There certainly is a few different angles that can be taken with this.

I see a few from current conversation:

- Deliberate sabotage of the colony, ship comes in close to evacuate (shuttles to/from surface benefit from lower altitude), and saboteurs get on board, doing engine damage. The Orions whose agents did the damage attempt to make good on their initiative when their ships enter the system...

- Enemy ship (Orion, Romulan raider, whatever) appears in system. They see the GCA, and are about to disengage when the unexpected happens. Poor maintenance combined with an old, over-extended hull (and, perhaps, not fully 'sound' refit) leads to an engine overload as Warspite attempt to bring their ship up to maximum battle preparedness. Captain brings ship into atmosphere to put out fire, but...the enemy is still out there, and what damage has been done to the engine...

- An attack in two phases. The Warspite fought off some attacker (raider, pirate, space monster), but in the process suffered an unusual triple (D8.2) #12 'critical hit' [for purpose of the (D8.31) repair roll, that's a "-3"...no warp for movement, only 1/2 warp for any other purpose until you roll a '1'!]. It approaches the colony world to start attempting repairs and accept fighter cover from the planet, when another attacker appears...

- Some yet unidentified catastrophe is happening. Asteroids raining down on the colony or something. Warspite enters the atmosphere to help protect the base, and starts firing on whatever fragments are approaching too closely to the colony. An unlucky hit destroys a warp engine, but...what's this, an enemy ship (or new space monster?) escorting the asteroid storm in...

- It's the early years! What fighters? I didn't see any fighters... Anyway, Warspite is the workhorse of the fleet in Y102. A proud and capable YCA, deployed to the front lines to defend the Federation's newly "declared" border. A lot of those colonies that the Federation just took control over were...maybe more aggressively placed than neighboring empires would have appreciated. Perhaps some treaties weren't quite so carefully observed...but, now, there are human settlers on worlds dotting both sides of this newly claimed line. Warspite, as a show of strength, has arrived at one of these worlds to negotiate with the local 'claimjumpers' ('Sooners'?) and see if they can't be brought back closer to civilization. However, the enemy - unhappy with the 'border declaration' in the first place, has dispatched warships to settle the issue in force, rather than in treaty. These worlds are not within the newly expanded Federation border, but they are close. And they are human colonists, so must be defended against those who still want to lay claim to them...

- TIME TRAVEL! The Federation YCA Warspite, about to be lost in a battle against the Kzinti, mysteriously disappears...and arrives decades later over the same world, again. IFF signals do not match the new codes, and a flight of F-4s are rapidly scrambled to identify the mystery ship suddenly in the upper atmosphere streaming plasma...at the same time, sensor flashes on the edge of the system herald even more arrivals...who is in orbit, and who can THEY be?

By Bill Barnes (Mojo_Billbo) on Friday, January 28, 2011 - 09:31 am: Edit

I posted on Facebook the brief idea of someone using a stealthy space mine in the fictitious "Bermuda Space Triangle..."

****

"Engineering, what is going on?"
"We're not sure, Captain, the board was green and all of sudden we lost the starboard warp nacelle! We're working on it!"
"Captain, looking over the sensor recordings, it seems like we hit an explosive device." Stated the science officer.
"Explosive? how did we not detect it?"
"unknown at this time, however, I'm scanning for more of these devices.."

The Captain looks around the bridge as officers are quickly going about their emergency work, and talking aloud to no one in particular...
"Dang Bermuda Space Triangle myth... Now they have stealth mines..."
"Captain! Sensors have detected a shadow of something that might be another device..."
"Weapons, target that object and fire!"

****

By Dal Downing Rambler (3deez) on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 02:20 am: Edit

Make it a Demotivation Poster wth the Caption. "You ever had one of those years..."

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 02:23 pm: Edit

Or... the captain speaking to his bridge crew...

"I'm going to shoot the next person who says 'It can't get any worse!!!"

