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Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #50 –
[Lieutenant Keval ch'Rayya| Resolve Bridge]
Attn: All on the bridge & Resolve fighter elements, Theurgy and it's elements

Once the complex and unique docking maneuver was completed,  Keval quickly shifted over to his status as the ship's Second Officer status as he tapped the ship-wide communication and said "This is the Second Officer speaking, all hands evacuate to the Theurgy's attached Vector. Repeat all hands evacuate the ship." in a very clear and crisp sounding voice before activating the evacuation alarm from his station.

Once this was completed, Keval turned to look at his fellow officers on the bridge and in a tone that spoke from years of experience, "No more second guessing or anything, the captain gave us an order..SO FRAKKING MOVE IT PEOPLE!!!" before he shifted the last of his systems to the consoles at the Conn for his friend and captain's ease.

Keval then moved out from behind his station and over to where Kendrick was standing and placed an almost brotherly hand on his closest shoulder. "We got our people home, Kendrick, and no matter what happens next, we will get through this my brother." he said in a warm, reassuring tone that was reflected by his antenna. "I will go over to the Theurgy's bridge and make myself useful there while you wrap up things over here and once this battle is over and our family is safe and secured..I owe you a bottle of scotch, so don't keep me waiting."

Keval then gave Kendrick's shoulder one last reassuring squeeze before he left the bridge himself, casting one last long look over what was his home for the past almost four years before disappearing into the lift.

It didn't take him long to cross over onto the Vector of the Theurgy and while he wanted to alert Captain Ives that he was aboard and in burning need of avenging the destruction wrought upon his ship-he also understood the need to be patient as he was a wildcard on an already beleaguered ship.

Keval instead went for the next best option on his list as he stepped up to the senior of the two security officers near him and promptly said "My name is Lieutenant ch'Rayya, Chief Tactical and Second Officer of the Resolve." in the same crisp and clear voice that he'd been using for the last little while.

He then allowed himself to take a breath, a real one since this whole fight began and while normally he would be extremely leery of a ship that both Hawthorne tried to push on them as did the media was saying about their benefactors..his gut was telling him simply to relax.

"Please inform your captain that if there is a place on the bridge open for a tactical officer, this Guardsman stands ready to do his duty.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #51 –
[ PO2 Sithick | USS Allegiant | transporter room] Attn: Auctor, Angles,

Sithick had to admit that leaving the pilot behind kind of sucked but to actually transport Game onto the ship would require power that they didn't have, he couldn't beam someone up through the ships shields with the pattern buffers the way they were so he abandoned it, and started his way back to the bridge, leaving the damaged transporter room behind along with a pilot stranded in space and time probably never to be seen again.

There was no time for guilt or loss, they were Federation they lived a better life then most could ever ask for in this universe, and whatever rituals their culture demanded for preperation to follow into oblivion could wait until after a battle. War was not the time or place to loose ones composure.

The ship shuddered violently and Sithick adjusted his wide three clawed feet and body so that he didn't simply topple over with the explosion. Moving to the bridge to help with the damage control he arrived just as they reported the complete loss of shields. Shields that they just said they needed to keep everyone alive. Shields that they had just refused to drop to save another mans life were now gone of course with all the damage the transporters had suffered there was no hope in getting that man back now as too much time and distance had passed.

But the shields... that was something he could fix.

Birds of Prey, for years Sithic had been on those cramped damp heated ships. They were small, and poorly optimised, the design over a hundred years old and yet still used, meant that over time and upgrades each had a temperament that an engineer had to learn. He had spent three days learning the temperament of this bird.

The Shields when down required a jump start, and right now they didn't have much power. The crew needed oxygen and he needed the warmth of the life support to remain standing. They needed the warp core, so he couldn't jump start it using their warp field but there was something else, something as all encompassing.

Without thinking Sithick moved to pull at the ground, lifting up the panels of the floor with a heavy claw, kneeling over an area that was once Ensign Roger's display, which put him in arms reach of Jaya. He knew what he was about to do. He reached up and touched Jaya's chair a single claw pushing a button to deploy her seat belt one thing he wished he had back when he was with the crime syndicate.

The next tap was to his com link. "Sithick to everyone hold on to your bud'z"

He clicked his jaw as he worked on the generator under the floor, prepping it for a moment, he could only get to the one, but it would be enough to divert the flow, however it also meant that the damaged console was probably going to be a lot more damaged in the future. Stepping back he hoped he wasn't making a bigger bomb as he sat into the tactical seat and applied his own seat belt if nothing else his body would provide Jaya with a thick shield if his plan didn't work.

"Re-routing to shields." He wasn't about to tell them what he was re-routing because every single person on the Allegiant would feel it. The lights on the ship flickered and dimmed for a moment, and there was a tense breath in the lizards chest, then he started to feel a shift in his body weight, and his movement became less stiff. The crew's hairs would start to move oddly.

Keeping a ship afloat was about sacrificing one system for another, and there were only three fields that encompassed an entire ship with the ability to really jump start shields, and keep it strong. He couldn't sacrifice the warp core, and they needed the air. So of course that left the only logical sacrifice...

Artificial Gravity.

The gravity generator on the bridge was working as a switch, taking the flow of energy and pouring it back into the shields, and it worked, they lost the gravity field, but shields came back at 39% power. "Don't wazte it Jaya."

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #52 –
[ Lt Amelya Duv | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: MasterRat & Lucan

Moments later the medical team arrived under command of Amelya Duv. Amelya took a split second to get hear bearings before she looked at Rihen and Kalmil. "You called for medical, where can we help?" she asked and smiled confidently as she quickly looked over the two individuals for any sign of injuries. her crew looked around as well before awaiting orders "Right guys, spread out and report back in when you find serious injuries. I want clear sit reps of every patient." she stated "Two man teams, one medical one security. Go." she delegated her orders before she looked back at Rihen. The woman seemed fine and her gaze turned over to Kalmil now.

"Masterchief..." she frowned and eyed him more attentively "Weren't you supposed to be in Sickbay?" she inquired as she wondered how the man had ended up here. She took out her medical tricorder to scan him for any injuries as she imagined he'd be the one Rihen had called for.

(Sorry for the short post! Will expand more once I have more info ^^)

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #53 –
[ Lt. Cmdr. Natalie Stark and Lt. (jg) Sarresh Morali| Main Bridge | USS Theurgy - Vector 01 ]

"This is USS Theurgy calling Henshaw, Ensign Henshaw do you copy? Repeat, this is Theurgy to Ensign Henshaw. Be advised, suspect CO Starbase 84 is compromised." Dutifully, though with little hope, Natalie placed a call into the young ensign who was rushing off to - in theory - meet with her adoptive father on the starbase, and try to put and end to this madness. Sure enough, she wasn't able to get through to the lithe young yeoman, and she swore softly under her breath, before adding to the din of the bridge "No response, Captain." Short and simple and not at all good news.

Sarresh was able to note the way both the Captain and the XO frowned at Stark's words, but soon enough his attention was drawn back to the tasks at hand, helping Lt. Tovarek with drone coordination from the auxiliary science station. And all the while he kept waiting for some twitch or sign that something was amiss, that the timeline had been altered. Or that he was about to have a seizure. Nothing yet...

And then Ives was leaning over the conn, pulling up a procedure....Oh fuck, Natalie thought, shock full on her face as she realized what was about to happen. She even missed the spectacular fireworks display on the view screen, from the Resolve, and from the Theurgy's massive pod-broadside. Hell, there was a nacelle floating out there in space, and it didn't even register to her just then.

The brunette swept sticky hair from her face, sweat having broken out across her bow. While the piloting had been left to Lt. S'iti, the actual coupling and transfer of power, the attachments of the docking mechanisms, the airlock connections, all of that had been for Natalie. This wasn't the primary function of the Symbiotic Tractor Docking - instead of needing a new home for the Theurgy's command vector, they were serving as a lifeboat for a whole starship!

She could hear the other ships pilot - male, she noted - hailing, patched through automatically, coordinating his efforts with Aisha's. Natalie kept her own mouth shut, routing power as needed, to avoid distracting the Cardsassian. There was a shudder across the whole ship and Natalie found herself jumping slightly in her seat, but her fingers never left that console. A few more protocols and - they were docked. Even as Captain Ives ordered the shields be extended, the Chief of Ops was already rerouting power to extend the defensive profile around the damaged Luna - class vessel.

"Captain!" came the call from Lieutenant Yukimura, "Reinforcements arriving in fifteen seconds. It is a Vesta-class ship, carrier version. It is the USS Orcus, weapons primed, some kind of fighters powered up and torpedoes set to launch upon arrival."

"Holy shit," someone murmured in the back of the bridge, in a mix of awe and fear. Natalie didn't turn to see who it was, she just started the evacuation procedures, instructing all the Resolve crew to get a leg on and head to the nearest docked airlocks, listing them off one by one where applicable. She would deal with the impending arrival of the Orcus as soon as she was done with the evac. If they didn't get those people off that ship before the first wave of reinforcements hit...

"Captain," Natalie said, turning slightly in her chair, still feeling slightly surreal about the docking procedure, despite having just pulled it off, and under fire at that. "The senior staff....where should I put them?" This was foreign territory for her right now, for all of them, really.

"Have them escorted to the Conference Lounge here on Deck 01, and grant them a live feed of this bridge so that they are aware of what is happening." The captain told her, and Natalie nodded. She quickly hailed security and told them to rush to meet and escort the surviving senior staff from the Resolve to the conference room, even has her hands set up a live feed of the bridge ( a relatively simple task all in all, compared to what she'd just pulled off). And then without pausing for a breath, punched up a comm channel to the most senior officer she could find from the crippled ship and informed them that they would be met and escorted immediately to a position where they could observe the continued battle, please and thank you very much,.

Oh, they were in the process of a potential warp core breach, wonderful! She swore loudly, but before Natalie could follow up, a whole new set of alarms spawned across the bridge, drowning out her words. The view-screen lit up before them with the appearance of what was possibly the sleekest vessel she had ever seen.

Immediately, from the aux science station, Sarresh began to pull up every little detail he could about the Vesta-class vessel, its armament, carrier capacity, and captain. The name stood out, even as the man hailed the ship, but Sarresh couldn't place it just then. An echo from the future? Someone he'd met at some point? It didn't matter. What did matter was getting the stats to tactical and to Lt. Tovarek, for the drone fleet. Let Ives deal with the hard-ass on the view-screen.

"Cartography to Bridge, we've got something Reaver-like coming right at us, it's already passing the outskirts of the system." That caused Sarresh's eyes to snap open wide. "What the hell? There shouldn't be any..." he swore in turn and pulled up the secondary display, cycling through to a temporal read out. It was even. Well that wasn't right...."Captain, no signs of incursion at this time," he spoke the words in a deadpan, as if he couldn't believe that whatever this thing was, it wasn't 'new' to the timeline.

"Theurgy Tactical, Razor reporting for duty. What the fuck have you guys been doing?" he smirked as he was craving for a good space battle. "Right time to see what this thing can do in an actual space fight..."

Well, thought the former Ash'reem, everything has just gone Topsy turvy on us today. Pilots back from the dead, flying ships that shouldn't even exist in this century while we go toe to toe with a fully functional starbase and a carrier ship that scares the piss out of the whole crew. Just another day on the job. He kept the sarcasm in his thoughts from creeping into his expression as the tagged the franken-fighter as a 'friendly' for now.

Natalie stared in disbelief, before her console lit up again. "Incoming Hail, Captain! From the Orcus!" She barely got the warning out before the image of the ships captain filled the view-screen. He was the kind of man that drew ones gaze - breathtakingly handsome, and in that moment, so cold and calculating that it sent a very unpleasant shiver down Natalie's spine.

"This is Captain Marcus Alexander Slayton, commanding officer of the USS Orcus to the crew of the renegade starship Theurgy. Under the direct authority of the admiralty and Starfleet Command, I am here by ordered to present you with one chance to come to and surrender at once for the crimes of high treason, piracy, and war crimes against the United Federation of Planets and it's allied states."

"To the civilian, Jien Ives, I do not care about your supposed reasons that you betrayed your uniform and or the trust that was put into by the fleet and our government but I will simply say this, your little war against the Federation ends now."

The Theurgy's Chief of Ops could hear the ice in the mans tone, the sheer disdain for her captain and her crew-mates. One chance to face the death penalty most likely, at the hands of corrupt admirals who'd been dominated by alien parasites. The man had the conviction of the self-righteous, and really, could she blame him? If she didn't know what she knew, what the whole crew knew...would she act any less -

Her thoughts were derailed as the ship shook, the phaser strike well targeted, passing just barely over the stretched out shields of Vector - 01. She wondered just how many shots they could take once those started honing in on the ship. Would the shields hold long? Would the Resolve's cascading power overload hold off, or would it take the whole Vector out before the Orcus could?

