Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Feb 22, 2017 0:06:28 GMT
Eventually Psonoir managed to reach what seemed to be a threshold of the shield device - where the electric shock mechanism dropped off to normal background static reactions that permeated the air at its usual level of conductivity. It appeared the air in this cavernous space before the weapon's core unit was in just such a particular physical state.
Gripping the XO's arm that was being convulsively shocked, he pulled him out of the electric field with him and they found themselves confronted by Lieutenant Riley, the Dela III scientist Hev'ti and an unfamiliar Delian who may be from Dela IV (going by his uniform, which Karka recognised from databanks which he'd consulted during his research in the lead up to this assignment).
"Lieutenant. What brings you down here?" Karka asked flippantly.
Riley didn't smile - of course, they didn't even know whose side he was supposed to be on. Had he come to get the weapon and use it for what they'd feared, or to destroy it (as Klein (at the moment invisible and trapped with T'Seng and Unwin in the white-yellow barrier behind Karka and Dan) intended to do), or did the lieutenant have something else in mind? "The Admiral is not dead," Riley said, "When I found this out and ascertained her location, I communicated with Starbase 47. The brass have given me new orders: Admiral Munroe is to be captured, alive is possible, and brought to justice."
"Where is the Admiral?" Schirra asked.
"Somewhere in the vicinity of Dela III and IV," Riley answered vaguely, "In a cloaked ship. We detected it briefly in the general area before it disasppeared again off our tachyon grids. It seems there was a temporary fault with her cloaking device."
"Why are you with Hev'ti?" Hello, Karka mouthed to the man.
"Hev'ti and this gentleman, Marnac from Dela IV," Riley indicated the Delian on his other flank, "Are considered the foremost remaining geoplanetary scientists on Dela III and IV who have an interest in prolonging the peace, and also have an intimate knowledge of the quake technology, which, as it would appear from our studies of this monstrosity," he indicated the weapon's towering, nearly-fully assembled core unit as they approached it, leaving the barrier behind for now, "Was only a cog in the machine of the mechanism that certain warlike Delians intended to loose upon each other."
Hev'ti nodded in agreement with the lieutenant, greeting the Excal officers amiably before speaking about the core unit, "This subspace weapon, when activated, triggers tectonic disturbances in what it's aimed at. A separate, prototype device that couldn't generate a hole in subspace, but could still cause the necessary effects up to quake-level, was used on our world Dela III... That's what caused the continent-spanning quake and the new submarinal ridge in ocean Bistrao. We found the prototype; it was on Dela IV at a location controlled by, we think, privateers in a secretly-raised army of Warlord Munroe's... The prototype is now defunct; it could only be fired once."
The buzzing of the barrier was beginning to irritate Karka, "Is there a way to disable it? Riley, your colleague Commander Klein and two of our people are inside." After that was accomplished, they would have to get to Munroe, but she'd surely already be taking measures to drive them deeper into the base, Karka thought, and he considered that more biomechanical quadrupeds may be nearby.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Feb 26, 2017 10:47:21 GMT
"The device ...." Hev'ti said, pointing at the monstrosity, cannot be disabled here. Long ago it was feared that discontents would have second thoughts, and would enter this facility to destroy the, this ...."
"It can be turned off though, dismantled, surely !" Koni said.
"The barrier you encountered, is but one of numerous safeguards incorporated into the device, any attempt to tamper, without the relevant access codes, will result in your rather unfortunate demise my dear." Marnac nodded confirmation.
".... and I'm guessing only Munroe has the codes." she said, the frustration shared by all present. Hev'ti shrugged in resignation.
"We'll bombard it from orbit." Daniel said, rapidly loosing patience.
"You misunderstand the nature of the barriers I fear." Hav'ti said, approaching the inner wall of the light barrier to demonstrate, he punched the field with zero penetration, "You see, the faster you attempt to pass, the greater the resistance. Within the field I could easily push the blade of a knife into your heart with little effort, but a phaser would be so much useless hardware, it simply would not function as the beam travels too fast ... I could pass through simply by walking as slowly as possible, but any increase in the rate of my passing puts an exponential resistance against me. do you understand ?"
"That's bloody ingenious !" T'Seng said, admittedly impressed.
"The barrier would detect any form of approach and react accordingly." the Scientist said.
"So we can't hit it from orbit, even if the 'so-called' cloaked vessel even allowed us time, and we can't destroy in from here without the codes." Daniel said as something occurred to him, "How did you get down here without passing us ?"
"There is another shaft, we used that." Hev'ti said, frowning for a second as if he wasn't exactly sure of his comment.
"So we need Munroe."
Koni had walked over to a large section of the device not attached, she asked Klein to help and they picked it up: She explained to Klein what she intended doing, Klein nodded and they ran headlong to where the barrier once stood. It snapped into place and threw the Starfleet Officers back, the metallic piece almost hot to the touch. Koni got to her feet and asked Klein to help once again, as Hev'ti again disabled the 'field. This time though, rather than run they walked slowly, again the force field snapped into place, but rather than repel the two, it spat ionised atoms in a corona effect around the two as they very slowly traversed to the outer edge. Turning, they made the return trip and once inside dropped the piece of structure and asked Hev'ti to again disable the barrier. She teased her statically-charged hair back into a ponytail then turned to Daniel with an explanation:
"We can walk in here, even while carrying stuff, right, so, we have the Excalibur transport half a dozen photon torpedoes to the outer chamber. We 'walk' them in here and set a delay. Once they activate, the barrier with snap into place, that will have both good and not so good results: firstly, the torpedoes are inside the barrier, so the explosion won't destroy the facility outside the barrier, but secondly: the detonation will be thrown back from the barrier and into the epicentre, the combined force from the six torpedoes would be increased exponentially, this area would practically become vacuum !"
"We have conventional weapons stored within the facility." Marnac said, almost casually.
"We would still need a way out and back to the Excalibur, and we would need to warn the ship about Munroe and the cloaked vessel." Unwin said after agreeing that Koni's idea could well work.
"Where are these weapons, and can they be moved by hand ?" Schirra asked Marnac.
"They are in an adjacent chamber, approximately two hundred meters north of here. They are of similar size to the Federations' torpedoes, but are secured six to a mag-lev pallet, so there would be no difficulty in moving them. We could easily transfer one pallet through the connecting tunnels and through the barrier. I fear setting them to detonate remotly, or on a delay could be problematic, but not insurmountable."
"We'll get two pallets !" Schirra said, "Which way ?" ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Feb 27, 2017 16:22:38 GMT
Karka had slight doubts about the wisdom of this action, if the core unit of the subspace weapon was already integrated with a sufficient number of the modules necessary for its functioning, the detonation (remote or time delayed) of the Delian weapons could initiate a firing sequence within the subspace weapon itself.
Given the subspace shearing action of the weapon in relation to that substrate layer, the energy of the discharge - in the case the weapon was actually 'live' - would bypass the barrier via the hole within the hole within subspace which the weapon had created, thus it could wipe out not just the subterranean facility but the moon itself.
He detailed Unwin and Klein's henchman Mallory to remove as many of the outlying modules from the weapon as possible (he didn't want to tamper with those that looked to be already fully integrated with the main structure for obvious reasons); dissembling the outer areas of the weapon in this mostly safe way would hopefully avert a possible catastrophe - lest the weapon go into meltdown following the detonation of the dozen Delian weapons - and thus their escape from the moon wouldn't be as hectic.
* * *
He and the rest of the group (Schirra, T'Seng, Klein, Riley, Marnac, Hev'ti) made their way through dim, sepulchrous corridors. They were near their destination when Marnac held up a hand to bring them to a halt, the Dela IV scientist having bravely taken point. At first Psonoir was to understand they'd reached the chamber containing the weaponry, but then Marnac indicated they crouch amongst the crates conveniently stacked around this section of the passageways... something was approaching.
