Chapter 02: Vantage Points [D05|2330]

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Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #50 – August 23, 2018, 07:58:08 PM

[ Lt T'Less | Battle Bridge | Deck 08 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy | Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence ] attn: @Auctor Lucan @chXinya @Nolan @Triage @Triton @Doc M. @Multificionado @Havenborn

The short-haired Vulcan spared ch'Rayya a second's evaluation as she stepped away from her dead panel, just long enough to decide that he was not about to walk that particular impact off (with one part of her mind cataloguing the horrendous injuries one by one in much the same way as one might a ship's damage report), before she pulled out a PADD to continue her work. There was no latency, thankfully, but wrestling with the far smaller interface was a layer of challenge she didn't really need.

"Bypass that conduit!"

T'Less tapped at the relevant controls on the neighbouring console, deactivating her erstwhile, sparking station for good before it could catch fire in earnest. As reports and requests went out, she raised an eyebrow at the tone from the Hermat at Ops. Though perhaps it was understandable; this was hardly a leisurely cruise through the Delta Pavonis sector. The Vulcan woman crossed the bridge to the Ops station on the order to coordinate; the helm needed her own space without the (now) Acting Chief Tactical Officer hovering over her shoulder. It wasn't as if she couldn't handle the ship.

Lieutenant Nator was engrossed in hir work deeply enough that s/he startled when s/he noticed T'Less had joined hir. Looking over the console, she saw that the deflector was primed and ready to go, and so the dormant programming controls were now surplus to requirements. "I am going to reconfigure this part of your console, Lieutenant." The PADD was already tiresome.

"Go ahead."

A muscle in T'Less' jaw twitched. "Thank you for your permission," she deadpanned, bringing up a Tactical display as she collapsed the deflector panel into something smaller. The PADD was slipped into a pants pocket so as not to become a flying hazard the next time the ship took a hit.

Speaking of which...

It seemed Nator was manually governing their shield facings, keeping a contiguous layer around the ship to prevent further boarding attempts but ensuring the strongest protection faced their main opponent. The reduction in required draw likewise allowed for the diversion to phasers that she herself had requested. Watching the fighters (mostly) wheel around and head back to base, T'Less decided to borrow from that playbook.

"Time the deflector burst to coincide with detonation," she ordered, already keying up her next round of targets.

"Aye, aye."

The ship came around, and the Rotarran hove back into view. As with most Klingon capital designs, it was an imposing sight - and the multitude of energy weapon batteries bracketing them at the moment did nothing to detract from that, the deck bucking under her feet as they took another series of impacts. Staccato orange pulses screamed back across the intervening space as her firing patterns began - then, a series of thumps sounded through the superstructure as the volley of quantum torpedoes launched, aimed in a flattened cluster at the Rotarran's port nacelle and wing-pylon in order to attempt to disable their engines.

As with their own shields, though, the Rotarran did not currently fill all of her targeting arcs, and there were plenty of phaser capacitors just sitting there, undischarged without their main target. With long practise, her hands played out a grim danse across her borrowed console, and more salvos of pulsed phaser fire streaked out towards the incoming fighter formation... or, more accurately, at the raiders pursuing them. In short order, two Klingon small craft detonated behind the fleeing Federation fighters, and another peeled away trailing drive plasma. The rest took evasive action to avoid being swatted in turn.

"Firing deflector," Nator announced. A sequential trio of toroidal whorls splashed against the Klingon vessel's shields just as the impact flashes of the Sword's quantum torpedo barrage lit up their sensor return. "Scanning," s/he continued. "Nebula gasses are drawing around the Rotarran. Localised synchroton, delta, and thermionic flux up forty percent, seeing some bleedthrough to their crew decks."

Marginally, T'Less' brow furrowed. No matter that the Klingon crew were currently an intractable enemy, being poisoned by any one of the sorts of radiation they currently flew in would be a horrible way to die. Let alone all three. She was distracted from that macabre thought as Tovarek tapped her shoulder. She leaned her head towards him to listen without taking her eyes off the weapon controls as she launched a trail of torpedo pods from their port flank - with split orders to harass the enemy fightercraft and their home vessel with the microtorpedoes they carried.

"... Before we warp out of this mess, I want you to fire a concentrated barrage of phaser fire into this specific Sirilium gas pocket. If my estimations are correct it should be on the ventral side of the Rotarran if it chases us. The explosion should cause for some confusion if not damage if we manage to fire through those shields."

"Pocket marked, acquiring firing solutions. I'll fire when appropriate."

Her commandeered console bleeped a warning; low energy in the phaser capacitors. She backed off the rate of 360-degree fire to allow their overall reserve to recharge and to concentrate on the visible weapon ports and engine exhausts on Martok's ship. Glancing at Nator's panel, their shields yet held. For now.

A warm Hello to you, Martok. Choke on it.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #51 – August 23, 2018, 08:26:21 PM

[ Lt. JG Evelyn Rawley, callsign "Ghost" | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie, Winterbourne | Azure Nebula] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Nolan @Triage @Triton @Havenborn @Doc M. @Top Hat @chXinya
[Show/Hide]

"Ghost! Wherever you are, fly back to Sword. I'll meet you there. Goldeneye, break your assault and return to Vector 2. Let them come to us and make them pay there."

"Copy that, Razor," acknowledged Rawley. She wondered when they were going to pull back to the Theurgy's perimeter; this party was getting very nasty. They lost almost half the pack, and there's a risk that at any moment, a sirilium pocket would take everybody out. Maybe they'd disable the Rotarran, but it'd be wise to scarper before it happened.

"Wolves, I need a sound off once you're back at Sword. Make them pay for the losses we suffered, but look alive. I cannot stress this enough, I NEED you all to live through this ordeal. Razor out."

Rawley suddenly saw Razor's fighter diving off. And then some raiders popped up from behind her to chase him. Rawley blinked and then smiled.

"Razor, you smashing bugger," she said with enamored adoration. He was making them chase him in order to let her get away.

Rawley retreated with the rest of the Wolves to the Theurgy's perimeter and sounded off. Time to throw a few more rocks. She pounded her phasers into a Raider and sent a few micro-torpedoes up its arse. She had just targeted a second...make that number six...when she heard from Ensign Henshaw:

"Wolf pilots this is Sword control speaking. Proceed to immediate docking as the ship will begin a tactical retreat. It is vital that you're all aboard before we commence final procedures."

Rawley was about to tell Henshaw to bugger off; she needed a few more minutes to throw some rocks. But then she heard from Razor.

"All Wolf elements, Razor here. We're making one quick, final run around Sword. Dash out as much of your ordinance as you can to wipe out the closest threats that would hamper our landing efforts. Proceed to battle landings after." he called out to the pack "You better all be out of ordinance when we land. Razor out."

"Roger, Razor. Let's chuck a few more rocks, shall we?" acknowledged Rawley. She still had a few micro-torpedoes left, not to mention her Hellhound Cluster. She launched them all towards some incoming Raiders, the ones bearing down on her. Overkill it was, but she hoped it would at least hold them long enough to keep the buggers busy so the rest of the pack could come in.

Time to scarper. Rawley followed the Wolves in formation to land back in the hangar.

[ Kohor of the House of Korath | Cockpit | Phantom Raider Kangar | Azure Nebula]

Kohor was truly admiring the warrior spirit in some of these traitor pilots. First the unusual flying style of one, then the fury of another in one of the Federation's prototype Valvarns. He could admire the designs of the Valvarns all day, the way they looked like one of the ancient weapons of the days of old, in the days of Kahless. And now this third pilot, with undoubtedly so many modifications to his fighter, his father Korath, being the tinkerer as he is, would be all over it like swarms of gagh.

As honorable as their intentions were, they were traitors to the Federation.

He could see that the fighters were retreating to the perimeter of the Theurgy. His Klingon blood boiled; he had barely made use of his ordinance and his fighting spirit was enflamed like a targ in heat. He had just set course to attack the rest of the fighters.

As it so happened, he was facing it when he saw it. He had just been about to catch up with the rest of the Phantoms when a fighter fired the last of its ordinance. The resulting detonation sent a good deal of Phantoms reeling, and at least one Phantom blown to Sto'vo'kor.

Suddenly he realized the danger posed. If that fighter was going to unload all of its ordinance before landing back to its sanctuary, the rest of the fighters could potentially do so. Not to mention his friend and wingmate Kodor from the Korg was warning him:

"Kohor, this is Kodor from the Korg! We have to retreat! We're too far for the Rotarran to cover us! There's no honor in meeting so much death!"

Kohor trusted Kodor's judgement to most. He got along with him the most; nobody took Kohor seriously for being the son of the tinkerer; honor lay in battle, and Korath was too enamored with technology to care to take up the fight, notwithstanding his contributions to the war with the Dominion.

There was also the inevitability of getting in the crossfires of the Theurgy's phasers, now that they were firing at the Phantoms.

"Very well, Kodor," replied Kohor. "We best pull back to the Rotarran. We won't do Chancellor Martok good in Sto'vo'kor."

As he turned around, he leered back at the fighters pulling back into the Theurgy.

"We will meet again, gnats," he spat at them. "You cannot elude the wrath of the chancellor for long. Where Martok goes, so will I. You fight well in battle, but you serve traitors. Make no mistake: We will meet again."

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #52 – August 23, 2018, 10:08:18 PM

[ Ens. Krystal "Meony" Tancredi | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie, Sassy Slayer | The Infinite Coffin | Azure Nebula ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan, @Nolan, @Havenborn, @Jm Von Cat, @Blue Zephyr & @Multificionado
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“DEATH. DEATH TO YOU. PAIN!”

Meony's eyes shot open. She could barely see, and her body temperature had risen significantly so that she could feel sweat mixing with the blood oozing down all over her face. The regulation system worked to cool her down to more acceptable levels even as she struggled to comprehend what was happening. She knew that it was bad, and that Thomas, and maybe Daniel were speaking to her at some point or other. Sluggishly, she flipped switches on the console in front of her, then issued voice commands, ignoring the malicious voice yelling at her in her own brain. “Com-putah...r-replay...last message...”

She was able to hear a bit better after she amped the volume up, and Thomas' voice rang more clearly, along with his instructions. She had no hope of manually operating the Valkyrie any longer, and part of her wanted to just set the ship to automated landing immediately. She couldn't really do much more anyhow, and most if not all of her payload was spent, but if she could cover her wingmates, buy them even a second...she owed it to them to try.

“Maintain...course wit' Salvo an-an' Ayn-jehl,” said Meony, her eyes closed, and she leaned back against her backrest, crushing her hat which hung behind her. “rotate angle one-eighty degrees...target...target all nearby raiders...release E-C-C-M emitters..mark...then fire all micro torpedoes, l-lay down...suppressing phaser fire, r-rotate...fire of cannons with beams. Mark.”

The computers kept up with her instructions, and twisted the fighter around, cutting the main thrusters to allow the momentum to keep her on course alongside Daniel and Alessia's ships, while the Sassy Slayer unloaded the last of its payload as instructed by Thomas. Any raider still close enough, found a barrage of phaser beams and bolts tearing apart their shields and then nearly two dozen micro torpedoes careening towards them. Meony's craft itself was hidden by the release of the ECM devices, meant to confuse sensors and reduce target lock effectiveness.

Anyone from among the Lone Wolves watching would note the mechanical movements of Meony's craft, and probably guess that she was relying almost entirely on the computer to do everything now, hinting at the probability that she was physically compromised. Which was true. Her head was spinning, and she saw quintuple, blinking over and over did nothing to improve her sight, and all noise or voices were muffled. She was losing the battle, the coil was rupturing. It felt like someone pressed a palm over her head and smashed in with a hammer. There was a tiny pop and a jarring sensation, and she knew, the tumour was breaking free.

She was probably dead already, the least she could do was bring the Sassy Slayer back in. They'd already lost so much. She only regretted that she couldn't say goodbye to Jimmy in person, or take Sharky out for one last walk around the vector. There was so much she wanted to say to so many people. “Activate automatic...landing sequence...” she barely breathed out. “...mark.”

The Valkyrie sent notifications to Flight Ops, Thomas, Daniel and Alessia, notifying them of the ship's automatic landing procedure, and she was virtually the first craft to make a boarding entry and approach, completely automated. As the Launch Bay shields lowered to allow the Sassy Slayer in, one of the Klingon boarders had managed to storm the bay.

[ K'oh of the House of T'oHoq | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]
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He had gotten separated from the rest of his squad, but K'oh was not afraid, and eager to draw blood and fell traitors. He had chased an unarmed man here, though where the coward now hid was going to take some searching. He knew the man couldn't have given him the slip, and he stood before the only way in or out. There would be no escape, and such cowardice would surely earn this traitor nothing but disdain in every form, both here and in whatever form of afterlife humans believed in.

“Federation Baktag!” said K'oh loudly, “SHOW YOURSELF! At least die with honour! Or have you forsaken every sense?”

Shaking his head, he began to wander in, one eye on the door in case the man tried to sneak out. There was surely others here! He held his Disruptor rifle ready, finger on the trigger, and he fired a few wild shots at potential hiding spots. “WHAT COWARDS! I HAVE NEVER MET SUCH WORTHLESS LIFEFORMS! I WILL GLADLY TAKE YOUR LIVES AND RID THE FEDERATION OF YOU!”

As he ranted, he failed to notice the entry of the Valkyrie Mk III, as it passed through the vacuum barrier and made a landing approach. He yelled some more in Klingon, then fired more shots wildly, until he saw a shadow looming over him and turned around. Eyes widening, K'oh turned to fire on the craft, only to realize its proximity and relentless approach, and the pilot's seeming preference to crash into him rather than fire any weapons off. While impressed with such a brazen attempt, he wasn't going to make it that easy, and turned to run, to get to a higher vantage point, and he would take on the ship and it's foolish pilot.

But as he turned, the Valkyrie's forward landing strut extended and with the ship still moving forward under automated guidance, the foot of the strut struck the Klingon warrior in the back of his skull, knocking him to the ground, and before he could even think to rise, he felt the full weight of the fighter press into his back, piercing armour, flesh, spine and internal organs with nearly twenty-eight tons of descending pressure and embedding the foot of the strut right through him. There was no time even to exhale his final breath.

