startrek76

Stardate 6407.23, 18:31:43 Galactic Mean Time
Captain's Log, U. S. S. Enterprise NCC-1701D
Triangle Sector

Log Entry Begin

"The Enterprise has been engaged in battle for nearly ten hours now, employing tactics that I'm certain the training staff at the Terran War College would never approve of, but it appears we are winning. Winning covers a multitude of tactical sins. It's been a long and bloody battle. The new TTSA has certainly shown its worth this day. With virtually hundreds of potential targets in the battle area, simply sorting out the friendly from attackers would have been a formidable job. The TTSA has indeed lived up to its hype in that respect, carefully tracking and presenting an unambiguous multicolor display to Worf at his Tactics station. On the sensor's display screen, against the softly glowing silver grid of the spatial scale overlay are the red of hostiles, green of friendlies and golden-yellow of unknowns. This may make the dream of armchair admirals everywhere, a true point and click targeting system, a reality.

"Kevar's Vortcha squadron has borne the brunt of the Cylon's attack so far. First, early on in the attack, the Cylons destroyed the D-7 light cruiser and then about noon GMT, by sheer volume of firepower the two remaining Cylon Basestars had managed to collapse the Wamach-charr forward andportside shields. The next blasts from the alien's charged particle weapon left the Wamach-charr without impulse or warp drive, and virtually dead in space, its hull ruptured from several internal explosions. Somehow the Wamach-charr's engineering crew managed to avert a warp core breech and so the Wamach-charr will one day be salvaged by the Klingon Armada. IKS Krolk finally managed to destroy the wounded basestar. Kevar has transferred his flag to the IKS Truncheon and is still filling the QLR comm bands with Klingon, Romulan and Interlingo invectives and engaging the remaining basestar at point blank range.

"USS Fafnir lost warp maneuvering ability when its starboard warp nacelle was destroyed by a CPAWS beam. Causalities were thankfully very low. USS Canaberra used its tractor beams to tabilize the Fafnir's trajectory and off loaded the wounded to its sickbay. Repairs on the Fafnir have stabilized life support and shields so it is in no immediate danger as it is well away from the combat area. Because it cannot maneuver at warp though, it will have to be towed to starbase 393 for repairs. Canaberra, after transferring Fafnir's photon torpedoes to its armory, has been especially active in both battle and in search and rescue operations.

"Entereprise has felt the brush of the other basestar's CPAWS beam, and it was only because of Lieutenant McDougal's deft handling of the helm at high impulse velocity that we escaped the full fury of the beam as it brushed by the starboard shield, nearly collapsing it even from the glancing hit.

"The Colonial fighters are sturdy machines, but have zero shielding as we recognize it, a single laser hit is enough to cause the fighter to vaporize. The Colonials have miniature lifepods surrounding the pilot which is ejected after a fatal hit. Canaberra's crew has rescued 18 Colonial pilots during the battle. Fafnir's F-33s have shown their combat utility by engaging in dogfights with the Cylon Attack craft, and in several instances have assisted or been assisted by Colonial pilots. It is my hope that this combat bonding can be developed into something more in the future."

"Mop up operations are proceeding quickly, several of the quasi-sentient robots called Clons have been recovered and with the help of Colonial pilots have been deactivated in a non-lethal fashion, so technically we have several dozen prisoners of war. I think this is unique in Federation legal history, we may finally have to face the question of whether sentient or quasi-sentient AIs are Persons or not. I expect Mr. Data to request TDY assignment to the team assigned to study the Cylons at the high security quarentine facility on Tantalus."

END Log Entry

Picard shuttered as he considered the possibilities of a full on CPAWS beam attack, clearly these Cylons were not pushovers -- but their tactics were slow and stilted, as though it had been centuries since they had to rely on anything but wave after wave of their fighter-bombers to dispatch an enemy long before coming within CPAWS range. It was only a matter of time until he and Kevar, and the Colonial battlestars, managed to shoot enough holes in the remaining Cylons to defeat them. It was taking an inordinate amount of time to accomplish this task however!

Picard's eyes were drawn to the main screen as the last remaining basestar Worf had been firing at finally lost cohesion and something vital deep in the bowls of the enemy vessel exploded. The primary explosion caused several other smaller but still potent explosions which eventually enveloped the entire basestar. Seconds later a mighty explosion which could only be caused by the disintegration of the basestar's main reactors and propulsion system enveloped the entire basestar. The central core disappeared in the explosion, and the upper saucer was blown free as the lower saucer dissolved into a quickly expanding cloud of debris and raw radiation.

"YES!" McDougal jumped upfrom her seat in front of the helm controls, "You gott'em, Worf!"

A pleased grin played across Worf's normally unreadable face and he said: "Was there ever any doubt?"



Yes,

TO BE CONTINUED