The Other Shoe Drops Part 3
Posted on Thu Apr 11th, 2019 @ 1:18am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Gunnery Sergeant Flarn & Staff Sergeant Shayla Kunadt & Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles & Ensign Dana Wakefield
Edited on on Thu Apr 11th, 2019 @ 1:43am
2,513 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Episode 6 - Old Habits Die Hard
Location: Bridge USS Pioneer - Deck 1
Timeline: MD004 1330 hrs
The enemy appeared to be over confident. There was nothing in the Cadassian orbit, that would impede their sensors. Yet to please the Captain with his inquiry, she scanned the area again. Her sensor readings, again were false. She was very confused by this course of action, and reacting on nothing but a gut feeling, she started to sweep the area with a tachyon beam. Then the beam made contact, with a cloaked mine. "Captain, this mine is not like any mine, I have seen before. It's huge." Ameri was not a tactical officer, she had no idea how powerful it was, but from the size of it, maybe a ship killer or a planet killer.
Tyler's eyes widened as the report from Science came in. "What the hell is that doing there? I need a full analysis of that mine. Who's is it Cardassian, or Maquis. Get me Gul Markuul and keep returning fire. We need to hold them off."
The Pioneer was rocked further as another barrage hit the ship. Richard Ballston rose from his seat. "Sir, reports of injures are coming in from all over the ship, I believe my place..." His voice trailed off as the Captain interrupted him. "Permission to leave the bridge granted Doc, get down to Sick Bay."
The pace and feel of the bridge had changed, it was getting harder for Dana to keep up with the constant stream of data and reports flooding into her station. "Comms are down, repair crews dispatched." she yelled just as the ship shook again from another hit. Her attention was quickly draw to the mission operations console to her right, glancing at a junior crewman who was working there she yelled out "Crewmen, get away from that console."
The young man looked at her in shock, as though she had told him off or was doing something wrong, he stepped back just in time as sparks and then a large explosion caused the console to explode.
"Hail the Cardassian ship..." Tyler ordered although he knew that they would not respond. The more this battle lingered the more he thought that this was a trap and he was suckered in. Without any knowledge as to what the mine was, or who put it there, and add to that the Cardassian ship now attacking Tyler was out of options. As his Bridge rocked further he remembered Command Academy, When all else failed rely and trust your crew. "Ladies and gentlemen if that mine detonates not only are we gonners but Cardassia is as well. We have no idea who is holding the button to that mine. So I need options." He shouted over the din of battle.
"Still no response to hails." Dana replied, as she re-transmitted the Captains message every few minutes.
"Database says the mine is Cardassian. But a type I'm unfamiliar with, to be honest " Myles began. "Tractor it away perhaps,but that would take time that we don't really have, for obvious reasons" he said as the ship was rocked by phaser fire. Larim's console sparked. "Well, isn't that wonderful. Ventral phasers offline. Trying to compensate."
"Captain getting preliminary data on that mine, it's Cardassian in origin." Ameri called out. She was scanning through the data. It appeared to be of an older design. The mine appeared to be from the time period of the Bajoran occupation. She wondered how the Maquis got their hands on it. She assumed it was theirs now. The Cardassians would not have to use antiquated mines, if they were going to attack the USS Pioneer.
"Captain the ablative armor is starting to buckle. It appears that the eps relays have some how depolarized the ablative armor. I'm not sure how yet, but I am looking into this Captain." Clarissa said, giving her report just after Ameri. She hoped the damage could be reversed. The last thing they needed was there ablative armor to depolarize.
"Sir I am getting a report that the Second Lieutenant has been captured by the enemy. Chief Moore is splitting his team in an effort to make a rescue." Flarn called out through a clenched jaw. He wanted to be down on the planet rescuing his CO, not on the Bridge watching the battle unfold.
Tyler rubbed his temples as the reports came in. Flarn's report was disheartening but there was nothing for it at the moment. The suggestion of the tractor is what clicked in his head. He jumped to his feet. "Rockwell, O Flannigain is there a way we can polarize or magnetize the hull. I want to pull the mine toward us. Then use the ship like a baseball bat to send it the Maquis." He glanced back and forth as he spoke and just as he finished his sentence the image on the viewscreen caught his attention. Two Cardassian warships had entered the fray. It seemed that one of them was engaging the Maquis the other was bearing down on Pioneer. The attack was swift and painful, the Pioneer shook and the weapons from the Cardassian ship cut through the shields as if the shields were not even there. Immediately after that attack the Fearless began to swing around for an attack on the Pioneer. "Evasive NOW!" Tyler shouted.
Shayla had not worked this hard while sitting down in a long time. She had worked up a sweat with the amount of sliding she was doing on her chair as she went back and forth along the console. When the call came out from the Captain she knew it was time for one of her tricks. I will show these fleeters just what a Marine can do. she thought. "Aye sir, evasive! Executing rollover Beethoven. Commander Myles you are going to want to watch for your moment to shoot." She said with a smirk.
The maneuver began similar to the Riker maneuver, in that the Pioneer went to all stop in a flash. This was so quick that the Cardassian vessel was moving too quick and shot right past the Pioneer. However, once the Cardassian vessel was clear Shayla had the Pioneer match the other ship's course and speed. When she did this she kept her dorsal even with their ventral. "Commander I believe you said that the ventral phasers were down. Now would be a good time." She shouted with a confident sarcastic tone.
"We will need to re route power from the damaged eps conduits, and feed them directly into the ablative plating, like starfleet did back in the early days, if we can increase the megajules coming from the relays and channel it directly, we may be able to polarize the ablative armor from direct contact, from the exposed relays. Miss Rockwell, can you create a power shunt, and tie it in directly." Asked Ameri as she looked over to the Clarissa.
