Engagement (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 14 May 2018 @ 12:00pm by Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Ensign Callin Mastrel & Crewman Valentina Gagarina & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Aria Rice & Ensign Mimi & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Stark & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Edited on on 21 Aug 2023 @ 2:19pm

4,543 words; about a 23 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - A Far Sun
Location: The Borderlands, USS Schofield
Timeline: MD 02, 0100 hrs

[ON]

The engines on the Schofield were not as good as they should be and it took a little longer to reach the freighter. As the ship came into view one could see a trail of debris from the stricken ship from where its shields had failed.

At least three raiders and fighters were easily visible and as the Schofield dropped out of warp and they began to move.

No sooner had the Schofield dropped out of warp and barely seen the situation, it shuddered from a hit from a quantum torpedo fired at close range.

Blake gripped the arms of her chair tighter as the ship juddered with the hit, her jaw tightening up, and ready for a fight. If that's what the raiders wanted, that's what they'd get. "Report!"

No report came for a moment. First came the raising of the shields followed by another more muffled shudder of the ship. Valentina wasted no time bringing the shields up and it was only the laws of physics and starship design that kept her from raising the shields before they even exit warp. Finally, after a moment of getting situated, she managed to brief the bridge of the situation before continuing her duties. “God damn raiders,” she stated simply once more, though in a thirty-fold increase in auditory energy.

"Try hailing them," Blake ordered with a slight motion of her hand to Ops. It was worth a shot, but she'd stake the shirt on her back that they'd ignore it.

Mimi sent out a general hail, but it wasn't a surprise to anyone that they didn't respond. "No response Captain."

"Helm, evasive maneuvers," Scarlet pushed herself out of her seat to move closer to helm, her arms folded as she looked down at the controls with a frown. "You're going to have to compensate for that damage, they will use their agility against us."

There was no time for talking or responding. Shizn had to let go of the console and angled the ship up and applied full impulse. He found the maneuver to be a bit sluggish. He wanted to move the Schofield out of the pocket they had put it in. Shizn brought the ship about, trying to keep the damaged hull away from the other ships.

Callin's hands trembled slightly as he finally let go of the intense grip he'd held on his console, only now releasing it after the first impact. Training and drilling he'd recently received had him manage to brace himself well, but none of the simulations at the Academy had truly prepared him for this. His classmates had all known it was pretend, so when the wave of surprise and concern from his shipmates on this ship hit him, he'd been shaken more by that. Still, it was training that made him pull up the reports from the sensors to start analyzing.

"Engineering, I need damage control in full force to give us consistent speed and maneuverability...we can't afford to have them flying circles around us..." Blake's tone almost held an edge of warning.


Engineering

John hung on as the ship took a hit. There were sparks and the consoles lit up as the damage was showing across the screens. Then there was a momentary blank and slowly the lights started turning green again. He made his way over and ran his hands puzzled for a moment and then a smile spread across his face.

He pressed his comm badge. =^=This old girl has about quadruple redundancy. We got the starboard engine back up. She can take a punch!=^=

Behind him, Crewman Draia Theroh was dangling from the edge of a catwalk, holding on with the fingertips of one hand. Five heartbeats earlier, she had been inspecting a leak from the overhead, and then the rocking of the boat sent her hurling from the catwalk. Draia managed to hold tight, while her legs kicked helplessly in the void between the catwalk and the column of the warp core below. With one determined grunt, she swung her arm around and clamped onto the catwalk with another hand. Heaving the rest of her body back up onto the catwalk, Draia murmured, "So can I."


Bridge

Blake's jaw tightened with irritation for a moment, as she remembered that they had no torpedoes. The mission had been deemed safe enough to send them out without them. She shook her head to herself, her expression changing to raw disapproval. Oh yes. So, so safe. Why not just send them out without shields whilst they were at it. Someone, somewhere, was going to feel a piece of her wrath for that decision. "Okay, enough dancing, target that port side raider with phasers, fire at will."

A volley of phaser fire came just as soon as those words ended, striking the indicated side sloppily yet no less effective. Valentina may have been relatively new to tactical, but she was no stranger to fighting. It wasn’t as good as a fist to the face, but the phasers hit with the brute force expected from such an aggressive individual, lacking finesse, but compensated with deadliness. All she needed was a good push from the engines to keep them safe while she whittled at their, to her strong-headed assessment, ill-equipped vessels.

