Shields up

Posted on Sun Oct 2nd, 2022 @ 6:23pm by Captain Xavier Carey & Lieutenant Commander Tony Johnson & Lieutenant Etan tar-Lexros

Mission: The Lost Brother
Location: bridge
Timeline: Coincides with the rescue away team

Xavier walked onto the bridge, he looked around Chief ops was at his station also taking on a bit of the engineering duty, since Lt Waynes transfer. Helping lt Geiger. Commander Johnson was in centre seat, with Doctrine, and Stoffels off ship that made him second in command.

"Commander, whats the news on the teams?" He asked walking around the rail.

Etan looked back toward Commander Johnson and shook his head before turning back to his panel, a silent indication that nothing had yet come in. As far as the field-uprated sensors could tell, nothing was decidedly wrong yet, but there was no news. Having taken up Engineering responsibility as well, even here on the Bridge he was assigning repair and service tickets. All the little fluctuations of a Galaxy-class ship needed to be reviewed, and soon, to make sure the ship was in fighting shape when the time came. He'd calmed down a little since his arrival, but that wasn't hard.

Commander Johnson stood up removing himself from the center chair. "Nothing yet Sir. Still a waiting game."

"Captain, three klingon bird of preys decloaking starboard." Ensign Taylor replied from tactical. This was meant to be the easy part of the mission, however, that was not going to be the case. "Weapons are hot, shields are up."

With three klingon bird of preys, he turned to Johnson, "Better take the guns." He replied as he stood from the chair.

Lt. Tar-Lexros had to stop his hands from shaking and look down to the ops board as the Klingons decloaked. The thought that they could get into a fight - could even die - was in the front of his mind, and there was a wave of very sudden fear. That was when he realized what that flashing light meant "Captain, the lead Klingon ship is hailing." That galvanized him and he was starting to scan the enemy, and their systems.

"Understood." Xavier replied as he pulled his shirt down, and sat back in his chair. "On screen."

The screen came up and an elder klingon sat. "I am Captain Kurak of the Klingon Defence force. Commander of the IKS Trenoch With whom am I speaking."

"Captain Xavier Carey, of starfleet obviously. USS Resolution."

Kurak paused a moment, "Xavier Carey son of Tyler Greyson. Slaughterer of innocents."

"I see you have been talking to Captain Drex." He paused, and motioned for Johnson to mute the communication. "Have you searched for weak points in their systems."

As soon as Johnson muted the comms, Etan looked up. "Yes sir. They're old D-12 class Birds of Prey. If we can get the ships in close, they're vulnerable to the Aberdeen pattern of attack, which would disable the fleet. Additionally, They have a minor imbalance in their warp field to the starboard side - if we were to activate our field in phase with theirs at about 900 millicochranes, we could potentially collapse the artificial singularity, leaving them on battery supply only. That could also create a micronova and suck the ship into itself. Additionally, their weapons power systems are prioritized over shield generation; a common factor in older Klingon designs. If we can weather a blast - and we can unless they've done some very odd uprates, we can disable their shields completely and beam their command crew aboard with a single phaser strike. The other ships are very similar. Also, we can outspeed them. They're only capable of Warp 9 for a short time, and cruise for them is Warp 3, due to magnetic constraints on their cores."

With a nod, the link was on again. "I apologize Captain Kurak, just having my officers determine the weak points of your ships. As I am sure you are doing the same with mine."

Kurak smiled, "You know my people too well Captain, however, with the Khitomer accords now in effect, it would bring my house further dishonour. There is a larger enemy on the horizon."

"Then what are you doing here." Xavier asked still suspicious.

"Ha' ghu'vamvaD ghumbogh 'e' yIchaw'" The apparent first officer replied approaching.

Smiling, "Commander Johnson, it appears that we have the people responsible for us being here."

Etan didn't even think twice, immediately calling a reconfiguration of the main deflector to a tachyon emission. Textbook knowledge was all he had to go on, but against ships that were a generation out of date, the Ops officer knew what he was doing. "Captain. Photon and Tachyon beam sensors online."

