Fall of the Flagship

by Chris Adair

Found this on my hard drive. Wrote it ages ago, its a screen play type thing, I think.

The Fall of the Flagship

Characters: Captain Christopher Adams

Captain Peter Franks

Helmsmen Tyler

Chief Engineer Brocks

Security Chief/Tactical Marks

First Officer Sanyo

Ships: ANV Abandon, Heavy Attack Cruiser (Alliance Flagship)

ACV Trek, Transport

CS Bell, Corvette

CS Intrepid, Corvette

CS Rebel, Corvette

CS Gateway, Corvette

CS Gem, Destroyer

CS Peach, Destroyer

CS Counter, Carrier (Coalitions New Flagship)

The film starts off in a dimly lit room with whispering coming from a group of people sitting in front of a large screen integrated into a wall. The voices die down as the camera zooms in on the screen. When the voices have completely died down words are typed up on the screen.

"Alliance Navel Black Box Records

2315

Alliance Navel Command

Historical briefing"

The words fade away and we see the ANV Abandon travelling though subspace. The camera zooms on to the bridge where we see the bridge crew and the captain dictating his log in his office to the computer.

Captain- "July 3rd 2214, We're on our way to meet a transport ship, which has been on covert manoeuvres for the past year, but because the transport is to small to house slip engines, we have to go in and get it which if all goes to plan should be uneventful, and after dropping them off at Belt Outpost "Watcher" it's back home to the Southampton Shipyards for a long overdue refit, log ends."

The captain then moves to his command chair.

Captain- "ETA".

Tyler- "Three minutes".

Captain- "Tactical, let's use this time wisely, get down to the hanger and make sure it's ready for our guests."

Mark- "Aye sir".

Captain- "Helm run a systems check on all systems (turns to address the bridge crew) Sanyo you have the con, and if anyone wants me, I'll be catching up with dispatches."

Captain goes back to his office.

Time passes.

Sanyo- "Sanyo to Adams we're approaching the rendezvous point."

Captain comes out of his office and sits in his command chair.

Captain- "Thanks Sanyo, Helm take us out of subspace. Tactical bring the weapon reactors on-line."

Marks- "Aye sir."

You see the ship come out of sub-space and into normal space.

Captain- "Helm full scan, where's our ship?"

Tyler- "The transport is right where they said they would be at 315 mark 276 and 1,400 kilometres distant."

Captain- "Plot a course and engage at quarter thrust."

You see the ship move past heading towards the transport.

Captain- "Send the transport the coded recognition signal."

Tyler- "Yes sir....there're sending us a transmission. It's the correct password on the designated reply frequency."

Captain- "Instruct the transport to dock. Tactical lower hanger bay and bring the transports Captain to the bridge, and also put the information they gathered into the ships computer."

Marks- "Yes sir."

Time passes.

Marks- "Sir, Captain Franks too see you."

Captain- "Ah, Peter good to see you. How have you been."

Peter- "I'm pretty good apart from missing home, yourself."

Captain- "Tied of the continued conflict but hanging in their..."

Tyler- "Sir, I'm detecting 4 slip points opening directly astern at 50,000 kilometres."

Captain- "Marks, deploy aft batteries and prepare to engage multiple targets. Helm, identity and types of those ships."

Tyler- "4 Coalition corvettes, the CS Bell, Intrepid, Rebel and Gateway."

Peter- "Chris, we have to avoid a battle here. If we get bogged down in a fire fight the Coalition will have all the time they need to call for re-enforcements from their Neptune Outposts."

Captain- "It's just 4 corvettes Pete, what could they do against...."

Peter- "They can stay out of weapons range and deploy their new slip inhibitors, they can stop us from getting away while they call in their heavy carrier."

Captain- "Their what? Time till jump."

Tyler- "7 minutes."

Marks- "Sir, 3 of the corvettes are closing on our position, the 4th appears to be holding back."

Captain- "Tyler bring us about and plot a direct course for that 4th ship, Marks deploy all batteries, knock the 3 ships coming towards us out of our way."

