Pop, Lock and Drop Em'

Posted on Thu May 14th, 2026 @ 3:31pm by Commodore S'thenosis Gorgox & Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant JG Jacob Rosen & Lieutenant JG Micheal Stevens & Lieutenant JG T'Lar & Lieutenant JG Olivia Voight & Lieutenant JG Rowan Hale & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis ie-Jia'anKahr & Commander Jennifer Baldric & Lieutenant Commander Rynn Upland & Lieutenant Sarah Wilson

3,450 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Pirates!
Location: USS Sunfire

“The most dangerous prey is the one that survives long enough to understand the trap.”

Nausicaan Raider Vessel

The raider had already begun to turn away. Thrusters rolled the scarred vessel slowly through the drifting stone while transporter crews fought to recover the last scattered boarding teams through collapsing windows of interference. Across the bridge, tension had begun to loosen into something closer to relief. The hunt had cost blood, but the prey drifted crippled in the dark behind them.

Then the asteroid field flashed. Not once. Everywhere. The first surge erupted outward from the Sunfire in a wave of blinding blue-white light that raced across her hull plating like lightning beneath skin. Capacitors overloaded into full discharge with violent force, the stored energy shunting outward through the outer framework exactly as designed.

The effect was immediate. Nanites clinging to the Federation vessel ignited in cascading chains, their stolen energy turning against them all at once as millions of microscopic machines overloaded faster than they could compensate. The darkness around the Sunfire strobed with violent electrical arcs crawling through clouds of debris.

And then the tachyon net caught it. The field lit up across the asteroid belt in branching veins of unstable light. Hidden emitters buried between the drifting stone detonated one after another as the reversed polarity surged through the grid like fire through dry timber. Explosions rippled outward in chaotic sequence, blooming between tumbling asteroids in violent bursts of plasma and shattered rock.

The entire field came alive. On the bridge of the raider, several Nausicaans recoiled instinctively as the display erupted into noise and flare saturation.

The Captain did not move. His eyes narrowed instead, fixed on the Sunfire now emerging from the chaos beneath the pulse of returning power. One by one her running lights reignited across the hull. Shield emitters flickered back to life. Engines glowed faintly through drifting debris as gravity and systems returned in abrupt succession.

Somewhere out there, he knew, Federation bodies had just slammed hard back into deck plating as artificial gravity returned without warning. Consoles would be screaming alive. Crew dragging themselves upright through pain and blood while the ship clawed its way back from death.

A slow grin spread across the Captain’s face. “Good,” he rumbled quietly, admiration threading through the word like the edge of a blade. “There is spirit in them yet.” Another explosion tore through the far side of the tachyon grid, showering molten debris across the field.

The Captain turned sharply toward the helm. “Enough,” he ordered. “The void has denied us this kill.” His heavy hand slammed once against the back of the command chair. “Withdraw all ships.”

Outside, the raiders peeled away at full impulse as the asteroid field continued to erupt behind them, leaving the wounded but living Sunfire burning bright once more in the dark.


USS Sunfire

Bodies slammed to the deck as chaos erupted around them. Those that were able manned their station, those that were not remained wounded on the deck plating. One by one systems returned, then the viewscreen flickered to life - showing the carnage of the asteroid field.

"Jenna... get us out of here" Rhenora clamored from her command chair, thankful the artificial gravity had returned.

Jenna hit the deck hard with the return of gravity, one knee striking first before momentum carried her shoulder into the base of the Conn console. Pain flared sharp along her side, though years of drills and worse injuries carried her through the motion before thought ever caught up. She pushed herself upright immediately, one hand gripping the edge of the station as the restored systems flickered unevenly back to life around her.

The asteroid field slowly rotated across the viewscreen ahead. “Thrusters are operational,” she reported, voice even. “Impulse and warp capability remain offline.” Her eyes tracked the narrow corridors between drifting rock and shattered debris, already building the path in her mind before the computer fully caught up to her. “Aye, plotting a course out of the asteroid field.”

Savar's body dropped heavily to the floor. it ached and throbbed from the force of hitting the deck yet he made no sound. Rather, he slowly pulled himself upright and covered the short distance between him and Rhenora, He extended a hand. "Allow me to help you Captain."

T'Lar thudded to the deck, twisting like a cat in mid air to catch herself on her hands and feet, and to a lesser degree her knees. The smack of the deck still hurt. Jacob had come down only a few feet away, but whatever bumps or bruises he sustained he seemed to be taking in stride. T'Lar extended her hand to help him up.

