www.ditl.org

Yes, it's the first book.

You're a quick one now aren't you!

Anywho, the Horus series is a great read.

Don't be a smarta** - the Heresy is Imperial history, and the title COULD have referred to a story contemporary with others.

Besides, a strong grasp of the obvious has always been one of my faculties. At least I got it right...

True enough as I don't think I've ever had that problem with you before.

Chapter 3

July Thirteenth, 2214, 16:27
UECC Intrepid
En-route to Groombridge 1618
UE controlled space

"Captain on deck!" Barked one of the armoured naval marines, as Navarro and Yjsen strode through the heavy blast doors into the Intrepid's Auxiliary Fire Control.

"As you were, people." Navarro called as the crew snapped to attention. "Which of you is Lieutenant Commander Vreysa?"

"hSir?" Growled a voice just behind the two officers. Yjsen spun around, and then almost drew his sidearm in surprise at the sight of the ship's Spatial Combat Officer. An orange and white furred Dacin, in a dark blue/black UESN naval uniform, was standing politely beside the Captain, an MPC in hand.

"Lieutenant Commander Vreysa?" Navarro asked, taking the fact that the ship's SCO was an alien a lot easier than the XO.

"Yes hSir."

"Good. Have you had a chance to review our combat readiness?"

"I have, hSir. Our heavy cannons are all functioning perfectly, hexcept for a hslight problem with the traverse hsystem on turret five, about which I've sent a notification to maintenance. Our medium weapons check out fine. As do our point defence weapons. The flak turrets are fine, but there's a problem with the loading feeds on turret twenty height. Again, I let maintenance know. Our missile hstockpiles all check out fine, and the launchers are perfect."

"Excellent. And your opinion of the crew?" Vreysa hesitated a moment before answering, his bushy tail flicking back and forth as he thought.

"Well . . . I'd like to take hsome time to run a few combat hexercises when we get to our destination. The crew is good, very good, but they're completely unhexperienced with real combat."

"You've been in combat before?" Yjsen asked.

"Yes hSir. hSeveral times."

"Good. Maybe you can show them the ropes, then." Navarro replied. He looked around the cramped room, dimly lit and filled with computer consoles and marines, then turned to Commander Yjsen. "I think that's everything I came to check. I'd like to take a look at Main Engineering next."

"Yes Sir." Yjsen answered.

"Commander." Navarro nodded in farewell as Vreysa saluted, then the two senior officers left. Vreysa watched them go, then turned to his own second in command, Lieutenant Tyler, who had just appeared beside him.

"Lieutenant?" Vreysa asked.

"Uh, we've just gotten a report that launch tube eight has broken down." She reported.

"What? How?"

"Err, the crew doesn't know. Apparently, the silo is just refusing to open. The computer isn't being very helpful to them either, apparently." Vreysa sighed.

"Right. hSend another notification to maintenance, and get them to check all the tubes after they're done."

"All of them?"

"Yes, Lieutenant, all of them. The last thing we need is for one of them to hstop working in the middle of a battle."

"Right, Sir." Tyler replied, as she typed a notice into her MPC. "I'll let the guys down below know as soon as I get a chance."

"Good. Now, I'm going to head up to the CIC. You're in charge here, while I'm gone."

"Yes Sir!" Tyler replied, saluting enthusiastically. Vreysa returned the salute, and then headed for the exit. As the doors opened, he paused for a long moment, and then walked back to Tyler.

"Lieutenant?"

"Sir?"

"Where is the CIC, again?" Vreysa asked, trying and failing to sound dignified while hopelessly lost.

"Deck nineteen, section three. Just down the hall and to the right from Primary Nav." Tyler replied, stifling a laugh. Ever since coming on board, their new SCO had gotten completely lost several times, despite the maps and location markers posted on the walls. It was well known to the crew that Vreysa simply couldn't get his head around the ship's layout, and complained constantly about it.

"Right. Thank you, Lieutenant." He said, looking quite irritated. As he stalked off, Tyler could hear him muttering quietly under his breath in his own language, though she did catch something in English about 'flying skyscrapers'.

