Star Trek: Theurgy

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #25 – February 17, 2019, 12:28:19 AM

OOC Notice: Since the question has come up, I feel I have to clarify time passing here in Space Trash Rampage as opposed to Chapter 05: BotA. They are not concurrent, because in BotA, not only is Soup Sandwich in effect (Borg shield matrix down). In BotA, the Queen has adapted to Soup Sandwhich, destroyed many Klingon ships, fired upon the Theurgy and then, the Versant arrived. STR is only when Soup Sandwich is in effect, the rest coming in later. After I post next here in STR, the rest of the development will be covered, with new Objectives etc.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #26 – February 17, 2019, 09:04:20 AM

[ Miles "Iron-Fox" Renard | Wolf XX <Transponder signal broadcasting as WMS Vargulf> |  Approaching the Debris Field at Low Warp | Azure Nebula ]
Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @Fife @Doc M. @Triage @Havenborn @Griff @Nolan @Kinvarus (and anyone I may have missed)

The single pilot craft’s engine seemed to painfully whine as it made its way through the blue tinged space of the Azure Nebula.  Its sole occupant’s last 7 hours had been the most eventful in several days after all, and though he felt in some ways he had reason to be happy he knew that any consideration of celebration was likely not for the best.  After all, what he had found was not evidence of the Theurgy herself, but a likely location of a Klingon Defense Force armada. One that likely was being led by the chancellor himself, if the com chatter were to be believed.  Still, a lead was a lead.

Mere hours ago a sign on his sensors simultaneously raised and lowered his greatest hopes.  From the distance his sensors detected the telltale energy spikes that could only be the result of a battle having begun.  On one hand, the fact that a battle had begun meant that the KDF, in its own way, was leading him back to his home. On the other, it was likely that his home was under attack by that very armada.  Still, in times like these beggars could hardly be choosers. If flying into a battle between his home and the KDF was the only way to return to the place he belonged, then in that case he welcomed returning to a fight.

His ship being up to said fight was likely another matter though.  He had managed to make some repairs but even at their best he doubted his ship was in any condition to fight.  Still, it was in better shape than it was when the Theurgy had made her escape.  This had come at a great cost to his abilities in a fight though.  Sure, he now had two working impulse engines again and his thrusters and maneuverability had been somewhat repaired, but to do so he had to shunt much of his phaser systems energy and near every drop of energy from his warp drive into the impulse engines and thrusters.  Once he opened up the impulse engines up he doubted he could put the ship into warp again without a core breech being a near certainty.  His life support was all but gone and he was relying completely on his exosuit at this point, but given the reliability of the power supply on his suit when hooked into his ship he knew his air supply would likely last longer than his ship would last in any fire fight so at least that was one thing not to worry about.  He almost had doubts that his bird be useful for anything but spare parts if he got her into the bay at this point, but he had his faith in her.  Besides the one good thing to come out of the damage, Using a false transponder signal his power readings when operating in a near gray mode could fool most into thinking the ship was some sort of old and worn down freighter.

Combat wise he had one working phaser beam and a halfway functioning set of pulse phasers. He could get them up to about a quarter of their usual strength, but that would be enough to light a pocket of sirillium gas and in reality that was his main reason to have either of them functional at all.  What he did have at full strength though were his Twin mounts, and he had jerry rigged up a little surprise in his tetrion canon just in case he met with unexpected opposition.  At this point deflectors, inertial dampers, sensors, coms, his tractor beam emitter and his transponder were pretty much the only things fully functional on the small ship.  But he had a few tricks up his sleeve from his years of experience within his home system which was located in a quite similar nebula.

As he approached, the Vulpinian focused himself and breathed, he placed his hand on the controls again waiting as he neared the point of no return.  Throttling back on the engines the small fighter dropped out of warp on the outskirts of a battle like he had not seen since many years ago when he was stationed in the sol system.  It was a sight of many ships of all sizes common in but one factor.  Complete and utter devastation had met many of them as his com systems began to come to life his own modifications cutting through much of the nebula's interference.  If the devastation wrought had not made his stomach feel like it had dropped into a bottomless pit the sight of the lone metallic cube dominating the field did.  What little calm he was able to muster at what he saw only existed because of his current distance from the battle and the fact that it wasn’t his first time seeing one nor would be his first time having to enter into battle against one.  That experience hardly could have been called reason to feel brave though.

From this distance he knew he would not be able to give the immediate support to anyone whether it be a fighter or a ship.  What he could do at this distance was provide a certain vantage point of the battle that no ship within the fray could offer.  From his vantage point he steeled himself and brought his systems as online as he could utterly ruining any illusion he had of the ship being any sort of freighter. He then dropped the false transponder tag causing his ship to show on sensors correctly as a Valkyrie III registered to the USS Theurgy.  In the calmest voice he could he keyed into the com frequency for mission ops which he hoped the squadron leader, whoever it was now, would be listening in to as well, “Wolf Lead, Theurgy Mission ops, this is Lieutenant Commander Miles Renard. Please designate craft as Wolf Zero-Zero.  I’m reading multiple pockets of sirillium gas two notably close to contacts in system, one nearing intercept with Borg vessel other drifting close to Federation vessel designation Cayuga. Currently tracking Cayuga gas cloud and marking with Tetrion beam.  If friendly advise detonating cloud before posing further danger to friendly, over”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #27 – February 17, 2019, 10:55:25 AM

[ PO1 Mickayla MacGregor | Cinsaj's Cockpit | AC-507 Mk I Reaver | Debris Field | Azure Nebula | At Warp ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
[Show/Hide]

“By the Prophets,” were the first clear words that Mickayla understood as she awoke. After eating, she had been unable to resist the desire to sleep and so drifted off peacefully despite the crowded nature of the cockpit. Being awoken by Lieutenant Drake cursing was bad enough, as was the ache in her abdomen from her recent injuries, but what she would soon discover would be a nightmare.

Rolling over, Mickayla enjoyed the feeling of returned energy that the healing, food and rest had provided her and hoped that she would remain that way as she accessed the Reaver’s sensors. What she saw displayed on the small screen explained Drake’s exclamation moments earlier quite clearly.

“Not again,” Mickayla said to herself, her voice scarcely able to be considered a whisper. “First on the Enterprise, then the Endeavour. Now all I have around me is this tiny warp fighter from the future. Maybe I won’t have to make a decision. Maybe it will be third time lucky for the Borg.”

Moments later, Dev was dropping the Reaver out of warp and Mickayla was able to re-examine the carnage surrounded the static Borg cube. The Theurgy was nearby, being assaulted by Borg weapons fire while on the other side of the cube, a ship that the sensors identified as the USS Cayuga, was dancing in and out of an extensive debris field composed almost entirely of disabled or destroyed Klingon vessels. There were still many active ones however, and although their armaments no longer threatened the Borg, they Klingons continued their vain assault.

“Now just you wait a bloody minute,” Drake objected when Dev decided that she was going to have them transported to the Theurgy; not that the pilot heard him as she began to transmit, attempting to reach the Theurgy and then who she assumed was her squadron CO, someone called Ravon.

“I’m certainly not going to object to not being in this thing in a fight against the Borg,” Mickayla thought to herself. “I’d much rather a hard deck beneath me and a phaser in my hand. I’m no space-jockey. Beam away.” But her hope for a better, ‘safer’ environment was short lived as it seemed that while Dev could transmit, receiving was another issue entirely. “Fuck me,” Mickayla whispered as Dev simultaneously said that they were staying with her and for them to stay out of her way. 

As Mickayla rolled and squirmed as much as she could to clear space for Dev to do her thing, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen but ignored it as she was sure she was going to feel much worse after entering combat squished into a 1-man cockpit with two others and not wearing any restraints. Still able to see the sensor readout, Mickayla, and Drake for that matter, could do nothing but watch and listen as Dev flew the Reaver into the maelstrom.

---

[ Lt. JG Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson | Wolf 03 | Debris Field | Azure Nebula ] Attn: @Fife  
[Show/Hide]

Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson had honestly never been happier to see anyone or anything in her life as much as she was to see the Valkyrie MkIII headed in her direction each time her own warp fighter completed a revolution. Cube, Valkyrie, Cube, Valkyrie. On and on with the Valkyrie drawing ever closer.

She had no way of knowing who was piloting the approaching warp fighter. In an effort to restart her engines, after sending her mayday call, she had shut down everything, even her life support, and tried to restart. And it hadn’t worked. Taking a deep breath, she had tried again but that too hadn’t worked, leaving her adrift and without power. All she could do was wait and hope that the pilot coming to her aid could save her.

The jolt caused by the tractor beam snaring her fighter and arresting her drift was a relief beyond words, as was the fighter beginning to tow her away from the cube. As the distance opened, Chance once again tried to restart her systems and was overjoyed when her fighter began to restart. As her systems came back online, Chance checked her communications and realised that she had never switched out of the element channel. Before she could adjust it, the sweetest voice in the universe filled her ears.

“… you, Chance. I'll pull you clear,” Foxfire announced, unable to see or hear the sound of the tear forming at the corner of Chance’s eye. She was alive.  "You work on getting those engines back online. I'll get you somewhere out of the line of fire,” Foxfire continued before pausing. "You know, Donna, I've heard of throwing everything you've got at the enemy, but I think you've taken it a bit far...”

“You can talk,” Chance responded, as she scanned her systems, looking for faults before trying to restart her engines again. “You were throwing yourself at me before we’d even been introduced,” she teased, her face plastered with an unseeable smile. “Thanks Isel. I owe you everything.”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #28 – February 21, 2019, 02:45:42 AM

[ LT Daniel Havenborn, Callsign: Salvo | Cockpit | AC-307 Mark-II Valkyrie “Hellcat”] Attn: @Nolan, @Doc M., @Stegro88, @patches, @Fife, @Auctor Lucan, @Griff, @Kinvarus

As Daniel formed up with Angel; he noticed the new contact, the Reaver, which had been taken by the Savi during their attack on the Theurgy.  He wasn’t sure how the fighter had found them but he wasn’t going to question it at the moment.  He was just happy for the extra firepower that the Reaver would bring.  Suddenly Commander Ravon came over the squadron channel and ordered everyone to open fire on the Borg cube.  Daniel smirked to himself as he began to lock onto the Borg cube.  “Knight, prepare all Hellbores.”  Daniel said as Knight confirmed his order.

Daniel lined his fighter up with the Borg cube and once he had a target lock tone he fired all four of his Hellbores at the Borg cube, then he followed them up with the pair of quantum torpedoes that he had sitting in his external mounts.  Watching as the explosions ripped through an exposed section of the cube, in conjunction with the rest of the Lone Wolves and the other vessels that were firing on the cube he could only hope that his ordnance would help to disable, maybe even destroy the cube.

With his ordnance expended Daniel maneuvered his fighter back towards the Cayuga, as he did so however he noticed a large sirillium pocket of gas making its ways towards the ship, no one else had seemed to notice it and Daniel knew he had to be quick, if the sirillium managed to envelop the ship it could severely damage the already heavily damaged Federation vessel.  “Knight prep torpedoes one through four, set them to scatter and detonate at specific points around the gas pocket.”  Daniel said.  “What gas pocke-” Knight began to say.  “Oh I see it now, preparing torpedoes.”

Daniel intended to use his remaining photon torpedoes to create an explosive force that would envelop the sirillium before it could reach the Cayuga.  “Torpedoes prepped.”  Knight said behind him.  “Understood, launching torpedoes in three, two, and one.”  Daniel said, as he reached one he launched his remaining torpedoes and watched as they flew towards the gas pocket, they scattered to their specific coordinates and then detonated in front of the gas pocket several hundred meters before the Cayuga.

-----
OOC: Objectives 3 and 8 complete

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #29 – February 21, 2019, 10:42:07 AM

[ Tessa May Lance, callsign:  Goldeneye | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie | Ithacae System ]  Attn: @Arista @Auctor Lucan @Fife @Griff @Havenborn @IronFerrox @Kinvarus @Nolan  @Stegro88

The Cayuga glided through the cluttered blue sky, Tessa’s Valkyrie following in its wake.  Using the bigger ship’s deflector shield and magnetic field to push the dust and debris out of the way made flying easy, allowing the fighter pilot to listen in on comms chatter:

[ This is Dragon to all Lone Wolves. Your audibility is still zero, but did you all see that?  It seems the cube's shields are down, at least for now. Razor, I suggest any available fighters concentrate fire on the cube now, over. ]

“Dragon?” Tessa asked out loud.  “As in Lieutenant (junior grade) Devyrie Okhala, callsign ‘Dragon’?  Didn’t she go missing?” If Goldeneye’s memory served her, Devyrie Okhala had been transported out of her cockpit by the Savi and taken away for… well Tessa didn’t really know why she had been taken away.  She didn’t really know why the Savi attacked the Theurgy in the first place to be honest.

[ All wolves, divert all attention to the Cube. Weapons free. It looks like she's down on shields so make every single shot count! Lance, you seem like you're pretty much on top of the Cayuga, maintain position and cover it from there. Razor out. ]

“I copy you Ravon!” Tessa called back happily.  For once, she wasn’t the screw-up.  Thomas had ordered his fighters to rendezvous with the Cayuga, and Tessa was the only one to have done so.  And Thomas had given her a rather cush assignment.  Rather than having to attack the Borg cube close up she could hang back with the artillery while the Cayuga bombarded it from a distance.  Even if the Cayuga chose to close she could keep up by letting the big ship’s navigational deflectors push the debris out of the way.  And it wasn’t like she had to escort the Cayuga by herself.  Even now a wounded B’rel class Bird of Prey was moving in to position behind them and closing.  Despite the damage it had taken and its fluctuating life and power signs, the IKS Pragh was covering the Cayuga’s six and making a weapon’s lock on... the Cayuga? 

This made no sense.  Why did it have a weapon’s lock on the Cayuga?  Wasn’t it the Theurgy that everybody wanted to kill?  Maybe the crew was dead and the computer was running on automatic.  Acting on impulse, Tessa scanned the Klingon ship for lifeforms.

As the Klingon Bird-of-Prey emerged from the dust cloud that had obscured it, Tessa’s Heads Up Display sent her the following data:

Ship:   IKS PRAGH
Class:  B’REL CLASS
Owner: KLINGON EMPIRE
Operator:  KLINGON DEFENSE FORCE
Lifesigns  75% BORG  25% KLINGON

“Goldeneye to Cayuga!” Tessa cried.  “The Pragh’s crew has been assimilated!  The Borg have taken it over and they’re preparing to fire upon you!”

