Busy Work (Securing the Civilian Ship)

Posted on Fri Mar 11th, 2022 @ 9:51pm by Captain David Hawkins & Commander Raiden Kosugi & Lieutenant Josey Wales & Commander Khelev ch'Koro & Captain Callisi Verra & Petty Officer 1st Class Tia Smithy(Kosugi)
Edited on on Wed Jul 5th, 2023 @ 10:21pm

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Civilian Cargo ship
6750 words - 13.5 OF Standard Post Measure

/// ON ///

In the darkness of open space lied the wreckage of the Nymphe, the cargo ship. What little that was found in the computer data base was the ship once was used as a trading vessel for almost a hundred years. What scans were able to pick up was that she was more broken than whole. At this point, the ship was barely connected. by mechanical clamps and air locks both in similar sizes. The upper half being a massive cargo storage unit, while the lower half was the ship as a whole but severally repurposed and overhauled to hall the cargo storage unit.

If left to itself, she would continue to deteriorate over time if it hadn't been for the diligent work of the crew at least for now. But with no crew, she would, no doubt, be in the company of lost souls of space. The vacuum of space would fill her over time and leave her to revengers.

The Nymphe was not made to be the prettiest of sights from a distance or up close. The ship was barely holding on, even between solar systems and no major gravitational pull to it. With its little dents and scrapes covering much of her exposed hull, one would think that these things wouldn't matter, but added up, it was obvious that she had seen her share of rough rides.

From the underbelly of the cargo ship, the two air locks were the only places the runabouts could connect to. After the latches were engaged, the air locks were cracked open and in creeped the away teams. Flickering lights and ominous console beeps were heard but nothing else. The flashlights from the away team's weapons hovered over the walls of the corridors as they moved through the small corridor outside the airlocks.

"Now that we are all here in this lovely hell hole, we should expect no resistance," John started off as he took in a deep breath knowing all to well that they weren't going to find a fight, they were going to find blood and death. Then piles of bodies drained of most of the crew. "Engineering should be down the hall, and the bridge at the front of the ship. Engineering first, bring up power and if internal sensors picked anything up. Once Engineering is secure, we will send Blue Ball's engineers to do their work while we take the bridge. If no questions, let's go."

Callisi gave a nod, phaser in hand as soon as she crossed the bulkhead into the civilian cargo hauler. The way she moved, the way she cleared corners and checked for blind spots told the story: This was not the first boarding party she was on. It was true that Ts'usugi had no distinction between Marines and the Security Department. If you were one, you were effectively the other. No boundary, no border. Wherever the fight was, they were.

Though it was true that certain companies got the cooler toys to play with, as Hayter would probably say. He wasn't expecting a fight, but Callisi was ready for anything. Almost anything. Each bulkhead, each pressure door, she was a well oiled machine. If that prosthetic eye of hers gave her any tactical advantage she wasn't saying. The eyepatch stayed on the entire time. Pride demanded it, perhaps.

Josey stepped forward. " I'll take point. " He had his light strapped to his right wrist and the phaser pistol in hand set on heavy stun. In his left hand he held a security tricorder. He also wore a light tactical harness with two flash bang stun grenades, two extra power clips for the phaser and a med kit. " I'm getting interference from the background radiation, The effective range for the tricorder is about ten meters in width by forty meters length. Anything outside that is kinda fuzzy to say the least. I'm picking up inorganic materials and inert organic materials as well. We should be coming to engineering about now. " He said.

As the door to engineering opened a foul scent assaulted their nostrils, and anyone who had seen combat knew the smell in an instant, it was the scent of death. Around the corner by the main engineering consul was a gruesome sight to behold. The Chief engineer was strung up to the ceiling being held aloft by two cables, beneath him an empty blood stained bowl and horrific cultist symbols painted on the wall behind him. In front of him lined up in a perfectly straight line were nine other crewmen. Each of the ten victims had a symbol carved into their forehead and all were drained of their blood, The volume of blood would account for one of the victims, the remainder unaccounted for. A cargo ship this size would have a crew of about twenty, so they were sure to find others.

