Star Trek: Theurgy

[Stardate 57714.5: May 12th, 2381] - Boldly they rode...

October 20, 2025, 10:08:56 PM

[CPO Dominic Lau | Romulan Runabout | Battle in the Triangle] @Ellen Fitz

The scene from the viewport held a macabre fascination for the intelligence operative as he waited for something to indicate his services were needed somewhere. He stood, hands linked behind his back as he watched space explode in energy and fury ahead of him.  So far they'd been lucky or unlucky depending on one's view of the circumstances.  They had arrived, transmitted the clearance with Theurgy, then simply began to wait.  It was a tense, gnawing game and they weren't in intel, they wouldn't be used to simply waiting.  He could hear the buttons beeping as Cheung used the ships limited sensors to parse out and feed data to Theurgy and the Klingons.  She was also still working her way through the Romulan security systems to see if she could hack anything from the ships, but with the less powerful computers on what amounted to a runabout, there was little hope in that area.

The rest of the the pickups were nervous.  Even the security types.  He was sure they'd been expecting to see combat, but not at this intensity and not so soon. A few were already dead, and they hadn't even made it to the ship.  He supposed he was going to have to be the one to create the letter of condolence.  He filed the thought away for the tenth time and stared at the battle while ignoring the urge to pester his crew.  Bessir was amusing himself with tossing a knife in the air and catching it at just the right angle as he sat at another bank of consoles and kept his feet on the edge.  He claimed it helped to keep his senses and intuition sharp.  At least it served to distract him otherwise he'd have to find other ways to keep himself entertained.

"Hey Klaudia"  Bessir.  The sniper called as the knife went into the air.  He didn't even wait to see if the woman was listening. "Don't you wish Knox was here?  I bet he has the skills to be the most amazing masseuse in two quadrants."

Klaudia growled. "Shut up Bessie, I'm busy in case you hadn't noticed." She snapped back as she focused in on her console with even more apparent intensity.

The Bajoran-Cardassian hybrid kept on going.  "I mean think about it.  All that oozing liquid titillating about like a what was that term?"  He snapped his fingers dramatically after a moment. "Right, that human scientist.  A non-Newtonian liquid."  The tech muttered under her breath for him to shut up. "He'll be able to massage, caress, knead every muscle the body has."

"Can it." Chief Lau ordered. "Go check on the rest of the passengers."  Bessir grumbled but caught the knife that he hadn't stopped tossing while needling Cheung and headed out the door.  Cheung said nothing as she turned her attention back to the computers.

A few more moments passed and Bessir came back before seating himself back in his chair and tapped on a few buttons to see a tactical map of the battle.  He let out a low whistle.  "Glad I was never given a ship board assignment.  Hate to be in the middle of all that."

A few more moments of nothing, then Cheung stopped what she was doing as an anomaly caught her attention. Lau and Bessir didn't appear to notice, but the team had been together too long and their ears metaphorically perked up waiting to hear what bit of news was coming through.  There was another series of beeps from her computer, then a quiet "Oh Shit" escaped her mouth.

That was enough of an alarming statement that the Chief and the Sniper turned to their comm tech and she knew it as she began speaking out loud without looking away. "It's chaos. Donatra's forces are firing on all sides.  The Imperial forces are doing the same.  Theurgy is under heavy assault and the Klingons are responding in kind to all the Romulans."  Her fingers manipulated the computer as the other two absorbed a situation that had suddenly become far more complicated. "I don't see an end goal, but Donatra seems to have lost it and is stating she's willing to use the Thalaron weapon"  Lau's eyes widened at this declaration, espeically since this Romulan had been so instrumental in making sure the original version hadn's been used in in the first place.  Bessir let out a long drawn out "what the fuuuuuckk?" as he looked wide eyed at Cheung like she'd happily agreed to have Knox use his shape shifting abilities to fuck her silly while giving him a blow job and stripping off her clothes in front of him.  Which was even more weird since she was known as a dyke.

