Federation Commander

[rjl518]

My name is Grand Admiral Joseph L. Roberts and it is Y2604.
I have served in Starfleet for over fifty years and have lived through some of the most terrible times in our Earth's history.
Now that Operation Unity is over and the Andromedans have been finally defeated, i have decided to retire and write my memoirs through this medium.
I have served on many Federation Starships, from Police Cutters to the great Battleship Ares, which was my last command.
I have seen many of my friends move on in their careers.
I have also seen many of my friends not return from patrol.
War is a dangerous business, sometimes, you might not like the bottom line that you end up with.
I am writing these memoirs in the hope that others in the future will understand what war is about.
Even though there are great victories in times of battle, in the end, no one ever really wins.
This is my hope and my desire to tell people the horrors of what i have seen and hope never to see again.
So i hope you enjoy these war stories that i am about to tell you.
I also hope that you use these stories as a reminder to put down your weapons of war and pick up the weapons of peace.

Where should i start?
Well...i guess i should start at the beginning, which is usually a very delicate time.
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[rjl518]

MISSION: Tombstone (Y2550---The Middle Years) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Midshipman
CURRENT ASSIGNMENT: Cadet Weapons Officer, Federation Police Cutter Doc Holliday

LOCATION: Sector 2908, Earth Orbit

MISSION BACKGROUND:
I was in the 4th year of my training and was very close to graduation when this mission happened.
While patrolling in Earth's orbit with our sister ship, the police cutter Wyatt Earp, we received a message from Starfleet Command.
A group of Orion Pirates had managed to infiltrate one of our fleet repair docks and had stolen a frigate that was being refitted, the Graf Spee.
We were ordered to reclaim the ship and arrest the thieves responsible.
It seemed like it was going to be an easy recovery except that Starfleet had ordered us to try to capture the ship and not destroy it.
Therefore, my commanding officer, Lt. Commander Rich Thomas, was ordered to use half strength weapons, which included phasers and photon torpedoes.
We were also ordered to use drones with no warheads which maybe would cause the Orions to fire on them and waste power.
Two police cutters would be more than a match for one frigate, but with weapons halved, this would be a little more difficult than we thought.
We knew that the Orions on board the Graf Spee would not show us any quarter, but Starfleet didnt budge on the matter.
After a short rant from the Wyatt Earp's CO, Lt. Commander Sam Bruny, both he and Thomas ordered us to bring weapons to half strength and prepare to engage the stolen frigate.
After searching for about an hour around Earth's space-dock facilities, we had finally found the Graf Spee making a run for the outer edges of Earth's orbit to warp out of the system.
I was a young cadet being trained in weapons systems on board the police cutter.
I was eager for battle and was anxious to show my teachers that i could handle the job.
I never thought in my life, that the first enemy ship that i would ever fire upon, would be one of our own.


HISTORICAL OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
The Orions on the Graf Spee were not pulling punches and they launched two photons at the Wyatt Earp and did serious damage.
My ship, the Doc Holliday, wasn't touched.
We really didnt do anything to the Graf Spee as we fired from long range and was unable to hit them.
Plus, using half strength weapons was really tying our hands behind our back.
The Wyatt Earp was forced to retire.
Lt. Commander Thomas contacted Starfleet advising them of the situation.
They told him that reinforcements have been dispatched.
But we had to hold out for a few moments.

2nd Pass:
The Doc Holliday was able to close onto the Graf Spee.
The frigate had to knock out two drones that were fired on it and used a good amount of phaser power to do it.
Unfortunately, all we did was weaken the shields because the Orions were using evasive.
Now, we were in trouble because we knew that the Graf Spee's photons were ready to fire again.
But help did arrive very quickly.
Two more police cutters warped in, the Virgil Earp and the Morgan Earp.
Pretty much the entire historical OK Corral marshal force had shown up.
Reminded me of a old movie that i watched as a kid about the Old West.
I think it's name was "Tombstone"?

3rd Pass:
I was getting tired of this.
Because we were using half strength weapons, all we could do was shield damage on the Graf Spee.
Meanwhile, the Morgan Earp had its front shield knocked down by two overloaded photons from the frigate.
It took moderate damage inside, but it stayed for the next pass.
All three cutters formed up a line to defend the Morgan Earp.
We knew the Orions would not stop trying to escape.

4th Pass:
All the police cutters closed to very close range and let the stolen frigate have it.
But at half power, all we did was weaken more shields.
The Doc Holliday got lucky though, as we killed the #5 shield and wrecked a phaser-3.
The Graf Spee used all its phasers to shoot down three drones that were closing on it.
It couldnt do anything to us on this pass because its photons were not charged.
They would be on the next pass though.
Lt. Commander Thomas asked Starfleet if the cutters could use normal weapon power on the stolen ship.
The Orions were getting close to escaping with it.
I dont know what Starfleet told Thomas, but the words that came out of his mouth after the response he got, i cant repeat here.

5th Pass:
The three police cutters did some great maneuvering and were able to fire their phasers at decent range.
But this time, after many opportunities, we finally broke thru the frigate's shielding.
The Graf Spee suffered weapon damage and power systems failure.
The Orions did get more damage on the Morgan Earp, which knocked out its weapons and forced ANOTHER police cutter to retire.
Lt. Commander Thomas asked if any more help was coming.
Starfleet said that if four police cutters cant handle one frigate sized ship, you might not be the captain of the Doc Holliday for long.
At this point in my very young career, i was glad to be just a cadet.
But it was also here that i learned that the politics of command were not favorable sometimes.

6th Pass:
We were running out of time to capture the Graf Spee.
Now down to two police cutters, LT. CMDR Thomas decided to go all or nothing.
He looked at me an asked, "Cadet Roberts, make this next shot count!"
"Yes, Sir," i replied.
I focused our phasers on the down forward shield of the frigate and let them rip.
I got them thru.
The phasers tore into the bridge of the Graf Spee and as soon as that happened, the frigate started slowing.
It looked like that the Orions were not prepared to die trying to steal a Federation frigate.
After a couple of minutes, the Graf Spee came to a stop and powered down their weapons.

MISSION EPILOGUE:
The Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday sent over boarding parties and expected resistance, but the Orions didnt give any.
They were a small band of outlaws that had installed an electronic device into the frigate that allowed them to operate it like it was fully staffed.
But when we knocked out part of the bridge, we disabled the computer that was helping them run the ship.
The ship was defenseless after that.
We rounded up the Orions and sent them to Starfleet HQ for processing.
The frigate Graf Spee was picked up by a Federation tug and brought back to space-dock for repairs.
It would be out of action for about nine months.
The Morgan Earp and Wyatt Earp would both be out of action for maybe a few weeks.
My ship, the Doc Holliday and the Virgil Earp were undamaged and so we continued on our training missions.
One footnote to be mentioned.
We were ordered to not use full weapons during this mission to capture the Graf Spee.
It was a little satisfying to hear that the officer who gave that order, Commodore Travis Ferris, was sacked for that.
The higher ups decided that Starfleet lives were put at unnecessary risk because of that order.
It would not be Starfleet policy in the future in case of the same thing happening again.
Lt. Commander Thomas was commended and promoted to Commander a few months later.
It was funny, for his next command would be the frigate Graf Spee, once it was refitted and repaired.

