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Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #25 –
[Ensign Six | Resolve Hull/Docking Clamp ] Attn: Triage, Kaligos, Arista, Follow Tomorrow

The other members of their shared mission had already decided which clamps they were going after which left Six to work her way toward the last one. Above her, the shields did their work, but shimmered and shrieked as phasers and metal debris hit them left and right. To most people something like that might be frightening and distracting, but Six was collected as ever, and wasted no time getting to the releasing maglocks that held the docking clamp tightly in place. With little effort Six ripped the paneled covering from over the locking mechanism and then she lifted and twisted it to turn it off. She turned her head just in time to see the clamp lift a couple of inches, then falter as it stuck in place, not releasing completely.

"Shit," she whispered under her breath, turning the maglock again a couple more times to try and loosen the clamp. Each time the clamp lifted just a couple of inches, made a sort of crunched whirring sound, then faltered in the same place. The clamp was effectively stuck, and she was going to have to try and release it the rest of the way herself. Six was surely strong. Stronger than most of her counterparts. Even for a basically humanoid being she was stronger than most  of them, that borg technology still laced in her nervous system and muscles allowing her to do what others could not. But she wasn't sure she'd be /that/ strong. Strong enough to lift the clamp? She didn't know. All she could do was try.

As quickly as the magnetic suit and her strength would let her she made her way over to the clamp nearby and shimmied her fingers under it. Back straight, knees bent and locked, she got herself a good grip and lifted. Strained and grunting she lifted with all her might, pushing with her feet and legs at the same time. At first the clamp wouldn't budge, then crying out as she forced her muscles to work even harder she pulled and pushed again, harder this time, until she could hear that telltale sound of crunching metal, then a sudden jolt as the clamp seemed to get back on its track and lift the rest of the way on its own. It was enough to knock her back onto her bottom, and for a moment she just sat there staring at the finally released clamp in disbelief. Finally she pressed her comm button, obviously winded and breathless from her exertion. "Six, here, my clamp has been released."
"You wish to knock over cows? What is the significance of this? Do you derive pleasure from such things?" - Ensign Six

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #26 –
[ LT Daniel Havenborn | Resolve Airlock | USS Resolve ] Attn: DocReno, Julia, Brutus, anyone I missed in the airlock scene

Daniel quickly pulled his pistol from its holster and began to fire at the security guards, firing more to push them into cover than to actually hit anything.  Spending much of his formative years training with a rifle had made him a skilled marksman however going from a kinetic weapon to an energy weapon was a bit of a change but he it actually was easier since he didn't have to worry about recoil anymore.  During his time at the academy his phaser marksman scores were near perfect and he had even set a new record for highest cumulative score on the academy's phaser range.

As he covered Ejek as she fell back to the airlock he slowly kept his phaser pistol aimed downrange continuing to lay down covering fire.  He heard Keval shout for someone to close the hatch and decided he was the probably in the best position to do so.  He quickly glanced towards the hatch and made his way towards the console.

A few short seconds later and he made it to the hatch and accessed console to shut it.  Hopefully the Lieutenant and her security team would be more interested in defending the station from the Theurgy than coming after them.
Defeat, Genocide; why quibble with semantics.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #27 –
[ Melissa Wright | USS Resolve | Hull] Attn: Kaligos, Triage, Vystori, FollowTomorrow, Auctor Lucan, All Others

Well, this was it. The walk to the docking pylon had been arduous. It could best be described as what it felt like when, as a child, you stole your parent's enormous shoes; Only then after you slipped them onto your delicate little feet, you tried to walk the stickiest floor known to man. By the time Mel had made it to the docking pylon, others had already called their task to completion, even those going a further distance.

In front of her as the small box of her desire. Much like a maglock, it was metal box with a corner cut off along one side to give access to a small LCARS panel, an access bay to Isolinear chips and a large round manual release she would need to pull and twist in case of computer failure. Staring a moment at the little rectangle which seems to control so much of her fate, she took a deep swallow and decided it was time. Better get on with it then. She depressed the radio she had muted so that the others wouldn't be subjected to her heavy breathing, swearing or retching. So far, she had only had the first two and Melissa was happy to say that, in this case, two out of three wasn't bad.

"Wright here. I'm beginning the decouple procedure." She tried to sound confident and professional, despite her obvious discomfort to anyone who had seen her in the suit. To see the screen in the correct orientation she would need to stand on top of the docking pylon rather than Resolve. As she moved from one surface to the other, she held her breath. As if leaving the ship to stand on the Starbase would doom them all. When she found that the pylon hadn't been electrified, nor did Resolve explode into debris, that she finally afforded herself a breath of relief.

Kneeling down, she tapped onto the LCARS panel to wake it. Dutifully the familiar operating system lit and Melissa started her work. First, she pulled up a status report on the pylon. 'ALL SYSTEMS OPERATING NORMALLY' read the readout. Good. Next, she slowly and carefully depressed the sequence to detach. That was when everything went wrong.

'SEQUENCE ABORTED. LIFESIGNS DETECTED WITHIN DOCKING PYLON.' Mel hadn't thought about those within the pylon when it released. She guessed that was what emergency forcefields were for. She just prayed that no one was standing on the threshold of the ship at the moment those blue lights shown. In fact, she had no idea if a forcefield would cut someone in half; she did however know that if they were in the way of the forcefield going up, then they couldn't be stopped from being blown into the vacuum of the Starbase docking area. She swallowed again, not because of copious saliva, but mainly as something to do. Turning, Mel had to take her eyes away from the small box in front of her. She couldn't use it. There was no way she could decompress and scatter those below her into the interior of the dock. Focusing her vision on anywhere else, that was when she saw it. A tiny metal speck, covered in blue light. Shuttlebay 17-C. Where she should be. It didn't take any real time to realise that that miniscule silver slither must be Sabine. That could only mean one thing, Sera was waiting for her. Melissa felt hope. She would completely this job, she would get out of this god-forsaken EV suit, she would get to that Câroon and they would start their adventure together. Feeling more sure of herself, she turned back to the matter at hand.

"Automatic release is non-functional. Moving to manual." Melissa gave the group an update to avoid swearing over the channel. Pressing the button, she lowered the protective hatch to the Isolinear guts of the mechanism. It took a few moments to pull and re-orientate the chips into the correct order. Eventually the LCARS panel changed to display the exact words that Mel wanted to see. MANUAL INPUT. LOCAL SUBSYSTEM ACCESS DENIED Without access to the rest of the Starbase, the override couldn't be halted by such things as people within the docking area. Grasping the handle, she pulled with all her might. It took all her effort and once it was out to its fullest position, Wright twisted and slid it across. With great success, she looked up at the seam where Starbase met Starship. For the briefest of seconds there was a visible rush of air, but that familiar blue glow set in and Melissa knew she hadn't had to space anyone. She was so overjoyed she could almost cry. That was indeed, until she realised she was in the wrong place.

The docking pylon was moving. The large metal apparatus was withdrawing back into its holding space. Now Melissa was in no real danger of getting crushed, but she knew she needed to move if she wanted to get back aboard Resolve. At the leisurely pace in which the pylon retracted, it would be a short jump, but still a jump. Wait. A jump! That was it! Melissa turned locking her vision back on Shuttlebay 17-C. She'd have to risk jumping back onto Kendrick's ship, so why not change direction and jump to Sabine? It'd only be a much much longer jump and she'd have to make sure she aimed correctly to hit such a small target. If she missed, Mel concluded, then she could just walk along the base until she got to 17-C, after all, it's not as if she hadn't walked across most of a Luna class vessel. Today had been so crazy, what did she have to lose? Plan formulated, she turned to position herself.