OOC: Hefty post. Lemme know if anything needs cleaning up.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #54 –
[MCPO Nolak Kalmil | Main Engineering | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Auctor, DocReno, Nolan

“Rihen Neyah, Provisional Warrant Officer. Please to meet you, and yeay, I’ll try to help as much as I can.”  The young blonde haired Risian said as she worked her way back onto her feet next to the bald headed Daltan. Suddenly the ship rocked from another torpedo hit.  “Woaah,” she exclaimed as she reached out and grabbed him about the waist for stability. Nolak’s steady footing allowed her to quickly regain her composure. She took him up on the offer of using his work belt and skillfully unlatched the belt from him and attached herself to the station.

Nolak briefly looked at her before quickly returning back to the computer station in front of him, bringing up the recent damage report. Speaking out loud as he worked, “What a lovely name, flows off the tongue.” He reviewed the data and frowned at the information.  “As for Ensign Kae, I only know him on a professional level. He was a student of mine at the Academy. I might have graded him too harshly. However it did mold him into a fine example of a Starfleet officer. Since then we both dabbled with Thea’s hologram program when she’s was just a wire frame data figure. So I do admire his work and dedication to duty.” Nolak concluded as he overrided the battle bridge control of one phaser bank, with a note to the bridge saying temporary offline for thirty seconds to cool down. The extra juice from the weapon he boost into shield regeneration during that brief period of time.

Underneath his feet he could feel the effects of Rihen’s tactical efforts to the hologrid. Although it wasn’t much they weren’t being tossed around nearly as bad, as the hologrid gravity wells began to take effect throughout the ship.  “Good work there,” he said offering a word of encouragement.

Nolak listened to Ensign Kae, reporting to Rihen. On another screen he began to bring up the gyro systems and status reports. He watched as the computer flashed out the actions of the chip swap Ensign Kae was making and everything checked out until the very last chip. A bright red warning appeared on the screen as his jaw dropped, he slapped his chest to where the communication badge is suppose to be only to slap the empty spot on his uniform.

Turning to Rihen he said, “Tell him to wait….there’s….a.,” but it was too late as he heard the loud popping sound coming from the back of Engineering. “Thea, give me a complete read out of this power spike.” She beeped as the he feared the worst. The gyro had been saving up a static charge within its spinning rods and as Ensign Lin Kae went to finalize the repair the overloaded circuits grounded out through him.

Remembering something he had rolled up in his sleeve he unrolled out the hypospray he stole from sickbay in his oversized uniform. Turning  to Rihen, “I can manage this station now if you wish to go check on Ensign Kae,” He said as he hands her the hypospray. “I’m not too familiar with these things but it might come in handy. Take it, the gyros’s should be kicking-in in a second. He did manage to fix it, but at what cost?” After giving her the medical device he turned back to the computer station and continued his work, although with a very concern look upon his face.

He opened a channel to the battle bridge, “Master Chief here, gravity wells should be coming back up soon. Also your phaser bay should be ready to fire again, over.”  He said as he returned control of the phaser back to the tactical officer up there.

Moments later the medical crew appeared, and he glares at the woman holding the medical scanner, “The hell with sickbay, and the hell with that device, I’m busy here so go check on a couple Ensigns, Abner and Kae, and go where your really needed.” He turned away and continues typing away at the computer screens in front of him.

---------------
ooc I noticed your post at the last second Nolan so I hope my last line works for you.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #55 –

The snug bodysuit, the hard lines and curves all gave Devryie a sense of protection as she moved through the ship in to the flight bay. It was a familiar site, but she still was getting use to the Valrvn fighter. Even though she had been working with it for a while now, seeing it sitting in a ship's launch bay was new. This whole mission felt new.
[Show/Hide]

At least, that's what Devyrie felt en route. She had checked their position before leaving her quarters and knew that it was going to be a tight battle. The sensation in her side mirrored her tension. The tightness wasn't unusual before a launch.

What was unusual was her second thoughts.

"Dragon? You live?" It Vinnie "Furry" Ferris, her effervescent RIO, greeted her from the cockpit of their fighter. His dark hair and skin betrayed his Italian heritage, while Dev's own long white locks kept pointed ears easily hidden. Probably best under the circumstances.

"I'm coming up." Dev's boots clicked on the deck as she hustled over to her berth, her hand running across the forward weapons mounts, noting the dual cannons, the recessed cockpit sitting behind those hard tusks. She couldn't help but think of them as the tusks of a very large animal, though what kind she couldn't think of-an Earth warthog, maybe? With a swing of a leg, Dev situated herself in the cockpit, helmet placed on top of the pilot's display, all lighting up as Vinnie did the preflight check. She stretched her leg, and checked her PADD.

"Comms up and running. You getting all the data telemetry?" Her tone must have sounded clipped.

"Cool the green fire, Dragon. It's a newer fighter in a new ship, but I'll get it all done."

"Copy. I'm going over final movements. Be ready for launch."

Dev left him to that, taking a moment to quiet her mind, using putting her helmet on as cover. Silently, she hummed a Vulcan chant to sooth the anxiety that left her heart beating a bit fast. She usually could excuse it as a high metabolism, but this time was a bit more personal. The chatter over the comms of flight crews making preparations, providing a background buzz that slowly quieted her mind. It aided in making this feel like a routine mission and not what she knew it to be.

Outside the cockpit she could see the rest of her squad making their own preparations, pilots getting in, doing their preliminary checks. For Dev, she loved the sensation of the cockpit, the close quarters that felt so intimate. It was like she knew the fighter and the fighter knew her. That feeling had always been there, and she could never quite shake it.

"Dragon, standing by for launch."
Lt. Devyrie "Dragon" Okhala
by Burningtransformation
aka
"Waffles"

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #56 –
[ LT Daniel Havenborn  | Cockpit | AC-307 Mark-II Valkyrie "Grey Wolf-01" ] Attn: Auctor, Triage, SummerDawn, Mathis, CanadianVet

As Daniel and his flight finished off the interceptors he brought his fighter around back towards the starbase he heard an unidentified male voice over the squadron channel.  "Resolve fighters, this is Theurgy Tactical.  Prepare for massive interpenetration from our salvo.  Your transponders are locked into the warheads and they will not detonate in case you catch one."  Daniel checked what channel it had been and it wasn't on Tactical Three so he ignored it, he was thankful for the warning but had specific orders to ignore anything from any other communications channel.

As his flight passed by some interceptor debris he saw some more interceptors firing on a large shuttlecraft-like starship, then he heard the distress call from a woman identifying herself as Sera vers Aldnoah of the SS Sabine.  "Broadside, Deadeye we're going to help her out.  Deadeye I want you to use your last remaining torpedo against the lead interceptor."  Daniel said as he began to line up his fighter for his attack run against the interceptors.  "Got it Salvo."  Came the response from Deadeye.

However as they were moving into position he heard a call from another unidentified male voice from the squadron channel, this one from Tactical Three.  "This is the Lone Wolves to Resolve fighter elements, please confirm channel up-link. This is Lieutenant Commander Miles Renard, Wolf Leader. Are you what's left of the Grey Wolves?"  Daniel thought to himself for a moment, he wasn't fond of having conversations in the middle of combat, introductions and the like could be done later if they survived.  "Wolf Leader, Lieutenant Daniel Havenborn, Grey Wolf-01, Callsign Salvo; up-link confirmed.  I'm currently the SCO of what's left of the Grey Wolves, what do you need Commander?"  He said.

As he was waiting for a response from Commander Renard his TVD flashed, an incoming ship had just appeared; Daniel turned his head towards the new ship, no not a ship an abomination.  That was the only way he could describe it to himself, it looked like a blending of Starfleet technology with something else.  He watched as the abomination thrust forward into the battle and ripped right through a squadron of interceptors, blue and orange energy beams lancing from its starboard weapons array, it was quite a sight to behold.  It seemed as though the abomination was on their side.  "All Grey Wolves and Tribbles, mark the abomination-ship as friendly for the moment."  He said into the squadron channel, an affirmative came a moment later from his pilots.

"Salvo, we're coming up on the Sabine."  Knight said behind him.  "Deadeye, fire your torpedo as soon as you have a target lock."  Daniel said into the squadron channel.  "SS Sabine, this is Grey Wolf-01, Callsign Salvo.  We're going to help you out of this."  He said as he opened fire on the interceptors and a moment later watched as Broadside's fighter opened fire on the interceptors as well.  Then Deadeye launched her quantum torpedo and he watched as it hit the lead interceptor, she followed up the torpedo with a burst from her phaser cannons.  Daniel watched as the interceptors returned fire on them, and for a moment he thought they might get through this unscathed, but the remaining interceptors had focused their fire on Broadside's fighter.  "Salvo-" Broadside had started to say before his fighter was destroyed.  He cursed the man responsible for this situation Captain Hawthorne before bringing his fighter back around.  "Deadeye you still with me?"  He asked her.  "Still here Salvo."  She said.  "Let's make their sacrifice worth it."  He said as he began firing on the interceptors again.
Defeat, Genocide; why quibble with semantics.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #57 –
[ Krystal "Meony" Tancredi | Sector Space Starbase 84 | Cockpit | Fuzzy Flayer ] Attn: K'Ren, Daniel Havenborn, Sera vers Aldnoah, Tessa May Lance, Hi'Jak, Resolve and Theurgy fighter elements & Thomas Ravon

[Show/Hide]


"GAH!"Tancredi shot up in her seat with a start. The last impact against her shuttle had been some sort of weapon that managed to temporarily disable her vessel and her with it. As she glanced around, she noted that the Type 8 shuttle, Fuzzy Flayer, was drifting freely in space, moving like an asteroid without any sort of gravitational pull by a planet. That meant her vessel was not powered either, which explained why she was still alive and left to her own devices. She was not a threat or a help.

Through the viewscreen, she could see the battle was still ongoing, and if anything, the boiling point had not yet been reached even, but she knew, so many of her family was dead already. Sophia Cortez, Dermot Lanier, and Kiera Thurmane, the first of the Tribbles to count amongst the fallen of the Resolve. Nearly four years together, facing untold dangers and somehow coming out on top against all odds, only to die to Federation technology and treachery. Blinking, Tancredi realized that her vision was being blurred by tears, and she shook her head.

Her shuttlecraft was temporarily out of commission, but she wasn't, and neither was her built in com in her helmet. She picked up various bits and pieces of information.

Ensign Ara Laurent, callsign Aura, and Chief Petty Officer Kimberley Phillips, callsign Goshawk, were still alive and kicking, and frantically searching for Tancredi whilst coordinating as best as they could with Havenborn. The Tribbles and Grey Wolves were able to contend with alien threats, but against Starfleet Interceptors who knew the kind of tactics the Resolve Fighter Element would use, albeit somewhat modified out of necessity, they were close to outmatched. It wasn't just the damage to the Luna-class starship. It was the physical and mental scarring that was threatening to do them in.

:: Veradin...Resolve fighter win...stay clear of our six! :: said Veradin, and Tancredi picked up on it. Glancing about through the viewport showed she was well out of range, since she could see the besieged and ailing starship and she was high above, floating away from the battle.

:: This is Resolve Tactical...all Resolve Fighter Elements. Mark all Theurgy combatants as FRIENDLY......on all Theurgy elements as FRIENDLY. :: Tancredi recognized ch'Rayya's voice and started trying to restart her shuttle. It was probably the stupid fuselage again. Tancredi grimly mused that Randall had been right about the dangers of so much modifications beyond specs on the shuttles. Fuzzy Flayer was a monster in battle, but it was an erratic monster, prone to mechanical malfunctions now. Like the Resolve, her shuttle was on its last leg.

:: This is the Lone Wolves...Resolve fighter elements...please confir...channel up-link. This is Lieutenant Command... Miles Renard, Wolf Leader. Are you what's left of the Grey Wolves? :: She didn't recognize this one, but presumably he was from the Theurgy. ch'Rayya said they were friendlies. Well, she didn't trust them, regardless, but if Captain Kendrick and ch'Rayya trusted them enough to be marked friendlies, then fine, she'll follow along with that. Her communicator was faulty, she was suffering damage to her suit as well, possibly, suggesting Tetryon and electrical weaponry that had struck her.

