The Other Shoe Drops Part 2
Posted on Mon Mar 25th, 2019 @ 11:55pm 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 @ 1:42am
2,971 words; about a 15 minute read
Mission:
Episode 6 - Old Habits Die Hard
Location: Bridge USS Pioneer - Deck 1
Timeline: MD004 1300 hrs
The tones of the bosun's whistle sounded as Tyler Malbrooke opened a shipwide channel. "Attention all personnel, this is the Captain. What we are about to embark on breaks any number of Starfleet regulations. However, it is my belief that our actions will be in line with the spirit of everything that Starfleet and the Federation holds dear. We stand as the last line of defense for a people who are so torn they fractured themselves. As our teams transport to the surface to assist in freeing Cardassia from itself, we will remain in orbit to hold the line. To make sure that none enter the fray. As the dedication of this ship states we will strive, we will seek and we will never yield. We are Starfleet... We are Pioneers." Tyler waited about a minute as his words sank in. "Transporter rooms energize! When transports are complete engage red alert. Corporal take us to the edge of the Cardassian system and set a patrol vector."
The bridge staff looked at their Captain as he sat rigid in the chair and they swelled with pride. Only the doctor knew the turmoil that roiled beneath the surface of Tyler's veneer. A small baited sigh escaped the Captain's lips as the crew set to their orders with the dedication that Malbrooke had come to expect from them. Richard looked at the Captain as the latter spoke sotto voce. "And like a thousand other commanders on a thousand other battlefields, I wait for the dawn..."
The USS Pioneer had sat on station for the past hour and a half. Other than the regular check ins from Commander O Flannagain and Chief Moore there had been nothing. Tyler was beginning to think that perhaps he had misjudged what was happening here. Perhaps he had been too cautious with the preparations, as there did not seem to be any threat to Cadassia from off planet. Tyler turned toward the Science Station as he broke the silence on the bridge. "Lieutenant please launch a number of probes. I would like to scan for warp trails, ionic trails. Anything that may give us a lead if something is in the system. Commander Myles do similar with tactical and reconnaissance probes."
"Prepping probes for launch." Ameri said, with a concerned look on her face. Was it wise to launch probes while in orbit over Cardassia Prime? It was not her place to judge the captain's order. Just to follow them. And that she did. After a few minutes, the probes were completed. "Ready to launch, Captain."
"Target the edge of the Cardassian system and fire. Our goal is to extend our sensor net." Tyler responded.
"The net is ready to deploy, firing in ... 3.... 2....1." Ameri started to say, she was tracking the sensor information on the probes. As the probes deployed, she started to pick up new sensor data. "Captain we may have a problem, or the Cardassians might, depending on how you want to look at it." Ameri said, as she started to zoom in on her scans. "5 Maquis raiders and a defiant class starship are just outside of sensor range." She said, waiting for the Captain response.
Richard sat in the XO chair and looked a little uneasy, his features turned stern at the announcement from Science. That would surely spell casualties.
Tyler stared foward at the viewscreen. "Thank you Lieutenant. Commander Myles what do we have coming at us...." His voice trailed off as he realized that if the number of ships were correct they had a small invasion force coming at them. Malbrooke grasped at straws as he tried to get an edge. "...And Myles reach out to them if you can. I want to know what is going on in their heads. This is a bold move even for the Maquis. Activate the Ablative Armor, Dana inform our teams on the ground that they are on their own for the time being as we have our hands full. Corporal find us a place to hide." Tyler's orders came rapid and without pause. He knew that his crew could handle the tension and would come through this all with flying colors.
Myles deftly worked the tactical console, getting the ships defenses up just as soon as he possibly could. "Armor up, Captain. Weapons armed and ready." He said. He wiped a little sweat from his forehead. "Oh.. We have telemetry. 5 raiders confirmed. Also a Defiant class. Where they got one of those is beyond me." He added
So he followed up on another order, putting his Betazoid to use. " Reaching out now. Some people blocking me. I assume disciplined Vulcans. A lot of what I'd call bravado. One guy is having second thoughts in raider second from the left. The man commanding the defiant seems to be pushed somehow. Like an outside force."
Dana instinctively got to work on informing the ground teams of the current situation and that for the moment, they would be on there own, cut off from any support. She relayed the information with a heavy heart, after all she could picture herself receiving such a message, no reinforcements, no back up and no chance of a retreat, it could be life or death. But she could not dwell on such thoughts. She glanced over an array of information, she needed to ensure that the ship was ready for anything, that reserves and appropriate power were available should they need it.