Tia took a look around from behind Wales and the others, stepped back a few steps to find a wall to lean against. Taking in deep breaths, it was giving her a memory flash of something else. However she couldn't allow herself to crumble into a mess right now.

Raiden didn't know the story behind Tia, but he looked with concern at the petty officer engineer.

Tia caught his look, "I'll be okay!" her voice level though she shot a slight glare at him.

Raiden raised his eyebrows at this, did she have a problem with him for some reason? He turned his gaze back towards the gruesome sight. "Clean up in engineering looks like it is needed." he stated.

"For crying out loud," John muttered as he walked passed the engineer to the rest of the group. He had kept their asses clear, though he had honestly not really been to worried about a rear attack. This wasn't a battle field, this was a slaughter. There was nothing that would change the facts before them. No one was alive. And that was truly pissed him off. "How the hell you got on my away team, I'll never know."

Tia glared at Hayter his comment making her bristle, enough that it made her previous feelings get squelched down. "I owe your Captain a favor, Colonel. I am here to do a job, and it looks like the blasted idiots struck here as well." she fumed. "Clean up in aisle 13." she groused. "And if you want something cleaned up maybe you can help out, flyboy er Lieutenant." Looking at Raiden, remembering that she was a lower rank than he was.

Raiden held up his hand as if to ward off the feisty engineer.

"You aren't even part of the damn crew!" John snapped but shook it off as he took a breath. "Sorry. This shit shouldn't have happened whatsoever. These bastards are going to pay so much," the marine muttered as he kicked a console and walked about looking around. "Looks like there is power. Since you are here, spill it, crewman. What we looking at with the ship systems."

She stalked over and cutting the cables which held the chief engineer hanging, letting him drop to the floor. Then went over to check on the readouts. "Life support is still holding, but can't really say how long it will. I'll have to make some adjustments if we are planning on salvaging this for whomever needs its. Warp Engine is offline but functional. I've got to change out some isolinear chips, hopefully they have some spares here." Tia said gruffly. "Some of these have seen better days." as she ran her own tricorder over it. "Maybe even reroute some of the power feed. There seems to be some sort of interference which is blocking the energy flow. I've seen this before, on my other ship."

She looked at Hayter when she heard him kick something.

"And Colonel don't be kicking anything unless its the sweet spot that needs to be kicked." Tia staring at Hayter for a moment.

Raiden went over and started moving the bodies out of the way. it was really eerie seeing the symbols that were carved into their foreheads.

"Great, little spit fire has a damn attitude," the colonel remarked as he looked over at her. This, typically, was a quick way to earn his respect. But in this instant, he was pissed, and ready to kill someone. There was no doubt about it, he was wound up tight to which he could snap at any time. Yet when he watched as the young enlisted started to handle herself and held nothing back. It was obvious as to why Hawkins had allowed her to join their team. He had thought that the trauma would have caused her to fun away instead of even trying to take on another mission like this so quickly. "Crewman, call in your better halves and got this place cleared up. We have to secure this ship. Make it a priority to have transporters online. We clear, Spit Fire?"

"Crystal Sir." Tia responded.

Josey walked around the engineering area scanning every nook and cranny with his tricorder hoping to find any signs of life, hoping that these cultist bastards overlooked someone and that they weren't so efficient in they're slaughter of the crew. The tricorder chirped and brought him out of his train of thought as he froze and looked at the device in front of him. " Hey Spitfire! I think I found what's partially blocking your power flow. Colonel you might want to take a look at this yourself. I didn't get a reading on it until I got close enough, It's a shielded low yield kobalt device and it appears to be tied into the power flow regulator. I've got some training in demolitions, But I'm not the best at it. Anyone have any good demolition training? If not I'll do my best. "

Tia gasped when she heard this, she hadn't had the chance to even look at what happened to USS T'sul's engineering. "Can that cause an explosion to wipe out an engineering section? And just space those there and leaving the rest of the ship intact? That's what happened on the USS T'sul. Everyone that was there, was sucked out into the vacuum of space. Well, except for me. I was looking for a coupling that had come loose, and also found some readings that didn't match up." her face having gone slightly pale, then it got color back as she was angry, she was livid! "I'd like to hunt down those.. those...bastards!!"

