Episode 1: First Day's are a Bitch

Comeau looked into the cloud, and then around it. "Sensors. I want a full area sweep of everything but the cloud. Make sure that's where our potential pirates are hiding. After that, I want to know where in the hell that distress call originated, so we can find them. They remain in danger."

"I'll mark the distress signal and send to your mfd. Sir, there are too many potential ambush sights to mark. These asteroids are creating a lot of dead zones. Our radar can do only so much with an area this dense with debris. Luckily for us the asteroids aren't large enough to hide any line ships... Meaning the ships that might be hiding would have to be small."

As Comeau glanced at his multifunction display. The location of the distress signal was clearly displayed. The possible ambush locations were also marked;there were at least a dozen highly possible ambush locations and many more that could hide smaller ships like fighters.

Comeau considered his options, and turned to Ryan.
"If we are heading into an ambush, the enemy has likely considered the locations we might enter, if we charge in. We either need to endanger the ship by flying in without knowing the full lay, or we need to find some way to clear some space. Any suggestions?"

The head tactical officer (an as of unnamed and unconceptualized individual), tightens his straps and clears his throat. "Sir, it might be a good idea to use our launches as scouts. We have the two of them at our disposal and it won't take long to get them prepped for launch."

Ryan nods. "That might keep the ship safe, but if anything goes down those shuttles are sitting ducks. They're not really meant for stellar travel and as far as weapons and maneuverability go those things are big fat geese. We could try and provide some support while we launch them, but they might also risk getting in the line of fire."

Comeau considered this. "Would it be at all possible to pilot the launches from here? We need some sort of trigger for their trap. They are probably just as anxious about this as we are, so they're likely to twitch at a featherfall."

Ryan rubbed his chin as he shifted in his seat. "They're not set up for that, but we could ask the chief if it was possible. If you want to just get a tactical sitrep we could try launching a probe"

Comeau smiled. "Hold off on the probe, for now. I'd like to see about manufacturing a very simple, but visible frame to fit around one, as a decoy. What I've got planned is going to take two of our probes."

Ryan nodded. "Should we get the engineer and the head of flight ops on the horn, sir?" Ryan glanced quickly at the display set at his chair. The worry of time running out for the damaged ship was quickly settling into the minds of Comeau and the bridge crew. But so was the idea of then walking into an ambush.

Comeau Nodded. "Yes. Tell them that we need to have a probe rigged up to look either like a rather large explosive device, or like a transport. Stability is not our primary focus, but the enemy needs to see it. I need that Asap, and when that's ready, send that probe in. Fire another probe about two to five seconds after, and have it scan for extra heat signatures. If anything fires, it'll still be warm."

"I see, sir. Going to try and play their little game of pika boo against them, huh?" Ryan smiled lightly as he conveyed Comeau's orders to the engineering team. "They say they're making this a top priority but quickest they'll be able to get it done is twenty minutes. Things might get hairy on that crashed ship."

Comeau nodded agreement.
"Well, what are the chances of one probe being able to deliver enough telemetry to offer us a few clear shots before being destroyed? Or us being able to make it look like just another space rock, and send it in without it being detected? The ships themselves should have some residual heat signature. In the mean time, weapons. Lock on to a few of the best ambush sites, starting as far away as you can from the distress signal. Start taking them out. Make it look like a systematic sweep of the nebula. Who knows, we might even get something. Helm, get ready to move in whichever way you feel safest, we may have to hit evasive maneuvers at any second. Stay alert, everyone."

The weapons officer nods "Aye aye sir. I'm ready to fire at your command."

Ryan shifts in his seat again. "We should be able to get all the info we need for a decent target lock and then some. We might even be able to tell you what they had for lunch."

The helm acknowledges and begins to move slowly ahead into the field. Meanwhile, simulated explosions reveal no enemy ships... Yet.

Suddenly, as the ship closes deeper into the field red dots burst into life on Comeau's tactical display.

"Sir!"shouts the tactical officer. "We have multiple unidentified contacts closing rapidly. I'm detecting multiple weapon locks."

Comeau counted the blips on his screen.
"Hail them. If they refuse to answer, I want weapons locked and full defense. Ready evasive maneuvers."

Ryan laughed. If he hadn't known this was an exercise his demeanor might have been completely. "Something tells me they don't want to come over for dinner."

