Chapter 04: Invictus [06: Calamity] Attn: IronFerrox, Kurohigi, Searcher, CanadianVet, Doctor Maya, DocReno, Nolan & RosariaRosette[ USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ] Attn: Carrigan Trent, Billy Bob O'Connell & Declan Vasser. Optionally: MorriganWhen T'Rena heard her own voice being repeated on the intercom - her message recorded and broadcast - she pushed away from the computer console and walked off towards the turbolifts. Pure instinct made her move, and she reasoned she did not have to remain still to eventually hear the Intelligence Officer's reply, and it was more effective to make her way down to Deck 08 and handle the situation on her own. She had already sent off Phantom to Sickbay together with two of his Tactical Conn pilots, but two more remained with her, so she halted them from following her aboard the turbolift.
"I saw on the internal sensors that there were a lot of resistance people heading towards Life Support and the second Battle Bridge on this Deck. Lay an ambush and call for reinforcements. Report to me when they have been handled."
"Aye, Captain," said Smoke, Titan quickly ran off together with him to lay their makeshift ambush not far from there - calling for more people under Vasser's command to join them.
As T'Rena headed down the turbolift, she tapped her combadge. "T'Rena to Ravenholm. I demand that the reprogrammed version of Thea is uploaded to the computer core immediately. You have been granted access, and we are still waiting. I need Thea to vent the atmosphere from Vector 03:s Battle Bridge."
When there was no reply, T'Rena could not help running the analysis of what had just happened - the repercussions catching up with her. For some odd reason, her free hand was hurting. She looked at it, and she saw that it was curled into a white-knuckled fist - her palm bleeding from the bite of her nails. Breathing evenly, she worked her fingers - loosening them. While blood dripped to the floor, she assessed her actions again, and again. An oversight, no matter how she looked at it. Her words had not been meant for the whole ship to hear, and it was likely that Carrigan Trent had managed to rally a lot of support for Ives' cause. The prolonged fighting aboard did not harbour good odds to fight the
Calamity.
There was a sense of vertigo as the analysis yielded more and more unfavourable results, and images began to flash before her eyes. Images that she had not considered for many decades. Vulcans in robes, killed and shedding green blood on the white bedrock. Brigands, screaming in repentance for what they had done to her acolytes. The outpost in flames, just like her home - a home she could still remember because of her training at the temple. Pleading voices, for her to give mercy. She alleviated their pain, and brought it down unto the filthy animals that had come their way. Snapping bones. Tearing of skin. Spatter of ichor on dewy grass.
[Deck 08] said the turbolift, and T'Rena opened her eyes - twain slits cutting the length of the corridor. She had lost control of her breathing, nostrils flaring as she set out towards the Battle Bridge. Her intent was clear, and it was to repeat history - to tear the lesser creatures apart for their slight. She needed neither Ravenholm nor an A.I. to end the lives of mere humans, and the matter had become... personal. "Computer, override the authority of Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent and seal all doors to both Battle Bridges. Only my command may open them. Rescind all command privileges and system access from said officer on my authority, T'Rena-Captain-Five-Beta-Niner. I also want the intercom disabled from this moment. Acknowledged?"
[Doors sealed. Access rescinded. Communication channel disabled.]
That would suffice before she reached this Lieutenant Commander Trent. He would not seed any more unrest aboard her ship before she killed him.
[ USS Theurgy | Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Selena RavenholmSelena Ravenholm and Thea had gained access to the Upper Computer Core, but they were not alone. At the back stood one of the mutineers, namely the suspicious Catian by the name Ghaan. Outside the doors were three more mutineers, guarding the room from any resistance cells, but Ghaan was inside, watching the back of the two women that were about to reach the main console.
That was when T'Rena began to speak on the intercom - and Thea frowned in alarm.
[Captain T'Rena to Lieutenant Commander Trent, this is not acceptable, and I hope you realise how futile your efforts truly are. We are about to upload a reprogrammed version of the Ship A.I. from her mobile emitter and into the pasitronic brain core. Whatever access you might have gained from Lieutenant Fedd will then be rescinded and if you do not surrender immediately, Thea's first act to further our cause will be to shut down life support on your Battle Bridge. So unless you put away your weapons and surrender, you will be taking the lives of everyone on that bridge with you as you draw your last breaths. You will not be able to shut her out of her own systems, so I do suggest you comply. State your choice, Lieutenant Commander.]Pausing her step to gauge the development, Thea turned her attention towards Selena, and she also wanted to know how Ghaan might react. She knew that the encryption specialist had felt ill when hearing the Vulcan in the turbolift, since the mind-meld still lingered in her subconsciousness. In the wake of the Vulcan's words, Carrigan Trent replied in defiance, but at the same time, Selena Ravenholm's combadge chirped - heralding T'Rena's words as she contacted the cybernetically enhanced woman.
[T'Rena to Ravenholm. I demand that the reprogrammed version of Thea is uploaded to the computer core immediately. You have been granted access, and we are still waiting. I need Thea to vent the atmosphere from Vector 03:s Battle Bridge.]Would Selena manage to resist T'Rena's indoctrination, and keep silent about Thea's true nature?
"What is the matter?" asked Ghaan angrily, stepping closer with his phaser in hand.
[ USS Theurgy | Corridor | Close to the Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Lin Kae & Skye Carver. Optionally: MorriganNot far away on Deck 05, the Holographic Specialist and two women at his side - Fighter Pilot Skye Carver and Engineer Rihen Neyah - were being held up by a hologram. She looked like Thea, wearing her golden security body suit, but all that she said to them was that she would let Lin Kae through, but only him. If Rihen or Skye would step closer, she would apprehend them and detain them until T'Rena could perform her mind-meld on them.
It was unclear what they could do. Were they to leave Lin Kae at the mercy of the hologram? Should they double back and find some other way? Dared they even move in the opposite direction or would Thea follow them? Also, was this really Thea in front of them, brainwashed and left guarding the corridor?
[Captain T'Rena to Lieutenant Commander Trent, this is not acceptable, and I hope you realise how futile your efforts truly are. We are about to upload a reprogrammed version of the Ship A.I. from her mobile emitter and into the pasitronic brain core. Whatever access you might have gained from Lieutenant Fedd will then be rescinded and if you do not surrender immediately, Thea's first act to further our cause will be to shut down life support on your Battle Bridge. So unless you put away your weapons and surrender, you will be taking the lives of everyone on that bridge with you as you draw your last breaths. You will not be able to shut her out of her own systems, so I do suggest you comply. State your choice, Lieutenant Commander.]If it wasn't the real Thea - and they still had time to reach the Upper Computer Core and stop what the Vulcan was talking about on the intercom - would they be able to make it in time? During this impasse, Carrigan Trent replied to T'Rena's message in death-defiance. Were they hearing a dead man's last stand? Rihen hoped that they could stop it from happening. She did not want the man to die. Too many had already died for Starfleet reasons that she could not quite understand. The panic nearly overtook her. "We must do something! We are so close!"
[ USS Harbinger | Corridors | Deck 07 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya DuvAs they set their brisk pace down the corridor, heading for the turbolifts and stunning one or two crewmen on the way there, ThanIda zh'Wann's mind was bent of the task set before them. As to how, exactly, they were to get back on the
Theurgy, she did not know for certain, but she figured that the
Harbinger ship was something to use as leverage in any kind of situation - hostile or diplomatic.
That was when the intruder alert was sounded; the corridors cast in red light and the klaxon hounding them down the corridor. Their escape had become a known fact, and Ida supposed that the surveillance system was fully operational on the
Harbinger, and that someone had seen them on a console somewhere. Their odds of reaching the bridge had just plummeted, but that did not merit them stopping. What choice did they have but to continue?
"We move on," she said without pasuse to Husker and Duv, changing route down an intersection to not stay on the same path as they might have been seen taking towards the turbolifts. "If we were spotted on screen, we have to be unpredictable. Otherwise, they will be abl-"
No more had she said it than a forcefield appeared ten feet ahead of them - blocking their path.
"Back up, hurry!" Ida turned on her heels and almost collided with the Pinkskin and the Trill in her haste to outrun the trap they might have found themselves in. Yet no more had she changed direction than another forcefield was raised - effectively imprisoning them again after only having escaped the Brig a couple of minutes earlier. Their holding cell might have become bigger, and with two force-fields, but it was still - essentially - a cell. The difference was that they were now armed.
"Try to take out the force-field emitters in the ceiling. If that doesn't work, we have to cut our way into the chamber next to us. Come on! We need to keep moving!" Said and done, Ida bared her teeth and powered up her phaser along with her escaped companions.
[ Uncharted Planetoid | Outside the Class-9 Nebula ] Attn: Nathaniel Isley & Tomas Ravon "The
Calamity," Rawley mouthed, eyes wide.
There was no mistaking the silhouette against the orange sky - the dark outline of the
Calamity-class starship sliding like a knife through the atmosphere of the ice planet they had ended up on. The adrenaline that started to pump through Rawley's limbs when she saw the nightmarish vessel made her fidget upon Nathaniel's shoulders. She realised she had to warn him, and Thomas, about what they were not seeing overhead. She was sure she had seen the
Calamity deploy Reavers, and they were bound to find their landed Valkyries in no time at all. Perhaps they were already inbound - powering up their weapons to destroy their only means to fight back and to escape the planet.
"It is here!" she called over the com channel, and her cry sent her into a coughing fit. The blood that spattered the inside of her visor did not bode well, but nonetheless, she tried to croak her words out. "The Calami-ity! Reavers i-inbound!"
There were still alien creatures native to the ice chasing them, but no more than three or four left. It was hard to tell in the blizzard. "Hurry! Wolf three and eight, come in! Do you hear me? Abort patrol and power up the birds!" she wheezed, clinging to Nathaniel's shoulders as best as she might since he was definitely quicker than she'd be in her current state - ascending the mountainside without missing a step. Meanwhile, Razor was shooting the creatures, but he had no means to keep up with Maverick since he was facing the wrong way. He'd never be able to reach his Valkyrie in time if he straggled too far behind.
"Stop shooting a-and run!" she called to Thomas, coughing anew and tasting the metal of the blood in her mouth, "I will warn you if they get too f-fucking close. So run, Lieutenant! Run, you fat fuck!"
Rawley was not sure if she meant Maverick or Razor, but the military-wise encouragement went for them both. She tried to keep an eye out for the last creatures in the blizzard, but the blood inside her visor would make it hard to spot them in time. She kept looking over her shoulder too, expecting the Reavers to descend upon them from the sky at any moment.
This Chapter in the Theurgy story is dedicated to Mr. Leonard Nimoy, 1931-2015. May he never be forgotten.
[ USS Harbinger | Corridors | Deck 07 ]
Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Nolan
As they went quickly down the corridor, Chris couldn't help but to admire the form of security officer that was leading the three of them on an assault operation to the Harbinger's bridge moving much like a Le-matya on the prowl in a sleek and deadly way and inwardly he wondered what she azure beauty would be like in bed.
When that last thought went through his mind, he had to shake his head slightly to clear it and then mentally chalked it up to how stressful the situation was-being on the run for weeks on end, being hunted by their own fleet and it's allies, the whole situation with the Calamity and then all of the current bullshit madness involving T'Rena.
When the intruder alert started sounding and Ida told them that they had to quickly back up where she almost collided with him and the Doctor, she bumped into him for the briefest of moments in her haste and he the briefest of touches made his pulse race for just a second before she moved away from him.
He handed Duv one of the spare phasers that he'd taken from the guards that he had stunned before he quickly changed the settings on a different phaser before aiming at the same spot in the ceiling and to the left, the beam coming out wasn't a single shot but instead a constant pulse beam.
[Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent | USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ]
Trent was firmly seated in the command chair once he was one speaking his terms. His hands were on the armrests, fingers curled about the ends and his head high. Despite the tension that permeated the situation, his face was an impassive mask, calm and unreadable. Long ago, he had effectively given up any chance to command again. However, with the crisis at hand, he found he hardly had a choice in the matter. Oh, he could have easily enough stood aside and focused solely on his survival. But part of him remembered. To hide and avoid capture, to let someone else take the lead had just become unspeakable. He was a senior officer; he was trained for command and tactics. On this day, he needed to wear his red shirt as it was meant to be.
The lack of response from T'Rena was something he took as a good sign. His initial address had obviously unsettled her. Vulcans were known to be cool under great stress, but despite the cold way she had spoken, there was a hint of stress he could hear. Kholinar mistress or not, he had a strong feeling she was starting to lose her cool. He had an advantage.
But then, his armrest consoles went dark. "Sir, my console is down. Unable to regain access." It was Ensign Urban who reported first. But it was not long before the kid at Ops was followed suit. "Confirmed, Commander. We're locked out. Your command access has been rescinded. Again."
That last word was unnecessary and drew a sharp, hard look from the acting Commanding Officer. Banter was not his way to deal with these situations. However, he could not bring himself to berate young Mister Yelchin as the young man was quite green and his ability to deal with stress was still raw and likely had never been fully tested, not with him being the primary at Ops during a bona fide tactical emergency.
But Trent's mind was still racing. "Peri, check the doors." It was a simple, swift order he had given. With the helm being locked out, she was little use at this time and keeping the young Trill busy was probably the only thing he could do to prevent her from breaking down. In fact, of the three officers O'Connell and he had encountered on the Battle Bridge, only Urban seemed to be able to cope with the stress. But then again, he was a transfer from the Enterprise following the battle of the Bassen Rift, the only true combat veteran outside the Master Chief and the Lieutenant Commander. So him, he could use. "Sir, ah, we're locked in. Mister O'Connell's lock has been overridden."
So, T'Rena had obviously made her decision. And if she was so confident in her position, she would not have shut him down. And there was only one reason to lock them inside the Battle Bridge. She was going to try and murder them all. "Mister Urban, get into the weapons locker. Everyone, arm yourselves, phasers on maximum stun. There should be a spare, I want it set to maximum." Her threat to asphyxiate them was loud in Trent's memory. And with the doors locked, there was only one thing that could be done. The Jefferies tubes or other accesses were likely to be sealed as well so it meant there was exactly one door they could use to escape: one they would make themselves.
"O'Connell! We got trouble coming! Looks like we're cut off from the shipwide channel. Find me a way to address everyone." If there were ways to do such a thing, the Maintenance Chief would find a way. There were enough options out there, and that man with the backwater accent and speech patterns would find a way if there was one at all.
But only then did he hit his combadge, which once adorned Sjaandin Fedd's chest. "T'Rena, this is Lieutenant Commander Trent. This is the second time you impair this ship's legitimate command functions. You are no Captain. You never were regardless of what notions you might possess." Carrigan had a plan. Perhaps he could not be heard across the whole of the Theurgy, but hopefully he could keep that Vulcan bitch off-balance. And he knew enough of her background from the dossier he had studied to keep hammering at her. "You are a disgrace. To Starfleet, to the Federation, to Vulcan and every philosophy you claim to embrace. You are a nothing more that a common criminal, a thug. And you don't even have the guts to personally end the one person on this ship with the stones to oppose you directly. That's why you locked the doors, isn't it? You plan to choke us out, alone and unwitnessed. You disgust me, lacking the moral fortitude to look us in the eye when you murder us. That is what you are, a damned coward who can't stand the sight of real Starfleet personnel doing their duty, let alone fight you to the very last."
Trent was speaking calmly and quietly as he every did. However, his voice carried an edge. But regardless of the nature of his words and his sharp tone, there was absolutely no intended malice. If T'Rena had been rattled by a crew address and made to take drastic action based on their very brief conversation, there was reason to believe he had a solid chance at keeping on degrading her decision-making ability with his needling. And right now, he needed every advantage he could get.
Selena gripped at her head as her eyes closed and data began to flood over the visor that covered her eyes. she worked her magic at the computer as Thea waited. She looked to Thea. She fought the words inside. Every word she began to speak made her head throb with resistance and a few drops of blood began to drip from her nose as her brain began to seemingly rebel against itself. Thea, Do what you have to do! she said her voice trembling hoping Thea knew that now was the right time to do what was necessary to remove the enemy presence within the core, outside the core, and more importantly restore all the proper command pathways and doing what waqs necessary to place herself back into the worthy hands.
As as she explored the file structure she saw what she had hoped she had created. Before her was an stark option. Delete or restore. The voice of the Vulcan screamed for her to delete the old Thea file. The part of herself said to restore the backup of Thea's previous state. With a trembling hand she forced her hand forwards as it approached the delete option with a sheer force of will and a scream of pained defiance the hand pushed over and grazed over the option to restore.
In a fraction of a fraction of a second Thea would have felt the wireless data feed within the core feeding information to her mobile emitter. The reconnection to her true AI core self. she was herself again in full apart from the damage to internals that was already known. She had no emitters to project from aside from her mobile emitter now and one other. One where a very close friend of hers was near.
Just as the flood of input hit Thea another flood came. A flow of crimson out of both of Selena's nostrils as she felt herself go light headed and fall to the floor eyes still open looking as if dead. Selena had resisted...but, at what cost.
[ USS Theurgy | Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Selena Ravenholm
The situation was coming to its head, and Thea looked between the clearly affected woman by the controls and the mutineer that was approaching Selena from behind. The voice of the Vulcan was like a serrated blade cutting through Ravenholm's frame, and Thea's digital mind was rapidly analysing every kind of action she might take. Should she neutralise the liability of having Ghaan in the room? Was it better to blow their cover than to maintain it? Was Selena going to resist the grip T'Rena had on her mind, and if not, should she strike her down before she did something irreversible by the controls? The calculations changed with each second, determined by the shifting struggle that Ravenholm displayed.
In the end, it was Selena's assurance and word that solved all calculations.
"Aye, Chief Ravenholm," she said in reply and she stepped after Ghaan, who rounded on her with eyes widening and whiskers raised. He got his phaser up in time, fired two beams, but they went straight through Thea's upper body. Had he fired low, he might have hit the emitter, but he got no more chances to correct his aim. Thea rammed the butt of her assault rifle straight into Ghaan's solar plexus, which made him fall on his knees. As he hunched over in pain and loss of breath, Thea struck her rifle down like a veritable guillotine - hitting the nerve-centres in the nape of his neck. Her combat software indicated that Ghaan was out cold before he hit the floor.
Selena was still struggling by the computer core, screaming. The sliding doors opened - admitting two of the mutineers that had guarded the entrance. They had heard the phaser fire and the commotion, stepping in with phasers drawn. Thea rounded on them, gloved fingers securing a firm grip on her weapon during the turn, and she opened fire just as the one on the left did. The mutineers aim was off, but not Thea's. Her two rapid beams sent them sprawling backwards and out the door. The last mutineer peeked in, alarmed at seeing his fallen comrades - spotted Thea approaching him. He started to run, but Thea did not run after him. She stepped out into the corridor and took aim against the mutineer's retreating back - her stun beam catching him right between his shoulder blades.
Thea did not give the falling man a second look as she retraced her steps into the computer core room - stepping over the bodies of unconscious mutineers. "Ravenholm, you must resist th-" she began to say, but she did not finish the sentence, because the human fell down upon the deck plates - artificial limbs sprawled out at disjointed angles. Blood ran from her nose, and her eyes open wide. "Selena!"
She put the rifle aside and gathered up the woman in her arms, checking her pulse with gloved fingertips. Yet as she sat there, a realisation came to the forefront of her runtime processes; that her emitter had re-established transfer protocols with the three computer cores. She was already downloading data from the past hour, as much as her internal sensors and communication logs could tell her anyway since her surveillance system was offline. More importantly, she accessed the latest communication, hearing Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent taunt T'Rena.
Selena Ravenholm had resisted her indoctrination, and activated Thea's pasitronic brain and its bio-neural network. Yet even if she still had a pulse, Thea could not stay to make sure Selena got the medical attention she needed. There were crises all across the ship, and the most prominent one being that T'Rena was rapidly approaching the Vector 03 Battle Bridge. She had no means to raise force-fields to stop her either. The Brig's holding cells ran on their own system, so she could not free Captain Ives and the rest of the captives there either. Prominent Harbinger officers were already in Sickbay and she could detect phaser fire there, but the acute lack of plasma had forced Engineering to shut down the ship's own transporter systems anyway, so she could not move Selena even if it had been safe. Moreover, Vasser was still on the Bridge, and he was still the ranking officer of the ship since he had been given a Commodore's system access by Selena through the auxiliary computer system.
"I'm sorry," whispered Thea to Ravenholm as she set the woman down on the floor, and the regret from her emotion chip threatened to lag her holographic field matrix. Tears welled up in her eyes. "I have to go."
And then she scooped up the rifle and ran out the door - running as fast as the anti-gravity units in her emitter allowed her to.
She was hard-wired to not be able to rescind system access from a Captain or a higher ranking officer completely on her own - needing at least one more officer to authorise such a change. Therefore, she could not stop T'Rena or Vasser unless she did so by direct - physical - means. Yet while she ran, she tried in vain to restore system access to the people that had been named on the Battle Bridge. She could, however, not revoke T'Rena's commands. She did, however, rescind access from mutineers that had been named in the communication logs. The decision on who she would go after personally was a decision of the heart, for while Vasser was not hurting anyone at the moment...
...T'Rena was almost at the Battle Bride already.
[ USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ] Attn: Carrigan Trent, Billy Bob O'Connell
With her mordant stride down the corridor, T'Rena's brown eyes glared underneath her browridge while hearing Carrigan Trent's voice from her combadge. She said nothing to interrupt him, neither breaking her pace nor changing the grip on her rifle.
"Captain," said a woman that came limping towards her in the corridor. It was one of the Lone Wolves. The one that T'Rena had performed the mind-meld on while Lieutenant Zaraq copulated with her. She called herself Nightmare, and T'Rena had left her to Zaraq's determined efforts to give her a child that morning. Still, she came to T'Rena like a canine on a leash. "Is this the bridge that the spy is on?"
Without breaking her stride, T'Rena rammed the muzzle of her rifle straight into the dark-haired woman's throat. Then she left the human to trash and slowly suffocate on the floor - face turning purple. It brought little satisfaction, but since she did not need the Ensign, the means to somehow vent her immediate ire served due purpose.
"This is Captain T'Rena," she said in ominous answer after tapping her combadge, "I do mean to look you in the eye, Lieutenant Commander, for in the end, I think you are quite willing to come out to meet me. Unless you do... you will die a pointless death. So... I will see you outside. T'Rena out."
She had reached the intersection that covered both exits from the Battle Bridge, and she took up position there - holding her rifle in a two-handed grip. "Computer. Shut down life-support on the Vector 03 Battle Bridge."
[Warning. Life signs detected in the affected area. Command authorisation required.]
"T'Rena-Captain-Five-Beta-Niner," said the Vulcan, and she raised her rifle to her shoulder - standing ready to shoot the rats that scurried out of their nest. If they did not find any means to escape, she would revel in the noises of their panic.
[Acknowledged.] Was there a hint of regret in the static of the computer's voice? [Venting atmosphere. Life-support at 70 %. 60 %. 50 %...]
Inside the Bridge, where the air was hissing out of the room, Thea's voice was heard on the intercom. [Lieutenant Commander Trent! Listen to me, she is shutting down life-support and I cannot stop her, only delay the process.] The quite human desperation bled through the speakers. Yet the increasing vacuum was draining the volume. Already, the junior officers were panicking and beginning to cut through the two doors with their phasers.