As his spirit made its way to Sto'Vo'Kor, K'oh's last thought was he didn't even get to shoot the stupid man who ran in here in the first place. After that he neither thought nor saw anything, but his eyes remained large and wide open.

[ Ens. Krystal "Meony" Tancredi | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie, Sassy Slayer | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ]

Meony gasped, awakening once more, having passed out during the landing procedure. She frowned as she felt something pop and crunch like her ship had landed on something almost jelly-like for a moment, before settling down firmly. Reaching up with numb hands, she twisted her helmet off as the canopy slid open. Her face was completely covered in blood, her eyes were not only bloodshot, but thin rivulets ran down her face like red tears, blood was slowly oozing out of both ears, her nostrils and her mouth. Carelessly brushing her red-gold hair, her hand smeared the blood further when her fingers accidentally trailed across her face. She rose unsteadily, unable to see, and more by instinct than conscious knowledge, attempted to navigate the climbing ladder.

Her first attempt looked like a drunken keel over, causing her hat to slide off her neck onto the deck near the dead Klingon that now decorated the Sassy Slayer's forward landing strut like a gruesome ornament. Straightening up, she twisted her body around and managed to find the first steps, clambering out of the cockpit of her fighter. She then missed the rest of the steps and unceremoniously flopped to the deck, crushing her hat again, rolled onto her back, with her helmet rolling out of her hand, and her unseeing eyes stared up at the ceiling, unblinking, and unconscious, and the free-flowing blood pooling around her head. She couldn't even hear the malicious voice of the sentient tumour promising pain and death. A simple tricorder scan would tell anyone whatever they needed to know.

Daniel, or anyone else from the Resolve would know what the problem was, and maybe...just maybe...Meony would live to see another day. But either way, she was done flying for a while.

This is Meony's fighter's current armament
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Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #53 – August 24, 2018, 03:26:58 AM

[ Master Chief Petty Officer Jeremy Barton | Deck 07 |Temporary Custody | Security Center | Vector 2 | USS Theurgy ] Atten: @Auctor Lucan, @CanadianVet, @Jm Von Cat, & @patches.

"Move Doctor Nicander to a cell, Maya is questioning him and standing by for any emergency treatment he might need," Petty Officer Varder Ridun ordered the guards standing outside of the temporary holding cell attached to the ship’s Security Center on Deck Seven.

“You heard the man,” Master Chief Jeremy Barton nodded as he deactivated the electrostatic force field separating himself and the exo-suited security specialists he was addressing from those in the temporary holding cell. The temporary holding cell was the only part of the Theurgy’s Security Center that wasn’t shielded against transporter beams, thus every prisoner that was beamed ‘directly to the brig’ really appeared there before being searched and escorted to the brig.

“Aye-aye Master Chief,” one of the exo-suited figures responded with the voice of Security Specialist Petty Officer First Class David Wyburn. The second figure waiting outside activated an antigravity stretcher that he moved to Nicander’s bench/bunk as Bremmer, Ridun, and Taer exited the room as if they were on their way to a fire.

[ Tessa May Lance, callsign: Goldeneye | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie ] Attn: @chXinya, @Triton 3) @Nolan 4) @DocReno 5) @Hastata-Nerada 6) @CanadianVet, @Auctor Lucan.

[ Wolf pilots this is Sword control speaking. Proceed to immediate docking as the ship will begin a tactical retreat. It is vital that you're all aboard before we commence final procedures, ] Cameron Henshaw’s voice ordered.

[ Yes! ] Tessa Lance responded enthusiastically, perhaps too enthusiastically.

Henshaw’s voice was quickly joined by Thomas Ravon’s: [ All Wolf elements, Razor here. We're making one quick, final run around Sword. Dash out as much of your ordinance as you can to wipe out the closest threats that would hamper our landing efforts. Proceed to battle landings after. You better all be out of ordinance when we land. Razor out. ]

“Aw right!“ Tessa grimaced as she sent her Valkyrie into a what Starfleet termed a Delta-2 maneuver, curving up into a circular barrel roll to go from being in front of its pursuers to above and behind them. She fired her photon torpedoes at the portside three-man raider that was now in front of her, causing it to veer to starboard, and collide with a second one that had only moments earlier had been behind her. The portside raider, its shields already compromised by Tessa’s torpedoes, exploded in a burst of orange fire, hurling the starboard raider spinning out of control into the ether. The lead raider, discovering itself alone veered off before changing course to pursue its out of control counterpart and flew straight into the sights of the Sword’s rear phasers. The blue tinted sirillium gas in the area made that particular explosion impressively bright.

“Yeah you thought you wuz, buddy!“ Tessa sneered while guiding her fighter around the Sword to reach the open hatchway leading into the Fighter Assault Bay. “Didn’t think so!“

Battle landings were always rough. It was completely different than letting the tractor beam guide you in; it was akin to landing a… what did they call them? Jets? It was akin to landing jets on a twentieth century aircraft carrier. You could do it, but it was dangerous and let you know what your fighter’s inertial dampeners were for. Despite the marvels of 24th century technology she still felt her Valk buck and shudder as it slid into the Fighter Bay and stopped just short of colliding with Meony’s.

“Safe at last.” Sighing with relief, Tessa removed her helmet and ran her fingers through her hair before opening her cockpit and starting to climb out. She tripped as she exited the cockpit and tumbled out of her Valkeryie and hit the deck just as a shot from a particle beam weapon blew the cushion off her chair. Tessa let out a high pitched squeak and scrabbled under her fighter for cover.

OOC: This post has been edited and modified so many times since I've posted it I've lost count!

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #54 – August 24, 2018, 10:00:48 AM

[ Ensign Jaya Thorne | Battle Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: Bridge personnel, Fighter pilots.

Jaya Shrieked as more conduits and consoles went boom around her, miraculously her own didn’t decide to cash it in but she did get a few nicks and burns here and there from it, making it somewhat more difficult to keep the vector going. “Holy crap them Klink Carriers are tough!” She said as she set up more Maneuvers, trying to both block some shots for their Warp Fighters as well as give them a chance to return to the hangar bay. “Cameron, whatever we do to get them back we gotta be quick about it! We’re taking a Frigging beating here!” She Says as she angles the ship with their hangar’s return bay towards their fighters as best she can without exposing them to the Rotarran too much.

She growled a bit as she vector took more Disruptor hits but she stood fast, keeping her maneuvers primed and sequenced, trying to keep them in the game. “Come on girl! Hold together, please just hold together!” She muttered under her breath and grunted as she had to hang on to her console some more, thinking. For the love of, these damn Klingons, so damn stupid and stubborn, even their great leader can’t bloody listen to friggin reason, bet he’d still try and kill us if we shoved the freaking truth and proof in his damn face! She didn’t say so though.

Jaya groaned and winced after something nearby exploded and looked at her left arm, eyes wide, a piece of plating about an inch wide at its widest and a good seven or eight inches long was skewering her left bicep, there wasn’t a ton of blood seeping out but there was bleeding, oddly, little pain, for now, probably adrenaline and shock. Damn it, that’s going to hurt bad when things wind down! She thought to herself, grimacing at it for a moment, but fought through the injury, she had to, needed to stay on task, stay at her post, she would not let her crew down. “Come on, please, please tell me our fighters are coming back, sir I really do NOT know how long I can keep our girl intact against that Klink barrage!” She had bellowed out, fighting the rising pain, she did her best to keep the vector primed and ready to high tail it out as she shook with Klingon Disruptor fire. All the while she maneuvered in both a way to help the fighters return and to aid their weapons in fighting the Rotarran till they punched it out of there, hoping and praying to every god she could think of to allow them out of there alive, doing her absolute best, injuries not withstanding, to allow their Warp Fighters the best possible combat landing window, to let the Wolves return to their den.

OOC: I hope this is ok, there's a lot going on right now so i might be missing a detail or two, my apologies if i am and please feel free to send me anything i might have missed that would be needed to put in here if need be and for any other posts i make too, i am more than happy to modify my posts to help augment their quality. Thanks!

Re: Chapter 02: Charades [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #55 – August 24, 2018, 03:53:53 PM

[ Junior Lieutenant Jovela | Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] @Nolan
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When the call came from the Fighter Bay, that there were injured there, patients had already begun to arrive in Sickbay. Nurse Jovela was tending to a head wound, and Doctor Kobol was stabilising an engineer who had third degree plasma burns. The only one without any patient was Doctor Rez, so Jovela saw Elro Kobol turn towards the Trill.

"You can go, Doctor! We'll manage until you return!" called the Betazoid, while the ship shook once more.

Jovela paused what she was doing to bring a med kit to Doctor Rez, looking the Trill in the eye. It was so strange, to see Amelya in blonde hair, having first met her before the battle at Starbase 84, when she was unjoined. "We'll manage, Doctor. Just let us know if you need anything down there."

The medical transport was made quickly enough, but no sooner had the shimmering image of Doctor Amelya Rez vanished, than there came shouting from outside the ICU. Jovela locked eyes with Elro Kobol , who seemed to have a distant look, using his Betazoid senses to gauge what was happening beyond the bulkheads. "Klingon boarders... They are just outside."

Jovela's eyes widened, and the sliding doors opened. She was thrown back to that fateful day in Starfleet Medical, where Drauc T'Laus had saved her from that Klingon patient. She couldn't help the scream that she made when she saw them, five Klingons with distruptor rifles, opening fire against them and the patients alike.

[ Ensign Colin McArthur | Security Center | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Suggested PO: 1) @trevorvw 2) @patches 3) @CanadianVet 4) @Jm Von Cat
(One stunned/killed Klingon each!)
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In the middle of the Security Center, Ensign McArthur was coordinating the security personnel aboard to thwart the Klingon boarders, communicating with and taking orders from the bridge, then channelling the relevant information to the teams aboard the Sword. He could see how Sickbay was compromised, and how the closest team would be too late to prevent casualties. "Beta Team, move it! The Klingons are in the ICU!"

One of the present officers called McArthur over, and upon seeing the blips and information on the LCARS screen, Colin swore under his breath. "Security to all available personnel on Deck 13, repel Klingon boarders before we loose our deflector shields!" he said, having seen how there was only one Starfleet officer with a human life-sign left in the corridor outside the Auxillary Delfector access. The communicator identified the man as Lieutenant Kai Akoni, one of those from the Endeavour. There has been three other security officers there, now all dead. and there were still four Klingons still alive. He couldn't imagine what it was like in that corridor, since the Theurgy had no internal surveillance system any more.

He could see, however, how the team including Varder Ridun, Kino Taer and Eliska Bremmer were almost there...

"Are you o..okay?" Liam heard soon, the ship tossing and turning below him where he laid. Besides the tumultuous weapons fire that had been heard, he'd heard retching noises, muffled by the metallic clamour of the things that littered the deck.

"I'll live, how about y-you?" he asked, heart beating fast in his chest. Ji began to shove at the emitter housing that pinned him down. In answer, he cried out in pain, feeling the metal casing move against his smashed knee. It was heavy... but not for the Gorn, who soon arrived, making himself heard with his unfiltered, rough voice above them. There were no thoughts lingering on the discussion that had come to an end, Liam now being quite grateful that he was present. The Gorn efficiently took care of them, making sure they didn't injure themselves further before Medical arrived, even making sure Ji - bloodied and likely to have hit her head - would be all right.

Liam might have been the Gorn's superior officer, but he offered no protest, merely concerned for Ji since she almost seemed worse for wear than he was. After a while, there was a shimmer of light behind the Gorn, and a Trill with a teal collar arrived, carrying a med kit. For some reason, Liam almost expected her to do that EMH thing and ask what the medical emergency was.

No more had she arrived, however, until there were Klingon boarders in the Fighter Bay. Two of them entered the weapon storage room, spotting the Trill since she stood outside the shelves. Liam could see them through the shelves with widening eyes. The first one almost fired his disruptor rifle against the Doctor, but the second one slapped the rifle down towards the deck. "There is fighter ordinance here! You will kill us all, you petaQ!"

Sweat trickling his brow, and a pallor of pain to his face, Liam looked at Sithick. "Protect Ji..." he said, swallowing. "Protect us."

Little did they know that there were two more Klingons out in the Fighter Bay, who began to fire against the arriving Tac CONN officers, waiting long enough to begin shooting until they climbed out of their cockpits. They had taken cover behind the transparent blast wall, firing from the openings on the starboard side.

OOC: Another post coming up soon! There are only 4 Klingons left in the Fighter Bay area, so spread the fun around.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #56 – August 24, 2018, 05:10:25 PM

[ Lt. Kai Akoni | Deck 13 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] @Auctor Lucan @patches @CanadianVet @Jm Von Cat

Kai had jogged, rather sprinted towards the bend in the corridor after stepping off the turbolift. Just before he reached the bend; the large man crouched down next to a fallen security person and relieved their corpse of a phaser. Kai needed it more he figured, as he stood up and started walking forward while manipulating the phaser to set it to its highest stun level.

Kai started to round the bend in the corridor when a disruptor blast impacted the bulkhead less than 30 centimetres beside his head. His initial reaction was surprise and then he felt the residual heat left by the blast flying past his head. Kai then dropped down behind a fallen piece of bulkhead for cover as the disruptor blasts kept flying overhead and into the bulkhead debris he was leaned against. He looked to his right and saw a security crewman taking cover there as well.

"Report Crewman" The ex Chief of Security from the Endeavour ordered the crewman.

"Sir...they're all dead. We're fucked" the fear clearly palpable in the crewman's voice. The young man took a big breath and swallowed his own saliva and perhaps symbolically, his fear. "I think there's 4 Klingons left trying for deflector control, they're slowly advancing.". Kai blindly sent a phaser shot down the hallway to try and keep the Klingons pinned while listening to the report.

"Very good crewman. We'll try to keep them pinned down, we should have backup coming right away" Kai told the only other living security person with him. The young man must not have been thinking, because he stood up to shoot towards where the Klingons were. The disruptor blast hit him right in the centre of the chest, causing his body to crumple to the floor with the darkened and charred area left in the middle of his uniform. Kai looked towards it and noticed that it was still smoking.

