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Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #25 –
[ Heather McMillan | Vector 02 | Deck 11 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: Maya, and all others in the Medical Bay


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"Oh," said McMillan as Maya explained who Maal and Nurse Herbert were, and then found herself doing the strangest hop and skip as the ship lurched. She barely caught the first one, and would have ended up with broken bones at the least, had she not been more alert. Each time she jumped, her body flared with multi-coloured lights, and her heart was alight in white, a flash so bright, that it shone right through her chest and clothing. Once the tremors stopped, she let go of the bed she had found to grip on, looking decidedly shaken and terrified as a mouse. She was probably the one also squeaking and yelping in fright the whole time. Once the instructions were given by Dr. Nicander and Maya, she nodded nervously. "Right away."

She only prayed there wouldn't be more of this. Rising to tip toe, she gracefully made her way towards one of the incoming patients, trailing along with the other orderly who was supporting the woman on one side while McMillan ran a tricorder over her. "Compound fracture on the right shin and left forearm. Surgical suite one. Here, I'll give a hand." She smiled comfortingly as she assisted, and soon she was lost to the flow of patients pouring in.

"God let this end quickly, and be with us all..." she said softly to herself.


[ Krystal "Meony" Tancredi | Fighter Assault Bay | USS Resolve | Fuzzy Flayer ] Attn: LT Daniel Havenborn, Eric Randall, Liam Herrold, Keval ch'Rayya, Silim Parnak, Tristan Kendrick & K'ren


[Show/Hide]


Counting the sheep in her head had gotten boring after she lost count for the hundredth time, stupid sheep can't jump in perfect order. One of the perks, and perhaps drawbacks of being a Tactical CONN with the mere rank of Ensign (having refused promotion on principle that she didn't want to live THAT long) despite some sort of command status at least in Tribble Squadron, was that she was never in the know of the bigger scheme of things. She was more of a "you point, I punch" kind of a person, and that just sat fine with her. Except on rare moments like this, when the waiting was insanely long, and she just knew shit was not only hitting the fan, but was making such a crap storm, that it would have blotted out the sun. Even a sun going supernova would have a hard time getting past it. The issue was that meant her friends, her family, was in so deep, and she didn't know crap about it, and she didn't know what to do about it.

Nothing made her feel more useless than that.

The ship shook, and Tancredi's head lurched to one side with the ship. "Okay, Ah felt that."

The ship shook again, more violently than the first, "OH-KAY, AH REALLY FELT THAT!"

The third one sent her to the floor off her seat, and she was now admiring her drunken artwork drabbles on the ceiling of the Fuzzy Flayer. "WHAT THE FLYING FUCK!"

Leaping to her feet, she heard the all clear from Keval ch'Rayya to go, and to switch to Tactical Channel 03. Quickly adhering to the instruction, she adjusted her channel frequencies, and then listened to Havenborn. She keyed in a quick comm to the lieutenant, "Acknowledged, out."

She then switched over to the Tribbles, "All raht, furballs, NOW we get out there! Pick yer targets carefully. If those swarms are out there, remember one important thing: If ye're surrounded, at least ya cain't miss!"

She heard brief laughter and began to cycle her shuttle's engines after letting it cool its heels a little, when there was an odd whine, and the shuttle made a sound akin to a loud gaseous discharge. "WHAT?!? No, no, no, no no no NO!"

All those modifications Randall warned her about. But it never ever failed her before. First time for everything, she supposed, but why now?!? Issuing a direct com to the other Tribbles, she said, "Tribbles, don't wait fer meh! Staggered formation, lahk Havenborn! Ah'll be raht behand ya! MOVE MOVE MOVE!"

Turning off the communicator, she pressed her palms against her ship's console heavily. "Flayer Ah know Ah ask too much of ya, but so help meh God, if ya DON'T TURN ON NOW...!" She slapped her right fist against the surface, and the ship rumbled to life. Grinning the redhead leaned forward and kissed a bulkhead, "Thanks!"

She took the ship up, following her Tribbles, she watched as the shuttles remain in position while the entire Fighter Assault Bay suddenly shifted in position, just as Dermot Lanier's shuttle was halfway out. "FRENCHIE MOVE YER BEH-..." the shuttle's entire port side crumpled under the force of the impact of the bay doors abruptly cutting into the position of the small craft, and in seconds, a brief flame of explosion from a reactor overload engulfed the shuttle, and took with it, Lanier's life. "NO!"

The remaining shuttles hovered motionless for a moment longer, as if the pilots were stunned by what they had just seen. And who wouldn't be? Frenchie had been the most amazing survivor since day one. He'd been shot, stabbed, bitten, crushed, thrown off a cliff, impaled, and even nearly disemboweled. Not one of those had ever killed him or dampened his spirits. After the Gray Wolves, what was left of them, had cleared the bay, they had been next in turn, but Lanier took Tancredi's position since she had briefly vacated it. His death was her fault.

She saw the reports, of a torpedo barrage that came from the Starbase. Hawthorne was determined to see them and the Resolve dead. Right now, even through tears of fury, Tancredi held the same desire for the Starbase Commander. She wanted his head on a platter. After she ensured Kendrick, ch'Rayya and all the others made it out okay first, though. "Tribbles. Go." Tancredi's voice was quiet now, almost drained of anything. She may have given them the cutest creature as a squadron name, and they all named their shuttles something equally unbelievable. But God have mercy on anyone who assumed that meant they were pushovers.

As the war shuttles tore out two at a time, Tancredi was the last to exit, and as she moved into position, the reality set in.

This was the end. The Resolve, the vessel that was her home, and the dwelling of her family, was doomed. There was no saving the ship from destruction, but with the help of the Tribbles, maybe they could delay it, and secure the evacuation. "Tribbles, Sacrificial Victory. Good luck."

She issued the order that she and all those who flew shuttles with her were ready to perform without a second thought. Their lives, for the lives of others. Whenever Kendrick had time for her, and when they played Chess, she liked to employ a move that she called the Meony Maneuver: Victory, with sacrifice. Giving up her most prized piece on the board, she forced her opponent into a checkmate. It was the only time Kendrick couldn't beat her in chess. And now, she was doing it for real. She tried to bug Hawthorne personally, sending a recorded video feed to him. Picking up some computer know-how from Liam Herrold and Erik Randall, she used a quick hack so that it would force open his screens.

"Howdy!" She said, smiling, and biting her lower lip in the way that sometimes drove certain men up the wall, then started speaking in a sing-songy voice, "Ian "backstabbin'" Hawthorne, raht? Mah name is Krystal Tancredi, Ensign, call sign, and true name, Meony, of the USS Resolve. We nevah got ta meet in person, and probably never will, but Ah hope what we're about to do really fucks up your day, and maybe with a li'l thing Ah lahk ta call luck, the remainder of ya sorry ass life!" She finished with a signature flipping off, with both fists.

She blew a kiss and finished the recording, sending it as a priority to the Starbase Commander. If nothing else, her pretty mug will be distracting his sight from the battle, and maybe that would buy everyone a little more time. Even a few seconds was worth something.

Removing her hat, she finally fitted her helmet into place. And speared the Flayer ahead of the other shuttles. If anyone was going to take the brunt of anything ever again, it would be her. "Thanks fer everything, Randall. Love ya." She said quietly to herself.

Slapping the fire command buttons, her shuttle began a destructive firing pattern even as she darted across the hull of the Resolve, seeing all it's destruction in clear view. The starboard nacelle was all but finished. And the fighter swarms were thick. She was almost squinting as their weapons fire lit up her screens faster than it could compensate and adjust to protect, but it was more of an instinctual reaction than anything, since her own helmet gave her additional protection. The rest of Tribble Squadron followed suit. Spreading wide apart. Their forward-firing weapons cast a hail of energized bolts of varying colours, since almost everyone used a unique weapon, while the beam turrets automatically picked targets by computerized-targeting, and cut deadly beams of power through shields and armour in fairly short order.

Tancredi launched a torpedo at one group of Interceptors, and as she had told her squadron earlier, it was rather hard to miss hitting something. Five fighters in one torpedo. Smiling grimly, she completed one circuit, spotting Havenborn and K'ren amidst the chaos, before losing sight of them again. She had other problems though, as Cortez and Thurmane started peeling off. "What're ya two doin'? Get back in forma...!" She saw it then. The damage done to their shuttles.

Cortez's was listing to one side and falling behind the rest, with three Interceptors fiercely pummeling the craft with their weapons. "I'm sorry, Meony! Give 'em hell!"

The woman's self-destruct took the three Interceptors and a few more besides, having detonated all of her remaining torpedoes at once. And Thurmane drove her shuttle right into the thickest of the Starbase defenders, performing the same sacrifice. Suddenly Tancredi's attention was forced back into the battle as a violent impact almost threw her out of her chair once more. The Theurgy was helping them, which made for an interesting turn of events. But it still felt like her captain and her people were alone in this.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #26 –
[ Commander Trent | Vector 01 | Main Bridge | USS Theurgy ] Attn: All

The moment the Captain gave her orders, Trent raise a hand towards Yukimuara.  He didn't know what the man had done to draw Black Opal as a duty station; after all he was bright, dedicated, a hard-worker and the kind of officer he would work with at any given time.  Perhaps this change of scenery had given him a new sense of purpose?  After all, so far as the XO was concerned, such was eminently possible considering his own circumstances.  With that silent command, the EWO started pushing the tactical feed to Resolve and her fighter elements.  It was not the same as them being able to see through the jamming Theurgy was putting out, but at least it would give them some way to shoot back accurately despite their sensors being heavily degraded.

The authorization to fire his double broadside given, the Commander's hands flew on his panel as he entered a targeting sequence, and he relayed it directly to Arisaka on Vector 2.  "Lieutenant," he started in his boom mike, "put your dorsal aspect to the Starbase and fire a double-broadside using the firing plan I sent you.  Fire when ready."  There was a crisp "Aye, Sir" from the other end of the commlink, and not ten seconds later, Theurgy's second vector belched its volley.

On both sides of the hull, the pod hatches opened and in sequence they disgorged their payload, fifteen Type V micro-torpedoes per opening, and the massive salvo made its way towards the mess that was the fighter engagement and the space around Resolve.  As the torpedoes were in flight, Trent once more opened communications, this time to Resolve's fighter elements.  One thing for certain, he wasn't worried about the reaction of Theurgy's pilots to such fire; all had been exposed to the pods and their fire at some point and they had drilled this sort of fire plan before.  Such, howeverm could not be said of the crew of the vessel that had been thought lost.  "Resolve fighters, this is Theurgy Tactical.  Prepare for massive interpenetration from our salvo.  Your transponders are locked into the warheads and they will not detonate in case you catch one."

And then, all he could do was watch even as he directed Vector One's fire with vicious proficiency.  Between all three segments of the ship, the amount of anti-torpedo fire was staggering.  What they mounted was initially meant for a fleet-level engagement, and even with the firepower available to a Starbase, there simply was no way for the facility to overwhelm that much defensive fire.  It even came to the point that in between engaging torpedoes, the clusters would start targeting some of the interceptors, further blunting their assault.  And then, the double-broadside came crashing into the Starbase's fighter wing in its antimatter-fuelled fury.

