Imperium

Posted on 04 Feb 2018 @ 6:34am by Rear Admiral Azura Ashcart & Lieutenant Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide

3,341 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Errand of Mercy
Location: The Romulan Border
Timeline: ED7: 1000

The Sovereign-class USS Archer had been assigned to front lines to patrol the former Romulan border along with several other combat vessels as a show of force against the sixth fleet. Thus far, Starfleet had devoted a great number of vessels to this cause. The loss of the USS Yorktown had created a sense of urgency within the ranks of Starfleet and a desire to take the sixth fleet seriously. The atmosphere on the Archer was tense, although the crew did their best to remain jovial, but each knew that at a moments notice, the sixth fleet could appear and they could be the next Yorktown.

The bridge was quiet, except for the chirping sounds of consoles as each of the bridge officers tended to their stations observing the readings. The silence was interrupted by a reading from the tactical officer.

"Captain, I'm getting a reading, it appears a ship is decloaking to our port." he reported.

"Yellow alert." he called out causing the ship's shields to come online and weapons to be brought to ready status. "Inform the other ships in the area we have made contact with a cloaked ship."

The bridge instantly sprang to life as the yellow hue engulfed the bridge. The bridge officers began to work frantically to gain any sort of information on the approaching vessel.

"Sir! The ship, I've never seen anything like it. It's not registering in any of our databases." The tactical officer commented as he began to scan the vessel looking for identifiers.

The captain thought, "Helm, evasive maneuvers Hera three." the ship banked away and spun on it's x axis putting distance between them and moving shield facings so any incoming damage could be spread across all shield faces.

"Sir, I've got some preliminary readings. The ship is over 1400 metres in length. It's emitting large amounts of tachyon particles, I can't seem to identify armaments or shielding." The tactical officer reported.

"Sir!" exclaimed the ops officer. "We are being hailed."

"On screen." the captain tugged at his tunic to straighten it as he looked ahead.

The blank screen was replaced by an image of a middle aged man in a standard federation uniform with a black collar, pips denoting the rank of Vice Admiral staring back at him. The man had slightly thinning brown hair with some silver streaking with no attention paid to styling. His face was covered with a stubble beard and gentle wrinkling doing nothing to hide the arrogant smile he beamed out to the Captain of the Archer. His deep brown eyes pierced through the viewscreen to the Captain as if they were scanning his soul.

Behind him, the bridge was darkened with only a few small coloured lights visible displaying no detractions from the Admiral. This communication was all about the man before the Captain. "Captain, my name is Vice Admiral Caleb Severide of the USS Imperium. To whom do I owe the pleasure of meeting today?" he asked.

Captain Franklin looked at his XO, the look informing him that there was something wrong. Franklin tapped a few commands into his chair display and spoke. "I am Captain Timothy Franklin of the USS Archer. How may I help you today Admiral?" he put the proper inflection in his tone as a Captain would to an Admiral.

The Admiral snickered as he stroked his stubble beard. "Captain Franklin, can't say I've heard of you. Either way, you've already done exactly what I needed you to do, you're here. You see, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm not like your average Starfleet Admiral, I don't sit behind a desk and give orders while the real leaders, such as yourself go on the front lines and get slaughtered like cattle. I like to take a much more hands on approach, you see when I need someone dead, I'll at least give them the courtesy of looking them in the eye before I kill them." Caleb snickered.

"Captain, there is no listing for a USS Imperium in the Federation database." The tactical officer reported to Franklin.

"Of course there isn't!" Severide exclaimed. "That's because it isn't a federation starship."

He blinked rapidly and looked cross-way at his XO he had heard of an Admiral Severide before and there was an order to secure him sent down from the highest levels of Star Fleet. This Admiral on a ship that didnt exist made him immediately jump to Sixth Fleet.

"I see, then what manner of ship is it?" he asked cautiously.

"Oh this little thing?" he snickered as he looked around the room he was in before returning his gaze to Franklin. "This lovely piece of engineering was modelled after the very ship you stand on right now. Of course, I may have added a few little things to it and gave her just a bit of extra room." he sneered.

"Obviously Admiral, that is clear from looking at her. As well as an added center nacelle."