"Much appreciated." Jacob grunted as T'Lar helped him to his feet. "Not my most graceful moment." He said with a smirk before quickly settling in at his Operations console. The display winking back to life and updating with the most recent sensor feeds. Jacob briefly looked T'Lar's way as she strode to her post.

T'lar made her way back to the science station only to find that it had been totally put out of commission, the LCARS display shattered and console smashed by a disruptor blast; probably the origin of the numerous small cuts to her face. Looking around at the rest of the bridge she spied the counselor's chair was now empty. She hadn't seen when Counselor Vali had left the bridge, but presumed it was before the fighting started. She crossed the battle strewn bridge and took her seat.

"All stations. Report in, Ops, damage reports." Rhenora ordered ss the ship continued to power up. Blessed fresh air began blowing from the air vents, resetting the internal temperature back to somewhere near normal.

Bonnie dropped out of the air with all the grace of a toolbox thrown down a staircase. She hit the deck sideways with a sharp yelp, one leg tangling awkwardly beneath her as the restored gravity reclaimed the bridge all at once. “Ow. That hurt,” she groaned into the deck plating, voice muffled and deeply offended by physics itself.

For a second she simply stayed there, breathing hard while sparks crackled somewhere behind her station. Then duty reasserted itself with the cruel inevitability of Starfleet life. Bonnie grabbed the edge of her console and hauled herself back upward piece by piece, boots slipping once before she finally collapsed back into her chair.

“Computer core is responding,” she reported, still slightly breathless. “Power systems are cycling back into operational status deck by deck.” She glanced at the cascading readouts, watching dark indicators steadily return to green. “We’re... actually winning the argument against the ship for once.” A nearby console chirped angrily at her. Bonnie narrowed her eyes at it. “Don’t start with me.”

When the artificial gravity finally returned, Commodore S’thenosis Gorgox settled back into her seat with little more than a restrained downward shift, the abrupt restoration of weight affecting her by scarcely more than a centimeter. The greater disturbance came from the long braided length of hair that had floated vertically throughout the outage, now falling heavily back across her shoulder and upper chest in layered coils that required a small, precise adjustment of her hand to restore their proper arrangement.

A measured breath followed, deeper than her usual cadence, the lingering cold of the powerless bridge having pressed uncomfortably against her lungs and slowed the natural rhythm of her breathing in ways she found far more disagreeable than the absence of gravity itself. Even so, her composure remained outwardly untouched as she lowered her gaze once more to the illuminated surface of her PADD and continued taking notes while the bridge fought to reclaim order around her.

"Damage Control Teams are dispatched to repair breaches Captain. We have full sensors and weapons, shields are back to 80%." Jacob said going through his reports. "We've got steam Commander." Jacob continued efficiently, looking to his side at the helm station. "Impulse and Warp."

"That was fast." Jenna said with amused appreciation. "Maneuvering thrusters."


USS Sunfire - Below Decks

Remal hit the deck hard enough to drive the air from his lungs in a rough grunt, his shoulder striking first as he twisted through the fall. Patina remained tucked securely against his chest the entire way down, wrapped instinctively within the shelter of his arms as his body absorbed the impact for both of them. For a brief second he simply lay there flat on his back, staring upward as systems groaned back to life around them.

Then he made a long, exaggerated groaning sound deep in his throat, somewhere between injury and theatrical suffering. His chest vibrating through Patina's small body.

Patina burst into delighted giggles. The tiny sound cut cleanly through the chaos of their quarters. She peered up at him with bright excitement, tiny hands pressing against his uniform as if encouraging him to do it again. Remal blinked once, then repeated the noise with even greater dramatic misery. Her laughter only grew louder.


USS Sunfire - Engineering

Somewhere deep beneath the wounded decks of the Sunfire, the restored gravity reclaimed Leo Da’Cinci with all the tenderness of a dropped cargo container. He slammed hip-first into the engineering deck plating beside the warp core master systems console, one tusk clipping painfully against the edge of an access panel as tools, isolinear rods, and two half-disassembled plasma regulators scattered across the compartment in every direction.

“Aghh, ye vicious metal bastard,” he snarled immediately at the ship itself while hauling one broad hand up onto the nearest railing. “Could’ve eased a body back down gentle, but no, straight t’the deck like an angry god throwin’ bricks.”

Leo pushed himself upright with a groan that sounded personally offended by existence itself, one hand pressing against his ribs while the other snatched a fallen spanner from the floor. He glanced at the core monitor once and his expression immediately soured further.

