S2E10 We Shall Fight

[Kirok]

Dranik input the necessary commands once again. "Aye sir. Firing phasers. Torpedoes are loaded and ready to fire."

[Guardian - Bridge]

Some of the phaser fire landed.  Some of it missed.  But the enemy ship took damage and that's what counts.

"Good job, Mr. Dranik.  It seems as if you have a talent for this.  Hold torpedo fire till I give the command" he said.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Starbase - Deck 42 - Corridor B-13]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Starbase - Deck 42 - Corridor B-13]

When his only half-joking comment didn't get a single reaction, Lahr let out a sigh.  He needed a new career... or at least a new department.  Security was fast losing it's appeal.

"It'll be quicker if I just trigger it.  Tim, give me your shield and then stand back...way back. I'm gonna hotwire the door open... unless someone else has a better plan?"

Tim handed over his force shield generator device and Lahr attached it to his shoulder and set it to it's most concentrated force.  It meant a smaller shield, basically covering his core and head only from the side then Lahr overlapped his own shield at it's largest size so that it covered from head to toe.  Let's hope it's protections were cumulative.

"Last chance for someone to talk me out of this stupid stunt..."

Still there was silence. Not even Burke spoke a word. The guy was probably hoping not to draw attention to himself lest he be asked to do the deed instead. Yeah, it was nice to know who your friends were.

Lahr turned back to the door access panel, took a deep breath and placed his gloved palm against the palm plate, wincing in anticipation.

Nothing happened.

"Seriously, they locked it too? Bastards are sadistic."

With a rather expressive grumble, Lahr worked at pulling the panel open and crossed the isolinear chips 'hotwiring' the door's lock. The audible clunk the door made as it unlocked, had Lahr flinching.

"It was good knowing you all." he called out and then activated the door's pneumatic system to open the door.

Down the hall, well out of the way of the anticipated explosion, Tim activated his comm.

The door began to slide open, when a blossom of fire erupted from the grenade, Lahr could feel the heat and force through the shielding and his EV suit as he was thrown against the wall.  For a second it seemed like the shielding would hold.  But the flames and force were too much for the small generators and with a flicker they cut out one at a time.  First his shield... the flames and debris from the door slammed into his legs, eliciting a scream from the Andorian that was likely lost in the roar of the explosion.  Then Tim's... there was a moment of excruciating pain... then nothing.

(OOC Post restored due to server outage - ShranLahr ch'Verret Sept 30th 2021)

[Dranik]

[Guardian - Bridge]

Some of the phaser fire landed.  Some of it missed.  But the enemy ship took damage and that's what counts.

"Good job, Mr. Dranik.  It seems as if you have a talent for this.  Hold torpedo fire till I give the command" he said.

Dranik frowned at the sight of the phasers hitting the enemy vessel. He was a hunter, this was true but despite what he had said he was still slightly uncomfortable with firing on another starfleet vessel even if they were no longer part of the organization they had taken an oath to serve.

"Yes, sir. Targeting phasers on weakest shield points. Awaiting your command to fire torpedoes."

[Mondo'li Nari]

Starbase - Deck 42 - Corridor B-13

"Last chance for someone to talk me out of this stupid stunt..."

Mondo looked at his Andorian superior with something of a frown, shaking his head slightly.   There might be better ways to handle this problem, but time was a factor.  They needed to get control of this section before another counter-attack came.  A sensible enemy might stop and admit that they were beaten.  Not so with these mindwashed masses.

How many had been mentally programmed?

Perhaps it was not as many as it seemed.  One dedicated, driven man could motivate a score more.   You only needed one rabid dog in the pack.  The rest could be rabid by example.

The door was triggered.   The expected blast came.

But it was more than expected.  Too much more.

Mondo rushed forward, along with several others.  Petty Officer Frela, who'd come as part of Kirok's reinforcements, responded quickly.  She opened her medpack, took out a pair of sock-shaped compression sleeves, and slid them over ch'Verret's legs.  Her tricorder came out.  Then a transporter beacon- designed to cut through the interference- planted on his chest and activated.

