Alyana Ryat
Commodore
Registered: Sept 5, 2007 16:34:56 GMT
Posts: 347
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Post by Alyana Ryat on Mar 23, 2016 21:01:30 GMT
Playing drift around the planet in the Triaud system was rapidly starting to wear on Aly's nerves. T'Sana was doing a very good job in the hunt for any trace of the Charon or something to tell them what was really going on here.
Rather than pace or stare over T'Sana's shoulder, Aly was actually assisting with the cracking of tthe encrypted transmissions that they had picked up from the planet below them. She didn't,t want to lose her touch as a Communications specialist and the computer had been having trouble with these signals.
"Commodore Ryat, Commander Schirra, this is Karka Psonoir. I am on the surface of Triaud II. Singhian augments have allied themselves with the planetary government, sirs. Captain Escude was here to kill someone they're protecting, the descendant of Colonel Phillip Green..." he paused, "It's a family feud. Green wiped out Escude's ancestors. Now Escude's landing parties have been ambushed... I was on the ship, though, I made my way to the surface," well that was one way of putting it, he thought wincing, "I've reached the capital and, sirs, I have found evidence - perhaps not conclusive - that the Charon is now in hiding behind the Triaud star."
Aly thought she should have been more surprised to hear her former CEO's voice come over the comm. She didn't question how he had known that the Excal was here, Karka pulled off engineering miracles, it was what he did.
"Commander Ryat here." Aly responded. "Do you want to come back aboard Commander, or would that draw attention?"
Tag: Karka.
She had a vague feeling that she should know the names he was mentioning, it was something to do with Earth History, never her strongest subject. Well, either Dan or Karka would fill her in in the next few minutes or she'd ask the computer for more information. However, if there was a historical vendetta in progress then nothing good would come of it.
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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 26, 2016 16:03:05 GMT
"Commodore Ryat here." Aly responded. "Do you want to come back aboard Commander, or would that draw attention ?" The Comm had fallen silent. There could be numerous reasons for this, so she wasn't unduly concerned at this point. "Keep monitoring for any further signal from Mister Psonoir." she instructed her communications Officer, then turned to Schirra, "Commander, my Ready Room please ..." As she sat behind her desk, Dan remained standing, she motioned for him to take the seat opposite then asked him to update her as much as possible. He ran through the basic history of Philip green and the Augments, turning her desks console to access the relevant information on the ships' computer. She was almost shocked that a decorated Commanding Officer had managed to hide this from everyone. It should by rights have shown up on his annual medical and psych evaluation which every Ships Master is required to undergo. "Did he sound like he wanted to be retrieved to you ?" she asked, but all Dan could do was shrug. "I have the feeling he may have ended the Comm due to the possibility of detection, there is the likelihood that a transport could be detected by the 'wrong' people." Schirra commented, "We have two options as far as I can seen Captain, we sit and wait for him to reestablish contact, or we send someone down there to either assist or extract." "What about the Petty Officer ? ..... Do you think it worth pursuing that ?" "We need the information and quickly. She knows that and to be honest, was the only one to suggest we go looking rather than wait for it to fall into our proverbial lap. I'd go with her suggestion. We could disguise the emissions from a shuttle to make it approximate one of the local runabouts. Get to the surface and go from there. The option kills two birds actually." "Explain." Ryat said. "If we go to the surface in search of the information regarding the Charon's current whereabouts, we are there if Commander Psonoir requires a quick 'exit' so to speak." Ryat tapped the Comm button: =^= Ryat to Engineering .. Scan one of the Triaud craft in orbit around the second planet .. Adjust one of our shuttles' to match the signature .. I want it ready in thirty minutes .. Ryat out =^= she looked at Dan, suddenly wondering if their relationship would return to something approaching normalcy in due course, she hoped so as she once again tapped the Comm link, =^= Petty Officer T'Seng .. Report to Commander Schirra on the Bridge immediately =^= "Go find the information Commander." she said, effectively dismissing him. Dan rose and left the Commodore's office, T'Seng was waiting for him having remained at her station rather than going off-shift. "We're going to the surface of Triaud II." Dan said, watching the color drain from the young woman's face, "Don't panic Chief." "I'm not a Chief Commander, just Petty Officer First Class." "Consider it a promotion." Schirra said, grinning. Twenty five minutes later :: The shuttle Celeste dropped away from the Excalibur on the far side of Triaud I ..... Their departure was timed to coincide with four shuttles leaving the surface en-route to the second planet. Schirra fell into line ten thousand kilometers behind the last craft and began to close the distance. He hoped this would prevent the other craft from becoming suspicious of the newcomer's sudden arrival in their convoy. Hopefully, he had the appropriate clearances albeit fabricated, as long as they were not checked on they should be safe. On final approach he hoped to be able to break from the other shuttles as they head for their assigned landing areas. Once clear he would find somewhere close where they believe the records to be held. Getting in would be difficult, and if they were caught then there was no way of knowing how the Triaud would react. It was a given that they would be less than pleased ..........
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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 29, 2016 23:44:42 GMT
"Are you injured?" he asked Townes, who shook her head. He sighed, turned to watch the city, its two - visible - skyscrapers and spires lit up by the coruscating fire that was peeling from their sides, rising like columns of energy that were shutting out the reality of the blackened high rises that lay within.
He had first only remembered scattered images, now his genetically enhanced brain was quickly reassembling the passage of events, starting from their hurried exit of the main administrative building in the wake of the initial strike on the landing platform - the very same on which Escude's shuttle had lay a couple days ago. The first hit had been heard just as Ryat and Schirra had asked him the fateful question of whether he would rather board the Excal now... He hadn't been sure about that, Triaud could've detected his beam out and would've known then that Escude's new CScO wasn't as loyal to his captain, that his captain, Escude had led them to believe...
As the city had come under sustained attack he and Townes had used all means possible to escape to the outlying areas, now being in a disused plot of farmland with a broken down, antiquated agriculural machine lying close by. All the capital city was alight, and night was opening them to the heavens, casting the area around the centre in a pall of sick-yellow - fires, streetlights; the distant sound of breaking windows.
"Who - Who could've done this?" Townes asked, approaching him closely for them to sit - together - behind a boulder concealed from the city or any other vantage point from which people 'may' have been watching them.
Karka tentatively touched her arm, "There's not enough evidence to apportion blame either, or any way." He sighed again, "If I was forced to speculate however... far-fetched as it may seem," he turned to her, "What about Admiral Connolly's relief force?"
"I can't see..."
"Well, we came to Triaud II; Connolly doesn't hear anything from us or possibly the Excalibur in all these hours, and comes in now perhaps having picked up my transmission to the Excal that the augments and the planetary government under McNulty are now in alliance. Connolly... he wouldn't admit it I would hazard, but he's a warmongering sort... despite his obvious misgivings about Escude, he would," careful, Karka thought, "Support Escude against the augments and," Karka shrugged, "By extension, the Triaud II government."
Townes shook her head, "Massachusetts was too far away... There's no way they could've caught up in time, Commander. What if, it's the augments themselves?" Karka looked at her, wondering if she'd temporarily taken leave of her senses. "Look, they want to be out of this region of space as fast as possible right? Now they know Starfleet are onto them - they burn their bridges here, destroying the Triaud government with which they had a temporary alliance and quit the system quickly as possible."
Karka debated internally, yes, the augments do have ships out there, not to mention the ship that'd been carrying the Excal along to Triaud I; looking over his shoulder now saw the wispy figure in the wind approaching, grey specks blown across its visage, making it seem almost phantom-like in the suddenly descending snow. "Back behind cover," he instructed Townes, "Don't look at him." He readied his phaser.
It did make sense he thought, that the ship supposedly commandeered (President McNulty's aide's word on the matter had hardly been reassuring) by the augments that'd taken the Excalibur to Triaud I seemed to have exerted a lot more power now, and it didn't require too much critical thought to think that the augments were capable and willing - via the government - of arranging a bombardment of the important cities of Triaud II from the planet's orbital defence batteries, that continued to wheel - barely visible - overhead...
<Tag Ryat, 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 Apr 1, 2016 23:55:21 GMT
As the armada of transport shuttles approached the planet Triaud II the Celeste waited patiently at the back of the column .....
"Something is decidedly wrong here." T'Seng said, pointing at her screen. Daniel turned his seat to look, "See, here ... Here ... Here ... Several of their main cities have been bombarded, from space i'd assume. Hoe could this have happened if the planet has superior orbital defenses ? ...... surely anything attempting to fire on the surface would be immediately attacked."
Dan was looking at the readings. Frankly, he was puzzled. There had been no evidence that any sort of attack was happening, so it had either been covered up, or had only recently occurred. Several of the cargo shuttles began to break off from the column to enter the atmosphere. he asked T'seng to check the main city for damage, she confirmed that it had come under heavy bombardment, and shockingly, the weapons signatures appeared to substantiate 'where' the firing had originated.
"I'm adjusting our footprint to match the shuttle ahead." T'Seng informed him, with seconds to spare as the last of the craft turned to Port and began to drop into the upper atmosphere, "I'll follow them for sixty seconds, any longer and they may begin to wonder about our presence, we'll need to make a decision on where we're going before then." she informed Schirra.
"Set course for the main city. Find somewhere we can land with enough cover to mask the shuttle. I don't want to get what we came for only to find our ride has been stolen. Scan for life-signs ..."
"I'm picking up thousands Commander, obviously residents and visitors to the city caught in the bombardment. We can't do anything for them ....... Can we ?" she asked, knowing the answer.
She fell silent as she scanned a wooded area in the suburbs of the city. It was clear of the closest formally populated area and provided enough cover that only luck would allow the shuttle to be discovered from anyone on the ground. Alas, from the air was a different matter, but they would have to hope no-one was looking for them. Dropping into a clearing barely large enough to accommodate the Kelvin-type shuttle, Dan inched it forward less than a meter from the ground until as much as possible was beneath the overhang of the surrounding trees. Shutting down the drive systems he scanned the surrounding area and transferred the information to two tricorders. Then, taking phasers from the locker along with communicators they left the shuttle.
"Five kilometers, that way." T'Seng said, pointing East. Dan nodded and they set off ....
~~~~~~~~~~
They had alternated between jogging and brisk walking, taking cover when necessary. Forty minutes later they were on the outskirts of the city, or what was left of it to be more precise. According to T'Seng, the 'Central Records Archive' was in the middle of the battered city, a kilometer from their location, and unfortunately, almost one hundred meters below the pavement !
"So the archive could still be intact ?" Dan said, relieved, at least for all of a second:
"Possible yes ...." T'Seng replied, "Though there 'is' the issue of the half a million tonnes of rubble sitting on top of it."
"Oh, yeh." Dan said, less confident that it was going to be the proverbial walk in the park outing suddenly, "Let's get there first, we'll decide on a course of action when we get there. I don't suppose you have a portable transporter in that satchel do you ?" he grinned.
Had their scans been wider, rather than concentrated on the inner city, they may well have picked up the two life-signs a mere six hundred meters from them ..........