Cheung sat there oblivious to the looks she was getting as she continued to pull in data.  "The Klingons are definielty not happy about this.  The battle chatter is getting really aggressive and more fire is being directed at Donatra's flagship, but she's a tough bitch and a really good ship handler.  They can't seem to keep her shields down.  Maybe they've got multiple generators cycling."  The tech surmised as she focused her attention and the sensor feeds she could see on the flagship.  The two men looked at each other as they began working angles and possible solutions on what could be done about the crazy mad woman in the midst of the battle.

"I think the Klingons are going for glory in this one.  Several ships were destroyed too easily and there was an odd power spike from them.  I thought that initially their power cores were hit, but it looks like as soon as an opening in Donatra's shields appeared, they tried to transport troops over.  That's what this piece of garbage circuity is calling the energy spikes anyway. Except the new shields came up too quickly and the cycle was aborted.  It left those ships vulnerable and boom."

Chief Lau turned back towards the window and rubbed his chin as a plan formed in his mind.  It was foolhardy and ridiculous, but it might be the battle's only hope.  "Klaudia, open a channel to Theurgy and the Klingons. I've got an idea, but I need a well timed tachyon burst to make this work.

Re: [Stardate 57714.5: May 12th, 2381] - Boldly they rode...

Reply #1 – January 27, 2026, 06:36:49 AM

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Security Centre | Deck 7 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy] @Ellen Fitz @P.C. Haring @Pierce @Hans Applegate

Lieutenant Zark stood in front of the main display in the security lounge as she gave the briefing on the situation. It made for a grim briefing.  Her armour was an after thought though she did leave her helmet on a table while her rifle was anchored to her back.  Several armoured figures were sitting at tables in the lounge, drinking coffee or eating while they had the chance.  Being pulled in for a private briefing was a sure indication that the shit was going to hit the fan.  Many were sure that it involved the well known Chief Diplomat who now sported an away mission uniform and body armour.

The Andorian continued the briefing. "Most of the ship is free of Romulan boarders at this point.  The majority throughout the ship are surrendering since the fleet action has decisively swung in the Klingon's favour.  Lieutenant zh'Wann is leading the cleaning out of the main penetration on Vector 3."  She paused for a moment to bring up the schematic of the Scimitar class ship based off the information that had been gleaned from the Enterprise's encounter with the ship a while ago. The Andorian's eyes flitted to the only non-security person sitting at the side.  The bruised and bloodied brunette looked exhausted as she continued to look at a data chip that seemed to contain the weight of the quadrant's future in it.

"We're on standby till there's a break in Donatra's shields and we can beam in.  Our mission is to bring Lieutenant Madsen to Donatra so she can present her information and hopefully bring an end to the fighting.  We'll beam in on a perimeter and when we've determined the TZ is secure, Chief Prince and Crewman Lewis will take the lead.  I'll remain close to Lieutenant Madsen as we make our way to a terminal to locate Donatra."

Zark paused as she took a moment pull up an incomplete internal map of the Scimitar class ship.  "Before I go on to loadout and priorities, Lieutenant Madsen, can you give us an overview of your intentions and the rules of engagement?"

[CPO Dominic Lau | Romulan Runabout | Battle in the Triangle]

There was a long pause that simply involved more waiting as all the sides slugged it out.  There was a silent horrified fascination with the spectacle that defied description or conversation explosions torn people and ships apart.  And all they could do was wait. The operative stared out stoically and thought about asking if there was any news yet, but he knew that his tech would tell him as soon as something showed up, and one did not survive Intel operations by being impatient.  The only real anomaly had been the appearance of an antiquated constitution class ship that was probably deemed too weak to be a real threat, so was ignored.  That had brought a mental scoff since the technology in the ship might be old, but a photon torpedo was still a photon torpedo, and last he checked, those ships had at least two launchers.

It was still more waiting though as he waited for his opportunity.  Chief Lau had rotated everyone through the gear prep.  Everyone was out of their standard uniforms, and now in field gear with body armour, rifles, and the other sundry equipment that went with their particular departments away missions.  They had portable computers, med packs, grenades, and rifles.  It wasn't what these people had signed up, but it was going to be what they got.  There were few protests about something not being their specialty.  The demand to keep Thalaron weapons as part of the Romulan arsenal was a horror to terrible to contemplate.  All that was needed was someone made like Shinzon and no where in the galaxy would be safe.  It was decided, they were either going to destroy the Thalaron weapon themselves, or do something that would allow the Klingons to destroy the ship.

