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Main Sim - Y'all Get Some Lifts In This Thing And It'll Bang (Tag Engineering)

Posted Dec. 6, 2021, 10:45 a.m. by Gamemaster Alias Smith N. Jones, Esq. (Gamemaster) (James Sinclair)

Posted by Lieutenant Miranda Martel (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim - Y’all Get Some Lifts In This Thing And It’ll Bang (Tag Engineering)

Posted by Gamemaster Alias Smith N. Jones, Esq. (Gamemaster) in Main Sim - Y’all Get Some Lifts In This Thing And It’ll Bang (Tag Engineering)

Posted by Lieutenant Miranda Martel (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim - Y’all Get Some Lifts In This Thing And It’ll Bang (Tag Engineering)
Posted by… suppressed (17) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Two days after their arrival at the station and all was quiet…

Until it wasn’t.

=/\= Security to Engineering. We have… um… guests… requesting to meet with the ‘Big Boss’ about doing some cutting and fabrication to the… well… entire ship. Requesting Engineering staff to the docking umbilical immediately. =/\=

GM

=^=Acknowledged.=^= Miranda said into the air. Turning to the two nearest NE’s she gestured them over. “NE Hammer, NE Gunn, let’s go see what’s what.” Engineering was somewhat quiet at the moment, but it was about to get a whole lot busier. The two NE’s turned and grabbed toolkits and passed one to Miranda.

A minute or so later the three person team arrived, with Miranda flanked by a male human and female human pair of Engineers. “Time to roll up our sleeves and get dirty, I take it,” she said.

Lt Martel, Chief? Engineer

The ‘guests’ consisted of almost two dozen individuals of a myriad of species… some of which were wholly unknown to the Asimov crew. Particularly impressive was a large… large… individual who appeared to be a giant made of white, marble-like stone. Standing almost three meters tall with chiseled features and flat black eyes, the being carried four four-meter long I-beams of duranium and a plethora of welding and cutting equipment. And educated guess on the beams would put them around five-hundred kilos… each.

It was a much bigger contingent than Miranda expected, and for a moment she felt her insides clench. Most of them she hadn’t’ seen before, and while that didn’t mean much, just for a moment it brought back memories of the Shamshir. But that was a couple years ago now, and they were all on the same side. There was a job and work to do. So she put on a bright smile.

A female Deltan stepped forward and smiled. “Greetings. I am the station’s Chief Engineer, Marcelda Bruklad. A pleasure, Lieutenant. We have been directed to meet with you and see what we can do to make your vessel more… pirate-y. To that end, I’d like to introduce Mavis and Martin. They are… well, were… members of the crews of a few of those kinds of vessels. I think their input would be most beneficial.” As she spoke, two figures approached from the crowd. They were Arkonian, and appeared almost identical. They nodded at Martel and the other Engineers, and then one smiled while looking at the ship and said “Oh yeah… you need a lot more dirt on this thing. some phaser and disruptor scoring. And some patch jobs that look like garbage. But we can get you fixed up.” Marcelda nodded and then looked at Martel. “We are, however, under strict orders to follow your lead. And we will not overstep, I can assure you.”

GM

She found herself staring at Marcelda for a moment, taking an immediate liking to her, feeling almost drawn in. The Arkonians stepping into sight was a glass of iced water dumped over her head, shocking her out of her momentary distraction. Their appearance would have been frightening enough, had their kind not been long known among the Federation. At least on a lizard, hind-brain sort of way. But the way they jumped in, chatting amicably put her much more at ease.

Pushing up her sleeves she nodded. “Alright, Engineering is aft, decks three to five, with machine shop on deck five. You three show me what plans you got in mind, or are we playing this by ear? Walk and talk.” At the last she gestured for Bruklad and her two Arkonians to come with her. They could take all the time they needed, but she was eager to get started. Though the ship had just been repaired, and they were going to make it look like a clunker, in some ways there were going to be upgrades. And a cloaking device!

The other of the Arkonians said “Naw, don’t plan it. Makes it look less than authentic. Just look at a spot and think ‘If I had been stuck on this damn ship for over a year with no time off, what would it look like?’… and then make it look like that.” and they chuckled.

“Probably in pretty good condition, actually. Depending on how much action we were seeing. If it was a lot, I’d be keeping mission-critical stuff up and running. Everything else, when me or my engineers could get to it. OR if someone else is handy with a repair kit, they’d have to do it themselves.” She shrugged. “We’ll if we’re winging it, is it safe to launch an Armadillo and phaser up the outside of the hull some? Or send someone out with a compression rifle at the least.” Not that she really wanted anyone shooting up the Asimov. Almost thinking of it as her baby. She was over-engined, over-gunned, and a rip snorter of a little beast. If they’d had micro-torpedoes in their loadout, she would have suggested a few of them set off with blast splash across the hull.

