Part 4, XO's Turn, Spello takes on the Slavers
Posted on Thu Aug 15th, 2024 @ 3:06am by Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik & Lieutenant Commander Maxun Spello & Lieutenant Commander Nash Winters & Major Clay McEntyre III & Lieutenant Phaedrae Cyn & Lieutenant JG Xalanth & Ensign Cha'joga d/o H'gren & Ensign Tyler Williams
2,054 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
What We Do With Second Chances
Location: Beta Quadrant, In Pursuit of Serenity
Timeline: MD 13, After Part 4
On the Serenity, the Queen tapped her foot impatiently as she sat on the floor, lined up with her three officers who had since woken up after being stunned. Their arms and ankles were bound loosely. Humiliating to say the least. Where was the rest of her crew?
Clay went over to check on his combat engineer, looking over the console she was furiously typing on.
"How bad?" Clay asked him. The sapper looked up and shook her head. "234 bit fractual encryption code. It'll take a few months to even break a tenth of it."
Clay cursed under his breath.
Suddenly, both the Serenity's communications panel, then Clay's commbadge beeped.
Clay tapped his commbadge. =/\= "McEntyre" =/\=
Over the comm channel, Jason's voice could be heard. =/\=Tally-ho, Major! This is Lieutenant Jg Jason Williams III, callsign Wraith. I'm am leading a flight of four starfighters from Astrea. My orders are to disable the Serenity. Do you require our assistance?=/\=
"Good to hear you, Wraith! They got the engines and computers locked down tight. My Sapper says its a no-go on us bringing this thing out of warp. My position here is...tenable at best. We've got the Queen and her bridge guard in custody but can't account for the rest of the ship. How fast can we expect extraction?" Clay replied.
The young pilot's voice was heard replying, =/\=It's going to be a bit, Sir. Astrea is repairing the damage that was caused by the Serenity missiles. You will have to hold your own for now.=/\=
"Boss, we've got movement," Sgt. Brown called out from one of the entry points to the Bridge. "I can hear something in walls coming up. Stairs or ladder maybe."
Clay whipped his head around, rifle in hand.
"Shit, cover!" He ordered as he tapped his commbadge. "Wraith, my position is under attack, need ya to pick up the pace!"
=/\=Understood, Major! We will be in range in thirty seconds. We'll try to divert their attention.=/\=
Outside, as the Serenity continued her attempted escape, four small, one-man starfighters suddenly caught up with the Atarans' vessel.
"Alright Red Squad, activate shields and bring weapons online," Jason spoke to the other three pilots with him. "Let's go ahead and slow this big pig down. Target the engines and fire when ready!"
The four starfighters began a dangerous dance around the enormous colony ship. Phaser fire and micro torpedoes lanced out from the Raptors, as they began their attack run.
The Serenity rumbled slightly as it took on the fire, but it was big ship and the inertia dampeners could handle the intake well. Caprin watched the Marines take position, knowing that if her people breached the Bridge her own crew sitting beside her would be ready to act.
Clay looks up, looking for the source of the explosions, rifle tracing the room.
While the Marines were taking cover and watching the known entryways, the first Ataran dropped from an unknown access point in the ceiling in the back of the Bridge. It was a taller male, who reached up to help two individuals of smaller stature jump down as well.
Clay picked up the sound, his hearing very acute, given his Caitian nature, turning to aim at the now breeching Atarans coming down from the ceiling.
"CONTACT LEFT!" Clay calls out to his marines, aiming and firing on them with his phaser rifle. Bolts of Orange flying across the room.
"Whoa, please don't shoot!" A voice from the access tubes called. A pair of hands showed through. "Here, I'm unarmed." A young man jumped through holding his hands in the air in a sign of peace.
Clay glared at the young man, cautiously. He aimed his rifle at him, not trusting that this wasn't some sort of trap, like that old show his brother made him watch...Clone...something or other, Space Wars or something.
"Turn Around, Hands interlocked behind your head!" Clay commanded of him.
The Serenity's automated defenses kicked in once the starfighters began attacking. Energy weapons similar to Starfleet's phaser's activated from two main arrays and began targeting the small ships.
While the Serenity's weapons were powerful, as it was not a true combat vessel, the targeting computers couldn't get solid locks on the small starfighters.
"Red Squad, attack pattern Tiger Epsilon! Keep moving! Don't let them get a lock on you!" He hauled over to port, adding some thrust to his forward momentum, as he continued to land hits on the larger vessel. The hits from both his and his wingman's weapons successfully destroying the missile launch tubes on the port aft section of the Serenity.
For the time being the Serenity had stopped firing on the Starfighters, but showed no signs of slowing down, it's preset course taking them to the neutral zone before stopping.
The Astrea began closing in on an intercept course.
"We're eight minutes out from intercept, Commander," Kash called from operations. "Starfighters report pacing the Serenity at Warp 4.2."
Nash reported from his engineering station. “Commander, I can give you warp 5.5 to overtake. Speed at your discretion!”
"Helm, increase speed!" Maxun said aloud. "We can't allow them to enter the neutral zone!"
"Increasing speed to warp six." Cha'joga's hands slid up her controls, and she leaned back as the uptick in speed pressed her slightly into her seat.
As the powerful starship increased her speed, the counter for catching the Serenity plummeted rapidly. In less than three minutes, they had the vessel on visual.
Maxun pressed the intraship comms and spoke aloud. "Crew and personnel of the Astrea, stand by for combat maneuvering." He then closed the channel and started issuing orders. "Helm, bring us along her port side, at a thousand meters. Engineering, do your magic to keep us going a little bit longer. Tactical, open hailing frequencies. Then prepare to look on a tractor beam and stand by on weapons."
