The Strangeness Starts
Posted on Sun Aug 6, 2017 @ 4:34pm by Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant JG Zander Devereaux & Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Marisa Cheshire & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal & Lieutenant Gilah & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Lieutenant JG Mirok & Lieutenant JG Jacob Hartley & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Ensign Athyle sh'Paveress
Mission:
Strange Matter
Location: Gavarian Corridor/Belkan’s Drift asteroid field
Timeline: MD 28 || 1000 Hours
The Triumphant dropped out of warp near the coordinates where the Nimetz had sent their scans and floating in space near the asteroid belt was a Romulan ship.
Commodore Michael Aravan came to his feel as the Odyssey class came to a full stop on his command and looked. He looked at his Executive Officer and back a the viewscreen.
"What's the status of the ship?" he asked Master Chief Barnes.
Sitting comfortably in his chair, Tom ran a full sensor sweep of the Romulan ship. "Looks like a Romulan science vessel. Transponder identifies it as the RIS Apnex. 2 decks, 106 meters by 94 meters..." his voice trailed off as he studied the results. "Main and auxiliary power is offline. So's... so's life support."
The Chief looked up at the Captain. "Scans show a compliment of nearly 100 Romulans. But no lifesigns."
Michael sighed. "Commander Weisz, take an away team from Science, Medical, Intelligence, Security and Tactical over to that ship and wear biohazard suits. Romulans don't just die for any reason."
Oh, this is going to be fun, Maddy thought as she rose to her feet. What in the hell could cause something like that to happen? Soon, they'd find out. The redhead began to make her way to the turbolift, tapping her combadge as she went. =^=Weisz to Mirok, Mallory, Hartley, Tetanal and Gilah... report to transporter room two immediately. Biohazard suits are required.=^= With that, she walked off of the bridge and into the turbolift.
Kelani looked up at the summons. She tapped her combadge, =^=Tetanal here. I'm on my way=^=. She picked up her tricorder and made her way to obtain a hazmat suit, then proceeded to the Transporter Room
=/\=Mirok enroute!=/\= Mirok said, grabbing a Tricorder, phaser, and biohazard suit before making his way to the transporter room. "I hate these things" he said upon arrival.
Maddy, who had arrived before anyone else and had given orders to the transporter operator on duty, looked at the two officers present. She was already in her suit with the headpiece tucked under her arm. Truth be told, she wasn't all that fond of them, either, but they were a necessary evil she'd take over facing being infected with something deadly any day. "As much as you may hate them, Lieutenant, they've saved countless lives in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. If you have them on, of course," she said gesturing for them to suit up while they waited for the others to join them.
Doctor Gilah, who had acknowledged the Initial call with a simple =/\= "Understood" =/\= marched into the transporter room, already clad in her hazmat suit which sported a belt containing a medical tricorder, another scanner and a phaser. Despite the odd appearance of the suit she wore it well, possibly because she had decided to own the look, and possibly because nobody dared make fun of her. Her brow ridges especially prominent in the bright light of the transporter her slightly crazy eyes immediately fell on Mirok and she made no apology for staring at him for a couple of seconds before looking to the XO.
"Reporting as ordered, Commander."
Mirok muttered something about Klingons before donning his suit. "This is gonna be so cool."
"If you have something to say about Klingons speak up!" Gilah told Mirok loudly. "If I can't hear you I cannot agree with you."
Mirok chuckled, "I just said you Klingons can spot a Romulan a mile away."
Gilah Considered his words for a moment.
"Klingons have… keen eyes. Trust me, I'm a Doctor." She smiled at him, her fang-like canines framing an otherwise fairly human-looking grin.
Mirok nodded, not completely believing her.
Maddy looked between Gilah and Mirok with an arched brow, but said nothing. There was so much she wanted to say, but somehow managed to refrain from doing so. "As soon as Lieutenants Mallory and Hartley decide to join us, we'll be on our way."
Douglas had immediately, at the order, acknowledged. Unfortunately, he'd needed to await the arrival of his relief on the bridge before he could leave. And then, he'd had to go and retrieve one of those horrendously bulky Starfleet Hazmat suits and put it on. Sometimes, like now in the unwieldy suit, he missed the Enforcer Guild's much more sleek versions of things.
Strapping on a phaser -- his Marai weapon was now sheathed in the same suit he was and could not, therefore, be used -- and a tricorder -- one never knew when one would become separated from one's group -- onto his belt, helmet under his arm, he entered the Transporter Room, glancing at the others present before taking up a silent, waiting position near the platform. He felt no need to state the obvious, that he was there because she had ordered him to be.
Having acknowledged the call, Jacob quickly made his way to the equipment locker and grabbed a hazmat suit, as well as a phaser rifle, and a tricorder which contained a program that would help him access any number of computer systems. Of course, the problem was that it didn't always work, but it was good to have.
The problem was the hazmat suit. He hated them because they were too bulky, so if there was a situation, he would be slowed down and wouldn't be able to be as agile. Of course, improvisation was a good skill for any intel officer, so he'd have to see what happened. He left the equipment room, holding his phaser rifle in one hand and his helmet in the other.