Working feverishly on several consoles, Tancredi briefly managed to get a shudder out of her ship, but the lights went dead again. Muttering, she saw a flash and looked up, noticing the Theurgy, with one of the ship's split vectors linking up with the Resolve, or what was left of the Resolve in any case, and nodded, approving of the other ship and its crew now. They were helping. :: This is Sera vers Aldnoah...the SS Sabine. I have with me Starf...officer Lieutenant Hi'Jak, we carry evidence of acts...terrorism committed by Captain Hawthorne against the people of Starbase 84 and are being pursued by fighters I can only......under his command to destroy us.......We request assist.......nd asylum to any ships in the area that are willing to hear...out. ::

Hi'Jak! Tancredi remembered his name from when she had met him earlier. They had a drink and he introduced her to a Klingon beverage that the girl found very much to her liking, plus he wasn't too bad on the eyes, for an outsider. So he was being attacked too? She'd help him. Her shuttle came online just long enough to blare out a warning of an approaching vessel dropping out of warp. Through her viewscreen she caught sight of the tail end of a ship, fresh looking from what little she could see, but she wasn't sure if this one was here to help or to make things worse. Just then, the shuttle failed once more.

"Come on!" Tancredi growled, "Ah know, baby, Ah know! Ya've had it with meh. Ah have had it too, but don' punish mah family for mah mistakes!"

Abruptly the shuttlecraft rumbled to life, going to full red alert, she had her shields and weapons back online. And the ship's impulse engines flared up with a familiar bright blue hue. Her ship had taken some hits, but was still relatively none-the-worse for wear, a miracle in and of itself. "Ah'm back, Tribbles!" Tancredi crowed, alerting Aura and Goshawk of her wellbeing. "Get in formation, on mah lead, we're helping the SS Sabine."

Just then, she picked up a broadcast message that was aimed at her, from a voice that made her grin, :: Jack to Tancredi...hi give me what...r com line the...esolve fighters use and I will make...to get you an entire case of Chech'tluth. ::

Keying in a response, Tancredi said, "Ah'm raht 'ere, honey. Switch to Tac oh-three. That's Tac oh-three, ya got it? Look fer three Type-eight shuttles that look nothing like shuttles, and dat's us! Now hang tight, we're comin' in an' clearin' ya a path ta hightail it."

She was not the only one trying to assist the Sabine as it turned out. Her tactical suite highlighted K'Ren's and T'Iya's attempts to render aid, along with that of a Theurgy element Valkyrie. Tancredi's lips curled downwards in an upset curl when she saw T'Iya's and Rodriguez' demise at the hands of Starbase 84 interceptors. K'Ren had tried to get them off the Vulcan pilot's back, but to no avail, and now the half-Caitian was being hounded by four of those bastards, and the Theurgy pilot had narrowly avoided a crash with the Sabine only to fly right into more of those Starbase 84 freaks.

"Aura," Tancredi said, "break off formation, keep on Sabine, get 'er ta the Theurgy. Goshawk, ye're with meh, we're gettin' K'Ren an' dat other Valk outta the bonfire." She immediately juked her lumbering craft, followed closely by Goshawk's shuttle, and they performed an aerodynamic feat that probably wouldn't have worked in atmosphere, spinning and falling into position behind K'Ren's pursuers, and the two began strafing with a hail of Disruptor bolts at the tails of the Interceptors. Fast though they were, the Tribbles were weapons platforms, and what the forward facing cannons missed, the turret on their backs didn't.

"Get clear, Neko," Tancredi said, "we've got the fuckers."

A loud klaxon warned of a target lock and Tancredi's shuttle shook and trembled from direct blasts, almost collapsing her shields completely. "No way that was from the interceptors!" The girl glanced in shock towards the Starbase and realized it was probably from that monstrosity. She didn't have time to worry. So long as she could still move, she was able to do something. And more Theurgy Valkyries were getting into the thick of things trying to help their own wingmate, and it wasn't going well. One of them, she noted on her Tactical was identified as Hat Trick, and that one went up in flames. The Interceptors were too many, and for everyone she or Goshawk harried or shot down, two to four more took their place. They were relentless, and Tancredi was finally starting to feel overwhelmed.

That was when she saw the freakiest fighter to ever fly enter the fray. It came out of nowhere, and saved the first Theurgy Valkyrie with a fire show that took out an entire force of Interceptors. It was off to cause more mayhem amongst the Starbase defenders, and was looking like it was trying to help the Sabine. That was when Havenborn said, :: All Grey Wolves and Tribbles, mark the abomination-ship as friendly for the moment. :: 

"Roger," Tancredi said, followed by Goshawk and Aura, though Aura was a little busy multitasking. She was trying to link up with Havenborn and Daniels, clearing away as many of the Interceptors as she could, and fending off rear attackers with her turret. Sanders, who had been with Havenborn and Daniels, was destroyed, witnessed by a screaming Tancredi, and a nearly equally shrill Goshawk. Turning their shuttles as one, the surviving Tribbles vented their fury and took their vengeance upon the interceptors, two bulky war machines of pure destruction. "DIE MOTHERFUCKERS! FUCKING DIE!"

Too much. Too many losses. Tancredi's mind was feeling so much pain that it was almost physical, as she felt some sort of wrench in her chest, and a tightness that made her want to explode. She heard nothing else, saw nothing else, except the enemy, and how every last one of them needed to be space debris. She dove her fighter below Havenborn, and upswept just ahead of the Sabine to the starboard side, before spinning her vessel around to attempt charging into a throng of interceptors, when Aura shouted out a warning and before Tancredi saw the torpedo, Aura had thrown her shuttle directly into it's path. With no shields left to speak of, the vessel had exploded.

It was a shock that managed to shake Tancredi out of her mindless rage, and with a sobering realization, she and Goshawk were all that was left of Tribble Squadron. And Havenborn, K'Ren and Daniels were all that was left of the Grey Wolves. The Resolve was done. She could see the Theurgy was taking on board what was left of her family. She wanted to break down, she wanted to mourn the senseless and needless losses. They were supposed to be safe, supposed to be back amongst their people. And now, she was killing Starfleet pilots. A cold disregard came over her. She would mourn later. She was still a fighter pilot, and she had a job to do. The Sabine must survive. Jack and Aldnoah needed to get their evidence over to Captain Kendrick and whoever was in charge of the Theurgy.

As Havenborn and Daniels turned their attention on the interceptors, Tancredi realized that still left Sabine with plenty of dangers to contend with. She and Goshawk couldn't do any fancy stunts any more, but they could take the brunt of any attack for the Sabine and escort them to safety, with Havenborn and Daniels taking care of the enemy fighter elements. Plus, if the Valkyries from Theurgy added their numbers and firepower, there was at least that much of a chance to get Jack and Aldnoah to safety. It was all she had to go on, so she opened a squadron broadcast, addressing the remaining Grey Wolves, her fellow Tribble and the Sabine. "Salvo," she blew apart an interceptor that made the mistake of getting in her crosshairs, "Goshawk an' Ah can take up escort o'th' Sabine an' get 'er ta the Theurgy. We'll sweep as much o'th' 'ceptors along the way fer ya an' the Theurgy Valks, but ya gotta mop up what's left. Jack, Aldnoah, we're forming up either side o'ya, just keep on yer path ta that nice big ship."

Tancredi positioned her shuttle on the port side of the Sabine even as Goshawk took the starboard side, their turrets firing out at rear pursuers and their front cannons shredding anything that tried to block their path.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #58 –
[ Hylota Vojona | USS Theurgy | Vector 02 | Deck 11 | Main Sickbay ]


          As the medical teams worked to take care of the influx of injured crew from the blast Hylota let out a sharp hiss as she felt it, the sudden tightening, the uncomfortable tensing and beginning of the birthing process. Hylota put her hand on the medial tray beside her and she cursed her luck, cursed the Stone Mother for the timing of things, she had been hoping, praying that she could go through the day without this happening, but as her hand tightened around the dermal regenerator Hylota closed her eyes tightly and she fought to compose herself, she could not let this happen right now. Letting out a long breath Hylota put on her best stoic face before she turned to Lucan and handed him the medical tool. "Here Doctor, I will allow you to take proper care of yourself, meanwhile I will try and manage the information on patients." Hylota moved back to the desk, but her walk was awkward and stiff, she walked with tight locked legs as she waddled her way back to her desk where she sank down and tried to act nonchalant, but she was breathing heavily and struggling to focus.

Hylota was in the beginning stages of her birthing process, her womb was beginning to tighten up around the eggs, for now she could feel them moving, re-positioning withing her and slowly running out of room to move until she would begin to lay. As far as Hylota was concerned though she was not going to begin laying eggs for a while longer, but as she had to close her eyes and focus on her breathing Hylota muttered a few more colorful curses under her breath before opening a single dark eye and looking for her brother before closing her eyes again and clenching her jaw in frustration, she did not want to be doing this yet. Reluctantly Hylota knew she could not just push this off and ignore it like a numbed arm, this was going to get a lot more intense before it stopped. "D-Doctor Nicander, I hate to be a bother, b-but I appear to have begun my labor...I am going to have to steal away some hands to help me to the birthing pool." She took a long deep breath and let out a croak. "Because I do not think that I am going to be walking out of here right now." Hylota did not think it would hurt this much, the tensing, the tightening, it was all so much more intense than a infertile clutch laying.






[ Vinata Vojona | USS Theurgy | Vector 02 | Deck 11 | Main Sickbay ]


          Vinata was not harmed by the attack and had taken notice to the level of small injuries that were beginning to pile up, with the current system of looking to the most vital injuries first many were just standing about taking up space. Vinata wanted to find Doctor Nicander and ask permission to begin performing rushed treatments on to smaller wounds to begin clearing out space, but with the crowds keeping him separated Vinata swallowed hard and made the choice himself, he still felt mildly queasy at the sight of the more serious injuries, it was probably best he avoided them for now. So Vinata turned his attention to the smaller injuries and began to look into them. His first stop was one of the first patients, he had been standing near a terminal that had burst and had some superficial burns on the left side of their face. Vinata was quick to get a scan to make sure of the condition before quickly administering a dose of dermaline, with the treatment in place Vinata sent the patient back to quarters to try and free up space.

As more patients began to flood in Vinata clenched his jaw and took a deep breath as he looked them over, many were coming in with minor concussions and other minor injuries from being thrown about by the blast. Most of the patients could be taken care of with some quick attention to get them back into service. The minor concussions could be treated with drugs to reduce the swelling of the brain, a few moments of observation to see if the treatment took and a crewman could be returned to duty, the more serious concussions Vinata moved on to get more in depth treatment. One crewman who was brought in was showing a case of flash blindness from an electrical explosion in their duty station, it was nothing serious and from what Vinata could read from the scans the crewman's vision would return in due time, but for now they did not need medical treatment. This case along with several others took up time and space, but Vinata was managing to keep things moving, he was not turning back the flow of injured, but for now at least there were spaces for new patients with serious injuries opening up.

Vinata was performing well, but he was not able to focus on his sister, while she called to Lucan to ask for help, Vinata was amidst the patients doing his best to help with his limited medical skills. He used his tricorder to take quick a diagnosis of the incoming patients and letting serious injuries through, more superficial and light wounds that would be put off by the medical staff he took time with, using the dermal regenerator to seal up superficial wounds. Vinata did not want to get too far in over his head so soon after completing his rehabilitation, so he might as well be using his skills to get the patients out back in service and those who didn't need to be here into safe places and to free up space for more patients.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #59 –
[ Lt. JG Alessia Garcia | Flight Deck | USS Orcus ] Attn: DocReno

Alessia and her Flight where ready to go, the exosuit fitting her frame beautifully. It was comfortable to wear, but also gave the human a great sense of protection. She had been in the flight deck for most of the journey towards Starbase 84, checking over with the flight deck crews to ensure the fighters in her Flight were prepped and ready to go at a moment's notice. Alessia had mixed feelings going into this mission, she mostly kept it to herself but did mention her concerns to both Dev and Zh'Idenna.

The fighter was new, that much was obvious as the new class of Valravn-class warp fighters were still being tested at Luna when the call came in to get them out into the field and onto a new Vesta class carrier. But this mission was different, they were not taking on Orion or Nausicaan raiders, or Cardassian warships pushing to go back to their old ways. They were, for all intents and purposes taking on their own brothers and sisters, fellow pilots who took an oath to protect the Federation with a set of wings.

The Theurgy was something different all together, this was a dreadnought carrier hybrid, this thing could own the stars with what it could supposedly do, but why the ship went rogue was something that Alessia could not get her head around. Why would an entire ship turn renegade?  Alessia only knew what the news vid's or reports that weren't covered in red tape, like there was something missing to the story, or simply she was just not allowed or high enough rank to know. Either way, the Theurgy had to be stopped.