"Pylon is released, Captain. Resolve is free." At this point Mel took a deep breath. She was unsure of herself, but she knew she had to try. "Sir, I'd like to thank you for your hospitality..." She began, double checking her aim. "...But I'm going to have to borrow this EV Suit for just a little longer." It was going to be a long journey, she just hoped it was the right one to make. With nothing left to do, Melissa Wright powered down her magnetic boots and pushed off.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #28 –
[ Dr. Silim Parnak | Bridge | U.S.S. Resolve ] Attn: Vystori, Mathis, et al

How dare he? After all that Silim had done, Kendrick didn't even have the gall to thank him once last time before he and the others had rushed out to leave him on the Bridge.

That was something at least. The Bridge. The Command Centre. The Keep. Here was the humming brain of Resolve and Parnak had not yet been asked to leave. He supposed he could give Kendrick his thanks for that little joy. Silim had not set foot aboard a Starfleet bridge in his entire life and now here he was, six foot away from the centre seat. The only question left, was what was he going to do with this proximity?

Looking across at the command centre, the choice was obvious. The center chair looked both formidable yet comfortable and Silim positioned himself accordingly. The question of which of the closest chairs either side to sit upon was difficult. What was that human phrase? Did you want to be someone's right or left hand? It didn't really matter anyway. Silim chose the chair left of the captain, looking at the viewscreen, and set in for the kill. Just as he was about to seal the deal, and settle in when the Orion called to him. It was a little disappointing that she wasn't the mistress of some dramatic relationship as Parnak had first thought, but she had seemingly taken the time to change. Something in which he could approve of. It wasn't becoming of an officer to be incorrectly dressed and in charge of a vessel. No matter how attractive they may or may not be.

She had asked the Cardassian doctor to check the sensors, which he dutifully did. Leaving his position by the captain's chair, he attended to the console in question. Silim wasn't exactly sure what his expertise was going to provide in this regard. There was a fully qualify sensor technician standing right next to the console after all.

"Sensors are showing the biomatter as their respective personas." Pressing a few buttons on the panel, he diverts a copy of the readouts to his chosen chair of choice and made his way back across the bridge. Actually managing to place himself to the cloth, he was surprised to find how comfortable the chair was. It took little to no time for the good doctor to make himself at home. Dismissing the locked counselling report from the console, he brought back up the sensor readings and verified everything once more. He turned back to the acting captain. "It was relatively easy, once I had the correct samples, to synthesise a sensor duplicate." He explained. "The important thing was the establish a correct baseline for the subject matter. At the point of introducing the particular genetic material in question, it didn't take long to mutate it to the correct genome. So easy in fact that it wouldn't have been difficult to make one, or one hundred Orion ensigns running around" The declaration was somewhere between ego-centric and educational.

Now that would be a thought, he concluded. How would they ever find them hidden in a sea of sensor duplicates? He made mental note to revisit the concept when he was settled into some quarters. It could perhaps make an interesting escape route for one of the heroes of the theatrical pieces he was working on.

Around Silim the mission continued on. He could vaguely hear the various members of the time giving updates to their respective missions. The Efrosian, who had made the humour rebuttal to his entrance to the Bridge. The Borg from the Starbase who had brought the evidence needed to continue. Princess. Even Kendrick himself. It was only as that tall blonde was giving her update did Silim realise.

"Automatic release is non-functional. Moving to manual."

Ejek. She was at docking latch delaying the Starbase security. He sat bolt upright, not that he was lazily reclining before mind, and looked around the bridge for assistance. He didn't try to look perturbed, but Silim's brow was obviously furrowed in concern. Eventually he settled on the Trill towards the viewscreen. If anyone was going to know whether the ship could fly yet would be the pilot.

"Helm, what is the status of our docking latches? If that woman removes the seal, will we be able to get underway?" Hidden meaning, will the crew at the latch be safe from being breached into the vacuum of the Starbase bay?

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #29 –
[ Ens Derik Veradin | Bridge | USS Resolve ] Attn: Bridge & Zero-G Team

The last 24 hours had definitely been eventful, and Derik saw no end in immediate sight. Their ship was still an unrepaired mess, a good amount of their family was trapped aboard the space station, and the Captain, Meony, Suq, and two random newcomers were literally going on a zero-g stroll on the outside of the ship to release The Resolve from its docking clamps manually. Oh, and Starbase security and Resolve crew just engaged in a shootout by the airlock. Part of him wished he'd missed the call to return while he was sleeping next to that guy he'd seduced earlier. What was his name again? Jason? Jackson? Jeremy? It was something like that. He was a nice enough guy. Derik hoped the poor guy wouldn't get caught up in the craziness that was engulfing the starbase. Derik was ultimately glad he'd made it back aboard. This was where he was supposed to be.

For his part since returning to the ship, Derik had more or less been manning the bridge with the Captain's Yeoman. He'd busied himself by assisting in some repairs. His console's damned display glitch was finally fixed and he was pretty happy about that. He'd wanted to help, but Kendrick had insisted he'd stay here in case everything went to hell. Derik assumed this was them entering that hell again. While he studied the various sensor readouts he had up on his station's display, he was still somehow calm. The Resolve had been through situations similar to this if nothing exactly like this. They were a tight-knit family because of it, and they would find a way through this and find a way to set everything right again.

When A'vura sat down in the Captain's chair and started giving commands, Derik glanced to one of the other crewmen on the bridge near him, "Oh stars, we might as well surrender now if they let A'vura take the CONN." He looked over his shoulder at her and winked so she'd know he was being playful. He'd still likely pay for it later. In truth, Derik was glad there was another officer to direct the rest of the bridge. That was a bit hard to do if he needed to focus on flying here soon. He imagined evasive maneuvers were in their near future.

He continued actively monitoring sensor and ship system readouts to see the progress of everything they were trying to accomplish. He watched as the images showed him the docking clamps being removed from Resolve one by one.

"Helm, what is the status of our docking latches? If that woman removes the seal, will we be able to get underway?" A voice called from behind him. He looked back from his station towards the unfamiliar voice and saw the Cardassian scientist that they'd also accidentally brought on board while rescuing some of the crew from Starbase Security. When all this was done, Derik would have to give Havenborn lots of ribbing for his poor transporter control skills. Also, why was the guy sitting in one of the central command chairs? He tossed it into the 'this is all too crazy to worry about right now,' part of his brain and turned back to his station, fingers moving deftly across the controls to bring up various ship readiness reports.

"Internal sensors show the Resolve's airlock door has been closed and secured. We can get underway without risk to our crew there. No promises for any Starbase crew still on the pylon itself, though. They're technically supposed to retract fully before starships leave undock. Although..." Something else crossed his mind and made him frown at his displays. "Fuck," he said under his breath. He tapped his combadge. "Veradin to Captain Kendrick and away team: The clamps and pylon releases are all finished or underway, I'd recommend coming back inside. Two problems, though. First, unless we get the main docking bay doors open, we're not going very far. Second, the XO and a good amount of Resolve crew are still trapped outside on the Starbase, some in custody. Stars know what they'll do to them if we leave."

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #30 –
[ Drauc T'Laus | Aerowing Cockpit | Inside Spacedock ] Attn: SummerDawn

The rush of blood in his veins, it roared in Drauc's pointed ears. The instincts of battle had seized him completely, and with a leap, he had gone for the phaser. His hard fingers grasped the weapon, and he rolled with the landing - threadbare cloak flaring out as he rounded on the security officer - teeth bared as he aimed to shoot him. The sight that met Drauc, however, stilled his finger.