Heading to the transporter room, he saw the group already there. "Reporting as ordered." He said, looking at Weisz.
"Now that we're all here," the Commander said, moving with the team to step onto the transporter pad. She took a moment to secure her helmet into place, and kicked the systems online, then gestured for everyone to do the same. With that done, she looked to the young woman manning the controls. "Energize."
The young woman nodded her head and moved her fingers over the controls. It wasn't long before the familiar blue waves moved over the team and transported them to the first deck of the other ship.
The interior lights of Romulan science vessel were slightly dimmed. Add to that the dark green, cold interior and it created exactly what it felt like. A tomb. All around the stations and consoles of the lower deck, were Romulan bodies. Some were hunched over the consoles, like they had just leaned forwards and died. Others were on the floor. No particular design, just…laying there. Dead. Others had fallen back in their chairs; arms limp at their sides and heads hanging back. Those had a look of excruciating pain on their faces. There were a few that had severe disruptor burns while some of those on the floor held one of the weapons. Other than that, there were no signs of a struggle. No indications of an attack. It was as if they had all laid down and died.
On the upper area, the commanding officer of the ship was slumped sideways in his chair. Several yards behind him and his chair was another area. Even more Romulans were laid out around the table. Tricorders beeped and their PADDs flashed. On the table lay an opened unit of some kind that was smaller than a Romulan probe. The markings were unrecognizable at first glance and the unit appeared slightly more advanced than anything the Romulans had. Inside were several strange compounds, including an aqua colored substance.
"What the Elements happened here?" Mirok asked after the transport resolved. He broke off from the group, mounting the steps to peer over a body's shoulder at the PADD.
Though shocked at the sight before her, Kelani took a deep breath, then moved to stand near Mirok, observing the area closely.
"We are here to determine that, Lieutenant," she said quietly, tricorder already out and analyzing the area.
As the transporter effect faded, Douglas frowned at the sight before him. Immediately, he was reminded of the Isiduri Mission back when he was a newly-minted Enforcer. There had been no odd box of chemicals, but the rest of the scene was hauntingly familiar. His Mission First had told him to note every tiny detail; any one of them might prove valuable later.
Using the tricorder at his belt, he scanned the area. He was recording everything his tricorder could "see" even while his eyes pulled in as much detail as they could. He truly hoped this was not like the Isiduri Mission; that had ended... badly.
Jacob looked around at the bodies, frowning. "Well, I'm not an expert, but off the top of my head, I'd say they're all dead." Jacob said, as he went over to a computer panel. "I'll see if I can retrieve any useful data from their logs. Maybe there's something that'll answer how most of them died." Jacob said.
"You implying that not all of them died right away or in the same way?" Mirok asked.
Jacob looked at Mirok, and pointed to some of the dead bodies. "Well, given the disruptor burns, I'd say we don't need to know how they died." Jacob replied.
At the mention of he disruptors, Mirok grabbed one prior to moving to one of the computers, kicking at its base and seeing it hum to life for a brief moment. "Terrible engineering."
He turned away from the failed systems, looking at the Commander of the ship. "I feel like I might have known some of these people."
After her mind had been able to adjust to the rapid change of circumstance and her 'keen' eyes to the dimned lighting Doctor Gilah had flipped open her medical Tricorder and started to move amongst the bodies taking scans.
"How they died is relevant but it does not give us a cause. If I had to gamble my reputation as a physician at this time to that cause I would warn you all to treat that..." -she pointed to the probe without looking up from her tricorder- "with extreme caution."
Kelani looked where Gilah pointed and her lips thinned as memories of recent events came to the fore.
"I agree, Doctor,". She said quietly. "That device should be handled gingerly, if at all."
Maddy looked at the scene that greeted them. This was a scene straight out of one of those twenty-first century horror movies. She tapped her combadge. =^=Weisz to Triumphant... send over someone from Engineering and Operations.=^=
=^=They'll be on their way, Commander.=^= Michael's voice came over her combadge. =^=What's it look like over there?=^=
=^=I... I don't even know how to describe what we're seeing. There's a lot of death here.=^= The Commander replied.
On the bridge, Michael tapped his combadge. =^=Lieutenant Cheshire, it's time to spread your wings. Full perimeter, but do not fire at anything until the orders are given,=^= he said. =^=Full surveillance mode.=^=
Marisa's fighter was locked in the launch tube, ready to sortie. She did one last check of her safety gear before opening the channel back to the bridge =^=Roger that sir. I'm sending you the flight plan now.=^= She looked at her mission computer with the flight plan she had prepared earlier. 12 ships would space themselves evenly in a 1 AU radius around the Triumphant and establish a tachyon detection grid while an additional 20, along with electronic support, would intercept anything detectable in half a light year. Her own flight would stay close to the Triumphant. That information was now sent to the bridge.
=^=Galm, Victory and King squadrons are cleared to launch. Weapons hold.=^= She said on her wing channel before looking to the side and giving the "shooter" at the control station for her launch tube the thumbs up. A moment later she was forced back into her chair as she was propelled forward at near relativistic speeds, the inertial dampeners the only thing preventing her from becoming a red stain on her seat. The rest of the squadrons she ordered out followed in quick succession, which she could see on her scanner. She also noted the transponder of a Romulan ship, though until her electronic support ship was launched the specialised sensors on her fighter couldn't make out too much more than that..