Her boots clicked across the deck platting of the fighter bay as Alessia approached her Flight, assembled by her fighter. A smile crept a little onto the features of the Latina's face, maybe just to hide the tension that she was feeling about the upcoming situation they were to find themselves in, little did she know just how much of a shit storm they were all about to encounter. Her RIO by the name of Sehl th'Chilnes, a confident looking Andorian going by the call sign of Talon, passed over her helmet.

Looking at her team, Alessia spoke up. "Alright ladies, we got the green light. Once the barn arrives at target location we will perform an Omega 2 launch, this does not mean it is a race Blizzard." Alessia motioned to the Andorian pilot of wolf-12. Her RIO was human, PO1 Abigale Sheridan, call sign is Trixie. It did get a chuckle out of the team, spirits were very good considering.

"Once we are out of the barn, I want us in a two by two formation. Stormfang, you'll be my wingman for this operation. Wraith, you'll have Blizzard as your wingwoman." The last part had the man raise his eyebrow. Logan Hale was his name and the pilot of Wolf-11, his RIO was a Benzite by the name of Esekiel. Junior Lieutenant R'Meia was Alessia's wingman and pilot of Wolf-10, the Caitain female pilot had a human RIO called Ensign Carlos Vega, call sign Scythe.

"Watch each other's back out there and get back home, this is no ordinary sortie, so everyone stay sharp out there, saddle up and com check when ready." Tapping their helmets together the team went off to board their respected fighters, checking system's, coms and of course putting on their helmets that would provide them with invaluable tactical display of the mess they were about to be a part of. A little bit of time passed feeling the Orcus drop out of warp, the pilots had the cockpits sealed and radioed in. Alessia hearing them all clearly five-by-five.

"Angel here, Flight on hot standby, ready for launch."

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #60 –
[ Ens Derik Veradin | Bridge | USS Resolve ]

Derik's hands remained tensed and frozen above the Resolve's controls for twenty or so seconds after the successful dock with the Theurgy's vector while activity and rapid conversation happened all around him. He and the Theurgy pilot had performed a near-miracle. He'd have to buy that person a drink when all of this calmed down, assuming they all lived.

The next few moments passed in a bit of a daze as the adrenaline began to wear off and Derik suddenly realized his fatigue, minor pains, aches, and burns, and just stared out of the viewport while trying to let his mind catch up to everything that had just happened. So many people were dying, and he still didn't know why or what was really going on. That bothered him, but he stuffed that feeling down because he was not likely to be getting the whole story anytime soon.

Taking several deep breaths, he began to look around and tune back into what was going on around him. The Captain and the second officer had both ordered an immediate evacuation of the Resolve. Something about the warp core and plasma that Derik probably wouldn't have fully understood if he'd managed to catch all of it. He took in those still on the bridge and saw as people began making their way toward the external hatches that would now be connected to the Theurgy.

Derik hesitated a moment though, suddenly realizing that Suq wasn't on the bridge anymore. When had he left? Probably during their docking maneuver. Derik swore under his breath. They weren't in a committed relationship or anything, but they were good friends and as much family as the entire crew was to him now after their time together. He was torn, he hated the idea of leaving anyone behind, but he also knew that he would be useless in engineering, his proficiencies in that were barebones and mostly related to navigational systems.

Finally, he nodded in acceptance as the second officer looked his way again, following orders to leave the ship. He had to hope that he could be useful aboard The Theurgy. He needed to do something, needed something to distract his mind from all the chaos, death, and his worries about everyone around him, and his own safety.

He saw another bridge crewman limping towards the door with a leg injury of some kind. Derik made his way over and put the man's arm over his shoulder and helped him get to the doors quicker. He looked back briefly as he left the bridge, saying a silent goodbye to his home for the last few years, their protector from all the threats they had faced and overcome, and thanked her. Then he turned and left her behind, probably for the last time.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #61 –
[Lieutenant Talidenai zh'Idenna/Wolf-01/USS Orcus]
ATTN: White Wolves squadron

After her brief conversation with the captain, Tali rested her head against the headrest of her fighter and did one last check of her weapon systems as a way of calming herself down.

She was moments away from fighting against fellow officers of the fleet, traitors or not, it still left a foul taste in her mouth...

...especially since one of them was so close to her and her lover.

<Are you alright, my Mol-Kom?> T'Zantha's voice came through a private channel from her fighter parked near by and Tali turned her head just enough and she could almost make out the vulcan's red eyes peering back at her.

Tali nodded, "I'm fine, Sniper. Just a little concerned as we're going up against two carriers worth of fighters with one of those being our old tender..." she started to say.

<Mol-Klom, that is not what I mean and I know that you know it.> Sniper said in her usual emotionless tone but Tali knew better, she could almost hear the pleading in her voice.

Once again Tali started to nod but she stopped and shook her head. "No, I'm not alright. I'm about to launch an offensive against fucking CJ and his brother is perfectly fine with it...even after that conversation we had.." she fumed.

<I understand all too well, especially considering the other item my love.> Sniper said, using the one word that she hardly used for some reason that only was known to Sniper.

<Lieutenant, do you have any words of wisdom for us before we go joylessly into battle?> came the voice of Tali's RIO from her spot in the back of the fighter.

Tali nodded in agreement as she opened up a squadron wide channel. "Alright my pups, I've taught you everything I know and I have to say that I'm proud of how all of you have turned out and I know that this coming fight is going to be the hardest we've had."

The Zhen took a breath and closed her eyes, trying not to focus on what was going to come next. "But I know that you'll all do your duties to the best of your abilities and since your my squadron, I know that is pretty damn impressive."

She inputted a couple of commands and then shunted them to the other pilots. "Alright upon Omega Two dust off, which if you have forgotten, Meerkat, means that once we drop out of warp all of us well be launching at once."

She then inputted another command and brought up a close wire frame outline of the Orcus herself with the squadron surrounding it with three marked in blue. "Wolf Flights One, Five, and Nine will do a full deploy with Five taking out the first wave of hostile small craft followed by Nine and One."

"Flight Thirteen, you're on intercept duty, I want you to make sure that nothing slips past us and hits the carrier fighter wise. We only have a partial briefing on what fighters were left with the Theurgy and Harbinger, so I want you on your best game." Tali explained as she marked Wolf-13's flight in teal before tabbing a third in gold.

"Wolf Seventeen, I want you to prep for bombing run against the Vectors of the Theurgy in case they are active. I know that Sniper has a tendency of calling you Gold Squadron because of that old vid she found, but if it works you understand?" she finished up before taking a breath.

"In the end, we've got this and hopefully we'll get through this day without loosing anyone but I am trusting you all with your own judgement out there. This is Terror out." She finished before closing the channel.

A few seconds later, the alarms went off for the launch to happen and Tali thumbed the control to full positive thrust as her first block production model AC-477 Mark One Valarvn flew out of the hanger of the Orcus and into the black..

..and into a scene straight out of one of Sniper's vids about the Dominion War as she took in the burning starship docking with one of the Vectors of the Theurgy as a massive wave of torpedoes slammed full force into the starbase.

"Shocker, Radar..get me a quick scan of the area. Find me out names of the players!" Terror snapped into the squadron's communication channel.

<Got them, sir. Confirmed markers for the Starship Theurgy..but the other one is the Resolve!> came Shocker's voice.

<The Resolve, wasn't she lost a few years back..dnd confirmed, the heavily damaged Luna is indeed the Resolve!> came Metalhead's RIO in the form of "Radar".

<Perhaps there is more going on then we know?> Sniper calmly stated as she waited for the final command from their overall commanding officer.

"Acknowledged, hold your guns until we get the attack order from Orcus Actual." Terror said as she shunted some energy double front. "And someone tell me where the Harbinger and her squadrons are?"

After a few seconds, Shocker's voice came back with <Sir, I'm not picking up the Harbinger at all but apparently there are some shuttles out there which are the type eight models..acting as fighters..>

Tali couldn't help but blink at that before Radar also came back with <Tally ho..one fighter marked as attached to the Harbinger, sending data to you know Lieutenant.>

A second later in a dedicated portion of her suit's view screen and her heart dropped along with her stomach somewhere past the bottom access hatch of her fighter.

"I don't want anyone to start shooting yet..we need authorization." she growled into the squadron's channel as a way of covering up her own fear.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #62 –
[Commander Carrigan Trent | USS Theurgy Bridge] Attn: all

Trent was good at what he did.  Between his expertise as a tactical officer and his experience commanding a starship in battle, he had proven himself to be adequate at managing the current battle, coordinating the fire from three vectors, the efforts of Theurgy's fighters, and more recently the efforts from the Resolve and her own auxiliary craft.  But even with the Starbase's combat capabilities severely pruned back by virtue of having destroyed or disabled its tactical control array and put a serious dent in her fighter completement, there was still only so much he could do. 

Especially when another ship dropped out of warp.  And while he did not voice his displeasure at such an arrival, the XO's face tightened a little.  The Orcus.  How could that be?  Last he had heard, when still on the Archeron, she was still working up following acceptance trials and was nowhere near ready for operational deployment.  But then, he realized the reason behind it... And he had to make the Captain aware, immediately on the heels of her hail.  "Captain, our time window is getting really bloody narrow here.   I was briefed on the Orcus and she wasn't expected to join Sankolov for another six weeks after working up.  But that wasn't counting on Captain Slayton.  His tactical scores are off the charts, better than you or me for that matter and he's got a will like a force of nature.  If he sets his mind to taking us out, we're in real trouble." 

Trent's voice was as calm as it could be for the time being, and as he spoke he was focusing on other things.  Resolve had docked with them and the crew was being transferred on board, and that was a good thing.  According to his readings, that ship had been barely holding together even before they got hammered by the Starbase and her fighters.  And now, she was as much dead weight hanging under Vector 01 as she was.  "And Sir, we need to cut Resolve loose sooner rather than later.  Effectively she's dead weight right now and if we have to drag her around, it'll kill our ability to maneuver, and she's occluding a good portion of our firepower.  And if anything gets through our shields, there's not much left to her hull, and if she goes we're going with her."

With those reports given, he could start looking at the actual tactical situation.  Yes, a new fighter had come in, and the moment it had identified itself, Trent found himself satisfied with the authentication, and one nod to Yukimura was enough to cut the fighter into Theurgy's targeting systems.  Perhaps he could not give Ravon the filters to deal with the EW just yet, but at least access to the tactical feeds would be enough to give him something to shoot at.  But that was just a start.  A recent hit had caused a power surge and some computer runs were cut.  But not just any, some involving the point-defence systems. And with waves of fighters coming in from Orcus and the Starbase, that was in the realm of Bad Things.  Things that needed addressing. 

Stark already had her hands full, but it needed to be dealt with immediately.  And that left exactly one officer he could contact.  "Mister Tovarek, Starboard Dorsal point defence is out of the net and operating strictly in local autonomous mode.  I need you to re-route some computer channels to bring them back in before we get hammered again." 

And still, there was plenty to do.  Such as dealing with that 'Sabine' and her rather odd escort.  "Sabine, this is Theurgy Tactical.  Transmit your information to us and then prepare to land in our upper shuttlebay and cut all power and engines the moment you get captured by the landing tractor beams, be ready to be met by our security."  But that was not all.  With Resolve docked, control of her fighter element would fall to Theurgy, and incidentally to Ives via Trent.

But things were getting worse, for another warp signature had gone active, and coming out of the Starbase's smashed doors in the wake of the last of her fighters: a single Defiant-class ship.  "Oh Hell."  This was the first time in the whole engagement the XO showed any real emotion.  The situation was getting worse than he'd imagined, and there was even the rest of Task Force Archeron that was on its way.  They were about to be trapped if the boarding parties did not get their jobs done quickly...

And so he keyed his mike again.  "All Theurgy and Resolve fighters, fall back into a defensive posture for close-support to the Vectors."  Then, he switched channels, contacting this time the teams that had boarded the Starbase.  "Boarding parties, space superiority is... hotly contested so you are directed to expedite your mission and extraction." 

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #63 –
[Ensign Six and Ensign A'vura Zeshryr | Briefing Room | Resolve] Attn: Evacuees and FollowTomorrow
 
A'vura was disheartened at the prospect of evacuating the only home she had held for the last 3 years, not to mention the fact that as every minute passed more and more crew members unable to make it to the Theurgy were dying all around them. Tears streamed her face as the Captain gave the order for the bridge to leave and move to the Theurgy, and as she was pushed along with the rest of them she glanced back behind her at her Captain, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that this would be the last time she ever laid eyes on him. In doing so she took a photo of his grim features in her mind's eye, forever committing this moment to memory. Even if it was a dire situation should her Captain not make it out of this alive she wanted to be sure that this moment was locked away forever for her to recall when she liked.

