Star Trek: Theurgy

Re: Chapter 05: Veiled Valiance [ Day 02 | 2000 hrs. ]

Reply #50 – April 28, 2021, 02:07:55 AM

[ Lieutenant Frank Arnold | Warp Core Room and Airlock | Allegiant ] Attn: @BZ @Number6 @Stegro88 @Auctor Lucan @Fife
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[Ens. Jaya Thorne | Fight and Flight | Punch a Face and Put it in My Pocket | Never Let it Get Away | Stellar Landing]

Today was a day of new experiences for Frank, that felt like old ones. After all, he was standing in a transporter room, where he'd started his career. He had a phaser on his hip, for a reason beyond mandatory proficiency drills, for the first time in over half a decade. He bounced from foot to foot, and paced back and forth, and just listened to the comm. He'd opened a second channel with just Jaya as well, because he knew they were both chewing the inside of their cheeks, just waiting for news on their friend.

He'd been quiet for most all of the prep work after they'd decided that they were getting Jen. He'd cleaned up after himself and Jaya, and then had gone over the Allegiant's systems twice. He'd only had enough time for cursory checks, but there'd been no reason to doubt the craft before now, he wanted to make sure that stayed the same for this mission. In a moment Foxfire was energizing, and he offered over the comm, as his fingers glided over the main power panel in the warp core room routing the necessary power from other systems in a controlled burst, "Narrow band's showing amplitudes in the picometers, holding at sub-one angstrom. Beam's as narrow as I can make it without possible field fluctuations to the cloak." It had been hairy, but they were in.

On their private channel perhaps five minutes later, he'd say to Jaya, whether she was listening or not, "This is taking forever." He grit his teeth and offered, "You think it's supposed to take this long?" It seemed like it had been a millennium since he'd finished all of the standby checks he could get done, re-powered the buffers and given Ensign Nix the all clear to send the away team onto the surface of Breen, and into the lion's den.

”I don’t know but if they don’t hurry my fist is going to get punchy.” she grumbled over the comms unit that she and Arnold had between the two of them.  She drummed her impatient nails on the arm of her chair, she was ready to punch it.  Punch Jen, punch the crew that took too damn long, and then punch the engines out of here.  But, they had to be careful and get this done right.  Any wrong move and the whole operation could go down and she wasn’t the kind that would do well in captivity.  They’d probably cut out her tongue just so she would shut up.  But she’d show them, she’d just grunt louder…

He clicked his comms after a moment or two, and offered after he switched over to the main mission channel, "Arnold to bridge, power systems have been recycled, all systems nominal, we're standing by to bring 6 plus Dewitt back from the surface. I've locked in the same subroutine as beam in, I'm heading to the secondary airlock in case manual retrieval is required." He clicked off his comm and followed on saying to only himself, "Whenever that'll be."

He trudged his way to the airlock, not dilly dallying to fix the nuisance issues that he saw along the way, eventually breaking into a jog as he got the word the team was within the designated area that Dewitt was being kept. He arrived in the nick of time, hearing T'Less say that Breen patrol ships had altered their course. He went to a wall panel, and clicked his comm over to the team-wide channel, "This is Arnold to the away team, divert to the secondary insertion point, it's a better power-efficiency for the transport. If we go with that, I can give us a nice shunt so we can be out of here quick!"

Altering the course was not something she was glad for.  She would much prefer not to have to alter anything, but that’s what happened when the people that were hell bent on rendezvous took too damn long and they were starting to call attention to themselves.  They were on a heavily limited time frame and they needed to get the hell out of here.  But, of course, Jaya could only do her best to make sure they continued to stay off the Breen radar until Jen was back in punching range.

He monitored the ground team, to see if they were moving the way that he had recommended. He cleared his throat again, "I have the away team signals strong as can be...but if I'm reading this right, we're one short." He put it out of his mind for now, and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Alright, I have them locked." He waited a moment, "Ensign Nix, you've got the power, bring them home."

Waiting was bullshit.  Jaya wasn’t much of one for cursing as a habit but there were times that it was the most apt vocabulary to use in those situations.  Right now, she just knew there was no other word that would be better to use.  Bullshit was the most apt of words right now.  ”Can’t you push the express rescue button next time, Arnold?” she teased over the personal comm unit.  The two had gotten quite close and she was eager to see how things would develop.  Both of them were pretty laid back but there was the whole unspoken ‘sharing isn’t caring’ in this situation. 