“Oh ye’ve got t’be kiddin’ me.” His voice rose through the compartment like distant thunder. A nearby console sparked violently in response. “Aye, spark at me all ye like,” Leo barked back while stomping toward the core systems station, scooping tools up as he moved with the unconscious efficiency of long habit.

Engineering crews slowly began dragging themselves upright around him, bruised and battered, some still bleeding lightly from cuts earned during the battle, though Leo barely spared them a glance before reaching the master control interface. “Right then,” he muttered while cracking his knuckles hard enough to echo. “Enough layin’ about cryin’. Let’s see if ye’ve still got a heartbeat in ye.”

Down in sickbay, the lights came on without warning and the artificial gravity kicked in at the same time. Sarah was caughr without warning and squeaked as she hit the deck awkwardly, before scrambling to her feet to assess the situation.

Further along deck 4, MU Baldric found herself a medic and a hypo, well enough to make her way to sickbay on her own apparently, which she had no intention of doing. Minutes later she walked back on the bridge, taking a rear station and hoping no one noticed.


USS Sunfire- Bridge

T'Lar sat stoically through the pain of her body's protestations, however the right side of her face was becoming increasingly hard to ignore, as it was lacerated and contused, feverish to the touch and swelling rapidly, causing her right eye to swell shut.

"Captain, I apologize but I can barely see out of my right eye and my face is swelling badly. With your permission I should like to report to sickbay for treatment."

"Please, get treatment immediately. Hopefully the turbolifts will be online and you wont have to climb" Rhenora ordered, nodding towards the rear turbolift on the bridge.

"Thank you, Captain," T'Lar said, rising from her seat.

"Turbolift systems coming online" MU Baldric announced from the rear of the bridge, keeping her tone factual and informative. She had finally figured out how to use the standard operations panel.


USS Sunfire- Sickbay

T'Lar crossed the bridge to the turbolift, entered and selected deck 4. Arriving on deck 4 she made her way to sick bay which was thronged with casualties of the battle. Making her way inside she searched for a free member of the medical staff.

Olivia had been staying busy ever since the fighting started. She knew that things were not the best at the moment and had to get better at some point, but it may take awhile for that to happen. She had just recently finished up working on one crew member when the doors to Sickbay sounded indicating someone arriving. Olivia headed towards the sound to see who it was and see what she could do to help them.

T'Lar spotted Dr. Voight headed in her direction.

"Hello Doctor. I seem to have been injured during the fighting on the bridge. A disrupter blast exploded the console I was behind and the right side of my face seems to have caught the brunt of it." T'Lar reported.

“Let’s get that fixed then shall we,” Olivia said. “I will be glad when we can have a little downtime before the next crisis comes along.”

"I concur, Doctor. The crew is definitely going to be in need of more than the 24 hours of rest and recuperation we received on the aborted shore leave." T'Lar agreed, taking a seat on the nearest bio bed.


USS Sunfire- Bridge

Jenna’s hands settled across the Conn as though they belonged there more than anywhere else in the galaxy. Around her, the bridge still carried the scars of battle, flickering panels, scorched metal, blood drying in uneven streaks across the deck plating, but ahead of them the asteroid field had become something far worse than debris.

The detonations across the tachyon lattice had stirred the entire region into violent motion. Massive chunks of stone rolled against one another in slow catastrophic collisions while smaller fragments scattered like shrapnel through the dark.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as the navigational overlay rebuilt itself across the viewscreen. “Taking us to impulse,” she announced calmly. “Ignore the small debris. The larger bodies are driving the pattern now. Everybody hold onto your butts.” The Sunfire surged forward.

Immediately the stars vanished behind tumbling mountains of fractured rock. A boulder the size of a city rolled across their projected path, shedding smaller burning fragments from its surface as it turned. Jenna’s fingers moved in quick controlled adjustments.

“Marking a low vector beneath the bow crossing.” Her voice remained steady, measured for Jacob as much as the ship itself. “Reroute auxiliary power to ventral shields. We are going under.”

Jacob quickly keyed in the adjustments. "Rerouting Aye." Not even a full second later his console gave a confirmation chirp. "Ventral shields holding Commander." He said with a deferential nod.

The massive asteroid swept over the viewscreen like a continent falling from the heavens. Darkness swallowed the bridge for one suspended breath as the Sunfire dove beneath it, hull alarms chirping from fragments scraping along their dorsal plating. Jenna held the descent until the stone thundered overhead, then immediately pulled the ship upward again.

She was already focus forward. “Contact point ahead,” she warned. Two enormous asteroid masses drifted toward one another directly in their ascent path, closing like the jaws of a trap. The gap between them shrank second by second.