There was a creaking, guttural sound or sounds emanating from ahead, from below the flooring, from inside the walls... Psonoir stilled the nascent terror in his mind, focussed on accepting into his being his natural Hybrudean training against such transient things - time was nothing to his species, or so he and they liked to claim (they'd still found no way to actually go into the future, past that idyllic point in the next millennium when one submerged oneself in the increasing redshift in the approach to the threshold of the 31st century).
The guttural vocalisations faded and Marnac began tentatively to stand - Schirra's warning was too late. Marnac's head was swiped clean off its shoulders by a dazzling sliver of light that coursed through the air; Karka ducked again, hearing behind him astonishing sounds of clattering, shrieking, howling, the curiously malleable biomechanical droids/quadrupeds streaming chaotically by and out of sight, back into the walls, floor and ceiling.
"No..." Hev'ti groaned, cradling the headless form of Marnac, "He was my long-time research associate, on both III and IV! What am I going..."
The Starfleet officers grimaced, Karka and T'Seng between them lifted the man, made their way cautiously down the rest of the corridor and into the room containing the weapons cache.
Their way back to the main chamber and that hellish electric barrier was... fraught, to say the least. Several times they heard screeches, a dark alien howling reverberating around this their possible future tomb, awaiting gleefully the moment when it could imprison and destroy them. The sound came from all directions, ghostly echoes in chambers, in mazes of criss-crossing passages and in short-circuit paternostres magnified their terror asymptotically, as they rapidly jammed the pallets into narrow spaces in their attempts to evade death.
* * *
Unwin and Mallory had done their best with the module removal, Karka believing - after a few intensive tricorder scans - there was no longer a risk the weapon would activate and open a hole in subspace once the initial catalyst was provided. He looked over his shoulder: the others were pushing the pallets through the shield; the scientist returned to help.
In setting about wiring up the Delian weapons, a problem instantly revealed itself: they weren't configured for remote detonation, it would have to be time delay. "How long do we think we need?" T'Seng asked.
<Tag Schirra>
Karka looked at Hev'ti and Riley, "How many shafts are still operative, and - preferably - safe do you think?"
"Well, at the the central column..." Riley spoke, "One of the two shafts became blocked when those creatures beamed in and broke the circuit's mechanism. The other shaft should still be operational but I'd guess that place is now swarming with quadrupeds."
"The subsidiary shaft we came down in," Hev'ti bowed to them all, "Would be the safest mode of transport. It goes to the first underground floor. From there we would climb through a hatch - past the outer layer of neutronium - and into the empty surface base. Once above the layer, we'd be able to be beam up to your ship if it's still in orbit, if that's your intention," Hev'ti nodded deferentially.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Mar 4, 2017 1:21:10 GMT
"How long do we think we need ?" T'Seng asked after the revelation that they couldn't remote detonate. Dan looked at Hev'ti:
"How soon can we reach the surface, providing there are no 'obstacles' in our way ?"
"Providing ? ....." the Scientist repeated, confused for a second, "We can reach the surface within fifteen minutes. The shaft is on the far side of this level. it is far too small for any of the quadrupeds to enter, so they should have left it alone. We should allow time for your vessel to locate us before you, detonate." Daniel turned to Psonoir and Unwin.
"What do you think, thirty minutes ?" he asked.
"Can what we have done be detected ?" Unwin asked, Hev'ti shook his head, "Then I would say maybe forty minutes, but no longer. If the Excalibur has problems getting us off the surface we could be caught in whatever backlash results from the explosion. It's a given that while the detonation will be confined within the force-field, there will be a resulting vacuum formed when the blast extinguishes everything inside said field. I can't be one hundred percent certain obviously, given we've not come across this beforehand, but I can imagine that once the 'field collapses, which it should do once the device it is protecting has effectively been destroyed, something will need to take it's place."
"By take it's place, I assume you mean by the surrounding material at hand. Walls, floors ?" T'Seng asked, glancing at the massive construction thrumming to itself menacingly.
"Forty minutes leaves too much time for our meddling to be discovered, if they realise what we're planning they may have a means to disable the 'field and transport the weapons away, or worse-case, up to the Excalibur herself." Daniel said as he weighed up their limited options then made a decision, "Twenty minutes ... We can be at the shaft in five, on the surface three, maybe four minutes later. Contact the the Excalibur and Bob, as the saying goes, is your Uncle."
"Bob ?" Hev'ti asked. Daniel ignored him .... With the timer set they moved through the shield and headed for the only possible way to the surface at a dead run, all the while they could hear metallic tearing's, heavy equipment being throw aside like so much flotsam. Whatever was coming after them was determined to have it's catch. The six of them were making good time and the shaft was only meters away when Dan realised that whatever was pursuing them had fallen silent, then he heard a noise off to his left, he spun, telling everyone to remain still and completely silent. Meters ahead something crossed their path.
Far from being large and dangerous, this was small, less than two meters in height, on two legs, a tail possibly used as a counterbalance, smaller arms with dangerously long claws ... It walked almost silently, metallic eyes scanning left and right leaving nothing un-noticed. Several times it halted, as if listening to something beyond their auditory range, then a second came into view. The two looked directly at each other as if communing and Daniel realised they were in serious trouble .... The two things before them had reminded him of a long lost predator from Earths past: the Velociraptors !
He slowly turned to the others, holding a finger to his lips, if one of them made the tiniest sound the two hunters would triangulate their positions in milliseconds, shortly after that they would all be dead. He ran his finger across his throat, hoping they would realise that they were in grave danger. The thought of being stuck between the proverbial 'rock and a hard place' sprang to mind as he remembered their deadline. If they were still trapped down here when the device exploded, then millions of tonnes of structure would come crashing down around their very fragile heads, but the other option was just as dire: Move, risk reaching the shaft, and almost positively be caught by the Raptors ! ... He suddenly saw Karka gesticulating towards Hev'ti: The man wasn't watching the Raptors, but was looking back the way they had come. Slowly he rose to his feet, so slowly in fact that the movement didn't register with their hunters. Hev'ti turned to look at Daniel, pointing to the far wall only thirty meters distant, then before anyone could react, he ran.
He had managed less than a meter when the ultra-tuned senses of the Raptors picked him out, they spun in a ballet of movement and sprang after their prize. Hev'ti was surprisingly fast for his age and build, he ducked beneath large sections of machinery making his pursuers have to find alternate routes. Dan stood, motioning for the others to follow as quietly as possible. They had lost sight of the Scientist, but could hear the frustrated squeals of the mechanised Raptor's as their goal neared. Finally, almost to the second they reached the shaft's entrance came the scream ... It was short ... Thankfully.
Daniel was about to tell them to enter the platform that would take them to the surface when he realised that Koni was looking behind him, her eyes wide in shock and fear. Slowly he turned ... A third Raptor was twenty meters away, eyeing them with something approaching curiosity ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Mar 9, 2017 17:38:36 GMT
Karka was furthest on in the corridor of the group, closer to the newly arrived mecho-raptor than the others. Creeping backwards, he prepared to jump onto the platform and - hopefully being able to wait long enough for the rest of them to make it aboard, but short enough so that the raptor/s couldn't interfere - slam the panel that would take them to the surface.
The mecho-raptor was too quick for them, it leapt at Lieutenant Riley and skewered him - perhaps not fatefully - with one talon, the officer being knocked off the corner-section of the wall where it met the junction. Then using the wall as a springboard as it landed upon the vertical surface, the raptor bounded towards the rest of the team, Schirra and the others falling back onto the platform and the Commander's voice renting the air with its hoarse shout, "Lieutenant, the panel!"
From the corridor and behind two of the three raptors (the creatures having imposed themselves between him and the team-members), Psonoir saw T'Seng slam the button to send the platform upwards, carrying her and two others towards the surface which should take approximately three or four minutes... Their figures vanished in the sudden smoke from defensive phaser fire and the cubicle went through the ceiling. The science officer was not aboard, having been cut off in the sudden melee...
Making his way back into the interior of level 8, he found his way to the nearest hatch that led up to level 7 - so they'd never find out what was on level 9, he thought, entertaining the mystery of it in his head - ... The same shaft used by Schirra, T'Seng and Klein now beckoned towards him from the end of a dim passageway, the sounds of biomechanical droids and other unsavoury things resonating through the airspaces and off the surfaces.
