The USS Leyte Gulf dropped out of warp with the usual flash associated with such an event...the three Romulan Bird's of Prey on patrol were taken completely by surprise as the federation vessel raised shields and locked on weapons "Romulan vessels this is Admiral Mavendorf of the United Federation of Planets...you are trespassing in Federation space...you have one minute to set a course back to Romulan space and depart this area...failure to do so...or powering up weapons will be considered a hostile act and I will open fire"
The Romulan Captains did not hesitate...they raised shields and powered up weapons...they had their orders and they had to destroy the Federation ship before it could compromise the plans in motion.
On the Bridge of the Gulf, Admiral Mavendorf sat up in her chair as Ch'Bargh reported "They are powering up weapons and raising shields Admiral"
"Open fire in the closest ship Number One" She ordered "Full power to forward shields, plot an intercept course to the second ship...ramming speed."
A couple of the bridge crew openly winced, knowing what was coming...but her orders were carried out...the Gulf's weapons came to life, spitting anti-proton beams and cannon blasts and a volley of Quantum torpedoes at the Romulan ship...even as she swung her nose toward the second Romulan and began to accelerate.
The Romulan ships began to return fire...but it was too little too late...the first ship exploded as it's shields failed and a salvo of torpedoes blasted holes into it's hull...breeching the warp core...the second ship attempted to alter course but never finished the maneuver as the Gulf slammed into it crushing the smaller ship like a beer can.
On the Gulf the bridge was a bit chaotic..."REPORT!" Mavendorf ordered
"Forward shields are down...hull integrity at 78%...decks 6 and 7 have minor hull breeches, repair teams enroute...weapons, life support and warp engines all online Admiral" Ch'Bargh reported
Mavendorf nodded "Get those forward shields back up...keep engaging the third one with aft weapons until we do"
"Aye Admiral" Ch'Bargh replied.
The Gulf made a wide turn...keeping the final Bird in her aft arc until the fore shields came back up...then she swung around and opened fire with a devastating volley from all her weapons...the Bird 's shields failed and a moment later it exploded as a volley of torpedoes ruptured it's warp core.
"Admiral! A Romulan Battleship is decloaking to port!" Ch'Bargh called out
""Bring us around to face it! All weapons lock and fire as soon as they have a solution!" Mavendorf snapped out "This is not going to be pretty." She added as she watched the huge Romulan ship on the viewscreen.
Kelly sat down in the helm seat of the Sheila, placing her raktajino on the disused console on her right after taking a small sip. She tapped a few buttons and a new display appeared on the view screen. Several schematics of the station expanded on the new window; the angular bulk heads contained the ridged squared corridors that were occasionally replaced with the winding and un-uniform structures, probably from some slap dash repair on a breach or power conduit overload. A red flashing beacon came from one of the corridors. Kelly picked up her mug with both hands and nursed it just in front of her mouth; she squinted passed the steam with the eyes of a predator as she observed it make its way through the station. She broke her gaze as Quinn stirred in the chair behind her. He jerked violently as he regained consciousness.
“You shalt not have me wench!” he said loudly as he rose to his feet.
He raised his hands and took a defensive posture, as if ready to fight. Kelly lent back in her chair and cocked her eye. She opened her mouth to ask for an explanation, but instead pushed her index finger to her lip, deciding that it was probably better to leave well enough alone. Quinn dropped his arms as he slowly moved his head around the cockpit. He looked down at Kelly who had a smug smile she was hiding behind the rim of her mug as she observed him.
“Ma’am, what happened?” Quinn asked scratching his head.
Kelly gulped down her beverage and placed it back on the console before she answered. She linked her hands together and rotated the chair back and forth slowly.
“Orion pheromones” she said distantly looking up at the port side ceiling with the same smug smile on her face. She rolled her head over the rest of the chair and looked at Quinn “and what’s the lesson here?” she said in a mocking tone
Quinn rolled his eyes back and lifted his head up, like a child who had received the same lecture about 50 times before. “Don’t talk to pretty green women.” He said with an exasperated tone.
Kelly turned and smiled happily “that ‘a boy” she said in with condescending enthusiasm.
Her eyes drifted back to the display where the red beacon had made its way to the bar she was at not 30 minutes ago. The whoosh of the pneumatic doors at the end of the cockpit drew her eyes back. Tali climbed up the small set of stairs as she made her way to the tactical console. Quinn had collapsed back into his chair and was cradling his head with his hand. His legs stuck out in the narrow walk way. Tali made a point to kick them out of her way as hard as she could as she made her way to the tactical console.
“Ow” Quinn yelped as he dragged his feet back under him. He knelt down and nursed his injured foot while shooting Tali an annoyed glare.
She sat down at the console and began to tap controls. As she worked diligently she wore a massive smile on her face.
“So Quinn, I take it you’re not over the medieval dominatrix nightmares yet?” Tali asked with a mocking tone while still working diligently on her console
Quinn opened his mouth and extended his finger, readying to defend himself. Instead he folded his arms and lent back in his chair.
“Now “nightmare” is a matter of perspective isn’t it?” he said with a smirk
He shot Tali a suggestive glance that made a gagging noise in response.
“That’s what she said.” Quinn said with a mocking tone
Tali glared at him with an offended smile. She grabbed a nearby empty hypo vial and threw it at him. Quinn raised his hand to deflect the vial but it still struck his head. He smiled playfully as he reached down and grabbed it. He threw it underarm back at Tali who was struck in the side. All the while, Kelly looked on amused as the situation escalated. Tali rose to her feet with the same playful smile to punch Quinn in the arm before Kelly decided it intervene.
“Children!” she said in an authoritive but playful tone “Do you want me to pull this thing over and make you walk? ‘Cause I will and you’ll be doing it without an EVA suit”
Tali pouted childishly “Quinn started it” she said in a childish tone
“Talitha?” Kelly said in a warning tone as her lips thinned
Tali smiled back at Kelly “I’m just playing ma’am” she said happily. “So what’s the game plan? You planning on doing this whole under cover thing?” she asked with a more compliant tone as she sat back down.
“No!?!” Kelly scoffed “I’m the fraking High Matriarch of the Har’cos clan! I’m surprised I managed to get away with that confrontation without an extended man hunt through the station. I hate to admit it but I’m too high profile to go into deep cover.”
“Ok then.” Tali said scratching the back of her head “what was the point of our little outing then?”
Kelly took a deep sigh and hung her head as she opened her mouth “To get away from the Kusanagi’s subspace transceiver for a few hours.” She confessed solemnly “I was just kind of getting sick of getting paged every 5 minutes.”
Tali paused and looked at her captain with a concern. Kelly was normally strong and pleasant around her and the other junior officers. Well; at least when she wasn’t reaming them out. It was disconcerting to catch a glimpse at how the current trend of events was affecting her. Tali opened her mouth to say something just as Kelly raised her head with a thoughtful expression.
“That’s not to say that it was a complete waste of time however.” Kelly said in a distant and thoughtful tone
Tali looked at Kelly confused, who noticed and smirked cunningly.
“Well, this Romulan all but figured out that I’m, well, me. Once he’s checked his records he’s going to have a pretty damn low opinion of me for trying to pull a stunt like that when I’m so ‘high profile’, there’s a good chance he’ll go along with it to see if he can ‘reverse infiltrate’” Kelly explained
Tali shook her head confused, attempting to make sense of this plan.
“So how does this help us?” she asked in an almost condescending tone
“Well, he’s probably expecting me to continue this charade, and he’s probably got a cloaked ship.” Kelly trailed off thoughtful as she turned back to the console.
She started typing furiously into the console, looking periodically at the red beacon on the view screen.
“Quinn” she said over her shoulder while still typing “what was the location of that nebula about half a parsec out?”
Quinn groaned wearily as he leaned over to his console. “Grid PXV-304” he said as he lazily tapped some buttons.
Quinn the folded his arms on the console and used them as pillow. Kelly finished typing with a cunning smile. She made a motion with her hand and the text document lifted of the console screen, forming a blue hologram. She made a lazy hand motion and the hologram flew over to Talitha and hovered right in front of her face.
“Send this, unencrypted, to the Kusanagi.” Kelly said turning back to the helm
Tali looked it over before she lowered it onto her console.
“To my dearest sister Mira?” Tali said with an inquisitive smirk
“With any luck she’ll understand the message.” Kelly replied in a distracted tone as she started the pre-flight.
The small craft started with a jolt, Kelly felt herself sink into the seat as the vertical thrusters lifted the Sheila off the deck. ‘Inertial dampeners a bit out of sync’ she thought to herself as she reached over to the retro style dial. She tapped the thrusters a few times just to make sure that they were right before she kicked in the impulse. Sheila darted out of the hangar at three quarters.
“Ma’am, your speeding” Tali jested in a warning tone.
The docking passage was about a kilometre long tunnel with docking ports lining the walls. It was an incredibly busy port, freighters and mercenary ships constantly docking and undocking, more often than not without instruction from a control tower. Sheila ducked under a large freighter, then above another. A large merc ship that looked like a reconditioned Dominion attack escort pushed in violently, forcing the Kelly to take her small runabout over to the side of the bay. Kelly pushed the ship into the habitual area, though a light force field designed to keep in the atmosphere but allow cranes and cargo to be moved back and forth between the station and the ships. Kelly banked and strafed out of the way of the various pylons and cranes hanging from the roof. Kelly was heading straight for one of the force field generators, she was about to avoid it when she paused and seriously considered hitting the thing and taking out a few lawless types as she left. She stopped herself but not far enough to simply bank and turn out of the way. She tapped the starboard thrusters and the small ship jerked away. They came up to a bulk head, the termination of the loading area. Kelly banked to port and pulled back on the stick. The ship whipped across the surface, narrowly missing the bulk head. Kelly heard a snore behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Quinn slumped over his console. She smiled warmly as her eyes turned back on the view screen. A massive freighter obscured her view. “Shit” She said loudly as she banked hard to port and hit the vertical thursters. They came within centimetres, so close that the thrusters pushed off some of the oxidised metal on the freighters hull. Kelly straightened up the ship only to be heading straight for a wall of docked freighters. She quickly banked the ship and passed narrowly through the gap in between the hull mounted cargo crates. They emerged from the oval exit. She turned off the external inertial dampeners and flipped the nose around so they were drifting backwards. She tapped a flashing tab on her console and brought up the schematic with the red beacon. She put her thumb to her mouth and bit on her nail anxiously as she watched it. Eventually it faded.