Jenna’s jaw tightened slightly. “Rolling vertical. I need thruster control +40% to stern.”

"40% Thruster to stern, Aye Commander." Jacob said with a crisp efficiency, briefly looking to the viewer before snapping his eyes back to his LCARS readout and the task at hand.

The Sunfire turned hard onto her side, stars rotating across the viewscreen as the ship threaded between the converging stone walls. Rock screamed past close enough for individual fractures and burning mineral veins to become visible across their surfaces. The bridge lights dimmed briefly under the strain.

“Hold inertial dampeners together for me, Jacob,” Jenna said quietly, already anticipating the stress loads before they hit. “We'll clear this by less than twelve meters.”

Jacob rapidly rerouted unallocated power to the inertial dampeners, his hands moving across the console in a flurry. "I'm squeezing as much as we've got Commander. We'll have to roll with the punches for the rest." Jacob said, focused solely on the challenge so much that he lost his usual jovial tone.

The collision thundered behind them the instant the Sunfire broke free, shockwaves rippling through the field as both asteroids slammed together and shattered into expanding debris. But Jenna was already moving. “One more. Prepare for an inversion...”

A final fragment spun ahead of them, jagged and uneven, tumbling end over end directly into their exit vector. Instead of avoiding wide, she pushed closer. The Sunfire inverted smoothly, rolling upside down as the massive rock filled the viewscreen beneath them. Close. Far too close. The underside of the ship skimmed across the asteroid’s surface with barely meters to spare, sparks briefly trailing from shield contact before Jenna pulled them free into open space.

The stars opened ahead. Behind them, the asteroid field churned like a collapsing storm. At last she took a breath and asked, "Heading Captain?"

"That was most stimulating." Savar announced from his XO's chair. "Though I do not recommend we do it again if at all possible."

Rhenora paused, torn between returning to Earth and finding out who had set them up for the ambush. "Set course back to Earth, maximum speed"

Somewhere at the back near the consoles, someone wretched, no Bonnie to be seen. Her head buried in a waste bin.

Hearing Bonnie wretch, Savar added, "It appears Bonnie shares in my sentiment of not repeating that particular maneuver."

"Aye, course set for Earth, warp 8." Jenna confirmed. She didn't wait for confirmation or a signal to engage. She knew Rhenora and knew she had given an order to follow. "Engaging." Even as she pressed the control, the starship hesitated only a moment as the engines flared and the warp bubble flexed before they leapt into warp.

Comfortably on their way, Jenna looked over at Jacob, "Good job Mr. Jacobs," She added quietly between the two of them. She was thankful he was able to keep up with her.

There were sounds coming from behind the back console wall of the Bridge. First a few thuds, and then a number more. It stopped. Then got louder and stopped again. Finally there was the screech of metal against metal.

Dean pulled himself out of the Jeffress Tube hatch, pushing off of the ladder and onto his back. Just laying there a moment. Using the bulkhead to pull himself to his feet.

He limped his way around pulling the 'hidden' door open he stepped out onto the Bridge. Leaving the door open behind him for now. Dean look more than a little worse for wear. His uniform was all but in tatters, multiple lacerations along at least 35% of his body. Some of them were either quick patched or parts of what was left of his uniform used to stop the bleeding. Holding a slightly shaky hand over the left side of his abdomen which was still slowly bleeding.

"Do we have have intraship transporters?" Rhenora was up and heading towards Dean instantly. Baldric meanwhile looked conflicted, as though she wasn't sure what she could do.

Bonnie nodded more than spoke as she checked, "Um... ye.. yes I think so." She wiped her mouth of wretch, "site-to-site transport power is available."

"Beam Dean directly to sickbay" Rhenora supporting him until he vanished in a shimmer of light. "Run an intruder scan and see if we have any stragglers"

"Yes Captain" MU Baldric replied, sounding as official as possible. She had gotten her head around the panel in front of her and organised the beam out, and ran a sensor sweep that she hoped woule pass scrutiny.

Savar stood besides his chair and watched the latest activity with House climbing out of the Jefferies tube and looking the worse for wear and being transported to Sickbay to Baldric preparing to run an intruder sweep. his eyes coming to rest on Baldric.

The bridge settled into uneasy motion as the Sunfire raced for Earth, battered systems slowly clawing their way back toward stability. Smoke still lingered in the overhead light. Blood stained the deck in dark uneven streaks between shattered consoles and discarded weapons. Around the bridge, exhausted officers returned to their stations one careful breath at a time.

TBC

 

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