Kai turned his attention back towards the Klingons as he kept firing phaser blasts at them to keep the fuckers pinned down until backup came.

Where the hell is my backup, he wondered to himself as he kept firing indiscriminate phaser shots.

Sweat dripped down Kai's brow as he still hid behind cover. The air was being heated up by all of the weapons fire; that and the adrenaline coursing through his veins was causing him to sweat. Kai aimed again downrange and fired, this time rather than a suppressing shot, he hit a Klingon in the abdomen, sending the large invader crumpling forward, unconscious before he hit the deck plating. Kai then went back into cover as the disruptor fire all around him intensified from the remaining 3 Klingons. Kai was back to staying in cover and firing towards the Klingons blindly in an almost futile attempt at suppressing them.

The three remaining boarders were advancing slowly; but were still advancing nonetheless. Kai kept firing as best he could, but it wasn't going to be able to do much if his current position were overrun. Kai quickly pondered his own mortality and figured if he was going down, he'd take as many Klingon's with him as he could. His phaser was almost out of power as the Klingon's closed in.

I hope the backup comes soon...

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #57 – August 24, 2018, 10:00:45 PM

[ Cmdr Ranaan Ducote | Bridge | Deck 08 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] attn: @Auctor Lucan @trevorvw @patches @CanadianVet @Jm Von Cat @Arista @Blue Zephyr

Ducote had never met a Hermat before; they were fairly rare in Starfleet due to their preference for their own kind. As a consequence, he had no idea what 'perpetual irritation' felt like from one until he figured it out through simple logic. The Ops officer radiated an aura of personal affront that managed even to penetrate the traumatic blunting of his talent... not unreasonably, perhaps, given their circumstances, but if that's what it took to get hir motivated then hey, who was he to judge? At any rate, he was set to marry someone who basically functioned the same way, so- No. Not now.

"... Your station should have access."

He resisted the urge to shrug and instead looked down, quickly flicking through LCARS menus until he found the various internal systems listed however he wanted. What could he get away with shutting down? Not that he was particularly concerned at this moment how his reputation might yet sink even further in the aftermath, and there was always room for seeking forgiveness rather than permission...

Every replicator on the Vector powered down except for the ones in sickbay, followed by the holodecks, and every science lab not currently running an experiment listed as 'dangerous if interrupted'. The unoccupied compartments likewise had their environmental controls suspended - technically still inhabitable (temporarily) if they did have to be accessed, but no active maintenance until further notice.

The Brazilian then made half a step to the side to bring up the plans for their boarded decks, superimposing the locations of Theurgy security crew and the signatures of the Klingon intruders. Before much could happen, the Rotarran got off a stinging volley and part of the deckhead crushed the Chief Tac into the deck. Wenn moved to try and help straight away, but Ranaan just looked back at his console. He'd felt ch'Rayya's mental impression be snuffed out with the impact. No time to sympathise.

The markers for the exosuited crew were fewer than he had hoped. At least there were fifty or so security personnel in general; lacking the requisite suit training they may be, but every one of them could hold a weapon and every one of them had better hand-to-hand training than anyone else on the crew. Hobbyists aside, anyway. They just weren't as well-protected. And there's plenty you can get done with a three-to-one advantage on the home field...

One hand pushed his fringe away from his forehead while he accessed the emergency forcefield generators mounted in the arches and junctions of every corridor on the ship. Their most common use was to contain hull breaches or environmental hazards, but they worked just as well to contain people. As long as the power held. He set them so that a Starfleet combadge (attached to a relevant biosign) would drop a field long enough to pass by and reactivate to prevent pursuit.

First order of business: Sickbay. There were a few guards stationed as a matter of course, and there was little honour to be gained in the Klingon code for attacking people who couldn't (or wouldn't) fight back. But whether the motivation was cruelty (as revenge for Martok's son) or ruthless efficiency (denying the enemy an aid asset), the infirmary was likely high on the priority list for the KDF. With a series of buzzing flashes, forcefields snapped into place in all the accesses in a ring around sickbay. He'd have put them all over the three invaded decks if he could, but there were only so many resources to divert. Scrolling the display, he also raised a field in the junction nearest the Klingons that lay between them and the route to the medical ward. He tapped his badge. "Kobol , Ducote. KDF boarders on your deck - I'll warn you if they get close, but they should be contained for now."

[They're already in here!] He was momentarily drowned out by the sound of disruptor fire. [Guards are dead!]

Ducote's blood ran cold. He looked at the schematics for the closest team, and couldn't help the wry huff of almost-amusement at the name he saw. "Taer, Ducote. Get to sickbay immediately - boarders are inside it. Out."

Leaving the qualified to their jobs, despite the kneejerk desire to keep a tunnel-vision eye on the proceedings down there (especially with several of his own crew in that room).. second on his list were the deflectors. There were more than a dozen Security markers converging on deck 13, including most of the exosuits, but there were also several KIA tags. A muscle clenched in his jaw. It felt odd to resent the Klingons for not being Borg - but he couldn't help but feel as if their casualties would (so far) have been lighter if the enemy had had the good courtesy to dance to their plan. These ones, though, he quietly fenced in with fields outside their view in order to box them in with the Starfleet defenders. Cornered Klingons may well fight like demons, but no victim survives an ambush.

Lastly - the launch bay. There were four surviving Klingon signatures on the deck, with two having taken up a firing position behind one of the blast barriers - and quite outside his reach with any given field generator. But there were two moving into a munitions bunker just off the bay, which according to another layer of his display also housed a couple of injured crew at the moment - plus a medic and a.. Gorn? Piss-poor odds on the KDF.

A forcefield snapped into place over the doorway, cutting the snipers in the bay off from the pair in the racks. He couldn't help any more directly from up here, but he could at least dilute the effective strength of the boarders down there. Given that the squadron was landing, though, there were at least some armed reinforcements coming without having to divert any of their stretched Security detachment to help.

Ducote glanced at the pair of officers at Ops. Neither was shouting about failing shields again yet, which he took as a good sign and a relief that there were no (immediate) new boarders to come. In a battle of attrition against a larger, Klingon crew, there would only be one outcome.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #58 – August 25, 2018, 02:16:06 AM

[ High Chancellor Martok, son of Urthog | Bridge | Negh'Var Heavy Carrier IKC Rotarran | Azure Nebula ] Attn: All
[Show/Hide]

As the battle wore on, the traitorous Targs began to show Martok why they had managed to stay alive for so long; hunted by Starfleet for five months and yet still alive. Having begun the fight with little to show for their infamous name, It seemed they slowly rose to the challenge. So far, Martok had almost pitied the fools, expecting to destroy this part of the Theurgy with ease.

The moment it changed, was when the warp fighters actually did manage to create a couple of gaps in the Rotarran's shielding, and successfully deployed ordinace against the Negh'Var's ship's hull, despite how the Phantom raiders bore down upon them from on high. Martok grabbed the armrests of his chair when the Rotarran shook once, twice, and then three times in close succession. There came warnings from the consoles on the bridge, and conduits gave away when there were plasma overloads through the immense bulk of his ship. His bridge crew were just as filled with ire as he was, even if they also had longed for a proper battle. Yet Martok had never imagined that the small glob flies would have managed to penetrate the heavy shields of his great flagship.

"Chancellor! We have hull breaches. One deep, shy of the warp core!"

Martok bared his fangs, seeing how the warp fighters flew back towards their base ship in retreat. 'The Sword', they called it, and she was charging as well - the battle about to begin in earnest. "Reroute power to shields and structural integrity," he snarled, his remaining eye on the advancing opponent. "Claim it from all non-combat systems... and the cannons that are too damaged."

"One shield emitter is not responding, working to compensate through the others. We have minor damage to warp coils... warp capabilities compromised, extent unknown."

"Then give me full impulse speed!" roared Martok without pause, whilst his eye did not break away from his rogue prey. "ta'mey Dun, bommey Dun!"

'Great deeds, great songs', indeed. With no family left, he might be ready for Sto'Vo'Kor. He did not think this would be the day he died, yet he could still see Sirella's face at the back of his remaining eyelid. He remembered her, as he had the Rotarran charging the Sword, smiting the distance with disruptor fire. He thought of his lost children too. Drex might have been a fool, but he had been his last child. A warrior of House Martok, and a better one with his Par'Mach'kai at his side. This was, however, but one third of this hated adversary that he fought, and he meant to kill the Chameloid Captain himself. Anything less, and the House of Martok would falter in recognition.

In a deadly dance of two bleeding, metal beasts, the two prodigious ships engaged each other in close proximity, rolling and turning as their two charges passed each other in the heart of the Azure Nebula. The Sword preformed a rolling manoeuvre, pulse phasers thundering against the Rotarran's dorsal shields, and the Rotarran answered in kind, turning with the charge to expose the Sword to heavy disruptor bombardment. The monstrous titans nigh collided, whilst the Raiders harried the wolves back into their den - defying the Sword's aft phasers.

"jagh yIbuStaH! I want a full spread of photon torpdeoes!" grated Martok loudly, surging to his feet as the viewscreen followed the ship's movements, being lither than the Rotarran, yet also more fragile. "Fire!"

Yet no more had he uttered the command, before the Sword had finished turning her mass around towards them as well, and from the tip of the sword, came a glaring blast directly from their deflector. The brilliance flooded the viewscreen, and Martok had to close his remaining eye against it, feeling the shudder of the blast against his ships' shields. Yet it grew worse, as the shudder took on a definitive characteristic of a torpedo barrage. The Theurgy had fired before them, and the Rotarran's systems blared in response. Martok managed to keep his balance in his seat, despite the impact, and he didn't care what the shield status was after the hit. "I said, fire!"

"Aye!" said N'Garen, back on her feet and issuing the command. Their torpedoes, however... went astray, just shy of the Sword's hull. "Dal paghjagh... They have polarised our shields! Our targeting sensors are off, and we are drawing the nebula around us! I... we are taking in radiation, through our hull breaches in the aft!"

"Adapt the shield! Realign the sensors! Evacuate the decks!" snarled Martok, surging to his feet and unable to help the toothed grin he wore. His hands were balled into fists. "Switch to manual firing if you need to, and prepare for another charge. Fire as she goes!"

"Aye, Chancellor!"

"Doran!" he bellowed, and was given a commline to the Phantom Leader. "Have your remaining Raiders concentrate all fire on the starboard nacelle! I saw damage done to it already, and her aft shields must still be weary..."

[Aye, Chancellor. wejHeghchughvay', SuvtaHSuvwI'!]

Thus, despite the damage done to the Rotarran, the flagship hardly broke its stride, swinging around for another charge and shedding burning plasma into the nebula, just like the Theurgy was aflame. Their shields were getting dim with particles, yet even still, Martok's flagship was firing from afar - through the whole turn - with the heavier disruptor cannons joining the onslaught once they faced the Sword fully again. Meanwhile, the remaining ten Phantom raiders swept in from the aft, dealing hardpoint barrages against the Sword's hindquarters - specifically the starboard nacelle. It was not the Sword's warp capacity at stake, however... but the impulse engine vanes on the pylon.

"Helm! Rotary charge! Have at her!"

The ship had been shaking violently, Security had been pulled away to deal with boarding parties, and in the end of it all, Nicander was in a temporary holding cell, with Maya next to him where he had been placed - on top of the bunk on the far wall. He had grabbed the edge of the bunk since the ship was shaking, looking around and getting his bearings. His question, his request to help the crew, to know what was the priority, it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. He didn't know what was most important, and he was left with Maya asking him about Ives, even though he was about to be moved to the proper Brig.

"Ives..." The images in the abyss... It was not like an archive. No database in which you could type what you needed. Over the years, he barely dared look into the darkness, feeling as if he was being swallowed by it. Only lately, before the surgery, the thing inside him had possessed him in full, to keep his heart beating. Now, he knew what awaited there, when you stared beyond the precipice inside. Beyond the edge of darkness awaited the chaos consciousness, and what he saw... It was not for the eyes of sane, rational minds. In the midst of all the horrid imagery, he could glean the reality of the present cycle best, even though the vague understanding of the cycles that were before could be found there as well. To see something in clarity, through another like himself, he had to look for a longer time, trying to remain footed in his own self.

"I see..." he said, frowning, breathing harder, eyes moving as if chasing shadows. "It is a large room, inside a ship. I see... the Azure Nebula, beyond the viewports. It's dark there. Ives... she is held in some kind of energy field, in her female form. The host, it has been... toying with her, freely, without supervision."

Then, his eyes saw something else, which made his pale eyes widen. Slowly, he sat up, climbing to his feet. "I see... It's not just Heather. She's not the only one. No... The host... It has seen, all of them. The abducted. They, they... they are already dead! Liquefied... Pealed away upon a platform. Skin, flesh and bone, shed and fed into some kind of machine. Hylota, Vinata... The Deputy... Lin Kae and Nerina, out of stasis.... Not Ives, but the rest of them. By the winds, they are all dead, all of of them!"

Shutting his eyes, Lucan sucked air into his lungs and pinched the bridge of his nose. He shook his head, in denial, and to clear it from the oily darkness. He felt unclean, not just from what he'd seen. "I have to talk t-"

The ship shook yet again, and now, he saw the security guards that had entered the cell with an anti-grav stretcher. His head felt like it was split in two, but whatever had been in Maya's hypospray was giving him enough strength... to actually stand up, and it had caused the security officers to back away - only Maya remaining at his side. They had their weapons raised, and were shouting. This, while Wenn Cinn's voice was heard over the intercom. That. at least, had the security officers fall quiet. [Lucan, it's Cinn. They said you can link with the other parasites. I need to know if there's one on the ship we're fighting, and if so, can you see their shield frequency?]

"Cinn," said Nicander, raising his pale grey eyes to the deckhead, his mind still on the dead. It seemed like there was no time for apologies, or explanations. The Chief of Security - now Commanding Officer - needed answers and options, urgently. There would be time later, Lucan hoped, but right then, he had to gear himself to look into the nameless darkness again. What was asked of him was no small matter, and he couldn't explain it in a way that his old friend would understand. He took a step away from the stretcher. "I'll tr-"

"Take one more step and I'll shoot!" hissed one of the security guards, brandishing his rifle and making Lucan raise his hands a little. The ship shook yet again, and through the intercom link with the bridge, Lucan could hear voices in the background.