The raptors had caused quite a mess in their attacks, the last of which had scattered the seven remaining team-members into three distinct groups: those remaining on the platform (and now surely very near the surface level), Commander Schirra, Lieutenant T'Seng, Teresa Klein; those who'd been pushed away from the scene and now hoped to coagulate again near a paternostre shaft or cubicle/s, Karka, Unwin and Mallory (Klein's aide), and thirdly, Riley, who'd been mortally wounded and had demanded Unwin leave him there on level 8.
Reaching the second floor, Karka looked around and discovered Unwin halfway along the curving passageway, one of those which together made up the concentric rings that constituted the floor-plan of these top-most floors... "Lieutenant!" he called. They met and greeted one another; neither had seen Mallory, nor had they any inkling of the location of Schirra, T'Seng and Klein, except, they surmised, those three must be in the surface base by now - unfortunately comms weren't functional in the subterranean volume.
Eventually they found the hatchway that led onto the first level, and discovered that the next (level 0-1) hatch - which would lead to the surface - was the length of a corridor along from the level 1-2 hatch... Psonoir studied that featureless doorway, was the XO's team through there, preparing to beam to the ship? Had they done so already? Checking the timer, Psonoir gleaned they had less than a minute before the detonation.
They worked quickly to open the hatch - an 8 metre climb into the surface's operations room level was now before them, the large gap between floors due to the space needed for the neutronium and the equipment with which to cool it and maintain its molecular integrity. A scream was heard from below as they began to climb the ladder; glancing down, Karka saw bits and pieces of Mallory flying along the passage, and not long after a mech-raptor was snapping at Karka's heels, a globular mechanism behind it trying to get a line of sight on the two officers to discharge its plasma beam and not strike the raptor.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Mar 9, 2017 21:01:43 GMT
It was immediately clear that they had been separated, from what he could remember from his history, it was what the original Raptors did, they hunted, communicated, drove their prey, until finally the first attack would come, but not from the Raptor at the front, but from one the prey had no clue was there, it would attack swiftly and with exceptional precision !
In an effort to escape, Schirra, T'Seng, and Teresa Klein had unintentionally fallen onto the platform. Daniel was climbing to his feet in readiness to go to the others' aid when he heard Karka shout:
"Lieutenant. The panel !" before Dan could countermand the order the platform began it's climb, soon they had passed beyond the ceiling and out of sight moving ever upwards. The sounds from below gradually lessened until the three stood in silence as the platform reached 'Level One' ... As they jumped off Daniel told Koni to send the platform back down, but she told him there wasn't time, it would get to the eighth level at the same time as the detonation was scheduled. he slammed his fist against the bulkhead in frustration as Koni's communicator chirped to life:
=^= Excalibur to away team .. Prepare for transport =^=
=^= NO ! .. .. Hold that order .. We are still waiting on other Officers still below the neutronium shielding =^= Schirra shouted, turning to T'Seng, "Update the Captain Koni." he said, looking around for any means to allow the remainder of the away team to reach the surface before the device exploded, effectively killing all of them instantly. The only access to the surface was the building they were currently stood in, and given the platform was out of the question there needed to be an alternate. Dan walked around the large room, eyes scanning every feature, every nook, cranny, shadow.
"Commander Klein, what's this ?" he asked, looking at what appeared to be a long-sealed mechanical airlock door. Klein frowned, scouring her memory of the facility.
"It, I don't know, it could be one of the access conduits that were used before the lifts and platforms were installed maybe ?" she replied with a question.
"They run the entire complex ?"
"Like I said commander, I'm not sure, initially they would have been designated the emergency escape route from level to level, but they could have been filled-in, sealed, I just cannot say."
"Koni, you still on to the Excalibur ?" he asked quickly, T'Seng nodded, "Tell them to send heavy cutting equipment, NOW !"
Klein was now at the rusted metal door, hands running over the eight concentric 'bolts' that seemingly expanded to lock the barrier in place, retracting to allow ingress or egress, if they cut the rods then the door should be free to move. But was it all for nothing, he had no idea if Psonoir and the others had managed to escape the raptors, it was unlikely given their situation, but he'd seen Karka get out of things before, hopefully this would be another one of those times to contemplate over a room temperature brandy aboard the Excalibur. Two heavy-duty laser cutters appeared, carried by two of the ships Engineering personnel, they doubled to Daniel.
"Sir ... You need something cutting ?"
"These !" he said, pointing out the metallic rods. He turned to Koni, "Time ?" he asked.
"Two minutes fifteen seconds."
"Engineers, I need that door open please." Schirra almost pleaded. The two replied 'Aye' in unison and took to cutting rods on their side of the door. Four had been cut when Koni informed them that there was now less than a minute before detonation, the Excalibur was demanding information constantly now, but thankfully had ceded to Daniels request not to transport them out when, as the Engineers began to cut the final two they began to slid inwards !
The door moved suddenly, an inch, then two ...
"PUSH IT OPEN !" Schirra ordered quickly ....... Karka and Mark Unwin almost fell into the room, Dan was about to ask about the others but Psonoir shook his head, "Koni, NOW !" he felt the caressing touch of the transporter as the air in the room seemed to be sucked away, he could feel something beneath his feet and looked down to see the floor disappearing from sight, the room vanished in a duel haze of transporter function and collapsing rubble until they finally materialised on the transporter pad aboard the Excalibur. Daniel ran to the viewscreen set into the wall and put a requested a view of the surface.
Where once stood a research and construction facility covering at least nine extensive levels, was now a crater ... Two kilometers wide and still expanding, and almost as deep ... Commodore Ryat came into the transporter room.
"I'm going to look forward to your reports Gentlemen, but for now, we have another, more urgent issue." she said, turning to leave he others following, she continued to speak en-route to the turbo-lift, "Security, please escort Commander Klein to the Brig and secure here there, the rest of you with me. There is another ship in orbit, we can't get a positive lock, but it's there, high above us. They have undoubtedly witnessed the destruction of the facility below and may now be planning retribution. I intend to leave orbit immediately, if whoever is out there, and given what we've learned thus far I believe it to be our erstwhi ..." the ship shook violently suddenly. Ryat hit the comms button on the panel:
=^= Helm .. Warp us out of here .. NOW =^=
As they dove from the turbo-lift the ship was rocked again and again as it was fired upon mercilessly ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Mar 18, 2017 20:54:43 GMT
"Warp, damn it!" Ryat veritably screamed.
"Sorry, sir... if you'll let me explain..."
We have bare seconds, Psonoir thought, entering the bridge and heading immediately for the science station, hoping to utilise its capacity to scan for ships of the particular kind of cloak it was believed Munroe's vessel may well be using. Of course, the Commodore wouldn't yet know about Munroe's warlord activity, unless in scanning her ship and realising what kind of tech was involved the Commodore had learnt that Munroe wasn't the innocent Admiral she'd appeared to be on first evaluation.
"Those impacts we just experienced," Karka reported to the bridge officers, glaring into the blue of his console's scope, "The cloaked ship fired four long-range plasma torpedoes of an experimental type. I recognise them; the prototype warhead was the brainchild of a rogue Federation scientist, developed in collaboration with the Klingon Defense Force and exiled Romulan weapons developers. Such weapons can be fired under cloak, but the cloak is almost immediately lost, thus if they ever wanted to carry out an attack with such warheads they'd want - you'd think, ideally - to warp away as soon as feasible."
"Long-range... loss of cloak... and so they're not coming towards us? Happy that kind of attack will be sufficient?"
"Negative." The reply had a slight echo, two voices almost overlaid; both Karka and the navigations officer had confirmed that conversely the merc cruiser was inbound, the latter officer now glaring at the viewscreen and the closing and now necessarily decloaked merc vessel. "Admiral Munroe's ship is indeed making straight for us, will reach optimal firing range for their full phaser banks and ship-to-ship rapid-fire projectile batteries in 4 seconds," Karka reported.