After she fell in with her formation she reopened a channel to the bridge =^=Mother Goose, I'm a bit in the dark out here, could you forward the results of the scan?=^=
=^=Affirmative, Alice,=^= came the response. =^=Scans are transmitted.=^=
=^=Got it, thanks=^= She had a quick glance over the information before responding. A lot of biomass with negative life signs she thought to herself. =^=Alice to Mother Goose Actual. If you'd like I can get a camera on one of the hull windows and maybe give you eyes on.=^=
=^=That's a negative, Alice. An away team is going over. Keep your eyes on the surrounding areas.=^=
=^=Aye aye Mother Goose, will loiter in the area.=^=
=^=Weisz to Triumphant... send over someone from Engineering and Operations.=^= came the voice of Commander Weisz over Michael's combadge.
=^=They'll be on their way, Commander.=^= Michael responded after tapping his combadge. =^=What's it look like over there?=^=
The Commodore looked over at Master Chief Barnes. "Send someone you can spare from Operations, Master Chief," he said before he contacted Engineering. =^=Send Devereaux over to the ship. Full hazmat gear.=^=
=^=Acknowledged. He's on his way.=^= Came the response.
"Aye, Commodore," Tom said. He knew just the person too. Tapping his badge, he summoned Ensign sh'Paveress to report to the transporter room with a toolkit and full hazmat gear.
=^=I... I don't even know how to describe what we're seeing. There's a lot of death here.=^= The Commander replied.
The familiar haze of the transporter quickly dissolved, depositing Ensign sh'Paveress and Lieutenant JG Devereaux on board the derelict vessel. Knowing that she was being sent over as a specialist, Athyle had ensured her tricorder was on the outside of her suit for immediate use. Therefore, she reached down and immediately flipped it open, hoping to get a quick read on the ship's status. "Where can we be of assistance, Commander?" she asked.
Zander carried a toolkit with him and looked angry behind the helmet of his biohazard suit. He marched over to where Commander Weisz was and grunted. "What's with all the bodies?" he asked as he looked around.
"I need this ship back up and running yesterday. I want to know what was going on here before this happened," Maddy replied, looking to Zander. "Once you two have done that, I may just be able to answer that question."
=^=Let me know as soon as you know something=^= Michael responded.
Zander gave a grunt and headed to the small engineering section. "Bloody worthless Romulan pile of crap," he muttered as he pulled off a body out of the way before he yanked a panel off and began to crawl under it.
Athyle nodded to the XO before following Zander over to the engineering section. She set her toolkit on the panel and opened it to pull out a small generator. It wouldn't have enough power to fire up the engines, but it would give them about thirty minutes at a console in order to figure out where to start poking around. "Looks like safety regulations are at fault," she remarked. "Systems have been idle too long, resulting in an automatic shutdown. Shouldn't take but a few minutes to get this going again."
"Does the readings look okay to you?" Zander asked sh'Paveress as he tinkered inside the panel and made a few adjustments. "I'm about to override the shutdown."
The Ensign nodded an affirmative, reminding herself that she was working with a lieutenant of the junior grade. "I don't see anything outside of the norm," she confirmed. "Be careful with the relays though. Looks like there's a bit of a residual charge there."
"I'm going to head down to the engine room and do a quick check there," Zander said as he closed the panel and stood up with his tool kit again. "Once that checks out, we should be able to bring everything online. Be ready for my signal because I don't know how this bucket is going to react to a Federation kick in the teeth," he told the Andorian before he headed down to the second deck.
sh'Paveress' antenna leaned in Zander's direction, then back before she shook her head. Humans were erratic at times, but that one...she was surprised he hadn't killed himself yet. She continued to check the readings. A few minutes later, they changed and power started to climb. "Commander," she said. "The power is coming back..."
The Andorian paused. "And it's still climbing....it's reaching dangerous levels...." She tapped her combadge. =^=Lieutenant Devereaux, shut it down.=^=
=^=Just a minute=^= Zander's voice grunted over the com. =^=There! Bloody Romulan tech!=^=
Slowly the readings went back and normalized and the Ensign breathed a sigh of relief as she made the required changes. "Power is stabile and everything is coming back online."
The lighting on the ship slowly brightened to reveal the grim scene in more detailed and the stations came back online.
"Mister Mallory... Mister Mirok... I highly doubt you will, but look for anyone that might have survived. Mister Hartley... you and Miss sh'Paveress see if you can find out what happened here before they died. Miss Tetanal... check the sensor logs for anything the ship may have encountered," Maddy ordered. She was still in shock over what they were all surrounded by currently. What the hell could have possibly done this? "Mister Devereaux... keep the ship stable. Miss Gilah... what have your scans picked up?"
"Yes Commander," Kelani replied, moving to the science station and bringing up the sensor logs. She began to download them to her trocorder, wishing she understood the Romulan language--both spoken and written--more clearly than the basic instruction given at the Academy.
She began to survey the science station itself, looking for anomalies.