By Nick G. Blank (Nickgb) on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 03:26 pm: Edit

Or the Engineer speaking to a cadet, "I told you, always make sure the input regulator is operating BEFORE activating the antimatter feed. Ach, me poor bairns..."

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, January 30, 2011 - 10:12 pm: Edit

Or "Cadet, I don't care what they told you back at the acedemy... as long as you are on this ship, the Matter/Anti Matter ratio is always going to be 1:1!"

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 02:00 am: Edit

Sure...once we get it on a product cover, THEN we can start making demotivationals for it.

Soooo...git cracking story writers!

(Although one of my coworkers was getting in on it. "Fighter 2, this is fighter 1 - you are getting all this for Youtube, right?")

By Lawrence Bergen (Lar) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 10:47 am: Edit

Wasn't the Warspite an NCL? I happened upon it listed as 1548 Warspite in the Fed ship registry. Maybe I missed a memo.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 11:44 am: Edit

Xander picked the name and it will probably be changed (or at least could easily be changed) by a story author.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 12:53 pm: Edit

You could be write, Lawrence, but it's also a GCA, apparently given a new life from its YCA past in Y140. Wonder how that happened? GCA must have been lost, somehow, before the NCL with that name was commissioned...



(Although, of course, the name can be changed as needed. I just liked Warspite, and it was available for a YCA/GCA.)

By John Sickels (Johnsickels) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 01:28 pm: Edit

IIRC, R9 says that there is a GCA named Warspite. My theory is that the GCA Warspite was destroyed in Y173 and the name was then passed on to a new NCL.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 01:56 pm: Edit

That would make sense. And the F-4s pictured start appearing in Y167. So it sets the art, as it currently is, in the period of Y167 -> Y173.

Of course, as noted, it can easily be changed. Taking out the fighters, and/or replacing them with something else, lets the piece be set considerably farther back in time. Or using a different ship potentially lets is be set later. Although watching name re-use will always be tricky.

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, January 31, 2011 - 02:32 pm: Edit

Day of the Eagle action is probably the simplest.

And it allows another DOTE story.

Gosh knows we are closing in on ALL the action of the DOTE in scenarios...