Outside view we see the Abandon come around in a tight angle and head straight for the approaching ships.

Switch to a parallel side view of Abandon with its weapons firing and with incoming fire from the corvettes which should appear much smaller and one of the corvettes is destroyed as it passes.

On the bridge the crew rock to make it look like they are under some fire.

Marks- "Sir the CS Gateway has been destroyed the Intrepid is adrift and the Rebel is still engaging our starboard quarter, the Bell has yet to engage us."

Captain- "Distance to the Bell."

Tyler- "12,000 kilometres."

Captain- "Lock all forward batteries on the Bell and fire when we are within range, continue to engage the Rebel with our aft batteries."

Outside view we see the Abandon from behind and to the right with the aft weapons firing and the Rebel being destroyed, while in the distance we see the Bell and from it we see a bright light that expands from the Bell just before the Abandon opens fire and destroys it.

Marks- "The Bell has been destroyed."

Captain- "Was that what you were worried about Pete."

Peter- "It was, from this point on, ships can only slip in, they can't slip out."

Captain- "Sanyo, shift though the logs from the Trek and find out the radius of this new weapon."

Sanyo- "I'm already on it sir, The radius is about 1,000,000 kilometres."

Captain- "Helm, set course for Alliance space and engage at full thrust."

Tyler- "Aye sir."

Time passes.

Sanyo is sitting in the command chair on the bridge, Captain Christopher Adams and Captain Peter Franks are not on the bridge.

Marks- "Sir, I'm showing a slip event on my scanners and judging from the speed at which it's forming the vessel about to come though is massive."

Outside view showing a large white glowing mass growing slowly and then the CS Counter appears.

Sanyo- "Sanyo to the Captain, the carrier CS Counter just slipped into the region. Marks bring all weapon reactors online and deploy turrets."

Captain Adams and Captain Franks come out of the Captains office. Sanyo gets out of the command chair and stands behind and to the right as the Captain comes across the bridge and sits in the command chair.

Captain- "The CS what Sanyo?"

Sanyo- "Counter sir, it's a new heavy capital ship that carries a complement of armed shuttles. It's the first spaceship ever to incorporate large numbers of strike craft as the primary feature in its design."

Captain- "Helm, plot a course away from the….carrier, best speed."

Tyler- "Aye sir."

Captain- "Sanyo, can we outrun this thing?"

Sanyo- "I don't know, fleet command only knew of the carriers existence not its capabilities."

Captain- "Pete what do you know about this ship?"

Peter- "It's Big, slow, and armed to the teeth, it doesn't really need it's strike craft. We can outrun it, but not it's fighters."

Captain- "I guess the shuttles are there to make up for the Counter's lack of speed."

Marks- "Captain, there are 2 residual slip events about 70,000 kilometres ahead and I'm detecting 2 Coalition destroyers holding position right by them, the CS Gem and Peach."

Peter- "Way aren't they advancing?"

Marks- "The CS Counter is deploying shuttles."

Captain- "The Coalition may want to field test their new shuttles? Marks, how many shuttles are being launched?"

Marks- "40, the shuttles are moving together in 4 distinct groups of 10."

Captain- "Reconfigure the aft weapons to fragmentation mode, Marks don't aim for individual shuttles, aim at their formations."

We see the fighters move past the camera and head towards the Abandon in 4 distinct groups, we see explosions amongst their formations and as the Abandon comes into view we see the weapons firing. The shuttles all return fire.

We now see the bridge with small explosions and the bridge crew sway slightly to simulate minor hits.

Captain- "Is this the best they can do?"

Peter- "Their goal is probably to overwhelm our weapons with superior numbers and keep hitting us until the hull gives, Like ants swarming a scorpion."

Captain- "Marks, how are you doing?"

Marks- "Not well sir, our weapons are seriously downgraded when they are in fragmentation mode and as yet I haven't destroyed any shuttles, having said that our tracking systems would be of no use against them if we used the weapons in the normal way. We will eventually destroy them, it will just take awhile."

Captain- "The destroyers."

Marks- "Holding position."

