Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Dec 20, 2015 14:57:38 GMT
After wiring the displacement unit with Burwell, Andae had set the control panel to take them to stardate 2401.1219, and joined the rest of the remaining away team beyond the small smooth-surfaced partition at the room's edge. The unconscious Y'hhor, slumped against a console on the floor was the last thing he saw before he disappeared. Immediately around them was a fiery landscape, lava flows channelling towards them from the horizon; Andae nearly collapsed from the sudden wash of heat over his body, but the transporter rescued him from the fall to the igneous rock and burning ash just in time.
He fell on the bridge instead. With the destruction of the relay stations just ordered by Carl before he fell unconscious - Andae's sight also wavering and his mind growing numb - Jamison prepared to make the order to Gerelo, at which point a colossus of a warrior, sheathed in armour and two metres tall materialised near the viewscreen; it loped forward and stabbed at the unconscious Admiral; shouts of alarm spread over the bridge. Andae took out a second warrior that materialised and narrowly avoided death at the hands of the first.
Two minutes later, the being, sharp edges of its armour glinting in the luminous surrounds of the bridge, had its razor claw at the Admiral's temple.
"Is that the Halanan ?" Wedlerson asked, causing the predator to turn to regard him before looking back at the others:
"He issss, correct ..." the thing hissed, "You willl release me annnnd my brethren or sufffffer the, consequenccces."
"But they've beamed into every section of the ship... Everyone will be killed..." Milyanov said from the upper deck, quietly to Andae who'd joined him - standing near the tactical rail, phaser aimed directly at the bridge of the warrior's nose, or where he assumed it to be.
"True," he admitted, "Though I think the real issue is what this means for their relay stations and the Xallac army." How did the Halanan expect them to trust him/her, that they wouldn't kill the Admiral anyway once the Raven had 'agreed' to not destroy the Xallac army? Granted, what they planned for the Xallac would be genocide, and thus was something the Raven crew should easily be capable of refusing, but the mass murder that the Xallac and Halanan were planning on was on a far greater scale.
"Out of the question. Our civilisation, our way of life is at stake," Jamison risked in response to the Halanan warrior. It hissed menacingly, lowering the claw the few millimetres to Torek's temple again and drawing another pinprick of blood. "But! On the other hand, if we were to withdraw, back through the layer of subspace to the place where your army is absent, you would spare his life?"
Seething, the warrior cast its presumed eyes about the bridge, "Your race, your Federation of Planets is pathetic. Untrustworthy, duplicitous, your rulers characterised by caprice -"
"Not so pathetic as to blackmail our opponents by threatening the death of their CO!" Burwell shouted.
"Colonel!" Jamison silenced him.
The warrior watched with interest and suspicion as Andae leant forward and whispered to Jamison; Jamison nodded and stood aside, Andae speaking from the tactical rail, "You will withdraw all of your warriors from our ship immediately, including yourself of course. Once this has been accomplished, we will withdraw back to our spatial coordinates before we entered through the Ring Machine."
The warrior was silent; Andae unable to tell from his body posture whether he was mocking him or regarding him with interest.
He rounded the tactical rail, wary of the Halanan warrior on his right being held at bay by a marine's phaser rifle. "The first step in building peaceful relations between powers is for each side to demonstrate to the other they can be trusted. You withdraw, we will not fire on your relay stations. If you stay here while we promise not to attack your people, you may well claim we should have to trust you to keep your word not to harm Admiral Torek. But you called us untrustworthy. Give us the chance to demonstrate our integrity, and in the grandest way possible..." he gestured to the viewscreen with its view of the planet and the surrounding chain of Xallac warriors, "Our promise not to destroy your army which intends to invade Earth; if we can show our trustworthiness, perhaps you'll realise we're not such a menace after all..."
The warrior let out a low hiss through its faceplate, the icy vapour dispersing in the air of the bridge. Andae blinked, still holding the phaser to the being; low temperatures... bipedal form, presumably having come from the relay stations or thereabouts, or in between... Could this be a Xallac warrior, rather than a Halanan, fully transformed and in its body armour, ready to invade the Federation with its fellow soldiers?
"Agreed..." it spoke in a guttural voice, like cogs grinding, then dematerialised. Reports flooded in from around the ship that the attackers had disappeared. There were seventeen Starfleet casualties...
With the Halanan/Xallac gone, Roach again attended to the Admiral; he slowly regained consciousness. Andae addressed him and the XO, and Marionette who turned from her seat at the helm. He took a deep breath and voiced his thoughts, "We should keep our word, withdraw to normal space. If we destroy their army now, their opinion of us won't change, in fact it will be worsened: they'll see it as another betrayal of trust and will prepare another force. Withdrawing maybe the first step to building peace with the Xallac-Halanan alliance..."
