Earning Our Wings, Part 3 - Closing the Deal
Posted on Thu Dec 17th, 2020 @ 4:58pm by Sublieutenant Miles Lynn & Lieutenant Mila Lynn & Colonel Sehan t'Varis & Centurion Nancy Gable & Taryn Stephenson & Lieutenant Rehana t'Shaan & Lieutenant Xia Idris & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash
2,502 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
Chapter II: Spreading our Wings
Location: Somewhere in the Beta Quadrant
Timeline: 238701.12
On the bridge of the Ourainavassa, Ford and Harrison looked at Doctor Gable in shock. "Fuck!" Ford cursed. "What do we do now?"
"Our shields are already up. We should have weapons too," Nancy said, as she moved to check sensors. "We just need to make sure we're firing at the right targets." She frowned as she studied the controls. "Do either of you have experience? I'm a doctor, not a tactical officer."
On the bridge of the Raven's Claw, for what felt like an eternity, but was more of a split-second, everything fell even quieter. Then, Raven suddenly stood.
"Right then, if these Klingons want to make it hard, let's make it hard. Taryn, drop cloak, raise shields, and charge all weapons. Aim for their weapons systems. Lieutenant Taev, stand by for an evasive attack pattern. Lieutenant Xia, try to hail them. Mr. Lynn, contact the away team and get their status."
"There'll be no need for any of that. The tachyon pulse will mean we need two shots at the most. They won't have time to do any damage," Taryn reported, preparing to drop the cloak and raise shields simultaneously as soon as the pulse was ready.
Xia’s fingers flew over the controls, sending the hail. “Klingon vessel. This is the Raven’s Claw. Cease hostilities,” she said.
As expected, there was no response from the Klingons.
As soon as the order had been given, Miles hailed the away team on their emergency channel. "Claw to away team. What's the situation over there?"
The pirate that was being interrogated by Rogers and Hatham smirked. "Well, seems like things are just about to get interesting." He tried not to laugh when the Human's communicator beeped. "I think you might want to take that call."
Ash tapped her badge. "Away team." She shot the pirate a look. "We have secured the ship. We have one annoyingly uncooperative guest on board, and apparently some more annoyingly uncooperative guests out there too. How can we help you?" There's no reason this ship should be a sitting duck. It's the damn Ourainavassa, and they were in possession of it.
"Guess you get to wait to see who questions you," Hatham told the pirate, and punched him, knocking him out. "It'll be a surprise."
Ash chuckled at Hatham. "Well played. He was annoying as hell. One of us should probably stay here in Engineering. It's been a long time since I took Engineering courses at the Academy, and I don't think I have the foggiest idea how to work Romulan technology, but someone should probably head back up to the bridge to help out the doctor, and one of us should stay here to... do things. You pick."
Hatham suppressed a chuckle at Rogers’ obvious uncertainty about engineering. Fortunately he'd had more experience since both Galae and mercs were expected to be able to fill multiple roles, though it had been awhile since he'd manned engineering. "I'll stay here. I at least know how to work my way around Romulan technology."
Ash breathed a sigh of relief. She had rudimentary skills, primarily in the realm of sabotage and making things blow up, not exactly a skill set to have if there was a chance of sustaining damage during a fire fight between ships. "Good. I'll take our friend back to the bridge. Show the doc that we can keep a prisoner alive. Good luck down here," Ash said, as she and the pirate beamed back to the bridge.
When she materialized, she tossed the still unconscious pirate at Nancy's feet like a cat bringing it's Human an offering. "Need help up here?"
Whew. If anyone could target and fire a ship's weapons, it was Rogers. Not that she was going to admit how glad she was to see her. Nancy knelt to check the pirate. "Alive. I'm impressed. Now keep the rest of us that way. A Klingon battlecruiser seems to have decided that if they can't have the ship no one can." Jerking her chin at Ford and Harrison, she added, "And teach these two. Security should know how to fire weapons."
Ash flashed Nancy a smile as she sat down in the command chair. "Aww, you missed me." She then opened a secure channel to the Claw. "This is Rogers. I'm on the bridge of the Ourainavassa now. Sorry, Rehana, but I left Hatham in engineering, so if we take any damage, we apologize in advance. Quite frankly, better him than me. We are ready to engage the Klingons on your mark."