Soon enough she was outside of the Resolve and being ushered by Theurgy security to a briefing room that held a linked image of the Bridge of the Theurgy for everyone to view the progress of the battle. Only the bridge crew were in that briefing room. And there was a silence that washed over them as they all watched on with a mixture of desolate emotions. In her own eyes it was hard to focus on the screen before her, tears nearly blinding her and staining her cheeks.

Meanwhile in Engineering Six had little intentions of abandoning ship at this point. Suq was on his way and Six was still linked up to the ship's computers, her link being the only thing keeping the warp core together at the moment and preventing a ship-wide meltdown. All around her parts of the ship were deteriorating and falling to pieces, while other non-regulation portions of the ship were miraculously holding in tact. Whatever bandaid and superglue solutions the crew had administered while on their three year trek were holding together so well that were it not for them the ship would have fell completely apart by now.

All around her the crew was fleeing for their lives, evacuating to the Theurgy in an almost panic, yet despite that there was a sense of calm over Six as if there was nothing that couldn't be accomplished still if they worked hard and put their minds to it. In the mess of things her braids had come loose from their pins and were hanging around her face in a wild array. And she could hear the huffed tone of Suq as he made his way down the corridors toward engineering at a dead run. Six tapped her combadge and replied to Suq, "Six here, Suq there's no way I'm letting you take all the celebrity as they say." The real turn of phrase was all the glory of course but Six was constantly mixing up her words and phrases, still not used to true human distinction when it came to language.

"Right now my implant is the only thing holding us together. I believe I can configure a core blast in one of the leaks and set it ablaze to help fire off the core like a missile as you say, and aim it toward whatever we may wish. The Starbase comes to mind at the moment though I'd be remiss to target so many innocent lives. Most of the starbase is, after all, innocent. We can also aim it right in the middle of the cluster of interceptors out there bombarding us," she suggested to him as she worked still with the ship's computer to keep the shields in tact long enough for as many people to get on the Theurgy as possible.

"As soon as we've configured the core to eject and projectile where we want we should make a furious dash off the ship and evacuate ourselves," she continued right as Suq entered engineering to assist.
"You wish to knock over cows? What is the significance of this? Do you derive pleasure from such things?" - Ensign Six

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #64 –
[ Lt Cmdr. Miles "Iron-Fox" Renard | Wolf-01 Cockpit | Outside Starbase 84 ] Attn: All Fighter Elements & the Theurgy

"Wolf Leader, Lieutenant Daniel Havenborn, Grey Wolf-01, Callsign Salvo; up-link confirmed.  I'm currently the SCO of what's left of the Grey Wolves, what do you need Commander?"

Hearing the response from the SCO of what little was left of the Grey Wolves, Miles remembered the name of the man, confirming that he was one of those that had been lost on the Resolve for three years. Miles did not know the man personally, but it was all the confirmation he needed. Two interceptors fell in behind him, delaying his reply as they opened fire and hammered down his shields.

Growling, he flipped his stick sideways and initiated a barrel roll, only angling it in a downward arc through the intense engagement - passing debris and other wolves in his evasive manoeuvre. The two interceptors gave chase, lurching their ungainly crafts to follow by using their thrusters to support the quick turn - a course-change that their impulse engines alone wouldn't have managed. One of them had quantum torpedoes mounted underneath its nacelles, and Miles could almost foresee when they'd be fired. He was ready, spinning his Valkyrie upside down and jamming his thumb down on the trigger for his M-142 twin-mount turrets. The reverberations from the mass driver could be felt in his seat - point defence fire cutting the distance towards the interceptors and the approaching torpedoes.

The auto-fire targeting system sought the heat emissions, and the turrets homed on on the first torpedo. When it was hit, the detonation caught the second torpedo as well, going of in a consecutive flare. The first pursuing interceptor did not have time to evade, jolted out of course by the force of the blast, and the second didn't have time to evade the first. Through his TVD vision, Miles looked over his shoulder and saw the massive collision - parts of shredded fuselage obscured by their exploding quantite reactor cores.

Turning his Valkyrie around, his thoughts had already left his small feat of survival, and he saw how Hat Trick's signature was gone from his HUD. With a sinking feeling in his gut, he thought the signatures of Ghost and Goldeneye were about to wink out too... but then...

A Reaver tore through the battle, cutting apart interceptors with mismatched cannon fire, and Miles could not believe his slitted eyes. It was no true Reaver, but rather a hybrid of Valkyrie and one of the Calamity's fighters. To his continued surprise, Theurgy Tactical marked it as a friendly craft, and it was not until he saw the comm link update and the designation that he understood what had happened.

"Thomas Ravon!" he exclaimed, setting a course that would aid Ghost and Goldeneye against whatever little remained of their assailants. "Wolf leader to Razor, you have squadron channel access. I don't know what the story is behind that cobbled together atrocity you are flying, but you have been missed. Outrider, form Element with Razor an-"

Miles took a hit, and lost his breath. The severed nacelle of an interceptor had hit his Valkyrie, and he had lost control, spinning off towards the massive shields of Starbase 84. In the last moment, he managed to wrench his fighter away, levelling out. He had lost Gun-shy, not able to get a visual on his wingmate.

[Warning. Shields at 15 %,] announced the voice of his Valkyrie's computer. [Plasma leak in starboard core. Warning.]

"Reroute power, tapping the other core only and shut the damaged one down," he snapped, then tapped the squadron channel again. "You heard me Razor. Defend Vector 02 with Fasha and Husker! Gun-Shy, where are you?"

[I-I'm straggling behind you. I am out of hard-points, and I'm almost out of shiel-]

On his HUD, Gun-Shy's signature vanished. His eyes widened, he knew his young Trill wingmate was gone. He didn't even see who or what had hit her. Still, the battle was far from over. He had to focus, not letting the death of his new wingmate get to him.

 [All Theurgy and Resolve fighters,] came the voice from Commander Trent, [fall back into a defensive posture for close-support to the Vectors.] The order was clear and succinct enough, but it was not until Miles spotted the Vesta-class ship and its fighters - along with the Defiant-class USS Chester emerging from Starbase 84 - that he knew the reason. Two capital ships had entered the scene while they'd been busy with the interceptors, and there were still more of them left. Focus...

"Wolf Leader to Salvo!" he said, falling back on his training. At long last, he resumed his call to the Resolve's SCO, seeing how the remaining Mk II Valkyries from the Resolve were defending the Sabine, and how it was being escorted by a pair of heavily modded shuttles. "Sending squadron comm channel frequency. See the Sabine to safety, Lieutenant, then I suggest we join formation at Vector 01. I will meet you there! Ghost, Goldeneye, Hurl, you defend Vector 03. I am seeing Tovarek drones out there too, and hopefully they can help us as well, mercy be with us..."


[ Captain Ives | Vector 01 | Main Bridge | USS Theurgy ] Attn: All

When the word came that the first ship of the reinforcements were about to arrive, Captain Ives had clenched her hands into fists by her sides as she watched the viewscreen. The Resolve had docked, and Stark had asked where to put them, and Ives had told her to have them brought to the Conference Lounge next door. The word 'Reaver' had made Ives look at Sarresh Morali in bewilderment, but it seemed that there was yet to be a temporal breach made by the enemy. Reassured of that much, Ives had to dismiss the odd development with the arriving Reaver in order to hear Captain Marcus Slayton speak in that dispassionate, cold tone. Hearing him, Ives knew that this man would hardly heed their claim.

"This is Captain Marcus Alexander Slayton, commanding officer of the USS Orcus to the crew of the renegade starship Theurgy. Under the direct authority of the admiralty and Starfleet Command, I am here by ordered to present you with one chance to come to and surrender at once for the crimes of high treason, piracy, and war crimes against the United Federation of Planets and it's allied states."

"To the civilian, Jien Ives, I do not care about your supposed reasons that you betrayed your uniform and or the trust that was put into by the fleet and our government but I will simply say this, your little war against the Federation ends now."

Jien did not ask Stark to patch her through for a response immediately, instead listening to Trent as he gave his opinion about Slayton and what they were up against. She nodded in understanding, her thoughts on Slayton and what Trent was able to confirm about what she had picked up about the battle-proven Captain of the new Vesta-class ship. It was evident that if they went up against him, they could not afford to pull any punches, much less reason with him. The warning shot just confirmed it and for a moment, she considered whether they should surrender - if only to feign a surrender - like she had done when they faced off against the collective might of Task Force Archeron above the atmosphere of Theta Eridani IV. Yet she had heard what Ensign ch'Xinya had said from Stellar Cartography. She was certain that the Orcus had been briefed about what they'd done to fool Admiral Sankolov, so she could not play the same card twice. No, surrendering now was not an option. Not when the line of communication to the boarding parties remained cut by Starbase 84.

"All Vectors, maintain your defences and spread out." She clenched her jaw as she thought, hearing a security guard inform the bridge that Lieutenant Commander ch'Rayya from the Resolve was available if needed, and that the senior staff were due to arrive into the Conference Lounge. She also heard the Reaver-mystery unravel with Thomas Ravon's return - the brief memory of the Ishtar Incident imposing upon her thoughts. Regardless what had happened, a returning Wolf was welcome, and the seasoned pilot quickly aided his pack and the Sabine - a shuttle carrying an officer with evidence that incriminated Captain Hawthorne. It could be Commander Trent was right about the base commander, and yet they still had no means to alert Ensign Henshaw. Perhaps the evidence could tell them something, but she doubted Slayton would be deterred by anything she'd say about Hawthorne. Commander Trent did the right thing, regardless, when he told the Sabine to dock with their Vector.

"Captain Ives to the Orcus," she said, knowing that her voice would be patched through. Her tone was not cold as Slayton's, but rather filled with the passion of the righteous. "We fight to preserve the Federation, as we have always done since we fled Earth. You are being misled by a corrupted Starfleet Command. The orders you act on are not legit, but the will of alien usurpers. Like the changelings in the Dominion War, they impersonate our admirals, and you are taking their word for truth, whereas you should question all that you have been led to believe. The Theurgy will not stand down, but we will not strike the first blow. If you engage us, we will be forced to defend ourselves, and we will do so at any cost. We fight for the truth, for justice, and for freedom, while you are just an ignorant agent of the most insidious threat the Federation has ever faced. Test us at your peril. Ives out."

As if the Orcus was not enough, Jien saw the reason for Trent's sudden exclamation behind her back. Her oaken eyes shifted to the torn bay doors of the starbase, and the Defiant-class starship was marked the 'USS Chester' on the tactical readout on the screen. It seemed it had released its moorings to join the battle, and that was what they needed the least. There were still interceptors harrying their shields and fighters, and now they had yet another contender? Trent ordered all fighters to fall back and defend the Vectors, and Jien heard how he tried to get through to the boarding parties. Again, without result. For all they knew, they might as well be dead already. Were they fighting in vain? Was the message never to be sent?

No, they had to continue, hoping against all odds that either of the teams would be successful. Question was if she should call on aid from their last resort? When the odds were stacked against them, she knew it might mean their extinction. No... They had to try something else.

"Ives to the Fighter Assault Bay," she said, knowing that her voice would be heard in he PA system on Vector 02. "I want all the drones armed and in the air, emitting Mk III Valkyrie signatures, and I want them out there immediately. Alert the Flag Bridge when they are ready. I repeat, we need anything we have left out there now!"

The drones had been their means of escape, meant to fake their warp trail. Instead, they could hopefully deceive that squadron of strange fighters that the Orcus had launched, or better yet, the USS Chester. She doubted, however, that Captain Slayton would be so easily fooled.

OOC: More posts to come! :)

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #65 –
[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt | USS Allegiant | Upper Deck | Bridge ] Attn: Jaya Thorne & Sithck

Thanks to Jaya Thorne, the small crew of the Allegiant were still alive, all except for Ensign Rogers. They had managed to escape the effective range of the starbase's weapons, yet they had no shields left. The hairs on the back of Dewitt's neck stood on its end, knowing that any of the interceptors they passed by might blast them out of the sky. With no means to sustain enemy fire, they had better well keep a safe distance from the battle. If they could, they might dock with Vector 03, but there was no way they could do something like what the Resolve and Vector 01 did - docking mid-battle like that.