<Tag Torek, Jamison, Marionette>
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Dec 20, 2015 18:45:15 GMT
Slowly he was helped to his feet and into the Command seat ... Roach was still trying to stabilize his readings but was asked to move aside while Carl's Senior Staff spoke to him: "We should keep our word, withdraw to normal space. If we destroy their army now, their opinion of us won't change, in fact it will be worsened: they will see it as another betrayal of trust and will prepare another force ... Withdrawing maybe the first step to building peace with the Xallac-Halanan alliance ......" Blakus said, eyeing the others to judge their expression. Calli had something to say. "Given what we know, I have to agree with Commander Blakus. A show of faith could move us closer to a solution and possible alliance in the future, pardon the pun ....." she said apologetically, "My only concern at this stage is the facility they are, or have, built in the Mojave desert. Should we simply depart there is nothing to prevent them from going through and attacking Earth while we're on our way home. We would arrive there to a lifeless husk. So stopping that must be a priority ... Andae, you said they only had basic warp capability right ?" "I'd say warp three, four at a push, but anything more would rip those ships apart." the Chief Engineer confirmed. "So they 'NEED' the transit portal to get to the Sol System, and from there spread throughout the Federation." Calli said, doing the math in her head as she spoke, "At maximum Transwarp, presuming we could maintain it for the duration, I'd say we are looking at twenty three, twenty four days to get us back to Earth ?" she said, looking at Blakus. "Twenty days." he said, realizing what she was getting at, "So at their maximum, it would take approximately, thirty nine 'YEARS' for them to reach us !" "I think we should decide go back through, we use something to prevent them from using the portal for anything but communications." Colonel Burwell offered, looking from Blakus to Commander Teng, then back to the group, "We could deploy mines, we have mines on board don't we ?" Lysia nodded, tapping at her console: "I would say deploy pulse mines, they have variable geometry detonators. We can program them to detect the hull signature of any vessel attempting to traverse the portal. If we deploy them at one thousand meters from the event horizon they will simply drop through once the portal is activated, detonating via proximity detectors we can ensure anything trying won't succeed." Carl was nodding, he looked at the Navigation Officer, ordering Marionette to approach the portal and hold position at one hundred kilometers. he realized that the diameter of the portal itself would require many more mines than they had in inventory, but Blakus was ahead of him there, he was ordering cargo-bay's two and three cleared out and set up for rapid construction: "We'll just throw them out the cargo-bay." he said. "What about the construction on Earth ?" Wedlerson asked, "Is it possible to destroy it without the Xallac / Halanan realizing what we have done ?" "Let's get through to our side first, then we'll look at that." he said, turning to the Operations Officer, "Harry, drop a communications relay buoy at this position ... Helm, one quarter impulse ... Take us through the portal and hold position at two thousand kilometers directly ahead of the device." ..... ooooo000ooooo After passing through to their own Universe, Marionette made a shallow lazy turn to Port to commence her one eighty degree turn, allowing the ship to move further away from the portal until it began the second half of her turn and began closing the distance once again, finally bringing the Galaxy Class vessel to a stationary position as ordered. Commander Teng was already releasing the Raven's quota of pulse mines: Admiral, I'm placing the mines towards the center of the portal. It's likely anything attempting transit will be at that point. Once Engineering begin supplying further mines I will set them in a spiral pattern from the center to the outer rim. It should cover us if two or more vessels try to use the portal simultaneously." "Thank you Commander." Carl said, looking at the enormous three kilometer diameter 'ring' before them, "Commander Wedlerson, try to establish contact with the buoy." Calli watched as the first newly constructed mine, having been physically pushed through the cargo-bay force field, had dropped below the Raven and was now passing the ship en-route to it's designated position. Harry confirmed the Comm link was established, though he couldn't state how long it would hold, Carl didn't need long: =^= USS Raven to the being formally on the Bridge of this vessel .. .. .. =^= He waited a moment then began to repeat the message. =^= USS Raven to the being forma .. .. .. =^= =^= We hear you .. .. Human =^= =^= Good .. In the spirit of our trust of each other .. Along with the possibility that our races might begin talks to prevent a war between our races .. .. I want to infor .. .. .. =^= =^= There would be no WAR .. .. Human .. .. But the systematic eradication of your race and the Federation .. We shall then inhabit your worlds and make them our own =^= =^= Yes .. Well .. About that .. .. I must inform you that we have mined our side of the portal .. 'ANY' attempt to take a vessel through will result it it's immediate destruction and the loss of life of those aboard .. We wou .. .. =^= The scream that emanated from the communications system on the Bridge was as chilling as it was loud. The Comm suddenly shut down. leaving everyone on the Bridge speechless for a moment. "Commander ....." Calli said, addressing the Deputy Chief Tactical Officer, "Just how big does something need to be to activate one of those mines ?" Lysia Teng grinned: "They activate their first stage when they detect any change in the parameters of the portal Commander. Once activated they begin to approach the event horizon, homing in on anything coming through. No need to worry, if it isn't empty space, it isn't getting through that thing." she said, checking her readings to ensure the mines were deploying correctly, then she looked up, a frown on her brow, "Mind if I as why the query commander ?" "Well, the Halanan have visited us before, and as far as I'm aware, they didn't need a portal of any kind to do so." she said ominously ..........
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Andae Blakus
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Commander 1C
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Post by Andae Blakus on Dec 21, 2015 20:32:10 GMT
"They're clever," he observed, looking out the panoramic window at the view of the Ring Machine and the fleet of ships waiting at its mouth. "Isn't that something to be admired?"
"They show the same caprice as their commanders of 400 years ago... Not to be trusted; to be annihilated!" the Xallac beside him grinded his teeth, clenching his fist with the view of the Ring Machine behind.
"No one asked you," he retorted. He tilted his head in contemplation. What would his own race do when faced with destruction? He asked himself: would we put all our trust in the enemy when that enemy has a fleet at its disposal, and over a million soldiers ready to be transported instantaneously onto our homeword? Any species would safeguard its own existence when faced with such a threat, no matter what offerings of friendship were made by their foe, or to that foe.
Andae supervised the construction of the pulse mines from behind the plexiglass that looked out onto the cargo bay. With each completion of a mine - parts being beamed in after replication in other areas of the ship, with very little manual effort required - they were repulsor-lifted to near the bay exit; when twenty mines had been assembled in a line before the exit, the forcefield was deactivated and the bay opened, the small explosives dropping away into the void towards the ring device seeming so far away; now grey matter against infinity, now invisible points on a graphic display - framed by the Ring Machine that presided over the near-void conscientiously silent for the pitiable.
