FT Battle Scenerio

Dear Gang:

 MSgt Mike Stevens hauled his sorry butt into the seat in front of the
FTL 
sensor scope and sighed.  Damn was he tired.  Usually he could handle
the wine, 
women and song but age was catching up to him.	He was not 18 anymore
and his 
body was letting him know it.  As he gazed at the scope his vision
focussed and 
Mike mentally reminded himself, for the third day this week to lay off
the 
booze.	This shift was going to be hell to get through but at least it
was his 
last for a couple of days.
   Mike punched in the calibration routines that were run at every shift

turnover.  SOP, "Run your calibration when you first come on duty that
way you 
know the equipment is working!" he could remember the CMSgt at training 
admonising everyone. Mike could do them in his sleep.  MSgt Stevens then
entered 
his security codes to pull up the latest intelligence.	He also pulled
up the 
schedule of what was suppose to be arriving in sector today.  Would not
want to 
have an alert because you called you own ship a hostile.  The brass did
mean 
nasty things to people's career when you cause them to scramble
everything and 
then find out it was there own vessel.	"Don't even go there!" he
mentally 
thought as the schedule came up.
   There were no arrivals expected this shift so he could set the
sensors on 
automatic and sorta cruise through the shift.  Mike's body and mind
breathed a 
sigh of relief.  As he put in the tripwire program to notify him when
the 
sensors went over a certain threshold amount MSgt Stevens went into
daydream 
mode.  Boy it was nice to be in a locked facility where inspections were
rare.
   Three hours into the shift the tripwire program sent a shrill noise
through 
the room.  MSgt Stevens was awake instantly as he reached for the sensor

controls.  The FTL sensors had detected a mass entering the system. 
Quickly 
scanning for any shifts in phase from the signal and pulling up the Edge
of 
System (EOS) sensor droid output showed nothing.  Just to be sure he ran
a quick 
diagnostic of both systems and found everything 5x5.  Nothing.	"False
Alarm!" 
he said as everyone else in the room relaxed.  "Hmm, must have set the 
thresholds for the tripwire program to low. Darn background radiation."
he 
muttered as he reinitiated the program.  "I will up it another mass or
two, that 
should do it.  Now if I can just get back to that daydream with the
blond." he 
thought.
   One hour before shift change a quiet chime pulled Mike from the
redhead.  He 
had got tired of the blond already.  This was his reminder to fill out
all the 
paperwork and get everything ready for shift change.  As MSgt Stevens
was 
fifteen minutes away from end of shift the shrill alarm returned.  This
time it 
was no accident.  The FTL sensors were picking up large masses entering
the 
sector.  Quickly he pulled up the EOS sensor droid only to say
"SHI!@#$%^&*()" 
when he saw the video output just before the droid was destroyed. 
Kra'Vak, with 
more on the way as his hand decended to the red alert button.  As he
keyed in 
his headset he watched the dispaly showing the mass entering the sector.
 Most 
people used the digital readout but MSgt Stevens prefered the old
analogs for 
real detailed work.  As he spoke with TACOPS he tweaked the gain and
sensitivity 
as best he could.  Maybe he could get individual readings for each ship
that 
entered.  In order the following came out of FTL.  Mass 64...Damn..Big
Mother, 
had to be a battleship, Mass 32, Mass 16, Mass 16, Mass 32, Mass 16,
Mass 16.  A 
couple of cruisers and destroyer escort.
	Msgt Stevens was relaying the information when he pulled up the
latest 
intel report on what ships his side had in the sector.	They had 1 Mass
64 
battleship, 4 mass 32 cruisers and 6 mass 16 destroyers.  Damn was this
going to 
be a close fight.

Had a moment or two to spare so I thought I would throw this out for
your 
enjoyment and possible use for a battle.

John W. Fox