What is Sithick doing? she asked herself as the Gorn tore up the deck plating of the bridge, and Dewitt frowned for a moment before she had to return her eyes to the viewscreen. Jaya had just alerted her about the Orcus, and she saw the image of the Vesta-class carrier on the viewscreen. Already, there were fighters launching. As if they didn't have enough enemy fighters already!

"Orders Commander?"

She took a deep breath, maintaining her calm despite their predicament. "Anything we do now might be our last act in this battle, we cou-"

"Re-routing to shields." said Sithick suddenly, and Jennifer looked at the large engineer as he seated himself in the seared chair that Edgar Rogers had occupied. The plasma conduit had detonated below the tactical station, but evidently the controls worked well enough for Sithick to do what he had planned. He had even activated the safety restraints in Thorne's chair before doing so himself. Jennifer followed their example, and so did Morwen. Hernandez had pulled the body of Rogers out of the bridge at that point, so when the Gorn removed artifical gravity, she had no idea how the doctor fared.

[Shields at 39 %,] announced the computer, and Jennifer couldn't believe it.

"Don't wazte it Jaya," said Sithick where he had seated himself.

"Well done, Petty Officer. We might yet make a difference," she said, and couldn't help the lopsided grin that touched her features, feeling strands of her red hair tickle her face as it floated about her.

[Engineering to bridge, we have lost gravity, but...] Ensign Felr said on the intercom, though Jennifer overrode his words.

"We already know. Sitick restored our shields. Remember your zero g training and continue down there." Jennifer gave the situation some thought. "We'll make another pass and give the Theurgy sensor readings on the boarding teams. Hopefully, we'll detect them," she said, and then - in the far distance - she saw another emerge from Starbase 84. The silhouette was unmistakable. She could help but make a bitter-sweet laugh at the way things stacked up against them.

"So, we have a Vesta-class and a Defiant-class joining the battle, and we need to keep out of their sights. Miss Thorne, get close but be smart about it. There is no need for another pass like we did before. Let's disable some of the interceptors too, but stay clear of the capital ships. Engineering! Maintain system cohesion and make sure the sensor array has enough power. Let's go!"


[ Nurse Maal | USS Theurgy | Vector 02 | Deck 11 | Main Sickbay ] Attn: Zenozine & The Counselor (No PO)

With Vector 02 shaking from the phaser fire it sustained in the battle, Maal was doing his best to preform his duties, even if his thoughts returned to the past Chief Engineer that he had allowed to leave Sickbay. He could but hope the Deltan male could make a difference down there. He noticed how both Doctor Maya and the strange one named MacMillan took on arriving patients, and how Doctor Nicander had left to treat the wound he sustained - likely using one of the mirrors in a surgical suite.

When he passed by the Head Nurse duty station, Maal heard a voice from behind it."D-Doctor Nicander, I hate to be a bother, b-but I appear to have begun my labor...I am going to have to steal away some hands to help me to the birthing pool." Maal recognised the voice as Hylota's, and he was already rounding the duty station when she continued. "Because I do not think that I am going to be walking out of here right now."

"Hylota!" he exclaimed as he saw her down there on the floor, half propped up on her arms. "Doctor Nicander just left. Listen, ah, there are so many patients coming in, but I...." His cleared his throat with a rumbling noise, "I can try and help you. Here, I can... I can help you up and support you along the way there."

Feeling like a big fool, Maal reached down and grabbed Hylota's arm and shoulder, pulling her up to a standing position. Then, he tried to slide his broad shoulder underneath her arm, one hand spanning her waist behind her back. "There! Now, yes. Umm, birthing pool it is. Whe- I mean where is that? Is it here in Sickbay? I've never seen any... any pools."

Helplessly, Maal looked around himself to see if he had any help, otherwise, he might end up having to help Hylota lay her eggs alone. Making eye-contact with Hayden O'Connor, a desperate plea in his eyes, he hoped she was not occupied with all the incoming patients.


[ PWO Rihen Neyah | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Nolan & MasterRat

When Rihen made the call to the triage team on standby, she had hardly thought it would work, yet no more had she made call before they materialised in engineering. She was so stunned she couldn't collect her thoughts quick enough to answer the Trill doctor when she asked where they were needed. Instead, she sent her team out to locate the wounded. Still in shock after hearing Kae's voice on the intercom, she numbly accepted the hypospray from Nolak Kalmil. Kae might have saved their lives, but at what cost indeed - as Kalmil put it. Perhaps at the cost of Kae's life?

No! She just couldn't accept that. She began to try and unbuckle herself from the duty station with shaking hands, heard Kalmil dismissing the doctor, perhaps afraid that she'd tear him away from his duties. She just couldn't let the fear get to her. Sudden urgency animated her.

[This is the bridge,] came the voice from Kalmil's combadge, the speaker on Vector 03's battle bridge. [Well done down there. Listen, we need more power to the shields! We are taking quite a heavy beating, so shut down non-essential systems and boost our shield regeneration, will you? If you don't, we'll be looking at a lot of hull breaches, and soon.]

Rihen might have heard the bridge, but she left the task to the Deltan. "Doctor!" she said instead, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder. "There was an explosion in the back, a-and I think Ensign Kae is hurt! Here, I w-will show the way!"

Despite the lurching movements of the starship, Rihen stumbled off towards the door in question, and to her relief, her code seemed to be accepted. Thea's voice came from the control panel.

[Warning, room interior is unsafe. Fire suppression systems are offline.]

"Override! We have to help him! Please!"

OOC: Here is the posting order for the different ships in this Chapter! As you can see, we are close to a chapter change, so all the writers with characters below should keep this in mind, and end their posts in a dramatic/cliffhanger kind of way if you can, but no worries if you can't come up with anything! I am just saying that it could be a good idea. :)

Vector 01 of the Theurgy | Main Bridge: Chapter finished!

Vector 01 of the Theurgy | Conference Lounge: Martin + Ejek + Parnak + Keval + Derik (No PO, hearing Ives' reply to Slayton) > Chapter finished!

Vector 02 of the Theurgy | Main Sickbay: Hayden O'Connor + Hylota/Vinata (No PO) > Chapter finished!

Vector 02 of the Theurgy | Surgical Suite 02: 1) Nicander 2) Maya > Chapter finished!

Vector 02 of the Theurgy | Fighter Assault Bay: Sten Covington (and Eun Sae Ji NPC) > Chapter finished!

Vector 03 of the Theurgy | Main Engineering: Amelya Duv + Nolak Kalmil (No PO) > Chapter finished!

Lone Wolves Squadron: 1) Goldeneye 2) Razor 3) Husker > Chapter finished!

Grey Wolves & Tribble Squadron 1) K'Ren 2) Havenborn > Chapter finished!

USS Resolve: 1) Suq in Engineering 2) Tristan Kendrick on the bridge > Chapter finished!

USS Allegiant: Jaya Thorne > Chapter finished!

SS Sabine: 1) Sera vers Aldnoah 2) Hi'Jak > Chapter finished!

USS Orcus: 1) Dev 2) Garcia 3) Marcus Slayton & SCO 'Terror' > Chapter finished!

I have one more post to write with Nicander in this chapter before I write the starters for the next ones. :)

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #66 –
[ Lt.Com. Martin | Conference Lounge | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]
Attn: Anyone present in the conference lounge

As Martin left the bridge she felt empty inside. As if some great force of God had reached down from the heavens and gutted her. As she neared the door to exit the bridge she glanced back at Kendrick. She vaguely recalled that Suq had dashed out of the bridge a few seconds ago as well, and for a brief moment she envisioned the two of them, floating in space as desiccating corpses. If the explosion didn't kill them then the mix of ebullism, hypoxia, asphyxiation, and-

Martin had to stop there, that line of thought wasn't helping anyone. She had to focus. She squared herself up and fought back her tears as she rushed to reach the Theurgy, helping anyone she might stumble upon along the way. Soon she had reached the airlock and found herself ushered by Theurgy crew members through the numerous halls of this colossus of a ship, and eventually to a conference room at the fore of Deck 01.

Once within, she shut her eyes and tried to calm herself, her breathing shaking as she did so. There was the rest of the bridge crew and most of the senior staff, all sitting there in silence. Nothing needed to be said, the situation really spoke for itself. It was then that she became aware that the only noise in the room was coming from a display nearby. There on the screen was... Captain Ives? Certainly appeared a bit different from what Martin had heard. But none of that mattered, Martin's attention was largely centered on what Ives was actually saying.

"-Have always done since we fled Earth. You are being misled by a corrupted Starfleet Command. The orders you act on are not legit, but the will of alien usurpers. Like the changelings in the Dominion War, they impersonate our admirals, and you are taking their word for truth, whereas you should question all that you have been led to believe. The Theurgy will not stand down, but we will not strike the first blow. If you engage us-" So that is what was happening? Was Hawthorne one of these... things? Is any of this even true? All that Martin could do was whisper "How far does it go?" before lowering her head as she sought to puzzle out all that had unfolded.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #67 –
[Lt. Jg. Suq | Main Engineering | USS Resolve ]
Suq felt vibrations from the ship in his feet. He hated to think he had any sort of connection to this floating hunk of hell and bad memories, but on some level, he could tell which vibrations were shields and which were parts of the ship falling off. As he bolted to engineering, he busied his mind assessing the damage. Their remaining nacelle is likely being overworked, there's a variety of already existing holes in the hull that are probably spreading as they go. He crossed a hallway and saw an emergency barrier in place--and a crewman drifting in open space, grabbing for help where he would get none, too far to be saved but too close to let go of that hope.

His heart stopped in that moment, but his body carried him away. It was a second's glimpse of a walking dead man--or floating dead man, as things may be--but he had a feeling this would stay with him for life.

When he finally reached engineering, he felt glad Six was there. Another living, human being who refused to accept their grim demise. Death loomed, he felt it's breath down his neck, but the spirits willed him to live. She already had a great idea in mind, though neither of them could be too sure on a target.
"Best to coordinate with Theurgy's tactical-- Worst comes to worst we'll, we'll fire it in the middle of battle and, and hope we hit something we don't care 'bout." He huffed. He had his inhaler twice today, he shouldn't need any more, but he felt his breath stolen away, his heart pounding like it wanted to explode and kill him with it. He got himself situated with a console in engineering and brought up a comms link to the Theurgy.
"This is Chief Engineer Suq of the USS Resolve, our warp core's dying, but we can weaponize that. All we need's a target. Standing by for further instruction."

"Okay, Six, shouldn't be long, we'll get our instructions and we'll go. Just hold on a little longer--here, let me do the rerouting. Don't work yourself to death, Resolve's not that important." He fussed. He moved like he wasn't too sure where he was going to go until he got there, but he got to a console and pulled up a map of the EPS conduits across the ship. Many reported breaks in the line and were automatically shut down or rerouted to prevent further leakage. In a few places, plasma was slowly building up with nowhere to go. It would be a stressful hell of a maze to fix, but Suq went at it with all the enthusiasm of an agitated borg. That is to say, he did it with a sense of urgency, but very little visible emotion.

Something held in his mind. Something was eating at him. On the way down to engineering, he thought, briefly, about firing the warp core at their lost nacelle. The explosion would be significant, destructive, possibly pollution-causing, but dazzling to say the least. He bit his lip, wondering whether or not to bring it up...

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #68 –
[ Ensign K'Ren | Grey Wolf-03, callsign "Neko" | Outside Starbase 84 ] Attn: Triage, Havenborn, Resolve & Theurgy Fighter Elements
[ Ensign Miles Jackson | Grey Wolf-03 RIO, callsign "Merlin"]

For any fighter pilot surrounded and alone, back up against the wall, the sound of a familiar voice over the radio, orders given was enough to breath new life into the fighter pilot. Even as she fought to survive, K'Ren had consigned herself to her inevitable death, wanting to take down as many of these fuckers as she could, to acquit herself before her atoms were spread across space and she stepped across the divide where she knew her mate awaited. Hearing Tancredi, meaning her primary mission objective was well, come to her aid, not the other way around, she swung her damaged craft around to join her pack, giving her a chance to asses the damage.

And the damage didn't look good. The shields had taken a beating, they were down to 23% and power was fluctuating thanks to a lucky strike on their warp nacelle while shields had briefly dropped. One didn't need a computer to tell the nacelle was damaged and leaking EPS plasma despite valves upstream having closed, meaning the damage was worse then a quick glance would suggest. Warp was offline, one of the phaser cannon was damaged, the emitter crystal cracked forcing a shutdown "Status Merlin?" she asked her backseater. "What is working on this thing?"