* * *

"Christ, Dacin and everything on the ship." Yjsen sighed as they left Auxiliary Fire Control.

"Remind me not to introduce you to our Chief Flight Controller." Navarro said with a smirk as they got into a lift.

"It ain't a Laithan, is it?" Yjsen asked as he tapped the key for the Main Engineering deck. The lift hummed for a moment then began dropping downward towards their destination.

"No. She's a Cyrvin."

"Oh, right. Cyrvins are fine with me. I like those overgrown lizards. I mean, they're practicaly people. It's just that you never know what those Dacin are up to." The lift binged as they arrived at the Main Engineering deck. Striding through another set of blast doors, even thicker than the ones at Auxiliary Fire Control, they were immediately hit by a massively loud humming.

"CAPTAIN! COMMANDER!" One of the marines at the entrance yelled to be heard above the noise. "YOU SHOULD PROBABLY TAKE SOME OF THESE!" He gestured at a rack of earmuffs and personal intercoms along the wall. Gesturing in acknowledgement, Yjsen and Navarro both grabbed a pair. They weren't perfect, but they shut out a good amount of the noise. The two of them then clipped an intercom unit onto their uniform collar. The small devices would transmit any speech to a speaker built into the earmuffs. The only problem was that they were unable to filter out the roar of the ship's engines when they were in use. The two officers quickly realised this when they strode through a second set of blast doors into the Main Engine Room itself.
The Main Engine Room, containing the main engine units, was the most chaotic place Navarro had ever seen. Engineering officers strode around the cavernous room, four stories high, yelling orders at crewmen. The crewmen scrambled from one area of the room to another to follow out these orders. Small loading vehicles and load-lifter exosuits sped and lumbered around, yellow alert lights flashing constantly. Maintenance technicians ran around, trying to check up on all the systems and get out of the pandemonium as quick as possible. A few Administration officers stood around the edges, talking to Engineering officers about fuel consumption and resource management. The roar of the ship's four main engines was almost deafening, even through the earmuffs.
Yjsen grabbed an Engineering crewman as he ran past.

"Where is Lieutenant Otako?"

"WHAT?"

"WHERE IS LIEUTENANT OTAKO?" Yjsen roared into his intercom unit. The crewman pointed at a figure on an overhead gantry, then ran off.
Locating a ladder, Navarro and Yjsen climbed up to the gantry, a full four metres above the ground. Massive metre thick fuel lines criss-crossed the space around them. Looking around, Yjsen spotted the person they had been told was Otako looking down as a trio of radiation-suited figures emerged from one of the dozens of entrances and exits in the room, a gust of steam billowing out behind them.

"Lieutenant Otako?" Navarro asked him.

"SIR?"

"ARE YOU LIEUTENANT OTAKO?" Navarro shouted.

"YES, SIR!" Lieutenant Nick Otako replied. "CAN I HELP YOU?"

"WHAT'S THE STATUS OF THE ENGINES?"

"WHAT?"

"STATUS?" Navarro roared, waving down at the engines.

"OH! FINE, JUST FINE. NO PROBLEMS AT ALL."

"RIGHT."

"WHAT?"

"ALL RIGHT!" Navarro said, then gestured that they were leaving. There was more he wanted to ask Otako, but he wanted to get out of the chaotic place as quickly as possible. Otako waved goodbye cheerfully as the two officers hurried back down the ladder and out the exit. The two pulled the earmuffs and intercoms off as they reached the exit, then fled out the second set of blast doors into blissful silence.
As they stood in the corridor outside Main Engineering, Navarro's personal communicator went off, he flicked it on.

"REPORT!" He yelled, making Yjsen and the four marine guarding the Main Engineering entrance jump. "Sorry. Report." Apparently he had startled the caller as well, as he took a while to reply.

"Uh, Sir, Lieutenant Gass wants to inform you that we'll be arriving at our destination in ten minutes."

"Ah, right. Tell him I'm on my way."
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The third instalment. Thoughts, suggestions?

A worthy successor to the first two. I like the way you presented the engineering department as if it were actually a functioning engine room (imagine that?!) complete with noise, dirt, chaos, and officers who end up one card short of a deck.

