Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Bridge
[snip]

Just as El spoke the second cargo ship that had gone to swoop above their bow line opened fire in passing. Their plasma canon striking along the rear port quarter of the ship hull leading to the port nacelle pylon. The Sojourner shuttered again from impact, but beyond reduction in hull polarity to 92% in that area and a brief hiccup in plasma feed to the nacelle no further damage was report. The first and third ship that had banked under the ship also left their marks in passing along the under belly of the ship in this case both targeted the same point on deck G striking the lower portions of their deflector dish. Damage reports soon came in on the comms indicating some hull bulking in that area. Polarity of the hull there was down to 81% effectiveness. Thankfully for the moment no breaches nor serious damage to the deflector dish which without it they would not be able to go to warp if needed or go very fast on impulse in places stellar debris were present. Perhaps this was the cargo ship’s goal to escape?

=/\=”On it,” Aiden replied, =/\= relaying information as it was called out. “I’m no weapons officer, but I know how to communicate.”

Ensign Aiden Conlon Linguist/Comms Officer

“Sorry, sorry!” NE Gunner yelled as he came skidding out of the lift, quickly grabbing a hand hold as the ship made another sudden turn. Bracing himself he finally made it over to the tactical station on the bridge.

He tapped a few commands on the console overlaying the sensor readings over the ships flying past. “Armory target the two starboard ship.... Sorry, double muted,” he said sheepishly as he tapped the comm controls again opening the channel.

=^=Armory target the two starboard ships, sending coordinates now. Aiming to hit them between the nacelles to overload their hull plating and short out their engines. =^=

NE Gunner

The reply in the background from the Armory …

=^= Starboard vessels coordinates input. Locked. Targeting computer programming course correct =^=
=^= Coordinates green. I have a lock. Firing. =^=

Then there was a shrill sound of the plasma cannons firing that drowned out any further talk while it was firing ..
- El, Eng

As the Sojourner completed its forward maneuver and banking swoop their own plasma cannons opened up. Of their three canons their forward port and starboard cannons opened up barely in the angling line to attack. The four combined shots struck the second ship as it came back up out of its dive just in front of the Sojourner after a tight banking to starboard itself. Of the four shots three struck home within the engine cowlings near the port nacelle. Some sparks shot out showing the hits targeting showed their own hull polarity there was down to 84%.

Meanwhile the first ship had completed its pass on the Sojourner and was now lined up to their aft quarter keeping about 15 meters back. There was a moment where they could see a hatch open near the lower front quarter and suddenly a sublight rocket of some kind shot out, suddenly before the hatch quickly shut again. Not quite as strong as a spatial torpedo they carried, nor likely as accurate it was still closing fast on their aft beam with seconds to spare before impact!

Conversely at the same time the third ship was speeding up and banking away from them now about 30 meters to their direct port side the cargo ship began a hard return showing signs of preparing to fire their own plasma cannon again.

GM CockRoach

Helena kept cool steady hands on the controls as the ship rocked and shuttered. She watched her navigational displays and the view screen as well. She saw the opening of a small hatch and her eyes narrowed tightly. A quick glance told her where the first and third ship were, the timing had to be perfect. If she could move out of the way at just the right time, the rocket from the first ship would hit the third. The Sojourner suddenly dove forward and banked hard out of the way of the rocket and angled toward the second ship, giving weapons control a clear shot of it if they were fast enough.

Lt. Laursen, Helm/Navigation Officer

Marceau gripped the armrests of the Captain’s chair so hard his knuckles were white as Helena maneuvered the ship expertly. He watched the ships, looking for openings to return fire when Helena dove the ship to avoid the rockets.

~ Capt Renault

The hasty timed maneuver from Laursen, on the dive and bank, both rockets over shot the Sojo and slammed into the angling third ship. An interesting thing to note from the quick scans was these were likely not Earth based rockets as first seen, the casings were certainly, but the power output as scans came in and the damage result showed that a second or so before impact, a high energy plasma charge slammed into the cargo ship allowing the rocket to penetrate far deeper and harder then it might otherwise. The reactant fuel and warhead were just a bit under the charge of their own spatial torpedoes, though the energy pattern didn’t match. This meant it burnt through the polarized hull and into the central forward port sections of the cargo ship. The internal explosion sent the cargo ship tumbling hard out of control, no doubt for a bit yet it was out of the fight if not outright crippled.

=^= Armory, second ship straight ahead. Same location, all forward canons. Fire when ready. =^=

NE Gunner

=^= Forward cannons fire! =^= came the repeat command from Cpl Steve Sargent to the rest of the crew in the armory.

El for NCpl Steve Sargent

As their plasma cannons fired again into the second ship, another four blasts rang out. This time two of the four struck along the ventral forward quarter of the cargo vessel. On shot even penetrated the hull near a RCS tank. The explosion rocked the cargo ship some but it soon recovered. But it seems their forward plasma cannon was out of commission to boot. But in their recovery they had brought their forward cannon to fire. A dual barrage of plasma scorched along the port central quarter of deck B and C. Report showed the transporter room had experienced a EPS relay blow out and though repairable was out of commission for now. Also reported in damage was a minor hull breach in the Captain’s quarters showing a decompression of 10 seconds or so before the emergency hull plating sealed it off. Fire was also reported on internal scans but that was quickly extinguished as soon as it had happened from decompression. In total their hull plating along the central quarter was down to 87%.

After the exchange of fire with the second ship, it seems there was a secondary explosion occurring in the same area. Lights flickered across the ship and it began to drift, again seemingly knocked out of the fight.

The last (aka first) ship still hot on their tail 15 meters back dipped quickly below their underbelly and fired another round from their plasma cannon, this time focusing again on their deflector dish. The lances of fire struck home again along the under bellow around the array housing. More shudders went through the hsip and an aft console on the bridge flickered then sparked out from an overload. Polarization in the area was now down to 62% with moderate hull buckling and damage to the array’s secondary systems and alignment. The misalignments would take time to fix, if they had to go to warp though they would probably be capped at 1.8 or so at best.

This though seemed to be the last mobile ship’s plan as it completed its strike it began to put all power into their impulse reaction to get clear of the planet and system. Obviously abandoning their comrades to whatever fate was to befall them. Also on scans the third ship they had first disabled was showing engine damage to the point where soon their orbit would decay and they would burn up in the planet’s atmosphere. Life signs showed 18-20 humans on board plus the one to three signatures that might be the enslaved native humanoids in the shielded cargo hold.

The third ship meanwhile was also adrift but not near the planet’s orbit. It however, was mostly dead in the water and powerless, emergency life support was online but otherwise without power. 24 human life signs were picked up.

On the screen the first ship was quickly accelerating to get away, they could leave the second ship to its fate to burn up on reentry to go after the first ship, or save the second ship but let the first get away, they only had time for one of those choices.

GM CockRoach

Shortly a call came from Engineering in a thick Russian accent. =^= Ensign Gagarin to Bridge. Damage control parties are en route. We note sensor array damage from here. Estimated time for repair is coming. Power and engines are on line. =^=
- NE Gagarin, Eng