“Got ya” Kelly said with a sly smirk.
She turned her chair and faced Quinn, who had fallen sound asleep. She clapped loudly and he woke with a start.
“No! Not the mace!” He said as he jerked up
Kelly smirked, repressing her hysterical laughter and trying for dear life to retain her train of though.
“Quinn run a passive scan for a Therium Dichlorite radioactive signature, you’ll need to compensate for a cloak.” She said, forcing an authoritive tone
“Aye Ma’am” he said wearily as he reapproached his console
“And seriously Lieutenant Commander, if you’re having problems, you can always talk to that Emergency Counselling Hologram.” Tali said mockingly
Quinn looked up and glared at Tali “Thanks, you’re a real pal.” He said sardonically
“I’m here for you Quinn, over here, with my things.” She replied with a smirk.
Quinn smiled as he started to tap some keys on his console.
“Ok, I have a reading 203 kilometres out, residual tachyon emissions consistent with a Romulan Bird of Prey.” Quinn said in a more alert and dutiful tone.
Kelly turned to the helm and began keying in the destination co-ordinates into the auto nav, half a parsec was still a good 18 hours at warp 7.8. With everything set she hit the engage key, the stars around her blurred and stretched around the view screen until they formed a tunnel of light. Before she left the controls she pulled up the readout on Quinn’s console, making sure that the ship was following.
_________________
Things that Skippy can't do
#77: The MP checkpoint is not an Imperial Stormtrooper roadblock, so I should not tell them “You don’t need to see my identification, these are not the droids you are looking for.”
Admiral Mavendorf watched the big Romulan battleship as it began a ponderous turn top port as it attempted to bring the Gulf into it's forward arc and unleash a volley. The fact that the gulf was far to fast and manueverable to allow this was a comfort to her just now.
"Keep us out of his forward arc helm...he gets us in his killing zone we won't last long." She ordered
"Aye Admiral" her helmsman replied as he increased speed slightly
"Any ideas on how best to take him down Number One?" the Admiral asked
"Hammer on a shield facing until it drops and then hit him with a tricobalt torpedo Admiral" Ch'Bargh replied after a moment's thought
"Make it so Number One" Admiral Mavendorf ordered.
The gruff Klingon nodded and began to issue a series of orders...as the Gulf began a dance designed to keep herself out of the devastating firepower of the Romulan's forward arc while at the same time her own weapons began eating away at her massive opponents shields, Admiral Mavendorf had little to do beside watch the bridge crew in action...she allowed her First Officer the freedon to conduct this fight...he was a far better tactician that she herself was and she had no problem admitting it.
After a tense ten minutes of exchanging fire, the Gulf shaking badly from several plasma torpedoes that were detonated a bit closer then Mavendorf was comfortable with, Ch'Bargh announced "Admiral their shields are down!"
"Close to one kilometer and fire the tricobalt! Evasive pattern Baker two as soon as it's fired!" She ordered
The Gulf sped in, a heavy tricobalt torpedo launching from the forward hull as the range closed. the Gulf continued a furious barrage of cannon and beam fire as she sped in, launched the devastating weapon and then turned and sped away through the big Romulan ships' aft arc, taking a few plasma hits to her shields in the process.
At first Mavendorf thought they had either missed, or the Romulans had shot the torpedo down...the massive weapons were slow enough to shoot down easily...but a few seconds later there was a massive explosion and the big ship rolled to one side, nearly half of the hull just gone...the remainder venting atmosphere and debris...the warp core detonated a moment later almost anti-climatically
There was silence on the bridge for a moment before Mavendorf finally broke it "Com...send a signal to Starfleet...Engaged and destroyed a Romulan Task Force these coordinates...resuming patrol."
The Communications Officer acknowledged her order and began making the signal as Mavendorf stood up from her chair "Number One...you have the con...lay in a course to resume our patrol station...I'll be in my ready room if you need me"
Ch'Bargh nodded "Aye aye Admiral"
Mavendorf walked to the door to her ready room and passed inside without further comment.
The PADD chimed again, and there was a groan from across the conference room table. Chairs squeaked as the officers leaned backward, a few tossing their cards onto the table as the game came to another halt.
Jessica ignored it all; they knew why she had to bring the small computer interface into the room with them. Trial had found a derelict ship, the Leyte Gulf had just come under fire, Kusanagi was off doing God only knew what - St. Peter needed to stay on top of what the other ships were doing in the patrol group.
"Well...seems the Gulf rammed one bird and took out the other two before a warbird decloaked..."
Commander Obruz's eyes went wide. Next to him, Lieutenant Sano let out a breath, sinking back in her chair.
Ensign Mral, one of the relief helmsmen for the shift, looked around the table before asking in his purring voice, "Rrrammed them? Is theirrr captain insane?"
There were a few chuckles around the table. Jessica shrugged. "I wouldn't know...I don't think I've met her. But it sure sounds like it..." The PADD chimed again with another alert update. She scoffed, dropped the device and put her head down on the table, hard. Nizeri Sano jumped a little, but decided Jessica was ok and stayed in her seat. "They fired a tricobalt at damn near point blank range."
Obruz Dossu looked around at the stunned faces, then turned to Mral. "THAT makes her insane now."
Lieutenant Sonia leaned forward in the chair, his arms guarding his stack of poker chips. "Do they need assistance?"
Jessica shrugged again. "They didn't say in the alert. They're not too far away; we could probably catch them." She sighed. "They just pissed off every Romulan for a hundred light years, though. If we were expecting combat, we'll be seeing it soon."
Dossu smirked, taking up his position in the game again. "Should be fun."
Jessica shook her head and picked her cards back up. From what she had in her hand and what was in the river, she had two pair. Not a very strong two pair, either. "Right...lots of fun. Can anybody remember..."
"When we were explorers?" Commander Elaina Suerer gave Jessica a sideways glance and winked.
Admiral Cleo Mavendorf sat in her ready room staring at the screen on her desk...she scrolled down the reports again, confirming the decision she had already made in her mind. The Gulf had suffered enough damage that her Chief Engineer was howling for a refit. Being an Engineering Officer herself, and having been personally involved in the Gulf's complete rebuild after the fiasco at Starbase 82, she knew he was exaggerating...somewhat.
She leaned back and keyed her combadge "Mister Vuclar report to my ready room if you please?"
"Aye Sir." Came the Vulcan's reply and a minute later her door chimed
"Enter." She called out pleasantly
Commander Vuclar, her Vulcan Chief Engineer entered and stopped in front of her desk "Reporting as ordered Admiral"
Cleo indicated the screen on her desktop "I've reviewed your reports and do not concur with your assessment. We do not need a refit. A simple repair stop at Starbase 39 will be sufficient to make right the damages this vessel has sustained."
The Vulcan was silent a moment before he nodded "As the ship's captain it is your right to do so Admiral, however it is illogical to not take advantage of the superior work and facilities available should you request a refit."
"It is illogial to remove this ship from the front lines for relatively minor repairs." She countered
"Starfleet has plenty of ships that can take our place Admiral, we should be at optimum efficiency if it is as you predict and war will reach this sector soon." He replied.
Cleo leaned forward and slipped her right hand under the desk top "War HAS arrived here in this sector Commander...our fight with the Romulans is proof plenty of that...what I am more concerned over is your steadfast insistence on getting this ship OUT of this sector."
"The Vulcan tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow "I am performing my duties in the proper manner Admiral. This ship is damaged and is in need of repair. Logic dictates we should do the best repair possible"
Cleo swiveled the screen on her desktop a bit so it was visible to the Vulcan "Commander Vuclar was a fine Officer and an Engineer of considerable talent...something you are not...Undine."
The Vulcan saw the picture on the screen of Vuclar's body laying on a medical bed somewhere...for a moment he looked annoyed "I knew hiding his body was a stopgap measure...but disintagrating it would have set off alarms in his quarters"
Cleo nodded "Your kind usually is far more thorough when you replace someone...I'll assume this was a rushed job?"
The Undine shimmered a bit as it shifted back to it's true form, a tripedal alien "It was Admiral...we saw a chance to get close enough to replace you.."
Cleo raised the phaser she had been concealing under her desk "I like to think I'm far too original for one of you to fake."
The Undine didn't reply...instead it lunged.
Cleo fired her phaser as she slipped from her chair and backpedaled. An alarm sounded and she said quite calmly "Security to my Ready Room...we have an Undine aboard"
The Undine took the phaser hit and shrugged it off...it lept onto her desktop and prepared to spring at her
“I’ve got nothing more than 1 kilometre out” Quinn said from his station
The runabout passed through the dense nebula, thick with different colour gasses that merged together and changed intensity, giving off different light as they wove and intertwined. Kelly had to force herself to concentrate least she become enthralled. She looked back at Quinn, taking her hand off the stick.
“What about our friend?” Kelly asked with an almost sinister tone
“Must be having a similar problem, I’ve got them half a click out.” Quinn said, maintain focus on his console.
The collision alarm triggered. Kelly swung back to the controls and pulled back on the stick just as an asteroid came into view. Kelly made a nervous ‘ah’ noise as the rock passed underneath. She continued to push the ship up.
“How far are we from the RV point?” Kelly said as she levelled off.
“About 30 clicks out” Quinn said nerviously. Now that he had got some sleep he was wide awake and fully aware of his surroundings, and absolutely terrified that his CO was at the helm.
“We’re close enough to get the Kusanagi’s beacon, is she late?” Tali asked with a concerned tone.
Kelly simply smirked, it was standard procedure for a federation vessel passing through a nebula in friendly territory to blast out an IFF signal over subspace, but Kelly’s message dropped enough hints. Either Mira had understood and the Kusanagi had them on scope with their IES systems engaged, or her XO had missed the meaning of the message and was still half a parsec out scratching her head with confusion. Kelly grimaced as she thought of the repercussions of the latter. She shook it off; Mira had figured out her somewhat strange way of speaking and communicating, she would have sussed out her message. No sooner had she thought that did the collision alarm sound a second time. A large dark silhouette suddenly obscured the view screen. The light from the deflector array was the only thing that pierced the veil. It flew over head, disrupting the nebulas gas pressure as it passed by and pushed the small runabout aside with its deflector. Kelly activated the rear camera just in time to see the forward beam array of the Kusanagi erupt with teal light. The beam struck a target, the bird of prey, forcing it out of cloak. Several more strikes and the bird of prey was adrift. The Kusanagi hit it with a tractor beam and held it steady.