"How long until we can warp out of here?"
"7 seconds, Commander Schirra," Navigation reported, "Once we get out of the of the planets' immediate vicinity. Interference from Dela IV and its moons, their EM fields are combining in unusual ways such that they interdict the possibility of forming a warp bubble."
For 3 seconds they were subjected to a tempestuous barrage from the weapons arsenal of Munroe's formerly cloaked ship - it darting about them with surprising agility. Consoles shorted out, Karka was knocked from his seat and sprawled to the lower deck beside the navigator's console; the lights dimmed, reports came over the ship of three dozen casualties (though none of this would be able to be gleaned right now given all this was within 3 seconds).
Eventually, the Excalibur shot itself into the supraluminal, and as a Parthian shot to Munroe's vessel, the Excal's aft weaponry - phaser beams and torpedo salvoes - utterly crippled the Admiral's pursuing craft. Aft short-, then long-range sensors as they sprang away post-Einsteinian, told them Munroe's life support was on the verge of collapse.
Rescue of the flag officer played briefly on Karka's mind. Very briefly. Munroe had lost her access to the subterranean station and the weapon that lay therein (whose existence she'd only have become aware of in the very instant of its destruction by Psonoir, Schirra, et al). But in her sure rage she'd surely not hesitate to turn about and cause all manner of havoc on III and/or IV... The near-destruction of her vessel, and her subsequent non-recovery, had been necessary steps.
* * *
OOC: Homewards? Back posts before this section can still work of course
Brig, then corridor...
"... Umm... Is there anything you'd like?" Karka heard the brig officer mumble beside the forcefield. The brig officer had been about to head to the mess hall, his shift replacement just having arrived.
"Yes, I'd like to know what the hell I'm doing in here!" Klein shouted back, rising and standing very close to her side of the forcefield.
Karka smiled, nearly smirked, and left the brig to leave Klein to her private remonstrations, though he would be forever grateful to her - as they all would - that she'd revealed to them the full horror of what Admiral Munroe had been planning, and for her resolve - although the method she'd resolved upon would've left no little collateral damage - to destroy the subspace weapon before her erstwhile Admiral could've found it. Those were desperate methods the away team had forced her to abandon as their two groups (Schirra, Psonoir and co.; Klein, Mallory and the deceased Klein aide) had pooled their resources.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Mar 20, 2017 17:30:40 GMT
Thankfully, there was no signs that their tormentor prior to them escaping into the nether-realm of warp speed ... Had they simply allowed the Excalibur to go ? ... Alas, that question may be one fated to be left unanswered ... Three times in the first few days something had encroached on the furthest reaches of the ships' long-range sensors, but had remained resolutely invisible since ! ~~~~~~~~~~ They were only days away from Earth now, the gargantuan weapon destroyed, the threat to the Federation once again crushed, or at least, hindered for some considerable time they thought. Even if the resources were available, rebuilding the device on anything approaching a comparable size would take decades and require another Moon to house it. Dan felt that both planets would not want to proceed, they had bridges to mend not wars to fight. In due course, he wondered if one or both Governments would contact the Federation for air or assistance in rebuilding, that thankfully wasn't part of his role as the ships' Executive Officer. Schirra's Quarters ::Dropping onto the bed he closed his eyes. The last mission had taken it's toll, not only upon himself, but on everyone aboard. The ship was performing exceptionally well considering the battering she had endured, there would be a need for structural fixes, some hull plating had been damaged or blasted away from the ship entirely, but they were whole and going home. He was almost asleep when his door chime sounded. Sighing he climbed to his feet achingly and entered the living area. "Enter." he said, wondering who it could be .......... OOC :: I think we've run this to it's course. We can obviously continue with the questioning if you like, or maybe we're not quite out of the woods regarding our former attacker ?
As for who's at the door, well I'm open to a chat if you like, otherwise I'll modify the post in due course to have Dan falling asleep. You're call mate
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Mar 21, 2017 16:31:01 GMT
OOC: See my PM for my thoughts on this; thought this could be a good and not too involved way to finish things
Karka retired to his quarters, and immediately found himself locked in. He hit the panel beside the door; nothing. He used the same panel to open a comm, =/\=Bridge, report, any malfunction with door controls, deck 4?=/\=
=/\="Negative, sir,"=/\= came the reply after a surprising length of time, then there was the unmistakeable sound of rapid intake of breath followed by the beginning of something the officer may have been about to add, but he was cut off abruptly - the line had gone dead. Karka dived instinctively for the door of his quarters to make his way to the bridge. And slammed head-first into the locked door.
* * *
"Enter." Schirra said.
She stepped into the room, keeping her royal hostage close to her so that the hostage mightn't escape towards the Excalibur first officer. She - the kidnapper and intruder - had already locked in their quarters the Commanding Officer and the Chief Science Officer - they wouldn't be able to rescue their XO, particularly when superheated plasma, rerouted from power transfer conduits in this part of the ship, was about to flood the CO & CScO's quarters, safety protocols circumvented and moreover internal comms cut so that these gutless loyalists wouldn't be able to - between them - ascertain the situation.
Why the choice of Schirra to whom to offer her ultimatum? Merely because his section of the officers' decks had at that moment been almost empty of security personnel; both Commodore Ryat and Commander Psonoir had been attended by security staff (people the intruder recognised from records as... Chen, or T'Seng? and... Presley? [Lt. Prescott]). She'd watched them traverse the sections of the deck from places of hiding amongst the corridors, keeping out of sight with her captive the terrified Queen.
She pushed her hostage forward into the room, pointing the phaser now at the side of the woman's neck and then at the XO of the Excalibur. "Commander Schirra. You recognise me, surely?" the intruder cocked her head at him, "Admiral Jane Munroe," she gestured first to herself and then to her captive, "Queen Estel of Dela IV. She was pulled from her royal palace to my ship moments before you and the turncoat..." she of course meant Klein, "... Destroyed what you very well knew I was searching for on that moon. No matter, I now console myself with taking this ship... It might prove of some use in hastening the demise of... oh, umm, Betazed? Vulcan? In sowing chaos amongst the core worlds of the already-spiritually fallen Federation."
<Tag Schirra>
"How many of us? Just me." Her voice was gravelly; a scar ran the length of her face, and another wound, this one fresh, crossed with the first and dripped scarlet onto her battered - also scarlet - Starfleet under-tunic. As she spoke her features cracked in agony, her breath was ragged, unnatural heat emanated from her and she herself felt as if her body's internal organs were beginning to fry, "As you can see... I barely escaped with my life from my hired mercenary ship, Commander, and attained salvation courtesy only of our transporter in the instant before your ship's cruel torpedo attack deadened my vessel to a worthless hulk now deorbiting that moon. I didn't go through all that to be vanquished now. So, give me the command codes for control of the Excalibur's computer core and other primary systems, or Queen Estel of Dela IV will perish by my phaser..."
The words seeped evil; Estel, despite being veritably terrified (as evidenced by her maniacal screams), gave thought to the idea she'd never imagined the previously, apparently benign Admiral Jane Munroe, even when it'd emerged her presence constituted something malevolent, could ever sink to these dark depths of her own psyche.
<Tag Schirra>
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Mar 25, 2017 2:55:39 GMT
He was in the middle of the room when the door opened ... The surprise on his face must have been obvious ! ... The 'pleasantries were short-lived however as Munroe got to the point:
"So, give me the command codes for control of the Excalibur's computer core and other primary systems, or Queen Estel of Dela IV will perish by my phaser !" Daniel had to resist the urge to laugh in her face !
"That's your grand plan, to take the Excalibur and rampage through the Universe destroying all those that chose not to fall into line with your insane rantings .... Am I right .... Madam ?"
Munroe's eye narrowed significantly, and for a second he wondered if he had gone too far, but the woman knew her limitations, she had to realise that if she murdered the Queen there would be nothing left for her, she had zero access to anything more vital than the bathroom, so what was she to do. Obviously she could kill him and move on to the next Command Officer, until one of them did her bidding, or didn't, which he thought more likely.
