Topic: ST: Tigermoth - Return Of The Andromedans

[James Smith]

Sweet model - what do you use, 3D Max?

Forgot to add - the new ship design. Attached (hopefully) are three shots of a ship DJ Curtis made for Bridge Commander called the Valiant Class.

'fraid I can't take credit for the model

Metcalf, well, at least he's confused.

Mike
~Po

He'll be more than confused by the time Smithy's done with him....

[Governor Ronjar]

Love that ship!!

--guv!

[James Smith]

***********

Chapter 8 - Stiffen The Sinews, Summon Up The Blood (part 3)

***********
USS Tempest
1st August 2395
0010hrs EST
Bridge


Harriman paced around the upper level of the bridge, casting glances at the main screen every so often. The red glow of transwarp flight added to the Red Alert condition lighting made the bridge seem much warmer. Even so, he was shivering. The prospect of battle never sat well with him, despite how much of it he'd seen over the past few decades. I'm getting too old for this.

"Approaching Brek'Tagh, Admiral."

Harriman dropped down into the command area and sat. "Secure from transwarp speed at downwarp point. Full impulse power. Ops, full scan. Tactical, confirm shields and weapons readiness."

"Deflector shields at full intensity. Phasers charged, torpedoes loaded."

"Ops?"

"Scanning, Admiral." The young man worked for a few seconds. "I have the Klingon fleet. Tactical plot on the main screen."

Harriman stood, taking in the information. He touched the comm tie-in control on his chair. "All ships, this is the Tempest. Form up, we're going in."

***********
USS Tigermoth-A
0020 hrs EST
Bridge


Smithy and Lisa turned as Orlatrel hurried out onto the bridge. "How's she holding up?"

"About as well as expected. I've got the SIF boosted as far as I can, but we're getting a competition brewing up in the power grid. Not much I can do about that though."

Smithy nodded. "Yeah. Chin up pal, only got about half an hour before we can shut down the transwarp drive."

Orlatrel smiled weakly. "All things considered, I think I'll be glad when we get to Brek'Tagh. Even with the promise of battle."

Smithy levered himself up to head over to Riggs. "Any word from the Klingons or Starfleet, kid?"

"No sir, nothing. I've tried raising the Tempest on the transpace link, but the signal is being jammed."

Lisa glanced over at Ops. "Winchester, tie us into the sensor network. See if you can spot the fleets."

Winchester tapped a string of commands into his console. "I can't get you particularly fine detail ma'am, but there are three distinct groups of signatures all starting to blend into one. That's got to be the Andromedans, the DSF and Starfleet."

Riggs looked up at Smithy. "USS Wasp is signalling sir. They confirm battle readiness of themselves and the Hornet and Bee."

"Good. Elkins, time to Brek'Tagh downwarp point?"

"24 minutes, Captain. Our speed is starting to slip a little though."

Orlatrel immediately headed for the bridge Engineering station. "Nacelle balance is still shaky. Compensating." Seconds ticked by as Smithy joined him at the station, the two men working quickly. "How about now, Ensign?"

"Our speed is creeping back up again. Revised estimate of 21 minutes to downwarp."

Lisa smiled at her husband. "Still haven't lost your touch."

Smithy accepted the compliment, and turned back to Orlatrel. "You'd better get back down below. I don't care how you do it within reason, but get me more speed."

"You'll get it." Orlatrel hurried to the turbolift, and was gone.

Smithy leaned forward onto the bridge rail. "Alright people....lets go over our plan of attack."

***********
IKV Mortum Hesta
0031hrs EST
Bridge

Sheehan picked himself up from the floor as the ship righted itself. "I'm gonna feel that one in a few hours."

Thulinuk waved the smoke away from his face, his nose wrinkling at the smell of burned circuits. "Report!"

"Our shields are weakening. Engineering is attempting to re-route power to compensate." Sheehan punched at his console, sending a volley of disruptor fire slamming into the nearest Andromedan cruiser.

"The fleet?"

"Taking a pounding." Sheehan leaned over to the now unmanned station next to him, calling up a view of the fleet on it. "Looks like the Negh'Var is in trouble."

"On-screen." Thulinuk stood as the battleship came into view, her hull bearing the scars of the battle. "Helm, new course! Get us over to the Negh'Var, target vessels closest to her. Sheehan, get our battle wing to join us!"

***********
USS Tigermoth-A
0035hrs EST
Bridge

Elkins half-turned. "Sir, our speed is still increasing. Downwarp point now only five minutes away. I have the computer on control so we can time it as tightly as possible."

Smithy nodded an acknowledgement from the Engineering station. "Atta boy Orlatrel, keep it up. Drelkar, as soon as the transwarp drive is shut down I want all combat systems on peak power."

"Aye, sir."

Lisa joined her husband. "Reckon we can do that while keeping the SIF boosted?"

"I don't know, to be honest." Smithy glanced at the telemetry coming from the warp core. "We're almost 3% down on core output, and there's no way we can claw that back without some time spent sorting it all out. I doubt we can do it on the fly. Lord only knows where Orlatrel is finding the power for this flight."