Captain- "Tyler, distance to the destroyers?"

Tyler- "60,000 kilometres."

Captain- "Alter course 90 degrees to starboard."

Captain lowers his voice to speak to Sanyo in private.

Captain- "Take the information Captain Franks gathered and load it into a message buoy, just in case."

Sanyo- "Aye sir."

Tyler- "The destroyers are holding position relative to us. They are moving on a parallel course to ours and matching our speed."

A large explosion is heard and the ship shakes violently.

Marks- "Sir, we just lost 3 of our aft turrets."

Captain- "How?"

Marks- "Each shuttle group opened fire on a turret and blow it out of its housing, one group missed their mark and I think they're repositioning for another go, If they hit we'll only have 3 turrets left on our aft section."

Tyler- "Sir, the explosion, when our turrets were blown off, it caused vibrations along the ships superstructure and that has hampered our structural integrity.

Marks- "It's also buckled our armour plating around the turret housing."

Captain- "Target all remaining aft turrets onto that 4th group and open fire."

We see the aft section of the Abandon with visible hull scars and behind them we see the shuttles. The Abandon is firing and then stops, there is a slit purse and then the Abandon fires on a single shuttle group where we see large explosions from that group.

Captain- "Effect."

Marks- "A couple of shuttles destroyed 4 disabled."

Captain- "How many destroyed?"

Marks- "2."

Captain- "That still leaves 34 shuttles to deal with."

Sanyo- "Sir, I may have idea."

Captain- "Well don't keep it to yourself."

Another large explosion rocks the bridge.

Marks- "We lost another turret, the other shuttle groups are taking up the slack of the 4th group, that is now moving back to the Counter."

Sanyo- "We pack the Trek with all the explosives we have onboard, release the transport and fly it remotely from here, if the shuttles break-off to disable it, we detonate the explosives and hope the explosion destroys the shuttles as well."

Peter- "What! You can't be serious."

Sanyo- "Very serious, Captain."

Captain- "See to it Sanyo, I'm sorry Pete, but this idea may just save our lives."

Sanyo runs off the bridge while the rest of the bridge crew continue to sway slightly.

Marks- "The fighters are positioning themselves for a run at the launch bay!"

Captain- "Sanyo you done?!"

Sanyo- " Yes Captain, loading is complete and we are ready to release the transport."

Peter- "He could at least call my ship by her name."

Captain- "Tyler, drop to 1/3 thrust and release the Trek when ready."

Tyler- "Aye sir."

A few seconds pass.

Tyler- "The Trek is away and being piloted from the aux helm in engineering."

Marks- "The fighters have broken off their attack run, the Trek is moving away….2 groups of shuttles are moving to intercept her….They are firing….The Treks engines are destroyed and the shuttles are surrounding her….2 are moving to dock."

Captain- "Sanyo, detonate."

Sanyo- "Aye sir."

Outside we see the Trek surrounded by shuttles and then there is a massive explosion originating from the Trek.

Captain- "Status."

Marks- "The shuttles are either destroyed or disabled, the remaining shuttles around us don't have the necessary fire power to destroy us by themselves before we destroy them, they are now moving back to the Counter."

Tyler- "The 2 destroyers are now moving into an intercept course, contact in 12 minutes."

Captain- "We can take out the 2 destroyers by ourselves, but not before the Counter comes into range."

Sanyo- "After dealing with 2 destroyers by ourselves we wouldn't be much of a match for anything else anyway."

Captain- "Pete, does this slip inhibitor field dissipate."

Peter- "Yes, but not for at least 2 months."

Sanyo- "The destroyers are faster than us as well, we wouldn't be able to out run them even if we wanted to."

Captain- "Tyler, keep heading away from the Counter, when the 2 destroyers catch up we'll engage them and then run again."

Tyler- "The destroyers will be in weapons range in 11 minutes."

Captain- "Sanyo, can the tracking systems on the planetary cannons be used to track ships in space?"

Sanyo- "Yes, but using them in space has been tried before to destroy capital ships. After the cannons have been fired the enemy ships evaded and the shots missed. The munitions just move too slowly to be effective against ships."