By this time Gilah had surveyed a few of the bodies and have returned her medical tricorder to its pouch, switching to a slightly larger scanner. She was moving around the bridge scanning the air and had ended up by the alien probe. Her bony brow furrowed in concentration through the window of her Hazmat suit she looked up as Commander Weisz mentioned her name.
"Doctor Gilah." She began, unceremoniously correcting the XO over the away team Channel. "What I have picked up, Commander, is that the root cause of this... mess... appears at this point to be an airborne virus which has infected every individual I have scanned so far. Whether they died from its effects directly or extreme behaviour brought about as a side-effect depends on the individual's response to the virus. As it is I have a couple of calls to make."
She continued without waiting for a response.
=/\= Triumphant, this is Gilah. I am placing the Romulan ship under full medical quarantine as of this moment. Please instigate the appropriate measures aboard ship. All transporter rooms on Triumphant should be secured immediately. Any returning away team members must go through the same transporter and be returned directly to decontamination. I would also suggest limiting the number of crew that are sent over here. Away team, If you have any reason to suspect that the integrity of your suit, if a colleague displays any abnormal behaviour or if you feel any abnormal physical sensations experience bruising or cold extremities return to Triumphant immediately. =/\=
Kelani listened as Gilah spoke, first to the Commander, the to Triumphant. She spoke, then, saying, "A very wise precaution, Doctor. We must be on our guard..."
She paused for a moment before continuing, "It appears that they found a small temporal rift ....I'm having a little difficulty determining where...just beyond their borders....I am continuing to search."
Mirok had either not heard Maddy or made no effort to move from where he was reading one of the PADDs. He tentatively poked at it to scroll through, frowning when the security protocols made some stuff unintelligible. "How did he show me to do this..." He muttered as he tried to remember how to override them.
Douglas acknowledged the commander's words, looking to Mirok preparatory to saying something, but the man was not cognizant of him. Approaching, he tapped the man on the shoulder to get his attention. "The commander wants us to check for any survivors." he repeated her order, though he seriously doubted that they would find any. Seeing what Mirok was looking at, he glanced at the PADD. "Something important?"
"No, nothing." Mirok said, tapping something on the PADD, to no avail.
Douglas was, admittedly, confused by Mirok's behavior. If there was nothing important on the PADD, why was the man so determined to do something with it? He frowned. "Then we should get moving, Lieutenant." he encouraged, though the man seemed inordinately obsessed with the PADD and heedless of the orders. With subtle movement but a practiced eye, Douglas gave the man's suit a look-over to determine if there were any breaches in it. This was, after all, slightly aberrant behavior for a Starfleet officer.
"Highly unlikely for anyone to have survived." Mirok said, tilting his head when reading the PADD. "They'd have registered on sensors or have arrived here already, especially if they checked the sensors and saw the types of lifesigns." He was nearly deadpan in his response, and there was no breach in his suit.
The man was correct about it being doubtful there was anyone alive, and the Commander likely knew that as well -- she had qualified her order with a verbal acknowledgment that she highly doubted it -- but that did not change the fact that she had given them an order. And while Douglas had been trained better than to witlessly follow orders, he also knew that the situation may not be as simple as that. So, shrugging his shoulders, he left Mirok to his PADD and moved off to search the rest of the ship for survivors as ordered.
Kelani spoke again, saying, "The Romulans sent a probe through the rift." She paused a moment, concentrating, then continued, "The probe found a dead planet." Again she paused for a moment before speaking again, "The device on the table locked onto their probe's signal and arrived here. The symbols on that device" she pointed to the device on the table, "are completely unfamiliar."
Making his way over to a computer, Jacob began to look at the data on the screen, frowning. Opening his small Intelligence kit, he removed a device, and placed it on the computer, activating it. As a red light on the device lit up, Jacob began to access the computer. "I'll see if I can access their logs." He said, watching the small device he had placed on the console, which was innocuously downloading the entire logs of the ship. After all, it wasn't often they might get to be on a Romulan ship, and the device didn't leave a trace of copying the logs.
Ensign sh'Paveress continued to monitor the power output to all of the primary systems, looking for potential points of failure. As of yet, she hadn't found anything. The air circulation kicked in, and performed an admirable job of stirring the foul odor left behind by scores of dead Romulans. They reeked when they were alive, but when they were dead... Even though the hazmat suit was quite capable of keeping those smells outside the suit, Athyle could swear that she was currently choking on the Romulan stench.
A young Science officer was checking the sensors and turned pale as a Romulan D'Deridex appeared between the Romulan science ship and the Triumphant. "Commodore! We're being hailed!"
"On screen," Michael ordered. "Tactical, prepare to raise shields but keep the weapons powered down."
Martha looked up at her holographic console and accepted the incoming transmission before raising the Triumphant's shields to maximum. Martha hadn't much experience of the Romulans - but the experience she did have wasn't a friendly one.
On the holographic screen an aged female Romulan stared at Michael from the bridge of the Romulan ship. "Federation ship. You have personnel on Romulan ship. Get them off now or you will be destroyed."
"Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?" Michael asked as he stayed in his command chair. "I'm Commodore Michael Aravan of the USS Triumphant."