The working, powered parts of the station under Starfleet control had a few transporter rooms at their disposal for tactical insertions and medical evacuations.

Mondo lowered a hand to Lahr's suited shoulder.  He knew the man did not trust him, but he bore the Andorian no ill will.  Especially not now.  "They'll fix you," he said, sadness and surety behind his eyes, "They can fix anything."

Then Frela was calling for the evac, swatting Mondo's hand away from her patient.  A shimmering field glowed briefly in the hall.

This hall was filled with death.  So many lives.  So much blood.  For so small a thing.

The steps remaining were simple:  Fix what the bomb had destroyed.  Get power online.  Get the environmental systems online.  Erect emergency forcefields.  Restore proper atmosphere.

Then they could begin to use the active equipment to accomplish their real objective.  They could gain operational control of Deck 42 and the three decks below which were controlled by these same environmental processing hubs.

Everything was one small step leading to another small step.

Hopefully they'd run out of steps before they ran out of feet to take them with.

[Malik Grippen]

Keeping watch on the prisoners as the last one was transported away, Malik had been distracted from the shenanigans of the Challenger's tactical squad. Petty Officer ch'Verret's sentence caught his attention however.

"It was good knowing you all."

"Wait!"

It was too late, the blast shook the corridor and thrumped through Malik's chest. The grunts had only been left alone for less than a minute and had already started blowing themselves up. It was situations such as these that throughout galactic history, an officer was always required to lead the regular soldiers as they had a tendency to do things that ended in their own destruction. Malik rushed over to the body of the Andorian to see that he was already been tended to and beamed away to a sickbay.

He addressed the remaining troop that ch'Verret had been leading along with Mondo's. "No one thought of stopping him? We have enough people trying to kill us, lets not do the enemies job for them, shall we?"

He moved into the now safe generator room and towards the nearest terminal. The room was fairly large, housing half a dozen cylindrical generators. The traditional thrum and emanations from the generators were absent in their offline state. Quickly accessing the terminal revealed yet another obstacle had been placed in their way. Some sort of lockout protocol that they seriously didn't have time to work around. Malik knew of one person who may be able to help.

"Lieutenant Grippen to Ensign Jex. If you're not too busy, kindly beam over to our position. We need some computer expertise on unlocking the fusion generator controls."

Turning to Mondo, Malik gestured back out towards the hallway.

"Kindly setup a defensive perimeter until we can get these online, no doubt reinforcements will be on their way."

[Lek]

[Engineering - USS Legacy]

Lek was still tweaking the shield matrix when Crewman Troy Jenkins asked.

"Sir, shouldn't you be on the bridge? You are the senior officer in the salvage team.

Lek looked at Jenkins as if a self-sealing stem bolt had just spoken.

"No, there's... Uh there's... Oh sweet merciful crap."

Lek's expression became pained and he shouted to the first non-commissioned officer in his line of sight.

"Mister Vincent, you take charge here. Your priority of work is to keep whatever you can squeeze out of shields operational. I will be on the bridge.

Lek rushed to the nearest turbolift and rode to the bridge. He stepped out onto the Legacy's command center and could only winch as he saw there were only three other crew on by bridge, one at Conn, one at tactical, and Ensign Oftex sitting center seat. Taking a deep breath, Lek spoke firmly to the Saurian Ops officer.

"Mister Oftex, I am taking command, please take Ops and let's see how we can help the Challenger and the Guardian. One quarter impulse. Bring photons to ready. Bring phasers to ready. Conn, try and keep our port shields toward the intruder, they are currently the strongest."

Oftex blinked his huge eyes twice, then surrendered the center seat.

"Thank the Maker. I was hoping you'd take command."

Oftex looked extremely relieved as he moved to Ops, whereas Lek felt his stomach turn into knots as he sat in the center seat.

"Blessed Exchequer help me thus day."