“Ma’am, the Kusanagi is hailing us” Talitha said from her console, with a little shock in her tone.
“Put her up” Kelly said over her shoulder while keeping her eyes fixed on the Romulan ship
Mira appeared on the viewer to the left, Kelly observed her in her peripherals, she was quite fascinated by the precision strike Mira had managed.
“Disarmed, disabled and no secondary’s” Kelly said impressed as she turned to the small viewer. “Just about good enough to stop me from killing you for sitting in my chair” She continued in a mocking tone as she observed the soft proud smirk on the Androians face
“I was just keeping it warm for you ma’am.” Mira said in a pseudo defensive tone.
“Right, well in that case.” Kelly replied disarmingly “You want to guide us in?” she continued
“Yes ma’am” Mira said with a smile as she tapped some keys on the chairs key pad. “Ok, I’m sending you nav points to guide you to shuttle bay 2.”
“Roger that.” Kelly said as she got the telemetry, before it loaded she turned back to Mira with a confused look “Shuttle bay 2?” She inquired with a what-have-you -done-to-my-ship under tone.
Mira smirked “I think you better come see for yourself”
***
Kelly stepped out of the runabout in to the huge hanger, well huge for the class of ship the Kusanagi was. It was 3 tiered and occupied almost all the volume of the lower hull section, which was now vastly different than what she remembered. A service elevator ran down the middle of the bay and contained various large pieces of machinery to load weaponry, mission specific equipment and carry out repairs. Small shutters lined the port and starboard bulkheads with a small contingent of Valkryie space superiority fighters and a massive shutter at the aft that spanned the whole 3 tiers. While the bulkheads and markings were federation, the aesthetics and some of the equipment were of Thosian design. She looked up and saw 4 type 13 shuttles connected to the deck above through their ventral docking clamps. Kelly then looked to the bow side of the deck; common design sense would put the control room and the turbo lift there. She saw a cargo door open, she was just able to make out her XO who stepped onto the hangar deck. Kelly folded her arms and took on an annoyed posture as she approached with a massive smirk on her face.
“Commander, mind telling me what the Ka’vaticondo happened to my ship?” Kelly asked, letting a native curse slip in
“Your people demanded that the High Matriarch of the Har’cos clan be driving something a little more versatile, it was out of my hands ma’am” Mira said with a smirk and a shrug
“I left this ship in your hands Mira. I expected you to return it to me in the same condition.” Kelly said in an angry voice, using that tone on her XO for perhaps the first time.
Mira, who obviously expected a more positive reaction from Kelly, took a step back.
“I’m sorry if your upset Ma’am.” Mira said apologetically “it’s just that, with all the bad surprises heading in your direction recently, I figured a good one was past due.”
Kelly fumed, inexplicably getting angrier by the second. She noted that and took a metal step back herself and looked around the hangar. ‘A fighter wing and Thosian technology’ she thought to herself ‘I guess it could be worse’. She took a deep sigh, Mira, her XO, her friend; had only done what she thought was best. If Kelly had been present when this proposal came across her desk she would have most likely said yes anyway.
“Alright, what have they done?” she sighed
Mira smirked with the exact same disposition as she did before Kelly became aggravated.
“Aside from what you see here, the power systems, weapons and the sensors have been modified and upgraded. The internals of the Kusanagi have been renovated, the most notable is that the turbo lift is now about 5 times the size.” She said proudly
“It’s not just the internals is it? How does she look from the outside?” Kelly said in a concerned tone
“Well the Thosian engineers took the lower hull and the nacelles and replaced them with ones similar to the new Hephaestus advanced escort.” Mira replied handing a PADD with the schematics to Kelly
“Oh, nice” she said impressed
She zoomed in on shuttle bay one, it was occupied by two Argos class shuttles with a phonetic she had never seen before; ‘ATSV241 MGC’.
“What’s that?” Kelly said confused
“That is the All Terrain Scout Vehicle 241 with a Modular Gauss Cannon.” Mira said proudly “Staff sergeant Anderson has already nick named it the ‘Puma’”
“Ok, first off, Puma? And secondly Staff Sergeant Anderson?” Kelly said getting more and more confused by the second.
“I assume it’s because ATSV241 MGC is too long to say in conversation. And yeah, you’re now the Executive Officer of the 81st MACO battalion and transferred back to the MACOs, colonel.” Mira said almost mockingly
“Ok, ok, we’ve got other things to deal with right now, write me a report and link it to my terminal. I’ll look it over later” Kelly said dismissively as she headed to the turbo lift
“Aye ma’am” Mira said following closely
“Did you get the Romulan?” Kelly asked as she stepped over the thresh hold
“Yes ma’am, he’s in the brig.” Mira said dutifully
Kelly opened her mouth to command the lift, but realising that the location of the brig had probably changed she closed it and looked at Mira with a smirk.
“Deck 15, brig” Mira said rolling her eyes.
***
“Ok, so we have this Romulan, what now?” Mira asked inquisitively
“Now he’s going to tell me everything he knows.” Kelly said with a sinister smirk
They stood observing the Romulan, out of his ear shot in the brigs doorway alcove. He tested the force field with his hand and jumped back when it shocked him; he then turned and glared at the pair.
“What exactly makes you think that he’ll just willingly confess everything?” Mira said sardonically, folding her arms and leaning against the door way.
“Well... just... ‘Cause” Kelly said shrugging
“Uh-huh.” Mira said patronisingly “Well this is going to end well.”
“He’s a Romulan; he’s got that convoluted code of honour going for him. I’m hoping that because I out smarted him-“Kelly said defensively
“We’re still trying to suss out how you did that by the way” Mira interjected with a mocking smirk
“Because I out smarted him” Kelly reiterated forcefully “He may be willing to talk”
“Ok, well, whatever you say ma’am.” Mira said with a patronising smile as she picked herself off the door frame
Kelly moved her head away from her XO with a strange motion that Mira had never seen before. It was almost like a nervous quick twitch, with a gulp and a quick flutter of eyelashes, but was followed by such a stoic expression. She came to the conclusion that Kelly was composing herself.
Kelly strode off to the cell. She stood inches from the barrier and stared at the Romulan. He continued to eye Kelly until eventually he turned away with shame. He sat down on the bed and sighed with exasperation.
“What do you want Starfleet?” He said as he stared at his feet
Kelly took deep breath through her noise. Interrogation wasn’t exactly her forte, she was used to a problem she could talk her way out of or stab, she liked being the underdog, she didn’t like having to get information from a prisoner she had complete power over. She did her best to conceal this however, even though she knew it was futile. This man was a spy, a covert operative, used to dealing with adversaries and reading body language all the while hiding in plain sight, whereas Kelly’s covert exploits general consisted of staying very quiet and high powered long range weapons.
“You are going to tell me everything you know about the Romulan plans for this sector.” Kelly said forcefully
The man looked up and smirked. He saw quite clearly that Kelly was uncomfortable, while his honour demanded that he yield, there were other ways to appease this demand. He eyed her curiously.
“And what exactly makes you think that?” He said with a cocky smirk
Kelly dropped her gaze quickly and exhaled with an amused smirk
“Torture crossed my mind, though I think I might get yelled at if I tried that.” Kelly said starting to pace as she finished “Then I thought I’d stick you in a holodeck for a few days and warp your perception of reality.”
The Romulan closed his eyes with a very self satisfied smirk. He then refixed them on Kelly and took on a relaxed posture.
“By all means Starfleet, but those things will get you nowhere.” The Romulan said with confidence
With that Kelly smirked back at him coldly, with such an insidious glare that the Romulan broke his poise.
“I know that, so I figured I’d try something else” She said as she turned to face the control console
She pushed the button to release the force field. The Romulan looked around in confusion as he got up and emerged from his cell. He looked at Kelly confused, who folded her arms and smirked.
“I’m letting you go back to your ship.” She said happily “We’ll transport you back and you’ll never see us again.”
The Romulan flexed his hands angrily as he processed this. As much as he wished he could not leave.
“No, I cannot do that.” He said, clenching his eyes closed with a frustrated expression.
“Oh?” Kelly said with a patronising tone “and why would that be?”
The Romulan looked away from her “Because you caught me, you won, honour demands that you be repaid, be it through torture, imprisonment” he turned and glared at Kelly with rage “or information.”
Kelly smiled victoriously “Oh really?”
He sighed before he began “I am tasked with organising hit and run offensives against the federation in the Hylarian sector.”
“Why” Kelly said forcefully
The Romulan winced before he answered “Because we need federation forces to be moved from the Bolarious sector”
“Why do you need the federation to leave the Bolarious sector?” Kelly said, doing her best to ensure she asked the right questions
“It’s part of an offensive.” The Romulan said, pinching the brow of his noise “we plan to invade the Antiva colony.”
Kelly raised her finger to stop him, she was unfamiliar with the colony and needed as much information as she could get. She went over to the brig console and searched the database.
“Established 2405, frontier colony, population 20,000. Matura class but nothing overly special; potentially a strategic asset but the fact that it’s a frontier colony means that the capitol will have a defence screen and a small contingent of MACOs. Even if you do pull us from the area, you’ll be dragged into a ground campaign that would last a few days; long enough for Starfleet to wonder what happened, get telemetry and rally a fleet to drive you back.” Kelly said thoughtfully reading off the screen.
“The Arcturus Ion Storm will be passing through the system, a severity factor 8 Ion storm is passing through that system and will last for 6 days, the star will protect the system and any bodies within half a light year but will prevent any communication or aid from reaching them.” the Romulan said plainly
“What kind of opposition will they be facing?” Kelly said as she touched off the console.
The Romulan smirked. Kelly eyed him curiously.
“I have no idea, it’s not my cells job to assault the planet.” He said shrugging
Kelly cocked her head curiously. Had his honour been served? Or did he legitimately have no idea? Kelly had little else to ask him, she paused thoughtfully.
“You are free to go.” She said finally
The Romulan nodded curtly and walked out of the brig, the guard on duty escorted him out and over to the turbo lift. Kelly eyed him until he left, then she walked back over to the brigs control console and brought up everything she could find about the storm. She grimaced with a worried expression; it was going to hit the system in 3 days. Mira came up behind her and placed a hand on Kelly’s shoulder.
