It Starts!

Posted on 14 Apr 2009 @ 3:52am by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

1,886 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: M2: Aggressive Negotiations
Location: DS5
Timeline: 14:00 (Cross post from DS5)

ON:

=Encryption room=

Chief Ayers looked at the console, "Sonnofa......"

Cadet Perth poked her head in, "Chief! its going to happen isn't it?" her skin crawled at the mere thought she was about to be in a real combat situation, she was scared senseless, all she knew was to follow the chiefs lead on this.

=^="Encryptions to the captain! we got the signal we've been waiting for!"=^=

Davies moved around the Ops table.

=^= "Signal?" He enquired, "I thought you were looking to find out a decryption. What's the signal?" =^= He asked, as he saw the first Romulan ship shimmer as it decloaked.

=^= "one word, ‘Now’."=^= the chief responded.


The first disruptor fire hit the station before Davies had a chance to respond.

"Damn, red alert!" Davies screamed at the man standing on the comm control. David himself gripped the edge of the Ops table, already missing Commander Da'Nal and he felt alone, amongst the thousands. He was about to shout another order as the klaxons began to wail.

"Red alert, sir!" The newly appointed petty officer replied, steadying himself for the barrage of attacks that were known to be set in motion, "Do you want me to order the guardians into action?" Harris enquired.

"No!" David responded almost immediately, "they are our surprise in waiting. I want those Warbirds to be caught completely........"

The explosion bucked the station stopping Davies' response mid sentence.

"What was that?" David shouted, near hysterical though doing his level best to sound calm, but failing.

"Shield generators sir, batteries 1 through 8 have failed completely!" An officer informed him.

David looked down at the tactical display as his hands clenched into two fisted balls. "How did that happen? I thought every conceivable weak point had been checked!" He replied, his face contorting as he gritted his teeth, damning the chief engineer, Bruce Freeman and the chief operations, Peters.

"Shields are at zero, but backup generators are coming online, though we will be unshielded for a few minutes." Someone informed the operations centre.

David shook his head, listening to the volley of disruptor fire pounding against the stations hull.

Petro made her way to the nearest lift, holding her injured arm so as to not aggravate her wounded shoulder. "Ops." she said and was taken away by the lift.

When she arrived at Ops, things were in full swing. "How can I help?" She asked the Commander.

"In any way possible." He quipped, a little frustrated that Romulans had made good on their threat. "Sorry, I am short at tactical and need the platforms up and before you say it, I know that only 2 are fully functional, but we should be grateful for small mercies." He silently thanked the chief engineer.

"I can do tactical." She said, heading over to the tactical station. ~I think~

"And get hold of Freeman, we need the AHDA's online, to give Da'Nal & Rianni a chance to get out there!" He remarked, making his way to the Ops Engineering console.

"Right." Petro said, tapping away at the communications panel adjacent to tactical. "Ops to Freeman, we need the AHDA's online now."

"Freeman here. Three Galaxy, Three Sovereign, and Three New Orleans class ships coming into sensor range now. I allocated power from the shields to give us another ship, and to help not cause any other damage to do stored energy. And if you need me I will be working on the closest generator. Freeman Out." Freeman ended the channel. "Computer emergency transport to shield generator 4."


Davies prayed that the shields would hold on backup generators. "Divert as much power as necessary, those shields must hold. Officer Petro, I need you to get those 2 platforms working and giving support to those 2 ships!" Davies said, not looking at the J'Naii as he tried to work out the best tactical appraisal of what now appeared to be 2 Romulan ships.

He heard someone shout something to him, but his mind was now lost in working out what it was the Romulans were doing. They had a 2 point attack. ~ Where's the third ship? ~ He questioned himself, before realising that William was shouting at him.

[Freedom]

Through the Comm channel that had been established for the joint briefing those on DS5 could hear Da`nal's command just as he had heard the events unfolding in Ops. Slapping the all call on the table "BATTLE STATIONS!!"

As everyone scrambled out of the briefing room Da`nal bellowed over the noise coming through the comm. "Commander Davies, we need those doors open!"

[DS5 - Ops]

"Commander!!" Harris yelled, finally getting the man’s attention. "Lieutenant Freeman on the channel. Shield generators will not hold for long, but the decoy ships are appearing to launch." His voice quieting now that Davies was facing him.

=^= "Report Lieutenant?" =^= David asked, seeking confirmation of what the petty officer had relayed.

=^="Decoy ships launched. Pulled some crew from the guardians have shield generator 4 repaired at about 25% complete." =^=

Petro worked at the tactical station. She had recently studied it in her Officer's Training course but the real thing was a bit different, especially when under fire. When she found what she was looking for, she pressed the corresponding buttons. "Fragglemonkey" she said, hitting the console with her palm. A red light turned green and acknowledged the online status.

--Down in the Intelligence office--

Chief Ayers and Cadet Perth sat there, the echoes of disruptor fire impacting on the outer hull. The chief looked at the encryption console. "DAMN IT!" the chief exclaimed "this guy is good, he knocked out the shields and managed to keep us confused. who the hell is he?" he asked to no one, to anyone, to the cadet, to the whatever force of nature created the universe. The Cadet interrupted his rant.