Day of the Eagle Order of Battle
Federation
6th Fleet- Admiral Matthews.
Command Division- Admiral Matthews
• DN Unification ** Does Not Appear on the ship name list**
• SC Crockett
• DD Darius CL 5 Encounter at Denebola. Destroyed
• FF Guderian. CL 37 The Magnificent Panzers. Damaged
• Tug Copernicus R2 destroyed Y183/ Klingon front (SH73.0) SLIPBACK. So obviously she survived the DOTE.
• DNL None assigned. All were on Klingon Front.
• CF Eagle Destroyed 2 listening posts on border (CL27?)
First Division- Commodore Stocker
• CC Lexington CL 5 Surprised Reversed. Saucer separated and escaped
• CA Republic CL 5 And to the Republic. Heavy Damage
• NCL Groton CL 31 Sheild of the Federation. Heavy Damage. Separated Saucer?
• CL Suffolk FC Romulan Attack. Survived battle. ALSO in Morkadian death March and badly damaged there. Note that in CL31 Shield of the Federation she “missed her last check in” on the DOTE.
• DD Genghis CL 31 Shield of the Federation. Heavy Damage
• FF Burke FC Romulan Attack. Not attacked Returned to BATS 11, In CL 31 Shield of the Federation it is noted that she engaged some cloaked warship of some kind on the DOTE.
• FF Lehman FC Romulan Attack. Destroyed. In CL31 Shield of the Federation it is noted that Lehman was sent to investigate the “missed check in” of the Suffolk.
Second Division- Read Admiral Williams
• CA Reshadjie CL 5 Encounter at Denebola. Damaged
• NCL Prince of Wales CL 5 Encounter at Denebola. Damaged
• CL Anatolia
• CL Macedonia CL 21 The Art of Duty. Destroyed
• DD Xerexes CL 5 Encounter at Denebola. Damaged Also in Morkain Death March SH 97and badly damaged there
• FF Drake FC Romulan Attack. Escaped a trap
• FF Rommel CL 37 The Magnificent Panzers. Damaged
Third Division Fleet Captain- Yefimov
• CA Potemkin FC Romulan Attack. Yefimov’s Anabasis? CL 37 Hit and Run. Damaged, later seen on Klingon front (R3, SH81 Radey to the Rescue, Y175)
• CL Kashmir FC Romulan Attack. Yefimov’s Anabasis?
• FF Mallory CL 5 Mention as being destroyed “by a large force.”
• FF Zhadanov FC Romulan Attack. Yefimov’s Anabasis? Survived, seen later on the Klingon Front (Radey to the Rescue SH 81, R3, Y175)
Carrier Group N
• CVB Nimitz CL 31 Aces and Eights. Engaged; no known damage.
• DE Halsey CL 31 Aces and Eights. Dropped Warp Engine and wrecked.
• FFR Fletcher CL 31 Aces and Eights. Damaged
• FFR Spruance
Carrier Group R
• CVS Raeder
• DE Donitz
• FFR Lutjens
• FFR Langsdorff
Federation Police Ships
• POL Masterson CL 5 And to the Republic. Later Destroyed. Crew Saved By Republic
• POL Swamp Fox CL 21 The Art of Duty. Mentioned.
• Q Ship Candice CL 21 The Art of Duty. Mentioned.
• POL Callahan (???) Mike Grafton story
Orphan Ships
• UNK Leonidas & Destroyer Division 3. Mentioned in CL 21 The Art of Duty. Another fleet? Leonidas is DDL 538. Why would a Light Cruiser Captain go to a Destroyer?
• CA Pharsallas CL 21 The Art of Duty. Mentioned. Laid up for another week. In the 7th (Tholian border) fleet?
• GFF Dorsey Pender CL 31 Shield of the Federation no damage IIRC
• CL Suffolk R4 Morkedian Death March SH 97
• DW UNKNOWN R4 Morkedian Death March
Defense Units
• Kappa Hydra V 6 phaser-1 bases, four defense satellites, and a commercial platform
• Beryl IV (Mike Grafton story in progress) Large Bomber base with 6 B47 and 6 F8 fighters
• Rimworld 793rd Planetary Defense Battalion and a squadron of F-4s.
• Ayer's Rock has a PDU with 3xGDB1 and the 81st Fighter Sqd with 12xF-8s. SH183
Missing Units
CVA (McArthur, Napolean or Zhukov) all on Klingon Front???
CL based minesweeper
CL based hospital ship
CLV or GSC type survey cruiser
CL based Drone Cruiser
CL based Commando Ship
CLV or CVE (based on CL Survey ship)
NVL
LTT
FFV
Frigate based Commando ship
Frigate based scout
Frigate based Drone Ship
Aux Carriers?
Aux Scouts?
Frigate based Theater Transport?
FCR? FCF?
Any DW based ships?