Nash heard the order from Spello and relayed the appropriate instructions to his team below. He had a ten-member Warp Specialist team and they were all up to speed on the status of the warp drive and condition of the damaged nacelle. “Keep it tight down there. Lock down the injectors and watch the plasma flow. We’re taking it up to warp 6,” Nash reiterated.
Tag helm Cha'joga - maneuvers
Tyler complied with the request from the XO, "Aye sir, opening hailing frequencies," he tried once and got nothing. Tried again and still no luck, so he confirmed, "No response to hails, Sir. But I'm locking on the tractor beam now and weapons are going on standby.." his fingers danced over the console, "Now. We're prepared to fire if or when necessary."
Spello looked at the image of the Serenity on the main viewer. After a couple beats of consideration, he spoke aloud. "Mister Williams, stand by to fire a warning shot across their bow. Get me Major Clay on the comm." He stood from the command chair and stepped forward a few paces, his hands clasped loosely behind his back, as he waited for Tyler to open the channel.
Tyler complied with the request and opened the channel, "Channel opened, and we're on standby to fire. All yours, Sir."
On board the Serenity the Marines held the Atarans who had just come through to the Bridge from something resembling a Jeffries tube at phaser point. Caprin and her men had dared to stand up, though they didn't move from their place against the wall. The stations sat unmanned, though as was pointed out earlier the encryptions could take weeks to figure out.
Suddenly, Clay's commbadge beeped.
=/\= “McEntyre here” =/\=
=/\=Major, this is Commander Spello. What is you current situation?=_\=
=/\= “I’ve got the queen, several bodyguards in custody. My position though is tenable and the bridge systems locked out. My sapper thinks she’ll need a couple weeks to even break the encryption. Need exfil ASAP” =/\=
Back on the bridge, Maxun gave Tyler the mute channel signal, then, when the young officer indicated that it was muted, Maxun spoke to the Chief Engineer and Chief Intelligence officers. "Nash, Cyn, imput the command codes for the Serenity. When I give the signal, shut that ship down!" He then looked back at Tyler, and nodded, indicating that he should unmute the channel.
Nash nodded to Spello and went to work extracting the Serenity’s codes from its computer. At the same time he pointed at Cyn to get her attention. He would relay the codes to her console. As Intelligence Officer, he felt it was her job to initiate their opponent’s ship’s shutdown. Nash walked over to Cyn's station to verify the transfer of the codes.
“Whenever you’re ready, Cyn. Ready to transmit,” Nash told her.
"I'm ready," Cyn replied while manipulating the controls on her panel. "And transmitted," she confirmed. She turned her attention to the viewscreen to watch the results of her actions.
The lights of the Serenity's engines cut out as the ship came to a halt.
"Serenity has come to a stop, sir." Cha'joga reported. "Engaging tractor beam. Hopefully they've got no more tricks up their sleeve." She tapped on her console, and the Serenity was engulfed in glowing blue light.
On board the Serenity the air became notably quieter as the hum of the engines stopped abruptly. The lights on all of the terminals turned off at the same time, causing the Bridge to seem unusually dark.
=/\= “Astrea, McEntyre. Systems here show shutdown. Bravo Zulu! Request extol and security teams for prisoners in custody, how copy?” Clay transmitted to the Astrea, a small across his face on a successful mission. He walks over to his Sapper. “Well done. Worthy of the history books there.”
"It wasn't me, sir. I wish I could take the credit."
Over on the bridge of the Astrea, the corners of Maxun's mouth ticked up slightly. "Understood, Major. Help is on the way." He closed the channel, rhen addressed the bridge crew. Cha'joga, keep us within a thousand meters of the Serenity. Phaedrae, keep an eye on the Serenity's computers, ensure they stay in our control. Nash, resume your repairs to our combat damage, but don't take the mains offline just yet, just in case. Mister Xalanth, take a security team directly to the bridge of the Serenity and assist the Major in securing both it and any prisoners there, including their Queen." He turned to the young officer and continued.
"Once the Queen is in custody, she is to be brought back yo the Astrea immediately and placed in the brig. I am making you completely responsible for her safety and confinement. No one is to see or speak to her, unless you receive clearance from myself or the Captain, understood?"
"Yes, commander. I'll bring her back. " Xalanth said giving a quick salute before handing his station over and heading for the turbolift. " Security team ten to the transporter room," the lizard added tapping his com badge
After he received responses from his officers, Maxun looked over at the Tactical Station. "Mister Williams, keep the tractor beam engaged, and weapons locked on. Then send a signal to Lieutenant Williams to bring his starfighter back aboard to refuel and rearm."
Tyler complied with the request and tapped down the commands, sending the signal to his cousin, "Lieutenant Williams, return your starfighter back to the Astrea as soon as possible to refuel and rearm. Please acknowledge." He then tapped another series of commands into his console and turned back to Spello, "Weapons and tractor beam are locked on and engaged, Sir."
Maxun nodded as he listened to Tyler. He then turned and sat back down in the command chair. For now, the rest of the action was out of his hands. He had read over everyone's personnel files, and knew that they all knew how to do their jobs. He would not micromanage them.
~Almost Over~
Lt. Commander Maxun Spello
First Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Nash Winters
Chief Engineer
USS Astrea
Major Clay McEntyre III
Marine Commanding Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Phaedrae Cyn
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. J.G. Xalanth
Assistant Chief Security
USS Astrea
Ensign Cha'joga (Thivi)
Helm Officer
USS Astrea
Ensign Tyler Williams (Eirly)
Security Officer
USS Astrea
Ensign Kash th'Kaasnik
Ops Officer
USS Astrea
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