He nodded to Milyanov, putting on an air of satisfaction; yet inside he felt rotted to his core - something gnawed at his moral centre, tearing it away til all that remained was pride. This was their display of trust? Yes, they'd withdrawn through the portal, but they had also guaranteed - a sensible precaution perhaps - their own safety through the deployment of this system of mines.
His youth, its passing and the accumulated experience in and out of the uniform and taught him to bury such moral objections; they were compressed beneath layers of remorse, of the duty and necessity of doing monstrous things in the name of the greater good of the Federation and the Alpha Quadrant. 'For the uniform'; pah, how hollow a rallying cry that sounded now, how hypocritical a motto, a mantra - yes, he'd been desensitised to such acts, and, if he was entirely honest with himself - stripping away the idealism that made up his being, finding the pragmatic core - he would acknowledge that all this was necessary.
"They demonstrated their willingness to survive didn't they?" he said, sitting in the plush couch in this observation room of pale blues and sepia. The others turned to face him as he mused, arching his fingers, "At threat was their whole intergalactic civilisation... One ship, the USS Raven, came to our region to discover what had become of our two great empires, and found as they'd suspected an alliance, preparing to make war - as we have been for the last 400 years - on their species and whatever others they've subsumed within their body of laws and culture. Now not only did they discern the nature of the threat - but they overcame it, and have limited our capacity to reach them and bring about their end. A feat of great bravery to come here, and one of great achievement to turn the tide... If you ask me," he added. "Something to be admired, in a species that was on the brink of destruction and barely knew it."
"Yet they will be destroyed," the third in the room, the Hierophant replied, then settled on the couch opposite, her red mask now removed, "Now come, what to do about our derelict ships? Our grand fleets prepared by your tireless construction planets fashioned and maintained by your own people? The humans have demonstrated only their capacity for destruction; we should answer with our own might. Yet -"
The Halanan sighed, "Yet what to do?" He lay back on the couch, his thought wandering elsewhere, to how one aeon the Halanan would have the Xallac under their thumb to such a degree that they could turn them - an anonymous war machine, a mechanical object, the barrel of a gun - on any species in the universe.
The Raven was still stationary, facing away from the ring device, observing and maintaining the position of their deployed mines via remote from the tactical station occupied by Commander Teng. Engineers were checking over the drive systems, in preparation for the inevitable soon-to-come return to the Federation heartland, and away from this cold emptiness at the Orion Arm's centre, where they'd found the manifest horror of the means for their destruction. Blakus manned the engineering console, performing diagnostics of the MRI and A-MRI's software and nozzle systems.
~ You never did unravel the mystery of the eyes ~
He paused, blood running cold; he recognised that voice, the same whispering that'd come to him on the derelict Xallac ship and afterwards on the Raven - immediately prior to when they'd discovered the subspace layer the Xallac army was concealed within. "What, do you...?" he began haltingly, realising now that Calli's speculation that Halanan may be able to slip through was correct.
~ The undiscovered chamber in the Mojave and the old radio... Broadcasting messages to the future for I, Professor Carter of the Halanan, to find. The chamber, Commander Blakus, with the urns of deceased gods that, when lit up by torchlight shone like a thousand eyes. And on that ship you were just thinking about - thousands more eyes, if only you'd explored further and found the greatest prize of all, and the legions of sleeping warriors ~
"Appear to me, to us, if you have something useful to say, Professor." The bridge crew heard his reproachful words and turned their heads as one to the CEO at the engineering station.
The Halanan presence laughed in his mind, ~ No need... I have no mission here but to warn you of the future... The eyes you saw in that chamber, belonging to the urns, sacred in times to come, are the crystallised forms of eyes of real humans who'll exist centuries from now when all humanity has been put to the sword by the Halanan. ~ With a ghostly howl the presence of 'Carter' departed his mind, to return presumably through the portal.
<Tag Torek, All>
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Carl Torek
Command Staff ..
Site Executive Officer Ranks Officer
Fleet Admiral
"UTRINQUE PARATUS"
Registered: Jun 17, 2006 22:34:35 GMT
Posts: 6,164
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Post by Carl Torek on Dec 24, 2015 15:31:37 GMT
=^= Yes .. Well .. About that .. .. I must inform you that we have mined our side of the portal .. 'ANY' attempt to take a vessel through will result it it's immediate destruction and the loss of life of those aboard .. We wou .. .. =^=
The scream that emanated from the communications system on the Bridge was as chilling as it was loud. The Comm suddenly shut down. leaving everyone on the Bridge speechless for a moment ......
~~~~~
The Raven had sat in place directly ahead of the portal for almost three hours now. It seemed that the Halanan, despite their obvious anger regarding Torek's declaration, seemed reluctant to test out his threat. That in itself was worrying Carl, because the Halanan and Xallac had declared their intentions towards the Human race, and the Federation as a whole, so them sitting quietly, making no attempt to pass through the portal was uncharacteristic of an aggressor. Calli had come back to the Bridge after going to her quarters to freshen up and don a change of uniform. Back on the Bridge she sat in the Command area and spoke to Carl and Will:
"You think they are planning something."
"That's obvious .... My worry is why haven't they even attempted to send something through the portal, any small craft would do, unmanned and set on course they would know immediately if it was destroyed." he said, frustration in every word.
"Is it possible they are working on a way to neutralize the mines from their side ?" she asked as Lysia Teng stepped down from the upper level:
"I doubt they could." she answered for Carl, they would need to establish contact either physically or remotely, that would require them opening a portal to our space ... The mines would simply drop through and detonate on their side."
"We know they can somehow pass from their realm to ours without the portal, is it viable they could simply send enough through to incapacitate the Raven, and remove the mines from here ?" Calli asked.