And while he did not expect to destroy outright many of the incoming fighters.  After all, the Starbase had a complement of 250, and there simply were not enough micro-torpedoes in the salvo to put an end to those spacecraft.  However, if enough could be damaged and driven back in or disabled?  If enough formations could be disrupted and lead to collisions?  It would put a serious hole in their capabilities...

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #27 –
[ PO2 Sithick | USS Allegiant | Air Lock ] Attn: Auctor, Angles


When Sithick got the order to be in the transporter room he acknowledged it, the fact that they were doing a pilot rescue in the middle of an active war zone was not lost on the giant lizard, and he spent a lot of time moving as quickly as he could. The thing about the Gorn wasn't that they were completely incapable of running far from it actually, it was that stopping became rather difficult. He was a large lumbering beast, and while he could pick up good speed when he needed too, Sithick was practically thrown by the last explosion. His body going head over heels as his heavily scaled and condensed body hit the ground he rolled and found himself in the transporter room but completely disoriented for a moment.

And when he got up what he was seeing was not good. The shot that sent him to the ground was the same one that had on the bridge crippled their tactical officer, and here there were already signs of damage. Console burn out, and as Sithick struggled with the controls he was finding that the pattern buffers had taken damage. If it wasn't one thing it was another, and as Sithick struggled with the controls to bring game on board it just wasn't as simple as that.

He tapped his comm. "Sithick to the Bridge. The Tranzpoters, are damaged. I has a lock on the pilot, but we must lower the shield to beam them in. Pattern bufters are damaged we may not get all 'game', but if we are to get any of the pilot we must move quickly."

There was another burst of sparks and Sithick watched the pattern buffers drop another percentage. Getting the materiel was one thing they had the power to grab the pilot it was the reassembly part that he was worried about. The last thing he wanted to do was to transport someone onto the platform having them come inside out, and then explode.

Regardless of what the pilot looked like after this transport hitting the emergencies already meant that this was not going to be an easy ride.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #28 –
[ Ens Derik Veradin | Bridge | USS Resolve ]

Sparks, klaxons, alerts, commands, and yelling were all erupting on the Resolve bridge. Derik did everything he could to stay focused and keep them moving. The problem was that every hit took out more and more of his ability to dodge and weave. The engines and maneuvering thrusters were getting damaged and sluggish to his controls. They were starting to limp. That's why Martin's repulsor idea came through like such a beautiful light of an idea. Derik flashed her a grin as she explained it and started readying the pulse. They could use it not only to knock back a huge bulk of the interceptors, but gain a large amount of thrust towards the Theurgy's back lines. "Veradin to Resolve fighter wings, stay clear of our six!"

Adrenaline and a bit of terror pumping through his body, Derik repositioned The Resolve, checked that none of their own fighters would be in the blast radius behind them, and nodded to Martin over his shoulder. “Everyone hang onto something! Do it!”

Consoles, lights, everything dimmed and the ship gave a groan and a hum with a huge discharge of energy. The repulsor field erupted from the rear of the ship, throwing back a big handful of their interceptor enemies and the Resolve lurched forward riding the wake of that energy discharge towards the Theurgy’s Vector 1 and defense line. Derik was slammed into his seat as the inertial dampeners failed to fully absorb the sudden acceleration.

Dozens of interceptors ended up getting caught in the repulsor wake behind them. There was a satisfying number of collisions and explosions from the chaos of it, a chaos that Keval was taking great advantage of at Tactical, Derik saw, unloading as much fury as their battered ship could muster. The Resolve wasn’t quite dead yet, and the interceptors would know a bit of revenge still yet.

They were approaching the Theurgy’s line when another massive hit rocked the Resolve and Derik lost half of his controls, his console sparking but luckily not exploding. His displays threw up errors and alerts all over his screens. The Resolve started to tilt in a slow roll he couldn’t quite control. “Damn it, come on baby, hold together just.. a little… longer!” He cursed through gritted teeth.

Right then as the Captain was giving the order to abandon ship, and before Derik could argue vehemently with that order, the Theurgy’s captain offered to dock with them and extend their shields around them. Derik was confused as to how exactly that would work until a diagram showing the maneuver showed up on his display. Derik looked to Kendrick for the okay, giving the Captain a, ‘well, it could work and it’s our last real chance I think,' look, and the Captain nodded to him his approval.

Derik looked on his screens and saw the Theurgy vector approaching them and Derik started to maneuver their dorsal side towards them for the docking procedure. “Veradin to Theurgy, I’m ready when you are for this crazy idea of yours. Be aware, half of my controls are shot, it’s going to be everything I can manage to keep us steady, the rest is going to be mostly up to you. I’m linking you into our sensor readings, such as they are, to help with the dock.”

Derik got the Resolve underneath Vector 1, praying his positioning was accurate on his own sensors. “Veradin to Theurgy, we’re lined up as best and close as I can manage. I'm entering our exact coordinates, heading, and alignment." Derik sent the final data message to them and prayed as he desperately held the Resolve locked in place as best he could.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #29 –
[ Ens K'Ren | Fighter Assault Bay | USS Resolve ] Attn: Triage, Havenborn, Auctor

K'Ren was already in her fighter, going through her launch checklist as information kept coming in over comms, first from the bridge and then from Havenborn. her bird was still warm from the earlier alert so prepping this thing for flight was easy enough. The instructions to ignore the Theurgy's fighter elements came as a somewhat of a surprise to K'Ren but her bosses had reasons and in the coming shit storm of blue on blue engagements, her job was just to eliminate the enemy fighters, no matter who their allegiance was, even men & women she'd sworn an oath to serve alongside. To her mind though, once these same men & women served the enemy, that protection was no longer afforded them. And she admitted, to them she was most likely the same, a traitor to the Federation, a target to be eliminated.

She glanced over at Liam, a quick smile and a nod as she lowered the canopy of her fighter. She hoped she would live through this day and come back to the place she called home, back to Liam and the promise she'd made him. If not, her mate was waiting for her in the afterlife and she could only hope her departure came after acquitting herself in battle, earning a worthy death. The deck plating rattled as the canopy sealed, a common enough thing as it always seemed the fighters launched after the Resolve came under fire. This fire however was far heavier, like the weapons of a large capital ship or starbase. She clicked her internals comm's open, "Ready to go Merlin?" she asked her RIO. "Roger," came back the answer, "Time to work some magic."

Acknowledging Havenborn's orders, K'Ren switched to Tac 3, and didn't have to wait long for her orders. Her fighter entering the launch sequence as it hovered over the deck, K'Ren felt the push of acceleration as the fighter rocketed out of the deck, her weapons armed, her claws extended. She trusted Liam but she also hoped & prayed that this things legs would hold out and get her home. Soon she was clear of the ship and could see the battle with her own eyes for the first time, the sheer scale coming into perspective.

However it seemed as almost immediately, as Merlin begn to pick out targets for them to attack, that the order to steer clear of the Resolve's six came out. Having just launched out the after of the ship, K'Ren made a hard bank to starboard, towards the theurgy. It was maybe seconds latter she felt a shudder as the fighter caught the edge of the repulser blast, tossed for a second as they were pushed clear of the blast. K'Ren glanced at her RIO then back at the tactical situation, the field had thinned out a bit but a station like SB-84 had more where they'd come from.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #30 –
[Lt. JG. Suq | Main Bridge | USS Resolve ]

Take from lighting systems, replicators can go, holodeck doesn't need that power. Suq picked over everything, every last drop of energy he could access sacrificed for Martin's idea. He was glad to see her, even more so to hear an idea, but those feelings took away from Suq's personal vault of energy-- which coincidentally, was also running very low. Nothing was spared. Entire sections of the ship went dark, klaxons silenced, only emergency lights to light the way. Then, he hung on tight, and cursed himself for failing to install bars on his console to hold onto when this happened.

It happened, and Suq shook. He felt the shock waves of the hit in his very bones and already dreaded the damage report. Sure, they had removed themselves from the tiny vultures called Interceptors, but they had numbers, and also ships that were not held together by industrial strength starship glue and hope. Perhaps the only way to survive was to flee, as the captain said...

And then, the Theurgy rang in.

"Did they just offer to save us? The Theurgy?" He spoke, just as the call ended. A criminal ship? Weren't they supposed to be traitors? Or was Hawthorne the traitor? Which way was which, again?

Whatever was happening, he'd take any lifeline, and it seemed the Captain was in agreement. He left Derik in charge of piloting, trying anything he could to fix the ship's directional sensors, to keep her from rolling in the Theurgy's grasp. For now, this would be his duty.

"Our navigational sensors are shot, can't repair them without a living engineering team, switching to manual input. You should see a 17% correction. Should keep us from 69'ing the Theurgy."

"Watch our former nacelle," he added, his voice mostly emotionless despite the content of his warning, "It can still be used as a weapon. At this distance, an explosion would be the end of us. We probably wouldn't feel it though." He shrugged. "Structural integrity of the nacelle suggests it would take a large amount of concentrated fire at a single area to overload it, more than what a single Interceptor could do, but the starbase or a team of Interceptors could still do the job."

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #31 –
[ LT Daniel Havenborn | Cockpit | AC-307 Mark-II Valkyrie "Grey Wolf-01" ] Attn: Auctor, Grey Wolves, Tribbles & Lone Wolves (indirectly)

As soon as Daniel heard the message from Derik he pushed his throttle to maximum thrust to clear not only the Resolve but also to make sure he stayed clear of any lingering effects from the EMP torpedoes.  He swung his fighter so that it was parallel to the Resolve for a moment before the Resolve boosted forwards.  "Three fighters coming up behind us."  Knight said.  "Got it."  Daniel replied as he spun his fighter around and reversed his thrust so that he was facing the enemy fighters.  "Locking on."  Daniel said as he switched to the micro-torpedo launchers.  He waited a moment as he took fire from the interceptors, then the tone for target lock sounded and he pressed down on the fire button, launching a dozen micro-torpedoes.  He watched as they flared against the interceptors shields.

The lead ship was destroyed with the second taking damage from the torpedoes and shrapnel from the lead ship.  Daniel fired his pulse phases and ripped the second interceptor to shreds.  The third interceptor moved to dodge the debris of the second and Daniel maneuvered the fighter around and fired again watching as the shots ripped through the third's shields and hit the engine block which ignited and destroyed the third interceptor.  "Deadeye, Broadside, on my wing."  He said into the squadron channel.  "Neko, take Warhound and help out the Tribbles."  He said.  Once he heard an affirmative from his pilots he pointed his fighter towards the Starbase. "Deadeye, Broadside maximum thrust, use your quantums on starbase targets."  He said as he heard the affirmatives again from both pilots.

