Earning Our Wings, Pt. 1 - the Operation begins
Posted on Mon Dec 7th, 2020 @ 2:12pm by Sublieutenant Miles Lynn & Lieutenant Mila Lynn & Colonel Sehan t'Varis & Centurion Nancy Gable & Taryn Stephenson & Lieutenant Rehana t'Shaan & Lieutenant Xia Idris & Lieutenant Taev d’Lhara & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Kaol Ralaa & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash
2,257 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Chapter II: Spreading our Wings
Location: The Raven's Claw
Timeline: 238701.12
Raven looked around the bridge. Since the escalation during the previous day's briefing, she had been able to talk things over with Taryn, who had agreed to at least take part in this mission, although without being referred to by rank. Any future working relationship would be addressed once the Ourainavassa had been secured.
"Forty-five minutes to target," young Miles Lynn stated from the helm.
Lieutenant Taev would take over as soon as the ship had reached its destination, before transferring to the Ourainavassa once the ship was secured. The young colonel gave a determined nod. "Yellow alert."
As soon as she gave the order, the lighting in several key areas of the ship changed from its usual slight green hue to yellow. Part of the majority Federation-issue computer systems on board was that it was all coded to Starfleet alert levels. Finally, Raven pressed a button on her armrest, opening a shipwide channel.
"All hands, this is your commanding officer. Forty-five minutes to destination. All departments, report in."
She turned to her bridge officers. "Lieutenant Taev, take the helm. Lieutenant Xia, scan for any transmissions that may be coming from our opposition. Taryn, ready tactical systems and standby cloak."
The Galae pilot took his position at the ship’s helm. He was very familiar with the Bird of Prey, it being used extensively as a training vessel at the academy. What was less familiar was the Federation technology. Blessedly, the helm was in its original, decrepit form.
Xia shifted in her seat. “Communications ready,” she reported. She had a Romulan earpiece in, and touched controls to slightly adjust the feed. “Not reading anything on communications bands.”
"Weapons ready. Not that they'll be of much use if they decided to bring out their big guns," Taryn responded, even though she always believed that it was the quality of the operator, not the weapons, which mattered more in combat.
Raven nodded in acknowledgement of the reports. "I trust your shuttle is ready in case the plan with the transporters fails, Taryn?" She turned to Xia. "Make sure we are ready to transmit the shutdown code to the Ourainavassa as soon as we are in range."
Xia tapped a few controls at her station. “Shutdown code ready to transmit,” she stated.
"Kestrel is ready to go at a moment's notice," Taryn confirmed.
Mila was finishing her last calibrations just as the colonel's announcement came through on the intercom. She turned to Rehana, who had been assisting her in making the necessary alterations to the transporter. "Okay, this should do it. One last diagnostic to check everything is good to go."
Rehana slapped at the communications console. "Good to go down here!" A plasma conduit sparked behind her, and, swearing, Rehana moved to seal the leak off. "Okay, now we're good.”
Kaol heard the announcement from Raven and took a deep breath, looking at Nancy. "Good luck with the boarding party. Normally I would say try to keep Rogers at bay, but... I suppose I'd rather see you return safely." He was obviously feeling uneasy about such an audacious endeavor.
"Thanks," Nancy said with a nod. "And don't worry. In this one instance, letting Rogers have her way might be for the best." She tapped her comm. "Ready in Medbay."
Ash did final checks on the weaponry that she and Hatham acquired on Drozana, making sure that everything worked when they were issued to the boarding party. She looked at Hatham with a smirk. "You ready? Tiny disruptor and all?"
Slinging a not-at-all-tiny weapon over his shoulder, Hatham flashed a particularly Romulan grin. "Ready," he said, patting the tiny disruptor in an underarm holster.
Ash nodded appreciatively. "Good." She tapped her comms. "Rogers to boarding party. Time to meet up for the final mission briefing and get issued your weapons."
