Mission 1 - Klingon Neutral Zone - Part 2

[Iar Edra]

"We fly this mission dark from start to finish. We use just enough power for thrusters and the link up to the whiskers." TK explained.

He tapped her lightly on the chest.

Well, his definition and Aislinn's definition of 'lightly' were very different. She struggled to keep from being displaced, and was mostly successful. Since she didn't really get the impression he was trying to be aggressive, she supposed he just didn't know his own strength. Whatever it was, she nodded her understanding of his instructions. "Got it."

"USE THE LIFE SUPPORT IN YOUR SUIT. IT'S MORE THAN ENOUGH TO LAST TILL THE END OF THIS MISSION AND HAS A FRACTION OF THE ENERGY OUTPUT. FOLLOW ME IN AND WHEN YOU GET THE ORDER, FIRE UP THE PHASERS AND PAINT YOUR TARGET. DON'T FIRE ANY LONGER THAN A SECOND AND A HALF; IF THE KLINGONS CAN'T SEE IT BY THEN THEY'RE TOO STUPID TO BE OF ANY HELP ANYWAY. POWER DOWN AND GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE, FULL THRUSTERS IN A RANDOM VECTOR. THE ROMULANS WON'T BOTHER YOU; THEY'LL HAVE MUCH BIGGER PROBLEMS BY THEN. GOT IT?"

And there was the shouting again.

"Fire, paint, second and a half, random vector. Got it." She gave him the thumbs up. He actually made it sound like a viable plan. She started thinking maybe they could make it through this thing.

He slapped her on the shoulder.

"GOOD. NOW MOUNT UP AND LET'S GO BE HEROES."

"Aye, aye, Cowboy." She gave him a wink, then turned to enter her shuttle. She sealed herself in with an offhand thought about possibly never seeing the outside again. Not if she could help it, she thought. She powered her systems up, only as much as she had to, of course.

"BRIDGE, THIS IS MENDOZA. WE'RE READY TO LAUNCH ON YOUR ORDER." she heard from TK.

"You are clear to launch. Good luck to both of you."

She nodded a silent affirmation and followed the Mendoza out of the bay. She peeled off slightly, but they still both headed for the coordinates the whiskers were giving them. She used minimal power to get to her position. She looked out her viewscreen and wished she hadn't. Just the sight of Klingon vessels, even at a distance, were enough to put the fear of God in her.

"Mendoza," Cindy stated calmly, "please start painting the Romulans. Our Klingon friends are going to be here soon and are likely going to start opening fire on us."

Aislinn took a deep breath then fired her spread at the Romulan coordinates for exactly a second and a half. The effect was pretty spectacular, and she realized she had to stop watching and get her back side in gear. She fired her thrusters to take her away from everyone, and hoped the Romulans would be paying more attention to the Klingons at this point.

She hoped this would work.

[T-Prime]

The Romulans had decloaked. Good. They were engaging the Legacy and the Klingon strike force. Perfect. They charged their plasma weapons. Ideal.

TK calculated 4.3 seconds from discharge until they had enough power to fully reinitialize their shields. They fired.

"See you in hell, Assholes!"

TK powered up his engines and hit full impulse in less than 2 seconds. In another 2 seconds the Mendoza had closed the gap and collided with the Romulan vessel engaging the Legacy. After a one second delay timer, the six photon torpedoes TK had ordered loaded onto his vessel detonated. The resulting explosion was, in a word, epic.

[Melissa Richards]

[KendleRJ]

Vodden having taken a quick break as the casualty level had thankfully dropped more then what it had been flipped her own intercom. "Understood Ensign, and thank you for remembering. Do what you need to, and I'll see you when this is over." She ended the transmission.

"Aye, Doc," she said under her breath.

Cindy answered Nav, "We have the images coming on our screens. Thank you, Nav."

"You're welcome, Captain Ma'am," Nav responded, monitoring the whiskers as a sudden and instantaneous whiteness wiped everything from her screen. "Incoming!" she said in response, instincts kicking in as the sensors overloaded and rendered their technology space junk, hanging in space. She had no idea what happened, but it was something big. Who had fired on the Legacy? Well, for that matter, who the hell had fired?