[Shields at 7 %. No, 5 %, and we can't regroup long enough to regenerate them! Structural integrity has been compromised, and we have multiple hull breaches!] said someone up there, close to Wenn Cinn. Curt Lucas, the Engineer. [The Rotarran is charging us again! Shields failing!]

Nicander understood, then, the stakes involved. "This is Nicander, I'll... I'll try." With his mismatched hands raised, dressed in a medical gown, he remained still, trying to ignore the ignorant security officers. He hoped that Maya, despite what he'd done to her, would keep them from shooting him. There was little time. Cascading imagery awaited in the nightmarish maelstrom, and he tried to look for Klingon faces amidst it all. Precious seconds wore on, until he saw the back of a imposing Klingon's head. And... beyond it, he saw a viewscreen, and... the Theurgy. The Sword. A battle. It had to be! The darkness was closing in on him, but he saw it!

"There is... By the winds, there is a host there!" he said to the bridge - to Cinn - hardly believing it himself. The host was firing at them, and the timing of the blasts were coinciding with the shaking of the ship. This was no memory. It was happening right then. "She.... No! Dive to port, now! Torpedoes incoming! She is firing now!"

Shields... Shields. The console's screen was a crude thing filled with gibberish! He didn't know Klingon well enough! He had barely learned the basics of it in the Academy, linguistics being far from his forte. Yet... "Shield modulator settings... harmonics... Their shield frequency... Two-Nine-Three Mark Seven MHz!"

OOC: Hope you all like it! Seven days of posting for all begins today, and there is no suggested posting order! Here's the bridge crew: [Show/Hide]

Here are the characters in the Fighter Assault Bay and the Lone Wolves Squadron: [Show/Hide]

Main Sickbay & Security Center: [Show/Hide]

Again, as previously stated about the current situation, please notice how five hours have passed since the earlier events in this Chapter and 2300 hrs, which was the present time when the scene began. These five hours are, of course, still available for everyone to use in setting up their own Supplemental threads. The naming convention for such threads belonging to Chapter 04 is still: CH04: S [DXX|YYYY] Insert Title. These should also be posted in the Part 1 board of Epsiode 05!

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #59 – August 25, 2018, 09:15:15 AM

[ PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 7 | Security Centre to Turbolift | Vector 2 | Theurgy ] @Jm Von Cat @CanadianVet @Top Hat

With Nicander safely secured in a proper Brig cell guarded by a new team, Kino could finally focus on an actual battle coming up. The rearrangement from guards to quick response team was seamless, both in the transfer of command from Varder to Taer to Bremmer and in the physical arrangement as Kino led the squad to the turbolift. Most of the Security accompanying them weren’t in exosuits as such equipment required training and experience that the vast majority of Security officers simply weren’t going to get. They wouldn’t need it. In a sense, Kino admired their willingness to place themselves in combat with apparently minimal protection. She knew the risks they were about to face.

As the group started filing in the turbolift, reports of the boarding parties continued to filter through her comms. Since they were all going to 13 to defend the auxiliary defector systems, Kino had assumed it had already been assigned a team to counter it but it wasn’t until the order for Beta Team to hustle there that she realized what had happened.

Shit.

Beta Team wasn’t armored and they weren’t going to get there anywhere in time. Nobody could. Hell, three of the department’s best performers were almost at Deck 13 as it was.

“Computer, new destination – Deck 11.”

It looked like she wasn’t the only one who realized what was going on, though, as a now familiar voice rang through the suit’s comms almost before Kino finished speaking.

[Taer, Ducote. Get to sickbay immediately - boarders are inside it. Out.]

“Roger that, Ducote. On my way.”

Her response was quick, her tone professional even though she couldn’t help the smirk on her face. Bremmer’s voice was next, this time on the private channel for the team.

"Fire teams 1 and 2, follow Taer and haul ass to Sickbay."

Verbal affirmatives followed as the doors opened up and Kino exited the turbolift at a quick jog. Four of the rest followed, almost matching the suited NCO’s pace, and leaving the rest for their trip to Deck 13.

[ PO2 Kino Taer | Deck 11 | Sickbay ] @Auctor Lucan

It didn’t take but a minute or two to reach the proximity of Sickbay, given the pace Taer set as well as the placement of turbolifts. The first sign they reached it was the body of two Security officers at the entrance to Sickbay, both marked by the telltale signs of contact with Klingon weapons. One lay slumped against the wall by the door while the other was just inside, his legs holding the door to the main waiting room for Sickbay. Her HUD helpfully informed Kino of their deceased status, so she just nudged him out of the way for the door to close behind the group as they carefully filed in after her.

The ship shook with in time with the Klingon’s unleashed fury. She hadn’t realized just how much until she took a moment to check on each of the officers following her. One of them looked visibly unbalanced, bracing himself with one hand on the wall during the most recent volley. The others seemed to be better, with the other petty officer even imitating Kino’s own unconscious efforts to compensate. The exosuit gave her an inherent advantage, of course, as well as her years of experience in fighting on ships and on ground (and one exhilarating time in microgravity). She almost reached out to the crewman to help him steady better, but the Andorian next to him beat her to it instead and shared a meaningful look with Kino that included nodding at the reception desk.

Righty. It’s been awhile since I’ve lead newbies into combat.

The main reception desk now had the corpse of one of the Medical orderlies slumped over it. It was clear, if it wasn’t already, that the Klingon boarding party had moved fast and brutally, using their speed and superior strength to completely overwhelm the paltry defense that could be mounted against such trained and focused devastation. As Kino peeked around the corner, rifle held ready, her HUD marked the locations of other commbadges on bodies that now lacked any signs of life. The attackers were painted easily enough. The red-lined silhouettes crowded the entrance to the ICU and were firing with abandon. They must have been either incredibly focused or very confident because their backs were turned to the entrance, giving Kino and her squad an excellent opportunity.

“zh’Rasda, Stasny, with me. Wakeman and Yueh, cover us. We need to make some noise, but watch your fire. They’re in the ICU.”

Kino gestured to the walls lining the primary surgical bay around which most of Sickbay was centered. It wasn’t the best cover they could get, but between those walls and the head nurse duty station on the corner between the bay and ICU, the NCO figured they could get close enough to pose a serious threat to the Klingons – enough to draw them from murdering more patients. Maybe they could even kill them as long as they didn’t get too close. Taer had wrestled with Jem’Hadar. She didn’t want to repeat that kind of fight with a Klingon, at least not in this environment and not without Bremmer and Varder backing her up. They were strong and tough, a deadly combination in a melee opponent.

Quickly and relatively silently, the Trill, Andorian, and one of the crewmen rushed from the reception desk to the walls opposite them in the surgery bay. The other petty officer and newer crewman followed them. Kino initiated a nonverbal countdown before rolling into a crouch in the corridor that gave her clearest shot at the nearest pair of Klingons. Wakeman knelt beside her and she knew the others would be peeking out from the wall or similarly crouched in a way to put the enemy into a crossfire. The pull of her trigger signaled the rest to fire as well, felling one Klingon and staggering another before their quarry cottoned on to what was going on and dived for cover. Return fire wasn’t long in coming, forcing the Starfleet officers back to the walls.

“Taer, Stasny’s hit. He needs help.” zh’Rasda called out as she dragged the human behind the wall with her.

“Yeah, about that… Do what you can.” Kino replied grimly. “Taer to Security. Our guests are in the ICU. We’ll keep them busy. Tell Beta Team to come in through the emergency entrance.”

She leaned out during a lull in the counterfire, sensing an opportunity that she then took advantage of to get behind the head nurse’s duty desk before sending out her own reply. Two of the others fired back with her, but with all the equipment in between, it was hard to tell if anything was connecting.

“Taer to Doctor Kobol . What’s your situation?”

OOC: Map used for reference: Main Sickbay

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #60 – August 25, 2018, 11:35:28 PM

[ Lt. JG Alessia "Angel" Garcia | Valravn-Class Intercetor "Chimaera" --> Fighter Assault Bay | Defensive Maneuvers over U.S.S. Theurgy Vector 2 | Contested Space | Heart of the Azure Nebula ]Attn: @Auctor Lucan, @Nolan, @Havenborn, @Triage @Blue Zephyr & @Multificionado
[Show/Hide]

"Salvo, Meony, Angel, work your way back to Sword. Have Fury ETS when possible and stick close to our vector. Lure those fuckers into the defensive close range fire of our ship. Should at least give us an edge. Wolves, I need a sound off once you're back at Sword. Make them pay for the losses we suffered, but look alive. I cannot stress this enough, I NEED you all to live through this ordeal. Razor out."

"Angel reporting: Fury made it. Go ahead and queue for landing ahead: I'll aid in cover as you land. I still got plenty of spare torpedoes. It's gonna be a hot landing, so I'm gonna have to ETS too. Standing by for a combat landing, but let the others in first." Alessia got the message out. One bit of good news amid everything else that happened. It might have even been worth renaming her ship after its former patron vessel, but now was not the time to give a speech. If Fury could get in through the disruptor damage to the Sword's shields, it was indicative the carrier could simply close in, deal more damage and simply take over the ship. Good. If they had to fight while on the run, Alessia could stand her ground while her fighter renewed itself in the Fighter Assault Bay. If that was the plan. Alessia had her rifle and a sidearm. The Captain's voice distinguished itself in the comms that ensued.

"Wolf pilots this is Sword control speaking. Proceed to immediate docking as the ship will begin a tactical retreat. It is vital that you're all aboard before we commence final procedures."

Orders from the Captain came in. Acting Captain, but to Alessia, whoever was there in the center seat was the Captain, unless a senior officer stepped in. Traditionally, most uses of the word 'retreat' stung the egos of most pilots in psych tests and indeed overall; even hers. But there was no point in sticking around this possible wipe out. Alessia knew a friend on the USS Valiant and kept the word as synonymous with foolhardy as she could. But there were times when the time was needed to be Valiant. Valiente was the Spanish word for Bravery, too.

Alessia made a final pass around the Vector and was about to hail flight ops to prepare for her landing after her flight path had taken her off of the Sword's shield vectors to deposit her precious cargo to sickbay. She spotted the SCO's squad and he responded, thinking exactly what Alessia was hoping to hear:

"All Wolf elements, Razor here. We're making one quick, final run around Sword. Dash out as much of your ordinance as you can to wipe out the closest threats that would hamper our landing efforts. Proceed to battle landings after. You better all be out of ordinance when we land. Razor out."

Alessia intended to fire everything anyway. Reactively, her console's readouts turned from traditional sky-blue to orange (indicating a self-designed heads up display to prepare to unleash explosive hell). Even her T.V.D. was pre-set to polarize against blinding explosions. Alessia rerouted auxiliary power to her engines as her arsenal-- ALL of it was summarily prepared. Swarm-fire missiles to ignite half the battlespace. It was also a good time to demonstrate her previous ingenuity of controlled-demolitions damage, to wound, rather than kill hostile fighters and their pilots. Karma if there was any proverb without offending their one-eyed host.

Almost as an afterthought as she maneuvered into place, her kinetic cannons came online as secondaries, but Alessia still had any phaser power reserved for aft banks in more concentrated blasts. The configuration might redline across the spectrum, but her next pass would take her squarely into the bay once she got a queue after she made sure the Valravn interceptor could live up to its designs. She held her fire on the Kinetic cannons until they were precariously close to the Vector so as to let the Klingons basque in self-confidence. Alessia had grown famous for this maneuver during her tenure as the last line of defense when protecting Hornet during saucer separation while her stardrive was the attack unit. Synchronization for the refit Galaxy all the training they could use, until the Jem'Hadar bastards targeted her and her wing, as the Klingons had done now, and she knew it was only some kind of mercy the last Valravn hadn't been obliterated yet, despite the punishment she was dishing out.

Alessia propelled her fighter into the permitted Queue that Tac-Conn Command had slated her for. The Sword's aft phasers covered her and the rest of the Wolves, and it let Alessia pick up on comm traffic from the Fighter Bay. There were boarders there, as if they hadn't been through enough. She got an idea. "Computer, request beam out from the Theurgy's Ops staff; Stinger protocol!"[/color] Alessia cited a wartime transporter preset pattern to equip armed response teams into a combat ready-and-armed stance, beaming the Chimaera's onboard rifle into her waiting hands upon return to the bay. After some quick correspondence, Alessia dematerialized out of her fighter once the Fighter Bay tractor beam had seized her damaged Valravn.

Once on the Fighter Assault Bay, Alessia appeared in the furthest corner relative to cover and abundance of targets - the location picked with the help of the Transporter officer she'd conversed with. Alessia had to control the battlespace. "Angel, Wolves. I'm aboard the Bay, advice coming in sidearms drawn." She whispered upon arrival, rifle calibrated for maximum stun, but with one hand safely within a wrist-grab away--

Alessia 'smelt' the blade swing before it clove a considerable gash over what one of the parked Vaklkyries. Alessia dodged instinctively, going into the theta stage of combat, throwing all her muay thai and kickboxing training to the supreme test. Angel dove, curling into a Russian acrobatic maneuver her drill instructor, Clancy 'Zim' Zimski had once taught her, kicking out the back of her offender's knees, throwing a stunning left hook to the Klingon's temple, dizzying him-- Ai, a woman. And it wasn't a Bat'leth as she hoped, it was one of those sneaky fuckers-- no, two of them-- Mek'leths. Bitch was a ninja, but Alessia's rifle was quicker. She fired automatic burst fire bolts as the female assailant took advantage of their surroundings and lept atop some cargo crates and was clearly going for a visible weapons pod on one of the Valks. Alessia lowered her setting and fired a steady, but purely-stun beam to heat up the pod for a moment to singe anyone touching it.

"Petaq!"
"Puta!"

Not only being able to exchange curses, insults and kicks to and fro with her opponent, Alessia was also a cunning gun-and-melee fighter; Her rock-steady legs hopped for a moment as she fired, so as not to get a contact. It worked, and with a whoop, Alessia's assailant hopped overhead; Alessia fired and held the beam on her foe as she fired before the warrior's shrieks drew a disruptor bolt her way in support. Alessia responded for a moment, scoring a stun on that klingon but lost contact with hers, until her rifle was unexpectedly kicked out of her hands. Angel responded by spiraling a stab with her survival knife into her assailant's ankle again, forcing the acrobatic Klingon to fight in no uncertain terms against a trained self-defense rated martial artists and downright streetfighter who kept some tricks up her sleeve to evolve into moments like this, where a stray blade could end a pilot's life.

