Blunt Force Treatment

Posted on Tue Aug 1st, 2017 @ 5:47am by Fleet Admiral Donatella Figueroa & Chief Petty Officer Alphonso Phillips

Mission: S01E01 - At the Brink of Night
Location: Deck 8 | The Roosevelt Lounge

Tellarites:

Phillips didn't know much about the Tellarites. But he was about to find out who and what they were all about first hand. The journey had been pleasant for the most part, giving Phillips a chance to work on his lesson plan.

Task: The Task at hand was to teach the members of his new crew, how to effectively engage a target with weapons that had long to put out to pasture and replaced with energy based weapons. But with technology being what it was, Phillips knew that the other way around the energy being absorbed from a phaser blast was to replace that blast with actual natter that could not be displaced so easily. Ie the business end of a .45 calibre bullet. He realised he was setting back marksmanship in the 23rd Century a few hundred years, but what mattered here was hitting and disabling the target, namely the Klingons.

So down to brass tacks. Task Condition and Standards was how he was taught to set up a lesson plan, so that's what he did. Back to the basics.

Task: Teach the crew to shoot and hit a target with gas operated air cooled projectile weapons.

Condition: Given the proper equipment, training manuals and range instruction.

Standard: Achieve a passing grade for each member of the crew that was acceptable before they began their new mission. In one weeks time, or upon completion of the ship's repair. Which ever came first.

The key here to success was paying attention to detail and practice practice practice.

Phillips set his lesson plan aside to give some attention to the new body Armour that he had designed. It was an upper body torso Armour. Very light weight and not cumbersome at all. It sported a holster in the small of the back for right hand draw as well as lefties. It was a neat piece of equipment. He had just finished uploading the proper information to the replicator programmer, when he got the call that they were docking at Tellarites home world.

He quickly put his things away and headed out to disembark. First order of business was to check his cargo and the weapons. Then get the cargo moved to a secure location on the Musashi, then he would need to see his Captain and the Security chief and hope his idea would not get shot down. A lot was banking on this working. And he would call it. Klingons and the introduction of Blunt Force Trauma.

On the surface:

"Hello Chief a Petty Officer Phillips, I'm Ensign Smith. My job is to meet and greet the in coming crew and get you settled. Follow me and I'll get you to your quarters, as your ship is in orbit being repaired." Said Smith

"In that case, I'll need a secure location for the cargo I brought with me. Can you help with that?" Asked The Chief Petty Officer

"Of course. Not a problem. Let me see your pad."

Phillips gave Smith his pad. Smith began typing. "So, first I sort the location of your storage." As he continued typing. "Then, I download your transporter tags to our system here." As he continued. "Here, you put in a pass code that only you know, I'll turn away. Once you enter the code, hit enter and it will be taken care of. A nap if how to get to secure storage is now on your padd." And he looked at Phillips "Shall we continue?" Asked Smith

"Uhh, yeah!" Replied Phillips baffled at the complete competence of this young ensign.

As they continued on to his quarters, he heard the transporter beam before feeling the residual effects of it as it disipated in his new quarters. As they entered, he found all of his personal affects has just arrived in his room.

"O.k. Your things are here. Get squared away and I'll set you an appointment to see the Captain so you can report in. Change security access to the ships systems here from your room computer. Everything in tied in. Personal logs, work books anything you do here will be up loaded to the ships computer which you will need your new access code to access once we get back on board." And he looked as if to say, any questions.

"Wow, you have been very helpful Smith. Very helpful indeed." Said Phillips

"There will be a dinner in the main dinning facility at 18:30 if you want to meet some of the crew. But you can generally go eat anytime you like." And he turned to leave, then stopped. "Just in case you're interested. There is a female by the name of Venessa on your crew. I think the two of you would make a spiffy couple." Then he smiled, turned and departed. Phillips was simply stunned.....

Captain Donatella Figueroa was ready for her starship to get out there, back into the mix with the Klingons. She had her orders and her Bridge crew knew where there would be going and what the mission entailed. However, their starship was still docked undergoing repairs from the last skirmish Fig had put the Musashi through with some unruly Klingon scum.

It was chow time for the crew. Some of the crew had already started to bond. Old crew were getting to know new crew, and the Captain herself was trying to put names to faces. Her starship was smaller than the Constitution class, but damn could the Ares class pack a punch and as Fig proved...take quite a licking too.