“So skip’, what’s the game plan” she said warmly
Kelly straightened up, turned around and sighed, folding her arms and leaning against the console.
“Announce what the Romulan said on the encrypted 7th fleet channel, head out there and see what we can do.” Kelly said shrugging
“You can’t actually believe what he said, he’s an enemy Romulan.” Mira said in an obvious tone of voice, unable to comprehend that Kelly could even consider trusting this guy.
“I don’t claim to understand the Romulans definition honour, but-“Kelly paused, lost for an explanation. She closed her eyes for a good ten seconds before finishing “it’s all we’ve got, and it fits.”
“Understood, I’ll get that report done, and get Lonna to send out the wave.” Mira said dutifully.
Kelly pondered carefully as her XO walked away. She lifted her head up and called after her just as Mira passed the threshold.
“Make sure you say the informant mentioned ‘cells’; this isn’t a single front offensive.
***
To: All 7th Fleet Ships; Encryption sequence, Alpha Sigma Hotel
From: USS Kusanagi, Commanding Officer Colonel Kel Zor’ah Har’cos
RE: Increase in Romulan Activity
Operatives aboard the USS Kusanagi have apprehended a Romulan spy. During the interrogation he mentioned he was part of a cell devoted to causing havoc in Hylarian sector to pull Starfleet forces from the Bolarious sector. They plan to invade the Antiva Frontier colony. Kusanagi is rerouting to investigate, breaking the warp limit imposed by the patrol orders. If the fleet deems it necessary, reinforcements must arrive at Antiva in 3 days (2410.0306 @ 1500hrs Zulu), a class 8 ion storm is due to shroud the colony for 4 days, making it impossible to reach the colony.
We have no idea whether or not this information is reliable, we are relying on a very poor understanding of Romulan honour and it is very likely that this is a goose chase. And even if this turns out to be true, the Romulans are acting in Cells, it is highly probable that this is a multi front offensive.
Kel Zor’ah Har’cos
_________________
Things that Skippy can't do
#77: The MP checkpoint is not an Imperial Stormtrooper roadblock, so I should not tell them “You don’t need to see my identification, these are not the droids you are looking for.”
Kelly sat at her ready room desk. Stacks of PADDs lay before her, so high and numerous that she was reminded of a metropolis. She knew it was naive to think that all this would just go away if she just left for a few days, but what really irked her was the fact that the composition of the sky scrapers before her were, for lack of a better term, hate mail from federation council members; whining that they thought her handling of the matter on her home planet was either an abuse of authority leading to a coup or forcing the federation into a civil conflict. Kelly thought it was funny in a cynical way; the prime directive only got brought up when it was convenient these days it seemed.
Quinn had sent her some negative mail as well; she didn’t care. As far as she was concerned he had sold her and her people out to 31 and now, because it didn’t go exactly according to plan he calls a review board to order to investigate? No, as far as Kelly was concerned he could ‘Va cu decelar’ as the Thosian suggestion went.
She had begun dividing them into Three piles, messages that came on the 7th fleet channel, messages from the Thosian Exodus Council as it had come to be known, and everything else, the former in two neat stacks on her desk and the latter in a messy pile behind her as she tossed the over her shoulder. She came to a short message from Colonel Hanson.
Hey, Kelly, your my new XO. Congrats.
She grunted with an amused smirk as she finished it; what? No ceremony or anything like that, just here’s your job, this is your new uniform and you are now back in the MACO command structure, and even that she garnered from that short and simple message. She was fine with it though, if they had of had a ceremony she probably would have ended up saying “Well I deserve it” and ended up looking like a ‘Ka tik taputo’. She pulled up the attachments, a list of transfers. She squinted at some of the names, she remembered running with a few of the higher ranked NCOs back before she got her officers commission, she may not have been able to approve them herself but at least she knew them. It seemed her own XO had been getting a bit ahead of herself.
The ready room doors opened with a swoosh. Kelly lifted her head from the PADD and sat up in her chair to look over the two sky scrapers before her. Mira stood in the door way.
“How far out are we?” Kelly said wearily as she slumped back in her chair.
“We’re still about 18 hours out.” Mira said dutifully as she remained in the door way
“What is it then?” Kelly said distractedly as she picked up the PADD with the list of MACO transfers
“I just...” Mira said awkwardly. She fidgeted in the doorway threshold before she finally stepped through. She sat in the chair opposite Kelly and moved the stack of PADDs aside so she could make eye contact with Kelly. “I just felt I needed to apologise” she gulped before she continued “I over stepped my bounds and authorised some things that I shouldn’t have.”
Kelly lowered her arm on to the arm rest of her chair and dangled the PADD loosely in her hands just above her lap. She made stern eye contact with Mira “Indeed you did, those were decisions I should have made”
Mira looked down into her lap, she opened her mouth to speak but was stopped as Kelly continued.
“But having said that, all of the decision you made would have been the ones I would have.” Kelly said in a more upbeat tone as she moved her gaze over to the porthole and the starscape beyond it.
Mira paused thoughtfully, not sure how to proceed.
“I mean, we have a fraking fighter wing! I probably would have been annoyed if you had have just left it to me to approve when I got back.” Kelly said with an exited tone as she turned back to Mira.
“Dammed if you do... right?” Mira said with a smile, now at ease.
Kelly chuckled slightly “yeah”
“If there’s nothing else” Mira said as she got to her feet to leave
“Actually yes” Kelly said, stopping Mira, who turned back. Kelly took a deep breath before she began “What do you know about Quinn’s... night terrors?” she said, squinting in an inquisitive fashion.
“Night terror’s?” Mira said slightly confused. She smirked widely “oh you mean the “medieval Dominatrix thing”” she said with a mocking tone “I’m pretty sure he’s just doing that for shock value.”
“Right” Kelly said nodding her head. “You reckon we can compel him to go see a councillor with that?” She asked with a smirk
“Probably, but I think that boys beyond any level of professional help, more likely the Emergency Counselling Hologram would decompile.” Mira said with a smirk. “Besides, I already put you down for the first session.” She said mockingly as she put her hands on the chairs head rest.
Kelly lent back in her chair and folded her arms “Oh really?” she said with a sardonic smirk
“Running through peak hour traffic at 3 quarters impulse? Some ones got a death wish” she said melodically
“Hey, for the record, that was completely necessary” Kelly said defensively. She looked off into the distance thoughtfully “And also, a little awesome” She said in that enthusiastic tone
“Indeed Kel, indeed.” Mira said in a patronising tone “Right, well I’ll be off then” she said, respectfully backing out.”
“Ma’am, incoming message from Major General Talbot.” Lonna’s voice said over her combadge
“Stick it on my display please” Kelly said looking at her notebook. She sighed with exasperation, which caused Mira to turn back
“What is it?” she asked in a concerned tone
Kelly shot her eyes up from her notebook and met Mira with an exasperated and deeply amused smirk. She rotated the screen so Mira could see, who placed her hands on the table and lent in close to the screen. She skimmed it quickly, noting the thing that Kelly found so amusing
...Effect of immediately Kelly is Acting CO of TF 80...
Mira lent back with an amused smile “Well at least the Fleet brass doesn’t seem that bothered by it.”
“Really? Because this makes me think quite the opposite” Kelly said turning the screen back
_________________
Things that Skippy can't do
#77: The MP checkpoint is not an Imperial Stormtrooper roadblock, so I should not tell them “You don’t need to see my identification, these are not the droids you are looking for.”
Cleo backed quickly, stopping only when her back contacted the wall. She continued firing her phaser to little effect on the Undine. It lept at her and manageed to get a hand around her neck as the ready room door opened and Ch'Bargh charged in with a half dozen security officers.
There was a moment's hesitation as the security team held their fire for fear of hitting Mavendorf "SHOOT IT!" She grunted out as she began kicking at it. Ch'Bargh stepped forward with his Bat' eth at the ready as the security team began firing...the Undine seeing it had one advantage here, turned and held Cleo between itself and the security team...the phaser fire stopped and Ch'bargh halted his advance...though he began to move to the side seeking an opening to attack from.
"It would seem we have a bit of an impasse...you all attack me and I'll snap her neck...now back away" the Undine ordered.
Mavendorf continued kicking ineffectively at it...as her right hand dipped into a pocket "With...my last...breath...I spit at thee." she coughed out as she pulled a plasma grenade out and jammed it into the creatures maw...She forced her hand completely inside the Undines mouth and kept shoving as she felt it increase it's grip as it began to cough and gag, trying to expel the grenade and her hand.
She finally released her grip on the weapon and withdrew her hand...only to begin battering the creature's face as it continued trying to bring up the grenade.
The explosion was devastating because it was confined inside the creature...though plasma fire quickly ate it's way through as the grip on her neck slackened and finally released as the Undine died. Cleo staggered back, screaming as she was splashed with plasma...Ch'Bargh moved in and drug her away from the burning creature "Transport two directly to sickbay the Admiral is badly burned!" He said as he slapped his combadge.
There was the sparkle of transporter effect as he and Cleo vanished from the ready room to reappear in sickbay.
Commander Yar, the Andorian Doctor was waiting as they beamed in. She grabbed Cleo and hustlled her to a biobed...laying her down and triggering the bed to begin treating the plasma burns. Cleo was mercifully unconscious by this time...Yar gave Ch'Bargh an annoyed glare "It's not as bad as she was after Starbase 82...but this isn't good number One."
Ch'Bargh simply shook his head "She takes too many risks Doctor."
"Tell me something we don't know...you're in command She'll be down at least 24 hours" Yar said as she examined the bioreadings.
The Klingon simply nodded before taking a long look at Cleo...something about what she had said to the Undine was nagging at him...where had he heard that before? He finally frowned and headed out of sickbay, intending to report to Fleet and do some research
To: All 7th Fleet Ships; Encryption sequence, Alpha Sigma Hotel
From: USS Kusanagi, Commanding Officer Colonel Kel Zor’ah Har’cos
RE: Increase in Romulan Activity
Operatives aboard the USS Kusanagi have apprehended a Romulan spy. During the interrogation he mentioned he was part of a cell devoted to causing havoc in Hylarian sector to pull Starfleet forces from the Bolarious sector. They plan to invade the Antiva Frontier colony. Kusanagi is rerouting to investigate, breaking the warp limit imposed by the patrol orders. If the fleet deems it necessary, reinforcements must arrive at Antiva in 3 days (2409.0306 @ 1500hrs), a class 8 ion storm is due to shroud the colony for 4 days, making it impossible to reach the colony.
