Well it had to happen sooner or later - Recert Dean House pt3
Posted on Mon Aug 9th, 2021 @ 10:06pm by Commander Dean House & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Remal Kajun
Mission:
Gamma Quadrant
Location: USS Liberty
Timeline: Recertification Week
"Aye aye, sir." The helm officer replied, "Increasing to max impulse. Eta, 1 minute."
"It's a risk, I know, but maybe we can get the assistance we need." Dean sighed, "Push it."
As the clock ticked away there was silence on the bridge. It seemed an eternity had passed when finally the operations officer announced, "Clearing jamming range now."
"Send it and double back."
"Aye, sir. Message sent. I estimate it will be a bit before they can respond, assuming anyone is available to receive the message.
"Turning back sir. ETA four minutes to nebula edge. Do we go in after the freighter sir?"
"We're going to have to. We can still get the weapon signatures until we get in there, so we can pinpoint a general location of the offending ship."
"I am still tracking weapons fire, the patterns are a bit scattered, but they do have a general location within the cloud. If we do go in, I will have to fire manually, and blind, but then so will they." Tactical relayed.
"Three minutes until cloud incursion." Announced the Helm officer, doing her part to keep the bridge crew informed.
"One would think we'd have figured out by now how to compensate for the nebula's effects. Science see if you can do something about that, please." Dean gave a glance at Helm and Tactical. "Put all weapons on manual. Don't rely on the clouded instruments. Visuals."
"Aye weapons on manual targeting. Tactical view on the main view screen. No sign of any cloaked vessel, warp trails or otherwise."
"I will attempt to compensate for the energy distortions and fluctuations, but I cannot guarantee accurate results. I am registering further weapons fire within the cloud. Sending updated targeting coordinates to the helm."
"Adjusting heading to target location. Two minutes until cloud incursion. Captain, what if they land their blows before we get there?"
"Then I've failed them and you, Ensign."
Two minutes passed where there was no speaking, and no noise on the bridge other than background ambiance. The tension was thick. Inside the concealed room, Remal was holding his breath, just waiting for something to happen. So far there had been little to actually test Mr. House, just obstacles. Now that they were entering the cloud there was a chance at a personal challenge.
"Look sharp. Extend any force fields we can as I guess..sort of mini shields if we can." Dean sighed and shook his head, resting it back. He was starting to dislike this about as much as the Kobiyashi Maru.
Unsure, Remal turned to Savar, "Mini shields? Is that a thing?"
Savar shook his head, "Not that I am aware of. Though it is theoretically possible. I believe Lt. House is using his creativity to the maximum level."
The clouds enveloped the ship. Every so often they would break and roll offering a slight clearing before closing back up again. Electrical discharges scattered across the bow of the Sunfire, illuminating the clouds but also causing havoc with her instruments. Sensors showed only static.
And then there was a red ball of light. "I' m showing a weapons discharge. No explosion yet. Tracking location. 37 degrees to port -7 degrees zed angle." The tac station reported.
He didn't know, he just came up with the idea five seconds ago. Maybe it would work for protection, maybe not. "At least we've got a direction. 43 degrees port and Z minus 3 degrees. One eighth impulse. Check for impulse turns from them also."
"Aye sir. Course corrected. Speed adjusted." The helm offficer announced.
As the ship turned the cloud swirled. Outside in the nebula the cloud released a static discharge, reaching out its tendrils until it found a conduit in the form of the Sunfire. Electricity rocked the ship, sending sparks throughout her systems.
Consoles on the bridge exploded with sparks. The lights went dark before returning at half luminance on emergency power. Several of the bridge crew were thrown from their stations.
That obviously wasn't good. Not having to tell them what to do about the power. Hitting the comms, "Medical to the Bridge." Also moving to help some up after he got up himself. Dean shook his head out a little, wiping the back of his head off. Blood on his hand. Hitting things didn't count as safeties on. "New plan. Ignore the attacker. Engineering get us power back up, make sure those theoretical fields are in place. Helm, head right for the ship. We'll just try to get them and get out of here."
"Umm, yes sir, I'll try sir." the helm officer spoke unsure of herself. There really was little in the way of navigation to go off of. Just a direction of the previous weapons discharge and even that was in flux.
A minute passed and medical arrived on the bridge and began tending to injuries. One came over to Dean and offered to look at his head wound.
Dean let medical give a look at him. No need to dismiss it. "They came in from the opposite direction we did. The ship we're after shouldn't have moved too much. If they can still move probably are trying to get away. Move to Starboard from the last weapons fire reading we got."
"Aye. Resetting telemetry and adjusting our heading to Starboard."
He'd thought about the whole thing being a trap. Though they couldn't risk it. It seemed legit after all, with all the communications back and forth before as well. "Look sharp.."
A minute passed in the silence of the bridge, the tension playing with the nerves of everyone in the room. The next sound heard was the proximity alarm, loud, blaring it's an annoyance. "Captain, sensors indicate a collision course. BRACE! Brace! Brace!" There was no moving, no avoidance, nothing that would save them.
The freighter struck the saucer section in a series of thud thud thuds as it broadsided the ship before a loud disturbing crunch as she slammed into the nacelle pylon, like striking an unarmed missile. The ship shuddered violently, as the pylon was ripped away. Spilling with it, warp plasma, a protect of mixed matter and anti-matter and personnel who were unlucky to have been in that section at the time.
A moment passed, ever so briefly before another alarm blared. Bloody, hurting from being thrown once more, the weapons officer read out his console, "Shields offline, weapons offline, incoming weapons fire detected. Captain, if they hit our plasma trail, we're done for."
That obviously wasn't good at all. There wasn't anything to do about it either. There really wasn't. They were screwed. "Get everyone off of that ship that is alive to escape shuttles. Sound the Evacuation order." Pressing the button once he climbed back up into the chair. "All hands abandon ship. Crew to escape pods. And yes, I'm leaving also. Last one, I'll take the yacht."
No sooner had the evacuation alarm begun blaring when a series of small explosions began hitting the Sunfires hull, a result of weapons fire indiscriminately finding a target. The smaller explosions found the plasma leak which created a concussive shockwave throughout the ships' spaceframe. The resulting fireball tore through the ship eating the oxygen as fuel and consuming everything in it's path until there was nothing left.
The simulation ended leaving nothing but a hologrid behind. That and three men, standing near the center. Remal looked to the computer, "Begin phase two." He announced.
TBC
