Heart of Fire Part III

Posted on Sun Mar 24, 2019 @ 10:46pm by Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal & Lieutenant Commander Alex Rho

Mission: On Slippery Ground
Location: The Badlands
Timeline: MD 1 || 1400 Hours

Previously

"Triumphant, Victorious. We are back in action and chasing the Apollo."

"Confirmed, Victorious" the Commodore's responded. "We are en route at full impulse."

"Weapons and shield status?" Michael called out.

Kelani looked around as Michael request shield and weapon status, concerned at the lack of response. She saw a young officer looking at the Ops station and jerked her head in that direction.

The young woman moved to Ops and checked the board. “Shields and weapons appear nominal, sir”. She reported.

Kelani nodded approval at the young woman’s initiative, then reported, “There appears to be a slight lessening of the plasma storm for the moment, Commodore. Sensor readings are somewhat more stable, but I do not know for how long.”

As the Triumphant surged ahead at impulse, the Commodore got up to pace the bridge. He didn't want to look over his officer's shoulders, but he did surreptitiously check the holographic displays as he made his rounds.

=^=Engineering to bridge. The warp drive will be on in two minutes, Commodore.=^=

Michael tapped his combadge =^=Make it a minute and you get a promotion. Bridge out.=^=

"Lieutenant Rho, is there any transmissions coming from the Apollo?" he asked.

"I'm not detecting any on normal subspace frequencies, Commodore," Alex replied. "But I can check the not-so-normal frequencies in just a minute; merchant channels and the like." Alex moved some things around on his holo-display.

"Do it," Michael said.

"On it," Alex replied. A check of the standard merchant channels didn't reveal anything about their situation. Alex input a couple of Starfleet Intelligence codes and accessed the less-than-honorable section of subspace communications. "Commodore, you're going to want to hear this," he said as he brought up part of the conversation from the Apollo.

Yeah, yeah, we have it all. The ship, the cargo, the crew, all of it. As for the crew, we've got them all secured in the cargo bay. They won't be going anywhere. We have a problem though, the ship is under attack by Fleet fighters, some kind of runabout, and another ship. But it's not a full-size one, only slightly larger. Seems like a tough little ship, though.

Alex muted the channel for a second. "Sir, that message is being sent to Orion ships."

"Orions..." Michael muttered. "Thank you, Lieutenant." He contacted Engineering again to demand the status of the warp engines, his countenance growing angrier by the minute.

=^=We're having some problems, Sir,=^= came the response.

=^=You'll encounter more problems if we don't have warp very soon,=^= The Commodore growled.

"Ops, plot the straightest possible path to the Apollo," he ordered.

“Aye, sir,” Rael, the young officer at Ops replied. “Plotting now...sending to helm momentarily.”

Kelani monitored the sensors making minute adjustments as needed. She looked up, saying, “The course as plotted will bring us very close to a plasma storm, but shields should hold”

"Weapons status?" Michael called out to Tactical.

Mira Renault, the young woman at Tactical, looked at her console and felt relief wash over her. "Weapons ready, Commodore." she reported, noting with some annoyance that she had not been able to keep that relief out of her voice. But with Engineering having problems and the Security teams having been forced to get some systems like shields and weapons rebooted, she had been expecting trouble.

=^=Engineering to bridge=^= Gefel's voice came over Michael's combadge.

Michael tapped his combadge "Go ahead."

=^=I can give you warp five for now, Commodore.=^= the Bolian said.

"Thank you. Aravan out." Michael said. "Helm, warp five and get us in close to the Apollo. Ops, what's the status of the Victorious and Tantamount?"

Jan Smith almost felt like a third wheel on the bridge, but she had been tracking the progress of the Victorious and Tantamount, and was happy to say, with a big smile. "Captain. the two fighters that were chasing the Orion ships, have weakened the shields of the Apollo, for the moment they are down. Power consumptions reports indicated they are still at 79%, but our team has boarded the vessel." She said, knowing that That team is preparing to sabotage the shield generators, and our fighters are still trying to take out the engines of the Apollo. "Status of the Apollo is disabled, and hopefully offline real soon." Jan said, feeling good, that she had something to report.

"Thank you," Michael said before he turned to the Tactical officer. "Be ready. The sensors may be improved, but they still don't guarantee a lock in there," he said as the Odyssey class surged ahead at warp.

Mira nodded. "Ready, sir." she said, eyes holding on her board as she watched for any sign of the hostiles. Hostiles. It felt weird to be shooting at another Starfleet ship, but she had to remind herself; the people controlling it weren't theirs; and it was just a ship. Starfleet could replace a ship. They might complain about it, but ultimately it was better to stop it and those running off with it than let them run off with it. So she set herself and waitched.

"Lieutenant Tetanal, devote every bit of available power we have to those sensors," the Commodore said.

“Aye, sir,”. Kelani replied and set to work, adjusting the sensors and drawing as much power as she dared to augment them.

“Readings coming in,” she reported a few moments later. “The range is extreme for the Badlands, Apollo is no longer moving. Tantamount and the fighters are holding their own against the other ships”

=^=Petrova to Triumphant. We've secured the Apollo's bridge.=^= came the voice of Major Petrova.

Michael tapped his combadge. =^=Good work, Major. Now for the rest of the ship. We're on the way at maximum range for weapons.=^=

Soon, the Triumphant entered visual range of the Apollo and the other ships, but one of the fighters was missing. "Scan for the other fighter," he ordered.

“Aye, sir,” Kelani replied as she began the scan. A few moments later she said,”The fighter appears to have engaged a hostile that attempted escape. Putting images on screen”

After speaking to the Marine Colonel again, the Triumphant arrived at the scene just in time to see the last of the enemy fighters break off the attack and a ship that was already heading away from the scene. "The Apollo is being secured according to Colonel S'er'in'e," he told the bridge crew. "Keep a sharp eye out on the sensors for anyone else that wants a piece of her or us."

"Or anyone else that isn't supposed to be in this mess of space," added Alex. "One can never be too careful when it comes to the likes of Orions being where they're not supposed to be. Or anyone affiliated with the Syndicate, for that matter." There was a time when Tanner Gallal had dealings with them and Alex remembered every aspect of those times.

"The Tantamount and Victorious are on location and the Apollo is secured," the Ops officer called out.

"Thank you," the Commodore said. "Helm, take us closer and full stop."

The Helmsman did as he was ordered and the Triumphant came to a full stop near the other ship.

"Commodore, one of our fighters was just destroyed and another has gone off the radar," the Ops officer reported.

"Who and where?" Michael asked.

"Henderson's fighter was destroyed and Hunter's fighter is off the radar after igniting gases," came the response.

Kelani was monitoring the sensors and preparing her report for the Commodore when the Ops officer reported. Her hands froze on her console and her face drained of color.

“Imzadi,” she whispered through bloodless lips.