We have no idea whether or not this information is reliable, we are relying on a very poor understanding of Romulan honor and it is very likely that this is a goose chase. And even if this turns out to be true, the Romulans are acting in Cells, it is highly probable that this is a multi-front offensive.
Kel Zor’ah Har’cos
"Damn." Commander Obruz Dossu grunted as he sat down in the chair across the desk, a deep frown on his face. "A Romulan spy. Prophets..."
"We can rendezvous with the Kusanagi in two days at maximum warp, Jess." Lieutenant Commander Seurer ran a hand through her hair, letting out a frustrated sigh.
Jessica noticed. "Something the matter?"
Elaina Seurer shook her head. "I have no idea. I think we just need to put in at dock soon; we've been leaving an odd ion trail behind us whenever we stop and go to impulse."
Dossu looked slightly annoyed. "When were you going to tell us?"
"I just realized it two hours ago; the last time we dropped out of warp for a system patrol." Seurer rolled her eyes, then looked at her captain. "I don't think it's anything to really be concerned about. At most, we can probably be trailed by Romulan ships. But then...chances are...we already are."
Jessica considered that for a moment; cloaked ships, shadowing the Rafale on her patrol pattern. "COULD it be a cloaked ship, following closely behind us?"
Elaina shook her head. "It doesn't match a Romulan trail. And it's too close to the ship. Like I said, we probably just need a tune up in space dock."
"And you can't do it because?"
The chief engineer turned to the Bajoran first officer, scowling. "Well, sir, if you want me to fix it out here, we'll have to run on quarter impulse." She turned back to Jessica. "Warp drive will be inoperative during the repairs, as will our defensive systems. I'd rather not just sit here as an easy target to fix a minor calibration problem that isn't affecting our performance."
Jessica nodded her agreement. "Neither do I. Dossu, set a course for Antiva, maximum warp. Hail the Kusanagi too, and let them know that we're en-route to assist."
"Yes ma'am." Obruz Dossu stood up and left the small ready room, already barking orders before the door closed behind him.
When the door was closed, she looked back at her Engineer. "Any thing else I need to know, Elaina?"
The other woman was chewing on her lip. "It's just...I don't think Commander Obruz should be doubting me. He's a tactical officer, I'm the engineer here. I don't need him second guessing my expert opinion."
The blue woman laughed a little. "The two of you have been at each other's throat since he came over from the Merveille. I half think the two of you enjoy it now."
"Most times? Ok, sure; I do it purposefully. But when we're being serious like this?"
Jessica raised a hand, stopping her. "He's the first officer, Elaina. He's supposed to find all the options and give them to me to decide on. I was asking the same question myself; 'why can't it get done out here.' You answered the question. Move on. He wasn't trying to insult you."
Commander Seurer shrugged and shook her head. "Whatever you say, Cap." She stood to leave. "I need to get back to Engineering...I'll let you know if I figure anything else out."
"Thanks. And don't worry about Dossu; I'll deal with him. Ok?"
Elaina nodded. "Aye."
---------------------------------
Rafale slipped quietly through the darkness, stars and dust flashing past as the ship traveled faster than light to reach its destination. A few kilometers behind it, there was a slight shift, as something moved undetected behind her, following closely like a stalking tiger.
Admiral Mavendorf sat in the sickbay bed glaring at her Chief surgeon who was ignoring her "And just WHEN will I be fit for duty Doctor?"
"Another 24 hours Admiral...you suffered plasma burns to your arms and torso....by rights I should insist we go to Starbase 39 and have you completely checked in a real hospital...but I'm fairly sure the repairs I made will hold up...tough I couldn't quite regrow all the skin on your right hand without a bit of scarring."
Cleo glared at the Doctor, but halted the reply that was forming when Ch'Bargh entered "I have a priority One signal for you Admiral" He said as he handed her a PADD
Cleo took the PADD and read it over, ignoring the Doctor's glare and muttered "Off duty, is supposed to mean OFF duty"
To: All 7th Fleet Ships; Encryption sequence, Alpha Sigma Hotel
From: USS Kusanagi, Commanding Officer Colonel Kel Zor’ah Har’cos
RE: Increase in Romulan Activity
Operatives aboard the USS Kusanagi have apprehended a Romulan spy. During the interrogation he mentioned he was part of a cell devoted to causing havoc in Hylarian sector to pull Starfleet forces from the Bolarious sector. They plan to invade the Antiva Frontier colony. Kusanagi is rerouting to investigate, breaking the warp limit imposed by the patrol orders. If the fleet deems it necessary, reinforcements must arrive at Antiva in 3 days (2409.0306 @ 1500hrs), a class 8 ion storm is due to shroud the colony for 4 days, making it impossible to reach the colony.
We have no idea whether or not this information is reliable, we are relying on a very poor understanding of Romulan honor and it is very likely that this is a goose chase. And even if this turns out to be true, the Romulans are acting in Cells, it is highly probable that this is a multi-front offensive.
Kel Zor’ah Har’cos
Cleo frowned and looked up at her First Officer "How fast can we get there Number One?
"At maximum warp we will arrive in approximately 18 hours and 22 minutes" Ch'Bargh replied
"Get us moving then Number One...maximum warp...come get me when we are 30 minutes out." Cleo ordered.
"Aye Admiral." Ch'Bargh replied
"Dammit Admiral I said 24 hours not eighteen!" the Doctor griped
"Doctor Yar...I don't have 24...the Kusanagi needs back up if there really is a Romulan invasion force heading for Antiva" Cleo said calmly
Yar sighed and rolled her eyes, deciding that 18 hours was about as much as she could hope for given the Admiral's stubborn disposition and habit of ignoring everyone's orders but her own "You mess up my repair job and I'll stitch something truly nasty into that hide next time..." she muttered as she threw up her hands and headed to her office.
Cleo simply smiled...then noted that Ch'bargh had not departed yet "Something on your mind Number One?"
Yes Admiral...when you were struggling with the Undine...you said something...it was something I had heard somewhere before but couldn't place..." Ch"Bargh replied a bit hesitantly
Cleo shrugged a bit "Something my Grandfather used to say when he spoke of revenge...he left me a lot of holodisks"
The big Klingon silently studied his commander for a long moment before he spoke again "At the academy they played the audio recordings of the fight between the USS Enterprise A and the USS Reliant, which had been captured by Khan Noonien Singh....just before the Genesis device went off...he spoke those words..."
Cleo looked down at the sheet covering her lower body "Coincidence Number One...nothing more I'm sure...grandfather was a strange man at times."
Ch'Bargh didn't reply...after a moment he nodded and turned to leave "You are likely correct Admiral"
Cleo watched him leave, her face calm...once she was alone she sagged slightly, it had been foolish of her to utter those words...her mother had idolized her grandfather and it had taken years for Cleo to form an objective opinion about him...the more she learned about him, the more she was repulsed by his beliefs...and yet...he was the reason she was here...he had a daughter not the son he had wished for to continue his genetic legacy.
Though he had been long dead before she herself had been born, his genetics had made Cleo what she was now...a thought that was often at odds with her own beliefs. She sighed a bit, Section 31 had sealed her personal records, only select members of Starfleet knew of her heritage..Cleo preferred it that way.
The Kusanagi shook suddenly as Kelly made her way back to the bridge. She had just slept and had a shower, fully rested and refreshed for what would either be a 4 day vacation at a frontier outpost or a 4 day vacation as they watched helplessly as the superior numbers of the Romulans invade unimpeded. While she was determined to do everything in her power to stop that, the nagging doubts forced their way into every single optimistic thought she had, like the roots of an old tree forcing and damaging the foundations of a house. The Kusanagi was one ship, and while she was hardy and had a fine crew, what could she do against the Armada possibly amassed against her.
Even though she thought this she didn’t let it show, she had to remain the strong unfazeable bulwark that she always had been. As her ship shook she grabbed hold of the side railing in the corridor to steady herself.
“Report” She said in a commanding tone as she tapped her comm. Badge
“Working on it ma’am.” Quinn said in a somewhat distracted tone over the channel.”Damn” he continued with an exasperated tone of voice
Kelly picked up her pace up to a light jog as she approached the turbo lift. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she came thought the turbo lift’s door. “Bridge” she commanded before Quinn replied
“The port catalyser fell out of sync; our warp factor has dropped to about 7.8.” Quinn said with an exasperated tone.
“We’re close to the line Quinn, can you fix it?” Kelly asked as her stomach fell due to the motion of the turbo lift.
“I’d have to take the stabilisers offline and remove the intermix moderators.” Quinn said thoughtfully
The door opened to the bridge and Kelly emerged. Everyone was working franticly to try and lock the problem down. Kelly brushed past a crew member who was carrying a bundle or wire which Quinn had just ripped out of his console. He was lying on his back on the deck looking into a service panel at the bottom of his console. He had a large PADD plugged in and was switching between rapidly bashing tabs on that and changing the terminals the cords were plugged into.
“In federation standard” Kelly said, standing over Quinn
Quinn lowered his PADD and eyed the colonel from behind a set of clear safety glasses that lit up with a variety of inverted readouts “If we weren’t balls deep right now ma’am, I’d demand that we take her out of warp for half an hour while I lock this down.” He returned to his PADD “as it is at the moment, if we don’t have a breach beforehand we’re going to get pulverised by that Ion storm.”
“Just keep her together Quinn, I know you can” Kelly said supportively.
“Ma’am, with all due respect, I have some pretty complicated calculations to work out and I’m not in reach of a computer console. So please, stop talking” Quinn said as he franticly worked on his PADD
“What’s our current ETA” Kelly said, walking over to the helm
“18 minutes ma’am” Lonna said from her console “We got a message from the Rafael and the Leyte Gulf a few hours ago to, they’re going to be meeting us at the RV.”
“Understood.” Kelly said pushing down a button
A large blue hologram started up in the centre of the room showing the Kusanagi, several warning indicators were coming from the port nacelles and the warp core. Suddenly the Kusanagi grew smaller and was replaced by a Starfleet icon and a dotted line indicating their flight path, which lead to a system and a solid line with arrows coming off it indicating the storm front. A mathematical count began and the storm front began moving up, a soft tone sounded as the hologram marked the intersect point.
