An Impromptu Attack

Posted on 07 Aug 2017 @ 6:45am by Rear Admiral Azura Ashcart & Lieutenant Commander Magdalena "Maggie" Doyl & Lieutenant Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide & Major Keisha Afton & Major Edward (Dragon) Cagney & Lieutenant Mikail Kolmak
Edited on on 07 Aug 2017 @ 6:47am

2,206 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Errand of Mercy
Location: USS Redemption above Hadronus III
Timeline: ED 5

ON:

-Captain's Ready Room-
Azura stood up swiftly and moved from behind his desk in his ready room as soon as the red alert lights and klaxton began blaring. A few steps into his stride Rhyan's voice could be heard calling him to the bridge. The doors parted as he got close to them and he exited onto the bridge, looking over his shoulder to the large viewscreen that covered the forward bulkhead from deck to ceiling. As he moved to the center of the bridge to take his chair Rhyan was there.

Azura slipped into the chair and took the moment to scan the faces of the bridge crew currently at their stations. He nodded to himself it was for the most part all the Chiefs of the various departments. He looked down at the readouts on his chair and saw the CAP was in formation but two ships were out side of the limited communications range.

Maggie arrived shortly after the Captain. She was surprised to see the security officer standing at the back, but there wasn't time to talk to him right now. She went straight to the security station and ran another scan of the area to do a threat assessment. "Six ships of unknown origin approaching our position. Putting them on screen."

Azura nodded as Maggie reported the ships and his eyes flicked to the screen. As he did so the screen shifted from the bright blue of the planet below taking up the bottom left of the screen to a wide open star field with two small metallic ships moving quickly forward. His eyes flicked down again as he pulled the arms of his chair together across his lap. The readouts merged as the two screens on the side of his armrests came together. He blinked as the green lights flicked on showing him that all stations were reporting ready.

"Targeting weapons," Maggie said, waiting for the Captain's order.

"Very good Commander prepare a warning shot across their bow." Azura said addressing Maggie before turning to the marine attache assigned to the bridge "Captain, please signal the CAP form up on our starboard side please let the CAP know we will be executing Attack pattern Omega III. Con, bring our broadside to the oncoming ships and prepare Attack pattern Omega III."

"Yes, sir," Maggie replied.

-Sickbay-

Keisha's pale skin shone above the black and olive of her uniform as she strode out into the brightly lit bay. All medical staff have been activated and we're ready to go at a moments notice "Alright everyone prep for casualties of unknown quantities. Get the surgical bays ready and get someone to begin a conversion of the nearest shuttle bay into a triage center.".

The merest brush of her mind against Azura's indicated her readiness for anything, before she pulled away and prepared herself for casualties. A smile touched her lips as she watched Marine medics and Fleet ones, working side by side as they never had before.

-Secondary Sickbay-

Doctor Mikail Kolmak, ACMO, heard what was going on and ordered few nurses to get the supplies prepared. This secondary sickbay has always been a backup to handle the extra load from the main sickbay. Not as big but acceptable, he reminded himself.

-Intelligence Hub-

At the time of the attack Commander Severide was in the intelligence hub. The shaking of the ship interrupted her from her review of area intelligence reports bring her back into the main situation area. She stood in the middle of the circular room as analysts around her began compiling data on the situation.

"Somebody tell me what is happening." Severide announced as she stepped into the center.

"Commander, we've been engaged by three ships." An analyst replied.

"Type and origin." Geri asked calmly looking unphased by the situation even as the ship rocked from weapons fire.

There was a moment of pause between her request as her team worked to compile technical information on the crafts. "Ma'am, two are retrofitted decommissioned Federation transports, the weaponry is a configuration I've never seen before and definitely not federation. The third ship is Andorian, a smaller war ship but the weaponry appears to be a similar configuration."

"Commander!" Another analyst spoke up. "I've recently cross-referenced the ship's registries to the Starfleet Intelligence database. The same ships have been reported in an attack on the USS Shogun, Akira class just two weeks prior. The Shogun was destroyed in the skirmish."

Geri grinned at the statement seemingly showing no signs of compassion towards the incident. "Let's hope we fair better. Get me everything on that battle, sensor data, logs, anything we can use to determine who these people are and why they think they believe they can win a war with a group of garbage freighters. Also look into anything we have on the sixth fleet and the confederacy. I also want anything we have on sixth fleet ship movements within the last fourteen days."

She continued to monitor the situation from within her circle as her next move would be to compose a threat assessment for the Captain. If this was the start of something bigger, they would need to be ready.


-Bridge-
"Captain, those ships register as civilian, but their weapons and shields are military-grade," Maggie said.

Azura nodded he recalled reading a briefing about a set of civilian ships that had attacked and destroyed an Akira class escort not long ago. That changed the calculus of this encounter in his mind if they were in fact the same ships. He looked down at the readouts of the ships power, weapons and shielding systems that were displayed on the arm rests of his chair.

"PALLAS, with all the interference will you still be able to control the point defense system?" he asked as he looked back up at the viewscreen.

"Interference does not extend to the point of rendering the point defense system inoperable. However I will have to allocate more of my resources to operating it effectively." came the reply from the fully armored woman who shimmered into existence behind him.

"Very well, make it so PALLAS and also bring the Sara protocols online." his attention shifted back to the view screen. "Hail them."

"Hailing frequencies open Captain." came the voice of the comms officer.