"Kobolt device?" John questioned as he walked closer to the group. He scanned it and it surely was what it was. "Damn it... The one time I wished I had actually stayed awake during advanced training. But what I do remember, more than capable. But why the hell hasn't it gone off? We are near the Gladiator? Are the navigational sensors online?"

"No they aren't, they used the cables for that, to string up the Chief Engineer to bleed him like a deer." Tia responded. "Their stupidity is what saved us at the moment."

" Well I guess I better record all the evidence onto the tricorder and make a full audio and visual file to make a full report to the Captain upon our return. " He looked over to the corpses and shook his head. " Once I'm done with that, I guess I'll help take care of the clean up task and laying these poor souls to rest. Otherwise the engineering section is secure and we can proceed to the bridge. "

"One step ahead of you on the recording." Callisi mentioned, working on a scan of the first body with her tricorder. Such awkward devices, really, but handy in a pinch. "This isn't just a clean up, this place will need a good sterilization. I know some being that usually handled fleet sterilizations. I think it actually enjoyed that kind of work. It would, I don't know, hum during the job." she remarked, moving to the next body in line, making idle notations and observations that may, or may not, be apparent on the scans she was making.

"And sorry, demo work isn't in my portfolio." she responded to Josey's request.

Josey stroked his chin as he studied the device and found himself an engineers tool kit, He set up the tricorder to monitor the device as he worked on it. The device was attached to the power flow regulator with six clamps. He checked the clamps making sure that there weren't any secondary device wires attached, confident there wasn't he detached the first clamp and let out his held breath.

He continued to work and kept focused on the device. " Hey Spitfire! To answer your question, A device this size would wipe out about half the machinery in this area and vaporize about an eight to ten meter hole in the outer hull over here. " He paused a moment. " And yeah, everything that wasn't bolted down would have been spaced. This is more a dirty bomb, so radiation isn't the real threat. If we were on a planet it would be able to kill just about everyone in a one or two kilometer radius. Thank the gods it's not refined, These things replaced nuclear warheads in world war three on Earth and they killed millions, That's why they were banned from ever being used again. "

As the last clamp released the device beeped. The beeping got louder and faster. " Arcadia!! Emergency beam out on my com badge Three kilometers to the port of the ship!! He slapped his combadge on top of the device. " Transport NOW!!" The device shimmered and faded from the room, there was several seconds of silence followed by a sudden violent shaking of the cargo vessel. " It seems I missed a secondary secondary trigger. " He stated coldly. " I would really like to meet the person who designed and set this device and have a chat with that person. " He shook his head to clear it and reached towards his chest and stopped several centimeters away. " Would someone please contact the ship and check on them. The explosion should have been away from all of the ships. " He sighed. " And have them send over a new combadge, Mine's out there somewhere. "

Callisi braced for the shockwave that never came, and then relaxed. "Nicely done." she offered, a quick battlefield compliment before she tapped her commbadge, "Verra to Arcadia, verify status of ships post IED disposal, and arrange for transit of a replacement comm badge at my location."

She paused for a moment to regard Josey, waiting for the replacement badge to arrive near her to hand to him before turning to John, "THREE world wars? You Terrans don't hold anything to chance, do you?" she smirked, before returning to her task. "Almost done here."