NEXT ASSIGNMENT:
I graduated from Starfleet Academy a month later and was promoted to the rank of Ensign.
Interestingly, my first duty station would also be the same class of ship that i had just attacked while serving on the police cutter.
I was made Asst. Weapons Officer on the Federation frigate Stonewall Jackson.
It was on this ship that i would get my first true tests of outer space battle.
But those are other stories...[img[/img][img][/img][url][img][/img][/url]
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[Sgt_G]

[rjl518]

[rjl518]

MISSION: Duel (Y2551---The Middle Years) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Ensign
ASSIGNMENT: Asst. Weapons Officer, Federation frigate Stonewall Jackson

LOCATION: Sector 1903, Federation-Kzinti Border

MISSION BACKGROUND:
My first year on the Stonewall Jackson was actually pretty much un-eventful.
Starfleet was not at war with anyone at this time, although we did have the usual border clashes, Orion troubles and the occasional rescue operation that we had to deal with.
During this time, still being a young, fresh faced junior officer, I was getting impatient with all this waiting for a decent fight.
I would finally cut my teeth against a foe that would later become a convenient ally in the General War almost twenty years from now, the Kzinti.
Strong feline creatures, six feet tall, sharp teeth, furry and with a bad temper, they could show you how to fight and fight well.
I would get to know one in the future, along with some of our other allies, but for now, they were moderate adversaries.
While heading for a battle station on the Fed-Kzinti border in Sector 1903 to pick up some supplies for a future convoy escort, the Stonewall Jackson was approached by a lone Kzinti frigate, #101.
It looked like this small ship wanted to challenge us to a duel.
It was coming at us with shields up, weapons charged and moving at high speed.
The CO of the Stonewall Jackson, Commander Albert Rees, tried to hail the Kzinti ship and let them know that we were not at war with them, but that we would defend ourselves if necessary.
He also asked what their intentions were.
We didnt get a reply and the ship just kept on coming towards us.
The Fed-Kzinti War had been over for years, but at this moment, it looked like one Kzinti ship didnt get the memo.
The Kzinti have decent ships, but even the smallest frigate can put a lot of drones into space.
We went to battle stations and approached the oncoming ship.
I rubbed my palms together and awaited orders, knowing that i was about to get my first taste of battle against a worthy foe.
But deep in my heart, i was scared stiff.
What if my career came to abrupt end here without ever knowing what i was capable of in the future?

MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
The 1st volley against both ships was from long range.
Commander Rees decided that he would alternate photons.
We struck with a standard photon to the Kzinti #3 shield, which severely drained it.
The 101 hit back with long range phasers which didnt do anything, but its overloaded disruptor did.
It weakened our #2 shield, and it burned one of our phasers, which we need in order to fight off those drones.
Then the Stonewall Jackson launched a suicide shuttle and one drone from the rack.
Our sensors then picked up four drones in flight from the Kzinti frigate.
We prepared to go on the defensive.

2nd Pass:
The Jackson was able to shoot down all incoming drones and we saved one phaser.
The 101 struck down our shuttle, the drone and it also saved one phaser.
The Kzinti frigate then fired at us with an overloaded disruptor and once again hit our #2 shield, but no damage had occurred.
The Stonewall Jackson then did an HET and sent an overloaded photon right at the 101.
It blew up the #2 shield and did some important damage to the frigate, knocking out a phaser, a drone rack and the disruptor.
The Kzinti had just lost some of its direct-fire power.
But it still had those drones, although minus one.
It was able to fire three drones at us now.
Commander Rees ordered the launch of our second suicide shuttle and a drone.

3rd Pass:
Not much happened on this pass.
Both ships did no damage to either.
The Jackson shot down the drones and the 101 destroyed the 2nd shuttle and the other drone we fired at it.
But we knew that Kzinti drone racks have more reloads than Federation ships do.
We reloaded our racks, while the Kzinti put three more drones into space.

4th Pass:
Commander Rees did a risky move at this time.
He decided to tractor the oncoming drones after shooting down one.
It was a bold move to save phaser power to attack the Kzinti ship.
It paid off.
We struck the 101 thru the down #2 shield and did minor internal damage to it.
A half-overloaded photon did damage to another shield but didnt penetrate.
I cursed.
Rees then looked at me and said, "No need to be angry, Mr. Roberts. That was still a good shot."
The 101 did nothing to us with its phasers since it fired at us from long range.
Then the Kzinti frigate launched three more drones at us.
Three missiles were on their way, with two being held in tractors.
This next pass was going to be purely defensive.

5th Pass:
Five drones were attacking.
We missed with the ADD, but we used all remaining phasers to shoot down four of them.
We placed one in a tractor hold.
The Kzinti frigate fired its phaser at us, but still from a long way away.
Our batteries absorbed the hits.
All we had was one photon torpedo that was ready.
The 101 was reloading drones on this pass, so we had to make this work.
Commander Rees said, "Mr. Roberts, show me that Starfleet graduating you from the Academy was worth it!"
I didnt say a word.
I fired a full overload.
Right thru the Kzinti frigate's down #2 shield.
Our helmsman kept that shield in our range and it paid off.
The 101 took the entire torpedo into its hull, pretty much knocking it out of the battle with heavy internal damage.
The Kzinti frigate then turned around, activated non-tactical warp, and zoomed out of the sector.

MISSION EPILOGUE:
The Kzinti frigate put up one hell of a fight.
Lucky for us and because of some great battlefield strategy by Commander Rees, all the Stonewall Jackson had received was one phaser-3 burn damaged.
We later learned that the Kzinti ship we faced was a rogue ship that was trying to head for the WYN Star Cluster, but had gotten lost.
I guess that maybe they thought we were a police ship or something, sent from Kzinti High Command to capture it.
A couple of days later, at battle station 2103, we found out that the rogue frigate was recaptured by the Kzinti Hegemony.
A Kzinti noble relayed this information to us from their government.
They did thank the Federation for helping to bring these renegades to justice.
However, if i know Kzinti justice, that entire crew on board that ship was probably executed.
Anyway, i had finally gotten my first taste of battle and i was savoring my victory.
At that age, i wondered how many great victories i would have fighting the enemies of Starfleet in deep space.
I was so enamored of the victories that i predicted that i would have, that i never thought of the DEFEATS that i WAS going to have.
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[rjl518]

MISSION: First Contact (Y2552---The Middle Years) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Ensign
ASSIGNMENT: Asst. Weapons Officer, Federation frigate Stonewall Jackson

LOCATION: Sector 2008, Federation-Klingon Neutral Zone

MISSION BACKGROUND:
My second year on the Stonewall Jackson.
We were on a routine escort mission protecting one small freighter en-route to a battle station in sector 2008.
Still very much a rookie, i was beginning to get used to Starfleet life.
Hours of boredom, followed by 30 minutes of life or death chaos.
Thats what it means to be a Starfleet officer.
Early in my career, i would get to meet some very famous people.
Most of them would become allies, some would become enemies, but only a certain few would become my rivals.
On this day in Year 2552, i would meet my first and greatest rival.
On this day i was introduced to the Klingon Empire.
A race of warriors bred for countless generations for the sole purpose of military conquest.
However, they were also a race of proud, honorable and courageous fighters.
The Federation was not at war with the Klingons at this time, but we were having numerous raids and skirmishes with them.
They were a real headache to Starfleet.
And one of these Klingons would become a real head-ache to me.
A Klingon named Kharg!
He had some kind of life this Klingon warrior.
And you will hear about him from time to time throughout this journal you are reading.
Although i didnt know it yet, on this day, we would meet in battle for the first time.
We were about 36 hours away from the battle station that we escorting the freighter to, when sensors picked up a starship in our location.
It was a Klingon F5 frigate, the Kor.
Klingon F5s are some of the toughest ships in the galaxy to fight against.
They are fast, maneuverable and have a decent weapons assortment.
Commander Rees of the Stonewall Jackson had weapons brought up to full power.
He knew what this Klingon ship wanted.
It wanted the freighter, which was carrying some important technology equipment for the battle station's computers.
The commanding officer of the Kor was Commander Katril.
Katril was a Klingon officer who was pretty resourceful in a fight.
Rees was undaunted however, and his mission was to protect the freighter.
The Kor approached us with full weapons charged and ready for battle.
We took our place in front of the freighter and went to red alert.
This was my first action of many against the Klingons.
Kharg was a junior tactical officer on board the Kor at this time, of course i didnt know that yet, and im pretty sure that he wanted to make a name for himself.
So did I!
I sat down at my station, rubbed my palms together and awaited orders from my captain.


MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
The Kor came right at the Jackson at high speed and fired phasers at very close range.
Our #6 shield took the hit and a transporter was burned.
But no other damage as the Kor missed with its disruptors.
Commander Rees decided to alternate photon firings once again.
The Stonewall Jackson could not get close enough to really do anything as the Kor continued to fly through space.
The small freighter did get a couple of hits on the rear shield of the Kor.
Nice job, i thought, by the freighter's captain.
I just hoped that the Klingon would continue to deal with us instead of taking on a lowly, puny freighter.
The Stonewall Jackson did light shield damage with our phasers, but that was it.
We missed with the one photon we had.
Both ships then fired a drone at each other.
We prepared a suicide shuttle, but Rees decided to wait.

2nd Pass:
Another quick pass by the Kor and this time it hit our #3 shield with phasers.
Our engines received burn damage, but nothing major yet.
Katril was moving his frigate at high speed, making it very difficult for the Jackson to target it.
We missed with another photon and our phasers did weak shield damage.
The small freighter was staying out of range of the fight.
Good thing too.
Because at this time, the Klingon frigate was concentrating on us.
Both ships launched drones and we sent our 1st shuttle after it.

3rd Pass:
The Kor decided to bypass the seeking weapons coming at him since they couldnt catch up to the frigate.
It concentrated fire at the Jackson, but evasive maneuvers kept the Klingon from getting a clear lock.
We took a few hits on the shield.
Our batteries continued to do the job saving us from damage.
Our ADD knocked out the drone that was gaining on us, then we fired phasers at the rear of the Kor.
Not much damage from the phasers, but a half-overloaded photon did burn through the #4 shield of the Klingon and did transporter damage.
That was an important hit, for if the Klingons lose their transporters, they cant board the freighter.

4th Pass:
The Kor first knocked out the shuttle and the drone we fired at it, at the cost of two phaser-2s fired.
Then the F5 fired at us from long range.
It succeeded in knocking down our #6 shield and we lost a phaser-3.
Commander Rees decided to stay long range and fire back at the Klingon.
More shield damage from a photon that i didnt think would hit, but it did.
I patted myself on the back for that shot.
The F5 had weak shields on four sides now.
So did we.
The Kor fired another drone at us and we prepared to see if we needed to destroy them.

5th Pass:
Using phasers, we knocked out the drones that had caught up to us.
We then fired a very good shot at the Kor with phasers and a standard photon and struck it thru the #6 shield, knocking it down and doing internal damage.
But we didnt escape either.
The Klingon's disruptors struck us thru our #6 shield, which was down, and we took weapon damage, including a photon launcher.
Luckily, it was the photon launcher that did fire this pass.
The Kor had lost its transporters, so now capturing the freighter was highly unlikely.
The Kor turned around and now headed for the freighter.
Commander Rees wanted the Stonewall Jackson to move as fast as it could.
We had to protect it.

6th Pass:
The Klingon F5 attacked the freighter but only managed to bring down three shields on it with no internal damage.
The Jackson fired its weapons thru the down shield of the Kor and we did more internal damage on the frigate.
But Commander Katril would not retire.
He tried a second pass on the freighter.

7th Pass:
The Kor hit home on the freighter, doing light internal damage, but it kept moving.
We were unable to get a good lock on the F5 due to evasive.
We scratched a shield and that was all.
The one photon we had left was ready and we waited for the Kor to make the next move.

8th Pass:
The Kor made one last attempt to kill the freighter.
We fired all that we had left at the frigate and hoped for the best.
The F5 frigate took internal damage thru the down #6 shield, which crippled it for good.
We then saw the Kor go to warp and disengage from the sector.
We had won...or did we?
The Stonewall Jackson started making its way towards the small freighter to continue its mission of protecting it.
We weren't able to continue our mission.
As we were approaching the freighter, it went up like a small ball of fire.
The Kor was able to get a last shot off before it escaped.
We had failed to get the freighter home!

MISSION EPILOGUE:
The Stonewall Jackson returned to battle station 2008 for repairs and to give a full report.
The commander of the station, Commodore Lowry had decided that the whole affair would be put away quietly.
The Stonewall Jackson was able to defeat a Klingon F5 frigate and from the damage report i had seen, it would be out of action for months.
But the supplies that the battle station's computers needed would have to wait a little longer.
Commander Rees received a chewing out, but was allowed to return to his vessel.
When i saw him, he said to me, "Don't feel bad, Mr. Roberts. You can't win them all. And when you lose, lives are lost with it."
The freighter had a small crew of about 15-20 personnel.
If there was some good news out of this, about half were able to get off the ship in escape pods.
The rest didnt make it though.
It was then i realized that i had to do better.
Last year, i had my first victory.
This year, i had my first defeat.

NEXT ASSIGNMENT:
With the damage the Stonewall Jackson had sustained, it would be out of action for about a month, so a lot of us were transferred to other ships.
I had received my first promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade and was made weapons officer on the Federation Saladin-class destroyer Eisenhower.
I vowed to be better officer and i also promised myself not to be too overconfident and reckless.
My new commanding officer was Commander Roger Blake who welcomed me on board his ship and gave me the rules and regulations.
A day later, the Eisenhower was off and running.
At this rank, i would meet some new foes.
Plasma shooters known as the Romulans.
But those are other stories...
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[rjl518]

MISSION: Interception (Y2553---The Middle Years) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Lieutenant Junior Grade
ASSIGNMENT: Weapons Officer, Federation destroyer Eisenhower

LOCATION: Sector 3813, Federation-Romulan Neutral Zone

MISSION BACKGROUND:
It didnt take me long to get used to my new ship, the Eisenhower.
Destroyers are tough and they can give Federation cruisers a run for their money.
The only thing about Saladin-class destroyers is that they dont move very fast when charging weapons.
As most of you know, in Y2553, an old Romulan Warbird-class cruiser, the sub-light version of the War Eagle-class cruiser, attacked some Federation outposts along the Federation-Romulan Neutral zone.
Historically, a very famous Constitution-class heavy cruiser under the command of some guy with the initials of JTK, destroyed the Romulan ship, which started a short war the next year.
We fought a battle in that War which i will detail in my next journal entry.
What you also know is that the Romulan ship sent a signal in code to Romulus, which gave away the location of the warbird to the Federation ship.
What you didnt know is that the Romulan Navy DID send a reinforcement ship to help the warbird fight off the Federation pursuer or evacuate the crew to be returned to Romulus.
The Eisenhower was already very close to where the pursuit was taking place and our communications officer, LTJG. Karnysheia, intercepted the transmission detailing that.
The Eisenhower's CO, Commander Roger Blake ordered us to proceed at high speed to try to intercept the reinforcement.
We didnt know what ship we would have to face until we came upon it.
A Romulan Battlebird-class destroyer, the Nightwing, the sub-light version of the Battlehawk.
Battlebirds could be classed as destroyers or heavy frigates.
Two plasma-G torpedo launchers could still do some damage to our ship.
As we approached the Nightwing, we were detected and the Romulan ship cloaked and prepared to fight.
My first ever dealing with the Romulans, and as i set up my weapons, i began to get very nervous.

MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
The Romulan battlebird cloaked on us.
We did fire our phasers and according to sensors we actually did enough shield damage on it to burn some transporter systems.
The Nightwing then de-cloaked and fired one of it's plasma-Gs.
Commander Blake decided to alternate torpedo firings, since the Eisenhower had four photon launchers, he would fire two per pass.
We hit with one on the Romulan when it appeared, but did shield damage only.
Romulan ships have good shields all the way around.
Even during the "Middle Years."

2nd Pass:
The Eisenhower did some quick turning and was able to completely avoid the plasma torpedo fired at us.
The Nightwing did get some phaser hits on our #6 shield and we lost a defensive phaser.
Commander Blake tried to get the Eisenhower around the Nightwing to unload a couple of photons at one of it's weaker shields.
We failed and we launched a photon right up the Romulan ship's nose.
It severely weakened its forward shield and we burned one of the engines.
It then fired its second plasma and then cloaked.