Thank you, its what I was aiming for.

I agree with Mikey on the realism of a chaotic, blastingly loud engine room. Nice to see some real thought put into the ship's operations. Good work again, Rochey.

Thanks.

I had this already written out, so here's the next bit. Mostly character introduction, we get to meet the rest of the senior officers on the Intrepid.
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Chapter 4

July Thirteenth, 2214, 17:35
Yanusa system
UE border

"What? Closer?"

"Yes, Nosa, get closer to that tanker. That's what I keep telling you."

"Not safe to go closer. Get spotted."

"No one's going to see us. All they'll see is that big tanker ahead of us there, all lit up and shiny. No one's going to see us because no one can see us. Okay?"

"Okay. Fine."

"Good. Look, just keep real close to that tanker and follow it in when it opens a portal. Everything's going to be fine. You don't even need active sensors, the moron's got his external lights turned on. You can follow him visually."

"So . . . you plan on telling me where we go yet?"

"What do the crew think?"

"Think we on special mission. Top secret. Like you said."

"Right. Well, it's something like that."

"Okay. But where we go?"

"We're going to get into UE space through the Qoubol System. Then we're going to jump to our eventual destination from a nearby system. I'll tell you what that is when we get there."

"Qoubol? You kidding! We not get through there, ever! You get us killed, Steven!"

"Nosa, shut up before someone else hears you. I'm not going to get us killed, because they wont even know we were there."

"They catch stealth ships before, Steven. Why we get through when no one else get through?"

"Because we have better systems than the others who tried."

"That probably what they said too. We going to get spotted! UE has monitor satellites all over the border, and Qoubol is the worst! We get caught, and killed!"

"Nosa, shut up! Look, trust me. Do as I say, and no on will ever know we were there. This I assure you of."

July Thirteenth, 2214, 16:32
UECC Intrepid
Groombridge 1618
UE controlled space


On the edge of the system of Groombridge 1618, a small system along the UE/Cyrvin border, a small tear in the fabric of space blossomed into existence, showing up on sensors throughout the system. Out of the portal flew the UECC Intrepid.

"Captain on deck!" Barked one of the armoured marines guarding the entrance to the ship's bridge. Yjsen quickly strode off towards the Nav station, to check their position. Navarro took up his customary position in the centre of the bridge, from where he could oversee all operations that went on. Looking up at the large wall-mounted display screens, he could see that they had just entered Groombridge. Another display showed all sensor contacts within the system; most showing up as green contacts (signifying other UE vessels) and with a spattering of blue (allied, but not UE ships) and yellow (neutral) contacts.

"Sir." Reported Yjsen, coming back over from the Nav station. "We've arrived on the outer edges of the system, sector nine-five-three. Orders?"

"Head towards the main planet, half velocity. I want to get whatever local info on goings on in the area we can, HQ's reports weren't very specific."

"Aye Sir. Lieutenant Rodgers?" Yjsen turned to the Helm officer.

"Sir?" Head to the main planet, one half velocity."

"Aye Sir." Rodgers answered quickly, and began issuing orders to the various sub-lieutenants and ensigns under his command. In moments, there was a subtle change in the ever present hum of the engines, announcing an increase in speed.
Navarro watched the crew mill about for a few moments, then headed over to the Comms station.

"Ensign . . . Talin, isn't it?" He asked the crewman manning the internal comms station currently, who he recalled meeting earlier on.

"Yes Sir."

"Right. Could you send a message to each departmant head that I want to meet with him or her in half an hour, in the main conference room on deck eight?"

"Of course, Sir."

"Good. Carry on then."

July Thirteenth, 2214, 16:35
UECC Intrepid
Groombridge 1618
UE controlled space


Lieutenant Commander Vreysa strode through the blast doors into the Intrepid's Combat Information Centre, and immediately spotted who he was looking for.

"Wing Commander Tonnoli?" He asked, walking up to the ship's Chief of Flight Operations, who was talking with a couple of the fighter squadron leaders. She turned around as Vreysa approached.