"Yeah..." John shrugged slightly as he gripped his rifle again as he looked around a bit. "Earth seemed to have some serious issues in being racist or selfish. Blew themselves up like idiots instead of having back bones and take the idiots out of power who brain washed loud of people into doing some seriously messed up things to other humans. I'm not proud of my species past but then again, we see the same shit these days."

The colonel looked over the bodies and continued as he looked at his furry rabbitess friend. "The same shit happens today, we just seemed to found other reasons, newer ways to off ourselves and others and all under the flag of some messed up religious creed. For what? To cause mass genocide of other people to make themselves perfected? Even the Borg doesn't kill for pleasure. I don't know."

Tia's hand trembled slightly then it settled, she was rather glad that bomb had been dealt with. It would have been rather messy for it to have been triggered. "Okay going to clean up this mess nodding towards where the bomb had been. "Then onto getting navigational and transporters online. "

Raiden had gulped when he realized how close they had been to death. A slight shiver shook his body momentarily then it went away. He walked over to go through some nooks and crannies to see if there were some replacement isolinear chips and smiled. "Look what I've found Spitfire." he remarked bringing them over.

"My name is Tia, Petty Officer Tia Smithy." her tone came off a little bit sharp then she gave a regretful look. "I am sorry, and thank you." her voice softening just a slight amount. "This will help out greatly." taking the items from him.

Raiden shrugged, then said "You're welcome." he walked over to the deceased chief engineering officer and removed what had been used to string him up. He moved him where the others were once the scans was done. "I agree there will be needing sterilization done here before this ship could even be used once more."

"I can handle things here while you go check out the rest of the ship, Sirs." Tia speaking up.

Callisi nodded, tucking the tricorder away, "Give a comm if you need assistance." the rabbitess said before falling in line with the others.

As the last of the bodies were placed into the body bags, Josey had been listening to the conversation and looked towards the Rabbitess. " I agree with the Colonel. Our ancestors did some pretty stupid things in the past that we're not proud of. But they finally got it right. One has got to know their limitations and prevent themselves from repeating the mistakes of the past. "

He then turned to Tia. " Petty officer Smithy. I just heard your name, I thought spitfire was you nickname. Sorry if I offended you. I kind of thought it fit you though. "

"It's no problem Lieutenant." Tia looking at Wales. She nodded over towards Hayter, "He said it fit as well. Whatever works." flashing a quick smile before turning to work on what's needed.

Callisi gave a nod to Josey, "We've had our wars in the past. Succession, conquest, revenge. We left them in the past when we left our world to live upon the moons, as demanded. Mistakes of the past indeed." she paused, "What worries me are the mistakes of the future." she gave a glance to John, "The Dalacari. I worry that the door on their gilded cage will one day slam shut. Though, you try to tell a Dalacari to get their own drink, and they'll look at you funny." she smirked. A concern, but not a pressing one. "Let's move on."

"Yes boss lady," John remarked as he walked passed the group and to the entrance of the engine compartment. Leading the small group down the flickering lit hallway. It didn't take long before they found themselves at the single entrance to the control center of the ship. "That didn't take long," he muttered as he flashed the rifle's lights across the small bridge.

Bridge

As soon as they entered they found a console to the left, another console to the opposite of the bridge, and a step down with a singular station before a large cockpit like helm station with view ports before them. It was truly a small, almost confined section.

"Alrighty, let's see what we can get, shall we?"

Josey shined his light about the bridge and slowly let out a breath. " Well at least we don't have any bodies laying about in here. " He moved about scanning with his tricorder. " Nothing out of the ordinary, I wonder what happened to the command staff? They weren't in the engineering section with the others. We still have more of the ship to check out. Do we have any idea of how long it will take them to restore power? " He asked.

"They're either vapor, prisoners, or in a room we have yet to search. Power to the internal systems will let us scan the ship for them... or their remain." Callisi said, sweeping a light where Josey wasn't pointing theirs, to keep the maximum amount of the bridge illuminated. "As for the power? Ask the Emperor." she shrugged, a question that she didn't have an answer for. "We're hardly being quiet about our search, though. If they heard us and were trapped behind an unpowered door, I imagine they'd let us know. Pounding on the door or screaming."