Sitting down at the station, she strapped herself in. With everything that happened the last time she got hurt, she would be damned if she let it happen again. "Get secure," she called out to the Engineers on her floor, not aware that the comm was still open. "This could be rough..."

Understatement? Quite probably yes...

~Tags All

[Azaria]

[Cmdr Phil]

Cindy nodded in agreement. What more could be said. "Team building exercises once we're done with this. Perhaps we should have a bowling league? What do you think of that?" Cindy asked, almost off handedly.

“Bowling…” Phil frowned. “They might not kill each other, but I’m not sure they’d learn much either. I was thinking mountaineering…”

"Sir," Norquay came up beside the XO, "my presence was requested?"

“Front row seat, Lieutenant. We’re either going to make history or die heroically. Either seems worth documenting.” It was hard to tell from his expression whether he was joking.

tag - Norquay

Cindy watched the readouts and noticed that one of the shuttlecrafts was not heading towards the Romulans. It did not take much for her to guess what was happening. She dug her nails more sharply into her thigh. "Damn it, Phil! He's heading towards the Klingons and I can't order him back or it will look we planned an attack against them. He's going to get us all killed!"

“Give him a minute, Captain. His strategic sense has been true so far. Maybe he’s spotted something we haven’t…” Phil set a watch on the errant shuttle, so he could keep a closer track on it if he needed to.

As Norson painted the first Romulan, Cindy called out to the Klingons, "Look at your true enemy! Aim your phasers at it!"

As if realizing there were no other options, now that they were likely to be completely visible, the painted Romulan uncloaked, fired at the Klingons whereas the unpainted Romulan decloaked and fired its plasma torpedo at the three Klingons. Its trajectory was above Williams' shuttle.

Cindy thought, God, I hope our phasers do not overload this time. Hope you did good work, Nav. She then commanded on the open channel to her crew and the Klingons, "Fire into the center of plasma blast with our phasers and a photon torpedo! That should dissipate it!"

The Romulans had decloaked. Good. They were engaging the Legacy and the Klingon strike force. Perfect. They charged their plasma weapons. Ideal.

TK calculated 4.3 seconds from discharge until they had enough power to fully reinitialize their shields. They fired.

As the Romulan ship cycled its power, Mendoza had closed the gap and collided with the Romulan vessel engaging the Legacy. After a one second delay timer, the six photon torpedoes TK had ordered loaded onto his vessel detonated. The resulting explosion was, in a word, epic.

Phil cursed, glanced self-consciously at Norquay’s recording glasses and returned his attention quickly to the business at hand.

[Iar Edra]

After she removed herself and the Laramie from the middle of the action, Aislinn brought the shuttle craft about just in time to see TK power up his engines and hit full impulse in less than 2 seconds. In another 2 seconds the Mendoza had closed the gap and collided with the Romulan vessel engaging the Legacy. After a one second delay timer, the six photon torpedoes TK had ordered loaded onto his vessel detonated. The resulting explosion was, in a word, epic.

Aislinn gasped. She couldn't believe what she had just seen. Really, couldn't believe it. She wasn't sure how long she sat there looking at the aftermath, but she finally blinked herself out of it and got back on track. She knew everything was about to turn into a firestorm, and the big ships weren't going to be worried about a small shuttle, so she kicked her shuttle into impulse power and approached the blast site. She didn't know what she would find, but she had to look. She was also very aware of the situation, so she approached from below the plane of action, hoping that would keep her out of the crossfire, at least somewhat.

There was so much going on, she couldn't figure out where the Mendoza was in all of it. She scanned the entire field anyways. Anything that wasn't the shuttle craft was going to have multiple life signs, if any. So she was looking for one single life sign all by itself...if was going to be there.

<Tag TK>

[Amanda Rose]

Cindy heard the annoying voice of Marian Norquay and pried her claws out of her thigh. We have to look good for the camera, she told herself.

As Norson painted the first Romulan, Cindy called out to the Klingons, "Look at your true enemy! Aim your phasers at it!"

As if realizing there were no other options, now that they were likely to be completely visible, the painted Romulan uncloaked, fired at the Klingons whereas the unpainted Romulan decloaked and fired its plasma torpedo at the three Klingons. Its trajectory was above Williams' shuttle.