"Drex may have forgiven. But the House of Kurak does not. For my house."

Sighing. "Red alert. Target those weaknesses."

"Sir?" The ensign from the tactical replied confused.

"Their first officer was just reporting that their warriors are losing on the surface." Xavier replied

Nodding, the ensign hit the red alert button. "Shields up. Weapons are at the ready Captain."

"Three against one. State of the art vs three old run down, yet reliable bird of preys." he paused thinking about it, the chances. Klingons were fierce warriors. Admired for their lengths they would take to win a battle. "Lt Tar-Lexros... hail them again, give them a chance to surrender."

Etan nodded, and opened the channel, speaking calmly. "Captain of Klingon vessel. This is the Chief of Starship Operations, Federation Starship Resolution. The Captain has instructed me to request your surrender. Please stand down weapons and lower shields."

The response in Klingon was so vulgar, and so full of regional invective, that the Universal Translator simply refused to translate other than 'No'. Etan looked back at the Captain, his white eyebrow smoothly raised. "Captain, the Klingons are refusing to surrender."

"Didn't think they would, Ensign, target the lead ship, main weapons." He walked over to the chair and sat down. "Lt send out a ship wide message informing that we will be engaging the klingons."

With phasers now lancing out through space, Etan had already sent messages to his staff to move to battle stations. Phaser crews had reported ready long ago, the torpedo autoloaders were set. Still, he opened the shipwide comm. "This is the Bridge. We are currently engaging an enemy Klingon vessel. All non-essential personnel, please move to sheltered areas. All crew, report to battlestations immediately. Security teams, pass out hand weapons, prepare for possible boarding."

"Ships are decloaking I have no targets Captain."

Sighing... "Who taught them how to fight, the romulans." He replied. "They will show themselves shortly, Ensign, just look for some anomolies. Anything that might seem out of the ordinary."

"Aye sir." He turned back to the console.

"Lt. Have you examined their ships?"

Etan nodded. "Yes, sir. As stated, they match the D-12 class of Bird of Prey, Federation call name Dinosaur. They have a magnetic imbalance due to their singularity cores, and their plasma cells emit both photons and tachyons under cloak. Science teams are already scanning for them; that data is feeding directly into Phaser Control." He tapped a button and sent the data stream to the Tactical system. For a man who was openly spooked as a fight started, Etan had proven why he was good enough to be the Ops officer of a Galaxy-class ship. He'd already predicted the need, and seen to it. The fact that his staff had come to understand his thinking helped; and they had, doubtless, been working on it as soon as the tickets were issued. "Additionally, sir, their weapons and shields show heavy wear; I would suspect that they have been used for House 'honor battles'. I'm attempting to match shields to counter-phase their shots."

"They stopped using those years ago." He paused, "something tells me they are not following the empires orders. The empire has ordered all D12s destroyed."

"Bird of prey decloaking Captain..." Taylor replied, he locked onto the ship, fired, but missed. The Resolution shook slightly at the klingons first wave of volleys, however.

"Ensign, are you operating on manual targetting or computer assisted targeting." Xavier inquired as the ship jolted again. Judging from the console, the ensign still had it in manual. He also realized that the three klingon ships were all decloaked once again.

Etan looked over at the Ensign. "Ensign - computer assist will follow the data from Phaser Control and the main deflector. Suggest you change over to it. Additionally, cloaked vessels of that era will respond to photon torpedo emissions. Fire on proximity."

"Yes sir, turning on computer assisted now." He replied, obviously embarassed. "Firing again." Within a few seconds "Direct hit... their shields are down to 85 percent. Lead ship."

"That's a start."

"Volley of torpedoes headed our way Captain. Brace for impact."

"Wagnor to Resolution, three to beam directly to Sickbay."

"Acknowledged." Xavier replied, "give us a few seconds, we are a bit busy..."