"Yeah, that's me. And you are . . .?"

"Lieutenant Commander Vreysa, Spatial Combat Officer."

"Right." Tonnoli said, surveying Vreysa with undisguised dislike. "And you wanted . . .?"

"Er, I was hspeaking with the Captain hearlier, and hexpressed my desire to run combat hsimulations throughout the hship hsometime hsoon. I'd like to request your bomber hsquadrons take part in a hsimulated attack on the hship, to test our flak and point defence crews."

"Funny. I was just talking to my bomber squadron commanders." Tonnoli said, gesturing at the two officers she had been speaking with earlier. The two turned round as they were mentioned, and both glared at Vreysa with just as much obvious dislike as their commanding officer. "This is Squadron Leader Moore and Squadron Leader Cole." She said, gesturing at each in turn. Dacin were, on average, about a head smaller than most humans, and Vreysa was no exception, but the two bomber commanders towered over the SCO. "They've both got a lot of experience attacking warships."

"Ah, good." Vreysa said brightly, making a stab at conversation. "Nice to know we've got people who know what they're doing on board."

"What's that supposed to mean?" One of them, Cole, growled.

"Nothing." Vreysa answered in surprise. "I just mean it's good that we have experienced -"

"Was there anything else you wanted?" Tonnoli cut across him.

"Uh, no, no that's it."

"Right. I'll work something up on it."

"Em, okay. Good." Vreysa replied, getting the fact that he was far from wanted. "Er, I hshould probably speak to Colonel Thomson. If you'll excuse me . . ." He turned and quickly left the dimly lit CIC. He did need to see Colonel Thomson, the commander of the ship's marine complement, and he wanted to speak to the ship's Chief Engineering Officer about the shield generators and the power they were getting. He was just trying to remember where Main Engineering was, when his communicator beeped.

"Yes?" He answered, flicking it on.

"Lieutenant Commander Vreysa?"

"Yes."

"The Captain wants to speak with you at seventeen hundred in the main conference room."

"Okay. Thank you." Vreysa replied, then flicked the communicator back off again. He thought for a moment, then struck off towards the conference room.

July Thirteenth, 2214, 17:02
UECC Intrepid
Groombridge 1618
UE controlled space


Captain Navarro watched as the last few people walked into the conference room and sat down at the large table in the centre. The room was quite full. There was himself at the head of the table, and Yjsen was present sitting at his right. On Navarro's left, there was the SCO, Vreysa, who had rushed into the room at the last minute. Next to him was the ship's Chief Gunnery Commander, Lieutenant Thrush, who was firing off suggestions and queries at Vreysa quicker than the Dacin could answer. Opposite Thrush was Wing Commander Tonnoli, the commander of the ship's fighter and bomber complements, lounging back in her chair. Next to her was Otako, scribbling absent mindedly on a piece of paper. Opposite him was Heeny, the Spatial Intelligence Officer, surveying his fellow officers quietly. Seated next to him was Lieutenant Vail, the Senior Sensory Officer, chatting with the Cyrvin across the table from her, Lieutenant Krvsk, the ship's Chief Flight Controller. Sitting next to her, and looking quite unhappy with the seating arrangement, was Major Dell, the ship's Administration Head, who was shooting the reptilian alien next to him worried glances. Opposite Dell was Lieutenant Rodgers, the Senior Helm Officer, typing something into his MPC. Next to Rodgers, near the end of the table, was the youngest person present Lieutenant Thornton, the Chief Navigational Officer, looking quite happy to be there. Opposite him, glaring at everything and everyone, was Colonel Thomson, the ship's head of marines. Standing at the door was a pair of fully armoured marines, and standing just behind Navarro was the Captain's aide, Bray.
The room fell into silence as Navarro stood up and cleared his throat.

"Right. Well, I've called you all here for a couple of reasons. Firstly, to discuss our deployment orders for the next few months, and secondly, to discuss the operational status of the ship." He took his Miniature Personal Computer out of his pocket, typed in his pass code, and transmitted the orders. The room was filled with beeps as the MPCs of virtually everyone in the room received the orders. Navarro then plucked a memory chip out of his MPC and handed it to Bray, who inserted it into a slot in the computer into the wall on the left side of the room. A small humming noise started up as a fuzzy hologram appeared in the centre of the table, displaying a map of their patrol zone.

