Behind Enemy Lines

Posted on 28 Aug 2009 @ 10:46pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

2,582 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: M2: Aggressive Negotiations
Location: USS Freedom...deep in Romulan Space

OLD:

Without another word Da`nal bolted for the turbolift hitting his commbadge as he ran. "All hands to battle stations!"

[Aerowing Liberator]

Wandella and her crew were getting strapped in on board the Liberator, waiting for orders to go, "Come on, come on, give us green light." She muttered, going through the various pre-flight checks required before take-off.

NEW:

"Ensign, I don't know what you hope to accomplish here." Petty Officer Thomas said from his console, "How much chance does an Aerowing have against a Warbird?"

Wandella shook her head in dismay, ~That man is named very well.~ Turning to him she replied, "A little faith, please." ~Where the Hell is Tarryn? We need to get out there!~

Tarryn came jogging around the corner of the ship and into it. "Shit! My replicator code for a new suit was programmed with the wrong frekking size,!" she explained out of breath as she strapped in. "Had to go an change it first," she grumbled

"Too loose?" Wandella asked, hoping Tarryn hadn't thrown away a nice, tight suit.

"How'd you know? I was drowning in it," Tarryn replied. "It was made for a man... do I look like one?" she asked no one in particular, clearly annoyed.

"If you are man I want to have your babies." Wandella laughed, tapping her commbadge, =A=Liberator to bridge, all systems report ready.=A=

[Bridge]

The doors of the lift opened and Da`nal moved to the command chair as the ship was hit again. "Status!"

From the opposite turbo lift Silonez and Lita both came onto the bridge just in time for the next barrage to slam into the hull, the pair looked at each other and took side by side stations at the back of the bridge and began to scan the attacking ships, "The second one is making a pass under us!" Silonez reported as the display came up.

T'Pal focused the ventral phaze guns on the approaching ship, the energy draining some of the shields of the Romulan ship, before she answered Da'nal. "Shields at 93 percent, weapons at optimal. but we need the Aerowing out to draw fire," she stated.

Da`nal wanted to get the ship in the clear before launching, as the ship would be vulnerable while the shuttle deployed. "Helm, Evasive maneuver Omega 2, and launch the Liberator!"

"On it, sir." CJ replied, simultaneously rolling the Freedom while opening the launch bay doors to allow the fighter to emerge without being quickly targeted. "Let's see what this hot-shot's got." he smiled to himself.

"All right, we are greenlit!" Wandella exclaimed, "Everyone hold onto anything you want to keep!" Throwing the throttle full ahead she slammed out into the void, ready to take on anything the Romulans could throw at her.

As the ship pulled up hard Da`nal looked to Andrew. "Contact Starfleet and inform then we are under attack."

"Heavy subspace interference, I'm attempting to compensate, sir their coming around for another pass!" Lita exclaimed.

Da`nal saw the Romulan vessel arch around and head straight for them. No doubt they expected an evasive maneuver that would expose a larger area of the ship, but that's not what he was going to give them. "Auxiliary power to the forward shields!! Helm, take us straight at them. T'Pal, full phasers and quantum torpedoes..."

"Aye, sir." CJ replied, "Straight at them." he smirked.

He waited until the gap closed, and as the Romulan's disruptors impacted the reinforced shields. "...FIRE! HELM HARD OVER!"

T'Pal had seen the ship on her console and immediately had a weapons lock, after which she let loose with the dorsal phasers and quantum torpedoes, brightening the black space with arcs of orange. As they hit the on-coming ship, they burned furiously into the shields of the enemy ship. "

CJ banked the Freedom hard, kicking the impulse engines into reverse to try and clear the ship without hitting it, and watching as the alarms on his console lit up indicating he was pushing the ship to its structural limits.... again. "It wasn't my call this time." he whispered to himself.

[Ambassador's Quarters]

So we're being attacked - again, Isha thought as she braced herself as the ship shuddered for the third time. Her fear and outrage at the attempt on her life had dissipated and now that it was apparent that her escorts had turned on them her mood was approaching nothing short of fury.

"What is our location?" she demanded of the computer, and receiving no useful response (as a reply, what good was 'Romulan space' to anyone?) she contacted the bridge. It did not matter to her that they were in the middle of a crisis, or that she had earlier resolved to let them all be shot out of the sky; she was damned if her enemies would be the ones to stop her from reaching her destination.

