Stroke of Luck - Part Two

Posted on Fri Mar 6th, 2020 @ 9:20pm by Lieutenant Colonel John "Hammer" Burgoyne

Mission: Mission 67: In The Service of Life and the Living
Location: Various Locations - Roanoke Battlegroup
Timeline: 0930Hrs - March 10th, 2392

John Burgoyne knew he needed some expert assistance on the matters of Akurian guns and firepower so he decided to start with the Federations Research and development guys first. His first stop of call was to the USS Dreamcrusher and the Akurians in Starfleet like Lynn Kirkiv.

He went over to the Dreamcrusher only to be met by Commander Daniel McKnight, who was better known as 'Karass.'

"Colonel. Welcome aboard."

"Thank you Commander. Permission to come aboard?" Burgoyne inquired, a good natured smile on his lips.

"Like I could stop you.... Besides if I said no, would it really make a difference?"

"Actually, it would." Burgoyne responded evenly "but thats me and I am not most people who do not respect the ground they walk on in deep space... Besides sometimes it can be hard to keep things in perspective when even gravity is artificial."

"Indeed, that is so John but yes.. You may come aboard." McKnight smiled, before he chuckled softly in amusement, he could not help himself, it did help of course that he and Burgoyne had known each other for quite some time now and had served together on more then one assignment in the past. "You here to see the R&D guys..?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Oh I know everything that happens aboard this ship.. Its why Zuko relies upon me to make this ship and her rather eclectic crew work... I also passed over one command to remain here with this crew."

"I didn't know that.." Burgoyne admitted, a tone of surprise on his face.

"No reason you should.. I was offered the Excelsior.." he smiled softly to himself, sure that he had made the right choice.

"She's one of the new Andromeda's isn't she?" Burgoyne inquired.

"Yep.." McKnight responded. "Anyway... You'd best get going.. time waits for nobody and I need to get back to work... Not there is much work to be done."

Burgoyne nodded before the two men parted company. The Lt Colonel reached his destination a short time later as he requested and was granted admittance to the R&D department. "Hey guys. I'm looking for Lynn Kurkiv?"

Lynn was busy making adjustments to a personal shield generator when she heard her name," Yes what is it."

"I'm looking for some information on Akurian firepower that I'm looking to mate with a Federation vehicle thats in the design stages in addition to the new one just coming out. The Federation doesn't have any guns in inventory.. So... I'm wondering what the Akurians have." as he offered her the PADD with his new vehicle design on it.

Lynn took the padd and read over it then clarified," So your looking to mount a large gun onto a federation truck basically."

"Yes." Burgoyne responded. "The power supply is something much like what the Dreamcrusher uses only far scaled down rather then microfusion.. So it won't explode like a nuke on impact." he added. "The design is ready to be built.. except its missing its main gun, that brings me to you." he addressed Kirkiv.

Lynn set the padd down while answering. "Well the Federation lacks a weapon even in the design stages for this, so best I can think of is using an Akurian weapon, which there are several choices. For a mount with decent traverse capability, either the 7 cm or 10 cm railguns, or 8 cm or 10 cm disruptor cannons will work. It also may be possible to mount up to 12.5 or 15 cm railgun artillery on these trucks, but the larger guns would have a very limited traverse, only able to fire a few degrees to the left or right from the front, which limits them to the artillery role only."

Burgoyne nodded. "I'm looking for guns for both roles. One for General gun carriage and an indirect fire artillery unit." he explained. "It can be the same chassis but two different vehicles."

Lynn looked back at the Padd and then added. "Well, there are 6 different weapons that can potentially be used. Generally for direct fire support the disruptor cannons are more optimal, since you don't need someone on the back of the vehicle to reload the gun. However using the railgun weapons, since we would be adapting towed guns, it would require a loader on the back of the vehicle. Now we use robots as loaders for the towed pieces, but you guys don't really have the command an control ability to use robots."

"Okay... I can use disruptors for the gun, I don't want to be risking my guys.. Since we don't have robots for that role... at the present time we don't anyway." Burgoyne responded. "The indirect artillery vehicle however I can use railgun rounds for it.. Since they will be away from the front lines.

Lynn pulled up the spec's of the railgun weapons first. "Alright, I have two calibers that may be suitable, the 12.5 cm gun, and the 15 cm gun. the 15 cm gun is more powerful, but it is going to be harder to mount and wont have as good of a traverse on the mount as the 12.5, plus the rounds are heavier, making them more difficult to manage and you wont be able to carry as many. Personally though there is nothing wrong with using both guns, as each has different effective roles."

"Alright. Then I will use both.. as I was going to settle for the twelve... I want a well rounded gun carriage for general use.. but since you make the offer.. I can use the 15 for the arty."

Lynn nodded. "Alright well I will have to contact the Akurians and see what spares they have available. The guns aren't hard to produce as well, so the Akurians do have the equipment to manufacture more if needed."

Burgoyne smiled. "Thank you Commander." he responded. "I am amenable to make changes to my design if they are required and needed." he paused. "I know Captain Yamaguchi is eager to help me with my efforts in this so.. I'm going to put the deployment of these vehicles in her in box... make her useful and out of my hair."

Lynn didn't ask details on the matter. "Well, if all goes well, I should be able to acquire the weapons by tomorrow and we can begin.

"Thanks. I'm assigned to the Courageous, if you're looking for me okay?" Burgoyne responded. "Do you have any questions for me before I go?"

Lynn shook her head. "No."

"Alrighty... Thanks for your time." and with that Burgoyne turned and departed.