She paused for a moment. Something about that situation didn't sit well with her. She shook her head after a second, banishing the cobwebs of memory. "We'll find them." she stated, mostly to convince herself perhaps.

" I got thrown into this just recently, I have dealt with search and rescues, natural disasters and even some massacres. The only thing I really know about the situation is from what I've heard from what you've talked about while we've been aboard the ship. I just hope that we can find some survivors somewhere aboard the ship. " Stated Josey.

Josey sat down at the helm station, he caught a faint odor and leaned forward and popped the panel open. His light moved slowly across the interior of the panel. " This is damned odd. " He stated. " It looks like someone shorted out the helm and navigation controls. When dealing with these cultist have you run across this before? " Josey asked.

Raiden looked at Josey, then walked to look at the other areas. "Looks like they have done a number on several things but, the science station seems to be operational."

"I've seen my share of disasters. Don't know which ones are worse: The natural ones, or the ones we made ourselves. We can talk about it sometime. We've all been in the deep." she shook her head, then turned to Raiden, "Maybe they didn't recognize it's use in finding survivors? Or they don't care?"

She paused for a moment, "Or there may be something they WANT us to find...."

"Cargohold, we've not checked that out." Raiden responded. "Have we?" he couldn't recall if Hayter had done a sweep there. "Could go check that." Raiden looking once more at the indicator on the console. He turned to look at Calissi, Hayter and Josey. "May find bodies there or nothing there."

Callisi turned her cyclopean glance towards Raiden, "I don't think we've cleared it exactly, but if you're going to clear it you aren't going alone." she turned to Hayter, "Sir, this is your op. Where do you want us?"

Josey looked up from the console. " Nope. We've only checked engineering and the bridge and secured them. I don't think anyone here is fool enough to go wandering off all alone. I certainly don't have any desire to become a sacrifice to whatever dark patron these cultist nutcases worship. That and a ship this size would have a crew of twenty to forty persons, We've found ten so far. We stick together and we live, If not..." He let his sentence trail off.

"Easy." the rabbitess reassured Josey. "No one's going anywhere alone, and everyone's coming back. Rules are rules, here or back home." she offered. Grim comfort. "Just letting him know, not that he *needs* to hear it, but ... I've got his back." she offered to Raiden with a blink of her eye.

Did she just wink?

Raiden's eyes widened slightly, then a slight smile lifted the corners of his lips briefly then he gave a nod in acknowledgement, towards Calissi.

"Let's get the primary section secured and powered up. Once we know we are good, I'd assume the sensors will tell us what we should expect when we go to the cargo hold," John answered as he rested his arms on the butt of the rifle that was latched to his vest and pointed down in front of him. "But guessing from the body count we found in engineering and the size of this ship, the crew are most likely all accounted for."

Josey continued his work. " Captain Verra, My words were to give food for thought to those not trained in security or the marine unit. And I am aware that it is the duty of every officer to bring back those under their command, situation permitting of course. " He looked up towards Callisi. " Forgive me if my words came out a bit gruff, But I'd rather bring back a live crewman then one in a body bag. I've seen my fair share of combat and have training in unit tactics from a fire team to a full company. I also read up on all the officers I'd be serving with while in transit to the Arcadia. You have an excellent service record and for that you have my respect. But I will say that we'll find more bodies. Those we found in engineering were the chief engineer, two engineers and seven cargo handlers. The Captain, the first an perhaps second mate, the ships medic or doctor and perhaps even a cook are still unaccounted for. "

Cqllisi turned to give Josey her full attention, as this at least deserved it. "Forgiven. The sons and daughters of Ts'usu are hard people to offend, and we prefer you speak your mind and tone rather than dress it nicely." she started. "I'm tempted to say we really should sit down and compare sorties, but I'm also of the mindset that truly, neither of us wants to relive those days. They're behind us, though I also imagine as much for you as for me they stare us in the face everyday."