Tessa turned her fighter around and headed to the Klingon vessel.  It hadn’t fired yet because of all the debris in the way but as soon as it was clear who knew what would happen.  Of course, that meant that the Cayuga didn’t have a clear shot on the Pragh either.  But Tessa’s fighter was nimble enough to get around the debris and get a few good shots in.

Tessa fired photon torpedoes concentrated her fire with her tetryon pulse cannon and her both of her M-142 RF mass driver twin mount turrets.  An eerie green field absorbed the photon torpedoes like they were nothing but oddly enough the tetryon pulse cannons and the mass drivers worked like a charm.  The Borg must have somehow installed their own deflector shields aboard the Pragh although exactly how they could do so in the time it must have taken was a mystery.  The Borg deflectors knew what a photon torpedo was and they absorbed the blow easily.  The twin mass drivers and the tetyron pulse cannon must have been something new because it seemed like the Pragh had to use the remnants of the Klingon deflector shields that thanks to the Borg were as thin as tissue paper.  The Pragh was thrown off course as angry orange fireballs wracked it glowing green surface and it collided with more clutter.

Tessa breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that the twenty five percent of the bird of prey’s crew had probably bought her the time she needed to land her shots.  If not for them the Pragh’s guns would have probably made short work of her. 

As she turned and dodged the flotsam and jetsam that cluttered the Ithacae System she made a long arc in order to make another pass at the wounded bird of prey, only to gasp as her sensors revealed power being restored on the bird of prey and its systems being brought back on line.  They could repair their ship that quickly?  The blows Tessa landed on the injured ship should have sent it to the scrapyard and yet the Pragh was threatening to return to the fight.  At this rate by the time Tessa got back to it the captured ship’s shields would be up and it would be ready to threaten the Cayuga again.

Fortunately, those concerns were allayed when the Cayuga fired its aft torpedoes and caused the Pragh to explode in an orange fireball.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #30 – February 24, 2019, 12:40:27 AM

[ Devyrie "Dragon" Okhala | Cinsaj's Cockpit | AC-507 Mk I Reaver | Heart of the Azure Nebula ] Attn:
^{@Nolan @Stegro88 @Fife @Havenborn @Doc M. @Griff @Kinvarus @Iron Ferrox}
[Show/Hide]

Cramped as the fully armoured cockpit was - not even having a see-through canopy - Devyrie had adjusted to it, relying on the internally projected surroundings. She’d managed to find the nav feeds and lit the dark interior. Targeting data on the cube and moving crafts were tagged and - when she looked at them through the helmet - it registered her gaze, and offered her weapon locks at the fingertips of her control-sleeves. She was actually getting used to the lack of a flight stick, intuitive as the odd sleeves were. She saw the torpedo launchers and the disruptors on the expanse of the cube’s side, closed her fists in different ways, and tore it all up. Mid-assault, there was finally a voice heard through her helmet’s ear-piece.

[Angel to Dragon, I hope you can hear this chica because you've got an assimilated Vorcha class right behind that pretty ass of yours. Don't worry though, Fury and I have you covered.] As she heard it, she saw her happenstance lover’s and packmate’s Valravn fighter overshoot the Reaver, and engaged the Klingon ship on her tail. Devyrie had failed to key up the aft view feed on a screen, and was caught completely unawares. She got a warning about weapons lock from the Vorcha-class ship, but just as soon as the warning came, it was muted, telling her Angel must have dealt with the threat.

“Mickayla, I just got a hail on a FM band channel, can you please figure out how to switch my comms to that frequency? Say thanks for the save, or something,” she said to the Klingon woman next to her, tight-lipped as she remained focused on the targets along the cube, her thumbs white as she held down the buttons for her cannons. She noticed a shadow on her sensors, and snapped off a short order to Drake. “Who’s that?”

“Right, um, IFF says Wolf-Zero-Eight, Bloodwing. One of the Lone Wolves. You don’t know her?”

“I have no idea who that is,” she said, but seeing the skilled flight patterns of the Valkyrie, she wasn’t about to complain. She seemed to be flying as her wingmate, in a kind of silent accord. Perhaps she lost her own wingmate? ”Mickayla, when you get the comms to work, ping her and acknowledge her on that FM frequency.”

Then, all of a sudden, it was as if the Borg flipped a switch inside the ravaged cube. For between one moment and the next, all the fire she laid upon it was rendered ineffective. Dev's eyes widened. It was the same for the Klingon fleet, who had been slicing up the cube from all sides. And just like that...

“We’re exposed... Hold on, taking evasive manoeuvres!” Devyrie turned her sleeves over, holding them out to the side, punching Drake over the lips in the process. The result was a barrel roll into the debris field. The cockpit began to scream with warning klaxons, and she didn't even have to look to know they had gravimetric torpedoes on their tail. She pushed her ring finger against the palm of one control glove, releasing counter measures. Some of the klaxons persisted, and she pushed the release again, focused on not colliding with burning, breaking Klingon ships that had suffered the very same fate she tried to avoid. The larger ships had no manoeuvrability to escape the retaliation from the cube, and her tactical sensors saw most of the Klingon IFFs go dark.

Keep moving, Devyrie. Her father's voice, the memory of his teaching guiding her, she suppressed the paralysing fear. Only when she was deep into the debris, and there were no more warnings to silence, did she afford to check the aft sensors. That's when she noticed yet another Mk III Valkyrie, further away from the field. A straggler from the Theurgy? She still hadn't located the rest of the White Wolves, only Angel, and by some strange miracle, Meerkat, Scylla, Wraith and Blizzard, who shouldn't even be there. Bloodwing was somewhere out there, close, but she wasn't sure what to do. Weighing her options...

...she saw something manifest itself on the far side of the cube. At first, she thought it was some kind of trick of the Azure Nebula's light, but her sensors confirmed what she saw. The source of her recent nightmares.

"The Versant," she whispered, the enormous, sharp profile unmistakable.

She had to warn the pack, lest they'd seen it already. She used the regular subspace squadron channel, the new Valkyrie included. "Dragon to all Lone Wolves, come in. New contact: Savi dreadnought. Bearing two-nine-mark-seven!" Given the size of the thing, it might only be the debris that kept it from being noticed. She realized she had some intel to share, but not much. "When we escaped, stealing back this Reaver, other abductees were on the loose as well. We had a Savi on our side, someone called the Voice, and he was supposed to give us all escape routes off the Savi ship. I hardly think this is it, though... Advising extreme caution, and we may have survivors aboard it!"

After a few garbled replies came in, something happened. Devyrie saw it as a immense energy surge on her tactical display. "I think... it is powering up weapons!" she said to the two in the cockpit. No more had she said it, before aquamarine light bathed the debris field. A tremor reverberated through the space-frame of the Reaver. The Versant's three main cannons had powered up, and three lances of light shot straight through the debris field. The massive beams, likely thirty meters wide, entered the far side of the Borg cube.

"By the Centauri skies..." The beams drilled through the bulk of the cube, and within the span of three seconds, the beams burst out on the far side - continuing into the debris field on Devyrie's side. They missed the Cinsaj by 300 meters, and she adjusted course to stay clear. Devyrie couldn't find any words, staring in awe as the Versant maintained the beams, and began to turn - slicing great rifts through the entirety of the cube's mass. There were little in terms of explosions, but the metal construct parted like flesh to knifes, the gashes a hundred meters wide. That's when she saw the incoming hail. "Mickayla, answer it. On screen."

On the center HUD... stood the male form of Captain Jien Ives. He had been freed! Were they on the bridge of that ship? Did that mean that they... Had they taken command from the Savi, or was the Voice orchestrating this? So many questions, all silenced by the Chameloid's voice.

[All available ships, the cube is immobilised and exposed,] said the Theurgy's Commanding Officer, and next to him stood Thea, as well as someone Devyrie recognized as Cross from the Endeavour, another abductee. A bald Vulcan, who used to have Bajoran blood... and two hands. He was Drake's superior officer. [We're charging for another attack, but we need time. Sensors show no active weapon systems within the cube. If you can, destroy it from within. Ives, out.]

Fly... through it? Devyrie swallowed, feeling how new the Reaver was to her, and how she had challenges enough with the moving debris field. Then again, it might be what it took to destroy the cube. Devyrie closed her mouth, and her green eyes drifted to Drake. "Arm the hardpoints we have left," she said, feeling the battle shifting again, "and remember that 'TP' shield? Make it work again. We're going in. Devyrie to all Lone Wolves, since I can't hear all of you, I am taking the tunnel with the bearing two-seven-mark-eight, and it looks like the Allegiant and its escort is taking the middle one!"

Father, wish me luck... she thought, and set the course. Because this is madness!

---

OOC: Wohoo! @Nolan posts next, acknowledging Miles Renard's return first, followed by this sequence, which should be reflected in all of your posts: 1) The Borg cube adapts, the majority of the Klingon fleet is destroyed in the Queen's retaliation. Breakneck survival flying. The IKS Negh'Var is one of the Klingon ships that manages to survive the onslaught. The Theurgy is damaged as well. The Cayuga still in the clear, being further away. 2) In the aftermath, the Versant appears, immobile at first while your characters react and respond to orders. Oh, shit moment. Then, after about a minute (in which Ives has been talking to the Theurgy)... 3) ...the Versant opens fire against the cube, drilling three huge holes. Then, when the beams are through it, they cut sideways, making the holes a hundred meters wide. 4) Captain Ives hails all warp fighters as well as the Allegiant, ordering another attack since the shields of the cube is down. 5) The Allegiant and the fighter escort picks the middle tunnel, and makes a tunnel run through the cube and lights it up from within as they go. @Nolan must split the Lone Wolves between the two remaining tunnels, Devyrie having picked one of them since she can't receive orders. You can end your posts mid-flight through the cube, or at the end of it - shooting out on the other side.

Here are brand new Battle Objectives to illustrate in your upcoming posts! Again, please check off one objective each, and you still have full liberty in setting up details. Here we go! [Show/Hide]

Battle Objectives: Phase 3 | Space Trash Rampage

• Tailored for @Nolan, decide on continued orders. Please NPC Rawley for the time being if you want.
• When the Queen retaliated, have your character's fighter get critically damaged, allowing for only limited further flight before landing in the Fighter Bay would be advisable.
• When the Queen retaliated, your character's warp fighter was almost smashed to gravel between two husks of damaged Klingon ships.
• When the Queen retaliated, your character somehow saves the IKS Negh'Var from being destroyed.
• Your character enlist a couple of Klingon raiders to join the tunnel run.
• Almost collide with Klingon raiders that opted to enter the tunnel from the other side of the cube.
• Have Borg drones fall onto and cling on to your character's fighter during the tunnel run.
• Do a tasteful 4th wall break alluding to the Death Star run in the Return of the Jedi.
• Almost blow up a fellow Lone Wolf during the tunnel run.
• Due to the hollow nature/long passage-rife nature of the cube, a fighter might be forced to divert (wreckage, other ships, explosions) up into a conduit, leading to some hair raising flying, before intersecting one of the other tunnels. Having entered one tunnel it exit out another.
• Damaged in the tunnel, require either a solo return to the Theurgy Fighter Bay, or perhaps, a tow.
• Becoming trapped in the Cube tunnel due to wreckage and debris, either ending your character's life or somehow escaping in the next turn?

Seven days to post, but most importantly, have fun!

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #31 – February 25, 2019, 10:52:32 AM

[ Lt Cmdr Thomas 'Razor' Ravon | Kestrel | Heart of the Azure Nebula | Debris field ]
@Iron Ferrox  @Auctor Lucan  @Triage  @Havenborn  @Doc M.  @Stegro88 @Fife  @Griff  @Kinvarus 

The attack run on the cube would at least take a few minutes with all the debris and Klingon ships in the way. Rawley was spearheading the assault as Thom followed in her wake. He hadn't checked his the readings of his scanners as the focus was lying in dexterous flying. However when the voice of a literal ghost popped up in the channel between himself and Henshaw, Ravon was phased for a second.

"Wolf Lead, Theurgy Mission ops, this is Lieutenant Commander Miles Renard. Please designate craft as Wolf Zero-Zero.  I'm reading multiple pockets of sirillium gas two notably close to contacts in system, one nearing intercept with Borg vessel other drifting close to Federation vessel designation Cayuga. Currently tracking Cayuga gas cloud and marking with Tetrion beam.  If friendly advise detonating cloud before posing further danger to friendly, over"

"Miles?" he mumbled under his breath before his ship shook up as a piece of debris bounced off his shields, the belly of his fighter rumbling as his fighter veered off course and began to react erratic to the collision. He quickly got his head back to flying and maintained a stable course as he checked the readings, the civilian craft suddenly being renamed as Wolf 00. He first addressed the problem of the sirillium gas pocket by contacting Lance "Tessa, there should be a marked gas pocket near your position, posing a threat to the Cayuga, dispatch it if you would so kind. Over."

"Where the fuck did you come from?" he asked out loud to himself whilst switching up the channel to answer Miles Renard. Ravon had a million questions for his SCO after his disappearance from the battle at SB 84. Renard had ordered his wolves to head off without him, a decision that had left Thomas with a bitter feeling as he got Miles' position in his absence. There was however no further time to dwell upon this as he had to lead the wolves regardless for the time being.

"Wolf 01 to Wolf 00, glad to see you made it in time to our party. It's good to hear your voice and to know you're alive and well, but I have a beef with this cube... How is your fighter readiness? If it still got some juice in it I'd recommend hooking up with Lance at the Cayuga or alternatively head back to the Theurgy for safety. I do appreciate an extra set of eyes on the other hand so I'll leave the choice for you Miles. Over."

The final Klingon Warbird got passed at the end of Thom's message and Rawley's battle cry made it quite clear what they were up to. However as Rawley's torpedoes impacted on the cube, the green glow of shields popped up and that dreaded feeling came to crawl up Ravon's spine. A dreaded feeling to know one was up close and personal with a Borg cube that adapted to their weapons. The numerous impacts of the armada firing away at the cube were all blocked by the shields and Thomas shook his head "Razor to all wolves. Fall back! Cube has adapted!" Time seemed to slow down as the cube unleashed her wrath.

