Surrender Your Booty!

Posted on Wed Feb 17th, 2021 @ 10:50am by Captain David Hawkins & Commander Liala Ziyal & Lieutenant Commander Mel Torma & Lieutenant Commander Timia Svidi & Lieutenant Lydia Whitlock M.D. & Lieutenant JG Evalyn Toral & Lieutenant JG Holly Swan

Mission: A New Legacy
Location: Bridge - U.S.S. Arcadia
2510 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

/// ON ///

The ready room doors swished open and the captain and his executive officer walked out of the office after spending some time getting to know one another as they needed to. There was a younger, not so seasoned, officer who noticed them and quickly stood up before he spoke up quickly. "Captain on the..."

"... I'll say this one time," David raised his hand as the two ranking officers made their way to their positions on the bridge. "Don't do that again. I don't need it, and I don't want us snapping to attention in the middle of a battle."

"... Ye... yes. sir..."

"Take your position ensign, and you are good. Don't worry," David replied huffed as he took a seat in his chair. The holographic read out on his arm came to life and he smirked slightly as he looked over the readings. "Cool."

The abruptness of David's words caught Liala off-guard as she moved to take her seat. She saw the eyes in his head nearly pop out when the Captain but she did see his point. This was a new crew having to get used to a new Captain. She smiled as she sat down noticing him light up at the holodisplay on the arm of the chair.

She called up her own and ran through some messages from around the ship.

"Captain!" called out an officer called out as he came up from the strategic operations section just lower front of the command center. "We are getting a subspace burst from Obsidian Command. The station is under attack from a pirate sect. We will be dropping into the middle of a fire fight."

"Thank you, Chief. Get in contact with our escorts and order them to be weapons hot," David ordered as he nodded to dismiss the strategic officer. As he left, the captain spoke up as he adjusted in his chair. "Red alert! All hands to battle stations. Helm, prepare to drop us out of slipstream. Tactical, weapons hot, prepare to adjust shielding for normal space."

He leaned over to his executive officer and nodded to her to get her attention. "Contact Captain Verra and have her prepare her fighter squadron. I want her to have her squadron space worthy and ready to go, and have the secondary shuttle bay doors open. That will assist with their launching much faster. Once we see what is going on out there, they will receive their orders."

Looking over she listened to the Captain and nodded in acceptance of his order. Liala tapped her chest, "Ziyal to Verra, we are going to be dropping into a battleground. Prep your fighters and launch upon our drop from slipstream. Permission to engage pirate targets attacking station."

"This is Verra. Orders received." the rabbitess responded to the call, then hollered out to her fighters, "That was the call. I want all starfighters in their craft, engines warm. This isn't a drill." she made her way to her Blink Fighter. This was a jump into danger, and as such she wouldn't need to actually GO anywhere to find targets. The rest of her squad suited up and made their way to their assigned fighters, warming up the reactors to prime operational levels. Meanwhile, in her alien fighter, the rabbitess had a ritual all her own. A mantra, a ritual, as she started to count...

"Six..." she reached to two switches in front of her field of vision, powering on the heads up display. "Five..." a switch on her right hand side was flipped, the readiness light slowly changing from red to yellow, to green. "Four..." another switch, another readiness light. Faster, but primed. "Three..." another switch, and the displays came to life. Weapon charge, physical weapon loadout displays, and missile status all at her command. "Two..." a final check, as each light on the display came to life. Red lights became yellow. Yellow lights became green, then all the lights dimmed so they wouldn't dominate her eyesight.

The final callout on the checklist. She reached over and flipped a final switch and the cockpit canopy slide down and locked in place. A hiss of a seal, and then the exterior of the canopy frosted over. Opaque from the outside, but clear and fully updated from within. "One." she called to herself, completing her countdown and bringing the reactor in the Blink fighter up to readiness status. After assigning launch priorities and catapults, she waited herself for the order. Each craft had its own name, and its pilot their own call sign. Hunter, Hot Dog, Viper. Some made her smirk, others made her worry about the mental state of her pilots. She had her own. She was Dead-Eye, and her Blink Fighter was Mangle. A name given by the crew, not one she'd have chosen. No matter.