"Chief lets go find him!" the cadet said too eagerly.

"No Kid, we sit until all hell breaks loose. Now get me that pack of rations I'm hungry."


= Ops =

=^= "Superlative work Mr. Freeman." Davies said and paused, waiting for the chatter to calm down a little, before tapping at his comm.

=^= "Commanders Da'Nal and Monteros, you have a green light. Docking bays doors are open." =^= and he added, "good luck" under his breath.


[USS Freedom]

Everyone was pouring out of the briefing room. Some heading for stations others to the lift to get to their stations. Red lights from the alert displays tinted the bridge.

"There' no time to be clever any more. Someone in Ops deployed the AHDA ships before the fighter even had a chance to for up!

=^= "Commanders Da`nal and Monteros, you have a green light. Docking bays doors are open." =^= and he added, "good luck" under his breath.

=^= "Acknowledged."=^=

=^="Da`nal to remaining craft. Firestorm and Lockridge take flanking positions. Fighter groups Alpha and Bravo stick with the Ashton. All other craft follow us out and proceed to your targets! Qapla!" =^=

Rianni took her position in the center seat, looking over her crew with substantial nervousness, "All right people, let's get out there and start shooting." She said, ~Start shooting my own people.~

At her command the Ashton shot into space quickly, finding itself under fire before it was even out the door too far, "Okay, evasive pattern Monteros-Echo-7, now." The helmsman initiated the manuever, a complete success with the Ashton easily slipping an incoming Romulan volley, "Tactical, give me a three shot spread, quantum torpedoes. Let's say hi."



[DS5 – Marine HQ]

Darson stared unbelievingly at the screen as it registered the complete and utter failure of the shield generator. Right after that, the station rumbled as its now un-shielded exterior was impacted by another disruptor blast. Quickly and calmly, he contacted Lt. Rostov and ordered him to transport immediately to one of the generators and get them back up and running as quickly as possible in conjunction with Engineering.

After that was done, he opened up a secure channel to Commander Davies in Ops and said in a clipped businesslike tone, “Commander, this is Major Darson. I have brought my installation to full combat status to provide Strategic Support, deployed my fighters to screen Da’nal, and have dispatched a platoon of Combat Engineers to assist with the shield generators.†He glanced quickly at the chrono counting down on the screen in his helmet.

Davies was enthralled at the speed of the support craft, now he had to wait for the guardians to come to life, then it would most certainly be the nail in the coffins of the Romulans plans.

He tapped at the comm, nodding towards Harris, who now sent through the signal to Petro's station, to re-rout the power grids for the satellite stations.

"Grateful to you major! I just hope that we can put to rest the myth that stations are easy targets!" He said, his voice becoming strained.

“Remember Commander, the night is darkest just before the dawn,†he said mysteriously, “and I promise you…the dawn is coming. ETA…about 10 minutes. Let’s hope this station stays together until then.â€

With that said, he cut the channel without waiting for a response.

~Dawn, I just hope that we can keep together for the afternoon ~ he remarked to himself.

"Harris, open ship and station wide!" David ordered.

Bill jumped a little at the loudness of Davies' command, but nevertheless, he hit the full broadcast tab.

"Your channel is open, sir." He advised.

David stood straight and took a deep breath.

"This is Commander Davies to all civilians, crew and ships. We are now under attack and I urge you all to remain calm. Any casualties will be dealt with, but please, if you are not seriously injured, wait until the current situation has ceased. All support ships, you are ordered to take every and all opportunities to disarm attacking craft. I wish you all good luck. Operations out." He nodded to Bill, who tapped at the control panel.

"Sir, we have casualty and damage reports coming in." He advised.

"Keep them until later." Davies responded as he strode to Petro and lay his hand on her shoulder.

"How are they looking?" He enquired, referring to the guardian platforms.

Petro resisted the urge to shrug his hand off her shoulder. She didn't like being touched but there were more important things to tend to than her own discomfort. Instead, she pointedly used that arm over extending her reach enough to cause him to either remove his hand or be pointed about it being there. She sighed to herself when he chose the former.

She looked at the screen and was about to give him a positive report when something caught her eye. The Guardian Platforms were giving a malfuntion indication. "They were just fine a moment ago." Petro said in defense. "Wait," she tapped the console commands in again and the report came back clear and ready. "There. We should be fully operationa - " she stopped as another red light came on. "krazzlepop" she said.


OFF:

Commander David Davies
PO3C William Harris
Played by Tasha

Lt Cmdr Da`nal
Chief Strat Ops Offifer / CO USS Freedom

Major James Darson
Marine Commanding Officer

Lt. Cmdr Monteros-t'Khellian
CAG - DS5

Warrant Officer Petro
Quartermaster
DS5

Lt (LG) Alison Bennet
NPC by Louise

Chief Petty officer Craig Ayers
NPC by Andy

Lt. Bruce Freeman
CEO DS5

 

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