***********
USS Tempest
0041hrs EST
Bridge


The bridge rumbled and shook underneath Harriman, the main screen flaring white under the impact of the plasma torpedo. "Helm, evasive manoeuvres! Tactical, fire at will! Get them off of us!"

Three more torpedoes sailed past on the viewscreen, ending up wide of their mark. Harriman glanced at the tactical plot on one of the auxilliary monitors, noticing four small blips appear at the outside edge of it's range. Hope swelled in him. "Lieutenant, is that them?"

He got his answer soon enough, four ships racing past on the viewscreen scattering the Andromedan ships that had been on the tail of the Tempest. Explosions bloomed. Harriman quickly headed for the Communications console. "See if you can raise the Tigermoth, that jamming was starting to ease. Maybe now they're close, we can get through it."

***********
USS Tigermoth-A
0042hrs EST
Bridge

"I've got the Admiral, sir!"

Smithy hurried over to join Riggs at her station. "Hello Dave, sorry we took so long."

"I'll let you off this time." Harriman's image wavered with the lingering remains of the Andromedan jamming field. "I like those guys you brought with you."

"They haven't even got going properly yet." Smithy ducked as a heavy impact sent sparks flying out of one of the auxilliary monitors. "Drelkar, find whoever did that and bounce a couple of quantum torpedoes at 'em! Gotta go, Dave. Stay safe."

"You too."

Riggs closed out the connection. "Receiving a data packet from the Mortum Hesta, Captain. DSF report."

"Decode and give me the edited highlights." Smithy headed back to his chair, settling in. "Drelkar, did you fnd that Andro yet?"

"Aye, sir....just waiting for a clear shot."

"Elkins, can you help him out?"

The young man's fingers were almost dancing over the helm console. "Trying, sir. Running right out of room here."

Riggs leaned over the bridge rail. "Captain, the DSF has lost around 35 ships. The Negh'Var has been pretty badly mauled but is still operational. Mortum Hesta herself has suffered damage and some casualties, but Commander Sheehan is alright. The Andromedans have suffered heavy losses, but more ships are joining the fray. They still outnumber us three to one."

Smithy absorbed that. "Bugger. I think I'd rather not have heard that."

Lisa looked up from her screen. "I hate to pile on....but the Venture has been destroyed."

Smithy closed his eyes. "Ghelev. Damn." He opened them again. "Survivors?"

"Picked up by the Korolev. No word on numbers."

The screen flared as an Andromedan vessel dissolved into fire. Drelkar gave the bridge air a quick punch. "Got him, sir!"

Smithy allowed himself a small grin. "Well done, kid. Now, rinse and repeat until every last Andromedan ship is gone from here."

***********
IKV Mortum Hesta
0110hrs EST
Bridge


"Shields back up to 65%" Sheehan gripped the edge of his station as the inertial dampeners lagged behind the Hesta's erratic course. "Klugh'Tal and Maracha are moving in tighter to provide us with some cover."

"Good." Thulinuk could barely see Sheehan through the smoke that filled the bridge. "Can we get the ventilators working again?"

"You sure you want to see the damage?" Sheehan leaned over and prodded at the environmental controls. "I think this console is dead anyway."

"Engineer, status report."

The engineer appeared out of the haze. "Hull integrity holding. We have lost some ancillary systems but all combat systems still on-line."

Thulinuk nodded, returning his attention to the screen. "Excellent. Helm, continue erratic course. Sheehan, fire at will!"

***********
USS Tempest
0115hrs EST
Bridge


Harrison glanced at Harriman. "Sir, SOD reports heavy losses among their ships."

Harriman shook his head, sighing. "Comms, order Defiant wing to get over and defend them, give them time to regroup."

"Aye, sir."

"Tactical plot on viewscreen."

The image sprang up, looking for all the world like utter chaos. Harriman watched the patterns. "Damn. We've taken some heavy losses haven't we?"

***********
USS Tigermoth-A
0125hrs EST
Bridge


"Engine room to bridge."

Lisa stabbed at the comm panel on her chair. "Enjoying yourself down there Orlatrel?"

"Would you mind sending your husband down here? I'm running right out of options for keeping us at full combat effectiveness."

Smithy glanced up from the tactical report he was discussing with Winchester. "How bad?"

"Getting a serious energy competition in the reaction chamber. I'm all out of tricks." Orlatrel's voice was bleak, the tone bringing Smithy up short.

Smithy shot a look at his wife. "Computer, transporter tie-in. One to beam directly to the engine room."

***********
0126hrs EST
Engine Room


Smithy was moving before the transporter effect had faded from his vision and hearing. "Alright, give me the run-down of what you've done so far."

Orlatrel met him halfway across the room, handing over a PADD. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Been waiting for an excuse to get back in here." Smithy arrived at the control bank, still scanning the PADD. "Okay, okay....to be honest, you've done everything I would have done. Not sure why it hasn't worked. Time to be creative." He headed for another console. "Computer, release all safeties on warp core controls. Authorisation Smith Two-Four-One-Alpha."