"HA!" Caleb threw back a hearty laugh. "That's not even the best part."

"Sir, two defiant class ships have just emerged from the ship." The tactical officer reported as he worked fervorously to retrieve any information he could on the ship.

Caleb's smile suddenly disappeared, his face now expressionless as he stared down Franklin.

"What, Admiral, do you want?" the Captain asked as he typed in a few other commands into his command chair that sent orders to tactical and helm. Helm to prepare to go to warp and tactical to target the warp nacelles of the Imperium.

"You to die Captain, you and everyone on that ship." he said ominously.

"Sir! The ship is powering weapons!" The tactical officer exclaimed.

"Now." the Captain said calmly as the view of the Admiral winked out and the three ships before them took over the screen.

"Target the nacelles try and take out their warp drive. Helm get us the hell out of here. Comms, log the last five minutes of conversation and any and all scans we got of that damned ship and send to Star Fleet!" The Archer pivoted again broadsiding the Imperium with all phasers. The large ship's shields flared but didn't buckle as the Archer jumped to warp.

Vice Admiral Severide raised his brows as he watched the Archer disappear on his viewscreen. "Recall the Lucifer and the Night Star. Set a pursuit course." He said calmly folding his arms behind him.

"Captain, the two defiant class ships are returning to the.. Imperium. They are setting a pursuit course and engaging." the tactical officer called out.

"Very well, Ops, prepare a cascading repeater beacon, make that every one we have. I want you do send them out in every direction. Load each with all of the information on the ship and our interaction with them thus far. Launch them when ready, program one to remain inactive for three hours after launch and have the rest of them go active immediately." the Franklin called out as he looked over the specs of the ship they were sure to be fighting soon.

"Admiral, the Archer is launching repeater beacons." The tactical officer reported to Severide.

"Good." he said turning around approaching his chair before taking it. "Let's make sure the message gets out. Arm the Phase Beam." Severide said smugly as he watched the fleeing Federation vessel on his viewscreen.

Franklin sat in the center chair and watched the tactical readout and listened to the cacophony of voices calling out the various statuses of the ships systems. "Bridge to Engineering, push the core to it's max. We need room get us to maximum warp."

Caleb smiled as he watched the Archer speed ahead of him. He folded his hands together and let out a soft, sinister laugh. "That's right Captain, get the message out. Let Starfleet see the face to which it will see it's demise. Helm, match speed and course."

The Captain spoke up to the tactical officer. "Prepare to shift all shields to rear when the Imperium catches up with us, also prepare any torpedo countermeasures." he shifted his attention back to the helmsman "When the Imperium catches up with us begin zig-zag maneuvers. Five warp jumps for thirty seconds each, each time we come out of warp shift down bubble 90 degrees and off axis port or starboard 100 to 90 degrees. Then resume sub-light zig-zag."

Severide let out a loud audible yawn. "Ok I'm officially bored. Lock weapons onto their warp core. Just enough to knock them out of warp, but please for the love of god don't kill them."

The Imperium locked onto the fleeing Sovereign-Class vessel launching three quantum torpedoes striking the Yorktown with a thunderous volley of blasts.

The Archer shuddered and dropped out of warp, Franklin turned his head to get a report from his tactical officer as he issued orders to his helmsman.

"Report! Helm, change course 300 mark 4 engaged at best possible speed, rotate us on the x axis to move our shield facing."

"Sir, the volley has destablized the warp core, shields are at 82 percent at current weapons online."

"Fire at will." Franklin ordered as the Archer banked to head towards the nebula and began to roll presenting a stronger shield towards the dreadnaught.

As the volley of phaser beams and torpedoes struck the shields of the Imperium, the large dreadnaught shook lightly. "Sir, shields still holding." the tactical officer reported.

Severide snickered as he expected no less. It would take more then a few quantum torpedoes to get through the advanced defensive systems of the Imperium. "Take out their sensors, then find something else useless to hit."

"Sir?" The tactical officer replied confused by the order.

"A field test, Lieutenant. Let's see if they can even scratch the paint. Can't waste the opportunity. Otherwise we'd have to destroy ANOTHER Federation ship."

The tactical officer obliged targeting the Archer's navigational sensors.