She relaxed visibly, as the moment no longer needed her to be on guard as it were. "We've got brothers and sisters to find, and I'm just sitting on my hands. Who needs help with something?" the cyclopean rabbitess inquired.

Josey chuckled softly. " Then I won't disappoint you then Captain Verra, I always tend to speak my mind. Your also right about the past. " he said with a solemn tone. " There are things I'd rather not relive, but there are times I'll lift a glass and drink to their memory of fallen friends and comrades to honor their sacrifice and remember the price we must pay for our freedom. But for now we have our brothers and sisters to look for. " He stood up to head out to begin the search. " Maybe when we are done here I could buy you a drink if you'd like, wouldn't mind getting to know the officers I'll be working with. "

Callisi gave a nod, "I could do with a drink. I'm sure we all could." she'd lost plenty of brothers and sisters in arms. As the transport, she knew the cost the moment there were any empty seats on her dropship.

" Well if you put it that way. " Said Josey. " Then how about after we're back all on the ship, I'd like to invite each of you to share a drink with me. I've got a bottle of Suntori Whiskey that needs to be emptied. Just meet me at my quarters and I'll crack open that bottle open. Sound good ? "

Raiden took a glance towards Callisi and then Josey, then his attention was caught by a blinking light that just came on. He checked the console seeing if he could bring up what seeming to come evident. A crackling noise could be heard then as he played with the screen a message could be heard with static. "Someone-need.... elp what.. .doin..." high pitched whine "ay... day... Raiden realized that where he sat wasn't really just a science station but more of a combination of communications and scanning console. He worked on the console to see if he could get the recording straightened out and then just hit the console with his fist and the message cleared up.

"Mayday Mayday we are under attack!" The sound of metal clasping onto the ship itself echoing weirdly. Then the sound of footsteps approaching the bridge.

"Who are you what do you want?" came from the recording.

"We have come to purify you..." were the chilling words. This caused Raiden to shiver slightly, "you are found to be worthy to join us, resistance is futile." said the other voice.

"Wait no I don't want to be-" the recording continues right after the sound of a blaster fire. "You have been selected and found worthy of her. Our most holy one...." and the recording ended there.

Raiden shivered once more, and turned to look at the others.

Callisi muttered something to herself. A prayer? A curse? Depending on your view, maybe it was one in the same. She shook her head after, though. Monsters who used the same intro as the Borg, perhaps to share the fear they struck in the inhabitants here. But Borg space was so, so far away... and Borg weren't that.... verbose.

"Monsters.." she offered.

Josey felt his blood turn to ice as he listened to the recording, his fist clinched and wanted to hit something but he refrained from doing such. " Those filthy scum buckets butchered those civilians, And for what? These cultist are nothing more then fanatics, and there's only one way to deal with a fanatic." He thought briefly. " What are our standing orders if we encounter these cultist? "

John remembered personally the horror that these cultist had done and now were back doing. He had seen combat and war but what this cultist were able to do against all these innocent people. It had no true logical reasoning. It was sickening.

"Orders? Strip them of all manner of humility, honor, and self worth. Then and only then... kill them. That's what I say," the marine colonel answered and knew it wasn't professional whatsoever. But none of what they were seeing or dealing with wasn't.

" Best damn order I've ever received Sir. " Said Josey. " Order understood to exterminate with extreme prejudice. " He stopped and checked his weapon and readjusted the setting to a lethal one and holstered the weapon once again. " If you'd like Sir, I'll take point when we move out to check the remainder of the ship. "

Callisi gave a nod at the declaration, and took the moment to check the charge on her phaser. "SOP for dealing with enemies of the Empire." she voiced, before returning her phaser to a ready posture, "Not the worst thing I've done in the name of the Emperor."