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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 2, 2016 19:34:40 GMT
Karka ambled over the desolate ground, Townes lagging behind him, "Don't you ever tire?" He shrugged as they entered the ruin of the building. Most of it had collapsed, two wall sections left standing with only a jagged part of the first storey intact. He cast about in the entrance, hearing immediately shuffling from behind a counter strewn with rubble.
Having Dr Townes hold back he entered cautiously, phaser drawn; as he neared the counter a man who until now had been hiding behind it rushed out screaming; Karka nearly shot him in the face point blank, all instinct. "Oh!"
He was clearly a Triaud native, "Thank y-... Why, why have they done this?"
Karka calmed the man's hysterics and had him rest on the couch next to a blackened wall section (looking as if it was going to collapse any moment). "You're safe. We're Starfleet officers..." He paused, wondering if he'd spoken too quickly; the man seemed to know from his mad utterances the identity of the attackers, and the only people who would know that were... "The Triaud government? You work for them?"
The man nodded, holding a hand to his arm and squinting in pain; blood seeped down it out of his sleeve, "Yes, in Propaganda Minister Baratz Talavi's office." Realisation seemed to dawn in him, "The augments! Talavi was warning us that he'd uncovered something, some plot that would overthrow our government, unless we made an alliance with people from Earth who'd remain hidden among us, the augments, so that we'd have their strength to repel the plotters." Karka wondered who these 'plotters' were - likely a fabrication of Talavi's. The man continued, "Now, as revenge for helping the starship Charon escape, the augments have destroyed our -" he started sobbing, "Everything. Everything's gone!"
"We're from that Starfleet ship," Karka said, while CMO Townes administered pain relief to the man, "The USS Charon. But we've lost our vessel, and our Captain has gone rogue," Townes darted a surprised glance at him; Karka, unperturbed, "The augments took our communicators, we can't contact the Charon. We've reason to believe Escude's hiding the Charon behind the sun, are we correct?"
"Yes. Oh, I mean... They've brought this upon us, the Federation, you're responsible for this! If you hadn't come then the aug..." He had barely enough energy to stay awake much less counter his ill-timed admission, and promptly he fell unconscious.
"We should wake him, Doctor," he said to Townes. "A - former - employee of Baratz Talavi, he's our key to finding where the augments are that're still on the surface, to find out what they intend to do. We take him with us."
Their search was short-lived. Appearing at the entrance, in the blasted-out window frames, the 'French Windows' Triaud equivalent towards the back of the former residence, were several dark-suited figures, tall and powerfully limbed, brandishing disruptors. "Drop that weapon!" a voice snarled.
Karka's phaser hit the cracked cement flooring; he raised his hands above his head as a familiar face approached through the 'French Windows': Mara Higginson, his augment captor from her underground facility on the town's outskirts. With the city now virtually destroyed, the augments must've broken cover from their facility and fanned out to secure what and who remained.
"Where's Mr J. P. Green?" he asked the augment, raising an eyebrow.
<Tag Dan>
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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 2, 2016 22:48:44 GMT
Six hundred meters away, the two life-signs they had missed on their scan, Psonoir and Townes, had entered the building directly across the large square from the one they were heading for ..... ~~~~~~~~~~"OK, let's move otherwise someone is going to come along as start asking awkward questions." Daniel said, eyeing the ground ahead and quickly picking out a suitable route for them to traverse the distance with the most cover available. They were less than twenty meters from their goal when T'Seng suddenly pushed Schirra to the ground. He spun ready to speak, but the woman had a finger to her lips before pointing to their left. He cautiously raised his head above the rubble and caught sight of at least three people going around the back of the large building across the square, they were roughly two hundred meters away but he knew they couldn't be residents of the city immediately, they moved with too much assurance, too much disregard for the suffering caused by the bombardment ! "Who are they ?" T'Sena whispered, despite the distance to the unknowns. "No idea, but they're not local." Daniel said dropping back behind the rubble, "Can you scan that building, see what's going on over there ?" he asked the Tactical Officer. She lifted her tricorder and scanned the area ahead before dropping beside him. She checked the readings then told him there were six life-signs, but there was too much interference from their surroundings to speculate on who they were. They discussed options: "We could go around, avoid contact." T'Seng offered. Daniel had to agree ... Whatever was going on over there was not their concern, the information they required was in the building to their right, so if they circumnavigated the square, they should be able to enter what was left of the building un-noticed. But something told him that they should at least find out what the unknown's were doing. They agreed to move closer to the other building and see if they could find out anything, if not they would return to their original plan, leaving the newcomers to their devices. Ten minutes later they were only meters from the side of the building in question ... T'Seng raised her tricorder and scammed the building once again, this time the results were much better, and much more disturbing ! "This can't be right." she said, frowning at the tricorder's display panel. Dan took the device and mirrored her expression, "That says there are Human life-signs in there." she whispered. Dan immediately made the decision to move closer. Inching through the rubble on his stomach he approached a large opening in the wall that had, at one point, possibly been large windows. Keeping his back to the structure he held the tricorder as close to the ragged edge of the masonry as possible. He had just activated the tricorder to run another scan when he heard muffled voices: "We should wake him, Doctor ..... A former employee of Baratz Talavi, he's our key to finding where the augments are that're still on the surface, to find out what they intend to do. We take him with us."
"Drop that weapon!" another voice snarled.
"Where is Mr J. P. Green ?" Daniel was shocked, because the voice asking about one mister Green, belonged to the Excalibur's former Chief Engineer ... Karka Psonoir ! ... He scuttled back to where T'Seng was waiting and told her what he had discovered. He replayed the scan to confirm what he already knew as fact. One native of Triaud, three unidentified, plus two Human life-signs ..........
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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 4, 2016 22:26:33 GMT
Triaud vessel SN2-Beta, orbit of Triaud I...
"Consider it a punishment, for allowing Escude and his thugs to get away so easily." The governor's face fell, darkened as he took sheets of real paper in his fists, tearing them up the sound of which was audible over the visual link. Kurio continued, "More than that, governor, you colluded with them, met with Escude and sent him on his way. Now, where is he?"
"I don't know! But I'm amazed you decided to destroy several of our cities just to prove a point."
"An ally does not betray an ally, governor, unless that ally wants also to be betrayed..." Kurio toyed with the padd in his hand, now having his nephew at the tactical station close the channel and display an aft view on the main viewscreen. Ah, there she was, the USS Excalibur, drawn along like a fish with Kurio's loaned vessel the tackle (courtesy of the Triaud government, whose capital city had just been bombarded by Kurio (President McNulty apparently had survived, complicating matters for the leader Baratz Talavi's cells, whose feelers were nevertheless still very much within the government apparatus)).
Throughout the ship the augments were plotting, internally mostly; thoughts that'd fermented in their heads for many years now come to fruition - they would soon have command of a star navy, that which formerly belonged to Triaud II. Not enough to take on the Federation of course but sufficient for a starting point; next stop, Andersen's Planet, Starfleet shipyard there, home of the 71st Fleet. In the planning room the lead augments stood round the situation table, Axar Kurio at their head, directing their next operation. Currently they had the T-SN2-Beta - this vessel - in orbit of Triaud I, with the Excalibur in tow (still believing in the augments' pretence that they were a legitimate Triaud vessel escorting a Constitution class Excalibur through the system), a squadron of shuttlecraft had just travelled from Triaud I to Triaud II and would by now have landed on the planet, under much different circumstances than when they set out (seeing as the planet's capital had just been orbitally bombarded). Seven other Triaud Star Navy vessels were about to be hijacked by augments, and...
"The Federation vessels have arrived, Axar," one of his augments told him. "An Admiral Connolly on one of the vessels is hailing the planetary capital, and the USS Excalibur."
<Tag Alyana>
"Not that there'll be anything left down there for them to communicate with... Allow it," he replied, "Don't do any jamming, nothing that could be construed as aggression, understand? We appear as inconspicuous as any Triaud ship in the system."
"Yes, Axar... Won't - Won't they wonder why we're not rushing to the aid of the Triaud capital?"
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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 4, 2016 22:28:30 GMT
Higginson ignored Karka and looked to one of the other augments, the one who'd demanded Karka drop his phaser, and gave a curt nod. Soon Karka, Townes and the Triaud government official found themselves bound, the narrow-banded plastic-like substance cutting into their wrists. The augments made to march the trio from the building, out the way the augments had entered, through the 'French Windows' that looked away from the square.
"Wait," Karka refused to move, "You didn't answer my question. Where is your mysterious figurehead leader? Speaking of which, you wouldn't bring the descendant of Colonel Phillip Green to Triaud unless you had designs on the United Federation of Planets. The greatest, or worst - depending on your terminology - early enemy to the ideals of the eventual Federation - who better to use to spearhead an assault upon the interstellar alliance whose ethos is the very antithesis of the original Green's own? You think," he smirked, feeling perhaps overly self-confident, "That his descendant is going to be at all interested in your plans for galactic domination?"
Higginson's cold face raised an eyebrow, shoved him in the back towards the smashed 'French Windows'. "You're perceptive, Commander, though your claims as to our designs are a little grandiose. Your friend, Lirwa is it? was just as theatrical in his accusations... He paid with his life," she said lightly, as if elucidating for him the trivial recent affairs of a colleague of hers.
Karka partly boiled with rage, the other part amusedly lamenting Lirwa's latest misfortune. How he got himself into these situations... he'd be seeing him again soon, the future, the past, the redshifted end beyond the Standing Wave's extreme edge - different world-lines intersecting constantly, all at once - given infinite instances of the two Hybrudeans - in every point of space within the Hybrudean sphere of influence.
"You want Green? We're taking you to him," the third augment said, who Karka recognised from Escude's encrypted databanks on the Charon as Lazare Pretin.
"Where's Baratz Talavi?" he asked as he was led out the French Windows - ... Something suddenly struck him as wrong; a presence, something in the air (or nearby, to dispose of the cliches...) - a flash of dark grey and red off to his right. He said nothing, the augments seemingly oblivious; whatever that was it was more than a trick of the senses, something internal in his partitions or an unexpected reflection of light...
"The Minister?" the Triaud native asked, being dragged along behind Karka, "He's dead, as far as I know..." He seemed to want to burst into tears again.
Higginson disregarded him, only snorted as she led them away from the building, now wheeling away back to the square...
<Tag Dan - help! lol>
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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, 2016 0:06:02 GMT
"Who the hell is A. P. Green ?" T'Seng asked as she listened to the replay. "I don't think that is our immediate concern ... What is, is the fact that whoever they are intend to leave that building momentarily, to go who-knows where, and they have Commander Psonoir with them !" Dan whispered through clenched teeth as he watched the break in the wall where he expected the group to emerge. "Then we only have two options Commander." T'Seng said, continuing when Schirra didn't interrupt her, "We allow them to leave and attempt to follow, which has it's obvious flaws, or .... We attempt to free the Commander and the other Human life-sign from the unknowns. I'd go with the second option ... If we can somehow 'warn' the Commander as they step into the open we may be able to drop the unknowns before they can react. It's a given I think from the readings you took that at least three of them are in fact augments, so they'll be fast ...... Very fast ! ...... We can't risk that a stun setting will incapacitate them long enough for us to effect an escape, Sir." Dan gave her comment some thought, knowing she was right: "OK, set your phaser to maximum, you are aiming for targets meters from two of our crew and what might well be an innocent bystander in all this, but the priority is freeing Psonoir and the other Officer with him." T'Seng was rummaging around in the rubble as he spoke. finally she turned to him and held up a small piece of glass. "I'll try to get the Commanders attention before we open fire, hopefully he'll realize it isn't a simple reflection and duck." she said, wiping off the dust before holding the sliver ahead of her angling it so it reflected the Suns rays onto the building opposite. Dan could see a small, almost pin-prick sized spot of bright light on the wall meters away from the opening in the building opposite. He was about to comment when they heard the first person exit: "Come on, we're clear." the first augment to appear instructed.