The Archer continued its evasive maneuvers rolling on its axis and constantly shifting the shields facing the Imperium. All the while making way towards the nebula.

Franklin went through the tactical situation and knew the other ship was playing with them, toying like a cat will a mouse. He nodded to himself and ordered the ship to release a masking radiation into the air of the ship which would obsfucate the lifesigns of the crew.

He pressed the button that opened the shipwide intercom.

"All hands prepare to abandon ship." He then ordered the computer to deactivate the automated distress and homing beacons on the lifepods and turned to his XO.

"I know what your going to say but get everyone ready to get off the ship. Once we get into the nebula, spread the word complete radio silence for 48 hours." He paused "Except for your team. I want you to go active after I take the ship out of the nebula. Maybe if he hunts a few down he will miss the others."

The ship shook again as another volley of weapons fire rocked the Archer. He watched the readout of how close the Archer was to the sensor distorting effects of the nebula and whispered a silent prayer to God that his ship made it in time. He watched as his XO, unhappy about but obeying his orders. Franklin pushed himself up out of the captain's chair and moved to the helm.

"Computer merge helm and tactical." He pushed the engines to their limit as the ship rocked violently again and he returned fire loosing another barrage of torpedoes and phaser fire against the other ship, hoping that it would be enough to buy them some time and praying it would disrupt their sensors.

"Sir, the gas is distorting our readings on the Archer, we can still target them though." The tactical officer reported.

"Science, is that gas explosive? Would a quantum torpedo cause any cataclysmic events?" Severide asked looking over his chair to the science officer.

"The dark-haired woman tapped her fingers on the console. "Negative sir, we can fire through the gas." The science officer reported.

"Tactical, prepare a series of volleys, all quantum torpedo launchers. Seven torpedoes per volley, firing at quarter second intervals. Target the following coordinates." He stated tapping a series of commands into his arm console.

As the data reached the tactical officer, the dim lighting of his console silhouetted his furled brows. "Sir, most of those torpedoes will miss the Archer given their movements." he inquired curious of the Admiral's motives.

"That's kind of the point Lieutenant. The gas isn't to protect the ship, it's to protect what's coming out of the ship. Prepare the volleys and fire on my mark."

The Archer twisted as it released it's escape pods putting the bulk of the large ship between the pods and any oncoming fire that the Imperium would throw at them. The entire process took a little over two minutes, two minutes that the Captain used to flood the ship with radiation from the warp core which would mask any signs of life on the ship and imply that the ship was more heavily damaged than it was. Captain Franklin, manning the helm bounced his attention between the helm station and the tactical station that was back to back. His mind raced, he had to buy his crew time.

"Computer, best estimate of the Imperium's location correct for last known course and speed." a soft red dot pulsed just outside of the nebula and Franklin pushed the ship's sublight engines to bring the Archer out of the nebula below and to the starboard of the dreadnaught. Then he paused as a thought overcame him. "Computer, begin saucer separation." he said as he slowed the engines of the ship to allow time for the procedure to be completed. As the deep thud of the separation thundered through the saucer he nodded to himself as a second helm and tactical station appeared on the side console. "Computer link up with engineering section and maintain helm control at this station. Should the saucer section be destroyed pre-program engineering section to ram last know Imperium location, also set self destruct sequence to activate remotely with 2 second delay after destruction of saucer section. Authorization Franklin Alpha Romeo 598 Yankee." The feminine voice acknowledged the command as Franklin pushed the engines of both parts of his vessel to the max, making sure the saucer section came out of the nebula at a higher angle shielding the engineering section from any incoming fire and using the shield bubble of the Engineering section to augment the saucers.

The image of the Saucer section emerging from the Nebula appeared on the screen of the Imperium bridge. Severide was curious by the tactic employed by the Federation Captain. Martyrdom was not a characteristic he read in this man's file. Although he was now becoming concerned at the brash tactic, he did not outwardly convey his concern.

"Sir, the saucer section appears to be shielding the engineering section. It is plotting an intercept course." The tactical officer reported.

"Target maneuvering thrusters on the saucer section, attack pattern Severide theta three. All torpedoes, fire at will."