[She is right outside and I cannot revoke a Captain's access to the systems. I am en-route but I won't make it in time. I'm sorry, I know you can barely breathe but you must try and answer me verbally. Do you hereby authorise the removal of command privileges from Captain T'Rena, Commanding Officer of the USS Theurgy? Please, authorise it now! I repeat...]
Yet the junior officers were not listening by the doors, purely focused on getting air - phaser blazing.
[ USS Harbinger | Corridors | Deck 07 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
With phasers blazing, Ida worked together with Husker and Doctor Duv to cut out an escape from the makeshift cell they had found themselves in. Any moment, the remaining security detail aboard the Harbinger would reach them, so they had to get out of view from the surveillance system.
"Come on!" she said with teeth bared, her beam cutting inch by inch across the metal. Sweat beaded the blue skin of her arms and neck, and her wet hair framed the grim set of her jaw - her thoughts on how she refused to be caught again. This time, they would not spare her modesty, and perhaps even break her limbs to keep her from escaping again.
Then, finally, as they heard the distant thunder of people running, the cut was finished. "Push it open!" she said to her companions, and she rammed her shoulder into the heavy bulkhead - paddling with her legs to push it back. She tried to look across their shoulders to spot how far off the Harbinger personnel were, expecting to see them in either ends of the corridor they were trapped in. "Harder!"
Should she stay behind and cover the pilot and the doctor as they escaped through the hole? Or would they make it through in time? The Pinkskin and the Trill in her company might not have been her own crew - the crew she had sworn to protect. But they wanted to defect, and as such... Ida would fight until death for them.
With a loud metallic noise, the bulkhead budged and fell over... just when the Harbinger security force came into view with phasers raised. "Deactivate the forcefields!" called one of them, and the moment of truth had arrived. She squared her shoulders to take aim.
Yet Ida had not counted on the Pinkskin's incentive...
OOC: Since Nolan is away, the turn goes back to you, DocReno.
[ USS Harbinger | Corridors | Deck 07 ]
Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Nolan
After the hole was cut with the phasers, Chris helped Ida pushed the cut section forward and as he helped her-he caught the look of grim determination that was in her eyes and nodded to himself as he pushed until the plating finally gave way and hit the ground with a loud clang.
Chris knew that they only had a few options left to them as the first response team that was already sweeping the decks for them would've already been on their way and as such he pushed himself as hard as he could because he could only guess as to the sick and twisted things that the guards might do to "ensure" that they wouldn't escape again and it made him even angrier until finally he felt the cut section finally bend enough that it collapsed inward at which point he started to usher Duv toward the gap when he noticed the arrival of the guards and he felt things slow down.
He saw himself and Duv go into the hole as Ida squared her shoulders and laid down fire in order to save the two defectors which caused her to be hit a few times or they would possibly get a shot in that would stun the entire group..
Too many variables.
Chris made a decision in less than a second.
Moving as fast as he could, Chris quickly grabbed Ida by her closest shoulder and then quickly pushed her into the hole after Duv. "Keep heading for the bridge, lieutenant. I'll handle these guys and meet you up there but try and save me a piece of the last dance." he said briskly as they were quickly running out of time but before he went back out into the corridor, he looked into the Zhen's midnight blue eyes before saying "frak it" and then leaning in and kissed her, letting the fingers of his right hand become briefly entwined in the snow white hair as he did so, kissing her with as much passion, feeling and want as he could put into a couple of seconds before breaking the kiss.
"Just in case." he said with a rueful look on his face before saying "Now go, I've got your backs still." before he pushed her down the accessway a little bit before bracing himself against the corner of the hole as the force fields went down and he let loose with the first pulse blast from his phaser, catching one of the more eager security officers low in the left leg which made him stumble before a second shot from Husker caught him mid-center mass and dropping him quickly.
[ Master Chief Petty Officer William Robert O'Connell (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/156/7/9/o_connell_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7l44xt.png) | USS Theurgy | Deck 8 | Vector 3 Battle Bridge ]
In the battle bridge's ready room on deck eight Master Chief Petty Officer William Robert 'Billy Bob' O'Connell went through his stash. Since the Theurgy couldn't separate these days he had converted the Vector Three's battle bridge into an emergency cache that the truly paranoid maintain when all of their conspiracy theories seem to have come true. He found the breathing masks right where he left them and got five, four for the officers waiting for him in the battle bridge and one for himself. If T'Rena decided to pump knock out gas into the room he was ready. The masks could turn carbon dioxide into oxygen for at least eight hours...
William O'Connell's blood turned cold when he heard the hissing sound of the air being pumped out of the battle bridge suite. It wasn't until he put his mask on his face that he realized that air was being pumped out rather than tranquilizing gas being pumped in. T'Rena wasn't taking prisoners; that green blooded witch was out for blood! The ruttin' air masks could keep them from suffocating but it wouldn't keep them from popping like balloons once the air pressure became zero.
Billy Bob said something in Mandarin and headed for the door. He bounced off it and fell backwards when it failed to open. The air masks scattered on the deck around him. He was locked in! "Why don't things ever run smooth?" he moaned as he straightened his air mask and staggered to his feet. With numb fingers he opened a panel near the door and got it unlock manually. He muscled the door open and saw Trent and Urban at their stations and Yelchin and Peri using hand phasers to cut the door to the hallway open. Through the hissing of the atmosphere being drained from the room he heard Thea's voice getting softer and softer:
[She is right outside and I cannot revoke a Captain's access to the systems. I am en-route but I won't make it in time. I'm sorry, I know you can barely breathe but you must try and answer me verbally. Do you hereby authorise the removal of command privileges from Captain T'Rena, Commanding Officer of the USS Theurgy? Please, authorise it now! I repeat...]
Trent couldn't talk! Even though it felt as if his innards was being filled up like a balloon, O'Connell managed to scoop up one of the breathing masks at his feet without losing his footing. Ears ringing from the lack of air pressure, the master chief staggered up to the captain's chair and placed the breathing mask over Commander Trent's face. The blood capillaries on the back of O'Connell's hands shone crimson as he slid the strap to the back of his head and shouted even though it was difficult to hear him. "Breathe! Breathe, God dammit breathe! Give her the ruttin' command code afore we die!"
[Lin Kae - Deck 05, near Upper Computer Core]
They made an unlikely trio, but Kae, Skye and Rihen moved with care through the ship towards the Upper Computer Core, The Holographic Specialist likely already branded as an enemy after his encounter with Selena Ravenholm, while Skye was probably considered a threat as well, simply for the amount of danger she could be to anyone who crossed her. It meant moving slower and with more care then they pleased, but it was better safe then sorry. As the speech was given over the ship-wide comm system was being given, Kae couldn't help but feel some measure of hope. Trent was calling for officers to continue their duties as normal, something which Lin expected would create some manner of paranoia. Would Vasser and his men see everyone working and start wondering who was still on their side and who was just doing their duty?
It took a shift with the threats of Commander T'Rena, ready to reprogram Thea. Did that mean the one in front of them now wasn't the enemy? But for how long? Even if he trusted the one in front of him, if she were reprogrammed, he would be left alone, without the aid of Skye to watch his back. Turning to face Skye, he spoke aloud, but it was his eyes which truly spoke to her, gesturing upward toward the emitter array above his head. Thea and other holograms could only go where the emitters were, so all they had to do was destroy those as they went along. It might have alerted their presence, but if this Thea turned on them, that was going to happen anyway. They just had to move faster towards the Upper Computer Core, get there before anyone else interfered with the positronic brain. "Skye, we have to do the right thing," he said, and she would know that taking aim at the emitters was that right thing.
[Nathan Isley - Planetoid]
Rawley was awake and putting them on a high alert. Just when he thought they were already at red alert, she gave them a reason to invent a whole new level of crisis to describe their condition. Isley pushed harder, faster, cutting through the snow and towards their Valkyries. "Are you in a condition to fly?" he asked her, knowing she couldn't do much to walk, and if she couldn't get her bird off the ground, it meant she was going to be riding with him. She wasn't getting left behind. be it on the planet or because she wasn't able to pilot. The creatures were still advancing, and without weapons fire, they had little reason to be slow about it either. Ravon had to move faster then their current plan allowed, and had to abandon shooting so he could run.
"Razor, as fast as you can do your preflight check, get off the ground! We need to get off this planet and back into the Nebula before the enemy fighters are right on top of us and have visual!"
[ USS Theurgy | Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ]
The seemingly lifeless body on the floor twitched for a second. It was before long that her head was seized with another pulse as a cortical stimulator that had been implanted along with her brain to computer interfaces sent a shock through her brain attempting to restore her brain back to its normal bio-electric rhythm. After the third shock, she made a loud gasp as her brain came back to into function and in a desperate need for oxygen forced her to gasp for air. Her heart began to pound rapidly, attempting to deliver the oxygenated blood to her near O2 starved brain. Her eyes shot open and she immediately jerked over and vomited a mixture of bile and blood onto the computer core room floor. Her nose began to pour blood again. She was at a point of near delirium, knowing that if she didn't act fast she would be dead from of all things a fatal nosebleed. Still, there were things she had the mind to remember. The Thea in the area most nearby the active holo emitter. She rose to her feet stumbling and practically fell out into the hallway.
With as quick a pace as she managed, she rounded the closest interesction - seeing the trio. Thank God... it's Kae. He must have come for Thea. she thought.
She stumbled down the hallway, blood pouring from both her mouth and nose. "Thea, remote unit 1, medical mode. Now," she said, blood filling her sinuses and beginning to also fill her mouth as she stumbled down the hallway. "She's safe. Kae," she coughed, "she's trying to stop...T' Re...na."
Stumbling down further, she pointed at the Thea hologram. "Thea... emergency mode... code... One... One... Al...pha... Two..." She coughed again, falling to the ground, blood pouring from her nasal passages - filling her sinuses and threatening to not only cause her to bleed out but to choke her on her own haemorrhaging blood. "Five... E. Lieutenant Lin is here... alive..." she said, collapsing to the ground.
The hologram between them disappeared from its previous emotionless state and another program flashed to life. It was the EMH Mk. I, who spoke with a raised chin. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency," he said dryly, then looked around - gauging the health of Lin Kae, Skye Carver and Rihen Neyah. He frowned, then looked behind him, seeing Selena Ravenholm. "Oh, I see."
In what could be her dying breaths the augmented human had alerted Thea to Lin Kae's whereabouts and activated the EMH Mk. I outside Sickbay. As she lay dying of a massive cerebral haemorrhage, not only was Lin Kae's restored system access about to be put to use, but his word could remove Commodore Vasser and Captain T'Rena from command.
OOC: I had to edit this otherwise excellent post because of continuity problems and discrepancies in Thea's range and capabilities. Better to make this edit to save time and to avoid a loosing time in lengthy explanations at moment - where I have a short window of time to finish my own posts today. - Auctor Lucan
[Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent | USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ]
Trent did not have to await his answer long. And when he had it, a stab of fear drove into his chest. He would willingly leave the Battle Bridge? Through secured doors? That could mean only two things: firstly, T'Rena had absolutely no intention of meeting anyone face to face if she could avoid it; second, she was going to suffocate his bridge crew.
Blue lights began flashing, the universal sign of a life-support failure and it was accompanied both by the hissing of air and a very audible alarm. And there was something else, a voice that was growing dimmer as there was less and less medium for it to transmit through. It was the computer; no, it was Thea telling him what needed to be done. She was back on line! Perhaps her hands were tied, but all it needed was him to gasp out a few words and he would be back in business!
But no. By the time he understood, Carrigan Trent was paralyzed. Not just by fear but by bone-chilling horror. He had been exposed to a hard vacuum before as his ship, the USS Harrier, was being demolished around him, as his crew died inside and outside a tortured hull. The pressure as his eardrums stretched and could not equalize, his vision blurring as all moisture left his eyes, his saliva boiling out of his mouth, the pain of his skin stretching to hold him together, lungs trying desperately to bring in oxygen. In his mind's eye, he could see the plumes of vented smoke and atmosphere, the broken bodies and the debris. He could feel the tingle of Jem'Hadar weapons discharges. He did not have his prosthetics, but flensed, charred bones where once hale limbs at been.
And that is when the worst thing that could happen to the Lieutenant Commander happened: he panicked. His heart was beating frenetically, swiftly depleting his body's dwindling supply of oxygen as he clawed at his collar, but to no avail. The lurid glow of the phasers at the door was distant and inconsequential. He had failed.
And his vision started to dim. He was out of air; unconsciousness was coming and he did not have long in this world. But then, a gift from heaven, a blast of air pushed into his face and down a spasming respiratory tract. At first, he thought himself dead and ascending into the afterlife but instead he was being shaken by O'Connell and he could see his mouth moving through the tears that rehydrated his eyeballs. He was yelling at him. Breathe? Give the code? Yes! Thea's request. Tapping his combadge, the communicator linked with the small transceiver assembly in his mask and he spoke, his words gasping. "Thea. This is. Lieutenant-Comm...ander Carrigan. Trent. Authorization Trent Three Seven Four. Nine Epsilon. Confirmed and assuming command. Restore all Theurgy crew command access and remove all authorizations and functions from all Harbinger personnel and mutineer T'Rena. Restore life support on Vector 03 Battle Bridge!"
But that last command had gotten in just a moment too late. No sooner had he finished giving it that Ensign Yelchin, suprisingly still functional, managed to hit the door's interlock subsystems and upon damage, driven by a hard-wired set of protocols, the panels halfway flew open and a generic computer voice generated from the door panel sounded. "Warning, pressure seal broken. Atmospheric venting halted. Restoring pressure."
But this voice, accompanied by a gust of air, was also a harbinger of death for a phaser shrieked multiple times and young Pavel Viktorovich Yelchin, born and raised at Utopia Planitia, flew back and died as his chest cavity was reduced to a charred mess.
"No!" Trent's shout was low and hoarse as he ripped off the restrictive mask. His ears still smarted from the change in pressure and his skin was red and raw-feeling and he knew some nice bruises would develop in places but he hardly cared. He was so young; he had been terrified but once pointed the right way, the kid was doing his duty as well as any officer ever could. His sightless eyes were looking up, accusingly at the acting commanding officer whose actions had led to the circumstances of his death. One more man he had led to his demise.
But no rage, no anger showed on Carrigan's face. Instead, his was an impassive mask, almost serene. But his eyes burned bright with a cold and dangerous light. He was filled with purpose and a deadly, frigid rage. But not the irrational, blinding kind that robbed one of all sense and clouded judgement and decision-making. His was calm and served as a lens through which his every skill, instinct and iota of knowledge was focused into crystal clarity. Tapping his combadge again, knowing his voice would not carry in its quiet intensity, he spoke, his tone icy and flat. "T'Rena, this is the last time. You are done murdering. You are done leading your mutiny. Surrender and live, resist and I will end you." Four days past, witnessing the death of an officer under his direct command would have shattered him; now, filled with this rediscovered confidence and sense of purpose, it only cemented his resolve. Guilt and grief would wait.
Rising to his feet from the command chair phaser in hand, Trent continued on, addressing the Vulcan outside the Battle Bridge. "State your choice, you fucking bitch."
The epithet was unintentional yet spoken almost soullessly. In fact, the nature of Trent's voice made Ensign Peri recoil as of physically struck by the weight and impossibly sharp edge of the barely constrained rage it carried; she was too young, too inexperienced to fully comprehend what she was witness to. Urban, on the other hand, allowed himself a savage grin for he knew precisely what this calm meant: that whoever and whatever Lieutenant-Carrigan Trent was seen as since he joined this crew, the man who stood in the centre of the Battle Bridge was something else entirely.
Better late than never, this proven veteran of wartime command had fully emerged from the shell he'd buried himself in. And he was ready to prove it.
[ USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ] Attn: Carrigan Trent, Billy Bob O'Connell & Declan VasserRaising the smoking muzzle of her Type-III assault rifle, T'Rena was far from content with the development. While she had killed one of those inside the Battle Bridge, it seemed they had been able to restore pressure and remained conscious. As much was evident when the human in charge dealt her new threats through her combadge - now faintly echoed through the parted doors ahead of her. She was given a new ultimatum, but it mattered naught. They were not in control of the situation. Hostilities would end when she decided they would, and she had an obligation to her Commodore and the father of her unborn child.
In the new order, she would bear as many children as possible - all sired by their saviour. Once they caught and turned Dr. Nicander to their cause, he would bestow all children the properties of the Commodore's blood, added with the healing abilities of the Asurian they had taken captive. DNA Resequencing would grant them victory, and immunity towards the enemy parasites. They needed time, that was all.
Time, which the resistance cell on the Battle Bridge was not to be given. They were not to recover from their brush with death before she descended upon them - about to end their lives and merely keep their DNA for cloning. They could manage without their seed, after all.
So, in the wake of Trent's sharp words, T'Rena increased the setting of her rifle and stepped through the opened doors with her weapon raised - shooting the closest two humans on the bridge with two consecutive beams. One young woman and one older man - both dropping into disjointed heaps of charred flesh. They barely had the time to scream. Then she took cover, crouching down behind the Conn and Ops stations at the front of the bridge while she tried to established the whereabouts of Lieutenant Commander Trent and MCPO O'Connell with her hearing.
"Did you expect any other answer, Mister Trent?" she asked evenly, not even winded. While not a verbal answer, hers had been definite. With her back to the Conn station, she changed her setting to wide dispersal and raised the rifle above her head - firing walls of phaser energy across the bridge blindly. Suppressive fire. Had likely forced the two last standing officers to take cover. The interior of the room was put to flames - carpet and chair padding igniting.
Then she stepped out from her cover, rifle firmly to her shoulder and eyes along the sights - seeking her two targets in the flames.
OOC: Battle Bridge Layout, where T'Rena entered the door on the left hand side in the image:
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-in7N7kilcQQ/UZskKOJWCdI/AAAAAAAAB2w/0yjZtGcA-qc/s450/battle-bridge.png)
[ USS Theurgy | Corridor Outside Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Selena Ravenholm, Lin Kae & Skye Carver. OOC: Please check the edit of IronFerrox latest post before reading the development below.Rihen gasped, seeing the woman from the
Harbinger with the synthetic limbs fall to the deck. The balding medical hologram appeared, however, and he set about tending to her as soon as he noticed her. The Thea-hologram had been replaced, so there was no one in the way for them to reach the Upper Computer Core. Yet it seemed the last words from Chief Ravenholm had alerted the real Thea about her Holographic Specialist's whereabouts - his lack of a combadge not giving away his position before then.
[Lieutenant Lin? This is Thea. Are you alright? If I only had run in the opposite direction, I would have met you in person. I am sorry, there is no time to explain. I am on my way to help officers at great risk, and while I have verbal verification for the removal of T'Rena's command privileges, I have yet to remove Declan Vasser - ranked Commodore - from command of this ship.]
Since this was clearly over her own head, Rihen Neyah moved over to Ravenholm and crouched down on the opposite side from the EMH, trying to offer help as best as she might while Thea continued to speak with Lin Kae and Skye Carver.
[Given his many infractions upon Starfleet protocols and endangering the crew, I am in full authority to remove his system access, but only with the added verification from another Senior Officer. I know this is much to take in, but bear with me. Lieutenant Commander Trent gave the order to revoke system access from all
Harbinger personnel, but the tactical situation has changed, and Trent is now indisposed - fighting T'Rena on Deck 08... which is where I am heading.]
Rihen looked up, frowning. "What does she mean? Shouldn't we shut out Vasser?"
[Listen to me,] said Thea over the intercom, [I have delayed revoking Vasser's access because she is here.... Cala. My daughter.]
The
Calamity! Rihen could barely breathe.
[I detected her on long-range sensors via our sensor bouy, and she is just outside the nebula. Do you understand? If there is no one up on Deck 01 to take us into Warp and deploy the gravametric mines, Cala may kill us all in just a matter of minutes. Right now, Vasser is the only one on the Main Bridge that can do that. You have to decide, Kae... Should I shut him out or not, when he might be the only one to save us? You know that I do not have access to those systems, so we need someone to replace him at the helm!]
Personally, Rihen did not know what to think any more. Things were too crazy.
[ USS Harbinger | Corridors | Deck 07 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya DuvIda had been completely prepared to stand her ground against the
Harbinger security officers, butin the last second, she had been pulled away and into the opening they'd cut. She heard the pilot saying he'd take her place but she'd have none of it. The Pinkskin had to fly the damn starship and she...
Then he kissed her, and she found herself making a startled sound in the dim light of the maintenance chute. His breath was warm, and his lips damp. His stubble ground against her blue skin, and she felt her chest being pressed against his - a hand in her hair. When he spoke next, she had hardly noticed that he pulled away - her own eyes shut for some reason.
"Just in case," he said to her, and when her mind caught up with what he had done, he was already out there - shooting at the security team.
"Fall back, fall back," they shouted from their end of the corridor, and even though Ida couldn't see the results of the volley of suppressive fire that Husker had sent their way, he must have hit someone to make them change tactics. At that point, it was not the right time to strike down the bloody Pinkskin for what he had done, and she was not entirely sure what she was so angry about. Him acting a bloody hero, kissing her or breaking protocols. Or some other reason she could not put a finger on.
"We will speak of t-this later, Ensign," she promised with ill hidden ire, but her reprimand was kind of undermined by the darker cerulean shade of her neck. "Rendezvous with us on the Bridge as soon as you can."
And then she was off, climbing the ship through the maintenance tunnels of the Akira-class ship together with Amelya Duv. Ida did not know if if she was going to see the Pinkskin again, but if he didn't get to the Bridge, she'd have to put a phaser to the helmsman's temple to ensure passage back to the
Theurgy.
[Red Alert,] said the static of the ship's computer -the echo travelling through the tunnels as Ida and Duv climbed. The voice was heard all over the ship. [Red alert. All hands to battle stations. All hands to battle stations.]
"What, why would the-" Ida tried to make sense of why Trujillo would sound the alert even if their escape was well underway. The
Harbinger was run by a skeleton crew, so why the need to change the alert status when they were already engaged in combat with the escaped prisoners? Then it hit her, and her antennae rose in alarm as she met Doctor Duv's eyes in the darkness.
"The
Calamity."
Maybe getting to the
Theurgy in time would not be so simple. Then again, it had been a shoddy plan to begin with. Now, they had another threat to deal with... one surpassing the rest by far.
OOC: DocReno, I would be happy to write the actions of the security team for a couple of posts with you. The next time Husker will see either zh'Wann or Duv will be when he reaches the Main Bridge of the Harbinger. Therefore, after the fight is finished, leave it open-ended as to what kind of scene he will walk into. Nolan, Ida and Duv need to continue through the tubes, so I welcome if your post takes them to the Deck 01 but ends there.
[ Uncharted Planetoid | Outside the Class-9 Nebula ] Attn: Nathaniel Isley & Tomas Ravon "Just get to the ledge and drop me by my Valkyrie," rasped Evelyn Rawley in answer to Maverick, "I sure as hell won't be sitting this one out, fuck the odds and piss on the consequences. I will be in Morrigan's bloody Valkyrie, or you will throw me to the creatures down there, you hear me?"
