Flight of the Triumphant

Posted on Tue Nov 19, 2019 @ 6:46pm by Commodore Michael Aravan & Captain Madelina Weisz & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Lieutenant Commander Kelani Tetanal & Lieutenant Jas Niecta & Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Lieutenant JG Logan Hunter & Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Barnes & Ensign Athyle sh'Paveress

Mission: The Nanjing
Location: The Badlands
Timeline: MD 1 || 1100 Hours

As the ship arrived at the edge of the plasma storms, Michael came to his feet and looked at the nightmarish image on the display at the front of the bridge. He paced to the front where the Trill Chief of Flight was seated next to the navigation officer, but turned to address Science first.

"How's the plasma storms looking, Commander Tetenal?" he asked his Chief Science Officer.

Kelani studied the readouts, a frown forming as she spoke, “The storms are quite active, sir. They are exponentially worse than during our last mission here. I am unsure how much the enhancements I made will benefit us, as turbulent as the area seems.”

"I hope you're ready to show us that cream of the crop piloting that Starfleet trained you in," Michael told Jas.

Jas chuckled, the flyboy cockiness finally coming to the fore. "Trained? This is all natural, sir." His hands moved across the console calibrating the thrusters to keep them pointed in what he predicted would be their path into the Badlands.

"Shields up, Commander Arrda."

Arrda did not need to be told twice. Hell, he almost didn't need to be told once. "Shields up," he said as his hands brushed the holographic display to accomplish the task. He was pleased to see the shields snap on more quickly than they used to. Excellent work by the upgrade teams!

"Lieutenant Cusack, be prepared to vaporize any space debris."

Martha knew from experience that the debris in the Badlands could easily cause severe damage to a starship. She would have to be 100% focused and make sure that any debris that lay in the Triumphant's path - along with any subsequent fragments - were disposed of as quickly and safely as possible.

"Phasers are charged and ready Commodore" Martha responded.

"Mister Hunter, tell your pilots to maintain caution and to tighten their patrol."

Logan, now sitting at the Mission Ops Two bridge station, opened a channel on the air wing channel. "Goslings, Mother Goose. Fall back to phase line Bravo and launch recon drones. Stay frosty." Once the patrol had fallen back and confirmed their new patrol route Logan turned to Michael in the center seat. "Recon patrol now at 30,000 kilometers distance, UAV recon drones now compensating for lost sensor coverage."

"Take us in nice and easy, Lieutenant," Michael told the Trill pilot.

"Going with flight pattern alpha. Half-impulse to start, then I'll increase to full." Jas said keying in the commands. The faint hum of the impulse engines coming to power once again could be heard; music to his ears. "Crossing the plasma barrier in thirty seconds." The Triumphant began to move forward, her hull staying relatively level with the storms ahead of her.

Kelani’s eyes were fixed on her console, monitoring the sensors and making adjustments as needed as they prepared to enter the Badlands.

Tom had elected to start this mission on the bridge in order to keep a pulse on events as they unfolded. He had full confidence in his new Assistant Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Silvan. "Tri-Core is functioning at one hundred percent," he reported from his station. "All additional power is available for the armor and other defensive systems."

As the Triumphant began to enter The Badlands, it was clear that this was going to be a bumpy ride. Plasma tornadoes large enough to dwarf the massive ship spun up and dispersed without warning just as quickly and the area was filled with a major debris field that was being flung everywhere with each plasma tornado. The shields began to take hit after hit and the ship started to rock.

"Mister Niecta, a little more evasive, please," Michael stated calmly. "Lieutenant Cusack, start clearing a path."

“Aye. Switching flight controls.” Jas replied tapping at his console.

Martha nodded. "Understood"

Martha decided to use the two modified phaser banks to test the modifications and see how much improvement there was on the recharge time. After destroying some of the debris she was pleased that there was a noticeable improvement.

"It would appear the modified phaser banks have a 58% faster recharge rate Commodore" Martha reported.

"Excellent, Lieutenant," Michael said as he engaged the seat belts on his chair as the ship rocked and turned with the maneuvers of the new Chief of Flight. "Keep it up."

Martha continued firing at the debris in front of the ship - making sure to destroy any larger fragments which had survived. So far she was pleased with how the phaser bank modifications were working.

Deftly maneuvering the Triumphant looked easier than it was in realty. Jas’ hands moved across the panel with seeming ease belting his lack of experience at the helm of such a large ship. Bringing her around one Eddie, he shifted her flight path quickly to compensate for another large price of debris. “This debris field is unusually large.” Has commented quietly as he brought her around and through more large pieces.