It was now or never, he thought to himself.  They had a list of priority targets to get to and the Resolve was in good hands.  His fighter took another hit from another interceptor but it blew apart a moment later as he watched phaser fire from Grey Wolf-04.  Only zero point nine kilometers to their first target. "Knight, prep torpedo two, lock onto the torpedo launcher."  He said as he got an affirmative from his RIO. "Deadeye, fire one torpedo after mine.  Broadside cover us."  He said as they neared the torpedo launcher, just another point five kilometers and they'd be in range.  "Salvo, I've got ten interceptors closing on us."  Broadside reported in.  "Got it Broadside."  Daniel said, a moment later he had a target lock tone and he fired his torpedo, a second later Deadeye fired hers and he watched as both torpedoes tracked towards the launcher.  He'd have to let the sensors let him know if the torpedoes hit their target or not, right now they had bigger concerns to worry about.  "Broadside, Deadeye, form up on me, we're going after those interceptors."  He said as he maneuvered his fighter around, bringing the interceptors into view.

"Light them up."  Daniel said as they closed distance with the interceptors, firing his pulse phasers and the rest of his micro-torpedoes, at this close range they'd be hard to dodge he thought to himself.
Defeat, Genocide; why quibble with semantics.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #32 –
[Lieutenant Keval ch'Rayya| Resolve Bridge]
Attn: All on the bridge & Resolve fighter elements, Theurgy and it's elements

Keval worked hard to fulfill his captain's orders, quickly shifting what power he could from what tactical systems he could while prepping his torpedo launchers for a tactic that he remembered reading about from the Klingon Wars.

"I'm on it Tristan but don't you fucking dare think about going out in a blaze of glory, my friend." Keval said loudly over the din of alarms, explosions and sounds of combat on the bridge around him as he looked over at the human who'd been his captain and friend.

"That is my job after all." Keval said while tossing a playful wink at his captain's direction.

Keval then tripped the command to perform what was once known in the 2240's Starfleet as the "Backwash Maneuver" as he bypassed the primary and secondary safeties and fired every torpedo in the Resolve's magazines at the hostile starbase all at once.

The primary action of such a move was by removing the safeties it allowed the ship to be thrust faster in a specific direction by use of pure kinetic energy rebounding off of the impulse bubble that surrounded the ship during maneuvers and allowed momentum to be increased at least tenfold.

Keval opened up a dual channel to the Resolve's fighter elements. "This is Resolve Tactical to all Resolve Fighter Elements. Mark all Theurgy combatants as FRIENDLY, reapt on all Theurgy elements as FRIENDLY." he said into the channel as he kept at his work. "Furthermore Resolve Actual has started order for ship wide evac, prepare for possible linkup with new friendly elements."

However the use of such operation was ended in the field just prior to Kirk's encounter with Khan all of those decades ago due to how dangerous such an action would be but considering the orders of his captain...

The Andorian was about to finish his work when he noticed something on his board which was a couple of interceptors that was slowly starting to gain on one of the small craft from the Theurgy that the tactical sensors had marked as the USS ALLEGIANT.

Keval clicked his tongue and then quickly targeted the two fighters and sent a couple of phaser lances their way and smiled as one of the fighter disappeared and the other quickly banked away.

"Resolve Tactical to Allegiant Actual, pardon the phaser fire but I didn't think you wanted to be hit from behind by a couple of the base's mooks." Keval said after he quickly opened a channel before giving a tight smile. "Who ever is piloting that ship, I owe a couple of drinks to. Resolve Tactical out."

After closing the channel, Keval then shifted what energy he had left to help with propulsion and defense before moving over to where his captain was and asked "Orders Tristan?".
////////////////////////////////////////////

[ Chris "Husker" Slayton | Wolf 04 | Space around his assigned element | USS Theurgy ]
Attention: Star-fighter related

The word "Noy Jitat" which was a little used Andorian curse word from the time of Jonathan Archer's first visit to Andoria was quickly becoming Husker's word of the day.

So far he had been trying to avoid destroying the interceptors but it was steadily becoming much harder as the Resolve quickly left the starbase under heavy fire and as the primary Vector of his tender ship was moving to help the beleaguered Luna-class ship but when the interceptors started to really pound on the ship as it drew close with his Vector, Husker felt a cold dread settle into his stomach.

Husker rammed his fighter's throttle all the way up and sped at an interceptor that was making a run towards the weakest part of the Resolve's bridge shields and quickly unloaded a barrage of pulse fire into the enemy fighter which was followed up by twin lances from his phaser banks as well, searing the aft impulse array off and sending the hostile craft spinning into another one.

<Adept move, Harbinger.> Morrigan's voice came through the communications system which made Husker's eyes narrow slightly as he wanted to know why Fasha was so intent on calling him that.

<I wonder what caught all of those guys to hate on the Resolve so badly, Husker.> Outrider commented as he lit up an enemy fighter of his own and sent it running off. <I've got this one, Tally Ho!>

Husker couldn't help but roll his eyes at the old fighter call out that his grandfather had once told him about many years ago when suddenly he noticed something on his sensors and he abruptly banked his fighter very hard as an interceptor slipped under his Valk's right wing before firing a phaser lance across his attacker's port wing.

<Got him!!> Outirder suddenly cried out and Husker looked in his fellow pilot's direction to see that outrider had indeed ran his prey to the ground and that made him smile but only for a moment as he saw two targets disappear near Morrigan's marker.

"Hmm..Two for one combo meal. Very nice, Morrigan." was the only thing that Husker could think to say before he returned to his work.
/////////////////////////////////////////////

[Provisional Ensign Lin Kae/ Vector 03 Main Engineering/ USS Theurgy]
Attention: Rihen, Carla, and Novak.

Kae couldn't help but wonder if Abner was okay as his fingers quickly moved even faster as he typed one handed as he had looped his right arm around the station to try and keep from loosing his grip. "AND..DONE!!!" Kae shouted as he inputted the last few bits of code which not only deleted the corrupted code but also fixed and adjusted the refresh rate. "Rihen, I've just done the fastest patch job coding wise I think in the history of the fleet so the shield should be up to full strength and refresh better!"

Kae then swiped through the system controls until he found the one in question-the dampner system and studied it as he started to input the commands directly into the system code. "Attempting to fix the problem to the inertials.." he started to say and while he was able to get them to even off a little bit, his eyes narrowed as he saw a different problem.

"Rihen, I'm going to have to go and have a code conversation with the system directly." he said as the young hybrid started to make his way over to a portion of engineering where the systems for the Vector's dampeners were located and noted the readings next to the door as he started to manually open it. "Should only take me a couple of minutes at most."

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #33 –
[ Cmdr. Jared "Deadline" Salazar | CAG 23rd TacCONN Air Group | Interceptor Cockpit ] Attn: All

Piece by piece, Salazar and his Air Group had been picking apart the Resolve. The starbase had managed to take out its starboard nacelle with a full spread of torpedoes, and Jared had ordered to continue the pursuit. There was some kind of jamming field affecting their systems, likely coming from the Theurgy, but mercilessly, squadron after squadron had used manual targeting and unloaded its hardpoints and seared the Resolve's shields and hull with their pulse phasers. During the pursuit, Salazar had been contacted by Starbase 84's Chief of Security.

[D-Dotnhil t-t-to Salazar,] she had managed through the static of the comm, like her throat had been scraped out, [B-Be advised - re-renegade gunship Sabine has escaped from th-the base. She ca-carries two traitors re-responsible for the death of at least seven security officers. There's every chance that one of them is responsible for the malf-f-functions with the bay doors. J-Jared.... He spaced my team...Sh-shoot to kill is authorized.]

While Lieutenant Dotnhil had spoken, the Resolve's fighters had mounted some opposition, but Jared did have time to acknowledge her, her words stirring his ire. "Sending targeting orders to Gauntlet Squadron now. Deadline out," he said, eyes following the Grey Wolves as they emerged along with some strangely equipped shuttles. He watched three of the latter destroyed, yet he lost good pilots in the process, and even more once the Resolve's Valkyries mounted their defence.

Then, suddenly, as he remained in pursuit of the full impulse wreckage of the USS Resolve, there wasn't even a warning before the Luna-class ship emitted a widely dispersed beam, and while it read like a tractor beam, the effect made it clear it wasn't. His inertial dampeners could not compensate for the sudden counter-force his craft entered. He was thrown forward against the restraints in his seat, and then sent into a involuntary barrel roll. Warnings flared brightly but he could not make out anything in the commotion. Another violent tumble told him he had collided with one of his squadmates. There was fire in his cockpit, but he held on to his flight stick, wrenched it against the turning motion, and managed to level out.

Only as he did, he saw the tactical display, and there was a veritable cloud of torpedo readings heading straight into the mess that remained of the Wings that had pursued the Resolve. "Hijo de puta..."*


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

There was no better word than 'mayhem' to describe the wake of the Resolve's path, where the three Wings of interceptors that had gone after the ship had been hit by an over-powered repulsor beam. Yet by the time that the interceptors looked like they were confetti caught in a solar wind, Vector 02 was in position and released its broadside of pod-held micro-torpedoes. Moreover, the Resolve seemed to unload everything it got through its aft launchers.

On Iron-Fox's sensors, the individual torpedoes were impossible to make out, looking like waves hitting the shoals that were the starbase's interceptors. The panicked reaction was, of course, a cloud of countermeasures that obscured the outcome, but Miles was sure that he just witnessed the deaths of many fellow Tactical CONN officers.

"This is Wolf Leader," he said over the squadron channel, watching as the Resolve was speeding towards Vector 01, fearing that the starbase would try and hit the Luna-class ship with a another spread of torpedoes before it got to safety. "All elements! Goldeneye confirmed TPS probe deployment. Lock on tetryon signature and deploy hardpoints!"

[This is Ghost, already on it!] came the word from Rawley, and Miles saw her and Hat Trick fire away their Hellbores as one.

"Wolf Leader to all Vectors, recommend targeting TPS signal! If the base could hit the Resolve despite the jamming field, it can do so again," he said, and he moved with Gun-Shy to get between the shredded Resolve and Starbase 84, and then fired his two Hellhound Cluster Bombs. As they were off, he made one last call, attempting to get his hail to the fighters and shuttles that had launched from the Resolve. "This is the Lone Wolves to Resolve fighter elements, please confirm channel up-link. This is Lieutenant Commander Miles Renard, Wolf Leader. Are you what's left of the Grey Wolves?"


[ Lt Cmdr. Jennifer Dewitt| USS Allegiant | Upper Deck | Bridge ] Attn: Jaya Thorne, Sithck, Sera vers Aldnoah & Hi'Jak

Hernandez was on the Allegiant's bridge, sedating the charred remains of Edgar Rogers to ease his passing. Thorne circled the top of the starbase, avoiding sustaining as much damage as she could while they waited for confirmation that the pilot was aboard. While the Allegiant was sturdy, it could not last forever, and each impact frayed Dewitt's nerves."Come on..."

Her eyes darting over the tactical readings on the viewscreen, Dewitt noticed how another smaller ship emerged from the starbase below them, and it was some kind of fierce looking shuttle that read as 'SS SABINE NX-59846' on the sensors. Like the USS Resolve, it seemed as if they were not on good terms with the starbase, because a whole squadron of interceptors took up chasing it with their pulse phaser cannons.