3rd Pass:
Once again, the Eisenhower avoided a plasma torpedo.
Then Commander Blake said to me, "Look, i know the Romulan ship is cloaked. Its recharging its plasmas. I need you to make a good shot, Mr. Roberts."
I said, "Get me close enough Sir, and i will give that Romulan ship a good taste of photons."
The Federation destroyer moved into close range.
I fired phasers first and i hit their #4 shield.
Then i sent one standard and one half overloaded photon right up it's backside.
I struck with both!
"Good shooting, Mr. Roberts."
The Romulan's shields took a lot of the damage, but we crushed it's armor and we did some minor internal damage.
I had hoped to knock out a plasma launcher, but i didnt.
That meant that we would be seeing another of those things on the next pass.

4th Pass:
The Nightwing de-cloaked and fired phasers.
It did light shield damage.
We then got close enough to smack two more photons at it.
They were standard and they almost knocked down another shield.
The battlebird took lab and impulse damage.
It then fired one plasma-G at us.
Those balls of death are very menacing when they are approaching.
Lucky for the Eisenhower, plasma-Gs dont last very long.

5th Pass:
The Romulan ship finally got us.
We took the first plasma-G on our #3 shield and then the Nightwing's phasers hit into us at close range.
We took hull and lab damage.
We lost our 2nd phaser-3 as well, but the Eisenhower was still in very good shape.
The Nightwing fired it's second plasma at us and then cloaked.
Commander Blake paced the bridge and knew that even though the Romulan was a smaller ship than the Eisenhower, it was still very dangerous.
We prepared to face the plasma torpedo coming at us.

6th Pass:
The Eisenhower did a quick turn and once again, we narrowly missed the plasma.
Then Commander Blake called out, "Fire phasers and lets hope we hit them where they are weak."
We did.
The phasers hit the cloaked Romulan ship thru the #6 shield.
It couldnt take all the damage and the Nightwing took internal hits.
Sensors indicated that it took phaser, hull and frame damage.
The Romulan ship was crippled.
It still had it's plasma launchers, but it's captain must have decided that it wasn't worth it.
The Nightwing then de-cloaked, turned around and warped out of the area.

MISSION EPILOGUE:
With the victory over the Romulan battlebird, that famous Federation ship was able to defeat the Romulan Warbird-class cruiser.
Unfortunately, it also started the short 2nd Federation-Romulan War.
Commander Blake received a commendation from Starfleet and i received a navy medal for my weapons efficiency.
The Eisenhower would stay on the Romulan border for the next two years during the War.
Even though i was on the winning side of this first skirmish of a new war, i didnt get overconfident.
Fortunes of war can change in a hurry!
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[rjl518]

MISSION: Disruption (Y2554---The Middle Years) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Lieutenant Junior Grade
ASSIGNMENT: Weapons Officer, Federation destroyer Eisenhower

LOCATION: Sector 4011, Romulan Space

MISSION BACKGROUND:
The Second Federation-Romulan War is active at this time.
The Federation destroyer Eisenhower and the heavy cruiser Exeter are on a mission to disrupt communication lines in Sector 4011, the outskirts of Romulan territory.
A couple of Romulan battle stations in Sectors 4010 and 4012 continue to supply the Romulan fleets with vital information.
Our mission with the Exeter was to disrupt communications for a short while to ascertain code information.
The Eisenhower has already seen some minor action in this war already, so we felt that our ship had been battle tested so far.
Upon entering Sector 4011, and having already started our mission to garble up communications between the two Romulan battle stations, a patrol of a Romulan ships spotted us.
The Romulan Warbird-class cruiser Thundermaker and two early Snipe-class frigates, the Aries and the Draco, had found us.
Weapons charged and already cloaked, the Romulans approached.
We knew that a warbird was a very dangerous opponent with that very powerful plasma-R torpedo.
But a war was being fought and we prepared to face the enemy with a strong resolve.

MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
The Romulan ships de-cloaked and fired their weapons.
They all targeted the Exeter, which made sense since a heavy cruiser is more of a threat than a destroyer.
That being said though, my destroyer, although slow as a slug, had heavy cruiser firepower.
The Romulans only succeeded in doing very light shield damage on the Exeter, but they left themselves wide open though.
Both Federation ships targeted the Thundermaker.
We got very good phaser strikes and photon hits.
The warbird was a mess, it lost almost all of its phasers and its plasma-R launcher, but it was able to fire its massive torpedo and it was coming at the Exeter.
The Thundermaker, because it wasn't much of a threat anymore, went to full impulse and retired for repairs.
The Eisenhower, after seeing the damage done to the warbird, fired two photons at the snipe frigate Aries.
We crushed the forward shield and damaged its armor, but that was all.
The snipes fired their plasma-Gs at the heavy cruiser and then the two Romulan frigates cloaked while they recharged their plasmas.
The Exeter had three plasma torpedoes coming at it.
I wondered what Captain Tracy of the Exeter was planning to do about it.

2nd Pass:
He did what he had to do.
He fired all his phasers and the oncoming plasma-G.
He weakened it by a huge margin and when it impacted, the heavy cruiser's batteries reinforced the shield and the torpedo did nothing.
The plasma-R, however, did smack the #6 shield of the Exeter.
Thank goodness, it did not hit at full charge, but only half.
The #6 shield was almost knocked down and a transporter on the Exeter got burned.
Then the Exeter and the Eisenhower fired at the Aries, which was cloaked.
We hit it very well.
The phasers knocked down the #3 shield and then I was able to place one photon through it.
I smiled as our science officer indicated that we smashed all the weapons on the snipe.
The Aries then de-cloaked and disengaged from the battle.
There was only one ship left, the snipe frigate Draco.
Commander Blake and the rest of us wondered what the last Romulan ship would do.
We knew it would be a couple of more passes before its plasma-G could fire and it could stay cloaked while it recharged it.
But the Federation ships were scoring very good damage on the cloaked ships and while the Romulans were cloaked, they couldnt fire back.

MISSION EPILOGUE:
The Romulan commander did the smart thing.
The Draco de-cloaked, did a HET and left the area.
I guess the Romulans really thought that an old warbird cruiser and two old snipe frigates could best a Federation heavy cruiser and a destroyer.
They found out that they were wrong!
We had achieved a major victory as our Federation ships had received no damage.
The Romulans had one snipe frigate badly damaged.
The warbird would be out maybe a few weeks.
There would be one more fight that i would be in before the Treaty of Pelione was signed next year, ending the war.
We continued our communications disruption, and because of our mission, we were able to delay a sizeable Romulan task force from rescuing some of their soldiers on planet Gamma II.
The war continued on for the rest of year Y2554, with the Romulans retreating most of the way.
Their sub-light ships were no match for Federation warp powered spacecraft.
When Starfleet had indicated that our disruption mission was completed, we were ordered back to battle station 3810 for our next assignment.
Starfleet gave out another commendation for Commander Blake and one for Captain Tracy of the Exeter.
As i took some time off from the war while we were at the battle station, i looked out of the station's window and took a good look at the starship Exeter.
A Federation Constitution-class heavy cruiser, which was beautiful, powerful, fast and graceful.
They were considered flagships of Starfleet.
I looked at that gorgeous ship and even though i was happy to be on a Federation Saladin-class destroyer at this time, i did start to wonder...
When would i get my chance to be assigned to a ship like that?
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[rjl518]

MISSION: Survival (Y2555---The Middle Years) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Lieutenant Junior Grade
ASSIGNMENT: Weapons Officer, Federation destroyer Eisenhower

LOCATION: Sector 4011, Romulan Space

MISSION BACKGROUND:
We were running!
After an inconclusive battle against Romulan forces in their territory, the Federation destroyer Eisenhower sustained medium damage and we were forced to disengage.
Commander Roger Blake, my ship's CO, had decided to retreat back into Federation space for extensive repairs.
After a few days, we were able to repair most of our systems on board the ship, minus some hull and lab damage.
Our shields were at 80% because we were having trouble fixing the generators.
We had managed to evade Romulan pursuit so far.
Then, our scanners had picked up an enemy ship coming right for us.
We were not happy when we we found out that it was the Romulan Warbird-class cruiser Astra Volantis, one of the ships that we had fought in the battle a few days earlier.
Scanning their ship, we discovered that they had some battle damage and that their cloaking device was not operational.
However, their plasma-R torpedo launcher was!
Commander Blake was caught in a tough bind.
Either continue to run and hope we make it home, or fight this Romulan and score a victory for the Federation.
He looked at all of us on the bridge and wanted our input.
Not one of us had fear in our eyes.
Blake then said to us, "We will not go quietly into the night!"
We charged weapons, brought up our shields to full power and prepared to fight.


MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
The Astra Volantis came right us as we closed to point blank range hoping to get a good phaser strike.
The Romulan ship's plasma torp was not ready to fire and neither were our photons.
So we traded phaser fire.
We blasted apart the Volantis' #5 shield and did some good damage to their hull and secondary systems.
We didnt escaped unscathed though as they did hull and transporter damage to us also through our weakened #4 shield.
We moved away from the Romulan, fired a drone that did nothing as it was shot down by phaser fire.
Commander Blake ordered a suicide shuttle to be launched at the Romulan ship.
Out of the remaining shuttle bay it went.
The shuttle never made it as the warbird blew it out of space with its defensive phasers.

2nd Pass:
Both ships closed again and the Astra Volantis slipped underneath us and hit us with phasers right up our tailpipes.
It knocked out the #4 shield and we took crippling damage inside the Eisenhower.
This was the 2nd battle in which i fought that im surprised that my ship didnt blow up after a strong phaser attack.
But i guess they make them pretty well in Starfleet.
I wanted my photons to really count this time.
I asked Commander Blake to get as close as possible to fire my photons.
He happily agreed and we unleashed one standard and two full overloaded photon torpedoes at the rear of the Astra Volantis.
It crushed its #4 shield and did happy time inside the Romulan ship.
The attack knocked out the plasma-R launcher.
The Eisenhower was a mess as well as the Astra Volantis.

MISSION EPILOGUE:
We had to disengage and we figured the Romulan would do the same.
Suddenly, our scanners had picked up lots of incoming ships.
Federation ships and Romulan ships.
On the Federation side we counted heavy cruisers, destroyers, frigates and the command cruiser Bon Homme Richard.
On the Romulan side, there were Warbirds, Battlebirds, and Snipes.
One of the warbird cruisers was named the Inceptiris, which i believe was the command ship of the Romulan force.
We all thought that we were going to be part of the greatest battle of the Second Federation-Romulan War.
Then our view-screen changed to the appearance of the two fleet commanders.
Fleet Captain Mark Reynolds of Starfleet and Major-Commander Antonius Flavius of the Romulan Star Empire.
They told the Eisenhower and the Astra Volantis that the war was over as the Treaty of Pelione was just signed an hour ago.
All ships are to return across the new Neutral Zone and await further instructions.
I couldnt believe it.
I would live to fight another day.
The Eisenhower limped home to battle station 3810.
After a debriefing and a thorough examination of the damage to the destroyer, we learned that my ship for the last three years, was done for good.
It would be retired and probably be made into a museum, signifying the end of what we hoped would be the last war to be fought between the Federation and the Romulans.
A ship that had survived the last great battle.
Of course, as to all of you who are reading my memoirs, we couldnt have been more wrong!

NEXT ASSIGNMENT:
I was given two commendations and two medals for my actions while serving as weapons officer aboard the Eisenhower.
Commander Roger Blake was given a promotion to Captain and placed in command of the light cruiser Suffolk.
I said goodbye to my old captain and Blake hoped that one day, we would serve together again.
Also at this time, i had received my second promotion as well.
Now a Lieutenant Senior Grade, i was also assigned to a new ship.
The Federation Texas-class light cruiser Florida, NCC-0937.
I was now on a larger ship that even though it didnt have the firepower of the Eisenhower, it could move with good speed, good maneuverability and could take a lot more punishment.
The commanding officer of the ship, Captain Tony Hopkins, put me charge of tactical operations.
While i was at this rank in my career, i would meet a new rival, a new friend, and have a meeting with an old rival.
But those are other stories...
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[rjl518]

MISSION: War and Peace (Y2556---The Middle Years) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Lieutenant Senior Grade
ASSIGNMENT: Tactical Officer, Federation light cruiser Florida

LOCATION: Battle Station 2012, Federation Space

MISSION BACKGROUND:
During this time, the Federation was having some major problems with the Klingon Empire.
The Federation light cruiser Florida and the Federation frigate John Paul Jones were picking up some supplies from battle station 2012, located near the Federation-Klingon Neutral Zone.
We had been here for a couple of days and while getting some shore leave, we heard that a famous Federation heavy cruiser (guess which one again), had been attacked near the planet Organia on a mission of peace, by a small squadron of Klingon warships.
We had just signed a peace treaty with the Romulans and now it looked like the Klingons were looking for a fight.
Captain Hopkins of the Florida canceled the rest of the leave and ordered all men back to the ship.
I hastily returned to my post on board the light cruiser and checked to make sure that all weapons and tactical information from my team was ready for action.
About ninety minutes later, the battle station's sensors had picked up a group of ships coming at us.
They were not in firing range yet, buy they were closing very fast.
The battle station, the Florida and the John Paul Jones went to red alert and prepared for what we felt was going to be the first battle of a new war that i really dont think that we were ready to fight right now.
Long range sensors had identified the intruders as a Klingon assault force.
Two D7 battlecruisers, the Conqueror and the Ruthless.
The D6 heavy cruiser Massacre, the F5 frigate Stormer and the E4 light frigate Swatter.
I had heard of the Stormer though.
It was a Klingon ship that had been raiding some Federation freighters a few sectors away from us.
What i didnt know was that my greatest rival was on board the Stormer, Kharg.
He was now a Senior Lieutenant in the Klingon Empire and he was gaining some fame in his early career.
A battle station assault would be just the ticket to help him further in the empire.
The older Federation Texas-class light cruisers didnt have that punch that other ships in Starfleet had during this time period, but they were able to move and maneuver very well.
The high powered phaser-4s of the battle station warmed up as well, eager to cut into some Klingon metal.
Captain Hopkins of the Florida asked for a tactical situation from me.
I told him that a battle station, a light cruiser and a frigate was a pretty even match for two D7s, a D6, an F5 and an E4.
We might have had a decent advantage because of the station's phaser-4s.
Long range and powerful weapons that could turn any ship into a burning hulk if it came too close.
The Klingons were coming.
We were still awaiting word from Organia.
All of us didnt know what was coming up in these next few hours.
War or peace???

MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
It seemed like all the Klingons wanted to do on the first attack was to go after my ship.
The usual tactic of attacking a base was to first take out the ships that were guarding it.
Both the Florida and the Jones stayed near the battle station as we used its heavy phasers to protect us.
Every Klingon ship fired at the Florida.
But every phaser and disruptor strike was from very long range and all they did was scratch our forward shield.
However, the Klingon E4 and F5 decided to get a little too close to the battle station.
The station's phasers lit up the E4 light frigate Swatter, which even at long range, the ship was crippled with the first strike.
Then the station's commander launched all his photons at the F5 frigate Stormer.
The Stormer's #3 shield was knocked down and moderate internal damage was done.
The Swatter, however, was forced to disengage.
It warped out of the system.
Then the remaining Klingon ships launched a swarm of drones.
And you, the reader, can take a good guess at where they were all headed!