Tom looked up from his console at the mention of a debris field. He was surprised at what the viewscreen displayed, especially since there wasn't anything large enough in the badlands to produce a field of that size. Could one of the planets have been hit by these storms and shattered? The Chief Engineer vacated his station and crossed the bridge to the Operations console where Ensign sh'Paveress was stationed.

"That's... not organic," Tom muttered to Athyle.

The Andorian shen looked up to Tom in surprise, only to catch onto why he was standing there a heartbeat later. She looked back down at her console and began to manipulate the sensors. "No... no it's not." She tapped a few more buttons to analyze the debris more closely. "Commodore," Athyle said, still reviewing the sensor data as it poured in. "The debris is exhibiting some unusual characteristics. It is definitely artificial in origin, and I'm not picking up any sort of energy readings left behind by weapons fire or plasma storm discharge. Several elements match materials only found..."

Ensign sh'Paveress looked up from her console now to shoot a confused glance at Tom, and then to the Triumphant's Commanding Officer. "In the Delta Quadrant."

"Confirm," Michael ordered. "Range until we can send a probe?"

The Ensign's fingertips danced all over the controls. "Confirmed, Commodore," she announced, looking back up at Commodore Aravan. "Much of what I'm reading is consistent with what we know of Borg technology. However, I am not detecting standard materials like deuterium, antimatter, tritanium and more. Wherever it should be, it is clearly... not."

"You... don't think this could be the same cube we were briefed about do you?" Maddy asked as a sense of dread washed over her. There were a million questions racing through her mind. "Who could possibly damage a Borg cube so heavily and strip it of its elements?"

Arrda looked up from his console, eyes taking in the sight on the screen. He heard what everyone said, and he had to admit that the possibility disturbed him greatly. The Borg were not an easy enemy to fight, even harder to deter. But to destroy a cube was a feat the Starfleet had yet to manage. Yet, it would seem someone had done just that. That left him with two questions of immediate concern. One, who could do it. Two, were they still around. And, okay, three, would they consider the Triumphant as good a target as they had the Borg cube? And the fourth question he did not want to think about... what would happen to the ship and crew if they did?

Forcing his eyes away from the screen, he took a moment to find his Neutrality, that place all Enforcers were trained to find that kept their emotions from affecting their decisions. "No species we have met to date, Ma'am," he answered even though he doubted she had really expected an answer from anyone here. "Which means we have an unknown out here with us." Again, he was doing a marvelous impression of Captain Obvious, but so be it.

"Weapons fire, even Borg weapons fire, leaves an energy signature behind," Tom pointed out, still looking over the Andorian's shoulder to see the scans for himself. "For everything we know about the Badlands, there's a lot that gets left behind after an attack. What we're looking at here... it looks like the Cube just fell apart. There's no energy signatures. No evidence of explosions. Nothing."

“That is very odd,”. Kelani said even as she ordered intensive analyses of the material found. “Without more to go on, the only suggestion I can offer is that the Borg encountered something or some species in the Delta quadrant that weakened the cube enough that it could not withstand the turbulence of the Badlands.” A thought struck her and she continued slowly, “If memory serves, there was one species the Borg could not assimilate—I believe they called it species 8472...”

"That's right Commander. I seem to remember Species 8472 were driven back to their own space by bio-molecular warheads which were jointly developed by the Voyager crew and the Borg. Before the warheads were deployed the latter lost 4 million drones and over 300 vessels" Martha said.

"What can possibly cause a Borg Cube to fall..." Michael started to ask before the ship was rocked by a massive plasma discharge and he would have been thrown out of his seat if not for the seatbelt. The lights on the bridge went out, then came back with emergency lighting. "Status reports!" He called out. "Helm, get us through this!"

Unlike the Commodore, the standing Tom had been tossed to the floor. As he tried to stand back up and rush back over to his station, the Operations Andorian called out, "Bridge communications are down. Power levels are fluctuating all over the ship, but primary defensive systems are still online and stable. The secondary core is showing instability."

"On it!" Tom called as he ran to his station.

From his station at Security -- he had remained in his seat by sheer force of gripping his panel and setting his feet apart -- Arrda growled softly. His holographic panel flickered but came back online, and he checked the systems. "We still have shields, and ablative armor is still on standby." He had not been ordered to activate it, so it remained waiting, ready. He was surprised, though, that it was all still working.