"As you can see," Navarro continued, pointing at the hologram. "the next few months will see us patrolling the UE/Cyrvin border. Our trip will take us about one quarter of the way around it, and will last approximately six months. Everyone with me so far?" The various officers nodded.
"Our first port of call is, obviously, the system of Groombridge 1618, where we currently are. We're to wait here for four days, then join up with the sector's thirteenth battle group for a mock fleet action with the sector's fourth battle group.
After that, we'll follow the fleet for a couple days, then break off for our patrols. Our second port of call is the Jockovy system, where we'll stay for about a week or so. After that . . . em, right, I'm not going to go through all these one by one or we'll be here all day. Our third visit will be Solomon Three, a world with a mostly Cyrvin population. After that, look it up yourselves, you all have the orders in your MPCs." Navarro ended the first part of the briefing and looked around. "Any questions?" After a pause, Lieutenant Thornton asked a question.

"What will we be doing while we're here, Sir?"

"We'll mostly just be keeping an eye on the area. Watching out for pirates, giving smugglers a headache, the normal business."

"Will there be shore leave?"

"Yes. That's actually where we're headed now. We're going to drop into orbit of New Sydney, the system's capital planet, for supplies and information. While we're there, some of the crew will be allowed go down to the surface. Anything else?" No one seemed to have any other questions, so Navarro headed on to the second part of the briefing.

"Now, some of you have tried contacting me with requests or suggestions, and I've tried to talk to a few of you myself. So, lets go round the table, and if anyone has anything they want to mention they can feel free." He turned first to the SCO. "Commander, I think you wanted to run some combat simulations?"

"Uh, Yes hSir." Vreysa replied.

"Well," Asked Navarro. "If we'll be taking part in a simulated fleet action in a few days, wont that just solve the problem?"

"Yes hSir, but I think it would be best to run some simulations on our own before the battle itself. I'd prefer to have the ship at full combat readiness, even if it is just a simulation."

"Okay then." Navarro replied, nodding. He was glad to see Vreysa seemed to want to keep the ship as well trained as possible. He turned next to Tonnoli.

"Commander Tonnoli, Colonel Thomson, I'd like you to have your people involved in these actions as well. We need our pilots and marines as well trained as possible as well."

"Yeah, Sir." Tonnoli replied, as Thomson nodded in agreement with the Captain's suggestion.

"Right. Lieutenant Otako?"

"Captain?"

"What's the status of our engines?"

"Oh, fine."

"And the reactors?"

"Fine."

"No problems at all?"

"Oh, no. We're all fine down there."

"Okay then. Major Dell, what's our current status?"

"Adequate. Our fuel, water, food, spare parts, personnel complement, fighter complement, weapons stockpile, and everything we need are all within acceptable levels, more than capable of keeping us going for four months without re-supplying."

"Brilliant. I think that's just about everything. Anyone anything else to say?" He looked around the room, but everyone remained silent. "Very well then. Dismissed."
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Right, I had chapters 3, 4 and five already written up from the last few weeks, so I'll just post them roughly together. I'll wait 'till tomorow to post chapter five, though. Let me know what you think.

Dude! I love this story!

I am also finding it rather enjoyable.

Thank you!

Whew, I finaly got the next chapter of this story up!
The fairly long break in writing was caused by my computer crashing a few months ago and losing all the MS Word documents I had on it, which contained all the info pertaining to these stories. So I basicaly had to re-construct everything from memory. Well, that'll teach me to make backups for my files.
Anyway, here's chapter 5. Let me know what you think!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

United Earth Chapter 5

July fourteenth, 2214, 02:09
UECC Intrepid
Groombridge 1618
UE controlled space

"Delta Eight; pull up! You're flying in full view of those flak guns!" Tonnoli yelled into her fighter's comms unit, watching the idiot pilot dance through a wall of flak on her sensor screen.