He thought as the Legacy slowly turned to face the intruder.

[Kirok]

Dranik frowned at the sight of the phasers hitting the enemy vessel. He was a hunter, this was true but despite what he had said he was still slightly uncomfortable with firing on another starfleet vessel even if they were no longer part of the organization they had taken an oath to serve.

"Yes, sir. Targeting phasers on weakest shield points. Awaiting your command to fire torpedoes."

[Guardian - Bridge]

"Just a momement longer" he told Dranik.  "Helm.  Come around" he said.

Then he tapped his com badge.  -A-Guardan to Challenger.  Fire at will-A- he said.

[Lek]

[Bridge - USS Legacy ]

Lek could see the Guardian had already engaged the hostile ship and he knew Admiral Kirok needed to know help, limited though it was, was on the way.

"Mister Oftex, get me the Admiral."

"Aye Sir, channel open."

"Admiral, this is Lieutenant Lek aboard the Legacy. We are coming to your aid, the salvage team only consists of forty-eight personnel, so our ability to fight this ship is limited, but we have phasers and photons, we can help."

[Declan Vincent]

[Engineering - USS Legacy]

"Mister Vincent, you take charge here. Your priority of work is to keep whatever you can squeeze out of shields operational. I will be on the bridge.

[USS Legacy - Engineering]

"Aye Sir." Declan responded, well aware of the wall of eyes that had drifted in his direction as the Ferengi departed.

He gazed back at them. "You heard the Lieutenant, we need those shields at optimal. How's the power bus holding?"

A crewman at one of the operational consoles spoke up. "Holding."

Declan nodded but was well aware if the Legacy was going to engage, all bets were off if the bus would remain stable under those conditions. "Bring more K Cells and have them at the ready. You won't be able to switch them out just use inducers to keep a continuous feed."

How long would that last would depend on what was happening out there in space. He could only attempt to improve the odds.

"We will take a page from the Lieutenant's play book...Shields, weapons and the impulse drive. We have 29 decks on this ship. Shut down life support to all the empty decks and whatever power maybe trickling around and reroute it to those priorities."

He pointed to two of the engineers. "Continue on the warp power relays. If things get shaky we will need the boost." Declan had climbed down the ladder from doing just that on Lek's new order but it didn't mean it should be abandoned, considering.

"We could use some help from any of the Legacy crew. Can we really do this with just...Us?"

Declan smirked. "Seeing we don't know who among the Legacy crew can be trusted not to vaporize you, I guess it will be just us. Ok let's get to it!"

[Lizzie Vaughan]

[Guardian - Bridge]

-A-Guardan to Challenger.  Fire at will-A-

Challenger - Bridge

Lizzie, who had been monitoring the exchange, gave a grim nod.

Firing. She replied.

She then turned to the Ensign at Tactical.

"You heard the Admiral. Fire all weapons!"

Phaser fire streaked from the Challenger's banks, followed by a full salvo of torpedoes. Due to the range, accuracy was not the best but they did score some hits, reducing the incoming ship's shields to a point where they would not be able to stand too much more.

"Commander, the Legacy is moving to engage!" The Ops officer reported.

"Us or this new threat?" She asked, hoping that the salvage team were still in control.

"The new ship." The officer reported after a few seconds.

"Excellent. Send them a signal to co-ordinate with us. Between the three of us, we should be able to take it down."

"Aye Commander." The Ops officer replied, sending the signal.

The Challengers phasers fired again, the torpedoes taking longer to reload.

[Solluk]

Starbase - Deck 42 - Auxiliary Power and Environmental Control

Mondo watched Malik as he chastised him and the other security personnel for failing to stop ch'Verret.  One superior was yelling at them for not stopping another superior, after having failed to do so himself.

Such was the life of the grunts on the bottom.

As a trained servant, Mondo was inured to such treatment.  The lieutenant was merely venting his frustration about the current situation.  Such frustration was understandable.  Mondo felt it, too.  Frustration and sadness for the lives needlessly lost, and those yet to be sacrificed for this cause.