"Do not force me to bind your hands Commander, a trip or fall could prove, fatal." a second augment added as they watched Psonoir try halfheartedly to move away. T'Seng rlifted the piece of broken glass and hit Psonoir in the face with the reflection. He turned away then moved back toward the augments. a second reflection made him squint, then a third. Even at this distance, Dan could see the Engineer frown before looking at the surrounding rubble, his eyes unknowingly falling on their position for a fraction of a second before he nodded almost imperceptibly. now in the relative open, the first augment began to raise what could only be a communicator. Dan pointed to T'Seng, then him the man holding the device. He raised his phaser, T'Seng doing likewise. Mouthing ... 'three' ... 'two' ... 'one' ... he fired on the furthest of the three augments, T'Seng timing her action to a fraction of a second. Psonoir dove to one side, slamming into the now cowering male, both of them falling in a pile and trying to keep the lowest profile during the firing .... As quick as they were, they couldn't hit all three of the augments fast enough, and the third had jumped off to the right behind an abandoned vehicle. Dan realized instantly that if he should manage to contact his confederates, they would all be lost. He made an adjustment on his weapon then stood. He could feel T'Seng clutching his leg as he climbed over the rubble, eyes locked on the vehicle and the enemy beyond. The phaser was warm to the touch and getting warmer by the second. With thirty meters to go to reach the hidden augment it was too much for him and he threw it ahead, dropping to the rubble for cover. The phaser was approximately ten meters above the augment and travelling fast when it lost the battle to remain stable ... The resulting explosion threw the vehicle over Schirra and into the building beyond. When Dan finally managed to get to his feet there was nothing to be seen of the former augment. There was a continuous ringing in hid ears as he managed to get to his knees. Looking back he could see T'Seng helping Psonoir to his feet before both of them helped the only other survivor. As he tentatively climbed to his feet he could see T'Sen approaching, she was speaking to him but he could't hear a word. Realizing he was likely suffering from temporary tinnitus due to the percussive shock, she held up the universal 'OK' sign, he index finger touching the tip of her thumb, the remaining three fingers raised. Dan nodded pointing at the others ........ ~~~~~~~"Can you walk ?" T'Seng asked him sometime later. Dan nodded, answering vocally, as he heard the question, although as if spoken from the bottom of a barrel. They had already checked the other augments, all dead, so now they moved away from the square and took stock of their situation. T'Seng told them that the shuttle Celeste was approximately two kilometers away. With little option, they began the trek ..........
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Alyana Ryat
Commodore
Registered: Sept 5, 2007 16:34:56 GMT
Posts: 347
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Post by Alyana Ryat on Apr 12, 2016 19:40:28 GMT
Aly was relieved to have the other Starfleet vessels arrive. She wasn't sure she wasn't to talk to Admiral Connolly. She didn't have the answers she wanted. She sighed before answering the summons in her office.
The Admiral stared at her for a very long moment and then asked for an update on the situation. She supplied it in her most formal voice. Some how she was unsurprised when he ordered her to beam over to do a more formal briefing. She didn't want to leave her ship, not when Dan wasn't on board not when... There was too much. She nodded to the Admiral, knowing she couldn't,t refuse the order. She returned to the bridge and let Lieutenant Commander Wilkins know that she was leaving the ship.
She walked down to the transporter room tugging on her jacket with nervousness. She wasn't,t sure quite what she was expecting but a polite petty officer escorting her to one of the briefing rooms wasn't it, nor was it the moment the Admiral offered her a drink. She requested some orange juice. She settled in to indicated chair and waited. She had presumed that this would be a meeting without drinks and possibly without chair. She was feeling very lost.
"I am pleased to see you Commodore, I want to thank you for your efforts."
Aly was very grateful that she hadn't taken a mouthful of juice because she definitely would have choked. She had no idea what he meant and wondered vaguely if she should check with his staff about odd behaviour, perhaps something was exerting a mental influence on him...
It made as much sense as anything. Aly picked up her glass and took a long sip while she attempted to formulate her reply.
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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 12, 2016 20:30:11 GMT
"You always liked playing with the avenues, Karka," the Xetleti Archive man returned the silicate to Psonoir's matrices - here at the entrance to Psonoir's being-tunnel, "No longer will you play with the uncertainties of the past, rewrite them to how you see fit..."
"Keeping busy, Oelos?" Lirwa, from the red-shifted stretches of peaks of the Standing Wave, "Need I remind you that another instance of myself is just now coordinating with Karka Psonoir on the surface of Triaud II - that system known in some circles I believe by some other fanciful geocentric name, at least of old back in the 21st century... The name escapes me now."
"Enough, antiquarian," he banished the Hybrudean's presence from his mind, let him face the red-shifted horrors at the end of the observable universe of the future alone. Calculating Karka Psonoir's - the instance in the 23rd century serving in the Federation's Starfleet - next possible moves was unfortunately beyond Hybrudean... beyond natural laws of physics' ability to explain. This worldline was Karka's own; no Hybrudean might very well pierce what lay beyond the tip of this Psonoir's current experience more than they could resurrect people from the dead. Oelos had only to complete this operation and Psonoir, he who had robbed Oelos of his partner, would be locked out of the past forever!
They made their way through the wreckage and debris of the capital city towards the shuttle, a distant speck beside some fallen tower blocks.
The Triaud civilian was called Cedion, and had told Karka that as soon as the augments started their bombardment, Baratz Talavi had gone missing (presumed dead now), but not before ordering his department to make their way as fast as possible for the boundaries of the city... Cedion had been on his way to the nearest spaceport when a torpedo, fired from orbit by the commandeered SN2-Iota, obliterated most of the building he'd been passing through.
"You know that Talavi is not really a Triaud citizen," Karka said, Cedion pausing as they moved through the debris, "He's the augments' leader. And now he and his people will have retreated to their hideout, whether that's on the surface or elsewhere, or on one of the ships in orbit if they've hijacked more than one vessel now." If Higginson or one of the other augments had survived, Karka reflected, they might've been able to use them as a source of information on how to reach Talavi, and subsequently Vazon - in order to secure his safety from Escude, or his arrest and imprisonment, or in the worst case scenario destruction. As it was, they had only Cedion to go on - his information would have to prove vital.
Reaching the shuttle, Karka waved his former shipmates into the opening hatch. Surveying the land, he caught sudden movement in the near distance, perhaps thirty metres... "Down!"
Weapon beams shot out and scattered granite from boulders and fallen masonry, seared the already burned, razed to nothingness ground. "Commander!" Karka called to Dan who'd already entered the shuttle. On his right was Dr Townes, sheltering behind a fallen wall section, on the other side Cedion, gripping a primitive projectile gun.
"Augments..." the Triaud man was weeping. It was the last instant of his life.
Karka turned impassively (if perhaps smiling wryly) away from the Triaud native - killed by an augment beam weapon - and peered above the wall section, seeing seven dark-clothed figures approaching, raising weapons again...
"Let's go!" he called, and rolled into the shuttle hatch as the augments' weapons fired, hitting his head against the aft compartment bulkhead; T'Seng started up the shuttle's main drive, then, lifting her uncertainly from the blasted ground, hesitated an instant as the hatch closed behind Karka and Townes and gunned the Celeste for high orbit...
Into, hopefully, the waiting arms of the newly arrived Federation fleet. Appearing out the forward viewing port now, angular greyish shapes rising out of the impenetrable blackness, about half of Connolly's task force. The Massachusetts took on its familiar dimensions first, sliding by the shuttle Celeste and its shaken occupants... followed by the USS Menelaus, USS Wichita and USS Fuji.
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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 12, 2016 20:48:18 GMT
OOC: Hi, I wrote this second part after seeing your post Commodore.
"Excalibur shuttle Celeste, report." Karka looked around to the forward console, the Massachusetts was hailing.
Consoling himself on the loss of their one source of information - Cedion's bloodied form lying mangled in the Triaud II dust - Karka, from the console in the aft, surveyed the communications traffic in the system: messages were being sent to and from the augment-hijacked vessel that'd been 'escorting' the Excalibur. Some communiques mysteriously bound from that ship (the SN2-Beta) to the surface of Triaud I, some - less conspicuous - to other Triaud ships in orbit of Triaud II that were just now beginning to mobilise, leaving orbit, forming up with the SN2-Beta 'flagship' still about Triaud I circling like a shark.
"This is shuttle Celeste." Karka received a nod from Dan. "Admiral Connolly, this is Karka Psonoir. My CO Escude is, we believe, in hiding behind the Triaud star. He attempted to kill a man named John Vazon who lives on Triaud, attacking the Singhian augments protecting him, but Escude's security teams were ambushed. He didn't know the Triaud people already had an agreement with the augments... Now the augments have destroyed the Triaud cities for helping Escude leave the system, and have also now taken over several ships in orbit. Sir, they'll be prepar -"
He was cut off by a shrill alert from the co-pilot's console: Triaud vessels, doubtless manned by augments, were leaving the system in droves. They'd been more than prepared for the USS Charon's arrival, he thought. He looked at T'Seng, "Track them."
"Andersen's Planet..." T'Seng said, evidently confused, a few seconds later... "There's a Starfleet shipyard there. The augments wouldn't stand a chance in those ships... Unless they're counting on the element of surprise."
"Form up with the fleet, Celeste," Connolly's voice, "We're going after those ships, if they do indeed have augmented humans aboard. And Commander Schirra. Your CO is safe and well aboard my vessel."
"What about the Charon, sir?" Karka asked.
"Forget about your ship for now, Commander. We cannot allow the Andersen's Planet docks to fall into enemy hands, understood?"
Enemy hands... loose use of the term, they weren't even sure of the augments' intentions... "Sir, Escude will stop at nothing, if he reaches the augment fleet before we do, he could well be destroyed - a decorated Starfleet Captain on a mission of vengeance; ill-timed, yes, sir, but we need to head him off before he gets himself killed or commits genocide on the augments to get to one person."