"Triumphant?" The Romulan sneered. "I am Commander Dukuma of the Eraiko and you are in violation of Romulan space. Remove your people or be destroyed."
"We're hardly in Romulan space, Commander Dukuma," Michael said calmly. "We received orders to come here to investigate an adrift ship and our sensors indicate there is no life aboard."
"What?!" Dukuma shouted before the screen went back.
With her console showing the Romulan craft was now powering up its tactical systems Martha reported this to the Commodore.
"The Romulans are charging their disruptors Commodore" Martha reported.
"Ops, try to raise them again," Michael ordered.
Tom did as he was instructed. In doing so, he consulted every Romulan frequency Starfleet had on file, and immediately transmitted the Captain's message on all such carrier bands. He waited a few seconds to see if they would respond. Finally, he looked up to the Captain and stated, "No response, sir."
The Eraiko came about and the primary disruptor arrays opened fire on the Triumphant.
Martha looked at her console to check for the damage and the news wasn't good. The shields were now offline and they were defenceless.
"That's a direct hit to our shield generator. I can't re-sequence the shields..." Martha called.
"Engineering, get that shield generator online!" Michael ordered. "Helm, bring us about and behind the fighter screen!"
The helmsman acknowledged and the Odyssey class moved smoothly while the D'Deridex fired again, this time on the Romulan Science ship as well.
=^=The shields are the least of my worries, Commodore=^= Lieutenant Gefel responded from Engineering. =^=We're facing a containment breach!=^=
Michael turned pale. =^=Status?=^=
=^=We took a nasty hit and a lucky shot knocked some critical systems offline. We're shunting them over now=^= Gefel said. =^=Engineering out!=^=
Tom cursed as he saw several indicator lights flash red, undoubtedly caused by the cascade failure. "Shifting all available power to structural integrity and weapons!" he called out. The clean up after this mess wasn't going to be pretty. "Bringing the auxiliary generators online for additional resources."
"Cusack, give them a taste of their own medicine!" Michael ordered.
Martha charged up the phasers and targeted the D'deridex-class starship and fired at its dorsal shields. With a few strong bursts of fire there was enough damage for a direct hit on a critical system if need be.
"Their shields are down to 75% strength" Martha reported.
A huge D'Deridex ship appeared between the Triumphant and the Romulan Science ship, somehow slipping through the sensors and fighter patrols and hung in space as it began to power up its weapons.
"Alice, Yellow 2 is reporting it's got a Romulan contact at bearing 142 mark negative 39, 4500 kilometers." Marisa's Andorian back seater said with a rather cold inflection.
Marisa took her eyes off the asteroids and down to her scanner and frowned as she pitched and rolled back towards the Triumphant. "How the hell did they get through the tachyon detection grid?" she said to herself as she opened a channel to her wing. =^=All units, maintain current operations, Reserve squadrons report to your ships and prepare to scramble. Do not launch until ordered. Garm will return to guard base. Weapons hold remains in effect.=^=
She listened in onto the conversation between the captain of the Romulan vessel and the Commodore while she made the short warp jump back to base. The flight popped out of warp between the two vessels, swooping down right in front of the Romulan ship's bow before they pulled into a wide orbit around the massive ship.
=^=Mother Goose to Cheshire. Protect the science vessel=^= the Commodore's voice came over her frequency.
=^=Alice to Mother Goose, prioritising defense of the science ship.=^= Marisa flicked over to the flight deck's channel. =^=Flight Deck, Alice. Have Sidewinder Squadron launch, fit Merlin with a defensive payload, fit Kestrels with anti-ship.. Sidewinder Squadron, Orbit at a distance of 1 kilometer. Science vessel is the priority defensive target. Give the Rommy War Bird a wide berth. Merlin do the same, deploy countermeasures to defend the science vessel at the first shot. Load Kestrels into the tubes.=^=
Only a few moments later the small Razors launched, 4 from each side twice. Each set of 4 formed a diamond formation before heading towards the science ship in a hyperbolic trajectory around the D'Deridex.
Now the Romulan warship opened fire on the Triumphant with the primary disruptor arrays, causing the massive ship's shields to flicker.
=^=Mother Goose to Alice. Fire at will!=^= The Commodore's voice came over Cheshire's com.
=^=Roger Mother Goose.=^= Marisa said. There was a slight delay as she looked at her scanner and ascertained the situation.
=^=The Triumphant has suffered a direct hit on their shield generator, their shields have failed.=^= Her back seater advised
Marisa nodded to herself "right" she said before taking a breath =^=Merlin 2, Deploy and maintain a chaff screen in front of the Triumphant. Merlin 3 do the same for the derelict. Kestral, you're cleared to launch for an anti-ship mission. All fighters weapons free=^=
The two support runabouts changed their vectors ever so slightly, heading to help their respective allies. The one sent to assist the triumphant fired first, launching what looked like several small probes in between the War Bird and the Triumphant. In sequenced they detonated, exploding in an anticlimactic dispersion of grey gas which lingered between the 2 ships. Soon, Merlin 3 had done the same for the science ship before making its way behind the protective screen.