"Arcadia Actual..." she commed up to the bridge, "This is Dead Eye. Standing by."

From her office in the ship's medical complex, Lydia read the update from the bridge and immediately began requesting status reports from the various sub departments in anticipation of responding to those injured and traumatized by the attack. As always, crisis counselors would be mobilized to provide immediate assistance with triage, with emotional support trauma response as a secondary purpose. As Whitlock saw various areas report A state of readiness, Lydia composed a quick message to the CMO, indicating the medical and counseling teams were on standby. She offered a silent prayer that their own crew, including the fighters would be OK.

Below deck Counsellor Holly Swan hurried through the complex ready to assist with any wounded that could arrive at any moment. She could see from the ports the station was receiving a pounding from a fleet of vessels she didn't recognise. Not that it really mattered to her, she would tend injured persons whomever they were.

There was an eerie quiet for a moment, almost as if time itself had slowed down before their release from slipstream. Liala looked around the bridge, the movements of people had slowed, sounds diminished much like in an old dramatic scene from a movie before the action truly began. Liala had heard of this, it happened to some El Aurians before entering a high stakes situation. It was called Temporal Dysplasia.

Soon she was brought back 'down to Earth' as the Arcadia dropped into the system. True to reports they were slap bang in the middle of a firefight and Liala stood from her chair as the ship took its first hit.

"Tactical, fire on the closest ship we can get a lock on. Helm, evasive manoeuvres and keep us on course to the station. Captain Verra, launch!" she began to lay out orders before looking back at David. It was almost a look of apology for instantly barking out orders when he was the more seasoned officer, as well as a look of shock as she had not expected this to be her stance when faced with fire.

"Yes sir, Targeting lead vessel" Evalyn responded, locking weapons onto the closest ship. "Sensors register several hostile vessels. The station has taken damage but is still fighting."

The captain leaned forward as he looked deeply at the information being displayed on the read out while they also saw the fire fight going on before them in real time. On the side display, it showed their shield energy output, phaser power levels, and scans coming in. Each target within weapons range automatically was coming up on the view screen with target images coming up around them and disappearing just the same. "Eva, do what you can to get as many of those larger targets to focus on us. Fire everything you got if that is what it takes," he ordered the tactical officer as he looked over at the helm officer. "Fly us between the main targets and put us in between the station and those bastards."

"Aye sir!" the helm officer called out as the ship rolled slowly before dipping down enough.

The order was given, and the proverbial catapult snapped. Fighter craft after fighter craft erupted out from the Arcadia, sleek and armed on launch. All of them testimonials to the strength of Starfleet. All, except one. Callisi's fighter, the element leader, call sign Dead Eye. Her craft a sleek black predator of a craft. Unlike any design that Starfleet ever dreamed of.

The Mangle, it was called. A blink fighter.

The wings soared across the gulf of space, adding to the chaos of light with phasers dancing along the shields of the invader forces. When a weakness presented itself, a micro-torpedo struck its way true. While the Blink fighter poured on pulse after pulse of its own weaponry, visually distinct from the Federation craft. Armed with its own compliment of torpedo-chassis missiles, and fighter to fighter interceptor missiles. The blink fighter was built to harass larger targets, and obliterate enemy positions.

A lock was sounded against the Mangle. An enemy ship attempting to blast her out of the stars. The solution was locked, though as the enemy ship prepared to fire, the Blink ship's namesake engaged. The craft was briefly illuminated in a soft blue light, and then it was gone. A ribbon of blue connected it to its new location, joining its wing elements in harassing the enemy craft. A scope of transit in literally a blink of an eye. Aptly named device.

"Ops, adjust the strength on the dorsal shielding," David ordered his operations officer.

"Got it," a young officer called out from his station. "Also heads up, we are picking up another ship dropping out of slipstream!"

"Identify?"