He had seen K'Ren moving from her seat, but only now did he see where she had ended up. She had kept the human from reaching the phaser before Drauc, and now the security guard was on top of her. Desperately, and with only one arm useful, Bradford had wrapped it around K'Ren's throat - keeping the Caitian between himself and Drauc while still lying on the floor. The irony did not escape Drauc, in how the supposed hostage tried to claim one of his own.

"Stay away!" called Bradford, a tremble to his voice, but Drauc was not fooled. He could respect the human for making the attempt, but with one arm not functioning properly, he had no true leverage in the situation. Otherwise, he might have tried to take the parsteel knife from K'Ren's hip otherwise, but now, he had only claimed a living shield. A living shield that was, despite the brawny human's frame, likely able to escape him in short order. There was, however, little time to wait for K'Ren to fight herself free on her own.

Therefore, Drauc closed the distance without pause, stepping around K'Ren so that he could deliver a brutal kick across Bradford's face. With his blood still pumping loudly in his ears, Drauc then reached down and seized his Starfleet uniform's collar, and he dragged the man away from K'Ren - the arm around her neck loosening. With a guttural sound deep down in his throat, Drauc heaved the injured human against the bulkhead at the back of the small bridge. Head first, Bradford rebounded against the metal, blood springing from his shaved hairline. The fight had been beaten out of him, and he sank down in a disjointed heap.

Earlier in his life, Drauc knew he would have kept striking the human until both skin and bone gave away. He would have neutralised the target with his bare hands, and he would have enjoyed it. He found, however, that over the course of the years, and with the minds of others saturating his own, it must have made him more sympathetic. The joy of the kill had left him. Instead, he took aim with the phaser again, and stunned the security guard with a fiery beam.

"Are you hurt?" he rasped as he came to assist K'Ren back to her feet, but perhaps she didn't need him to. Her strange suit - while close to her figure - might have impeded her movements with its weight, but as he came to her, his eyes caught the viewscreen. "Neither of the starships have disembarked, still secured to their docking pylon... All save for the Resolve."

It was odd, he found, as they returned to the seats, that they were still not pursued by the USS Chester. Frowning, he checked the readings. "The fighters are launching, going fast... but they still have not opened the docking bay doors. Something is wrong... They will all be trapped inside the spacedock, unable to fight that starship outside."

In short order, the entire spacedock was filled with Knight-class Interceptors - streaks of white and black hulls whisking by as they were forced to decelerate - circling the insides of the mushroom head of the starbase at alarming velocity. It was like a deadly, metallic blizzard. And soon, the collisions were a fact.

OOC: Attn: All! Check the link to see our newest craft in the story, one that has been mentioned in the production history of the Valkyries since we started out. Now, it is fully featured on our Wiki. :)

More posts to come shortly!

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #31 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Starbase 84 | Jefferies Tubes ] Attn: Kaligos

In the dim light of the Jefferies tube, Sera listened to Hi'Jak as he spoke to base security, warning them of any further pursuit, and that they could still save the people he left behind. She also noticed how he did not implicate her in any way, acting as if he had done it alone, and it perplexed her. Was he protecting her? Trying to take the blame upon himself and let her have none of it? Why?

There was hardly any chance to ask him, the opportunity otherwise lost. The din of the crowd in the corridors called for them to act, and to do swiftly. Without much delay, Sera and Hi'Jak joined the throng of people, all criss-crossing the open areas of the starbase, either leaving or heading for the Travel Core. Those who had heeded the one on the PA system headed for their assigned quarters, while others tried to reach their shuttles, being stopped on the way there. Sera was a bit intimidated by the mass psychosis behind it all, and having been raised in a desert, the number of moving people unnerved her. She could not wait to get to the Sabine, but seeing how people heading for the lower docking bays on the base were being stopped, she knew that there might be some trouble getting to the Sabine once they got up to the spacedock.

"I don't get it," she blurted out as they pushed they way forth through the crowd, keeping their phasers hidden and heads low, "what did you do? Why are they hunting you and why did you keep my involvement from them?"

If she was being pursued for something she'd done, she would not be so quick to dismiss the chance of laying the blame at the feet of another. It was how you survived out there, and while she knew her moral compass was a bit off at times, she would not have any such compunctions if the person in question actually had part of the blame. Since she killed that fat bastard, she had just been waiting for the Klingon halfbreed to turn her in for it so that he might gain favour, but instead... he did the complete opposite.

As she got the reply from Hi'Jak they had got aboard one of the lifts and soared towards the spacedock levels.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #32 –
[ Captain Tristan Kendrick | Hull | USS Resolve ] Atten: All

One by one the clamps were released and the ship ready to set adrift. Finally they could get under way, he wasn't sure exactly what they would do with the doors but his first priority was to get back inside the ship. He could figgure out how many torpedo's he would have to fire later. As he looked over the massive ship he started to make his way towards the nearest airlock, Not bothering to take the long route back that would have him stay outside of the ship longer than he was comfortable.

"Kendrick to Veradin," he said as his helmsman contacted him, "pull us anywhere safe, but if you can, go towards the doors. I'm heading inside and will be on the bridge as quickly as possible. I want a full tactical analysis ready for when I get there." He didn't comment on the people that were left on the Starbase. Maybe they could pull around and grab them in another daring jail break, but for now it wasn't seemingly possible. He had to get those that he could to safety.

Which of course brought him to Melissa. Part of him figured that she wouldn't last, with the aerowing being hunted within the spacedock. They couldn't beam her back on board, there was nothing they could really do to pull her back onto the ship. "Must be some date you have Melissa, I hope you get to it." He said shaking his head he almost wanted to be sarcastic about it, but she was making her choice. "The rest of you get back in the ship, were pulling out of here one way or another!"

Then, the interceptors slowly filled the spacedock, and he cussed a little. With the swarm of ships he could not see anything outside of the shields. Melissa was likely going to be torn to shreds, and there had been no way she would know that before she jumped. He could but hope she'd make it through. Soon, as he got to the airlock near the engineering deck, he was reassured when he felt space normalize around him and soon after that, he was back inside the Resolve, ready to get things underway. Stripping off the EV suit, he was more than happy to be rid of the thing.


[ Lt Hi'Jak | Travel Core | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Auctor

Hi'Jak waited until they were actually on the lift before he spoke up. He couldn't concentrate on the questions when he was worried that any and every face in the crowd might attack him or recognize him. He lets out a small groan for a moment as he walked with purpose thinking it over while still trying to suppress his own fear. Part of him just wanted to scream that he was a scientist not a terrorist.

When they were safely in the lift he pulled out the PADD he had her grab. "This is why they are after me. It's not my life's work, there is a file on this PADD, that we need to get off this station. It contains the voice of whoever detonated the bomb on this station. I brought it to the head of security and the Captain, and then not fifteen minutes later, they wanted to place me under arrest. The kicker is that the file is fucking useless because it's encrypted by a Captian's level of security. Meaning that there is only a handful of persons on this station who could have produced the voice, but only one could have ordered my arrest, because he is the only one who knew I had it."

When he took it out and actually explained it, there was almost a sense of relief to everything. The Captain of Starbase 84 was a traitor. There was no other reason to why he would be placed under arrest. "Somewhere outside of here, there is a ship that will listen to me, and I fully intend to find that ship and give them this thing."

Stowing the PADD at his side he held up his phaser. "As for why I covered up your involvement, that was mostly on accident. I can hardly think at this point. I'm a scientist not a freedom fighter, all I know, all I care about is the fact that you have a ship, and your not trying to kill me, those are like huge bonus points in your favor right now. I'm not shielding you out of some misguided sense of honor or chivalry. Trust me, my mother was a Klingon, I know the most honorable thing you can do for a woman is let them fight their own battles."