"Working. Secondary authorisation required."

"Computer, this is Commander Orlatrel, chief engineer. Authorisation Orlatrel Four-Five-Nine-Gamma."

"Safeties released."

Orlatrel shook his head. "You know I'm always one for ignoring the manual, James...."

"But this is dicey, yeah. Still, fortune favours the foolish." Smithy shot him a manic grin. "Increase M/AM flow until it just starts to get a bit unstable. Then increase it a tad more. I'm going to alter the way our dilithium is arrayed to see if I can make the most of the increase." He collared a couple of junior engineers who had been hovering nearby. "You two, watch the telemetry. If it lights up yellow, tell me. If it lights up red, then hit the emergency over-ride on this panel here to step the flow rate back down."

"Aye, Captain!"

Smithy looked up. "The rest of you, keep all our other systems together. Drelkar will get mightily irritated if phaser batteries start to lose power." He set to work on the panel, Orlatrel dashing to the other side of the core and beginning to type in the commands required to increase the amount of fuel going into the huge reactor.

Minutes ticked by, the rhythmic pulsing of the reactor getting noticeably stronger and faster. Alarms began sounding, which Smithy cut off straight away. "Never did understand why the alarms stay connected when you disable the safeties. Must get Lisa to re-program that sometime....Orlatrel, what's the word?"

"Flow is starting to get unstable. I'm not sure I can push it any further."

"Don't try." Smithy worked for a few seconds, making minute adjustments to the positioning of the dilithium in the reactor. "It should start to smooth out again now."

Orlatrel nodded. "Yeah, things are improving. Reactor output is now at 106% of normal."

One of the junior engineers turned. "Sir, the panel just went yellow."

"Good." Smithy hit his comm badge. "Bridge."

"Lisa here."

"Reactor power is up. Have those warnings quit flashing over all the screens up there?"

"Yeah, but the telemetry screen has gone utterly nuts. What the hell have you and Orlatrel done down there?"

"You probably don't want to know. I'm heading back up." He closed out the connection and glanced at Orlatrel. "As soon as we're done here, you better reverse those changes we made pretty sharpish. I doubt we're doing the core much good running it like this."

***********
0134hrs EST
Bridge


Smithy sprang out of the turbolift, heading straight for his chair. "What's the situation?"

Winchester half turned. "Andromedan force is re-grouping. Looks like they're getting set to make a radical change in formation. Klingon DSF has taken heavy losses, but predictably they're still putting up a stiff fight. We've lost 12 ships, SOD has lost nearly all of theirs."

"Colour me surprised. Riggs, did you find out if Ghelev was among those lost on the Venture?"

"Yes, sir. He made it off the ship, he's currently on-board the Korolev."

"Good." Smithy settled back. "Elkins, Drelkar, continue as you are. We seem to be doing alright ourselves."

Lisa shot him a fond glance. "Speaking of 'doing alright', what the hell happened to 'no way we can up the core output on the fly'?"

"You know me. I don't even listen to myself."

***********
USS Tempest
0140hrs EST
Bridge


"Sir, the Andromedans are backing right off. I think they're heading back to the dust cloud."

Harriman stared at the tactical plot. "I see it. Probably not worth pursuing them, we've all taken a battering. Communications, order all ships to hold back. Defensive posture. None of us can be in any shape to go after them."

As the bridge crew watched, the Andromedan fleet began to disappear into the cloud. Harrison stared up at Harriman in confusion. "Sir, surely we can do something!"

"Like what, Commander?" Harriman shook his head. "We've got no way of finding out just how far away the transwarp portal in that cloud will send us, and we've got seriously depleted numbers on our side. I'm not really all that keen on suicide missions." He glanced across the bridge. "Comms, get me a line to the 'Moth."

"Aye, sir. Captain Smith on-screen."

"Dave. How you holding up?"

"Poorly, if I'm honest. You?"

"Well, I ended up back in the engine room for a bit. We hit some power problems on our way here, and the battle didn't do us much good. Going to need a dock at Antares, if we head all the way over there."

"Okay, we'll get you a proper mooring when you arrive."

"And speaking of moorings, looks like your ship could do with a few coats of paint. You're missing a few hull plates on your saucer."

Harriman looked over at the damage control monitor, what he saw bringing him up short. "I hadn't dared look at the screen. Wish I hadn't seen that now. Judging by the look of the fleet we're going to have to do some serious juggling to get everyone repaired."

"I'll leave that job up to you, Admiral. In the meantime, we're going to take a low transwarp run back to Federation space. I don't fancy breaking down all the way out here. I'll see you back at camp."

***********
Antares Command Post
2nd August 2395
1115hrs EST
Operations Centre


Harriman shook Smithy's hand. "Well, we both made it back."

"Yeah, with both ships sat in dock getting repairs. Did you see the final tally?"

Harriman shook his head. "Haven't had time, didn't really want to. You?"

"Yeah, Riggs got the data this morning."

"And?"