Engineering Section

Tia looked at all that needed to be done, maybe she had bitten off more than what she could chew. Sure she had confidence in what she could do, if she had the time to work on this ship. And that was it, time. Time wasn't on their side right now. The sooner she can get the transporters and navigational system online the better. There was a slight spark and a muffled curse as Tia placed her thumb to her mouth in order to cool it down. She got zapped from one of the panels she was working on.

"Looks like I need to pull out my duct tape and bubble gum to piece this together." she muttered having a slight smile. She could do this.

She thought she heard a sound coming from behind her, and she whirled around her heart racing.

Seeing some other people she asked, "What ship are you from?"

"I am Lieutenant Vadimovitch, Chief Engineer of the Resolute," The dark haired, blue eyed man replied as he looked at the other enlisted officer. "This is Senior Chief Orra, and his SPEAR team for security. Are you trying to restore ship's systems? Where is the rest of the away team?"

Tia's dark eyes showed her relief but it was a guarded sign of relief. "Yes I am trying to restore the ships's system and the rest of the away team has gone to the bridge. Navigational systems and Transporter systems are offline. The cables for the navigation system had to be redone in here. And there was an explosive device inside here as well, sir. " she responded. "Chief of Security Lieutenant Wales managed to take care of it." her voice was slightly gruff, choking down her emotions at the moment. "With you being here, it will make things get repaired, more quickly."

"And I brought with me a good bit of muscle," The man nodded. "Where did you start working Petty Officer? I would like to focus on the warp core, see if I am able to get it running."

"Navigation is what I've been working on, and I'm just about done here. Warp core go for it. My next part was going to be checking the transporters before seeing to the warp core." Tia responded. "I've not gone up to the bridge as of yet to see what sort of condition it is in." she added.

"Can't do much with those if power is not up and running," The engineer said with a nod, before moving up to a console to start running a diagnostic and see if he could figure out why main power was offline.

"Indeed, I just felt it best to rewire the navigation first, since well it had been used to hang someone out to dry." Tia wincing at her own sort of bad gallows humor. "I also changed out the isolinear chips."

"Good, good," Vadimovitch gave her a nod. "Have you checked the impulse engines? Perhaps we can get auxiliary power up and running and draw from them. At least get the lights turned on."

"That's next, with you here it will definitely speed things up. Something's definitely providing some sort of power with the life support on minimal." Tia remarked "but definitely need to boost things up so this old tug can move. Hate to see this scrapper going down for the count. The crew must have really loved this ship with how they worked to keep it running." Tia closing up the panel. "Impulse engine here we come."

Tia made her way to the impulse engine and took a look at it. She frowned as she noticed that the resonator coil was removed. "Are you freaking kidding me?" she huffed. "Where the heck is the resonator coil?" She also noted that several wires had been unplugged. "What were they thinking of uncoupling things?" she grumbled.

She scanned the area to see if the resonator coil could be found. She spotted it set aside a tool box. "Found it!" she sang out feeling a bit happier.

Suddenly across the ship, red klaxon and alarms started to scream. The monitors all flashed red boarders and most flashed the words 'Operational Standard Code 6'to display with a count down.

=^= All away team, this is Hayter. We tripped the ships Auto destruct sequence. Engineering team, Rig the thrusters thrusters to automatically engage full blast. We are prepping the navigational systems to fly away from the Arcadia and Gladiator. Hurry, we have five minutes!"

Raiden jumped as the blaring of the klaxons caught him offguard, "What the-!" he exclaimed staring at the viewscreen. This happened not too long after they had heard the message. Did he set it off when he pressed the flashing button to hear the message? Was it set to trigger off when someone was looking at Navigation or other areas on the bridge or in engineering?

He went over to the helm area, and set the coordinates for the ship to go away from the area. "Get everyone to the runabout quickly sir."

