Into the Darkness

Posted on Thu Mar 23rd, 2017 @ 3:19am by Commander Bertrand Cuprum & Captain Elijah Michaels & Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Odelle Lin & Lieutenant Jarax & Lieutenant Valeria Mordin

Mission: All the Kings Men: Wargames
Location: Bridge, USS Victory

Victory rocked from the Phaser fire she was taking in assisting the Smithsonian. The Sovereign Class Starship had switched to her standard power setting and weapons. She wasnt reading as a Jennarri ship anymore. The mood was tense on the Bridge of the Ship.

"Commander, Smithsonian reports Captain Michaels has beamed down to the Archives alone." The Ensign manning Ops commented to Bertrand.

"Ran out on us again" Kevin mumbled under his breath.

"No need or time to concern ourselves with that at the moment." Valeria offered, "We have a more pressing matter to attend to. The Smithsonian reports a combat solution, though appears to be having difficulty with their power management systems." Valeria relayed the incoming battle solutions to Tactical, "An impressive plan."

"It would be impressive if they could use it" Kevin said "however, at the moment they're torpedo's tubes are useless, but their main phasers are alrigh....actually, scratch that, they've just gone offline, basically they're currently defenceless. What dork on that tub has caused so much mayhem????"

Bertrand flashed a look at the CTO, "Perhaps it is someone who is not qualified for the role, and was placed in that position out of desperation. Either way, the Victory has enough fire power to do the job... if a little slower. Kilbane, see if they need assistance."

Kevin stabbed the COMM's link and yelled "Lt Kilbane to Smithsonian Tactical station, what the hells happening over there, why have your weapons gone offline?"

***Smithsonian***

Karadis hit the COMM button to reply, saying "Lt Tarlee has diverted Secondary power to our shields and Engines Sir, the cascading effect is that it's taken the torpedo launch sequencer offline and the targeting and also the failsafe. Additionally it's caused the main phaser failsafe to kick in, making the phaser array useless. Commander Cor has just ordered me to undo what's just been done by Lt Tarlee so we can get everything back online, if you bare with us a few moments, I'll hopefully have it sorted."

Kevin couldn't believe what he was hearing "Wait a minute, are you telling me that a Strategic Operations Officer caused your problems, the very person who's meant to know 'what they're doing'?"

"In his defense Sir" Karadis replied, carrying out the order from Cor "he 'is' on an unfamiliar ship, he didn't know what would happen."

"That's no bloody excuse!!!!" Kevin shouted "he 'should' know, it's what he's trained for!"

"Oh put a sock in it you drama queen!" Karadis yelled back "what's done is done, you're not perfect so you deal with your end and I'll help out at this end. If you've nothing constructive to say then close the link you arrogant arse!"

"You...what...you...you...can't speak....that's not how....." Kevin spluttered.

Karadis closed the link with Kevin at her end and went back to trying to get the phasers and torpedo's back online. She'd deal with the consequences of her actions with Kevin later, right now his bruised ego was the last thing on her mind.

"Leave it for now, Kardis," Bertrand advised. "There will be plenty of court martials to hand around afterwards. Bring us about to 179 mark 30. Prepare Phasers, no torpedoes. We don't want unnecessary casualties.

"Aye Sir" Karadis replied to Commander Cuprum's message, then closed the link.

As the Smithsonian fired from one side the Victory hammered the other, in a standard tactical maneuver. Torn between two targets, the Undaunted found it difficult to coordinate it's fire. With a second volley, the Ambassador class shields failed and the last few shots penetrated the larger ships hull, causing it to rock wildly.

"The Undaunted has lost shielding and is withdrawing, sir."

"Hail Cor's ship."

Cor's face came up on the screen again, though it was obvious he was distracted.

Bertrand was also watching the tactical display, "Nice trick, Cor. Now if your crew have finished upsetting my Tactical officer, we can coordinate to take the USS Cosmos. Leave the other two. They are no longer a threat."

Before Cor could respond alarms began to sound on the other ship. "Engineering to Bridge. I've got bad news, and worse news. You've got about three minutes of main power left, and then the ship is going to explode. We've looking at cascade containment loss. Nothing I can do about it at these power flows. We are loosing to many systems."

"Problem Captain Cor?" Bertrand asked. "Do you need assistance?"

"Bertrand, we need to get everyone off this ship! Warp core's on a fuse!" he paused for a moment, "Given the nature of this ship, and all the systems and secrets aboard it, I'm inclined to let it pop. It's gonna be standing room only for a bit but, fortunately the Smithsonian doesn't have as big a crew as the Victory. Not that I saw during the nickle slip tour anyway."

"We'll catch you, Commander," Bertrand cut the line before opening internal comms. "Stand by Tractor Beams and Transporter rooms. Emergency recovery procedures. Helm stand by to move us away from that ship as soon as we have our people. Tactical, lower shields but be prepared to divert all power to shields as soon as the beam out is finished. Medical, stand by to receive wounded. Ops, keep an eye on that ship. I want to know before she is about to go."

"Lowering shields to commence beam in, Aye" Kevin replied.

"Whoa!" Rogers said, looking up at hearing that. Lowering shields in a firefight? Were they trying to get people killed? "Why not resonate the transporter's annular confinement beam's harmonics to match the resonance of our shields, while linking with the Smithsonian for power boost and then beam through the shields?"

Kevin sighed as he inwardly thought to himself ~ Just like a Marine ~

"Because 'A', resonating the transporters angular confinement beam's harmonics to match the resonance of our shields, whilst linking with the Smithsonian for power boost and then beaming anyone through the shields, cuts down on the size of the group we can send, thus causing us to transport more than once! 'B', we're not under attack so it's safer and 'C', I've just been given a direct order from my Commanding Officer and I'm going to carry that order out. Now, and you may not understand this Captain Rogers, but 'we' carry out our orders."