Smithy sighed. "About as bad as we feared it could be. The DSF took a right pounding. The Negh'Var will be out of commission for weeks, and they lost almost a third of the force they had at the party. The Hesta is sat waiting for a dock at Tychor. SOD....seven ships survived in the end, and those are going to need serious work. And we lost thirteen, with many more seriously damaged. What was the state of play with the Tempest in the end?"

"Took a plasma bolt to the saucer, like you pointed out. It's pretty much destroyed the port phaser array, but we've got replacement parts for that. How about the 'Moth? You mentioned power problems?"

Smithy shrugged. "Usual story. We rushed out of dock. She wasn't honestly ready for a sustained high-speed transwarp run followed by a battle. The jury-rig that Orlatrel and I made might have cooked a few bits and pieces in the reactor assembly. Orlatrel's on it. Everything else held up pretty well though."

Harriman nodded. "You on duty?"

"No. Lisa made me take a few hours off."

"Want to grab a beer?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

***********
***********

[James Smith]

Just so y'all know, I had to really, really fight to keep the Treknobabble out of that engine room scene with Smithy and Orlatrel hot-rodding the warp core. Hopefully the little bit that there is doesn't irritate too much!

[Iceman]

Well I'll be...it's been a while. Glad to see you're still alive and well!  I'll have to get to reading this ASAP!

[James Smith]

Jesus, Iceman - don't sneak up on us like that!

How the hell are you pal?

[Iceman]

You know...hanging in there. Graduated last weekend, so I'm an honest to god engineer now!  Also got my commission so I report in to the Air Force on Tuesday of next week. How about yourself?

Also, about 1/2 way down this page of posts. Good to see everyone's still around!

[James Smith]

You know...hanging in there. Graduated last weekend, so I'm an honest to god engineer now!  Also got my commission so I report in to the Air Force on Tuesday of next week.

Congrats!

How about yourself?

I'm pretty good, all things considered.

Also, about 1/2 way down this page of posts. Good to see everyone's still around!

Hope you enjoy it.

[James Smith]

***********

Chapter 9 - Invasion (part 1)

***********
USS Tigermoth-A
8th August 2395
0802hrs EST
Captain's Quarters


Smithy scanned the PADD, grimacing at the numbers, anger slowly building up. The Klingon fleet had been hit badly. Even the ships that were still operational were down on crew numbers. As for Special Operations, it was just pathetic. They had twenty ships ready to actually go, of which eighteen had a crew that was even approaching 'skeleton'. TacFleet and the general Starfleet were a bit better off, but without any back-up....that wasn't going to last.

He glanced over at the bedroom door. Lisa was sleeping, coming off the back of a 41 hour shift that had seen the entire crew pull together to make sure the 'Moth was able to get into battle-ready condition again and stay there. He knew Drelkar would be back on the bridge by now, no doubt he was still fine-tuning the targeting sensors. The rest of the bridge crew wouldn't get back up for another hour or so unless events intervened. Smithy reached over to the control panel on his desk, activating the acoustic baffle on the bedroom door. Then he did something he hadn't done in a while.

The PADD went sailing into the far wall of his quarters, almost exploding on impact. Pieces of ruined electronics rained on the deck. Smithy sat back, letting his breathing slow back down. Temper, temper. Nice to see you've forgotten all your anger management lessons. He got up and headed out of the room and into the corridor. There was far less chance of him breaking anything more if he went to the bridge.

***********
0815hrs EST
Bridge


Drelkar glanced around as the lift doors opened. "Morning, Captain."

"Still at it?" Smithy leaned over his tactical officer's shoulder, examining the data on his screen. "Nice. Looks like you've got them down as tight as the design'll ever let you." He wandered back across the bridge to the communications console. One message in the tray. Low priority, otherwise the computer would've paged Riggs and she'd have paged me. He called it up.


REVISED BATTLE READINESS DATE
NCC-96912 - USS TYPHOON
STARDATE 71501.1


"Hey Drelkar, looks like we might be getting the Typhoon out into space earlier than we thought."

Drelkar turned. "How much sooner, sir? Last I heard they were in the process of assembling the impulse deck."

"Stardate 71501.1. That's what, 19 days from now?"

"Something like that." Drelkar shook his head. "There's no way they can have her completely built by then, is there?"

"I'd have thought they would just get her engines, weapons, shields and major ancillaries in and up to scratch. Bet she won't be a pretty sight inside. I doubt they'll even sort out all the accommodation. I'll have to commiserate with T'Pel when I see her at the launch. Helluva first assignment for a chief engineer, she'll spend half her time dealing with computer alarms caused by all the gaps where equipment should be."

"I'd heard on the Net that they might consider launching ships in a somewhat less-than-complete stage. Hope we don't hit the same kind of trouble SOD has."

"We'd do well for it to go that badly."

The lift doors sighed open again, depositing Lisa on the bridge. She stared sleepily at Smithy. "Why is there a yeoman sweeping up the remains of a PADD in our quarters?"

"It had an accident." Smithy joined her in sitting on the bridge rail.

"That explains why the baffle was turned on." Lisa yawned, glancing at the bridge chrono. "Is that all the sleep I got?"

"'fraid so."