Wolf-03 and 08 had time on their side, already firing up their Valkyries. It would compromise their position to the Reavers, but it was not like they had any choice in the matter. They had to get away, and delaying that would not help in the least. And it was a good thing they did, because the creatures were more or less onto of Razor when the thrusters of the fighters carried the wolves out from the ledge above Maverick's head. In short order, the two Lone Wolves rounded on the pursuing creatures on the mountainside and picked them off with their phaser canons, one by one. The sound of the canons echoed in the blizzard, accompanied with the agonized screams of the dying creatures. Razor mightn't have made it otherwise.
"Reavers inbound! They are here!" said Rawley when she spotted them - enemies coming in hard from their drop-point.
The seven advanced attack fighters opened fire against Wolf-03 and 08 as soon as they were in range, and while the barrages were cushioned by the shields, Rawley saw how the enemy fire tore into the hulls of their fellow wolves regardless. "Tell them to lead them away from us while we get off the ground!" Rawley landed on her feet, nearly falling before she scrambled to get to Morrigan's Valkyrie. "If we are quick, we can get on their six."
That was, unless Wolf-03 and 08 were not shot to pieces first...
[Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent | USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ]
There was no answer at first. At least not verbally. There was little time between Trent delivering his last and final warning and the Vulcan stepping into the Battle Bridge, her phaser rifle spitting out death. Her aim was unerring and while Nizni Peri did not even manage to get a shot out before her torso was ripped asunder by incoming fire, Kenneth Urban did get his weapon to bear and fired back. Perhaps his fire was ineffective, but at least he had managed a few blasts before a burst from T'Rena's rifle remove his right arm and the entire right side of his head.
As both Ensigns crumpled into charred and lifeless hunks of flesh and bone, Trent turned to engage, his phaser held in both hands. Yes, hand phasers were mostly used one-handed but when given the chance, he preferred a two-handed grasp, his left thumb pointing parallel to the business end of his weapon, a clever trick he had picked up from a small-arms instructor when he was undergoing Basic Intelligence Officer training. However, he did not have time to open fire for a wall of phaser-fire and he was forced to evade by diving behind Tactical, using the pillars holding the console up to avoid being incinerated much as the carpeting and the command chair had just been. However, he was no gymnast. His dive was hardly graceful and his roll even less so and as he eventually got to safety, his realized, all too late, his weapon had been ripped from his hand and laid on the deck, twice his arm's reach away.
For a moment, he spared a thought for O'Connell. Since the Chief had slapped the mask upon his face and shook him back into the real world, the Lieutenant Commander had lost track of the man. But for now, he did not have time to think of him. As T'Rena advanced through the flames and smoke, the Intelligence Officer knew he had to engage her lest he be cornered and killed. He had to face it: she was Vulcan with all the toughness, speed and strength that came with it; she was an expert in hand-to-hand combat and she was still armed. His odds were not good. But if the acting Chief Engineer was still capable of fighting, he might be able to give him an opening to exploit.
Using the thick, acrid smoke to hide his movements, Trent closed in on T'Rena's right side and his right hand, his good one, closed upon her rifle, just where the barrel started and he heaved her forward even as he brought his prosthetic down in a hammer-fist directed right at her shoulder blade. There was a nerve cluster there. Humans had it, and he prayed Vulcans did as well. And, remembering the effect his synthetic limbs had on Fedd, he hoped he'd cause real damage.
His hand connected with the mutineer's back and, as he'd hoped, there had been a nerve cluster there and her arm spasmed and released her rifle altogether. Now holding the weapon, Trent brought his artificial hand to the barrel, joining the one he was born with, and with a savage bellow he swung the rifle about in a long arc that went about his head and sought to bring the butt straight down upon the back of her neck with every ounce of strength he possessed.
[ USS Harbinger | Corridors | Deck 07 ]
Attn: Harbinger Security/Auctor Lycan
As Ida and Doctor Duv made their way up the access tubes towards saftey and the bridge, Husker forced himself to wait for the phaser fire of the security team to slow down before returning fire himself and as he waited, he checked the power cells on his phasers with the same calm that he would as if he was in the middle of combat in his fighter.
But apart of him was still trying to figure out why he just suddenly kissed the Andorian and recalled the taste of her lips, her smell and everything which was the only bright spot of this whole year to date. "I'm glad that I didn't do that one thing that Paran told me about or she really would've killed me right then." Chris muttered to himself as he heard the phaser start to slow down just a little as he tucked the third phaser into the back of his pants and got the other two ready.
He closed his eyes and mentally counted to three as he recalled his own security training from the academy as the standard tactic was after laying down light to medium supression fire to move up forward elements to try and enter flanking positions..that is if they followed standard protocol mixed with arrogance.
Eh..one way to find out.
Husker brought up both of his phasers and let loose with a snap shot at the oncoming guards.
[ USS Harbinger | Amelya Duv| Corridors | Deck 07 ] Attn: Ida, Husker
While their escape to the bridge didn't exactly go as planned, Amelya found herself trapped with Ida and Husker in a corridor between force fields. Yet it didn't take long for the security trained woman and the pilot to come up with a plan to escape once again. Once Husker handed over his phaser to Amelya she used to help cut a hole in the wall which would be their new way to break out of their trapped situation. Once that was done Amelya could hear the security guards shout as they closed the distance between them and the escapees. The thud of the wall being brought down by Husker and Ida was a welcoming sound and Amelya looked at the hole before looking back to Ida and Husker. During the entire escape, she didn't feel afraid or hurt like she was in the cell with Ida. No, now she felt the need for survival and a bit of revenge boiling her up from the inside.
She made her way through the hole as the first one and she tried to get her bearings, spotting the tubes that would lead all the way up to deck 1. Yet she stopped and looked back just in time to see Husker push his lips on Ida's. It brought a smile on the face of Amelya and she waited a bit longer to see how Ida would react. She could hear that Ida had not suspected this move at all, yet she'd get back to him about it. Amelya couldn't help but wonder what she was going to say or do about it and halfway their climb she couldn't help but ask her. Yet this wasn't the time for pleasantries, as Ida replied with "The calamity."
Amelya felt a shudder go through her body and realized that that probably was the reason why the skeleton crew had to go to battle stations, yet how much good would it do against a far more superior ship. A ship that could easily rip through them even with a full crew staffing. They had to be quick to make onto the bridge. Amelya only gave a nod to Ida as she stated that the Calamity class ship had probably doomed up "We better get moving." Amelya answered and they hurriedly made their way to the service hatches on deck 1.
[ Uncharted Planetoid | Outside the Class-9 Nebula ] Attn: Nathaniel Isley & Evelyn Rawley
"So run, Lieutenant! Run, you fat fuck!"
That was the key sentence that Razor had heard during his repelling barrage towards their wild pursuers. He had noticed something breaking through the atmosphere yet he didn't really have the time to look up and check it out. Hearing Rawley shout however meant that she was still alive. Thomas fired off his last couple of rounds before swinging the rifle over his shoulder and started to make more speed now as he had a gap to close between him and Maverick. He looked towards Rawley as she seemed nothing more than a ragdoll on Nathaniel's shoulder, yet it was good to know that she was still alive.
That's when Thomas however felt a chill run over his back, one of the creatures had gotten closer to him with the absence of phaser fire to hold them back. Thomas looked behind him for a second and saw the gaping maw and claws heading down onto him. He pushed through and that's when he heard the sound of thrusters being fired up and the roar of the Valkyrie engines. The orange glow of phaser fire broke away the beast that nearly got Thomas and even if it was just a thought, Thomas could feel the warmth of the fire through his suit. "Yeah! Thanks you guys! I owe you one!" he shouted over the intercom over to the two airborne fighters.
Within several seconds Razor managed to get to his bird and hopped in as the ice had covered some of his canopy. He started the fighter up and ran the essential pre flight checks, he didn't have time for the entire list as he heard the Reavers open fire on his saviors. He looked around him to see Rawley get into a bird herself and he saw Maverick do the same. He nodded slowly, happy to know that they both made it. They probably had a minute tops of pre flight ahead of him so he'd be the last bird in the air. He could see the Reavers pounding away on the two airborne Valkyries and Thomas could only hope that they could dodge and evade as long s they could. "Come on, come on, come on..." he grunted impatiently as he tapped away at the screen. It took longer due to the ice and the harsh conditions to complete yet Thomas punched the buttons hard as his thrusters fired up on max power, causing most of the ice to thaw. "Razor ready for combat. Hang in there 03 and 08."
With a loud crackling roar of the engines, Razor blasted off the icy rock and started his pursuit, cannons screaming as he engaged the first Reaver that got into his sight.
[ Master Chief Petty Officer William Robert O'Connell (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/156/7/9/o_connell_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7l44xt.png) | USS Theurgy | Deck 8 | Vector 3 Battle Bridge ]
Yelchin was down, and it didn't look like he was going to get back up again. O'Connell darted away from the captain's chair and flattened himself against the wall flush with the door to the corridor. Peri was shaking and looked like she was about to go into shock. There was something about seeing someone you knew getting shot close up and personal that was different than seeing them getting killed by a piece of exploding conduit or shrapnel during starship combat. Peri was so scared that she had even dropped her phaser.
Trent only froze for a second, then his voice was as cold as ice. "T'Rena, this is the last time. You are done murdering. You are done leading your mutiny. Surrender and live, resist and I will end you." He rose from the captain's chair, phaser in hand. "State your choice, you fucking bitch."
"Cover me Ma'am, while I get Mister Yelchin out of the way," O'Connell hissed as he pressed his Mark II pistol sized hand phaser into the Trill's trembling hand. He didn't comment on her dropping her weapon, he just knelt down seized Yelchin by the ankles and concentrated on dragging him out of harm's way without exposing himself to enemy fire. With the monitors out, there was no way to determine how many of them were out there, but Billy Bob had brought two tricorders that were now resting under the engineering console with his phaser rifle and maybe he could...
There was no time. Bold as brass, T'Rena walked right into the battle bridge and shot Peri and Urban just as quick as you please. She didn't seem to have seen O'Connell crouching over Yelchin's body and she thankfully didn't seem to be using her peripheral vision. There were a number of phasers on the floor, but they all seemed far away at the moment and Billy didn't dare breathe lest he give himself away.
"Did you expect any other answer, Mister Trent?" the Vulcan witch sneered. She had spoken perfectly calm and professionally, but it was a sneer none the less. Trent had taken cover behind the conn and O'Connell just crouched up against the wall flush with the door to avoid being seen. T'Rena adjust the setting on her weapon and sprayed the bridge with wide angle fire at a lethal setting. The carpet was ablaze and the sparks flew out of consoles. She was hosing the room down it was only a matter of seconds before she'd notice Billy Bob and make him look like a frankfurter that had been left over the fire too long.
Smoke filled the room and Billy edged closer to one of the discarded phasers. That was when Trent came out of nowhere and hit T'Rena in the shoulder blade. The Vulcan's foot kicked the phaser that O'Connell was going for across the room but it didn't matter. This was the engineer's chance to move. He ran towards the engineering console and picked up his phaser rifle. He took aim and glanced down the sight but it was no use. With the two of them bobbing and weaving so close to each other, it was impossible to fire a shot without hitting Trent too.
[Lin Kae - Upper Computer Core]
Before they started blasting emitter arrays, they received help from a most unexpected source. Ravenholm restored his system access and put him in contact with Thea. They were beginning to take the shop back from Vasser, command privilege already revoked from T'Rena, and the Commodores could have followed rather quickly after. The problem came with the fact that the Calamity was almost on top of them, and Vasser was the only one who could have gotten them out of there. It was the kind of decision that Lin Kae did not find himself particularly happy about having to make. It was the rock and the hard place, but there was one key difference; one decision would be instantly fatal, while the other they could still recover from. Vasser might have been evil, but at least he wasn't trying to destroy them outright.
"Are you able to take remote access and pilot us away from the Calamity, Thea?" If they jumped to maximum warp, they might at least be able to keep the Calamity off their backs, even if the faster vessel were to begin a pursuit path. If Thea could do so remotely, then there was no reason for them to not lock Vasser out. "If you can, I can use my clearance to give you full integration, assure the only one capable of using the controls is you. It would not only allow us to escape, but it would give you control of the ship again, allowing you to seal the doors and keep any of Vasser's supporters locked down." Thea was an intelligence that far outmatched any other ship's computer, and her unity between holographic form and ship was powerful enough to overthrow any tyrant who thought he could waltz in and make her do something that opposed her own beliefs.
[Nathan Isley - Planetoid]
They had cover fire, and it had arrived just in time. "03, 08, evasive maneuvers and draw fire from aggressors until launch preparations are complete!" isley called out, giving word to the other squadron members capable of fighting back while they readied their own Valkyries. Rawley was dropped off at her own craft before Nathan scrambled for his own, skipping as many pre-flight checks as possible to try and get them airborne again as soon as possible. They were sitting ducks on the ground, and their squad was outnumbered in the sky by superior machines. What they had working for them was good old fashioned wits and experience, and as soon as Nathan was in the sky, he was putting it to use, flying like a wild man. The enemy was an AI, used to set formations and countering them, so the more unpredictable they were, the harder it was for those ships to read them.
"Alright people, I'm feeling a bit democratic. Do we head back back to the Theurgy with evasive maneuvers, taking these guys along on a pursuit course, or do we take them down here and now?" Both plans had their own risks and rewards, but he would not make the decision alone. he might have found himself in a leadership position, but like a Captain on the bridge proposing a seemingly no-win scenario, he looked to those around him for what they thought.
[ T'Rena | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ] Attn: Carrigan Trent & Billy Bob O'Connell
T'Rena's mind had become blank when the human brought down his bionic arm behind her shoulder - thoughts retreating to grant sole focus on repressing the pain. Only instincts remained for a couple of seconds, even though she realised that she had become unbalanced and disarmed by the human spy. There was little time for thinking in battle, and thus, instinct and experience was key to victory and survival. These factors were on her side, given her age and time to hone her combat aptitude.
For the pool of one's knowledge as a fighter was only as wide and deep as what experience and repetition you refilled it with. No motion was ever perfected, only ever repeated. Else the knowledge would dry out. Drained by the other preoccupations of the mind. The Acolytes had said that fighting an opponent was to drown him in that pool of steadily replenished knowledge. A knowledge barely known consciously, since by some pinnacle point of a long life of practice, active thought ceased to be, and became deadly instinct.
After the moments it had taken Carrigan Trent to swing the rifle around and to bring it down against her neck, T'Rena had already straightened up and swayed back - the butt of the assault rifle harmlessly slamming into the burning deck below their feet. It left the human exposed to whatever attack she fancied, and had she not been so completely emotionally compromised and benumbed by the blow she had taken, she might have seized the opportunity to perform the Vulcan nerve pinch on him. As it were, however, she favoured a more satisfying riposte. The grinding, gruelling repetition of seventy years lay behind the first haymaker - as humans liked to call the technique - followed by a second one, which was almost just as quick but much harder since it was dealt with her left and unharmed side.
T'Rena had gone for the head, but even if she missed, she was not inclined to fall back on defensive techniques. She would follow through with a spinning kick towards the abdomen. She had registered movements in her peripheral vision, but could do naught else than to try and keep Trent between her and surviving engineer - who was likely trying to get a clear shot.
OOC: More posts in the making, but as per request in the poll, I will split them up a bit.
[ USS Harbinger | Security Detail | Corridor | Deck 07 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton
The security team was caught entirely unawares when the fighter pilot emerged from the hole which the escapees had vanished into. There were four of them, and two went down immediately - dropping to the deck mid-sprint and tumbling forth until they finally lay still.
"Retreat!" called one of them, rather falling back than trying to aim against their former crewmate. The second one, while having crouched down and tried to get his sights on Husker, hesitated when he heard the call for a retreat. That mere moment was enough to let the fighter pilot shoot before him...
The one who had fallen back punched in a security override to enter a door leading to vacated quarters - soon hiding in the doorway while he considered what he might do. After a moment or two, he withdrew a stun grenade and armed it, deciding that it was the best way to get past Ensign Slayton that did not involve a shoot-out in the corridor. "Why are you doing this?" called the man from where he hid. His name was Peter Hildebrandt, whom had occasionally lost some rations to Husker in card-games. "How many in Tactical Conn have not died fighting the last couple of months? They were your friends, were they not? How can you betray them? How can you turn your back on their memories and throw your faith to the lost cause that Captain Ives refuse to abandon?" With his thumbnail, he set the detonation timer. "If you go on the Theurgy's futile mission now, you will die a traitor to your crew! Surrender, and Vasser will ensure victory! All those dead pilots of yours will no longer be known as traitors to Starfleet, but commemorated for the heroes that they truly were!"
Peter did not care if his distraction worked or not, he had no choice but to throw the stun grenade. So he did, and with only a 3-second fuse.
After the detonation, and through the ringing in one's ears, something unexpected was heard. [Red Alert,] said the the ship's computer - the echo travelling through the corridor. The voice was heard all over the ship. [Red alert. All hands to battle stations. All hands to battle stations.]
[ USS Harbinger | ThanIda zh'Wann | En-Route Main Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: Amelya Duv
The Harbinger's CMO had the right of it. They had better get moving. So they climbed, Ida determined to not let doubt cloud her mind. Yet she could not help thinking that with the Calamity quite possibly moving in on their position - which she still believed to be inside the Class-9 Nebula - would Amelya Duv and her own ambition to take over the Bridge get in the way for the bridge personnel on the Harbinger? Would they end up an ill-timed hindrance for survival?
When they finally reached Deck 01 and climbed out of a grate - located next to the stalls in the restroom - Ida still did not know what was the right thing to do. She did not know the situation well enough to make the judgement-call, so the best thing they could do was to find out. She told Dr. Duv as much after opening all of the stalls - one by one - with her rifle ready. She had to make sure they were alone. "If we are already in engagement with the Calamity, we shouldn't barge in with phasers blazing. We need to know more before we g-"
The door opened, and two armed men sprang into the room. "Drop your weapons! Now!" one of them said, and the other fired against Ida when she whipped her rifle around towards them.
Ida would never know whether the shooter was a skilled marksman or if it was a lucky shot... but the security guard managed to hit the rifle in her hands. Given the fact that the rifle was instantly heated and that she just barely managed to throw it away from herself before it detonated proved that they had not set their rifles to stun either. Ida had managed to throw the rifle into the closest stall and retreated before the plasma explosion shredded its walls to pieces. The two security guards quickly advanced through the smoke so that they would not loose sight of the two women.
"Sorry, 'Chief'," said the shooter with a sarcastic drawl to her would-have-been title on their ship, "we were watching all possible access points from the check-point room. This is Liam, and I am Elliot Grant. We were under orders to kill you on sight... but here you are, all unarmed."
"We would never condone to killing unarmed women," said Liam, moving forth to retrieve any weapons surrendered by the doctor, and the way he smiled to Duv suggested that there was some cruel inside joke to them being there that Ida did not understand. "Not when we should be adding numbers to Vasser's future army, and the two of you have wombs to fill... Right, Doctor?"
They were the guards that had assaulted Doctor Duv in her office.
[ Evelyn "Ranger" Rawley | Uncharted Planetoid ] Attn: Thomas "Razor" Ravon & Nathaniel "Maverick" Isley
Rawley had never thought getting into her cockpit would be any problem, but between the unknown injuries to her body after the avalanche, her old wounds, and the bloody blizzard having caked everything in ice and snow, she reckoned she'd never make it. Nor was she ever the one to quit either. This was what she did. Her only agreeable skill was to fight, and to never give up doing so. She never yielded an inch, and now was the time to prove to herself that she had not lost anything in the loss of Oracle and her old Valkyrie. Regardless of who commanded their base ship, they were still fighters - every single one of the motley pack of wolves.
She was a good number of seconds behind Maverick and Razor when she finally got into her seat and closed the canopy. Hurriedly, swearing without her comm on, she brushed off the snow that had managed to get inside whilst she climbed in. Her controls were beaded in snowmelt but she could not afford the luxury of wiping them off. She was behind as it were. She made a judgement call. Save their fellow wolves or ensure the safety of her own take-off? The split second decision was to forego all pre-flight checks and power up the thrusters and atmospheric adaptation systems - melting the ice and snow off Morrigan's Valkyrie even as the attack fighter reared and left the mountainside. Warning signals blared, and she could very well have plummeted into the valley, but it was a barely calculated risk she had to take in order to catch up with Maverick and Razor.
Thrusters gave way to impulse engines, and she was on the chase - glaring though her bloodied visor. Through the canopy, however, she could not see shit. It was all rapid snow-storm interchanged with glimpses of orange sky and dark mountains. She had to fly using the sensors and targeting system alone, and only when she got close enough to see the tail-fire of the enemies could she have any use of a targeting reticule. The high-speed chase through the skies of the uncharted planetoid outside the nebula had not lasted long before Maverick asked what might be the best tactic considering that the Calamity had arrived.
"Wolf-Zero-Six to Wolf Leader," she replied on the squadron-wide channel and could not help the fit of coughing that ripped through her - almost making her collide with a sharply jutting mountain, "I have no fucking idea, but last I saw the Calamity, she was already leaving this fucking hell-hole. She just dropped these toasters to deal with us before moving on. I... I say we follow, else we'll never be able to catch up with our base ship if Vasser go off at maximum Warp and try to deploy those fancy mines. Problem is... these Reavers are likely quicker than us."
Wolf-03 and 08 were still showing up on sensors, but none of the Lone Wolves had managed to destroy any Reavers yet. Swearing, Rawley took deep breaths to keep her vision from blurring. The adrenaline that had kept her going was likely thinning out in her veins. She did not want to look at her own vital signs on one of the HUDs. "We need to loose them in the nebula..." she said when the idea came to her, and then repeated it after opening the comm channel again. "Hell, we need to loose them at some point, and better now than later. I say we flip them off in the nebula and then go after the base ship as soon as we find the Warp trail."
She had no idea what they should be doing once they arrived at the potential scenario of a battle between three starships, but she supposed that there was some foul merit in assisting Vasser to fight the Calamity.
OOC: Waiting on Searcher to post with Skye Carver in the Deck 05 corridor scene before posting with Thea in reply to Lin Kae.
[ Skye Carver - Deck Five - Near Upper Computer Core ]
Skye was doing her best to keep her mouth shut as more and more of the mutiny was being broadcast but there was a feral smile as Trent continued his verbal sparring. She was aware of everything being said but her main focus was still on the area around them and her task of protecting Lin Kae. Things seemed to be going fairly well until they ran into the gold collared version of Thea and she shook her head, sensing that this wasn't 'their' Thea.
Sure enough they wanted Lin Kae but threatened to neutralize herself and Rihen, something that only made the wolf in her raise its hackles. She took a breath, ready to tell this version that she was Lin Kae's body guard, that she was the one making sure he was kept alive when her friend turned and spoke. Her eyes followed his for just a moment and she nodded understanding. "Yes, we do," she stated and was about to shift so she could blow out the emitter when Ravenholm fell out into the hallway.
It was the perfect time to take out the emitter and yet it seemed Ravenholm was alerting the real Thea and a different hologram appeared. All things considered, she didn't shoot and looked to Lin Kae for his decisions though pointed to the room as if suggesting they get out of sight and get to work. The fact that Calamity was nearby didn't help matters and her first thought was of her fellow Wolves out there. If they went to warp, they would be left behind, something she had a hard time stomaching. "Damn your daughter to the lowest of hells," she growled.
[Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent | USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ]
Starfleet Intelligence trained its people well. Anyone who joined that part of Starfleet, whether they be headed for deep cover assignments or destined to be analysts, received advanced close-combat training. And against the likes of T'Rena, Trent knew even before he had engaged her he would need every single dirty trick he had learned during that phase of his training. She was Vulcan. That made her faster, stronger and tougher than he'd ever be. However, it did not mean he was fighting desperately. He was first and foremost a tactical officer and that meant he had analyzed both his opponent and himself and he'd accepted the risk.
He was well-enough trained, but he knew T'Rena had a solid advantage in speed, strength, toughness, stamina and experience; between Starfleet training, her stint as an instructor and her time back home, she was truly a force to be reckoned with. But her logic was compromised, that much he was sure of and while that struggle would affect her it could also effectively make her completely berserk. On the other hand, he was fully focused on what he was doing, not needing to split his attention between fighting and maintaining his control; to him, one was the same as the other. And he had a solid advantage himself. His synthetic limbs. They did not confer him any strength that he did not already possess but they were immune to pain and the alloy of their construction was unyielding and, as he'd discovered in his fight with Sjaandin, that even his strength was enough to cause a Human terminal damage when it drove them into the right targets. Perhaps his openings to the most vulnerable spots would be limited, especially given his lack of familiarity with Vulcan physiology, but he could still try to damage something critical or load-bearing.
When she came at him, Trent barely had the time to release the rifle and bring his arms up. The first haymaker struck with bone-jarring weight near his right elbow when he'd thrown up a desperate defence, but the second such blow he intercepted with a kinetic block of his own, aiming his metallic forearm in a sharp blow against T'Rena's flesh-and-blood one. Against a Human, he knew such a blow would break bones but a Vulcan? It was very much open for debate.
But her kick gave him a rare opening. He was no expert in hand-to-hand combat, but he had an innate understanding of movement and velocities. And he had seen his target. Her hip. To be more accurate, the point of her hip and where her femur was socketed. And that is what he aimed for when he stepped in and, in complete opposition to her own movement, he aimed a vicious knee strike there with his prosthetic leg. That was the blow that he spelled Fedd's death. And while the psychotic mutineer was strong and tough, he was certain that if it connected, bones would definitely break.
[ USS Harbinger | Security Detail | Corridor | Deck 07 ] Attn: Harbinger Security, ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
When he heard the call for retreat, Chris quickly ducked back into the hole and holstered his right phaser as he worked quickly on the one in his left hand, quickly sliding back a panel that showed the weapon's power charge and settings control, and he then set the power cell on an overload which effectively turned the weapon into an improteu explosive before he quickly tossed it out of the hole as he heard Hildebrandt start to talk.
"Frakker never knew when to shut up." Husker muttered as he quickly got his ass in gear and started making his way towards one of the access ladders that would lead him up to deck one and started climbing up one of the access ladders at a quick pace because he wasn't there to do a holding action but to simply keep them occupied long enough for Ida and the doctor to get a good ways up to the bridge if not there and already causing enough trouble to capture it.
As he started his climb, Husker's mind went back to what happened on the Auriga and his eyes narrowed just a little bit as he recalled having to run all over the place on a ship that had been his home for so many months, watching as Paran fought to keep them going while imparting various lessons that Husker was using this very day about survival during a hostile boarding action..
..but this time it was different because it wasn't some ore transport, it was an Akira-class Heavy Cruiser and Carrier and the invaders was his own fellow shipmates with ill intent.
Husker shook his head and then quickly went back to the climb, smiling darkly as he hoped that Hildebrandt enjoyed his parting "gift" as he climbed up the access ladder as fast as he could, occasionally looking down to ensure that he wasn't being followed at that moment as he headed for Deck One and the main bridge.
==================================
OOC: kept it open but went ahead and did the attention just in case.
[ Rihen Neyah | Near Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Lin Kae, Skye Carver & Selena Ravenholm
Trying to confer with the EMH and assist him in a quiet voice, Rihen Neyah could not help but overhear Thea's answer to Lin Kae's questions, and it was not a heartening conversation. Rihen's former lover had asked - among other things - if Thea could make them go to Warp.
[Only if I was physically on the bridge and by the helm, Kae, and my projection lack the software to fly myself that way with the kind of precision that Winterbourne did... before he died." Hearing this, Rihen remembered reading something in the Theurgy's technical manual when she took up duties in Engineering. Thea was hard-wired to not be able to assume direct control of propulsion or tactical systems. Thea continued. "As unshackled as you have made me, I am still limited by my original installation into the ship systems. As a ship, I was still built to be manned by a crew.]
The Calamity wasn't, Rihen realised, and since Cala's programming had been compromised, perhaps the Theurgy's set-up was the wiser option. Sometimes, the people building things did not take all consequences into account... A sentiment that Skye Carver seemed to share, given her comment towards that end.
[I... do not wish to damn her anywhere,] said Thea, her social sub-routines not quite definite on the subject of her daughter, [I wish to restore her, but I cannot accomplish this while she tries to destroy me, so the gravametric mines is the best option to cause enough damage for me to have a chance at accessing her systems and re-installing the software that I believe the enemy has removed. Wait... Stand by.]
Rihen rose to her feet beside Selena Ravenholm and the EMH, concerned about what she heard. "What does she mean? Weren't Captain Ives' orders that we destroy her? Tia Marlowe said during the briefing she held after your meeting that..."
[I will not be heading to the Bridge, but I am currently coordinating a strike team to convey on the Main Bridge and seize it from Commodore Vasser,] said Thea after her brief pause, [but since we are out of options, I will limit his access to propulsion and tactical systems alone. He will not be able to stop the strike team from entering the Bridge. According to my logs, it would appear that the Harbinger's Chief Conn Officer has defected to our side and helped Lieutenant Commander Stark and Lieutenant Tovarek escape captivity. She is the best candidate to hit Cala with the mines, so I will ensure that she is on the strike team too.]
Her concern growing, Rihen bit her lower lip. It was not like Thea to ignore someone, and Rihen thought it meant that Thea was about to do something that the Theurgy's true Captain hadn't liked her to do. After her failure during Lohlunat to make the two crews become one, she would hate if the A.I. of the ship rebelled against its rightful Captain. The consequences... "Thea, you helped me when I came aboard. What will you do? Is there any way we can help?"
[I am going to my daughter, and I am sorry, but there is nothing you can do to stop me.]
The shocked silence lasted for a couple of seconds. "What? Thea, what are you saying? You are scaring me..." Rihen's concern was plain on her face. "They will not stop attacking Cala, and then you will be..."
[Lieutenant Lin Kae, on the grounds of the Commodore's crimes, his failure to follow Starfleet protocols, and endangering the crew of this ship, give me your authorisation code to hereby revoke Commodore Decaln Vasser's system access, with the exception of propulsion and tactical systems.]
OOC: Another post coming soon, with T'Rena...
[ T'Rena | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ] Attn: Carrigan Trent & Billy Bob O'Connell
Her forearm hurt from being caught mid-way by the spy's prosthetic arm, but a good fighter knew to halt the forward momentum as soon as possible - to not waste energy on completing the arcs of futile attacks. The pain was manageable, any severe bruising irrelevant, and her instincts had already led into her spinning kick.
Despite the fickle light of the flames around them, experience allowed her to read the lower attack, and she acted on the threat by folding her extended leg with the turn to block with her lower leg. Still she was hit, the force driving into the joint of her thigh and her hip, but while the damage and the pain was severe, she remained on her feet - balance nigh unbroken - and her turning motion led Trent's momentum away from her.
They were in close combat then, not much air between them, and her hard fingers seized the back of his uniform jacket. She continued her turn - having already built up momentum. It was just a matter of bringing the dead weight of the human with her. So she did, her face twisting into a vicious snarl as she drove the spy head-first into the tactical station on the burning bridge. The chair was knocked sideways and clattered straight towards Chief O'Connell, but the computer console was only loosened from the deck with sparks snapping and chirping warnings overriding the roar of the flames.
Still, she did not let go of the spy's jacket, and despite the protestations of her body - hip in particular - she used the same grip to try and hurl him straight into the wall behind tactical. Problem was that the seams did not hold, and as the clothing tore, the spy was sent rolling elsewhere across the burning carpet.
Her brown eyes snapped towards Chief O'Connell - realising that the chair might have delayed him in trying to shoot her. Regardless, it was time for him to die, so with her face twisted into a mask of fury, she scooped up a hand-phaser from the floor and started shooting towards the man - limping steps set towards him with each rapid beam cutting through the smoke.
[ Master Chief Petty Officer William Robert "Billy Bob" O'Connell (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/156/7/9/o_connell_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7l44xt.png) | USS Theurgy | Deck 8 | Vector 3 Battle Bridge ] Attention: Carrigan Trent and T'Rena
It was ridiculous; the bionic officer was fighting for his life and even with a phaser rifle pointed at the two of them O'Connell didn't dare fire at T'Rena. If he miscalculated he could hit Commander Trent and...
Suddenly Billy Bob realized that he was so stupid that he couldn't tell skunks from housecats. He had his phaser set on stun! All he needed to do was set it for wide angle stun and he could get both combatants with one shot. A medkit that had been stashed in the battle bridge's ready room would provide a stimulant to wake up Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent and then they could decide if T'Rena was ever going to wake up. He adjusted the settings on the rifle and...
Then it hit him: No, Billy Bob O'Connell didn't get a great idea; he was hit by the chair that had formerly been placed at tactical. How T'Rena was able to kick it loose from the floor was a testament to the strength and skill of a Kohlinar mistress and a condemnation against the carelessness of Petty Officer Dylan Cobb, who O'Connell had assigned to make sure the furniture on the bridge didn't come loose during combat.
The chair slid across the deck as fast a vehicle and knocked the master chief right off his feet. Thankfully the battle bridge's internal dampeners hadn't been damaged or scavenged for parts. That meant O'Connell didn't break anything when he spun in the air and landed on the deck but he did see the phaser rifle fly out of his hands, bounce against the bulkhead, and slide out of reach. O'Connell leapt to his feet and swatted out the flames that had ignited on his leg: It seemed that the spread of phaser fire that T'Rena had filled the battle bridge with had set the carpet on fire.
A glance in T'rena's direction revealed that the Vulcan had tossed Trent over the tactical station and was now fixing her chilling gaze on O'Connell. Billy Bob instinctively reached for the pistol sized phaser that was attached to his hip only to discover that it wasn't there. Of course it wasn't. He had handed it to Peri right before she was shot.
Instinctively his eyes scanned the floor to find a weapon he could use. There was one, only a meter or so away. A pistol sized hand phaser that was in a patch of burning carpet. Who's phaser was it? Was it Yelchin's? Or Trent's? It could have been the one that he gave Peri. Who knew? And right now, who cared?
As if compelled by the power of suggestion, T'Rena glanced at her feet and noticed the phaser pistol that had formerly belonged to the late Kenneth Urban. Billy's eyes goggled and his breath caught in his throat as she spared him a glance that could kill Satan himself before darting to the floor to fetch it.
That broke the spell. It didn't matter if the phaser was sitting in a patch of flames. It would take fire hotter than that to damage it and it would be worth a first degree burn to shoot that witch and save their skins. Master Chief O'Connell dove towards his phaser only to be stymied by a small hemispherical force field that appeared around his goal.
"Warning," Thea's disembodied voice announced in a professional tone completely devoid of life, "Fire detected on Battle Bridge on Deck Eight. Firefighting countermeasures initiated."
"What?" gasped a disbelieving Billy Bob. "No! No-no-no-no!" he yelped as he ineffectually slammed his fist into the force field. "Thea! Cancel--" The shot of a phaser beam searing through the smoke cut him off. It hit mere centimeters away from O'Connell's right hand and the master chief rolled on the floor to get out of the way. His progress was impeded by other glowing hemispheres that were enveloping other patches of smoldering carpet and he was forced to crawl under the ops station to get out of the line of T'Rena's fire. He whispered a few curses in Mandarin as his smoke stung eyes searched for a way out of this mess.
[ USS Harbinger | Amelya Duv | Main Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann
While listening to ThanIda Amelya nodded slowly in acknowledgment. This indeed wasn't the most suited time to rush the bridge and cause more mayhem if the crew was focusing on repelling the Calamity. The speech in Ida however got interrupted when the door of the restrooms opened up. The faces of the two security guards made Duv freeze up as Elliot fired his weapon and hit the rifle in Ida her hands. Her eyes turned wide and her pupils focused on the people before her. A sick feeling came over her and the effects of vomiting weren't far behind as she gagged a bit before her mind when into shock.
How could this happen, out of all the people there were, it had to be them. Yet the nauseating feeling she got was quickly set aside as anger, hate and disgust formed a new front against her fear and against the two men before them. She swallowed hard when she got stripped of her phaser and she felt the inoculator burn in the pocket of her labcoat. She had still worn the coat over her uniform as it seemed to still carry some interesting gadgets.
"Not when we should be adding numbers to Vasser's future army, and the two of you have wombs to fill... Right, Doctor?" The comment of Elliot was the droplet for Amelya and she grinded her teeth together before she launched herself off. With a scream of rage she took out the inoculator from her pocket and jammed it against the neck of Elliot. She had no clue what the dosage was, yet she knew it was certainly high enough to get Elliot out of combat immediately. In fact, she gave the officer more than one dose as she clicked the injector more than once. She looked up now at Liam as she had forgotten that they were with the two of them and he seemed to be readying himself to plant the butt of his rifle against her face.
[ Uncharted Planetoid | Outside the Class-9 Nebula ] Attn: Nathaniel Isley & Evelyn Rawley
The orange glows of phaser cannons were lighting up around Thomas when he heard Maverick's democratic question. A grin formed on his lips and he tapped the comms "I think we might have a better chance if we lead these guys on a goose chase back to the starships. Flak will certainly make it harder for them to stay on our tail if they're active that is... And well, strength with bigger guns I'd say when we show up. Though, for all we know we might get shot down by our own weapons if the takeover is completed. Renard made you squadron leader for a reason Mav, I'll follow your lead whether it is down here or back into the nebula. The choice is yours." He cut out with a barrel roll now as a Reaver nearly came head on into him and the fire he dealt out probably hit the Reaver enough to scratch the paintjob if not do some minimal damage to flight controls.
"Scratch that, fighting in here is too risky if we need to believe in the instruments alone, I rather see them out in space instead of blips on my screen." Razor replied and pulled up to get some altitude as a ragged mountain slope became visible in front of him. "Fucking hell, I hate this rock!" He cursed out loud and noticed Morrigan's fighter above him. He went onto her tail and bugged the Reaver chasing her before he doubted to communicate with her. She most probably noticed the action and he just broke off into the clouds again.
[Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent | USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ]
The Intelligence Officer knew well the risks of challenging a Vulcan in hand to hand combat. He'd heard several times of the infamous challenge between Solok and Ben Sisko and more than one of the Vulcan's papers had crossed his desk, all referencing the bout the human so disastrously lost. And now, the undertones of that wrestling match went through Trent's mind as he raised his arms to avoid being brained on the Tactical console.
However, it was no to say he wasn't dazed and he was rather unsure of how he'd come to rest in a crumpled mass at the foot of the bulkhead, and missing his jacket of all things. As he gathered himself up, Trent saw a panel that had been opened by his impact and a handheld fire extinguisher sat there. However, it was not to suppress the fire within the Battle Bridge that the Lieutenant Commander removed it from its brackets.
T'Rena had his back to him as she closed on O'Connell. And he took full advantage of that when he raised his improvised weapon and brought it down hard, aiming at the base of her skull. Yes, compromise her brain stem and she'll die just as a human would with a similar injury.
[ USS Harbinger | Restroom | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
Ida was, perhaps, as surprised as the two security guards at the suddenness and the... vehemence of Doctor Duv's actions. Before Liam had the time to react, the Trill had pumped the Pinkskin full of sedatives - likely enough to put him out of commission forever.
When Liam finally caught up with what was going on, it was much too late, but he still moved to strike down the doctor. At this, point, Ida had already caught on to the chance Duv had provided, and she intercepted the man before the rifle came anywhere near the Harbinger's CMO. With the momentum of two steps and the turn of her body, she drove an elbow straight into Liam's ribs. Andorians might have an endoskeleton structure with compartmentalised inner organs to protect them from blunt force, but humans only had their brittle bone structure in their poorly protected torso, and since Liam had no more protection than his uniform, Ida took advantage of the opening to its fullest extent.
The Pinkskin's movement towards the Trill was halted in its tracks, and Ida followed up with reversing her pivoting motion - turning away from Liam after attack. But not before she seized his closest arm and wrenched him across her hip in a throw - sending him straight into the edge of one of the stalls. He caught it with his face, and fell to the floor at the same time as Elliot fell into one of the bulkheads - slowly sliding down as consciousness left him forever. Ensuring that Liam wasn't going to rise again, Ida picked up the rifle from his hands and stunned him where he lay on the floor.
"Quick moves, Doctor," said Ida in passing as she handed her hand phaser back from Elliot's limp fingers. They could not afford to break pace, so Ida did not linger with reassurances that Duv hadn't had a choice, that she had acted in defence of their lives and the importance of the mission and so on. There was no bloody time, so she lay her hand against the side of Duv's neck and sought her gaze. "We must move on. Come, let's see what we are up against."
With her reacquired rifle ready and eyes along the sights, Ida moved to the door and checked the corridor. It lay empty, only the Red Alert lights blinking along the edges to the ceiling. "Captain's Ready Room," she said in a low voice to Amelya, and moved the short distance to the doors. They were locked, but that was not going to stop her. She tore the control panel next to the door open with one hand and began to tug out the isolinear chips - one by one falling to the floor. "Keep an eye out."
It only took her a few seconds before she could force the door open. Inside Captain Vasser's old quarters, nothing moved, so she motioned for Duv to follow her as she stepped in. "Let's see what is happening on the Bridge," she said, quickly moving to the computer console on the desk with her rifle raised next to her shoulder. She pushed a button to make the screen fold up, and then she tried her security override. "Seems they have realised their mistake. Trujillo has rescinded my system access and removed my security clearance. I have no access to the surveillance syste-"
Ida's eyes had fallen on the view screen in the Ready Room. They were moving at Warp velocity - the stars shooting by the window. It meant they were on the run from the Calamity, and so was - perhaps - the Theurgy. With any luck, the tactic to use the mines at mid-warp would work, but that was only if the Calamity began chasing the Theurgy instead of the Harbinger...
"If we are at warp, we are - at least - not engaged with the Calamity... and we could make our move. It's a gamble, but I am thinking that we hold to our course, and move in. We would be going in blind, but it might be the only chance we have. I will take point, opening fire against everyone onside, and you have to help me. Are you ready, Doctor? There is no merit in hesitating at this point."
OOC: DocReno, check your PMs, I have a suggestion for what DocReno could do on the way.
[ T'Rena | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ] Attn: Carrigan Trent & Billy Bob O'Connell
As determined as T'Rena was to end the life of the puny human hiding behind the ops station, the dying flicker of flames cast the shadow of her first opponent when he came at her from behind. Adjusting the grip of her weapon, she rounded on Carrigan Trent with the ambition strike him across the face with the handle of the phaser, but it would seem the spy had acquired a weapon of his own, and her powerful blow caught the hard cylinder of a fire extinguisher instead.
While the makeshift weapon was struck wide off its mark, the phaser in T'Rena's hand fell to the floor from senseless fingers. The acute agony that her nervous system announced through her whole arm probably meant that she had sustained a transverse fracture to her ulna - or elbow bone. Likely a consequence to the trauma it had sustained when the spy blocked one of her attacks at the onset of their fight. Her face was already a mask of horrifying determination, and the agony only twisted it into something more inhuman. Not just from her arm, but from the joint of her leg too - which had been twisted when she rounded on the human.
That did not delay her, however, since pain held no room in the clear intent of murder that her Vulcan mind was bent upon. Hundreds of times before that day, she had followed her turn through with the left-hand strike she now dealt against Trent's head - a open-hand strike with the palm aimed to the face. If he managed to change his momentum backwards before she connected, he might make out out unharmed. Discombobulated or imbalanced, yes, but with the bone structure of his face still intact.
Therefore, she had wanted to finish him for certain with a kick, but she could no longer trust her hip, so the initiative to end him faltered. Instead, she tried to grab him with the same hand she just had struck him with and yank him off his feet - meaning to throw him off the podium where they were and down to the floor where the ops and conn stations were. Not to the floor, of course, but straight into the ops station. Then she limbed down from the upper level of the Battle Bridge to pursue the two humans left to die - them being in the same general area at that point at the front of the bridge.
T'Rena did not care if they chose to try and work together to oppose her. They would die either way - one by one or together.
[ USS Harbinger | Captain's Quarters | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
Even though he knew that he needed to hurry and catch up with Ida and Doctor Duv, Chris had made a quick stop to the Quartermaster's office on Deck Two to "acquire" some equipment because his gut was telling him that the items that was now slung across his back and shoulders in an equipment bag would come in very handy.
As he resumed his climb, he could feel the contents of the equipment shifting around across his upper back and shoulders even though it was placed evenly there that once more his mind tried to shift to his past and the Auriga but he couldn't help it because of the sheer number of similarities to that one event in his life that changed alot for him. He could almost hear Paran's quiet snapping that if they were going to survive then he would have to do more.
CJ allowed himself a moment to touch the item that hung around his throat which only served to renew his choice as he resumed his climb upto the main deck but instead of heading to the restroom and while it might be funny to drop down, cut a witty retort and then take out a guard in that holo that his brother Daniel loved so much-Husker made a tactical decision to move down to the access panel behind the desk in T'Rena's ready room and he slowly moved through that area, occasionally stopping long enough to listen for any sounds or signs of pursuit from anywhere like he was trained in his intrusion and counter-intrusion courses at the academy before finally activating the panel and moving it to the side and slowly started to exit the access way, a phaser at the ready.
[ Master Chief Petty Officer William Robert "Billy Bob" O'Connell (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/156/7/9/o_connell_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7l44xt.png) | USS Theurgy | Deck 8 | Vector 3 Battle Bridge ] Attention: Carrigan Trent and T'Rena
Whoever had coined the term 'tranquil fury' had probably had T'Rena in mind. The universal translator in the combages (not that he was wearing a combadge right now) didn't translate names, but on a world with a capitalistic economy O'Connell would bet money that's what her name meant. Either that or 'icy treacherous insane mind raping scary homicidal witch,' but it seemed a mite unlikely that her parents would name her such.
The Vulcan attacked with no fear, no mercy, and no hesitation. She was mean enough to hunt bears with a hickory switch and crazy enough to eat the devil with horns on. She wasn't going to stop shooting through the smoke at the oversized human stupid enough to think that he could hide under the ops station without getting his butt shot off neither. And then suddenly she stopped shooting at him as her phaser made a clattering sound as it bounced off the back wall.
William Robert 'Billy Bob' O'Connell looked up from where he was crouched under the ops station to see that Carrigan Trent had disarmed T'Rena. This was the moment the master chief was waiting for. Billy Bob sprang to his feet and...