Alas, no-one knew the answer to that haunting query. Carl ordered Harry to contact Star Fleet Command via sub-space. He decided to bring them up to speed and suggest the facility in the Mojave Desert be destroyed before it could be brought on-line. Minutes passed as Wedlerson tried numerous times to contact Earth, all to no avail. The Halanan were blocking all sub-space transmissions. Harry confirmed that it could only be achieved from 'our' space and not from theirs, so somewhere there was a jamming relay, but where !
"Can you locate the source ?"
"It would need to be close ....." Teng said, fingers moving over her panel, then for a second she stood back, looking at the readings before running the same checks again for confirmations' sake, "Sir, according to these readouts, the signal is emanating from the portal itself ! ..... I don't know how that can be possible Admiral, the ring is running on minimal power, hardly enough to keep the segments in line, let alone to use on anything else." Carl nodded and decided to ask Andae, still in the Cargo-bay overseeing the mine construction: He opened a Comm and explained the situation:
=^= Can we reestablish contact by moving further from the ring ? =^= Torek asked, waiting while the Chief Engineer did some mental sums.
=^= We could .. But we would need to be at minimum half a light year away .. At that distance we would have no control over the mines once released .. Once deployed it is likely they wouldn't reach their designated positions .. We needed to cut back on several sub-systems to get them out as quickly as we could =^=
=^= Thank you Andae .. Torek out =^= he closed the Comm and looked at the massive ring, impassively taunting them.
"Commander, you said the signal is coming through the portal, is there any wa ....."
"Sorry Admiral. I said the signal was emanating 'from' the ring, not through the portal's event horizon." she corrected him.
"Yes, my mistake ..." he said, rubbing his eyes, "OK ..... We know the Halanan, and the Xallac, have access to the portal from both sides, so if they have somehow set up a carrier on their side and are transmitting via one or more of the ring segments, we could stop it from this side. All we would need to do is find out which segment, or segments, are being utilized and cut them from the loop. Is there 'ANY' way you can isolate which is being used ?" he asked, looking up at the young Deputy Chief.
Lysia began working as Calli leaned in to speak to Carl:
"You know it's only a matter of time before the Halanan, or Xallac, or both, realize that if they start to send ordnance through the portal at a rapid enough rate we simply couldn't construct mines fast enough to stop them all. They have thousands of semi-constructed husks over there. If they should choose to go that route we would have no option but to retreat and contact Command. Once they realized we were no longer destroying what they sent through, they could transfer the wormhole to the Earth facility."
"Sir, there is no way to determine which of the segments are being used." Teng informed them.
"Our sensors must be able to pin-point a single signal source Commander ......" Will began, but Teng continued, her frustration obvious.
"Sir, I can't locate which of the segments is currently being used, as the signal is bouncing randomly around the ring. Three of the segments seem to be required to establish and continually maintain the block, but they are, for want of a better word, 'jumping' between segment throughout the complete circumference of the ring."
"Get Andae up here. We need to figure something out before the Halanan throw their first rock." Carl said, trying not to slump in his seat too obviously ..........
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Dec 29, 2015 20:43:00 GMT
"Surely we should be able to identify some pattern in the movement of the jamming signal from segment to segment," Andae said, brow furrowed in concentration as he studied the tactical display over Teng's shoulder.
She shook her head, "So far it seems completely random, Commander. No clear pattern, they seem to be using a recursive algorithm to redesignate the segments."
"Let the Admiral know if any pattern emerges, we haven't been watching for long," he pushed off the console and turned round to the engineering station. From here he could monitor the deployment of the mines - still being constructed in the cargo bay and sent out to the portal in case the Xallac or Halanan decided to open the portal and test what destructive capabilities the Raven possessed. Something had given them pause; they must know, he thought, that the minefield exists, which meant the segments must either be transmitting visual data of the minefield back to the Halanan side, or another Xallac/Halanan ship lay nearby in normal space - which wasn't an impossibility - informing them of the Raven's deployment.
If the Xallac/Halanan did know about the minefield - and saw that the Raven could only replenish it for so long before systems became overtaxed and resources of replicator matter ran dry - then they would surely be opening the portal soon, to dispatch the Raven and prevent it finally from leaving the region to warn the Federation via subspace about the impending attack on Earth. Thus if the opening of the portal was an inevitability, the Raven needed some other way to counter the coming fleet, something which would render the latter's eventual goal no longer desirable, or perhaps even unreachable...
He scratched his chin, peering at the screen with its rotating graphic of a mine with internal componentry revealed, "What if, we program one of the mines... let's say two for redundancy purposes, to redirect the destination of the Xallac/Halanan wormhole once opened, from the self-same point in space to a certain set of coordinates in southern California."
Teng and Jamison, who'd just been within earshot of his murmuring, turned round and regarded the engineer quizzically, "You want to help the Xallac on their way?"
"Not help them, no, destroy their chances of reaching Earth. We send the two programmed mines to sit at the front of the minefield - seeming completely innocuous, indistinguishable from the rest as far as the Halanan will be concerned, for them, these mines will merely be the first two to drop through to their side when the portal's connection to our location in real space is established. Just after crossing the threshold, the mines begin transmitting a code into whatever processing unit the Halanan are using to control the destination of the artificial singularity."
Teng was nodding her head, "You want to use the mines to destroy the facility in the Mojave, before the Xallac army can be sent there, and before the Xallac fleet can appear in front of us. Then you'd need something to stop the Xallac fleet from ending up appearing on Earth, arrowing up through the atmosphere."
Andae grimaced - on this part he wasn't sure, "Whatever construct the Xallac have underground in the Mojave, it's clearly not designed to allow the transportation of starships; the area enclosed by the perimeter those substations will lie along - if they exist as simulations predict - isn't large enough. But, to be on the safe side in case Professor Carter our Halanan friend gets back there first, the mines' transmitted code can be programmed to have the wormhole shut down as soon as the mines are through; once they've used the unstable wormhole, unstable seeing as we're destroying the very facility designed to stabilise it, the mines detonate and destroy the underground complex." He laughed, gallows humour, for despite the solution they had a similar problem to before, "Unfortunately we'd have no way of warning the Federation of the impending destruction; many archaeologists and other civilians would be killed."