[Sithick to the Bridge. The Tranzpoters, are damaged. I has a lock on the pilot, but we must lower the shield to beam them in. Pattern bufters are damaged we may not get all 'game', but if we are to get any of the pilot we must move quickly.]

"This is Dewitt, abort. I repeat, abort. We cannot risk lowering our shields," she barked in answer and got on her feet. It was a tough call to make to leave this pilot by the callsign Game behind, but she could not risk all the lives on the Allegiant. "Thorne, get us out of here immediately!"

Just as she said it, she saw on the tactical readings that the Theurgy's fighter elements were opening fire against the tetryon signal emitted by the TPS probe, and both Vector 02 and 03 aligned themselves to fire their forward torpedoes against Starbase 84's tactcal array. "Make that 'yesterday', Thorne."

Suddenly, two interceptors had appeared out of nowhere, torpedo lock warnings going off. Yet just as quickly, heralded by bright light off their port side, the warnings went silent.

[Resolve Tactical to Allegiant Actual, pardon the phaser fire but I didn't think you wanted to be hit from behind by a couple of the base's mooks. Who ever is piloting that ship, I owe a couple of drinks to. Resolve Tactical out.]

"Looks like you have a date, Thorne," said Dewitt wryly, "Now don't keep him waiting and get out of range! Sithick, come to the bridge and help Dr. Hernandez!"


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

Any moment, the Resolve's shields could have given out, making the rescue operation futile before it began.

Yet it was obvious to Jien Ives, where she stood on Vector 01's bridge, that the crew on the Luna-class ship was resourceful. Just as Jien thought the ship would be destroyed, it emitted a repulsor beam in it's wake to send the pursuing interceptors spinning. Then, Arisaka's broadside hit them, and the other broadside deterred the interceptors that had come for Vector 01 - breaking off their attack and forcing them to take evasive manoeuvres.

[Veradin to Theurgy, I'm ready when you are for this crazy idea of yours.] The audio only transmission came from the Resolve, and it had to be its helmsman. [Be aware, half of my controls are shot, it's going to be everything I can manage to keep us steady, the rest is going to be mostly up to you. I'm linking you into our sensor readings, such as they are, to help with the dock.]

"This is Lieutenant S'Iti, acknowledged. Captain, the Resolve is coming in fast, attempting to match velocity," said Aisha from the helm, and she quickly set their course towards new bearings, and pushed the impulse gear to its top speed.

Ives closed her fits at her sides as and stood rapt before the viewscreen as events unfolded. Miles Renard was heard next.  [Wolf Leader to all Vectors, recommend targeting TPS signal! If the base could hit the Resolve despite the jamming field, it can do so again.]

"This is Captain Ives, all Vectors, as Renard says, fire torpedoes at my mark," she said, knowing that the tetryon-painted target - the starbase's tactical array - would be hit regardless if the launchers were pointing towards the base. Vectors 02 and 03 acknowledged, and there was no time to waste. After all, Stellar Cartography had said that the reinforcements were imminent. "Three, two, one, fire!"

As all three Vectors opened fire, along with what was left of the Lone Wolves, Aisha wrenched them into position above the speeding Resolve. [Veradin to Theurgy, we're lined up as best and close as I can manage. I'm entering our exact coordinates, heading, and alignment.]

"Acknowledged, engaging tractor beam now," called S'Iti and lit the damaged dorsal side of the Resolve with the docking beam, matching Veradin's data on her console, "Keep her steady. Docking complete in ten, nine, eight..."

At that moment, the full barrage of torpedoes hit Starbase 84's tactical array - emphasised further by the Lone Wolves' hard points, and the consecutive hits not only penetrated the shield over the area, but destroyed the tactical array in a bright conflagration of momentary success.

"Make all drones interject themselves between us and the remaining pursuers!" said Ives, seeing a squadron of interceptors drop down from on high to target the Theurgy and the Luna-class ship, and she hoped that even if the jamming field was in place, the interceptors would be deterred by the phaser strips that suddenly fired at them. "Mister Trent, prepare to engage the point-defence system and our shields to consider the Resolve as a part of this Vector."

"...three, two, one. The Resolve is in position, tractor beam alignment locked! Deploying all docking pylons!" It sounded as if S'Iti never had thought it would work, and frankly, Ives had thought it impossible to do in the middle of a battle. Still, as a last resort to save the Resolve, it had proved successful.

"Captain Ives to the Resolve. We've got you," she said, hoping to have gained a first ally on that faithful day. "Extending shields and defences around you. Our computer will request to access yours. Please approve the request, and our ships can shar-"

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


[ Captain Ian Hawthorne | EOC Command Center | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Captain Marcus Slayton
 
With mounting irritation, Ian saw how the Resolve gained the protection of the Theurgy. What he had thought would be the Luna-class ship's and Kendrick's death dance had been quite disappointing, even if the hail from one of the doomed fighter pilots had proven a fickle source of amusement. Instead, the base's targeting array had been destroyed, and too many of Salazar's Air Group had been decimated. Now, partially blind as they were in the battle, manual targeting was all they could resort to.

"Starbase 84 to the USS Orcus," he said, jaws clenched, "Thank you for heeding our call. Prepare to receive signatures of enemy vessels attacking the base."


OOC: Merry Christmas! Sorry for the long post. Here is the posting order for the different ships in this Chapter as of its beginning:

Vector 01 of the Theurgy| Main Bridge: 1) Carrigan Trent 2) Natalie Stark 3) Tovarek

Vector 02 of the Theurgy | Main Sickbay: 1)  Hylota & Vinata Vojona 2) Hayden O'Connor 3) Dr. Nicander

Vector 03 of the Theurgy | Main Engineering: 1) Rihen Neyah (tomorrow) 2) Nolak Kalmil 3) Lin Kae

Lone Wolves Squadron: 1) Goldeneye 2) Husker 3) Ghost

Grey Wolves & Tribble Squadron 1) K'Ren 2) Krystal Tancredi 3) Havenborn

USS Resolve | Main Bridge: 1) Tristan Kendrick 2) Depends on Development

USS Allegiant: 1) Jaya Thorne 2) Sithick

SS Sabine: 1) Sera vers Aldnoah 2) Hi'Jak

USS Orcus: 1) Marcus Slayton 2) Dev

* Son of a Bitch

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #34 –
[ Captain Tristan Kendrick | Bridge | USS Resolve ] Atten: All

Martin and Derik had somehow managed to pull their asses out of the fire. That along with the plan from the Theurgy left the captain feeling like he had a bit of egg on his face. One moment he was ready to stand up and do the whole noble sacrifice thing the next his ship is being docked with in the middle of a space battle.

The swarm was decimated by Keval's use of the torpedo's and the Theurgy's massive weapons barrage for the first time in forever they were standing at having a chance. Yet his eyes kept scrolling over the reports on the captains chair, casualties on all decks, names, and estimations. Thanks to the combined efforts of his senior staff the Resolve's crew would have a shot of living, but far too many had already died.

And this moment, they were fighting not against Cardassians or Romulans, but rather the combined efforts of the Federation. All because one mad man in a tower had some kind of plan to benefit them selves and for that a lot of people had died. Hawthorne, Kendrick had never thought he could hate a person as much as he was starting to hate the captain of the starbase.

Every breath on the road for the ships to link up was taken shallow with anticipation, and yet with Martin's plan, and Suq's skills along with the efforts of two of what he had to assume were the best pilots in the fleet, the Theurgy's and Derik it happened. The Theurgy docked with them. He stood up and walked slowly to Keval putting his hand on the mans shoulders. "For a moment... I did think about the blaze of glory, a lesser crew wouldn't have done this. I owe you all my adoration."

And the voice of a traitor was now their welcomed savior. "Acknoledged Ives, this is Captain Kendrick of the Resolve. We are relieved. My crew has been ordered to evacuate, and will begin unloading our people to you now. Thank you for having us aboard."

He turned to look around his bridge. He hadn't been lying when he had said that he would have stayed behind. In that grim moment he had been in a state of thought that none would make it out of here. "Okay we're in position team we have an evacuation too see too. No one gets left behind."

Including him it would seem.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #35 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | SS Sabine | Outside Starbase 84 ] Attn: Kaligos & All

Sera swallowed her guilt and shame and focused on the task at hand, or at least tried to. She was moderately successful. Jack was right, she survived, she needed to keep surviving. Emerging from the wreckage that used to be the Starbase bay doors, Sera's focus sharpened again. There was a massive and messy battle going on just outside, the biggest she had ever witnessed anyway. She took a deep breath, "Keep those weapons hot, something tells me we're going to need them."

The computer tried to make sense of the two sides on their displays, but it was having a bit of trouble. Someone was emitting a strong jamming signal over the battlefield that was messing with their sensors. She dismissed the warning notification and spoke over her shoulder. "There's some kind of jamming field interfering with the targeting scanners, you'll have to target manually, but hopefully so will anyone trying to shoot at us." It was clear that after a few moments that the Theurgy was engaging the Starbase and its fighters with fighters and support craft of its own. One of its vectors had even rescued and, Sera could hardly believe it, docked with it mid-flight and mid-battle.

She plotted a course away from the largest bulk of the enemy interceptors. It brought them heading towards the Theurgy, and also towards a smaller vessel showing up as the Allegiant, she was hoping the 'enemy of my enemy' thing would work in their favor. The momentary peace they had getting to and emerging from the docking bay didn't last very long as an entire squadron of interceptors broke off from the main group and started coming on an intercept course.

"Computer, analyze incoming fighters, detail strengths and weaknesses."

"Acknowledged." The computer said pausing briefly. A small portion of her screen brought up a picture of the fighter model. "AC-347 Knight-class Federation Warp Interceptor. High warp speeds, heavy armaments, made for targeted attack runs. Low maneuverability and lacking aft phase weapons. Specific classifications and design are classified."

Good news and bad, Sera thought. The Sabine was much nimbler than their incoming attackers, but if they scored a hit, it would pack quite a wallop. What was even worse was that they would outrun the Sabine at warp speeds if the meager specs on the HUD in front of her were accurate, and if she did go to warp, she would not have the small benefit of the jamming field affecting her pursuers' systems.  "Jack, strap in, we're going to be doing some juking." She buckled in a pilot's harness and plotted a new course through as much debris and other ships as she could have the computer locate for her, and readied manual controls for when the fighters got in range, which would be very soon.

She opened a channel to all ships in the area, "This is Sera vers Aldnoah of the SS Sabine. I have with me Starfleet officer Lieutenant Hi'Jak, we carry evidence of acts of terrorism committed by Captain Hawthorne against the people of Starbase 84 and are being pursued by fighters I can only assume are under his command to destroy us." Her words were interrupted as the Sabine started taking fire and she spun them into a series of tight turns. "We request assistance and asylum to any ships in the area that are willing to hear us out." She closed the channel and began focusing everything she could on dodging enemy attacks.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #36 –
[Ensign A'vura Zeshryr | Resolve Bridge] Attn: Kaligos, and everyone else on the bridge.