"Damnit." Lisa rubbed at her eyes. "God, I need sleep. Real sleep."

Smithy smiled gently at her. "Don't we all? Well, aside from that guy." He nodded at Drelkar who flashed a toothy grin at him."

"Did Dave's crew get the Tempest ready yet?"

"Yeah." Smithy jerked a thumb over at the communications console. "We also got a message about the Typhoon. She'll be in service on stardate 70501.1."

"Wow. Won't be complete, then."

"Not a prayer. But we don't need 'complete', we just need 'battle ready'."

***********
USS Endeavour NCC 1895 (DC)
0940hrs EST
Bridge


Harriman stepped out onto the bridge. Not all the consoles were even in place, much less connected up. The helm, tactical, ops, communications and one engineering station were in and being attached to the computer network. Where everything else should be - all the auxiliary monitors, the other engineering station, the library computer access console - there were just gaps, stray wires and sockets for power and data links.

He picked his way through some of the debris littering the deck, looking around the bridge. "Lieutenant T'Pel?"

"Here, Admiral." T'Pel turned from the engineering console.

"What's our status here?"

"Most of our vital systems are in place and connected up to both the power grid and the main computer. We tested the warp core at minimum power generation yesterday to confirm that all engine room controls are working. We will a bridge by this time tomorrow, but it will not be particularly....user-friendly."

"Understood. I've assigned some of the Tempest engineering crew to finish the checks on your offence/defence equipment."

"Thank-you, Admiral. If you'll excuse me sir?"

"Of course. Carry on." Harriman watched as the young woman set about finishing the work on the console. If she can get this ship out into space in 19 days....Smithy better watch out, she'll be taking over his mantle of Starfleet engineering legend.

***********
Federation Headquarters
Paris, France
9th August 2395
1430hrs EST
Memorial Garden


Maxwell sat on the bench, a number of worrying thoughts nagging at him. He didn't even look up when the other man sat next to him. "We're in trouble now. Aren't we?"

"Yes." Metcalf shook his head. "How could he have seen it? It seems like I've spent most of my lives underestimating James. And the Andromedans...."

Maxwell waited, but the rest of the sentence wasn't forthcoming. "What about the Andromedans?"

Metcalf sighed. "I was sure of the Other's purpose in bringing the two of us together. We were supposed to defeat the Andromedans, with Smith and his crew dying in the process. But that thread of probability is ebbing away. The Andromedans dominate all the possible future threads. Only two threads remain."

Maxwell stared up at the sky. "This Other has virtually signed our death warrants. Special Operations has failed me. The Klingons have taken massive losses. The Romulans are all but gone as a military force. Starfleet can't hope to beat back this invasion." He glanced sharply at Metcalf. "Two threads?"

"Two possibilities. We are victorious in one. The other....it seems that James Smith plays a rather significant role in it."

The two men sat quietly for a while. Maxwell spoke first. "We must do everything in our power to make sure we are victorious. Even if means I have to kill Smith myself."

Metcalf nodded. "It will be so. Have faith, my friend. We can win this yet." He rose, and as he walked away a grin spead slowly across his face. Of course we can win this. Smith can't hope to defeat the Andromedans and us.

***********
***********


Just a very short part to get chapter 9 under way.

[Scottish Andy]

This is awesome.  Can't repeat often enough how much I love this story, these characters, the whole feel of the tale.

And your engineering scene didn't feel even slightly technobabbly. You used recognisable words like dilithium and antimatter in properly comprehensible sentences.

Iceman: congrats on graduating. Whose air force did you join? RAF or USAF?

[Iceman]

The good one!

The USAF, that is!  I actually just got to Virginia yesterday to my base (Bolling AFB).

Sorry to hijack Smithy.

[Scottish Andy]

Ah, "the good one". Shame you missed out on joining the best one then. 

Congrats anyway, a stellar achievement! At least you've got more money for cool toys... even if you can't use them properly! 

[Iceman]

Ah, "the good one". Shame you missed out on joining the best one then. 

Congrats anyway, a stellar achievement! At least you've got more money for cool toys... even if you can't use them properly! 

...dammit. That's what I get for being a 'fng' as my sponsor called me.

[James Smith]

This is awesome.  Can't repeat often enough how much I love this story, these characters, the whole feel of the tale.

Cheers.

I got an idea the other night (the kind of idea you get only when coming home from the pub late at night), and ended up massively re-working the end to this story. A lot of character driven stuff. Hopefully when it gets posted you'll think I did the idea justice. Of course, the next time I roll in from the pub I might get another idea....

And your engineering scene didn't feel even slightly technobabbly. You used recognisable words like dilithium and antimatter in properly comprehensible sentences.

That scene got re-written, ooh, about thirty times. It started out like something a Voyager script writer would have turned in.









.






..








Well, maybe not quite that bad. But when I read it back, I just kept getting visions of all the worst moments in post-TNG Trek where you could go an entire scene without knowing what was going on, why it was going on, and what exactly the problem even related to.

Sorry to hijack Smithy.

Hijacks are welcome, since they're usually interesting. Besides, if I wanted to keep this thread as fic only I'd lock and unlock when I had new stuff to post

[Nerroth]

Hi.