Alessia was fighting a Klingon mirror of herself, despite the advantage of two blades, Alessia only needed one to revert to CQC, of which the Native Americans were so well known for. Alessia could also use her fists, which she did after a heated exchange of blades and extremities. Alessia's helmet shattered in one particular headbutt, but succeeded in stunning her rival in an unintended side effect. This bitch was good, despite half her face ripped off. Alessia's knife had been resheathed once she had manage to out-grapple and use her knee to bluntly impact an injury to the Klingon woman's fist securing one of the Mek'leth's blades.

Angel was much more quick on her feet without an injury to contend with, so when she responded by hiding her temporary blade behind her back as she engaged, so as to emerge from an attack from either side, the Klingon instead charged head-on, but from a downward angle for Alessia to respond to by catching it in her wrist at the same moment both of them decided to go for their daggers, respectively: Her D'ktang and Alessia's survival knife. They caught each other's blades, but Alessia's reaction time made the grievous injury that plunged along the warrior's forearm. Astonishingly, she managed to shrug Alessia off, who fell and rolled into a corner, now without either blade.

The Warrior's shadow cast over Angel and she darkened Alessia momentarily, who was now bleeding from her damaged TVD display, but noting the woman's injuries, she still had her endgame to play. The Conn piece had been translating the Klingon language into Alessia's native spanish, and the warrior was clearly making mundane insults and idle threats as she was making her final steps toward Angel, About to make a fatal stab, Angel fired her pistol which she drew behind her back heartbeats after she lost her knife. She just needed a clear shot away from whoever supported this bitch earlier. The female warrior's head was knocked back like a speedbag at a boxing dojo, but there was no telling if the woman survived the impact, given the extremely close range Alessia merely uttered, "Dodge this." to, before adding "Puta.". Alessia got up after a moment and secured her weapons before moving along, stopping to keep the twin Mek'leths as she joined in on the fight, and tapped her coms to rejoin contact with the squadron, rifle in hand. "This is Angel. Landed. Scratched one more bandit."

GM Note: Section with the pilot Fury in sickbay has been removed for a quick rewrite since it was contradictory to events so far. Stay tuned for Fury's introduction in the Sickbay scene! Furthermore, a discrepancy with Alessia's tactics have been fixed, so there is no comm chatter from Alessia on the bridge.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #61 – August 26, 2018, 01:40:52 AM

[ Maya | Deck 07 | Temporary Holding Cell | Security Center | Vector 2 | USS Theurgy ] Atten: @Auctor Lucan.

After closing his eyes and mustering his strength, Lucan cin Nicander opened his pale grey eyes and started to speak.

"Ives... I see... It is a large room, inside a ship. I see... the Azure Nebula, beyond the viewports. It's dark there. Ives... she is held in some kind of energy field, in her female form. The host, it has been... toying with her, freely, without supervision."

That answered one question that Maya had never asked out loud. Why had the Savi attacked them? The answer was that they were infected as well, but whether there was merely one host aboard the Versant or literally a host of them was unclear.

“And the others?” the little Vulcan murmured.

"I see... It's not just Heather. She's not the only one,” the half-demented and near-delirious doctor muttered. "No... The host... It has seen, all of them. The abducted. They, they... they are already dead! Liquefied... Pealed away upon a platform. Skin, flesh and bone, shed and fed into some kind of machine. Hylota, Vinata... The Deputy... Lin Kae and Nerina, out of stasis.... Not Ives, but the rest of them. By the winds, they are all dead, all of of them!"

Maya flinched as if she had been slapped in the face and kept her large hazel eyes closed. Lahekesis, Hylota, Vinata, and with the exception of Captain Ives all of the Savi’s other abductees were all dead. Pointlessly. There had been no realistic reason to assume otherwise but Maya had left Vulcan so long ago that a part of her could irrationally hope, but now there was no point entertaining such fantasies. She made no sound and remained perfectly still.

Thanks to Maya’s close proximity, she was probably the only one to hear Lucan struggle to continue. "I have to talk t-"

The ship shook with what long experience informed Maya was the impact of a torpedo hitting the ship’s deflector shields. Maya opened her eyes in time to see an unsteady Lucan cin Nicander sit up and rise shakily to his feet. Wyburn and the security crewman who was pushing the anti-grav stretcher immediately stopped their approach and stepped backwards as they pointed their phasers at him.

“Sit back down Doctor!” Petty Officer First Class David Wyburn barked as he used his leg to push the A-grav strecher out of his way and towards Lucan.

“Nice and slow!” the one behind the gurney cried. His voice revealed that he was Petty Officer Third Class Leblan Drolix of Bolarus IX.

Unfortunately, the tension only increased as everyone in the temporary holding cell heard Lieutenant Commander Wenn Cinn’s voice over the communications system:

[ Lucan, it’s Cinn. They said you can link with the other parasites. I need to know if there’s one on the ship we’re fighting, and if so, can you see their shield frequency? ]

Maya remained perfectly still, and the two gaurds seemed to have ignorned the acting commanding voice entirely. The only one who seemed to notice was the prisoner, who ignored the weapons pointed at him and instead struggled heroically to focus on Commander Cinn’s somewhat desperate request.

"Cinn… I'll tr-" Lucan stammered as he took an unsteady step forward to prevent himself from losing his balance.

“Take one more step and I'll shoot!" Petty Officer Wyburn ordered as he pointed his type three rifle shaped phaser at her head.

A side effect of the training Maya had received as a medical surrogate back on Vulcan all of those years ago was the ability to compartmentalize her thoughts. This allowed her alien conciousness to function on multiple levels and alloweda part of her to pay attention to what sensitive Vulcan ears to clearly perceive the voices coming in over the ship’s communications system:

[ Shields at 7 %. No, 5 %, and we can't regroup long enough to regenerate them! Structural integrity has been compromised, and we have multiple hull breaches! ]

[ The Rotarran is charging us again! Shields failing! ]

Wordlessly, with an eerily smooth yet with a jerky, marionette-like movement, Maya placed herself between the disgraced chief medical officer and the two security specialists.

"This is Nicander, I'll... I'll try," Nicander stammered from behind the little Vulcan.

“Get out of the way Doctor!” Petty Officer Wyburn ordered as he pointed his type three rifle shaped phaser at her head.

“What’s wrong with her?” his Bolian partner muttered as he did likewise. “Just look at her Dave! Theres’s something wrong with her! She’s not right!”

Unfortuneatly, the intense training Maya had received as a youth had conditioned the mesiofrontal cortex in her Vulcan brain to instinctively suppress any intense or violent emotion with equal and opposite intensity. The more passionate Maya felt about something, the less she was able to experience or express. This was why in times of stress she acted mechanical, behaving more like an automaton than a flesh and blood person. Sadly, her demeanor during demanding or emergency situations was uncannily similar to how her aspect appearred when she was under Nicander’s hynotonic control.

Without saying a word, Maya raised her right hand with her palm facing the militant duo and spread her long spidery fingers in a claw like fashioned. Her large hazel eyes narrowed as she stared at the opaque visor that conscealed Wyburn’s features.

“There is no cause for concern Mister Wyburn,” the little Vulcan announced in a strangely altered voice. “Everything is under control.”

Wyburn lowered his rife.

“What are you doing?” his partner snarled in alarm.

“There’s no cause for concern, Leblan,” Wyburn assured him. “Everything is under control.”

“Are you kidding?” the Bolian protested. “Niether one of them are…” His voice trailed off as Maya turned her attention to him.

“All is well Mister Drolix,” she delcared as her open hand began to shake. “The prisoner poses no threat,” she added her eye narrowed in intense concentration.

"There is... By the winds, there is a host there!" Nicander exclaimed in surprise as his pale grey eyes focused on something that wasn’t in the room.

“What in the name of Zephram Cochrane’s rectum is going on here?” Master Chief Jeremy Barton demanded as he entered the room bearing a rifle shaped phaser of his own.

“All is well Master Chief,” Petty Officer Leblan assured him. “The prisoner poses no threat.”

“There’s no cause for concern, Boss,” Wyburn added. “Everything is under control.”

Lucan cin Nicander seemed to disagree. "She.... No! Dive to port, now! Torpedoes incoming! She is firing now!" he cried in alarm.

“Are you sure about that?” Master Chief Barton asked skeptically. “Who is he talking to? Get him to a proper cell right now!”

Maya turned her attention to the new arrival. Although she maintained the same pose with her hand raised in a claw shaped gesture, her pallid face flushed a sickly green and her short, slender form trembled with visible effort. “There is no cause for alarm Master Chief,” she began as her brow furrowed in concentration.

"Shield modulator settings... harmonics... Their shield frequency... Two-Nine-Three Mark Seven MHz! " Lucan shouted from behind her.

“The hell there isn’t!” Master Chief Barton cried as he sent the greenblooded physician to the deck with the business end of his riflebutt. “Whoever he’s talking to, he’s giving them our shield harmonics! Gawd damn mind control. I’m not falling for it this time!”

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #62 – August 26, 2018, 04:07:32 PM

[ Lt. JG Evelyn Rawley, callsign "Ghost" | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Nolan @Triage @Triton @Havenborn @Doc M. @chXinya @Top Hat
[Show/Hide]

Just when Rawley thought she was safe back in the fighter bay, something had to shatter her illusion of shelter at the last minute. The moment she stood up in the cockpit, a disruptor bolt sent her flying backward, back into the cockpit.

Fortunately, her flight suit was armored enough that it protected her from searing a hole in her, but she knew flight suits never held up long when under fire. The scorching smell was rancid to Rawley. Her neck made that twinge again, indicating whiplash. So much for getting back up to Sickbay.

Disruptor fire could only mean that there's a Klingon boarding party in the fighter bay.

Rawley withdrew her rifle and set to stun, although it was set at enough of a stun level to stop a stampeding mastodon. It was best to leave them alive; the Klingons were still Federation allies, and if the crew of the "Sword" had to subdue the Klingons in order to explain how they weren't traitors to the Federation, so be it.

She leapt out and dove for cover, with a disruptor bolt or two firing her way.

"Didn't I just leave this carfuffle?" she muttered to herself.

Rawley then peeked out, careful to avoid attracting fire, and tried to piece together what was going on. It was turning into a collieshangie out in the bay. She could comprehend only so much at a time. She could see Alessia Garcia, callsign "Angel," taking on a Klingon, a woman warrior with enough ferocity, it makes William Wallace look like a wee lad. Rawley didn't know much about Garcia, but she was just enough of a hard case that she had confidence she can kick that Klingon's arse, even if she's a tough pain in the arse.

Then she saw somebody sprawled on the deck, unconscious. She recognized the hat, and the ginger hair, at once. Meony!

Scrambling from her cover, she ran to the ginger lass and dragged her, wary of disruptor bolts incoming, and dove back for cover with Meony.

Once Rawley had gotten Meony to safety, she got a good look at the ginger cowgirl. She had a sharp intake of breath when she got a good look at her. She looked like shite. Unconscious is enough to worry Rawley, but she was bleeding. EVERYWHERE. What kind of bloody bug did Meony have?

"Meony?!? MEONY! SHITE!!!" she shouted. There was no luck in getting the ginger lass awake. She was comatose. This was bloody serious.

"Razor! Come in, Razor!" she shouted, slapping her combadge in a state of extreme anxiety. "We have a Wolf in critical condition! It's Meony! Something's wrong with her!"

She gritted her teeth, hissing furiously. She may look like a shite of a sight with so much blood, but Meony looked worse. VERY. WORSE.

Of course, the obvious thing to do would be to call in an emergency medical transport.

Rawley resumed firing, but not realizing where the Klingons were. She tossed her helmet into the air and dove for cover to find the origin of the shot. Seeing it, she pinpointed it, and took aim. As she fired at the Klingons, she decided to request an emergency medical transport, because the sooner Meony was away from the carfuffle and into Sickbay, the better.

"Rawley to Sickbay!" she said, slapping her combadge again after diving for cover again. "We have a Wolf in critical condition! Ensign Tancredi, callsign Meony! Requesting emergency medical transport for Ensign Tancredi!"

She kept on shooting, and, hearing no response from Sickbay, slapped the combadge again.

"Come in, Sickbay! COME IN!!!"

Still no response.

"What the shite is going on in bloody Sickbay?!?" shouted Rawley aloud. She hasn't sounded like this in a long time. She needed to get Meony to Sickbay immediately. The Lone Wolves have lost five pilots already, and Rawley was NOT going to let Meony become the sixth.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #63 – August 27, 2018, 12:47:06 AM

[ PO2 Eliska Bremmer | Deflector Control | Deck 13 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] @Jm Von Cat @patches @Top Hat @trevorvw @Auctor Lucan

They were nearing their objective when the channel that had been established with the Bridge sounded off. Ducote? Wasn't that one of their prisoners? Why in the world was he barking orders now? And stripping Kino from their team to go relieve Sickbay? Why would they need her for that unless... Unless of course whoever was managing Security right now, obviously not Commander Wenn at this time, was one of those twits who got a frontal lobotomy the same time they got their commission. But as the Trill went away, Bremmer wasted no time in sending backup with her; whether or not she'd need it was in question, but if she had a team to keep alive she would be less likely to be, well, herself. And it never hurt to have access to overwhelming force.

Which meant Bremmer would have less combat power than she'd like. Sure, if sensors were correct she'd be coming in behind the boarders, and they were outnumbered by her team alone plus whatever resistance was still in there. But she didn't have the margin of superiority she'd have preferred. But she did have herself and Varder in armour, all had rifles, and they would come in hard and fast when the time came. And according to the word from Security Ops and the data that was being fed into her suit, the boarders were just on the other side of the next security door, and they were engaged with a pair of crewmembers including... Akoni? Another one of the prisoners? Seriously, what was it with Commander Wenn and putting people they couldn't trust any further than a sickly tribble could torwn them in positions of control, let alone arming them?