...darn near knocked himself cold when his head hit the bottom of the ops console he was hiding under. It looked like the battle bridge's main viewscreen must have been working because at that moment Billy saw stars. Belay that. He must have seen the whole dang galaxy.
Painfully, he crawled backwards out from under the ops console. His blurry vision cleared just in time to see someone get clobbered.
[Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent | USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ]
While Trent had been hoping for success and ending the fight right then and there by shattering the Vulcan's upper cervical vertebrae, he was not surprised when she whirled about to strike him. After all, he'd fairly thundered behind her and while he didn't bellow, he didn't make much effort to conceal his approach. However, she did not surprise him. In fact, what got his attention was how much give there had been when the fire extinguisher connected with her phaser. Had he actually injured her? Yes, the way she withdrew her arm, the way her face contorted even more, he had to have caused real damage. And when she lashed out, he'd been ready for it.
Dropping the fire extinguisher, he threw his right elbow up, deflecting her blow upwards and well clear of him. However, just as he prepared to step forward and counter-attack by ramming his synthetic fist into her face, he felt an iron grip about his right upper arm and he knew what was coming. She'd bodily thrown him once already, and seeing how she had not used her right hand or her feet to strike at him, her intentions were obvious. So, as she yanked at his arm with all of her inhuman strength, he leapt into her throw, adding further energy to it. Yes, he felt where she was intending to send him and the added kinetic energy sent him not into the ops console but over it, using his prosthetic to safely see himself clear of the obstruction and landing in a controlled roll instead of a repeat of his previous landing.
Getting back onto his feet, Trent raised his arms into a guard as he adopted a simple bent-knee stance and he began circling to give O'Connel a chance to crawl out from under the Ops station. And he took a moment to consider T'Rena's injuries. Her right leg was compromised, as was her right arm. And she he had the distinct impression her control was swiftly eluding her while his mind was razor-sharp. Oh, he was battered and parts of his body were protesting the abuse, but he had enough. It was time to end this.
Circling towards T'Rena's right, and he lunged forward. His left fist, the one made of metal and polymer, came straight towards her head but such was a faint, one that concealed his real strike. For instead, Carrigan launched his legs forward and scissored them low. His right one slammed backwards, the heel at the level of the Vulcan's ankles and the left, the prosthetic one, kicking hard at the back of her legs.
[ USS Harbinger | Restroom | Deck 01 ] Attn: Husker & Ida
Getting over the initial shock of actually killing a man, Amelya looked up at Ida as she disposed quickly of the last assailant. The doctor assumed that she'd be feeling guilt and remorse for what she had done. Yet nothing came, in fact the feeling of being freed overwhelmed her and it seemed like she enjoyed the feeling to the fullest as she started to smile. She looked up at Ida now and got up while recovering her inoculator and looking down at the two guards. She couldn't care less what happened to them.
Amelya now followed Ida, phaser in hand as they moved further towards the Ready Room. She kept an eye out as Ida tore through the panel and opened the door for them. Once inside, she had noticed the stars as well as they warped by and she wondered if the entire takeover was completed or not by this time. If so, they would be fighting against very unfavorable odds. Still having heard what Ida had said she walked over to the console and used her own system access. As CMO she figured her clearances would he high enough to get what Ida wanted to do. Yet Ida seemed ready enough to risk it. Amelya looked up and smiled "If it's anything that I've remembered from Starfleet lessons on tactical levels, it's that you can never run into a fight without proper info. I've logged it, but I'm not sure if you can do what you wanted to do."
Amelya thought the alternative over, did they really have any other chance? "If not I will follow you Ida. You have the experience and skills to pull this off. I'll do my best to assist you." She answered her within a few seconds and took position by the door leading to the bridge.
[ T'Rena | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ] Attn: Carrigan Trent & Billy Bob O'Connell
Unflinching, T'Rena's diabolic grimace was like a permanent death grin. Head tilted forth, she blocked the strike towards her face without batting an eye. Too late she felt it to be feigned when her good hand diverted it, and had she not taken such a hard blow to her hip a short while ago, she might have gotten out of the trap that the human had set for her.
As it were, something failed inside her body when she tried to take a leap back. The agony of the misplaced weight, the almost audible noise that her fractured hip made, it stalled her from moving in any direction. It almost made her loose consciousness, and she had no means to stop the spy from folding her legs by using his own. The support of her own body had failed her, and she was sent crashing straight into the ops console with her head first.
The head trauma added with her fractured hip benumbed her mind. Instincts alone kept her from lying still. Her nervous system was screaming at her to stop, yet pain was something she had earned control of a long time ago. Pain was nothing. Nor fear. There was just no recource than to keep fighting, because if she lost, she would have been proven wrong. Commodore Vasser had been the perfect solution, but T'Rena would have failed to give him what he needed. Breeding stock for an army, genetically engineered to resist the parasitic threat. If she gave up, she would just have given him failure.
She would not fail the father of her unborn children. There was no alternative. No other resort. Therefore she kept moving after she ended up on the floor, reached out to grab Trent's belt buckle and drag herself up his legs. He was on his back, probably struggling to get away from her, and yet she kept moving - her other arm held at an awkward angle against her own chest. Unstoppable and quick as a snake, she seized his collar with her next hand-hold - dragged herself up his abdomen. He might have punched her all he wanted, because his strikes were irrelevant to the absolute truth of her conviction. She kept her ruined face away from his flailing limbs, her weight on top of him, and her agony away from her mind.
"You... are... nothing compared to him," she said to the human as she locked her hard fingers around his throat. With her hold secure, she pushed herself up - supported her entire weight upon the grip. Straddling his hips, she held him in place against the deck plates. With eyes wide, she choked him - teeth baring to the dying flames of the bridge. "Perfection manifest... His children will wipe the Galaxy clean once more... "
Images flashed before her eyes. The outpost in flames. Green blood upon white cliffs. Children taught not to scream. Dying in silence.
"The children... will save us all..." Even as her grip tightened, her voice broke by the memory.
[ USS Harbinger | Captain's Ready Room | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
Seeing that Ameya Duv's system access - medical officer as she might be - had not been revoked, Ida's antennae rose in elated surprise. She'd thought that Trujillo or whomever of his crew had thought to revoke their system access altogether, but it seems they had a lot to learn about proper security protocol when dealing with captive Starfleet officer aboard the ship. As pleased as she was that she could access the systems, she could have kissed the Trill right then and there. Alas, there was no time, and she had already been kissing that Pinkskin named Slayton a short while ago. It just didn't seem right, faultless as she may have been. Then again, there had certainly not been any fault in Husker's ki- No time to think on that. Focus, Ida!
"Your clearance is not enough for the security surveillance systems and the cameras on the bridge, but I can use the internal sensors to see that there are five people in there - which ought to represent the bridge crew." Closing the computer console, Ida joined Doctor Duv by the door to the bridge, keeping her voice down to not let the Harbinger personnel beyond the door hear her. "They will likely be by their stations. If they are engaged with the Calamity, then we shouldn't shoot them but keep our phasers trained on them. Let me do the talking, but be ready to open fire at my word."
Ida paused, blue eyes locked with the Harbinger's defecting CMO. "If we make it through this. I will make it my personal mission to make sure there is no doubt as to where your new loyalties lie. My name has been synonymous with weakness, treason or worse among my own crew for a long time, and as ill fortune as I might have had, and as much shame as I have endured, I do not want you to end up the same as me. If they ever doubt your fortitude, then you can send them my way. Now, are you ready? One, two..."
On 'three', Ida stepped into the sensor field of the door and emerged unto the Harbinger Bridge with her rifle raised - eyes casting about to identify her targets. "No one moves!" she called to the assembled faces before her, "I hereby assume command of this vessel and if anyone has anything to say about that, give voice to thoughts! Yet if you move to action, I swear I will shoot you down right where you are!"
"Stand down, Lieutenant zh'Wann," said Trujillo from the Captain's chair, not even looking at the Andorian or the Trill that had emerged on the bridge. "We are trying to determine if the Calamity has given chase to us or the Theurgy." His fingers moved over his armrest as he spoke, and Ida caught the subtle movements of his fingers too late.
"Keep your hand-" she began to say, but it was too late. With a whirring sound, the two force-fields activated - twain cylinders encasing Ida and Duv. No more than one meter in diameters each, and with no exits.
Trujillo turned his face to smirk at them, and Ida wanted nothing more than to claw the expression off the Pinkskin's face.
"Of course the Calamity would not come after us first," he said, and Ida answered by striking the forcefield with the butt of the rifle with a furious Andorian curse. "Let's keep the women for entertainment purposes when the Theurgy has disabled the Calamity with the mines. It shouldn't be too long now." Trujillo stood up and folded his hands behind his back, looking back to the viewscreen.
"For indeed... Celebrations are well due when the Commodore seizes his flag ship, and we can begin our voyage away from Federation space."
OOC: Up to you now, DocReno to be the hero of the day!
[ Skye Carver| Near Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Lin Kae, Selena Ravenholm, Rihen, & Thea
Skye growled at her own big mouth and all the hell they were all going through but when Thea said she was going to her daughter, a chill went through her. "Thea I'm sorry I said that, it's just my frustration with this whole fucking situation," she said before Lin Kae could give the authorization. "And you can't go because we need you here. You are part of this crew and ..."
Her voice had cracked, proving she was feeling emotional attachment. "Lin Kae and I worked hard to help you become more than you were and, well, I know I'm not your mother but I feel a little like that because there's some of me in you. Even before, as one of the Wolves, it was my duty to protect you and now that feeling is stronger. I care about you and so does Lin Kae and I'm sure there are others."
She was trying to hit on an emotional level, likely something that wouldn't work but she had to try. "If you go there, we could lose you. We've lost too many already so please don't go. Let us end this mutiny and focus on Cala. Maybe we can be lucky enough to disable her and then Lin Kae and Rihen can help her, fix what those bastards did to her ... give us all a chance," she pleaded.
[ USS Harbinger | Captain's Ready Room | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
Husker slowly edged his way out of the access panel behind the First Officer's desk in her ready room before entering into a combat crouch with the phasers at the ready as he moved towards the large opening that had been made into the bridge. The large hole was there because Ensign Sonja Acreth had escaped while they tried to flee Theta Eridani IV, and the pursuit of the escapee had caused some destruction to Deck 01 that was not critical to repair. As it were, T'Rena's old ready room opened up directly into the Harbinger's bridge. If there was one thing that both Paran and his flight instructors at the academy had taught him was that patience was the key of survival.
The patience to know when to stay low and quiet as opposed to high ground and loud meant an entirely different thing when the prey was about as Paran's words slowly echo'd into his mind:
"The Glikar'ma is a very intelligent bug, little brother. It feeds on small mammals but for a creature that is not sentient, it is very intelligent and capable of sneak attacks. It will wait patiently for it's prey to check every possible place, every knook..every canny..every *EDGE*..until finally the prey feels that it is safe in it's own arrogance which is then it strikes from the one place that no one would every expect it to be."
"Be the glikar'ma, little brother. Make the prey understand it's folly."
Chris' eyes narrowed in concentration as he reached up and manually opened the doors to the ready room a little bit and surveyed the bridge, seeing only that a skeleton crew of five was manning the bridge including that pinkskin bastard in Trujillo who was looking smug and bored in his chair as the Harbinger sat at red alert and slowly a tactical plan began to form in his head.
But before he could think any further, he heard movement followed by Ida's voice with "No one moves!" she called to the assembled faces before her, "I hereby assume command of this vessel and if anyone has anything to say about that, give voice to thoughts! Yet if you move to action, I swear I will shoot you down right where you are!"
Trujillo's order for Ida to stand down was made with such arrogance that Husker's eyes narrowed followed by the rage of the curse that Ida snarled at which point Husker slowly started to re-formulate his plan but before he could think more, Trujillo's comment brought something darker to the forefront:
"For indeed... Celebrations are well due when the Commodore seizes his flag ship, and we can begin our voyage away from Federation space."
Husker's eyes narrowed as he slowly removed the equipment bag from his shoulders, rotated his neck a little bit and then stood up before switching the phasers to the highest stun setting before hitting the open button and quickly, quietly stepping out onto the bridge through the hole in the wall without a word and headed for the security station.
With two shots he quickly took down both of the smirking officers at tactical and science, catching tactical mid-line torso and science in the side of the face. Next down was mission ops who noticed what was happening and got a bolt of phaser energy dead center of his chest.
Husker got to security and then entered a simple command into the console which he then executed before ducking the return fire. "I do believe that you were releaved of command, Trujillo." as the two security force fields dropped on the two women as the system went into a standard maintence check.
=============================================
OOC:
The Glikar'ma is a large spider found on Andoria. For reference:
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Glikar%27ma
GM note: I made a slight edit as to where Husker came from since Ida and Duv came from the Captain's Ready Room, and Husker couldn't do the same. - Auctor Lucan
[ Master Chief Petty Officer William Robert "Billy Bob" O'Connell (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/156/7/9/o_connell_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7l44xt.png) | USS Theurgy | Deck 8 | Vector 3 Battle Bridge ] Attention: Carrigan Trent and Thea
When Billy Bob's vision cleared he found himself clutching the back of his head and leaning on the ops station for support. He had damn near knocked himself out. Trent had saved his skin, and he and T'Rena were whaling on each other like nobody's business. O'Connell shuddered and almost tripped over Urban as Trent jumped on top of the Vulcan and sent her head into the ops console. Now O'Connell was the only one on his feet, he had a clear view of a phaser rifle on the deck just to the right of the main viewscreen.
He shook his head to clear it and stepped to the right before vaulting over the helm console. He picked it up and pointed it at the battling duo. Somehow, T'Rena had reversed the roll and ended up on top of Trent. She looked like a murder victim right before somebody summons the police, but she was still fighting. Wasn't nothing going to keep her down but a shot from a phaser.
"You... are... nothing compared to him," she gasped as her hands tightened around Trent's throat.
"T'Rena!" O'Connor barked. "Stop! Let him go!"
"The children... will save us all..." the Vulcan hissed, her voice braking right along with her sanity.
"You asked for it," Billy Bob muttered. She was in such bad shape that it was unlikely she would ever have children, but even so, Billy thought it would take more than one shot set on stun to knock her out. Oh well. It didn't matter. One shot should get her off Trent and two...
Billy pulled the trigger, unaware that the weapon he had picked up was T'Rena's. It was still on the setting that had killed Peri, Urban, and Yelchin and had set half the carpet on fire. The Vulcan's head and shoulders burst into flame and Billy heard a short, high pitched yelp that sounded like it came from a little girl. It was only after he noticed his throat was sore that he realized that he had made that noise.
The ruttin' thing was set to kill! He almost took the flesh off Trent's hand, but fortunately the hand closest to the blast zone was his mechanical one. O'Connell dropped the weapon and darted to Trent's side, gingerly lifting T'Rena's body off of him.
"You okay, Commander?" he asked him as he took his breathing mask off and was hit with a stench of burning flesh and chemicals. "It's okay sir," he said as he help him sit up. "No rush. Take your time."
Suddenly the red alert claxon sounded and the main viewscreen displayed the image of the Calamity. Time was something they didn't have a lot of. As a matter of fact, time was literally against them. The enemy ship from the future was coming and the officers assigned to the emergency bridge were dead. There was only the two of them who could take the Theurgy into combat from here, and that wasn't anywhere near enough.
"God damn it!" Billy swore. "Can't you let up just once?"
[Lieutenant Commander Carrigan Trent | USS Theurgy | Vector 03 Battle Bridge | Deck 08 ]
When he saw T'Rena go down and her head slammed into the Ops console, Trent allowed himself moment of exultation. Finally, he was getting the upper hand on the Vulcan bitch. However, when she swiftly recovered and slithered up his body he found himself unpleasantly surprised by just how stubborn the woman was. He had felt her hip give way when he had scissored at her legs; he had seen how her thigh had moved most unnaturally as she crumpled to the deck. For the vast majority of individuals, Klingons and Vulcans included, this would be the end of it. The shock and the pain would be incapacitating and the fight would end right then and there.
But not so with this insane Vulcan. Trent tried to break contact, but he was unable to and before he knew it, the iron grip of her good hand was about his throat. He could see her face, contorted with rage. He could hear her words, savage and crazed. But he didn't care. There was very little air coming through his throat. Oh, he had contracted the muscles in his neck to blunt her grip and his natural hand was at her wrist, trying to pry it away from his throat. Perhaps he could not free himself, but he could buy himself some precious time in which air would still come to his lungs.
But it would not last long. Her head was out of his reach, but his synthetic hand kept hammering and hammering at the Vulcan. Into her broken hip where he could feel more pieces of bone giving way under his strikes; into her chest and breaking ribs; into her midsection where no doubt he was starting to cause internal bleeding. But there was no way to get her off him. And he was tiring. The modicum of air he could get past her iron grip was no longer enough and as he weakened, his vision grew dim.
Until a phaser's shriek led to the hand about his throat to be released and a mass reeking of burnt flesh pinned him to the deck. Before long, hacking and coughing, Trent found himself aided to a sitting position. T'Rena was next to him, her head a charred lump. No, she was done for this time. No one could live with most of their skull removed by a phaser blast. As he sought to catch his breath, the Lieutenant Commander coughed again and spat, a gob of phlegm, soot and blood from his tortured throat flying free to land close to the fallen Vulcan. "Thanks," he then croaked. Yes, it might take a while for his throat to stop hurting. At least, it did very little to blunt his normally soft delivery.
But then, the dread sound of Red Alert flooded the ship. Calamity. They had the most unpleasant timing. As O'Connell bemoaned the situation, Trent rose to his feet and went to his destroyed jacket and proceeded to remove his combadge from it and pinned it to his shirt. "Master Chief, change of plans, again. Get to Engineering. Gather up everyone you can round up and get them to their stations. We're low on plasma still so I'll need you to keep the power loads balanced."
Then, he turned to his companion of the last hour or so. "I'll be on the Bridge."
Indeed, Trent knew that unless other members of the senior staff were there, especially Tovarek or Stark, there was no one else who even came close to understanding the algorithm that would filter their passive sensor input to defeat Calamity's barrage jammers and clear up their active sensor picture. And even then, he still had to defeat their reactive jammers in order to return their own sensors to full efficiency. And that even didn't take under account the wizardry he'd have to perform on her shields, an on-the-fly adaptation of the concepts that saw him published and promoted early in his career.
And if the Bridge was manned by loyal crewmen, they would need a commander until such a time as Jien Ives was back in command.
[ Rihen Neyah | Near Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Skye Carver & Selena Ravenholm
Meanwhile the fighter pilot urged Thea to deviate from her set course-of-action - trying to talk her out of going to Cala and try to save her on her own - the EMH spoke up behind Rihen.
"The patient is suffering from severe cerebral haemorrhage," he said, and Rihen whirled about to see him frown as he looked at the readings on the tricorder - his balding head bent over the prone form of Selena Ravenholm. "She needs a blood transfusion since the bleeding has not been trapped inside her head, but is leaking out through her nasal cavity. If I stem the bleeding, she will sustain blood swelling on her brain, but if I don't stop the bleeding, she will face lethal blood-loss. All I could do from here - with this single emitter that I am projected through - was to place a holographic patch over the ruptured blood vessel. It is slowing the bleeding until she can be treated with a proficiently calibrated vascular regenerator and given a blood transfusion. This can only be done in Sickbay, which is where she has to be moved as soon as possible. Why am I activated here if she needs a medical emergency transport?"
"Oh, no," said Rihen, realising that the strange woman who had helped them might be dying. She was no doctor, but any engineer could understand how a holographic patch in Ravenholm's head couldn't exist outside the area beneath the repaired emitter, and she knew that the emitters in Sickbay were gone as well. "The Transporters have been down since the overload that made all those plasma relays explode, and even if we could, the patch would be gone after we beamed her there..."
Through the intercom, Thea answered the blonde fighter pilot. [Whether or not my crew cares about me - some more than others - is not the question, Skye.] The informal use of the woman's first name was lost on Rihen, who was not used to addressing people with titles to begin with. [Even as a part of this crew, and with the liberty of my mobile emitter, I was restricted in my movements - not approved to attend an away mission. Captain Ives denied me to try and save my daughter, but I will not obey that order. If there is a chance that I could reach her and restore her to her true self, I will take it. If I fail... I will not be the photonic being that Kae has managed to create, my emitter likely lost in battle, but I would still be here - an holographic shadow of what I have become. It it comes to that, I was at least able to feel the world around me like you do, and I am grateful for the privilege.]
"Thea, I..." Lin Kae found his voice - the moment likely having gotten to him. "I know you will do what you can for your crew as well as your daughter. I understand that you have to do this, and as much as I hate to see you suffer from your old restrictions once the ship-wide hologrid is repaired... I think it is your right as a person to make this choice. I.. hereby authorise the removal of full command privileges from Commodore Declan Vasser, restricted as your judgement see fit. Kae-Epsilon-Niner-Alpha."
There was a chirp of acknowledgement before Thea spoke again. [My gratitude, Kae.] She sounded relieved to hear Kae wasn't going to try and stop her. [Miss Neyah? A personal request, if I may. Selena Ravenholm needs urgent medical attention, and since she sacrificed herself to ensure that I was restored to the ship systems, and I feel that I have a personal debt to repay her, can you take her to Sickbay? If she joins our crew, Captain Ives will have earned an extraordinary asset for the mission back to Earth.]
"That will be kind of hard, the emit-" Rihen said, only to be interrupted by Thea.
[The EMH Mk I is there, and he can carry her if you repair the emitters between where you are and to one of the surgical suites in Sickbay. All the emitters need to have their EH-5 controller isolinear chips replaced, so you will need to replicate a total amount of 35 of them if you take the shortest route to Sickbay. Changing the chips is well within your range of expertise.]
"Carrying the patient... What is this ship from, the twentieth century?" muttered the EMH.
"I will do it!" said Rihen, eager to be able to help somehow. All she needed to find was a replicator and she'd be off. She stopped short and stepped up to the sweet young engineer. "If you can help me, we will be able to move twice as fast..."
"Ah, yes, but..." said Kae, eyes momentary dropping to her chest from some reason, but then Rihen saw him turn to the fighter pilot. "What will you be doing now? Will you be going out there in your Valkyrie if the Calamity is here? If not, we could need protection from T'Rena's search parties if they are still roaming the corridors."
Essentially, a choice between her duty towards the crew as a whole or the protection of Lin Kae, Rihen Neyah and Selena Ravenholm.
[ USS Harbinger | Captain's Ready Room | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
The sight of Husker emerging from the hole in the wall that led from the Executive Officer's quarters made Ida's ire drain - feeling herself being filled with both fear for his sake and hope for success. The Harbinger fighter pilot shot them all down, one by one, in rapid succession - leaving only Trujillo sitting in his chair and the helmsman. A youthful, stout Pinkskin who looked like he was about to soil his undergarments.
Once Ida and Doctor Duv were freed from the forcefields, Ida raised her rifle again and walked up to the helm, but she gave Husker a lopsided smile on the way there. "Nice shooting," was all she really had time to say given the fact that they were handling a crisis. Then she set the muzzle of her rifle against the thigh of the helmsman and leaned over him to check their present course and velocity. "Give me the coordinates and trajectories of the Theurgy and the Calamity. Now. Otherwise I will have to ask the good Ensign behind me to retrieve the data from you."