"You will address me by my rank, Commander." she said darkly.
"You do not 'have' a rank, Madam. In fact, you are no longer associated with Starfleet in any way shape or form, apart from the life sentence you will be serving in one of our more 'remote' facilities, of course." Daniel said, the smallest tinge of sympathy for the woman who had thrown away almost thirty years of dedicated service to the Federation. "In the scheme of things 'Madam' you have little to bargain with ... Yes, you could kill the Queen,and as sad as that would be, they will crown her successor, Princess Gyele, and Queen Estel will be remembered ad infinitum. Whereas you ......." he didn't bother to finish the sentence.
"There are over five hundred people on this ship Commander ....." she retorted.
"..... and despite your efforts, you won't kill them all." Dan interrupted, "You are not having the Command codes." he said with a shrug of defiance. But it was his turn to be overconfident. Munroe took a small box from her pocket and began turning it over in her hand. She looked at Daniel as if pondering her next move then focused on the small device. She tapped in a code, her eyes almost never leaving Schirra's as her finger hovered over the blinking light, then she smiled, it was an image he would never want to see again.
"I am sure you are familiar with the phrase 'forward planning' Commander. As I stated, I am alone in my venture, but that is not to say i did not do a little 'forward planning' of my own." She allowed her finger to touch the button, then press it. The ship shook suddenly and he knew instantly that there had been an explosion.
"What have you done !" he demanded, turning to head for the communicator on his desk, but she stopped him.
"No no no Commander. That wasn't anything serious, just a minor malfunction encouraged by one of my personnel who came aboard undetected." she said, taking a seat, waving her phaser to indicate the Queen and Schirra should do likewise, "Now, that was a small demonstration of what is to come if you continue to refuse my demands. So, shall we begin again ?"
"I think we established that killing Queen Estel and destroying this ship would get you nowhere." Dan said. Again the smile ....
"You believe my reaches only to the boundaries of this vessel Commander ? ... It would be foolish of you to think so. I didn't simply devise my agenda, nor this course of action over breakfast. I am sure that should you choose to check, you will find that several, seemingly unrelated incidents have or will occur over the next few hours, if my timing is correct of course." Munroe said, sickeningly, "Oh I am in no hurry, please feel free to check, the first of the 'incidents' should have happened by now, an agricultural production facility on Cettal IV possibly ? ... Minor casualties, but casualties nonetheless. So you see Commander, I believe you have little option here to to cede to my demands."
"Starfleet Intelligence will hunt those responsible down and once we have them they will ta ......"
"Oh my dear Commander, Please continue to clutch to the slender hope that you have a chance." Munroe said, "Now, I think it is time we ate. I find all this cloak and dagger stuff brings on a need to eat. What shall we order ?"
..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Mar 26, 2017 2:31:09 GMT
Karka had in short order managed to block up the vent that would've soon - information he'd learnt courtesy of his phaser - deposited hundreds of cubic litres of superheated MR output into his quarters. He'd placed a filtering device that let in only the life-giving elements of that plasma (blocking the rest) across the vent, and these could be utilised to perhaps discern where the plasma had suffered a rupturing of its EPS conduit (or possible a re-routing, going off the ions' submolecular configurations and the quantum indeterminacy paths they'd taken along those conduits to his quarters and... - as he now found out, studying his tricorder in his dismay - ... to the CO's quarters also. He had to get there now.
It was for definite now that there was a malevolent presence aboard the ship and that this presence had instigated the rerouting/rupturing of EPS conduits strewn through the decks about the officers' quarters and... alarmingly, in the vicinity of the computer core, other essential systems, and... strangely, the main transceiver array. Whoever this was aboard the ship - and he had an ominous feeling in regard to who that might be, or an associate of hers at any rate, it seemed his/her efforts - if, as Karka surmised, they weren't contenting themselves with taking control of essential ship systems only - may be directed 'also' at broadcasting or receiving information from others of the Admiral's assoc- ... He'd nearly said Admiral Jane Munroe's associates, but who else could this involve at this juncture? ... Others of the Admiral's associates about the system, the sector, adjacent sectors...?
He quelled in his mind the urge to entertain further thoughts on how much farther Munroe (whose identity as such was still for the present a pure matter of speculation for him) had extended the web of her influence across the galaxy. He might wish that it would just this system, just this ship even, Munroe's last desperate attempt at escape. Again, he enforced order on his consciousness's spontaneous propositions: they were all speculative. He had to get to the the quarters of the unarmed CO and XO, free them, then get to the bridge. Then possibly the brig to free Klein (the aide's intentions towards Munroe were positively murderous, he understood); she would prove most useful.
Little did Karka know that in the rewiring of several key systems in and around the Excalibur - EPS relay redirectioning, unexpected door lockings, internal comm freezing, etc. - Teresa Klein's forcefield in the brig had been disabled and she'd fled, leaving the brig officer scrambling after her but he'd received a whack across the head from Teresa with the phaser rifle she'd snatched from his person, and she made for the bridge...
Karka found, typically, internal comms were offline, reinforcing his view of the probability of some sort of ploy and/or conspiracy on formerly deceased Admiral Munroe's part. He made for Ryat's quarters as quickly as possible, arriving and slamming the panel next to the door, "Commodore, open! If you can!" he positively hollered. Then, shouting again for the Commodore to stand back from the door - the plasma would be flowing into her chamber within 20 seconds - drew his own phaser and, shielding his eyes, blew a hole in the door the size of a Gorn.
Ryat had certainly been ready to make her escape... She tumbled over the ledge at the edge of her quarters and landed at Karka's feet. He picked her up - red alert sirens were blaring all round... had the bridge learnt so quickly? Who could've informed them? Schirra was in his quarters, presumably still trying to break through the door, if his situation had been the same as Karka's and the Commodore's.
"Commodore..." he continued helping her along, "If you get to Commander Schirra's quarters, do the same to his door as I did to yours - here, take my phaser - I'll head now to the bridge and ascertain the situation. It seems systems over the ship are being shut down or reconfigured; the intruder is, I suspect, - trust me there is one - attempting to hack, if he or she hasn't already, the transceiver array, sending messages to others who may also be wishing to track us down, Commodore..." they'd arrived at a turbolift; Karka would here depart for the bridge, "... I am strongly convinced that Admiral Jane Munroe - somehow - has found her way aboard our vessel, whereabouts on it, I don't know. Her guilt was then, and, if her presence is confirmed now, is proven."
With that Ryat took off through the maze of corridors towards Schirra's quarters. The perilous matter: Karka, having correctly surmised Munroe was aboard and that Schirra was stuck in his quarters, hadn't made the crucial link that Munroe was at that officer's quarters right now. What had he sent the CO into to?
<Tag Schirra, Ryat & Munroe NPCs?
He ascended to the bridge.