<Tag Alyana, Dan>
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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, 2016 22:26:19 GMT
They were literally meters from the Celeste when the firing began ..... Dan was disappointed to have lost their asset, but accepted the fact as he dove headlong into the shuttle. T'Seng threw herself into the pilots seat and lifted the craft. They could see at least six more of the augmants firing at them and he was sorely tempted to retaliate, but chose not to, they had bigger issues to attend to ! ~~~~~Leaving the upper atmosphere the Comm chirped to life: =^= Excalibur shuttle Celeste .. Report =^=
=^= This is shuttle Celeste .. .. .. Admiral Connolly .. This is Karka Psonoir .. My CO Escude is we believe in hiding behind the Triaud star .. He attempted to kill a man named John Vazon who .. .. .. =^= Dan listened to the conversation as he picked up a large armada of vessels exiting the System. He asked the Tactical Officer to track and report the vessels to the Massachusetts. T'Seng informed him that they were on a heading for a supposedly decommissioned repair facility in high orbit around Anderson's Planet ... There had been a serious fire there almost fifteen years previously and Star Fleet had decided it was more practical to relocate their repair and service facility rather than rebuild. "It was mainly used for long-haul carriers, non-organic freight." T'seng was telling him as Karka continued to speak with Admiral Connolly, "Commander, while the facility was primarily involved with heady haulage, it was capable of fully servicing a Star Ship if need be. It was supposed to be used as a staging post the outer sectors if the need arose, but as far as I'm aware it was never utilized ..... Another thing Sir, while the cause of the fire was never fully confirmed, it was suspected that there may have been 'unusual elements' involved." "Unusual elements ?" Dan repeated, but T'Seng could only shrug. Had the augments been planning this for fifteen years he wondered, planning, preparing, for what ? =^= Form up with the fleet Celeste .. We are going after those ships .. If they do indeed have augmented humans aboard .. And Commander Schirra .. Your CO is safe and well aboard my vessel =^= Dan didn't reply to the information.
=^= What about the Charon .. Sir ? =^= Karka asked.
=^= Forget about your ship for now Commander .. We cannot allow the Andersen's Planet docks facility to fall into enemy hands .. Understood ? =^= The Celeste fell into formation behind the Massachusetts. No-one wanted to comment on numerous issues raised by the conversation with Admiral Connolly for long moments, but T'Seng was the one to broach the topics at hand: "OK, anyone else wonder why the Excalibur herself wasn't mentioned, or what the commodore is doing on the Mass' or for that matter why we were ordered to fall into formation rather than coming aboard, because frankly, I am ?" "Where is the Excalibur now ?" Daniel asked, seeing Karka glance in his direction for a second before T'Seng replied. "Still where we left her, give or take." "Dan ...." Karka said by way of a warning, but he'd made his mind up. "Head for the Excalibur. Inform them we are en-route and to hold back for us." "Sir ?" T'Seng said, then made the necessary course corrections on seeing Schirra's expression. He opened a Comm to the Massachusetts and informed them that they had discovered that their rapid ascent from the surface under fire had damaged their Port nacelle anti-matter feed and they were returning to the Excalibur while they still could, then promptly closed before anyone could question his actions ..... Before they could reach their ship they watched as the Massachusetts, followed closely by the Menelaus and Fiji all jumped to warp. 'moment of truth' he thought to himself as he watched the Excalibur loom large in the window. If Connolly had sent orders it would vanish from sight before they could enter the shuttle-bay. "Thirty seconds." T'Seng informed them ..........
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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 16, 2016 0:13:27 GMT
"Fifteen seconds ....."
"Let's hope that she doesn't go to warp now, we'd likely be cut in two." Townes commented as the shuttle-bay grew ever larger. Thankfully whoever was sat in the center seat was willing to wait for them .....
Bridge - USS Excalibur ::
Lieutenant Maran, Duty Officer, got out of the center seat as Dan and the others entered the Bridge.
"Where's the Fleet now " Schirra asked, walking up to the 'window' as if hoping to actually see the Fleet which was now millions of kilometers away and increasing the gap every second, T'Seng put up the tactical view to show the locations, relative to Anderson's Planet, or the Augment vessels, the Fleet, and the Excalibur herself. He could see that the Augments had a good head start, despite Connolly's rapid response, they would reach the Orbital Facility above Anderson's Planet in twelve hours, the Fleet would be almost an hour behind, "Set course to intercept the Fleet, warp six."
"Sir, Comm from the Massachusetts, Admiral Connolly is requesting to speak to you." Comms Officer Hirake informed him.
"Captain's Ready Room ....." Dan said, "Commander Psonoir, with me, Lieutenant Maran you have the Bridge." he entered the Ready Room and sat at the desk, Karka opposite, then he opened the Comm:
=^= Commander .. You were ordered to assume formation on this vessel where you not ? =^=
=^= We had trouble Admiral .. I did contact your ship to inform them of our intentions =^=
=^= So I believe .. But correct me if I am in error Commander .. But wasn't both the Menelaus 'AND' the Fiji closer to you at the time of your apparent problems ? =^=
=^= Can't say Admiral .. We chose the Excalibur as the safest option at the time .. No other reason .. Sir =^=
=^= Indeed .. .. .. .. =^= Dan saw the mans eyes flick to someone out of shot.
=^= We can transport the Commodore back to the Excalibur once we catch up with you Admiral =^=
=^= She is absolutely fine where she is for the moment Commander .. We have things to discuss .. I am amending your orders regarding Anderson's Planet .. .. You will remain outside the System to offer back-up and a nasty surprise for any of the Augment vessels that choose to run rather than fight =^=
=^= Admiral ? =^= Dan said, seeing the disbelieving look on Karka's face.
=^= You have your orders Commander =^= the communication snapped off with definite finality.
"He doesn't want us there ..... Why ?" Dan mused.
"Why's he keeping the Commodore with him too, that doesn't seem right in my opinion." Karka offered by way of reply.
Dan stood up, Karka following suit and both returned to the Bridge ....
"Pull up everything we have on the Anderson's Planet Facility." he ordered before reading the information displayed, "It's essentially six-pointed star configuration with a large central hub for stores, administration, accommodation plus miscellaneous, essentially an ore carrier and deep-range transport repair facility. Two hundred seventy eight permanent Staff and Personnel with a further two hundred plus available if required ... They can service can various types of vessels outside ore carriers, kind of a 'port in a storm' type of place. Look here, this says it was outfitted to service Federation Vessels almost ten years ago but the reconfiguration was never completed so that arm of the facility was closed off and decompressed .... Is it possible that the Augments managed to get on to the Orbital Facility and somehow re-establish the systems in the closed arm ?"
"Without the Facility Management finding out ?" T'Seng asked.
"They would only need to replace key personnel with their own people and voilà ...." Townes said, "Reassign to the surface facility, even on a temporary basis, they could run riot, so to speak, and no-one would be any the wiser."
"Ohhh, clever, very clever !" Dan said, scrolling to a section of the Facilities manifest he had been viewing on one of the consoles, "The facility has been ordering more than their usual quota of supplies, mainly drive systems parts, but also ship-borne weapons. Nothing big, nothing that would attract the attention of an 'eagle-eyed' auditor, but nevertheless enough to outfit several vessels by now. Bloody Hell, in the last twelve months they ordered, and received, no less than 'EIGHT' complete warp cores !"
"They have someone inside." Psonoir stated, the other's turning to face him, waiting, "The complete cores are constructed at only two places, Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, or the 40 Eridani A Ship Yards ... The Planitia cores are vessel specific, designed to fit one ship and one ship only. Eridani A construct generic cores, interchangeable throughout various designs of vessel, so to speak."
"This just keep on getting better and better. Whatever next, an Augment Federation President !" Dan said dropping into the center seat finally, "Reduce speed to warp four, lets play good Officers and drop back as ordered." he said, already sure he was going to disobey that very order at some point ..........
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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 17, 2016 18:11:37 GMT
"It would make sense that augments could be on the station," Karka said, referring to Andersen's Planet's, "They arrived on Triaud II - according to the planet's official records - less than fifteen years ago, after the fire on the station that rendered much of it unusable. They wouldn't have been ensconced on Triaud at the time, and if the reactivation of the decompressed section given over to the modifications for the servicing of Federation starships started round ten years ago, then they could very well have left one or more augments on the facility while Talavi and his gang headed to Triaud."
Now the ship was in pursuit - that's what it felt like - of Connolly's task force element that'd made it to Triaud II... perhaps they'd be encountering more of the original force en route, he thought. Why had Ryat been left on the Massachusetts, however? Did Connolly want to... keep her away from the Excal for some reason? And if so was that to keep her from doing something here that wouldn't be to his liking, or did he find certain benefits in keeping her on the Massachusetts, certain information that might be gained from her...?
The Admiral's reactions had been odd... Refusing to allow the Excal to take part in the apprehension of the stolen Triaud naval vessels at Andersen's Planet, refusing to entertain the idea of intercepting or in any case making rendezvous with the USS Charon, which would doubtless be en route for, first of all, the augment/Triaud naval ship fleet, and secondly if he (Escude) didn't make it in time, Andersen's Planet with its mysterious star formation with the one inactive and darkened spoke protruding emptily from the central hub... at least that was how it was in the past - what would they find now once they reached orbit of that former shipyard? A new fleet of 'Federation' starships under construction, all crewed by augments?
Lirwa had managed to sneak himself aboard the SN1-Phi, a ship right at the heart of the small armada of Triaud/augment vessels closing in on the abandoned shipyard/port facility; he knew what they'd find there, having already seen it and, horror of horrors, having, he believed, another version or instance of himself in the warp core manufacturing star fragment.
His other self (diverged about four years ago when he took a left and the other took a right) was, posing as, one of the augments' refitters of massively upgraded Constitution class ships - four of them in total, Lirwa believed, in addition to another four nearly completed - from scratch - Constitution classes. He finished installing an duotronic circuit interface for the augment engineers to use and headed down a corridor, darting into the room and watching from the portals currently facing away from Andersen's Planet the approach of small beige objects - approximately twenty of them - as they descended towards high planetary orbit... the augment fleet. [OOC: Edited this paragraph now, wrong era ships!]
Lirwa was in a maintenance junction, using it perhaps foolishly as a place to don the manner of uniform he'd thought most appropriate for augment standard personnel. After the ever infuriating Juan Escude's surprise assault on the augment fleet ten minutes ago, Lirwa had been ushered into tech overalls, first directed to coordinate the damage teams being sent to the devastated Triaud/augment ships - four ships utterly destroyed, two crippled, seven damaged, 13 still fully operational - then into medical gown to assist the anyway fast-healing augments, now back to standard... Luckily Escude's Charon and darted away before it'd been able to cause too much damage, such as the loss of Lirwa's life...
Someone shot by and virtually screeched to a halt; there stood Axar Kurio, commander of the force, on visit from the flagship SN2-Beta, "You! What're you doing here, get to duty stations! We've got a facility to attack. Our insiders should have the shields and weapons down in five minutes, you want to take advantage of that don'-..."
The Hybrudean stoppped listening, thinking to himself how he had his own vigilante - himself, really - on the inside, ready to countermand the lowering of defences internal order should the need arise... and maybe he'd have a go at smuggling John Vazon off this ship the SN1-Phi; the craven man who was using his ancestor's name to make himself wealthy (which the augments were ready to make him) was of no actual tactical importance to the augments, perhaps only strategic, thus it'd be a fine thing to strip the augments of that source of symbolic power... and then onto the red shift...