"But at the moment they are after me, not you and that's an advantage why tip our hands and tell them that I have a friend. Fuck, after today, why tell them anything at all? It's easier and makes more sense to just let them think they are only hunting one person so that when they do come at us we can ambush them."

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #33 –
[Komial Dotnhil | Starbase 84 | USS Resolve Docking Pylon]Atten: Hawthorne, Havenborn, Juila, Kendrick

The Trill nearly tore the poor Ensigns head off, but she managed to keep her cool despite the personal Hell she was going through, and her desire to vent it all on the crew of the Resolve. They were either all traitors or woefully incompetent at best, and she hated that - in others, and in herself. Given how she felt just then, it took ever ounce of will power - until she actually heard what Sherman had to say.

Blinking incestuously, she turned from the ensign to the security console, looking at the readings and letting out a rather vehement oath in her native tongue. Over the comm systems, the base wide announcement went in out Mack's voice, but Komial barely noticed. The anger was building now, and it had a target, a concrete target and she couldn't strike them down because Bradford...gods above and below he may be an idiot be he was one of her idiots. She had to save him and she had to punish Kendrick for nearly killing her Ian.

The truth was, Ensign Sherman had likely kept Lt. Dotnhil from committing an outright slaughter just then - but would he be able to keep it from happening in the future? "Dotnhil to control - Mack, have someone shoot down that damn shuttle. Don't blow it up, scans show our targets are on board." Almost immediately after she gave that order, she could see the flash of pulse fired phasers snapping out in the bay - apparently the USS Chester had the same idea as she did.

Shouts drew her attention back to the situation at hand as Ejek raced back into her ship. "STOP HER!" Komial shouted, at exactly the same time the voice of the Andorian Tactical officer cried out "SUPPRESSION" from somewhere out of Komial's sight. The bay erupted in phaser fire, with angry orange bolts lancing back and forth between the two groups. Her communicator chirped with the message from Hi'Jak, but she barely heard what the whelp said over the high pitched whine of phaser energy beams and the shouts when those beams hit home.

Three of her people up front dropped to the blasts, and then there was Komail, leaping over a barrier and snapping off shots of her own, bringing a phaser rifle up to rest in the crook of her shoulder. It pulsed in her grip, and the energy bursts splashed out against at least one of the Resolve's personnel in retaliation for the casualties her crew were taking.

The airlock doors slammed shut, and her next volley struck uselessly against the durainaum plating. Of course it was only the Resolve's door that shut. Something was going on with the base's pylons, and the doors on the starbase side were still wide open...for a brief moment, panic gripped Komial. She shouted out, but the words were lost in the sudden howl of atmosphere being vented into the emptiness of the docking bay. The Trill was lifted up, off of her feet, pulled towards the abyss -

- Only to slam back down to the durasteel floor as the structural integrity field snapped into place, cutting off the loss of atmosphere with a shimmering blue yellow haze. Her chin cracked against the ground and her lip split, and this time it was a torrent of profanity that spewed forth. "How in the HELL did they break free!!" She shouted as she struggled to her feet, hitting her combadge and blasting away at docking control.

One hapless security crewman carefully tapped her shoulder and quietly pointed - just barely visible on the hull of the ship were a few humanoids in EVA suits - and one seeming to drift off across the open vastness of the bay, before winking out of site behind the Luna-class starships nacelle.

"Son of a bitch," she whispered, and then louder, "SONOFABITCH!"

She looked around, eyes angry, her cool facade slipping more and more. Above, the Aerowing flashed by again, dodging the bursts of phaser fire from the USS Chester - she suddnely wondered just how much of those sensor scans were true.

"Fighter control," she said softly into her combadge, "Take out the Aerowing, its a distraction. Disable if possible, destroy if not. And someone surround the Resolve" bitterly, she knew what had to come next. Her hand snapped out and pointed to the few bodies laying about - her's, and a perhaps one or two from the enemy ship "Get them to med bay."

"Dotnhil to Hawthorne," she said, voice devoid of emotion, "Ship Aerowing shows life-signs of the escaped prisoners, plus Captain Kendrick and Mr. Bradford. I suspect it is a ruse, just as the negotiations at the pylon were a ruse. Resolve has slipped moorings due to personnel in EVA suits.  Fighters have been scrambled to intercept." And now she'd wait to see where the dice fell.

OOC: wasn't totally sure about the docking plyons and the airlock doors but i figure the sudden threat of being sucked out into the vacuum of the starbase interior could be fun.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #34 –
[ K'Ren | Aerowing Cockpit | Inside Spacedock ] Attn: Drauc

From the moment she jumped him to Drauc's final stunning of the unknown assailant, time seemed to slow to an almost eerily slow pace. She felt the man wrap his arm around her, trying to use her as a shield before a foot came out of no where missing her face by mere inches before knocking Bradford off her. She leaped away, drawing her knife, ready to finish the man if Drauc didn't beat her to it. As she turned towards the fight, she heard the whine of a phaser and as the turn finished, she saw Drauc stun Bradford, ending the fight.

She was panting hard as Drauc came to her and she gratefully took the man's offered hand, catching her breath as she stood. "I am fine. The suit can withstand decompression and limited vacuum so it can withstand a scuffle." His remark about the ships though shook her back to the present and the runabout they were in.

Getting back in the seat she swore to herself. Looking over the tactical situation, the fighters were launching but no ships were moving to intercept the lone ship outside. "Why aren't the doors opening?" she asked out loud. The answer wasn't forthcoming but as the interceptors realised the same, the rush to escape becoming a sudden furball as interceptors swung wide at full throttle, missing the doors but unable to dodge each other. K'Ren could only watch on horrified, keeping the runabout as far from the storm as she could, as fighters collided, explosions rippling through the space, debris colliding with other fighters as chaos only continued.

A tear stung her face as the lives lost hit home, so many people lost and for what? Why were they being sacrificed in such a fashion instead of attacking the enemy outside? Why was her ship deemed the enemy? She looked to Drauc, unwilling to admit the emotions boiling through her.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #35 –
[ Ens Derik Veradin | Bridge | USS Resolve ] Attn: All

"Aye, sir," came Derik's response. He hadn't waited for the Captain's reply and orders, anticipating what they would be. He would leave the full tactical report to A'vura or perhaps that damned Cardassian scientist guest of theirs. They would have a better handle on the external scans at this point than he would, focusing all of his attention now on getting the ship moving. Derik's fingers flew across the controls with the ease of experience, and the vibration of the ship's engines coming to life could be felt all over the ship.

A few orange alarms flashed on his screen signifying the systems that hadn't been fully repaired yet. Derik dismissed them and continued to prepare their departure. He watched the life signs of their zero-g away team, watching as they all made their way back to the ship. He frowned when sensors showed one of them launch themselves from the ship. His heart jumped before he realized it was one of their visitors. He wished her a silent good luck. Confident the others had made their way back into the access hatch, he felt comfortable going. "Here we go," he said to everyone on the bridge.

He couldn't keep himself from going through all the normal 'undocking' procedures and verbal announcements, years of training and protocol still etched in his head, but some of them just for sarcastic fun. He looked down on the side screens showing him their soft connection with the docking pylon where a number of Starbase Security personnel were still. "Clear all moorings," he said activated maneuvering thrusters to move them forward and away from the pylon. The resulting disconnection exposed that part of the station to the vacuum of the spacedock. The result was certainly mayhem for the security officers still down there. "Moorings cleared," he said with a wicked grin.