"Its the Gladiator," the ops officer announced before he looked over his shoulder to the commanding officer. he and most of the other bridge crew and other shipmates knew all about his previous assignment as her commanding officer.

David looked a second to process the information but wasted no more time as he leaned back in his chair. "Contact the Gladiator and order them to go to the opposite side of the pirate ships and do the same thing as us, get their attention off the station."

A holo appeared on the bridge, "seriously, you've been gone less than 30 days and I already have to rescue you? I thought you were tasked with cleaning up these fools" Ships Captain Tayla D'Jax said. Her eyes were not focused as she issues a few orders with out sound. The Gladiator made a quick shift and started to take some of the heat from the station.

"Don't get sassy with me, 'Commander'," David counted as he looked at his former executive officer. She was starting to show, but he pushed back the mental thoughts as he brought up his display of the battle field on his arm display before looking back up at her. "Then again, I guess I trained you and others well. Focus your fire on the rear of the lead raider along with the rest of the fleet."

With that order, as the Arcadia got between Obsidian Command, the rest of the fighters and the fleet looped around to train their weapons against the primary raider. Without holding back, every ship launched their arsenal, causing the enemy cruiser's deflector shield to light up like a bright green bubble with each and every projectile and energy beam slamming into it. But it only took so long before the bubble began to dim before breaching in areas, allowing infiltration to the hall of the ship. With every penetrating assault, the exterior hall was stripped away like a multi layered aluminium piece of candy. But what was in the middle was nothing sweet as the interior of the cruiser started take damage, causing multiple mini explosions before there was a chain of explosions across her bow.

"Order all ships to get to a safe distance," David called out as he stood up and rested his hands in his pockets before looking over at his chief of tactical. "Once cleared, get rid of that threat, Lieutenant."

As the ships moved off, finding safety in the distance they would make between themselves and the impending end of the primary raider. Liala heard Toral confirm her order and once they were clear she saw a flurry of torpedoes slam into the enemy ships hull for the final time.

It was then the notifications of the changes in enemy movements. Moving off, ending their assault. "Looks like they are retreating." Liala said as she moved to stand next to David.

"Arcadia Actual, this is Dead Eye. Sensors project the enemy fleet is in retreat stance. We letting them run or no, over?" Callisi's voice came over the comms, as her fighter wing continued to pepper the enemy shields to make each torpedo from the capital ships that much more effective. Alone, those fighters held little threat to an actual starship. Fortunately, they weren't alone out there.

“Not on my watch” Evalyn said as she launched a full spread of torpedoes at the retreating ship, targeting their engines and warp core. “No one attacks the fleet and gets away with it”

"Dead Eye, have your fighters work with the escort ships and escort the raiders out of the system, then bring your wing back," David ordered as they watched the the torpedoes fly past the allied ships and fighters toward the raiders. "As for the fleet, stand down and return to defensive stance near Obsidian Command." He paused and looked over at his tactical officer. "Keep your eyes on them and the fighters. If you see a threat inbound, return us back to Red Alert and the same with the rest of the fleet."

"Dead Eye confirms, moving to position. Over." smooth and professional, the order was given out to the wing. Work with the escorts, and kindly show the raiders the way out. The wing broke into two elements to better harass and swarm the raider graft, while IFF tracking helped keep the Evalyn's torpedo swarm from accidentally catching any of them, just as much as the pilot's capabilities kept them out of the initial tracking arc of each torpedo in the spread.

The captain returned his focus to his executive officer, he looked her over. "So that was interesting. Heard this wasn't the first attack they have had this week."

"Something for us to look into maybe?" Liala asked rhetorically as she answered the Captain. "Definitely needs investigating."

"I'll contact the command staff of Obsidian Command and see what they can tell us. IF there is anything we can help them with, we will," David nodded planning things out loud with his executive officer. "Till then, I'll leave it in your hands to get the Arcadia prepped and settled in for our next mission. We have a couple new senior staff members we are waiting on before I say we head out... This should be interesting, to say the least." He turned back to the view screen and took in a deep breath.

/// OFF ///