Rescued! (Pt. 1)

Posted on Thu 26th Dec, 2024 @ 11:41am by Commander Heriah Rex & Commodore H'tek
Edited on on Wed 1st Jan, 2025 @ 6:32pm

1,535 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Phoenix Gamble
Location: Deep inside Romulan Imperial Remnant territory

-Start-

{FSC Ticonderoga}

The power systems struggled mightily to recover, but the dual harassment of the Romulan light raider and H’tek in his Hot Rod heavy cruiser worked in concert to keep them suppressed.

“We have a series of power banks recharging along our interior core, Will give us limited power in minute-long durations, per bank ahhhh, twelve in all.” Sepp read the report to Izwyx, who coordinated the battle using small craft to harass and create cover.

“When do I get them?!” She initiated a plan where the two dozen runabouts to her complement remaining feigned a retreat, the light raider took the somewhat obvious ploy. It was informative to see that H’tek was not coordinating or moving to cover its ally. Was this actually a fight between three parties?

“Sepp, analyze battle to date, is this raider in a team, a vassal to, or was H’tek trailing to ambush them once they got far enough out?”

Fouran answered her first question. "One power bank is at 80% and useable now, next is in fifteen seconds.”

He gave her the button on her command display to press and activate the reserve power systems manually. She began to piece a plan together. The power bank could discharge immediately. There’d be little warning, but not enough firepower off the shot to wound the Heavy. She had one shot at a time.

“Captain, I think you’re onto something, H’tek has not sent a single communication to the Romulan vessel. Neither vassal nor ally is a fair observation.”

“Give me two half-power shots; channel the raider into the grapplers. If H’tek frees them we are no worse off…”

She configured the shots and showed her plan to Sepp Agandar, “Miss, or hit lightly we need them intact.”

He nodded, opening comms and adding, “Security teams to HardHold.”

She smiled at him, always a step ahead but somehow still at her side. HardHold was a secured deck, where incoming transporter beams were routed to if from outside. The ship was brimming with anti-transportations effects; the beam had only one place to go.

Two more punishing volleys from H’tek set their dorsal anterior raised portion quarter on fire. It had been evacuated, so she paid it no mind other than to note for automated systems. Her eyes were on the prize of the light raider. The Heavy had inflicted its damages and moved off. The Raider tried to take advantage of the shattered armor but was shocked by three phaser shots in succession. The power of the star cradle visibly dimmed on the third shot, but the third one also forced the G’konn into a proximity of the Ticonderoga’s grapplers.

Like a spider pouncing on a fly, the rescue appendages and grappler assists fired to snatch the G’konn. The physical attachments held it into ideal place, as the tendrils worked their way into the systems of the poor raider. As they predicted, H’tek made no move to assist; instead, they took more shots at the owner relays in a grid across the vast surface. Several internal confinement fields dropped, and incoming signals were seen re-routing to HardHold.

“Incoming boarders, Rend and Tear Security teams!”

Izwyx wasted no time, “Tear out the shield generator, beam them to the brig,” referring to the Romulans.

With a near-frenzied energy she also ordered, “…then plug right in to their Singularity drive.”

{Suv’Wi}

H’tek laughed in a roar, “Fools should have taken the fire head on, they changed course and were eaten alive.” He looked at his weapons officer, “Continue disabling their primary systems, Power junctures, whatever is scrambling our transporters.”

Anslo looked on in horror, they had set over a quarter of this massive vessel on fire. He set targets for obvious power junctions; there were hundreds of them!

“Sir, this is too big; we invite war,” he spoke directly to H’tek, “Thunderchild is still underway to this location, despite the mine we left. We will be out gunned in twelve minutes.”

H’tek knew the truth much better these days. Anslo was no coward; this was sage advice. “Thank you, Anslo. Prepare a portal and tow the freighter. We must be gone before the Thunderchild arrives!”

Glad to be heard, Anslo stood abruptly, “It will be done!”

{Ticonderoga}

“Captain, looks like they’ve finished with us,” Fouran noted in a wry laconic manner. Izzy saw the Heavy pulling away, latching onto Xon Halliar and pulling away.