The moment did arrive eventually as the battle shifted about.  The old Connie had decided it had enough of life and made a beeline for Donatra's ship.  The explosion was spectacular and a glowing debris could was soon expanding from the impact.  The Intel Chief grasped at instinct. "Bess, head for the Romulan flagship, max speed!  Cheung, stand by to transmit friendly IFF."  The two acknowledged the command and Chief Lau strapped himself into the co-pilots seat as Bessir red lined the impulse engine.  The half Cardassian, half Bajoran's heritage came into play as he'd taken in odd bits about his homeworld, such as what chilies to use in a particular style of hasparat.  Other useful bits included how Deep Space 9 had managed to move itself from Bajor's orbit to the wormhole, and the mechanics of it out of sheer morbid curiosity. The internal hum of the runabout's systems took on a distinctly odd persistent twang as the pilot/sniper manipulated the subspace field and the intertial compensator began to whine as the acceleration curve kicked past what it was normally designed to handle.  Everyone felt themselves pressed back into their seats as inertia pressed them back into their seats.

The Chief could hear his tech struggling behind him as her muscles pushed against force itself to activate the IFF. With final grunt, a key chimed and the code was sent.  Hopefully the code she'd managed to dig out would cause the systems to look the other away while giving them priority access.  At the very least, it should avoid having them blown up right away.  The Tal'Shair code could be decidedly fataly worse.  Lau watched the ship grow preposterously large in the viewport very quickly and he held his breath as they reached the shield perimeter.  The sensors said they were down, but they could snap back into being and the runabout would pancake itself against the energy barrier and that would be it for his life, to say nothing of his career.

Then the moment passed and Bessir metaphorically slammed on the brakes as he killed the war engine modification. Everyone was thrown forward and a few people yelled in surprise as they were tossed from their chairs.  There wasn't time for an ass chewing though as the pilot engaged the magnetic clamps to lock the runabout to the hull of the warship under them.  Bessir didn't wait as he began to shut down all the unnecessary systems looking to avoid any more sensor contact and slip under the radar.  The team chief looked at the pilot as he continued pressing buttons. "That was insane.  You know that right?"  Bessir stopped what he was doing to look up and smirk. "Yeah, but it was done with style." It had worked, so it was hard to argue with.  Bessir decided to press his luck. "No harm no foul eh?"  Chief Lau stood up and smacked the sniper in the back of the head the way an elder smacked a young'un to show he was getting uppity.  The sniper obediently owed his acceptance of the rebuke.  Cheung broke in with a timely update. "I've got a low level dampening field up around us, so we should be well hidden."  The Chief stopped his ass chewing to look at Cheung and nod.  "Good. See if there's a transporter you can hack to get us inside.  Hate for us to have to move this crate or go EVA to find an airlock.  Cheung nodded her agreement and got to work finding the group a way in.

---

TZ = Transporter Zone

Re: [Stardate 57714.5: May 12th, 2381] - Boldly they rode...

Reply #2 – February 24, 2026, 04:45:27 PM

[ Lt. Enyd Isolde Madsen | Security Centre | Deck 7 |Vector 2| USS Theurgy ] ATTN: @Hans Applegate @Pierce @P.C. Haring @RyeTanker

Enyd stood before the assembled team with the data chip resting in her open palm like it weighed considerably more than its physical mass suggested, which it did. She did not fidget with it. She did not look down at it. There was a specific category of discipline that came not from training but from the knowledge that if you let yourself look at the thing in your hand, you might let yourself think about how it had come to be there, and that particular line of thinking was not available to her right now. She had filed it. She would retrieve it later, when the architecture of the immediate crisis was no longer load-bearing, and she would sit with it properly. Just not now.

"The chip contains internal Tal Shiar communications," she said. Her voice came out even, which was a miracle considering how much she wanted to scream and cry over everything that was happening around them. "Encrypted directives from Tal'aura's inner circle. Proof of contingency plans targeting both Romulan and Reman leadership. Assassination authorizations. Fabricated intelligence designed to sustain and prolong this conflict past any natural conclusion." Her jaw tightened. "It demonstrates that this war was never meant to end in any outcome that involved either side winning. Only in an outcome that involved Tal'aura's faction retaining control over both."

