A Good day to Die - Part 3

Posted on 20 Jan 2012 @ 8:26pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal & Lieutenant Lucas Mason

1,303 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: M8-A: Kzinti War - Recon from Hell
Location: USS Achilles / IKS Dama - near the remains of SB 24

Previously

[USS Achilles]

Danal watched as the wounded ship vanished. "REPORT!"

"The damaged ship has disengaged; jumping out of the system" Sarah reported, not looking up from her console "the other ship seems to be staying behind"

"Track Them! We need to draw the remaining ship away from the Dama!" Da`nal just hoped the Kzinti would think the crippled ship wasn't worth the effort.

::ON::

With a Kzinti ship in the area they couldn't lower the shields to help the survivors. What they needed to do is lure them away. "Mr. Mason, take us right down their throats and prepare for high speed maneuvers.

Lucas nodded, without vocally acknowledging the order taking the Achilles in hard and fast passing over the Dama, weapons blazing. His mind was on the 3-D field of battle before him and what he could make the Achilles do. A strategy played out in his mind and he executed it in an instant. In spite of the velocities they were travelling and constantly changing relative positions of the ship, Lucas treated the Kzinti ship like a fixed point in space around which the Achilles could travel. The ship could then focus all its destructive energies on the enemy instead of a simple flyby. The maneuver would test the limits of the internal dampeners, especially for sub-light flight. Lucas brought Achilles in a full impulse, and then at 100,000 km, engaged the thrusters hard, and at the same time orienting the bow of the ship towards the fixed position. In effect the bow of the Achilles remained pointed at the fixed Kzinti ship as the Achilles circled the enemy, allow for a continuous field of fire from all the ships main weapons.

Da`nal gripped his chair at the unusual maneuver. ~Interesting...~

Even with all the jinking the ship was taking multiple hits an the auxiliary engineering station shot spark from an overload. "Course 015 mark 047! Full impulse power then warp 2 evasive once we pass!"

"Continue fire, all weapons. As we pass and after the last impact on our forward shields lower the remaining power by 50%."

Sarah did her best to keep up with the CO's orders.

Tika spoke up, barking orders. "Full axis rotation to starboard. Fire every phaser as we go."


[KWS BloodLust]

"Shields holding at 80%, Commnder."

The Commander grinned and his fangs gleamed in the command centers lighting, "Attack pattern 3!"

The Kzinti ship dove hard and then the bow came up hard as the stern dropped, standing the ship vertically as the Achilles flew over. Making several powerful strikes on the forward, ventral, and aft shields.

As the Federation passed they fell in behind, to pursued the ship that destroyed one of their vessels.

[IKS D`ama]

The Dama was drifting dead in space. And there was no way to tell way was going on around them. Without sensors there was no data for the viewer to create an image with. Charg came out from under the deck plating; blood still seeped from his head wound. "Try the sensors now!"

Kre got up from being flung against the ops console, wiping blood from his face and arms, his armor now rather tattered. His head was still spinning, and he slapped himself. "Hu'teQ, obviously this is NOT Sto Vo Kor...." he mumbled as he heard Charg voice through fog that surrounded his head.

"ghuy' still no Targeting sensors !" Tu'rock cursed

At least they now had short range sensors and as they came online the screen had enough data to create an image. "Without weapons they would be of little use anyway. At least we can at least see what going on around us."

Charg grabbed an extra weapon from a fallen warrior. "We should be ready in case we get boarded!"

Confused Kre turned to see where the enemy was, but then he realized that there was none on the bridge. The hard hit to his head still had him reeling. Zaria was moaning softly where she had been lying and that helped to bring him to reality. He grabbed a nearby warrior by the arm. "Get Commander Creighton to Cargo Bay 2, " he said pointing to Zaria. "if we have one left," he ordered and watch the warriors pick up her limp body and for a moment watched her being carried out. "Inform Doctor Lacaran, that she is CMO again," he said.

They needed internal communication fixed, so Kre motioned a petty officer over. "Go look for Soran, the Trill and get her here," he ordered, watching the eager man trot off.


[Dama's Engineering]

Everything had gone black; K'tala opened her eyes though her head felt like it was throbbing with the power of the warp core. Her mind seemed sluggish and for a few vital moments who didn't understand that the man over her was a medic, nor that he was shouting. Her ears weren't even ringing, there was simply silence. She felt something sticky and wet about both ears but only one had slowly moved to check. She stared at the substance on her hands as her brain finally coughed up bits of knowledge. She was K'tala, engineer, this was blood and they were under attack. With that knowledge she tried to sit up when the medic tried to stop her, one looked stopped him and he helped instead. He did a few things off to her left side she couldn't see, one eye had swollen shut. Finally she heard, "...er me now!". She nodded and he breathed a sigh of relief, "You're ear drums completely shot, restored partial hearing in one ear. You're right arm has 2nd degree burns, I've padded it.." She looked and saw it was covered in bandages and in a sling, how long had she been out. She remembered now working on the main phaser array, then it exploded, she took precautions but the sheer energy flowing through those systems is rather a lot. He helped her to stand and she found her equilibrium was off and it felt weird with the noises, the chaos seemed oddly muffled. The medical continued talking, "Nerve damage from the blast, minor brain bleed I've halted it but you need sickbay within 24 hours or the damage will be permanent and my repairs won't hold." He didn't even try to get her to sickbay, the human well knew if a Klingon could stand they wouldn't leave their post, hell if they were awake and had one moving limb they wouldn't leave their post. K'tala nodded once and turned, a black rage in her heart fueling a determination that forced her battered body into action. "Report!" She yelled her own stubbornness and the medics drugs/patchwork keeping her on her feet.

[Cargo bay 2 - Trauma center]

With Bel gone and Rebecca offline Dez had her hands full and then some. The wounded were still coming in and the dead were mounting. Roars of warning filled the air as the wounded, that were able, saw to needs of those that died. The ship continued to shutter as secondary explosion from the collision continued to rock the ship. All she could do was press on. If this was it....then so be it.

Soran crawled out from under one of the biobeds and looked to the cardassian woman. "It's dead. I'm taking the remaining power cells for the others." She looked around the crowded cargo bay, filled with roaring Klingons. She didn't voice the opinion that one less biobed was probably irrelevant, they were delaying the inevitable.

She was crawling back under another bed when Commander Creighton was carried in. One of the Klingons spotted her and yelled "You, The captain wants you on the bridge, now!" Soran didn't hesitate, and headed for the bridge, hoping the ship would at least last long enough for her to do so.


TBC

 

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