As they neared the door, she beckoned the second man in Fire Team 4 forward, and started him on overriding the door, with clear instructions to disable the safety parameters and have it lock open. That would turn the sedate regular opening into a much more aggressive one that would not force them to wait with all kinds of time for the Klingons to turn around and get ready to open up.

And then, she gave her directions. "Varder, move up right behind me. I go first, you go second. I hook right, you go left. Team 3 with me, Team 4 with Varder. Go in hot, go in hard. And remember, what's worth shooting once is worth shooting a whole lot more, so don't stop until you're sure they're all down, and secure them in place. Ready? Steady... BREACH!"

On the signal, what normally would have been a sedate hiss was instead an explosive cough, and Bremmer was immediately moving in, her rifle in the shoulder, and no sooner had she turned into the door, the lurid glow and reality-tearing shrieks of weapons fire became audible, the boarders occupied with trying to dislodge the two that were in their way, when they became aware there was a threat on their flank.

And before long, it was over. Her left pauldron had taken a hit, a good half of it had been sheared off by a disruptor blast. She didn't know how many she'd taken for sure. That was the nature of that kind of action, close, fast, furious and vicious, and she knew she'd have to review the take of her suit's camera to be certain of anything later on. She knew she'd had 3 in her sights at one time or another, but she was could only she'd dropped one with any kind of finality. But then again, the two shots he'd taken in the head, one of them at a range of less than four feet, would make sure of that. And that particular one was at her feet, his own right hand a crushed, broken mess as she'd used a vicious twist of her heel to strip the pistol from his grasp when she'd come to a stop. "Room clear!" she called out, both on the communications channel and out of her suit's speakers. "Bremmer to Bridge, Deflector Control is secure."

OOC: @trevorvw, @Jm Von Cat, I left the action pretty vague on purpose so you can write up your people, or the nameless NPCs, being awesome too.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #64 – August 27, 2018, 01:02:35 AM

[Lt. Commander Vael Kaeris | Battle Bridge | Deck 8 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy] Attn: Anyone on the bridge

Vael turned his eyes towards the bajoran commander as the ship rocked again, his ears picking up the halting conversations being transmitted from the impromptu sickbay at the heart of security. A shield frequency? Was it the Rotarran's or their own? It didn't make sense for it to be their own -- they had been expecting an engagement with the Borg and, as such, their own shields should have been on a randomized frequency rotation, nebula or not. Anything less merely invited assimilation.

He squared himself as readily as he could under the circumstances, placing his hands neatly behind his back as he spoke. "Commander Wenn, despite our differences when we came on board, I am not about to allow this ship to be destroyed because a klingon has ferreted out some slight against you. Grant me access to the power grid... I've spent the last week streamlining a run about that was overtaxed on its resources, I can guarantee I will find some disposable power to spare for the short term."

For a slight moment, he diverted his attention towards the crew around him before adding, "May I recommend we ensure our shields are on a rotating frequency as per Borg engagement protocols and if that frequency is, in fact, the Rotarran's, that we shut down its offensive capabilities as soon as possible. Recommend helm target the largest area of charged gas and put it between us and the klingons -- if they want us, make them chase us through the briar patch. And finally, recommend all non-essential personnel be evacuated further into the ship in case we need to minimize our shield profile -- that will allow us to maintain optimal defense against the radiation. Those crewmen still operating in the sections near the hull should have environmental suits handy just in case."

Taking a breath, he reflected on the last time it was necessary to make recommendations and await the authority to implement his ideas. With a breath that bordered on a sigh, he added another to his mental list of tasks, even as he spoke it aloud, "And once the current crisis is under control, perhaps we can work on pinpointing klingon life signs that don't correspond to crew members and have them beamed into a secured holodeck with a particularly rigorous calisthenics program running? Meanwhile, to help with that, if security could find some way to tag any klingon they engage, that might help."

Raising his eyebrow, he stared at Wenn Cinn awaiting authorization.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #65 – August 28, 2018, 12:18:48 AM

[ Lt. JG Alessia "Angel" Garcia | Fighter Assault Bay | U.S.S. Theurgy Vector 2 | Contested Space | Heart of the Azure Nebula ]Attn: @Auctor Lucan, @Nolan, @Havenborn, @Triage @Blue Zephyr & -@Multificionado- (JOINT POST)
[Show/Hide]

&

[ Lt. JG Evelyn Rawley, callsign "Ghost" | Fighter Assault Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]

"Meony?!? MEONY! SHITE!!!" Ghost's Scottish accent was enough to give Alessia a path in this chaos until more good guys came in-- or bad ones. Alessia retracted her helmet and laid low as she made her way through what strategic debris she could make use of, rolling into position then crouching into a shooting stance when she could. In all this time, though she hadn't changed her weapon's output setting yet, still kept on the lowest from her last fight, as Alessia fought her way Rawley's side and joined in on the return fire, forcing their shooters to seek cover or advance around the bay. "Razor! Come in, Razor! We have a Wolf in critical condition! It's Meony! Something's wrong with her!"

Rifle drawn, and helmet discarded to give herself a clean view of the battlespace, Alessia carefully fired suppressive beam fire at low stun setting. It was little more than the effect of a horse's kick, but about as staggering, depending on where it hit Earlier, she'd nicked one but he'd recovered. Alessia hadn't done her share of security assault training, or she might have remembered to up the octane, but getting to Rawley and Meony's location was more important. She took a backstep when she herself came under fire and was steadily being flanked. Alessia spotted one particularly intimidating Klingon who wore war paint that had gotten up from her shot and singled her out. Surviving only because her rifle was already trained on him before he saw her, Alessia fired and held her rifle's trigger as the phaser beam setting held against the Klingon was propelled backward yet again, as if he was being hit with a blast from a fire hose. A sickening reminder, given the pinkish-red pool on one of the fighter's landing struts and smell of it in the area.

"Ghost! What happened! Whiplash? Suit failure? What's her Status!?" Angel called in response to seeing her wingmate look as if she'd been punched in the face, rather than shot. Between exchanging information with Rawley and awaiting Razor's or Havenborn's instructions and felt around for her suit's portable tricorder for Rawley to apply amidst the chaos.

“Whiplash?” she said at her comment about the injuries. “Aye, fer me. Broken nose when I hit the cockpit. It’s Meony I’m worried about. She’s got something, and it looks like a shite-load of bad. How many'd yeh shoot doon?"

In response to an answer and a good taunt, Alessia almost even laughed between their next action. "Bagged Six Raiders. No telling how many smokers." Alessia made sure Meony's vitals were still sound as she cleaned the girl's face and ensured she still had a pulse. "We made a good run. Hope the bastards who did this get hurt. I hope they bleed." Alessia vengefully quipped between phaser and disruptor exchange, momentarily pausing to clean Meony's face of blood. Next, Alessia's features tensed as her aim hardened, varying from prone and crouching shots behind their cover. "The Valravns are gone. It's just me, maybe Fury, if he's in sickbay or ETS buffer, I dunno. My friends, though. They're gone." Alessia snorted and held her fire as she hastily changed her rifle's battery. Plus Mr. Skullface there. I think I shot his par'mach'kai's head off. Now he wants mine." the battery hummed a satisfying sound as the rifle powered back up.

Joining fire at the next window to return fire after a brief lull in the disruptor gunfire, both wolves fired in concert. "Och, a Red Baron of the Dominion War, and one Klingon sniper proves a tricky bugger."

Alessia cursed about 8 to 10 words in her native tongue when one bolt sent a spark into her hair, the other guy must've gotten up. Suddenly, she remembered to change settings on a type-3 rifle and her output and fire rate matched her will to survive, which was quite powerful. "If we can deal with these Pendejos<Idiots/Assholes> and fight our way to Sickbay, Security or at least an EMH, we can save her. two bolts from two separate combatants made another good point: a more defensible position. "Can we move her?!" Another near-miss grazed the inch over Alessia's head before Ghost could reply.

"Shit!" Alessia didn't dare peer out of cover, lest she take another close call or direct hit. Thinking on adrenaline, she got one of her newly-collected slim but impressive blades and held it up as a makeshift mirror to see how best to respond and her eyes widened.

The other Klingon Warrior decided switching to two pistols for suppressing fire in response to Alessia's automatic bursts. Laughing as he and the war-paint Warrior cornered their prey, though admittedly the one after Alessia was now polishing out some axe-looking weapon that must've weighted as much as a sledgehammer. It looked like it could turn a Gorn into a hundred wallets in this guy's hands.

Rawley was surprised by Garcia, let alone the knife she handed her, but she merely shrugged and kept on going. She would’ve wanted to have been in awe of Angel; after all, she was carving up Jem’Hadar when Rawley was still at the Academy. Real war veteran she is. She would’ve been in awe of Angel…if the circumstances were different.

"Oh shit. Here comes Executioner." Alessia slid over the other blade to Ghost, and it halted the fire of his fellow warrior, a vain hope the other wolf could help take him down. It was barely enough to acquire and get a clean shot as he approached. She hit the disruptor-equipped Klingon repeatedly, for good measure as the war-paint Klingon an Axe disappeared. Alessia may have been out of touch with training in Security holo-programs, but memories of fighting polearm-toting Jem'Hadar wasn't exactly a year most veterans would get. "Angel, Wolves: Watch your heads." It was now when she reverted to increasing her phaser setting to kill, both hands firmly set against her as if to use the rifle in woefully un-matched mano a mano battle; She wished she and Ghost weren't alone now more than usual. She almost even wondered what happened to Vinnie; what the hell was going on up there, and how could she help, Alessia fearfully watched her surroundings.

She also noticed this Klingon's rifle disappeared from where he'd been propelled into earlier. That gave her a hint of his precise whereabouts-- he fell back and was waiting for a chance to strike. More Disruptor fire sent Alessia back to cover. She had no time to wonder if they were warning shots by her new nemesis or bad aim by someone else. "Hope you saw that." Alessia whispered to Ghost, watching everywhere around them, lest Ax-man appeared.

“Cannae believe a lone Klingon is giving us this much trouble,” Rawley said to Angel. “How many Jem’Hadar would that be worth? Three? Four? Half a dozen? Scratch that. Maybe he’s worth a dozen of the backstabbing Cardies who thought the Dominion meant improvement!” she added, referring to the Cardassians who were for joining the Dominion and reminded Alessia of one of Angel's war record, particularly her darkest days in the war. "HT-997, right? This should be a piece of cake for you, aye?"

Mindful of those hellish experiences and days of besieged fighting, Alessia kept her eyes fixxed upwards and foreward watching for any vantage point of location of axe impact. This was not a good day to day, and her steady aim didn't deter her from second-naturedly expressing morale strength by some on-the-feet humor. "Don't let it get to your head, Pelona<Baldy>, or it'd be a slice of cake."

"Buzz off!" Came the retort from Ghost. Alessia chuckled at the reference to a running gag Alessia had mentioned aboard Hornet. Anxiously, Alessia made note of Razor's and Salvo's ships approaching. They were too exposed and Alessia dreaded this brute was a Yan-Isleth honor warrior, on his way to becoming a Dahar Master. And he was pissed.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #66 – August 28, 2018, 12:24:57 AM

[ Ensign Jaya Thorne | Battle Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]

Attn: bridge crew. (everyone else sorry if this causes owwies)

As the Fighters returned and she set them up for getting out of there with engines set to BOWMAOF (Bug Out With MY Ass On Fire). Jaya couldn’t help but wonder if they would make it at all with the kind of hits they took. The weapon’s fire trade between the two ships was apparently taking its toll on the IKC Rotarran as well, tough as Klingon warships were, they were not infallible and the combined tactical firepower of both The Vector known as The Sword and her Warp Fighters was a non-negligible quantity in this fight as much as the Rotarran’s formidable firepower and her own Warp Fighter’s were.

“What, the?” Stated the young woman as Nicander’s sonorous warning was heard, causing her to check her sensors. “WHOAH NELLIE!” Screamed the young woman as her hands flew over the console. “Hang on to your consoles people, this one’s going to be really interesting!” She stated as the vector’s structure groaned and creaked a bit, her maneuver pushing the gravity plating and Inertial dampening system’s of the ship to their limits, not to mention the thrusters, as the Sword quite literally pulled what, to all those who were history buffs, for all intents and purposes was a literally an old Dogfighting maneuver from the late 20th century through to, well apparently right freaking then!

The infamous Pugachev’s Cobra was performed by a vector belonging to an enormous Starship, agilely gliding over a swarm of Klingon Photonic Warhead equipped Torpedoes, causing them to miss their target and harmlessly self-destruct a few thousand kilometers beyond their intended target. Jaya grinned, raising a fist. “Hah! YOU MISSED YOU BLOODY DUMB RIDGEHEADS!” Exclaimed the young woman triumphantly, still ignoring her injuries as she made sure to keep their ship going, she had to and would not stop till they were on their way, there was no other option in her mind.

The Vector then returned to her escape vector angle as many things happened, boarders were neutralized, Deflector control secured, hopefully medical and the hangar would be soon as well, she knew that both had signaled Klingon warriors onboard. She had seen enough of their pilots and security force members to know that those lost would only be fuel for the rest acquitting themselves grandly, proving that despite evolutionary differences leading to physically weaker bodies, the training and dedication of their personnel would make it that every life the Klinks took would be paid for dearly

Jaya turned to Cameron Henshaw. “Cameron, do we have them all back and can we execute Lieutenant Commander Wenn’s order to bug out yet?” She said, her tone back to being relatively calm but a bit tired, weary others would say, her blood loss had continued and she was beginning to feel it, she had stopped being able to open her left eye due to that cut bleeding enough to leave half dry blood over it, Jaya looked pretty bad but she had not given up. “Cause… I’m gunna need a medic soon…” She spoke, breathing a bit more laboriously as she waited to press the GO button and get everyone out of there.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #67 – August 28, 2018, 10:40:23 AM

[ Dr Amelya Rez | Weapon Storage Room | Fighter Bay | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Blue Zephyr @Auctor Lucan @Masorin

After being assured that Kobol would manage to hold his own on Sickbay, Amelya nodded as she was prepared by him and Jovela to be transported to the Fighter bay as there seemed to be a medical emergency. Her eyes looked at the various injured that began to pour into the main Sickbay. She took her tricorder and placed it on the holder at her hip before she felt the ship shake once more. As it rocked though she could feel the tingling of being materialized and with a flash she was gone.