A'vura was ready to kiss Martin and Derik for their smooth maneuvers and ability to get the Resolve into position for the Theurgy to give them cover and protection. But before all that could happen, the ship had lurched and jolted violently from the impacts of all those torpedos and A'vura ended up losing her balance, landing on the ground with debris and sparks and fires erupting on and around her. She looked about as disheveled as she had after she'd been attacked on the Starbase, only this time the blood on her body was her own, her head having gotten a nasty gash from the impact.

She looked to the captain as he told them all that they were going to abandon ship, and cringed when he said he'd stay behind to ensure their safety before meeting up with him. But in this moment of dire stakes it was best not to argue with him and protest his decision, even if she did have very strong feelings about leaving yet another officer behind. Just then a distress call came in on the ship's computer. "Captain, we're receiving a distress call from Sera on the Sabine. Patching it through now!" she stated as she brought up the transmission and played it on the viewscreen.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
[Ensign Six | Resolve Engineering ] Attn: Lucan, FollowTomorrow, and anyone else.

"Six to Suq," she started to say as she tapped her combadge to contact the bridge yet again. "I think you need to get to engineering immediately. The EPS grid is unable to contain the remaining plasma after all the ruptures it suffered from the battle. I need help in finding a way to deal with this problem or we will suffer a ship-wide blackout, or worse, we'll explode with us in it along with the Theurgy who is currently too close to our vicinity to be missed."

In the meantime Six did all she could to transfer the energy where it was needed still while trying to figure out a way to contain the remaining plasma before it leaked out and destroyed the ship with everyone in it. And despite her stoic and firm ability to remain standing in all of the destruction, as the ship lurched and bucked from the onslaught she occasionally shifted and lost her balance, having to realign herself often to keep her implants securely linked to the ship's computers so she could continue to help where she could.

All around her computers and consoles were exploding while beams and power cables were dropping down and landing on the inhabitants of engineering. Several people were dead or dying and many more were injured in her presence. It was a wonder she hadn't suffered an injury herself just yet, and even a wonder still that her own console hadn't blown up in the process. Sparks of energy and electricity raged throughout the room while smoke and gasses streamed out of conduits throughout.

Flames licked at many areas of engineering and it was only a matter of time before they'd have to abandon this cause. Just as she was thinking that the Resolve's Captain issued a ship-wide retreat and abandonment, which couldn't have come any sooner. Little did she know though that the Theurgy was currently working on their Vector 01 plan to dock with the Resolve and hopefully save her from extinction.
"You wish to knock over cows? What is the significance of this? Do you derive pleasure from such things?" - Ensign Six

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #37 –
[ PWO Rihen Neyah | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: MasterRat & DocReno

In the mayhem that was Main Engineering on Vector 03, Rihen could hear the reply from the bridge after Kalmil reported their status. Struggling as she was to just keep her bearings as the deck beneath her feet twisted and turned, she was quite impressed that the man had the presence of mind to communicate with the Starfleeters flying the vector. The voice from the bridge was female, as much she could hear over the clamouring around her.

[This the bridge. Acknowledged, Kalmil. The ventral shielding is top priority, then see to that gyro! Bridge out!]

Rihen whimpered as she held on to the railing, looking down to try and see what had happened to Abner, but she could not spot her. By that time, Kae called out to her, and she fought to get closer to him so that she might hear him more clearly. He told her he had fixed the shield, but he was not sure Kalmil heard him since she was closer to the young Bajoran. When she heard that he'd leave, she was worried for him, since she would not be able to call for medical assistance if he hurt himself.

"Be careful!" she called to him as he struggled to reach one of the back areas of Main Engineering - the area that had access to the damaged gyro's systems. And just like that, he was prying the door open, and she realised she had to talk with the one named Kalmil and tell him Kae was working on it. Whimpering as she dragged herself along the walkway with a death-grip on the railing, she hoped there would not be any trick flying done. Unfortunately, Vector 03 had to engage in evasive manoeuvres.

During the next couple of seconds, she was sent rolling along the walkway, and on more than one occasions, she had to hug the railing lest she'd share Abner's fate. Eventually, she got off the walkway and reached Kalmil's side. She crouched down and held on to the console, just to keep her centre of gravity low.

"Sir!" she called, not used to using the word at all, "Lin Kae has repaired the glitch in the shield! He just went to try and fix the inertial dampeners now, back in that area." She pointed towards the door where Kae had gone. She pressed her chest hard against the console, and she was terrified. Somehow, despite it all, she remembered something about the ship - something that they had used during the mutiny on the Theurgy.

"Sir! Can't we use the shipwide hologrid in some way to fix this? I know it is still operating!"

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #38 –
[ Lt.Com. Martin | Bridge | USS Resolve ] Attn: Kaligos, Followtomorrow, other personnel on the bridge.
[Show/Hide]


As the Theurgy docked, Martin let out an exhalation of relief at the thought that safety might find them after all. At that moment she almost wanted to kiss Veradin for somehow being able to pilot what was now surely only half a ship to safety. She let the tension in her shoulders release as she realized she had been gripping her console till her knuckles turned white.

Letting go, Martin thought of the man who seemed so determined to have their blood on his hands. She was sure now that the Theurgy's apparent threat to the Federation was yet another ploy of Hawthorne's, and perhaps they were as much victims as the Resolve was. It struck her as highly ironic that the ship they had feared not too long ago was now their one hope for survival, as if whatever cruel fate controlled the universe had a bizarre sense of humor. It was at that thought that the idea occurred to her that there might still be another move left for the Resolve to make on the proverbial chess board.

When Kendrick's order to evacuate rang out she darted from her console to where Kendrick was standing. "Sir, I might have an idea. The Resolve is almost finished, but we may be able to set her to self-destruct and eject the warp core right into the attacking ships-"

Her expression immediately turned to a mixture of both mild annoyance and alarm as the Sabine's distress call sounded out throughout the bridge. After it finished she attempted to resume, "Okay, so-" before reports flooded in from Engineering bearing yet more imminent disasters. Looking slightly perturbed she swiftly attempted to conclude her monologue by quickly declaring "That's actually basically it, that's it." before leaving Kendrick to sort any orders he might have and reflecting on how lucky she was that her proposal had been so succinct, given how many interruptions seemed to immediately follow.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #39 –
[ Ensign K'Ren | Wolf-03, callsign "Neko" | Outside Starbase 84 ] Attn: Triage, Havenborn, Theurgy Fighter Element

The repulsor blast that barely caught the tail edge of K'Ren's fighter did a hell of a lot more damage to the squadron behind her, craft being scattered like paper in the wind but it was the wave of torpedos fired into the same area that did the most damage thinning out the wave of fighters, the ripple effect of detonations and the warp cores of damaged fighters creating a cascade effect on K'Ren's six. Separated from her squadron, she heard the call to assist the Tribbles along with Warhound, and K'Ren wrenched the fighter on it's wing, scanning on her helmet display for any sign of her wing mate or the little bastards, as they teasingly called the modified shuttles that made up Tribble Squadron. "What have we got Merlin? K'ren asked her RIO, "Not good," was Merlins's response. "You want to odds, or no?" "Find me Warhound and the Tribbles, if we survive we'll discuss odds over a drink." "Roger," was all she heard as Merlin went back to his scope. 'Found her. Vector is on your HUD. Warhound is taking fire from four interceptors."

K'Ren saw the readout on her display and pushed the fighter's throttles to maximum. Vectoring in, K'Ren got good tone on one fighter. A short burst from her main gun and the fighter's shields flickered, faltering, before collapsing. K'Ren didn't have time to play around and laid into the fighter, hoping to at least distract the other two fighters from Warhound's back. She sprayed the aft end of the enemy fighter, unsure why he'd not evaded her as of yet, perhaps he trusted his craft and was depending on his ablatives, or he'd tunnel visioned and could only see his prey. K'Ren pumped several rounds into his warp nacelle, causing a rupture of plasma and forcing him to finally veer off. Following him into the turn, she scored several more hits on the fighter before the craft erupted in a fireball of raw energy, her pilots vaporized as their ejection system pushed them free a second too late.

Her victory was short lived as while she'd focused on the one fighter, the remaining two continued the assault on Warhound. Like K'Ren's victim, Warhound's craft couldn't take it any longer and as K'Ren screamed at her to eject, the engines in Warhound's fighter exploded. K'Ren could only watch helpless as the cockpit ejected in time to avoid the brunt of the explosion, only to catch a stray shot from the enemy fighter. The cockpit shattered, systems failing as phaser energy consumed the two pilots inside. K'Ren gritted her teeth, saying a silent prayer for her comrade, as she now became the target of the remaining fighters. Alone in this furball, she could only trust her instincts and aquit herself the best she could before she joined her mate in the afterlife.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #40 –
[ Captain Marcus Alexander Slayton | Bridge | USS Orcus ] Atten: All

On the main bridge of the USS Orcus, it's bridge crew manned their stations in quiet preparation for the possible battle to come as their commanding officer quietly sat in the Conn in the center of the bridge as his ice blue eyes remained focused on the main view screen ahead of him as the stars zipped by as the Orcus was at full warp.

"Navigation, Report." the captain stated from the center chair.

"We're almost to the target area, sir. Preparing to drop out of warp in less then a minute, captain." the man at the helm stated firmly.

The captain didn't say anything as he reached over to the panel next to his chair and input a command. "Bridge to Lieutenant zh'Idenna."

<zh'Idenna here, go ahead sir.> came back the crisp clear voice the his squadron's commander.

"I want your birds to deploy the moment we drop back into realspace, Lieutenant. Follow tactical outline Omega Two and remove any and all hostile threats in the area." the captain said firmly into the channel.

<Understood captain. Omega Two is in effect, captain. All of my birds will be off the deck in less then twenty.> zh'Idenna stated firmly before closing the channel.

"Captain Slayton, dropping back out of warp now!" the helmsman said as he inputted the commands that dropped the Orcus back into realspace and into a literal war zone and the war veteran of the Federation's past three major wars studied what he saw before him.

The ravaged and burning form of the recently returned Resolve was limping away from it's severed aft nacelle as it launched every single one of it's renaming explosive ordnance at towering starbase behind it as the three separate sections of the Federation's first Theurgy-class starship moved about the local space like a pack of Vulcan Sehlats protecting their feeding ground.

All across the tactical view that was up on a separate subscreen, the combat between the fighter elements of the two starships and the starbase was evident with various icons going quickly to red as a wave of newer ones in blue suddenly departed from the Orcus.

The captain turned his head to look at one of the panels next to the Conn and took note of the mission timer and what it was showing him, he only had to hold back the storm for a short period of time before the real storm arrived.

"Captain, the commanding officer of the base is on the line sir!" came the slightly purring voice of his communications chief.

<Starbase 84 to the USS Orcus,> came the slightly pained and growled voice of Captain Ian Hawthorne came through the speakers on the bridge. <Thank you for heeding our call. Prepare to receive signatures of enemy vessels attacking the base.>

The Orcus' Executive Officer winced slightly as he watched his commanding officer stand up and in his usual accented voice said one thing.