2nd Pass:
If the Klingons were going to learn anything from this battle, they learned that they were going to need more ships when you attack a battle station.
The stations weapons opened fire on the D6 Massacre.
Even from that long range, they knocked down the #3 shield and did very light damage inside the ship.
The Florida was able to knock out five drones that were heading for us.
The other two weren't in range yet.
Then my light cruiser shot at the F5 with the phasers we didnt use against the drones and a photon.
We hit with BOTH from long range.
They somehow went through the down #3 shield of the Stormer and did more internal damage, knocking out the second disruptor.
The Stormer wasn't looking too well, but i guess it's captain wanted to stay for the rest of the battle.
Credit my team for that hit.
Maybe Kharg didnt want to run away this time.
The John Paul Jones was unable to do anything as it stayed close to the station.
Then the Klingons opened fire on the Federation frigate this time.
No damage at all, but a couple of the frigate's shields were moderately weakened.
The Klingon ships then launched another swarm of drones and this time, the John Paul Jones was the target.
The battle station launched a couple of drones at the Stormer.
Missiles were heading for the small Federation ship.
A lot of missiles!

3rd Pass:
The John Paul Jones fired everything it had at the drone swarm and killed six drones and locked one up with a tractor beam.
But the Klingons got a little respite when the D7 Conqueror fired a good strike at the Federation frigate with it's disruptors.
It knocked down the #5 shield and did moderate damage to the Jones, including damaging both photon launchers.
The Florida stayed close to the station.
We fired our photons and phasers at the F5 frigate and actually scored a few hits inside but nothing major to the Stormer.
Then the station fired its phasers at the Massacre.
The Klingon D6 heavy cruiser got a little too close and it paid the price.
The phaser-4s crushed the #2 shield of the Massacre and carved it up like a roast internally.
It didnt cripple the Klingon, but it killed three phaser-2s and three of the four disruptor banks.
With every pass the Klingon ships were getting closer to the battle station.
The John Paul Jones finally took some damage, but the Klingon ships were writing checks that very soon they wouldn't be able to cash.
Captain Hopkins wanted to get into the fight, now that the Klingons were taking a beating.
But thankfully for us, he was a smart man.
You dont take a light cruiser into a battle against two D7 battlecruisers and a damaged D6 heavy cruiser.
You stay with the station and let it do the dirty work for you.
The John Paul Jones decided to retire.
With both of its photons out, it wasn't much of a threat anymore and it still had another swarm of drones heading for it.
The Klingons were determined to take out the smallest ship first.
The Florida moved in front of the Jones to protect it.
The Klingons were coming closer and closer and the Florida was ready to throw some "Sunshine State" a$$ kicking on them.
When the Klingons were in the range that Captain Hopkins wanted, he gave the order to fire!

MISSION EPILOGUE:
We were about to fire our weapons at the Klingon ships and then....
We all jumped out of our chairs!
All of the buttons and consoles on our ships became so hot that we couldnt touch them to fire our weapons.
Then, without warning, all of our weapons and power systems went dead.
It happened to the Klingon ships and drones too.
A battle station and seven warships in space just started drifting in random directions.
I looked at Hopkins and he was at a loss of words also.
Then, on our view-screens, showed the face of what looked like to be an Organian official.
He said that there will be no more war today between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
Peace was established in the galaxy by an alien race that we really knew nothing about.
We were contacted then by Starfleet HQ and were ordered to keep weapons powered down and return to the battle station.
The Klingon ships turned around and headed back into the Neutral Zone.
I wondered what Kharg was thinking at that time.
I wonder if he knew how close he was to being blasted into oblivion.
I hoped i would get the chance to ask him that question someday.
But it was not this day that i would get the opportunity....it would be some years down the road.
For now, the battle was over.
The Klingons took the worst of this small skirmish.
Three ships took heavy damage and would probably be out a couple of months for repair work.
But they would all be back in due time.
The John Paul Jones would repair its damage and be back on patrol in a week.
Yes, there would be no war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire today.
But if you are reading these memoirs, you all know that there would be war tomorrow.
The Florida completed loading supplies from the battle station and then we resumed our patrol duties twenty-four hours later.
According to Captain Hopkins, our next mission was to patrol a region of space near the Romulan border, where i heard that the Federation had just met some reptilian looking creatures in that area.
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[rjl518]

MISSION: Wargames (Y2557---The Middle Years) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Lieutenant Senior Grade
ASSIGNMENT: Tactical Officer, Federation light cruiser Florida

LOCATION: Sector 4108, Gorn Space

MISSION BACKGROUND:
Early in Y2557, a famous Federation heavy cruiser (yep, that one again), encountered a reptilian race of aliens known as the Gorn Confederation.
A brief "war" ensued, but it turned out to be a great misunderstanding.
After getting to know these creatures, we found out that the Gorns were strong and honorable people.
They were staunch fighters and very good tacticians.
We also found out that they were having problems with the Romulans for many years.
The Federation and the Gorns signed a mutual pact of friendship and an alliance was formed with them.
We also used dinosaur code names for their ships, and when the Gorns understood about Earth's dinosaur history, they found the names thoroughly amusing.
While on board the light cruiser Florida, i met a Gorn officer named Saurus Raptor.
He was the executive officer aboard a Gorn light cruiser named the Dragonfire.
I got to know this Gorn and we became fast friends.
I learned about tactical knowledge from him and he taught me how to fight like a true warrior.
Got a few ribs bruised during that session.
Later in Y2557, while patrolling with the Dragonfire in southern Gorn space, Captain Hopkins and Captain Stego, the captain of the Gorn ship, decided to play a wargame between our light cruiser and theirs.
As i said in an earlier mission report, Texas-class light cruisers don't pack much punch, but they are quick and they could move.
And since Gorn ships move around space like bathtubs, Hopkins agreed to this little game.
We had played about thirty minutes, trading punches with low-energy weapons and the like, when the Florida's science officer, LTSG. Compton, had picked up something on the ship's sensors.
He said that he was picking up motion sensor blips, but Hopkins knew what they really were...cloaked Romulans.
He radioed the Dragonfire and told him that the game was over.
It looked like the Romulans were about to crash the party.
Now, the Federation was no longer at war with the Romulans, but the Romulans and the Gorns were still having the occasional incident.
It looked like that this was about to be one of those "incidents".
Two Romulan Warbird-class cruisers, the Ghost Bird and the Sky Demon, had arrived to play their OWN wargame.
Even though these Romulan ships did not have tactical warp as of yet, they were still very dangerous with that plasma-R torpedo of theirs.
As a new ally and friend to the Gorns, we were obligated to protect our new friends and show the Romulans that there was a new alliance in town.

MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
The Romulan ships headed right for the Gorn ship and fired phasers at it.
It knocked down the rear shield of the Dragonfire and damaged the hull and knocked out the two phaser-3s that the Gorn ship had.
The Sky Demon fired on the Florida but we received no damage at all.
The Dragonfire fired phasers in return but only succeeded in weakening the forward shields of the Sky Demon.
The Florida got a good phaser strike on the Ghost Bird, which damaged the plasma-R launcher on that ship.
We prepared our photons for the next attack phase.

2nd Pass:
The Romulan ships closed in on the Dragonfire, the Ghost Bird had no plasma torpedo to fire, so it gave the Gorn some phasers which did no damage.
The Sky Demon however, launched it's plasma-R right at the Dragonfire.
The Gorn light cruiser was able to evade the plasma for a few impulses which caused the torpedo to weaken and strike the #2 shield of the Gorn ship.
It knocked the shield down and did light internal damage.
The Florida closed on the Sky Demon and unloaded two photons at it.
We hit with both of them, one was overloaded and did moderate internal damage, but not enough for the Romulan ship to disengage.
The Sky Demon hit the Florida with phasers and knocked out our #5 shield and did light damage inside.

3rd Pass:
On the 3rd pass, the Florida and the Dragonfire concentrated phasers on the Sky Demon.
The Romulan ship took major damage thru the down forward shield and forced the warbird cruiser to disengage.
The Ghost Bird decided to remain and continue the fight.
Hoping it would get some revenge.
It didnt.
The Florida and the Dragonfire hit the Romulan ship with strong phasers which went thru a down shield and knocked out ALL weapons on the Ghost Bird.
I fired all two of my photons at it, but hit with only one.
I guess it was meant to be because if i had hit it with both of them, the Romulan ship would have been toast.
Since it had no more weapons to fire, the Ghost Bird warped out of the system and headed back home to the closest Romulan battle station.