The message from engineering came through and the lights on the console turned green showing full control of the engines again.

Outside the port side raider had been coming in hard when the phasers fired from the Schofield. It had figured the old ship was too damaged but it seemed to turn faster than expected and the raider took direct hit. The little craft's shields flared and it survived, but whoever was on board knew better than to risk another hit from the much much larger ship. They fled. The other raiders around the freighter began to move away and form up to make runs on the Oberth class vessel. They depended on their speed and maneuverability. Like a pack of wolves hunting a large beast.

At what passed for an ops console on the Schofield Mimi was worried, even in their prime the Oberth class was not a combat ship and this one was well past its prime. She kept an eye on the power distribution chart, the ships heavy shielding used quite a lot of power from the relatively small warp core.

With a face pale and obvious concern plain to see, Callin was feeling a bit grateful too. He hadn't been called upon to offer up a suggestion, some advantage, which was a good thing too because he had none. His own shields were up, as it were, and he was focused on his readouts, but the raiders weren't part of the curriculum anymore. Yet, he was struggling with his own nerves even if not everyone else's. My first assignment, and instead of getting to know certain pointy-eared people better, or investigating a really stellar - heh - phenomena, I'm in a battle for my life and don't know what to do.


Sickbay

Alexion moved quickly around one of the biobeds...their one, singular working biobed....but at least with the Commander out of it, they had at least one bed ready for casualties. Well, casualty, singular. He started to toss equipment onto a trolley, ready to grab and move quickly if needed, glancing around at the others. "Get ready to move out with a kit and treat casualties across the ship...we don't have enough room to accommodate many patients, so we're going to have to be ready to go out to them."

There was no reason unless something happened on the bridge for Allyndra to be there so she headed for sickbay. She got there just as Alexion was organizing things. "Here I will take a kit, you and Tuula can keep things going here."

Alexion nodded firmly to her, moving in fast strides across the bay, pulling smaller kits out. "Understood. We have this covered," he assured quickly.


Security

Gabriel frowned as he moved with swift strides to grab a rifle, drenched in the flashing red light of alert. He armed himself in preparation for having to defend the ship against a boarding party, tilting the rifle to check the settings. "I bloody hate ship battles," he said suddenly, shaking his head with a frown, a tsk sound coming from him as he straightened up. They were totally dependent on the people on the bridge. And all they could do was stand around and wait, there was nothing he could do to help out or improve their chances in a ship-to-ship battle. "This bit sucks."

Abbey chuckled "Well I doubt they'll destroy us right away, they'll try and board us first, then steal our stuff and then kill us. Well some of us anyway they'll probably sell the pretty ones to the Orion Syndicate... Like you" She teased. "Now come on Luke said secure the ship and be ready to repeal boarders and that's what we're gonna do"

The doors opened and Aria Rice walked in, taking in the room before she looked around. The alert had hit and she took it as an all hands on deck thing. It wasn't her usual shift pattern, she had been given another one and the time she wasn't on duty she had spent either sleeping, training or spending time with Lily. And truth was...she hadn't even hit the bar like she used to. So when she saw Gabriel Stark she couldn't help but smiling. "Need a hand securing this asylum?" she asked, winking as she walked over to the armory, taking a rifle and checking it with an ease she hadn't had last time she had served with Stark.

Gabriel grinned with shining eyes when he saw her, sparing a moment to tackle her around the waist in a fierce hug. "There's my girl! I thought you were just a rumour," he teased, shaking his head. "Ready to rock?"

Aria smiled, wrapping her free arm around him quickly, hugging him before she pulled back and nodded, raising an eyebrow. "Of course I am," she said and looked at Abbey. "Always ready for explosions and the general mayhem that comes with Starfleet."

“I think I already like you” Abbey held out her hand “Abbey St James, Mirror universe extraordinaire “ She flashed a smile. “And you are?” She asked.

Aria looked at her before she took the hand. "More a high five girl than handshake girl..." she said lightly but winked. "Aria Rice. From...this universe..." she added with some confusion. Mirror universe? She wasn't sure that she even knew what that was. "And basically realizing she has a hell of a lot to catch up with!"