Connolly hadn't wanted them to use the Excalibur, well, Karka guessed this was damage limitation from the vociferous Admiral: keep the Excal out of the action. "Commander Schirra. The augment fleet is entering orbit of Andersen's Planet," navigation reported, "... Impossible to read signs of weapons fire from this range, sir. They could be capturing it without a fight, or we just can't pick up the action."
"Incoming hail from the Massachusetts, Commander," Karka said. Dan nodded and Connolly was put on screen; Ryat he saw was at the back of the bridge, barely visible and... was she under guard?! Maybe-security officers just off screen next to the gold-shirted Commodore.
Connolly leant forward, "Commander Schirra. A reminder that you're now due to drop back from the fleet as we begin our attack run on the augments. We're now forty eight minutes from their location; you'll doubtless have registered their presence in orbit of Andersen's Planet... Stay well back and along this course - it's the most likely one that the augments will use as a route of escape from our devastating assault... Catch their remnants and either wipe them out or, much preferably, take prisoners. Understood?"
<Tag Schirra, Ryat (paragraph above the one above)>
"Sir, if I may," Karka stepped forward, "I do not know if your bridge officers have noticed, but the USS Charon, on my sensors, is reading as 2.7 lightyears from Andersen's Planet, approaching it from below the level plane... I can't tell for sure but you can be sure that they're charging weapons on the augments. Why not send, say, the USS Menelaus to cut her off - Escude is a traitor, he needs disciplining and shouldn't be allowed to lend his weight to the assault... He's dangerous, could get himself killed, or augments, or civilians, even our own people if we get in the way of his target."
"Green," Connolly said, at least assuring Karka that he'd been listening to Karka's brief about Escude's motivations.
"Yes, or Vazon, sir, whichever you prefer. Green is innocent; he's a puppet, a symbol in a war, I would surmise, of revenge against the Federation for robbing the augments of the opportunity to use their awesome power. He must be saved."
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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 18, 2016 22:54:17 GMT
OOC: Sorry for length and double posting Bridge, T-SN2 Beta...Axar Kurio had just learnt of the loss of Mara Higginson and two more of his brethren, bodies found at a location not far from where the Federation shuttle had left the surface of Triaud II. He grieved for Mara privately, not wishing to appear weak in front of the augment crew. They'd been partners - not brother and sister, they'd found to their relief after discovering their genealogies to be too far distant - two among the first dozen to infiltrate the Triaud world ten years ago, benefitting Baratz Talavi as he eventually took up a position high in the government, while his augments including Kurio slipped quietly underground, awaiting their opportunity... and now it was finally upon them.
Talavi would be back. He'd retreated to the city outskirts, passing over the horizon into teal and indigo fading colours of starlight. Kurio had watched him fizzle away into the mirage before boarding the T-SN2 (Triaud Star Navy squadron 2)-Beta and leading the Federation ship Excalibur to Triaud I; it'd kept them out of the way...
Talavi's destiny would arrive for him, but for Kurio's augments Andersen's Planet was their future hope, upon them now. They'd taken several losses to the vengeful Starfleet Captain Escude but were still fighting fit and about to descend on the orbital defence platforms - a pitiful few of them, situated about the port that was or had been the reason for Starfleet's presence here.
"Orbital defences reading as deactivated, Axar," Lelao said from tactical. Kurio nodded and took the centre seat of the Triaud ship's bridge. He watched as the port grew larger on the screen, the spoke where the Constitution class starships were being refitted or outright built from scratch rotating into view: four of the cruisers were visible, a fore to aft, nose to tail line of ships of Starfleet's most renowned class.
Augments that'd been here for fifteen years had already seized the key positions in the shipyard, now able to beckon the 'Triaud navy ships' into the dock, where Kurio's augments would disembark and await boarding of their refitted/new Constitution classes. Bridge, USS Excalibur...Karka turned once more to the viewscreen (he'd taken position at the science station - still accustomed to his position aboard the Charon as Chief Science Officer, thus he'd headed to starboard rather than port...) seeing the overlaid graphic that the sensors had allocated pointing out the location of the USS Charon - invisible to the naked eye, of course, Escude's ship still being over 70 million kilometres away, but according to the Excal's long range scanners she was apparently sporting some battle damage. Sensors indicated, from the weapons signatures found in the rents in the hull of the Charon, that it'd been attacked by Triaud ships, which meant augments. "No response to hails, sir," communications reported to Schirra. "I'll keep trying." "She's limping," Karka observed, "Impulse drive is functioning intermittently... I suggest we approach and demand to Escude he be taken under tow, or convince him that his attacks against the augments to get Vazon are futile." "You think he attacked the augments, not the other way around?" Schirra asked. Karka thought for a moment, "The augments should only want the facility at Andersen's Planet, there's no reason why they would delay. Escude will stop at nothing to get the augments; he must've made a desperate attack on them." The Massachusetts, Menelaus, Wichita and Fuji would be entering the system about now, the Excal obliged to hold back as per orders. Karka felt, knew in fact from previous experience, that things did not bode well for Admiral Connolly: the Excalibur had detected beam weapon firing at the shipyard, between its defences and the augment fleet, had ceased thirty minutes ago. The likely victors being the augments, they may well be ensconced in the facility by now... and getting up to... perhaps reconstituting it as a base of operations for... what? Starfleet shipyard installation, orbit of Andersen's Planet...At the shipyards, Lirwa disembarked blowing out his cheeks and wiping his brow as he headed for the starship construction part of the star design about the hub. He hoped he didn't meet his other self - while such incidents as that weren't irreparable, it could cause unwelcome perturbations in the world-lines of the two instances; diversions of course in world-line passage through spacetime not so easy to predict for the meddlesome and quirky folk at Archive Powjri. Augments accompanied him, and, just passing out of sight now surrounded by even more augments - for protection, ostensibly - was John Vazon, bound for the habitation centre likely to be wrapped in... the common Earth expression circa 20th century... cotton wool! yes, that was it. His love of all things Earth antique proving it was certainly fully intact.
"Now," he was speaking to an augment by the name of Lelao, a close accomplice of the grand master Kurio, "You take the first one, me the second, yes?" Lelao nodded grimly. Lirwa saluted and loped down the length of the dock, arriving at the nearly complete Constitution class - named, he saw as he approached the vestibule leading into the vessel, the Singh. Hmm, apt name, he supposed, and entered to begin preparations - of sabotage - for the vessel's departure.Meanwhile Lirwa was on a ship on fire and spiralling out of control towards the atmosphere of Andersen's Planet. No happy landing, rough or otherwise, for this Lirwa alternate, for Andersen's Planet was a gas giant. The orbit altimeter continued to drop, Lirwa hanging on tight to support struts at the back of the cramped bridge of the Triaud vessel SN1-Phi. He managed to edge his way over - artificial dampeners barely holding on - to a viewing port, and saw for a brief moment the shipyard spiralling away above them, and a fleet of Constitution class ships now making orbit. Ah, dear Admiral Connolly on the Massachusetts had arrived! And now the Admiral would be punished for rushing in blindly... Lirwa had tried, he'd tried... But then, had the shipyard already fallen to Connolly's people...? Had the augments managed to seize control of the port at all?<Tag Schirra, Ryat>
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Alyana Ryat
Commodore
Registered: Sept 5, 2007 16:34:56 GMT
Posts: 347
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Post by Alyana Ryat on Apr 24, 2016 11:45:20 GMT
OOC: If I have missed anything you wanted a response for or gotten the wrong end of the stick please poke me and I will add to my post.
Aly was in her meeting with the Admiral with her mind rapidly becoming even more of a whirl. She wasn't entirely sure she could trust what the Admiral had told her, but... It did make a disturbing amount of sense. Well, as much as anything had made and sense on this mission. In that sense, she could believe the words, and yet, to believe them meant that she was accepting a conspiracy of a scale she found difficult to comprehend. Yet, it did make sense.
She had specifically asked about taking others into her confidence about this. Connelly had replied that Aly should only talk to people she 100% trusted. His implication had been that she shouldn't tell anyone because, obviously no one trusted anyone 100%. Still, after everything Aly was not about to keep secrets.
Before she could get back to her ship the Massachusetts went to full battle stations no one was getting on or off the vessel... Aly followed the Admiral to the bridge. She found herself wedged by one of the axillary stations on the rear section. She could see the slightly sidelong glances that some of the Mass's crew threw at their CO. This was clearly not an entirely happy ship.
She watched as the Admiral hailed the Excal. His orders were certainly a bit cryptic. Aly really needed to talk to her XO herself and in private but at the moment that would be difficult.
Connolly leant forward, "Commander Schirra. A reminder that you're now due to drop back from the fleet as we begin our attack run on the augments. We're now forty eight minutes from their location; you'll doubtless have registered their presence in orbit of Andersen's Planet... Stay well back and along this course - it's the most likely one that the augments will use as a route of escape from our devastating assault... Catch their remnants and either wipe them out or, much preferably, take prisoners. Understood?"
A few minutes after that, as it became clear she was not going to be able to get back to her ship any time soon, Aly asked if she could signal the Excal privately. The Admiral allowed her the use of his office.
If a former Communications Officer and an Intelligemce Officer couldn't manage to set up a very secure communications link then the galaxy was in a very sorry state.
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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 24, 2016 15:28:04 GMT
=^= Green =^= =^= Yes .. Or Vazon Sir .. Whichever you prefer .. Green is innocent .. He's a puppet a symbol in a war .. I would surmise of revenge against the Federation for robbing the augments of the opportunity to use their awesome power .. He must be saved at all costs in my opinion =^= The Communication closed after Connolly again reiterated his orders regarding the Excalibur. To say the he was annoyed was somewhat of an understatement. The Fleet was about to enter a System where they would very likely come under heavy fire in moments. They had no way of knowing just what they would face on approach to Anderson's Planet and the orbital repair facility. The order was ridiculous, simple as that. After karka felt the need to remind him of said orders, Dan ordered a gradual reduction of speed until the ship was within the System, then it was to come to a complete halt ! ... From this distance they could only pick up individual vessels as they carried our some cosmological ballet around each other, beams of energy lancing between ships before the resulting silent explosions as vessels succumbed and were destroyed. Dan and the others on the Bridge watched in mute frustration as Connolly ordered several of the Fleet to begin their attack, but who was he attacking ? ... At this distance it was difficult to comprehend what strategy the Admiral was playing out. Was he going head-long to snatch Vason/green from under the augments noses, was he intent on attacking the orbital facility itself, did he have information the Excalibur was not privy to ? ... One thing was certain, he was making a terrible mistake. ~~~~~"..... the Charon is limping ..." Karka observed, "Impulse drive is functioning intermittently ... I suggest we approach and demand to be allowed to take the Charon under tow, or at the very least, convince him that his attacks against the Augments to get at directly Vazon are all but futile." "You think he attacked the augments, not the other way around ?" Schirra asked. Karka thought for a moment before replying: "The Augments should only want the facility at Andersen's Planet, there's no reason why they would delay. Escude will stop at nothing, he must have made a desperate attack on them." "Damn !" Schirra spat under his breath, knowing that the Excalibur could be of help but having to obey orders. "Sir, I'm receiving a communication from the Massachusetts." the Comms Officer informed them. "On screen." "Sir, it's encoded far beyond any access I hold." Dan got up and went to the Comms Station, the young Lieutenant getting out of her seat to make way. He looked at the screen and the multi-layered encryption being used. He recognized the cipher and knew that he could count on one hand the number of people capable of using, or even knowing of the encryption cryptography outside the higher echelons of Intelligence itself, he motioned for Karka to join him then asked the Officer to move away and give them privacy. he entered a series of decipher codes and the screen cleared to show Commodore Ryat: =^= Commander .. Good to see you remember the old codes .. .. .. I don't have much time as Admiral Connolly will be trying to break into our conversation as we speak .. You have orders to remain outside the system until required by the Admiral .. I am countermanding those orders .. You will use your discretion from here on on until I return to the Excalibur .. I that fully understood Commander ? =^= =^= Yes Commodore .. Understood =^= =^= I don't think the Admiral is willing to save or rescue Vason .. He hasn't said as much but it didn't come up in his decision to send in a number of the Fleet vessels .. He's keeping me out of the loop so to speak =^= "Have you broke through the encryption yet ?" Connolly asked impatiently.
