THE BATTLE OF CARENTAN
Captain Packard sat back in his black chair and swiveled to face the large view screen in front of him. Carentan spun lazily under the UCS Prophecy as it completed its patrol over the planet with the two destroyers UCS Oakland and the UCS Truth. The Prophecy was the largest ship, a cruiser-destroyer with a crew of 530. The dual bolter turrets along the hull made the Prophecy a considerable opponent. Packard opened up a COM with the Oakland and Truth and sent out a standard handshake procedure. Both were not bounced back. In any other occasion, Packard would send out another, followed by a distress request. But in a situation like this, when he was among friends and that they were all clearly visible to the naked eye, Packard didn’t have a worry.
“Hello ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain, John Steele, from the UCS Truth. We are pleased to have you on our flight. Please turn off all cell phones during the flight. If we are to land in water, there will be life rafts coming out of the exits and your seats can be used as floaters.”
“Steele, I swear, you always do this on patrol runs,” replied Tom Mendez, an old friend of Steele.
“Anyways men, keep your eyes peeled, I got a tip from CCM that we might find some Confederate ships floating about.”
“Aye sir,” replied both of them curtly. Packard was glad that he had both of his friends on the patrol run instead of two rookies. Steele was the comedian, and kept the mood light among the group. Mendez, however, was more serious, but still had his moments.
Packard slid deeper into his chair and muted the COM as Mendez and Steele began talking about how much a house would cost down in Carentan. Packard turned his head and faced one of the ship operators. “Give me a status report.”
“Engines running at sixty-seven percent and hull integrity’s at ninety-eight.”
“Good, air supply?”
“We’ve got plenty of it.”
Packard turned to face the screen. He was looking at Pendulum, one of Carentan’s twelve moons, when he saw something flash behind Pendulum. “What was that?”
“What’d you see, sir?”
“Give me a magnification on that moon, times four.”
The front view screen magnified as the operator tapped the buttons on his console with a rapid rhythm. “Here you go, sir. Sensors don’t pick up anything though.”
“Magnify it again, give me a times thirty.”
“It’s done sir.”
The screen magnified again, and exposed two Confederate destroyers emerging out of black matter portals, and coming directly at Packard’s taskforce. Packard stood up and motioned to the weapons operator. “Start heating up the bolters.”
“Yes sir, do you want me to remove the safety of the ARC rockets too?”
“Do it.” Packard turned again and faced the ship operator. “Give me a sit-rep on those engines, and boost radar signal.”
“We’ve painted two destroyers sir, but they aren’t in weapons range.”
The two Confederate ships approached with increasing speed, missiles already launching from their pods. “Sir, the UCS Truth has been targeted by the missiles.”
“Can you give me a number crunch?”
“If they all made it through, they could lower the Truth’s hull integrity to seventeen point four nine. That’s more than enough to cause a complete system blackout and cause permanent life support damage.”
“That’s not good. Tell the Truth to boost her deflectors.”
“Then they wouldn’t be able to fire.”
“Just do it.”
The Truth lit up as hundreds of missiles impacted upon the activated deflectors. A chain of explosions followed the strike, as hangar bays and corridors exploded. Smoke billowed from the ship as it began rolling over onto its side. The lights on the ship blinked on and off, but then the emergency generators came online. The destroyer slowly resumed its position and joined Packard.
Packard spun to his weapons operator. “Aim all weapon systems at the closer one, and fire on my mark.”
“Aye, sir,” replied the operator. Triangles immediately flashed on the Prophecy as it aimed the triple-A rail gun.
“line it up with the nose of the Confederate ship. and fire on my mark."
CC please? should i finish this?
Subject: Battle of Carentan (spaceship test) 
Tue Sep 29, 2009 9:54 am