The Trap, Part 2 - Time to Dance
Posted on Mon Mar 22nd, 2021 @ 5:38pm by Lieutenant Mila Lynn & Sublieutenant Miles Lynn & Colonel Sehan t'Varis & Centurion Nancy Gable & Lieutenant Xia Idris & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant T'Ango
1,686 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Chapter IV: Unravelling the Mystery
Location: Faraday Nebula, Neutral Zone
Timeline: 238702.10
Fire to disable the nearest Bird-of-Prey, then destroy the other one.
With the order given, the Ourainavassa sprang to action, finally getting her first taste of real combat. As soon as the heavy warbird decloaked, the third pirate B'Rel revealed itself, to reinforce its allies, who moved away from the convoy and moved to attack the new ship. With their commanders realising that this might not be the best place for them to be, the six undamaged refugee ships assumed a much closer formation, and two of them began to fire on the Birds-of-Prey.
"It seems they were not quite as unprotected as it appeared," Raven noted. "Looks like they managed to arm the ships themselves. That explains why there was no escort. Lieutenant Xia, signal T'Ango to attack the third enemy that just appeared. I think we should even the odds a little. Commander Rogers, fire at will, but remember, we need one of those ships intact. Our polarised disruptors are designed to shut down ships, use them. Do what you want to the other two."
The Terran grinned widely. "My pleasure." She tapped the commands into the console, almost toying with the enemy, low yield blasts at first, letting the ships think they have a chance before unleashing the full force if the Ourainavassa's arsenal on them. "T'Ango, let's keep the third one alive."
T'Ango had swept her ship into an attack dive, strafing the third ship from behind while they were distracted by a huge warbird popping out on top of them like an eagle snatching prey from crows. "Aww, I was just starting to have fun."
She took her finger off the torpedo launcher. "Roger, Rogers," she replied, suppressing a snicker at the eyeroll she knew Gunnar was making at that. "Saving this mousie as a present for mistress."
Xia flipped through local channels, finding the pirates’ frequencies. They were encoded, of course. But she had the new UT she had gotten from Ketacyn, so soon she was listening in on their squadron chatter.
When the Cat Dancing joined the fight, the pirate's chatter began to panic even more. It was obvious they had not expected much resistance, so when the Ourainavassa and the raider suddenly appeared, it had thrown them into disarray. Raven smiled in satisfaction as she watched the blueish-purple blasts from the Ourainavassa’s cannons tear through the shields of one of the B'Rels, and moments later, the Bird-of-Prey stopped moving, dead in the water.
"Switch to attack pattern Omega, let's tear the other two to pieces," the colonel ordered. The tone of her voice made it very clear that she was very much enjoying the show.
"Watch this little trick I learned!" Miles exclaimed, as he cut the Ourainavassa’s engines and initiated a drift, swinging her round to perfectly line up with the rear of one of the enemy vessels. "Commander, how about we send a few torps up their rear?"
Commander Rogers smiled at the young pilot. He was as talented at his craft as his sister. "Don't mind if we do. Firing torpedoes." She watched the torpedoes launching from the ship and making direct impacts to the enemy. "Direct hit." The Terran smirked at Miles. "Nice flying, kid."
Miles beamed with pride at the Terran's compliment. "Oh, I've got more tricks like that, now that I know this big bird can pull them off."
Raven nodded. "Good maneuver, Sublieutenant." As the torpedoes reached their target, the small bird-of-prey burst and imploded, sending out a small shockwave that knocked the other pirate vessel slightly.
Mila looked out and frowned. "What the fuck was that? That... was that a singularity drive?"
The commander double checked the readings that the sensors were detecting and then looked over at Mila. "Yes, it was a singularity drive. Can you check if the other ships also have singularity drives?"
Raven shook her head in disbelief. If the Vulture's ships had been retrofitted with Romulan drive cores, what did this mean?
Meanwhile, Mila was scanning the area again, this time for singularity core emissions. "It's difficult to get a reading, since some of the refugee ships also use singularity cores. Let me try something." She ran a scan on the disabled pirate ship, before finally nodding. "Yep, looks like it. The one we disabled seems to be fitted with one. And I'm getting faint singularity readings from the third one."
The colonel stood, and tapped the intercom button. "Boarding parties, we are detecting Romulan tech in the enemy vessels. Specifically, they seem to be fitted with singularity drive cores. We've disabled one of them, but there is no telling when they'll have their shields back up, so get going and beam over."