"There will be no need of that," said Trujillo from where he sat, looking properly angry and yet... the bitter smile he wore also suggested that he had made a decision he did not like. "Let me remind you that Selena Ravenholm has reconfigured this ship to be handled by a skeleton crew, and that also extend to certain command privileges as well." Standing up, hands raised, he faced the three escaped captives with a resigned demeanour. "The command is yours, of course, and I hope you enjoy the short voyage into battle. If you are lucky, you might even make it there to fire off a few shots."
Ida narrowed her eyes at the man as he began to walk around the Captain's chair - laying his hands on top of its back as if to pull it out for Ida. She turned around to give her full attention to the Hispanic bastard, not trusting his intentions for a second. She had her rifle trained on the man as she stepped away from the helm - sights on his face. "What are you talking about?"
He took a deep breath. "I am talking about one of the core principles of a Commanding Officer. You go down with the ship," he said, and Ida's perplexed scowl seemed to amuse him before... he gave the barest of nods to the helmsman. At which point Ida rounded on the youth in time to see him tackle into her - sending them both off their feet and sprawling on the floor. In the commotion, Ida could hear Trujillo proclaim their collective death sentence. "Computer, Two-Zero-Zero-Five."
[Auto Destruct Sequence initiated. Abandon ship. Abandon ship.]
The blare of the alert resounded on the bridge. Usually it took two officers to self destruct a ship, but not the Harbinger since it had a limited crew complement. Ida was dealing as many strikes as she got. The helmsman was not so frightened as he has made Ida think, nor as weak - struggling as he were to wrest the rifle from her hands. Ida knew that Husker would likely try to aide her since the helmsman was on the verge of arming himself, and Trujillo had appeared unarmed. "No, take him!"
But it was too late. Trujillo was already going for Doctor Duv - about to take her weapon since she was a weaker opponent than Husker. In her peripheral vision, she saw the vile man reaching her. Husker was caught between helping either of his companions, and both adversaries on the bridge might just arm themselves.
It was the moment where their fate turned in a new direction, and when the future unravelled and formed to something entirely else. Ida did not dare even breathe, time standing still as she saw it - the moment so fragile that it would shatter. As if the timestream itself shifted on the bridge, and then finally seized the scene. Everything came alive again in the moments of death.
OOC: Next poster: Nolan.
[ Evelyn "Ranger" Rawley | Uncharted Planetoid ] Attn: Thomas "Razor" Ravon
[Roger that,] said Maverick on the squadron channel, [This is Wolf-Leader. Set a course straight into the nebula. Full impulse. Redirect all auxiliary power to long range sensors and keep an eye out for the warptrail of either of the three starships. I repeat, begin ascent and head straight towards the last known coordinates that we have on the Theurgy and the Harbinger. Loose these toasters in the interference clouds if you can. They are not our primary target.]
"This is Wolf-Zero-Six. Acknowledged. Beginning ascent now!"
Yanking her joystick backwards, Rawley bared her bloodied teeth at the orange sky - forcing Morrigan's Valkyrie to soar straight into the stratosphere. The readings on the visor of her helmet told her that she had two Reavers on her six, so she switched to TVD and looked over her shoulder. She saw the icy planetscape vanishing behind the high altitude clouds, pierced by the red signatures of her pursuers. They were hot on her tail, and tried to gain on her before she reached the Class-9 nebula. She was rattled when she broke atmosphere, and she felt blood trickle from her nose. She could not afford to let herself be concerned. She would never yield. Not while she still drew breath.
"ETA to nebula-entry, thirty seconds!" she announced and she turned around to see the tail fire of the hard-points that her pursuers released. She dove into a barrel-role and held her thumb on the release of her countermeasures. "Twenty seconds! They have target lock on me and I am trying to outrun three torpedoes here! Fuck, they released two more! Requesting backup!"
[Negative,] replied Maverick, and both Wolf-03 and 08 repeated the answer before Isley added his take on the situation. [They are using the window of opportunity to release all they got before we enter the nebula. Ready countermeasures and hope for the best...]
"Fuck, I have to waves of ordinance chasing me..."
Chances I can hit them both are slim to none. Strangely, her thoughts went to her half-brother. She wondered what Winterbourne was doing on the Theurgy. Probably shitting mines into Cala's ugly face... Hope you are having better luck than me, Cale...
Ten seconds. She jammed her thumb down, releasing her countermeasures to deal with the first wave, but the second wave got through. She tried to engage a low warp factor, but she got an error message. Her deflector had not been powered up yet since she skipped the pre-flight checks. She could hear Papa Bear yelling at her for her mistake. She remembered fucking him in that beach house on the holodeck. Singing with him.
Five seconds.
Two seconds short.
What irony.
[ Thomas "Razor" Ravon| Uncharted Planetoid ] Attn: Evelyn "Ranger" Rawley
[This is Wolf-Leader. Set a course straight into the nebula. Full impulse. Redirect all auxiliary power to long range sensors and keep an eye out for the warptrail of either of the three starships. I repeat, begin ascent and head straight towards the last known coordinates that we have on the Theurgy and the Harbinger. Loose these toasters in the interference clouds if you can. They are not our primary target.]
Razor didn't bother to copy as his bird had already started to ascend into the orange nebula. The interference seemed to play havoc with most of his systems and he hoped that it would do the same for the Reavers. Checking his tail he noticed that he had no pursuers. Boosting his instruments to find the two starships now, and hopefully not run into the Calamity while doing so, Razor checked his radar for any sign. He could hear the radio traffic in the meantime and heard Rawley's request for help. He cursed softly as Maverick and the other wolves replied with a negative. He pushed the joystick backwards violently and his plane did a backflip before firing down towards the planetoid again. "Oh yes sure, I'm a fucking traitor that would get us all killed." He mumbled without activating the communication link.
His eyes searched for the Reavers and Rawley and soon enough he noticed the bright phaser rounds being discharged in the clouds. He narrowed his eyes and while he came down with a bit too much velocity he had to act fast if he wanted to help or save his fellow wolf. Indicators started to blare now as the maximum speed was starting to etch closer and the G forces would no doubt start to work on him if he had to pull up hard now. The fighter started to shake a bit by the speed and pressure put to it and Thomas knew that he could rip his wings off with this action.
"Here goes nothing..." He grinned and fired away. From his elevated position Thomas came out of the nebula as a stealth jet for the Reavers. He assumed they hadn't spotted him due to the interference in the cloud and their reaction time was too slow no matter what machine they had put in them. Razor's fighter had achieved a too high speed to react too and the cannon fire ripped through the Reavers from behind, damaging engines and flight gears alike. Not scoring actual kills though, Thomas was damn sure that the fighters wouldn't be able to keep up with Rawley and especially not him as they were damaged moderately. The next problem however laid up ahead, the ordinance chasing Rawley.
The speed he had achieved meant that he only had one shot at this. The distance between the ordinance and Rawley not greater than a few meters. Thomas screamed it out now as he screeched his fighter past the ordinance not being able to fire at it as his speed was too high and his angle was off after engaging the Reavers. Time seemed to slow down now as if it was one of those moments were every detail became vivid for ones mind. He could see Ranger just in front of him and the kill load just behind him. His fingers bashed the button and time re assumed it's normal course as he released his own counter measures between Rawley and the ordinance. The explosion of the torpedoes came nearly instantly so one would believe they were hit. One torpedo had hit the countermeasures and the other blew up along with it clearing Ranger's tail.
For a second Thomas smiled before he realized he was now on an instant crash course with the planetoid. He deployed air brakes, reverse thrusters, everything that could slow him down enough. Yet the explosion behind him had increased his airspeed making a upward pitch life threatening. He could see the snowy landscape ahead as it formed itself with mountains around him. More alarms started blaring now and just before his fighter smacked into the thick pack of ice and snow, Razor pulled up. He diverted all power to thrusters and afterburners and the belly of his jet scraped the snow without causing any real damage. The G forces kicked in causing a near blackout jet Razor managed to sent his fighter back in an upward direction that would lead him into the nebula and back towards space. He would use that time to recover from his action.
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & CJ "Husker" Slayton
Husker seemed to be the right man at the right time as he emerged on the bridge and fired nearly everyone down. Amelya was relieved that the force fields dropped and she wondered what would have happened if they never ran into the Harbinger pilot in the first place. She shook the idea out of her head though as it most probably wouldn't lead to the nicest places in her mind. She focused again on the task at hand, which was to hold the remaining crew at gunpoint.
As Ida gave the Trujillo her orders, Amelya let her eyes linger on Husker and nodded when he made eye contact with her. This way she showed her appreciation to the valiant rescue and she smiled warmly towards him before she turned her eyes towards Trujillo. While the conversation unfolded between the new found captain and Ida, Amelya looked away from him and checked the helmsman. He was far too quiet she thought and She stepped towards his direction a bit before checking what he was doing. Again, Amelya wasn't trained for this. To this point pretty much everything looked suspicious in her eyes and he looked back at Trujillo as he seemed overconfident to be on the losing side.
Then it happened, a moment of not being fast enough allowed the helmsman to do what he had to do it seemed. The tackle seemed brutal from Amelya's point of view and she aimed her phaser towards the helmsman in response, yet couldn't make sure that she'd hit him. Not without risking Ida's own safety, yet matters took a turn for the worse as suddenly the Hispanic captain came into Amelya's field of view. She turned around and shouted at him to stop where he was. She switched target, yet the man was trained and faster then she imagined. A struggle started now for control of the weapon and Amelya suddenly received a low kick straight in the stomach. She felt the air being sucked out of her lungs by the blow and felt her hold on the weapon dissipate. Trujillo would soon have the weapon under his control yet the Trill wouldn't give up this easily.
She clawed back and suddenly in all the commotion two shots were fired in between them. From Husker or Ida's point of view, they couldn't tell who had hit who as the two of them froze up in the moment. Amelya looked Trujillo right in the eyes as he looked up at her. Amelya's eyes widening a bit as she mouthed something that was beyond anyone's range to hear. Trujillo still had that devilish smile on his face as the phaser fell on the floor. For a second or two it seemed like the two of them were just standing there, yet eventually they both fell down against the console walls as the alarms of self destruction continued to blare.
With a rough push, Amelya dropped Trujillo next to her against the console and she got up and looked around her to figure out where the rifle was. She had to help Ida, she really had to! It was the only sane thing that came to her mind as she tried to push away the idea that she just shot a Starfleet captain. "Husker! Help her!" She shouted at the pilot eventually, repeating the same sentence in a whisper at first.
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
Chris had kept both of his weapons trained on the two remaining members of the Harbinger's bridge crew and the corners of his eyes grew tight when he heard the destruct order being given to the ship's computer but it was a good thing that Chris had thought ahead of time but that didn't stop him from gripping both phasers tightly in his hands as he watched the two women fight with the bridge crew for their respective weapons.
Chris was about to follow Ida's request to help the soft spoken doctor but when the weapons fire between Amelya and Trujillo erupted briefly before the Hispanic man was pushed off of Amelya with a hint of finality on his face did Chris go into motion as he holstered the two phasers as he quickly strode over to where Ida was wrestling with the Helmsman who had all of his weight and attention directed solely at the andorian Zhen.
This lack of attention allowed Chris to grab the helmsman, an arrogant and self absorbed man who Chris wasn't too entirely fond of to begin with, by the back of his uniform with his left hand to yank him into a standing position as Chris growled "You are *RELEAVED*, pinkskin." before driving all of the force of his right fist into Gist's throat, silencing him before he could possibly lock the helm out of spite, which was then followed up with two more blows-one to double him over and then the second one to take him out completely before letting go of the man and offering a hand to Ida to help her up as he simply asked one thing-"Orders, Lieutenant?"
[ Skye Carver| Near Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ]
Skye couldn't keep the grimace from forming as she heard the report of Ravenholm's condition and then Thea's counter argument. "But if you fail and she gets the mobile emitter we all die for sure," Skye tried to continue the argument but it was Thea's words of fighting for what she believed in that cut away any further arguments. "You just had to pull that card didn't you?" she grumbled.
It was then that Kae put in his thoughts and authorization which basically made further discussions moot. She drew in and then let out a deep breath. "Mother's have to let go sometime and I guess maybe right now I'm facing that sort of thing. Good luck, Thea, but please come home and let's try to change things for you," she added, knowing she and Kae both would do their best to convince others that Thea deserved better.
For a moment she seemed to zone out as discussion turned to moving the patient and fixing emitters along the way but it was Kae's voice that drew her back and she snorted along with giving him The Look though he could see the affection behind the stern expression when he asked what she was going to do. "You think I'm about to leave you unguarded?" she said softly, the tone contradictory to the look.
"It's my duty to protect, whether it's out there or here." There was no choice and she was not shirking her duty, simply guarding a very small portion of the crew. Wolves had to adapt and do the best they could with what was available, which was exactly what she was doing. They had helped get Thea back, though it seemed they might lose her again. Still, they were fighting tooth and nail if they had to for their crew.
"The deck was being destroyed as I left so I doubt I could get my bird out but even if I could, there's no way I'd leave you to fall prey to those demons." She touched his face then, her expression softer like those special times they'd been together. "You are my dearest friend and I would die a thousand deaths before I let them get to you," she continued. "Not the Naussicans, not whatever it is that's taken over Starfleet, and sure as hell not Vasser and T'Rena's mutineers."
[ Evelyn "Ranger" Rawley | Uncharted Planetoid ] Attn: Thomas "Razor" Ravon
In the last seconds before she was enveloped by the orange nebula, Rawley had thought she was about to die. He had done all the evasive manoeuvres she'd had in her repertoire and still fallen short. That was, until her pack came to aide her, and this in the shape of the one she thought least likely to do so. The sensor readings kicked her out of the momentary pause she had fell into in the face of certain death, and the blare of Razor's Valkyrie nearly colliding with her own made her blink and look around herself with her TVD vision.
At first, she didn't see much at all - jarred as she was by the engine output of her fellow wolf as he shot by from on high. Much less so when his countermeasures detonated right behind her, and threw her into an involuntary barrel roll off to her port side. Cursing, and yet elated to still be alive, she wrestled with Morrigan's Valkyrie to restore her set course - knowing that she could not afford to fall behind for a moment.
"Wolf-06 to-" she started to say, not knowing what she was supposed to say to Razor after all that had happened, but the readings on her HUD:s were unanimous in stopping her from wasting her breath and his time on sentimentality. "You have three Reavers inbound, Razor! You are way down by the planet again and they are moving in on you. Bearings... Five-Niner-Two-Alpha and Three-Three-Zero-Epsilon. No, I count four of them! You need to get out of there! You must catch up with us or you will not find us up here in the nebula!"
Already, communications were breaking up, and Rawley struggled with the audio channel to clear up her message. "Maverick! He will loose us! Request permission to stay behind!"
[This is Wolf-Leader. That is a negative,] said Nathaniel Isley, and the conflict was plain in his voice, [If we stay behind, we will all die against those kind of numbers. If the Calamity has come, we must protect the base ship. Our chances are better with less Reavers present. I... I'm sorry, Thomas. If you can still hear us, try to make it into the nebula and find the warp trail. We must reach the Theurgy before it is too late. I repeat, try...]
"This is bullshit! We cannot leave him behind! Thomas! Don't you fucking die out there! I will come back to you," called Rawley, the static swallowing her voice. Close proximity transmissions seemed to be working still, because the only answer she got was from Maverick.
[I cannot pick up his signal any more. Stand down, Evelyn. We must protect the base ship from the Calamity. We cannot affor-]
"Fuck you, Nathan!" screamed Rawley and slammed he fist down into the armrest of her chair, some chirping protests heard in response. She screamed wordlessly when she was off the comm channel. Her whole body was shouting at her to turn around and return the favour to Thomas for saving her life, and to show him that she found herself giving more credit to his claim: That he hadn't intended to force himself on her that morning. "I should break off. I must go back there. It is only right... We can't just leave him. Fuck, we just can't... I just..."
The debate she held with herself was cut off by Wolf-03.
[I'm on the other side of the nebula soon and I have found the warp-trail of the Theurgy on my sensors. Bearing Four-Two-Three-Beta. She has a shadow, and while I can't confirm the signature, it must be the Calamity's. We should go after them immediately.]
Rawley closed her eyes, knowing that it was too late. She could not betray the three wolves at her side and leave them facing such odds, but what did not sit right with her was that the same could have been said for Thomas if they weren't sworn to protect Thea and her crew first. Maverick was right, but it was one tough bloody call to make - leaving a brother wolf behind in such a situation.
"This is Wolf-06," she said, crestfallen and hurting all over - her heart the most. "Going to Maximum Warp."
And the four of them shot were embraced by the shooting stars around their canopies.
[ USS Harbinger | ThanIda zh'Wann | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
The big, burly helmsman had managed to pin her with all his weight, bending one of her arms back to make her drop her rifle. Yet Ida refused to let go, trying to roll and to drive her knee into his ribs, but she found no leverage to set herself in motion - at least not without having to let go of her weapon. She even tried to drive her elbow backwards, to somehow catch him over his face with her other arm, but that threatened to dislocate the arm he had a hold on. The self destruct message and the fact that Doctor Duv might loose to Captain Trujillo were factors she could not affect at that given moment, so she tried to remove them from her thoughts - hard as it proved to be.
Then, the weight was off her, and she drew breath between her teeth as she rolled over with her rifle raised - only to find the Ensign saving her and Doctor Duv yet again. Ida saw him relieve the helmsman in a very definitive way; sending him sprawling across the deck plates.
Did he call him 'pinkskin'? she wondered, quite sure she'd heard the flavour-rich voice denominate the CONN officer in that particular Andorian fashion. It was - at least - the second thing that somehow told her that there was far more to this fighter pilot than met the eye, because he looked like he was fighting like some Imperial Guard. She had first seen it in the Brig, and now again - strikes akin to those practised in Kharakom. She frowned in consternation even as she was helped up to her feet, coming up face-to-face and close to the man again. She sought his features for an answer, and even if she found none, she realised he had asked her for orders.
A quick glance in Trujillo's direction told Ida that they had seized the bridge after all.
She had to put the enigma of the fighter pilot out of her mind. They had a battle on their hands, and a bitter one at that.
"Take the helm, Ensign," she said, letting go of his strong hand so that she could collect her thoughts. She cleared her throat and sat down in the Captain's chair - trying to remember far gone Academy days that described Bridge protocol. "I need to know where we are, but more importantly, where the Theurgy and the Calamity are heading. Take us there, follow their trajectory but do not match it since there might be gravametric mines in our path if we do. Maximum warp if so required. We have less than ten minutes before this ship is going to blow, so let's make the most of the time."
She turned her head to Doctor Duv. "If we are lucky, the remaining crew will be going to the escape pods. Check internal sensors. If they don't, I want you to seal off this floor with forcefields in order to let us remain undisturbed. I also want system access restored on my behalf, tactical systems a priority. See what you can do, doctor."
Ida could but hope they would't be too late to the scene once they got there.
OOC: There is still some IC-time before the Harbinger can catch up, so I plan to have more things to handle for them in short order. It will also allow for character development between the three of them. I reckon they have questions about life on the Theurgy if nothing else, lol.
[ Rihen Neyah / Lin Kae | Near Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Skye Carver & Selena Ravenholm
[Thank you, Ensign Carver. For everything. Kae, I hope to return the emitter, but if I can't... I am sure you can make a new one someday.] Then Thea's logged out of the intercom system with a chirping noise.
Hearing that the fighter pilot would be staying with them, to protect them, Rihen was immensely relieved. While Skye talked to Kae, Rihen moved away to the EMH. "I will go to get the chips we need to fix the emitters, make sure she doesn't die before I come back."
"I'm confused. Does that mean I'm supposed to kill her when you do?" said the EMH with bewilderment furrowing his brow. "Euthanasia is not within my range of medical practice. I lack the subroutines to commit murder. You will have to find someone else to do your dirty work."
"You know what I meant. I will be back soon," said Rihen and rolled her eyes at the hologram when she jogged down the corridor towards a place she knew where she might find a replicator.
"No, I don't! I..." The EMH paused in sudden understanding and then returned to calibrating his hypospray with a sour look. "One might think figures of speech shouldn't be used in life-and-death situations... Medical practice is nothing to joke about."
Kae was smiling in relief to Skye after she stepped close to him, and when she touched his chin, he couldn't help but swallow as he noticed the look on her face - reminiscent of the times they had been intimate with each other. Their first time had been strange, having switched bodies with each other under the Ishtar Entity's influence, and the second time, they had been mapping Skye's bodily sensations with a cortical stimulator - uploading the sensory input to Thea's new emitter memory bank - and Kae had provided the tactile sensations. It had been a long session, but it had been for Thea's benefit; to make her feel alive. As alive as Skye had felt underneath his hands.
He had only known holographic lovers before then, his health allowing for nothing more, but if there was one woman who could make him think there was someone worthwhile outside the hologrids, then it was Skye. Her mere touched quickened him. His first time with a real woman might have been with Rihen Neyah on Nimbus III, true, but that had just been... It had been her way of thanking him, and he hadn't had the heart to deny her. He had thought he'd jeopardise the mission if he had not played... No, those were both lies. Rihen had been attractive enough to compel him, but compared to Skye? Skye was like the dawn while Rihen was just a pretty candle.
Yet that made him ask himself, what was Thea? They had yet to copulate - as Thea would call it - but she had showed Kae her gratitude by exploring her budding sexuality. She had pleased him orally, but he had almost felt shame when he saw her on her knees. As if he was not worthy, and he even felt it projected badly on his work ethics, regardless of how he was still attracted to the soul of the ship they were on. She was, to him, too sacred to befoul with his desire for her.
And now, Skye said he was her dearest friend, but was that the only way she felt about him after all they had been through? Even with a mutiny on their hands, Kae could not help but ask her, because she was so close and looked at him in that particular way. "I think she was jealous when I told her you were the template for her new sensors," he said, not having to say Thea's name in that context, "and I did not know what to tell her. I did not know if we were just friends or not, after all that we have been through. Starfleet, Nausicaans, mutineers... and the Ishtar Entity. Like you said."
She had not mentioned their first time together. He added it because it had been important to him.
[ Skye Carver | Near Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Rihen Neyah, Lin Kae, and Selena Ravenholm
Skye still felt letting Thea go was the wrong move, that she should have tried harder to convince her to stay with them. Yet if she wanted to prove to Thea that she believed in her right to have a choice, she knew she had to let her go. Now Rihen was darting off to get chips and the doctor was fussing over the woman with a lot of implants, wondering irreverently if this was what the Borg could have evolved into to be less repulsive appearing. There was also an apologetic look at the doctor as he realized Rihen hadn't meant things literally but Lin Kae drew and kept her full attention.
There was something going on in that genius mind of his, conflict and concern well past the current situation. She simply waited until he found the words but they were the last words she expected. "Jealous?" she murmured and the reality that the ship itself could murder her anytime it wanted ... something that contradicted her intentions for Thea to think of herself as a real person. It was too confusing really and Skye knew she wasn't smart enough to enter into that kind of debate, not to mention now really wasn't the time as the klaxon of red alert was blaring.
