Terran Crucible (Part 8 of 8)

Posted on 31 Oct 2015 @ 4:47am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Andreus Kohl & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Norvi Stace & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov & Fleet General Jack Holliday
Edited on on 31 Oct 2015 @ 4:55am

1,427 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo/ISS Galileo - Various
Timeline: MD 06 - 2350 hrs

Previously, on Terran Crucible (Part 7)...

Tyrion and his team worked hard to secure every intelligence file they could find. "Encrypt everything, twice if you have to," he ordered sternly. After everything was encrypted, he added a final layer of code before locking down the computers one by one. Then he tapped his comm badge. "Intel is secure," he reported, though a quiver in his voice betrayed his anxiety.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

ISS Galileo - Deck 1, CIC

The bridge of the mirror universe vessel was a shocking departure from that of her counterpart. Whilst the USS Galileo was built as a vessel of exploration and scientific endeavour, the ISS Galileo was a warship through and through.

Multiple tactical stations took the place of the science bays found on her counterpart, each equipped with enough sensor feeds and comms panels to allow her to coordinate the actions of an entire battlefleet. Her weapons systems could be accessed from virtually any console, and brought to bear on any target that was forseen to be deserving. Armed to the teeth, and with double redundant shields, she was a far cry from the Primary Universe frigate.

In the centre was a lone chair, tall, imposing, and with security guards brandishing phaser rifles on either side. In the centre sat a man who had already made his introduction, the Fleet General of the Terran Empire, Jack Holliday. A man who had dedicated his life to eradicating his people's enemies, and where necessary, his own in order to advance his career.

Sat at the very centre of what was one of the largest fleets ever raised by the Empire, he would soon lead humanity on it's greatest mission to date.

Standing from his chair, with one hand resting on the phaser attached to his hip, he moved down the two large steps that separated him from the rest of the Bridge. With a few short steps he came to rest behind the helm.

"Helmsman. What is our ETA to the facility?"

Casting the general a cocky smile, Wintrow took a glance at the controls, then glanced back at the general. "Just a few hours if we keep up this speed. If we can get them to move a bit faster, then we can be there in under an hour." But beneath his cocky smile, which was just a façade, fear was coiling inside. Did the captain know?

" Excellent. Maintain speed and course....." Holliday replied, a wry smile spreading across his face before he turned his back and took his place back in the central chair. Only a few hours remained.....

"Maintaining speed and course," Wintrow echoed back.


1 hour later...

The monotonous journey through the field at such low speeds, a necessity to minimise their engine signature, was finally reaching it's end. Ahead of the small fleet lay a particularly sizeable asteroid, several kilometers in diameter. The large rock was otherwise indistinguishable from the rest of its compatriots, seemingly a dead hunk of planet floating in space.

Yet a few moments later the image ahead of them changed. A shimmer on the surface of the rock quickly dissolved into a metallic doorway - a large metal surface not unlike the doors of a Federation starbase. With just a moment's delay, the doors began to pull themselves apart....


USS Galileo - Deck 1, Bridge

"What the hell is that?" Jonathan exclaimed as the Galileo's viewscreen displayed the events happening in front of them. The cavernous asteroid seemed to be far different to its facade, but what exactly it contained, was another matter entirely.

"I want a full sensor scan of that rock immediately."

"I'm on it, "Keval responded. He wasn't that great of a scientist, but he knew his way around a sensor array. He ran one scan and then a second. "I'm sorry, " he reported, "we're just not picking up on much. It looks like its just a rock but something is blocking our attempts."

Holliday furrowed his brow at the reply. Obviously this facility was designed to be hidden here amongst the other large lumps of rock and not stick out like the sore thumb it most obviously would have been otherwise.

"Suppositions?" He asked his Bridge crew. He already had theories of his own but without definitive sensor scans it would be more than impossible to substantiate any of them.

"That looks like a facility of some form....if we're going in there I want to know what it is."

From his seat at the primary science station, Andreus Kohl turned back to make brief eye-contact with the personnel wearing Operations gold: Min Nicholas and Keval zh'Erinov. "With permission, I'm about to start drinking from the electro-plasma distribution network with three straws instead of one," Kohl announced. He waited all of three seconds before he turned his attention back to his LCARS interface, where he swiped up a new screen of menu options and began selecting every other option available. "I'm engaging the SDA-23's entire reconnaissance sensor suite. You'll find the new data being overlaid in real-time on the viewscreen in green..."

Stace, now back on the bridge, turned to the central command console she shared with the captain. She scrunched up her nose as the new data began to overlay itself onto the existing scans. She paused and then quickly brought up the power flow diagnostics. The last thing they needed was to open a new singularity. Unless they knew where they were going to end up. Satisfied, she returned to the new scans as she tried to absorb the data.

Kohl pivoted his head back and forth. He squinted at the viewscreen, and he frowned. He squinted at his console beneath his hands, and he frowned. He shared one more frown with the LCARS panel to his left. "Well... huh... that didn't do anything," Kohl reported. "Our sensors aren't picking up anything other than the asteroid, but... visually... we can see there's a facility inside it. (I'm going to shut down that reconnaissance sensor suite now.) Those hangar doors look awfully big, but I guess they would need to be with so many starships... I can't begin to imagine their defenses, or what types of phaser arrays they're armed with... Lieutenant Benice?"

Looking over from his station towards Lark he could see it was clear that the newly elected chief was busy in calculation to not hear the other officer "From the likes of what we have seen I would guess we'll be looking at some pretty heavy weapons platforms most likely similar to those on our own biggest star bases and maybe some more ships, judging by the size of the hanger they could fit anything from a Defiant to a Sovereign and that's just going by that they haven't got anything bigger. Without being able to see or scan the ships, guessing is our best and only choice either way we wont stand a toe to toe fight or much fire from them," Smyth said returning his answer to Kohl's reply.

Holliday frowned at both the lack of details being presented to him, and the sheer scale of what stood ahead of the tiny Nova-class starship. It made sense that the facility was so well armed and equipped - certainly if the Empire had gone to the extent of deploying some sort of stealth technology then whatever it was hiding was worth their while.

"Well....looks like we're going in. All hands stand by your stations...."

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Mission Advisor
USS Galileo

LCDR Norvi Stace
First Officer
USS Galileo

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Cyrin Xanth
Astrophysicist
USS Galileo

PO1 Taliesin Cynwrig
Master-At-Arms
USS Galileo
[PNPC Xanth]

LCmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Tyrion Faye
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

2nd Lt Wintrow Paragon
Mercenary Pilot/ISS Saalm pilot
USS Galileo
[pnpc Tyrion]

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign K'os Beaumont
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Ensign Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

CA Abbey Wyatt
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Wyatt]

CPO Keval Grayson
Operations Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Nicholas]

LTJG Benice Gyce
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Tuula Voutilainen
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LT Olsam Mott
Asst. Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Naois Mercy
Counselor
USS Galileo
[PNPC Faye]

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