The Resolve cleared itself smoothly from its docking berth and began flying towards the docking bay doors. Derik tried to keep the ship as far as he could from the USS Chester, the ship that had already fired on their shuttle decoy a few times. Their course he'd plotted would leave them comfortably just outside the few fighters and shuttle by the bay doors but aligned to open those doors by force of torpedo if needed.

Derik's plan, not to mention relative calm, were interrupted on their way towards his intended position by the bay doors. The fighters that had launched, and were continuing to launch by the dozens, were almost all flying at breakneck speed for the bay doors. That is until the first few realized the doors weren't going to open. The fighters began banking, but they seemed more built for speed than maneuverability. They also seemed to lack a good method of decelerating. Explosions began lighting up the bay doors and the surrounding hull as fighters failed to bank soon enough, or banked into each other. Chaos erupted as fighters began veering in any direction they could to avoid crashing into the starbase, each other, or other surrounding ships. Fighters began flying out and around the launch point and the bay doors like a kicked hornet's nest, a hornet's nest that was growing in size and that the Resolve was flying straight towards.

Derik knew he had to change course immediately if they were going to avoid the mess and avoid being crashed into. He tapped his combadge before returning his hands to flying across the helm controls. "Veradin to all hands, hang on to something!" He put the resolve into a steep dive and corkscrew turn towards the bottom of the bay, trying to angle back away from the chaos. It was a move that the inertial dampeners would not be able to completely compensate for. It was all he could do to stay in his chair and remain at the controls. Fighters were veering towards them from all sides. Derik put the ship into a tight spin to avoid them and also to keep them from clipping a few docking pylons. He hoped everyone on board had been able to heed his warning.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #36 –
[ Drauc T'Laus | Aerowing Cockpit | Inside Spacedock ] Attn: SummerDawn

The sight of battle was one thing, where each warring faction raised arms in the name of their beliefs - in contention with those who opposed it. It was pure, at least in the sense it was meant to be. Watching the interceptors collide and spin through the spacedock, Drauc was reminded that there were no true battles any more. Lost was the purity, squandered and watered out by subterfuge and vile cunning. The initial detonations lit his eyes behind the tresses of his hair, and he closed a calloused fist within the sleeve of his threadbare cloak. He found himself sympathetic to the unjust plight of the unknowing pilots - all merely trying to do their honoured duty. The battle was taken from them, and Drauc bared his dry teeth at the display. For while they were the current opposition, they did not deserve such a poor death.

The singular mind in his presence beckoned to him, feeling a distress that mirrored his own, only he was beyond horror and grief. He could respect the Caitian for feeling that way, but it reminded him about how jaded his life had made him. He could not feel what she felt, but he could sympathise with her sentiment. He had lost his brother, and while it was not the same thing, it had been the kind of loss required that he'd be so affected by death. He turned his unblinking eyes K'Ren's way, his irises gleaming behind his hair, and he spoke in what he meant as consolation. "If I could, I would shed tears for them as well," he rasped, knowing that she did not know what his people had done to him, but saying it anyway because it was the cold truth. "I have fought on theirs and your side before, and I know that they were entitled to more than that."

He turned his eyes back to the interceptors that whisked by in front of their hiding place next to a docking wing, indicating the cloud of debris that rolled along the interior wall of the spacedock. "Theirs was a quick death. More so than some might get. Whatever fear and regret they felt, they feel it no more."

Still, his fist was clenched hard within his sleeve. He closed his eyes for a moment, and he was still fighting back-to-back with Kraun. Drauc could still feel the Jam'Hadar's spear through his on body, the memory still as sharp as the pain. He had not known that Kraun's spine had been severed by the same spear - thrust through the both of them. When he saw Kraun, he had killed the Jem'Hadar with his bare hands, and fought on in the battle until there were no more to kill. That was the last time he had cried, and it had been tears of hatred and loss unlike he had ever felt before. No, the sight of the pilots dying might not stir his benumbed heart, but he could respect what K'Ren felt.

"It is merely a matter of time before the rest of them find us," he rasped, changing the topic because they both had to, "and we have a two-person transporter. My suggestion is that you and him beam back to base. I can continue alone... and you might live." He said it without much of intonation, cold facts pointing towards how the both of them needn't join those pilots. The Resolve had its shields up, so she could not go back, but she might find some other way. As for himself... Frankly, he did miss his brother, and if it was his time to fall on the field of battle... he would welcome it.


OOC: Another one coming up with Sera vers Aldnoah.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #37 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Travel Core > Shuttle Bay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Kaligos

Listening to Hi'Jak, Sera scouted ahead, looking around the next corner, and then looked back to whence they had come. The press of people had loosened, and only some random dock workers were running to wherever they needed to be. They were left largely unheard, and it sounded to Sera as if what Hi'Jak was saying could get them into more trouble then they were already in. She glanced at him when he stowed his PADD away and raised his phaser, compelling her to put a hand on the scientists' forearm and push it down again, a worried look around them telling her that no one had seen the Klingon armed.

The precaution made her stand close to Hi'Jak as he spoke, and her yellow eyes sought his as he continued to more or less tell her that she shouldn't flatter herself. So, she meant nothing more to him than what the Sabine might do in his endeavour to deliver that datapad of his? Well then burn him, she had no interest in staying in the same sector or the same quadrant as any Starfleet ship, so she would get the well flaming away from the base and drop him off at the closest planet. She only hoped Melissa Wright would be waiting for her at the Sabine like she'd said, and that she'd been able to get her weapons out of Security. Should she tell her that she killed the fat one? Perhaps she should, and then Melissa could decide if she still wanted to run away with her. They might lead a life as fugitives, but if the engineer felt anything like Melissa did... she looked forward to sharing the adventure with her.

There was, however, no point to tell the Klingon that he'd not get a lift very far. For all she knew, he might try to take the Sabine away from her just so that he could get that 'important' datapad somewhere. Better let him believe that getting to the Sabine was his best course of action, so that he could help her getting there too. Standing close to him, she gave him a rueful smile. "I prefer honesty over chivalry any day," she said and cocked her head a bit, "Thank you nonetheless, and good thinking about an ambush, should we need to make one. It's not far off now, and hopefully, I have a friend there that can unlock the doors to the shuttle bay. She was supposed to meet me there, and I hope this flaming alarm has not changed that. Anyway, I know the way from here, and if we make it through this, I'll help you with that urgent delivery of yours."

She put a hand on his chest, letting her smile get a bit warmer. "Oh, and I don't know how you celebrate victories in Starfleet, but if we can get away, I will show you how we did it in the sweat tents on Câroon." She said it with a wink before she darted off around the corner, leading the way towards the shuttle bays far down the corridors they travelled through. They were at 09-A, and there was some distance to go before 17-C. Running was their best option, and hoping that they did not run into any security guards.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #38 –
[ K'Ren | Aerowing Cockpit | Inside Spacedock ] Attn: Auctor Lucan

K'Ren looked at Drauc, rare tears stinging her face, even as the carnage continued. She could feel the last three years of pain & loss welling to the surface, a forgotten witches brew of emotion and hurt. "Three years. Three years we suffered, Battle after battle. Losing people, freinds, coworkers ... family." She paused, "Only to be branded traitors, made outlaws in our own home by fabricated evidence." She looked out, "Quick death or no, what was the point? What did their death achieve?"

She found her mind slipping into the past, memories of her mate, of laughter, mirth. Joy at the news that their species were compatible so the offspring they both wanted so much was merely a matter of time. Memories of the times they'd fooled around, trying during her semi-annual heat. The memories soon replaced by the day she lost him, the final kiss as they climbed into their fighters, the cries over the comms as he was hit, the static as a fireball erupted in space.