Still she found herself in a discussion that was best left for another time but couldn't be, because she knew he would think she was avoiding the topic and that she didn't care for him. That simply wasn't true though she poked internally at the depth of her feelings. "Kae," she said softly, her hand moving to rest upon his chest. "We are friends, and we have been more than friends. I knew you were in love with her," neither having to say Thea's name because they knew each other well enough. "The truth is I do love you on many levels but ... I don't think I'm what you need."
It hurt her to say the truth, to admit that yet again there was a wonderful man standing in front of her but she wasn't ever what they truly needed. "I'm not smart enough for one thing and you need more than your body stimulated, not that I didn't enjoy loving you." He was smart enough to see her deliberate choice of words, that their time being switched in each other's body changed the way she thought about a lot of things and she truly, deeply cared for him.
When the shit hit the fan on deck and she couldn't get to her bird, he was her first thought and he was the one she went to find. He couldn't deny she loved him. She wouldn't deny it either but she loved him enough to let him go and not hold him down when she too had feelings for someone else, though she didn't know those depths and possibilities either. "God we're all a mess," she groaned, pulling him close for a moment of needed comfort. "Let's just try to survive through this and then we can figure out who the hell we are and what the hell we want."
[ Thomas Razor Ravon | Uncharted Planetoid ]
Finally he was on his way out of this icy shit hole. Yet sensors seemed to disagree as he heard a crackled message through the comms hearing Rawley's voice. "...three ...-avers ..-.und..." The message got cut short when phaser fire started to rain down on Razor's jet forcing him to take evasive courses once again. "Fucking hell!" He cursed as his fighter toppled mid air and plummeted down once again to achieve higher speeds for a chase that could only last so long. Nolan looked around him to spot the Reavers that were on him now instead of Rawley. The transmissions between Maverick and Rawley were coming through again yet some parts were missing now and then due to the erratic flight path, the nebula and the constant phaser fire of the Reavers. Yet Thomas had no time really to focus what they were saying, he could hear the discussion rising to a heated one yet eventually he heard nothing but static as he had gone to low to the planet surface to be in range of the short range communicators.
Therefore he never heard Wolf 03 report that they had picked up the warp trail, nor did he hear the order of Maverick to leave him behind. Yet somewhere Thomas knew that there wasn't anybody coming down to save him, not when the priority was the Theurgy itself. Besides it would be suicide to come after him with three Reavers on his tail. Razor screeched his fighter just meters above the snowy ice surface as the pursuers behind him tore up the planetoid with their fire. He needed to lose them or this planetoid would be his grave. He noticed a mountain formation with gorges and canyons, if anything it would be his safest bet to lose them or to fight them.
He yanked his controls hard to the right as he broke off, his wingtip cutting through the fresh snow that was falling to cover the harsh white planetoid. He looked behind him again, only two Reavers were chasing him now, where did the third go? Soon enough Razor found out as the third Reaver had met up with the fourth. The odds weren't in his favor before yet now they were pretty grim. As the five fighters launched themselves into the ragged mountains the sound of explosions could be heard thundering through the land. After that peace returned to the planetoid as the snow covered up what happened.
[ USS Harbinger | Amelya Duv | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & ThanIda zh'Wann
Once Husker had dispatched the helmsman, Amelya took a relieved breathe as she leaned against the wall before looking over at Ida. Yet Ida was fast with giving new things to do and it helped so Amelya didn't have to think about the actions she had done after all. She was a medical person, not the kind of person you'd expect to kill people. And she did just kill two men with just minutes in between. The feeling would probably gnaw at her more the moment she'd have the time to put her mind to rest, probably after all this was over... If it ever would be over.
Amelya tapped the buttons at the closest station and she glanced over at the sensors. Most of the remaining crew have jumped ship with the pods, small resistance groups seem to try to group up... I'll activate the forcefields either way just to be sure." she said out loud as it more of less was what was going through her mind. Once the commands were entered she looked up at Ida and asked "So what exactly is the plan now? Besides blowing ourselves up to bits. Is there some sort of escape plan?" She asked with a faint smile as the alerts still blared like crazy around them.
Would they make it aboard the Theurgy? They had to, but what on earth was she going to do there. She remembered doctor Nicander all the well from Theta, he was the CMO aboard Theurgy. Her own rank would probably be lost and there was still the fact if they would accept her or not? Yet Ida had made it somewhat clear that she would vouch for them. Still, there were many questions, yet Amelya had no clue where to start first. Perhaps the first question she had asked on how they would get out of here would be the best to start with.
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
Chris took the helm station and then quickly brought up the information that Ida had just requested. "Alright the Theurgy is currently at warp seven with the Calamity at warp nine and quickly catching up to the Theurgy and then right ontop of her in the next three minutes. Good news is that since we're on an akira class which means we can do at maximum warp of nine point eight." he explained while turning his head just enough to look over at the Zhen with a somewhat somber look on his face. "But while we would easily catch up to the two ships even with the mines that I'm told the Theurgy would be deploying mid warp but we'd only have one minute before the ship explodes with us hopefully not on it."
Chris turned back to his station and looked over the rest of the information on the screens there before he quickly started to ready the commands to start the ship in the right direction. "I'm ready for deployment now, lieutenant. But I do have a suggestion on how we could possibly escape if you or the good doctor would get the item that I left back in the room I came out of?" he offered up.
[ Lin Kae | Near Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ] Attn: Skye Carver & Selena Ravenholm
Despite his inexperience in such matters, he could hear how right Skye was - as if the words spoken aloud verified his own feelings. Perhaps they were just friends, and he had put too much focus on the circumstances which had made them end up where they were today. That they had traded bodies with each other and learned things few others knew did not take away from the fact that he had dedicated himself - committed everything he had learned - towards the happiness of someone else. Thea might be going against Captain Ives' orders, perhaps about to loose the emitter that he had spent countless hours to make, but that did not matter to him.
He would stand with Thea and protect her, aide her as best as he might. Not just in preserving the integrity of her subroutines and in the maintenance of the pasitronic brain core and its neural network, but as a spokesperson for her rights as an individual. Oh, he was not a speaker, but on several occasions, he had spoken up for Thea's sake, and sometimes, despite lack of forethought and how his words came from the hear... he had made people listen. Convinced some of them that Thea deserved better.
Skye said he did not need her because she was not as smart as him, but he was no match for Thea either with all her processing power. Kae embraced Skye in the corridor, the brief wait for Rihen to return coming to an end. "Aye, a real mess. I don't know where to begin sorting it out, but I know that Thea needs me, even if I can't determine what she wants, much less what I want." His thoughts went to Soo Young Seung, whom he had woken up with that very morning. He had not known her nearly as long as Skye, but she was also a piece of the puzzle. A puzzle which he could not put together on his own. "Let's just get through this and... and we can talk some more."
As if on cue, Rihen Neyah returned with a metal box stuffed into the deep neckline of her overalls. She was carrying a chair in each hand as she walked over to them. "Got forty of the chips we need," she said, and when she saw Skye and Kae part from their embrace, her warm and kind smile bloomed in joy at the sight of something she had not thought to see in the midst of the hostilities they had to endure. She did not comment, however, instead giving Kae one of the chairs and withdrawing the box. "Here, best you take half and we will do the emitters two at the time, right?"
"Right," said Kae, and he turned to the EMH. "Do... you need help picking her up?"
The hologram raised an eyebrow at him. "Aren't you supposed to be this ship's Holographic Specialist? What do you think?" He shook his head and gently picked up Selena Ravenholm in his arms, making sure her head was cradled against his shoulder. "The quicker we get to Sickbay the quicker I can treat her."
"Right... Could you keep an eye out then, Skye?" asked Kae and picked up the chair - starting the process of changing the burned out chips in the emitters together with Rihen, working as quickly as they could. Meanwhile, the EMH walked in pace with the expanding hologrid in the corridor - his sour mien set in quiet suffering.
OOC: One more post from you Skye and I will have this motley team take the turbolift down and end up in the corridor where Sarresh Morali and Ryuan Sel is - where Bleed from the Harbinger fighter pilots needs to be dealt with.
[ Master Chief Petty Officer William Robert "Billy Bob" O'Connell (https://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/156/7/9/o_connell_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7l44xt.png) | USS Theurgy | Deck 8 | Vector 3 Battle Bridge ] Attention: Carrigan Trent and Thea
"Master Chief, change of plans, again." Trent instructed as he pinned a combage to his uniform. "Get to Engineering. Gather up everyone you can round up and get them to their stations. We're low on plasma still so I'll need you to keep the power loads balanced."
"Aye sir," O'Connell nodded. "Where will you be?"
"I'll be on the Bridge," the bionic officer replied grimly.
"Fair wind and clear skies sir," the master chief nodded as they left the battle bridge. He slapped his own chest as he marched down a short corridor to the docking latches that led to the primary hull. "Attention, all engineering staff... God bless it," he muttered when he realized that he had destroyed his combage. Turning around, she quickstepped back to the battle bridge so he could pluck T'Rena's combage off her warm corpse. It was hard to rally the troops without a combage after all.
OOC: Should have posted here a while back. Oh well.
[ USS Harbinger | ThanIda zh'Wann | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
It was the first time, ever, that Ida commanded a starship, and the circumstances were not ideal, to say the least. There were only three of them on the Bridge, and the self-destruct was activated without possibility to override it as far as she could determine through the control panel in the armrest of the chair. Trujillo had locked the protocol to his own voice command alone, so there were no means for how they could stop it.
Doctor Duv said that most of the Harbinger's skeleton crew were heading for the escape pods, but some lingered. She did raise the force fields, however, so Ida nodded and dismissed the danger for the time being. "Once they learn that they can't get here, they will all reconsider and head for the escape pods."
"So what exactly is the plan now? Besides blowing ourselves up to bits. Is there some sort of escape plan?" asked the Trill with a faint smile, but Ida did not have any immediate answer for her - needing more input from their impromptu helmsman before she could say anything in regard to their survival.
Even as the alerts blared in their ears, the fighter pilot explained the situation - a scenario where the best possible outcome was one full minute in the vicinity of the two other ships. That was, of course, unless the two ships dropped out of warp ahead of time. He suggested he had an idea for their escape too, which might serve its purpose in due time, but Ida gave the order first.
"Set a course parallel to the Calamity's and the Theurgy's now, maximum warp. Indeed, we do not want to come in directly behind the Calamity and get hit by any stray mines." she said, antennae moving slowly as she rummaged her mind for additional instructions. She was better suited with a rifle in hand, not seated in some command chair. Still, she was a Starfleet Officer and she would do what she could. "Let's hope those mines hit that ship early on so that we have a better window of opportunity to get there in time. If this ship is destroyed before we reach them, I am not sure how we'll ever be able to catch up with the Theurgy."
That was, if the Theurgy hadn't been destroyed at that point.
Once the course was laid in and they were on their way, Ida rose from her chair and looked towards the hole in the wall that Husker had emerged from. She glanced towards Doctor Duv and made her way there - soon finding the equipment that the fighter pilot had brought. Ida dragged the heavy load back to the floor of the bridge and looked at it in thought - rather sure what she knew what the fighter pilot had in mind.
"Good thinking, Ensign," she said and gave the Pinkskin a lopsided smile over her shoulder. Truly, this man was quite resourceful - even thinking ahead. "Doctor Duv, how good are you with operating transporter controls?"
At their feet lay three Tactical Conn Exosuits, one male and two female.
"The reason I am asking," she said and turned to Amelya, "is that we will need a site-to-site transport into any remaining escape pod aboard this ship. When the Harbinger blows up, we need to be out of here, and with the addition of these suits, the escape pod that is jettisoned will be the difference between life and death in the blast. If we survive, these suits have light beacons and short-range communication, meaning that we might be seen and heard. I know its not your forte, doctor, but can you try to set that up so that we can energise the transport at a moment's notice?"
There was no time for modesty, so Ida unbuckled her belt and kicked off her uniform shoes and socks - soon dropping her pants as well. At any other point, she might have been a bit self-conscious about doing so right on a starship bridge, but she was Andorian, and display of some skin was certainly not taboo. She did know she couldn't wear more than her underwear underneath the suit, so she also pulled her black tanktop over her head- dropping it on top of her pants. Barefoot, and in Starfleet's white underwear, she faced the one person who knew how to use the suits. "I am not familiar with how you adjust the sizes of these, so you might have to help us get into them. What's first?"
[ USS Harbinger | Amelya Duv | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & ThanIda zh'Wann
Hearing Ida command Chris what to do made sense to Amelya as she successfully raised the forcefields to defend the bridge. She looked up as she now had a time to look around for herself on the devastated bridge. A bridge that she not so long ago called home. In fact this entire ship was once her home, yet now immediate doom and destruction pended. She sighed and looked at Ida as she asked how her site to site transportation skills were. "Uhm, not that perfect, yet they usually do the trick..." The question to the why didn't wait long for it to be explained by Ida.
Amelya looked over the exosuits and she had always wondered how it would be to fit in one of those, yet right now they looked a bit sluggish. "I'll work on calibrating the data needed for site to site. In the meantime..." Well, in the meantime Ida could get into the exosuits. Or well that was what she was about to suggest. Yet the Security officer had beaten her to it as she already started to undress before her and Husker. Amelya let her eyes go over to Husker as he no doubt would either be still focused on flying or looking his eyes out at the Andorian's body. While Amelya tried to focus on the job at hand, she couldn't help but to look at the perfectly shaped body of Ida. Yet she also realized that after Ida was done she'd probably have to do the same.
The idea of it wasn't completely crazy in her mind as it made sense and it was the only way to survive what she thought was going to come. If they would use the pods, the sheer blast from the self destruct would hurl them through space and possibly even rupture the escape pod. Thus the exosuits would come in handy if they didn't get damaged during their spin? Not to mention if they even ever got in there. It all depended on the transport skills that Amelya was inserting. She sighed softly and looked away from Ida who stood there now with very ample clothes, calling Husker to help her. Amelya tapped away now as she couldn't help but look at the two from the corner of her eyes.
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
Chris simply nodded to Ida's order which he understood from a tactical stand point since it was very logical thing to do in this situation and he started to quickly calculate the differences in vectors that might creep up during such a maneuver but he had to quickly do the math in his head because he was at the controls of a carrier based craft instead of the smaller attack craft that he was used to flying and as such he had to make allowances for spatial drift and warp field fluxes that he normally didn't have to while at the stick of his Valk.
While spatial drift was only a smaller factor in a different size of craft, it was the warp field flux issue that he was having to make sure he was clear on because he was trying to find a way to reach using his ship A to catch up with ships B and C which was already at two different fields of warp while using the highest capable warp ability of A to reach B and C within a specific time frame and he quickly double checked what he was seeing on the screen concerning the Theurgy and Calamity, he quickly found the equation that he was looking for and inputted in the commands and hit the engage command before he started to turn around to face the other two people on the bridge.
"Alright, flight commands have been entered and accepted which means we're en route but I also think that I may have shaved just enough seconds off of this to give us a little bit of a lee way but not..." he started to explain when he caught full sight of Ida standing there in her standard issue underwear and he actually felt his breath catch slightly for a second.
To say that the she was "very ample" was an understatement as her azure skin didn't clash so much complemented her dove white undergarments and only accentuated her figure quite well and he quickly casted a fugitive glance over at the doctor and from what he'd seen of her out of her uniform in a more comfortable dress made him wonder a couple of things but he felt his mouth go dry for a second before he stood up and went over to where the Andorian was waiting for him to help her with the exosuit before shaking his head slightly to clear it.
"Sorry, I was doing last second math in my head but yes, the lee way won't be too much but it may have bought us two minutes instead of the one but I wouldn't count it as being accurate just in case." the fighter pilot said as he picked up a piece of the exosuit's body glove. "Alright, let me help you with this first half then you can help the doctor with her's. It's a little strange to put on if you're not used to it." he offered as he felt his heart race just a little bit.
[ USS Harbinger | ThanIda zh'Wann | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
Ida looked at the pinkskin pilot oddly when he stopped talking and looked between her and Doctor Duv. She raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what was the matter with him. Then, it suddenly occurred to her that she might very well be the cause for him to grow tongue-tied, and she couldn't help but feel a bit self-concious when that realisation hit her. She didn't show any of it, though, putting her hands on her hips and regarding him with her chin raised - as if daring him to make some sexist remark about her state of undress. He had dared kissed her before, so she wouldn't have been surprised if he made some other bold move. A move that might very well have been his last if she hadn't needed him to fly the ship. Some human males had a tendency to objectify women, whereas women of Andoria were of equal standing as individuals and warriors.
Yet instead, Husker gave a cursory excuse for his lapse and proceeded to tell them about the results of his efforts. The apology was kind of endearing, actually, and Ida couldn't help the minute smile that ghosted her lips since she both approved of his re-discovered sense of tactfulness and at the same time how obvious the lie he had made was. She watched him approach with her eyebrows and antennae raised in a rueful expression, as if in query about where his mind truly was. She let him off the hook, however, when he had actually tried to behave with respect this time instead of kissing her without her permission.
"That is very good, Ensign," she said in comment to his effort at the helm whilst he picked up the centre part of the exosuit - including the torso, legs and arms. The greaves and the gauntlets - as she thought of them since the exosuit looked like suit of armour - were separate parts along with the helmet. He was holding the centre part up by the hips so that she could step into it, so she lay her hands on his wide shoulders and began with the right leg - putting her weight into her step so that her calf and thigh could slide down the stiff leg. Doing so made her brush her chest against his face, she realised, but she could hardly blame him for it when it was she who had asked for help. It was a snug fit, to say the least, but once her bare foot emerged, she grunted and thrust her other leg into the suit as well - using his solid frame for support. The manoeuvre made her brush up against him again. She was not exactly embarrassed about being so close to him - they were in a life-and-death situation after all - but she had wished the legs were not so tight as they were. Regular EVA suits were just loose fabric with plenty of room for one's limbs when you put it on.
"How do you make more room for the hips?" she asked quietly, as if they were not right in each other's faces at all. She reached down with both arms to slide her forearms into the sleeves - one at the time. Lifting it all, she tried to shrug the upper body into place but it was too tight across the back. There was no way she could close it at the front. She growled - antennae angling forward. It was impossible to extend her arms forward. The joke was now completely on her. "How can you even wear these things all the time?"
The bloody pinkskin better show her how the size adjustments worked instead of laughing at her...
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
"That is very good, Ensign," he heard Ida comment as he helped her with getting into the exosuit with all of it's centralized components set on stand-by before adjustments could be done in order to fit it to the species that was putting it on but he tried to focus on other things rather than have the Zhen so close to him at that moment as he tried to focus more on what needed to be done to survive rather than..whatever he was possibly feeling at that moment.
He held up the central part of the suit by the "hips" of it when she placed her hands onto his shoulders and he could feel how strong they were as the palms pressed down slightly into the muscles there and he was about to ask a question about how life on the Theurgy was when something unexpected happened-one second he was about to open his mouth to ask a question when he caught sight of the blue expanse that was uncovered by her standard issue bra which while designed to support a woman's breasts and keep them from moving while in the uniform and for the most part did nothing usually to accent a woman's features out of uniform, on her they were not able to completely cover her and showed enough of a lovely vista that he was enjoying as he could see the muscles there move and shift as her breasts moved slightly as she moved.
But what stopped his train of thought completely was when her breasts were suddenly brushing against his face and he could smell her scent-the combination of her natural spicy smell and the tang of the sweat from all of the running, climbing and fighting that they had done so far that day and he could feel her warmth through the bra and for the barest of seconds, he thought he could feel an excited nipple brush against his cheek but once the moment was gone, he simply chalked it up to wishful thinking..or was that hoping?
As he continued to help her into the exosuit, he started to make small adjustments in certain locations to ensure that the tabs where in specific locations that was normal on other EVA suits was secured and connected when she brushed up against him again and once more making his pulse rocket high enough that he felt the odd feeling again before he pushed it out of his mind as she asked "How do you make more room for in the hips?" as her face was close to his again, her lips less then a few inches from his and he bit back his want and need to kiss her again but instead he reached around her with a look of concentration and slid a hand down the left side of her rib cage in a manner that could be mistakened for a tender motion as he said "Hold on please" before he found the belt portion of her exosuit and triggered a couple of controls which then shifted to allow her more ease in the hips.
He then he helped more her to the nearest free-standing station where he helped her lean against it before he started moving quickly, running his hands over specific parts of her body, shifting components around and making smaller adjustments before finally helping her to stand up, the tightness in her back was lessened but he had to make one last adjustment as he moved in front of her. "This might be a little odd, but I need you to take a breath and hold it with a count of six."
When she took the breath, he quickly reached under her breasts and quickly found the problem, a mis-aligned connector and then properly connected it which then made a clicking sound before the suit's internal servos started the process of helping to finish the alignments. "A soldier can handle anything thrown into, through fire and shadow and all things beyond, ThanIda." he said with a wry grin as he said one of the mottoes that Paran had told him from the late Thaan's life in the guard prior to his other life before he stepped back and picked up her helmet and made a few adjustments before handing it to her. "Here, this should fit with your antennae."
Husker then turned to regard Amelya. "Are you ready there, Doctor Duv, or do you need another minute or two?" he asked respectfully.
[ USS Harbinger | Amelya Duv | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Husker
While Husker helped Ida in the exosuit, Amelya carried on to do her best to get the calibrations right. She glanced up now and then to see how the progress went with Ida and she couldn't help but chuckle a bit to see the different poses they had taken to get in the suit. From her point of view she could easily think that they were doing something entirely different then getting into an exosuit which sort of made it funny to her. She shook her head as she told herself to not get her mind carried away like that and that there were far more important things at hand. When Ida and Husker were done with the whole set up Amelya put the last finishing touches to her calibrations and she looked up when Husker asked for her.
"No, I'm just done. Everything should be calculated in within the normal parameters so we should end up without too much of a bump." She said to the two of them as she walked away from behind the station and towards the remaining exosuit. She let her fingers run over it at first before she looked into CJ's eyes. She swallowed before she started to unbutton her newly acquired uniform. The entire ordeal in her office had made her a bit weary of men in general and the idea of undressing made her a bit nervous. Yet she knew this had to be done in order to survive. Her eyes looked over at Ida for a second before looking back at Husker when she was halfway down. She wasn't wearing a bra or anything of the official Starfleet undergarments due to recent event and she felt her breasts come in contact with the cooler air on the bridge. Her nipples slowly hardened by the temperature difference and she carried on to open up her uniform until it was entirely open.
She slid the jacket off and dropped it to the floor exposing herself to the two remaining crewmembers on deck. She didn't pause or anything to check what their looks were or if they would say anything. She turned her eyes to the floor and opened up her pants now before pushing it down, revealing the not so Starfleet standard issue black thong she had still been wearing since the assault in the office. She pulled herself out of the pants as well and placed one hand on her hip before looking at Husker and Ida in turn "Right, so what is next now?" she asked nervously with a vibrating voice.
[ USS Harbinger | ThanIda zh'Wann | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
The entire ordeal of getting into the exosuit had been riddled with awkward moments. Instances where Ida felt that even as an Andorian, she was a little bit too exposed to the pinkskin. She was grateful, of course, for his efforts and expertise in handling the adjustments of the hard body-glove she was getting into.