"Ground teams informed of the current situation, and plenty of available power to redistribute should we need it." She said glancing over at Lieutenant Myles and then to the Captain, knowing fine well, they were not going to get out of this without a fight.
Before the words were out of the Captain's mouth Shayla Kunadt had already been spinning her wheels, well the wheels of her chair as she slid back and forth from one end of the helm to the other. She worked on finding that hiding place and at the beginning every place that she looked was simply too small to hide an Intrepid Class starship. After what seemed like an eternity she remembered something that Tremble had told her, Always look at the dirt. In that moment everything fell together, there was an asteroid with a crater big enough for them. If she jumped to high warp and came to a screeching halt she would be able to avoid the enemy sensors. Shayla explained her plan to the Captain and he ordered her to do it. "Alright ladies and gents hold on to your garters because this is going to get bumpy."
With that she engaged her course and the Pioneer jumped to warp 8 in an instant and thirty seconds later came to a full stop in the crater. During those seconds Shayla's hands danced on the console in a blur of movement, beads of sweat formed on her brow. The bridge lurched heavily as the ship came to a stop. "Helm reporting in our hidey whole at all stop sir." Tyler nodded as he white knuckled the arm rests of his chair.
Flarn's curt voice cut through the din of alarms as the ship came to a halt. "Our forces on the ground have engaged the enemy." He spoke without turning around.
Clarissa wondered if it was wise, to simple hide in a hole, she would have preferred to put some distance between the enemy and the USS Pioneer. For the moment, the USS Pioneer was doing okay. Tough ship Clarissa thought, as she allowed a little smile to appear on her face. "All systems online, Captain. Nice flying Corporal Kunadt."
"And now we play chicken and see who flinches first..." Tyler's voice trailed off as he stroked his chin. The doc leaned over. "It seems that there are some that do not want a fight in that group." Tyler nodded in response to Richard. "I plan on taking advantage of that, let's hope they run."
Tyler straightened himself in the chair. "Right here we go. Myles target the forward phaser arrays on the ship with the doubtful CO. As for the starship that is going to take some heavy firepower, load all the torpedo launchers, and prepare a tri-cobalt device." Tyler stood and began to pace around as he gave orders, this was his first time commanding in a major battle and he tried desperately to hide that fact. "Corporal when the attack fleet enters the system pull us out of hiding and align us right in front of them. Ms Wakefield, I want you to find out what the hell is that Defiant Class ship doing. Where did it come from, everything. Lieutenant O Flannagain see what you can conjure up by way of an illusion. I need a way to fool that Defiant's targeting sensors."
"Locked and loaded, sir." Myles said.
Dana pondered for a moment, she glanced down at at the transponder information been transmitted from the ship...nothing. She quickly established a computer link between the Pioneer and the Defiant class ship.
"Access denied...information unavailable...Access denied..." she mumbled to herself. Much like their own ship, establishing a link was the easy part, but gaining access without the proper clearance or codes was almost impossible. She took a deep breath, Dana was scrupulous, she had morals firmly followed rules and regulations, however, the situation called for questionable actions. She took another deep breath, before pressing several more buttons on her console, she quickly glanced around, like a child checking that the coast was clear before attempting to steal a cookie from the cookie jar. Her console beeped and she glanced back down, she had uploaded a file from her private database, a program that perhaps would take some explaining...but the situation called for it, taking one final breath and she executed the command and sent her program across the active computer link.
It seemed like hours, but in reality it had only been minutes before Dana's console began to beep. Quickly silencing it, she looked down and a small smile crept across her face. Scanning the information she quickly began to cross check the data with the federation library.
"Sir, the vessel is the USS Fearless, registration number NCC 75001. According to the Federation database, it was reported as lost, presumed destroyed following a skirmish in the Badlands three years ago."
"The attack fleet has entered the Cardassian system. Engaging an intercept course. Three minutes until intercept." Shayla called out as her hands performed a ballet on the helm.
Ameri was contemplating what the USS Pioneer could do, to slow down the Cardassian Fleet, that she could see on her sensors. The sad truth was, not much. The fleet knew the location of the USS Pioneer, so trying to fool the sensors with false readings at this stage, would be pointless.