Merlin looked up from his display. "We have thrusters, one phaser cannon, limited impulse, and shields are buckling. We're useless in a fight Neko, One good hit from anything and we're done for." "Roger," K'Ren responded, opening up the secure channel to Tancredi. "Meony, Neko. We're dead in the water here Ensign. We're RTB."

Closing the channel, Neko vectored the fighter towards the Resolve and Theurgy.

The craft was getting harder and harder to control with each passing second. Something else must have been damaged as systems began shutting down left and right. Merlin fought to reroute power as best he could, life support could be ditched as they had the survival suits on. Weapons powered down as they were in no condition to fight. That left shields and engines, and the way the craft was performing even those would be gone before they reached a friendly landing pad. Suddenly a klaxon blared out, a core breach in progress. Merlin knew K'Ren was focused on keeping control of this thing so he pulled the eject lever for the pod, yelling "Bail Bail Bail." over the internal comms, letting Neko know they were punching out.

As he pulled the lever, the core breached, engulfing the craft in fire and flame, he felt the kick of the pod ejecting but as his world went black, Merlin didn't know if they'd made it, or if he would soon be atoms. Either way, as darkness claimed him, Merlin was at peace, he'd done everything he could, it was up to fate to decide the outcome. To an outside observer, the shattered remains of Wolf-03 could be seen to explode, a blip of energy on sensors followed by nothing as the transponder went dead. If the pod had made it clear, there should be a new transponder but none could be seen on sensors.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #69 –
[ F'Rell of the Twelfth House | Fighter Assault Bay | USS Resolve ]
[Show/Hide]
Attn: Auctor

Silver eyes fluttered open and gazed around a debris-covered corridor aboard the Resolve. A long, blue creature lifted into the air before shuddering and lowering a bit. She paused as pain raced through her before slowly coming to her senses. Slowly, she twisted around an inspected her flank, and observed wide gashes in her fragile skin that have since been sealed up by her own regenerative process. As the stinging sensation began to clear, she slowly realized that there was a distinctive yellow shape standing before her. Her eyes squinted and peered, and the shape clarified and took the form of one CPO Liam Herrold, one of the maintenance crewmen that worked in the area. Wincing, she looked around for her translator, with the various appendages along her snaking body feeling around for it. After a few seconds she retrieved the device from beneath a small pile of rubble and twisted her buoyant form around to face Herrold.
 
"Liam Herrold, I have been unconscious for some time, what is happening?" She dimly recalled that the Resolve was attacked, but the pain from the slashes in her flank only served to blot out most of her thoughts. "I apologize if you have said anything before now, I am presently in a very disoriented state." she continued, as colors of alarm and consternation continuously flashed along her twisting body.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #70 –
[ Tessa May Lance | Wolf 07 | Outer space | Within phaser range of Starbase 84 ] 

Tessa pushed her Valkyrie through the empty gulfs of space, heading straight to the titanic mushroom shaped saucer at the superior side of the massive Orunal-class space station that dwarfed Starfleet's largest starships.  The shields surrounding the station had suddenly dropped, and she wasn't going to lose the opportunity to shake her tails.  A swarm of interceptors pursued her, gaining and losing weapons locks on her fighter as the Valkyrie's technologically augmented EMS tried to compensate.  Before the interceptor pilot's unbelieving eyes, she actually flew her fighter into the open drydock that the Resolve had shot its way out of only moments before. 

Screaming like a banshee as she pushed her fighter's Pulsed Trentis Mk. IV RCS Thruster Assembly to its breaking point, Tessa managed to turn her Valkyrie hard to port before she crossed the entire diameter of the spacious drydock bay and zoom along the interior concave curve of the station's hull, emitting girlish squeaks and cries as she dodged runabouts and starships that were docked to the hull of the station.  The pilots behind her abandoned the pursuit as they used the Pulsed Amoena Mk II RCS Thruster Assemblies in their AC-347 Knight-class Interceptors to slow themselves down to avoid crashing into the station's hull themselves.  They had already seen the carnage when their Knights launched when the station's doors were shut and they didn't want a repeat performance.  Nevertheless a few unlucky pilots were spun out of control when they sideswiped the worker bees that were assigned to clear the debris and recover the wreckage from the first group of interceptors to suffer a fatal mishap that day. 

"Ooh, I'm sorry-sorry-sorry!" Tessa whined as the explosions, shrapnel and perfectly intact small craft whizzed this way and that through the massive bay.  "I never thought you'd actually follow me!"  

As evading fighters and out of control worker bees mixed with the floating wreckage that was now moving dangerously quick in random directions Tessa realized that remaining in Starbase 84's drydock was probably more dangerous than facing all of the interceptors outside.  Tessa squeaked as she barely avoided colliding with a Defiant class escort that was docked up to the interior hull.  She missed her first opportunity to exit the way she had come in but on her second pass she managed to dart out of the doors that were now permanently open until repairs could be made.  She didn't notice the Defiant escort she had narrowly missed withdraw its boarding tube and umbilical couplers and follow her.

Suddenly Husker's TVD flared to life with a set of information that made his blood run colder then any of the weather that he'd ever seen on Andoria...colder then how Ida treated him the last moments that he had with her only a day or two before...  But she was out!  She was home free!  She was out of that chaos and into the black empty sky with only...

[Goldeneye, this Hurl,] her missing wingman's voice said over her comlink. 

"Hurl!" Tessa gushed.  "You're alive!  I don't..."

[Not for long, Tessa, you've got a Defiant class escort on your six.  The USS Chester!  It followed you out!]

"AUGH!" she screamed unprofessionally.

["All Theurgy and Resolve fighters, fall back into a defensive posture for close-support to the Vectors."]  Commander Trent's voice ordered.

"With pleasure!" she exclaimed more to herself than anyone else as she activated her fighter's warp drive to travel at half the speed of light for less than a second.   It wasn't tactical speed but she wasn't about to tangle with the Chester.  "Follow me, Hurl!"

["Wolf Leader to Salvo!"] Miles Renard's voice called on her channel.  ["Sending squadron comm channel frequency. See the Sabine to safety, Lieutenant, then I suggest we join formation at Vector 01. I will meet you there! Ghost, Goldeneye, Hurl, you defend Vector 03. I am seeing Tovarek drones out there too, and hopefully they can help us as well, mercy be with us..."]

"Aye-aye sir," Tessa acknowledged before disengaging exterior communications to study the data coming on her heads up display.  "Vector Three,  Vector Three,  where is Vector Three?"

["All Vectors, maintain your defenses and spread out,"] Captain Ives' feminine voice ordered.

"Oh yes, there it is," Tessa murmured innocently.  "And oh look!  That fighter registering as a Reaver!  It's Thomas Ravon!  He's alive!  Did you see that Hurl?" she asked her wingman.  "Razor made it!  He's alive!  Everything's going to be okay!"

Its shields exhausted, Hurl's Valkyrie vanished in an explosion so devastating that it damaged the sensors of the USS Chester that had shot him down.

"Dammit!  Dammit!  Dammit!  Dammit!" Tessa cursed.  "Now all we need is an enemy carrier with a fresh squadron of fighters to come and get us!"

That was when she noticed yet another threat identified on her heads up display.

THREAT IDENTIFIED: USS ORCUS (NX-88770)
CLASS: VESTA (ORCUS-CLASS TACTICAL STRIKE CARRIER)
COMMANDING OFFICER: CPT SLAYTON, MARCUS A.
SQUADRON OF NOTE: WHITE WOLVES SQUADRON

"Nuts," Tessa cursed as piloted her fighter away from the Chester to rendezvous with Rawley and the Theurgy's Vector 03.  "Me and my big mouth.  Can't we get a break?"

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #71 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | SS Sabine | Outside Starbase 84, approaching USS Theurgy ] Attn: Kaligos & All

Sera grimaced as Sabine banked around another piece of debris. The lights dimmed and warnings blared as they took another few phaser hits, but everything seemed to hold together still. She barely managed to dodge out of the way of a torpedo at the last second, but time seemed to slow as the explosion lit up their side display. Images of their insane day passed through her head. 'Sands, everything has gone wrong today,' she thought. She'd made questionable decisions in the name of survival. The images flashing through her head showed her Melissa smiling, Jack saving her from two guards by the shuttlebay, but she also heard the last moments of Melissa's message, her death, and the death of the station members she'd killed. Did she deserve to survive?

She shook her head as time seemed to speed back up and the chaos resumed. Jack deserved to survive, and he deserved to get that evidence to someone who could bring the dead of today justice. She would do that for Melissa. She swallowed all of those thoughts and fueled her grief into anger, using that anger to focus.

Sera tapped at the notifications flashing on her screen, "Shut up you annoying machine, I'm trying to concentrate!"

Sassing her yet again, the computer called out, "Shields at 40%."

She noted the update but her grimace deepened. The damn machine's vocal processors were getting deleted first moment of peace she got. She savored that thought for a moment, letting it give her hope that they would survive this. Jack called out behind her, incensed that she used his name.

"They don't know me from anyone, I had to give them a reason to bring us on board. You're that reason," she said bluntly as if it should have been obvious. She cursed again as more weapons fire came in. "And if you haven't noticed, almost everything out here is trying to kill us anyway!"

Their hero soon arrived with a modified Starfleet shuttle and she spoke with a drawl to her voice. It was the most beautiful thing she'd heard since all of this hell had broken loose. Soon they were in a much better position and Sabine was flying at full speed towards the Theurgy who had given them permission to dock.

However, on the way she saw a fighter near their path explode in a bright light. As Sera changed their course to avoid the debris, she noticed that an escape pod that had cleared the explosion. Her first thought was to ignore it. It wasn't her business, and she was no hero.

Almost accidentally, though, she noticed that the pod wasn't showing up on her sensors. She wondered if its transponder had been damaged somehow. Sera tapped a button to do a quick scan of it. The results made her curse. It was right in front of them, and if anything, it would give them another reason for Theurgy to like her, she thought grudgingly. It was a miracle that she had seen it, and no one else was likely to. Her voice growled as she opened a channel.

"Sabine to escort, I see a fighter eject pod in our path from the Resolve wing. It has life signs, but the transponder's dead. I'm going to alter course just a little and tag it with a tractor on our way to Theurgy, copy."

They took another few phaser hits, but she didn't wait for the response as she looked over at her shoulder at Jack. "I won't be able to slow down. You've got one shot. I know you can do this." It wasn't a pep talk, really, she was just being her bluntly honest self. She locked eyes with him until he nodded to her. She altered course and flew in, the rest would be up to Jack.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #72 –
[Jaya Thorne |  USS Allegiant Bridge] Attn: Auctor, Kaligos, Allegiant Bridge Crew, Sabine crew, Fighters elements & All


Sithick.  The hulking lizard was the last person that Jaya had expected to see in that moment and the confusion showed on her face.  But he clearly wasn't there for a social call.  He was tearing apart the exploded console, or rather, the floor panels beneath it.  This was it.  This was the moment she'd been waiting for.  The moment the Gorn revealed himself for what he really was: a sabotaging assassin.. except..  Except Jaya had always thought it would just be her that died, not her crew mates and CO too.  Had she known he was waiting to take them all out at once, she would have acted against him sooner.  But that's how karma worked, wasn't it?  She had betrayed an entire organization, so here she was watching her assassin do the same.  Her anger boiled over and she couldn't contain her thoughts.

"Sithick!!  You-!"

His scaly arm reached towards her and Jaya yelped.. as his claw tapped a button on her seat and she found herself suddenly strapped in by the seat belt.  She blinked.  "..wait..What?"

With a tap of his claws on the semi-operational console, suddenly Jaya felt her body lift into the air.  Thankfully, her restraints were in place and she remained more or less seated, thanks to a certain Gorn.  Jaya glared openly at him.  What was he even thinking?  He could have just killed them all. Oh, Jaya would have put up one helluva fight, sure, but he likely would have won.  And even if he hadn't, their ship would have been destroyed eventually anyway since they had no shields.  Why then would he go through the trouble of  fixing them??  WHY?  The words coming from Sithick made even less sense than the shields update that the computer had given seconds ago.  39% and holding.. don't waste it Jaya.. as if he cared.. unless..

The possible scenarios ran through her head, going back over the last three years of her life and suddenly Jaya felt lost.  She didn't have an answer to any of it and frankly the whole situation was hurting her brain.  So when Dewitt gave her orders, Jaya focused on those words instead, dragging her scathing gaze from Sithick and focusing on her console instead.  Make a run, don't get dead, take out as many interceptors as she could and get readings on the boarding party.  That was her job.  Her only job.  Easy, now that she had shields up and imminent death wasn't on the horizon.

