Train, Fail, Adjust
Posted on 14 Aug 2022 @ 4:22am by Chief Deputy Marshal: Ridge Steiner - FMS
Edited on on 01 Sep 2022 @ 9:32pm
Mission:
M3 - Into the Deep
Location: USS Pathfinder
Timeline: MD 06 0945hrs
1997 words - 4 OF Standard Post Measure
Run it again, we're going at full speed this time" Steiner said to the group for Security personnel. Around them the gridlines of the holodeck faded away, to be replaced by some thirty feet of corridor, a replica of the stretch that led from a T-junction with turbo lift access to the primary door to Main Engineering. Several medium cargo containers appeared next, two at the engineering end, which were on their sides, giving a barricade for obstruction and cover. Another two by the T-junction, upright, side by side so they reduced the corridor width to less than three feet. Then a forcefield crackled and hissed into place at the junction.
"Ensign Norten, your team of six, you're up!" Drummond called out. Norton was the young Ensign who had suggested the medieval weaponry.
"Haines you get the big gun" She pointed the largest crewman to what they had come to call the Bodkin Bazooka a four foot oval tube, with a rectangular box at one end that contained the power pack and a rudimentary push-button trigger. It had a couple of heavy straps to go over the shoulder as a way to help with the hefty recoil from when it was activated. There was no sight since it was short range, point and shoot. It took about twenty seconds to get up to full charge then it was ready,
Haines took the weapon, slipping the straps on and tucking it under his right arm. He reached down and drew one of the rock-spikes from a box and slid it into the barrel of the weapon, then charged it up.
It was a simple process, the battery charged a capacitor, when the trigger was pushed the energy was sequentially released in bursts to a series of electro magnets that lined the inside of the barrel. As each magnet was charged its magnetic field would propel the rock spike forward, into the field of the next magnet and so on down the barrel, all in about a tenth of a second.
According to the test data, by the time it left the tube the tungsten tipped spike was going with enough momentum to punch through more than two inches of duralloy plate.
That was the theory anyway, so far, they had only been using holo-simulations based on the design that was being constructed. The rather odd thing about the weapon, was that besides a slight hum as it charged, it was essentially silent. There was no sound or flash or smoke when it went off.
"Jenkins you've got the foam" Another crewman took a fire-extinguisher looking cylinder, with four feet of flexible tube that ended in a flattened-out fan-shaped nozzle.
"Rest of you, rifles and tools and then everyone behind the barricade" She ordered and along with the other three members of the team she picked up a Type Three phaser rifle and a sledgehammer.
Steiner and Drummond moved back there as well to observe.
Once the team was in position Knowles tapped a command into her PaDD and a section of the holo-corridor opened up, she and rest of the personnel filed through it, then the section closed again. It appeared solid from inside, but on Knowle's side it was transparent. She and the others could hear and observe the scenario as it played out.
"Ready?" Steiner asked Norton, she gave him a nod. "Okay run it!" he called out to Knowles.
Instantly the corridor began to shake and rumble, the red alert siren wailed and a voice called out over their commbadges.
=^=Shields are down! Incoming attack craft, they are going to ram us! Evasive maneuvers! =^=
The corridor bounced and everyone was flung into the port bulkhead. Then there was a rumble and the deck lurched upwards.
=^= Main engines off line! Incoming attack craft fourteen seconds from impact! Brace! Brace! Brace! =^=
There a moment of quiet and then thirteen seconds later they were all slammed into the starboard bulkhead. The lights went out, replaced by orange emergency lighting and a vent duct in the ceiling began spewing smoke.
=^= Hull breach. Portside midships! Decks Three, Four and Five! Sections Twenty-Three through Twenty-Five aft! We are being boarded! =^=
The team scrambled to get back into position, taking cover behind the containers, weapons trained on the far end of the corridor. Ahead of them the forcefield fizzled and collapsed.
=^=Ops! Forcefield Nineteen is down! We need it back! =^= Norton called
=^= Working on it! Got to reroute power! =^= came the reply
Moments later there was a crash from the far end of the corridor and the armored bulk of a Pyrryx warrior came out of the T-junction.
It paused in the junction for a moment, as though checking its location, then turned towards them, in two steps it came upon the cargo containers blocking the way. It swung a huge fist into one of them, piecing the wall, and letting loose a cascade of rock samples.
"Fire!" Norton ordered and along with the others she opened up on the Pyrryx. The phaser beams slammed into the armor, but seemed to be absorbed or deflected. The warrior shuddered under the impacts but kept slamming its fists into the container which crumpled further, rocks piling onto the floor now.
"Concentrate fire! That left shoulder joint!" Norton called out and the team adjusted their aim, walking the beams on the targeted area. Six or seven shots later they seemed to be having some effect, the warrior twisted that shoulder back, but kept pounding into the container, which was all but gone.