She tapped a few commands to transfer the ship's control to her consoles as she looked over at Harrison and Ford. "Watch and learn, friends." She powered up the ship's weaponry and nodded in appreciation of what it was capable of. "I really want to blow something up..."
"The Ourainavassa has powered up weapons," Miles reported. "Looks like that unlock code really did work."
Raven chuckled. "Taryn, drop cloak, raise shields. Stand by tachyon pulse at my signal. This is the perfect opportunity to see what the Ourainavassa can do. Let them blow those Klinks up if they don't take this final chance to stand down."
She turned to Xia. "Broadcast this across both ships, and to the Klingons."
Finally, she stood and put on her coat, which had been hanging from the back of her command chair. "To the unidentified Klingon vessel, this is Colonel Sehan t'Varis of the Tal Shiar. We have been tasked with reclaiming the Imperial Romulan Warbird Ourainavassa on orders directly from Imperial High Command. If you do not stand down, you will be seen as committing an act of war against the Romulan Star Empire. Our Empires have been at peace, even been allied, since the Dominion War. Do not doubt that this dishonourable act of treachery will have severe consequences. Stand down, or be destroyed, and risk war between our Empires. You have one minute to respond."
Raven indicated to Xia to close the channel. "Well," she muttered, "let's see if they call the bluff."
With the cloak dropped and shields raised, the synth transferred the Claw's stern shielding to the bow. "The tachyon pulse is fully charged, and ready to fire whenever you are. I've also transferred our stern shields to the bow," Taryn said.
"One minute," Ash mumbled as she hovered her finger over the command to open fire. "Call our bluff..."
Raven kept her eyes fixed on the timer screen of her control panel. Every second that passed felt like a lifetime. Forty-five seconds. Forty-six. Still no response from the Klingon vessel.
At precisely the one-minute mark, the disruptor arrays of the battlecruiser lit up, hitting the Claw's reinforced shields. The ship was rocked slightly, but the shields held.
The Colonel smirked. "Well, if that is their response." She turned to Taryn with a look of devilish glee. "Fire tachyon pulse. Rogers, you are free to fire at will. Show us what those polarised disruptors can do."
Taryn didn't need telling twice, and fired the tachyon pulse, which struck the Klingon battlecruiser's shields exactly where she'd aimed it. The pulse successfully forced the Klingons into resetting their shield harmonics as Taryn had planned, leaving the newly captured Romulan warbird with a wide open goal to blow the Klingon vessel and its crew to Sto-Vo-Kor.
With her work now done, Taryn silently left the bridge and made her way to the main shuttle bay. She'd transferred the last of her personal belongings to her shuttle after Lennon had departed from her quarters that morning, so it was now a simple case of a quick and silent departure.
Ash looked like a kid in a candy store as she fired the Ourainavassa's disruptors at the Klingons. "Hatham," she said into her communicator, "looks like I win." She adjusted the targeting parameters and maneuvered the big ship into position to fire additional insurance shots at vital systems to turn medium sized debris into small sized debris.
"They're dead, Rogers," Nancy deadpanned, containing a smile of relief and amusement at how gleeful Ash looked - like a kid with a new toy.
"Rogers to Raven's Claw, confirmed target destroyed. I think I like our new acquisition." Ash was practically giddy as she continued to fire at possible escape pods in the vicinity of the wreckage. Now the small sized debris were molecular sized debris as she continued to acclimate herself with the ship's targeting control systems.
The bridge of the Raven's Claw fell silent in awe, as the blueish-purple bursts of energy from the Ourainavassa made short work of the Klingon vessel. Rather than the solid beams that people were used to, the weapons of the experimental warbird fired in short bursts, intended to more effectively disrupt their target's shields. Of course, since said shields were already hampered by the tachyon pulse, they cut through and effectively sliced the battlecruiser apart.
As the ship erupted into a fireball, Raven smiled in satisfaction. "What a beautiful sight to behold. When we find the Vulture, the bastard won't be enjoying this show for long. Good work, people."