"Well, guys," Roger said as he addressed the Marines prepared for their part. Most of whom, listening to the comms channel knew that beaming through one's own shields used no additional power and that the power boost of the Smithsonian was necessary for the amount of people to be beamed at once was necessary anyway. "It seems official, we have a martinette idiot for a security chief on this ship. Which means, I'm sure, he'll be gunning after us because of our service."

"Sir," Corporal Sangar said stepping over to Rogers, "You still have comms channel open."

"Did I?" Rogers asked, his tone completely flat. "How clumsy of me to make such a mistake. I hope I didn't say anything to untoward in warning my command to be on the watch for a puffed up, useless ego stuffed into a uniform."

"Sir," Sangar said, his tone suggesting he had lots of experience advising his senior officers, "comms are still open."

"And after this exchange you will be seeing this Security officer about conduct unbecoming," Bertrand's voice came back down the line. "Save your ire for your target."

"Mr Wade, we are about to take on some refugee crew. Can you find temporary accommodation for them?"

Tag: Wade

"Lt Jarax, most of those people will be SFI. I suggest you handle the liaison for them. Any Victory Crew that are able to return to duty should report to their stations, with the exception of Cordale who will report to the bridge."

Jarax patted his protruding belly. "Of course sir." He was not happy about serving as a 'liason', but orders were order.

"Sir Sensors indicate there are two life signs on the Archive, one is Captain Michaels and the other is a human Male." The Ensign at Ops relayed to the Commander. "Cosmos is coming round for another pass and has armed her Forward Torpedo tubes."

"Bertrand checked his display. We need to keep shields down till we have everyone on board. Let's try and use that to our advantage. Focus full fire on their Ventral vector. The Galaxy Class is a good ship, but she is weakest under the Stardrive."

"Cpt Rogers, Are your boarding parties ready?"

Rogers gave a quick look around the armed and armored Marines. "Aye, Captain, ready and roaring to go. To not destroy the target, merely take it out. Cry disruption and let slip the puppies of misunderstood conflict."

"We have a limited window. We will get you in close to Engineering, but we wont be able to pull you out or send reinforcements until you get the shields down."

"Understood, Captain. We'll get that ship under our control fast as we can. Look for a rather spectacular power loss from their engineering section."

"Kilbane, Once the shields are down, we start to send our security teams to hold the sections the Marines have taken. Let them do the shooting. You do the mop up and secure, especially any stunned crew."

Kevin couldn't understand why the USS Victory had Marines on board in the first place, let alone believe that the Commander was sending them in to do what was essentially Securities job, but, if that was what he wanted, then so be it.

"Aye Sir, lacky mop up duties it is for our Security teams, they'll carry those orders out with relish, there's no doubt" Kevin replied.

He tapped his COMM badge and said "Kilbane to Security, down time till the grunts...sorry, I mean Marines, have finished playing 'GI Joe', then you're on 'mop up' detail. Set phaser's to heavy stun, as these are still Starfleet personnel we'll be dealing with."

"Captain, Marines are go for insertion. I hope the security forces beaming over are professionals, unlike the whinebag I'm hearing at Tactical, otherwise we'll just hold the whole damn ship for you."

Kevin snorted in derision and could barely maintain a straight face "Aye, and an auld blawbag like you and your puffed up toy soldiers are professional right enough....."

On the Bridge, Valeria wore a slight scowl as she listened to the banter back and forth over the open comm. A lengthy ear twitched at each stumbled insult or what was considered a veiled jab. Amateurs really. "Mister Kilbane?" she spoke across the gulf of the Bridge, "A friendly suggestion. Kill them with kindness I believe is the quaint human expression. Wish him an uneventful skirmish. Express hopes of peaceful contacts." her scowl softened slightly. "You're fighting a fire with kerosene." a pause, "Both of you are, but I'm not in a position to advise him."

"And you're not in a position to advise me either Mister Mordin" Kevin replied, giving Valeria a reproachful look.

Valeria turned her attention to the crewmember at what was usually *her* science panel. "Sensors confirm buildup of power in the Smithsonian's primary reactor core. Estimate two minutes and thirty seconds to detonation."

"Plenty of time." Valeria confirmed for Bertrand. She still wore that scowl, but the perk of being a Ts'usugi was her emotional state wasn't flooding the surrounding mindscape. Their walled-off skulls kept their emotions their own. At Kevin's glance of disapproval, Valeria merely met his glance for a moment before turning her attention back to the matter at hand.

While waiting for the transport, Rogers smiled as he hit the comms relay. "Captain," he said, making sure it was broadcast on the open channel, "You said 'minimal casualties'. Can you place an actual number to that? Say, twenty percent casualties?"

Bertrand keyed the COMMS to respond, "You may inflict as many casualties as you are willing to lose of your men, Cpt Rogers. How many people are you ready to lose?"

"Well, there's always Kawolski," Rogers said, "they breed like Tribbles, always a replacement for them."

From somewhere among the crowd came the cry of "Hey! Not cool, Lieutenant!"

Lin sat quietly at her station... Somewhat worried for the safety of the Captain... Also somewhat confident he could take care of himself. "It's so cute when Marines and Security officers fight." she said with a smirk.

Bertrand scowled, "No. It is not. What is our status of beam in?"

"Shields are down, beam in can commence, Commander," Kevin replied.

"Get ready, action on completion," Rogers said, over the internal Marine commline. "You have your orders, but stick to them only as the op calls for it."

"On my mark Captain Rogers" Kevin called over the COMMS to the Marine "Five...four...three...two...one...beam over commencing now!"