"Aye, Commander."  The words were mumbled and half audible, but Jaya wasn't focused on speaking.  She was focused on doing her job.  She brought the Allegiant around and locked onto the nearest interceptor, one that happened to be making a run on some of their fighters.  Jaya targeted and fired on the approach.  The interceptor burst into orange flames and debris, but Jaya didn't bat an eye.  She was already targeting the next one and the next.  She had the Allegiant dodging the enemy fighters as they flew closer to the base, and between herself and Morwen, there was a hail of orange fiery debris in their wake. 

But more enemy units were entering the fray and their own fighters were vastly outnumbered.  From the chatter she'd overheard, there were a couple places where more firepower was needed and she could provide that.  Besides, it was on the way to where she wanted to go and she felt the need to make a dent in those Interceptors.  Jaya's second pass was a strafing run on a perpendicular course to the Sabine and her escort.  The ship had just gone off-course and as Jaya saw the enemy fighters swooping in to close the gap, she barked at Morwen.

"Morwen, take out those Interceptors!  That ship is flagged non-hostile and she's limping along!"  Morwen rained phaser fire and torpedoes down on the four interceptors hot on the escaped ship's tail as Jaya used defensive maneuvers to avoid colliding with anything.  All four broke apart under the attack and only one managed a potshot at the Sabine.  It missed, but Jaya now saw why the ship went off course.  It had a tractor beam up and was intent on dragging something like a pod with it to dock with the Theurgy.  Hopefully, the pilot was alive.

["SS Sabine, this is USS Allegiant.  Good work with that tractor beam!  You're clear for now, but there's a helluva lot more out here."]  Jaya would have said more, but really what more was there to say in the heat of battle?  She was just pleased everything was going as well as it was, and now they'd cut a path through the enemy.  It was time to do some more damage.

Jaya surveyed her navigational screen and pulled up the safest point to monitor friendlies on the Starbase.  She steered the Allegiant towards that marker in the most effective way possible: by taking out the Interceptors in her way.  Shields were still holding at 39% and their weapons were still fully functional, so Jaya aimed for speed.  As she wove her way through the battle, something rocked the ship and an alert sounded as she shields fell to 36%.  Jaya showed nothing on the viewscreen firing at them, so she brought up the rear and there they were: two Interceptors clearly firing and chasing them. 

Now Jaya grinned.  "Oh, look at you, sneaky little bastards creeping up behind me.  Think you got what it takes to take me down?  Think again assholes!"  She was mumbling to her console, and with the alert sounding on the bridge, she doubted anyone else could hear her.  At least everyone was already buckled in so she didn't have to warn them when she had the Allegiant dive and buck to lose the enemy at her tail.  One went veering off as she somehow outmaneuvered their smaller crafts, but two more joined the fight.  Each hit knocked the shields down another percent, despite Jaya's excellent tactics at defensive weaving.  So when she saw a group of Interceptors dead ahead, she decided to go for it.  Since she couldn't shake them off, maybe she could make them do something crazy instead.

They saw her ship flying at them, and they opened fire.  Jaya dodged most of their shots, but let a couple through as glancing blows when the timing was right.  One glancing blow to the starboard side of the Allegiant was a direct hit to one interceptor behind her.  A second glancing blow to the port underbelly of her ship sent a different Interceptor spinning out at crashing into a third somewhere below them.  Now it was a game of chicken and Jaya was entirely too calm.  She sped towards the Interceptors in front of her despite the mounting tension on the bridge.  She knew what she was doing.  She'd done this trick before, in a heavier, clunkier ship without the fine-tuned reflexes that Federation technology provides. 

The computer warned about an approaching impact and Jaya ignored it.  She ignored everything except her console readings.  Morwen had all the weapons for this run, since Jaya needed to concentrate, and that's exactly what she was doing.  Concentrating on the exact right moment to..

Not yet... ...

"Augh!  UP!!!"  Jaya's fingers raced over her console as the enemy Interceptors dropped below their view screen and the Allegiant changed course amidst a halo of orange sparks.  The computer alert stopped and Jaya exhaled.  Apparently they were being pursued by five Interceptors (another had joined somewhere along the way), and Jaya had just made the remaining four crash into a group of five other Interceptors.  The Allegiant pulled away as Morwen continued to fire at the enemy, damaging and destroying as many as she could.  Jaya felt triumphant despite the little voice telling her it was a stupid, risky thing to do.  She would get yelled at later.  Right now, it was good to be alive.

And speaking of alive, they were finally close enough to monitor life sign readings on the Starbase.  Jaya had the sensors scan for friendly readings.

"Commander, scans show-"

Alerts sounded throughout the ship as something hit it.  Jaya checked for hostiles and she cursed as she found them.  Five more Interceptors, as far as she could tell, were closing in and firing.  Another run across the field might shake them, but she didn't think she could play chicken twice in the same fight and win.  So she continued her unusual combat defense strategy of weaving through the enemy.  She was grateful this little ship was so agile despite her seemingly large size compared to a fighter, but it seemed her trail was easier to follow this time.  Either that, or these enemy pilots were just better than the last bunch.  They were still close enough that if Dewitt needed to, she could read the life sign scans herself, but she'd have to do it fast.

"Commander, I can't shake them and I don't think my trick will work a second time!  These guys are slightly better than the last group!"
"Relationships are not my strong suit; I deal in evenings."
 - Jaya Thorne, Asst. Chief CONN Officer, Ensign [Show/Hide]

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #73 –
[Dr. Hayden O'Connor| USS Theurgy | Vector 02 | Deck 11 | Main Sickbay ]

For the Theurgy's medical staff, the progress of the battle raging outside wasn't measured by explosions on a viewscreen, status reports on a tactical console, or even the number of damage control teams deployed throughout the ship. No, battle progress, and indeed even the understanding of battle was happening at all, was measured in the trickle or deluge of patients coming through the infirmary doors. It was measured in the number of overturned medical trays that had to be righted after each time the floor plating shifted under their feet preceded by a thunderous sound as the ship took yet another hit. It was measured by the intensity in the staff's voices as they constantly assessed from minute to minute whether they had control over the influx of patients or whether they were on the verge of losing control.

In the infirmary, the only thing that mattered was tending to the patient directly in sight and then moving on as quickly as possible to the next one. Grabbing on to the nearest console, or in some cases, the nearest person to keep steady had to be a minor inconvenience at worst and just simply part of the infirmary battle dance at best. For all any of them knew, they were all close to death, and the Captain was mere seconds or minutes away from making such an announcement. Still, they couldn't let such worries of their future existence get in the way of the task at hand. After all, thinking of their future existence could only seem like a fanciful luxury compared to the spurting wounds in front of them.

Doctor Hayden O'Connor was tending to such a wound now. Force fields could only hold for so long in certain places and bolts and metals didn't consider where they would land when they flew off in the heat of battle, and in this case, an engineer had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He would lose his leg if Hayden couldn't get the bleeding stopped, but fortunately, she'd been able to apply a tourniquet in time to stabilize her patient until he could get surgery. O'Connor was able to reach the critical man because nurses like Vinata were focused on triage and on treating the minor injuries so the infirmary could be cleared and the staff could more clearly see what critical patients they needed to attend to. O'Connor wasn't a surgeon, but she was grateful that everyone was doing their part so she could do her very best in turn.

As Hayden attended to her critically injured engineer, she couldn't help but feel as if someone's eyes were on her and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. The psychiatrist pushed the sensation away, attributing it to her own anxiety and fear of failure. Everyone had too much of their own work to do, obviously, and surely wouldn't have time to consider whether she was saving a life or was indeed in trouble. Hayden allowed herself a second or two to watch the bleeding slow and to offer her patient a reassuring smile. He was awfully pale, but she had done what she could to stabilize him, and at least he wasn't in immediate danger any longer. Now, she just had to hope they could get him to surgery as soon as possible.

Sweat dripped off Hayden's nose and as she looked down at her trauma gown, which was covered in her latest patient's blood as well as a combination from others. At a certain point, not changing gowns to move to patients quicker became more risky to her health and to that of her future patients, so she knew she had to change. She moved toward the nurse's station and saw up ahead there was a stack of clean gowns available. That was when the feeling she was being watched intensified, and as she grew closer to the desk, she immediately understood why.

Seeing Nurse Maal doing his best to practically drag or carry Hylota to somewhere, anywhere, for help, Hayden didn't need a medical tricorder to know Hylota was in labor. Although she knew the timing wasn't ideal, this wasn't a surprise given what Hylota and Vinata had taught her about Ovri gestation. Based on their information, Hayden knew there was a good possibility that today would be the day, and she had informed Hylota in advance that she was going to set up the birthing pool in Isolation Ward 2. Both women didn't relish the idea of tying up part of the isolation ward possibly in the heat of battle, but they agreed it was the space most suitable for their needs already. Modifying another room would take time and resources they really couldn't afford, and while Hayden didn't anticipate any complications, she had to admit, she liked the idea Hylota would already be close to a surgical suite if things went wrong.

She knew Hylota didn't relish the idea of taking Hayden away from her duties any more than the female Ovri hated to think she might be pulled away from her own important work in the middle of battle, but O'Connor knew she wouldn't have been able to concentrate on anyone else properly if she knew Hylota was laboring alone or with minimal support. Hayden didn't believe she was the only one who could help Hylota, of course, but she'd created a bond of sorts with the Ovri nurse throughout her pregnancy, a bond as close as Hylota allowed with her, anyway, and she wasn't going to leave her at this critical point. Besides, as far as Hayden knew, Hylota's potential offspring would be the first to be born aboard the Theurgy, and O'Connor felt a certain responsibility to ensure they survived, a focus of hope and joy for the entire crew during this uncertain time.

Locking eyes with Maal, she could see the pleading in his own and she offered a slight nod of acknowledgement and reassurance as she said, "I've got the birthing pool already set up in Isolation Ward 2.  Maal, do you need help or do you just want me to lead the way?"  She could tell Hylota was in pain and was trying to keep it together.  She didn't want to break Hylota's focus, but she also didn't want to treat her like she was invisible either, so she added, "After that, it can be just us women if you like.  I'm here to help keep you as comfortable as possible, so we can do whatever you need."

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #74 –
[ Dr. Silim Parnak | Bridge | U.S.S. Resolve ] Attn: Kaligos, FollowTomorrow, Auctor Lucan, Anyone else 

The castle was burning and from on high, the nobles could do naught but watch.

Automated fire suppression systems worked overdrive to clear the smoke as the bridge rattled under the latching mechanism from Theurgy. The ship had found valiantly against overwhelming odds, not only in part because of the work of the Efrosian engineer and Human science officer. The surprise of Ives offering aid had forced Parnak to question his perceptions of the being, most of the information he had received on that topic had come from Federation news sources anyway and as such could only be trusted so far. If nothing else, this whole situation would make his next letter to family more interesting than any of the previous he had sent.

Captain Kendrick gave the evacuation order and officers began their preparations for leaving the ship behind, although Silim got the distinct impression that Kendrick would not be joining them. It was a shame really, Parnak had come to like the human for all his faults. Feeling a squeeze on his shoulder, Silim looked up, directly into the eyes of Ejek. The Cardassian counsellor he had found aboard this peculiar vessel. No words needed to be said, he could see it all from her furrowed brow and concerned expression. It was time to leave.

"Captain, if you ever make it Cardassia after all of this blows over, let me know. We simply must sit down for tea." Silim said with sly ease and a smile. With that, he stood and followed the ensemble of officers. Past smoking corridors and sparking panels, the group found their way to the airlock. At once, he felt a tug in the small of his elbow and Parnak turned. Ejek's hand was tucked in there.

"Keep going, I, uhm, need to check for other crewmembers." Ejek spoke, quietly at first, as if not sure of what she was saying, though there was a small fire behind those eyes.

"Until later then. Take care." Silim nodded and patted his shorter compatriot gently on the shoulder. He gave her one last look over before carrying on. In truth, it would be good to have a break. Silim knew that in the coming hours following the battle, assuming they survived, he would need to prove his usefulness to Captain Ives. He doubted it would be he would be as easy as Kendrick and for that he would need all his wits. Ejek clouded things for Silim and this was not the time to be distracted by subtle young Cardassian flesh, nor what he could do it.

Heading past the security guard directing them all to a turbolift, Parnak was lost in thought. Working through the hypotheticals on the best way to woo Ives. Perhaps just maybe, if he managed it, this time aboard Theurgy could be useful. The Cardassians didn't have much information on Chameloids, hopefully Silim Parnak could change all that.
 
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