"No Captain Hawthorne, you will not be sending me anything." Captain Marcus Alexander Slayton said as his communication's officer brought a sub-screen image of Hawthorne's face onto one side of the main viewer's screen and locked his eyes hard onto his fellow officer. "In pursuant to Starfleet Regulation One Nine One, I am here by taking tactical command of this situation and I have instructed my officers to ignore any data coming in from an outside source."

Slayton's expression then became a little bit more dark as he continued with "I am familiar with the officers aboard the Theurgy and considering what happened the last time that ship came into contact with any Federation starship, I refuse to allow them access to any form of wireless data sent in the open."

The Executive Officer nodded in agreement to his captain's comments due to the events of what Lieutenant Commander Trent pulled prior to the Orcus' arrival to meet up with Task Force Archeron and finding the entire element adrift due to a computer virus.

After helping get Sankolov's force back up and running, Slayton used his clearance to find out more about the Theurgy's crew at which point he created the standing order about the wireless transmissions due to the fact that the Theurgy not only had an AI but also several skilled programmers aboard the ship as well which could make the next virus a much bigger threat.

Slayton then made a motion with his hand towards his communications officer who then quickly shifted the channel from the base to offscreen and muted before the dark skinned officer can say anything. "Establishing direct line of communication with USS Theurgy,sir."

Slayton squared his shoulders back and then calmly said "This is Captain Marcus Alexander Slayton, commanding officer of the USS Orcus to the crew of the renegade starship Theurgy. Under the direct authority of the admiralty and Starfleet Command, I am here by ordered to present you with one chance to come to and surrender at once for the crimes of high treason, piracy, and war crimes against the United Federation of Planets and it's allied states." in a glacier cool tone as he kept his gaze straight forward and focused.

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

Slayton's Executive Officer looked over towards the ship's primary tactical station and said "Fire phaser cannons across the bow of the Theurgy's primary Vector to ensure that they understand where we stand and inform the Wolves that they are clear for shredding operations."

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #41 –
[ Tessa May Lance | Wolf 07 | Outer space | Within phaser range of Starbase 84 ] 

[This is Wolf Leader.  All elements! Goldeneye confirmed TPS probe deployment. Lock on tetryon signature and deploy hardpoints!]

[This is Ghost, already on it!]

"You heard the man, deploy your Hellbores Hurl!"

[On it Goldeneye] her wingman acknowledged.

The Hellbore torpedo was a throwback to the nuclear bombs of the past, using a nuclear explosion to compress a tank of concentrated hydrogen into helium, creating a fusion reaction. Within the hydrogen core was a shaped charge of neutronium which the fusion reaction detonated. Although it was mostly ineffective against targets with fully powered energy shields, the weapon was very effective punching through heavy armor composed of matter.

Tessa had no time to admire her handiwork or watch to see if the explosion had taken out the station's tactical array or not for soon she was dodging what seemed to be a swarm of interceptors that had closed on the Lone Wolves' location. 

"I've got multiple spikes!" she called out when she saw how many interceptors had targeting locks on her craft.  "Repeat, I've got multiple spikes!  Bugging out and attempting to rendezvous with Vector Two!" she announced as she pushed her Valkyrie's Pulsed Trentis Mk. IV RCS thruster assembly to its limit.  The station shuddered and rolled outside her cockpit's bubble until it settled beneath her fighter as if it were a conventional surface.  Flying just meters above the station's shields she took advantage of a jamming field the Theurgy was emitting to throw off the aim of her pursuers. 

It was only a matter of seconds before she found out whose targeting sensors were being jammed.  Emerging from the gaping hole that had once been Starbase 84's bay doors was a slender craft Tessa's sensors told her was only twenty-four meters long, fifteen meters wide, and four meters high.  She didn't recognize the make and model but it was definitely a product of Starfleet technology.  The craft was almost immediately attacked by the station's interceptors, indicating that this ship was not going to be a threat to the Theurgy or the beleaguered Resolve.

As if to confirm her assessment, Tessa heard a woman's voice make an announcement through her comm gear:  [This is Sera vers Aldnoah of the SS Sabine.  I have with me Starfleet officer Lieutenant Hi'Jak, we carry evidence of acts of terrorism committed by Captain Hawthorne against the people of Starbase 84 and are being pursued by fighters I can only assume are under his command to destroy us.]  There was a brief pause as the Sabine started taking fire and she spun her ship in a bobs and jinks to elude the interceptors.  [We request assistance and asylum to any ships in the area that are willing to hear us out.]

"This is Lone-Wolf Seven, callsign Goldeneye of the starship Theurgy," Tessa responded.  "I can't stay long Sabine, but if you promise not to shoot any Valkyries I promise to take some of those Knights off your tail.  Ow!  Whoo!  Oh!" she cried as the AC-347 Knight-class interceptors that were following her detonated Hell-hound cluster bombs around her in an attempt to bring her down without getting a solid lock.  "Waugh!" she whined as she zoomed towards the Sabine and it's pursuing cloud of fighters.  "I'm sorry!  I'll probably only make things worse!" she cried in the voice of a terrified schoolgirl.

She didn't know if the Sabine was listening but she did know that the Sabine had unexpectedly changed course while it was making a series of sharp turns and was now heading in Tessa's direction.  Tessa shrieked like a frightened seagull as she narrowly avoided a collision and found herself in a swarm of interceptors. 

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #42 –
[MCPO Nolak Kalmil | Main Engineering | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy ] Att: Auctor, DocReno

Master Chief Kalmil struggled with the controls for a moment as the ship leveled off. He took a deep breath as he cleared his thoughts. He looked over and saw a couple crew members standing looking confused. Pointing to them he shouted, “Hey you two, can you go down to and check on Ensign Abner and take her to medical. Report back to your stations once your done.” He hoped the injuries to the young blond hair woman were minor as the two crew members began to move towards the lift.

Nolak Kalmil looked down at the console as he held on to the sides. He kept his footing planted firmly at his station almost making it look easy even as the ship continued to pitch and turn in the ongoing battle. Every so often the shields and ship shuddered as the vessel continued to take hits from both the starbase and the occasional fighter strafing run. He drifted from panel to panel as he constantly mentored and adjusted the power grid going from one status report to another. He was in a never ending tug-o-war as systems though out the ship flashed critical information. Always with some system near the cracking point before a quick adjustment gave it a little more time before it would once again demand more attention.

As the ship engaged in another evasive maneuver that nearly sent him tumbling to the ground. He wildly grabbed the railing and steadied himself and waited as the ship completed the maneuver. Taking a deep breath he grabbed a corner of the towel wrapped around his neck and wiped the sweat off his face before looking over and watched as Rihen Neyah inched her way across the walkway towards him. He stepped aside and made room for her to grab onto and hug the console for dear life. He moved over to the other console station to begin to figure out what’s wrong with the shield grid.

“Sir, Lin Kae has repaired the glitch in the shield! He just went to try and fix the inertial dampeners now, back in that area.” She said from her hugging position as she barely manage to point in the direction of where the gravity stabilizers were located in the back of engineering. Nolak only nods to her as he moved to the other panel.

He looked at the computer readouts and could now see that the lower shields were in fact returning to operational status. His mind quickly began to calculate the new flux of power being diverted back into the shields. He quickly had to make several adjustments just to keep the overall power grid in fluid motion. Drawing power from the other shields to feed back into the now complete envelope surrounding the ship. He said in a relieved voice, “Thank the stars that Kae knew what he was doing. Remind me to get him something.”

He slaps the battle bridge intercom, "Master Chief here, our shield grid should be coming online now. A few more tweaks and it should keep us alive. Note, Ensign Lin Kae gets full credit for fixing them. Over." He closed the channel still adjusting a few modifications.

“Sir! Can’t we use the shipwide hologrid in some way to fix this? I know it is still operating!” she said trying to hide the fear and panic in her voice.

The thought never crossed his busy mind. Looking down at her he smiled as he said, “Well now that’s a very good idea. We don’t need all the visual aspect of the hologram, just a little boost to the hologrid’s artificial gravity wells, and perhaps that could provide us with a little more stable footing temporary until the gyro’s are tended to. Good work umm, forgive me but I don’t believe we’ve meet.”

He looked away from her to bring up some information as he said, “I’d hate to ask but I might need your help getting your idea to work. I’m juggling a million things here and could use an extra set of hands, if you feel up to it. Don’t worry about it if your unable. It just might take a little longer to re-code the hologrid to test your idea as I also dance around keeping everything else running too. If you want you can tie yourself to the control panel with my work belt. I’ll remove it if you need it.”

There was another small series of shakes as another strafing run peppered across the ships shields. “So help me how I hate battles. I haven’t had a break yet, and I don’t count being cryo-freezed as a vacation.” He said as the ship began another sharp maneuver. Enough for him to grab a hold to the sides of the computer console and grumble under his breath.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #43 –
[ Lt Hi'Jak | Sabine | Bay 17-C  | Starbase 84 ] Attn: Mathis, Auctor, fighter pilots, Triage

"Wait are you crazy why would you do that, why would you say my name? Half the fleet out there probably wants to kill me right now." Jack probably should have learned by now that Seras was not the most stable individual though she had yet to shoot him yet which was really the cornerstone of this... well he would continue to think of it as a relationship until such time as he couldn't but the fact that she had just given out the fact that he was on board this vessel was a bad thing, or at least he personally thought of it as a bad thing.

He hit the button on his chair and felt the seatbelt form over his person he hated pretty much everything the computer had just said, and in fact he was pretty sure he hated today. His tactical display was running a muck with potential targets and people he should be shooting. With no elements marked as friendly he had to assume that this entire shit show was going to start firing on them.

That said however it was pretty clear that there was a lot more going on then a first glance would tell him. The Resolve had docked with a ship, which his tactactical read out told him was the Theurgy, which was odd because there were two other Theurgy's on this battlefield. He was pretty sure that the reports had only made mention of the Theurgy being one ship not three.

Of course he wasn't sure why the Resolve was attached to it like that, but... the Resolve. "The Resolve. I had a drink with some of the resolves crew this morning."

He paused for a moment running back over the conversation he had shared with F'rell and Tancredi, admittingly he had no idea where she was on this battlefield but her uniform was white so that meant... tactics? she was a fighter pilot for the resolve right? "Pilot towards the resolve. I know some of them."

He did what he could to target anything that broke off to persue them, but was more focused on the ways he could get out of this situation, and more importantly how to get hold of Tancridi in this mess. Finally he just put out a com wide to the fighters. "Jack to Tancredi, hi give me what ever com line the resolve fighters use and I will make sure to get you an entire case of Chech'tluth."

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #44 –
[Provisional Ensign Lin Kae/ Vector 03 Main Engineering/ USS Theurgy]
Attention: Rihen, Carla, and Novak.

Kae slipped into the side area that housed the primary internal dampener controls for the Vector and quickly entered the access code and then removed the outer panel to access the system directly.

A quick look over showed that the system wasn't actually damaged but overloaded in several critical locations at which point the young hybrid quickly reached over to another access panel and removed the engineering kit from within and removed the induction tool.