"Copy, Commander, breaking off." Delta Eight replied, sending his ship flying away from the massive warship.

Tonnoli kept her eyes on her sensors, flying past missiles and flak bursts. A warning alarm blared in her fighter's cockpit, signifying an enemy weapon had locked onto her. A second later, her sensors showed a point defence gun tracking her path, preparing to fire. She pulled back hard on the control stick and jammed on the port thrusters, spinning the ship to the right and barely missed colliding with a heavy bomber heading straight at the warship. The PD gun spun after her, trying to track her manoeuvre, her sensors showed a line of shots slicing through the void after her. They followed her path and slammed into the bomber she had just passed. Its crew gave off a strangled curse before their symbol flickered off the sensor screen. Either the PD gunner mistook the bomber for her or he found someone better to shoot at, as the gun quickly swivelled away from her and began blasting away elsewhere.
Levelling out, she glanced at the display screen that showed the status of her fighters and bombers. More than half of the markers glowed red; more than half of her pilots were downed.

"Gamma, Delta," She snapped into the comms at her remaining bomber squadrons. "What's your situation? Get those damn shields down, I'm losing pilots!"

"Aye Commander, this is Delta. We're making a run now." Tonnoli spun her fighter again, slipping out of the line of sight of a missile battery, and glanced down at her sensors just in time to see the rear shields of the massive ship flicker and fail. She slammed the comms on again.

"All pilots, the rear shields are down, commence strafing runs. Alpha seven and nine; knock out those flak batteries near the engines. Gamma; go for the engines themselves." Orientating her fighter's nose towards the rear of the ship, she gunned the small dart-like fighter towards the engines of the warship.

As she passed through the space where the shields used to be, her lock-on warning blared again and her sensors showed a wall of flak coming straight at her. She dove her fighter low, skimming along the ship, only half a dozen metres from the hull. The flak guns tried to follow her path, but she was too low. Aiming at her would mean the flak guns would have traversed their turrets low enough to hit their own ship, something they weren't designed to do. The guns were helpless.
With a cold smile, Tonnoli lined up on the turrets, locking on with one of her rockets. However, before she could fire a pair of bombers made a run on the turrets who hadn't even noticed them. Tonnoli suddenly realised she was flying straight towards the bombers' targets. Before she could react, the lumbering things had loosed a mass of ordinance at the turrets, including a high-powered EMP bomb. She flew right through the blast. Her sensors failed instantly, her weapons ceased to respond, and her forward manoeuvring thrusters were down. She slammed on the controls, stopping herself from slamming into the hull. She pulled up, out of the interference, and blundered straight into the firing lines of a trio of point defence guns.
Before she could even think of moving her craft out of range, the PD guns spun around, locked onto her, and fired.

Or rather; they didn't.

What did happen was a loud siren started up in Tonnoli's cockpit, making it sound like her fighter had just flat lined, the lights in her cockpit dimmed and the symbol representing her on the sensor screen blinked out of existence. Swearing violently, and making various obscene remarks on the parentage of the Intrepid's gunners, she turned away from the carrier and flew out of the combat zone.
After a moment or so of flying, she stopped a few clicks out from the carrier alongside close to two dozen other fighters and bombers who had also been 'killed'. After a moment, Cole, Delta squadron's leader, drifted up beside her in his massive Liberty class heavy bomber.

"You get nailed, too?" He asked over the comms.

"Yeah." Tonnoli replied. "One of our own morons hit me with an EMP, then the PDs got me."

"Shit, he just better not have been from my squad." Cole growled.

Tonnoli looked back out the cockpit window at the mock battle raging ahead of her as a couple more fighters, running lights similarly dimmed to show that they were 'dead', wandered over to join the group of downed pilots. At this range, she could only see the battle as a bunch of small dots of light, her fighters, dancing around a slightly larger dot of light, the Intrepid. Her pilots spun and danced through non-existent walls of flak, dodging non-existent missiles, and retaliating with their own non-existent fire. Looking at it visually, the simulated combat looked like some sort of bizarre ballet. Looking at it through her sensors, it was the full insanity of combat. She was barely able to figure out what was going on, her screens were too jumbled with different markers and interference from the Intrepid's impressive array of jamming systems.