I just read up on the story so far - not too shabby, I must say.


However, I'm not entirely sold on how different you have made the Andro tech and doctrine, compared to that seen in SFB - while the advent of stealth systems seems not wholly unreasonable (and there are other kinds of stealth systems in the Star Fleet Universe) you seem to have discarded PA panels, TR beams and the satship/mothership dynamic, as well as the likes of Displacement Devices.


Plus, everything seems very easy to kill, and the Andros are relying more on quantity than quality.

(I would have liked to see fewer capital ships, but ones which were as relatively effective aginst this era's Alpha ships as the likes of Dominators and the Devastator were against General War-era ships, backed up by more numerous satellite shipsdeployed from the motherships. But then, your mileage may vary...)


Also, you seem to have skimmed very lightly through the Omega Octant (of which the Omega sector is but one of three present, alongside Psi and Chi... unless you also count Phi, the Zosman-dominated sector) - no mention of how the transwarp ship can circumvent the Void (do they plough straight through, or go the 'long way' vis the Iridani Cluster, or by some other route?) and no word on where the Omega Yards are in (while one might assume you intend them to be in the Aurora system, or somewhere else in Federal Republic space, they could be in Maesron space, the Ryn Nebula, or somewhere esle entirely) or what kind of relation that the FRA may or may not have with the Federation (in the SFU Omega timeline, the Federal Republic joined the Maesron Alliance as a fully autonomous member government in Y209 - but did have debates later on about whether they would stay in the Alliance or not, which implies they could have voted to secede and either return to independence or become UFP members... or ISC or Klingon members, depending on the influence of the former Concordium and Empire citizens on PX 123 and Kraknora, the other two major FRA systems).



Sorry if I am being nit-picky...

[Potemkyn]

Interesting.  I used to play Andromedans, almost exclusively just before I quit.  I'd agree that it does seem like they are relying on quantity vs superiority.  Andro ships were top of the line.  They could, if piloted correctly ( just like everything else) take out an opposing ship, even if at a disadvantage.  One of the last tournaments I played in was a Battlecruiser Tounament.  Everyone else's ship was valued around 180 or more.  I got the Conquistador: 170 - and no mines!  I did well, but we never completed the thrid round, most of the folks moved at that point.

I like the story.  For the most part, it seems unimportant about the andro numbers, but it is anti-historical  (is that a word?   )

If it's important to go at it this way, keep going.


Mike

[Scottish Andy]

Since this is in the SFB Andros' future, it can go anywhere. It could be that the Andos have not developed in thousands of years, like the Halo universe's Covenant. This would mean that they are the same SFB Andros, but the UFP has advanced by 100 years. Or, they've developed more slolwly, like out own Trek Vulcans. Despite having interstellar travel for centuries, they're barely a few decades higher than 2150s Earth.

Oh wait... that's after providing 80 years of high tech assistance to Earth. n/m that then.

Just some more antimatter for the warp reactor. 

P.S. Not commenting on my stories, Po? *hint hint*

[James Smith]

Hi.


I just read up on the story so far - not too shabby, I must say.

Thanks.

However, I'm not entirely sold on how different you have made the Andro tech and doctrine, compared to that seen in SFB - while the advent of stealth systems seems not wholly unreasonable (and there are other kinds of stealth systems in the Star Fleet Universe) you seem to have discarded PA panels, TR beams and the satship/mothership dynamic, as well as the likes of Displacement Devices.

Very good points. The TR beams are coming, but I've left the mothership spawning other ships out because this universe never had them. Displacement devices - the Federation found a way around them long ago. I probably ought to have made mention of that early on in this story, it does get mentioned later on but obviously that wasn't very helpful of me.

This does probably need spelling out - the Tigermoth universe is not SFB (at least, not quite), nor does it particularly play nice with canon Trek. I think one of the big problems has come because I've written these out of order. The timeline should go:

1) Vengeance - Metcalf making a play for domination of the Federation and other galactic powers with a very large weapon. The old Sabre class Tigermoth is destroyed stopping him.
2) Return of the ISC - The new Tigermoth-A is launched. The Interstellar Concordium return for pure, simple revenge. All higher motives long gone. 100 years has let them rebuild from being nigh-on wiped out by the Andromedans, and they are a tiny bit pissed about the fact that the Alpha and Beta quadrant powers weathered that storm rather better.
3) Return of the Imperials - forces from one of the squillions of parallel universes cross over intending to subjugate this universe. Tigermoth is part of the defence force, ending the war in pretty bad shape.
4) A couple of short stories go here, with the Tigermoth actually doing some peacetime work for a chance.
5) Silent Enemy - posted on here, but getting a heavy re-write again.
6) And this one, Return of the Andromedans.

1 and 4 have never seen the light of day. 2 and 3 were on the old Taldren board (may it rest in peace). And being out of sync really is a problem. Vengeance fills in a lot of the gaps in the backstory (it being the first one and all)

Plus, everything seems very easy to kill, and the Andros are relying more on quantity than quality.