Calli chipped in, "Then we send a shuttle away from the ship, until it's out of range of the jamming field." Blakus looked at Torek and Jamison, who conferred and agreed to the plan.
* * *
With the two modified mines assembled and heading out to the minefield, Blakus resumed his position at the engineering station, his hands still dirty with fibre optic fluid from wiring the mines' internal components with Lieutenant Milyanov. That gave him an idea.
"Admiral, I'd like to have Lieutenant Milyanov accompany the pilot of the shuttle. He's already in the shuttlebay."
Carl nodded, "Agreed, and launch." The shuttle was away, leaving the zone of the jamming field and transmitting its message to Earth about the impending 'Raven strike' on the Mojave complex, whose destruction - if the site was not cleared - would result in the deaths of many civilians.
"Sir, detecting a surge of power in the ring segments," Wedlerson reported at Ops. "They've started rotating... picking up revs... thirty revolutions per minute." Andae stepped towards the viewscreen, the sight of the rotating segments and the white-blue light flashing like a quasar at their centre surprising him. No one had predicted this; they'd expected the portal to just open, but now they were seeing the minefield as a large matrix of silhouetted dots against a central nexus of energy that was casting off streamers towards the rapidly rotating rings. "Sir, the portal's opening..."
"Let's hope the mines made it to the front in time..." Andae scampered back to the engineering station, "Picking up telemetry; they're on the other side, establishing link with the power unit maintaining the wormhole... It's on one of the Xallac ships." He breathed a sigh of relief, "They're breaking down the Xallac firewall." He clapped his hands, "It's worked, I think... One of the mines has been destroyed, but the other is making its way through the wormhole... - roughly in the direction of Federation space... towards the core worlds!"
The expectant Xallac fleet would be stranded in subspace on the other side of the ring, wondering why they'd been unable to traverse its instantaneous wormhole to the region of real space right in front of the Raven - obviously they would've been bracing themselves for contact from the mines that they'd already detected, but those mines, now dropping towards the ring structure - with no event horizon to reach as the wormhole's end this side was no longer 'here', but on Earth in the Mojave! - had merely continued in real space, drifting away harmlessly and in formation... Only the first two mines (the modified ones) as intended had made it through, to nullify the Xallac and Halanan's chances of reaching Earth instantaneously; only the enemy's low warp speed, which would take them years to reach the boundary of Federation space, was available to them now.
<Tag Torek, All>
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Carl Torek
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Site Executive Officer Ranks Officer
Fleet Admiral
"UTRINQUE PARATUS"
Registered: Jun 17, 2006 22:34:35 GMT
Posts: 6,164
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Post by Carl Torek on Dec 30, 2015 17:37:18 GMT
Carl sat watching the segments of the portal ..... At first they were randomly activating, but as he watched the randomness became uniformity as the ring segments activated in sequence. "Sir, the portal is opening ..." Wedlerson informed them as everyone on the Bridge waited for news of the two modified mines: "They are breaking down the Xallac firewall." Blakus clapped his hands, "It's worked, I think ... One of the mines has been destroyed, but the other is making its way through the wormhole ... Roughly in the direction of Federation space towards the core worlds !" "Helm, back us away from the portal, half a million kilometers." ...... Shuttle Tanagier ::At maximum warp the Tangier arrowed away from her parent heading for open space. It was imperative they they reach a safe distance where the Xallac / Halanan jamming wasn't affecting their sub-space transmissions. Lieutenant Gerelo, sat in the Pilot's seat silently watching the distance from the Raven increase as Lieutenant Milyanov continually attempted to contact Starfleet Command. Almost twenty minutes into their flight Milyanov sat bolt upright !
"I'm getting something, a communications array in the Huddek Expanse. I'm going to try to bounce off there .... he said, disheartened as the signal stubbornly refused to reach Earth, but moments later they received a garbled reply to their attempt:
=^= .. .. oosing .. gnal .. .. .. Command to craft attempting to contact =^= the two men almost jumped out of their seats with relief.
=^= Starfleet Command .. This is the Shuttle-craft Tangier from the USS Raven-B .. .. Sir .. We have a warning from Admiral Torek .. I am sending identification codes as we speak .. But there is very little time =^=
=^= Receiving .. .. Stand by Tangier .. .. =^=
The Comm fell silent for agonizing minutes and Gerelo lost patience, stabbing his finger at the Comm pad:
=^= Starfleet Command .. You need to evacu .. .. .. =^=
=^= We have received and verified your codes Tangier .. Along with a brief and somewhat 'curt' demand that we evacuate the Mojave Desert facility .. We were aware of the unidentified devices buried below the Research Facility .. we were studying increased sub-strata readings when we received your communication .. The evacuation is now underway but will take approximately ninety minutes to complete =^=
=^= Command .. You don't 'HAVE' ninety minutes .. The portal was beginning it's activation sequence before we got out of jamming range .. If the device buried beneath the facility activates Earth will be flooded with Xallac troops =^=
=^= We have most of the Scientific teams out now Tangier .. But the civilian workforce is spread over three squa .. .. .. =^= the Comm fell silent, Gerelo and Milyanov looked at each other then at the comm panel:
=^= Command to Shuttle Tangier .. .. .. There has been a detonation in the Mojave Desert .. We have no estimate as to how many lives may have been lost .. The explosion occurred beneath the Facility .. It caused a cascade detonation of approximately three hundred sub-sites we had still to deactivate .. We estimate the yield was in the one thirty six kiloton range .. There is a thirty kilometer crater roughly approximately twelve kilometers deep where the facility and surrounding community once stood .. Our people say that 'thankfully' due to the hardened sud-strata granite formations beneath the desert the majority of the explosion was directed through the atmosphere and into space .. Tangier .. .. It is imperative that the portal is destroyed by whatever means necessary .. You will return to the Raven immediately .. We have some work to do .. .. Godspeed .. Command .. Out =^=
Milyanov and Geralo could say nothing as the shuttle turned on it's axis and jumped to warp, en-route for the Raven .......