"High fives, you're already way cooler than 90% of this crew. So you were like a previous crewmember or something? A lot of returning crew confused between me and my Counterpart from this universe, a lot of odd looks and the like,” she explained.

Aria stopped suddenly, looking at Abbey. Really looking at her. She knew Abbey. One of those faces that was there with an ocean of others that she vaguely knew. But...Abbey. Abbey was Wyatt's kid. And this...she wasn't sure. Counterpart. She looked at Gabriel with a bit of confusion before she looked back at Abbey. "You're...not the Abbey I knew." It was a statement now, not a question and there was a sickening feeling coming to her gut. Not the sort of one that told her she'd enjoy a week of cramps, mood swings and wanting to curl up with a hot water bottle on her tummy for the duration and a bag of salty caramel covered in chocolate. This was the sort of sickening feeling that came with realizing something what really wrong, that made her feel the blood drain. And yet, with the red alert, she forced herself to pull back from it. "We got a job to do. We can catch up on this later."

Abbey nodded, she was used to explaining her story by now it seemed that everyone in this universe found death a bitter pile to swallow, from where she was from it was a way of life. “You’re right, let’s go,” she said with a smile.


Bridge

The raiders split as they headed toward the much larger ship, some going high, some low, some to port and the others to starboard. While the fighters fired phasers they could not match with those weapons the strength of the Oberth class shields. Instead they mostly used their phasers as a distraction and launching torpedoes that the larger raiders

Even though the defensive measures were used against the torpedoes headed their way, Shizn continued to keep the Oberth in a flight path free of arms. It was very difficult to do. The Schofield was not as responsive as he would like. Some of the torpedoes made their mark and struck the shields.

Luke stumbled onto the bridge his interdepartmental brainstorm leaving him with no more ideas than he had originally. It wasn't until Abbey started talking about being boarded did he have an idea to even the odds. "Commander, the Schofield wasn't built for combat, but those raiders were, I have a plan, and it involves getting a small team onto one of those raiders." He said with a grim expression.

"We're built for taking punches and for the current phenomenon. Those raiders shields are made up of spare parts and black market purchases so they have their weaknesses and one of the raiders shields are fluctuating due to a few well-placed phaser blasts and the flare. We can lock on, pass through its shield, all be it one at a time and secure the raider. It'll at the very least confuse them and buy us some time to come up with something better. Of course if you have another idea, I'm open for any thing else. The main thing is the old girl just wasn't built for this."

Scarlet looked to Luke with a slight frown, her hands resting on her hips as she glanced back to the viewer, clearly weighing it up. Throwing a few tactics back at them? She was fine with that. She also knew that Luke was more than capable of executing the plan. "Do it," she nodded firmly, looking back to Luke, meeting his eyes. A small part of her would have wanted to go with him. "Take who you need..." she stopped to think for a moment; they'd need a decent pilot to handle a patchwork vessel like that. The only upside to having been forced into Sickbay was that she'd had time to read over the new crew additions in more detail. "Take Vansen, he'll be able to pilot a bird like that."

Tris, from the Helm, had been listening to the conversation about the Bridge, about getting on board a raider and needing a pilot to make use of it. He knew of Vansen’s capabilities, but that raider wasn’t a transport ship. Tris worried that the Petty Officer wouldn’t be able to handle it. But Tris knew that he couldn’t volunteer. His role was here on the Schofield, to keep this ‘bucket’ moving.

Luke nodded and tapped his comms badge, “Mr. Stark, Mr. Vansen and Ensign Soderstrom meet me in Transporter room two with four phasers,” He paused as he turned off the feed and turned to Commander Blake, “We’ll be back for tea and medal,” with that he left.

"I'll be there," Gabriel's voice sounded over the comm, a hint of relief in it at being able to do something useful instead of waiting for the fight to come to them.

Blake took a few steps towards their Ops station, motioning to Mimi. "Ops, figure out which raider has the weakest shields. Analyse the drops in them to find us a way to beam Wyatt's team through. Be ready for his call."

"Understood, Captain this is a very risky operation." Mimi warned, transporters were not her area of expertise and transporting with any form of shield up on either side was extremely dangerous.