Suddenly, the Colonel's speech was interrupted by a violent shudder gripping the whole ship. Lights flickered, and sparks went flying everywhere. While Raven was barely able to stay in her chair, Miles was flung against his console and collapsed onto the ground.
"Status report! What the fuck was that?"
Following the completed transport, Mila had accompanied Rehana back to engineering on the Claw. The continued issues with the mismatched matter-antimatter warp core were a concern for everyone on board, especially as the ship had not been under cloak for a prolonged period in quite some time. So, it was no surprise when things did go wrong.
Everyone in engineering had been monitoring the core, and when the tachyon pulse finally pushed it over the edge, everyone saw it coming. Luckily, they had taken precautions, and the core did not breach - but it wasn't far off.
Most of the lights and consoles in engineering had gone out, and crew and tools had been thrown all over the place.
Mila picked herself off the floor and tapped her rank badge, activating the communicator that was built in. In this moment of crisis, her usual shy demeanour had almost disappeared. There was no time for such things now. "Engineering to bridge," she reported. "We've had a warp core overload. It's contained for the moment, but I don't know how long that will last."
She looked over at Rehana. "I'm not an engineer. But even I can see that this thing is going to blow eventually. Your assessment?"
Rehana scanned the engineering output before groaning. "Dammit, I knew I needed to tune the caution and warning systems. I'm not getting the clearest of readouts here, but I would not recommend going to warp any time soon. The Claw needs serious yard time. Any chance we can rig up some sort of tow?"
Mila looked over the data as well. "From what I understand, we would need to replace the whole core." She sighed. "I mean, the operation to take the Ourainavassa was a success, so maybe we should just leave this bucket of bolts behind?"
Raven shook her head as she received the report from engineering. This was not good. She glanced over to where Miles was sprawled on the floor. "Somebody get a medic up here," she barked, before heading over to the scanner console herself. There were no other ships in the vicinity - at least none that were visible. That gave them time to deal with more immediate concerns. "Everyone alive?"
Taev had been knocked off his chair and sported an impressive laceration on his eyebrow, but he had already gotten up and started to help other bridge crew.
Kaol emerged from the turbolift and immediately started to triage the injured crew members. "What the hell happened?" He demanded as he made his way over to the prone body of Miles and did a preliminary scan before turning him over gently so that he wouldn't do any additional damage. "Don't worry, kid, you have the best doctor in the quadrant working on you," he said as he began treatment. He couldn't believe his scans... nearly every bone in his body was showing damage. "Who's bright idea was it to have you here and not in the safety of a medical facility!?"
Miles groaned. "Check your scanner, doc. Reinforced skeleton and all that. And you need a pilot, don't you?"
On the Ourainavassa, Harrison and Ford were cheering the destruction of their enemy, when suddenly, all the lights on the Claw went out, and the ship seemed to be rocked by an internal explosion. The two turned to each other, before looking at the senior officers. "The fuck do we do now?"
Ash glared at the two. "Where the hell did Raven find you?" she asked as she performed a quick scan of nearby space and of the Claw.
"Looks like we are safe from any further enemy attack... but shit..." she said as the scans indicated that there was a warp core overload on the Claw.
"Rogers to Raven, our sensors indicate your warp core is about to blow. We're dropping our shields, prepare for an emergency beamout onto the Ourainavassa."
"I guess now would be the time to check out my new medical bay," the doctor said, giving a nod to Rogers as she headed for the lift. "Beam casualties directly there."
After receiving the latest report from engineering, Raven looked around. The Claw had been home to her and her crew for the past two years now, and restoring her had been a labour of love. But she had always known that the old warbird would not last forever.
With a touch of her command panel, she once again opened a channel across the whole ship.
"All crew, this is your commanding officer speaking. The operation to capture the I.R.W. Ourainavassa has been successful. However, the Raven's Claw has sustained severe damage, damage that I do not believe is viable to repair. The core is stable enough for us to not need to rush. We will dock with the Ourainavassa using thrusters, and, over the next six hours, move all crew, equipment, provisions, cargo, personal belongings, and so on, over there. Let's get to it."
With that, she stood from her command chair. "Lieutenant Taev, initiate docking procedures. Thrusters only. And then prepare for the move, everyone. Let's get going."
Without another word, she left the bridge. Time to pack.
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