Once that moment of venting was done, the lieutenant began to calm down and take charge.

Mondo nodded upon receiving his orders.

"Yes, Sir."

He took up his phaser rifle, nodded to the crewmen present, and began to indicate defensive positions.  Gort had returned to base to organize resupply.  Mondo was now the most senior enlisted person on site.

[Lizzie Vaughan]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret
[Starbase - Deck 42 - Corridor B-13]

Still there was silence. Not even Burke spoke a word. The guy was probably hoping not to draw attention to himself lest he be asked to do the deed instead. Yeah, it was nice to know who your friends were.

Lahr turned back to the door access panel, took a deep breath and placed his gloved palm against the palm plate, wincing in anticipation.

Nothing happened.

"Seriously, they locked it too? Bastards are sadistic."

With a rather expressive grumble, Lahr worked at pulling the panel open and crossed the isolinear chips 'hotwiring' the door's lock. The audible clunk the door made as it unlocked, had Lahr flinching.

"It was good knowing you all." he called out and then activated the door's pneumatic system to open the door.

Down the hall, well out of the way of the anticipated explosion, Tim activated his comm.

The door began to slide open, when a blossom of fire erupted from the grenade, Lahr could feel the heat and force through the shielding and his EV suit as he was thrown against the wall.  For a second it seemed like the shielding would hold.  But the flames and force were too much for the small generators and with a flicker they cut out one at a time.  First his shield... the flames and debris from the door slammed into his legs, eliciting a scream from the Andorian that was likely lost in the roar of the explosion.  Then Tim's... there was a moment of excruciating pain... then nothing.

Posting as Crewman T'Varn - Medical Technician

Starbase - Deck 38 - Corridor D-15 - Field Medical Station

T'Varn was actually enjoying herself. Not that, as a Vulcan, she would admit to such, but she found pleasure in the adrenaline rush of being in a potentially dangerous situation. As such, she had volunteered to accompany the boarding teams as they attempted to secure the station. It gave her distance from the barely suppressed emotions of having to deal with her family.

She was currently stationed at one of several medical field stations they had set up to triage the casualties. The lightly injured were sent back and the seriously injured were ferried by shuttle to and from the Challenger as transporting had proven a problem. As soon as she saw Lahr materialise, she hurried over to him.

Thankfully, despite the somewhat dubious gravity plating in this section, the atmosphere was still intact. Therefore she was able to remove the petty officer's helmet and inject him with a stimulant to wake him up. She could see several contusions, but nothing life threatening. So she would check for head injuries before treating the internal bleeding.

She saw him open his eyes and gave him a smile while holding up a finger.

"How many fingers can you see?" She asked him.

[Lek]

Challenger - Bridge

Lizzie, who had been monitoring the exchange, gave a grim nod.

Firing. She replied.

She then turned to the Ensign at Tactical.

"You heard the Admiral. Fire all weapons!"

Phaser fire streaked from the Challenger's banks, followed by a full salvo of torpedoes. Due to the range, accuracy was not the best but they did score some hits, reducing the incoming ship's shields to a point where they would not be able to stand too much more.

"Commander, the Legacy is moving to engage!" The Ops officer reported.

"Us or this new threat?" She asked, hoping that the salvage team were still in control.

"The new ship." The officer reported after a few seconds.

"Excellent. Send them a signal to co-ordinate with us. Between the three of us, we should be able to take it down."

"Aye Commander." The Ops officer replied, sending the signal.

The Challengers phasers fired again, the torpedoes taking longer to reload.

[Bridge - USS Legacy]

Lek licked his lips nervously as the Legacy closed on the intruder and hoped he wasn't about to make a complete fool of himself.

"Message from Challenger Sir, they are want us to coordinate our attacks with them." Oftex called out from Ops.