"This is Captain Azura Ashcart of the Federation star ship Redemption to unidentified vessels. You are ordered to cease forward movement and identify yourself. Hadronus system is a quarantined zone and we are on a mission of mercy. Any further action on your part will be treated as an act of aggression and will be responded to as same."

While they waited for a response, Maggie carefully monitored the other ships for any changes in their demeanor, keeping the phasers locked and ready to fire a warning shot.

PALLAS answered "Sir, the ships are receiving but are not responding."

Azura spoke to tactical, "Commander Doyl, fire the warning shots and prepare for incoming fire. I get the feeling they arent going to stop."

The Redemption gracefully pivoted in space above the planet and the CAP's fighters danced back behind the Redemption to stay out of the way of the warning fire. The phaser fire lanced out from each of the Redemption's phaser arrays with two beams crossing the paths of each of the ships that continued to come forward.

Maggie secretly agreed with the Captain. These ships had no intention of cooperating. She fired two warning shots, but the ships didn't react or turn off course. "Captain, no effect." She locked weapons on all three ships and waited for the Captain's orders.

"Commander target their weapons and propulsion systems. Cripple them please, fire at will." Azura said a slight icy steel to his voice as he watched the ships continue their forward movement.

Maggie nodded and fired first at their weapons systems, hitting all three. She paused for a moment to see if they would surrender or veer off. When they did not, she then targeted their propulsion systems. Whoever they were, they were both stubborn and determined.

The Redemption's phaser arrays lanced out from all points of the ship targeting the three ships coming towards them and dancing around the fighters that were beginning their attack run. The bright phased energy lit up space in the shadow of the planet as the impacts from the opposing vessel's weapons exploded against the bright white blue of the Redemption's shields. As the weapons fire was exchanged the Redemption began to spin on it's x axis which moved a fresh undamaged shield facing to the attacking ships. More weapons fire from the opposing ships lanced out before the head ship's shields buckled under the combined assault of the CAP and Redemption's weapons.

Azura shook in his chair as the impacts of the weapons fire caused the ship to shudder. He watched the readouts and listened to the commotion as various departments reported their damage. So far the ships had weapons that were far stronger than the size of their ship should allow but the Redemption was able to absorb most of the damage. His eyes flicked down to the damage readout on the arm of his chair and nodded to himself as the helm kept switching out the facing shields to give the damaged shield facings time to recharge.

"Signal the CAP, attack pattern Alpha Three. Helm execute same pattern, Tactical prepare to tractor the ship who's shields drops first. PALLAS, update on Sarah protocol?" The holograph spoke quickly "Protocol is up and operational, no sign of the Ee hybrid."

Maggie nodded. It took a moment to activate the tractor beam and prepare to lock on to the first ship that lost shields. At the same time, she continued to hit the shields to bring them down.

-Secondary Sickbay-

Doctor Kolmak was nearly knocked off of his feet when he felt the ship shuddered. He viewed around the medical bay, making sure his nurses didn't lose their balance or got hurt. Not more than two minutes, the door opened and a young man walked in with a limp. His face was scrunched up, a sign for pain. Mikail immediately approached him, noting his rank insignia before looking down at his feet. "What happened, crewman?"

"I tripped after the ground shook," he said. "I have pain in my left leg to ankle."

"Nurse, help me get him to a bed," Mikail said.

After the crewmember was settled, the nurse took the readings, scanned the man's leg and reported it. "Doctor, it appears to be a basic fracture of the tibia...closed clean cut."

The ship shuddered again and he held on to the side of the biobed. After a minute of calm, "Get me the osteogenic stimulator and give him 5 cc's of analgesic to ease the pain." He pulled up the man's black pants of his left leg to inspect the damage. There appears to be a fist size contusion on top of his shin bone. He placed a hand on the man's shoulder, "Only a basic fracture. We will seal you up and you can return to your duties in about twenty or thirty minutes."

"Thank you, sir."

-Outside of the ship-

Aboard his fighter, Eddie had just finished his attack run on the lead ship's engines, noting with satisfaction the brief flare as they overloaded and went dark. He keyed his mic. "Alpha Wing, form on me.
Let's take the horses from another chariot. Same attack pattern as last time. And watch for flak turrets."

-Bridge-

Azura watched as the fighters executed their role flawlessly aided by the Redemption's own phaser banks lancing out orange energy to slam into and push through the shields of the opposing ships. The three vessels shuddered under the assault of the combined forces brought against them and their shields winked out one by one. He watched as the tractor-beam snapped out and caught one of the ships in a soft blue-white glow. He nodded to himself as he looked down at the display in the arm of his chair and watched as the power outputs for the ships being drawn closer to the Redemption spiked.

"Release the tractor beam, all power to forward shields!" he barked as he recognized the power output pattern to a warp core set to self destruct. He gripped the arms of his chair and watched the view-screen as the glow around the tractored ship faded and the vista pivoted from the three ships to the planet back dropped by the black of space. He felt the rock of the Redemption as the inertial dampeners struggled to absorb the sock of the ship shaking as an explosion went off near by and was not surprised when he felt two more explosions rock the ship. He grunted softly as he righted himself and called for a damage report. He acknowledged the reports that were called out and watched the indicators that told him that the majority of the ship was fine but the last blast had destabilized the warp core.


OFF:

Azura Ashcart
Captain
Commanding Officer
USS Redemption

&

Mikail Kolmak, MD
Lieutenant
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Redemption

&

Lieutenant Commander Magdalena "Maggie" Doyl
Chief Security Officer

 

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