On the Way

Posted on Mon Apr 9, 2018 @ 7:42pm by Commodore Michael Aravan & Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho & Lieutenant JG Logan Hunter & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes
Edited on on Fri May 3, 2019 @ 9:26pm

Mission: Falling Star
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 33 || 1400 Hours

Michael exited the Ready Room and headed back to the center chair where he nodded at Maddy. "Anything new, Maddy?" he asked her quietly as he surveyed the activity on the bridge.

Maddy turned her attention toward Michael, grateful she'd managed to knock some things off of her list before returning to the bridge. She shook her head and turned forward once more. "No," she replied. "We're four hours out now at warp three. Perhaps, we should increase to warp five?"

"Agreed," Michael said. "Helm, increase to warp five."

The helmsman gave a curt nod before increasing the speed of the massive starship. "Warp Five, Commodore."

"All stations report," The Commodore ordered before he looked back at Maddy and deactivated the voice amplification mic that transmitted his voice to each station. "Did you find out anything?"

"Not yet," the redhead answered, keeping her voice low. "If that changes, you'll definitely be the first to know."

"Thank you," Michael responded.

=/\= Quinnell in Engineering. Quantum slipstream and the transwarp are both within operational parameters. =/\= Venus spoke over the comm, her voice filled with confidence, even if she was the newest senior officer aboard.

Douglas looked up from the holographic situation table in his office at the commodore's call for reports. So far, everything was moving smoothly, but he did not expect that to continue; the universe always liked to make things... interesting. A look at the table again showed him S'er'in'e's people as well, and he had to admit that he liked the way the Caitian moved his troops. He did not comment on them, though. "Security all green across the board. Personnel in place and ready." he reported, having noted his patrols moving as ordered and the double guard on sensitive areas of the ship in place as well.
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"Sensors are functioning perfectly," Tom stated, not mentioning the sizable impact both the sensors and the monitors on communications had on the power reserves. "We've already picked up several contacts, but none cloaked so far."

"Cartography is proceeding normally," Kelani reported, continuing, "My staff is continuing the necessary researches into countermeasures and curatives for the substance used on the p!anet." She paused for a moment, then continued, "I am also cataloging the sensor readings, in the event detailed analysis is needed later."

Alex had gone to the Bridge and left Lieutenant Salmir to keep things in order down in Intel. The console that he'd reconfigured for his use sounded the Commodore's voice. He did a quick check of the subspace channels and for anything thing recent from the analysis center. "Everything is standard here," he replied. "If anything pops up, you'll be the second to know."

Martha appeared on the bridge and relieved the Ensign on the Tactical station who informed her the Commodore had requested a status report. Sitting down at her station Martha checked everything was fully functioning before reporting in.

"Tactical systems are fully functional. Ready to go on your command" Martha reported.

"Medical, what's your status?" Michael asked over the com.

"I have medical teams on stand by for Patient Care, Trauma, ICU and Inoculation with additional teams for triage ready to go. I have lists of crew that have medical training that I can call upon should they be available." Antonio replied as he looked at the list of preparations that were already made.

"Mister Barnes, what's our estimated time of arrival at our increased speed?" the Captain asked, glancing toward the Ops station.

Tom performed a quick mathematical equation on his console. "Just under fifty minutes, Captain," he answered.

Who knew what would be waiting for them once they arrived, and now Maddy couldn't help the anxious feeling that developed inside of her. Fifty minutes, then a lot of uncertainty. "Thank you, Mister Barnes."

Suddenly, several proximity alarms sounded from Tom's station. "What the..." he muttered, swiping a holographic display and adjusting the sensor resolution. "Commodore!" Tom called out. "I've got multiple sensor contacts emerging from the nebula up ahead. Looks to be about thirty, including a Centaur-class starship and a Breen cruiser."

Michael stood up. "Go to red alert," he called out. "Shields to full. Hopefully this will be just a friendly meeting, so keep the phasers and torpedoes on standby. Fighters, prepare to scramble."

Martha nodded and her fingers flew across the holographic display in front of her. Within seconds of Michael's order to prepare the Tactical systems she was ready to defend the ship if need be.