“Now think of how you’d do all of that with no supply lines, no industrial replicators, no requisitions and space docks to do the work. Still think it’d be looking pretty good?” asked one of the Arkonians with a chuckle. “Honestly L-T? I’d really like to see how good you fleeters are without that giant safety net of Star Fleet you always have under you.” Marcelda shot the pair a glance and they quickly looked down and away. “Apologies, Lieutenant. Sometimes past issues are hard to set aside.”

The lieutenant waved it away dismissively. “No blood, no report,” she said and flashed Marcelda a small smile. “I wasn’t expecting any logicistical support, per the parameters of our mission and operational security. But I wouldn’t want to try to do any of that in the nebula. Outside of it, sure. Fine. Working EVA isn’t fun, but it’s a lot more manageable. … Wait. No industrial replicators? Y’all are taking my machine shop?” So long as they had matter to scoop up, of course they could replicate materials and parts, provided they weren’t too big. But with the onboard machine shop, they technically didn’t need much logistical support. They could manufacture casings and ammo, and make most everything, except maybe a new warp core? But she’d bet a bar of latinum against a bent penny that they could slap something together that would limp them somewhere, so long as the Brussard collectors were working.

“So this cloak you all are bringing me. Does it allow for shifting our phase? Will we still have to choose between shields or cloak? Have you checked tachyon emissions on it?” As they walked she peppered them with questions.

Lt Martel, CE

Marcelda smiled a slightly knowing smile and said “Oh that… that will be last. And I’m not sure about any of the specs. We don’t actually have it here. At least… not yet.”

GM

“Oh, wonderful,” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm. Not so much that it wasn’t available yet, just that with the trouble of the nebula, she could only imagine how difficult it would be to transport over and then install. It wouldn’t be anything if they were in spacedock and had zero gravity. But they were in the station’s gravity well, and she wasn’t sure if they could play with gravity. Then again, the Tholians had some scary capabilities. There was no telling what the station could actually do for them. “I suppose we’re gonna get to go part picking and yank it out of whatever it’s in?”

Lt Martel, CE

Marcelda grinned and said “You are… when you leave the station. That will be your final stop before you leave the nebula.”

GM

Miranda seemed to age a decade right before the Deltan woman’s eyes and she almost seemed to shrink in her uniform. Miranda reached up, pinching the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. Great. Okay. So… “So how are we going to… You know what, that’s navigation’s problem.” Mentally s he washed her hands on how they were even going to get to whatever derelict the station team had located for them, much less hold position long enough to rip out it’s cloak. AND THEN install it, since they’d pretty much been tractored in the whole way. “I suppose same story for the disruptor tech?” If we even can hold position that long… we might get away with extending the shield and creating a bubble. But will that change the shield formulae for modulation? Dozens of questions and possible solutions flickered through her head even as she listened for more bad news.

Lt Martel, CE

Marcelda smiled and said “No, those we do have. And I had a thought… what would you think about hybrid-izing the phasers and disruptors? alternate the cells in the relays so when you fire, it shoots both? Now, I am no weapons systems expert at all, but that was something that occurred to me on our way here. Oh, and we have some salvaged Romulan hull pieces. Thought they might make good ‘patches’ on your exterior hull.”

GM

Miranda thought about it for a moment, then another moment, her gaze turned up into the air as though she was seeing something none of the others did. Then she reached up with both hands and seemed to turn an invisible object this way and that. It was almost equivalent to the same gestures one might make in holographic engineering, prototyping a device on a holodeck and using gestural control to inspect and manipulate aspects of it. “That could work. The technologies aren’t incompatable. The Romulans tried spoofing phaser tech that was almost identical, but they approached it like a disruptor first. We’d just have to make sure the exciters and particle emitters could handle both. It might also be possible to add a tuning system. We can choose the mix. Maybe.” She chewed her lower lip for a moment, thinking about it.

“As for getting some Romulan skin on the Asimov? That could be fun, and even a good look. And if it is functional, even better,” she mused. “Will we need to go EVA for that, or do we have what we need to work inside the dock?” Were they going to have to go harvest parts, or did they have plating lying around?

Lt Martell, CE

Marcelda shook her head and said “Oh no. No suits needed. We still don’t know how, but there is atmosphere and gravity all the way through this part of the station . That being said… you’ll want to make sure people are tied off when working. Its a long way down.” and she chuckled slightly.

GM

Miranda nodded. “The staff meeting was pretty informative of that. But if we have to go stripping the skin off of a warbird, can we haul it’s carcass back here, or do we have to field strip it in the nebula? Also do you have any workbees in this place?” Those would be useful, EVA or not, and a lot safer than having everybody tied off on lines. She also made a note about needing a security detail to keep the… bug.. bat.. creature.. things off of them. Or having anybody that was a decent shot keep eyes on the sky.

Lt Martel, CE

“No, we have the pieces here. They’ll be brought up later. I estimate we can cover…” and Marcelda looked at the Asimov with a practiced eye, “… up to roughly fifteen of the hull with patchwork. But the total under that is up to you. But for now, how about we take a peek and see what all comes out first… before we go decorating things that we’ll just strip out later.”

