OOC:
Sorry again guys, I'll make my next IC post in a few hours...
EDIT: Ok, here it is...
IC:
"Captain, the fighter is broadcasting..." reported Kevin over the com.
"I know..." Henry replied...
"It's simple "Captain Traitor". Surrender. You better do it soon or I'll fire this nuke and activate your device which you smuggled onboard that ship"
"What!?"
Henry glared at the tall security guard, who stood rigid, shocked...
"You don't threaten a UNSC Captain that easily"
"UNSC Captain? Look at where we are! We're in the middle of nowhere. There IS no UNSC, only your reign. We've been flying this galaxy for two years now and we have not seen another UNSC vessel. I am tired of your leadership and of the ship! Now that I have your command codes, I can take this ship where I like. Perhaps the nearest star will suffice?"
"You might have my command codes Debra, but I have as much control over my ship as you do. Besides, I'm at an advantage. I have an AI. You don't. Besides, once that nuke is fired, you'll be out of options."
"Don't these guys know that it's being broadcasted to all the ships in the area?"
Henry whipped around, glaring at them now...
"This conversation tires me. I think it's time to activate your device"
There was no time to find the device. Henry could only hope the woman was bluffing...
"Sir, another contact is approaching!" a voice, Kevin's, interrupted him...
"Captain, we've got a slipspace contact. Database registers it as... a Covenant Assault Carrier!"
"That's nice to hear, but right now, we got a hostage situation on us. If Debra hits that button, several million nanite drones programmed to destroy anything and everything they can acquire will be released across the Adelaide and they'll destroy the ship and turn it into a resource pile"
The security officer's head was spinning. He backed into the wall and hit it with a small thump.
"S...Sir..." he gasped. "I'm sorry..."
"
Get a hold of yourself, lieutenant," said Henry sternly. "This wasn't your fault... I assume your tricorder didn't pick the device up, and if these
two have any sense," he continued, turning around again to glare at Grigor and Lashee once more. "They'll have hidden their device inside something you never would otherwise have suspected..."
"It seems help has arrived for me. Captain Dragonhelper, you remember this ship?"
"That's The Infernal Mist! I thought it was destroyed!"
"It was, but we rebuilt it. Oh and by the way. I do not control the nanopaste. I just wanted you to admit it on an open channel and to distract you long enough to get back to the Mist. Toodles. Enjoy the repercussions and don't mind us. We're only here to destroy your vessel and any other hostile forces"
"The fighter is retreating towards the Infernal Mist!" Kevin reported.
Henry, meanwhile, was breathing a small sigh of relief. He still had a deadly device on board his ship, presumably on the person of the two "envoys" sitting at the conference table. The question was, what to do now? Let the envoys go in case captain Dragonhelper decided to activate the device? No, surely he wouldn't... but then...
"I think we just annoyed a whole bunch of people"
"I gathered that. Now we're the bad guys. But how dare that woman takes control of my ship!"
"Yes. I used to control The Infernal Mist. Quite a good ship too. But it got destroyed"
"I think a plan might be formulating"
Their voices broke into his thoughts. It made angry,
very angry, and he wasn't one to anger easily. Indeed, even now he had as successful an attempt as he could to hide it..
"You two aren't going anywhere..." he said simply...
He tapped his com badge.
"Bridge," he said. "Put me through to the Column, and send a message back to Deep Space Five informing them of our current situation... send them all of our recent logs, warts and all..."
"Aye sir..." Kevin replied.
"Captain Dragonhelper..." he began, his diplomats tone returning. "Know at this time that your envoys are under arrest for smuggling a deadly device on board a Federation ship. Know that, if we were in Federation territory, I would be well within my rights to haul your entire ship back to the nearest Federation starbase, and no,
don't threaten me with this 'nanopaste' of yours because I am
not in the mood. Even now, my science officer is forwarding a message back to Federation territory informing them of
exactly what has happened here today, and he will now set the ship's communications network up to transmit an emergency 'ping' if even the smallest part of this ship decomposes, so unless you want the every Federation ship in the quadrant hunting you, I suggest you refrain from activating your device..."
"Sir," Kevin spoke up. "While you were speaking the Ouagadougou opened fire on the new arrival with a massive volley of torpedo weapons... it's powering shields in response..."