"Shields up and weapons charged Commodore" Martha reported.

Logan and Devon were both sitting in their starfighter. Three other Valkyries were lined on the launch rails. High warp speed transit precluded deployment of a CAP, but called for a full flight in alert craft with another two flights on standby alert in the ready room. Logan continued to monitor his systems readiness as the order to launch could come at any time.

The signatures dropped out of warp at the narrowest point of the corridor. The Centaur positioned itself to the Breen Cruiser's ventral bow while the small vessels arranged themselves into a wall.

"Commodore!" Tom called out, watching his sensors produce alarm after alarm. "I'm detecting intense graviton bursts emanating from the fleet in front of us. Impact is imminent."

"Commodore, we're being forced out of warp!" the helm called.

"Engineering, get that warp field back up!" Michael called over the com. "Helm, execute Delta-3! Fighters, deploy and use counter measures!"

The Triumphant jinked hard to starboard and dropped back as the helmsman executed the command.

"Cusack, give 'em hell!" the Commodore ordered.

Logan and the rest of the flight launched immediately after the order was received. The flight leader called for the fighters to form up on him and engage the smaller enemy ships in an effort to break the screening formation for the Centaur an Breen cruiser.

Martha charged up the phasers to maximum and with the torpedo bays fully loaded she did exactly that. Unleashing a vicious barrage of phaser fire at each of the two targets Martha then followed it up with two braces of torpedoes directed at each ship.

Venus monitored , in percentage, the disintegration of the negative warp field polarity.. Her fingers flew over the console, barking orders to her subordinates. "Switch out the power cells." Once she saw her order done, pulled a lever slowly. "Initializing positronic capacitor.." the field's polarity began to stabilize as she adjusted it, watching the numbers displayed on a number of screens until the bar turned green. =/\= Engineering to Bridge. Warp field stabilized, Commodore.=/\=

Son of a... Maddy rose to her feet and turned toward the Ops station. "Mister Barnes... feedback pulse," she ordered.

That was an excellent thought! Tom hadn't considered anything like that to counter the impending graviton burst. "Aye, Captain," he said as his hands began to fly around the controls. Within a moment, he'd made enough modifications to the deflector to initiate the feedback pulse and still maintain the deflector grid. "Activating pulse now."

"Excellent suggestion," Michael told Maddy as he pulled up the Tactical grid at the arm of his chair to watch the fighters deploy.

The deflector array on the mercenary Centaur fizzled and darkened as the counter pulses caused it to overload while the smaller ships advanced in flights of three. None the less the frigate was undeterred. The point defense turrets that dotted it's saucer section and intercepted the Triumphant's torpedoes from a safe distance. It couldn't do the same against the phaser fire, and it's shields flickered weakly as the beams struck it. The Curiser's shields shimmered brightly on the other side.

In response to it's failing shields the Centaur launched 7 probes which detonated in a circular pattern in front of the battle group. Shimmering gas spread out, full of ablative particles that interfered with sensors. A flight of runabouts took up position just to the side of the chaff screen while the rest held position just in front. A volley of shimmering gold torpedoes burst forth through the artificial cloud, uncannily accurately targeted at the Triumphant.

"Helm, evasive!" Michael called out.

The ship rolled from one side to the other before veering to port around the cloud to give its weapons maximum exposure so Martha could engage multiple targets.

The eighteen point defense turrets on the Triumphant picked the torpedoes off.

"Return fire, Lieutenant Cusack," the Commodore ordered. "Keep those shields up, Mister Barnes."

Martha nodded. "Aye Commodore"

Martha fully loaded the torpedo bays in preparation for a second wave of torpedo fire. Once they were confirmed she again targeted each ship alternately with vicious phaser fire and repeated braces of torpedoes.

Tom watched alarm after alarm light up on his console. "Port shields down to seventy percent. Sensors are having trouble seeing around us, some sort of interference. Working on it!"

The fighters had initially engaged the smaller runaboutss, targeting engines, but with the Centaur deploying additional runabouts, they changed targets. Pairs of fighters went after the forward Runabout making short work of the slower, less maneuverable craft. They fell back to a midway point between the advancing pirate armada and the Triumphant.

