Can anyone point me to the point in time when Starfleet figures out how to stop polaron beams (from Dominion vessels) with Starfleet shields?
I'm trying to write up an episode list for my campaign (which starts in 2370, but will run for 5 "game years", ending with the end of the Dominion War).
So, I need to know pretty much the DS9 episode where they figure out how to protect themselves.
Thanks,
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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."
Starfleet first gains the capability to resist those weapons in "A Call To Arms," the Season 5 finale in which the Dominion-Cardassian alliance conquers Deep Space 9. That'd put it at the very end of 2373 or very beginning of 2374.
Thanks, Steve.
Eww...I'll have to limit those encounters with Jem'Hadar attack ships until then!
I just game-tested a combat between a JH attack ship and an Intrepid class - the Intrepid won...kind of. The Jem'Hadar ship was destroyed when the Intrepid was forced to eject its warp core, and it blew up in the Jem'Hadars' faces.
As it was, the Intrepid was left with:
1) Hull integrity down to 36%
2) No warp power
3) Impulse engines destroyed.
4) Auxiliary power destroyed.
5) Life support (basic and reserve) out of action.
6) Primary computer core destroyed, secondary one heavily damaged.
7) Hull breaches on 8 decks (and with the SIF disabled due to no power, these decks are exposed to space).
8) Of a crew of 150, 45 are dead and 67 are injured.
I think that under these circumstances, with no power to run tractor beams to get the spare warp core into position, no atmosphere for the engineering crews to work on restoring power and less than a third of the ships normal manning, the crew would have no choice but to activate the emergency distress beacons and abandon ship (especially if near an M-Class planet, which in this episode I'm planning, they will be).
Of course, if the Intrepid's shields had worked, things would have been a lot different...
Incidentally, the episode I'm planning is titled "Into the Fire, Parts I & II" and will form the bridge between Seasons 1 & 2 of my campaign, happening at more-or-less the same time as the DS9 ep "The Jem'Hadar". The series is based on the crew of the USS Intrepid during that ship's shakedown cruise and subsequent exploits from its commissioning in 2370, to 2375.
Eventually, assuming they do abandon ship, and assuming they do survive, they'll be rescued by the Enterprise - I'm looking forward to a meeting between the Intrepid's CMO and Picard - my wife is playing Dr Sito Rana, Sito Jaxa's older sister who's last message from her younger sibling was of Picard's hurling abuse at her - the next she heard was that Picard had sent her off to die. Needless to say, Dr Sito Rana despises Picard. Hehehe...looking forward to the role-playing in that encounter!
Blah, blah, blah...gotta stop rambling. It's 0015 hrs here and I'm ready for bed!
Thanx again...sorry about posting my entire campaign plot here!
G'nite!!
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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."
[This message has been edited by Aldaron (edited 01-31-2001).]
Remember that the Intrepid class ships a second M/ARA assembly. It would likely take several hours to install it. If they also had to flush the antimatter tanks, they'll have to restore containment and generate more antimatter using the Tokamak style antimatter generators refered to in the STTNG Tech manual, all of which would take quite a while... This avoids the "rescued by the super-NPCs" syndrome. Remember, in true heroic style, the cavalry should only arrive after its no longer needed. The PCs are the heroes, after all.
Yep...I had thought of that, but I couldn't see how they could manouvre the spare core into position without tractor beams (plus, the plot wants them on the planet's surface for about 2 weeks, running a guerilla-style operation against the Jem'Hadar! )
I guess they could use tractors on the shuttles - how much would a warp core weigh, anyway?
Re: the "cavalry arriving" thing - don't worry, they'll have lots of chances to "do stuff" on the planet's surface (and be heroes, of course!) before the E-D gets there!
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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."
A Warp Core likely masses several tons, say 8,000 to 10,000kg. You could have the crew use the shuttles' tractors, but it could be interesting to have the crew do it using the EVA worksuits shown in the STTNG TM. According to Rick Sternbach, the Intrepid Class has two of these, docked in those two hexagonal hatches on the underside of the Primary Hull, flanking the upper edge of the Deflector Dish.
Mmm...good point. The big problem, to my mind, was the lack of life-support on the Intrepid, which would have prevented them using it as a base for repairs, but if they used shuttles as a base...
Actually, I like that, Owen - thanks. I'm pretty sure most of the crew will have to be dusted-off to the planet, but a small engineering team could stay behind, working against the clock to get the ship back on-line before another attack, perhaps...
Of course, the best laid plans of mice and Narrators and all that... or, to rephrase it: "No game plan survives contact with the players."
But for the overall plan, I think I'll go with that - thanks again.
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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."
The shuttle tractors will definitely have enough power to shift a warp core. Remember the VOY ep "Day of Honour". The Voyager ejected the core after it threatened to overload. Later, Janeway sent Tom and B'lanna out in the "speedboat" shuttle to retrieve it. And let's not forget Sisko's runabout towing a Cardassian cruiser in "Emissary"...
Still, the damage sounds severe. I don't think Voyager has ever been in such bad shape, not even in "Year of Hell". Abandoning ship would certainly be near the top of the CO's options list...
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"The more top brass briefings I attend, the more I want to take a phaser to the whole lot of them..."
Of course, that was just a test-run. It remains to be seen how it will actually go when the players are running the Intrepid and not me! (They may do worse, who knows?)
Part of the idea of this adventure was to paralyse the Intrepid for a while - there's an adventure I have planned which will take the PCs (who form the senior staff of the ship) into a clash with the Orion Syndicate (a left-over from the First Officer's past - his "Dark Secret" disadvantage). The problem was, how to realistically get most of the command and senior staff off the ship at once?
I figure that when the Intrepid (one way or another) gets power back (either thru replacing the core or with help from the E-D), it is gonna need major repairs. So, it's off to DS9 for a month or two's layover and repair (hehehe...Miles'll just be ecstatic, won't he ). This will give me a realistic excuse for the senior staff to be together and off the ship.
It'll also let me bring in the 'extra' bits and pieces that Voyager has, but the Intrepid doesn't: bioneural computer system, emergency medical hologram, etc.
"Oh, by the way, Captain. We've installed the latest computer systems as part of your repairs - you're now equipped with the same systems as Voyager."
So sue me - I'm not a great fan of the Voyager series, but damn I love the ship!
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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."
Registered User
Regarding polaron weapons and shields...
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