"I'm coming up there!" Henry replied. "Siege, Harris, you're with me. Lieutenant," he said to the guard. "Have these two taken into custody, inform our other guests of the situation and then scour
every last inch of both their persons
and the route you took to get from the airlock to here and find that device. When you do, take it to the chief and tell him I ordered for a way to disarm it to be found but
don't try to beam it off the ship or send it out an airlock. For all we know it could have a failsafe..."
"Aye sir..." the lieutenant replied.
He hurried over to the door and motioned for the other two guards to join him. Henry, Tabatha and Albert hustled out of the room, just as the envoys from the Drifter Colony arrived.
"Ok, here's the deal..." the lieutenant said quickly as he hurried to take any loose items he could find off Grigor and Lashee...
"Sir, the Column is charging weapons..." Kevin reported as the three hustled along the corridor.
"Keep me posted," ordered Henry.
"The Nubolten is raising shields..." Kevin replied. "They're sending out a general transmission."
"Let's hear it..." said Henry... "And raise our shields as well, go to yellow alert..."
"Nubolten to all friendly vessels. We are ready to take any action necessary to end this threat, but will not open fire unless fired upon."
"Let the Column know that's our position as well..." Henry said as they reached the turbolift.
"The Mist is turning into its broadside..." Kevin reported a short time later. "They're swarming fighters and what look like small troop transports towards the Column..."
"Hang on, we're almost there," Henry replied as the turbolift neared the bridge.
Seconds later, the doors of the turbolift opened with that familiar soft woosh and the three officers sprinted to their duty stations, just as red alert sounded.
"Report..." ordered Henry quickly as he scuttled into his seat...
"The troop ships are latching onto the Column's hull, they're being boarded..." Kevin announced. "And more are heading towards us!"
"Incoming transmission from the Ouagadougou..." said Albert...
*We require help urgently, the enemy will destroy every ship here if it's not destroyed. Please open fire on it immediately in a coordinated attack. The Brotherhood will reward you for it.*
"Siege, lock phasers and destroy those transports!" Henry shouted. "Looks like this our battle now too..."
He didn't want to help the Column, and the others could tell and understand that, but they could also understand the danger this newcomer obviously posted, that no one was safe while the Infernal Mist remained flying...
"I've tried standard hails, but there's no response..." Albert called. "I don't think there's going to be any reasoning with them..."
"Sir, destroyed two transports," Tabatha reported. "The remainder are getting close to the shield perimeter, and they're
not slowing down..."
"Full power to forward phaser arrays!" Henry insisted. "Bridge to shuttlebay!" he called, tapping his com badge.
"Shuttlebay..." came the reply.
"How soon can you equip the Runabouts with a torpedo pod for combat launch?"
"Well, we've been looking to break the 90 second barrier lately..." the deck officer replied.
"Good enough..." said Henry. "Just get those Runabouts into the air..."
"Aye sir..." the deck officer replied.
He then pressed a few buttons on the console and an alert sounded in the shuttlebay, letting the deck crew know exactly what to do. There were over a dozen different alerts, including the current "heavy combat" alert, which called for Runabouts, complete with torpedo 'roll bar'...
The Runabout was less a shuttlecraft and more a miniature starship. It was big for a Starfleet auxillary, about 23-by-14-by-five-and-a-half, and came fitted with heavy-duty engines, fully capable of sustaining either full impulse or warp-4 for long periods, with enough fuel storage for inter-settlar voyages, a fairly extensive suite of sensors and two transporters. Possibly the most remarkable aspects of the Runabout, however, were its phasers, powerful enough to damage a Dominion attack ship and its shields, powerful enough to withstand a direct hit from that very same kind of ship. It could also be fitted with a 'roll bar' that housed a micro-torpedo launcher, which fired small, but powerful, torpedoes, just the thing for taking down fighters or damaging items on the surface of an unshielded ship's hull...
"Several of the boarding craft are through!" Tabatha shouted. "We're being boarded on decks two, seven and 11!"
"Intruder alert! Computer, seal the bridge with a level 9 forcefield, authorization Baker-Nine-Three-Epsilon-Sierra. Security to decks two, seven and eleven! Com, transmit the following to all ships..."
"Channel open," replied Albert seconds later.
"All ships, this is captain Baker of the Adelaide," he said quickly. "Looks like you could use our help..."
"Sir, the Ouagadougou is trying to flank the Mist..." Kevin reported. "They've just been hit by some kind of electro-magnetic surge, but they're recovering... and firing torpedoes..."