“Helm is still responding for the moment, sir.” Jas reported skimming the diagnostic report on his station. But it was only a quick read, as his more immediate attention was on the discharges that suddenly flared up around them. Figuratively punching it, Jas’ new flight path brought them on a narrowly threaded path through the discharges to a relatively more calm patch of the Badlands. “We should be okay for now.” Jas said as he glanced at the diagnostic report he had. “But port thrusters and the port nacelle seem to have taken some damage from that last discharge.”

"I see it," Tom reported, now back at his station. "There is a definite hull breach on the port nacelle, about five meters long. We're venting drive plasma. Emergency forcefields are not responding. I'm trying to shut down the PTCs to the nacelle. We're probably going to have to take a workbee out there and patch it as soon as we can."

"Do it," Michael ordered as the ship settled into a more erratic flight path, but at least they weren't taking damage. "Range to exit?"

“Approximately 500,000 kilometers until we reach the Badlands border,”. Kelani responded, her hands moving constantly over her console, making minute adjustments to the sensors, attempting to keep the resolution as sharp as possible. “At present I am waiting for the analysis of the material found—results should be ready momentarily.”

~Imzadi, the damage seems strangely specific to me. Is it not odd that such damage should only affect such a specific area?~ she sent to Logan.

Logan was at the bridge station adjacent to Kelani's. He swiveled in his seat slightly to take a look at the data displayed on her monitor. ~Something does look odd about it.~ He turned back to his console and opened a channel to the reconnaissance flights. =^=Gosling Five, Gosling Six, RTB and perform a visual inspection of the port nacelle. Hold tight in after that until we exit the Badlands. All other Goslings make best possible speed for exit from the Badlands.=^=

An alarm sounded from the Operations station, prompting the Andorian ensign to check her readouts. "We have a massive plasma discharge heading our way. Looks like a tornado that's twice the size of the Triumphant."

"Commander Arrda, activate the ablative armor!" Michael called out. "Yellow alert! Lieutenant Niecta, get us through that in one piece and I'll personally shine your shoes every day for a week. Mister Barnes, status report of the secondary core?"

Jas smirked as his hands moved across his console plotting out a new path for them. Mentally blocking out the commotion continuing on behind him.

"I can't stop the instability!" he cried back. "From the looks of things, the engineering crew's trying to shut it down. It should be offline here shortly, but that's going to remove a lot of power reserves for us."

"Can we bring the third core online?" Michael asked while opening a comm to the pilots. =^=Mother Goose to all Goslings. Return to the ship and prepare for hot landings!=^=

"Already is!" the Master Chief cried back. "Bringing it to full power now!"

Arrda did not need to be told twice. No sooner had the words exited the commodore's mouth than his fingers flew across his holographic display. The armor responded immediately, thank the Mother Creator! "Ablative Armor active," he informed, his tone calm. He could feel himself tensing inwardly, worried about his wife. Though he shouldn't be; Danielle could certainly take care of herself. But he still worried; that was what happened when you loved someone. "Yellow Alert, aye." The lights shifted from normal to yellow alert status. They didn't have too far to go, cosmically speaking. Just hold together, girl. he coaxed the ship mentally.

Logan checked the plot of his starfighters. The two he's issued a recall order for to visually check damage on the port nacelle were already within ten thousand kilometers and closing fast. The remaining combat air patrol was already one hundred fifty thousand kilometers closer to the edge of the Badlands than the Triumpant was. He made a decision. "Goslings five and six RTB and make combat landings. Remaining Gosling flight stay on current course. Further instructions will come once the Bird Barn has cleared the Badlands." He watched the display and gave a silent prayer for all his pilots and TSOs to make it home or out of the Badlands safely.

Increasing the Triumphant’s speed back to full impulse, Jas returned to flight mode. He trusted the fighter pilots could do their job as long as he did his. Acknowledging the slightly sluggish nature of their starboard turns, Jas’ flight path took them on a harrowing straight line for the edge at the impulse engines would allow.

An Engineer's voice came over his combadge, telling Barnes that the second warp core had been shut down.

"Acknowledged!" cried Tom back over the channel. He still worked with his console in order to try and get the emergency forcefields on the nacelle back online. "AHA!" he shouted a heartbeat later. "Forcefields active on the port nacelle. Restoring the warp plasma flow."

"All hands brace yourselves!" Michael called over the com as he gripped the arm rests of his seat and locked his eyes on the nightmare view before them.

Tom gripped the sides of his station, expecting the worst. "Please don't jostle the nacelle," he muttered, worried that he might not be able to restore those forcefields.