=^= Ops! I need Forcefield Nineteen! Now! =^=
=^= Thirty seconds, got to reenergize the bus-bars! =
The warrior had smashed the first container and was starting to push past it and attack the second,
"Knees! Go for the knees!" Norton called out to her team
They dropped their aim, targeting the knee joints now but still the warrior grappled it's way past the second container, advancing down the corridor.
Suddenly behind it another one appeared in the junction.
"Stay on target! We drop this one first!" Norton ordered "Haines can you hit the back one?"
They had worked out the rail gun worked best over short range, maybe fifteen to eighteen feet at maximum. Thirty feet was a long shot.
Haines had the weapon already charged and propped the railgun tube on top of the barricade container, trying to sight at the distant target and miss the closer one in between. He fired.
The rock spike was ejected from the muzzle, barely visible as it flew down the corridor. It missed the first warrior and then missed the intended target as well, slamming into the bulkhead a foot away from the second warrior.
"Feck! Recharging!" Haines called and slid another spike into the barrel.
The phaser fire was not stopping the first one. Although it had slowed it down, it was dragging its left foot now, but still advancing.
"Jenkins! Foam it!"
The crewman pointed the nozzle and let loose a stream of dirty yellow liquid. It took a second or two to get the jet on target but then he began pouring it on.
As the liquid streamed out it began reacting with the air and turned into a foam, which splattered all over the warrior's legs and then began to cake into a thick clumpy goo.
The warrior paused, trying to wipe the sticky mess away, but it started sticking to its hand and arm. It lifted one arm up, the helmeted head appeared to be focused on the sticky tendrils it was drawing out between its arm and torso.
Norton lifted her aim and tried for a head shot. She hit it smack in the visor but the phaser bolt ricocheted off! Another shot left a deep gouge but no more, even at this range she could see the strange material flexing and repairing itself.
"Keep foaming it! Haines you ready?"
"Five more seconds!" He brought the barrel back up as Jenkins poured on the foam.
The warrior was covered in the stuff from the waist down now and every second the foam was exposed to the air it got more and more adhesive. The thing struggled forward, getting to within seventeen feet of their position.
"Ready!" Haines called out
"Aim for the chest!"
Haines pushed the trigger button. The rock spike punched out and impaled itself into the warrior's chest, penetrating at least three or four inches.
It staggered under the impact and fell backwards.
The team gave a cheer, but as the first one fell back the second one was now clearing the smashed cargo containers and coming down the corridor.
Behind it the forcefield finally crackled back into place, but now it had trapped both warriors in the corridor with the team
"Same again take its knees out!" Norton ordered and they recommenced firing.
The second warrior began to run, speeding up its advance. It hurdled over the prostrate form of its comrade, missing the puddle of foam.
Jenkins redirected the jet and managed to get some on target, but the warrior was within twelve feet now and moving fast, two massive armored fists outstretched before it.
Jenkins jerked the nozzle upwards and hit the warrior in the helmet, the foam obliterated its vision and it floundered, stumbling forward, slamming into the barricade.
As soon it did so it began to punch and tear at the containers in a frenzy. Jenkins squirted some more of the foam at it but the stream drizzled and stopped.
"I'm out!" he called
Norton shoved the barrel of her rifle into the neck joint of the armor and fired, the beam bounced off.
The warrior reached up blindly, grabbed the barrel and tore the weapon from her hands. Then went back to smashing the barricade.
"Batter it!" Norton yelled, grabbing a hammer.
The rest of the team went for their tools, and attacked the warrior. One of them landed a jarring blow onto its left elbow, Norton and another went for the head.
Haines was recharging "Eight seconds!"
Under the onslaught the warrior went berserk, fists and arms flailing it began to claw its way over the smashed cargo containers.
"Computer! Freeze program!" Steiner called out
The warrior froze in place, it was half way over the barricade, both massive hands within easy reach of the team.
"How long left?" He asked Haines
"Six seconds"
"Computer extrapolate combat result on available data
Seventy-eight-point-three percent likelihood three killed, two seriously injured before assailant is incapacitated
The corridor wall opened up, Knowles and the rest of the security personnel came back in.
"Five of us for just two of them, we can't take survive at that rate" Drummond commented, speaking the facts they all knew.
"No, we can't " Steiner agreed, "So we need to improve them. We can't let them get close.
We're going to have to use the anti-personnel mines, even if we tear up this section. No point in not using them if we lose the ship if we don't And we need two canisters of foam, minimum for each team."
He turned round to look at Norton and her team. They understandably were looking pretty dejected.
"This is why we train, to learn and fail here. We take that experience forward, adapt and adjust so we don't fail when it counts.
You guys stopped one in its tracks, that was good but the second one got you. What did we learn, how do we improve?"
"Don't take shots at anything over twenty feet" Haines offered "Chances of missing are too high and by the time it's recharged they are too close"
"Start the foam sooner" Jenkins said. "I could probably hit them another five feet further away"
"Concentrate phasers on the leg joints" Norton said "That's where they appear to be most effective"
Steiner nodded "Good, that's what we try from now on. Alright, reset it, add in the claymores. Next team get ready"