"Cole." She commed. "Any idea what's happening out there?"

"Yeah." He replied with a snort. "Beta squad is, again, showing they're the very definition of the word 'suck'."

"Nothin' fuckin' new there." A new voice grunted. Looking up, Tonnoli saw Lieutenant McCartney's sleek Donnern class interceptor drifting in from the battlefield. Aaron McCartney was Tonnoli's second in command, and was undoubtedly pissed off at getting knocked out of the fight.

"How's it going, McCartney?" Cole asked as the interceptor levelled out next to him.

"Just fantastic. Aside from gettin' blown outta the sky by some stupid fucker, that is." McCartney replied, voice dripping with sarcasm. Before Cole could reply the comms crackled and an unfamiliar voice butted in.

"All craft; this is Intrepid Flight Control. Simulation over. All craft have landing clearance."

July fourteenth, 2214, 02:16
UECC Intrepid
Groombridge 1618
UE controlled space

"Good. Very good." Vreysa nodded in approval as he watched the last few fighters get knocked out of the 'battle'. "My commendations to the gunnery crews, they performed hexcellently."

"I'll be sure to pass your approval down to them, Sir." Nodded Lieutenant Thrush, the ship's Chief Gunnery Commander.

The two officers were standing at the Tactical station in the Combat Information Centre. They had spent the last half hour watching the simulation unfold, peering over the shoulders of the Tactical crewers to read weapon readiness reports, look at sensor images, and watch the 'battle' unfold on banks of monitors that showed views from cameras mounted on the exterior hull. Occasionally, one or the other of the two officers would wander over to the Flight Control station, located on the other side of the dimly lit CIC, and watch the combat unfold from that perspective.

"Please do." Vreysa replied, and then turned to one of the crewman seated at the Tactical station. "Copy those hsensor logs and hsend them to the terminal in my quarters, I'll review them later."

"Aye, Sir."

July fourteenth, 2214, 13:23
UECC Intrepid
Groombridge 1618
New Sydney
UE controlled space

"Commander?"

"What is it, Ensign?" Asked Commander Yjsen, walking over to the helm operator that had addressed him.

"Sir, we've just dropped into geo-synchronous orbit over New Sydney's capital. As ordered." The Ensign reported, gesturing at one of the large wall-mounted display screens which currently showed the Intrepid's position over the planet below them. A string of numbers and symbols next to the ship and the planet gave more detailed information than anyone could possibly be bothered knowing about on the precise status of the planet.

"Good work. Hold us in position here."

"Aye, Sir." The Ensign replied, turning back to his controls to fiddle with some dials and levers. Yjsen's well trained ears registered the subtle change in the ever-present hum from the ship's massive engines. Back on the display screen, numbers began changing wildly with the carrier's movement.

After a moment watching the ship reposition itself on the display screens, Commander Yjsen unclipped his miniature personal computer from his belt, and opened up the list he and Captain Navarro had made up that morning concerning shore leave. He scanned over the list to make sure there were no mistakes, and then sent it to each of the department heads with orders to disperse it further among the lower ranks.
The list itself was a complicated timetable of shuttle flights to and from the surface of the planet, and information on when each member of the crew would be let down onto the planet and for how long. Yjsen himself wasn't too thrilled with being back on this dull, lifeless mudball of a planet, but it would still be nice to breathe real air for a while. Though he resolved to keep a close eye on his wallet while he was down there.
After he had dispersed the various lists, the stocky Commander headed over to the other side of the cluttered bridge to the Communications station. He sat down at a vacated station, picked up a microphone and flicked the dial to make it transmit across the Intrepid's announcement system. After a moment, his voice boomed across the vessel.

"Attention all hands." It echoed. "We are now in geo-synchronous orbit over the capital of New Sydney. We will remain here for the next few days, and shore leave will be permitted." Yjsen paused for a moment for the quiet cheers from the crew at this news died down. "Check with your superiors for your time of departure and the duration of your stay on the planet. That is all."

Still love it!