the Harkonen stuff from the Lynch movie. @Leila Hann suggested that it might be a Licori cultural trait in the same way that it is in some human cultures.
I went from there. Given that the Sotaw are currently completely non-humaniod rock people, I don't think it's biggest difference between a crossover element and its source in this quest.
 
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*imagines what could happen if the posts here were reflected in the updates as part of the thoughts of the player character* :V
 
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nocarename said:
Control flag got set to evil and the bit isn't flipping back.
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Actually, I'd say it got flipped back weird. After all, this is an attempt to create a semi-coherent cultural trait from a bit of one-off cartoonish villainy.
Come to think about it, isn't that the basis for... 1/3 of all Star Trek races? 7/10 when you take out all the races whose basis is "slightly different forehead".
 
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