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Dec 31, 2015 22:16:26 GMT
"How many casualties," Wedlerson was asking.
"They didn't say, only that a thirty kilometre crater was left where the dig used to be."
Blakus stood morosely at the back of the gathering, leaning against the engineering console; it wasn't so much that he didn't like crowds (although actually, he didn't), it was because of the terrible thing the Raven had had to do - though, through their actions they'd very likely saved all of Earth from unexpected invasion by an alliance of species from the Orion Arm. There had been no time to set a variable yield for the two mines they'd modified, which would've given a good chance of avoiding extensive destruction around the site of the Mojave facility; what had been done was his plan, and he'd have to live with it; speaking of which, he hoped on their return home the judiciary would see sense and not pursue the Raven in investigations, probe them as to why they'd resorted to this and ask how they may have avoided the destruction of the dig, found another way to prevent the invasion.
He returned to engineering and set about brainstorming ideas for destruction of the ring so as not to give the Xallac or Halanan a chance to use it to reach other planets in the galaxy. It chilled Blakus to think that they may have similar facilities - such as the one in the Mojave - on other worlds, the seeds of which were planted long ago, perhaps even on a similar time scale to when the Xallac had arrived at Earth, 400 years ago, readying dozens or even hundreds of worlds for destruction 400 years from then. It may provide an alternative explanation for why the Raven had found so many Xallac starships in the previous system - something on the order of several million from his memory, maybe they weren't all supposed to be useless shells after all (which they'd surmised was due to overproduction without recourse to maintenance of those long-ago produced vessels on the construction planet in that system).
"I would say, quantum torpedoes would do the trick, here, here, and here," he pointed to the graphic display of the ring structure on the pool table, Lieutenants Tinsley and Zavial with him, "But each segment is protected by a shield with a power output equivalent to three Galaxy class vessels, and they have astonishing regenerative abilities, courtesy of... this." The screen zoomed in to show one of the segments, nothing notable at first sight but on closer inspection actually slightly larger than all the others and slightly grey in colour while the others were beige.
"This segment is responsible for the redistribution of shield energy throughout the segments in the case of attack. As well as shift what is available around to keep the ring as stable for as long as possible, it generates its own power via nuclear fusion so that it may bring new energy to itself and the whole shield grid."
"So it's a matter of hitting that grey segment with as much as we've got," Tinsley said, Andae nodding as he opened a channel to the bridge so that Carl and Will were in on the brainstorm, "After that we break down the other segments one by one, once their effective shield generator is gone."
"Yes, but each segment is designed so that, in case the shield generator segment comes under attack, they redirect most of their shield energy to the generator, while also having their own battery supplies to keep them safe while they're supplying their crucial link in the chain," Andae directed the engineers' sight to the whole portal again.
"Then it's no use trying to take out the rest of the segments while we're also hitting the shield generator segment," Tinsley replied.
"Indeed. And the shields of the generator segment will be replenished too quickly for our attacks to do enough damage to that either..." Andae paused, thinking how the bridge would be receiving this incessant back and forth about segments and shield grids and no solutions. Amused but also frustrated at the lack of a solution, he stepped back, and seized upon an idea, "What if we use the mines? They're floating harmlessly into space the other side of the ring... we cast a wide-arc tractor beam to drag them all back in, then, making use by remote of their manoeuvring thrusters, individually set them on headings that will have them impact with the shield generator segment. All that energy, combined with our phaser and quantum attacks, should be enough to finish it. Then with the ring split and the primary source of shield energy gone, we take out the rest of the segments."
"That's a lot of micro-managing to get the mines on the headings we want them; there's several thousand of them out there, Andae." Blakus gave Tinsley a cold look before the assistant engineer - Milyanov still on the bridge - looked away.
"And let's hope we can do it before the Xallac and Halanan manage to rid themselves of our computer virus and set up another wormhole..."
"I don't want to face down the whole Xallac fleet."
"Me neither," Zavial replied.
"Bridge, Blakus, did you get all that? I'm on my way." He strode from engineering.