She let that land. One of the things Cardassia had taught her — among the many things she had not asked to learn— was the particular importance of letting a true thing have the silence it deserved before you moved past it.

"Kino Jeen died ensuring we had this opportunity," she continued.

The words were steady even as her mind's eye saw the woman's blood pooling around her body.  Her gaze moved across the team, cataloguing — it was involuntary by this point, the near-eidetic habit of her mind committing faces and postures to memory in the way it had always committed things she might need later, whether she intended to or not. She had come to think of it less as a gift and more as the brain's stubborn refusal to let her travel light.

"So." Her hands found their way behind her back, which was where they went when she needed to look more authoritative than she currently felt. Her grandmother had told her once that the difference between confidence and the appearance of confidence was smaller than people thought, and that in a room full of people who needed to believe you knew what you were doing, the appearance was almost as functional as the real thing. Almost. "Non-lethal force whenever feasible. Stuns. Disables. Contain and move on. You do not need to be gentle about it," she added, because she had learned that teams sometimes heard non-lethal and interpreted it as tentative, and tentative got people killed. "Efficient is fine. Thoroughness is encouraged. Theatrical is unnecessary and time-consuming."

She allowed a small pause. "And in case it was not sufficiently obvious — do not hesitate to neutralize a threat that requires neutralizing. I will not have any of you killed for the sake of optics. The optics will survive." No objections. Good. "The reason for the restraint is practical rather than sentimental," she continued, which was not entirely true but was true enough to be useful. "It is going to look fairly remarkable — and I mean that in the original sense of the word, the sense where people remark on it because they cannot quite believe what they are seeing — if I stand in front of Donatra and ask her to lay down her arms and abandon a thalaron weapon while we have just spent the last hour carving a path through her crew. Diplomacy requires, at minimum, the appearance of good faith. We will do our best to provide an actual version of it."

She had watched diplomacy attempted with insufficient good faith on Cardassia, and she was aware of what insufficient good faith produced.

"When I reach Donatra," she said, and her voice shifted into something that was not softer exactly but deeper, the register she used when she was saying something she had thought through to the bottom of, "I will tell her what is on this chip. I will tell her that the manipulation is documented and over. I will tell her that there is an opportunity — a real one, not a Federation-constructed one, not a trap — for a ceasefire. For Romulan and Reman forces to stop killing each other long enough to look at the same evidence and decide together what they want to do about it."

She was aware this was, by any realistic assessment, an ambitious goal. She was also aware that every significant diplomatic outcome she had ever been part of had looked, at some point before it was achieved, like an ambitious goal.

"Theurgy will remain neutral in any talks that follow. We will not dictate terms. We will not install leadership or advocate for particular outcomes. The Romulan and Reman people will determine their own future — but they cannot do that if they have annihilated one another today." She took a breath. "A ceasefire buys them time. Time to verify the information on this chip independently."

Her grandmother had a saying about the difference between winning an argument and winning a war, and the relevant part of it was that winning a war required your opponent to still be standing at the end of it, capable of choosing to stop. You could not make peace with rubble.

"Donatra is not a fool," Enyd said. "By now she has almost certainly detected the same long-range sensor readings we have — additional Starfleet vessels en route, intentions unknown." Her gaze sharpened. "She does not know if they are coming to help us, to stop us, or to complicate everything in ways no one has fully anticipated yet. Neither do we. A ceasefire also gives everyone on this side of that uncertainty time to prepare rather than escalate. This is, if nothing else, a case where buying time is genuinely valuable and not merely a delay of the inevitable."

She looked to Zark for a moment — an unspoken exchange, the kind that developed between people who had survived things together and no longer needed to narrate all of it.

"While I negotiate — with Commander Zark at my side — the rest of you will proceed to the thalaron weapon. Do what is necessary." She emphasized the word deliberately and let it stand alone for a moment. Not reckless. Not performative. "Stop it." She exhaled once, slow and even. "I would very much like to believe that this ends with everyone making reasonable decisions and no further bloodshed." A small, dry quality entered her voice — not flippancy, but the particular kind of honesty that came out sideways when the situation was serious enough to require it. "I have, however, been doing this work long enough to have a fairly calibrated sense of how often that is the outcome. So." The dry quality receded. "Assume the worst. Hope for the best. Keep your heads. And stop the weapon."

