Plenty Enough Swashbuckling For One Day
Posted on Thu Feb 22nd, 2024 @ 12:07pm by Captain Tristan Faust & Lieutenant Michael Amato & Ensign Peter Novak & Commander Lucy Heartfilia & Lieutenant T'kara & Lieutenant Shinobu Miyake & Lieutenant Azrel Vox & Lieutenant Commander Darrod Hanous & Chief Petty Officer Meredith Corden
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Mission 4: Through a Glass, Darkly
Location: Deck 5: Transporter Room 1 (Midway); Deck 8: Auxillary Control Room (Defiant)
Timeline: M4 MD06 (2268.07.15) 1300-1345
The Captain stepped into the transporter room and greeted the away team which was assembling. Out of his usual command gold, the Captain was instead clad in a blue Earth Starfleet jumpsuit of a century ago with several glaring exceptions. The addition of several medals, copies of Lt. Ivers uniform down to the last detail.
Commander Heartfilia was leaning against the console having an intense conversation with the transporter chief. He couldn't help but notice how well she fit into the Terran uniform which was more of a biker chick outfit than anything else. She had the curves for it and it took the Captain more than a moment to shake the feeling, "Are we ready to go Commander?" He asked as he approached the console.
Lucy turned from the console and nodded. "Aye Captain," she replied. "Although we have one shot at this..."
Darrod was up on the Bridge, waiting for the signal from Engineering that the "wild weasel" was ready to deploy. It was taking time, time they didn't really have to burn, But between that and damage control, things were moving steadily. As soon as he had the word from Engineering, he called down to the transporter, since he hadn't been told the team beamed out yet. "Bridge to Transporter Room. Shuttlebay is deploying for phase one, sir. Launching automated shuttle now and adjusting the course to give us room for the FoF device to do its job. Good luck, Captain."
Aze entered the transporter room wearing the mirror equivalent of her uniform which was a two-piece outfit consisting of a red crop top with black and gold trim, a super mini skirt with a gold sash and dagger in sheath attached, and thigh-high black leather boots. The outfit showed way more skin than Aze was used to, as her whole midriff, from under her bust to below the top of her hips was in full view as were her Trill markings. The outfit left very little for the imagination.
"Reporting as ordered Captain." She announced as she approached Faust.
The Captain nodded and said, "Welcome to the party Lieutenant," he commented.
"I can't believe this! I can't freakin' believe this!"
all heads turned as a very agitated-looking Lieutenant Miyake all but stormed into the room, sporting the "Operations" variant of the Terran uniform, not unlike Lucy's. Despite her protestations about having to wear it, her tactical expertise would be invaluable for this infiltration, so Tristan had to all but make it an order for her to wear it.
Not like she had to be enthusiastic about it in the slightest, however.
"I look like some skeezy hooker from the back alleys of a red light district!" she grumbled indignantly. "I'm going to find the misogynistic dirtbag who designed these stupid freakin' uniforms and tear him a new one!"
"Let me join you on that one, Lieutenant. This is way too much exposure of flesh for my taste. Hell, when I wear swimwear its an all-in-one. " Aze commented.
"Oh come on girls, you mean you've never worn anything revealing before?" Lucy teased with with a smirk.
"Certainly not as revealing as this? " Aze replied, giving a slight impersonation of an Egyptian belly dancer.
"Revealing? This is misogynistic trash!" Shinobu protested.
Lucy chuckled. "Well, we're just going to have to put up with it. The mission calls for it, so lets get this done quickly."
"You have my vote on that. " Aze replied. She stood ready to step onto the transporter pad.
Tristan tried his best to hold his smirk, preferring to avoid a meeting with personnel. "Alright, phasers to heavy stun," he said before stepping into the transporter chamber. He saw the doors of the transporter room open once again, "Ah, Doctor, thanks for joining us," he said motioning towards Mike to hurry up.
"I'm sorry sir," Mike responded as he quickly shuffled up the steps, "The ship's tailor somehow managed to switch my waist for my inseam... So I guess you could call it a wardrobe malfunction."
"No different than everyone else here," the Captain said with a smirk, trying his best to hold the chuckle.
"You're lucky I favor my commission, Captain, because I'd have a few choice words for you if I didn't," Shinobu huffed as she primed her phaser.
The away teams assembled onto the transporter pad. The Captain gave a nod and then held his breath as he always unconsciously did. The beam envolved them.
They materialized on deck 7, not far from the auxiliary control room. No one seemed to notice them as the ship was rocked by explosions and filled with shouting as the battle ensued around them. Tristan wondered if the same chaos was going on aboard the Midway. Both ships were evenly matched. "We are a few corridors away from auxillary control," Tristan said, "The biggest challenge is going to be escaping... We can't go back the same way we came."
"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it." Lucy replied simply.
"Alright, everyone stay on alert," Shinobu instructed. "And try to look busy; we wouldn't want to draw any unwanted attention to ourselves."
This was the first time Aze had been in a battle situation aboard a starship where chaos was all around her and it was not a simulation. The red alert lights were flashing, lighting up the swirling smoke congregating around the ceiling of the corridor.
One piece of information they didn't have was whether or not the Trill race was known to the Terran Empire at this time or not. If not, then her markings might be an issue. But, as Lucy said earlier, she thought, cross that bridge if we reach it.
Aze followed the team the best she could trying not to look conspicuous.
Lucy gripped her phaser tightly as she took the lead towards Auxiliary control. "Let's do this..." she told the away team.