The helms officer immediately began evasive maneuvers to avoid the sensor locks, but movement in the debris field was difficult and the smaller fighters had the advantage.

Comeau's tactical screen came alive with information regarding all the various ship movements and whatever information the sensors could gather. The system had analyzed that they were Foxfire class short range fighters. And at least ten of them had emerged from their hidey holes.

Comeau nodded agreement.
"Be that as it may, we have protocols. Now, if we have hailed them and received no answer, I want to know how many of them we might be able to target and take out simultaneously. Transmit a warning to vacate the premises peaceably, and if they do not comply, we test it. We might want to consider making ourselves look bigger, as well. Any word on that specially decorated probe?"

The weapons officer answered the first question. "Assuming all Missiles hit, we could probably take out half a dozen with a missile Salvo. Maybe another two with the laser batteries."

The come officer sent the command to vacate, but all for naught.

"Another five minutes,"Ryan answered. "But we'll probably be in the heat of combat by then."

"Well. Alert up. We're marching off to battle. All hands to battle stations. Tell them they have two minutes to get that probe modified."
Comeau eyed his monitor again.
"Helm, can you identify which ships are having the least trouble targeting us? If so, send that information to weapons. Target those ones as top priority." Take them out in order of threat level, on my order."

Tactical acknowledged affirmative and the lights in the bridge dimmed slightly and klaxtons blared indicating a call to general quarters. At Comeau's command, his tactical display showed him which ships were having difficulty;although even that changed as ships moved and traveled into different trajectories.

The tactical officer looked up from his console and glanced at the captain. "Sir, do I have an open command to fire?"

Comeau nodded. "Fire at will. Let's take them out; don't go easy on them."

"Aye Aye sir." The tactical officer began preparing tactical locks. "Firing the first Salvo." As simulated missile launches appeared on Comeau's display a number of the ships on the main tactical screen exploded in giant blossoms of red. The tactical officer gaped in shock.

"Sir! Reporting three ships have been destroyed sir! I don't mean simulated sir... I mean actually destroyed!"

Ryan quickly tapped a number of buttons on his command chair. "That wasn't us. It couldn't have been. Comms! Call a hold to this Damn exercise. Tactical I want an inventory of our weapon stores."

Comeau turned to sensors, "I want a reading on the greater area. If we're set to simulation weaponry and we're not the only ones out here, I want to know it."

Comeau didn't even have to take the time to ask. Suddenly a number of fast moving blips appeared on the screen. The ships were far too fast to be anything that the crew had seen before. Even the slowest moving ship was moving faster than the Tenacious could in empty space. As the ships closed into visual range it was clear that the ships had been something they had not ever encountered.

Suddenly, black blasts of energy streaked ttowards them. The helms officer quickly took evasive maneuvers and the blasts of energy glanced across the Tenacious' armored hull causing minimal damage.

Comeau latched onto the handles of his chair, keeping himself steady through the evasive maneuvers.
It was clear that this new group had, for reasons unknown, full intent on destruction.
"While this new threat is unknown, we must still follow protocol. I want legitimate firepower online immediately, and while that's happening, I want hail attempts made. We need to make contact." He turned to Ryan, "Do we know if our other ships are armed at all, or have they been stripped for the purposes of training?"

"They're sitting ducks." Ryan answered. "We only have weapons because it was more convenient to leave the system after the exercise if our shakedown cruise went as planned."

The opfor fleet made a decent effort to evade being destroyed, but without weapons there was nothing they could do except prolong the length of time they were alive for a few moments and draw fire away from the Tenacious.

The weapons officer struggled to get a weapons lock on the unknown attackers. To add to the difficulty, the alien ships seemed to have some sort of defensive field around them which allowed them to avoid debris in the cloud which would normally disable a ship.

As the ship closed the visuals became clearer. The ships were manta shaped and looked almost organic in form. If they hadn't been under attack the sight would have been beautiful.

The sensors officer struggled to track the alien ships. Depending on their trajectories, the ships would vanish and reappear from their radar screens which indicated some sort of stealth system.

Comeau sighed at the news from Ryan.
"Order our ships to stand down, and make like bats out of hell for earth. Those pilots deserve real ships at the moment. We're the most powerful thing in our fleet right now, so we're going to have to hold them off until reinforcements arrive. On that note, send for reinforcements. Once the message is sent, keep trying to contact these new ships."