MISSION EPILOGUE:
The Dragonfire had taken some minor damage, but it could repair it on its own.
The Florida fixed what scratches we had and headed back to Federation space after saying goodbye to our Gorn friends.
They said they would be honored to fight alongside the Federation from now on.
And we told them that the honor was ours instead.
I was finally relieved to have made some friends today.
The Federation had enough enemies already!
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[JohnDDW]

This is a great read! I hope you keep adding more in the future, looking forward to it.

[rjl518]

MISSION: Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! (Y2558---The Four-Powers War) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Lieutenant Senior Grade
ASSIGNMENT: Tactical Officer, Federation light cruiser Florida

LOCATION: Sector 1806, Klingon-Kzinti Neutral Zone

MISSION SETUP:
I sometimes wonder what people were thinking about or doing when the Four-Powers War began during Y2558!
The Klingon Empire gathered their forces and struck across the Kzinti border.
The Hydran Kingdom had an alliance with the Kzinti Hegemony and immediately joined their units with their "Tigermen" allies to defend them.
The Lyran Empire, with such racial hatred for their Kzinti counterparts, joined on the side of the Klingons, heralding the beginning of the Four-Powers War.
The Four-Powers War is considered to be the "World War I" of galactic history, of which of course, the General War would be "World War II".
The start of the war was brutal with the Kzinits and Hydrans taking heavy losses early.
The Klingons and Lyrans would be staunch allies as they raced across Kzinti and Hydran territory, taking whatever they could in their path.
The Federation remained neutral during this time.
However, we observed, learned, analyzed and correlated all the information that we could for future reference.
This was the mission that the Federation light cruiser Florida was ordered to carry out.
Before the Hydrans and Lyrans had joined in the War, at a very early stage, the Florida came across a battle that was transpiring between the Klingons and the Kziniti during Y2558.
A group of six starships were about to fight it out in Sector 1806, a section of the Klingon-Kzinti neutral zone.
For the Kziniti, the battlecruisers Nova and Ecliptic with frigate 707, was ready to defend this sector against three Klingon ships.
The D7 battlecruiser Devisor, the D6 heavy cruiser Plague and the F5 frigate Stealth.
When we had notified Starfleet of the upcoming battle.
They gave us VERY strict orders.
We were to watch and record the outcome of the battle.
Under NO circumstances were we to engage on EITHER side of the battle.
Captain Hopkins did tell us that IF we were fired upon by either side, we were allowed to defend ourselves.
I hoped that would not be the case as a Federation light cruiser would have little chance against either Kzinti battlecruisers or Klingon D7s or D6s.
The Florida took up position close enough to record the battle, but far enough away to stay out of it.
Would the Klingons or Kzintis think we were here to join the war?
Lucky for us, neither of their forces even noticed us i think.
Captain Hopkins ordered the ship to yellow alert.
The Florida stopped dead in space and waited for the show to start.
We knew that during this fight, we were going to watch ships on both sides be attacked, and crews on both sides be killed.
We were watchers today, not fighters.
Little did Starfleet know, that thirteen years from now, the Federation would be the fighters, and other races, like the Interstellar Concordium and the Andromedan Invaders, would be the watchers.

MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
As the battle started, all ships jockeyed for position.
It was the Klingons that drew first blood.
The Devisor and the Plague went after the 707 and did horrific damage to it.
Using disruptors and phasers, the Kzinti frigate took hit after hit and reduced it to a real mess.
The Kzinti ships fired their drones, phasers and disruptors.
Most of the drones were shot down by Klingon defensive phasers and ADD.
The direct-fire weapons, however scored a good amount of shield damage and knocked out a phaser, disruptor and drone launcher on both cruisers.
Those two Klingon ships would now be vulnerable at certain shield locations plus a slight loss of firepower.

2nd Pass:
The Klingon F5, the Stealth was not attacked as the Kziniti ships decided to attack the cruisers.
The Kzinti frigate, however, disengaged and retired back into Kzinti space.
As the Florida continued to watch the two races go at it, we marveled at their expertise in combat.
On the next pass, the Kzinti decided to try to knock out the Stealth, so most of their firepower was concentrated on the Klingon F5.
The D6 heavy cruiser Plague was also targeted to a point.
A couple of drones smacked the Plague, giving it internal damage thru a down shield.
Four strong disruptor hits seriously damaged the Stealth, as it had weapon marks all over the hull.
However, whomever was commanding the Klingon frigate, decided to stay as the Florida's's sensors indicated that the Klingon ship had not taken frame damage.
That would prove to be a fatal error for that ship.

3rd Pass:
The Klingons got payback though as they gave the Kzinti battlecruiser Ecliptic some moderate damage.
The Ecliptic did suffer weapon damage, but it also was not going anywhere.
The two Kzinti battlecruisers converged on the Plague during the next pass.
From what i saw, it looked like that the Kzinti wanted to concentrate their firepower on that particular Klingon ship.
The Stealth and the Devisor tried to protect the Plague, since it only had two shields up.
The Stealth and the Devisor fired on the Nova, knocking down its #6 shield and scoring internal hits from a couple of drones and disruptors.
But the Kzinti ships were not to be denied.
They launched a full alpha strike on the Klingon D6 heavy cruiser Plague from close range.
The Plague became a fireball and disappeared into the night.
It was now two on two.
All of us on the Florida gasped in awe.
The destruction of a starship is a rare event indeed and disengagements are usually always allowed to occur.
Because one day, YOU might be the one trying to escape.
In the case of the Plague, however, they never had a chance.

4th Pass:
Neither did the Klingon F5 frigate Stealth.
For on the next wave, the two Kzinti battlecruisers just unleashed all they had on the already damaged Klingon ship.
It went up like a marshmallow, debris scattering everywhere.
The D7 battlecruiser Devisor gave some parting shots on the Kzinti ship Nova, but failed to do any real damage to force retirement.
Now two on one, the Devisor had no choice but to turn tail and leave the area of battle.
Even though the Devisor had only received minor damage and was still a force, the Klingon captain knew that to still try to take on two damaged Kzinti battlecruisers, would be a one way ticket to the grave.
Captain Hopkins then ordered the Florida to stand down from yellow alert and make our way to Federation battle station 2006, where we would make our report to Starfleet HQ about the battle.

MISSION EPILOGUE:
When the Starfleet Admirals saw the tape of the battle between the Klingons and the Kzintis, they were impressed by the tenacity of the battle.
I was also impressed and i was also terrified.
I was still a young Lieutenant Senior Grade and i was still nervous about fighting.
But that being said, i was also getting more seasoned with every battle i participated in.
I knew more battles were coming in my future.
What i didnt know was that there would be so many of them....
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718

[rjl518]

[rjl518]

MISSION: The Proconsul Incident (Y2559---The Four-Powers War) (Squadron Scale)
RANK: Lieutenant Senior Grade
ASSIGNMENT: Tactical Officer, Federation light cruiser Florida