“We’re in the storm for about 1 minute and 45 seconds, but at that position the stars emissions would have weakened it to about a category 5, so long as the shields stay up we shouldn’t have an issue.” Mira said thoughtfully as she observed
“Oh, by the way, I’m going to need the shields.” Quinn said as another warning indicator came online.
“Quinn?” Kelly said somewhat concerned
“You have no idea how far we are from a cascade failure of the containment field, I need the shields to reinforce it.” Quinn said in a hurried tone
“Well then, I guess we are screwed then.” Mira said in a melodramatic tone
“Not necessarily.” Kelly said thoughtfully as she walked over to Lonna’s station. She pointed at the little Starfleet icon and beckoned it over; she grabbed both sides of the icon and pulled it apart, causing a small schematic of the Kusanagi to appear. “What if we ionised the hull plating?” Kelly asked Lonna
“Uh, the bolts coming from the storm are in excess of 45 terra watts, we wouldn’t be able to generate enough or a charge to repel them.” Lonna said as she did the math on her console
“Well, what if we attracted the discharges and directed them through the central EPS conduit?” Kelly said, adjusting Lonna’s calculations and highlighting the effected systems on the small holographic schematic.
“Well, I mean that could work but we’d come out on the other side crippled, we wouldn’t be combat ready.” Lonna replied looking at Kelly “The central EPS conduit would be all but shot, but it could work.” She amended optimistically
“Quinn, you need the main EPS conduit?” Kelly said, looking down at the Lieutenant Commander lying on the floor as he worked diligently.
“Just a sec.” He said as he got to his feet. He stood at his console and went through the systems. “ok” he said turning to Kelly “You have the central conduit, just don’t touch the secondary conduits or any of the tertiary systems and the ship shouldn’t blow up in my face.” He lay back down and got back to work on his PADD.
“Ok.” Kelly said tapping her combadge “All hands condition red, we’re not going to make it before the storm hits us so we’re going to channel the strikes through the central EPS conduit. If you have work in those areas, lock it down or move it. Good luck people, out.”
She walked over to her chair and sat down. She pointed at the small schematic next to Lonna and batted it with her hand, moving it towards herself. She caught it and it hovered just above her palm, rotating slowly, entranced while the crew hurried around. She was internally planning the next phase of the operation. She pushed a key on her arm rest’s command pad and brought up the starboard side camera. The storm was travelling at 70% light, and it was so close that the emissions from the front had begun to become visible, even while travelling at warp. She felt like an old naval captain, back when they used to use wooden ships and sails, preparing for the storm creeping slowly over the horizon. The ship shook a bit and Kelly threw Quinn a concerned look.
“Damn” Quinn said as a set of sparks that struck his diagnostic glasses forced him to recoil. “Chief Brian; keep an eye on the containment field strength while I adjust the subspace field.” He said into his combadge.
“We’re coming up on the storm front in ten seconds” Tali said at the helm, dutifully guiding the ship “5...4...3...2...1...” she counted down
Quinn looked across his chest over to the Colonel after a few seconds of nothing happening “Huh, doesn’t seem that ba-“ A violent jolt cut him off
“You had to open your mouth.” Kelly said over the rumble “Status?”
“Structural Field Integrity is down to 96%, it seems to have worked although the magnetic interference has dropped us to sub light speeds.” Lonna said from her console “It seems to be work-“
Kelly made a noise and raised her finger cutting her off. Another bolt hit. “Tali keep her steady!” Kelly bellowed as she held onto the arm rest. “What’s our ETA?” she said looking at Lonna
“1 minute 12 seconds” Lonna said pulling herself back to her console
“Quinn, the containment field is weakening.” One of the engineers said over his combadge.
“I know, I know!” he yelled back “let me think” he said as he dropped his tools and disconnected his PADD. He stood up, picked up a crowbar from his tool box and began prying the consoles display off.
“Quinn!” Kelly said concerned that her engineer may have decided to take his frustration on her ship
“I’m sorry ma’am, but I haven’t had a chance to make the modifications to the ships operating systems yet” he said as the display cracked and shattered away from the bulk head, revealing some bus’. He picked up his PADD and slotted the wires coming from it into the now vacant sockets. “Now you can have any old engineer make do with the standard LCARS OS, and you know, blow this ship up” He said looking at Kelly with a cocky smirk “But I’d rather not be... well; exploded.” He finished turning back to his PADD hammering furiously at the control PADD.
Kelly braced again as another bolt struck the ship. Lonna’s console started to whistle louder and louder. Kelly jumped out of her seat, ran for Lone and grabbed her around the mid section. She lifted her and tossed her aside just as the console detonated. Kelly was struck down.
“Fire suppression!” Mira said, running over to assist the Colonel.
A crew man grabbed an extinguisher from the wall next to the Turbo lift and rushed over to the flaming console. Mira threw Kelly’s arm over her shoulder and began trying to lift her back to her feet.
“My god, you are a lot heavier than you looks” Mira said as she struggled under Kelly’s weight
Kelly shook her head rapidly and blinked her eyes, her pupils dilating quickly whenever she closed them. She came to her senses and got back to her feet under her own strength.
“Ok, I’m not going to be able to stop this from breaching, we need to shut down in 30 seconds” Quinn said into his combadge, holding on to the chair behind him as the strikes became more and more frequent. “Boost the power output to 300 percent, I’ll modify the forward capacitors to take a 78 Mega farad charge.”
“Sir, the capacitors are only designed for a 20 M-F charge.” One of the engineers said over Quinn’s combadge.
“Yeah, we’ll burn them out, but we’ll get 30 seconds of power and not die. Get any repair crews near a capacitor to do the same.” He replied as he knelt down and reached into his toolbox.
He pulled out a hypo drill and a knife and began cutting through the carpet to expose the bolts holding the deck plating down. He drilled them off and the massive plate floated off slowly. Quinn pushed it as hard as he could and it slowly drifted away until enough of it came in contact with the grav field emitted by the adjacent plate. It landed with a thud. Quinn knelt down next to the hole, which had a massive cylindrical object in it. He began fiddling with the wires coming out of it. He ripped out a square piece of machinery, and the lights and consoles dimmed and re activated once he reattached the wires without the square device.
“Ok, crank it” he said into his combadge
The terminals of the capacitor started to glow red hot as it charged way higher than its tolerance.
“Ok, offline, now, purge the core!” Quinn bellowed into his combadge.
The Kusanagi, still taking strikes, began expelling large amounts of warp plasma through the nacelles as the engineering team shut down the core. 4 blue trails marked the path of the ship, merging into 1 positively charged cloud, attracting the lightning strikes and giving the Kusanagi a reprive.
“Just FYI” Quinn said, backing away from the capacitor with his hands up “That thing is going to blow in about 30 seconds; there will be a loud bang followed by a very bad smell.”
“Understood.” Kelly said “how much longer?” she asked as the strikes once more picked up intensity.
“Alright.” Kelly said gripping her chair firmly. “All hands, brace for impact!” She bellowed into her combadge. “Quinn, can you give me shields?” she asked turning to the engineer
“Aye ma’am, but the capacitor will drain faster.” Quinn said
“Do it, we’ll have to rely on our inertia if they fail.” Kelly said, gripping her chair tighter.
Quinn tapped a few tabs on his PADD and released the locks he’d put on the shield grid. He nodded to Lonna who activated the shields with one very hard push of the tab. The screen activated with a shimmer of light and the Kusanagi became an even more tempting target for the bolts, though each strike was far less devastating than when the shields were down.
The highly charged formation came up fast, and struck the Kusanagi with blindingly bright bolt. The shields shimmered violently before fading into nothing once more, but not before discharging. Some of it hit the ship. The capacitor erupted and created a deafening bang. A force field activated in front of her face, protecting her from the majority of the blast, just before the last traces of power in the system drained away. The room went dark and all she could her was static. She fumbled around confused. She forced herself out of it quickly as her eyes adjusted to the emergency lighting. The bridge crew was in a similar state; Quinn was lodged in the hole he had carved in the bulk head, Mira and Tali were on the floor unconscious and Lonna was strewn over her console.
The Kusanagi continued to shudder as the storm continued to berate her shields, but it slowly got softer and softer. Kelly hobbled over to the helm and pushed down the com button.
“Medical team to the bridge” she said on an open channel.
She leant over the console and brought up the ships basics; hull down to 48 percent, shield weapons and impulse of line, minimal life support and replicators online. The ship was drifting, rotating lazily as she emerged from the storm in the outer reaches of the Antiva system.
Tali and Mira came too with a start. “Prophets!?! What is that smell?” Tali said, recoiling quickly at the stench
“He wasn’t kidding” Mira said as she got to her feet and held her nose.
“Please state the nature of the medical emergency” said a familiar voice from behind.
The EMH appeared out of thin air just as Yelena stepped onto the bridge.
“I told you I’ve got this.” She said dismissively as she knelt down beside Lonna “Oh dear god” she said, scrunching up her face and recoiling upon noticing the smell.
“I wouldn’t trust you to give food to a tribble.” The EMH replied resentfully
“Look, I’m just not that experienced with Aliens.” Yelena said defensively as she pulled out her tricorder “It’s not my fault Thosia was segregated for so long.”
“Case and point, some of the crew members here are not Thosians.” The EMH responded
“Enough!” Kelly said annoyed “Doctor, its only minor injuries, Yelena can handle that.” She said in a commanding tone. “Can anyone tell me what’s going on outside the ship?” she said, looking around at the crew as they slowly got to their feet.
“Uh.” Lonna said as she picked herself up and rebooted her console. “Scanners are down, but the defector array is intact, I can route the telemetry through that, the only issue is that we’ll only be able to see what’s 3 degrees directly in front.” She said
Kelly sighed “So we have no idea if any other support made it through?”
“Negitve.” Lonna said distracted by her readouts. “but I have got a ping, one of the orbital’s, heavily damaged...” She trailed off, hitting some keys on her console “but its visual telemetry is still online, I’m getting a picture.”
“Put it up on the main view screen.” Kelly said, pushing off Lonna’s chair to face the screen.
A hazy image appeared, Kelly couldn’t tell what was starscape and what was static. The camera panned around until it came across some debris, which were then highlighted and visually reconstructed.
“The USS Kiandra, a Defiant class escort.” Lonna said, turning back to her console.”She was assigned to colony defence against pirates and small enemy formations.”