Captain- "What about from extremely close range?"

Sanyo- "It could work, but the destroyers are quite manoeuvrable."

Captain- "I'm not talking about using the cannons against the destroyers, the Counter."

Sanyo- "Oh, yeah, we can hit that monster with the cannons from close range, there hasn't been a ship of that scale before. The question is can we survive her weapons long enough."

Peter- "You'll have to be sure of your aim. The Counter is extremely robust and resilient, It can theoretically operate with 60% damage."

Captain- "Where should we aim?"

Peter- "The engines and the bridge."

Sanyo- "The bridge?"

Peter- "Yes, the Counter has no auxiliary bridge controls. Her crew would have to jury rig something which should take awhile."

Captain- "Marks, lock weapons on the destroyers engines and turrets, prepare to engage. Sanyo, Begin charging the planetary cannons and program an attack pattern and firing solutions for when we go for the Counter, I don't want to be too near the Counter when we fire."

Marks- "Aye sir."

Sanyo- "Yes sir."

Captain Adams turns to Sanyo and speaks vary softly.

Captain- "Sanyo after you've done that link our black box to the message buoy you prepared for the reconnaissance data from the Trek and begin a download, set the destination for the nearest alliance outpost."

Sanyo- "Yes sir, do you want the black box disconnected after the download?"

Captain- "No. I want the black box downloading everything that's happening as well, rig the disconnect command so that it's also the launch command for the buoy."

Sanyo- "Yes sir."

Time passes.

Marks- "The destroyers are coming into range of our weapons."

Captain- "Helm, come about and head straight between them, Marks, hit those systems, I don't want to have to double back if we can help it."

Marks- "Don't worry sir, I'll get….We're in range."

Captain- "Fire!"

Outside view, we see the Abandon firing on both the Destroyers and after a few seconds they fire back. We see a few explosions on the destroyers from where their weapons fire is coming from and there are also a few explosions on the Abandon as well from a few of their weapons.

On the bridge the ship is rocked by explosions.

Tyler- "Captain we're about to move between the Destroyers."

Captain- "All hands brace yourselves."

We see the Abandon fly between the destroyers and new weapon mounts are seen on the destroyers side and several explode.

Tyler- "We're past them."

Captain- "Marks, take out their engines…..Marks!"

Marks- "Sorry sir, took longer than I though it would, but then again we only have 3 aft turrets."

Captain- "So long as it done, good work. Sanyo feed your attack data for engaging the Counter to the helm and tactical stations."

Sanyo- "Yes sir."

Captain- "Tyler, follow that course."

Tyler "Yes sir, contact with the Counter in 15 minutes."

Captain- "Damage report."

Marks- "A total of 9 turrets have been destroyed, and structural integrity has been compromised. I'd also expect the armour plating to be all but ripped off after this beating."

Tyler- "Helm is sluggish but should be sufficient to manoeuvre against the Counter. Engine thrust is also down by 12%."

Captain- "Not bad. Sanyo, take the bridge call me at T- 2 minutes."

Sanyo- "Yes sir."

Captain exits to his captains office and Peter follows.

Time passes.

Sanyo- "Captain to the bridge."

Captain and Peter enter the bridge.

Captain- "Report."

Sanyo- "We're 2 minutes out from the Counter."

Captain- "The destroyers."

Sanyo- "Still adrift, we can't determine their weapon status."

Captain- "Can you determine what weapons the Counter has?"

Marks- "I'm picking up hundreds of small calibre weapons similar to those on their shuttles, about 48 turrets similar to ours, 4 heavy missile tubes and 1 planetary mass driver. Apparently the Coalition have decided to throw out the 2200 weapons limitation treaty concerning planetary weapons."

Tyler- "Their deploying shuttles!"

Captain- "How many?"

Tyler- "All they have left, 14."

Captain- "Tactical assessment Marks?"

Marks- "Going on the data we recorded during our last engagement with them,…. it'll be tough and we'll be pretty much dead in space if we're not destroyed."