Hiding behind their chaff screen, targeting was spotty at best. None the less the phaser beams fired true. The ablative material dispersed in the screen refracted the beam however, and attenuated it down to the point where it caused negligible damage to the mercenary ships. The torpedoes then burst through the clouds, which were quickly intercepted by the Centaur's point defenses.

Maddy shook her head. This needed to end, and it needed to end soon, but she was expecting something bad to happen. Was this the worst, though? Not likely. "Helm... take us into the nearest nebula. We may not be able to see them, but they won't be able to see us, either," she said. "Mister Mallory... once we're inside, deploy magnetic limpet mines, then we go to half impulse for the nearest exit."

The Helmsman gave a nod and swallowed at the thought of entering the nebula, but he followed orders and the huge starship veered off to head into the nebula.

"Actual to Flight. Enter the nebula and head for the nearest exit," Michael ordered. "Cartography, plot an exit."

“Aye, sir,” Kelani replied crisply, her fingers flying over her console as she accessed and programmed the required exit. A few moments later she reported, “Course plotted, Commodore. Sending it to the helm now.”

Logan and the other fighters dove into the nebula and fanned out in an effort to locate the nearest point that would get them out, but still confuse the enemy ships.

From his Strat/Tac table in his office, he acknowledged the order. Switching views on the holographic table to display the Security Systems of the ship, he selected the mines, how many of them, the formation in which to deploy them around the ship, and waited for the display to indicate that they had gone far enough into the nebula for the enemy to be most unlikely to see that he had deployed them. "Ready here." he said when he had finished the preparations.

"Deploy," Maddy ordered.

Douglas wasted no time. Order given, he tapped the holographic display, sending out the mines in all directions. When each reached the position he had designated for it in his map, it stopped and waited for something to trigger it. "Done." he informed. "Mines are in position."

"It might be a good idea," added Rho, "to keep them from talking to one another. Especially if whoever follows us in first hits the mines gets off a message to the others before their ending. I suggest we scramble the enemy's subspace frequencies. No worries about them communicating with one another after that."

"Do it," Michael said as the Triumphant entered the nebula and alarms went off as the shields came down. The Helmsman went to half impulse and veered towards the course that the Science Chief had sent to his station and hoped that none of the mines would stick to the ship.

Alex allowed his fingers to dance over the console, going back and forth between Intel codes and subspace frequencies. When he was confident that he'd scrambled them enough to make an Obsidian Order agent squeamish, he gave a nod. "Done."

The smaller vessels gave chase, attempting to close the distance and spot the Triumphant while the pair of ships moved closer to the nebula, though not crossing its threshold. As far as they were concerned, the battle was finally proceeding their way, the Triumphant had sacrificed it's far more powerful shielding in exchange for a better firing position.

The smaller ships in pursuit were small enough that they passed through the Triumphant's minefield unscathed, mostly. One, then two, then three bursts of light could be seen. When they went for comms there was nothing but static. Seeing that their objective couldn't be completed, the majority of them fell back, careful to tread the way they came, though a group of four pressed onward.

When it became clear that it's spotters were out of contact, they had to change tactic. Machines ramped up and locked clicked as the main torpedo magazine inside the Breen ship detached. Specialists in sealed suits maneuvered new ordinance into the tube and locked it in place.

Logan was flying nearly blind. It reminded him of a fog shrouded San Francisco Bay. He finally broke through into clear space and immediate pivoted ninety degrees to port and brought his fighter to a halt. He wanted to be in position for a deflection shot on any runabouts that might pursue the Triumphant back out of the nebula.

"Bring us about and be ready, Tactical!" Michael ordered as the helmsman swung the massive starship around on its RCS thrusters and went into reverse.

Martha prepared all of the Triumphant's weapons for their next attack run. With the phasers fully charged and the torpedo bays reloaded once again she was more than prepared for her next set of instructions.

"I'm ready Commodore" Martha replied.