Multiple launches were detected and the Valkyrie's systems were blaring claxons of incoming weapons fire. Most of the torpedoes weren't aimed for Thomas or Rawley, the latter cursing out loudly as she defiantly tried to barge through the cube again before realizing it truly had no point. She high tailed it out of the immediate area along with Razor as the torpedoes and green beams of Borg weaponry disposed of the fleet surrounding it. Klingon ships broke in half or simply blew up upon impact. The debris field exponentially increasing as the two wolves at some point flew through a Klingon Cruiser that had just detonated. Various alarms went off during that feat and a rain of further debris flung against the shieldsof his Valkyrie, protecting him from further harm, yet draining the overall strength of it regardless. Evelyn dispatched of a chunk of Vor'Cha class that was on a collision course for the both of them. The two pilots getting a breather for a minute as there were no incoming fire alerts and they rolled their ships around to think of a new strategy.

On top of that a rather distinctive beeping alerted Thomas of a new arrival in the clusterfuck of a space battle they found themselves in. The readings of the new ship were unmistakably confirmed as he glanced over towards the position of the white dreadnought that doomed through the debris field. The Versant. "Right when you thought this day couldn't get any better..." he hissed to Rawley who simply replied "Aye, I'd say we leave the damn cube for what it is and poke the white fucking whale so it'll follow us to the Borg and hope they slice it apart while targeting us." Thomas chuckled at the idea of it. "Wolf lead to all elements, report in. We might need a different plan now. Regroup at the Cayuga as initially planned. Do not engage the Versant alone. We all knew which can of bullshit that'll open up to us."

As the replies of of his squadron began to trickle and Thomas made his way back to the Cayuga the impossible seemed to happen. He had kept his eyes on the Versant as he really didn't trust that thing and as the main cannons suddenly unleashed their aquamarine beams, he was surprised to see it slash into the hull of the Borg cube. "What the Fuck..." he called out before the beams simply split through the cube like a hot knife through butter. The beams came to a stop and left the cube simply afloat in space before his HUD lit up and Ives' face was right up and in his visor.

 [All available ships, the cube is immobilized and exposed, we're charging for another attack, but we need time. Sensors show no active weapon systems within the cube. If you can, destroy it from within. Ives, out.]

Thomas blinked a few times as the HUD cleared up again and he looked at the cube. He heard Devyrie "Dragon" Okahala announcing that she'd take the top tunnel, and made his decision. "Fuck this.." he opened the channel to all of his pack "Razor to Salvo. Gather your flight and pick the top tunnel for an attack run. Follow Dragon and Bloodwing. Chance, Foxfire try to rally up on me and Rawley, we'll be taking the lower entrance. Razor out." With the return of Miles, the rest of the pack would undoubtedly have a great leader if he wouldn't make it out of the cube. He had a gut feeling that not all of them would make it.

Rawley laughed maniacally as she turned in on Razor's wing "Oh, I have just the special treat for that bitch!" Razor chuckled and flew ahead on full impulse engines. Rawley and him finding a stray pack of Klingon raiders who happily joined their merry pack to unleash revenge on the cube. The group of about eight ships rallied to the cube and popped into the fresh cut hole on the ventral side of the cube.

It would be a tight fit and one could hardly fly next to one another in the one hundred meters tunnel that had been created. "Setting the detonators at fifteen seconds on the torpedoes. That's the time we'll have to get out of this deathtrap." Razor warned his flight as he looked on his HUD and began to fire them as they closed to the middle of the cube. Each torpedo digging into the fuselage of the cube and getting as deep as it could as if they were seeds being planted to sprout soon. The insides of the cubed looked eerily enough with extensive damage to be seen by the Versant's weaponry. Occasionally he could just catch a glimpse of a drone popping up yet his ship flew too fast to recognize any of them.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #32 – February 27, 2019, 03:51:21 AM

[ Lt. JG Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson & Ens. Isel "Foxfire" Nix | Wolves 03 & 04 | Debris Field | Azure Nebula ]

[Show/Hide]

Joint Post Between Fife and Stegro88

"Chance to Foxfire, all systems have restarted. You can disengage the tractor beam,” Chance advised her wingwoman as they flew through the debris field away from the cube. She hadn’t actively kept track of their position; her only point of navigational direction was keeping the cube behind her.

“Roger, Chance. Disengaging now” Foxfire acknowledge as she tapped the commands into her console to disengage the tractor beam. “Beam disengaged. Try not to fly into anything else this time, yeah?”

“I didn’t fly into anything last time; it flew into me,” Chance argued, a smile on her face, as her fighter came alive beneath her fingers once again. Advancing her throttles, Donna added, “And without an invitation as well.”

“Whatever you say, lover.” Isel shot back, her own grin intensifying as she teased the other pilot. “Checking sensors to figure out where we’re at. I’m seeing the IKS Negh’Var nearby.” Isel’s eyes took in the information on the sensor readouts. “Man, they’re really giving the cube a beating... wait...” Isel saw her sensors light up like a fireworks display as the cube suddenly retaliated, spewing ordinance towards the ships assaulting it.

Chance hated looking over her shoulder, a product of undercover training. But as a Tac CONN pilot, sometimes that was exactly what you had to do and it was that very action that allowed Chance to see the moment that the battle against the cube turned back in the Borg’s favour. Instead of the hull explosions from moments earlier, suddenly the incoming weapons were met by a shimmering green shield instead.

“Fuck, they’ve adapted,” Chance cursed out just as the Borg capitalised on the sudden turn of events and began to release a tidal wave of disruptor and torpedo fire. “Evasive manoeuvres!” Chance screamed as she slammed her fighter sideways.

Wreckage and debris was both exploding and appearing all around them as the Borg weapons shredded the field in search of still active Klingon ships. Invariably, those very ships either exploded or were added to the debris field that made flying though it a considerable challenge even without the threat of the Borg. Chance and Foxfire lost sight of each other multiple times during those seconds, only to reappear each time.

Breaking into a clearer area of the field, the Klingon flagship, the Negh’Var loomed ahead of them, already turning to port to avoid the Borg’s fire. The first few torpedoes missed, barely but with the field hampering the warship’s manoeuvrability, the Borg were quickly able to correct their aim. The ship’s shields absorbed the first few impacts but after so long in the theatre of battle, the shields were heavily depleted and soon faltered; exposing the hull to the onslaught.

Isel saw the carnage wrought by the cube as she rounded a rather large chunk of debris, her eyes going wide at the sight of Klingon vessels being torn apart on all sides. She saw the Negh’Var just ahead, the behemoth ship taking a beating as it attempted to turn away from the latest barrage of torpedoes streaking toward it. “Fuck, this went south real fast!” Isel snarled as she continued to put her fighter through its paces, dodging the erratically spinning pieces of what had once been Klingon ships. “The Negh’Var is taking a fucking beating. She won’t hold up to much more of that!”

“You’re right, let’s do what we can to cover them,” Chance directed as she brought her fighter around on an intercept course for the larger Klingon vessel. Simultaneously, she switched her weapons over to her pulse phasers and micro torpedoes, wanting quantity over quality at this point. “Keep that tail of yours in one piece please.”

“Oh, I plan to!" Isel said, the tension in her voice tinged with a hint of mirth as she brought her Valkyrie around one last large piece of space junk and moved to form up on Chance’s wing, “My tail is cute and adorable, and I’d like to keep it that way!” As Foxfire brought her fighter into position off Chance’s wing, she couldn’t help but add one more jab. “And quit thinking about my ass! We’ve got enough to deal with right now without you getting distracted!”

“Too late,” Chance shot back as she brought her fighter alongside the Klingon flagship. “I hope Martok appreciates this,” she commented, not even knowing if the Chancellor was still alive. “We’ve got incoming.”

“I see them!” Foxfire acknowledge, her eyes already following the path of the torpedoes on her sensor readouts as he targeting scanners locked onto the incoming ordinance, “Lets light ‘em up!” With those words Foxfire opened up with her Valkyrie’s pulse phasers, the visor of her flight helmet glowing as the orange lights streaked forward to intercept the first of the inbound torpedoes. 

Mirroring her companion’s actions, Chance opened up with the own cannons, the pulses of energy streaking away to attempt to intercept the Borg weapons. Explosions began to dot the space between the cube and the turning Negh’Var, but not enough. 

“Shit, we got some leakers,” Chance called as the first Gravimetric torpedo slipped through their fusillade and impacted the rear of the warship. A second soon followed, detonating near the first and rending a section of the ship from the rest of the hull. Two more slipped through, impacting further along the ship’s starboard side, taking out entire sections but not tearing chunks off. And then the incoming torpedoes just stopped. “What the...?”

Isel had noticed the stream of incoming torpedoes cease as well, causing her to wonder what the hell was next. A quick glance at her sensors told her it was nothing good.

“What the ever-living fuck is that?!?” Isel snarled, her eyes wide with disbelief. Her eyes left the sensor readouts to glance out of the cockpit, searching for the new arrival to the party. It certainly wasn’t difficult to spot. “Is that the Versat that they’ve been talking about?” Isel let out a low whistle as stared at the enormous ship. “Oh... we are so fucked...”

[Wolf lead to all elements, report in. We might need a different plan now. Regroup at the Cayuga as initially planned. Do not engage the Versant alone. We all knew which can of bullshit that'll open up to us.] came Ravon’s voice over comms, cutting off Chance’s reply while also confirming the identity of the new ship.

“Whichever side that ship is on, it certainly got the Borg’s attention," Donna observed. Glancing at her sensors, she saw that the Negh’Var was limping away through the debris field while the Cayuga was almost on the other side of the cube from their current position. “The Cayuga’s pretty far off, let’s haul ass.”

“Shit, that things charging up. I’m getting energy spikes!” Isel said, glancing up to see three massive aquamarine beams streak forward. The beams tore into the cubes face, tearing though the vessel with ease as, several seconds later, the beams emerged from the rear face. “Well, I guess that sort of answers who’s side they’re on!” Isel said, her eyes staring at the damage dealt by the attack.

“You think?” Chance deadpanned as she watched the beams begin to carve though the cube.

[All available ships, the cube is immobilized and exposed, we're charging for another attack, but we need time. Sensors show no active weapon systems within the cube. If you can, destroy it from within. Ives, out.]

“Ives?” Chance wondered. “He’s alive?” Inside, her heart fluttered for a moment at the prospect of finally completing her mission, freeing her to do as she pleased with Isel. But she slammed that feeling down; they still had business with the Borg first.

[Devyrie to all Lone Wolves, since I can't hear all of you, I am taking the tunnel with the bearing two-seven-mark-eight, and it looks like the Allegiant and its escort is taking the middle one!] came Dragon’s garbled voice.

“Well aren’t they an eager beaver,” Chance intoned before another voice sounded off.

[Razor to Salvo. Gather your flight and pick the top tunnel for an attack run. Follow Dragon and Bloodwing. Chance, Foxfire try to rally up on me and Rawley, we'll be taking the lower entrance. Razor out.]

“Wolves 03 and 04 copy, Wolf leader.” Isel replied before switching back to the element channel. “I don’t know about you, but I liked 'regroup at the Cayuga' better than 'fly through the cube',” Isel said dryly as she moved to form up on Chance’s wing.

“I agree completely beautiful,” Chance replied, already adjusting course to rally as ordered. “I only like going up one thing’s tunnels. And it is for damn sure not the cube’s!”

“There’s Razor up ahead.” Isel reported, picking up thier SCO’s signal ahead, as well as several Klingon raiders. “Looks like he and Ghost found some new friends, too!” Isel switched her comm channel to contact Razor. “Razor, this is Foxfire. Chance and I are on your tail. We’ll follow your lead. Let’s blow this thing and go home!”

“We have unfinished business,” Chance added, though only across their element channel as she switched over to her heavier ordnance.

As they approached the lower of the three holes bored through the cube by the Versant, Isel felt a chill run down her spine. The gaps left by the Versant’s weapons were enormous. As the walls of the tunnel enveloped them, obscuring the swirling blue hues of the Azura Nebula, Razor’s voice sounded off over the comms again.

[Setting the detonators at fifteen seconds on the torpedoes.] Came the SCO’s voice, [That's the time we'll have to get out of this deathtrap.]

“Yeah, I’m already on my way out,” Chance thought to herself as she adjusted the timers on her quantum torpedoes before firing them off one by one. Isel followed suit, firing her time-delayed torpedoes into the walls of the tunnel as she flew close-range on Chance’s tail. She felt her jaw tense as they made their way through the straight path through the cube, feeling a glimmer of hope as she caught sight of what she thought was a glimpse of blue at the end of the tunnel off in the distance.

---

Objectives 4 & 8 Cleared.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #33 – February 28, 2019, 12:52:54 PM

[ LT Daniel Havenborn, Callsign: Salvo Cockpit | AC-307 Mark-II Valkyrie “Hellcat”] Attn: @Nolan, @Doc M., @Stegro88, @patches, @Fife, @Auctor Lucan, @Griff, @Kinvarus

Daniel had watched as his ordnance struck the cube and for a moment he was quite content with his strike, then he noticed that his ordnance only did about a quarter of the intended damage as the Borg cube seemed to have adapted.  He watched as the cube then fired a salvo of different weapons fire on the Klingon fleet, destroying the rest of them.  Being closer to the Cayuga allowed Daniel to maneuver his way around the debris and he opened fire on some of the larger chunks to stop them from hitting the Cayuga itself.  As all this was happening he finally took note of heavily damaged Mark-III, it was identified as Commander Miles Renard’s fighter.  Renard has been lost during the Battle of Starbase 84 and Daniel had only met him briefly during the melee before he was declared missing in action, he was glad to see that the man had survived.

Just as Daniel thought that things couldn’t get worse, he watched as the Savi dreadnaught appeared.  “Fucking hell could this day get any worse.”  Knight said from behind him.  “Compose yourself my friend.”  Daniel said, truth be told on the inside he shared Knight’s sentiment, but his years of military conditioning prevented him from saying so aloud.  Thankfully Knight could say it for him, “It’s just another target for us to shoot at.”  As Daniel said that however the Savi dreadnaught fired three lances of weapons fire into the Borg cube, Daniel and Knight both watched in astonishment and then a moment later Captain Ives came over the communications channel and explained that hir was in charge of the massive vessel and even issued orders for the Allegiant and fighters to attack the wounded Borg cube. 