Maddy gritted her teeth. She knew this was a bad idea, and if anyone mentioned the Badlands to her after this, it was very likely she'd smack the hell out of them. Regardless of consequences. The Captain braced herself. It was okay for all hands to brace themselves, but this was going to get worse before it got better. "All hands located in the outer sections of the ship, make your way to inner sections immediately. All civilians, report to the bunker immediately. Remain there until further notice," she ordered over the com.

Logan had kept his seat by holding on for dear life. His eyes remained fixed on his screen. He held his breath for several heartbeats as the two fighters on approach had to correct their angle of descent to land in the primary bay.

At this point, Jas could only hope they had enough of a lead to break through the edges of the Badlands. At this point there was nothing in his bag of tricks that actually had a chance of saving them short of just staying in a straight line and hoping nothing else blocked their path. “Thirty seconds until the edge of the Badlands.” Jas reported watching his display, “We’re barely maintaining our lead on the discharge.”

Martha was barely able to stay in her seat as the ship rocked - grabbing onto her console just in time. She immediately performed a diagnostic of the Triumphant's tactical systems to ensure they were still functioning - it was a heavy impact and she'd seen lesser ones do a lot of damage to a ship.

"Tactical systems are still operational" Martha reported.

Tom's knuckles whitened as the collision alarm sounded just before the plasma discharge impacted the rear quarter of the mighty Triumphant. The ship rocked more than Tom had felt in months. Several of the overhead lighting fixtures exploded, as did the replicator, spraying sparks and debris about the bridge.

The shaking, however, quickly stopped. Tom assumed that the impact threw them free from the Badlands, but verifying the Triumphant's position was not his job. Reporting on the damage was. "Main power's out," he reported. "Defense systems are functioning on reserve power. No hull breaches, but sensors are reporting several blown EPS relays throughout the ship. Life support is out on decks eleven through sixteen. Gravity is out on decks twenty-six, twenty-seven, thirty-three, and thirty-four."

Tom looked up to face the Commodore. "It could have been worse." And that was when he noticed the smoke rising from the Operations station and its operator nowhere to be seen.

After the shakeup and explosions had stopped and emergency power kicked on, Michael was out of his seat a second after releasing the safety harness. "Are we clear?" He asked anyone. "Helm, get us some distance from the border! Get damage teams on that, Master Chief! Science, sensor readings?" He looked at his Executive Officer. "Maddy, get personnel reports from the rest of the ship."

If one good thing had come out of that last impact, it was that bridge communications had just been reactivated. Tom tapped a couple buttons to summon damage control teams to the damaged areas. "I am redirecting what I can from the auxiliary generators to other subsystems. Should have engines back to full in just a minute or so." Lights started to flicker back on throughout the bridge. "And the bridge is now on the auxiliary generator."

Arrda had held tightly to his console when the shaking began. Part of his mind screamed, Not again! but the rest tied and gagged that part and shoved it in a closet. Outwardly, he looked no more shaken than the rest of the bridge crew. When the shaking stopped, he felt himself release a breath he had not realized that he had been holding. He looked at his console as it flickered back to life and then to the commodore. "The ablative armor held. It is still active." He did not really want to take it down if they were anywhere near a Borg cube or whatever could scrag one.

Kelani had clung to her console to remain at her station and try to monitor the sensors as best she could. Once the shaking stopped, she released her white-knuckled grip on the console and took a deep, steadying breath. Her fingers began to fly over her console at Michael’s request for information. A few moments later, she turned to him and said, “The cube is derelict, Commodore....according to the sensors, anything of use has been taken...there are no life signs.”

Maddy rose to her feet, but instead of doing what the Commodore instructed her to, she moved toward the smoking Operations console where Ensign sh'Paveress was once sitting. "Mister Barnes, get those personnel reports," she said, kneeling down next to the Andorian woman who'd been knocked back by her console exploding. The Captain checked to see if the Operations officer was breathing before she took the obvious next step.

Tom bit back a sigh as he tapped his badge. "Department Heads submit damage and personnel reports immediately to the First Officer. Repeat, submit all damage and personnel reports to the First Officer.

Across the bridge, Ensign sh'Paveress, though badly burned, was breathing. Her uniform seemed to be mostly unscathed thanks to the graphene and spider silk combination that had been developed a while back. If only the uniform could have covered her face...

The Captain winced when she saw the Ensign's face, but thankfully, she was still alive. "Computer, two to transport directly to sickbay. Weisz Beta Seven One Four."

With a swirl of energies and a music humming sound, the two vanished from the bridge.

"Back to business, everyone," Michael called out. "We have work to do."