The Captain nodded as he followed his executive officer. Most of the Terrans they passed never seemed to notice them. Of course the ship constantly lurched and was filled with shouting and screams. So far this area was fairly undamaged.
They approached the auxiliary control room. Two guards were standing outside. "Now Mr. Novak," Captain ordered as he and the security officer fired their phasers, stunning the two guards. Their limp forms fell to the ground.
Shinobu and Peter quickly moved over to inspect the guards; after determining that they were out cold, they proceeded to remove anything they could use to fight back- phasers, grenades, daggers and the like- as well as any personal communications devices that they could use to radio for help.
"Alright, so far, so good," Shinobu assessed. "It doesn't look as if we raised any suspicions yet, so let's get these two stowed away somewhere that they're unlikely to be found; Mr. Novak, if you'll give me a hand here, I saw a storage closet right around this corner..."
The burly young security officer nodded as he picked up the one limp officer like a babe in arms. He followed the Lieutenant around the corner. The ship was just like the Midway, almost eerily so... Although the addition of the Terran Empire globe and sword on every door was disquieting. He opened the closet with one hand and dumped the officer onto the floor, avoiding the mob and vacuum. He knelt and picked up the officer's handcommunicator.
"I'd like to keep this, if that's alright lieutenant," Peter responded, "You don't see many 22nd-century communicators in good shape."
"Eh, he's not going to miss it," Shinobu shrugged indifferently.
Aze noticed the communicator. "The last time I saw one of those was at the Academy when we had a session on the history of communications pre and post-warp development. Just be careful taking it." Aze commented.
As T'Kara's maneuver got the Midway first closer to the Defiant with the goal of going underneath the enemy ship, the Tactical officer just about slammed the buttons on the board in response to Darrod's enraged order. The power of a Constitution-Class starship was enough to crack a planet if targeted correctly - and with all of that power now focused on the Defiant's torpedo launchers, it was enough to do serious structural damage to the Midway's sister ship.
The damage from that strike was well-suited to the planet breaking level of power. The explosions ripped through the saucer section, damaging huge parts of the ship, and the bridge. The casualties, and fatalities, in the saucer section of the Defiant would exceed the Midway's, probably tenfold. As T'Kara took the Midway underneath the Defiant, away from the explosions and death, the phasers were locked on a specific location in the Engineering section, waiting for the phaser capacitors to recharge.
Darrod waited for Meredith to tell him that the comms were open. =/\="Captain, we've done serious structural damage to the Bridge and the saucer section. We've taken light casualties on our side. We are beneath Defiant now and ready to target the warp core."=/\=
"Stand by Midway," The Captain said. By now the away team was inside the Auxillary Control Room, having easily incapacitated the personnel inside, "We are about to lower code in the destruct sequence and lower the shields... We'd appreciate it if you would get us out of here afterwards... Sorry Mr. Hanous, looks like you won't be getting your prize today."
=/\="Understood, Captain. It'll be enough of a prize to get everyone home."=/\=
There was a pause hanging in the air, waiting for another comment as action was obviously happened on the Midway. Even though she'd turned all of her destructive energies on her sister, it was obvious that the Constitution-Class vessels weren't invincible in this fight. Then, the fateful call came to the Away team from their home ship.
=/\="Midway to Away Team. Transporters are down on both ships, you'll have to make for the Shuttlebay - Chief Corden will direct you to the fastest route. We should be ready to grab you with a tractor beam as soon as you're clear."=/\=
"Well that complicates thing," Captain Faust responded, "Ok, we'll have five minutes... If you don't hear from us in four, I want you to set a course back to interphase... Is that clear, Mr. Hanous?"
Darrod grimaced at the Captain's order. It certainly wasn't one he was inclined to follow. But after a moment, he realized the loophole. =/\="Understood, Captain. Chief Corden will get you to the shuttle before that happens."=/\= There was no doubt in his voice - he trusted Meredith; really, he trusted everyone aboard.
Tristan looked at Lt. Vox who was by now sitting at the control console, "Call up the destruct sequence."
"Yes sir" as she accessed the relevant files to activate the destruct protocols. She nodded to Faust to tell him the computer was standing by.
The Caption looked at Commander Heartfilia before turning to the Computer console, by now the gravity of the moment was starting to sink in. A beads of sweat were forming on his brow, "Computer, this is Captain Tristan Faust of the USS Midway, requesting command interface..."
The computer responded in its usual emotionless tone, "Command interface granted."
"Computer, Destruct sequence 1, code 1-1 A," he said before looking back at Lucy, "Commander..."
"Computer, this is Commander Lucy Heartfila... Destruct sequence 2, code 1-1 A-2B," Lucy responded gravely before giving a nod to Tristan.
“Give it a shot Mike,” Tristan said, giving the doctor a look.
The young man cleared his throat and began to speak in a lower tone, mimicking his dead brother’s voice, “Computer,” he said, “This is Lt. Commander Joseph Amato, Chief Navigation Officer… Destruct sequence 3, code 1 B-2B-3."
A chill ran down the Captain’s spine as Dr. Amato mimicked his dead brother and the Captain’s friend.
“Destruct sequence completed and engaged. Awaiting final code for a five minute countdown,” the male computer voice responded.
"Code zero zero zero. Destruct… Zero,” Tristan responded.
“Destruct sequence is activated,” the computer responded as the console lit up, the Chronometer replaced with a countdown.
As Aze heard the captain utter that final command to the Auto Destruct System, she prepared herself to move and move quickly. Her time on this ship was about to run out.
"That's all she wrote people," the Captain announced as he ushered the away team towards the double doors.