"Acknowledged. Tactical fire at will, continuous quantums as fast as the launchers will load. Use the torpedoes to beat down their shields and concentrate phasers on their weapons arrays. If will pull their teeth, they will have to withdraw. They can't stand up against three to one odds for long."

Lek watched the first of the torpedoes launch and found his hands dug into the armrests of the command chair as he waited to see if the intruder would break off or turn this into a slug fest.

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

PO2 ShranLahr ch'Verret

Posting as Crewman T'Varn - Medical Technician

Starbase - Deck 38 - Corridor D-15 - Field Medical Station

T'Varn was actually enjoying herself. Not that, as a Vulcan, she would admit to such, but she found pleasure in the adrenaline rush of being in a potentially dangerous situation. As such, she had volunteered to accompany the boarding teams as they attempted to secure the station. It gave her distance from the barely suppressed emotions of having to deal with her family.

She was currently stationed at one of several medical field stations they had set up to triage the casualties. The lightly injured were sent back and the seriously injured were ferried by shuttle to and from the Challenger as transporting had proven a problem. As soon as she saw Lahr materialise, she hurried over to him.

Thankfully, despite the somewhat dubious gravity plating in this section, the atmosphere was still intact. Therefore she was able to remove the petty officer's helmet and inject him with a stimulant to wake him up. She could see several contusions, but nothing life threatening. So she would check for head injuries before treating the internal bleeding.

She saw him open his eyes and gave him a smile while holding up a finger.

"How many fingers can you see?" She asked him.

The peace of oblivion was taken from him in the form of an adrenaline shot.  Lahr almost instantly came aware; not so much of his surroundings but of pain - excruciating pain.  It was like every nerve ending on his body was on fire.  He gasped and wished he was back in that pain-free dark again.

He opened his eyes to look around and instead was asked by some voice he didn't fully recognize to count fingers.  Lahr blinked and tried to focus on the hand that was held up in front of him.   "One?"

Now it was his turn to ask a question. "Where am I?"

(OOC Post restored due to server outage - ShranLahr ch'Verret Sept 30th 2021)

[Dylan Torngate]

[Corridor]

Dylan had been continuing to give fire support from range using the Phaser rifle he'd been given. It'd been quite a while, and the battle showed no signs of stopping. Concentrated fire from the Federation ground troops had prevented any advancements, while the rebels constantly pinned down the foot soldiers ahead. It was a deadlock, just as had been all over the station. No side had gained ground, while the space battle had kept up the siege. Unfortunately, as long as matter reserves held, the station could fabricate supplies and the rebels could hold out almost indefinitely. The only clear way to victory would be through brute force, with payment to match in bodies.

Unless...

Across the station, klaxons began to sound as the monitors all lit up - even those that were still offline. Someone had accessed the main station computer and command structure - and it wasn't the loyalists. A timer appeared on screen, counting down, slowly. The rebels had initiated their last act - starting the self-destruct on the station. Unfortunately, a Federation tech had just found what looked like a heavily encrypted file, something the rebels certainly didn't want falling into Federation hands. As the order was given for the Loyalists to fall back to secondary positions, closer to the docking areas the Loyalists had secured earlier.

The race was now on, to either shut down and take control of the now-active command systems, or evacuate the station before it went up in flames. It appeared the rebels were willing to die for their cause - would the Federation be willing to risk the same?

Operations and Science computer specialists raced to shut down the self destruct and hijack back the station, while Medical hurried to evacuate all of the wounded still in staging areas. Unfortunately, there had been a biohazard spill and their access to the main airlock was blocked off, with transporter dampening fields up that could not be shut down. Flight would need to move ships to a minimum safe distance while piloting evacuation shuttles. Engineering attempted to clear the way, while at the same time assisted where they could in evacuating the wounded or shutting down the self destruct. Security would need to play traffic cop and police force while organizing the retreat and holding off the rebels now coming in increasing intensity.

Dylan had taken his rifle and returned to the main staging area, flagging down a passing officer he recognized from the Challenger and asking what was going on.