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Mar 26, 2017 2:34:15 GMT
OOC: Sorry for double posting and for overall length, I felt I hadn't resolved things enough in the first part "Report, Lieutenant T'Seng," he instructed, entering and taking the command chair. He wasn't second officer, but the minimal staff on duty at this time of night necessitated a step-up in the command chain - if only temporary - by one of the senior officers. "All intracom, intraship and internal sensors offline, Commander Psonoir," T'Seng answered, "Disturbances reported in main engineering, several sections throughout officers' residence sections evidencing damage to EPS conduits, and in the brig." "The brig?" "The brig," an all too-familiar voice came from behind him, and Karka's heart and bones metaphorically froze over once more, Klein, again. He turned, saw Klein on the upper-deck (as he'd soon find out, she'd been the one to sound the red alert) and in a rare moment of wryness, flippancy, Karka said, "Must you keep doing that? You must always show up at the most inconvenient times, for both of us." "Commander Psonoir. You are a science officer," Klein stepped to the lower deck, "As such, I'm taking the centre seat. Do not misunderstand me," she said quickly, "I hate Munroe more than all of you combined, if you even despise her at all. Off to your station, Lieutenant Commander Psonoir. I know best how to defeat my - our - enemy, I know her mind as well as she knows it herself; I always one step ahead of her in her games, how she disappeared to meet with the Klingons, how I knew she wanted to deport the colonial population of Dela VI - an icy dwarf-planet, not an actual planet in the system's catalogue - long before even she did." Karka was astonished yet dismissive, and smirked; T'Seng looked at him from the tactical station. Suffice to say, Psonoir didn't move an inch, "I... commend, your fervour, your zealotry... Commander Klein, you to whose rank I must accede inexorably, but I am a senior officer aboard this vessel," he said it lightly, "You are a prisoner, despite that you stand on our bridge; however, any advice you could offer would be appreciated." Teresa Klein bristled, and certainly wasn't cowed, but did accept the invitation for her assistance. She threw himself into the science console chair, closely attended by security with drawn phasers, "First of all; Munroe. If she is aboard, she'll be in your Executive Officer's quarters attempting to persuade him to surrender command codes of the vessel." There were a few gasps about the bridge; otherwise palpable silence; Karka was impassive, tapping lips with tips of fingers, arms splayed across the command chair armrests, eyes straight ahead at the viewscreen showing Dela III and IV. What other Munroe-aligned places lay out there? he thought. "He won't cave that easily I suspect," Klein said, "And I note, Commander Psonoir, that given your CO isn't here on the bridge, that she, too, is either locked up or perhaps... you've sent your CO to liberate your XO. She should be careful. "Throughout the quadrant," she continued, " - yes... the quadrant, Munroe has sabotage operations ready to enact across just over thirty Federation planets, and on fourteen Federation vessels, eleven of those serving Starfleet vessels, the nearest of which..." She checked the long-range sensors (still functional), short-range wouldn't have revealed anything; they were out here alone, "... is the USS Diomedes, 173 parsecs distant. If Schirra's uncooperative, if your CO fails in her attempts to get him out of his quarters and confront Munroe, the Diomedes's warp core may well be the next victim..." "She's already struck somewhere else?!" Klein nodded, "Agricultural works on Cettal IV." The reach! - that was well over a 600 lightyears away! Psonoir commanded T'Seng, "Get security down to the XO's quarters immediately. Also contact command; subspace message, effect of: scramble nearest ships at highest available warp factor - recommend formed as task force - to sector containing Dela system and six adjoining sectors. Possible serious threat to Federation. USS Excalibur, over. Unwin, get to work on internal sensors... find out what handiwork's been done around the computer core and the transceiver array; those are the crucial components... the transceiver may be the means by which these sabotage operations are given their final go-ahead." Internal comms were still offline frustratingly - to not know how the situation in Dan's quarters with Munroe and the Commodore had played or was playing out was, of course, agonising.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Mar 30, 2017 23:00:28 GMT
"Oh my dear Commander, Please continue to clutch to the slender hope that you have a chance." Munroe said, "Now, I think it is time we ate. I find all this cloak and dagger stuff brings on a need to eat. What shall we order ?" She waved her phaser to signify he should sit down, then went to the replicator ... He could hardly believe that he was being held at phaser-point by a mass murderer who suddenly decides she needs a bite to eat. dropping into a chair he surreptitiously scanned for something he could use as a weapon, but nothing was close at hand. Munroe came over, handing him a bowl and spoon: "Delovian souffle ... I got a bit hooked on this at Starfleet Headquarters ......" she said. Daniel had the distinct feeling that the woman opposite was completely insane ! Five minutes passed and all the former Admiral had done was finish off her souffle, Daniel got up, ignoring the phaser pointed at him and placed his bowl untouched on the replicator tray, it was when he was walking back to his chair that he thought he heard something outside his quarters. Something had been attached to his door, the sound of a magnetic connection was clear, and whoever put it on his door was attempting ingress, thankfully Munroe was too engrossed in her souffle while watching his movements that she hadn't heard it. Just how much time do you think you have Munroe ?" he asked, hoping to engage her in a heated argument to mask whatever was happening on the other side of his door, because if she heard them she would likely kill him before they could stop her, "You must know that you are not getting the access codes, not from me, the Commodore, of commander Psonoir, whom I can only assume you have locked away. Face it, you're finished, all this, all the threats, the murder of innocent civilians, I have to say, if it's infamy your trying for, never happen ... You'll be caught and face trial hidden from the public eye, then vanish for the rest of your life, or you will die and be completely forgotten by the end of the day." he shrugged. "It is time we got back to business, Commander." she said, completely ignoring his previous comments. He wasn't sure how she knew, but almost casually she turned to face the door as it slid silently aside. She fired through the gap before it was ten centimeters wide, hitting the Security Officer in the shoulder and spinning him away from the door. She spun to face Schirra and moved away from direct line of the door, she didn't want anyone firing into the room blindly and hitting either her, or her prisoner. "On your knees please, Commander, against the wall." she ordered, glancing at the door, which hadn't opened further. Dan dropped and watched her as she accessed his desk terminal, It seems we need to find somewhere a little more 'private' to conduct our business, but first I need to send out a minor communique, "There we go, now Commander, you might want to adjust your level of cooperation, especially in light of what has just occurred." "..... And what would that be ?" Dan asked, watching the door in his peripheral vision, trying to figure out how she got a signal out, and to whom. "Well, it seems a vessel out on one of the deep range runs has suffered a warp core explosion. The, USS Diomedes I believe." "What have you done ?" Daniel said, a shiver running the length of his spine. "Well, I did say that non-cooperation would incur consequences Commander." Munroe said almost 'matter of factly' ... "MUNROE ! this is Commodore Ryat, there's no sense in continu ......" the Excalibur's Commanding Officer stopped talking, presumably to hear someone speaking to her, she was silent for a moment then continued, "There were almost seven hundred men, women, and children aboard the Diomedes. The Federation received a signal informing us that the destruction was intentional !" "Indeed Commodore." Munroe confirmed, ".... and there are many more devices still to be activated should I fail to send the delay codes on time." "What do you want Munroe ?" "Nothing major Commodore. I just require this vessel and let's say the crewmen and Junior Officers. The Command Officers will be put off at the closest Type 'M' planet, but alas the rest will need to accompany me for the time being. You will of course need to transfer all Command Codes over to me in their presence, and address me by my rank. I was asking your Executive Officer to help me, but he seems a little reluctant." "Not going to happen Munroe." Ryat replied. Daniel was watching the woman closely, there were no signs of stress, no sign that she was worried she would fail, and rightly, given only she knew what other vessels and facilities were at risk. In fact, she was so confident that she was no longer covering him with her weapon, there was no need to do so given his position, should he try to get at her he would need to stand first, and he'd be dead long before that was achieved. "Well, I'm sure as the body count begins to mount you may have a change of heart." the woman said, lowering herself into a chair well out of weapons arc of the door, "Oh, you can leave the door as it is, I was going to demand it be closed, but it is much easier to talk this way." "How many more ?" Ryat asked. "Oh now that I'm afraid, would be telling, though you can be assured the death toll 'will' be in the high thousands should I not get what I want ... One suggestion, if I may, I would concentrate on getting your subspace communications on-line as quickly as possible, you might want to ask someone further up the chain of Command on what your next action should be. Oh, and I suggest you do it quickly." ... As the attempted ingress of Schirra's quarters began, and failed, Commander Unwin, the Chief Engineer, and Lieutenant Junior Grade Taka Yukigori, Chief of Security, were working in the quarters next to Schirra's. Slowly and quietly they had moved fixtures away from the bulkhead separating the two quarters then they had begun to burn through into the bedroom ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Apr 3, 2017 7:44:58 GMT
"Are they in yet?" Karka asked quietly. Intraship comms were still down; they were relying on word of mouth along the decks, officer to crewman, crewman to officer...
