Weapons test

Posted on 17 Dec 2025 @ 12:56pm by Commander Krea Rh'Vareth & Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast & Lieutenant Maralen Seitha

798 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Shakedown
Location: Bridge
Timeline: After Launching

The next test on the list was the targeting sensors. An interesting test, Bast thought, that would challenge their Tactical officer's feline reflexes just as much as the ship.

Automated drones would fly in random formation around the ship, and it was Seitha's job to destroy these drones at the moment each would send a signal, a simulated warning that a hostile would have activated weapons. The delay between that signal, the target lock, and the target's destruction would all be measured, collected and later analyzed along with the other tests.

"Any questions, Lieutenant Seitha?" asked Bast.

Maralen stood behind his station, tail coiled around his waist, eyes on the console. When the two approached, he looked up at them, his normal calm expression revealing nothing. "The test seems self-explanatory," he answered just as calmly. This was a standard weapons test, so the methodology was known to him. What concerned him was the possible glitches in the new technology they were testing. He had already seen a few in Security systems across the ship, but those were being fixed. If there was a glitch in these systems, however, it could be devastating in a combat situation.

His eyes tracked to Commander Rh'Vareth for the briefest of moments. Her presence did not bother him; he knew why she was there. His look was more... assessing. Then he turned his gaze back to Bast.

"I am ready when you are, Commander," he affirmed, hands resting on the edges of his console. He gave the impression of calm readiness.

Rh'Vareth folded her arms and arched an eyebrow waiting for Bast to start the test. She knew it would be something of a conundrum that she was Senior and perhaps he might feel he should wait for her to command the start of the tests, but also that he might also be concerned that it was his job as XO to carry on as normal which would be for he himself to start it.

She enjoyed the split seconds of hesitation. They weren't much of a win, in fact they were quite petty but she was here to rattle the man's cage as the expression apparently went and she wasn't going to miss any chances, no matter how small.

Bast did his best to ignore the Romulan presence on the Bridge. As mission specialist, it was her job to observe and take notes on these tests, and afterwards her role would be to make the necessary corrections to the ship's systems, but for now she wasn't supposed to interfere. He sensed that there was a hidden motivation behind her provocative looks. Indeed, his experience, or rather Lamora's experience, with Romulans told him that there was always a concealed motivation behind a Romulan's actions. But that was a matter for another time.

He walked back to the command chair and took a seat, tapping the console on the armrest.

"Computer, begin program Bast Six-Gamma."

The computer chirped in acknowledgement, and within seconds, the first hostile signal appeared on Seitha's console.

Maralen watched the hostile for only a second before locking onto it and firing. The computer rebelled, and the shot went wide to the right. Maralen mentally cursed and locked and fired again to be certain that it was not a one-off fluke with the same result. The third time, he locked it but fired toward the left of the object. This produced the result of the shot hitting the target. He looked up at Bast. "The computer appears to be firing too far to starboard. The third time, I manually corrected for that." This was both so that Bast would know why he had fired three times and for the report of the systems.

Bast tapped his console to review the data from the first test. Indeed, he could see that the target coordinates Marlene had entered, and the coordinates where the ship's phasers had fired, were off by one point three degree. That was certainly something they were going to correct.

"Noted," he said. "Let's keep going."

As the rest progressed, more targets appeared on the Tactical officer's console, at random intervals. Sometimes single targets, but as time went on, the difficulty level increased, and involved multiple targets simultaneously.

Rh'Vareth nodded in approval and said "Nicely done" before simply leaving them to get on with it and wandering around the rest of the Bridge making small comments and conversations with the staff working at the consoles all around. After a while she left the Bridge, making notes on her PaDD as she went into to the Turbolift without further comment.




A JP by:


Lt Maralen Seitha
Chief Tactical Officer
USS Cygnus

Lt Cmdr Temerant Bast
Executive Officer
USS Cygnus

and

Cmdr Krea Rh'Vareth
Mission Advisor
USS Cygnus

 

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