=^=Alice to Mother Goose, Merlin 2 just deployed a chaff screen near your location. It will moderate energy weapon fire and spoof torpedo locks. I recommend you maneuver behind it until your shields are repaired.=^=
Meanwhile the 16 Kestrals in their Raptors had launched, vectoring directly on the War Bird, each laden with 4 full sized torpedoes.
The Triumphant turned hard to port and got between the disruptor fire and the chaff screen while the Commodore braced himself against a terminal. "Fire again!" he called out.
With the weapons lock still maintained Martha unleashed another volley of phaser fire. With their shields damaged even more the Tactical Chief hoped they would get the message - however she knew that it was very unlikely.
"Enemy shields are at 59%" Martha reported.
The Eraiko circled around and opened fire with several volleys of photon torpedoes which were taken out by the chaff while it fired a mixture of disruptor and phaser fire at the swarm of fighters around it.
The Romulan vessel bristled with defensive fire in all directions as the squadron of raptors approached it. Their patterns and leading were a lot more disciplined compared to the Orion pirates, and a lot more effective too. 3 Kestrels had pulled away before they had managed to reach optimum range due to shield damage and had fired their payloads prematurely, giving the crew of the Eraiko ample time to intercept the torpedoes.
=^=Kestrals, fall back to standoff range. We're going to need a better way to push though.=^= Marisa said
The Raptors fell back to a holding pattern around the Warbird which continued to fire and attempt to hit the orbiting squadron. 30 seconds of silence passed over the command com while the CAG considered their options.
"Alright, that might work." she said to herself before opening the coms channel again. =^=Alright, Garmr flight will move in to draw their fire. Merlin 3, I want you to follow us in and drop chaff at our backs when we pass optimal, Kestrals, trail at 30 seconds.=^=
After she got a resounding understood from her flight and the Kestral Squadron leader she turned in. Instantly the turrets and arrays that could get a firing solution on her did so. They didn't aim directly at the formation, just in front of it and then narrowed their field as though to create a cage made out a deadly bars that quickly closed in on them.
=^=Warp Jump!=^= Marisa called out before turning her nose ever so slightly and hitting the warp button on the side of her throttle. For a fraction of a second her flight accelerated to light speed and passed through the field of fire, though the heat sync and energy capacitor alarms advised that the short jump had pushed the cooling systems at critical and drained the energy reserves, as though scolding her for not going through the proper start up procedures. After a few seconds the blaring had stopped and the indicators had dropped to the yellow. She checked with the Andorian behind her on the status of the rest of her flight.
The defenses began targeting the four in her flight independently now, chasing them and forcing them to separate. The tactical officer on board had lowered the power of the disruptor beam so it could fire faster, and Marisa was quickly pushed to her limits to evade them, but it was working. A quick glance at her scanner showed Merlin closing in more or less unmolested. A puff appeared on her scope and the formation lining up behind it vanished from view. Though she paid for that glance with a hit. Her ship shuddered violently as her shields glowed a vibrant blue.
"Shields down to 30%!" Pixie called out behind her.
Marisa pulled back and to the left, entering a rolling scissor to evade. When her nose was pointing back on her original trajectory she straightened out, her flight meeting back up with her as though they had just executed a stunt maneuver. Though she didn't expect they would be able to reform, she wasn't about to waste the opportunity.
=^=As we pull up deploy counter measures 1... 2... 3=^=
As Garmr pulled away at different vectors embers and gas erupted from ports at the rear of the ships, further confusing the Romulan's sensors. As they fell back to stand off 16 glowing blue torpedoes rocketed in between their formation and began pummeling the war bird behind them.
With damage coming from the both the fighters and the Federation warship, the Eraiko broke off the attack, cloaked and quickly jumped to warp.
=^=I guess they didn't want to hang around.=^= One of the pilots said over the channel. =^=Shame, I always wanted to see the containment on their singularity reactors fail.=^=
"Alice, our port side shield emitter took a pretty bad hit." Pixie said behind her. "We've also lost Primary and Secondary data lines to the main drives, we're running on tertiary systems.."
Marisa gave an affirmative nod before stoically issued her next orders. =^=RTB if you're running low or damaged. Otherwise take a defensive posture around the science ship. Good work.=^=
She then began to guide her own craft home in formation with 4 other fighters, each with still glowing wounds.
A party of a half a dozen Romulans appeared in a swirl of transporter energies and were in the process of drawing their weapons.
Kelani whirled and seeing the Romulan boarding party, she slammed her hand on the shield controls, erecting them, simultaneously reaching out with her Cairn abilities, attempting to convince the Romulans that they could not draw their weapons.
"Boarding party!" She shouted.
Maddy shot her attention toward the Romulans that just appeared on the Science vessel. This just got better and better. The Commander was already furious, and this was making her anger rise ten fold. She placed her hand on her phaser, but didn't draw it yet... not until she absolutely had no choice. "You've all just signed your death warrant coming over here blindly without taking any precautions for your own safety, and I'm not talking about any of us opening fire upon you. This vessel is infected with an airborne virus that killed everyone on this ship, and every last one of you are now infected," she said calmly despite her rising anger. "Sadly, I cannot permit you to leave this vessel and risk infecting others."