The first of the smaller merc ships came out of the nebula followed by the Breen ship and then more and more of the smaller ones emergency.

"Light them up!" Michael called before he opened a channel to the fighter. "Actual to Alpha Lead. Flank them in a pincher."

Logan and the other fighters in the flight group pounced on the smaller craft in the enemy formation. Each fighter easily scored at least one kill each as the runabouts emerged. It wasn't long before the runabouts closed with their own capital ships whose point defense weapons made it too dicey for the fighters to engage in close combat. The fighters settled on keeping their distance and firing microtorpedoes at the enemy runabouts.

"Mister Barnes, monitor their traffic."

Without replying, Tom called up a graph of all of the comm traffic on one of his holographic monitors. In addition, he picked up the earpiece that he'd used on occasion, and used the dials to filter out various em band emissions. There was a lot of encrypted chatter, most of which the Triumphant's computer made quick work of, but none of it was helpful. In fact, it was rather chaotic.

Something else, however, caught his attention. "Commodore, the Two For Flinching is broadcasting something unusual. Something about being boarded and taking fire."

Martha selected her target - the Breen cruiser - and once again hit it with phaser fire before firing two volleys of torpedoes. She then fired upon the larger of the escort ships with the phasers.

With the enemy ships just coming out of the nebula that had affected their shields and sensors, the Breen ship and fighters took heavy damage. The Breen ship broke off after sending a volley of fire at the massive Odyssey class before it turned back into the nebula but the fighters began to engage the Triumphant's fighters.

"Give the fighters an assist," Michael said as the ship shook. Down in Engineering, reports of a hull breach on deck twenty-three and twenty-four was reported and EPS conduits overloaded.

"Own the space." Venus whispered to herself in the heart of Engineering as more alarms alerted her to a worsening situation. Breaches on two decks meant she had very little choice but to rely on one junior lieutenant she had not long ago berated over his hair. Zander. Pride had to sidestep this one as she tapped her combadge. "Lieutenant Devereaux assemble your DC teams for multiple breaches on Decks 23 and 24. Keep me informed on your progress. Don't disappoint " She couldn't help but add that last comment as if needing Zander after their little talk was a tough pill to swallow.

Venus had little time to indulge in her pettiness as a subordinate informed her of overloading EPS conduits. With a sigh, seeing how this day was going, she knew she had to delegate since she was more needed where she was. "Gefel!" She shouted to her Bolian assistant chief. "Take Barrows and deal with the conduits ASAP. We will reroute power where we can but get them operational." Venus didn't wait to order another engineer. "Monitor the power systems, any deviations, use the relays." She never waited for an acknowledgement from any of her people as she return to the console, eyes glued on the screens.

"Aye Commodore" Martha responded.

Martha targeted the smaller escort ships with the phasers - ensuring that she timed her bursts of phaser fire in the gaps when the fighters weren't going in for an attack run.

"This is turning out to be quite a tough slog" Martha thought to herself.

The Valkyrie fighters from the Triumphant pounced on the small craft once the bigger vessel slipped back into the nebula. Logan scored a couple more 'kills' now that the enemy were without the point defense capabilities of the retreating ships. It took little time to disable or destroy what enemy remained to engage the Starfleet ship and her fighter compliment.

With the last of the fighters retreating into the nebula, Michael opened a com. =^=Actual to Alpha. Return to the nest=^= he ordered and looked at Maddy. "So far, this is turning out to be anything but diplomatic. Let's hope the rest goes smoother."

The deployed fighter group made for the Triumphant and landed. Logan hopped out of his fighter as soon as he was parked. He turned to his TSO and told him to conduct the post flight checks. He then headed for the debrief area to give his part of the After Action Report.

Kelani allowed herself to relax somewhat, but her eyes remained locked on the displays at her station. Hearing the Commodore’s comment, she sent a silent wish for the same thing.

"I had a feeling it would," Maddy said, finding it hard to be positive in light of what just happened. She shook her head and quickly scanned the crew on the bridge before turning toward Michael again. "I hope you're right." But the XO just didn't see that being the case. Luckily, she wasn't about to say that out loud for anyone else to hear it.