Tia had returned the resonator coil into its proper place, and was connecting the last coupler, when the klaxons sounded. She looked towards the other engineer that was with her, a horrified expression in eyes.

"Impulse engine is now reconnected." she said, her heart ready to leap out of her chest. "Hopefully we can get it to work." Tia trying to sound calm.

Vadimovitch let out a small grunt in response to the Petty Officer before coming over to where she was working. He opened his engineering kit and pulled out a small flask and took a drink before offering it to her. "It will calm your nerves, then we get impulse working and escape ship before the big kablooey."

Tia accepted the flask and took a pull from it then smiled handing the flask back. "Thank you that helped out." giving a slight smile.

"Good," He nodded and tucked the flask away before turning to the console. He pulled up the clock and the diagnostic on the impulse engines and started to get to work. "The impulse reaction appears to be functioning properly, besides the terrible efficiency. The problem appears to be in the driver coil assembly. I'm bypassing the EPS power taps completely."

Tia nodded, "Good idea, what would you like me to do to assist?"

"Check the subspace field coils to make sure they are accelerating the plasma, I will check the driver coils to make sure they functioning properly to drive the ship," The man said, already pulling up the system. He let out a grunt as he tapped a few commands.

Tia went to check them out, finding a loose connection and reseating it. "Try that." she called to Vadimovitch.

"They do not have enough power," Vadimovitch grunted. "I am transferring all available battery power."

The lights all over the ship went out, before the ship started to make a groaning noise as the whine of the impulse engines increased, he opened the EPS power taps and the ship's lights came back at almost full power. He hit two more commands and increased the speed to their maximum.

"We need to go Petty Officer."

Tia nodded and headed out of engineering with Vadimovitch tapping on her commbadge.

"Colonel its time to get out of here now!" Tia picking up speed and following after the engineer from the other ship. "I'll be catching a ride with the other team."

"Course is set, now lets get out of here!" Raiden exclaimed having finished setting the course layed out away from the Gladiator. Adrenaline gave his feet wings and he was at the runabout the power switched on.

The voice of the warning echoed where the runabout was "Three minutes before detonation."

Once everyone was inside he closed the hatch and the runabout lifted off and headed for space above and beyond the civilian ship. He also looked to make certain the other runabout was getting out of there as well. He had noticed that Spitfire was heading for the other runabout with the other team.

As soon as they were away from the civilian ship, Raiden veered away from the Nymphe, and hit warp to get away. He sent a message letting Captain Hawkins know about the civilian ship. "Captain, the civilian ship has gone into a warp core breach!" now that the runabout was away from the radiation field.

Raiden watched as the ship drew further away, hoping that the ship would be far enough away before it exploded, then that dark place in space was lit up by the death of the Nymphe as she became her own cosmos for a brief amount of time, pieces looked like shooting stars. Then the glow faded away. He could also feel the wave that traveled from that explosion. He kept tight control of the ship.

Then when the glow faded away he said to Hayter, and Calissi, "Where to from here? Meet up at the Gladiator?"

"Hell yeah we go back to the Gladiator," John remarked as he walked up to the pilot. But before he could continue talking, the coms chirped. He leaned over and tapped the console. =^= Yeah, you are on with Away Team Alpha Leader. Go ahead big bear. =^=

=^=Stow it, Colonel. Return to the Arcadia. Hawkins out. =^=

Callisi gave a nod, "Rally at the Gladiator." she paused, "And since I'm the pilot, rally to me." she called.

Josey pointed his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the dying glow of the Nymphe. " Is that normal of these cultist to rig a ship to blow like that? Or were we just lucky enough to be the first in a new tactic they're trying out? " He asked, not sure since it was his first time dealing with this cult. " Well at least we found the first bomb and deactivated it, Guess it's no surprise there was a backup bomb. "

"Looks like that decision was vetoed going to the Gladiator. The Captain wants us to get back to the Arcadia." Raiden responded. "Lets get going then."

/// OFF ///