“Acknowledged Razor.”  Daniel said as he received the orders from Commander Ravon.  “Angel, Goldeneye and Bloodwing, form up on me, diamond formation, and keep it tight.”  He said as he weaved through the debris field, as he was closing in on the rest of his flight he narrowly avoided hitting a large chunk of a Klingon bird of prey, then suddenly something hit his fighter, he could hear the a tearing and then there was an small explosion and he heard Knight cry out in pain.  “Knight, what’s wrong?”  Daniel said as he began working to see what had just happened.  When no response came from his RIO, he tried to turn his neck around to look at him, but to no avail, so he grabbed his combat tricorder and managed to scan behind him, Knight’s lifesigns were weak but stable for the moment.

As Daniel put his combat tricorder back the computer finally gave him a damage report, apparently the engineering section of the bird of prey he had managed to avoid had struck his fighter, shearing off his port-side wing and damaged his port engine as well. “Salvo to Angel, my fighter is severely damaged, take command of the flight and continue with the attack.”  Daniel said before switching his communications channel to Ravon.  “Salvo to Razor, I’ve taken severe damage and my RIO is unconscious, I’m declaring an emergency and returning to the Theurgy.”  He said as he knew that he was in no position to help anymore; he’d be more of a liability than an asset now.

He shut down his port engine and transferred all his fighter energy to his starboard engine and his shields, cutting his phaser energy as well to give him more power, he still had micro-torpedoes should he run into trouble but hopefully his return back to the Theurgy would be uneventful.  He opened a channel to Mission Ops as he set his course. “Salvo to Mission Ops, I am declaring an emergency and requesting a priority landing in the FAB and a medical team on standby, my RIO is unconscious and his lifesigns are weak.”  Daniel said as he kept his course as steady as he could.

----

OOC: Objective 2 completed

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #34 – March 01, 2019, 01:04:10 PM

[ Lt Cmdr Miles "Iron Ferrox" Renard | Wolf-00 | Heart of the Azure Nebula | Outer rim of the debris field ]
@Nolan @Auctor Lucan @Triage @Havenborn @Doc M. @Stegro88 @Fife @Griff @Kinvarus

[Wolf 01 to Wolf 00, glad to see you made it in time to our party. It's good to hear your voice and to know you're alive and well, but I have a beef with this cube... How is your fighter readiness? If it still got some juice in it I'd recommend hooking up with Lance at the Cayuga or alternatively head back to the Theurgy for safety. I do appreciate an extra set of eyes on the other hand so I'll leave the choice for you Miles. Over.]

He quickly acknowledged the hail. "Lead, as much as Id love to stay and dust this cube with you, I'm going to opt to RTB.  Honestly, my ship's pretty FUBAR at the moment.  The twin mounts, thrusters, and repulsors are pretty much all I've got running right. The impulse engines are okay, and everything else well...It's holding together but that's all I can say for it. Over"  He keyed his com to mission ops again and spoke up. "Zero Zero to Miss-Ops, Returning to base, Inform Fighter Bay to prepare for a cannon down landing. Over."

Miles secretly smiled behind his helmet despite all this.  For one he was happy to hear the voices of his comrades again, Even if they were shouting in a din of fighting. hearing those voices was a welcome sound. More-so he had to fight the inborn urge within to fight.  As much as he desired to do so he knew this foe was one never to underestimate or go in unprepared against.  He knew his ship was in no shape for battle against the oldest of birds of prey the Klingons had flying in this fray, much less one of these cubical terrors.

If anyone were able to scan his ship they would likely be surprised that it was even flying at all in its condition.  Scraps of metal were haphazardly hand-phaser-welded over what were hull breeches in shapes of gashes, holes, and strange twists of metal that resembled some kind of vortex made into the hull. There were even a few locations where the transparent aluminum of the cockpit appeared cracked on the outside, foggier than normal and thicker on the inside likely having had a layer patched similarly with a phaser on the inside to keep the atmosphere from leaking after the crack had been formed.  The impulse engines though functioning seemed to be radiating far more heat than they should while the nacelles were no longer giving off any glow as he had shut down the core and jettisoned all antimatter to prevent a breech in the event he were hit given the ship's compromised state.

Miles knew he had to get his ship in as early as he could this lull in the cube not returning fire could not last long and indeed he was right. In a near instant the Borg ship adapted once again and opened fire on the ships valiantly fighting them.  He throttled his engines up and watched the efficient brutality of the Borg as the masses of Klingon ships erupted into flashes of light and flame, those flames soon extinguished by the vacuum of space.

His sensors beginning to alarm with proximity warnings as he quickly decelerated down. Pouring what power he could into his deflector array and setting his sensors to maximum to detect any debris in his way and son the debris was too much and he decelerated further and further as he came closer and closer to the Theurgy and the fighter bay she housed.  Before he could get to the distance he wanted to be though the debris had became too much and he was forced to delay that return ever more as he was forced to slow down to combat speed just to be able to evade the fragmented corpses of ships within the heart of the nebula.  What he saw next though was even more stupefying than the mass grave he was having to fly within.

The sight alone was awe inspiring.  A single massive ship coming out of warp.  He had never seen anything like the vessel and the only words in his mind that could describe it with would be a space fortress.  It had to be over twice the length of the cube likely 3 times the length.  His ships sensors had nothing to compare it to aside from one key feature its hull seemed to be made of the same alloy as the saucer like ships the Asurians he had flew beside In his previous battle.  Whatever it was though one thing was certain it was charging weapons and by its angle it appeared to be pointed square at the cube,  He wondered if the Borg in their ability to shield themselves from anything could adapt in a way that could block that much raw energy. 

Given his position he was lucky in that he needed not evade as had already put himself firmly in the shadow of the Theurgy, trailing it as he positioned himself for landing within the bay he was vectoring himself towards now. still when he saw that energy seemingly drill through the cube he knew that even had the beams of brilliant light been directed in his direction the--by Federation standards--massive ship he called home would have offered no defense from such an assault.  Then he heard it.

[All available ships, the cube is immobilized and exposed, we're charging for another attack, but we need time. Sensors show no active weapon systems within the cube. If you can, destroy it from within. Ives, out.]

'The captain's voice?  Ives is on that ship?' Miles thought having just assumed Ives was on the Theurgy as would be hir usual station, Clearly a lot had happened he was unaware of but like the answers to how he returned to them those answers and questions of how this situation came to be were for another time.  For now there was a mission to complete and a battle to be fought.

As Miles began the final aspects of his own landing approach another voice came over the mission ops channel.  He saw the fighter vector in at a sharp angle approaching the bay cutting across his longer distance approach, At the angle though there was something odd about the fighters shape, 'A mark 2?' he thought to himself before confirming the Mark 2 was transmitting as 05 and from the visual he was getting it appeared to be missing near an entire wing.

Miles keyed in on his com to speak to Lt Havenborn, who's IFF seemed familiar... Had he been at Starbase 84? "Zero Zero to Zero Five, forming up on your wing and following you in."

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #35 – March 02, 2019, 07:07:51 AM

[ Tessa May Lance, callsign:  Goldeneye | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie | Ithacae System ]

[ Tessa, there should be a marked gas pocket near your position, posing a threat to the Cayuga, dispatch it if you would so kind. Over. ]

[ Roger that Razor, ] Tessa acknowledged.  [ Moving ahead of the Cayuga to dispatch the gas pocket. ]  She transferred more power into thrust while activating her short range tractor beam emitter to push the clutter directly in front of her out of the way. 

It was fortunate that Thomas had marked the pocket of sirillium that presented a hazard to the Cayuga.  There was so many distractions and so much debris in the area that it was easy to miss.  Privately, she hoped that Lillee was okay.  Somewhere she was out there without a wingman.   At least the Borg cube was vulnerable right now.  Hopefully, that meant that…

[ Razor to all wolves. Fall back! Cube has adapted! ]

…that meant that Tessa had no reason to complain about the relatively cushy assignment of hunting gas pockets.  She had been off her game for months now.  It was no surprise that Thomas was going easy on her.  And what was that big scary power reading?  Was that the Versant? 

[ Wolf lead to all elements, report in. We might need a different plan now. Regroup at the Cayuga as initially planned. Do not engage the Versant alone. We all knew which can of bullshit that'll open up to us. ]

Tears started blurring Tessa’s vision.  Instinctively she adjusted the humidity levels in her helmet.  Then she gasped as an aquamarine brilliance lit up the gas and debris around her.  The power rating of the Borg cube dropped exponentially. 

“Wow,” she blinked.  “There’s somebody in the galaxy that the Savi like even less than us.”

It was that moment when the Heads Up Display in her helmet revealed the face of the missing Captain Ives.

[ All available ships, the cube is immobilized and exposed, we're charging for another attack, but we need time. Sensors show no active weapon systems within the cube. If you can, destroy it from within. Ives, out. ]

What had happened?  Had Ives somehow made peace with the Savi?  It didn’t matter.  First things first.  Time to ignite that gas pocket so she could rejoin the pack and go after that Borg cube.  She fired her forward phaser arrays…

…and discovered that she had flown too close to the pocket of sirillium gas.  She had allowed herself to become distracted and since the gas pocket wasn’t something she could collide with she hadn’t kept her distance.  The orange explosion threatened to engulf her and pushed her fighter away like a bug on the surface of a pond after a large stone created a huge splash.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #36 – March 03, 2019, 11:05:04 AM

[ PO1 Mickayla MacGregor | Cinsaj's Cockpit | AC-507 Mk I Reaver | Debris Field | Azure Nebula | At Warp ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan 
[Show/Hide]

Petty Officer First Class Mickayla MacGregor was a 10-year veteran of Starfleet, her entire career spent in the Security Department. She had fought in the Dominion War and been in many firefights since then. But none of that prepared her for what she was now experiencing squashed into the 1-man armoured cockpit of the Reaver Cinsaj. 

It actually hadn’t been that bad when all she knew about what was happening was displayed on the small screen but now that Dev had figured out how to make what was happening around them display on the interior of the cockpit, it was almost like she could see out of the cockpit herself. And right now, she was wishing that Dev hadn’t done that.

There was debris everywhere. The shattered hulks of innumerable Klingon vessels drifted to and fro, impacting each other and bouncing away. Sometimes pieces sheared off and added to the chaotic mess that was the battlefield. Other Klingon ships, those that were still active or newly arrived moved through the debris field; using it as cover to protect themselves from the cube’s weapons even as they sort to use their own. Warp fighters, presumably from the Theurgy were doing the same thing but with a higher success rate due to their smaller size. And through it all, the Borg cube hung like a monolithic stone in space, unmoving yet unmovable.

Something white flashed over the top of the Reaver too fast for Mickayla to identify it but it served to break her fixation on the cube and bring her back into focus, in time to hear Dev’s directions to try and modify their communications array. Her expertise lay more in how to blow things up but you didn’t serve for as long as she had without at least learning a thing or two. Whether they applied to the operations of a warp fighter from the future, she was about to find out.

“I’ll try,” she replied as she began tapping away at the panel. It was not easy, the fighter seemed to be designed to operate from the control sleeves but she eventually found a sub menu with transmission options. Inputting her selection of FM band frequencies, Dev asked her to perform another task as Mickayla opened a channel. “Uh, this the Reaver. Dev says thanks for the save. And Bloodwing, if you can hear me, we are transmitting on an FM frequency and see you. FUCCCKKKK!!”

Mickayla’s cursing was caused by the cube’s sides coming alive with disruptor beams and gravimetric torpedoes being fired in all directions, quickly followed by the violent manoeuvres that Dev threw the Reaver into to avoid the incoming fire. Debris, the broken hulls of Klingon ships and weapons flashed over the armoured cockpit of the fighter, Mickayla bracing herself each time the fighter turned. In a way, the Klingon regretted now being able to see what was outside the cockpit. It scared her to be in battle of this magnitude but have no way to control the outcome or her own survival. And she could see and feel every time the fighter moved. Beginning to feel overloaded by what her eyes were seeing, Mickayla shut her eyes as her body continued to feel the Reaver respond to Dev’s commands. And then it got very quiet.

The Versant

Two words that Mickayla, while knowing she would hear them many times again as she was debriefed and asked what had occurred aboard that nightmare ship, feared to hear above all else. They actually caused her to snap her eyes open and her fears were realised. There it was, on the far side of the cube. She had previously only seen it on sensors during their escape but those systems contained enough detail that seeing the ship now, it was easily identified. It had come for them, those that had escaped its grasp.

In the background, Dev was warning the other fighters that the Versant had arrived and that there could be survivors aboard. While Mickayla hoped what she said was true, the pagmatic part of her knew that if the ship had united against them, then the survivors were either long dead or reimprisoned. She knew which she would have chosen if given the opportunity.

Something changed on her sensors, something she didn’t understand. The Versant was doing....Mickayla didn’t know what the Versant was doing. Disregarding the sensors and looking up at the Savi ship directly, she was just in time to see three beams of light lance out from the dreadnaught and spear into the Borg cube.

“The Savi are attacking the Borg?” Mickayla whispered, under to completely believe what she was seeing. The species and ship that had defiled her and stripped everything that she was away from her was now attacking the species that had tried to kill her twice, three times now, and that haunted her dreams some nights. Even after so long, thoughts of fighting the Borg aboard the Enterprise-E still invaded her dreams.

Coming back to herself, Mickayla realised that the massively powerful weapons of the Savi dreadnaught had, quite literally, pierced the cube and were now carving away at it. And then she noticed the incoming hail. It was from the Versant. She paused in answering it but the order from her superior officer overrode her hesitation and she did as directed.

[All available ships, the cube is immobilised and exposed,] said a man the Mickayla didn’t know. Next to him stood a strange female, as well as Lieutenant Cross. But the former hybrid looked terrible. He had lost part of an arm at some point since they had begun their insurrection aboard the Versant. But he was alive. Maybe there were others as well. [We're charging for another attack, but we need time. Sensors show no active weapon systems within the cube. If you can, destroy it from within. Ives, out.]


“Within? No. No. NO!” Mickayla’s mind went even as the hail ended and she turned to look at Dev but the pilot was already turning to look at Drake. As the Humans prepared, Mickayla could only look back at the Cube, its surface marred by three enormous passages through it. “This is not how I want to die.”
 

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #37 – March 03, 2019, 12:20:21 PM

[Lt.JG Alessia Garcia – “Angel” |Wolf 06 | Heart of the Azure Nebula | Debris field ]
@Iron Ferrox  @Auctor Lucan  @Triage  @Havenborn  @Doc M.  @Stegro88 @Fife  @Griff  @Nolan 

Having dealt with the Klingon ship that had been tailing Dev, Angel swung her bird around and headed back into the fight, weaving her Valravn through the ever expanding debris and phaser fire. When two more ships pinged on her HUD she cursed under her breath but was relieved when they both turned out to be friendlies, even more so the surprise that Captain Ives had indeed returned with a ship too, that was certainly some brilliant timing there.