Blake turned back to the main view screen as a tremble ran through the old ship from a volley of hits, her jaw tightening with irritation from it. "Tactical, target the raider that took the lead in that last run...if we have to cut one head off at a time, we will."

Shizn followed Tactical’s lead and brought the Oberth Class vessel about, toward the freighter, bring the engines to full impulse.

"Captain, sensors are showing a large power spike and a brief drop of the shields of two of the raiders, they could be using their transporters.”

"Keep on that," Blake pointed to Mimi, moving closer with a frown, shaking her head firmly. "If they're transporting I want to know who, where and when..."


Transporter Room

Luke arrived first having taken a detour to fetch his K-Bar, Abbey who wanted to go had also cornered him, but Luke ordered her to stay on the ship. The doors to the Transporter room opened again spilling forth his team.

Constantin Vansen had been surprised when he had been contacted. He wore his uniform and had a small bag with him with supplies...and his medication. He had taken a larger dose the moment they had been hit, knowing it would wreak havoc with the systems if it went on too long. And of course, his toolbox was there too. He was Operations after all. "Sir," he said to Luke, standing in easy attention. His hair was tied back with a small rubber band because again, shaking ships and hair that was just within acceptable for the uniform meant hair in the face. He wished he had shaven though.

Gabriel wasn't far behind, phasers onboard as ordered as he made straight for Luke. "Finally," he shook his head, letting out a sharp breath, clearly ready to go. "We have a plan, 'Commander?"

“I’ve managed to narrow the confinement beam so we can go across in pairs, I’ll go first with Mr. Stark and secure the bridge thirty-second pause and you two will come over.” He said this as he pointed at Vansen and Axel. “There's no room for mistakes, so make your shots count. Once we've taken the bridge we’ll lock out the rest of the ship, create false readings so the crew thinks they’re still shooting at us when instead we're shooting at their buddies. Our priority is drawing fire away from the Scholfield.”

Gabriel nodded slowly as he took it in, frowning as he got himself in the right headspace, checking his own phaser with quick eyes. "Got it," he assured. No doubts, no hesitation.

Vansen looked at Gabriel for a moment before he looked back at Luke. "Sir," he said, lifting his chin a bit. "Sorry, I am a bit confused. Why am I here? Are we expecting it to be in bad enough shape to need an Operations officer to get her working?"

“You’re our most qualified pilot who isn’t either currently engaged or not on the ship altogether, so you’re flying the raider.” He explained confidently.

Vansen's eyebrows shot up at that before he relaxed and smiled, giving a small nod. "Alright," he said and looked over at Stark. Who was a beautiful man, no escaping that. And the other man was tall, blond and...wow. Even Wyatt was becoming as well, dark hair and muscles and everything. And it was his first time meeting these people, so he had enough to be intimidated about. But...he could fly. And he could do it decently enough. He was additionally reassured by the fact that they all had phasers. Armed and ready to do this.

“Bridge we’re ready to beam across in pairs, I might also make a suggestion we have a second team prepared to board the freighter.” Luke nodded to his team as he stepped up onto the pad alongside Gabriel Stark and readying his phaser. “Bridge... now”

'Pilyes tehda' Mimi kept repeating in her head hoping this would work properly and she wouldn't scatter the molecules of several of the crew into space. "Energizing."


Peregrine-class Raider

Gabriel had a brief moment of regaining his orientation as he appeared on the bridge of the raider. His weapon took aim even as he regained his breath, firing before the other man had fully worked out what was going on. Stark moved quickly, using the now vacant station as sparse cover to take aim from.

Having taken a moment to gather his bearings Luke had beamed in the opposite side of the rudimentary bridge directly behind an enemy soldier, without hesitating he brought the handle of his phaser down, hitting the back of his head and sending his form crumpling to the floor. A shout went up and Luke quickly identified five more crewmen on the bridge all starting to realize what was happening.

Firing as he took cover Luke hit another one, a female in the chest knocking her to the floor before she could raise her own weapon with the crew down to four the odds looked good especially now the other two were beaming in.

Vansen materialized, his phaser ready...which was just as good before he was right behind someone who wasn't on their team. He fired the phaser, glad it had all been set up. He wasn't confident enough to try and knock him out. A phaser was safer.

