They were soon underway, with Jade skilfully bringing them out of the asteroid belt, before racing away to reach the Nav beacon. As soon as they were clear of the pull of the system's gravity wells, Jade engaged the Tachyon Drive, and the Invictus leapt effortlessly into hyper-warp. They watched the icon representing their ship, as it followed the glowing green flightpath across the Sector Map, flashing past system after system as they headed back to Terran Space. The tag next to the flightpath showed that it would take them four days to pass Geniya Station and return to Terran territory.
John got up from the Command Chair, and said, "It's late, so we'll head off to bed in a minute. Let's have a quick meeting in the Briefing Room first though, I'd like to discuss the weapon test."
The girls rose obediently, then trooped through the door on the right hand side of the Bridge. He waited for them patiently as they walked inside, smiling at them as they fanned out to take their seats. He strolled in after them, then took his place at the head of the table, and sat down in the plush, comfortable chair. Alyssa, Dana, and Rachel were on his right, with Calara, Jade, and Irillith on his left, and the six women watched him attentively. Faye sat cross-legged on the desk itself, her indigo features lit up with a broad smile.
He looked at them quizzically with a raised eyebrow, and asked, "So, what are your thoughts on the field test?"
"We're fucking badass!" Dana immediately squealed with delight.
All at once the room erupted with excited chatter, as the girls all enthused about the new weapons, and the incredible new tactical speed of the Invictus. John chuckled as well, absolutely delighted with the unparalleled firepower at his disposal. Irillith grinned with delight at the gleeful reaction from her crew, feeling overjoyed to have made her friends so happy. She smiled at the girls as they thanked her profusely, and felt a surge of pride at having been able to make such a valuable contribution to their ship. Eventually everyone calmed down a little, with a bit of telepathic soothing from Alyssa, and they turned to look at Calara when she spoke up.
"I'm inclined to agree with our Chief Engineer's assessment," the Latina said, with a wide grin on her gorgeous features.
John returned her grin, and said, "Alright, break it down for me. How do the new weapons perform?"
Calara paused a moment as she assessed the capabilities of their vastly upgraded arsenal. She smiled at him eagerly as she began, "Firstly let's start with the Pulse Cannons. They're radically advanced compared to the old Gatling Lasers, and are much more powerful. It's probably better to think of them as being more like the old Laser Cannons, but instead of firing single blasts, they shoot extremely rapid bursts of laser bolts. They're fast-tracking like the Gatling Lasers were, so we'll be able to use them to absolutely devastate strike craft, but out at Laser Cannon range."
Dana nodded animatedly, and said, "The pulsed shots they fire will really let them slice up armour! When lasers start doing damage, they leave bits of liquefied debris in the way that reduces the power from a beam. By hammering away with pulsed shots, debris will dissipate before the next shot hits, which is much more efficient than the solid streams of energy from the Beam Lasers. We'll be able to pump out a shit-ton of damage with the Pulse Cannons, while hardly using any power."
John smiled at the pair of them, then looking Calara's way, said, "They certainly looked very impressive. You seemed to have no problems completely shredding the smaller asteroid chunks."
Looking thoughtful, Calara said, "They have a lot of stopping power. I think they'll pose a threat to anything up to a cruiser, but anything that size usually has too much armour for them to be effective."
"Good to know," he said appreciatively. He smiled at her enthusiastically, and asked, "So what's your evaluation of the new Beam Lasers?"
She grinned at him, and leaning forward, she replied eagerly, "Same range as before, but double the firepower! The really significant difference is we've gone from six forward-mounted Beam Lasers with a narrow fire arc, to twenty-four turreted Beams with three-sixty-degree coverage. I can't really describe how much more deadly that makes us in a firefight."
"Why don't you give it a try?" Alyssa suggested to her lover, with a playful wink.
Calara laughed, then sat back in her chair to think about it for a moment. With an excited sparkle in her eyes, she eventually sat up and said, "Okay, think about it like this." She raised her right hand, holding it flat and parallel to the tabletop. "Imagine my hand is the Invictus, and my fingers are the old Beam Lasers. If we're being chased by some bad guys, like those Trankarans, we couldn't hit them with our main offensive batteries." To illustrate this point, she lifted her left hand and held it behind the right, then moved them from side-to-side as though the Invictus-hand was trying to shake off its pursuer.
"That fight was awful," Jade agreed with a troubled frown. "It was horrible, not feeling in control of the battle."
Dana gave her a cheerful grin, and exclaimed, "Don't worry! With our new engines and retro-thrusters, no other ship in the galaxy will have our manoeuvrability!"
The Nymph gave the redhead a warm smile, and looked greatly relieved. Her lovely green face lit up with a wicked grin as she said, "I'd love to see the faces of the next fighter pilots who try to tangle with the Raptor!"
They all laughed at her look of eager excitement, and she joined in with their merriment.
Calara glanced at Jade and asked, "Would you mind taking over as the bad guys for my demonstration? I'm about to run out of hands."
"Sure!" the Nymph agreed readily, and lifted up her slender green hands to represent enemy ships. She scowled fiercely, to make it more authentic, and remind everyone she was a bad guy.
After shaking her head with an amused chuckle, Calara brought her hands together, placing one atop the other. "Now, after the refit, we've got twenty-four Beam Lasers. Imagine my right hand is the topdeck: we've got sixteen turreted Beams, four on each facing, which can fire in one-hundred-and-eighty degree arcs, as well as being able to fire straight up. My left hand represents the underbelly of the Invictus, which has two Beam Lasers on each facing, or eight in total."
"That's a lot of guns," Rachel said in a sober voice.
Calara smiled at her, and said enthusiastically, "It certainly is! In practical terms, we can fire up to twelve Beam Lasers in any direction on the horizontal plane, or sixteen straight up off the topdeck, and eight firing down from the underbelly." She glanced at Jade, and said, "Now, bring your enemy ships forward to flank the Invictus."
Jade nodded, standing up so that she could lean over Calara and place her hands as the Latina requested. "Like that?" she asked, checking to make sure they were positioned correctly.
"Perfect!" Calara said gratefully.
Faye piped up, and asked, "I could set up a holo-simulation for you, rather than representing ships with your hands?"
Calara smiled at her, but shook her head, replying, "We've got this for now Faye, but maybe next time?" The Purple AI construct nodded, and started planning ways she could help the friendly Tactical Officer.
Calara looked around at her captivated audience, and said, "Now, before the upgrade, if we were caught like this between two Trankaran cruisers, they could have hit us with broadsides from their flank-mounted Fusion Beams. We'd have only had twelve laser cannons per side to trade broadsides with them, and we would have been massively outgunned, and quickly ripped to pieces."