LOCATION: Sector 3614, Federation-Romulan Neutral Zone

MISSION SETUP:
The Romulans just became a real legitimate threat.
They already were a problem and we had fought a couple of wars with them.
But now, they would use Klingon designed ships to fight their battles.
During the early space-faring stages of Romulan history, their navy consisted of sub-light and slow moving warships.
Then, in Y2559, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire signed the Treaty of Smarba.
Now they were getting significant help from the Klingons.
With Klingon technology, they started converting their old sub-light warships into tactical warp spacecraft.
The warbirds became war eagle cruisers, battlebirds became battle hawk destroyers and even the old Snipe frigates were upgraded.
Even though they were slow, those old sub-light ships were still pretty deadly.
Wrapped around the very strong plasma-R torpedo and the ability to cloak, those ships were still to be respected.
Now that the old ships had been refitted with tactical warp technology, they were even more dangerous and potent.
The Treaty of Smarba was designed to bring the Romulans up to par with the rest of the Alpha Octant.
Also, the Klingons were sending more than just help to upgrade the old Romulan ships, they were now delivering old Klingon ships to them as well.
The Romulans would now be installing plasma weapons and stronger phasers on Klingon D6 heavy cruisers, F5 frigates, and the occasional D7 battlecruiser that they might receive from the Klingons.
Rumors thru Starfleet Intelligence also indicated that the Romulans were working on even larger ships that the Klingons were supplying.
Starfleet had also wanted an example of the new cloaking device that the Romulans had engineered.
They even assigned a famous Federation heavy cruiser (take a good guess which one), to steal a cloaking device from one of the new Romulan KR heavy cruisers.
They succeeded.
But one was not enough for Starfleet.
They needed a second cloaking unit from the Romulans.
But they didnt want to do another covert operation like the last one.
So they decided to wait for an opportunity to acquire a second cloaking device.
And lo and behold, they got one!
While the Federation light cruiser Florida was picking up supplies from planet Gamma III in Sector 3514, Captain Tony Hopkins received a message from Starfleet Intelligence.
It appeared that a recently delivered Romulan KR heavy cruiser, the Proconsul, was charting a small asteroid field in Sector 3614, which was in the Neutral Zone.
According to reports, the Proconsul was damaged by a large asteroid, which knocked out its engines and was stopped dead in space.
The Federation believed that this was great opportunity to capture another cloaking device and maybe even the ship itself.
Hopkins stated that the Florida would need a little help in order to capture a Romulan KR heavy cruiser.
Starfleet then radioed back and told Hopkins to look out his viewscreen.
At that moment, the Federation heavy cruiser Endeavor just warped in right next to the Florida.
Hopkins smiled and said, "Okay, that will work."
We also learned that there were some extra marines on board the Endeavor.
They would need them too for i was informed that Romulan soldiers on their ships were tough and resourceful.
After Hopkins and Captain Jim Cook, the CO of the Endeavor, traded information, the Florida formed up behind the larger Federation ship and we both made our way into the Neutral Zone on a mission of procurement.
Using the information gathered from Starfleet, it didn't take long till we were in the area where the Proconsul was located.
Using long-range sensors, we found out that the Proconsul was moderately damaged and its engines were dead.
However, it was able to use very low auxiliary power to use it's weapons systems to defend itself from approaching small asteroids.
We also wondered if it's plasma torpedoes were still operational.
Romulan KRs were supposed to carry two plasma-S launchers.
Captain Cook, who was the senior officer of this operation, ordered the Endeavor and the Florida to close in on the floating Romulan ship.
We were within 2500km of the Proconsul when sensors had indicated a cloaked ship right in front of the Endeavor.
The Endeavor never had a chance.
It de-cloaked and the Endeavor was face to face with the Romulan King Eagle-class cruiser Vindex, the new command cruiser version of the War Eagle, superb starships that the Romulans had now been converting because of the technology being provided by the Klingons.
It unleashed a plasma-R torpedo right at the Endeavor at point blank range.
The Endeavor took it on the #1 shield and took the full force of the plasma torpedo.
The forward shield of the heavy cruiser was blown dead and moderate damage was done to the interior of the Endeavor.
The operation had begun and it already got off to a very rough start.

MISSION OUTCOME:
1st Pass:
The Endeavor had to lick its wounds from the surprise plasma it just took up its nose.
But Captain Cook would not be denied.
The Endeavor fired its phasers at the Vindex weakening its shields.
However, its fired its photons on the Proconsul, hitting it with one standard and an overload.
The Florida took light damage from the Proconsul's plasma-S torpedoes that it had held in its launch tubes.
Our shields took the impacts with a few circuits burning out.
We fired our photons at the Proconsul which hit it and took out its #2 shield and did weapon damage to it.
The Proconsul would not be much of a threat anymore.

2nd Pass:
But the Vindex was.
Both Federation ships fired a drone at each ship, but the Romulan tractors rendered them useless.
The Proconsul fired its weapons at the Florida, but really did nothing to us except burning out some lab systems.
The Endeavor made a quick move to narrowly miss an asteroid and fired phasers at the Vindex.
It struck it hard, knocking down its #3 shield and doing internal weapon damage to it.
The Florida fired phasers at the Romulan KR, pretty much ending its phaser power.
It only had the type-S plasma left.
The King Eagle lost a phaser and a plasma-S.

3rd Pass:
The Federation ships had photons charged and ready on the next pass.
We knew we had to strike hard before the Romulan's plasmas were ready to fire.
In the next pass on the Romulans, we did.
The Florida made a strike on the Proconsul with phasers and photons.
Both penetrated the Romulan KR and struck it thru the down #3 shield.
Our sensors indicated that the Proconsul was crippled.
The Romulan KR heavy cruiser was now ripe for the taking.
We just had to deal with the king eagle cruiser now.
And it was not going anywhere.

MISSION EPILOGUE:
The Florida made a quick side-slip to port and we turned into the Vindex, ready to throw some firepower at it.
The Endeavor followed in behind us and wanted to fire at the king eagle right after we did.
As we made our approach towards the Vindex, sensors had picked up another ship de-cloaking in the area.
Captain Hopkins yelled out, "Hold your fire!"
I had my finger ready to press the FIRE button for the phasers when he gave that command.
I lifted my hand from the console.
When we looked out our view-screen, we all saw what had just appeared to our port side.
It was ship that I thought that the Romulans didn't use any more.
I thought wrong.
It was the Victory Bird, a Romulan Vulture-class dreadnought recently converted to tactical warp from its sub-light state.
It was big, bold and ready to give us a big headache.
Captain Cook radioed a message to the Florida from the Endeavor.
"Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you!"
The Endeavor and the Florida together might have given this Romulan beast a good fight, but we had already received battle damage and there was still the king eagle Vindex to deal with in spite of the Victory Bird.
The big Romulan ship had its weapons powered up and ready to deal some major hurt to us.
But it waited to see what we would do first.
We expected to be hailed from the dreadnought, to send us a message.
But it really didn't have to do that.
Just the arrival of the Victory Bird was a good message enough.
We had no choice.
The Endeavor and the Florida powered down their weapons and dropped shields.
Then we both did high energy turns and warped out of the system.
Our mission was a failure for we had taken too long to grab the Proconsul before help could arrive for them.

NEXT ASSIGNMENT:
The Florida and the Endeavor returned to planet Gamma III in sector 3814 for debriefing.
The mission was a failure, but since it was never an official Starfleet operation, it was swept under the carpet very quietly.
Even the Romulans didn't say anything about it to Starfleet either.
I guess there was more than meets the eye about this little skirmish.
It would be some time in the future before I heard anything about the Proconsul again.
But until that time came, I just decided to be a good, young Starfleet officer and kept my mouth shut.
However, the attempt we made to capture the Romulan ship did not go unnoticed by Starfleet brass.
Captain Hopkins was given a secret commendation by the higher ups and was given command of a new ship.
Well...not really a new ship.
Starfleet had decided to refit the light cruiser Florida into an old heavy cruiser by adding a couple of photon launchers.
Personally, I wasn't sure about this experiment.
It would make the Florida more powerful, yes, but it would slow it down by a considerable margin.
It would be very interesting to see what this ship was capable of.
And I would find that out very soon...
However, it was promotion time.
I was now given the rank of Lieutenant-Commander and I remained on board the Florida.
But I was now given the position of Chief of Staff, third in command of the ship behind the executive officer, Commander Urban.
I embraced this new role and I vowed to do well, knowing how close I was getting to my own command in the future.
At this stage in my life, I thought the future was very promising.
I was moving up in Starfleet, I had been already involved in some great battles and I had great hope for myself and for my friends.
Little did I know that ominous clouds were forming on the horizon and the sky was beginning to darken...
But those are other stories...
_________________
"No one talks peace, unless he's ready to back it up with WAR!"
---Colonel Green. Star Trek TOS "The Savage Curtain"

Joseph L. Roberts---Commander (Executive Officer)--Federation Heavy Cruiser USS Excelsior NCC-1718