“Continue” Kelly said, keeping a professional tone.
The camera continued logging and visually reconstructing debris as it went. Kelly noticed something on the screen as the camera passed over the sun.
“Whoa, whoa, go back.” She said, placing a hand on Lonna’s shoulder.
“I don’t see it ma’am.”
“It’s there” Kelly said, leaning over Lonna and taking over the controls.
The Image was scanned and a Romulan war bird was outlined and tagged on the screen.
“Got ya” Kelly said proudly.
“Wait, there’s another” Lonna said as a bird of prey tagged
“And another” Mira said
He face dropped as the computed began to rapidly find new targets. Scanning faster and faster until a massive structure obscured the suns light, Kelly made out the unmistakeable arms and hull of a Scimitar class dreadnought just as they lost the feed.
“How many did you count?” Kelly said to Lonna who was still in awe of what she just saw
“Um” Lonna said focusing on her display “3 CCS Battle groups, 39 support –“
“A straight up number please Lone” Kelly said pinching the brow of her nose and closing her eyes.
“9 War birds, 18 Magi’s, and 36 Bird of prey frigates with a Scimitar leading the group and a complement of 39 troop transports, holding in geosync above the Antiva colony”
“What do you suppose their invasion force is like?” Kelly said looking to her XO.
“Well the contingent aboard the original scimitar was about 5,000, and we know that war birds often carry a contingent of about 500 during invasion runs. Allong with the troop transports you’d be looking at a force of over 50 thousand, along with fighter and armour support.” Mira said off the top of her head
Kelly bit her thumb thoughtfully, the Kusanagi, even if she was at 100 percent, would be little match for the size of armada that stood before her.
“Bring up the topographical map of the colony that we have on record and display.” Kelly said.
Lonna pushed down a few key and an image of the system appeared in the centre of the room before the holo emitters flickered and died.
“Not got enough power ma’am.” Quinn said from his console.
“Doctor” Kelly said to the EMH as he tended to a patient
“Very well” the EMH sighed, standing upright “Computer, deactivate EMH” he said in a less than enthusiastic tone as he faded into nothing
“Ok, bring it up” Kelly said, folding her arms
Once more the blue image of the system was generated and slowly expanded. It speeded up, heading towards Antiva faster and faster. As the planet came up the surface of the orb intersected the bulkheads until finally a line occupied the space at about waist height. About 100 square miles around the colony was highlighted and the rest fell away.
“Ok, the city is located on a reasonably defensible plateau, from the looks of it 3 large steady inclines have been made by the colonists to facilitate transport. Some minor ground fortifications and a powerful geothermal powered dispersal shield.” Kelly thought out loud
“Huh?” Tali said, somewhat confused by the mention of a dispersal shield
“It doesn’t repel or absorb energy weapons, it creates a field in one direction that scatters energy. It will stop orbital bombardment.” Kelly said thoughtfully. She looked at Mira with an adventurous smile.
“huh? Oh no” she sighed when she realised Kelly was planning.
“Quinn what’s the repair quote?” Kelly said turning to face him.
“Well, the port catalyst needs recalibrating, then the warp core needs priming and lighting, nearly every single capacitor needs replacing and the main EPS conduit needs cleaning up, about 10 days in dry dock.” Quinn said running through the list
“Can you still run the IES and manoeuvring thrusters at these powerlevels?” Kelly asked
“Thrusters are going to take some scrounging, and the Internal Emissions Sync is purely mechanical. It’s going to take a bit of elbow grease but we can get it active.”
“Activate the IES and head for” she motioned the image to zoom out to there position, she pointed to a small moon about 5 million kilometres away “that moon, the gravitational constant should be low enough to use the thrusters to slow your decent. You have 3 days with what you have.” Kelly said as she walked over to the turbo lift “Mira tell the Marines to saddle up.”
“Oh no ma’am, Starfleet charter states that the captain of the ship says onboard.” Mira said, grabbing her arm
Kelly turned and smirked “Well you’re the most senior ranked Naval officer here. You know I was going to get you to do this too.” Kelly said in a mocking tone.
“Ma’am” Mira said, folding her arms
“We just need to hold out for 96 hours, and then the storm will pass and the cavalry will come. We can’t win this in space and I’ll be damned if I sit idly by as the Romulan Qan’Vancoolos butcher the civilians down there.” Kelly said forcefully as she walked to the turbo lift “96 hours, that’s all we need.” She repeated as the door closed.
((As the Storm hit and the communications between the federation and the Antiva colony were interrupted, a massive force of Romulan/Reaman ships uncloaked and decimated the patrols and orbital defences of the small colony. The Captains that made it to the system must now bide for time until the storm clears and reinforcements can arrive.))
_________________
Things that Skippy can't do
#77: The MP checkpoint is not an Imperial Stormtrooper roadblock, so I should not tell them “You don’t need to see my identification, these are not the droids you are looking for.”
The USS Leyte Gulf dropped from warp with a flash, entering the system precisely where she had been projected to, and with five minutes to spare before the storm rolled through.
"Report Number One?" Mavendorf ordered from her chair, no visible signs of her injuries showing though she did tend to open and close her right hand a lot...and was wearing a set of black leather gloves.
"Sensors are reading approximately fifty Romulan ships, ranging from Bird of Prey up to Warbird...I would estimate 3 complete task forces Admiral." the Klingon replied
"The Colonies defenses?" Mavendorf asked a bit slowly
"We are scanning debris consistant with the Defiant class USS Kiandra, she was on station to provide defense against pirate attacks and the like...as well as debris from orbital weapons platforms...it would appear the Kusanagi's information was correct Sir" Ch'Bargh replied
Mavendorf was now visibly angry "Plot an intercept course for the closest Warbird Number one..."
"Sir?" He said carefully, recognizing that his commanding officer was on the verge of ordering their deaths in a hopeless gesture. While his Klingon honor demanded he exact some revenge on the Romulans, a lone escort stood little chance of doing that...and dying without exacting a toll on the enemy would be shameful.
"We will close with them and jam a tricobalt up their warp conduits Number One." Mavendorf said in a tight voice.
"Duty would demand we notify Starfleet of the size and composition of the Romulan force Admiral." Ch'Bargh said carefully.
"Then make the appropriate signal to fleet Number One..." Mavendorf replied...she seemed to run out of steam a bit then as her thoughts caught up with her anger "We...we need to find a weakness. Everyone has a weak point..."
Ch'Bargh quickly composed a signal to fleet and fired it off:
To: All 7th Fleet Ships; Encryption sequence, Beta Sigma Zulu
From: USSLeyte Gulf, Commanding Officer Lt(JG) Cleo Mavendorf
RE: Romulan Invasion force confirmed at Antiva Colony
This vessel warped into system at 1830hours local and observed Romulan ships in numbers equivalent to 3 CCCS battle groups and supporting ships. Wreckage confirmed to be USS Kiandra also spotted. Request immediate support be sent to assist in dislodging Romulan forces.
C. Mavendorf
As soon as he had sent it he turned back to his commander for further instructions.
Cleo was watching the numbers scroll down the display on her chair arm, so she didn't see him waiting on her orders, until he spoke again "Admiral, another ship has dropped out of warp."
"Yellow alert Number One, is it another Romulan?" She ordered
"No Sir, it is the Kusanagi...and she appears heavily damaged." CH'Bargh replied
"On screen. Open a channel" Mavendorf ordered. The main screen shifted to a view of the Kusanagi and several sounds of surprise escaped the bridge crew as the damage to the other ship was seen "Kusanagi this is Leyte gulf...do you require assistance?"
There was only silence to answer them "Perhaps their communicatios are offline Captain?"
"Likely given the damage I can see Number One." Mavendorf said as she stood up "You have the con Number One...take up a position to cover the Kusanagi...Mr Forrest! Assemble and engineering team and meet me in transporter room one on the double!"
"Aye sir!" came the reply as Mavendorf strode to the turbo lift. "I'll let you know what the situation is once I'm aboard Number One" She said as the doors closed
A few minutes later a half dozen officers including Mavendorf materialized in the main engineering section of the Kusanagi...she immediately pointed to a man wearing the pips of a full Commander "Inform your Captain that the Leyte Gulf has arrived and is standing by to assist...then put my engineers to work where you need them." She waited for the man's hasty "Yes Sir" then made her way to the turbo-lift. She entered it and ordered "Bridge."
Help is at hand Colonel...I look forward to our face to face meeting here
The Saratoga glides though space effortlessly, with the light of the local star gleaming off it's hull.
On the bridge officers and crewmen walk about tending to minor duty's. Lt Commander Onria turned to Captain Scott, “Sir were getting a message from the USS Kusanagi, its encrypted sir,also its at least eighteen hours old.”
Scott pulls his gaze from a map console, turning to Onria, “Lt. Commander send it to staff room one.” “Aye sir.” Onria reply's. The Captain pushes a button on his chair, “All senior staff report to Staff room one ASAP.”
Moments later in staff room one, senior officers discusses what the encrypted message could be in hushed tones, then the door opens and the Captain and his first officer walk in. "Good to see you all here we have a difficult matter to discusses.", Captain Scott turns to the wall screen, manipulates the buttons on the side of the wall panel bringing up a message.
To: All 7th Fleet Ships; Encryption sequence, Alpha Sigma Hotel
From: USS Kusanagi, Commanding Officer Colonel Kel Zor’ah Har’cos
RE: Increase in Romulan Activity
Operatives aboard the USS Kusanagi have apprehended a Romulan spy. During the interrogation he mentioned he was part of a cell devoted to causing havoc in Hylarian sector to pull Starfleet forces from the Bolarious sector. They plan to invade the Antiva Frontier colony. Kusanagi is rerouting to investigate, breaking the warp limit imposed by the patrol orders. If the fleet deems it necessary, reinforcements must arrive at Antiva in 3 days (2409.0306 @ 1500hrs), a class 8 ion storm is due to shroud the colony for 4 days, making it impossible to reach the colony.
We have no idea whether or not this information is reliable, we are relying on a very poor understanding of Romulan honor and it is very likely that this is a goose chase. And even if this turns out to be true, the Romulans are acting in Cells, it is highly probable that this is a multi-front offensive.