She was shaken back to reality by Drauc's remark about the transporter. "Back to base? For what, to be arrested for treason, theft, and deities know what other trumped up charges? I would rather die free and go to be with my mate then remain rotting in a cell for the rest of my life." She looked at the unconscious officer, "Send him if you must, but my duty is to my ship and that duty is right here."

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #39 –
[ Lt. JG. Ejek | USS Resolve, Airlock ] Attn: Havenborn, DocReno, Brutus, Auctor Lucan

Saved! Ejek almost couldn't believe it. But she was looking up at Lt. ch'Rayya, so it had to be true. The storm of phaser fire ceased with the sealing of the docking gantry, and she was standing on the right side of the door. Inside the Resolve. Catching her breath.

"Thank you!"
Her saviour was calm and collected, she shaken, still struggling with shock. Not ready to let go of Lt. ch'Rayya, despite being back inside. She might not be able to support her own weight.

Or maybe she was, and just forgot to regain autonomy. There were more pressing thoughts on her mind than standing on her own. What did she make of what had just happened? Whom to report to first, and what? What was the USS Theurgy up to? Was the base in immediate danger, and the Resolve with it?

"The bridge," Ejek gasped, finally breaking away from her superior officer. "We should go there. I'll let you in on my thoughts on the way." How much of her conversation with Lt. Dotnhil could ch'Rayya possibly have witnessed? Cardassian ears were horrible compared to Vulcans', but how well was Andorian hearing?

"Besides." Still shaking, the Cardassian started out on her way towards the turbolift. "I'd appreciate it if you gave me access to all current security findings. I consider it my duty to help pinning down our enemy." A beat. "I'm talking about a perpetrator profile. I want to try to get as close as possible to who frames us, and why."

The Resolve was about to escape the base - at least that was what Ejek hoped, for the ship had just started to move -, but what then? First of all they needed a hiding place. But eventually they'd need proof of their innocence, or they'd stay hunted and unable to return to their families and friends.

Where should they go to, anyway? With the Federation on their heels, where could they go? Back into the hostility that was Romulan space? (Would their new, telepathic friend be of help there?) Ask the Klingons to hide them? (That was probable... Moving on.) Or Cardassian space? Her people, sadly, relied heavily on the Federation since the tragic Jem'Hadar attack at the end of the Dominion War. The Cardassian government was very unlikely to protect them just for the sake of one woman who clearly wore the wrong uniform. But maybe, with the help of Silim Parnak-

"Veradin to all hands, hang on to something!"

What?
Panic resurfacing in her eyes, Ejek looked for something - anything - to hold on to, expecting a very bumpy ride. The junctions in the ship's corridors were better than nothing, but the Cardassian's hand still reached out for support from her chief tactical officer. So much for standing on her own...

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #40 –
[ Lt Hi'Jak | Shuttle Bay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Auctor

It had been a long time since Hi'Jak had felt even the slightest bit of affection or attention from a woman. The hand on his chest and the way she spoke made the scientists mouth run dry for a moment. The way she spoke implied something he had been missing from his life for a very long time, and the truth was gods he wanted it. Still he had to focus on the situation on hand. If they couldn't get off the station there was nothing he could do, but honestly... he paused for a moment.

"You know.. If it wasn't for all the murder... I'd really like you." He said giving her a smile. He chuckled as he tried to crack a joke even under the stress of the situation he wanted to keep his sanity and had to crack a joke. "Maybe after all this is done, I could actually get to know you."

And with that he was back on duty, holding up his Rifle and following her lead. When she told him to run, he burst out sprinting. He was thankful for his third lung now more than ever. Even living a life as he had sitting at a desk for the majority of his life he had the natural Klingon endurance. Built up from running away from great predators and then long near endless battles. He had never been more grateful for his heritage than he actually was.

"Which one is your ship?" He held up his Rifle ready to attack any security guards that may have popped out from their run, making sure to keep the weapon set to stun just encase something goes wrong and he actually had to shoot someone.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #41 –
[ Drauc T'Laus | Aerowing Cockpit | Inside Spacedock ] Attn: SummerDawn

Because of what K'Ren had just told him, about the plights of the Resolve's crew, Drauc could respect her decision to stay on the aerowing. More so, he gleaned the loss of the said 'mate' through her memories, saw images of him in rapid succession that summed up their time together, not to mention the loss of him. They had wanted a child together, but they never managed conception before he was gone. While Drauc's heart was a cold and scarred thing, he was not without empathy. For how could he stay the way he had been made, when he could learn to feel through others? In some ways, despite it all, he might just have become more sympathetic to the plights of others than if his father hadn't handed over him and his brother to the training program. Their father had seen it convenient to dispose of them, unable to raise them himself. Sometimes, he wondered where their mother had gone. They had been five years of age, and he recalled her only by a fading face and a taken name. One through which they had been able to contact her before she vanished.

T'Mei.

In response to the Caitian pilot next to him, Drauc inclined his head. "My condolences," he rasped, for there were no words in his vocabulary to accurately express something in answer to her kind of grief. Nor could he tell her that he'd seen her happiness lost through her mind, because she hadn't responded well to his abilities when he'd deduced her name. He wanted to say that the Starfleet he had fought with in the Dominion War would never have let their officers make their own justice, the tenets of the Federation upholding a high moral standard. So much had changed since he had deserted. Instead, he looked out the viewscreen at the Interceptors, who had managed to avoid further losses by spreading the word about the bay doors. Instead, they circled the spacedock with thrusters alone. There were still some collisions, but not like when the first squadrons had launched.

"So we keep Officer Bradford aboard, so that they don't destroy us immediately." His husky, damaged voice set up the beginnings of a plan. "We both stay, together, and should this be our final battle, at least we have people waiting for us in the afterlife - whatever it might be." He said this and slowly turned his head, giving her a faint smile - this happenstance comrade-in-arms. "I say we target their nacelles, disable as many as we can, and keep moving. In here, they will be slow, navigating between themselves in the pursuit, but we will sweep through them like the wind, far more manoeuvrable, and we will give our Captain the time he needs to get those bay doors open. If he can't..."

Drauc started to plot the nacelles of the Interceptors as targets in a path for K'Ren, thinking for a second before he made an even more dire suggestion. "...we could land this vessel right where the doors meet, and detonate our warp core. Should it come to that... we'll decide then whether or not we stay aboard."


[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Shuttle Bay Corridors > Bay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Kaligos

"The one at 17-C, just ahead!" she called back to Hi'Jak, wanting to stop and remove her boots so that she might run faster - the contraptions she had to wear forced upon her as per station decorum rather than her preference. Sera was Câroon, and she had always been barefoot. Burn her, she had learned to walk by hiking through the sand dunes, running and playing in the scorching air of her merciless home planet. Burn it all, she missed Câroon, but she hated it all the same, but considering what she had gotten herself into, perhaps she should have stayed at home - milking the goats and collecting water in the sandstone caves until her dying days.

Then again, if she had, she would never have gotten to spin the head on the Klingon running behind her, so easily charming him despite the fact that she had no intention of getting near another Starfleet ship again for the rest of her life. It was so sweet, how he said he wanted to 'get to know her', as if he was an innocent young man who had not known the attention of a woman in a long time. Surely he must have drawn the eyes of someone, flat-cheeked and chiselled as he was?

Her idle mid-run musings were interrupted at an intersection that was just a thirty yards shy of their destination. Two security guards stepped out in front of her, and she was going too fast to stop in time and take aim. One of them spotted her, eyebrows climbing, and moved to tap that Starfleet badge on his chest. She knew it to be a communicator. Instead of stopping, she acted on instinct, leaping instead. She cried out, meaning to shock them with her call, and crashed into the first one with both feet against his chest. He collided with the second one, and they both fell like rotten palm trees in a desert storm.