Axel materialized next to Vansen, a more defensive posture than aggressive making sure there would be pilot survived the fighting. With only three bridge crew left the four-man boarding team made surprisingly light work of them. “Well that went better than I thought, I really thought the pilot would get shot.” he teased melting the bridges doors control console with his phase on high.

“We won’t have long, Vansen bring us around and head straight for the lead ship. Axel ops and Stark secure the prisoners and the other entry points.” Luke ordered heading to the Tactical console, all weapons and torpedoes were armed and ready. “Let’s show them how to fight.” he added.

"Why everyone thinks I'll croak on an away mission is beyond me," Vansen said and took the seat, frowning as he ran his eyes over the controls before he got his bearings. He brought them around and plotted in the course, one hand bracing against the console, the other working. His eyes went to the screen to get a visual confirmation of what the read-outs were showing him. "She's sluggish," he suddenly said aloud. "I won't be able to do too many sharp turns unless I take over manually or pre-plot them in."

"Do whatever you can, take power from other systems if you need to." Luke suggested. He had considered hailing the Schofield but they'd know soon enough they were successful when they started firing.

"Alright, hang on then," Vansen said and grinned, reaching to do what he did best...salvaging power from systems he didn't deem important to get it done. And suddenly, the raider moved smoothly to his commands.

The ship rocked as phaser fire from the other ships hit the Raider. Their plan was working so far, a little too well actually. The rest of the enemy ships were now shooting at them obviously not liking the idea that their ship had been overrun or worst decided to betray them. Luke gave another volley of the weapons hitting the lead ship, the one identified by the Schofield as the weaker. "What’s the status of the freighter?" He asked no one imparticular as he did the lead enemy raider showed signs of failure and Luke released a volley of torpedoes at the engines and weapons disabling it. "One down three to go."

"Depends what you want the status to be?" Constantin said as he grinned, his blue eyes shining as he flew the Raider. "I mean, do we want it up and running, in a thousand pieces or happily floating in space? Right now, it's a bit of a sitting duck judging by the scans. Some damage but flyable. Doesn't seem to be moving though..." he glanced over at the scans but grimaced. A bit outdated now, things changed within seconds when you were trying not to get yourself killed. "This is my first firefight. Sorry for not...shutting up, Sir. We got another enemy raider that seems to have a lock on us, or at least flirting with the idea. Want me to get us in a better position for your torpedoes?"

Luke, despite everything actually felt refreshed by what the petty officer said. “If you’d please, and talk all you’d like, I remember my first fire fight and though it was somewhat different to this one thing remains the same. Your life is in the line.” He paused “But don’t worry, we’ve got this.” he reassured wife a smile as their raider started to line up for another torpedo run.

It did not take long for the rest of the raiders to determine that they had gotten enough damage and that they were not going to scare off the much bigger Oberth class ship. There was a small pause as two of the fighters went behind the freighter for a moment and then suddenly took off going to warp. The fight was over.

“I expected more of a fight.” He said to the team as he relaxed before checking the internal sensors “Looks like the pirates evacuated too, I’m not reading any more life signs on board the ship.” Luke stepped away from the console. “Ok, put us into a holding position near the freighter. Once done, go with the others and sweep the decks, don’t want any surprises. Good work gentleman, and good flying.”

"Yes Sir," Vansen said, frowning as he got them in a holding pattern by the freighter, his eyes keeping both a visual check on their distance as well as an instrumental one.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Acting XO and CMO
USS Schofield

PO3 John Hollenday
Engineering mate
USS Schofield
[PNPC Allyndra]

CPO Crispin Snow
Operations officer
USS Schofield
[PNPC Derani]

Crewman Draia Theroh
Engineer's Mate
USS Schofield
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Operations
USS Schofield

Lieutenant JG Aria Rice
Security
USS Schofield
[PNPC Vansen]

Ensign Mimi
Operations officer
USS Schofield

Commander Scarlet Blake
Acting CO
USS Schofield

Doctor Alexion Wylde
Medical
USS Schofield
[PNPC Blake]

PO1 Gabriel Stark
Security
USS Schofield
[PNPC Blake]

Lt Cmdr Luke Wyatt
Chief of Security
USS Schofield

Ensign Abbey St James
Security Officer
USS Schofield

Ensign Tris Shizn
Helmsman
USS Schofield

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