GM

Armed with a much clearer idea of what was available and how they wanted to proceed, Miranda nodded. “Makes sense. Okay…” Pushing her sleeves up, she clapped her hands once. The gesture seemed directed at noone but herself. “Let’s get to it. Come show me what you’re thinking,” she said, gesturing for Marcelda to come with her, heading deeper into the ship instead of holding them up at the airlock.

It wasn’t hard for the Deltan to pick up on the nervousness and anxiety fluttering and floating through the engineer. The last two ship assignments for her had been pretty rough and this looked to throw them into the lion’s den. With a criminal syndicate. With no backup. But the Asimov would be in some ways, in better shape adn better prepared.

Lt Martel, CE

Marcelda nodded and then jerked her head at the assemblage of personnel with her.

The next few hours were spent detailing out the stripping-down and refit of the Asimov. Hull plates were quite literally ripped and blasted off; only to be replaced with Romulan, Klingon, and a few other species ‘spare parts’. And while the outside was starting to look like the mutinous traitor vessel it was supposed to be, the inside was changing just as much.

Gone was the carpeting and warm lighting. Stripped out by force were various panels and bulkhead coverings. And perhaps most importantly… the computer core was prepped for backup and then the removal of all connections to Star Fleet. It was this part of the change that both Agents Blue and Pikelsimer were present for, each adding a few ‘tweaks’ of their own.

GM

“Alright, Gunn. I need you to keep an eye on that phase variance and modulation as I feed power into the weapon array.” She wasn’t really sure what to call it now since they were hybridizing their phasers with disruptor tech. It wasn’t one or the other. “Hammer, did you get that set of EPS regulators put in place.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Hammer replied, wiping at his forehead. “Are you sure the relays and manifolds will take it?”

“Sure do. The Brazen-class is tough. Most Federation ships are built with a safety margin of 1.5 in mind. That alone would be enough, but this baby was built up to 1.66. Lessons learned after the Dominion War, Bason Rift, Sector 001, and more.” She reached out and patted one of the bulkheads. “She can handle running a little hotter.”

He raised an eyebrow then nodded. “Alright. If you think she will, I’ll go with ya.”

Miranda gave the engineer a small smile. “‘Preciate that. Gunn, how we looking,” she called across the engine room.

“Right as rain. Waitin’ on you, Chief.”

“Initializing,” Miranda called out and began to feed power into the system, beginning to charge the reconfigured phaser strips. 5%.. 10%… 15%… So far, so good.

She cast her gaze about, looking for Marcelda, then waved her over. “How’s it coming on your end,” she asked in a low voice.

Lt Martel, CE

Marcelda nodded as she stared at a display. “All systems are green. Nothing nearing threshold limits. And the convertor relays seem to be liking the conversion ratios. Keep it up. Let’s get them up to 110% and see if they hold.”

GM

Miranda nodded, glancing at the warp core for a moment, then back to her readouts. “Proceeding to full military power.” She could almost hear the whine of the charging array in it’s pitch, but then began sliding the readouts higher and higher. 101% 102%… 104% 105% They were rated to take quite a lot, and even be used hard for prolonged periods. Mentally she crossed her fingers. “Do you see that harmonic forming in a new phase angle?” 107% 108% …110% energy load. But the expected output was much higher, or at least the effect on target. “Steady and holding. Looks like she’ll have no problem holding her shots. So shouldn’thave a problem actually letting that energy go either. i wish we had a test range.”

Lt Martel, CE

“Shoot the docking door. Won’t even scratch it, but it will give your emitters a solid test on their refresh ratings.” Marcelda said without looking away.

GM

“Won’t the station take that as a hostile act,” she asked. Miranda was fascinated the the tech the Tholians had left, but at the same time she did NOT want to see what happened when it decided to be unfriendly.

Marcelda smiled and shrugged. “Who knows? This place once transported me to an uninhabited section of the station because I overslept.” and she chuckled.

“Alright, here goes nothing,” she said skeptically. =^=Engineering to bridge. We’re going to be doing some test fires of the weapons arrays. Will let you know when control is returned to Tactical.=^= They’d been monitoring progress for a while. It was one thing to do some diagnostics and monkey with the systems. Another to actually take control and start putting shots down range.

Fingers quickly danced over the interface. Outside one of the rear-facing arrays sent energy racing along the strip, colliding at one of the emitters and sending out a shot. On one of the displays, an external sensor showed the shot in the visible light spectrum as well as what it could analyze from the discharge in a side-by-side display. “What you think?”

Lt Martel, CE

(Will leave color, and other characteristics up to you.))

A line of purple energy lanced away from the Asimov and shot out into the darkness. Range and power output was 114% higher than normal, but the combination emitters handled the output with no problem. The only thing that was negative was the amount of draw from the weapons systems. 305 higher than normal… so their shots would pack a lot more punch, but they wouldn’t be able to fire as fast.

GM


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