Those three minutes were the quietest that Tyler ever remembered the bridge being, well that was until Flarn's voice broke the tension. "Sir report coming in from Bravo Team. Chief Moore reports that they have entered the Central Command compound, and they are proceeding to primary targets. Alpha Team reports that they have made contact with the group holding the Council hostage. Thus far both teams report little resistance." Flarn turned from his station. "If I may be so bold sir, that strikes this Marine as odd..." His voice trailed off as he turned back to his duties.
The Pioneer came to a halt on station. "Hail the Fearless! Commander Fearless this is Captain Tyler Malbrooke of the USS Pioneer. You and your fleet stand in violation of Cardassian boarders. On behalf Cardassia I ask that you turn your ships around and there will be no further incident." He spoke with his most official most diplomatic voice. Moments passed and there was no answer. "Have they received?"
Again glancing down at her console and confirming the message was successfully transmitted. "They heard you." Dana replied pressing several buttons on her console "No response, re transmitting the message."
Tyler simply stood and looked out at the fleet before him, and wondered what they were doing. Then he blanched pale as every ship let loose with a volley. It seemed that the Captain had his answer and it was not what he looked for. The Pioneer shook under the stress and impacts of the weapons. Tyler was caught with pants down, and fell to his side hard as the ship shook. He got up and took his seat. "Damage Report! Return Fire!"
"Port Shields buckling captain, we have blown out eps relays on decks 4,5 and 7. Attempting to re route power from the affected decks, recommend repair crews be dispatched as soon as possible. Clarissa said, after feeling a few more jots of weapons fire rock the USS Pioneer." Rissie said, as she looked at the areas they were targeting. She assumed, they were targeting the eps relays, but why? She continued to look at the schematics, then it dawned on her. They were hoping to electrify the hull, but to what end?
"Get you teams on it Ensign Rockwell. Dana shut down all non essential systems. Holodecks, science labs and the like and shunt the power to the shields." Tyler responded as the bridge shook with volley after volley.
Dana's hands instinctively began to dance across her console, as she shut down power to several systems, without warning. Last time she had done that, she had an ear bashing from a crew member who was in the middle of a romantic moment on the holodeck, but sadly situations called for the abrupt termination of power, however, if at all possible she would try and forewarn people, but not in situations like this.
"All available power, re routed to the shields." She shouted, ensuring that she had been heard in the mist of everything that was going on."
"Repair teams, are now en route captain." Clarissa said, wondering if it was a mistake to divert so much power to the shields, when the enemy was clearly targeting the eps relays. She wondered how the enemy got that exact details, on where to fire on the USS Pioneer. Against her better judgement, at the moment. She decided to remain silent. She was still a low ranking ensign.
"Firing phasers! Glancing hit." Myles said. "Raiders returning fire, phasers only. Raiders maneuvering, Captain, strafing starboard and port. Minimal damage to shields. Down to 94 percent." he said. "Hold on. Incoming fire coming from the Defiant. Torpedoes inbound." The ship shook, sparks were flying." Myles himself was rocked. "The Defiant has pulse phasers locked. Maneuvering to our ventral hull. Shields down to 80 percent. Photon struck home. Hull breach on deck six. Emergency forcefields holding."
The pioneer was struck by the phaser barrage. "Shields to 70%. Firing tricobalt device. "Tricobalt away."
The defiant took a hit to the port nacelle, but seemed to shrug it off. "Little effect." Myles said.
"If the Fearless fires that warhead we are done for. Myles target all weapons to their firing systems. Dana pull up the prefix code for the USS Fearless, it should still be in the system. Once the code is entered, fire!" Tyler glanced toward the science station. He needed something that would level the playing field, and he hoped that she could provide it. "Lieutenant O Flannagain is there anything out there that would give them a false sensor image, or flat out cause their targeting sensors to fail."
"On it, Sir." Dana yelled as she was trawling though the database for the prefix code. Why on earth the Starfleet kept these codes in records was something Dana always questioned, what if they were hacked, stolen or worse...then whole fleets of ships could be overridden.
"You got it, Captain." Myles said.
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." She 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.
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
Lieutenant Dana Wakefield
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Staff Sergeant Flarn
Rifle Fire Team 1 Leader, USS Pioneer
Lance Corporal Shayla Kunadt
EVAC Specialist, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Ameri Ó Flannagáin
Stellar Cartographer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Clarissa Rockwell
Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
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