Kae then turned back to the open panel and started to input the commands into the small control panel that would allow him to remove each key chip to realign it.

{Warning. Attempting to make alterations to system during high speed movement is not suggested. Suggest bringing ship to a full and complete stop before continuing}

Kae fought to keep from saying anything as he inputted the last command and withdrew the first chip and then started to make the first realignments before reaching down and removing a second chip and slotting the first one he had into the second's place.

After doing that, Kae quickly tapped his communicator. "This is Kae to Rihen, starting the system realignment now. It shouldn't take more then a couple of minutes but I have to realign each system chip one by one." he reported before closing the channel and going back to work.

As Kae went about his work as quickly as he could without missing up, a realization slowly dawned upon him that made him blinked in slight confusion before it slowly became much more evident to him:

He was starting to get a rush from the excitement like he hadn't ever gotten before..and he didn't understand why.

At this, he quickly shoved it aside and went back to his work and tried to focus on that and while it was slow going he eventually was able to make enough of a realignment patch that after he re-slotted the last chip, the system's indicator panel shifted it's alert bar from a low amber to a healthy green.

"Kae to Master Chief and Rihen, primary repairs on the dampeners has been completed and ready for system alignment when you are, chief!" Kae said as he went to input the final commands into the internal control panel.

Suddenly and without warning there was an energy flair up across the system and it caught Kae's right hand in the field as twisting blue lines of energy wrapped themselves up and around his right arm as a white hot searing pain tore through his arm and right side of his body before throwing him backwards against the far bulkhead.

Kae found it very suddenly unable to breath as he lay on the floor, his body smoking slightly as he fought to stay awake as the only other thing he was able to feel other then the intense pain was a wet warmth flowing from somewhere as he fought with his left hand to tap at his badge.

"ri..rihen..sys..tem ready.." he tried to force out the best that he could as he fought to breathe as he was finally able to foll onto his back which only made him scream in pain. "nee..neeedd.."

He trailed off as he fought to stay coherent as a jumble of images started to rattle through his head as he thought that he could see a couple of outlines appearing before him as his vision started to blur in his right eye.
////////////////////////////////////////

[ Chris "Husker" Slayton | Wolf 04 | Space around his assigned element | USS Theurgy ]
Attention: Warp-fighter related


Husker watched with a certain level of appreciation as his twin launchers of phaser energy slashed through two of the interceptors that was chasing Commander Dewitt and her people, right before they could establish a torpedo lock onto the Allegiant.

"I have to say that I'm impressed." Husker said into the channel to both Morrigan and Outrider. "I mean the level of skill needed to do that kind of fine tactical work.."

<Yes..that was rather impressive.> Morrigan said as she blasted another interceptor away before realigning herself with another one. <I do not intend to be late for another round of drinks with Ghost, Harbinger.>

Husker couldn't help but chuckle at that comment as he quickly went back to focusing on his own duties as he threw his fighter into a tight Immelion Roll to bring high and to the left of the nearest interceptor which forced the other pilot to quickly roll out of the way..

...only to roll into several pulse phaser bursts from Outrider's own weapons.

<Ticky bastards, aren't we?> Outrider mused into the channel, his mirth clearly evident.

"Very true but.." Husker was about to say when suddenly a lucky phaser bolt lanced through his port shields and skimmed too close to his cockpit and Husker quickly juked his fighter to the right as a result, his head slamming hard against his own helmet. "Noy Jitat!!" he shouted in pain and anger.

<Are you alright, Harbinger?> Morrigan's voice came back through with a slight echoing feeling to it.

As Husker blinked away the sharp, throbbing pain brought on by the brief moment of impact-the Asgardian had a strange moment of clarity as he thought that he saw a face outlined in his cockpit window..one that while was blurry was somewhat familiar..he just couldn't put his finger on it.

Suddenly Husker's attention was pulled away as an alert went off and he saw a ship suddenly appear as his suit's IFF system attempted to ID it.

<That is one large, angry looking Bogey..> Outrider stated in a low tone.

Suddenly Husker's TVD flared to life with a set of information that made his blood run colder then any of the weather that he'd ever seen on Andoria...colder then how Ida treated him the last moments that he had with her only a day or two before...

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

Husker's eyes widened in complete shock at the information and he quietly said "no..it can't be.." before he weapon's fire drew his attention back to the present as he went back into the fray.

"I've got a bad feeling that Eun is going to have my ass for the damage that this bird is about to suffer through." Husker mused darkly as he watched a swarm of new signals appear from the Orcus.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #45 –
[Lt. JG. Suq | Main Bridge | USS Resolve ]

He had to be thankful that he was Efrosian in times like this, when everyone started talking over one another with a million different ideas. Of particular notice was the introduction of a new ship to the scene, Ensign Six's announcement to him, and Martin's clever idea. As the threads came together, Suq began to form an idea...

He pushed himself away from his console. He whipped out his inhaler and took a quick puff before speaking, "Captain, the warp core ejection will solve our EPS leaks. If we plan this with the Theurgy's bridge, we may be able to shift the tides of battle yet." He started to take long strides towards the door as he spoke. It seemed more as if he was announcing rather than suggesting. "We need to get everyone off as fast as possible for it to work! Call me if anything changes!"He called out, and with no regard for the rules of proper conversation, promptly closed the turbolift doors to be whisked towards engineering.

"Six," Suq had his hand to his combadge in the lift, he spoke to his temporary engineering team, "I'm on the way to engineering. We're docked with the Theurgy right now, we're evacuating there as fast as we can. We're probably going to eject our warp core." The doors open, he started running down the hall at full speed and it sounded in his speech.
"Could probably use to give the ejection some extra power, maybe. Make it shoot out like a bottle rocket, but bigger and full of antimatter. Soon as I get there, get yourself to safety. 'M not letting one hell of an engineering crew like you die in an ugly bucket of garbage and bad luck like the Resolve, so uh, yeah. On the way. Seeya."
Six might not want to leave, if she was the noble type. He didn't take borg for the 'noble' type, but she's proved a lot of things he thought about the borg wrong. The thought crossed his mind and failed to generate any cohesive plan to convince her to leave. If she chose to stay, she probably would, Suq wasn't about to waste energy putting up a fight. Unless he was fighting Hawthorne's face.

God, he hated Hawthorne so, so much.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #46 –
[IrnaShall ch'Xinya | Stellar Cartography | Deck 15 | Vector 3 | USS Theurgy]

It was only a few meters from where Shall had hit the walkway railing to the main control console in the Stellar Cartography lab, but walking along the meter-wide platform was quite troublesome when the ship was pitching, rolling, and yawing at seemingly random times, and not in a gentle fashion.  The Andorian had given up on walking the moment the ship juked hard enough to throw him back into the railing, his balance was bad enough when everything was stable, not holding onto something at all times now was sure to end up with a new splat pattern on the deck below.  The trade-off was that it took a lot longer to get back to the chair when you were reduced to crawling along the deck on your belly between each maneuver the ship made.

It felt like forever, but soon enough Shall reached the console and hauled his blue butt into the chair, quickly strapping himself down with the restraints before he could be pitched out again.  Situated once again, the astrophysicist took one look at the screens and ended up with an instant headache.  Without the inertial dampeners the sensors had no way to stabilize their feed so he was greeted by little more than a massive swirl of false colors.  Aching behind the eyes and even in the sinuses (thanks to the antenna), Shall slammed his eyes shut and looked away.  "Thea, reset the displays, tactical overview, center on Starbase 84."  He heard the chirping reply and cracked one eye open after another moment.

Floating in the air just in front of him was a red wireframe of the starbase with a number of symbols around it.  Three blue wireframes of the three vectors showed where Theurgy was, another showed the Resolve, and then there were the dozens of buzzing dots showing the different fighters.  Most of those were red of course, but he watched a cluster of them near the Resolve suddenly wink out.  A small smiled graced the Andorian's face and a moment later his eyes widened in amazement as Vector 1 docked with the Luna-class ship.  "Wow, quite the maneuver there." he muttered to himself.

The celebration was cut short though, a new hologram appeared nearby.  Focusing on it, Thea automatically enlarged it and displayed the transponder code next to it: USS Orcus, Vesta-class.    A monster of a ship, it was already disgorging its own fighters, all red.  This was not going to be good.  "Thea, overlay local subspace readings."  In an instant, the wireframes were covered with false-color skins showing subspace emissions.  The comm arrays on the starbase and the newcomer were lit up and pulsing showing that they're talking, but not much else was going on in the local area.  On the screens behind the holograms, the background subspace rippled with the distortion caused by Orcus's warp field.  Shall started to turn away, he could feel the dampeners regaining their strength (he could see Vector-3 moving in the air but the effects were much less pronounced now) so it would be possible to refocus on the incoming armada, but something caught his eye:

Off in the background there was a second ripple in subspace.  Much, much smaller than the Orcus's fading effect, the only reason Shall could see it was the sheer power of it.  It was like no ship he'd ever seen before, nothing of that size he could think of had engines that powerful.  "Thea, check the database for anything that might have a warp signature similar to the reading here."  Shall highlights the rapidly moving bubble.  It was close, and driving towards the system like a redbat towards its prey.

After a moment of searching, a partial identifier appeared on the screen next to the incoming ship.  "No match in database, closest partial match: Reaver."  Shall's antenna rose to its full height.  There was only once source for Reavers, and they were worse than anything the Federation could throw at them.  Scrambling for the comm, the Andorian tried to keep the panic out of his voice.  "Cartography to Bridge, we've got something Reaver-like coming right at us, it's already passing the outskirts of the system."

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #47 –
[Jaya Thorne |  USS Allegiant Bridge] Attn: Auctor, Kaligos, Allegiant Bridge Crew, Fighters on both sides, Anyone else

"Sithick to the Bridge. The Tranzpoters, are damaged. I has a lock on the pilot, but we must lower the shield to beam them in. Pattern bufters are damaged we may not get all 'game', but if we are to get any of the pilot we must move quickly."

This was not the news that Miss Thorne had hoped for. Lowering the shield this close to the Starbase was tantamount to suicide, but abandoning one of their own  in enemy territory didn't sit well with Jaya either.  No matter the decision,  someones life would be in danger even with Jaya's best tactics.  She sighed heavily. This was way above her pay grade.

Dewitt wasted no time in making the hard call. "This is Dewitt, abort. I repeat, abort. We cannot risk lowering our shields," she barked in answer and got on her feet. "Thorne, get us out of here immediately!"

Jaya didn't envy Dewitt for having to make that choice. But between targeting the torpedoes from the base and dodging the incoming fire from the interceptors, Jaya didn't have time to do anything else. Her hands flew across her console as fast as she could move them just to keep the majority of the blasts away.  Unfortunately "majority" didn't mean "all."  The Allegiant was too close to the base and was drawing more fire than Jaya could handle.  Four consecutive torpedoes appeared on her radar and she went to work. The Allegiant fired phasers and a shower of orange sparks lit up the battle as the first torpedo exploded before impacting the ship, followed by the second and the third.  But each explosion grew closer to the ship and by the time Jaya destroyed the third torpedo, she didn't have time to target and destroy the last one.