"Are you insane?" Clarissa asked, as she walked over to the science station. "The ablative armor is not designed to be polarized." Clarissa said in disbelief.
"They are designed to take a lot of kenetic damage and energy blasts, if we can re polarize the plates, they we will still functional at limited capacity. I have scanned the weapons fire they are using its old Breen tech from the Dominion War. The energy dissapator technology." Ameri said, as she took a breath and went on. "We need to create a power shunt to prevent and over load, and to feed the power directly into the plating. I hopeful, that the polarization, will provide enough protection for the Pioneer to withdraw, to a safe location."
"It's risky, but possible. But it your call Captain." Rissie said, as she looked directly at the Captain. Both Ameri and Rissie were at the science station, running a quick simulation.
Tyler glanced at the ladies at the science station. His thoughts oddly went to the studies on Captain Picard and what he always said before issuing orders. Tyler settled on a catchphrase of sorts, one that suited him. "Git er done ladies..." He smiled broadly. "Corporal standby for a full retreat on the the Lieutenant's mark."
"Sir yes sir" Kunadt's slightly strained voice came as she continued the evasive. "Sir I don't know how much more of the strain the engines are going to take. She is really fighting me..." Shayla called out and then her voice lowered as if she were talking to herself. "Come on girl stay with me, I know I'm not her but we can keep it together." Shayla was talking to the ship itself.
Clarissa took over part of the science station, and turned it into an operations station, she started to work on a bypass. She needed this by pass in place, to create the shunt they would need. As she started to work on the shunt, she noticed that Ameri was already working on a way to get the eps relays refocus the energy into a funnel, so it would go into the shunt and help charge up the ablative plates. This was a very risky move. But it was a better option, then watching the USS Pioneer be slowly torn part by constant weapons fire.
Dana reestablished the computer link with the Fearless, the fate of the people on the vessel were in her hands, she could simple disable the ship or destroy it. A decision she was torn about, they were the enemy, but they were also people, fighting for something they believed in. Who was she to decide who lived or died, even it what they were fighting for was wrong, she didn't have that right. Quickly entering several commands on her console, her finger hovered over the execute button, taking a deep breath before tapping it.
Her attention turned to the view screen as a bright light of an implosion appeared, she closed her eyes for a second. "Forgive me." she whispered, in the heat of battle it was her ship or theirs, she could of disabled it, but she could not risk them restoring, repairing and rejoining the battle, instead she had condemned them to die, something she would have to deal with later.
"USS Fearless destroyed, I used the ships prefix code and sent a remote self destruct command, sir." she said with some sadness in her tone.
Myles braced himself as he detected a raider come in for an attack run. With limited defenses he was prepared for the worst. Then suddenly, out of nowhere the ship exploded. Larims wasn't complaining, but was curious.
His curiosity was dated rather quickly as space distorted in a familiar pattern as a B'rel class bird of prey flew by the pioneers saucer. "qatlho' "he said softly as he took a minute to catch his breath.
"Apparently the Klingons have arrived" he smirked. "Only one ship? No hold on. More incoming. A Battle cruiser and two more birds of prey." He couldn't help but breathe a little easier.
Tyler stared at the viewscreen as it fizzled. The usual sharp image had started to show the wear of battle. However, on the screen was a small fleet of Klingons and they had mopped the floor with the Maquis. "Qapla'..." Tyler shouted as he took his seat again. Things were looking up for the moment. "Remind me to thank the Empire for their assistance." He smirked but the euphoric feeling was short-lived as the Cardassian fleet opened fire and the Pioneer erupted in a explosions and sparks. Tyler was slackjawed... "Shields where are my gorram shields..." The weapons from the Cardassian warships were cutting through the shields with no resistance.
The power shunt and the funnel were now ready, as the next volley of weapons fire came in, several warning indicators came streaming across the science/operations station on the bridge. A few minor alarms started to go off. "Redirecting the power flow from the eps into the shunt." Called out Clarissa, as she looked over to Myles. "The redirection is working, ablative armor polarization is at 64% and rising Captain." Said Ameri as she waited for someone to say something, or give another command order.
"Excellent Lieutenants. Great work keep it those numbers rising." Tyler shouted over the explosions. He checked the ships readout and saw that the hull was breaching in a large swathe of the ship and the fields were going to fail any minute now. There was only one way out for the Tyler, his ship and most of all his crew, the ship was going to have to make an emergency landing on Cardassia. His voice softened a bit. "I swore I would never do this. Ameri I need you to scan Cardassia Prime. Get me a location where we can set this bird down in an emergency. Everyone else I need options on how to get rid of these Cardassian ships."
"Safest location for us to land sir, is near the Capital building. The Cardassians, will not want to damage the capital building. Sending coordinates for our to land in the parade field near the Capital." Ameri said, as she transferred the coordinates to the helmsman station.
The three Cardassian warships let loose a barrage of torpedo and disruptor fire. All of the weapons cut through the shields like tissue paper. The USS Pioneer was falling apart at the seams, and so was her Captain. If it wasn't for the Ablative Armor which had been restored temporarily the ship would have exploded by now. Tyler was tossed to the deck and the last thing he thought was that he had never taken the Kobyashi Maru, he knew now he would fail that test. A small whisper escaped his lips as the darkness of unconsciousness took over, "Katherine..."
A Joint Post By
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Richard Ballston M.D. PsyD
Chief Medical Officer/Second Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Clarissa Rockwell
Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Dana Wakefield
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Ameri Ó Flannagáin
Stellar Cartographer, USS Pioneer
Staff Sergeant Flarn
Rifle Fire Team 1 Leader, USS Pioneer
Lance Corporal Shayla Kunadt
EVAC Specialist, USS Pioneer
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