The Unlikely Savior, Part 2

Posted on Thu 18th Nov, 2021 @ 11:40pm by Exo-Comp EXQT & Captain Jason Harrington
Edited on on Sat 20th Nov, 2021 @ 6:41am

1,382 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: A Good Day to Hunt
Location: Antero
Timeline: MD 1, 2300

Previously ...

Mia was out of danger, but trapped near the Exo-Comps by a crimped exit in the bulkhead. All she could do was crouch down behind a table and hope to be able to defend herself if one of the boarding party managed to come through that exit. Coms to the bridge weren't working, and she didn't know what was happening with Jason.

"Nessy? Anyone?" she hissed into her wrist band. "Did we get that message sent?"

***

{Suv'Wi}

J'alla squelched the incoming video feed for anyone else to see, announcing loudly for the blinded Captain, "Sire, The Antero bridge is under direct assault, Stikk, and Anslo have fallen, K'or now battles with their commander."

H'tek mumbled, to himself, Anslo... 'SuvwI'pu' qantu'lu'be'.'* before mustering something beyond rage and self-pity. "Heghlu'DI' mobbe'lu'chughQaQqu' HeghwanI'.** Fire on the Antero, carve out their engines!"

Systems began flickering in response to power fluctuations. Gravity cut out in an instant.

Anslo came over the comms, and J'alla kept the channel muted. A text entry of the dialogue relayed the message,

Your treachery know no bounds, to deny H'tek a prize such as this for your own petty station marks you as the lowly beast you are. I have engaged remote Command of->

J'alla was curious why the message was cut off, but only for a moment as more systems failed throughout the ship.

H'tek growled, "Restore inertial dampeners immediately, bleed life support if you must. We cannot lose this ship, too much has been lost already! Re-orient for focus fire, allocate power from the Weapons joint fire command to auxiliary systems, Set Primary Canon for precision and take the damned shot!"

J'alla was trying to keep up with the orders but there was a remote lock-out, and even the buttons on her console stopped responding. The Antero hadn't even fired weapons, shoring up their shields made them hard to hurt as well. This coup of hers was improvised and rushed, but the pieces were all still here.

Gunnery on Klingon vessels is advanced, and dedicated to firing even if the rest of the ship is in pieces. Despite the systems issues, their primary canon had its own brain and used a capacitor for ready-fire swift response. J'alla had one shot, but it was a powerful one at 5,700,000 TJ. Not even a Galaxy class starship could shrug that one off, the Antero would be skewered.

***
{Antero Bridge}

Zombie had limited power, repulsors were a huge drain but with Gravity reduced, simple pulses were enough to propel it. The fearsome firefight was detectable, but Peggy's directive had been a Command Imperative. A video feed showed a weapon trained on the Captain, but zombie had few options. Discarding the plasma projector was necessary, the weight would have slowed it too much. But now without raw materials or power there wasn't much to replicate.

A memory from the Suv'wi came to Zombie as it saw the Mek'leth on the ground. In an instant, Zombie began manufacturing the blade, power dipping to 2% in the process. It materialized in the chamber, and the cilia internally arranged the point directly in front. The one holding the pistol was talking into a comm, the other one was struggling to rise to its feet. Zombie selected a target and poured all of its power into the repulsors and accelerated to 48 Kph.

Anslo was mid-sentence as the doors to the bridge opened seemingly in concert with a gunmetal streak of motion, coming right at him. Despite the rocking ship, Anslo's aim shifted to the streak and he shot the scatter shot ineffectively at the small deadly drone. Anslo dodged in the way direction of the captain, trying to get his phaser, hoping the drone would stop if the captain was in the line of fire. He didn't realize how desperate the little guy was and the low power meant it literally couldn't slow down.

Anslo managed to dodge the knife, but a heavy massive thing like Zombie impacting him at near 40 Kph was no joke either. Ribs cracked, lungs emptied, he felt his body twist unnaturally. He briefly lost consciousness, and only came to a moment longer to be aware of his capture. He tried in vain to stay awake and rally the day, delivering the Antero was his ticket back to the Suv'Wi, but biology dictated its usual response and forced his eyes closed.

***

Peggy dispatched Nessy to relay messages to Miarau. Central Computers were occupied with assisting Banshee in disrupting the Suv'Wi. Opening a channel had allowed Antero's Watchdog AI access to their systems. What made "Watchdog" so damned effective was its immune system response training,

"Attack anything that's not the Antero." Banshee unleashed it in the Suv'wi systems and simply let it go. Nobody on that ship was a computer specialist and they had no choice but to let it happen.

Nessy projected a holo image of the bridge, Anslo lay unconscious, Jason and a Klingon were in a standoff. Peggy was piloting to put anything between them or twist out of target lock.

"A message was sent yes! Receipt by unknown parties is unknown. Peggy requires assistance for targeting and piloting, there are inadequate resources for our performance alone."

Relaxing slightly, Mia breathed, Thank the powers that may be. She stood and walked to the wall com.

"Peggy, I'm stuck in the auxiliary lab, can't get the exit open. Can you hear me?" Mia tried the com. It had been damaged by the same blast that took out her exit, and her shoulders slumped. She had no idea what was going on anywhere on the ship.

Peggy relayed another message for Miarau as the comms were still out, Nessy showed the open commline allowing Banshee to attack their systems, and then highlighted the Suv'Wi primary canon, "Suv'wi has weapons lock on our engines, this is their usual method to disable vessels. High capacity Nadion-reinforced Disruptor Beam Array Type IX. Shields will not be sufficient!"

Banshee had the answer, "Access granted to detection grid-" and announced its results at the same time as power cut out to the whole ship, and fire erupted from consoles all around them.

Peggy got her message through to Merel, and then all the officer heard was the sound of explosion and flames. Is it all over for us? she wondered.

***
{Suv'Wi}

The Suv'Wi fired its precision beam at the Antero, with a nine arcsecond timespan, half of it was lost to evasive maneuvers, but the rest found hull and boiled armor away. The Antero's warp drive was out of the question, and victory was assured. J'alla smiled to herself and just before she could turn and smugly announce herself as the new second in command the boards went dark. Their sensors had gone blind.

"J'alla? Report!?"

She swallowed deeply, wondering if this day would end with another combat. Failure was usually met with execution, so she made the truth work for her.

"The Antero is crippled, but we are still in pursuit. They have caused sensor blinds but cannot escape, we have crippled their warp drive but the ship is intact."

H'tek grunted, "jachSuvwI' 'e' yIQoy!*** Have Gathon run the firewall! Our computers are compromised."

Computer security was something Anslo had done, and she realized nobody else came close. They had to destroy the Antero or kill Anslo, whichever came first.

***

{Antero Bridge}

Anslo was inert on the ground, Zombie was barely able to move. K'or had found his feet and was in the process of retrieving his Mek'leth off the ground.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I have an itchy trigger finger and will be more than happy to send you to Sto'Vo'Kor or Hell, whichever one you deserve the most." Jason figured he would probably be going to the later one. He stood about 3 meters in front of K'or and had his remaining phaser trained on him and it was still set to kill. He wasn't eager to kill the Klingon just to give him an honorable death, however, he was ready to defend himself and his ship if there was no other choice.

To Be Continued ....


*There are no old warriors.
**Death is an experience best shared.
***Hear the warrior cry out!

 

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