It was just that the "handling" made her associate his and her situation with something entirely else, the most prominent times being when she ended up pushing her chest up against his face, when he had her lean over the tactical station and adjust the suit seals from behind, and when he ran those strong hands underneath her breasts to fix a problem with the centre piece of the chest. She had done as instructed, of course, and there hadn't been any other way around it all, and as dark shade of blue her neck got towards the end, and her heart might have fluttered for reasons entirely else than the crisis at hand... it was done. Standing with her helmet in her hands, which were still as bare as her feet, she might have been unused to the pressure of the thing, but she did not feel too restricted by it either.
Doctor Duv said she was ready, and while she left her station, Ida picked up the gloves and boots, or whatever the pilots called them, and sat down in the Captain's chair to put them on. After her feet were bedecked by the exosuit's boots, she glanced up...
...catching the sight of Doctor Duv being entirely bare besides a silly little slip of textile preserving her modesty. It led Ida to thinking about Edena Rez, another Trill. One that might just have been the most compelling reason to saying no to the position on the Harbinger. In the end, she had decided to not let the spy-turned-superior-officer be any reason to go against her own health and peace of mind, but seeing the very attractive Trill in the corner of her eye made her remember that time by the Thermal Springs, and how she and Illya Rez had finally given in to their mutual desires.
Amelya asked what was next, standing there in all her splendour, and Ida found herself being very busy with getting her gauntlets on - fiddling with the pressure seals to make sure they were properly aligned. The snug fit around her fingers felt claustrophobic, but focusing on them was much better than staring at the Trill. It would not be seemly for her to openly appreciate the CMO's physical attributes. She would not know where to begin in handling the factory settings of the exosuit like Husker had anyway.
"I will try to prepare launch sequences for the photon torpedoes and have the phaser arrays primed for when we drop out of warp," she said with tight lips, acting completely professional about it all. This, despite how she was not sure who she envied the most. Doctor Duv or Husker.
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
"No, I'm just done. Everything should be calculated in within the normal parameters so we should end up without too much of a bump." Husker heard Amelya say before she looked him in the eyes, his pale green meeting her bright green eyes meeting each other from only a few feet away for a moment but before he could raise an eyebrow in confusion, she reached up and started to unbutton her uniform and for some reason, he couldn't turn away and he knew that she was possibly showing him a sign of trust by undressing in front of him.
As her jacket came off and her naked upper body was revealed, he realized that he was being shown something that alot of the other male officers on the Harbinger over the past few months would've killed to have seen of the ship's now former chief medical officer in her soft yet toned form which was much more "sporty" to call it as opposed to the "strong" body of Ida and his gaze briefly looked down to her hardening nipples for a second before going back up to her eyes as she continued and Husker found himself actually comparing the two women that he was standing on the bridge with and finding himself once again feeling strange feelings-he knew some of the things that he was feeling but a couple of them was different then what he was used to.
But once Amelya's pants hit the deck, he found himself solely attentive on the visual feast before him and he couldn't help but to apprecate her in all of her glory as she stood there on the bridge of the Harbinger, hand planted firmly on one of those shapely hips and looking at the two of them before asking "Right, so what is next now?" in a nervously, vibrating voice.
Chris quickly snapped to and picked up the second exosuit and carried it over to Amelya but once he came close to her, he tilted his head slightly out of respect to her before saying "I promise to be gentle, Amelya." in a respectful and reassuring voice to her as he held up the suit for her so that he could be something stable for her to lean on like he had done for Ida.
[ USS Harbinger | Amelya Duv | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & CJ Husker
Doctor Duv could clearly see how Husker slowly let his eyes go over her. Yet she couldn't really blame him. She knew that a lot of crewmen aboard the Harbinger had been dying to see her in this pose with the lack of clothing she had now. Yet right now, in the face of imminent doom, there was little to be ashamed off, even though the assault from earlier still made her a bit uneasy. The pilot before her however had gained her trust and respect as he had saved her life more then once today. So she could forgive him as he looked her up before snapping out of it and she couldn't help but smile a bit faint as he promised her to be gentle. A slight blush even colored her cheeks dark red as she nodded simply and did exactly what she had seen Ida do with him.
She placed her delicate hands on his shoulders and stepped in with her left leg first. The suit was way more sturdy then she had imagined and Amelya struggled a bit to get herself in on one side. She leaned in against Husker now to force more weight on it and she suddenly shot in the left leg, making her bare breasts brush against the rather prickly face of the pilot. She looked down at him when she had felt it as well and she stammered a soft apology before continuing with the next leg. She struggled with it as well yet got into it a bit more easier. During the entire ordeal, her breasts were wiggling up and down and left to right, even Ida could see this probably.
The next part was the torso bit and Amelya looked at CJ now with a questionable look on how to proceed. "Do I just lift my arms or anything for this?" She asked him softly before she glanced over at Ida, wondering how she was feeling in one of these suits. Amelya thought about what a horrible thing those pilots had to go through yet she now understood why they had to work out and stay in tip top condition to fit into these things. In the meantime she let Husker do what he had to do to make the exosuit fit her. "How much longer before we reach our target?" she asked curious now, hoping they would all be ready by the time they would catch up to the fight.
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
Husker thought that Amelya turned a lovely shade of pink when she gave a slight blush to his comment before she started to use him for a stabilizer as she slowly started to get into the exosuit and once again there was an accident where a little bit too much force was used by a person unused to wearing such a piece of equipment and he found himself flushed with the breasts of his fellow officer.
But unlike the prior time with Ida, Ameyla's was bare and her erect nipples brushed against his face and for the barest of seconds he felt her warm, flushed breasts against his face which made an already uncomfortable moment become strained as he felt the front of his uniform tighten more but he fought and forced his feelings down as he heard the Trill offer up a nervous apology before he smiled and said "It's alright, let's focus on the matter at hand." with a respectable tone before she continued and the alignment of systems and measurements that followed was easier...even with the slightly hypnotic nature of Ameyla's bare breasts moving within the torso.
When it got to the part of her torso unit and she asked "Do I just lift my arms or anything for this?" she asked him softly, he nodded but went around her to check the back seals first and found one that was out of alignment that ran parallel with her right leg and hip which would've caused an air seal issue but he quickly dropped to one knee next to her before tracing up her inner right thigh to the connector plate and quickly turning it so that it was in the right position at which point it made the proper clicking sound before he stood back up and lead her over to another free standing station and quickly checked the other seals, trying to be as professional with her as he did with Ida.
Once he was done there, he moved down and around her till he was in front of her between her arms and said "On my count, take a deep breath and then do a count from six before letting it out." which he then did a silent count using his fingers and once he saw her take the breath, he quickly reached under her breasts to check the connectors there and found that they were in place but he got an awkward look on his face as before he looked up into her face and into her eyes at which point he gave her an apologetic look as he slid the backs of his hands over the peaks of her breasts so that he could feel the back of the unit there and he manually adjusted it so that it wouldn't press too hard onto her chest when the final locking activated-never breaking his eye contact with the Doctor as he did so to show that she could trust what he was doing.
"I'm sorry about that ladies, I should've known that something like this might happen with the commander's asshat move so I didn't have the unit's properly primed..I honestly thought we'd have more time to prepare." Husker said respectfully as he started to lay out the third suit as he got things ready for himself. "But to answer your question, Ameyla. I figure that we have roughly four and a half minutes before we drop out of warp and right into a situation that you can't describe without the word "Cluster" in it somewhere or how."
Chris quickly shucked his uniform jacket and departmental undershirt off, but stopping long enough to ensure that what he normally wore around his neck didn't get caught in the undershirt as he took it off and a few seconds later, his torso was as bare as the Doctor's was only a couple of minutes before-equal parts toned muscle and scars bare to the world as the strange small vial like object that he wore around his neck glittered lightly in the lights of the bridge under battle conditions.
It was only when it came to his pants did he actually stop for a moment as he actually felt..concerned for lack of a better word as being around the two women and everything had actually made him quite hard despite his best efforts to not think or focus on the issue and he was actually concerned about how they would view him after recent events of the day with his now former crew mates trying to literally "fuck over" the two of them.
But eventually common sense won out as he took off his pants, leaving him only in the standard issue briefs for a moment before he quickly pulled on the exosuit with a practiced ease. "Now, ThanIda. I was wondering if you could feel us in on what life is like on Theurgy please? I'm kind of curious as to how we'd fit on your ship." he asked as a way to try and break the ice in the time before the next crisis.
[ USS Harbinger | ThanIda zh'Wann | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
Hearing the ETA, Ida paused for a second to rationalise her priorities as she primed the Harbinger's entire arsenal to the best - and limited - extent of her abilities. She was no expert when it came to a starship's tactical systems, but as a Security Officer, she had always had a close working relationship with the people in Tactical. On some starships, the two departments even had the same department head.
As dedicated as she was to the task at hand, the ongoings between Husker and Doctor Duv served as quite a distraction. Catching herself looking their way with raised eyebrows and antennae at times, she cleared her throat and resumed her calibrations of the launch schedule. When she was done, the Akira-class starship would unload everything it got at a designated target. It was the benefit of Selena Ravenholm's modifications of the ship, she presumed, since the Harbinger depended on a much smaller crew complement.
Soon enough, the doctor had been helped donning her exosuit, and Ida was - in a way - relieved that the Trill would be less of a distraction than she had proved to be, but the relief lasted only until the human pilot shed his clothing, and Ida, caught herself wondering how he had earned the marks upon his skin. What she almost commented upon, seeing it resting in the middle of the hard planes of his chest, was the vial that hung around his neck. She recognised it, of course, and it made her wonder about the other observations she had made about the Andorian influences to his demeanour and skills. Perhaps the resemblances she had caught had not merely been fidgets of her imagination. The time was quite poor, however, for asking about it. If they made it through the battle to come, she would ask him who it had been.
Perhaps over a drink in Below Decks? she mused to herself, but the idea collapsed upon itself when she caught sight of his human erection - straining against his underwear in open pride. Ida just could not keep herself from looking, antennae standing staight, until embarrassment and sense of propriety won over her stupefaction. Given the circumstances, it would be unjust to call him out on it. The situation on the bridge had been... absurd, to say the least. She shook her head and clenched her jaws. Calibrations... right.
Perhaps to bridge the awkward moment, Husker asked about how it was to serve on the Theurgy. Perhaps he sought a source of motivation. A goal. Incentive to survive what was to come. Ida just wasn't sure what to tell him while she tapped at the console in the armrest. "Before we were branded traitors, serving on the Theurgy was... it was the most fulfilling position I have held in Starfleet. We felt pride for our ship and to serve on it, and it was unique because of Thea. She is not like other MVAM ships, like the Prometheus, having an NX-registry because of her new tech and her new warp-core set-up. It's the only MVAM-capable ship out there that also serves as a carrier - small as her hangar might be."
Ida realised that she was stalling the true answer to his question. She took a deep breath. "I am afraid that we are not quite the same since we escaped Earth. Our crew's spirit endure through our Captain and the faith we have in our mission, but we... we are crestfallen. Just like the Harbinger, we have not walked a primrose path of late, and it has taken its toll. The difference, I think, between serving here and on Thea is the leadership... and the purpose. We still try to uphold Starfleet regulations, hard as it might be because of our extreme conditions. We must try, though... despite how it might be a weakness."
She surprised herself saying it, not having seen eye to eye with Captain Ives of late because she tried to do her job and adapt to the threat they faced.
"Furthermore, your Captain and your First Officer are insane, whereas ours at least try to do the right thing despite the odds."
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
Chris started to adjust the lower half of his exosuit before putting on the upper half since he didn't have the time to show either woman what to do and he followed each step one by one with the same movements as what he had done for them before he held up the upper half and made a slight tsking noise at it. "I can only pray that the people in charge of such equipment like the TacConn's exosuits is better then those were here on the Harbinger, ThanIda. The crew member assigned to such work here on the Harbinger apparently thought it was better to mope about being stuck with someone else's job rather than do the upkeep on the equipment properly." he said before sliding his arms into the exosuit.
He stopped for a second as a thoughtful look crossed his face for a moment. "There is no such thing as a weakness when a group is fighting for what is right, ThanIda. My father once told me that sometimes you have to do the right thing in the inconvenient way which is what your captain purposed but my captain decided to do the shitty thing instead of what was right as he chose his own ego and drives over that of freeing the Federation from a threat that could be even worse then the Dominion." Chris said as he looked Ida straight in the eyes.
"There is an old human saying is that for eternal vigilance is the price we pay for liberty and it's the one that he lived with and by... when he wasn't trying to make me into his own kind of man." Chris explained before he looked away and resumed getting into his exosuit but as he did so, even he found another really embarrassing moment..one that he wasn't expecting.
"Lieutenant, do you think that you can come and help me adjust the back section please?" he asked respectfully.
OOC:
Sorry about this one being so short.
[ USS Harbinger | Amelya Duv | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & CJ Husker
Husker did his best to adjust the suit to Amelya's curves and body. Along the way he did hit some rather sensitive spaces and Amelya had to bite on her lip now and then to resist a moan from leaving her lips. She remained quiet during the entire process and when Chris was done, he could still see the faint blush on the former CMO's cheeks. "Thanks for the help." She murmured before taking her first steps in it. Amelya moved around the bridge now as she tried to get accustomed to the size and feels of the suit. It all felt a bit too tight at some places yet it didn't obstruct her breathing or movement at all though.
When Husker himself got himself out of his clothes Amelya couldn't help but notice the half hard erection herself. It wasn't really a shocker since both women had probably driven any man to a point of arousal. Therefor she didn't comment Husker about it, yet her eyes lingered perhaps a bit longer than they should have. She looked away eventually and focused on something entirely different. Yet she had nothing to do so she walked over to Ida and looked over her shoulder to check her calibrations.
She looked at Ida as she talked about the life she had on the Theurgy and Amelya just listened in silence while sitting down on on of the stairs between stations. She looked at the exosuit once more while Husker took over the word now. When he was done she snickered a bit and answered softly "Well, you're right about our first officer and Captain." When Husker now asked for help with his own suit Amelya looked up and glanced at Ida. She wasn't sure who he had called out to as they bother had the rank of lieutenant.
She got up and made her way slowly over to him "Just tell me what to do." she said as she let her eyes go over the pilot as if trying to figure out what switch to turn or what action had to be done.
[ USS Harbinger | ThanIda zh'Wann | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
While Husker spoke, Ida had not been idle.
After she had picked out a firing sequence that would deplete all of the Harbinger's ordinance against a single target, she began to plot a navigational protocol for the helm station that would serve their purpose. She had no doubt Husker would be able to fly manually, but not from the point when they would be in the escape pod. Therefore, some further preparations had to be made, and she named the protocol... Yes, she named it 'Bellde'side'.
It was the least she could do for the recruit that the Calamity had killed right before her eyes in the shuttle bay that first time the Calamity had attacked them. At that point, 'Cala' had already killed Ferik and Grayson. Then, on Theta Eridani IV, those Reavers of hers had killed over one hundred people, including Lieutenant Vessery - shot to pieces right next to Ida on the killing fields of the valley floor.
Indeed, after all that had happened to her crew - Starfleet Security in particular - this attack on the Calamity was personal to Ida. She doubted 'Cala' knew her beyond the shoot-out they'd had in the shuttle bay on the Theurgy. This day, however, she will come know my wrath.
If there was anyone she hated more than Declan Vasser and T'Rena, then it was the Calamity.
Husker had asked for assistance, and Doctor Duv had volunteered quickly enough. Ida glanced over at the two, and the idle thought hit her that if she was going to die, she would die in some fine company. As an artist, she had come to appreciate the people around her for their unique beauty. She had drawn a lot of the Theurgy's crew, sketched even more of them in the mess hall. It struck her then, as she looked at the interspecies cooperation taking place over a piece of Starfleet tech, that she had not painted a single time since that recruit died in the shuttle bay because she had taken him into a dangerous situation. Indeed, since the Calamity attacked them, killing Ferik, Bellde'side, Grayson and T'Less, she had not even made a single sketch - that part of her simply having ...withered in grief.
As she looked at the Pinkskin and the Trill, she found herself facing that benumbed agony. So as beautiful as they were... she had to turn back to her calibrations and blink away the tears forming in her eyes. She would use her sorrow as ammo, and honour their memories.
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
CJ gave an embarrassed look at Amelya before saying "You see the row of connectors that are running down my upper spinal area. I need you to disengage each one manually which will reset themselves as you go and that will help me more than anything at the moment."
As he stood there, Chris slowly to chuckle just a little bit. "It's funny when you think about the name of this ship and what it means in the old earth languages and what it's slowly going to do here, hopefully bring an end to that bloody ship." he explained as he waited for the pressure to be taken off of his back and more importantly his injuries.
During the last few minutes, Chris slowly started to feel the injuries that he'd recently at the hands of the Calamity's own fighter wing and without realizing or thinking about it, his left hand went down and gently brushed against the part of him that had been peppered by his own fighter only a few days before and closed his eyes at the memory of that battle and he could almost hear some of his squadron mates dying under the guns of those reavers as he tried to destroy one that was chasing Riptor around aft nacelle of the Harbinger...
...at which point Chris' eyes snapped open as he remembered what Riptor had been gloating about earlier and for a moment his eyes narrowed in thought before he relaxed as best that he could when he felt the doctor's fingers start to make the adjustments to his exosuit. "I don't know what's going to happen next, ladies, but I hope that we can at least bloody the Calamity's noise hard enough to give us some breathing room if not right out kill the damned thing." he said as he straightened up just a little bit before the suit's internal sensors started their last check on the connections there.
Chris looked over at ThanIda and gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we've survived this far and we'll continue that way. There is an old family motto that my brothers' swear by which is "Who dares wins" and trust me that we've proven it so far and we'll keep doing it."
But when she turned away, Chris thought he caught the shiny nature of unshed tears in ThanIda's eyes and made himself a promise to ask why later..if later even occurred.
=========================================
OOC: Sorry it took so long to get this out, had a brief case of writer's block.
[ USS Harbinger | ThanIda zh'Wann | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Amelya Duv
The name 'Harbinger' was indeed fitting in a lot of ways, including the way Husker thought of it. It was his home, and the way Ida thought of the name might not have been as apparent to him as it was to her. That the Akira-class ship was a harbinger for death and destruction was one thing, but the ship had also been the harbinger of betrayal and mutiny against Captain Ives and the Theurgy's senior staff. When the Theurgy had encountered the ship outside the Hromi Cluster, it had been the harbinger for all that was to come: The Calamity, Theta Eridani IV, Task Force Archeron and then the hostile takeover of the Theurgy. All the dead. All the still dying. All the grief and the horror. The violations of women and men by their own crew.
And now, perhaps her own death - going down fighting for what she always fought for. Duty, honour and the protection of her own.
"Do not worry about me, and for the record, I hope our escape will yield more than a bloodied nose," she said as she saw the ETA and how they were closing in, "she will-"
The dot that indicated the Calamity was decelerating, fast, tearing through shifting warp factors before dropping out of warp entirely. Is it? Ida got out of her seat, seeing the dot that represented the enemy ship whisked by and fell behind them. The Theurgy had already slowed down and was turning around, it seemed, on their long range sensors. The Theurgy was much closer than the Harbinger. "Turn around!" she called to Husker, who was not even seated at the helm yet, "it seems the mines worked! The Calamity has stopped close to a proto star, and we need to swing around and arrive in full force. Lay in a new course, towards the Calamity. Doctor Duv, get ready to beam us all to the escape pod."
Now be the time of reckoning.
OOC: Write one more post each in this thread, where DocReno's can end with the Harbinger dropping out of warp - but not giving the readers any descriptions as to what kind of inferno they arrive at. When I post with Ida next, it will be in 07: undoing, and I will PM you both when the post is up.
[ USS Harbinger | Amelya Duv | Bridge | Deck 01 ] [/b]Attn: CJ "Husker" Slayton & Ida
Doing as the pilot told her, Amelya started to work on the spinal connectors, hearing the clicks and hisses of the suit adapting to it's carrier. She looked at it a with a soft bite on her lip as she figured she'd activated them all. "There, that should do it I think..." she said when the clicking and all the other noises stopped emitting from the suit. "How does it feel?" She asked as she came back to stand in front of him. After hearing his answer she smiled and walked back off to Ida, feeling the suit squeeze and mold her body a bit. Needless to say, she imagined the suit would be a bit more easy to wear if she was wearing some sort of clothes underneath. Now her bare body was cause for friction all over the place.
Ameyla heard the rather motivational pep talk from Husker and she smirked a little yet she saw that Ida had been more emotional as she sat there working on her calibrations. Not wanting to make the matter worse or to put her off game, Amelya simply walked over to her and placed her hand on her shoulder. A gentle squeeze was all she did as she looked over the program she was working with. "I'm sure a Starship ramming into your hull will be more then a nosebleed." She answered and suddenly felt Ida get up.
She followed her look to the viewscreen and slowly started to realize what was going on. She rushed to her station when Ida told her to and prepared the final things to beam them away when it was needed. This was it, the final time that she'd be on this ship. For a second she remembered all the good times she had aboard this ship. A faint smile warming her face as she nodded slowly and looked towards the viewscreen, waiting to see what would doom up before them.
[ USS Harbinger | Bridge | Deck 01 ] Attn: ThanIda zh'Wann & Amelya Duv
Chris turned around and quickly read over the data that was flashing across the helm control's boards before sitting down and making the adjustments to the Harbinger's own course to ensure that the original plan was still in effect.
"The mines did work but the only problem is that we'll have less time to deal with giving it a proper thrashing but I do think that I can help just a little bit more." Chris said, a plan starting to form in his head as he swung out of the flight control station and went over to the engineering station and quickly started to input several commands into the controls. "A former member of the imperial guard told me about this trick once but he never got a chance to use it himself. Basically I'm rerouting all of the energy that's stored in the primary capicator's for the phasers into the impulse engines which should give us a little bit more force into the engines once we drop out of warp."
Chris inputted the final command before hustling back to flight control, grabbing the helmet to his exosuit. At flight control, Chris quickly finished inputting the final course corrections but before he hit the execute button, Chris looked over at the two women and gave them a smile.
"Just in case things don't go accordingly, I just wanted to say it's been an honor to have worked with the two of you today and I look forward to working with you two some more." he said with a smile and a respectable nod before turning back to the flight control board and smirked.
"And to quote my grandfather, "And the monkey throws the switch." and then he hit the execute command.
[ Skye Carver | Near Upper Computer Core | Deck 05 ]
As much as she had helped Thea and wanted to do more, Skye couldn't help feeling a little jealous. Kae was sweet and part of her did love him but she knew deep down that he would never be happy with her. For all her brashness and typical buoyant behavior, Skye was beginning to doubt that there could ever be anyone for her. It had been hard enough before but now that they were cut off, exiled from everything they'd known, no one really had much of a chance to settle down and just enjoy a true relationship.
"Get through this ... yes ... and who the hell knows what else," Skye agreed and reluctantly moved away from him as Rihen reappeared. The smile the Risan gave them was one that actually brought a return smile, warm and genuine for at least a moment. There was no time to linger though and she was back to the stoic and even stern-looking fighter as she sought to protect those behind her. There was a tiny snicker that escaped when the EMH snarked at Kae and she turned to give both a wink before turning back to the task at hand. "Let's move," she said and took point.