The clock struck 0100h and Phase 1 of the exercise officially began. Carver, his pilot, and a sensor specialist sat in their runabout about half a million kilometres above the collection of Starfleet vessels. They could monitor the entire route through a series of linked sensor bouys and drones along with the sensor feeds from the other three runabouts in his range control group. Carvers plan was to pace the convoy at their authorized max speed of half impulse from above them on the Z axis.
“The convoy can’t move fast, but the Klingon and Romulan ships won’t be able to cloak. Four hours in a death funnel for the Blue (Starfleet) team, and four hours of shooting fish in a barrel for the Klingons.” the pilot remarked.
“Don’t forget the Reman crewed Republic Navy vessel. And yes, the Blue team will be in tough on this scenario. That’s the idea.” Carver studied the plot chart as all the vessels began maneuvering. It appeared as though Captain Wong had chosen to use the larger starships as a close escort for the five ‘convoy ships’ that took the form of the Trentons Tactical Transport Squadron. As expected, the ships carrying combat capable auxiliary craft launched their birds. The Red team approached from the edge of the nebula and its faster vessels could intercept the convoy in about 25 minutes if they traveled at full impulse.
“Ah, yes, our stalwart Republic allies who don’t want to pick fights with the Tal Shiar.” The pilot replied derisively.
“Would you want to if you were in their shoes? They’re a third the size, with less then a quarter the industry, a third of their fleet, and an active invasion on their Klingon frontier. It was also a bit of the luck of the draw as to which ships got tapped for this exercise, just based on who was nearby, available, and in need of training” Carver corrected the man, but gently.
“Fair point, sorry, sir… oh, looks like the red team is going for a direct intercept. Blue team is sending half of their fighters and almost all of their runabouts away from the convoy on a collision course with the Klingon vanguard.”
“Active defense, very good.” Carver stared at the plot and saw that Trenton and the Orpheus were veering away from the convoy now too.
“Smart, sometimes the shepherds gotta head out and try and kill the wolves, and the further away from your flock the better.” Carver zoomed in on a live feed from a bouy near the Red teams formation.
“Indeed, sir. Seeing the Vor’nak in formation with the Bortas’qu class, really gives you a sense of scale, she’s just, huge.” The pilot marvelled at the view on the screen. The Vor’cha was a large Battlecruiser in its own right, but the newer KDF Carrier was more then twice as long, and three times the thickness of the Vor’nak. The two BoPs that other allies of the House of Koloth sent and thr Malem were but mere specks on the screen.
On the Trenton, Wong had devised a bold gambit. His vessel and the Orpheus would hang slightly back from their formation of fighters and runabouts and allow them to break up approaching enemy formation, and then they would both perform a full throated assault against the Vor’nak in an attempt to get the fast battlecruiser off the board early.
“All torpedo tubes standby to fire a full volley out in front of our birds, see if we can break up those To’duj squadrons.” Wong said from the centre seat.
“Ready to go sir. We’ll be in range in fourteen minutes. Wraith Squadron, the Blue Sentinels and the Black Sheep (Trentons runabout squadron, supported by the runabout contingents from the other ships) are about 60 seconds infront of us.” Dawes reported from the tactical station.
A little worse for wear after the shenanigans earlier in the evening, and the tumblers of bloodwine she had shared with more than a few noble warriors, the petite Betazoid in command of Omaha watched the viewscreen at the front of the bridge with great interest as the scenario began to unfold. Omaha sat on the starboard flank of the convoy, while her Reliant-sister the Cardenas sat to port. Aft of the convoy, the Gagarin-class Orpheus chased up the rear. At the exact moment as decreed in the battle plan, two squadrons of Valkyrie’s launched from the forward hangar bay on the tip of the destroyer’s nose as she diverted and joined Trenton in veering from the rest of the convoy.
“Dazia, stand by all weapons,” the Betazoid ordered of the Trill at the tactical rail that surrounded the command arena. “Helm, hold position until we receive orders.”