"Still working on it Admiral, I've never seen anything like it before Sir." =^= I 'suggest' you find a way to bring the Excalibur closer to the Facility Commander .. The Admiral will no doubt have something to say if you are discovered so I urge caution =^= =^= Commodore .. I don't see what we can do if our hands are tied .. Admiral Connolly may even relieve me or have someone from his own inner circle replace me .. I may need to .. .. .. =^= "Almost there Admiral." his Comms Officer informed him, then apologized as the Comm was disengaged before he could gain access.
=^= Do what you need to Commander .. Keep my ship safe =^= the comm snapped off without warning and Dan leaned back in the seat. "You know she is 'asking' you to disobey a direct order I assume ?" Karka said cryptically, "It could end your career." "Yes, if I get a reputation for doing just that, well, maybe I'll be surplus to requirements, not to mention up on charges once all this is done with." Dan said, giving a wry shrug as he stood up and motioned for the Comms Officer to retake her station and asking her to keep a sharp eye out for a repeat Comm. The two moved to the Navigation Console and Psonoir put up a schematic of the System, "What's that ?" Dan asked Barr: "Molecular cloud, cartography shows it is passing below the System approximately five million kilometers below the plane. Giving out large bursts of electromagnetic emissions, varying wavelengths in the ultraviolet, none in the visible spectrum, and seemingly having zero affect on the System itself." "Could we use it ?" Schirra asked, the Tactical Officer checked and nodded. "We wouldn't be able to remain inside for long, but we should be invisible to sensors while within the gas cloud. I can't guarantee how well our own sensors would work but I suggest we orientate ourselves to optimize what we might have." "Helm ..... Drop us below the plane, five million kilometers and head for that cloud. Once inside re-orientate the Excalibur to have our forward sensor array's pointing directly at the System. Target Anderson's Planet ..... If need be we could be almost into the System itself before we're seen, providing we can keep the cloud directly astern of us." Dan ordered, seeing the looks on everyone's faces. No vessel had dropped below the plane of the Universe by such a massive distance and he knew he was doing so at great risk to both the ship and the crew within, but he had no other option that he could see ... The Excalibur dropped away, into the relative nothingness between the stars, moving silently into the gaseous cloud before changing her orientation from parallel to the plane to an angle of eighty three point six degrees on the Y axis. "Sir, I'm having trouble with the sensors." "Karka, try to clear things up. We need to see what's going on." Dan ordered, silently taking in a view no-one should ever be able to as he looked upon the underside of a Star System ..........
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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 25, 2016 22:04:05 GMT
Up in the vicinity of the third planet in the system, the gas giant Andersen's Planet, all was relatively quiet at the orbiting shipyard. Three augment-manned Triaud Star Navy ships were now moored to the star-shaped yard, interspersed among the 'spokes' of the star a vast quantity of suspended debris from destroyed vessels and some of the orbital defences, small particles frozen as in a glacier that was the vacuum.
Lirwa looked out the viewscreen of the augment Constitution class Singh at the retreating task force ships led by Admiral Connolly. The augments had moved into the Singh's bridge, activating and trying out some of the systems and having graphics displayed on the viewscreen picking out the ruined Starfleet task force, showing Axar Kurio's new 'Starfleet/augment' crew the sensors of their vessel - which was built from scratch - were now operational. All this waiting at the shipyard for the Starfleeters to arrive had proven futile; Lirwa was still a prisoner, and so was the man standing at the back of the bridge, twitching nervously, keeping clear of the augments around him who he was supposedly leading.
That man was John Vazon. Lirwa grinned at him - he thought nastily in line with his posing as an augment - as Vazon's eye fell on him, and the poor descendant of Colonel Green flinched and looked away.
"From here we conquer the Federation!" Axar declared, his eyes gleaming in the light of the bridge, his arms spread wide as he circled round; the bridge's augments cheered. "Starting with the Starbase at Wolf 294..."
Still at the science station, Karka pored over the sensor results. It turned out to be difficult to pierce the cloud to see through to the system, the sensors working intermittently and the ship straining under the pressure from the cloud's molecular constituents - the composition being unusual, exotic. Every now and then the sensors had managed to pick out details: the shipyard looked intact, which didn't indicate anything either way: what if the augments had wanted it that way? Later in the data, information that looked very much like evidence of starships was found; most of those ships were retreating from the system, and he unfortunately found out were on the Excal's side (ostensibly anyway, what with Connolly's apparent double-standards).
"Commander," he walked over to Schirra, showing him the results, "Connolly's ship has survived, along with the USS Wichita... they seem undamaged for the most part, but they're fleeing, apparently defeated. The other two vessels, the Menelaus and Fuji are trailing behind, one with critical damage. This sensor data is a few minutes old of course, having accounted for the distance and for passing through the cloud, thus by now Menelaus and Fiji could be destroyed."
<Tag Dan, Alyana on Mass.>
It was clear then that they'd be able to head into the system without fear of detection by Connolly's fleet; then again if he could the Admiral would surely warn the Excalibur to stay well clear... "The shipyard will now be under control of the augments, sir. Our vessel alone against them. Even blinding them as to our presence by keeping the cloud behind us... once we got within range of their sensors I imagine we would be wiped out?"
"Sir, detecting the USS Charon on sensors... from..." the navigation officer leaned, confused, over his console, "From within the cloud, sir! They've been hiding in here with us."
"Incoming communication," the comms officer said.
Escude's face appeared on screen, bloodied, dark rims under his eyes still visible through the wounds caused by fragments of exploding consoles that dotted his face. "The augments have robbed me of my means of vengeance, Commander," Escude took Schirra in, "Will you assist me in destroying their appropriated shipyard, rightful property of the Federation?"
"He'll get us destroyed," Karka said, back at the science station and out of eyeline of the viewscreen, more to himself than anything. He'd met with the man, shared his drink, laughed or tried to at his jokes and held what the humans would term deep conversations on ecological terrorism and the challenges facing humanity's inability to transcend the human form... right. He knew Escude - he liked to think - almost as well as his inner circle did. Vengeance was all the man knew now. He needed to be taken to task, not catered to.
"Detecting a shuttlecraft," he reported, "En route from the Charon to us... Authorise docking, Commander?" Despite Escude's weakened tactical position, perhaps he'd mustered enough to feel that he could get the Excalibur on side. It would be the undoing of them all if he could do so.
<Tag Dan>
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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 May 7, 2016 13:48:31 GMT
They had watched the battle above with a sense of helplessness having been ordered to remain apart .... With confirmation that the Massachusetts and the Wichita were running with both Menelaus and Fiji likely destroyed, either as a direct result of the attack, or as a consequence of damage received, they were discussing options:
"The shipyard will now be under control of the augments Sir. Our vessel alone against them ? ... Even blinding them as to our presence by keeping the cloud behind us. Once we got within range of their sensors I imagine we would be wiped out ?"
"Sir .... I'm detecting the USS Charon on sensors ... from ......" the navigation officer leaned, confused, over his console, "..... From within the cloud. They've been hiding in here with us !" he was informed that there was an incoming Comm:
=^= The augments have robbed me of my means of vengeance Commander .. Will you assist me in destroying their appropriated shipyard .. Rightful property of the Federation ? =^= Escude asked, almost pleadingly.
"Detecting a shuttle-craft," Karka whispered to Schirra, "En route from the Charon to us ... Authorize docking, Commander ?"
"Who's on that shuttle ?" Dan asked quickly, turning from the view-screen.
"One life-sign, it's Escude." Psonoir said, almost disbelieving his own sensors. Dan turned back to the 'window' and the segment showing the Comm:
=^= Captain .. Halt your approach to this vessel immediately .. Failure to do so will result in our taking action against you =^=
"The shuttle has come to a complete stop, one thousand three hundred meters off us." Karka confirmed. Having muted the Comm they discussed allowing Escude aboard. It was generally felt that complying with his request for assistance could only get the Excalibur into trouble, if not destroyed along with the Menelaus and Fiji, but they had to prevent the augments from being able to construct more vessels. Dan wondered what Alyana would do in this situation, she was more Command orientated, and could possibly see options or ramifications past what he himself could, but she wasn't here, and it was his decision to make. He turned to Karka:
"Open the shuttle-bay doors. Instruct Captain Escude to come aboard. Have Security waiting for him when he steps out of that shuttle and have him brought to the Captains Ready Room."
Five minutes later : Captains Ready Room ::
"Take a seat Captain." Dan said. Escude eyed the two Security Officers, then looked at Karka, before finally taking the seat opposite Schirra.
"As per Starfleet regulations, I could take Command and order you to comply, you know that do you not."
"You could, and I am sure some Officers would be willing to follow you. As for me, we could have a problem there Captain .... Of course, my 'opinions' or objections would normally not be taken into consideration, but I would suggest caution in trying to take over the Excalibur. Believe me Captain, you would much prefer us to be on your side rather than fighting us."
"You would risk Courts-martial for you and you crew to defy me, all to keep that Center Seat ?" Escude asked, obviously frustrated with proceedings.
"The crew has nothing to do with decisions I make as Commander of this vessel Captain, and you know that ... As for the Center Seat, I don't want it, 'and neither do I' Psonoir interjected, in fact, if it were possible, I would hand Command over to Commander Psonoir without hesitation, despite his reluctance, so you're threats are without foundation, so to speak." he could see Escude thinking.
"My apologies, Commander. I meant no offence, nor to you Commander Psonoir, and obviously I would not make an attempt to wrest Command from you. But my issue with the Facility, and the augments still stands. I require, I request, your assistance."
"Can we be absolutely certain that the Facility is now manned solely by augments, no Humans, we are referring to John Vason by the way ?" Karka asked.
"Vason / Green, whatever name he is going by at present, is currently aboard the augment Flagship under the Command of Axar Kurio." Escude replied.
"Can we destroy, or at least paralize the Facility before Kurio could turn around and come at us ?" Dan asked Karka.
