09-14-2026, 03:55 AM
When the Sovereign-class Explorer detonated, Alex instinctively did the calculations in his mind. a warp core failure at that range had only temporarily disrupted the shields of that massive ship. Even if there were crew that had not been consumed in the reaction with the release of all of that antimatter, the shockwave would have vaporized anyone and anything. The simple physics of entropy would allow some small fragments of ship debris to survive, but no life form could survive it. The radiation and shearing g-forces would have torn most things apart and burned them beyond any hope. So many lives lost in an instant.
For just a moment, Alex wanted to make the Cardassians pay. He was tempted to fire one of the probes himself, with his own instructions, but he held back. He struggled to not turn into the kind of monster he wanted to destroy. Taking another deep breath, he approached the Captain and asked, "Sir, how far do we go in trying to disable their ship? We can't fight them conventionally. There's just too much firepower? We'll know in a moment how effective the bots are against their shielding. If they can penetrate the shields, do I launch a probe to disable them? The probes don't impact the shields, they release the payload and the momentum carries the bots to the target. If any of the bots are able to get through, we can infiltrate their ship mechanically."
He glanced at Beno and she felt his struggle. He was worried about what might happen if they didn't try, but he almost fear their success even more. If they were successful, then this tactic would likely be repeated against them in the future. This risked an escalation of a new kind of arms race for the future. If it failed, then there was no risk, but if it worked, then the enemy would adapt to it to take advantage of the effectiveness of it. He was holding something back though. He knew something that the enemy couldn't duplicate in his design. It was something beyond what Kalli Thorn had in mind for her designs. Alex knew how to make a swarm of them to function like a living thing and how to perform highly technical tasks and problem solving. His infiltration would be a thinking hive with the capability of surgical precision. The key was if they could penetrate the shields or not. Deflectors were a problem, but shields were different and the bots should be able to get past, just no fast. This was about the long game though, not a fast checkmate.
== Tag CO, FO and any who might hear. ==
== GM Input request: What happens to the bots released at the three target areas of the dreadnaught? Do any manage to get through? ==
For just a moment, Alex wanted to make the Cardassians pay. He was tempted to fire one of the probes himself, with his own instructions, but he held back. He struggled to not turn into the kind of monster he wanted to destroy. Taking another deep breath, he approached the Captain and asked, "Sir, how far do we go in trying to disable their ship? We can't fight them conventionally. There's just too much firepower? We'll know in a moment how effective the bots are against their shielding. If they can penetrate the shields, do I launch a probe to disable them? The probes don't impact the shields, they release the payload and the momentum carries the bots to the target. If any of the bots are able to get through, we can infiltrate their ship mechanically."
He glanced at Beno and she felt his struggle. He was worried about what might happen if they didn't try, but he almost fear their success even more. If they were successful, then this tactic would likely be repeated against them in the future. This risked an escalation of a new kind of arms race for the future. If it failed, then there was no risk, but if it worked, then the enemy would adapt to it to take advantage of the effectiveness of it. He was holding something back though. He knew something that the enemy couldn't duplicate in his design. It was something beyond what Kalli Thorn had in mind for her designs. Alex knew how to make a swarm of them to function like a living thing and how to perform highly technical tasks and problem solving. His infiltration would be a thinking hive with the capability of surgical precision. The key was if they could penetrate the shields or not. Deflectors were a problem, but shields were different and the bots should be able to get past, just no fast. This was about the long game though, not a fast checkmate.
== Tag CO, FO and any who might hear. ==
== GM Input request: What happens to the bots released at the three target areas of the dreadnaught? Do any manage to get through? ==