In stark contrast to the team that had struggled with exercises mere weeks ago, hours of training hours logged under the Vulcan beside their captain had turned the team into a cohesive unit, right on time.
Across the other side of the convoy, Captain Prenar, much like his betazoid colleague, watched the situation unfold, but where he would have been charging in to save the day on Lakota once upon a time, he now had to show restraint. As wonderful as Cardenas was, and she was a wonderful little ship, she was no Excelsior heavy cruiser.
No, he had to maintain position on his side of the convoy and be prepared to respond. He would definitely be ready.
From his vantage point at the mission operations station directly behind Captain th’Zorati, the Orion Commander of the Orphean Wraiths listened as his pilots checked in one by one, led by his squadron XO. Eventually, the confirmation from his deputy came over the wider comm channel.
“Wraith One to Orpheus,” Lieutenant Commander Orys Ch’tosrik barked, “squadron accounted for and in position.”
“Engage your targets, Wraith Squadron,” Captain th’Zorati decreed, “weapons free.”
With the Malem being the fastest vessel on the Red team in terms of sublight maneuverability, they had been tasked with heading in a sweeping maneuver around the front of the convoys path as a potential feint or flank assault.
“The Starfleet auxiliary vessels have not altered course to engage us and appear to remain focused on the main body sir.” Viran reported from his standing consoles to the rear and right of The Commander.
“Predictable. They will allow their frigates and remaining fighters to defend the convoy from us. Prepare to make an attack run on the convoy itself. Our primary targets are the five shuttles masquerading as freighters.” The old Reman CO ordered.
The old cliche of being so quiet you could hear a pin drop was so overused that it had become entirely unbelievable, until this scenario on the bridge of the Omaha, where it felt like no one had so much as taken a breath in a lifetime. Eyes were glued to their stations and no one had so much as twitched since the scenario began. Until now.
“Captain…” Ensign Kedam called from science, “I’m detecting something on sensors at zero point two five. Range, six thousand kilometers and closing.”
Shifting to the edge of her seat, Alyra craned and twisted her neck to look up at her tactical chief. “Dazia?” she asked hopefully.
“I’ve got them,” the young Trill nodded in agreement, “zero point two five. Range, six thousand kilometers and closing.”
“I have them too,” Nisea echoed from the CONN.
Relaxing into her chair, the Betazoid looked across at the ever-stoic Vulcan to her right and smiled. “Right where we expected,” she grinned.
“Where you expected Captain,” Sovin corrected her.
Nodding a gentle thanks to her XO, Alyra turned back to business. “Dazia; report their position to the convoy. Standby weapons,” she instructed sternly.
Less than ten minutes later, the convoy was in disarray as Cardenas and her twin tried their utmost to defend the Federation assets against the onslaught from their alien friends. Simulated weapons fire lit up the hull of the Reliant-class frigate and began to overwhelm her defences. On the opposite flank, the coordinated assault caused the Omaha‘s engines to malfunction, causing her to be dead in the water.
“Stand down, stand down. All ships stand down, this serial is concluded. The Red team has successfully destroyed the convoy. Prepare for serial two, travelling the opposite direction. You have one hour. Range control, out.” Carver announced over the designated range control comm channel.
It had been a valiant effort, but in the end the pressure from the Malem and the last remaining To’Duj fighters and the Bortas’qu class ship had been able to destroy the fifth and final convoy shuttle. The exercize ended just after the two hour mark since the exercize had begun.
“Now, that was somewhat expected. The key to this scenario, is seeing what Captain Wong and the rest of the Blue team do to shift tactics.” Carver mused.
“Seemed like the Blue teams runabouts were fairly effective against the smaller Klingon fighters and even the Birds of Prey.” The pilot added.
“We’ll see if they picked up on that in about an hour. Take us to start point of serial two at the other end of the nebula please Lt.” Carver saved the data feeds and sensor logs from the training serial for later review.