Romulans
Western Romulan Command
Sub Commander Markus’ Squadron
KE Praetor’s Will CL 5 And to the Republic.
WE Shikra CL 5 And to the Republic.
WE Wildfire CL 5 And to the Republic. Damaged and towed back to base.
352nd Half Cohort SH183
SPA Havoc
SKA Mace
SKG Crossbow
Unknown Ships
Frigate CL 5 Destroyed by 3rd Division
Cruiser CL 5 Damaged by 3rd Division
“Old Type” Snipe? CL 5 Run off by Lexington just before DOTE. POL?
Squadron hit by Lexington FC Scenario (Also R4, SH 97) Mordekian Death March
KRB Annihilation
KRB Retribution
SPA+ Avenger
K5R Tribune
Group of Romulan Privateers before DOTE. Sefarn’s Squadron?
WE Challenger CL 5 Destroyed before DOTE by Republic
Frigate Shark
Frigate Unicorn CL 5 Destroyed before DOTE by Republic
Talars Squadron
KE Audax CL 5 And to the Republic. Self Destruction
WE Acheron CL 5 And to the Republic. Undamaged
WE Gyrfalcon CL 5 And to the Republic. Undamaged
Frigate Swan CL 5 And to the Republic. Damaged by Freighters
Frigate Wolf CL 5 And to the Republic. Damaged by Freighters
At Denebola
Orion Base Station “Windstar”
Orion CA Gullwing CL 5 Encounter at Denebola. Damaged
KF5R Shillelah CL 5 Encounter at Denebola. Destroyed by Prince of Wales
KRL Conqueror CL 5 Encounter at Denebola. Damaged
SKH-G Sabre CL 5 Encounter at Denebola. Self Destructed
Squadron Surprised by Lexington
KRB CL 5 Surprised Reversed. Exploded
WE CL 5 Surprised Reversed.
Battlehawk CL 5 Surprised Reversed. Destroyed at Ceta Cygnax
KF5RB CL 5 Surprised Reversed. Exploded
Snipe A CL 5 Surprised Reversed. Exploded
Major Commander Terralis’ Squadron
SPA Furious CL 31 Shield of the Federation. Heavy Damage
SKA Sling CL 31 Shield of the Federation.
F5R Rapier CL 31 Shield of the Federation.
Sparrowhawk scout Owl A scout ship named “Owl” mentioned in passing in CL 31 Shield of the Federation and ASSUMED to be a SPH
Coalition Command Ship mentioned in passing CL 31 Shield of the Federation.
Imperial Standard Carrier Group Major Commander Parthek
SUP B Imperial Standard CL 31 Aces and Eights.
SKE Keeper CL 31 Aces and Eights. Heavily Damaged.
SKE Rampart CL 31 Aces and Eights.
FCR
Romulan attack on Kappa Hydra V, GURPS Romulans
KR Retaliation
KR frigate
War Eagle
Snipe frigate
Snipe frigate
Battlehawk Commando Ship
Romulan attack on Beryl IV (mike grafton story)
Hawk CV “Glorious Days of the Olympiad” with 6 GF superiority fighters
Snipe E “Lupine Nature”
Behemouth mentioned in passing (K9R command ship) but not at scene of battle
SPA Havoc was detached to attack Ayers' Rock (SH183) sometime after DOTE

By Joseph Gallagher (Draxdreadfeare) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 03:12 pm: Edit

I really like Xander's suggestion about Time Travel from a few posts ago. There are some similarities in that idea to the fate of the FX Vandal, but it could be made into a suitably different and exciting story. A brief outline:

- The YCA Warspite is heavily damaged during an attack on a Kzinti installation on Planet X(for those who want to see the Feds on the offensive for a change).
- In a desperate bid to put put out his engine fire, the captain dives into the atmosphere (allows incorporation of some of SPP's cool suggestions).
- Too deep in the gravity well for the damaged impulse engines to pull them out, the captain orders maximum warp acceleration, despite the chief engineer's insistence this is a Very Bad Idea. A temporal rift is torn open and the Warspite is flung decades forward in time…
- Meanwhile, 80-ish years in the future, Planet X is the site of another battle as a Kzinti SSCS group attacks what is now an Andromedan RTN base. One of the PF's gets too close to the planet, and the Andros try to displace it into the planet. The Andro displacement attempt fails catastrophically and a temporal rift is torn open, flinging the Kzinti gunboat decades back in time…
- This brings us to the action on the cover, in the early Y170's. Planet X is home to a small Federation colony at this time, whose quiet afternoon is ruined when an unknown ship comes screaming out of nowhere, trailing fiery debris. It looks like one of ours, but the IFF codes don't match, so the F-4's are scrambled. Suddenly a second unknown ship also pops out of nowhere. It looks like one of our Kzinti allies, but it matches no known configuration and it isn't broadcasting the right IFF codes either. And to make matters more confusing, possibly-friendly unknown contact #1 has just opened fire on possibly-friendly unknown contact #2!
- The heart of the story is that the folks from all three times must set aside their differences and work together to close the Temporal Vortex that has been opened before the Very Bad Thing happens (It swallows the planet or the entire space-time continuum is shattered or the captain's entire supply of hair gel is destroyed or whatever).
- The Andros are in the "present" timeline too, either because the displacing ship also got sucked back in time, or because they have had a small secret base on this planet for a long time. The key to shutting down the vortex and saving the planet/universe/scalp is a joint assault on the andro ship/base. This is complicated because neither group of Feds knows much about what an Andro is, and the Kzintis are less than forthcoming.
- A possible additional challenge for our heroes to overcome: Did I mention the Federation colony was on high alert for Klingon raiders in the area?