In front of her the sky lit up as several explosions from the Borg Cube painting the stars and she couldn't help but smile. Still the Cube was still very much alive and kicking and she had to give it to the Borg, those Cubes certainly could take a beating.

"Angel, Goldeneye and Bloodwing, form up on me, diamond formation, and keep it tight." Came Salvo's order through the comm. Glancing at her HUD she noted his location and altered course to meet up with him and the others. Out of her window she could see Salvo's fighter just ahead of her as he manoeuvred the craft through debris but winced when she saw something bounce off of the craft, although she was too far out to see what it was or how bad it was. As she was about to get on the Comm and ask him how he was, her own comm sprung to life.

""Salvo to Angel, my fighter is severely damaged, take command of the flight and continue with the attack."

"Acknowledged Salvo, I'll make sure to blow an extra hole in that thing for you." Angel replied as she swooped through some more debris and opened the comm to the others.

"Angel to Goldeneye and Bloodwing, Salvo's taken a hit and has to pull out, form up on me, we're gonna fly right through there and send these son's of bitches right back to whatever corner of hell they crawled out of." she said as she scanned her HUD, finding the best place for her little group to attack, the sensors picking out several weak points that would cause significant damage if they were hit, the only problem was to hit them all they would pretty much have to skim the surface of the Cube to hit them all.

Once they were all in formation, she sent her sensor scans to their HUD's "Alright you two with Salvo out I've got three targets, we hit them and the Borg are going to find themselves in a world of hurt. Now it's risky because we're going to have to fly real close to the Cube to do it but we're Wolves, if we couldn't pull this off then none of us would be here, we can do this so keep your cool, watch your distance and hit these bastards with everything you've got, we pull this off and drinks are on me when we get back."

With her order given and having complete confidence in both Bloodwing and Goldeneye's abilities she picked her target and threw her fighter into a dive, heading straight towards the Cube.

She knew she was asking a lot from Goldeneye and Bloodwing considering how close they all had to get to the Cube to hit their targets, which was why she had opted to take the hardest target to hit herself. While the other two could just skim the surface of the Cube to hit theirs, she would have to drop down into one of the more tighter part's of the Cube that left very little room to manoeuvre.

As she continued her dive, throwing the Valravn from left to right and back again as she dodged the green streaks of Borg weapon fire, she spotted her entry point and headed right for it. The closer she got however the quicker her HUD popped up to inform her that where she was going was just barely large enough for her Valravn to fit. Based on the readings she'd have maybe an inch or two on either side of her wings to work with if that.

"Oh man that's a tight fit." Fury muttered from his seat behind her, already knowing there was no way Angel was going to rethink doing this

From her spot in front of him, Angel smirked "You're not the first guy to say that to me." she replied and chuckled at the surprised, choked cough that came from him.

To Fury's credit though it was tight, if she didn't get her entry point perfect they'd hit one of the sides and most likely bounce off of it into the other and explode...granted it would still cause quite a bit of damage but they'd be dead which wasn't an ideal situation. Keeping her eyes focused on where she was going to drop the fighter into she made a beeline for it, her HUD displaying the ideal path to take as she pulled the Valravn out of it's dive and levelled it out and slipped right between the two parts of the Cube's hull.

As both sides of the Cube whizzed past the cockpit in a blur of grey and green streaks, Angel kept her gaze straight, watching as the target reticle on her HUD slowly began lining up the closer she got to their target. However she couldn't help but be reminded how similar what she was doing to a really old Earth movie she had watched with Wraith one evening in which the hero character attempted something similar and chuckled, knowing she would have to tell him about this once they got back.

The beeping confirmation of a target lock from her HUD immediately pulled her attention fully back into the moment and she fired, unleashing several Quantum Torpedoes at the target and immediately pulled up and turning away from the Cube. The explosion illuminating the cockpit in an orange/red hue for several seconds as the Quantum's hit their target.

Glancing at her HUD she smiled at the confirmation that her target had been hit and grinned even more as it set of several more explosions back along the path she had taken.

"Angel to Bloodwing and Goldeneye, target down hope you two have had similar success, when you're done form up on me and we'll see what else we'll be needed for, if anything."

...
OOC: Objective 8 Complete.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #38 – March 06, 2019, 05:46:41 AM

[PO3 Lillee t’Jellaieu (Callsign: Bloodwing) | Wolf 08 | Debris Field | Azura Nebula] Attn: @Auctor Lucan, @Doc M., @Stegro88, @Triage, @Kinvarus, @Havenborn

[Show/Hide]

Sometimes, a battle could be nice and orderly. Everything could proceed in order, calmly and gently, allowing all combatants time to absorb each new variable and respond accordingly in an elegant dance of strategy and tactics.

This was not one of those battles. Instead, a Terran phrase that Lillee had learned from her long dead husband came to mind: it was the clusterfuck to end all clusterfucks. No sooner had she and Dragon come out of their attack run had the Borg cube adapted, unleashing an apocalyptic storm of hellfire in all directions in a display of awe-inspiring fury, missing Lillee purely because the Borg had bigger zeth'tra to fry. A message from the Reaver came in on a primitive radio frequently, and it took Lillee a good twenty seconds to realise that it was coming from Dragon. Or Cinsaj. Or Reaver. Why couldn't the idiots make up their minds about what to call that ugly beast!? And sure as Earth and Air, it was an ugly fighter, even if its hyper-maneuverability mixed with its skilled pilot made the Reaver a complete nightmare to stick with.

Then matters got even worse; In Lillee's mind, it became a Kling'hann clusterfuck, a phrase reserved only for the most dire of all possible situations. The immense Savi dreadnought appeared on the edge of the battlefield and unleashed mighty spears of energy into the cube, piercing it entirely. Still flying in and around debris, Lillee saw the message from the Versant as Captain Ives gave her orders.

Utterly insane, bizarre, mind-bendingly bonkers orders.

Still, she heard her Flight start co-ordinating for the insane bizarre mind-bendingly bonkers suicide mission, and Lillee gamely found her nearest comrades of her Flight, Salvo and Angel. By now, however, the blonde Romulan was a complete wreck inside her cockpit. She'd been too long without serious battle or stress, too long since her green blood had boiled for battle, and the death-defying struggle against the Borg had broken her endurance. She was sweating profusely now, her face flushed green in her helmet, her breathing ragged, her sense of calm from earlier in the battle now a distant memory. Lillee was terrified and exhausted, and she just wanted the whole thing to be done. Join up with the other three (blessedly still alive) Wolves, fly through the cube (she tried not think about that), fly out the other side (she really tried not to think about that) then do combat landings on the Theurgy (she liked thinking about that).

Except, as if the universe was determined to have its last laugh, the Kling'hann clusterfuck reached new heights. Lillee watched, utterly helpless, as a large piece of debris seemed to change course without warning, some thruster activating at precisely the wrong moment, instantly wrecking Salvo's Gryphon. She'd barely gotten onto Angel's wing before she noticed Goldeneye's symbol go dark as well, her wingmate's fighter flung violently away from an explosion far away, heavily damaged. In the space of mere moments, the Flight's strength had been halved.

The orders came through once more from Salvo, at least confirming that he was still alive, ordering Angel to lead the assault. The human woman didn't catch Goldeneye's apparent demise, but the battlefield was such a mess that it could hardly be helped. Instead, not trusting herself to speak calmly on the comm, Lillee took Angel's wing, aiming for the same...'tunnel'. She really tried to think of it as a tunnel, and not the jagged and far-too-narrow death zone that it appeared.

Angel piped up with some silly motivational speech, but Lillee was past caring. She flicked her eyes at the targets that Angel highlighted and immediately discounted them, some small rational part of her mind struggling through the terror. She had no torpedoes left, nothing that would even vaguely trouble those targets. No. Captain Ives had made hir recommendation. Lillee's phasers and microtorpedoes would only be effective in one place. Of course, that still didn't stop a constant muttering of curses as she aimed her Valkyrie at the tunnel least occupied by other combatants and flying in.

"Fires and little airy pricks, fuckity fuck fuck, kllhe'mnhe kllhe'mnhe kllhe'mnhe...IEEEEEEE FUCKING SHITTING IEEEEEEE!!" Lillee vaguely felt the steady wet warmth at her groin as her bladder emptied into her flight suit, but there was no time for that as she was suddenly IN the cube, flying through sheer instinct in and amongst the hull. Not wasting time, she held down all her triggers and the Valkyrie abruptly erupted into its own mini firestorm, pouring phaser and microtorpedo fore out into the cube's innards. Struck silent by the obscene effort required to navigate through the Borg cube, Lillee lightly tapped her flight stick one way than another, twitching her thrusters in minute bursts as she literally carved her way through the very heart of the Borg monster. So focused was she that when Lillee's fighter was struck by two heavy impacts from above, it took precious seconds before she realised what had happened.

In retrospect, the Borg drone knocking on her canopy should've made that obvious.

Too far gone to even feel terror any more, Lillee watched as the Borg drone kept knocking on the Valkyrie's canopy with its drill, as if trying to break through. She slowed her fighter down as much as she dared, staring at open-mouthed shock at the Borg drone relentlessly knocking on her canopy before she saw the drone's friend trying to get at the nacelle.

"Rude," Lillee muttered senselessly as she watched them work. It wasn't the wittiest of the comebacks, but the sound of her own voice did jolt her into action, accelerating once more into the cube's depths. The shields were a distant memory inside the dark metal nightmare, but there was something nearly as good. With careful aim, Lillee aimed first for the a great spike of the tunnel 'roof', flying her Valkyrie so close to it that the drone upon her canopy was literally ripped in half. The second drone had exposed something critical by the time he joined his friend, courtesy of a severed extended power conduit. Finally Lillee shot out the other end of the cube, her phasers glowing white-hot from overheating from firing during her entire run and her microtorpedo tubes badly malformed from the reckless rapid-firing.

She could scarcely believe what had just happened and indeed, even if Lillee should live for another two hundred years, she never really would.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #39 – March 07, 2019, 07:34:44 AM

[ Tessa May Lance, callsign:  Goldeneye | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie | Ithacae System ]  Attn: @Arista @Auctor Lucan @Fife @Griff @Havenborn @IronFerrox @Kinvarus @Nolan  @Stegro88

“EEEEEE!”

The explosion had sent Tessa’s fighter hurling through space out of control, the only saving grace was that the dust and debris was being pushed forward ahead of her.  For a moment the systems in her Valkyrie went dark causing a panic attack as Tessa pounded her fists against her useless console.  Then somehow the systems returned online allowing the pilot to see where she was and what direction she was heading.  Her communications gear rebooted allowing her to overhear comm chatter:

[ Angel to Goldeneye and Bloodwing, Salvo's taken a hit and has to pull out, form up on me, we're gonna fly right through there and send these sons of bitches right back to whatever corner of hell they crawled out of. ]

[ Oh um, working on it Angel, ] Tessa replied weakly while punching ineffectively at her console trying to get speed up the reboot that nearly all over her fighter’s systems seemed to be doing.  It was then that she noticed where she was heading.  Straight to the Borg cube.  Her fighter was in a dangerous corkscrew, emphasis on screw please.  She had regained sensors, life support, and incoming communications, but would the rest of her systems come on line before her fighter went splat against the surface of the Borg cube?

[ Angel to Bloodwing and Goldeneye, target down hope you two have had similar success, when you're done form up on me and we'll see what else we'll be needed for, if anything. ]

There they were, the Lone Wolves squadron, flying over the surface of the Borg cube.  If only she could regain control of her thrusters so she could change direction.  Then she could join them in one final attack run.  But it was too late, there was no time.  The corner of the Borg cube zipped by in a terrifying wall of metal as the cube rotated to bring its weapons on the Versant.  The surface of the cube got closer and closer until…

…Tessa found herself entering a humungous gaping hole in the cube that was filled with debris, drones, and angry Starfleet and Klingon fighters.  With not even a trace of her training, Tessa jabbed at the LCRS display on her console frantically to get something, ANYTHING, in her fighter to do what she told it.  She fired her phasers, photon torpedoes, and tetryon pulse phase cannon strafing the interior of the tunnel she was traveling through and causing multiple explosions.  But she didn’t care about weapons.  All she wanted was a way to control her heading and velocity. 

A proximity alert caused Tessa to squeak as two Klingon Phantoms blasted past her Valkyrie missing her by meters.  She received a transmission from one of the raiders but the universal translator in her comm system was still buggy and when the message appeared in capital letters on her HUD it said:  [ LEARN HOW TO DRIVE. ]

It wasn’t until she had finally cleared the Borg cube that she was able to regain control of her impulse drive and thrusters.  She spotted Lillee’s transponder code and headed in that direction to regroup with her wingmate.

[ Um, attack run complete, ] Tessa bashfully squeaked as she rejoined her squadron.  [ This is Goldeneye.  Rendezvousing with the pack now. ]

---

Objective Five, complete!

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #40 – March 07, 2019, 11:47:33 AM

[ Devyrie "Dragon" Okhala | Cinsaj's Cockpit | AC-507 Mk I Reaver | Heart of the Azure Nebula ] Attn:
^{@Nolan @Stegro88 @Fife @Havenborn @Doc M. @Griff @Kinvarus @Iron Ferrox}
[Show/Hide]

When Devyrie flew the Cinsaj into the Borg cube, she was quickly reminded how delicate the response of her control sleeves were. She could no longer rely on the relative openness of her trajectory, even less so than she'd been able to in the debris field outside. Every twitch, every centimetre she moved her sleeves moved the Reaver accordingly, and the first couple of seconds, she believed they were going to crash into the top of the wide tunnel. Thirty meters vertically wasn't ideal, and sucked a breath through her teeth, and decelerated - just like most of the others who entered the cube. Vaguely, she picked up on other fighters following her. Likely Angel, Bloodwing and Goldeneye, but she couldn't afford to check.

"Have you armed everything?" she called to Drake, who was bleeding from his face but still lit up her weapon systems.

"Armed!" he called, eventually, when they were almost five-hundred meters in.