"Da'nal," she said over the comm channel, "I need to know our location, nearby planets, nebulae, the like," she said.

[Bridge]

~You've got be kidding me?!~ "We are a little busy Ambassador...Aft torpedoes Fire!"

Da`nal to Liberator - target the lead ship from her port. We'll attack from starboard. Helm, new course bearing 160 mark 23!"

"Course laid in, attacking from Starboard." CJ replied, glancing quickly up at the fighter moving about on the screen.

"You heard the man." Wandella told the crew, "I'll get as close as I can, you just unleash Hell on them, point blank."

"Point blank? Against a warbird? Are you insane?" Thomas exclaimed, trying to remember the exact process for removing Kristere from the pilot's seat as she had clearly lost her mind.

"Trust me, Thomas!" Wandella sighed loudly, slamming the throttle all the way forward and getting as close to the Warbird's portside as she could, "Fire now!"

At Wandella's command Thomas fired all of the Liberator's forward weapons, setting off a cascade of small explosions across her hull, "Direct hits!"

[Ambassador's Quarters]

Isha was not finished, "I'm serious, Da'nal," she said as she rummaged in the smaller of her trunks and clipped two parts of a device together, "if our escort has decided to turn on us they will not be acting alone, their backup will be close by. I advise not being in the vicinity when said back-up arrives." As she paused for breath she slotted a third and final piece into her device, "think of the hundreds of people under your command who are not quite as struck on a glorious and noble death in battle as you are, Commander. Like it or not, I am calling for help - it might be nice if I could estimate when it will arrive and perhaps find somewhere a little less noisy to wait," she added as input the activation code and hit the button on the top, The device was a beacon that would amplify its signal using the ships own structure, if they were close enough to her supporters, they all might just get out of this attack alive.

Webb arrived at the Ambassador's quarters as impacts rocked the ship. He put him hand against the wall to steady himself from the quick jolting motion. "Computer, open door to the Ambassadors quarters, security override, Webb...Gamma...Two... Six." The door to the Ambassadors quarters open and he stepped in. "Ambassador, are you okay?"

Isha looked up. "Never better, Webb," she said, "There is nothing like an attempt on one's life to focus the mind. Can I do something for you?" she asked noticing that he had noticed the device she had activated, not that that mattered; nothing could stop the signal from being transmitted now.

"No Ambassador, I am reporting to my duty station since we are under attack, which is right here. I was having such a nice dinner too. What's that device you have there?" Webb glancing sideways at it?

Isha tilted her head to one side - would her would-be assassin have killed him if he had been here and not the unfortunate they had carried away so recently ... "Its a beacon," she said, "It transmits a very specific signal - should there be any friends of mine nearby they will help, unless they too wish to be rid of me. Anyway, unlike your commanding officer I don't plan to sit around and open my arms to death."

"So, you are calling for help or calling additional enemy. The door could swing either way and we will not know which side they will be on till they show us." Webb, looked around the room. "Have you seen the man at the door? He was not to leave until I arrived."

"It will be a friend, Ensign Webb, if they can reach us before the friends of our attackers do." Isha rose to her feet - he didn't know. Of course, he had said he had been at dinner and come here as soon as he heard the alert; how could he know. "There was an intruder," she said softly, a little surprised that he could not taste the tang of blood that still clung in her own nostrils, "the assassin killed the guard immediately, almost the instant she entered the room. I would be dead too if your commander had not chosen that moment to visit me."

"Damn it! I should have been here!" Webb exclaimed before continuing. "He was new and....inexperienced, but I went over his personnel file, he was top of his class. Ambassador, do you have a phaser?"

Isha shook her head, "She appeared to have a valid reason for being here, there was nothing additional that you could have done," Isha said - you dying in his place would have served me no better, but she did not asy that. "I don't carry a weapon, Ensign Webb," she said.

"Under the circumstances Ambassador, I ask that you carry a phaser, not only for your safety, but for that of anyone around you if defense is necessary." Webb handed her a small type one phaser. "It's compact and easy to hide. It's set on high stun right now, you don't even have to kill with it, just stun them....."