A blinding blast impacted on the view screen as the final torpedo slammed into what remained of the Allegiant's shields.  Jaya was thrown from her console and sparks erupted from the opposite side of the bridge.  She coughed and gasped for breath as the wind quickly left her lungs. In the seconds it took for her to recover and get back to her console, an additional blast rocked the ship.  Jaya faltered in her footing, but made it to her console and brought up the damage report.

"Commander, we've lost shields! We took heavy damage on that last hit!

As quickly as she could, Jaya tapped the console and maneuvered the ship to fly back towards the Theurgy.  And as she did it, the tactical readings came on her console.

"Make that 'yesterday', Thorne."

Jaya didn't need to be told twice. All those torpedoes were headed their way!  The Allegiant was moving away, but apparently not fast enough because a bright light flashed on screen as a warning went off from her console. But there were no new damage reports and nothing indicated that they'd  been hit. Jaya had been scrambling to get the ship as far away from the Starbase as possible so she hadn't even fired at anything.

[Resolve Tactical to Allegiant Actual, pardon the phaser fire but I didn't think you wanted to be hit from behind by a couple of the base's mooks. Who ever is piloting that ship, I owe a couple of drinks to. Resolve Tactical out.]

"Holy hell! Nice shooting! You saved our asses!!" It wasn't a proper Starfleet response and she didn't care.  Whatever minuscule amounts of decorum that Jaya possessed were long gone by now. Her head ached like a bad hangover and she was still struggling to breathe properly. She'd be bruised in the morning,  and not because of anything fun.

"Looks like you have a date, Thorne," said Dewitt wryly, "Now don't keep him waiting and get out of range! Sithick, come to the bridge and help Dr. Hernandez!"

It took only seconds more for Jaya to pour every bit of power that she could into the thrusters and bolt the little ship through the battle and back toward the Theurgy.  She maneuvered around and through the battlefield, avoiding additional phaser and torpedo fire until the Allegiant  had put enough distance between themselves and the Starbase. The significance of what she had just done wasn't lost on her though.   She'd just willingly abandoned a fellow crewmate, and even though it had been under orders and they likely would have all died in the rescue, the guilt was beginning to gnaw at the edges of her senses.

But like any good soldier, she pushed it away to be dealt with later when she wasn't desperately piloting a ship single-handedly while trying to keep everyone alive.  One advantage to having no shields, though, was that it meant one less thing for her to have to monitor and compensate for.  She would have laughed if the next readings hadn't appeared on her screen.

"Commander, we've got company. And he's a big one."  Jaya brought up the new ship that had just appeared on her readings and transferred  the image to the view screen: a vesta-class ship, carrier version.  The USS Orcus.

"Orders Commander?"
"Relationships are not my strong suit; I deal in evenings."
 - Jaya Thorne, Asst. Chief CONN Officer, Ensign [Show/Hide]

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #48 –
[ PWO Rihen Neyah | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: MasterRat & Nolan

As she held on to the console, looking up at the Deltan as he reported to the bridge, Rihen heard the answer he got.

[This the Vector 03 bridge, acknowledged. Keep us posted on the inertial dampeners!] said the voice, then the man, who she had heard introduce himself as Nolak, suggest that she had failed to introduce herself in kind, and she supposed she had. The situation was mad, but that was no excuse not to introduce herself.

"Rihen Neyah," she said, and climbed her way up to a standing position next to the man, and she even managed to flash him a blinding, warm smile, "Provisional... Warrant Officer. Pleased to meet you, and yeah, I'll try to help as much as I can. Woaah!"

She almost tumbled backwards, but managed to grab on to Nolak's waist in the last second. "I think I will take you up on your offer," she said, and with her usual practised ease when it came to removal of clothing, she deftly unbuckled the Deltan's work belt and used it to tie herself to the work station. "I have some experience with the hologrid since I hosted Lohlunat on the holodeck, bit it was really Kae who was the architect for making the Suraya Bay we visited. Oh, perhaps you weren't there if you were in stasis, but anyway, I'll see what I can do."

[This is Kae to Rihen, starting the system realignment now. It shouldn't take more then a couple of minutes but I have to realign each system chip one by one.]

"Rihen here, I know you can do it!" As Vector 03 pitched and turned, Rihen tried to establish a secure connection to the hologrid and calibrate the wells to compensate. The emitters did not have much to work with, but as she increased the settings and tried to match the way inertial dampeners worked, there was a slight improvement. Not much, but she noticed that more of the engineering crew were able to get back on their feet and return to their tasks - despite how they all still could feel the Vector's every move.

From what Rihen could tell, both Nolak and Kae were attacking the problem from their respective ends, making progress, but neither would have gotten anywhere without the other one doing his part. Alll she could do was giving them some momentary respite to complete their tasks, but at least it was something. There was still no word about Abner.

[Kae to Master Chief and Rihen, primary repairs on the dampeners has been completed and ready for system alignment when you are, Chief!]

A sense of elation filled Rihen at the news, and she made an excited laugh as she looked to Kalmil. "He did it! Are you done on your end too?" she asked, but the blinding smile on her face faltered as they heard an explosion from the area where Kae was at. All colour drained from her face as she looked towards the Deltan again.

[Ri..rihen..sys..tem ready..] There was a wheezing pause. [Nee..neeedd..]

Quickly, Rihen tapped her combadge. "This i-is Vector 03 Engineering to Medical Relief Team, w-we need help n-now!" It was pure happenstance that she remembered that part of the immense mission briefing she got. There was a team on standby for triage deployment, led by Doctor Duv from the Harbinger.


[ Lt. JG Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Wolf-09 Cockpit | Outside Starbase 84 ] Attn: All Fighter Elements

Ghost had heard the distress call shortly after she fired her hard-points against the tactical array on Starbase 84, and she noticed how Goldeneye tried to aide the strange shuttle-like vessel. Yet Tessa already had interceptors on her tail before she had responded, so Rawley swore as she decided to aid her Flight Leader.

"Ghost to Hat Trick, follow me!" she said and made a barrel roll down towards the Sabine's and Goldeneye, jamming her thumbs down on her pulse phasers. Orange bolts slammed into the shields of the tailing interceptors, and Hat Trick did the same. She realised that the situation was even worse than she'd fared, with an entire squadron chasing the Sabine. Two flights broke off to intercept her and Hat Trick. She had noticed the Orcus arriving, but her focal point was the current engagement she was in. There was no room to worry about another adversary at that point.

"Bollocks! Hat Trick, break off!" she called, seeing the interceptors heading their way, but she was too late. While not nimble, the Knights were quick. Like ancient hot-rods with her family crest on their over-dimensioned cannons, and right then, they opened fire as one. Hat Trick was closer to them, shielding her from the barrage, but against the orange lights, she saw her wingmate's Valkyrie jolt and break apart - shields finally spent. "Hat Trick!"

Tessa was still in the thick of it, and the Sabine was still being chased. Ghost was about to live up to her callsign at long last... for as her wolf brother's Valkyrie fell apart, the Interceptors were about to fire anew.

Re: Chapter 05: Battle of Starbase 84

Reply #49 –
[ Lt Thomas Ravon | Hybrid Wolf cockpit | Outside Starbase 84 ] Attn: All

The warp field caused for a hefty flash when the ship of the long lost pilot emerged out of warp. The readings of IrnaShall ch'Xinya had warned for a Reaver like signature to be approaching the battle, yet what dropped out just outside the battlefield at Starbase 84 was something different entirely. To some, the design of the Reaver was visible and to those who fought it might even trigger an intimidating stance. The agile fighters from Calamity had been a bitch to fight with, yet this warbird was far from agile. On a closer look the design showed just as much Valkyrie outlines as Reaver tech. However it didn't look like a factory produced fighter, the ship looked more like a makeshift or patched up fighter.

[Show/Hide]

Piloting the atrocity was long lost Thomas Ravon. His flight suit smeared, dirty and containing minor damage after his prolonged exposure on the icy planetoid where his crew had left him. His eyes scanned the ongoing battle as his HUD updated with signatures. To be fair, his HUD didn't really help much as the Reaver technology marked friendly fighters as hostile as well, yet switching them to allied from time to time. With a sigh he tried to flip up the comms channel, wondering if it still worked after the crash landing and repairs. Unsure if anyone or everyone could hear him he made his presence aware "Theurgy Tactical, Razor reporting for duty. What the fuck have you guys been doing?" he smirked as he was craving for a good space battle. "Right time to see what this thing can do in an actual space fight..." he murmured to himself before he throttled up to full speed.

The engines of the hybrid fighter ignited and sent him right into the pack as the usual systems started blaring. Alarms going off all over the place yet Thomas seemed to ignore them casually as he eyed which fighters were part of Theurgy and which weren't. Thankfully enough the opposition was using different kind of fighter. He spotted the Knights harassing what he could only imagine were two Theurgy Valkyries. He looked over his shoulder and saw the Orcus launching it's fighters as well, yet those would be a problem for later. His craft seemed to head into a collision course with the first Valkyrie that had managed to get snared in a squadron of knights.

The speed of the Valkyrian Reaver was far greater than anything Thomas ever flew with. He armed his weapons as his systems started to lock on. He made sure not to lock on to the presumably friendly and he pressed the trigger. What followed was a display of superior firepower, the fighter unleashed a barrage of pulse cannons, both Valkyrie and Reaver cannons unleashing upon the knights. Their shields and armor never stood a chance as it sliced right through them like a hot knife through butter. The fighter whizzed past Goldeneye causing for a slipstream of turbulence in his wake, yet leaving nothing more than space debris around her as nearly the entire squadron had been decimated in a swift run.

Thomas jerked the flight stick now to turn the ship around quickly to get back and deal another blow to the opposing forces, yet he found out how unstable his makeshift fighter was as the fuselage started to cringe. The sound of metal being bent was never a good sign and he had to lay off the quick turns as the fighter jettisoned  back out of the war zone. With a large turn he brought her back into the fight, using the speed to his advantage to make long assault runs on the fighters. Next up was revenge as he saw a Valkyrie get shredded by Knight fire. He did a likewise run once more to help out Rawley, the cannons thundering in a distance before the hulls and shields gave out on the Knights that were about to fire anew on Rawley. Again there was no time to stop and check who's fighter he had aided as the fighter passed by like a comet.

At this point Thomas assumed that all Knights were hostile, not knowing about any mission parameters he wasn't in the loop about trying to disable as many fighters as he could. The man was honestly pissed off and out for blood at this point. He spotted the Sabine getting chased and plotted his course towards it to help it out. He had counted six chasers according to his systems, yet he saw a Mk ll coming up to swoop in. During that short period of time Thomas looked around at what exactly was going on, not studying it in detail yet needing to know what was what. It seemed a lot got changed as he saw the badly damaged Resolve being fired upon, while Vector one had docked with it. The other Vectors sweeping around and the Orcus unleashing their fighters like a swarm.

Oh, how he had missed the trouble Theurgy had managed to get into over and over again...
 
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