Her fingers closed around the data chip. "Let's go."

Re: [Stardate 57714.5: May 12th, 2381] - Boldly they rode...

Reply #3 – April 30, 2026, 08:59:07 PM

[CPO Dominic Lau | Donatra's Flagship | Battle in the Triangle] @Ellen Fitz

A green shimmering cascade appeared in the corridor and several figures materialized.  Everyone was armed and the barrels of phaser rifles were pointed in both directions, ready to shoot anyone that could be deemed a threat.  It had taken longer than Chief Lau would have liked before they'd beamed in, but for such a shoe string operation, talent had managed to makeup the remaining technical deficiencies as Klaudia Cheung had managed to crack the transporter code and gotten the team inside.  Picking an objective on the fly had been hard since there were so many choices.  The best target would have been the Thalaron generator, but that was way too heavily protected and this wasn't a suicide mission. Yet.  Engineering and the main computer core were disregarded for the same reasons.  There was some possibility in taking a secondary computer processing centre.  It also helped that this particular room was near a backup shield generator, a not insignificant piece of equipment in a space battle. The ship positively hummed, pulsed, and crackled with activity and noise as weapons fire impacted the ship the warbird spat back its own deadly defiance.

"This way, about 20 meters." Cheung told the Chief just loud enough to be heard and he nodded.  "Bessir, take point, everyone else follow in column.  Let's hope the ghost Cheung planted can keep us hidden."  The Asian woman have her team leader a hurt look as the Bajoran-Cardassian gave a small smirk and began moving towards the corridor junction.  The pucker factor was high as everyone moved and the more combat seasoned corralled the rest of the group in making sure everyone kept pace.  Someone gagged as they passed a body lying in the corridor and they gingerly stepped past it.  The sniper didn't.  He moved cautiously but steadily as he kept his rifle at the low ready.  So much for the days of blending in to the local populace and just gathering information, maybe a little break and enter, some theft, you know, the nice normal intel gathering activities.  None of these thoughts broke his careful pace as he made his way forward.  Bessir mentally grmaced. Everyone else behind him was too loud.  It was an irrational thought, but a comforting one since a ship in combat had too many other noises going on at the same time.  At least his own biases were something he could control.

These happy thoughts carried him to the corner.  In a past time, he would have leaned out and taken a peak, risking exposure.  Not so much the case now.  In the silent undeclared intelligence war between the Romulans and Federation, the former had been masters of the spceies intelligence and infiltration.  Starfleet and the Federation had taken great strides in using technology to make up the difference, and this came into play as Starfleet's more efficient systems came into play.  Cheung made her way forward to the sniper's position and placed her tricorder against the corner, then her fingers tapped away silently, perhaps the subtle clacking of finger nails against the duracrystal display screen.  The result was invisible as a lower powered modulated magnetic resonance pulse surged outward.  The feed back was quick as the floor plan showed a few guards standing outside with several more personnel inside the computing centre.  "Four outside, about another dozen inside." Cheung reported as she read her PADD. 

The Chief frowned.  "Not good, that's a lot, even for us."  He mulled over the situation, and it was a brutally short choice on a ship in the midst of a battle.  Would they go fast, or faster?  "Faster" Chief Lau said to himself quietly and he made a motion for the three people near him to gather round. "It's going to be ugly, but we're going to knockout the guards with a hopper grenade, then you three plant the charges on the door.  As soon as the charges blow, Bessir and I are going to toss in flashbangs and we'll clear the room. Whatever happens, the room must be cleared." Chief Lau gave a hard stare to see that he had everyone's understanding.  "Cheung here is the key to the whole thing.  She has to get access to the computers.  Our chances of getting out of here depend on how much havoc she can wreak.  Got it?"  The operative concluded as he finished passing on the plan to everyone.  Several of the people looked at him wide eyed like he'd lost his mind while a few others nodded their acceptance.  In the absence of a well provisioned plan, elan was going to have to carry the day.