Isha examined the device in her hand, it was identical to the illegally acquired one that Doctor Adams had scolded her for possessing - not that she had ever fired it. She nodded.

"Thank you, Webb," Isha said as she tucked it away, "I am so sorry that your dinner was disturbed."


[Bridge]

"We're not dead yet!" Da`nal replied as they moved in on the Romulan vessel. As the two ships closed on their target the second vessel came in over the top of the Freedom. "Maintain locks on primary target. Aft weapons engage secondary......FIRE!"

=^=Very well, die then;I have no further business with you.=^= Isha cut the channel, she would go her way, they could go theirs.

The combination of torpedoe and phaser fire cut through the Ronulan shields and a final volley blasted the wing from the vessel, sending the craft spinning out of control. However ther was no time for celebration. As the Liberator dove under the Freedom the remaining Romulan vessel attaacked to avenge their fallen comrads.

The Freedoms dorsal shield to a pounding from the assauly an the panel behind operation erupted, sending Cranz flying over her station.

Da`nal didn't hesitate, there was a battle to fight. "Medical team to the bridge! Fienneman...take Ops."

Andrew turned from his readout and made his way around the Bridge to Ops quickly, engaging what was left of the panel and nodding. "We're back online." he said, "Main power holding, I'm diverting all remaining power to the shields." he added.

"The other one is coming around, directly aft mark 33!" Silonez called out as the ship rocked again "EPS Explosion on Deck 6, primary power is out down there!" ~Damn it! this bucket of bolts isn't going to hold up to much more.~

"Emergency power holding on Deck 6." Andrew replied, moving his fingers quickly over the panel. "Engineering teams en-route. Life support is still stable."

"Evasive!" Cursive under his breath, he wasn't about to be beaten by some faceless coward issueing orders from some dark room. While CJ did his best to out fly their pursuer, Da`nal accessed the local space from his arm panel and transferred the information to the ambassadors terminal.

Isha swore as she read it; the escort had carefully picked their spot to turn, they were a long way from anywhere ... =^=I have already signalled for assistance, there is a pulsar a short jump away, it will mask our signals and give my friends enough time to arrive - when I say friends I mean my mother's ship. I'm sure you won't want to hide, Da'nal, but it may save your ship.=^=

[Bridge]

"Acknowledged Ambassador..."

"Sick bay reports casualties, Engineering teams are working on the damaged systems, and the fire is out on deck 4 section 5, I'm still waiting on damage reports from deck 3 and from deck 7, and Warrant officer Cortice reports comm chatter from our attacker." Silonez reported.

"Focusing in on the comm chatter, Commander. Maybe we can get a heads up on their next move." Andrew replied, turning around at his station to access another panel.

With one of the escorts already destroy the communications could be them reporting that the Freedom had attacked them, them calling for reinforcements or even with whoever had ordered the attack. Whoever it was couldn't afford the Freedom to survive so reinforcements were no doubt on the way. "Continue to monitor...record everything." He was interrupted ans the Ambassador message came in, thinking quickly. "What is the condition of our cloaking device?"

Silonez ran over too the engineering station, "its online, but the damage to the EPS systems could compromise how long we can use it for, if you have somewhere in mind your want to go then we'd better move it, coolant pressure levels are still stable enough we can cloak safely without any other risk."

If they cloaked they couldn't get near the pulsar as they would have no shields. If they used teh pulsar for cover it would only be a matter on time before the metaohasic shields gave out and they would have to emerge fron the stars corona....however it was a good possibility that the Romulans had metaphasics as well...or at least something similar.

"I want a combat recovery of the Liberator and engage the cloak, as the cloak goes up head for Federation space. Mr. Silonez, make sure ther is a slight fluctuation in the cloak...so that they know were we are heading."

"That won't be to hard, the EPS issues are already causing issues with the cloaks initializer and emitter matrix, I highly recommend we find somewhere we can hide and affect repairs, we're going to need an engineering support ship, I think the Greer is within a reasonable distance to help out." Silonez reoprted.


The Romulan ship closed on them as they headed home, they couldn't let the Freedom get back to Federation space. Standing from his seat Da`nal made his way to the helm. Extending his arm in Silonez's direction. "Close the gap in the cloak. CJ, kill the engines....let her coast. Take us to Z minus 300 kilometers then reverse course."

TBC...

 

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