Shore Up the Walls

Posted on Mon Dec 6th, 2010 @ 6:50am by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson

Mission: Episode 1.4 - "Confusion in the Cluster"
Location: Main Engineering, USS Pandora
Timeline: Mission Day 01, 0928 hours

ON: [[Main Engineering, USS Pandora, Mission Day 01, 0928 hours]]

"Alright...so we know that Ablative Armor is designed to disintegrate at a controlled rate under directed energy blasts," Jake said as he looked over the schematic display of the Pandora's ablative armor matrix, "It enables a ship to withstand the impact of enemy weapons' fire without the assistance of shields for a greater duration than those vessels not equipped with such armor." He paused and glanced over in the direction of Lieutenant Commander Thompson, wondering if the commander thought he was crazy for reciting a textbook definition that every cadet should have known.

"So how do we modify it to work better for us for a longer period of time?" Joe asked, deciding not to comment on the lieutenant's encyclopedia entry-style explanation.

Jake leaned his hands against the edge of the "pool table" and studied the display readout for a moment, thinking. A ship's ablative armor matrix was designed to withstand a certain amount of impact before giving way, just like any other defensive shielding system. The question was, could they squeeze a little more out of the armor than was typical for the design? "I think we're looking at minimal benefit at best," Jake replied, "but if we could improve defense capability by even the slightest margin, that would be better than what we have. Either way, we're looking at only a short time before enemy weapons would be able to penetrate the armor."

"Unless, of course, those weapons included energy dissipators," Joe pointed out. Back when he was an enlisted Marine, Joe had been on a dropship that came under attack by a ship using energy dissipators. Fortunately, the main ship had been able to fight the enemy off and rescue the dropship, but the weapons had severely crippled the dropship. "What kind of protection do we have without shields?"

"Starfleet's come a long way since we first encountered the Breen energy weapon," Jake replied, glancing over in the commander's direction, "Most of our systems have hardware back-ups and redundancies in place to help us compensate for the neutralizing effects, but I'd be lying if I said that our shields weren't a major component of that defense." He studied the readouts for a moment, trying to remember what he'd learned about the weapon that had crippled so many vessels during the Dominion War. The truth was, he'd never actually had to face the Breen or their energy weapon, which meant that he was going strictly off of theory and reports instead of practical experience. "I might be able to hold us together for a little while," he continued, "but without the shields, it would only be a matter of time before we started experiencing the effects of the energy weapon...or succumbed to conventional weaponry."

"Do you think the shuttles would be affected by this weapon?" Joe asked. "What if we used the Flyer-class or even a Type 9 to take out the weapon while it was busy with the main ship?"

"They might be able to evade enemy fire easier than the Pandora, but I doubt that anything less than the Type 11 or Flyer-class would have the firepower to take out the energy weapon," Jake said, mulling the idea over in his head, "Though I doubt the Breen have developed anything much better at counteracting the effects of the Cluster, so we might be able to assume that they would also be operating without shields."

"Well, let's see what we can do with the armor," Joe said. "I'll talk to Iluvar and Flight Control later about using the shuttles if we need to."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Jake agreed, tapping a series of commands into the interface to his right. He still wasn't convinced that sending out the shuttles was the best idea, but that was something he figured the captain would have to make the final call on. Right now, he needed to focus on the Pandora's ablative armor.

"What are we doing?" Joe asked politely after a while.

"This isn't the first time the captain has been to this region of space," Jake explained as he pulled up the information he had been looking for, "The last time he was here, he was in command of the USS Tethys. We should be able to use the records from that mission to modify the ablative armor of this vessel in a similar fashion."

Joe frowned slightly. "Was Commander Fala in charge of Tactical then?" he wondered. "Maybe she has some thoughts on the matter."

"Not that I recall," Jake replied, pausing to look up at the commander as he thought about it for a moment, "I believe that Commander Earlond was the Chief Security/Tactical Officer at the time, but I'm afraid he doesn't serve aboard the Pandora any more."

"Hmm," Joe said thoughtfully. "Where was he transferred to? Maybe I can still get in touch with him." Joe had always found it best when replacing other individuals at their tasks to consult those individuals on their thoughts and experiences on the matter. He had already planned to talk to Commander Fala, but now it looked like he had someone else to talk to, as well.

"I'm not sure," Jake said, turning his attention back to the data that was still scrolling across the display, "You'd have to ask the captain."

"I'll be sure to do that," Joe said. Setting that aside on his list of things to do, he focused on the task at hand. "Let's get to work on that armor."

OFF

A JP by

Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Pandora

and

Lieutenant Jake Warrington (PNPC)
Interim Chief Engineer
USS Pandora
Played by: Capt Iluvar