Sera, however, landed on her side - almost getting the wind knocked out of her with the impact. She rolled sideways to get back on her feet and take aim against the two guards before they got their hand phasers up. It would be too late. Shoot them! she wanted to call to Hi'Jak, but she had neither breath nor time for it.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #42 –
[ Lt Hi'Jak | Shuttle Bay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Mathis, Auctor,

As the woman tackled down two security guards Jack found himself moderately impressed with her. Actually he found himself almost completely taken in by her, she was attractive and violent, two things that years living on Qo'noS told him were very valuable in women. That said he had left the Klingon empire basically because of those values, and while part of him wanted to be turned on, half of him was reminded that survival came first.

A golden lance of energy struck the first security guard to move as Hi'Jak closed the distance between himself and the guards. The man fell backwards stunned but not killed, and as the other reached for his weapon, Hi'Jak hit his head with the butt of his gun knocking him out.

"You okay?" Jack asked as he got closer to the woman, offering a hand to help her back to her feet. 17-C was a little further ahead, but he could actually see her ship. "Good tackle by the way."

The problem of course was the lock down between them. The Sabine was visible but there was a wall between them. If he had to guess it was probably transparent aluminum considering the Federation hadn't used actual glass in a very long time. The only way they were going to get through that wall was with their guns... and hopefully the two behind them wouldn't wake up before they were through.

He chuckled as he wanted to scratch the back of his neck, or blush or just feel awkward. His life hadn't been one filled with many women. Sure he was attractive or at least he thought he was, but at the same time one very prominent feature had made him stick out and stay sequestered in his office.

If he had chosen a posting closer to the Klingon Empire than perhaps his duel heritage would have been more of an advantage, but then he would also be closer to the empire and he wanted nothing to do with that can of worms. Instead he found he was nearly constantly passed over by the women on this station..

He smiled to Sera "They won't stay down forever, lets get through this thing... How high do we need to set a rifle to cut through a wall? I missed that day at the academy..."

The answer of course was rather simple as he thumbed up the power all the way. "you know there is probably a klingon proverb for this kind of day."

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #43 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Shuttle Bay Corridors outside Bay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Kaligos, Auctor Lucan

Hi'Jak continued to impress Sera as they went on. The way he dispatched of the two guards in quick succession, she looked up at him with a mix of appreciation, surprise, and a touch of arousal, if she was being honest. Sera caught her breath again as the scientist offered her a hand up. She took it, grateful for the help. His obvious Klingon-enhanced strength helped her up easily. "I'll be fine," she said, wincing at the gingerness of her side. "Glad it worked, but my pride is as bruised as my ribs are going to be, burn me." She grabbed both of the phaser pistols from the two guards, stowed one in the waist of her pants after putting the safety on, and held on to the other.

She took stock of their situation and ran to the door controls, seeing her newly repaired and shining Sabine just behind the transparent doors. The door controls were locked, showing "Red Alert" in big letters as if that should make it perfectly clear to her why the flaming doors wouldn't open. Where was Melissa? Sera was starting to worry about her. She would hate to leave without the golden-haired mechanic, but they couldn't just stick around and wait either. She could only hope Melissa would make it in time for them to leave. First, they had to figure out how to get past the locked doors.

She bit back a curse as she looked back to Hi'Jak who was turning the power up on his phaser rifle. She grinned at him, "I like the way you think. Your rifle will probably cut faster than these pistols." She gestured him towards the door as she took up a position where she could see down the corridors both ways and their two stunned security officers. "Get started on it. I'll watch these two and make sure we don't get any other uninvited guests."

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #44 –
[ Lt. Jg. Suq | Hull | USS Resolve ]

His magnetized boots kept his feet firmly attached to the hull of the Resolve and were probably the only things keeping Suq from flying away when the ship was finally freed of her manacles. He felt vibrations up his legs, he wobbled in an effort to stay standing. His left leg kept coming close enough to the hull to magnetize, and another tremor knocked it away again. He soon realized it wasn't just bad luck, his left boot's magnetization had fallen to somewhere near 60% of the required strength, possibly because the damned thing needed maintenance more often than it was actually used, and Suq neglected to maintain it. Visions of floating aimlessly in space for the rest of eternity clouded his thoughts and he reached for some sort of grip that he knew wasn't there. Once again, Suq found himself experiencing a moment of hell.

He fought hard for just a second of steady footing, anything that would allow him the chance to head to an airlock before he either fell off the hull or was shot off. What seemed to be a world-consuming struggle, complete with the rushing of blood and a heart pounding in his threat was actually completely silent, unseen by most. He was a flea on the back of a shaking dog, a shaking dog cornered in a sealed off docking bay with angry, buzzing ships flying around. But he found it, thank his spirit, he finally found his footing. He was this close to performing a split, his left leg slipping a little, but he was standing with both legs on the hull. He felt hot bile rise in his gut. He began to 'walk' to the airlock; really, it looked more like a limp from the outside.

He was wide awake now. Everything around him seemed so clear, and there was much going on around him. He saw, but did not hear, as the Resolve began to drift away from her docking pylons. There was no way out of the docking bay. The Resolve was surrounded by Interceptors buzzing about and the ship wobbling in an effort to avoid hitting them. Each wobble threw him around just a little, just enough to scare him into thinking he'd have to fight for his balance all over again. He saw they were drifting closer to the sealed bay doors, a little closer than he'd like, and he knew that within the minute that the Resolve's thrusters would automatically guide her away, if Derik did not instruct the ship otherwise, and he'd experience another jerk. With his failing boot-- 57% now, it'd be down to 41% then-- it was possible for him to be knocked off. Very possible. In fact, quite likely. "Please Derik, be gentle." He snickered, despite himself.

And so it was an agonizingly slow shuffle to the airlock. A slow-motion race against the forces of inertia and fate and he was toe to toe. 55%, 53%, 50%, 49%...Each percentage made his left leg feel more slippery, more useless. He began to measure time by how many percentage points he had left until the thrusters kicked on. 47%, 45%, 43%...

But he made it. He slipped inside the airlock, he felt gravity normalize again, he tore his suit off like it meant to kill him. He finally made it. He stood in the airlock as it pressurized, drenched in sweat, hands shaking, heart pounding so fast he thought it might jump right out of his chest.

It wasn't over yet, he thought. His crew was still out there.  and he ran into the Resolve, leaving his suit crumpled on the ground in the airlock.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #45 –
[ Lt Hi'Jak | Shuttle Bay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Mathis, Auctor,

It only took a minute for Hi'Jak to realize that this wasn't actually going to work. Sealed walls were usually meant to keep people out, and so cutting through them with the most common weapon available while it was the mark two a more powerful rifle than the regular hand phaser it wasn't cutting anywhere near fast enough. Sure he might be able to burrow a large enough hole for one humanoid, but not in the time it would take for reinforcements to arrive and then they would be over run, and probably arrested. "This isn't working we need a plan c."

That meant they needed another faster way through the wall. Looking around Hi'Jak found a wall console, chances were good that his own access codes had been restricted at this point otherwise he could have override this wall with a code, but as he walked up to it, he shot the console. Watching as sparks flew out from the former controls. Prying it open to analyze the wiring inside he wasn't an engineer, but he could follow circuitry well enough. "Let's see the wall should be power locked, so if we cut that power what happens?"