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Jan 1, 2016 12:39:32 GMT
=^= Bridge .. Blakus .. Did you get all that ? .. .. I'm on my way =^= =^= Already working on retrieval Commander =^= Torek said as he watched Lieutenant Commander Teng deftly hauling in the stray mines. Rather than bringing them into a central location above the event horizon, she had set them on a course to return before allowing them to simply drift in under their own inertia, while she began positioning the mines using their own maneuvering thrusters to sit above each of the ring segments. It was taking more time, but he decided to let her continue working rather than commenting on her ingenuity. Blakus stepped onto the Bridge and moved to the Engineering Station on the upper level. "Good thinking Commander." he said as he watched the mines beginning to form a three kilometer diameter ring above the thousands of segments. He concentrated on the main segment, the key-stone of the ring while Calli used sensors to check the mines already placed weren't drifting off due to the micro-gravitational influence of the massive segments, and program in the information for simultaneous detonation ..... Within three hours they were almost ready ..... Blakus changed the display on the main screen to show a graphic of the ring and the mines holding station above each one. Calli confirmed that the Chief Engineer had control of the detonation sequence and watched as Torek nodded his approval. He changed the image to show the key-stone segment as Torek had named it, and brought all weapons on-line. Carl looked at the ring, wondering about the millions of Xallac, held in their version of suspended animation around the planet below, or at least the planet below 'their' side of the portal. With no ring, they had effectively nowhere to go unless they wanted to commit hundreds, even thousands of years to sub-light travel to reach their goal ... Is this the only portal, was it at all possible the Halanan and Xallac had a second, a third, it didn't bare contemplation he decided. Standing he requested normal view on the screen. At over half a million kilometers the image was obviously enhanced, the portal itself invisible at this distance. Taking a deep breath, satisfied he was doing the right thing for the right reasons, he ordered Marionette to begin their approach at half impulse ...... ooo000ooo The Galaxy Class USS Raven-B began her approach to the portal, moving in a wide arc to allow her to quickly maneuver away from any issues that could arise once they began their attack. As the ship reached one hundred thousand kilometers Carl walked forward to the massive view-screen, he turned to Commander Blakus: "You have the Con Andae." he said, effectively giving control of the operation to the Chief Engineer. < tag : Andae >
The Raven had expended almost two thirds of her reserve of quantum torpedoes as Blakus bombarded the key-stone segment relentlessly. Phaser's tore through shielding as quickly as it could be refreshed until the segment suddenly began to glow: "It's beginning to over-load !" Teng said from the Tactical Station, the other's could see for their own eyes at this range and Carl told Marionette to begin opening the distance between them, "The shields on the auxiliary segments are beginning to fluctuate. Do we detonate ?" "Not yet." Blakus said, his eyes dancing over continuously changing readings, then it happened ! "Commander Marionette, if we need to be elsewhere, don't wait for me, move us away to a safe distance." "Yes Sir." the Gynoid said, entering commands on her Helm but waiting to trigger them as she watched the readings. The key-stone segment, unable to hold up against the sustained battering, finally began to give out ...... The heat and light generated from the weapons being used against it began to intensify exponentially. The shields on first one, then two, then whole sections of the ring began to fail. Carl watched the scene unfold, part of him wanting to ask his Chief Engineer if he was going to detonate the mines anytime soon, but he held his tongue, knowing Andae had the situation under control. Everyone on the Bridge saw the explosion ! .... The screen instantaneously darkened to ensure the retina's of those present as the segment exploded in spectacular fashion. A second later Blakus sent the command that would detonate the thousands of mines positioned above the other segments. They waited, the seconds past, suddenly Marionette reacted, the Raven shot away from the ring at warp one ... Two minutes later, now clear of the enormous combined explosions from the ring segments, the ship dropped from warp and began a lazy turn before heading back towards the planet. The sight was something to behold as the wreckage of over ninety percent of the thousands of ring segments began to form a disk around the scorched planet below. The Raven fired on the now defenseless segments still untouched from the initial detonations. Lieutenant Jor Svensson, Deputy Science Officer, confirmed the last of the segments had been totally destroyed as they could see the newly formed ring of detritus slowly moving into a stable orbit. As for the portal, it no longer existed ..... Carl sat down, tiredness finally catching up with him as the Raven slowed to a complete stop high above the remains of the ring ..... "We did it." "Spectacular !" someone else said. "Sir, the jamming has ceased, we can contact Starfleet Command whenever you're ready." Wedlerson confirmed. "Thank you Harry." ..........
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Carl Torek
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Post by Carl Torek on Jan 2, 2016 1:13:49 GMT
He refused to leave .... Watching the still glowing debris of the portal as it acted out some stellar ballet around the planet below. They had used the last two days ensuring there would be no reappearance of the Xallac or the Halanan. Thankfully, or by design, the Halanan had chosen not to visit the ship again, this Carl was thankful for. They had beamed numerous sections of the portal's individual sections, these would be taken back to Command for analysis. finally though, on the third day he finally gave the order to leave orbit ..... The journey home was going to take ten days. They had a lot to do in that ten days, repairs, maintenance, the everyday running of a Star Ship. But he had more on his mind as did each member of the Raven's crew. it had been confirmed in reports from Earth that almost twenty seven thousand people had lost their lives in the Mojave Desert explosion, the majority of those were civilians. He had been struggling with his decision since the Tangier's return and the report from Lieutenant Gerelo and Lieutenant Milyanov ... Had he done the right thing ?, yes, could he have prevented the impending destruction of Earth any other way ?, no ... Doctor Roach had prescribed something to help him sleep, but it hadn't, so here he was again, in the middle of Gamma Shift, zero three forty, and wandering the corridors of the ship like some disembodied spectre. Did the crew know ?, yes, he had not restricted the news broadcast's from Earth, of any of the reports from the Mojave Desert, so while life went on, it did so with a sense of, loss ..... ~~~~~~~~~~ HOME ~~~~~~~~~~ ... One light year from Sector Zero Zero One, the Sol System, the Raven dropped from warp ... They had been told that Admiral Tetsutaro, Head of Star Fleet Security, was coming out to meet them, rumors began to circulate that they were to he held and likely charged for the murders of those who lost their lives in the Mojave. Tetsutaro was here to escort the Raven