“Power bank is ready for use!”

As much as she wanted to fire, there was a larger strategy at play.

“Route to shields, Facing. Status on Raider core?”

“It’s very complicated!” Her engineering team rarely did anything in unison; she took that as a win.

“On my mark, surge forward at 1/4 Impulse, two seconds. Lock on grapplers to Heavy Cruiser, fire impulse, one quarter in reverse. That'll exhaust us, but looks like the next bank is charged in twelve! But get the power flowing, for Gods sake!”

For ten minutes Ticonderoga struggled to gain access to the Light Raider, it was her chief of security interrogating Lidokh of the Romulan vessel which yielded command codes. Ten minutes of shifting shields to cover firing patterns, confusing their sensors, but there was ultimately one last defensive measure to deploy, and she hated it. The fighter complement on board was meant for this, but required pilots. Automation meant their fighters could be commandeered. Every single fighter launched was a potential for death she felt the risk was never justified for.

So it was with great dismay she ordered, "Pilots to DAP, deploy immediately."

Thirty-three launches confirmed, eleven groups of three, trios of wingmen designed to keep the station safe when mobile, rarely launched in the depths of space.

From the Suv'wi, an inexplicable result in response was made. Drones folded to stack efficiently were dropped in their wake. A gross of small fighters swarmed space, and sublight battle royale began.

Izzy saw power flood back into much deprived systems. Weapons had been mostly hit, but there was something like seventy strips and phaser emplacements, firing arcs existed. Sepp Agandar had his chance one more.

“Firing, pulsed shots!” Five-second beams chopped into fifty pulses fired out to canvas where the cloaked Cruiser had taken a towing position. Though individually weaker, Sepp’s targeting algorithm dialed them in for so many strikes in a row it became a sign of true master work. Unprepared, their foe fell into a listless powerless drift for a moment before snapping into control and reaffirming the harassing posture.

“Another series available in fifteen seconds.” Ops called out; she knew it from her board anyway.

This had a cadence she could dance to, she glanced at her board and saw Thunderchild barreling in at 9.93.

“Do your worst H’tek, I can hold this line til help gets here.”

{Thunderchild}

The Thunderchild flashed into existence. Its hull had obvious scarring and scouring. None of its lights were on or flashing. No lights from within showed any form of illumination.

The entity saw that all the debris from when she initiated warp stayed where it lay as she had reinstated the inertial dampeners en route. She quickly sent power to the shields and all remaining power to the phaser banks.

"Let's see. These nacelles are no longer needed, so take power from those. Those red dots will not know what hit them."

She sought out the closest red dot that the sensors were picking up and targeted an enemy fighter craft off the port bow.

To all who saw the Thunderchild suddenly arrive, and those with a good view of it, the port bow phase cannon lit up. A wide and bright red, nearly white, beam emanated forth, striking the nearby fighter. The shields held up for all of half of a second before flicking out. The ultra-bright phaser beam connected with and engulfed the whole of the enemy fighter craft. There came an explosion but even that was swept away in the phaser flood that flowed forth. The beam continued for another second before winking out. The port bow phase cannon sparked and exploded as the phaser beam expired. Debris ventured away from the Thunderchild along with part of the hull, leaving what appeared akin to a black crater in the hull of the Thunderchild where that phase cannon used to be.

"Ok," said the entity over the Thunderchild's internal comms. She started making adjustments. "That was too much power. Half that, next time."

The Thunderchild used its navigation thrusters and impulse engines to move about. It fired a spread of 4 torpedoes upon the next closest red dot displayed on its view screen. And another fighter became recipient of another bright red beam of phaser fire. That vessel too, lost its shields and exploded. The firing phase cannon sparked likewise but did not explode. It did show considerable charring and did not move anymore. The next phaser beam, from another and functional phase cannon, showed less bright and not as wide. It appeared more on par with standard phase cannon report regulations. More torpedoes fired. The Thunderchild appeared as though enjoying itself.

-TBC-

 

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