"We lost him on sensors. He was going after the Massachusetts and the Wichata with several of his ships. I'd estimate we'd have no longer than five minutes to do what we need to before he can reach us. There is of course the issue of the augment vessels still in proximity to the Facility, if they put up any sort of fight we could find ourselves out-shipped and out-gunned pretty fast."
"We'd have the element of surprise though !" Escude said, leaning forward in his seat with anticipation, "They would need to re-orientate to come at us. If we can disable two, maybe three out of the six before they can come about we'd have a fighting chance. My only concern is their almost suicidal attitude to surrender. If Kurio orders them to stop us by any means we could find ourselves dodging out of the way of a suicide run from one or more."
"Show Captain Escude to the Shuttle-bay Commander." Dan said, effectively bringing the meeting to a close, he spoke to Escude as he reached the door, "We need to discuss options, but I can't see anything jumping out at us .... One thing Captain .... I want John Vason here. I don't care how we achieve that goal, but he is not to be sacrificed, is that, agreed ?"
Escude nodded without replying, then left the Ready Room. Dan watched the door for long moments before closing his eyes, he had a decision to make, even though he knew he had no other options available but to attack ..........
< Tag : Karka / Ryat >
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Alyana Ryat
Commodore
Registered: Sept 5, 2007 16:34:56 GMT
Posts: 347
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Post by Alyana Ryat on May 8, 2016 12:55:50 GMT
Aly had come to realise that she was indeed being held on the Massachusetts and no one was in any hurry to let her go. Oh, they were being very polite about it and explaining that external circumstances meant that there was no way that she could return to the Excal at the moment. She had tried to play along as best she could, she didn't want them to know that she knew she was trapped here. She wasn't sure how far this conspiracy extended, it couldn't be the whole crew it just couldn't. But, there was no way to know who to trust so despite her instincts, Aly did her best not to trust anyone. She was very grateful that she had temporarily disabled the message recording on the Massachusetts before talking to Dan, sh hoped it would just look like a temporary glitch. They did happen some times.
Aly knew her position was precarious. She had come to the conclusion that at least five of the senior staff were in on this although the Admiral seemingly wasn't. She wasn't sure whether he had realised that he was as much a prisoner on this ship as she was, or whether he was just that good an actor. She wanted desperately for it to be the latter, she didn't want to think anyone could make Admiral and be that oblivious. Then again it really wouldn't be something you would want to believe.
She hadn't been allowed back on the bridge but she had been allowed to relax in the Admirals dinning room. She wasn't sure what to do. She wasn't used to this sort of situation, she knew that the Massachusetts had been in combat but there was nothing she could do about that she had to find a way back to her own ship
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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 May 12, 2016 19:33:56 GMT
Karka watched Escude during their passage to the shuttlebay; the Captain's body language suggested dejection, yet simultaneously resolve, a hard dark pearl in his eyes, purpose within him once more, and did Karka see him clenching, unclenching his fists? Just once, perhaps nothing to be concerned about, for the man who'd sworn to 'avenge his family by killing poor Vazon' would be bottling his anger at having been strongly warned not to carry it out, but certainly it was something to be watched. They arrived at the shuttlebay, Escude boarding and Karka standing to attention before him.
Escude, distracted, "Psonoir, I'll expect you back at your post on the Charon once all this is done." Tugging down his shirt, "Is that understood?"
Karka didn't know how to respond, "Yes, sir," he murmured eventually, the hatch of the Charon shuttle Alcibiades closing behind the preoccupied Captain.
He headed back to the bridge - this time taking the engineering console of the Excalibur and intending to remain there - and began preparations for their attack on the shipyard. Two ships against six, it seemed not too unakin to madness, though their rapid approach from the cloud where they lay concealed combined with the overall element of surprise did give them a fighting chance. Five minutes, that was all they had before Axar Kurio (somehow rising through the ranks of the augments now commanding the force, what'd happened to Talavi? he thought) brought his vessel/s back to the shipyard to reinforce its recent captors, now defenders.
"Sir," the helm/tactical officer spoke, Schirra just returning to the bridge, "Sensors, what we have of them given the interference from the cloud, are detecting an unidentified craft breaking off pursuit of the Massachusetts and Wichita. It's now stationary, perhaps preparing to return to the shipyard?"
"Kurio's ship," Karka said, reading off warp coil efficiencies. He looked at the viewscreen, seeing the distant hazy sphere of the gas giant Andersen's Planet. It was now or never.
* * * * *
They barrelled towards the station, up towards the plane of the system - the elliptic, drawn out by Andersen's Planet's orbit of its host star - the Excalibur and Charon, allegiance between the two vessels confirmed once more or at least for the present, taking advantage of the cloud's position by positioning themselves to have it directly behind them as seen from the station.
Vessels were mobilising, they could see from sensors that were now clear to analyse what lay ahead: two Constitution class ships fitted with the warp engines that'd been shipped to the station previously now starting to rotate to present their prows to the incoming vessels, giving the attackers their smallest aspect where, far from coincidentally, the main bulk of their phaser and torpedo systems were located...
Three Triaud navy vessels were also backing out of their mooring ports, scrambling to meet the unexpected challenge. All were manned by augments. "Twenty seconds 'til firing range, sir," tactical said, Schirra in the centre seat. "Fifteen..."
"Wait." Karka pored over his consoles readout, "We're experiencing fluctuations in our warp core, a warp bubble has recently been formed in our vicinity... It's the Charon. Escude is taking her to warp."
Away to the port side out the viewscreen the Charon shot forward into the supraluminal and was soon detected having dropped out of warp again in the midst of the facility, firing this way and that, cutting apart the spokes of the star-shaped station or having a good go at it.
"I did have a suspicion he had something in mind, Commander, I'm sorry," he said to Dan, still leaning over his console plotting warp trajectories. How might they get to the facility and cancel out the possible repercussions of Escude's suicidal move - something they'd been expecting from the defenders not from one of their own. But these calculations may well be of no use as Karka detected a build of energy in the warp nacelles of the Charon once more...
"We're within firing range of the augment vessels, sir!" tactical hollered.
<Tag Schirra>
"Escude's going to warp again," Karka said, surprised slightly at how calm he was, "On course for Kurio's ship."
The Excal closed in, taking scattered fire from the Triaud augment ships (that seemed to dash by them given the Excal's speed, but barely out of their harbours), while the two Constitutions, one visually identified as the 'Singh', loomed menacingly in the background, making to head above them with their ventral phaser banks now starting to glow... Tactical glared at the viewscreen, "They're opening fire."
Karka was surveying the damage the Charon had caused to the station: two of the five docking spokes (or points of the star) had been shorn loose of the main structure, secondary explosions erupting along the severed sections, while the three other spokes seemed relatively intact. His eyes scanned over one of the spokes, now zeroing in on one of the moored grey shapes... Was it moving? Another augment-manned Constitution class was joining the fray.
"Karka, Lirwa."
Ah. Now was not the time. He prepared a psycho-spatio-temporal response to his acquaintance he'd had too much contact with recently... well now, something was odd about the incoming carrier wave, but he was cut off, "Not the same one you found on Triaud II, my friend. He met a sticky end when the augments attacked the shipyard, but this one, me, is on the Starfleet ship Singh. Kurio was here, along with Vazon, but they've left aboard the Constitution class vessel Green to tackle the misfortunate force under Admiral Connolly."
"Vazon isn't at the station then," he replied.
But Lirwa's voice in his mind was gone; Karka returned his eyes to the console, eyes widening, "Commander Schirra, Escude has engaged Kurio's Constitution class... which is just one and a half minutes away now, sir. Hopefully he can hold Kurio up, though I have a... feeling, that Vazon might be on Kurio's vessel." Juan Escude; he was potentially saving them from Kurio, but he was also finding a route by which he may enact his vengeance.
<Tag Schirra, Ryat>
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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 May 14, 2016 1:02:04 GMT
Any hopes of having time to formulate a viable plan of action were thrown out of the proverbial window as Escude jumped to warp ! .....
"I did have a suspicion he had something in mind, Commander, I'm sorry," Karka said to Dan, still leaning over his console plotting warp trajectories. How might they get to the facility and cancel out the possible repercussions of Escude's suicidal move - Something they'd been expecting from the defenders, not from one of their own. But these calculations may well be of no use as Karka detected a build of energy in the warp nacelles of the Charon once more ...
"We're within firing range of the augment vessels Sir !"
Lock onto Engineering on the two closest to us and fire. Try to disable them both." Dan said, watching the tactical overlay plot on the 'window' ... Excalibur opened fire before the first two could come about, the almost pure energy of the ship's phasers lancing across open space and slicing neatly into both vessels' Engineering Sections. The first ship muct have been having problems even before their core was brought on-line, as the first hit sliced through the outer hull and directly into the matter / antimatter containment chamber, it blew instantly, they were less lucky with the second vessel, who had begun to come about and was already heading for the Excalibur as the phasers hit. The second ship was able to return firs as the third moved around and below the Facility trying to flank them.
"Shields at seventy nine percent Commander."
"Divert auxiliary .... Lock onto the Saucer Section of the third vessel and fire." Dan said calmly.
"Two more Augment vessels approaching us, and passing .... Escude has gone to warp again, he's on course for the SN2-Beta, Kurio's ship !"
Dan could see the Facility ahead and to Port. It had taken a beating from the Charon and was listing visibly now. He wondered how much longer it would remain ..... Two of the Constitution Class Augment vessels were peppering the Excalibur with phaser-fire, but were having little luck getting through their slowly diminishing shields, it was a given that once they had weakened them enough it was highly possible they could hit anything vital. Dan order the Helm Officer to be 'creative' with her flying, the more difficult to hit the less chance of that hit in his opinion.
"Commander, we can't continue to take these hits." Karka informed him as casually as possible, "There is another Constitution Class backing away from the Facility, that will make four if we don't hit any of the others before they can join in."
"Helm .... Corkscrew us towards the Facility .... Let the two vessels attacking follow then drop thirty percent of our photon torpedoes with proximity fuses. With luck they'll fly right into them."
"Sir ?" the Tactical Officer queried, having never heard of such a procedure, Dan got up and approached Tactical, the young Lieutenant stepping aside. He nodded to the Helm to begin the run and made numerous inputs on the Tactical panel, "The two ships are in pursuit." the Tac' Officer informed him somewhat unnecessarily.
"Lock phasers on the arm closest to that reversing ship and fire, that should make our chasers more eager to be rid of us." Dan ordered. Then, as the two increased speed, he released almost sixty torpedoes in quick succession, all with their drive systems off-line, so once away from the Excalibur they simply continued along their preset trajectory, dropping behind the Excalibur quickly, "Put up a reverse view on the window." he ordered, then watched as the two pursuing vessels continued their dogged chase. Suddenly, one ship began to turn, but they had detected the drifting torpedoes too late, a rapid sequence of explosions wracked the ship and destroyed the saucer section in seconds. the second vessel, having a few more seconds of warning had also begun to turn, this action was again too little too late as fourteen of the drifting 'mines' detonated against her shields, ripping them apart before decimating the whole of the port side, the ship began an almost lazy spiral away from them, powerless and likely devoid of life support.