A moment later, Gable walked in, bat'leth slung over her shoulder and medkit on her hip. "I'm here. Let's get this insanity started," she announced dryly.
Raven nodded as the reports came in from the various departments. Everything was ready to go. She checked the timer. Ten minutes to destination. Everything was going to plan.
"Uhm, boss?" The colonel turned her head to see who had addressed her. It had come from Miles Lynn, who had taken over on long range scanners while Taev was piloting the ship.
"What is it, Mr. Lynn?"
"There's something strange on scanners. The Ourainavassa is there, as she should be, but... I am not detecting anything else. No other ships, no station, nothing."
Raven frowned. "Suspicious." She slapped her hand on her knee. "Red alert. Drop out of warp, engage cloak. All stations, we might just be heading into a trap."
Taev eased the ship out of warp, beginning a random pattern of evasive maneuvers while still keeping on course.
"Of course it's a trap. That warbird is the carrot on the end of their stick. Providing we can spare the power, I can carry out a tachyon sweep which will give us the location of their vessel or vessels. Assuming they're your typical pirates and have knackered engines, that should increase the sweep's chance of success," Taryn suggested.
Raven nodded. "Do it. Mr. Lynn, keep an eye on the sensors to see if there is any reaction. Lieutenant Taev, keep up the evasive maneuvers. Lieutenant Xia, anything on comms?"
With the order given, and after confirming there was sufficient power available, Taryn began working at her station to launch a tachyon sweep. Despite the fact she did not get along with Raven, the synthetic Human was glad her suggestion had been listened to.
Xia concentrated, fiddling with the communications controls. “Nothing definitive on comms,” she said. “There is some odd static, but I’m not positive how your cloaking devices affect comm broadcasts. I’m still keying in.”
Ash looked at Hatham as she finished issuing weapons to the boarding party, "A trap?" She chuckled. "Is anyone else here surprised? Let's be ready for anything. We will get this ship by any means necessary. Understood?"
"Of course it's a trap." Hatham boomed a laugh. "It wouldn't be any fun if they didn't set one."
"Speak for yourself," Nancy said acerbically. "Personally, I could do with a cakewalk for a change."
"It might be anyway." Hatham grinned. "They think we're walking into their trap, but that means they will be stuck in there with us."
Miles checked the readings twice before finally reporting the findings. "Okay, this is strange," he said, his voice clearly showing his confusion. "Either the sweep didn't work, the sensors are malfunctioning, or there really is nothing out there except for the target. Oh, hang on," he interrupted himself as new signals were detected.
"Oh, great. Let me correct myself. There is nothing out there except the target, and a debris field."
Raven got up from the command chair and headed over to the young man's console. Indeed, the sweep had revealed nothing. There was one ship -- the Ourainavassa -- and a small debris field ahead.
She returned to her chair. "Lieutenant Taev, bring us into visual range. Slowly. Taryn, keep all systems ready. Continue sweeping. Whatever blew those wrecks up is probably still out there."
"I've found them. Putting them up on the viewscreen now," Taryn confirmed.
Moments later, a map of the target area was up on screen, including the two cloaked enemy vessels.
Taryn explained, "They won't know we can see them, and as they're cloaked they won't have their shields up. But I'll only be able to disable one of them before the other starts firing on us."
Raven nodded. "Do you think we'll be able to sneak past them and get onto the Ourainavassa with Mila's cloak trick? I assume they can't see us?"
"Lieutenant Taev, continue what you are doing, evasive pattern, while we are heading towards the target."
The colonel opened the intercom. "Boarding party, head to the transporter room and stand by. Transporter room, are those modifications complete?"
Mila looked at Rehana, before responding to the call from the bridge. "Transporter room here. We should be all ready to go. I can get five people through the cloak, but that will be it. To beam back, or to beam another group, will expose us."
She pressed a few buttons on the transporter console, making sure everything was set up. If this, for whatever reason, went wrong, they would be in massive trouble.