Seeing he had their acceptance, the Chinese man stood up and moved in behind Bessir who took the lead position. Lau took a moment to pull a grenade off the sniper's belt and pass it to an out placed hand before going to his own belt and grabbing a grenade of his own.  The ship shook and reverberated from a series of hits. It was now or never. "1..2..3"  On three, both men tossed the cylidrical tubes around the corner and the corridor seem to clang too loud with the sound of metal hitting metal as the grenades bounced off the deck.  Within moments of the second bounce, the ultra short range sensors activated and detected the Romulan guards, and a directional electromagnetic charge invisisbly erupted.  The guards didn't even have time to registered what was going on when the cylinders flew into their midst and a pair pyrotechnic charge detonated in their midst followed by the phaser pulse capacitor set to maximum stun.  Blinded, the guards simply dropped like a sack of tubers. 

That was the signal as Bessir raised his rifle and moved out smoothly, ready to engage any survivors.  There were none as the impromptu boarding party split up to form a perimeter. The breaching team moved quick.  Nobody could have missed the sound of the flashbangs going off outside and they'd be getting ready to defend their position.  "Jammer up!"  CHeung yelled as the breaching team got closer to the processing centre's door. THe tricoder Cheung was using could block communications for a limited time, but fighting a ships internal comm net was going to eat an atrocious amount of power, so they had to be quick.  Then the plan went sideways as a pair of romulans appeared ahead on the corridor wit their weapons drawn to investigate the noise.  Bessir didn't even hesitate as his rifle pulsed twice and the two Romulans collapsed in heaps on the ground. "They definitely know we're here now!" 

This seemed to encourage the charge carriers as they got to the door and predictably found it sealed.  Lau didn't hesitate as he pointed at the door frame. "Here, here, and here!" He yelled as she indicated two areas on the door frame and the centre of the door.  The charge handlers placed the explosives in the order he pointed then bolted.  "Bess! Fall back! "  the team Chief yelled and the sniper ran back towards Lau with the Chief quickly pulling back to around the corner to follow him.  It didn't take long. "Fire in the hole!"  Lau yelled as Cheung tapped a button on the tricorder.  There was brief pause, then two massive bangs followed by a terrific explosion as the first two charges knocked out the forcefied relays and the magnetic locking mechanism.  The terrific explosion sent a nasty rippling of air that pulsed everyone's innards even around the corner as the door was disintegrated.  Screams soon followed as fire and metal shards were flung into the compartment at decapitating speeds, and stronger, tighter Romulan flesh proved no more proof against the laws of physics. 

Lau and Bessir charged into the smoking gap and ignored the acrid smell of smoke mixed in with the wafting rupturing of organs.  Several Romulans groggily got to their feet and tried to raise their disruptors, but the blast had been too disorienting and they were slow.  Orange pulses flashed through the room and grunts followed as any resistance was quickly overcome.  "Clear.  Setup the perimeter.  Cheung! Plug in!"  The makeshift boarding party quickly moved to follow the Chief's orders while the petite asian tech operative practically bounced in and found a working terminal as she ignored the wreckage of ruined life around her. ""Okay, connection complete, the worm's going in.  Now I just need to start hijacking processing power."

[Lt (JG) XamotZark zh’Ptrell (Lt. Zark) | Somewhere in Donatra's Flagship]

Seven shimmering blue shafts of light appeared in the corridor depositing six copper toned suits of Starfleet exosuit armour and one battered brunette in a tactical vest.  The transporter chief had been on standby for this exact moment and a coordinated attack by a wing of Vor'Cha attack cruisers had provided the necessary opening.  One of those ship's was now spreading wreckage across the system.

A pair of startled Romulans rounded the corner and they hadn't been expecting anything.  Zark on the other hand took nothing for granted and simply blasted the interlopers with her phaser rifle. "Oh shelat. So much for stealth." she cursed into the team audio and Enyd's earbug.  But something clicked.  "There's someone already here.  The intruder alert's already going. Maybe that'll let us get closer to Donatra without too much fuss." 

"I hope so ma'am."  Chief Prince chimed in.  "We're two decks down and about 200 meters from where we think Donatra's holed up."

Zark nodded at this.  "Lead us out Helena. Enyd, stay close."  The security officer commanded as the little party delved deeper into the developing situation.