"Lies!" the lead Romulan said as he pointed a disruptor at the woman who had addressed him. He started to take a step forward when he began to cough and clutched at his chest as his eyes tried to bug out of his head. He tried to say something and clawed at his throat before he fell over.
Zander came running up from Engineering at the extra drain on power that the shields had caused, but stopped when he saw the Romulans. "Ah crap," he muttered, having nothing more dangerous than a tricorder on him.
The other Romulans started to reach for their communicators when one suddenly shouted something incomprehensible and fired his disruptor at another one of his boarding party members. With the shields up, the transport was blocked and the others dove for cover.
"Take cover!" the CO ordered to her crew. Her main concern was their safety, which meant there was little choice now as Maddy withdrew her own phaser and leveled it on the firing Romulan. She fired a single heavy stun shot, landing it against his shoulder. The humane thing would have been to kill him, but the virus had already taken care of that part. They needed to get off of this ship and back onto their own, but that would give the infected Romulans the same opportunity to do the same and spread things further.
Disruptor fire came her way, and she narrowly missed being hit by it as she dove out of the way. She hit the ground face first wincing when she hit the floor, but it was the sound of something cracking that caught her attention. She rolled onto her back and blinked, looking at the web-like cracks on the viewing port of her helmet. This... this was not good, but it hadn't gone all the way through yet, which meant she was still safe. For now.
"If I'd have known this was going to be a family reunion I woulda ask y'all to bring some Ale." Mirok said, pointing the disruptor he had picked up earlier at the Romulans.
Gilah Swore loudly in Klingon and took cover behind the probe she had been scanning. While she was a doctor she was not beyond returning fire when fired upon, especially in circumstances such as these, however as she appeared over the top of the probe and returned the bolts of green with her own streams of orange energy Gilah found herself strangely torn. On the one hand she wanted to end this as quickly as possible, and on the other hand without any particular regard for her own safety she needed to make sure this virus threat was properly taken care of and perhaps more important to her personally that Yolana didn't lose her mother for the second time in two years. To that end she stayed slightly better protected by the cover than she otherwise might have.
"We are not lying to you, look at what just happened!" She shouted from her position behind the probe."Why do you think we are wearing these ridiculous suits?"
Zander ran over to where the Commander had fell and started to drag her behind a console. When he saw the crack in her helmet, he tapped his combadge. =^=Devereaux to Triumphant. Lock onto Commander Weisz's signal and beam her back!=^=
=^=Shields are down and the Romulan ship is bombarding us. Hold tight!=^= came the response.
"Figures," Zander muttered as he looked for the Commander's phaser. "So, come here often?"
Maddy eyed the man. "Now is not the time for that, Mister Devereaux, and if it wasn't for the fact that we're facing some serious shit right now or that I'm on the verge of facing infection, I'd beat you."
Zander grabbed the fallen phaser and fired a burst around the corner of the console and hit a Romulan in the leg, but it was only set on stun. "Don't tease me like that," he said. "I'm trying to help here."
sh'Paveress had wisely ducked out of sight as soon as the borders arrived. She'd come over unarmed, but with scores of dead Romulans aboard, finding a Romulan disruptor was an easy task. The Andorian peered out from behind her cover, spotting Zander and the XO not far from her, but she still didn't have a clear shot at the Romulans. For now, she had no choice but to wait until the danger came their way, as she felt as if she fired, she'd attract unnecessary attention. Let the Romulans kill themselves first, then let their victory be short lived.
Not wanting to get shot--he was wearing a rather obvious Starfleet uniform--Mirok ducked behind cover to ensure he wasn't a target.
Maddy closed her eyes. It seemed as though the rest of their boarding party were infected with the extremely violent and hostile side of the virus. They could wait for them to snuff each other out, which could take time, and she wasn't sure if she had that or not. "Everyone remain under cover until we can get the hell out of here," she ordered over the team channel as peeked around the console she and Zander were hiding behind. "Lieutenant Devereaux, cover me. This needs to end and now. The longer we're here, the worse off we'll be."
Before the Engineer had a chance to protest, Maddy looked at the two Romulans that were fighting one another. If she hustled, she'd make it to them in no time. "Now!" Maddy snapped quietly as she got to her feet and rushed the two occupied individuals. It would take one well placed shot at the wide beam setting for Zander to take them out, then there were only three left to worry about.
"There's a reason I didn't go into Security," Zander muttered as he snapped off a half a dozen quick shots at the Romulans who were now staring in confusion at the woman charging them. Unfortunately for them, two of the shots got lucky and hit them and they dropped where they had stood.
=^=Weisz to Triumphant... get us out of here.=^= Maddy snapped before she ducked behind another console. There were only a couple Romulans left, and while they were outnumbered, their erratic behavior from the virus made them more dangerous. She closed her eyes and pulled in a shaky breath as her chest heaved. Hopefully, someone else would take out their remaining foes.
=^=Give us a minute, Commander=^= Michael's voice said. "The Romulan ship just left the fight and we're facing a possible containment breach.=^=
=^=Understood.=^= Maddy said
Zander fired at another Romulan who was taking a bead on sh'Paveress and was fortunate enough to take the man down.