He saw out of the corner of his eye T'Seng nodding, "Unwin and Yukigori have reached the quarters adjacent to the XO's... they're burning through now." There were furious beeps from another part of her console. Ah, well, thankfully, internal sensors had come back online in the interval. "Registering weapons fire. In the gap between quart- "
T'Seng's partial report was followed by a gasp from the helmsman; Karka found himself looking up attentively at the darkness framed in the viewscreen while simultaneously attuning himself to what the tactical officer was wanting to say.
A ship was decloaking ahead of them... a Klingon ship, and crewed likely by mercenaries, helm reported, going off the composition of species making up the crew of the requisitioned Klingon vessel. It had entered the system three minutes ago, according to consistency and density of tachyon and anti-proton trails (products of their cloaking device), and was now powering weapons.
"Commander Psonoir -" T'Seng started, Karka shushing her politely with a swipe of the hand as he'd also non-vocally instructed the navigator to open a channel in response to the hail from the newly arrived merc.
A man in battered Starfleet science/medical division fatigues appeared on the screen, "We've come to speak to the supreme leader... Jane Munroe. I assume she now has control of your vessel? And that you are acting in her stead, running your starship and preparing it for the endeavour she has no doubt already made you aware of?"
Stunned and slightly amused, Karka had the channel suspended; the screen returned to the blankness of the vacuum. He turned to Klein, "She wants to commandeer the ship?" his tone was incredulous. Klein was about to reply when the navigator spoke again, "Sir, according to this, 4 minutes 24 seconds ago the merc ship was at a set of coordinates that identify with the destination of a covert signal sent from our transceiver at the same time... The merc received that signal, likely from Admiral Munroe, and then, I believe... relayed it forward to the..."
"Diomedes?" Karka probed.
"Likely, sir."
"Cut the channel. Shields, full phasers, load all torpedo tubes - as much as we can manage in our debilitated state owing to Jane's tampering. What are our chances, Lieutenant T'Seng? In a fair fight with little strategic innovation, could we -"
"Beg your pardon, sir," she replied, "But I've been trying to report to you... Weapons fire has been ongoing in the XO's quarters and adjoining corridors for the past minute and a half. Internal sensors have also detected one vapourisation... energy released from the disintegration is consistent with the mass of Lieutenant Yukigori. It seems the Admiral shot her as soon as she and Commander Unwin made it through the quarters' bulkhead."
Karka nodded, solemnly. "And the ship? In a fair fight?" Just doable, was the response, with a few inventive evasive manoeuvres; however they only wished to disable the merc, which T'Seng estimated they could do in approximately 20 minutes of fighting. Meanwhile, Karka had people - led by Teresa Klein - scrambled down to the XO's quarters.
* * *
The latest readings from the ever-revitalising internal sensors revealed something quite unnerving... which also gave Psonoir a case of what actual humans might call deja vu. According to sensors, Munroe - if this was Munroe - was not quite... human. She (or whatever it was) was at best a highly advanced android-type species, and, as Karka discovered when he asked for a audiovisual feed to that part of the ship... the 'Admiral' was also intimating to the enemies about her (Schirra, Unwin, Ryat, security, some in view, some not) that she may soon decide to auto-destruct her internal anti-matter...
"Can we simply beam her off!" a junior officer spoke over Karka's shoulder, all of them studying the display on the aft-starboard section of the bridge, "Out into space?!" It was tragic this only occurred to them now; however, while difficult before as she wouldn't have had a communicator for them to lock onto, it now brought a new set of problems, as in the event of a successful beam-off the blast from Munroe's anti-matter self-destruct would take a lot of the Excal with her, and they couldn't beam Munroe, say... a million km away, as the Excal's shields had to be raised to protect from the 'relay' Klingon merc vessel!
* * *
Klein and more security arrived as Unwin looked on at the apparent mechanical version of the Admiral (could the original even actually be loyal?); she was stood in Schirra's quarters amidst fragments of glass of a smashed coffee table. He ducked back behind cover as she and two mysteriously arrived others (two of those who, above the renewed phaser discharges, Schirra informed Unwin Munroe had brought aboard with her) fired their weapons towards Unwin. He flipped open a communicator; a negative beep; internal comms still offline...
"She's an android," Unwin said to Klein bluntly as she arrived behind him, "Or something. Perhaps half mechanical and half organic... the scans are uncertain..." he stowed his tricorder and continued to fire.
Karka was also soon on the scene, Unwin rushing to him, "T'Seng has things in hand on the bridge," the Hybrudean explained, "It's my opinion that we can beam the Admiral into space, however we'll have to force a communicator onto her person. Unfortunately the shields are raised... What's the situation here? I see the action's spread to surrounding corridors." Indeed, the two of them were tens of metres away from the chaos about the door of Schirra's quarters. Ryat, Schirra and their respective security groups were pinned down throughout the entire section of the deck.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Apr 8, 2017 11:48:07 GMT
Daniel heard it first, consciously holding Munroe's gaze rather than alert her to what was coming ... "It's not going to happen Munroe, I don't know how many times and how many people it's going to take to convince you. Despite your threats of the catastrophic loss of life, the Federation will not give in to your dema ...." his voice was drowned out by the far wall of his quarters disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Phaser-fire lanced into the room as he dived over the back of the settee. He looked up in time to see Lieutenant Yukigori vaporised. After the initial fighting, Munroe and her henchmen were backing into the corridor as a phaser was thrown in his general direction ... The fire-fight had begun ! ~~~~~~~~~~ Things were going from bad to worse, they were in a stalemate with Munroe, despite the Excalibur's superior numbers. Daniel realised that he couldn't let them leave this sector of all hell would break loose, as if it hadn't already, he thought. Moving out of the line of fire and hoping not to get hit by a stray shot, he reached up and hit the comm button on the bulkhead: =^= Schirra to Bridge .. .. Schirra to Bridge .. If you can hear me .. Lower 'ALL' emergency bulkheads on this level .. Seal all egress points .. Do it NOW ! =^=A shot from one of Munroe's people slammed into the bulkhead right in front of his face, he dropped, crouching against the wall his face burning from the incredible heat, eyes squeezed closed hoping his sight would return momentarily. He felt someone grab him and pull him back but dared not open his eyes for fear of permanent damage to the retina or optic nerve ! ... Suddenly he heard the bulkhead closest to him begin to lower, thankfully someone had heard his order, or more likely had realised the situation and was attempting to contain the fighting. He tentatively opened his eyes to see Mark Unwin, he told Schirra that Comm were sporadic at best but they thought they could beam Munroe into space before she could detonate. "Detonate ? ...." Dan asked, confused, "She has a device on board ?" he said, finally managing to get to his feet. He could see Psonoir up ahead, firing every few seconds, obviously having no positive target. "She 'IS' the device Commander." Unwin explained. Dan looked at the man in shock for a second, then agreed, they needed her off the ship before anyone else died. The only issue in his mind was her thinly veiled hint that many thousands of others would die should she not succeed. Was it possible that any attack against her would trigger a cascade. Could they be responsible for such loss ? ..... He had to slow things down until the Bridge, or Commodore Ryat could come to a decision. He shouted: "STOP FIRING AND WE'LL TALK !" The firing stopped and the corridor fell silent .... Hands above his head, and despite the warnings from Unwin, Daniel stepped into the open. "There can be no talking Commander." Munroe said as she too stepped out, the two now facing each other with numerous phaser targeting them both from either end of the corridor. Should 'hostilities recommence it was highly likely both would suffer instantly. "You have no options open to you Commander, this alas is far above your level. Best you can do is release the bulkheads and allow my safe passage to the Bridge, the alternative, as you are well aware, would be most, unfortunate." "I have just been informed that you are a mechanical device, is that correct ?" he asked, trying to divert the subject matter to allow Ryat on the Bridge to do everything she could. "In some part, that is indeed correct, we have the essence of your former Admir ....." "WE !" Unwin said suddenly. The mechanical smiled sickeningly. "You believe I am doing this alone ?" the idea seemed to amuse the android, "You think my far-reaching influence is due to loyal followers scattered throughout the Galaxy, well in part that is correct, but I am there also, not in every location obviously, that would be redundant, but in one guise of another, we are there." The astonishing revelation stunned everyone to silence, all under the confident smile of the Munroe android. How many ... One, ten, one hundred ... Scattered throughout the Federation and beyond ! ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Apr 10, 2017 8:31:23 GMT
Karka realised he'd had a friend on the Diomedes; someone he'd spent a week with during fast-track training, digging foxholes - if such a thing could be believed - to protect themselves from holographic 21st century New United Nations forces; they'd been playing the part of Eastern Coalition soldiers during the war's final stages. Ah, the holographic combat training module... and now that, as well as his colleague on the Diomedes, were fading stardust, in his mind and in the endless vacuum.
