Operation Ten-Go

Posted on Sat Apr 2nd, 2011 @ 7:35am by Ensign Bok

Mission: Episode 2.1 - "Unanswered Questions"
Location: Holodeck

Bok could hardly believe it, Chief Engineering Officer of the Pandora. He wasn't foolhardy enough to believe that it was not a tenuous position. As an ensign he could be replaced anytime that the captain or Starfleet decided to send a higher ranking officer with more experience. Since they were docked and there was not much to do at this point he decided on a team builder for the engineers.

He downloaded some additional programming information from the starbase's flight simulator programs and had his crew come to the holodeck outfitted in WWII US naval flight suits. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to operation Ten-go. Historically this battle was from Earth's Second World War. At the end of the war the Japanese empire had its naval forces nearly wiped off the map. The Americans were driving towards the home islands, in this case the island of Okinawa. Desperate for some way to respond the Japanese sent Kamikaze suicide planes to destroy enemy ships. Lesser known was the the navy was forced to send their own Kamikaze fleet whose plan was to beach on the shores of Okinawa and serve as battery defense until taken out. To complete this mission they sent the pride of the fleet USS Yamato. It was unadulterated folly. They would never be able to fight through the superior American forces. The battle was a total rout, an unmitigated loss of life. The Japanese fleet lost the Yamato, a light cruiser, 4 of its 8 destroyers and lost all 115 kamikaze aircraft while the Americans lost only 10 aircraft and had moderate damage to two ships, heavy damage to a destroyer. The ships had been an easy target without air cover. We're going to even the odds by adding a light carrier to the Japanese side, the Ryujo and a full sized carrier, the Katsuragi."

"I don't know how to fly," admitted Crewman Apprentice Davidson.

"Not to worry, we'll have plenty of training," Bok responded. "These planes will handle much like shuttlecraft. Because of the assistance of the Starfleet flight training program you'll be flying like aces in no time. These planes will handle like the real thing, so let's get acquainted. First we have the Grumman F6F Hellcat which replaced the slower F4F Wildcat in 1943 as the primary carrier fighter of the US Navy. They had a 10-1 kill ratio and accounted for 75% of all naval aerial victories in the Pacific. Its mission will be to clear the skies of enemy aircraft and protect the other planes in our combined force. Next I introduce the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, aka the two-cee or Son-of-a-Bitch 2nd Class. Admittedly this plane is a bit more difficult to handle but its record speaks for itself. These planes dropped down from 10,000 feet at a 70 degree angle to drop bombs on enemy targets. We also introduce the Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. These planes came from in low which made them vulnerable to zeroes diving at faster speeds from above, but many times they were able to escape detection at these lower altitudes. Our enemy is the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, a highly maneuverable plane that bought that superior speed and agility with a loss of armor protection. Don't worry, if you 'flame out' you will be rebooted in another vessel. So let's begin. First squadron get in your planes."

tbc