"Let's follow their lead..." said Henry. "Lock photon torpedoes on the Mist and stand by to open fire. Save the phasers for the smaller enemy fighter craft..."
"Aye sir, torpedoes standing by..." said Tabatha.
"Maximum spread," ordered Henry. "Let's try to confuse their point defenses..."
"Transmission from the Nubolten, sir," Albert reported.
"This is Nubolten to all friendly vessels in the area. We are engaging the hostile carrier and rely on your support to keep smaller enemy craft from flanking us."
"They're firing sir," Kevin announced. "Some kind of heavy tungsten spike... The Mist has taken a direct hit... minor armour damage..."
"Don't let them breathe, fire torpedoes!" Henry shouted.
All around the Adelaide, deadly orange whips of nadion energy lashed out from the ship's phaser arrays, slicing through space as the pilots of the attacking fighters tried their best to avoid them. The targeting computer, however, was relentless and, while some of the phaser blasts missed and rang out into space harmlessly, others found their marks, slicing into the hulls of the shieldless fighters and tearing them asunder.
The ship's shields flared defiantly as the fighters strafed the Adelaide, but they could only watch as a burst of what looked like dark orange energy balls burst fourth from the torpedoes launchers in the Adelaide's dorsal pod and above the deflector dish. What they actually were were highly advanced matter/anti-matter warheads, designed to direct 100 megatons of explosive force into the target, much like the shaped charges of old. They weren't easy to shoot down either, having briefly-burning but heavy duty impulse engines, which could accelerate the torpedoes to a substantial fraction of the speed of light, as well as over-powered anti-point defense shielding for each torpedo, which was what gave them their distinctive glow with the long 'streamers' and powerful ECM, which made the torpedo, even though it was easy to see, surprisingly hard to shoot down*. Best of all, their sophisticated tracking system made them hard to dodge...
Meanwhile, groups of heavily armed crewmen, both human and non-human alike, were converging on the areas where the enemy troopships had landed. Starfleet had finally learnt its lessons, and had adopted many of the innovations that the USS Voyager's 'Hazard Team' had pioneered. No longer would intruders face only two men armed with little phaser pistols, but now they would have to deal with full groups of men, each wearing easy to pull on battle jackets, leggings and helmets, which were fitted with energy absorption technology capable of dampening the effects of both kinetic-based and energy-based weapons to the point of being non-lethal, at least for the first few seconds/couple of hits. Clutched tightly in the gloved hands of each officer were heavy-duty phaser carbines capable of vaporizing entire room-fulls of people in an instant. On their belts were a pistol side-arm and a pair of photon grenades, 'DLBs' or 'Deadly Little Bastards' as they were called...
The first clash was on deck 11. The 'marines' as they were known when they were wearing their hazard garb were surprised by a group of enemy soldiers. One marine was hit and wounded as a hail of spikes rang towards. He fell to the floor in an attempt to convince the soldiers they had killed him, while the others took cover around the corners, as they had just happened to run into the group where two corridors met in a four-way intersection.
A cover-based gunfight ensued, with spikes and the occasional phaser blast ringing out across the corridor. The marines and enemy soldiers both thought to use their grenades at the same time. One of the marines tossed a photon grenade down the corridor, only to have a similar device lodge into the wall next to him.
". .. .. .. .!" he shouted, wrenching from the wall and tossing it right back, where it exploded harmlessly in mid-air.
The enemy soldiers didn't have time to consider the same idea. The photon grenade was set to explode upon impact, and it did, only wounding a single soldier, but allowing the marine on the floor enough time in the ensuing confusion to ping one of the soldiers with his carbine before darting around the corridor to join his friends...
Elsewhere, one of the Runabouts was ready for launch...
"Runabout Mount Gambier is ready to launch, sir," the deck crewman reported. "74 seconds, that's gotta be a record..."
"Execute launch!" Baker ordered.
The Runabout took off and rocketed from the bay in an instant, quickly coming about and diving towards an enemy fighter. A phaser blast lashed from the Runabout's forwards phaser array, which tore clean through the fighter's cockpit and out the other side, leaving a fireball where a fighter once was...
"This is Runabout Mount Gambier, all system go Adelaide, we are joining the battle!" the pilot announced.
"Acknowledged Mount Gambier..." Baker replied, focusing his attention on the torpedoes closing in on the Infernal Mist...
OOC:
Damn! That was long...
*After all, when have we even see a photon get shot down in Star Trek?