Captain- "Thanks Marks."

Sanyo- "Contact with Counter in 1 minute."

Captain- "You comfortable with the projected attack course?"

Tyler- "Yeah."

Captain- "Great, follow it. Marks, turrets to fragmentation mode and fire at will on the shuttles."

We see the Abandon moving on the Counter, we switch to a front view and above and we see serious hull scars and the Abandon firing in an unenthusiastic manner with the shuttles returning fire and passing on all sides.

Return to the bridge and the bridge crew sway as before.

Sanyo- "10 seconds to firing position."

Focus on the Captain and we see him take a large breath and let it out.

Sanyo- "5...4...3...2...1..."

Captain- "Fire Planetary Cannons!"

Outside we see the Abandon's large cannons release 2 large yellow spheres at the Counter we see them moving though space and then hit with a massive pair of explosions near the Counter's engines and bridge.

Captain- "Effect!"

Marks- "I can't tell yet, but if that explosion was any indication I'd say they were good hits."

Peter- "I hope your right."

Outside we see the Abandon moving past the Counter when a shuttle suddenly crashes into the Abandon.

On the bridge the crew react as if there was a massive explosion and a few consoles explode.

Captain- "Want happened?!"

Marks- "A shuttle crashed into us, right into one of our turrets!"

Tyler- "Other shuttles appear to be thinking about doing the same thing."

Captain- "Evade them!"

Tyler- "Aye sir."

Captain- "Marks, keep firing on them."

Marks- "Aye sir."

Outside we see the Abandon pulling violent manoeuvres while the shuttles moving very fast, pass very close to the hull, and most hit.

On the bridge there are more explosions and the bridge crew is thrown around violently.

Marks- "Sir, weapons are gone and we will not be getting them back!"

Tyler- "Sir, one of the shuttles is flying straight towards the engines!"

Captain- "Evade!"

Outside we move with the shuttle in question behind and to the right it's firing on the Abandon's engine housing moving towards it very fast and then we switch to a top view of Abandon as the shuttle crashes into it.

The entire bridge crew is thrown from their seats and end up on the floor and as they come to they begin to float off the deck, and then suddenly fall back down.

Captain- "Report."

Tyler- "My evasive manoeuvres had us on a course for the Counter when our engines were hit, We're now on a collision course for the Counter and I can't turn us away. Engines are gone."

Marks- "As are weapons, we're completely defenceless, our Armour plating is all but gone, and our structural integrity is on the verge of collapse."

Sanyo- "We have serious casualties on all decks, ½ the crew are reported to be either dead or disabled, our primary gravity generator is off-line and the back up isn't working on most of the ship."

Captain- "Time too impact with the Counter."

Tyler- "Under 1 minute."

Captain- "Engineering, I want you to get…..Engineering? Brocks! Marks statues in engineering."

Marks- "Sensors indicate that there is a hull breach in that section, the whole compartment has been blown into space."

Tyler- "Sir, I think the crew on the Counter are preparing to board us, I see figures moving around on their hull and they appear armed."

Captain- "Sanyo, see to it that all able bodied men and women on board are armed and have them take up defensive positions around airlocks and sections which contain hull breaches."

Tyler- "Contact with the Counter in 10 seconds."

Captain- "All hands prepare impact and to repel boards."

Tyler- "Contact!"

All the bridge crew are thrown forward and a few sparks fly out of the odd console.

Marks- "I'm reading energy spikes on all decks moving inward, our internal defences are off-line."

Captain- "Computer, initiate overload of ships power plant, set for 10 seconds."

Computer- "Set."

Captain- "Sanyo, launch the message buoy."

Sanyo- "Aye sir."

We now see from the buoys point of view, we see the stern of the Abandon filling the screen and moving away. After 8 seconds the Abandon explodes in a massive explosion the debris moves away and we see a huge hole in the Counter and a few seconds later the hull of the Counter gives and the ship splits in two and the two half's float away from each other.

The screen goes blank and pulls away showing the wall mounted display and the audience who remain silent, as the screen fades into black.

Chris Abandon