The ship rocked as the torpedoes hit. "I guess they found a weak spot."

"Direct hit to Deck seven Captain."

"Get repair crews to deck 7. Beaming now Commander." Xavier replied and lowered shields to enable transport. The ship shook violently the lights flickered. But remained on. He turned the shields back up.

"Status report Lt."

Etan glared at his board and shook his head. "Apologies for delays, Captain. Wireless comms are down, I'm pushing data through ODN fiber only. We're seeing a lot of traffic across the ship net. Teams are setting up backup communication beacons with reconfigured probes now." He paused. "Captain, shield weakness that allowed the hit has been identified. Realigning shields now, auxillary power is online and running. Secondary shield generators online. Suggest we launch a shuttle on autopilot to reinforce shields. Life support reports all-clear. Shuttlebay ready to launch secondary craft as needed. Transporters online, our best tech is on. ACBs are synced to shield-phase."

"Ensign, phasers full spread, torpedoes fire them all. Aim for their engines."

When Carey suggested that, Etan actually took note of what he'd been saying about the Dinosaurs and blinked. "Sir! Suggest you belay and use Mutara Maneuver - move at Warp 1 on Z-Axis to exacerbate the imbalance in their singularities! Dinosaur has physical ablative armor over their engines."

"Ensign Element, the mutara maneuver." Xavier replied

As the Ensign punched in the commands, Etan was clearing off data lines and getting his staff to move all station reports to subnets only, with the Ops ODN net being the only place to get reports out or in aside from Bridge commands. The repairs were happening gradually, and backups were lighting up across the ship. There was an odd, almost ballet-like beauty to the proceedings; and it allowed tar-Lexros to stay in his groove rather than focus on the life and death situation around them. "Captain. Science reports, plasma emissions from lead vessel are growing. We'll be able to resolve it visually soon. Backup intersection communications will be ready in approximately one minute. Deck 7 forward reports - we were hit, no breach, but the SIF took the shot hard. Reinforcing. Engine room reports, no damage to warp core." He glanced over to the Tactical officer, who was trying his best with the limited information his panel could give him.

A moment later, the ship rocked again as the Klingons loosed another volley - but the shaking was less pronounced. The disruptor blasts seemed weaker, and the shields seemed stronger. Etan looked up again.

"Captain, we're seeing power losses across their systems - I believe their singularities are collapsing."

"Understood Lt." He replied as he turned to the Ensign. "Ensign, keep targetting their engines. Lt contact lead ship... lets offer them another way out..."

TAG

The Captain of the ship came on, clearly frustrated. "If this call is nothing but a surrender, it is pointless Captain."

"Sensors show your systems are starting to fail Captain. I offer you a way out." He paused as he turned. "You say the house of Kurak does not forgive... How many are left in the house of Kurak."

"Myself, a sister, and my son." His eyes narrowed.

Xavier leaned forward, "The house of Kurak will be greatly diminished if they lose the leader of the house."

Kurak silent looked over off screen. He growled... "Very well Captain... however this is not over. This is bigger than what you know. We know of your mission. We know who you are rescuing. Might I suggest inquire the nature of said mission."

Xavier paused he turned to the Lt. "Whats their status."

Etan took a deep breath as the enemies started to pull away, looking over at Ensign Element beside him briefly. After a nod, he turned back to the Captain. "They appear to be retreating, Captain. Weapons are still up."

"Doubt its the last we have seen of them." Xavier replied as he turned to the ensign. "Stand down red alert. Lt. Whats the status of the Communications."

Etan let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding as he pushed the stand-down command across the ship's net; it would take a while to propagate, but it was out there for the computer to read. When asked about the Communications system, he shook his head. "Still down, Captain. Repair teams are suggesting that the faster solution would be using one of the shuttles as a relay. Permission to establish backup relay?"

"Make it happen Lt." Xavier replied as he felt tension release. The battle was quicker than he would have expected. Klingons never give up that easy. It was odd to say the least. But he doubted the reason would stay secret for too long.