"Commander, Escude has engaged Kurio's Constitution class ... Which is just one and a half minutes away now from our present position now Sir. Hopefully he can hold Kurio up, though I have a ... Feeling, that Vazon might be on Kurio's vessel." Escude could be saving them from Kurio, Karka thought, but then again he could be en-route to exact his vengeance. Either way, the Excalibur needed to act ... Quickly !
"Damn, Escude might know that too ! ... 'HELM' put us between the Augment vessel and the Charon ... NOW !" Dan ordered instantly.
The Excalibur changed direction immediately, accelerating quickly as the Helm Officer picked a spot between the two closing vessels. She knew only too well that if she got this wrong there wouldn't be anything left to reprimand ... she informed Dan, who had now retaken his seat, that the Singh was turning, likely in reaction to their own sudden course change, but Dan told them to ignore the augment vessel.
"Where the hell is Connolly ?" Schirra hissed through clenched teeth.
The Excalibur, having dove below the plane was now climbing back up, increasing speed until the very last second before coming to a complete stop ...... Slowly, the Helm Officer re-orientated their aspect until the Excal' was showing her Port and Starboard aspects to the SN2-Beta and the Charon. If both other vessels chose to open fire, they would hit the Excalibur and not each other. Daniel was fully aware of the irony of his order, both factions could be rid of their annoyance in seconds if they so chose ... He watched the tactical view, now moved to the left side of the 'window' and showing the relative positions of the three ships, plus the distant Augment vessels, or at least, the ones that still had enough power to remain viable problems should they choose. Dan turned to the Comm' Officer:
"Send a secure message to 'Admiral' Connolly ... Ask, politely, if he is in a position to assist us." he looked at the Tactical image again then, realizing there might be mo help forthcoming from the Task-force, he made a decision, "Open a comm link to both vessels. put both on-screen as they reply."
"Dan ?" Karka whispered, uncertain of what could happen if Schirra chose to talk rather than act, but Dan raised a hand just enough to let the Engineer know he knew what he was doing, or at least hoped so ...
"I have both Commanding Officers Commander." the Comms' Officer informed him, then with a glance at his Engineer he nodded:
=^= Captain's .. .. .. It seems we may have somewhat of a stalemate in our current situation =^=
=^= I have to disag .. .. .. =^= Kurio began, but Escude interrupted:
=^= I asked for your help .. Commander .. It was not forthcoming .. Remove your vessel .. NOW ! =^=
"We can't fight both Commander." Karka whispered out of view ..........
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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 May 16, 2016 0:51:53 GMT
Schirra nodded in response to Karka's pointing out they couldn't fight both, the two commanding officers visible on the viewscreen waiting for a response from the Excal's XO, faces pictures of rage. "What do we have to do?!" Escude blustered out eventually, "Blow you out of the heavens, Schirra? Move aside!"
Of course, Karka thought, Axar Kurio would be less interested in taking out Escude as Escude was in destroying him, or rather getting through the augment no matter what he had to do to get to John Vazon, whereupon if Escude was successful, Vazon would meet his untimely and unfortunate demise. It thus stood to reason that Kurio could simply abandon this stand-off - having no specific quarrel with the Charon CO - and accelerate away from the paired Federation vessels, likely circling back round towards the Andersen's Planet shipyard to recover their base.
On the other hand if Kurio did move, Escude would follow him, and the Excal would be - as long as it kept in the line of fire between Charon and SN-2 Beta, or close enough to either ship such that one ship wouldn't dare send anything lethal against the other given the proximity of the modified Constitution class, at least, Karka hoped they wouldn't...
There was no way out of this for Escude if he wanted to attack Kurio; he was stuck perennially with these two ships until Schirra made the decision. And that, Karka thought, was asking for Arcadia, as the Greeks would've liked to say; Dan was being put in an impossible position. Though the closing in of the still functioning augment ships from the shipyard may soon help to make his mind up for him.
"Commander..." tactical trailed off as soon as she'd begun, not sure what she was reading on sensors, or not wanting to believe it...
"Report, Lieutenant."
"Escude's closing the distance, sir..." she turned round pale faced, "He's going to collide with our starboard side, amidships to amidships." Indeed, Karka surveyed his console, having moved temporarily over to the science station, the Charon was narrowing the avenue of potential escape for the Excalibur, he might even read it as. It'd adjusted heading, yawing left while keeping its longitudinal axis-velocity vector matched with the other two vessels... now about to graze the leading edge of the Excal's saucer...
A metallic ringing sounded throughout the bridge, through the ship's chassis, through its living metal. People were shaken from their stations, an unpleasant jolting sensation rising through the deckplates, through the console support struts to their trembling fingers. The screen was black, they realised, channel closed by Escude, and Axar Kurio using the moment to cut the transmission from his end too.
"Get him back! That crazy son of a -"
"Sir, the Charon has gone under communications blackout," Karka said, "They may still be transmitting, and it looks like a carrier wave passed through this volume some twenty seconds ago towards the SN-2 Beta, but they're not receiving any more transmissions from outside their ship, Commander."
The Charon lurched away, scorch marks visible and damage like bruises on skin lining its port edge, before slamming back towards the Excalibur once more. "He's desperate," Karka murmured the obvious, shuddering now with the latest impact, it seeming to emanate from himself and through to his surroundings, the duranium chassis of the bridge and ship set to some awesome resonant frequency as the Constitution class vessels collided and were locked in uncomfortable metal embrace with one another for excruciating seconds.
"Oh damn," Psonoir said, "We've lost impulse and thruster control on starboard. Dan, we're going to start pitching and yawing." Sure enough, the starfield out the viewscreen before them all had started rotating, now with increasing speed and with the SN-2 Beta and Charon visible only every now and then, slicing through their vision and temporarily eclipsing the stars...
Then a colossal force threw them all clear off their feet and another element of rotation was added to their already topsy-turvy traverse of the void. Had they hit the SN-2 Beta? Spun out of the closing gap the Charon had made for them? Inertial dampeners were struggling; artificial gravity was holding out and so was structural integrity, but they were spinning faster and faster, bridge crew and doubtless - Karka thought, unable to escape the thought of amusement at the image in his mind - throughout the ship, crew falling over, the latter scrambling along corridors that no longer seemed quite the 'right way up'.
"I had to resort to that, Commander," Escude said, finally accepting one of their comms, "Now, stay out of the way!" Space reappeared and in the moments that they could see the action - as they were still rotating at some forty revs per minute - phaser fire shot out from a dozen angles from Charon to the SN-2 Beta, that was now fleeing towards the shipyards. Now, however, the Charon eclipsed itself; announced with a blinding flash of scarlet light the Charon's nacelles had started glowing far too hot at their front nozzles... their combined light promptly died, the Charon now devoid of warp drive. Probably burnt out from those two quick warp jumps, not to mention the ramming, Karka thought dryly.
Blazing out of warp now were the Massachusetts and Wichita, Karka picking them up on long range scanners rapidly approaching their position - the stricken Excal rotating end over end, trying to correct its attitude control using only its port impulse-thruster assembly and the numerous RCS thrusters - of comparatively low thrust - dotted over the ship's hull.
Connolly's face appeared on the screen, "Commander, do you require assistance?" He sighed, looking remorseful, "I did order you to stay away but perhaps I was wrong, not in the sense that you should've accompanied us but that none of us should've gone anywhere near that shipyard 'til we fully knew what we were dealing with."
"Where's the Commodore, sir?" Karka spoke up, Dan allowing it with a wave of the hand.
"She's... indisposed at the moment, Mister... ah, Psonoir, yes? A terrible injury in the gym, my doctor's looking after her."
Well that was a lie. Karka sat down and opened up the file on Connolly again... The warmonger (at least where the Gorn were concerned) had led the ill-fated remnants of the original task force into this new death trap knowing full well what he'd been doing; something more than the hotheaded Admiral out to stop potential invaders against all costs was at work here.
<Tag Ryat, Schirra>
Then again, perhaps they had more pressing issues with SN-2 Beta and the USS Charon. "Reading transporter signatures from the Charon to Axar Kurio's vessel, Commander Schirra," tactical piped up on time.
<Tag Schirra>
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Alyana Ryat
Commodore
Registered: Sept 5, 2007 16:34:56 GMT
Posts: 347
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Post by Alyana Ryat on May 17, 2016 19:49:04 GMT
Aly had been assigned quarters on the Massecusettes, she had swallowed her irritation as the young petty officer escorted her to them. The transaction was done with appropriate levels of apologetics, Sh had done her best to play along but she wasn't sure that anyone could actually believe the, by now incredibly convoluted, story she was being told. However, she remained convince that her best option was to appear as non-threatening as possible and then completely surprised them with some triick that would get her back to the Excal.
There were only so many routes back. Theoretically she could take a shuttle but she couldn't work out a way to get out of the docking bay without something nasty happening. Then there were escape pods, but there was no way to ensure that the right ship picked her up. Then there was the option to just transporting over, but that also had too many complications. She worked through all the possibilities as she sat on the sofa in her cell/quarters. In the end she had come to the conclusion that the best way to get back to her ship was to get the Massecusettes crew to send her back. That meant she had to become a problem. There were a few possibilities.... It was something that would take some effort to do correctly.
They hadn't actually locked her in but there was a young man from the security contingent stationed outside the door 'just in case she needed anything'. That story had caused her to swallow a wry grin, she had never been so grateful for her decades of polictial experience. There were a lot of things that Starfleet didn't know about her, quite a few things had been locked away by the Symbiosis Commission and the orders that she had had from them. She was fairly sure that they would let her go if they believed there was a chance that she could die. Given the very limited understanding of her complex neurology that was available it wouldn't take too much to fake some unusual neurological insult.
She swallowed one of her emergency tablets and washed it down with a very syrupy drink a couple of space-sickness tablets. Almost immediately she starts feeling wobbly. It's so immediate that Aly knows it's completely psychosomatic, however, it is the perfect start to her plan. She walked over to the door and let it hum open, she was leaning heavily on one side of the door frame when the security officer turned to look at her.
"I"m not feeling so good." Aly said holding out a hand towards him. She stumbled and he caught her by the offered hand. Aly smothered a smirk when he flinched slightly at the temperatures of her palms. It was a Trill trait but not one that anyone had actually let Starfleet know about. She let him take quite a fraction of her weight. "I think I should go to sickbay."
The security ensign seems to agree and it does not take long before Aly finds herself in sickbay. She really is feeling pretty woozy now and has asked to see Doctor Lawson twice now, but she's nowhere near as bad as she's making out. The expression on the Doctor's face, the one she's trying very hard not to let Aly see, says it all. It's a lot easier to see that sort of expression when people think you are barely conscious. The Commodore is clearly not well and the Doctor has never see anything like her neuroscans. Maybe she's having some sort of stroke but there seems to be some sort of echo going on...
It's only a matter of time before the doctor admits that she needs help from Aly's normal doctor or someone lets the Excal know that she's here and then said doctor would have the right to see Aly.
Tag:
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