And then he waited, the resolution gap felt like it went on forever, before he heard the welcome chime of a successful transport aboard, and there the away team was, in the airlock, separated from him by a mere door. "I have them. Ensign Thorne, we've managed to get you twelve percent more thrust power from that little divert. Put it to good use."

Music, to her ears.  ”Don’t get punchy Arnold, I get first bone crunch.” she said as he told her that they were ready to go.  Of course, she had a job to do first, she had the coordinates ready and waiting, so all she had to do was throw their engines into gear.  ”Engaging engines now.” she called out to the Bridge as the engines began to fire and for a moment it seemed that the ship was just sitting there and then it launched into over drive because Jaya didn’t go slow and she certainly didn’t take things easy.  Besides she was ready to get back to the ship and get the hell out of Breen space.  She could not get out of there fast enough.

”Erudite in sight.”  she informed the ship as a whole as they headed towards the Savi ship. She wasn’t a huge fan of them either, though at least she hadn’t been privy to the experiences of those that had been on the Versant she had heard enough to have a pit in her stomach the moment she saw one of the white bastards.  But right now, they were on the same side and that was all that mattered.  ”Bay doors open,” she called as the force field dropped and she slowed the ship down so she didn’t streak the Bay too badly as the ship burst into the bay, the force field springing back up behind them as she hit the breaks in style, sliding to a stop just precisely where they were meant to with a grin on her face.  ”Got to love a shit-in-your-pants kinda ride, right guys?” she grinned as she unbuckled herself from her seat and stood up.

She had a girl to punch...

Re: Chapter 05: Veiled Valiance [ Day 02 | 2000 hrs. ]

Reply #51 – May 21, 2021, 12:01:56 PM

[ Lt. ThanIda zh'Wann | Bridge | USS Allegiant ]
Attn: @BZ @Stegro88 @uytrereee @DaValle @RyeTanker @Fife @Number6
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When Ida stepped onto the bridge, the Allegiant was about to dock with the Erudite, and she looked at T'Less - seated in the command chair with an earpiece and a screen raised on her armrest. It seemed her Vulcan friend was the only one on the bridge whom had kept herself appraised on the feeds from the helmets of the away team. Ida had already told Frank in the airlock why Dewitt wasn't with them, right after they had been beamed aboard from the secondary insertion point, and she thought the pinkskin had taken it... rather well given the fact that they had some history together.

While Ensigns Thorne and Nix didn't know yet, nor Rawley where she was seated on the bridge, Ida shared a look with T'Less, knowing that they would have to tell them, and report this to Captain Ives. They had taken a great risk launching the infiltration mission into the Hall of Heroes, convinced that they were doing the right thing, but for all their efforts, they had merely confirmed that Dewitt was of sound health, and would continue the mission without them. She would be all on her own, trying to allay the fears and paranoia that would come to spread through the Breen Confederacy in regard to Starfleet Command and what would happen beyond the border to Federation space in the months to come. The Domo and the Breen Council would know what had befallen their old enemy during the Dominion War, having witnessed an Infested and about to scourge their halls with anyon emissions with little consideration for the innocent hosts they would loose in the process.

Ida has no idea if Dewitt would be able to help the Breen to spare the victims of the parasites, nor did she knew if the Domo would make it a priority now that they had the anyonic phase variance available. In any case, Dewitt would in all likelihood do what she could to spare innocent lives, but her priority was still to keep the Breen at bay at all cost.

[This is the Voice,] said Echtand over the intercom when the Allegiant had docked. [We have been awaiting your arrival. Quantum slipstream protocols engaged. We will be at the Theurgy's coordinates at 1700 hrs. local time.]

Ida ran her gloved hand through her white hair and sighed, looking at T'Less. She nodded towards the others on the bridge whom didn't know about Dewitt yet. "Shall I tell them, or do you want to do it?"

And thus, the Erudite vanished from Breen space - leaving behind the one who'd been in command of the Allegiant.

- FIN