She walked over to the science station, and looked at the readings Mila had gotten. "Singularity drive core, the shield generator seems to be of Romulan design, and even the weapons." She shook her head. "This is one hell of a mystery. But we have other things to worry about first, such as that third ship."
Raven returned to the central chair. "Lieutenant Xia, contact T'Ango and inform them of what we just learned."
On the Cat Dancing T'Ango had blinked at the unexpected evidence of a Romulan drive on the pirate vessel, but hadn't needed any confirmation of what she'd just seen, as a raider was more than familiar with what an imploding singularity drive looked like.
Gunnar frowned, but was less surprised. "As I was saying before about unscrupulous members of a species preying on their own..."
"It might still be someone else. This wouldn't be the first instance of someone putting Romulan tech in a Klingon ship. If it was an older B'Rel, it might even be Romulan surplus since at one point they stole Klingon superstructure designs and just up-armored them for their own warbirds." T'Ango huffed. "Vulture's ships might just be pieced together from all the best parts they could get, like we heard Raven's old ship was."
"Maybe," Gunnar allowed, as much out of sympathy as acknowledging her point. T'Ango had fought Romulans before becoming part of the effort to save them, and she had a deep sense of them as having (at least by their own definition) as strong a code of honor as her people. "But for all we know Vulture could also be working for the RSE. We both know there are elements there that want to actively discourage anyone from leaving."
That drew sharp hiss. "And those types hate reunifiers especially." She opened the comm. "Looks like you have this in hand, Ourainavassa,. We're going to hang back and watch the transports' six until you need us further."
"Acknowledged," Hatham replied to Raven. He drew his disruptor and stepped onto the transport pad. "Get in position. You know your targets. Don't hesitate if they turn out to be Romulans," he growled. "If this is some fvadt Tal'Shiar unit, I'm want to cut their ears off and scatter them in that nebula."
"Daie," S'Tan, Merik, and Ael answered in unison as they joined him, disruptors up, facing outward and ready to fire as soon as they materialized.
Ash nodded at Hatham. "You really think I'd hesitate?"
"Acknowledged," Raven replied to T'Ango. "Keep an eye out for any late arrivals to the party." She checked the situational map that was still displayed in the corner of the main viewer. It appeared the convoy was about two-thirds of the way out of the area, and one of the ships had taken their disabled companion in tow. "Right then, Sublieutenant Lynn, Commander Rogers, do what you do best. See that Bird-of-Prey? I don't want to."
Miles chuckled, and attempted to bring Ourainavassa up for a good angle on the last remaining pirate ship, which had begun to fly in an evasive pattern. "I think this is the best shot we are going to get, Commander."
Just as he spoke, the lone B'rel launched a volley of torpedoes from its rear launcher, hitting the Ourainavassa right on the nose. The ship rocked violently, nearly throwing Raven out of her chair. "Damage report! And get rid of that damn thing, NOW!"
Commander Rogers growled at the console. "It thinks it can play with the big kids.It's not going to happen again. Powering up weapons.” This time there was no toying with the enemy; she unleashed the full destructive power of the Ourainavassa upon the enemy. "FIRING!”
Xia winced as the viewscreen was a fraction too late in reacting to the massive fireball that exploded in space. She blinked away the spots. “Enemies destroyed,” she announced.
Miles had been thrown from his seat by the impact of the torpedoes, and picked himself up, slightly wincing as he put weight on his leg as he returned to his chair. Mila barely stopped herself from rushing over to her brother. "Hey, idiot," she said out loud. "I told you to get seat belts."
The pilot shook his head at his sister. "You focus on doing your job, I'll do mine, okay?"
Raven interjected. "Your sister has a point, Sublieutenant. Are you okay? Do you need medical attention?"
"No, ma'am," Miles replied. "I may have broken a few bones, but it's all held together with titanium mesh, remember? Besides, my pain receptors are fucked so I barely feel a thing."
Before Mila could say anything, Raven spoke again. "Fine. But after the mission concludes, you go see Doctor Gable. If you are in any way impaired from performing your duties, you will inform me immediately and we will get Sublieutenant Seira to take over. That is an order, Sublieutenant." She turned to Mila. "I'll hold you responsible that he actually goes, Lieutenant. Now, damage report?"
Mila checked her console. "Shields holding at 80 percent and recharging. No structural damage from what I can see."
The colonel nodded. "Good. Boarding Party, your turn. Go!"
RSS Feed