Dev's green eyes widened. "Brace!" she called, and she had no idea where to go... seeing two Klingon raiders flying straight towards her in the nightmarish darkness of the damaged cube. It was merely sheer luck that made her roll the Reaver to port, just like the Klingons veered off to their port side, and they missed each other by a couple of yards. The micro fusion thruster wake made the Reaver begin to turn. Coming out of the roll was harde and Devyrie impacted with the bottom of the tunnel.

Only Devyrie had activated the transphasic shields, making the Reaver light up the innards of the cube, and bounce off the surface relatively unscathed. She hoped the Wolves behind her didn't collide with the two raiders either. With less than two kilometers of the cube left to fly through, she swore under her breath and checked what she had available in terms of hardpoints. She didn't even know what she carried, exactly, but she did manage to set a delay timer on detonations. She had lost sight of everyone else, but she had a notion that those who shared her tunnel were to the aft of her and out on her starboard side. "Opening fire!"

Barghest cluster bombs shot into the openings of ruptured conduits. Odd, fighter-sized tri-cobalt warheads followed, vanishing into a second area. Then, something called transphasic torpedoes, speeding off into an opening on her starboard side. Two of them, followed by rapid fire of her dual quantum pulse phaser cannons. The bolts stood out because of their blue color, much like the light emissions of a launched quantum torpedo was blue too. She tore the guts of the cube asunder with her cannons alongside her new pack, even though every second might be her last - sight rendered too poor for safe flying because of all the flashing lights. Every moment it lasted frayed on her nerves, and fear threatened to make her release the fire controls on her gloves. She ended up screaming halfway through the cube. Like some kind of battle cry, just to push herself to continue, and not stay her onslaught against the metal monstrosity's insides.

As if returning to a blue sky, the Reaver cleared the cube, emerging on the other side.

And the next moment, all who had left torpedoes behind on a delayed fuse were lit by the fallout. Despite it's size and density, the cube seemed to catch fire within. Soundless detonations hollowing out the internal structure, and flares emanating along the surface. Devyrie had turned the Cinsaj about in time to see it. While the three beams of the Versant had cut the cube open, the density of the cube served to work against it when the Wolves and the Allegiant made their runs. Even Devyrie knew that explosions within hard solid surfaces become amplified two to nine times due to shock wave reflection. That must have been why Ives gave the order.

At that rate, the Cube seemed to have lost its altitude control, for the great monolith of destruction began to slowly keel over in the centre of the debris field. The sight made Devyrie let out a triumphant cry. Perhaps it was silly, but the relief of tension the sight gave her after the run just couldn't be denied. "<You don't like to take it up your fat metal ass?>" she cried in Romulan, curling her upper lip at it, "<Collapse and die, you cunt!>"

That was when, she realised that not all of the Wolves IFFs were accounted for. It might be they had lost two of them in there, in that inferno. Dev made a quick tally, and saw how both Meerkat and Scylla weren't clear of the cube, and since the sensors were shit, it could still be they were. Either that, or destroyed. In any case, in all likelihood, they hadn't made it. "Come on, get out of there..."

So, when the second power spike from the Versant lit her sensors, she couldn't help but feel a bit of trepidation. She hadn't talked to the two White Wolves since the Orcus, and the battle at Starbase 84, and it might be she'd lost them anew. "The Versant is firing again," she said to Mickayla and Drake, and even though they were warned, the bright light still made her squint. Three new lances of aquamarine light speared the capsizing cube, and the toppling movement made the beams carve up new rifts, running straight through the remaining mass. Hollowed out as it had been, more or less, the beams eventually made the cube split up in nine drifting parts. The energy spikes made it impossible to tell if any trapped warp fighters made it out of there, but Devyrie kept her eyes primed until the hail came.

[Mission Ops to the Allegiant and all Lone Wolves, there is no time to dock. Prepare to receive new shield harmonics and follow the Theurgy into the second aperture. Tow those who can't make it there on their own.] Devyrie frowned, and looked beyond the cube and the debris field. The first aperture was still there, only gaping wider... but the Theurgy had just opened a second one, far off to the side of the first. Were they really about to retreat through it? The hail continued. [Before you enter, load the new shields, or you will not make it through to the other side. Please acknowledge.]

What delayed Devyrie's response to Mission Ops... was the movements within that first aperture.

New Borg cubes. A long procession of them. At least ten were within visual range, and they just kept on coming in a long, dreadful march through the subspace tunnel - heading straight for them. "By the Centauri skies... Are we retreating?"

The Versant wasn't done yet. As one, her launchers swivelled towards the broken pieces of the Borg cube, and fired a swarm of full-size tri-cobalt torpedoes. Afterwards, Devyrie wouldn't remember when she set the Reaver in motion again, complying with the orders from Mission Ops, even though she felt like they were leaving the Federation to its fate. While she understood that they couldn't do anything against that many cubes, were they just going to bail out?

"Reaver-Zero-One to Mission Ops... Acknowledged." She had no idea what the plan was, but she would comply with orders.

When she set a course to follow the Theurgy, the hailstorm of torpedoes hit the remains of the Borg cube, tearing up the last chunks of blackened mass asunder.

---

OOC: For this phase of the thread, you have a sequence in which 1) the Lone Wolves and the Allegiant clear the cube, and it's shredded within by the delayed explosions of the torpedoes, 2) the Versant opens fire again, cutting up the capsizing husk of the cube into smaller pieces, 3) orders to follow the Theurgy into a newly opened second aperture comes in from Mission Ops on the Theurgy (likely Stark's voice) 4) the procession of new Borg cubes may be spotted in that first aperture that was opened, approaching them through the subspace tunnel 5) report in to Mission Ops that orders are understood, and you may have to tow fellow Lone Wolves with tractor beams depending on what others post. 6) The Versant fires her ordnance of tri-cobalt torpedoes against the remaining chunks of the first Borg cube, making for nice fireworks. 7) In the end of your posts, your character might or mightn't spot a Type 11 shuttle leaving the Upper Shuttle Bay of the Theurgy, with a single Bajoran life-sign aboard. Furthermore, the Klingon fleet is in retreat as well, warping away out of the area. Even the Cayuga goes to warp, leaving. 8) End your posts with loading the new shield harmonics and following the Theurgy into that second aperture. FYI: those Wolves who returned to the Fighter Assault Bay before the tunnel run have now docked with the Theurgy, and their fighting continues in the tread named Injustice.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #41 – March 10, 2019, 02:24:23 PM

[Lt.JG Alessia Garcia – “Angel” |Wolf 06 | Heart of the Azure Nebula | Debris field ]
@Iron Ferrox  @Auctor Lucan  @Triage  @Havenborn  @Doc M.  @Stegro88 @Fife  @Griff  @Nolan 

Having grouped up with her wing after their attack run on the Cube Alessia checked her HUD to see where the rest of the Wolves were, seeing a lot of them scatted around the Cube and the surrounding area although she was sure there were a few missing, hopefully most of them already back on the ship but she'd find that out soon enough.

The pilot was brought out of her thoughts at the sound of an explosion and turned her head to look at the Cube, watching as several explosions tore through the massive vessel, shredding it from the inside out.  "Yeah! Take that you pendejos!" she exclaimed happily as she watched the Cube get torn apart, it certainly was a great sight to see.

The destruction wasn't over though as she watched the Versant open fire on the crippled Cube, watching as it's weapons carved up the devistated Cube into smaller and smaller pieces "Let's see you adapt to that you sons of bitches." she chuckled as she watched the Cube get smaller and smaller in size as it was shredded. Unfortunately she couldn't enjoy the complete destruction of this however as her Comm came to life.

[Mission Ops to the Allegiant and all Lone Wolves, there is no time to dock. Prepare to receive new shield harmonics and follow the Theurgy into the second aperture. Tow those who can't make it there on their own.] Devyrie frowned, and looked beyond the cube and the debris field. The first aperture was still there, only gaping wider... but the Theurgy had just opened a second one, far off to the side of the first. Were they really about to retreat through it? The hail continued. [Before you enter, load the new shields, or you will not make it through to the other side. Please acknowledge.]

Swivelling her head, she spotted the second aperture that the Theurgy had opened and briefly wondered how she had failed to spot that but then again she had been fighting a Borg Cube so it wasn't that big of a deal and altered course to head towards it. As they flew she glanced over at the first aperture and cursed at the sight of all the Borg Cube currently emerging through it.

"Oh shit, yeah it's definately time to go. Fury have you got those new shield harmonics?"

From behind her Fury nodded "Yep, applying them now, we're good to go."

With a nod she adjusted her course to place her fighter behind the Theurgy and activated the Comm "Angel to Mission Ops new shield settings recieved and applied, we're right behind you." she acknowledged.

As she flew past various debris she watched as the Versant fired some tri-cobalt torpedoes at the final remnants of the Borg Cube, taking a moment to enjoy the light show the explosions made, it certainly made for a good fireworks display. The Klingons were in full retreat as well as they started warping out of the area, not too keen on enjoying the show or tackling the newly arriving Borg either it would seem.

As she approched the Theurgy she frowned as she saw a Type 11 shuttle leave the bay "What the...?" she muttered as she ran a quick sensor scan on the craft, noting one Bajoran life sign on it. "Now who the hell is that?" she muttered although she didn't have time to do much else as the Theurgy flew into the aperture.

Taking a quick glance at her HUD to confirm that the new shield harmonics were applied and holding she flew her Valravn into the aperture, another battle successfully survived.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #42 – March 11, 2019, 11:42:20 PM

[ Ensign Isel “Foxfire” Nix | Wolf-04 | Debris Field | Azure Nebula ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88
[Show/Hide]

Foxfire kept her Valkyrie close on Chance’s tail as they made their run through the Borg cube, all the while thinking to herself how insane this day had turned out to be. It occurred to her that this run through the heart of the cube was the most insane undertaking yet as she fired off her ordinance, the torpedoes set on time delays to allow them time to escape. All around her the cube’s deck lay carved open, the Versant’s weapons having cleaved through the cube like nothing she had ever seen. Quick flashes of the cube’s interior streaked by, alcoves and consoles flickering as the Borg attempted to restore power and regain some use of their vessel. That thought caused Isel to smile behind her flight helmet. Let them try. The Lone Wolves were leaving them a nice present that would put a rather immense dent in their efforts.

”We’re almost there, Chance. Stay sharp.” Foxfire called over their comms, her eyes wide and alert as they continued on through the tight quarters of the tunnel. She had just caught sight of blue light further down the tunnel and would be glad to be clear of the cube. This was madness. Isel was last in their little party, with Ravon at the forefront, followed by Ghost and the Klingon Raiders who had joined them. She couldn’t see much of them past Chance’s fighter, but she imagined they were doing much the same as she was. Firing torpedoes into the walls of the tunnel and counting down the seconds until they would be clear of the bloody thing. It was just as that thought cross her mind that Isel saw the flash of Klingon weapons ahead. The idiot pilots must have either gotten overly excited or run out of torpedoes, as they were now firing their disruptors into the walls of the tunnel. As a result, there was now a hail of debris raining down on Chance’s fighter as well as her own, the chunks of broken off scrap impacting her shields and setting alarms blaring inside her cockpit. ”Fucking idiots!!” Isel yelled as she tried to redirect power to her shields, her eyes having caught sight of the blue swirls of the Azure Nebula ahead, closer now. ”What the hell are they…”

She saw it too late, a large piece of cube which had broken off. Ahead of her, Chance’s fighter veered as much as it could to avoid the debris, and Isel had time to start the same sort of maneuver, but not enough to get properly out of the way. The piece slammed into her shields, rocking the Valkyrie and setting a new wave of alarms screeching at her inside the cockpit. Isel let out a long stream of curses of she tried to compensate of the impact. The blue light ahead was larger now and growing closer, but not close enough. The sideways motion caused by the impact caused her Valkyrie’s port side to strike the wall of the tunnel. The last ounces of power her shields had held absorbed the brunt of the impact, but sent her drifting to her starboard side. Foxfire ground her teeth as she fought to gain control, her lips peeled back to bare her teeth at the displays as though she could scare them into obeying her will. The blue swirls of the Azure Nebula grew ever closer, and for a moment Foxfire thought she might just clear the opening. It proved to be just a little too far, however, and her starboard wing impacted the lip of the tunnel as she passed through the opening. The shock of the impact wrenched Isel inside the cockpit as her fighter was thrown into an uncontrolled spin by the strike. Her wing had been partially torn away, and warnings popped up all over her readouts. Starboard impulse, down. Communications, down. Power, unstable. ”Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” Isel growled as she desperately tried to correct the spin, her head feeling light from the force of the motion. Inertial dampeners must have been down too. There were so many alerts, it was impossible for her to sort them out.

”Chance, can you hear me? I’m fucked up, I need help!” She called, hoping by some miracle the message would make it through, ”Chance, do you copy?”

A new alert blared then, though it was lost amongst the others. Isel was still fighting to try and right her heading when the console to her left overloaded, the display erupting. Isel didn’t even have time to cry out in alarm as she was thrown hard against the restraints of her seat, the force of the blast coupled with the already considerable strain of the spin sending her spiraling into unconsciousness. The last thing she saw as her eyes drifted shut and the inky darkness of unconsciousness overtook her was a small spider’s web of cracks in her flight helmet, the readouts on her HUD flickering as the cracks disrupted the information being shown on her visor.

As that darkness overtook her, Isel’s mind sent out one last thought, one final plea for help. Donna…

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #43 – March 14, 2019, 04:51:05 AM

[ Tessa May Lance, callsign:  Goldeneye | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie | Ithacae System ]

It was a bit of a struggle, but Tessa finally managed to regroup with the rest of the squadron.  Thankfully they were flying away from the Borg cube instead of towards it.  Tessa’s Heads Up Display informed her that multiple explosions were taking place in the cube, but the flustered pilot couldn’t pay attention:  The area was an obstacle course and her impulse drive was at half power.  A glowing green light illuminated the area and Tessa was momentarily distracted by the sensor readings that revealed that the Savi ship had fired again at the Borg cut and managed to cut it to pieces.  Could it be?  Was their mission a success?  It certainly seemed like it, for right now the Lone Wolves Squadron was heading back to the Theurgy.

As if in confirmation, Tessa heard the voice of Lieutenant Commander Natalie Stark:

[ Mission Ops to the Allegiant and all Lone Wolves, there is no time to dock. Prepare to receive new shield harmonics and follow the Theurgy into the second aperture. Tow those who can't make it there on their own. ]

”Um, aye-aye Mission Ops,” Tessa replied. 