The thought drove new anger into him, actuated his muscles faster to manipulate his phaser, accelerated and improved visual acuity, and he shot down three more of the seemingly inexhaustible number of Munroe associates who'd somehow found their way aboard. Then Schirra managed to effect a cease fire...
Munroe was speaking, "... You think my far-reaching influence is due to loyal followers scattered throughout the Galaxy, well in part that is correct, but I am there also, not in every location obviously, that would be redundant, but in one guise or another, we are there."
"Then one won't be missed!" Psonoir hollered; approaching from behind with a communicator in hand, using consciousness acceleration to slip past the associates of the Admiral's immediately behind her. In the confusion, the Excal security officers shot down their counterparts. A fraction of a second later: Karka raised his hand as if to hit Munroe but instead planted the communicator - flat in his palm - in the fold of the Admiral's 'skin'/exoskeleton in her left side, a fold which he'd already identified as soon as he'd seen her upon arriving on the deck.
She hadn't noticed the device's delivery, at least he hoped not, and he dived past before she could lash out; fortunately with her swipe, she was thrown off balance, falling to the floor with a wet clunk (biomechanics, Karka thought).
"You've made your last mistake, Commander... for I'm sure there've been many. Oh! Non-human Commander Psonoir." Karka stood near Munroe's fallen form; she'd rolled onto her back, her words seeming slightly crazed, Karka felt, because it seemed there was something not quite right with her mind, as if the transplantation of a Munroe-like consciousness into the android hadn't quite worked, or a built-from-scratch Munroe personality had had certain deficiencies, poorly approximating human behaviour.
"Do your fellow officers know, Psonoir?" she asked quietly. Karka cocked his head. "That you're from the future."
"The future? You are mad - something's not quite working in there, isn't there, Admiral?" He shot an innocent glance at his colleagues, who may or may not have been just outside of earshot. It wasn't just a matter of deflecting the accusation, however - he was seriously concerned that this 'Munroe', and by extension surely her whole faction/species, knew about or perhaps had access to the spatio-temporal coordinates of the Hybrudea of the 29th century, Karka's home. How far did Munroe's species' reach extend? Surely if the Excal crew did remove Munroe here, they or someone else still had a good deal of work to do to eliminate or make irrelevant the threat of all those like Munroe through space and... as it would appear, time.
"How many times have you had to reveal your secret?" Karka didn't respond to her. "Ha! I can tell," her voice was breaking, becoming vaguely mechanical; it seemed she'd suffered before being able to beam aboard the Excal from her original cloaked ship. "I can tell you've already at least on one occasion had to use the full extent of your powers. To... to save... a very great many people..." Was she telepathic?! Perhaps so...
"Enough," he grated between his teeth, and marched away. He'd seen that she was activating the antimatter device within her. The bridge would detect its activation - he wholeheartedly hoped - and beam the Admiral - by locking onto Karka's communicator in her chest cavity - into space, to explode harmlessly clear from the Excalibur. But how could they hope to have the shields lowered, which would allow them to beam Munroe far enough away?
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Apr 10, 2017 8:32:05 GMT
OOC: Cdre Ryat, extended slightly from original
"Indeed. We'll be surrendering our vessel to you shortly," Ryat informed the medical-division Munroe adherent on the viewscreen. "You may want to check over our systems to confirm they match with your specifications, or approximate them as well as can be effected."
"Good," the man on the screen nodded, satisfied, "Then we'll begin redistribution of crews. Half my complement to yours, half yours to mine. The supreme leader will want to remain with your vessel, which means you'll have to come over here, Commodore."
Ryat was almost enjoying playing this game; subterfuge, misleading the poor man - mecho-android, biomechanical being or not. She wondered if the Munroe entity was of the exact same biomatter of, or was analogous to, the globular mechanisms/mecho-raptors and other creatures the XO's team had found in the moon's subterranean environment, as it'd been reported to her. She was enjoying the conversation as far as she could, though it was curtailed significantly by the knowledge that the Excalibur could well be seconds away from destruction, perpetrated by an exploding Admiral Jane Munroe.
A beep from the science station alerted her; the officer there turned, speaking quietly, "Picking up the communicator of Commander Psonoir within the Munroe android, sir."
Having the channel to the mercenary ship cut, she looked forward to Lieutenant T'Seng, nodding once to her. T'Seng said, "Aye," and lowered the Excalibur's shields. However, instead of beaming a small team over to the mercenary ship to start preliminary proceedings on crew redistribution, the operator in transporter room 1 locked onto the communicator that'd been forced onto Admiral Munroe...
... And beamed her - antimatter device already activating - over to the mercenary ship of original Klingon ownership. The explosion was sickeningly slow in coming, as if in transit the transporter had managed to interfere with the detonator in some way, or the receiving transporter pad had neutralised the weapon's building energy... but before long the Excal bridge staff saw on the viewscreen a white spark ignite in the bridge-containing bulb at the prow of the upgraded D7-type. Nothing stopped an antimatter explosion once the chain reaction had already begun.
"Back us off; full impulse!" she ordered; there was not enough time to go to warp. "And polarise viewscreen," she ordered, and the luminous energy of the antimatter explosion of Admiral Munroe-android splashed harmlessly against the optical display. It was over, for now, as far as Munroe was concerned. Yet others of her android/biomechanical species lay out there in the galaxy, and perhaps, too, there were booby-trapped ships, other works of sabotage, perhaps just on the verge of precipitation of their respective disasters, hidden agencies fatefully flicking switches in the unknown shadowy spaces, the recesses of the cosmos.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Apr 13, 2017 20:57:17 GMT
Nine Days Later :: The USS Excalibur had been on her way home for over a week now, the android Admiral Munroe's assertions that there were numerous incarnations of her throughout the Galaxy, all poised to wreak havoc on the innocent, had thankfully proved false ... Over three hundred worlds had scoured their databases for anyone remotely similar to the woman, and while over a hundred had been brought in for extensive questioning, none had proved to be mechanical in origin. They were to rendezvous with the Imperial Barge Helnessero, where Delegates from both Dela III and Dela IV would all meet. hopefully a resolution to the two worlds' issues will begin the first stages of a long resolution. It appears that the young reporter, Jalla Stammax, from the Dela III Daily news, had been reporting on the situation from the beginning, and thanks to a Federation recommendation, would head up the 'public' side of the talks. Other information had come to light on their journey home: It seems that Tomas Haren, President of Dela III and Princess Gyele, the heir-apparent to Dela IV, were in fact having a relationship, so it seems a resolution could be formalised sooner than most thought. Especially if there was to be a wedding .... All these scenario's were of course open to interpretation and change, but frankly, Daniel didn't care. They were on their way home, thankfully, they had lost people needlessly in his opinion. Head minister of Dela II, Tasper Wolk, was bringing a petition to the Federation Council for full membership, that of course was going to be down to the Diplomats and no concern of his. ooo000ooo He was sat in the center seat. commodore Ryat had spent most of her time in her Ready Room, deep in conversation with umpteen Agencies and no doubt would be doing so until she was able to step off the ship and relax. He in turn also needed a break away from the ship. The Excalibur was due to be in Space dock for a week to carry out repairs to her hull and internal systems, he intended to go home, at least for a few days. He wanted to feel the hot sand beneath his feet, enjoy the surf, the sun, the freedom ... How long that would last of course was anyone's guess, but he would enjoy it while he could .......... ***** Mission Conclusion *****
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