As the second serial of the convoy escort scenario kicked off the Blue team deployed in a similar fashion to their first run, only this time Wong sent the entirety of his fighter compliment and all but 6 of the runabout towards the approaching Red team. The Pluto, Cardenas and Omaha formed up in an even tighter formation around the convoy with the Echelon class in the lead and the two Reliants on the flanks. Again the Trenton and Orpheus veered away from the convoy axis of advance and placed themselves in between the approaching adversaries and the convoy, but this time they held at about a quarter of a million miles off the port beam of the group of five shuttles.
“Look like a similar deployment this time.” Carvers pilot announced.
“Indeed. Note how he is sending almost all of their auxiliary craft aside from a few Volga’s. Not just fighters either, all the vessels combat capable craft including their type 11, 12, and 14 shuttles are on the board this time. Apparently the Blue team had noticed something.
Indeed, Wong and his CAG had noticed that the Federation fighters and runabouts were more then a match for the Klingon To’Duj fighters pound for pound. One of the Orpheus‘ runabout pilots had also noticed that a group of the larger Arrow class runabouts had been able to corral and eventually destroy one of the Klingon BoPs without too much trouble. So Ingram and the leader of the Orpheus’s Aerospace group had come up with a plan to use two flights of runabouts (each with two Arrows, along with a Danube and New Atlantic that were both equipped with tactical modules) as adhoc hunter killer groups who’s job it was to ‘find, fix, and fustagate’ the Red teams Malem and B’rels.
“Did they just come up with new formations on the fly? See those packs of runabouts moving together?” The sensor operator chimed in on the conversation.
“I do. That’s a decent little strike package or chase group. Pin tracks on them, watch what they do.” Carver said.
As the moments ticked by and the battle progressed, the strategy became more clear. The Trenton and the Orpheus as before loosed several barrages of torpedoes at an oblique angle from their aux craft formations so that the torpedoes would ‘plow the road’. This time though the Alita and Gagarin class ships returned to the formation. Together with the Cardenas, Omaha and Plato formed a tight, closed, hedgehog formation around the convoy. It appeared as though Captain Wong was going to try and outlast the Klingon assualts, using their own hulls to protect the convoy of freighters if needs be.
“They did it? The pilot asked as the 2 surviving ‘freighters’ completed their trip.
“Yep. 2 of the 5 made it across the finish line, that’s a partial success for the blue team… Stand down, stand down, all vessels on the range stand down. Phase One of Exercise Tranquil Dawn is complete. Phase Two will begin at the ground site at 0900h. Unit and ship leaders there will be a subspace debrief in one hour. Range Control, out.” Carver turned to his fellow officers on the runabout.
“I’ve sequenced all the combat actions you wanted tracked into seperate streams and forwarded it to your pad sir.” The sensor operator replied.
“Thank you Ensign. Lt, set a course for the Phase Two site, engage at warp 6. I’d like to see how everyone arrives after this first encounter.” Carver was a rare breed of officer these days. He was both an experienced staff officer, starship crew member, and seasoned commander having commanded the Illustrious and Socrates.
The personnel and operational crunches in recent years had forced much of Starfleet to rely on having experienced officers shuffled into oversight roles and training swathes of newly promoted or commissioned officers, forcing an inherent bias that caused marginally suitable candidates to be shoehorned into roles they had neither the experience or specialization for. Many officers with his experience and comparable service records were Commodores already, but he was about to finish his fourth tour as s four pipper and was staring right at a fifth.
Then again, he had always been a bit of a firebrand when it came to the ‘political game’ that went on at the senior ranks. It was no secret that his loyalties would always lay with the ideals, morals and laws of the Federation, and never with a superior officer for favours or clout or even a good fitrep. When you add that with his easy going leadership style, it wasn’t surprising that he was still a Captain.
A few Admiral’s had even tried to use him as a personal firefighter for them, and regretted it, after Carvers morals or values prevented him from signing off on one of their pet projects. Luckily he had built up a fine report with his current boss at Starfleets Training and Doctine Department, who had offered Ty the choice of any posting he wanted once the Exercise was complete. Though he hadn’t made a decision yet, he was already leaning towards one particular billet that was currently vacant.