After re-materializing in the weapon storage room, Amelya looked around as she got her bearings. the shelves would be a risk to work near as the risk of anything else tumbling down from them was a real threat. She was about to take a step forward until she heard it.

"There is fighter ordinance here! You will kill us all, you petaQ!"

The distinct Klingon chatter made her frown as she turned her head right towards the Klingon boarders. Where fear would have gripped her in the moment, an odd sense of awareness ran over her body as she blinked. Her feet guided her forward, towards the Gorn who had seemingly stabilized the two injured crewmen. To the Klingon invaders it would look more like a dash as she vanished between the shelves, their momentum of surprise gone now.

"Two Klingons with rifles were at the entrance." she informed Sithick "I suggest you get help or deal with them. I'll manage with these two." she concluded without a hint of panic or fear in her voice. Amelya herself wondered why that was the case, before her joining she'd be at least anxious, nervous or even fearful of the situation. Yet was it because she had undergone training with Maal to fend for her own, or was it the combination of that and her joining? Perhaps the hosts melted inside of her caused for a new look on things?

She turned her attention first to Liam as he looked worst for wear, she took her tricorder and began to scan him over. The scans made her brow furrow as she nodded and opened the medkit. Preparing an inoculation she smiled faintly at him "Try to not catch heavy objects with your leg next time crewman." she said on a soothing tone before she gave him the shot in his femur. She had given him a high dose of painkillers along with some anesthetic, it would relieve the man from his pain on his leg, yet also relax the muscles around the injury to prevent any further damage. The injury itself would have to be treated soon. There was still blood flowing through to his feet according to the scans, yet it would only need a single muscle spasm to sever his artery. Along with the sharp edgy bone fragments spread out over his knee joint, it would be hell to operate.

After that she turned her attention to Ji as she pushed her blonde hair behind her ears "Alright girl, what's your name?" she asked as she scanned her over. She looked into Ji's eyes and checked for a pupil reaction before giving her a slight painkiller. Amelya began to look for the gash at the back of her head by carefully pushing her fingers against the scalp of the Korean. "What were you two doing here anyway?" she addressed the both of them. Imagining they were probably stocking up the remaining fighters if they were still there. Blissfully unaware of their true reason there. She found the gash which was larger than she expected. Taking the dermal regenerator from her kit, she sprayed it as good as she could on the wound without having to turn her head too much.

She was just finishing up however when she heard the heavy step of a Klingon finding them, the raising of a rifle as he laughed lowly. Amelya looked up at the boarder as she raised her hands slowly.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #68 – August 28, 2018, 09:17:20 PM

[ Lt T'Less | Battle Bridge | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy | Lapsed Pacifist ] attn: @Auctor Lucan @steelphoenix @Firefox013 @Triage et al

Her hands didn't stop, even for a second, while she flicked through inventories, tallies, and reports. Power curves, capacitor levels, a colour-graded schematic of the ship to show relative hull integrity under fire - and the most hated single-digit number yet. Five percent shields. Even with Nator (just about) managing to balance the grid to keep their strongest facing towards the enemy, more disruptor blasts were getting through. Chunks of the armour were vaporising, and there were already hull breaches. The Hermat next to her dispatched damage control teams.

Through it all, T'Less maintained her barrage. Sensors, weapon batteries, engine ports, opportunistic shots at the enemy raiders. Even with the emissive nebular gases lighting the battleship up like a flare to make targeting somehow even easier, they just weren't able to defeat the sheer magnitude of their shield array in totality. And then, like sweet music to her (mostly) pointed ears, she heard their erstwhile Doctor struggle his way through the Rotarran's shield frequency. Singular.

The scientist from the Endeavour suggested rotating their own frequencies, and/or disabling Martok's vessel. "I hope you don't mind, sir, but I anticipated such a request," she said, still focused on her console as she re-tuned their phaser cannon.

Thorne at the helm threw the Sword into a groaning nose-up manoeuvre to dodge the volley of torpedoes from the Klingon ship (spoiling the aim of a large part of the accompanying disruptor barrage, too), while T'Less continued writing a firing solution. It promised to be a good one. Nator glanced over, meaning to make some quip about close calls or other, but froze a moment while s/he stared at T'Less' face.

"Lieutenant," s/he said quietly, privately. "You're smiling."

~Calm the ocean, hathain.~

For the briefest instant, her fingers paused in their work, before resuming. Her toothless smile faded somewhat, but not completely. "Helm," she called, "Bring our broadside to bear." To Nator, she added in a quieter tone, "Watch."

One finger pressed the [EXECUTE] button, provoking a double-bleep with a rising inflection in confirmation - and their flank phaser battery switched from its more distributed, diffuse pattern into what looked like a single ray-traced cone, with its tip focused on the port wing of the Negh'Var as it bore down on them. Making as good as her instruction to the Ops officer, she stared unblinking at the results of her command. She drank it in.

I claim that nacelle as rightful salvage. It is mine.

The concentrated bombardment sliced through the Rotarran's shields to blow chunks out of the armour surrounding the colossal warp nacelle, piercing underlying plasma conduits, puncturing the cavernous bussard collector on its nose, and blowing segments of scrapped warp coil out through the lambent radiators to its rear. Gouts of warp plasma engulfed the wingtip of the huge vessel, adding to the radiation problems affecting the rest of it.

Puncturing the mood somewhat, as their opponent continued hammering away at them with disruptors, Nator announced next to her: "Shields failing! Evacuating outer compartments."

Problematic.

"Henshaw, are our pilots aboard yet?" T'Less twisted to get the ensign in view. The quicker they could escape the Rotarran and this particularly-deleterious part of the Azure, the better. Self-evidently.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #69 – August 28, 2018, 10:00:00 PM

[ Lt. Kai Akoni | Deflector Control | Deck 13 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] @CanadianVet @Jm Von Cat @patches @Top Hat @Auctor Lucan

Kai had been taking potshots at the remaining Klingons but having no luck in doing anything of substance. He had been alternating between shooting at the Klingons and ducking down to avoid being shot himself. As he took cover again, the door nearest him suddenly opened agressively as the exo-suited security people entered the room as quickly as the door had opened and they came in firing.

The cavalry finally showed!, Kai thought as he popped out of cover to lay down some fire on the Klingons, making sure to stay below the new arrivals line of fire. The room had been lit up with the bright flashes of both disruptor and phaser blasts. He managed to hit one Klingon dead centre of the chest all the while the new arrivals took out the other Klingons.

Just as quickly as it had started, it finished. The crewmembers in exo-suits made sure the room was clear before one of them called the bridge to let them know that deflector control was indeed secure.

Kai approached one of the exo suited people and prepared to hand his phaser to her. He had figured that they wouldn't trust him, and since he wasn't a Theurgy officer, he wasn't technically allowed to be armed.

As he extended his hand with the phaser in it towards the PO2, handle first, he spoke to her.

"PO, since I'm not supposed to be armed, here you are" as he put the handle of the phaser into her hand.   Kai sighed and looked around the room, "Thanks for saving my ass folks!"

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #70 – August 29, 2018, 10:01:08 AM

[[ LT Daniel Havenborn, Callsign: Salvo | Cockpit | AC-307 Mark-II Valkyrie “Hellcat”] Attn: @Auctor Lucan, @Nolan, @Doc M., @Triage, @Triton, @Multificionado, Other Lone Wolves

Daniel could only grin as he watched his and Meony’s Hellbores do exactly what their name said, they bored right into the Rotarran and after a few moments they detonated and his sensors relayed back to him the information of the damage done. It wasn’t as severe as he was hoping, his goal was the destruction of the Rotarran but he’d settle for her being damaged and likely unable to create a warp field; which would strand them here for awhile. “Salvo, enemy Raider six degrees port-side.” Knight said from behind him. Daniel adjusted their course and sure enough there it was, all alone going to make a strafing run against the Sword. Daniel smiled again, he was actually glad that no one could see him smiling. “Be ready with mass drivers.” Daniel said as he keyed up his pulse phaser cannons and opened fire in short bursts. After a few moments and the enemy fighter attempting to lose him his shields popped and he watched as kinetic slugs hit the Raider and ripped it to pieces.

“Find me another target Knight.” Daniel said as he heard the orders from Ravon to cover the Sword and begin landing. He was still a few kilometers away from the Sword and there were still plenty of Raiders between him and the Sword. “Raider at nine degrees starboard-side.” Knight reported as Daniel turned the fighter towards the Raider and took aim. He switched weapons to the micro-torpedoes and unleashed a full volley watching as they impacted and as the Raider attempted to turn around the shields flickered and Knight opened up with the mass drivers, Daniel smiled as he watched the Klingon ship get ripped to pieces. “Two down, I’m detecting a third closing in on the hangar.” Knight said as Daniel lined up his approach vector, this one would be cutting it close but his fighter was responding far better than it previously had. The upgrades that had been done to it definitely were worth it. He fired a mixed burst of pulse phaser and micro-torpedo at the third Klingon Raider but when its shields flickered it managed to juke away causing Daniel to try to re-establish a lock onto it for Knight to make the kill shot. Daniel was already a quintuple-ace while Knight was only a double-ace, he was hoping that he’d be able to get Knight up to triple but this Raider crew didn’t seem to want to just roll over and die like the others.

Daniel managed to keep his fighter behind the Raider ultimately regaining a lock, he fired one more burst at the Raider and watched his micro-torpedoes impact, the Raider again managed to slip out of the target lock. This time however Daniel engaged full thrust and began bearing down on the target, he was done playing games with the Klingons, they were going to die here and now and pay for their Chancellor’s ignorance. He didn’t bother with locking onto the Raider this time as he had a pretty good idea of what the Raider was going to do. “Knight give me hundred and ten percent power on the pulse phasers.” He said as he got ever closer to the Klingon Raider, just a few more meters. “One-ten power.” Knight said from behind him and with that Daniel lit up the area around the Klingon Raider watching as it attempted to juke away again only to be caught in the burst of pulse phaser fire that rained down upon it, its shields flickered and died and Daniel emptied the remaining micro-torpedo magazine into the Raider causing massive damage to it, but another Raider appeared and began firing at Daniel saving his comrade but withdrawing from the fight as well.

Daniel juked his own fighter and disengaged from the fight. As much as he wanted to keep going he needed to land as well so he turned his fighter back towards the Sword and upon seeing that he and Ravon were the only two fighters left out in space he engaged full thrust again and after a few short minutes he adjusted his fighter for its landing vector and as he crossed the force-field he saw what could only be described as a battlefield in the hangar bay. “Out of the fire and into another.” Knight said behind him. “Indeed, take over the landing sequence, and toss me your pistol.” Daniel said, it had been quite some time since he had used two pistols at once but the muscle memory should still be there. Dual wielding two sidearms wasn’t very common and truth be told Daniel didn’t like it but when you needed to be mobile and need to put shots downrange fast there was no better way than to dual wield. Daniel felt Knight tap his shoulder with his pulse phase pistol and he took it as he handed control of the landing sequence over to him. He did a scan of the FAB and detected a single Klingon signature; he uploaded the target to his HUD so that he could track him, it seemed like he had taken a position that was covered well but gave him enough space to take shots at pilots attempting to land. “Scratch landing, I’m opening the cockpit, stay inside until that Klingon is dealt with.” Daniel said as he opened the cockpit hatch and taking a breath he jumped from the cockpit down, tucked and rolled and then began running as he heard hatch shut behind him.

The Klingon definitely noticed him and took a shot, he narrowly missed Daniel by an inch and Daniel could feel the heat from the disruptor and he traced the source, he raised both pulse phase pistols and unleashed a flurry of shots, he doubted any of these shots would actually hit the Klingon but at the very least he could keep him pinned or make him break from cover and expose himself so someone else could make the kill shot.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #71 – August 29, 2018, 11:07:30 AM

[ Lt. Cmdr Thomas Ravon | Azure Nebula -> Fighter Assault Bay | U.S.S. Theurgy Vector 2 | Heart of the Azure Nebula ] Attn: @NPCs, @Triton , @Havenborn , @Triage , @Multificionado , @Auctor Lucan , @Blue Zephyr & @Masorin

The contested space around the Sword began to annoy Ravon as his fighter barreled over the ventral side he could see the fighters return to the fighter bay as the last pockets of Klingon fighters were scrambling back to the Rotarran. Some of them tried their luck still and those who crossed the path of Ravon were met by phaser hails and microtorpedoes. One particular raider seemed to disobey the retreat order as it hung on Ravon's tail. The SCO looked over his shoulder and grinned as a one to one fight was always interesting.

He lead him towards the fighter assault bay and pushed his thrusters up to the limit as their dogfight began fully. For some reason, the three headed crew seemed adamant on taking down this particular fighter. 'Were SCO's meant to be this hounded for?' Thomas thought to himself as he pushed his fighter towards the hull of the second vector. He pulled up just in front of it, making a barrel roll once more which somehow yet effectively brought him on the aft section of the raider. "Good night..." he smiled as his phasers opened up and four microtorpedoes were fired in rapid succession. The explosion could probably be felt to the decks closest to the ship hull yet proved no further damaged.

As the rest of the assailants had seemed to peeled off, he lined his ship for landing and came in at high speed. He knew Sten always hated it when he did so as he'd probably graze over the beloved flight deck and cause minor damages. He had however picked up chatter during his final engagement about Klingons in the bay. He hadn't been able to respond to them yet both Rawley as Allessia had called out to him that Tancredi was in critical condition. He had wondered why they hadn't just beamed her over to Sickbay or called for medical support.

His ship landed into the hangar bay and he could see the sporadic firing of the remaining wolves. His shields powered down and the engines were left on idle as he watched the scenario before him. It took him two seconds to assess the situation before he saw the position Daniel was firing at. He scanned the well fortified position first and identified that well concealed Klingon marksman.