[ Before you enter, load the new shields, or you will not make it through to the other side. Please acknowledge. ]

”Yipes!” Tessa yelped as she frantically ran her hand across her control panel to match the frequency of her shields with those her Valkyrie’s computer had received.  ”Um, I read you Mission Ops, Wolf Seven, Goldeneye, loading new shield harmonics right… now!” she chirped as she updated her shield harmonics.
 
From out of the dust and debris was the silhouette of the Theurgy, the fighters were closing on it now.  Then space seemed to buckle and behind the Theurgy a glowing blue circle appeared, inside was a monstrous tunnel through space whose very existence seemed to encourage cognitive dissonance.  Even more alarming was the glimpse of what appeared to be greyish sugar cubes in the distance.  It took an entire second for Tessa to realize that she was looking at Borg cubes!  More of them were coming!

A second tunnel appeared in space and the Theurgy turned and headed towards that one, and like a bunch of little ducks, all of the Starfleet fighters turned and followed.  Where were they going?  Where would they end up?  Would the Versant close the wormhole and seal off the Borg, and if so how would it do that?  Had anything she did today make a difference?

[ Wolf 07, this is Captain Ziegler.  I know this is unusual, but I just wanted to thank you for actions today.  In real terms you saved us.  You may be Goldeneye, but to us, you'll always be our guardian.  Until we meet again, safe travels. Cayuga out. ]

Tessa smiled weakly.  Maybe something had.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #44 – March 14, 2019, 06:13:10 PM

[PO3 Lillee t’Jellaieu (Callsign: Bloodwing) | Wolf 08 | Debris Field | Azura Nebula] Attn: @Auctor Lucan, @Doc M., @Kinvarus, @Brutus

[Show/Hide]

The battle was finally reaching its crescendo. As Lillee flew her Valkyrie directly away from the Borg cube, she watched her aft camera feed as the immense battered cube was gutted from within. Other Wolves flew nearby on similar trajectories, too far away to form a unifed formation but at least close enough for comfort, and Lillee breathed a ragged sigh of relief. Behind them, great bursts of flame erupted from the Borg cube's wounds in great jets of destruction, inflicting horrific damage on the vessel's internal systems and finally causing its cubical structure to buckle.

The Borg were beaten.

After clearing the debris field, Lillee slowed her Valkyrie down to simply watch the show, idly diverting her badly strained micro warp core to regenerating her depleted shields. She turned on her axis and watched as the Versant unleashed another devastating salvo. The Borg cube, already reduced to a broken hulk by the internal explosions, its weapons long since silenced, was finally ripped apart by the Versant's powerful beam weapons, massive pieces of wreckage flying in all directions.

The surviving Federation fighters had all of ten seconds to enjoy their victory before reality intruded.

[Mission Ops to the Allegiant and all Lone Wolves, there is no time to dock. Prepare to receive new shield harmonics and follow the Theurgy into the second aperture. Tow those who can't make it there on their own. Before you enter, load the new shields, or you will not make it through to the other side. Please acknowledge.]

Startled, Lillee flipped her Valkyrie back around. The Theurgy now looked just as badly damaged as the Cayuga, with the few surviving Klingon warships looking little better...and then Lillee saw the aperture.

The open aperture.

With immense cube shapes inside, steadily growing larger.

"Mission Ops, Wolf 08 acknowledging," Lillee said hurriedly into her comm as she aimed her Valkyrie at the Theurgy, which was now maneuvering clumsily towards the entrance of another open aperture. The starship was horribly battered, its hull bearing numerous black scars and two of its nacelles ominously dark, but it was blessedly still in the fight. As she quickly reconfigured her shields to the new harmonics, trusting her computer to do the hard work, she sighed with relief as her HUD showed that Salvo was safely docked back on the Theurgy.

Then at a sudden rush of guilt, she checked her HUD again and saw Goldeneye approaching from behind. Too tired to feel anything more than dull relief, Lillee simply decelerated a little, finally slotting into place on Goldeneye's starboard aft quarter as their battered little element moved with everyone else to reunite with the Theurgy and escape through the subspace tunnel.

"Goldeneye, Bloodwing," she said wearily on their element comm channel. "I'm on your wing again. I'm quite ready to leave this Fire-cursed place. Following your lead."

A part of Lillee's mind realised that a dozen Borg cubes were about to invade the Alpha and Beta quadrants, about to run amok and inflict unimaginable devastation as the Theurgy fled the battle. The rest of her mind just didn't too care, too worn down by endless combat and too many brushes with death. She watched the four-nacelled Cayuga fling into warp along with the few surviving Klingons, and Lillee blinked tears of fatigue away. The battle would be over soon. Not long now.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #45 – March 14, 2019, 11:25:24 PM

[ Lt Cmdr Thomas 'Razor' Ravon | Kestrel | Heart of the Azure Nebula | Debris field ]

The timer was running out on the bottom right corner of his HUD, the red numbers counting down as their attack run was coming to and end. The tunnel of green and black coming to an end as conduits and smaller explosions fired away around the flight of Raiders and Valkyries. Thomas gritted his teeth together as the timer got to zero. They weren't fucking out yet! As the cube around them began to shake and tremble due to the internal explosions the sound on the voice comms became more panicky. The Klingons urging the lead fighter to pick up more speed as Thomas followed the initial raider, yet scraping his fighter even more so with debris. The explosion from within was right on their tail though.

"Fuck sake, punch it!" he shouted out tot he raider that had taken position in front of him as it somehow managed to overtake the wolf leader in the tunnel run. Thomas armed his phaser cannons as he would blast the raider into oblivion if it didn't move out in time. With some luck though the raider made into the blue hue of the nebula once more, Thomas following quickly as he burned through his thrusters at full speeds. He flipped the ship around again to count the remaining wolves popping out. Yet the explosion was much bigger then anticipated as the cube simple began to break off in various chunks. The impact of the gathered payloads sending a shockwave big enough to cause his ship to veer off as he urged to get control back.

It sent the pack leader out into the debris field of Klingon ships yet he recovered relatively easy with the thrusters and made a course back to the cube as it seemed to have been hit by the Versant once more. Victory seemed to have come at some point in this battle and it brought a smile on Thomas' face for a second before he looked at the open aperture. The new wave of cubes following the open gateway into their quadrant. Was all of this for naught?

[Mission Ops to the Allegiant and all Lone Wolves, there is no time to dock. Prepare to receive new shield harmonics and follow the Theurgy into the second aperture. Tow those who can't make it there on their own. Before you enter, load the new shields, or you will not make it through to the other side. Please acknowledge.]

Thomas could hear the sound off of the remaining wolves and he circled around the battlefield as he watched the Versant with a weary eye. "New shield harmonics confirmed, adjusting now. Razor out." he answered to ops before he noticed a shuttle leave the Theurgy. He frowned as it made little sense why they would send out a shuttle and he contacted mission ops once more "Control, why do we have a shuttle breaking free of the Theurgy? Over."

The Cayuga warped out with a flash and Razor wondered what the hell was going on. A suicide mission for the shuttle? His eyes looked over the remaining might of the Klingon Defense Force. It was in full retreat and ships were warping out as well as Thomas' suspicion was neither confirmed nor denied. He plotted for the Theurgy's trajectory and followed it en suite as he kept his eyes out for any stragglers. Ships that would be unresponsive to their retreat he'd attempt to pick up with a tow. The second aperture would lead them to a new place without a doubt, a safer place hopefully.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #46 – March 15, 2019, 11:39:48 AM

[ Lt. JG Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson | Wolf 03 | Debris Field | Azure Nebula ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Nolan @Kinvarus @Fife @Masorin @Griff @Doc M.
[Show/Hide]

If Chance hadn’t been wearing her helmet, she was sure that her hair would have been standing on its end, such was the insanity of what they were doing. They were literally flying through the inside of a cube, depositing torpedoes and other ordnance as they passed while dodging drones that were falling though the tunnel; why, Chance had no clue. Triggering off the last of her external weapons, the pair of Hellhound Cluster Bombs, Chance focused on exiting the shaft.

"We're almost there, Chance. Stay sharp." Foxfire called over their comms, and Chance saw the reason why ahead of her. The Klingon Raiders, having expended their ordnance, where now tearing into the innards of the cube with their disruptors, tearing pieces off and filling the tunnel carved by the Versant with chunks of debris. "Fucking idiots!!" Chance heard Foxfire yell. "What the hell are they..."

Chance didn’t have the opportunity at that moment to determine why Isel had stopped speaking as she was completely focused on avoiding a large section of the cube that the Klingons had dislodged. Resisting the urge to slam the yoke sideways, as that would be as equally suicidal as ramming the debris, Chance used a deft touch to slip her fighter up onto its side to slip between the wreckage and the wall of the tunnel. Alarms sounded as both her dorsal and ventral shields were depleted from scraping against the cube and its fallen pieces.

But then she was through and could see the Azure Nebula ahead. Along with all more debris between herself and the relative freedom of the debris field. She wanted to check with Isel that she was ok, but it would have to wait until they exited the cube. The Klingons were doing their utmost to complicate their extraction and Chance had to focus 100 percent or she would still be here when her torps blew.

“Bloody trigger-happy Klingons,” Chance thought to herself as she scraped her fighter under a piece of wreckage, her shield status blaring at her again at how close she had come. “Always making shit harder than it needs to be.” But finally, after several more tight twists and rolls, Chance brought Wolf-03 out of the cube and back into the Azure Nebula. “That was one hell of a ride Foxfire. Now let’s regroup with the others.”

But Foxfire didn’t respond. And a cold feeling began to seep into Chance’s gut. Wolf-04 had been right behind her during the run and some of the gaps she had sent her warp fighter were ridiculously small. Checking her sensors, she at first felt relief that Wolf-04’s transponder was still active and beyond the cube, and then she felt dread when she realised her lover’s craft was in an uncontrolled flat spin with unstable power readings.

“Wolf-03 to Wolf-04, come in Foxfire,” Chance called over coms, begging for an answer but not getting one. “Isel, please respond,” Chance asked again as she flipped her fighter around to close back on her wing mate’s. Catching her first look at the damaged Valkyrie, Chance feared the worst before her sensors were able to confirm that Wolf-04 still contained one Vulpinian life sign. “Oh, thank fuck.”

[Mission Ops to the Allegiant and all Lone Wolves, there is no time to dock. Prepare to receive new shield harmonics and follow the Theurgy into the second aperture. Tow those who can't make it there on their own.]

“Oh, give us a break will you,” Chance muttered.

[Before you enter, load the new shields, or you will not make it through to the other side. Please acknowledge.]

“Shit,” Chance growled out as her computer received the newly distributed harmonics. “If her coms are down, Isel probably hasn’t received any of that. And I am for damn sure not leaving her behind,” Chance promised to herself. “Wolf-03 to Control, orders received and understood. I’ll pick up Wolf-04 on the way. Out.”

Loading and activating the harmonics on her own ship first, Chance then brought her fighter over Foxfires, matching velocities before dropping down in front of it. Powering up her tractor beam, Chance waited for it to come online before trying to catch Foxfire’s craft. She missed on her first attempt, her forward shield’s taking a hit from some debris and throwing her aim off, but her second attempt succeeded.

“Step one complete,” Chance said to herself as she brought her fighter, and consequently Foxfire’s as well, around to line up on the Aperture that the Theurgy had selected for their escape. “Now for the hard part.”

Shortening her tow as much as possible, Chance brought the two craft as close together as she dared before ending her shields around the two warp fighters. This dropped her shield strength dangerously low and Chance was forced to power down her phasers and transfer the power to her shields. Left with just her micro torpedoes to clear any debris in her path, Chance checked again to confirm that there was still a Vulpinian life sign before focusing on the path ahead.

“Chance to all Wolves. I have Foxfire in tow. On limited power. Would appreciate if someone could make sure the road ahead is clear. Chance out.”

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #47 – March 19, 2019, 08:50:08 PM

[ PO1 Mickayla MacGregor & Devyrie Okhala| Cinsaj's Cockpit | AC-507 Mk I Reaver | Debris Field | Azure Nebula | At Warp ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88
[Show/Hide]

---

Mickayla screwed her eyes shut as the Reaver had entered the cub. The last thing she had wanted to see was the innards of a Borg vessel, even if they were blowing it up. Unfortunately, for better or worse, her imagination filled in the blanks of what was happening around her. She listened as Dev and Drake armed the weapons and braced herself on the pilot’s command while trying to focus on something other than what they were doing.

Mickayla had no illusions about her usefulness in this situation; she was effectively dead weight. She was not a pilot, nor versed in ship combat. She was security. Her role was protecting the ship and its crew from threats to their direct persons. If her ship went to red alert, she was to prepare to repel potential boarders, not fire the photon torpedoes. That was Lieutenant Drake’s job. That was Dev’s job.

So, she shut her eyes and tried to shut out the passage of the Reaver through the cube. But she felt the vibrations through the hull of weapons being released. She heard the proclamations from Dev, both in Standard and in Romulan. But it was the announcement that the Versant was firing again that caused Mickayla to open her eyes again. As much as she hated that nightmare vessel, it had literally carved holes through the cube and now, it was aiming to do so again. 

The cube, its insides pulverised by the attack runs, couldn’t withstand a second volley and cracked apart into almost a dozen pieces. Distorted words could be heard coming from Dev’s helmet as the pilot received what Mickayla assumed was new orders from whomever was directing the battle. And then, just as Dev noticed it as well, Mickayla saw movement within the aperture that the cube had been defending. And she didn’t like what she saw. A line of Borg cubes approaching from who knew where.

"By the Centauri skies... Are we retreating?" Dev wondered.

“I would,” Drake answered rhetorically. “The Cayuga is preparing to go to warp, and we should do the same. We’re fast enough and small enough that if we choose a different course, we can escape and warn the others.”

Mickayla thought that what Drake said had merit. Different courses meant that it doubled the chances of the warning getting out. And after glancing at the sensors for a moment, noting that the Cayuga appeared damaged, realised that they were probably the faster. “But how do we explain the warp fighter we are in?” Mickayla wondered as the Versant continued to assault the cube, this time using torpedoes of some variety to target the broken, drifting pieces of wreckage.

"Reaver-Zero-One to Mission Ops... Acknowledged." She had no idea what the plan was, but she would comply with orders as she set a course to follow the Theurgy. 