I wouldn't necessarily say either side has managed to keep their fleets intact so far. Not just the Andromedans taking losses. Part of the whole quantity-over-quality comes from the fact that DS9 showed the Almighty Dominion tended to focus on that - and the Federation and allies seemed pretty fearful of them, even when those fighter-ish craft (would they be pseudo-fighters if canon Trek was SFB? I wonder....) would just dissolve any time the Defiant fired on them.

(I would have liked to see fewer capital ships, but ones which were as relatively effective aginst this era's Alpha ships as the likes of Dominators and the Devastator were against General War-era ships, backed up by more numerous satellite shipsdeployed from the motherships. But then, your mileage may vary...)

A fair point, and one that I'll consider.

Also, you seem to have skimmed very lightly through the Omega Octant (of which the Omega sector is but one of three present, alongside Psi and Chi... unless you also count Phi, the Zosman-dominated sector) - no mention of how the transwarp ship can circumvent the Void (do they plough straight through, or go the 'long way' vis the Iridani Cluster, or by some other route?) and no word on where the Omega Yards are in (while one might assume you intend them to be in the Aurora system, or somewhere else in Federal Republic space, they could be in Maesron space, the Ryn Nebula, or somewhere esle entirely) or what kind of relation that the FRA may or may not have with the Federation (in the SFU Omega timeline, the Federal Republic joined the Maesron Alliance as a fully autonomous member government in Y209 - but did have debates later on about whether they would stay in the Alliance or not, which implies they could have voted to secede and either return to independence or become UFP members... or ISC or Klingon members, depending on the influence of the former Concordium and Empire citizens on PX 123 and Kraknora, the other two major FRA systems).

I knew someone would eventually pick me up on that.....

The only reason Omega gets mentioned in here is because a looooooooong way back a certain ship modeller of great talent, whose name shall remain WickedZombie45, made a TNG'd Constitution class. His backstory for the ship involved the Omega Sector Fleetyards building it. I tied the Tigermoth's history into that, but made it a Starfleet build to the OSF plans.

That galaxy map you linked to - am I reading that right? The Federation is sat square in the middle of the Beta quadrant, extending partially into the Gamma quadrant? Hmmm. I think I retain enough Trek canon in these stories to blow that one right out of the water.

If people want details of the OSF and where they're based, I'll write it. But I always considered it a minor point. Probably ought to have known better given my audience!

Sorry if I am being nit-picky...

Don't be sorry. Nit-picks are welcome, and you make good points.

[Nerroth]

However, I'm not entirely sold on how different you have made the Andro tech and doctrine, compared to that seen in SFB - while the advent of stealth systems seems not wholly unreasonable (and there are other kinds of stealth systems in the Star Fleet Universe) you seem to have discarded PA panels, TR beams and the satship/mothership dynamic, as well as the likes of Displacement Devices.

Very good points. The TR beams are coming, but I've left the mothership spawning other ships out because this universe never had them. Displacement devices - the Federation found a way around them long ago. I probably ought to have made mention of that early on in this story, it does get mentioned later on but obviously that wasn't very helpful of me.

I see - not quite sure about the getting around DisDev idea, but we'll see.

This does probably need spelling out - the Tigermoth universe is not SFB (at least, not quite), nor does it particularly play nice with canon Trek. I think one of the big problems has come because I've written these out of order. The timeline should go:

1) Vengeance - Metcalf making a play for domination of the Federation and other galactic powers with a very large weapon. The old Sabre class Tigermoth is destroyed stopping him.
2) Return of the ISC - The new Tigermoth-A is launched. The Interstellar Concordium return for pure, simple revenge. All higher motives long gone. 100 years has let them rebuild from being nigh-on wiped out by the Andromedans, and they are a tiny bit pissed about the fact that the Alpha and Beta quadrant powers weathered that storm rather better.
3) Return of the Imperials - forces from one of the squillions of parallel universes cross over intending to subjugate this universe. Tigermoth is part of the defence force, ending the war in pretty bad shape.
4) A couple of short stories go here, with the Tigermoth actually doing some peacetime work for a chance.
5) Silent Enemy - posted on here, but getting a heavy re-write again.
6) And this one, Return of the Andromedans.

1 and 4 have never seen the light of day. 2 and 3 were on the old Taldren board (may it rest in peace). And being out of sync really is a problem. Vengeance fills in a lot of the gaps in the backstory (it being the first one and all)

I'd like to say that as a big fan of the ISC - and particularly with the insight which has been put into print in Captain's Log (and will be re-printed in SFB Module Y2) about the rise of the Concordium - I really dislike the idea of the ISC being that way, especially since it (seemingly) made a more robust recovery in the Star Fleet Universe.

But then, it's your setting.

Plus, everything seems very easy to kill, and the Andros are relying more on quantity than quality.

I wouldn't necessarily say either side has managed to keep their fleets intact so far. Not just the Andromedans taking losses. Part of the whole quantity-over-quality comes from the fact that DS9 showed the Almighty Dominion tended to focus on that - and the Federation and allies seemed pretty fearful of them, even when those fighter-ish craft (would they be pseudo-fighters if canon Trek was SFB? I wonder....) would just dissolve any time the Defiant fired on them.