back to Earth in disgrace. While he had heard the rumors, he couldn't completely dismiss their validity, after all, they 'HAD' sent the device that had destroyed the Facility, ergo, by definition, they were in fact guilty, at least, 'he' was. Because no-one else was going to be charged while he had a voice, but he and the crew had worried needlessly ..... The USS Hinoiri, Admiral Tetsutaro's vessel, enter their Sector and Torek ordered the Helm to hold position. as the Excelsior Class ship approached, finally coming to a stop five hundred meters off the Raven's Port quarter. Tetsutaro beamed aboard, the elderly Admiral hugging both Carl and Calli warmly before moving to the Observation Lounge. The meeting lasted only one hour in which time Sato brought the Senior Staff up to speed regarding the 'Mojave Incident' as it was now apparently being referred to. There would be no escort into Earth space, no arrests ... The Earth and the Federation had suffered a devastating blow, but nothing compared to what they would have suffered had the Halanan and Xallac been allowed to carry out their designs. Departing the Raven, Sato asked Carl to allow them time to return to Space Dock before coming home. One hour later, travelling at full impulse, the Raven passed close by Jupiter en-route to Earth. Slowing, they approached the enormous Space Station: =^= Space Station Dock-master to USS Raven .. Please slow to one quarter impulse and prepare to transfer navigational systems over to our control =^= =^= Understood Dock-master =^= Will replied, handling the final stages of their approach and homecoming. The Raven passed through the open doors and into the Space Dock ..... Maneuvering thrusters nudged the Galaxy Class behemoth gently to her berth and he watched as umbilicus reached out to connect to the ship. Andae handled the transfer of power from internal to external while Marionette confirmed they were stable. there was a very subtle, almost unnoticeable change in the Bridge lighting as they changed power supply then the Comm chirped to life: =^= USS Raven .. Docking complete .. You are on External power and walkways are in place .. Welcome home =^= =^= Thank you Dock-master =^= Jamison replied, finally leaning back in his seat, as Wedlerson turned to face the Command Area: "Message from Star Fleet Command Admiral." he said, receiving a nod from Torek, "Message reads: 'Welcome home USS Raven, we owe you a great debt, you should be proud of what you have accomplished and not morose at the loss of life' .... It goes on a little Sir, mainly about our dedication and steadfast commitment to the future of the federation, and is signed - Aennik Okeg - President United Federation of Planets." "Nice of the President." Calli commented as Harry turned to his console on hearing a Comm beep: "There's a second message Admiral, this from Star Fleet Command: Senior Staff are to report at zero eight hundred hours." "That's it ?" Calli asked, Harry shrugged as Carl got to his feet. "Will, inform Department Heads that Shore Leave is available to 'ALL' crew members for the next four days. Base maintenance will be all over the ship anyway, so we'll leave them to it. Have anyone due to be on duty from zero eight hundred hours on to for duty as normal in four days time, we'll stagger leave from then on." "Yes Sir." the Executive Officer confirmed. "Welcome home everyone." Carl said, leaving the Bridge. Twenty minutes later he was walking into his home on Marine Drive .......... OOC ::
Please feel free to post any final thoughts for your characters as we finally reach home before I conclude this mission.
Regards,
Steve.
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Andae Blakus
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Post by Andae Blakus on Jan 4, 2016 2:37:46 GMT
Blakus had resolved to give himself up if he couldn't find some way out of the fix they'd found themselves in. He wouldn't hinder the investigations by allowing the responsibility for this catastrophe to be placed on Carl, or on the whole senior staff; he would admit his own fault. The mines being sent to Earth via the wormhole had been his idea, meant to eliminate the Xallac-Halanan threat by refusing them their means of reaching the planet, though there had been, in the way of collateral damage, casualties... many casualties.
Thus it was to his relief that Carl and Calli had come forward after the meeting with Admiral Tetsutaro and declared that no charges would immediately be brought against them. Still, twenty seven thousand people was no small weight on one's conscience, and although the whole crew had been prosecuted over a year ago - when three planet's populations had been destroyed by Admiral Kinnard and Captain Franks's rebels with the atrocity blamed on the Raven - Blakus felt given the immensity of what the Raven crew had devised to wreak upon the civilians in the Mojave desert - with he the chief instigator - it wouldn't be unjustified to put him through the process of court martial once again.
Still in the outer solar system, the Raven making its way past the orbit of Neptune, Blakus had time to decide how he'd spend his leave. He would first make a visit to the Mojave site, see the crater, see the relief effort - or what little of it was needed, as most people in the vicinity of the mine's explosion had either been vapourised, killed outright or left untouched - and enquire how he might help. It wouldn't be wrong to volunteer to help the needy in a time when no official duty was required of him.
"You should go," Lieutenant Christine Taylor was telling him as he donned his uniform jacket.
"I intend to."
"No, to Italy. See your family, and Lucius and his papers."
He shook his head, "Lucius is fine... And those thousands of families of the victims, and the people left homeless by my... cunning," he almost spat, "Are more in need of my attention, wouldn't you say?"
She stood before the door to his quarters with arms folded, her face resolute with him standing before her feeling rather pathetic as he couldn't summon the energy to tell her to get the hell out of the way. With shoulders slumped he looked into her eyes, as if silently pleading. "It wasn't just you, Andae. You're not a hero, or a villain, you're a Starfleet officer; myself and your whole team, we developed the plan together... You had the initial idea," she conceded...
"Yes and that initial idea, that flash of genius, resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people!" he turned away in disgust with himself, eye catching on the stars out the window - shining white and perfect against infinite void; lost in the simplicity of their chemical reactions, with none of the emergent qualities of the wretched human mind present to terrorise their little life-giving operations. "What are the faculties of the mind if they can be directed to such slaughter? The lesser of two evils... yes, the lesser of two evils, but an evil all the same."
"I thought you didn't believe in good and evil?"
"Yes, but my trust in that kind of morality, morality as a spectrum, morality as non-absolute, has been... eroded, shall we say." He cast off his jacket and collapsed on the couch, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples, in obvious psychic pain.
"Perhaps you need a coffee, or something more robust," Christine said, sitting on the couch beside him. He opened his eyes, staring at her. She patted him on the arm, "Once we reach spacedock, we'll go to the promenade, I know this place, a restaurant that opened just before we left for the Orion Arm. Italian?"
He smiled and squeezed her arm.
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