There had to be an emergency way to unlock the and move the thing encase of a power outage, the Federation wouldn't let shuttles not be used in an evacuation so all he had to do was logically cut off enough power that this part of the station thought an evacuation was needed... So how much was that? Jack paused as he was counting circuitry and relay points trying to figure out how to break in just the right way. Turning to Sera he gestured her to join him. "Have you ever cut off power to a security wall before? I just realized I'm not an engineer, I mean I could pull wires all day, but I have just as much of a chance of breaking this thing correctly as I do... turning off the force-field on the other side of that wall and venting your ship into space. So while I do appreciate the sentiment of watching over my back, another set of hands is kind of appreciated."

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #46 –
[ Ensign K'Ren | Aerowing Cockpit | Inside Spacedock ] Attn: Auctor Lucan

K'Ren wasn't sure if she'd said anything but the man was a mind reader so he'd no doubt intruded upon her memories as she sat there, and knew how Markus died. She nodded as he began to outline his plan. It was foolhardy and reckless, almost like he wanted to get them killed and sent to the afterlife, but right now doing something sounded better then sitting around and waiting for the inevitable.

"Thank you." she said at first, "Markus was a good mate. He died as he lived, doing what he loved." A slight tear formed in her eye, "My only regret is that I could not give him the offspring he wished before he died. Had he lived another month we most likely would have produced a child together. Now all I have is the memory of him."

She glanced at the stunned and unconscious officer, who wouldn't be awake till all this was over. "Somehow I doubt this man will keep us alive as if these people are willing to frame innocents, then the death of an innocent is no concern to them. He will be declared a hero or a traitor as the need requires." She grinned, "You realize we're stirring one hell of a hornet's nest if we target those fighters? Right now they're confused by the doors not opening. As long as they stay focused on each other, we remain ignored."

She watched over the tactical readout, watching the fighter's flight patterns, looking for the telltale sign of a fighter taking interest in them. She shrugged, "If it becomes necessary we will become the wedge." She looked at Drauc, "I do not wish to die but for my Captain and ship I will glady give my life."

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #47 –
[Ensign A'vura Zeshryr | Resolve Bridge] Attn: Arista, Mathis

A'vura had watched the Cardassian take a seat eventually near her, wiggling into it as if he had been wanting to do such a thing for a long time. It actually wasn't all that unusual for someone to want to take a seat in one of the First officers or Captain's chairs, people typically snapping up the chance whenever they could get the opportunity. With a faint smile she nodded cordially at him as he spoke, then turned to Derik and laughed dryly at him and his remark. "If /you/ want to surrender you be my guest," she teased back, knowing full and well that surrender by this point was not an option. Then she heard Parnek's last remark and followed his train of thought. If those on the hull did not get back into the ship now they'd be torn from it and free floating outside of the Starbase. Hitting her combadge she asked for a report, comms coming back as each of the members of her crew, and one non-member called back saying they were inside. It seemed as though one of the other's though, had not come inside, and she tensed in her seat as she wondered what the hell was going on now.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


[Ensign Six | Resolve Hull/Docking Clamp ] Attn: Triage, Kaligos, Arista, Follow Tomorrow

Wasting zero time Six scrambled back up to her feet, marching her way towards the nearest airlock. Shit had literally hit the fan overhead as interceptors began to fill the space above them, zipping around and firing phaser blasts in every direction. Thank god the shields were holding, or at least she would have thanked god if she had any belief in one, moving her ass like there was no tomorrow. By the time she reached the airlock she was sweating in her EV suit and panting. It was always work walking in those heavy suits and magnetic boots, but having to double time her efforts, something she could actually physically manage as a borg, left her winded and ready to take a momentary break. Once inside the ship she did just that, closing the seal and ripping the helmet off her head to breath in fresher, less stifling air. Only after a moment of steadying her breathing did she finally hit her comm to the captain. "Six here. I've made it back inside. Where do you need me now?"
"You wish to knock over cows? What is the significance of this? Do you derive pleasure from such things?" - Ensign Six

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #48 –
[LT Keval ch'Rayya| Turbolift #2| USS Resolve]
Attn: Ejek then bridge crew

Keval slowly nodded at the cardassian's comments as his shoulder started to throb just a little bit from the phaser blast that he had taken but he ignored it when he saw that the younger officer was still trembling just a little bit but before he could reach out and try to calm her down when Derik's decree came through the ship's comm-system and he saw her try to reach out and grab onto something to support herself as the ship suddenly went into a very quick series of maneuvers.

Keval was at this point in his life an old hand but that didn't stop his first reaction as he quickly reached out and pulled Ejek close to him again as he basically forced his legs to lock solidly as he hung onto the cardassian woman.

At that moment a rather unusual thought crossed his mind and Keval looked down into Ejek's face until he caught her attention and when he locked his eyes onto her's, he could only think to say "You know that I've got you, Zelosa. I've got you." in a calm, collected and quiet tone before he brought a hand up to gently stroke the right side of her face for a second before his senses told him that it was safe to release her again which he did so slowly to ensure that she was still steady on her feet.

On the other hand, he was trying to figure out why his heart was now beating so damn hard against his ribs..was he actually excited to be back in the midst of conflict again...

...or was it something else?

A moment later the doors to the bridge opened up and Keval's face slowly became a mask of utter professionalism as he stepped onto the main bridge and went to his station. "Thank you for trying to keep it on the road, Mister Veradin." he said as he quickly started to bring his weapons systems online and studied the tactical plot of the surrounding area.

It only took him a few seconds to get a lay of the land so to speak. "Mister Veradin, try and keep us out of the principle broadside range of the other ship's phaser range for the time being until we can get the station doors open." Keval said as he quickly made a few adjustments to a couple of the Resolve's own phaser systems before activating the ship's own communications system. "Resolve Actual to Salvo and Meony, keep in close to us. I don't have much information on those birds coming out to counter you but needless to say I don't think the captain wants you all to play chicken with them in an enclosed space like this."

Keval then started to plot his own tactical solutions for the torpedoes as he wanted to use them as a last resort in case it came to it but he also had to plan out the math to ensure that he wouldn't cause too much undo damage to his fellow officers.

Re: Chapter 03: Loyalty

Reply #49 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Shuttle Bay Corridors outside Bay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Kaligos, Auctor

Sera cast a blank look over to Hi'Jak. This was not going well. She knew how to survive. She knew how to fight. This was maybe beyond her. However, she hated the idea that she'd have to admit to yet another person today how terrible she was at engineering. "Burn me. You're not an engineer, but you are a scientist. According to Melissa's assessment of my upkeep on the Sabine, you might as well be the inventor of the warp drive next to me." She got up from her vantage point where she was watching his back earlier and walked over to the now-fried console. "Although, I did see the mechanic of our freighter one time cross wires that looked like of like these..." She reached down past him, leaning in close to where their shoulders brushed each other. She didn't hate the warm feeling their contact gave her. She twisted two of the exposed wires together.

Sparks flew from the already trashed console, causing them both to flinch. She dropped the wires with a few colorful curses. "Well, that certainly didn't work," she said after she gained her composure again. She scanned around the corridor and looked out into the shuttle bay. She whispered almost under her breath, but Hi'Jak definitely would have been able to hear it. "Damn it, Melissa, where are you?"

She looked down at the weapons she was holding. "Hey, I have a crazy idea. Do you think the power cells in these phasers, if overloaded and then fired on, would create an explosion powerful enough to open the doors? Or at least crack them open, maybe damage them enough for your rifle to finish the job?" She was really just grasping at straws at this point. She was a scavenger. It had been true on Câroon and it was what she'd fallen into doing in space, selling junk she found on planets to pay someone else to fix up Sabine and get her moving again when it needed it. She wasn't a demolitions expert or an engineer.
 
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