300 souls. That was the number they gave her. It was the maximum standard number of crew the Musashi could hold comfortable for functionality. The starship did not have 300 yet, but it had hit the 200 mark the last Fig looked at the numbers. She was just sitting down to enjoy her meal when someone coming into the Roosevelt Longue, a face she did not recognize. New crew? she wondered as it seemed like the man was heading for her, undoubtedly eyeing her as the Captain. "May I help you..." she looked at the man's rank insignia. "Chief?" she added.

"Chief Petty Officer Alphonso Phillips your new Master at Arms, at your service, Ma'am. I just got in yesterday, but I have been busy working on an idea that I think will put us on an even keel with the Klingons in one on one combat." Said the chief with pure confidence. "I call it Blunt Force Trauma." Said the Chief Petty officer.

She looked at the man and gestured for him to have a seat. "Blunt Force Trauma?" she said repeating him with a perplexed expression on her face. "Yes, I am aware of the term in a medical setting. Extreme impact of one subject or individual to another object or such" she said.

"And please, do not call me ma'am" she added quickly. "It's Captain Figueroa, Captain, Sir or if we get close enough... simply 'Fig,' but never 'ma'am" she explained. "I have never been a fan of being separate from the rest of the starship Captains regardless of the placement of their reproductive organs."

Phillips had just taken a sip of his coffee. It almost came up and out his nose when she made that remark.

Smiling and almost laughing. "Uh, sorry Captain. I'm a simple Southern boy raised in the city. Momma always taught us to respect women folk with that monicor. It won't happen again." As he cleaned what little had escaped his mouth trying not to laugh out loud. "It's good that you have a sense of humour about it though." Said Phillips "Anyway, I've done extensive research oh Klingons and their physiology is much different from ours. And I figure we need three to four times the force in normal close quarter combat to bring one of them down. The only way to do that is with conventional weapons."

"Allow me to explain. Today's phasers are energy based. That energy can be displace by armour and even the Klingons girth in some cases. But when a bullet from a .45 cal pistol hits a target, it delivers all its force on that spot. Now I'm sure you already know this, but the 1911 model .45 was designed to remove a 200 pound man from horse back. If you shoot a Klingon with this weapon, he is going down. And the rounds made of soft lead can be fired on board the ship without puncturing the hull. It's the same with specific shotgun rounds also. So I took the liberty, based on my demo to the brass back at Fleet, to bring these weapons with me." Said Phillips "oh and I have a message from Star a Fleet Security that supports my claims." And he handed it to her.

imaginative and out of the box. I can give him that much thought the Captain. "I see" she said initially as she skimmed through the message. "I am not a fan of the Klingons, but there are other threats or potential threats out there that are not Klingon and lead bullets don't distinguish all that well from injure to kill" the Captain said calmly.

"We have phasers for a reason" she pointed out. "Various settings and the ability to merely stun a target rather than kill it. I'm not ruling your proposal out, but there's definitely a time and a place for them" she explained.

"Yes I know. I believe phasers is simply a case of evolution. But for this special problem, I'm sure I have the answer. And if it will save lives I can't see why we would not implement it as a policy when dealing with Klingons, however I am sure these weapons will yield the same result when dealing with just about any force that comes against us. They thought so on Earth or else they would not have endorsed the program. I can have the entire crew trained and ready in a week. Those we can get done here on Tellarite before the ship is complete, can be done on board the ship, hopefully before we encounter any Klingons." Said Phillips confidently.

Fig contemplated everything for a few moments. "I do not know if the crew will be so easily trainable to have them ready by a week" she said calmly. "I have a lot of belief in the abilities of the crew, but it is a lot to ask them to revert to simpler weaponry" the Captain assessed. "Work with the Security Chief to train the crew. Place your primary focus on the security personnel" she added.

"As you wish Captain. I'm hopeful that you will be surprised with my progress once everyone is on board. The goal with either weapon is the same. However it's the technique the differs from person to person. I'll teach them the basic 8 steady hold factors. And the results should speak for themselves. I'll speak to the Security Chief as soon as possible so we can get started if I have your permission and your blessing." Said the Master at arms.

"Something tells me that you are always going to be surprising me, Chief" replied Fig and she was quite sure. "The sooner the better. We won't be sitting here twiddling our thumbs much longer. I plan to be out of here soon and giving the Klingons hell. Revenge is a dish best serve cold" she said glaring at the martini class in front of her. "I'll have my revenge on them" she finished.

"If you don't mind Captain, I'll go get things ready." Said Phillips as he stood to leave

She simply picked up her martini glass and gestured it towards the doorway. "By all means" she said with a nod.