By Mark S. Hoyle (Resartus) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 05:19 pm: Edit

Joseph,

Great idea for a book, but not a limited 10 or 12 page story -- too much background to fill in -- then getting the captains to understand take as much before you get right now to the scenario ---

By Joseph Gallagher (Draxdreadfeare) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 07:12 pm: Edit

Well, I agree you couldn't stuff all that into 10 pages. But you could do it in 20 if you kept the plotting tight and focused on the action and not the fluff.

By Stewart W Frazier (Frazikar2) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 08:19 pm: Edit

Hmm, now why would the YCA fire upon the PF unless it 'popped' in near where the YCA 'popped' in (as in followed with) when the PF isn't broadcasting a readable IFF signal ('How they get workable engines that small??')?

By Mike West (Mjwest) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 08:46 pm: Edit

Just say no to time travel.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 08:53 pm: Edit

Second what Mike West said.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 09:58 pm: Edit

What if the USS Warspite were flying inside the atmosphere of a planet (along with the last two fighters of the planets PDU) and is shooting at Romulan GAS assault force?

The romulans probably figure that the Warspite can't survive many more hits, and they discount the fighters effectiveness in killing the GAS's.

tough call, perhaps the rest of the fighter squadron (those that survive) are back at a casual fighter base getting rearmed with drones while the Warspite and the CAP trys to keep the Romulans from getting a successful beach head on the planet.

just a thought.

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 10:20 pm: Edit

I think, and I could be wrong, that the ship would have the same ability to engage the GAS's from out of the atmosphere as in. Actually, it would have more limits on what it could target.

If the GAS's are in atmo flight they can be targeted from space. If they are low enough to be in ground combat then being in the atmo won't help. If they are landed the landing area can be targeted (assuming a landing zone is established) from space or atmo equally.

Only going from cloudy memory but the bottom line is killing GAS's doesn't seem to be a reason to enter the atmosphere.

I wonder why no one liked my "using atmosphere to put out a plasma fire, thus cooling and converting it to a regualr fire that will be snuffed out one the ship returns to space" idea.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, February 01, 2011 - 11:22 pm: Edit

Loren, I have to check the rules, but don't plasma torpedos also require 32 impulses to pass through atmosphere?

if so, the plasma torpedos endurance (limited to 32 impulses for the largest types, IIRC) would expire before penetrating the full atmoshere and thus impart a limited protection to the ships, fighters and ground bases on the planet...

If the ground defenses of the PDU still survive(say if there were phaser IV's still functioning...) it might explain why the Romulans haven't entered the atmosphere themselves yet.

Just trying to fill in the blanks here...

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Wednesday, February 02, 2011 - 12:35 am: Edit

Nope, the plasma counts each hex of atmosphere as five hexes... (P2.852) note that plasmas count endurance as hexes, not impulses.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Wednesday, February 02, 2011 - 02:43 am: Edit

---

Quote:

I wonder why no one liked my "using atmosphere to put out a plasma fire, thus cooling and converting it to a regualr fire that will be snuffed out one the ship returns to space" idea

---

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, February 02, 2011 - 01:19 pm: Edit

I am not going to write the story. When somebody else does, do let me know.