The Imperium sharply turned itself away from the Archer exposed it's belly parallel to the top of the saucer section. The ship instantly lit up as a barrage of quantum torpedoes rapidly descended towards the Archer's saucer section.

Franklin had foreseen that tactic and had planned accordingly. He rechecked his heading then turned his attention to the tactical station. Locking onto the torpedoes, choosing to focus on the middle torpedoes as their detonation would have a higher chance of detonating those trailing. He fired, bright orange lances of phased energy darted out of the saucer section moving to intercept the slower ordinance, miss, miss, miss. He was starting to sweat, he needed time, time to get the engineering section further away from the nebula before it blew. He looked down at the chronograph thirty seconds more. Another lance of phased energy went out, hit. It caused a chain detonation of the trailing torpedoes. Only two rocked the saucer section and the shields held, but barely. He pushed the engines to their max closing the distance between the Imperium and his star-crossed ship each second buying the time he needed for his crew.

Severide grimaced as the saucer continued to move towards the Imperium. "Fire everything, kill everything on that ship. I'm done playing games."

With that, all of the Imperium's weapon's systems lit up and fired upon the Archer.

Franklin watched as the soft chiming of a massive amount of power build up was registered before each of the phaser banks from the Imperium lanced out and shook the ship he was on. He growled as he locked on the coordinates of the Imperium and transferred the orders to detonate after reaching the safe zone. He knew his time was nearing as the phaser fire lanced against the shields of the saucer section. He caused the saucer to pull up as he launched the last remaining quantum torpedoes. He growled as he looked down and watched the engineering section's engines flair to full speed closing in on the Imperium. He wondered briefly if the Imperium would finish him off or if the detonation of the engineering section would. He transferred all the power to shields to buy a few more seconds as consoles exploded around him and the ship shook like California trying to separate from the continent. Just a few more seconds, he thought to himself as the shields buckled and phaser fire ripped through the hull. As the saucer was ripped apart he watched as the Engineering section got within 2 km of the Imperium and a bright white light replaced where the drive section had been.

Severide's eyes widened as the white flash engulfed the main viewscreen. He grasped the armrests of his chair tightly as he anticipated the impending blast that would surely rock even his monolithic ship. Outside of the Imperium, a blue wave of energy shot towards the underbelly of the Imperium striking hard against the hull of the massive ship driving it back from the epicenter of the explosion. The impact threw everyone on the bridge in all directions. Sparks flew from various consoles as red light and klaxons filled the bridge. The displays on the consoles flickered.

"REPORT!" Severide yelled as he tried to bring himself back into his chair.

The tactical officer clutched his console as he strained to pull himself up to his console to read the readouts. Before he could make a report, the Imperium's AI appeared. "Captain, shields are at sixty-five percent. Hull Integrity is at seventy-five percent. Weapons are offline. Warp engines are inoperable."

"Thank you Titus." Severide groaned.

Unphased by the vocal commands, the AI continued. "Navigational sensors are offline. Inertial dampers are at Eighty one percent. Auxiliary power is at fifty-two percent. We have power fluctuations on decks one, four, nine, seventeen, nineteen."

"I GET IT! ENOUGH TITUS" Severide boomed.

"Twenty two, Twenty Seven, Thirty three." The AI continued it's report still not responding to the commands.

The stricken saucer section flashed at various points where it was exposed to space, EPS conduits flashed as plasma fires engulfed the decks of the ship. It twisted uselessly the fusion power-plant of the saucer section hummed as the fused EPS conduits fed power back into the reactors. The bulkhead of the bridge vibrated softly with the building explosion that would rip the saucer section to pieces. Franklin sat back and laughed hysterically as he read the sensor readout on his tactical display. The drive section had done them yeoman's service and knocked the Imperium out of the fight. He looked up at the slowly rotating massive ship on the flickering view-screen and screamed.

"YIPPEE KI YAY MOTHER..." before he could finish the power-plants of the ship reached critical and exploded shredding the saucer with the uncontrolled power of a sun.

OFF:

Vice Admiral Caleb Severide
Head of Intelligence
Sixth Fleet

&

Timothy Franklin
Captain
Commanding Officer
USS Archer

 

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