She began searching from her hiding spot, checking to see where the last one was. She spotted him on the other side of the area they were all in and frowned. There was no way she'd make it to him in time, and Devereaux was in possession of her phaser. "Look alive!" she shouted to those taking cover on that side.
Kelani had taken cover after she had shouted her warning. She watched in frustration, having no weapon to help defend her shipmates.
She crawled forward and found a fallen disruptor, then began to maneuver to cover looking for an opening to fire. At last she saw a chance and fired, striking one of the remaining Romulan.
Getting to her feet, she rushed to the others, keeping to as much cover as she could.
Having ducked as soon as the Romulan's had arrived, Jacob held his phaser, annoyed that he was stuck in the EVA suit. He would have liked to have had more mobility, but for the moment, he was stuck with what he had. But then, improv was what he was good at.
He saw one of the Romulan's using a console for cover, and aimed his weapon. The problem was, he didn't have a good shot, so he thought for a second, smiled and fired at the console. His shot struck the target, causing the console to explode, sending sparks up and behind the console. As the Romulan went to move, Jacob fired again, this time hitting the Romulan's head, sending him to the ground. "Well, this is fun." Jacob commented dryly.
"Is anyone injured?" Gilah stood from her cover and swapped the phaser in her right hand for a medical tricorder.
Douglas, who had been searching the rest of the ship for survivors -- there were none, of course, but those had been his orders -- stopped just outside the bridge area, listening. He heard the firing stop and the new Doctor shout her question about injuries. Peering around the doorframe, he assessed the situation to determine if there were any more Romulans in hiding. Spotting one crouched behind a console just inside the door, he fired his phaser, taking the man down with the shot. Unfortunately for the Romulan, he had been watching the others and not heard Douglas arrive. Quickly, he cast his gaze over the room again.
Maddy rose from behind the console she was crouched behind and approached the doctor. The cracks still continued to web across the viewing port, but she still showed no signs of infection. That didn't mean she wasn't going to be safe about it. "Doctor Gilah... I feel I might have been compromised. I feel fine, but once we've completed the decontamination process, I would like for you or one of your personnel to escort me to quarantine and perform a full examination just to be safe."
Gilah moved closer and gave the commander's suit a cursory visual inspection, her face still a picture of annoyance at the Romulans who had the audacity to shoot her.
"Noted." She told Maddy shortly, holstering her phaser and opening her medical tricorder, running the accompanying scanner quickly over the XO. "You Show no signs of infection but with the suit on I can't be absolutely sure. You will be seen as soon as we return."
With that done, she turned toward Kelani. "Lieutenant Tetanal, we need to bring a sample of the virus back to the ship. I want the lab it will be concealed in sealed off to anyone other than authorized personnel. That list is to include myself, Doctor Gilah and Commodore Aravan. Aside from you and those I've stated, any other personnel will require authorization from me or the Commodore. No exceptions," she stated, tapping her combadge. =^=Weisz to Triumphant... as soon as you're able, beam over a containment unit for transport of hazardous materials.=^=
=/\= "Acknowledged," =/\= came Chief Barnes's voice over the comm system. Just a few seconds later, a containment module materialized in the middle of the room where there was just enough space around the dead bodies for it to go.
"Acknowledged,". Kelani replied, continuing, "If I may be so bold, Commander, the lab where we study this should be in a pod that could be jettisoned and destroyed if necessary. Also, it would be prudent to do the majority of the manipulation should be done robotically to avoid the chance of contamination."
"Also, Commander, it may be prudent to leave the alien probe where it is. I have not examined it, but my opinion is that it is most likely a doomsday device of some sort."
Gilah cut in addressing Maddy and Kelani directly, her mood apparently still fairly touchy - although it was becoming apparent this was nothing new.
"I would humbly suggest as the ship's ,Chief Medical Officer that we use the medical hazmat labs designed and built for precisely this purpose. Standard medical quarantine procedures will give the least opportunity for contamination. As for permitted personel, I would also suggest I should be the judge of that unless you feel you have something to say on the subject of disseminated intra-vascular coagulation or viral pathogenesis? My people are trained for this, let them do their jobs."
It wasn't really a suggestion.
"Do it," Maddy said. "But, Doctor, watch how you speak to me in the future or we're going to have serious problems." With that, she walked away from the Klingon woman, clearly indicating there was no more discussing the matter.
"I was not attempting to encroach upon your purview DOCTOR," Kelani said, her eyes hard and her voice icy. "I was merely outlining the precautions I feel are necessary on this instance." She locked eyes with the Klingon woman, saying, "Do not speak to me in that manner again. I am Chief of Science and as such require the same respect that you would wish accorded to you."
So saying, Kelani moved to the table, taking tricorder readings of the materials there.
Maddy could feel her anger mount as the seconds ticked by. She watched as the sample was placed into the unit and sealed off. It was time to get back, and she was more than ready. Tapping her combadge, she spoke, =^=Bring us back.=^=
=/\= "Acknowledged," =/\= replied the Chief of Operations. =/\= "Initializing transport." =/\=