Cindy thought, God, I hope our phasers do not overload this time. Hope you did good work, Nav. She then commanded on the open channel to her crew and the Klingons, "Fire into the center of plasma blast with our phasers and a photon torpedo! That should dissipate it!"

The Romulans had decloaked. Good. They were engaging the Legacy and the Klingon strike force. Perfect. They charged their plasma weapons. Ideal.

TK calculated 4.3 seconds from discharge until they had enough power to fully reinitialize their shields. They fired.

As the Romulan ship cycled its power, Mendoza had closed the gap and collided with the Romulan vessel engaging the Legacy. After a one second delay timer, the six photon torpedoes TK had ordered loaded onto his vessel detonated. The resulting explosion was, in a word, epic.

Phil cursed, glanced self-consciously at Norquay’s recording glasses and returned his attention quickly to the business at hand.

Cindy was stunned. Why had Williams flown into the Romulan ship? Why did he not follow orders? Was he dead? She could not answer these questions and even if Williams was alive, Cindy knew that she could not beam him through the shields. Worse, Norquay was watching this and recording this! Cindy knew that she was likely going to have to see the doctor for some treatment for her thigh. Blood was starting to seep through the cuts that she was inflicting with her nails digging into her thighs. There was nothing that could be done for any of it now.

The shields held as the simultaneous volley of firing from the Klingons at Legacy and the Romulans at Legacy and the Klingons. The ship rocked a bit but the Klingons changed their firing direction upon seeing the plasma torpedos coming. Legacy's phaser held and drilled a hole in the plasma discharge large enough so that Legacy was not hit by it. However, one Klingon ship was not fast enough and was disintegrated as the plasma torpedo hit it. The other two Klingons survived, though one was obviously crippled.

The remaining Romulan ship, its primary weapon having been discharged, had no advantage of cloaking. A spike in the energy of the Romulan ship was evident.

Cindy called out urgently, "It is going to self destruct! Norson! Get back here! Now! We have to get to warp before that ship destructs!"

tag - Norson

She turned to Phil and asked, "Estimation on time to self destruct of the Romulan ship based on the energy spike?"

tag - Phil

Commanding Phil and Luke, she stated, "Plot a course back to our side of the neutral zone, closest point and as soon as Norson's back on, get us out of here!"

tag - Luke/Phil

[Iar Edra]

The remaining Romulan ship, its primary weapon having been discharged, had no advantage of cloaking. A spike in the energy of the Romulan ship was evident.

Cindy called out urgently, "It is going to self destruct! Norson! Get back here! Now! We have to get to warp before that ship destructs!"

Aislinn looked at other readings her shuttle was gathering, and sure enough, the energy levels of that Romulan ship were peaking. But somewhere in there was TK...or possibly what was left of TK. She imagined that somewhere he had family, and even if he didn't make it, wouldn't they want his body?

At the point something on her console beeped, so she checked it. "Yes!" She'd found the Mendoza...well, what remained. She enhanced the sensors, but still wasn't picking up a life sign. She may have growled. The Captain was waiting for her. She could almost see her tapping her foot. Well, she had to make a decision, so she just locked onto whatever was in the cockpit of the shuttle and beamed it onto hers, then without looking to see what, if anything, she got, she turned and headed for the Legacy's shuttle bay as fast as she could.

"On my way." She communicated to the bridge. "I may need a doctor in the shuttle bay, I pulled whatever I could from Williams' shuttle, and I don't even know what I have."

Thirty-two seconds later she flew into the shuttle bay and landed the Laramie.

<tag all>

[Melissa Richards]

Lt. Cmdr Jill Vodden
CMO

"On my way." She communicated to the bridge. "I may need a doctor in the shuttle bay, I pulled whatever I could from Williams' shuttle, and I don't even know what I have."

Thirty-two seconds later she flew into the shuttle bay and landed the Laramie.


Vodden had gotten the word to report to the shuttle bay. Why she had no idea, hopefully not more mass casualties. It'd taken them awhile to settle things down, now, at least she had brought it to a dull roar.

She stood now waiting as the shuttle came in with a small medic team. "Stand by for casualties.." she ordered. "As soon as the door opens.."

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