"Heads up, danger close." he simply said through the comms which would inform the remaining people still on the fighter bay deck. His twin drivers rotated to the position as he licked his teeth. With an ear deafening bang his twin mount turrets fired one round each into the position. Sten would probably kill him for firing the heavy ordinance inside the ship, but at least the situation would be dealt with. He powered down his fighter after the debris and smoke cleared up, seeing nothing more of the Klingon on the scans either.

"Ghost and Angel, grab Meony and drag her to somewhere more safe. Keep trying to get medical on the line and provide first aid." he instructed as his canopy opened up and he placed his helmet in his seat. "Salvo, Knight and Lance, fan out and secure the bay. I don't want to have any more welcome home surprises." he ordered as he grabbed his own rifle from the cockpit and powered it up to stun. He tapped his combadge through the flight suit "Henshaw, Razor here, all remaining fighters are accounted for. We're ready when you guys are. Be advised, we neutralized Klingon boarders in the fighter assault bay and we have a pilot in need of urgent medical attention."

He gazed over the rest of the bay before looking over at the empty slots. The sense of rage and defeat coursing through him as he tightened the hold on his pulse rifle. He started to move towards his office, checking if there was anyone else there. His mind wondering where all the deckhands were or where Covington was in all of this.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #72 – August 29, 2018, 04:59:00 PM

[ Junior Lieutenant Jovela | Sickbay | Deck 11 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] @patches @Top Hat @Triton
[Show/Hide]

Jovela had thought, for a moment, that she was about to die. In fact, she was not entirely sure she was still alive.

The Klingons had appeared in the entrance to the ICU, levelling their disruptor rifles at them. Her idle thought, before she'd closed her eyes, was how they could call it honourable to kill the unarmed and the injured? She had accepted her fate, standing right there in their sights of their weapons, and she had closed her eyes, hoping Elro Kobol could get behind cover in time. She reckoned that after being shot before, spending over a month in stasis, and getting attacked by the Devoted twice, that her luck had finally run out. She was overdue, and given the experiences so far aboard the Theurgy, perhaps it was a relief to leave everything behind?

She heard the first discharge from the Klingons, and the flash made her blink and look. What she saw, she could hardly credit, but she was still standing, and still there.

Then, she spotted the pilot lying on the deck plating before her, dressed in an exosuit, and smoking from his chest. It was one of the new Lone Wolves, the callsign there on his suit. Fury. She had been treating him since he was beamed in. Now, he was groaning, and numb instinct made her crouch down to him - making the Klingons miss her again. Something in her mind kicked in then, and she hardly recognised it. Anger. White hot anger. Indeed. Fury. It was her patient. She was Risian, but these were her patients. Scowling, she took the pulse phase pistol from the Lone Wolf's fingers and screamed, beginning to fire back at the Klingons.

To her surprise, the Klingons had turned away from her, and begun to fire back into the hallway. So, she ended up riddling the one still in the doorway to the ICU with stun bolts. She just couldn't stop shooting, ascending above of her high tolerance, and remembering Drauc T'Laus teachings. She'd asked him to train her to defend herself, and she found herself deciding to make him proud, right then and there. She might only have been given two training sessions, but at that point, something had snapped inside her. "Get out!"

She could hear a voice from somewhere, addressing the new doctor aboard. [Taer to Doctor Kobol . What's your situation?]

Jovela couldn't look away, instead moving to take cover behind a biobed along with the rest of the staff and patients. She ended up next to Doctor Taer, who replied to the voice. "This is Kobol , I am sensing three remaining Klingons!" said the Betazoid, "There is still one inside here, behind a biobed, but the other two must be outside. I can sense them moving away... We're fine, or as fine as we can be, thank you. How... are you?"

Clearly, the Doctor was even more unused to combat than Jovela was. She spoke up, through Kobol 's combadge. "We have a phaser, but some help would really be appreciated. Just don't let the other two get away!" she called, worried what they might do in the rest of sickbay. Then, she began to fire stun bolts towards the biobed that Kobol indicated, holding the Klingon in position. As grateful as she was for the phaser, and for him saving her life, she hoped the Lone Wolf was okay...

That was when she heard a stampede of running people. Was it more Klingons? She hoped not...

OOC: The arriving people from the emergency entrance is Beta Team, of course.

Another post coming up! Stay tuned.

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #73 – August 29, 2018, 06:00:23 PM

When gazing into the abyss for too long, Lucan felt himself being absorbed by it, and how the sinister whispers of the thing inside grew louder. Still, he couldn't keep himself from gazing through the eyes of the other host on the Klingon ship. He saw Vector 2 diving to port, evading both the hail of incoming torpedoes and the disruptor cannonade. They had listened! The joy was fleeting, since it hardly discouraged the Klingons from just continuing to fire at the Theurgy. As a mere spectator, he couldn't aid further, and yet he lingered, just so that he could make sure they could use what he'd told them.

Then, he was jarred out of his far-seeing by the noise of Maya being struck to the deck by a security officer. Abrubtly yanked back to reality, or rather the room his own body occupied, his pale grey eyes widened at the sight. The security officer had his rifle up, and was about to shoot him. His mind was not completely out of the darkness he had visited upon, and the ire that ignited over Maya being struck down was such a raw emotion... that the parasite could fuel the fire.

"You imbecile!" he thundered, his voice imbued by the parasite's touch, and his eyes lit up with white fire. He struck out with his hand, purely by defensive reflex, channeling air through his zi'naaq. The result was like a giant fist had struck the one with the rifle, along with the two that wore exosuits. They flew backwards, the one without the suit loosing his rifle. He had opened the floodgates, and he couldn't stop his anger over Maya, this Vulcan that had protected him despite what he'd done to her. The nameless darkness animated his movements, the incentive aligned enough with the host's, and before he could restrain himself, Lucan leapt unto the security officers.

The thing inside wanted to crack some eggs, and see the yolk pour out. Desperately, Lucan tried to stop it... to find composure.

But all he could see was what happening on the Klingon ship, and he couldn't completely tear himself away.

[ N'Garen, daughter of Tse'Dek, | Bridge | Negh'Var Heavy Carrier IKC Rotarran | Azure Nebula ] Attn: All
[Show/Hide]

Festering madness competed with the rationality of the Klingon host, and N'Garen remained focused on her task, even though she wanted nothing rather than feast on Martok's remaining eye, and toy with him whilst he was blind.

The setbacks on the Rotarran wasn't helping either. She snarled, baring her fangs, and readied another volley since the last one had missed. For a moment, she had thought she'd... sensed someone else inside her. It was a fleeting feeling, and in the middle of battle, she could not focus on the sensation. She was just about to execute her next firing sequence, when the Sword gave them a broadside unlike any she'd seen before. She was thrown off her feet, landing on the deck of the Rotarran's bridge. No one except Martok remained composed after such a hit, and she was bleeding from her temple when she climbed back to her station, sparks raining over her all the way up. "They fired right through our shields, Chancellor!"

"Impossible!" roared Martok, coughing from the smoke that whirled around them.

"We have lost the port nacelle! Yet the Theurgy's shields are depleted too!" continued N'Garen.

"Then fire everything we'v-"

Martok trailed off.

"Chancellor`?" N'Garen raised her eyes.

In contrary to what she was seeing, and the shock on her face, she found herself smiling inside.

[ Dr. Nicander | Temporary Holding Cell | Security Center | Deck 07 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: All
[Show/Hide]

Cradling Maya in his lap, Lucan was stroking her hair - his tattooed hands bleeding from the knuckles.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, finding it strange how blurry the sight of her face had become. "I tried. I am sorry."

In front of him lay the twisted bodies of the three security guards, blood leaking out of the joints of the exosuits. There was shouting outside the temporary holding cell, but Lucan couldn't be bothered. Maya had defended him, believed in him, and for what? If he could find redemption in her eyes, after all he had put her through, he had hoped others would as well. Now, it was clear. He remained a monster, unable to overcome his own nature. Heather was gone, so he couldn't hope for her to restore him any more. He'd seen her die, along with the rest of the crew on the Versant.

"I'm so sorry," was all he could mumble.

The eyes of the host still plagued him, even if the visions were receeding. Before they did, however, he saw something that made him lift his eyes from Maya. Just like N'Garen raised her eyes on the Rotarran, Lucan gazed upon the shape that had dropped out of warp.

It was a Borg cube, and he knew what it meant.

The invasion was nigh.

"No," he said, clenching his jaw, shaking his head. His face was contorted in grief. "Not in this cycle too... please..."

The massive bulk of the cube passed over the two combatant ships, dwarfing them both in their feeble struggle. Like an eagle passing over two mice fighting over a bit of cheese, it flew by above them. Fortunately enough, it didn't seem the least interested in the two damaged ships. Instead, it just flew above them, and emitted a blue beam towards its own heading. It struck something in the heart of the nebula, and a massive aperture opened for it. There was neither pause or doubt in the course set by the immense cube, as it continued through the opening it had created.

And just like that...

...the aperture closed behind it.

They are coming, thought Lucan numbly as he stroked Maya's matted hair. Tomorrow.

And N'Garen was arming the Rotarran's weapons again, for she knew it too.

OOC: *grins* Seven days of posting for all begins today, and there is no suggested posting order! Here's the bridge crew: [Show/Hide]

Here are the characters in the Fighter Assault Bay and the Lone Wolves Squadron: [Show/Hide]

Main Sickbay & Security Center: [Show/Hide]

Re: Chapter 02: Vantage Points [ Day 05 | 2330 hrs. ]

Reply #74 – August 29, 2018, 06:54:46 PM

[CPO Eun Sae Ji | Weapons Storage Room | Fighter Assault Deck | Deck 16 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
@Auctor Lucan @Masorin @Nolan

He spoke. He was all right. A gush of air left her lungs in a great move. She had been worried, there was so much in here. They needed a better system for storing all this shit when this was over with. Her eyes searched his lovely blue eyes, but her eyes were unfocused and occasionally would just dart over to another side because she was having trouble concentrating on any one thing.

He asked a question, she reminded herself.

“I can't think.” she admitted, it was hard for her to even get those words together, her vision was swimming from time to time. Her eyes dripped tears, and the warmth of her own blood slid around her neck to her collar bone where it worked it's way down her chest with small droplets as she continued to bleed out from the back of her head.

She had no idea where Sithick had come from. But, the Gorn was a welcome sight. Ji's wide brown eyes were a bit dazed, a bit far off looking really. But, that wasn't going to stop her from helping Liam. She was glad that he was there, the Gorn, because she wasn't entirely sure that she could move the emitter off of Liam on her own. She would have put all her effort into it though, because this was Liam. Whatever may have transpired and yet not exactly been fixed between them she didn't want to see any harm come to the man. Whether he wanted them to be out in the open or not there was little she could do to sway him. She understood the grounds of being professional and she understood the fear of Sten. However, she was not wanting to let one asshole determine her life.

Sithick's gruff voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Sort of, her mind was in and out and focusing on two thoughts at once seemed like a really piss poor idea at the moment. He told her to secure the neck, and it took a moment for all the words to sink in. But while Sithick worked on getting the weight off of Liam and his leg, she slid up to his head and carefully placed her hands gently on his head so that he wouldn't turn it. She cupped his cheeks gently and held him so that he was looking up at her. Tears welled in her eyes. She didn't like him being hurt, and hated the fact that the last thing they had done had been fighting about their very new relationship.

Suddenly, large hands came around her own neck, and she looked up to see the large Gorn. He was huge, massive.. probably was a better word. Much taller and larger than her. He supported her own neck and lay her down next to Laim. Asking who she was. It took her a moment to find her words. Her mouth worked slowly but it didn't want to actually make the sounds. Her brain was struggling on even the simplest of tasks, and she felt like she could use another puke.

“J..j....Ji.” she finally got out on the third try.

She heard a transport beam and looked over, eyes only, and spied the color teal. “L..Li..Liam fi..one.” she tried though she was fairly certain that didn't make any sense what so ever. She heard something else, sounded like Klingon. She couldn't quite wrap her head around that. Another officer...? Her eyes shifting around like a crazed person as she tried to get some information without actually moving her head. Not that she could with Sithick holding her in place. His hands dwarfed her head with their massive size. She swallowed heavily as Liam said something about protecting her.

Her eyes stopped moving.

Protect? Wait... but.... people are.... things went.....

She struggled to think. Her eyes began to grow heavy. She was tired, so tired, and panic was starting to set in. Then there was the doctor, some one. Trill. But, she wasn't sure what her name was. Ji had only really had any experience with Nicander and that was the kind of experience she didn't need to be having right now. She worked on Liam first, thank goodness. The young woman was glad that he wouldn't bleed out. Whatever work needed to happen probably wouldn't be done right now, but Ji was not going to be as worried. If he was in the hands of medical that was all that was important, truly.

She called me girl. That's no … that's bad. Bad officer, bad!

Ji's eyes swung up to Rez again. “J... uh.. J... Ji.” she got out around her mouth and her heavy eyes. The woman began to probe the back of her head and the pain lanced thought back into her brain for the moment. She hoped that Sithick could hold his own against the Klingon's at least for the moment. Afterall, Ji would be willing to help if she could, soon, if this woman would quit fucking with her head and just fix her up already.

The woman asked what they had been doing down here together. Ji didn't think she could answer that question, other than discussing their future, she wasn't sure that it was all that important. And it surely had no actual bearing on how to treat the both of them. Liam needed some serious treatment and getting her brain back to working would be good for all of them. She swallowed heavily, the pain lessened with the hypo and with the melding of the skin on the back of her head. That helped a lot. She wasn't unused to pain but there were moments it was just not helpful.

Right now was one of them.

“I go... gotta get back to the d... to the t.. um... the deck.” she said as she worked on sitting up. Her stomach heaved but, again, it was empty and there was nothing there. She didn't have time to get rest or lay down. The more she moved the better she was going to be. The better she would not fall asleep anyway, she knew enough to know sleeping during a concussion was about the worst thing you could do.

“Th... uh... the.. “ she winced, she didn't like her words today, her brain and her mouth were not communicating properly today. “Thanks.. uh... Du.. Doc.. Nic. Maybe? Tacos? Rainbow … Cat.. Parsnips Went to the Sea.” she said and blinked a moment. That wasn't what she meant to say. Her eyes were drooping, one of her pupils had dilated substantially.