Kel Zor’ah Har’cos
Devon turns to the command staff, “We know that two other ships have responded the Rafale Jessica St. Peter commanding and the Leyte Gulf, Cleo Mavendorf commanding. As far as we know the Kusanagi is the first one on station. We need to be there in less then two days.” Commander T'Pero slips out of her chair and walks to the wall monitor, “Sir were here.” T'Pero points to the current system then points to the Bolarious sector and zooms in on the Antiva colony. “Sir logically speaking that's not possible, even at maximum warp it would take 26 hours to get in system. Even then sir we have to get past a level 8 ion storm, if we pass through it I am not sure we will be battle ready sir.”
All the sudden Commander Ben Tilly chief engineer speaks up. “ I have an theory about how we could deflect the strikes away from the Saratoga ,” “How is that chief?.” Devon ask curiously. “Well sir we could replicate a conductor, reverse the polarity and that would attract the strikes. We can make it small enough to be fired out the probe launcher.” Ben says. Most of the faces around the room look on with smiles, others not so much.
Devon ponders for a moment, “Ok chief how are you going to make this conductor probe change polarity's on the fly, because every strike is not going to be positive or negative .”
Ben answers ,“Well sir we can alter the probes software to change the polarity to the ion emitters or we can do it from the bridge directly. Sir its up to you but I know this will get us passed the storm.”
Devon looks over the room, then back to his chief engineer, “Ben get on it, oh chief make seven of them I know the length of the storm is huge but I am hoping the we can cut through the width fairly quickly.” Ben looks inquisitively at Captain Scott and smiles, “Aye sir you'll have your lucky seven.”
Devon tugs on the bottom of his uniform, then address his command staff, “We have people in harms way, their counting on us to be there. I know these Captains myself and while they know not the out come against overwhelming odds, they have chose to boldly stride into the fire. I will not let my comrades, friends, go into that fire alone. Make no mistake we are now in harms way.”
Devon says again sharply, “command staff dismissed .”
Devon steps onto the bridge walking over to Lt.Commander Onria, “Lt. Commander I need you to send out coded one replys to the Leyte Gulf and the Rafale let them know that we will be joining them and that we will be late, but we will be there. Also send another coded message to the Trial and let them know whats transpired, also forward that to the 7th fleet command.” Onria, responds, ' Aye Sir.”
The warp drive aboard the Saratoga hums then with a crack the cruiser slips into warp, heading to the Antiva Frontier colony.
_________________
Resist when surrounded, Fight when you have to, And obey orders explicitly when in danger.
((This is a Joint Project between Cleo Mavendorf and Kelly))
The doors of the turbo lift opened and a small woman stood before her that she did not recognise. She was somewhat surprised; she had come out on deck 15. She stuck her head out and saw a group of engineers pour out of engineering, more than should be in there. Kelly looked back to the woman and suddenly her face struck a chord.
“Admiral Mavendorf, right?” Kelly said folding her arms defensively.
She was quite aware that no one could hail the Kusanagi, but it still ticked her off that this woman came onto her ship unannounced.
Cleo matched the face before her with the file holo she had read earlier "Yes Colonel, My apologies for the unannounced visit but we couldn't contact you and time is of the essence"
Cleo extended her hand "I brought a team to help with repairs and can have another two beamed over if you need them.”
Kelly swallowed her pride and took the Admirals hand. “Thankyou” she said, forcing a polite tone “But once we get the warp core online, these things have holo emitters throughout the ship, we can create all the help we need.” A thought struck her as she stepped aside to let Cleo in.”What’s your ships current position?” she said in a concerned tone.
Cleo stepped into the lift "The Gulf is currently holding station three kilometres to your port and slightly astern." She replied with a small smile
“Right, we’re on course for a moon orbiting the final gas giant of this system, I would suggest that you hail your ship and tell them to do the same” Kelly said as she pushed the button to take them to the flight deck. “Unless there’s a massive armada out there we need to hide before that fleet comes round and spots us.”
Cleo nodded and tapped her combadge "Mavendorf to Gulf."
There was a chirp and Ch'Bargh's voice replied "Gulf here sir"
Cleo spoke quietly "Maintain station on the Kusanagi and continue to conform to her course...report any movement on the part of the Romulans."
"Aye Sir" Ch'Bargh repled
"Mavendorf out"
“So you’ve seen the fleet i take it? Any plans” Kelly said with a cryptic smirk.
Cleo gave Kelly a slight frown "Hard to miss it...I was on the verge of going in after the closest warbird when you warped in Colonel"
"but as noble and futile a gesture as that was...I was hoping you had a better idea than that" She sighed
“Really?” Kelly asked rhetorically as the turbo lift doors opened to the large flight deck
“Hustle up marines! I want that payload onboard yesterday!” a blonde Terran bellowed at a group of marines who carried equipment to one of the shuttles that had been lowered from the clamp.
She turned to Kelly and saluted “We’ve nearly got the shuttles ready ma’am, the Argos are standing by in shuttle bay 1 and the pilots and in the tubes ready to go.”
She dropped her hand and looked down at Mavendorf before looking back at Kelly “Who’s the squid?” She said
Kelly opened her mouth to talk before Cleo interjected.
Cleo simply raised the corner of her lip slightly "The "Squid" is the XO of Task Force 88 Marine...perhaps you've heard of us? In my spare time I command the Leyte Gulf...perhaps you've heard of it?"
Kelly pinched her brow with an exasperated smirk. “Anderson, just get your boys squared away.”
“Aye ma’am.” She walked over and grabbed some combat webbing and Kelly’s TR-116A.
Kelly looked at Mavendorf as she slung the rifle over her shoulder. “I was thinking of taking this thing groundside.” She said with a smirk. “oh, tell the driver of one of those ATSVs that he’s swapping out with me.” Kelly said to Anderson as she walked off.
Cleo smirked slightly as she paused and looked around the shuttle bay at the activity in progress. After a second she trotted over to Kelly "Do you need another hand on the ground Colonel? I have a top notch ground team...we are not marines...but half of them are Klingons and love a good fight"
Kelly smiled “You’ve done the math I take it? A contingent of 40 81st MACOs, a ground contingent of 500 MACOs and 20,000 none combatants against 50,000 pissed off Romulans and Remans. You know I think we can handle it”
“Oo’rah” one of the marines said as he walked by
“But if you want to help out, sure, we could use it.” Kelly finished with a smirk
Cleo nodded a bit "I rarely calculate odds Colonel...I merely chose the path that offers the most opportunity to strike my enemies down..."
Cleo tapped her combadge "Mavendorf to Gulf...ready the Botany Bay and alert my personal team"
"Aye Sir." Came the quick reply
Cleo looked over to Kelly "How soon do you expect to have ship to ship communications restored?"
Kelly tapped her combadge “Quinn, what’s the sit rep on communications”
“Once we get the warp core up and running again, which should take about 11 hours, all I have to do is replace the capacitor for the replicators, replicate another capacitor and replace the captacitor on deck 15 section 3. About 12 hours in total.” He said over her combadge
She looked back at Cleo “I don’t really want to use comms though, the less emissions the better.”
Cleo nodded "If you use line of sight laser encrypted transmissions we can keep emissions from being detected...the laser bursts will be lost n the background radiation"
Kelly nodded in agreement. “Ok, are you coming with the ground team or staying up here?”
"I'll meet you planet side if you can send me your LZ coordinates...and instruct your troops not to fire on the lone Klingon ship I'll be arriving in" Cleo replied with a slightly odd grin
“Our strike team will lead the run on the colony, you follow us through. The fighter wing will punch a hole through their line if they have one set up. The LZ is the Antiva Space Port in the capitol, I’m sure you’ll figure out a nice place to park.” Kelly said in an almost patronising tone, mimicking the same odd grin.
Cleo laughed and tapped her combadge "I will indeed Colonel...Mavendorf to Gulf...one to beam over please" She vanished in a shimmer of transporter effect.
Kelly smirked to herself. Wasn’t that funny she thought as she grabbed her combat webbing and readjusted her rifle.
“Anderson, I want those type 13s ready to go by the time I get to the Argo.” Kelly said over her shoulder as she stepped back into the turbo lift.
“You heard the lady! Get it squared away.” Anderson said as Kelly turned around to push the turbo lift. “Jenkins!” Anderson said as she noticed a young private slacking off “Get your arse back in gear private or I swear to god I’ll make you in charge of the ammo, and it won’t be with a transport buffer!” Kelly heard the staff sergeant yell as the door closed.
_________________
Things that Skippy can't do
#77: The MP checkpoint is not an Imperial Stormtrooper roadblock, so I should not tell them “You don’t need to see my identification, these are not the droids you are looking for.”
St. Peter leaned to her right in the chair, so that she could talk in an equally hushed tone to her Bajoran first officer. "Dossu, what magnitude...?"
"Still only class 8."
"Only?" She scoffed. Jessica stood up, raising her voice to address the other bridge officers. "Wirstowx, how long will it take to go around that thing?"
"Far too long, if we are to make it to the colony in time to rendezvous with the rest of the fleet."
"Elaina, I can guess what you're going to say, but what if..."
"Hell. No. We are not flying through that thing. It'll take days to reconfigure the power transfer system and the nacelles to go through without causing serious damage to the ship and be able to fight once we get to the other side. Not counting that, we would have to go to a starbase to get hull upgrades; we go one meter inside that cloud and every crew member on board is going to be fried."
Jessica nodded; it was exactly what she guessed the other woman would say. "Can you boost our speed any to get around it any quicker?"
Elaina turned back to her bridge console, tapping a few commands and running a quick simulation or two. She shook her head. "I can get the engines up to warp 9.4, but we can only sustain that for three, maybe four hours at most before we'll have to drop to warp 7 for a five hour cool down. For a day trip, I can give you 9.1, but it'll be a bumpy ride, and we won't have phaser power on the other side for a good thirty minutes."
"I don't understand how that will be a pleasant half hour..." Obruz Dossu walked to the front of the bridge, working a side console.
"It's better than us coming out on the other side dead. How long till we can hit 9.1?"
"Give me three hours to make the adjustments to the drive system. You can go up to warp 6 while I'm doing it." With that, the engineer walked to the back of the bridge and entered a turbolift, making her way to the engine room.
"Right. Mr. Wirstowx, plot your course, fastest route around the storm, and engage at warp 6." The Oza at the helm input the commands quickly, and the entire ship gave a small shudder as it leaped forward at warp once again, veering away from the path of the ion storm. "Let's hope there'll still be some left for us to take out when we get there."
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