Ash and the rest of the boarding party arrived in the transporter room, armed and ready to go. "Did I hear just five of us?" She looked at Mila and then the rest of the team. "Hatham, Gable, you're with me."
"Five should do it." Hatham nodded confidently and stepped up on the transporter pad. He drew a disruptor, holding it ready to fire the instant they materialized.
"It better," Nancy said, joining him. She positioned herself, phaser in hand, with back to the rest of the group, so she would be facing out toward whomever might be at the beam in site.
Ash checked her weapons one more time as she gave Mila a subtly proud smile. The kid looked like she definitely fit into the crew.
"Okay, as far as I'm concerned this is a one way trip. We're boarding Ourainavassa and we are keeping her," Ash said as she took her position, weapon drawn. "Rogers to Raven. Ready whenever you are."
Raven acknowledged the report from the transporter room, and turned back to Taryn. "You heard her. We can get five people through -- once. Now I assume we could transport our people onto the bridge of one of the enemy ships and take it out from within while we deal with the other one, but personally, I think we would be better off getting them to the target while we are still undetected. Maximise the surprise effect for our boarding party. Prepare phasers and torpedoes and stand by."
Suddenly, the viewscreen was filled with the image of a Klingon battlecruiser emerging from warp. The colonel cursed. "Shit. Where did they come from? That makes things a bit trickier. Get us to the Mogai, stat. We're going to need the extra firepower."
A grin spread across Taryn's face. She began to work furiously at her station, and around ten seconds later, one of the pirate vessels decloaked, firing at the Klingon battlecruiser. The synthetic Human had successfully hacked the weapons controls of the nearest pirate vessel to create a diversion, which should hopefully last long enough for the Raven's Claw to capture the Mogai-class warbird.
"Get ready for transport, Commander. The diversion won't last forever," Taryn instructed.
Xia spoke up. “Okay, I think I’ve cleared up the comms interference. Running it through the decrypter now. We should be able to listen in on anything they say to each other,” she reported.
Raven smiled. "Good thinking, both of you. Taev, get us to our target."
When the decryption systems had done their work, a growling Klingon voice appeared on comms. The man seemed to be amused.
"Hah! You pirate HuH think your puny ships are any match for the warriors of the House of Paltak? Stand down, or die!"
The colonel smirked. "Seems the new arrivals aren't friends with those pirates. The perfect distraction for us."
She hailed the boarding party. "Transport over as soon as we are in range. I won't join you. This might get messy here. I'll send two of our hired muscle to join you instead."
Finally, Raven turned to Xia. "Transmit shutdown code. It's go time."
Xia reached over and pressed the button, turning it from green to red.
The doors of the transporter room opened again, and two young men, wearing body armour and holding phaser rifles, entered. "Centurion Rogers, Ford and Harrison reporting for the boarding party," the older one said. "Colonel won't join us, she said, sent us instead."
"Guess that's our five," Ash said to the newcomers. "I've worked with Hatham and Gable before. All you need to know is that you listen to us and we will come home safe, got it?" She barely listened for their response as she turned to Mila. "Let's go."
The two men nodded. "Understood, Centurion." Without another word, they took their positions on the transporter pad.
Anxiously, Mila waited for the signal that they were in range to transport. She had linked a secondary access to the cloak control into the transporter console, which she needed to make her trick work. If all went as planned, neither the Klingons nor the pirates would be able to detect them. If something went wrong, it would be up to the folks on the bridge.
She took a deep breath, as the indicator on the console finally lit up. After careful consideration, it had been decided that the boarding party would beam directly into the bridge, for maximum effect. Carefully, she placed her hand on the controls. "Okay, this is it. Good luck everyone."
For less than a second, the Claw's cloak lifted, as the five members of the boarding party were engulfed in green light and transported over to the Ourainavassa.
Mila stared at the empty transporter pad for a moment, before contacting the bridge. "Transporter room reporting successful transport of boarding party."
The Operation had truly begun.
RSS Feed