On the Federation side, the closest thing to gunboats (fast patrol ships, ADB tend not to call them 'pseudo-fighters') would be the Peregrine-class craft, the ones which were used also as Maquis raiders in the TNG era. Jem'Hadar atack ships are more like frigates or destroyers, but ones which were faced with a pretty overgunned Defiant (which itself came a cropper when the Breen showed up).

And there is a significant difference in theme between Jem'Hadar and Andromedans, in terms of their 'iconic' fleet structure. Andros are closer to the Borg, or at least the way the Borg were before the whole 8472 War came along (as in, you'd see one cube fearsome enough to take on, and destroy, an entire fleet of Alpha starships - the Andros were not quite as relatively powerful, but were still the ones who could afford to be outnumbered by their rivals).

Take the pic in this link, for example - created by Adam Turner, the current cover artist for ADB - which shows a Fed CX and a Klingon DX trying to take on a Dominator.

That is what Andromedans in space are about - a level of size and power that even the most advanced Alpha ships struggle to take on in anything like an even contest.


(Indeed, the Jem'Hadar case would be an apt one, since the Dominion would send fleets filled with swarming frigate-sized attack ships anchored by the larger battlecruisers and perhaps led by a battleship, and try to rely on speed and manouvre to break down the Andro ships' defences before the latter - who are fast in combat themselves - literally shake the Dominion ships to pieces!)

(I would have liked to see fewer capital ships, but ones which were as relatively effective aginst this era's Alpha ships as the likes of Dominators and the Devastator were against General War-era ships, backed up by more numerous satellite shipsdeployed from the motherships. But then, your mileage may vary...)

A fair point, and one that I'll consider.

Again, I'd put them sort of halfway between Starfleet and the Borg, in terms of their fleet density, and the relative power/durability of their ships.

Also, you seem to have skimmed very lightly through the Omega Octant (of which the Omega sector is but one of three present, alongside Psi and Chi... unless you also count Phi, the Zosman-dominated sector) - no mention of how the transwarp ship can circumvent the Void (do they plough straight through, or go the 'long way' vis the Iridani Cluster, or by some other route?) and no word on where the Omega Yards are in (while one might assume you intend them to be in the Aurora system, or somewhere else in Federal Republic space, they could be in Maesron space, the Ryn Nebula, or somewhere esle entirely) or what kind of relation that the FRA may or may not have with the Federation (in the SFU Omega timeline, the Federal Republic joined the Maesron Alliance as a fully autonomous member government in Y209 - but did have debates later on about whether they would stay in the Alliance or not, which implies they could have voted to secede and either return to independence or become UFP members... or ISC or Klingon members, depending on the influence of the former Concordium and Empire citizens on PX 123 and Kraknora, the other two major FRA systems).

I knew someone would eventually pick me up on that.....

The only reason Omega gets mentioned in here is because a looooooooong way back a certain ship modeller of great talent, whose name shall remain WickedZombie45, made a TNG'd Constitution class. His backstory for the ship involved the Omega Sector Fleetyards building it. I tied the Tigermoth's history into that, but made it a Starfleet build to the OSF plans.

I can see where youare coming from, but Omega is a great location to flesh out, and there is already 'historical' contact between the FRA and UFP in the published Omega timeline - so it might be worth considering...

That galaxy map you linked to - am I reading that right? The Federation is sat square in the middle of the Beta quadrant, extending partially into the Gamma quadrant? Hmmm. I think I retain enough Trek canon in these stories to blow that one right out of the water.

The SFU map is divided into octants and sectors, not quadrants.

There are twenty-six sectors (Alpha to Omega) and five octants derived from that (Alpha, Omega, Sigma, Sargasso and the Xorkaelian Empire, each divided by virtually-impassable Void zones) - but if you look at the map from a TV-esque 'quadrant' perspective, and draw a line from Earth to the centre of the galaxy, the Alpha quadrant would extend from the 'western' half of the Federation to the far end of the Sargasso Octant, and the Beta quadrant would go from the 'eastern' UFP as far as the Void separating the Omega and Sigma Octants. Thus, the Gamma Quadrant would be mostly taken over by what is listed on that map as Xork space (or what might be partly covered by Dominion space, in a 'hybrid' universe) and the Delta Quadrant would go from Omicron Sector (the farthest reach of Xork space) through the Xork-Sigma void and down through the Sigma Octant (where the Borg would be in a hybrid map).

If people want details of the OSF and where they're based, I'll write it. But I always considered it a minor point. Probably ought to have known better given my audience!

Don't worry - sadly, Omega has yet to become as popular as I'd like...

Sorry if I am being nit-picky...

Don't be sorry. Nit-picks are welcome, and you make good points.

Ok then!

[Iceman]

Two things.

I still have a .jpg of the WZ Tigermoth-A.

I MAY have the IoTA story saved. I will have to look hard. I know I will have my portion.

Have you heard/seen S'Tasik anywhere?