Devyrie had to remain calm, her command over the controls of the Reaver seemed so hair thin that a wrong move would spiral them or put them out of place. She was the most powerful fighter that Dev had ever touched, but in a way, it also felt like the thing was inside her head, and it made navigating them behind the Theurgy an act of ease, and that was when they got the information from ops of what the plan was. "We are pulling out of the battlefield alright, but the Theurgy can't make the warp jump, and I won't abandon her."

“What do you mean that isn’t the plan?” Drake asked, his tone rising. “We need to leave now. We can still get away.”

"We are leaving." Her voice was calm and measured, but Devyrie was not going to hold up to this cowardly crap. She wasn't going to abandon the Theurgy after all the work they had just put into getting here. "The Theurgy is going through a second aperture and we are going to follow." She almost convinced herself with how much steel she had put into her words, but the truth was she had no idea where that thing was going to put them. 

“No!” Drake exclaimed, pointing down at the sensors. On the screen Mickayla could just make out a group of Federation starships approaching at warp. “There is still time to let them know what has happened. We contact them and everyone goes back to Earth. There will be a full investigation, probably some and you can tell them how you were just following orders. That it was either that or death. It’s time to do the right thing.”

The incoming Federation was a problem. She felt a pang of regret for them. If what Ops was saying was correct, she had no clue if they could outrun the blast. "The apertures are going to be collapsed along with all of subspace and if we stay here, we are fucked royally as well! We'd be stuck out here in a warp fighter without warp! No food, no com systems, there is no time to argue about this we gotta leave."

Mickayla was starting to get concerned. Drake was getting more and more worked up. She had seen this happen in the past when he got passionate about something. She hadn’t been part of the security team that had been to escort him off the bridge of the Endeavour, but she had heard about it later. How he had punched another officer to stop him from locking a tractor beam only a fleeing smuggler.

“I don’t care what you say, I am not going through that thing,” Drake announced, reaching up and reefing on the pilot’s arm and sending the Reaver rolling over itself and turning away from the aperture.

As her arm was pulled, and the Reaver did a sudden flip, she almost felt like her stomach was going to be punched with how quick the inertial dampeners had to pull on them to equal the force of the sudden shift. "The fuck are you doing Drake! Listen that thing is the only way out in time! If we stay here, we will die!"

“Being trapped in a subspace void is not the way I want to go out,” Mickayla thought to herself as Drake and Dev fought over the controls. The Reaver barely managed to miss the drifting remains of a Vor’cha-class cruiser as it responded to the commands from the sleeves. “Neither is being slammed into space junk.”

“Drake, stop reefing on the sleeves. You’re going to kill us,” Mickayla pleaded. “Dev, how sure are you about us being trapped here?”

"If they destroy subspace we loose warp, communication, and a half dozen other systems. So yeah I'm pretty damn sure." To Dev looking at other options weren't very satisfactory. The Cinsaj was more advanced than she really knew what to do with, there was a chance that there were systems aboard it that could keep them alive in a subspace void, but she also didn't want to test that theory, it hinged on too many maybes. The Theurgy was already pulling out, it had an escape plan one that would take seconds with their capability and keep them with the ship and crew they had been sworn to serve.

“It doesn’t matter. We can still escape via warp. This ship can make at least warp 9.5,” Drake stated, his voice rising again. “But we need to leave now,” Drake asserted.

“Is he right?” Mickayla asked the pilot, needed to know the answer. “Can we escape at warp?”

"At warp 9.5, we might be able to get out of the blast zone before detonation, but where would we go!" If they turned back towards the Federation than they would be arrested, if they turned towards the Klingon Empire they would be joining Martok and his crew for a bit, but they would still be wanted criminals.

“Better warp than wherever that leads us,” Drake proclaimed.

"We chose to serve the Theurgy if we leave now than we are betraying the last few morals we have as officers." Not to mention stealing the only evidence they have of the threats that came from the future. "If so again I ask you, if not through that portal where? I have no intention of spending my life in a Federation prison!"

“Dev got us off the Versant. I owe her for that,” Mickayla weighed in her mind. “Escaping at warp would essentially be a prison sentence for her. Probably a very long one no matter what. And that is not the right way to repay someone that will have saved our lives twice.” But then there was the other side of the coin. “If we stay here, we die. Slowly or quickly, but still dead. Or there is the aperture and the Theurgy. They’re traitors to the Federation but I can still be loyal while with them and then do my duty when the opportunity presents itself.”

Dev was struggling for control now, the Cinsaj banking erratically where every single pull made the ship veer off course due to the sensitive nature of the controls. "If you don't let go, than we won't go anywhere!"

“Drake let go of the controls now,” Mickayla ordered her crazed superior officer. “Dev says she can get us to safety, and I believe her. We don’t have time for maybes.”

“Going through that aperture is a maybe!” Drake retorted loudly and angrily. “We don’t know what is on the other end of it.”

“Better the unknown than certain death here,” Mickayla replied. She felt her heartrate spike when she noticed a large piece of something looming in front of them, growing ever larger. “Drake, last warning.”

“Stand down Petty Officer MacGregor, that’s an order!” Drake shouted as he wrenched on the controls again, sending the Reaver into an uncontrolled roll directly at the wreckage.

Dev Braced herself as the impact of the debris dented and scratched against the Cinsaj hopefully they could just buffer that out, but it shook the inside of the ship hurting her shoulder as she struggled to regain control over the fighter.

“NO!” Drake yelled. “Death before dishonour!” Drake grabbed her, and nearly pushed her to the ground, in the moment with Drakes arms atop Dev she had a cold flash back to being held down by a different male, and while she struggled under him, she screamed feeling so cold, and in the moment scared, then angry, but try as she might she wasn't strong enough to push the other off of her. Not while her arms were still locked to the controls.

"Get off of me!"

“I don’t want to die this way,” was the thought that crossed Mickayla’s mind, spurring her into action. Rolling over, the Klingon woman pressed herself up against the Human pilot as much as she could. Pulling her arm back, Mickayla slugged Gideon Drake as hard as she could in the face, pushing her crewmate from the Endeavour off the pilot and slamming his head into the side of the armoured cockpit.

Dev caught her breath in the fall out of the mass chaos. Drake had hurt her from being grabbed, her human body not nearly as sturdy as the half Romulan one she was used too. She was panting and coughed after the struggle trying to regain some strength and stop shaking. After all that had happened to her she didn't really like anyone grabbing her, and she was startled as well. A few tears worked their way past her eyes as she started to recover from the panic attack.

“He’ll be fine. A headache and probably a broken nose,” Mickayla stated, looking at the blood streaming from the tactical officer’s nose. “Nothing a doctor can’t fix. Now get us through that aperture.”

"Don't care!" She said glancing at the man who was unconscious, after what he had just tried to do she kind of hoped that she would never have to see the man again. "I just want off of this fighter."

Ice stuck into Dev's words as she turned her attention back to the ship, and sent them through the apature that The Theurgy had opened at maximum impulse.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #48 – March 20, 2019, 05:25:16 PM

[ Lieutenant JG Evelyn Rawley, callsign "Ghost" | Wolf 02 | Cockpit of AC-409 Valkyrie Winterbourne | Azure Nebula ] Attn: @Nolan @Stegro88 @Fife @Havenborn @Doc M. @Griff @Kinvarus
[Show/Hide]

Like many other Wolves, Rawley had howled in elation when seeing the Borg cube disintegrate.

Her breath was ragged, heart beating loudly inside her helmet's earpieces, she tasted blood in her mouth after her inertial dampeners went offline, the inside of her exosuit was marinated with her salty egesta, her fighter was battered... but she'd just gutted a cube, so it was bloody worth it in her opinion. With fangs bared, she saw the Versant - which she'd never seen before that day - launch a swarm of torpedoes that her sensors told her were some kind of tri-cobalt variety, and she kept grinning when the drifting parts of the cube was obliterated by the onslaught.

Her grin faded, however, when the hail came, and she saw the reason for the tactical retreat. The multitude of cubes that were due, making her realise that the Klingons, the Theurgy, the Allegiant, the Lone Wolves and the Cayuga had thrown everything they had against the first one, and even then, they might have lost the battle... if it hadn't been for that gargantuan alien axe-ship. She had no idea what was going on with the second aperture being the escape route, much less how they were just about to abandon the fight, but she had virtually nothing left underneath her wings to fire at the vanguard of the Borg. The Klingons were going to warp as well, along with the Cayuga. Bitterly, she ground her teeth and replied to Mission Ops. "This is Wolf-Zero-Two, I've got the minging shield frequency. Joining the pack and following through the aperture."

She also spotted the shuttle that Razor asked about, and the reply from Mission Ops was heard not too long afterwards.

"This is Mission Ops," It was Stark answering on the squadron channel, and there was an odd sort of coldness to her voice, that even the comm system could pick up on. Distant, almost harsh. "Get your birds into that aperture and steer clear of that shuttle. That's carrying..." there was a pause and then, "Its going to stop the Borg. Don't ask how, don't interfere, just get you and your Wolves out of here, now. Thats an order, lead. Acknowledge."

"What?" Rawley exclaimed looking at the shuttle again. "How the bloody hell is..." She trailed off, since she had no time for guesswork. The Theurgy was already through the opening, so she throttled up her Valkyrie and fell in line with the rest of the Pack. The Allegiant was there too, and it looked like it was towing a fighter with its tractor beam. The whole squadron looked like it had flown through a meat grinder and back again, and they were just about to enter some kind of subspace tunnel that looked like the kind you wanted to stay in the centre of, for she had no idea what would happen to a ship that managed to hit the sides of it.

"This is Wolf-Zero-Two, acknowledged," she said, and just like that, they were no longer in the Azure Nebula, leaving the fiery debris field behind in its blue nebula gases. Using her TVD, she turned around and looked at the battlefield, and the last thing she saw was the Versant turning around - banking way too quickly for a ship of that size - and then it went to warp as well, leaving that single shuttle behind in the debris field. Rawley had no idea what was going on, but she couldn't afford to keep looking back....

...since the subspace tunnel wasn't stable.

"Shite," she muttered, eyes wide as the tunnel twisted, forcing the Theurgy, the Allegiant and all the Lone Wolves to give each other enough room to navigate the coiling path, and at the same time, see how the walls encroached upon them. Perhaps they were shifting to accommodate the shifting mass of the group of ships, large and small, but to Rawley, the tunnel looked like some alien throat of sapphire light. As difficult as navigation proved to be, that was not what alarmed her the most.

It was how the Theurgy was blazing through the tunnel as if the devil himself was at their heels. Perhaps it was the Borg... but then again, perhaps there was something else that made the helmsman preform high-impulse stunts inside a narrow corridor of eerie doom - flying a kilometre long Federation dreadnought. Chasing the Theurgy down the rabbit hole, Rawley could see how damaged she was as well, with two nacelles blackened and leaking plasma, and a third one flickering from the stress of the manoeuvres. The hull was laced with bright fires and hull breaches, and she had this sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that the ship might connect with the sides of the tunnel at any moment. Indeed, she really didn't want to know what might happen then.

"Come on, come on..." she muttered, her breathing rapid as she hoped, more than anything, that they would reach the end soon, because the level of concentration required to navigate the thing was a bloody joke. She'd never felt claustrophobia like she did right then, feeling like the shimmering walls were swallowing her, and that she was going down the belly of some alien beast. She didn't even have time to look at her aft sensors to see if the Borg were on their six - following them down to wherever they were heading.

Then... her sensors looked like they had shorted out, and she panicked for a moment. She could no longer see the next turn of the tunnel, flying by her eyes alone. A sense of vertigo came over her, a cold shiver running up her spine since she believed she was about to fly straight into the edge of the tunnel. She throttled down, banking to the side....

...before she realised that they had reached the end. Her sensors just gave her normal space.

"Fuck!" she exclaimed, feeling like she'd been holding her breath since they entered the bloody thing, and the whole flight must have taken a minute. She swallowed, trying to make her heart stop beating as if it wanted to pound its way through her exosuit. She blinked away sweat from her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Wolf-Zero-Two here... I made it through."

Where are we? she thought, because her navigation suite was still re-calibrating to compensate for the sudden shift. She flew away from the opening to the tunnel, giving it a wide berth. At least it's another bloody nebula...

"Requesting permission to dock, over."

---

OOC: This next post is your last one in this thread! Make it count, for the Epilogue will begin with them all docking, and allowing for any kind of closure you guys want to write for your characters in this Episode.

Re: CH05: BL [D06|1110] Space Trash Rampage

Reply #49 – March 24, 2019, 11:08:55 AM

[ Tessa May Lance, callsign:  Goldeneye | Cockpit | AC-409 Mk III Valkyrie | Ithacae System ]

Tessa followed the Theurgy with the other fighters of the motley Lone Wolves Squadron through the wormhole, doing her best to remain in the center of the tunnel and avoiding any of the sides.  Her sensors were useless; she had to navigate by visual.  There was an expression for this kind of flying:  dead reckoning, because if you reckon wrong, you could be dead.  She had no idea what would happen if the wings of her Valkyrie touched the sides of the glowing tunnel through subspace, or even if that was possible, all she knew was that she didn’t want to find out.  In the meantime, it was a struggle to keep her fighter from colliding with one of her pack mates as they bobbed and weaved, rose and dove through the twisty conduit that bypassed conventional space allowing travel to distances that were far out of reach by 24th century warp drive. 

Were they within conventional reality at all?  They must have been, or created a tube shaped pocket of it at any rate because Tessa could feel her fighter’s inertial dampeners struggling to keep up with the changing trajectories that moving through the wormhole while keeping the Theurgy in visual range entailed. 

Was it her imagination or was the subspace tunnel getting narrower the further they went along?  It must have been an optical illusion, just as everything in the tunnel must have been an optical illusion but darned if the Theurgy didn’t appear to be running out of wiggle room. 

Tessa squeaked as she and her fighter were enveloped by darkness.  Her sensors no longer registered gibberish, now they registered nothing at all.  What happened to the glow of the wormhole?  At least she could still see the lights in her cockpit and the lights from the Theurgy and the rest of her squadron around her.  She hit her console in frustration and the readout flickered out to be replaced with a rebooting sequence.  How damaged was her fighter anyhow?  While she waited for her Valk’s systems to come back online she glanced around and noticed that there were pinpoints of light in the darkness around her, stars.  She glanced behind her and saw the glow of the wormhole receding in the distance.  They had exited the wormhole and returned to normal space.