First Contact
Posted on Thu May 5th, 2022 @ 1:39am by Lieutenant JG Rrawran & Commodore Wilkan Targaryen & Captain Ryan Walsh & Commander Nathan Hawkins & Commander Ash Randall & Patton O'Sullivan & Lieutenant Commander Lily Snow PhD, MD & Lieutenant Dylan Blake & Zoey Parker & Lieutenant Commander Cyrus Marner & Captain Nathan Bishop & Lieutenant Commander T'Lisha "Hawkeye" Bishara & Lieutenant Janice Carlson
4,109 words; about a 21 minute read
Mission:
749148
Location: Various
Timeline: 2430-09-09, 12:45
OOC: This is broken down by several locations.
Admiral Willian Targaryen stood with phaser in hand at the threshold to the Talosian hatchery, waiting. The alien forces had landed on the surface and since the pretenses had been dropped in favor of tactics their was no more hiding. The Admiral had ordered himself and Commander O'Sullivan to join Doctors Snow and Marner while they did their work trying to finalize preparations to move the Talosian survivors. The Captain of the Starship Enterprise could only hope that they were able to stop them from preventing their work.
The wrist tricorder he wore displayed the holographic map of the caverns and their approaching enemy force. He glanced over at his Security Chief, "They're inbound."
Patton set off a couple of his surprises he left for their enemy and grinned over at the Admiral. "It will lessen their forces a little." His weapon was in his hand. "I will hold them back until the move is successful." He would not let them fail.
The Admiral, normally, would have been opposed to such drastic measures but these were far from ordinary times. Checking the readouts he noted that there forces were reduced and delayed, but not prevented. They were still coming and they would be here soon.
"You two need to hurry," he ordered to the Chief Medical Officer and the Chief Science Officer. "How long do you think it'll take?"
Cyrus looked at the schematics of the equipment, rolled up his sleeves and went to work. "just need to get them in position and get connection for transporter lock on. Give me ten minutes if you can!"
Marner moving them to more close proximity of each other, then running a scan over the incubators to get a bio scan on them all. This will help to facilitate the transporting of them.
"When ever you are ready, let us know when you can beam them up! We have important items that need to be beamed directly to sick bay and have medical staff standing by. A future generation is waiting for a rescue and we can not fail."
"We'll give you as much time as we can," the Admiral answered, "but I can't make any promises. There are a lot of unknowns in this one."
"Thank you, Admiral." Marner responded, he then looked at other two, "Just a little bit more." he felt that feeling one would get, as if something was coming behind him. It was probably due to the encroaching enemy. "Just make one other adjustment." to the other two. "Okay good." he had the tricorder readings. "Admiral we are ready for the transport."
Patton was relieved to hear that. Time wasn’t something they had on their side. He knew more would he coming all he had done was a delayed tactic. “Admiral, they are ready!” He Repeated, in case he hadn’t heard.
Willian reached for his communicator just as a blast of blue energy flew only centimeters passed his forehead and into the nearby wall. He immediately dropped to his knees and behind the barrier, phaser at the ready and firing upon the source. "Now isn't a good time," he critiqued as he tried to find the source. A group of aliens, different aliens, came into the chamber with weapons in a tactical position. The enemy fired as they took their own positions to hide, the Architect having vanished in the midst of the melee. The Admiral had a feeling he hadn't see the last of him.
"Marner and Snow you need to try to contact the ship!" The Admiral demanded as he fired at the encroaching enemy.
Marner tapped on his commbadge "Enterprise this is Dr.Marner can you hear us? We have people that need to be beamed out of here and important cargo to be beamed directly to sick bay. Do you copy?" he keyed it in. "Blast it all, confounded contraption, I am trying to get through to Enterprise. You better work need to get these children out of here!" he looked towards the Admiral, "I feel like I am getting a busy signal."
"Keep trying, Doctor," the Admiral ordered as he fired on one of the new attackers.
Cyrus almost dropped thie communicator when he heard the message.
"Dr. Marner, this is Captain Bishop, we read you and we're on our way, stand by to have the away team and cargo beamed up immediately." from Bishop
He beamed, turning to look at the Admiral. "They heard us and want us to be prepared to be beamed aboard!" he looked those with him. "This is good news, good news indeed."
"Start getting them out of here!" The Admiral ordered as he dodged an enemy disruptor pulse.
"It will take 4.7 minutes, Admiral." Marner replied, giving a worried expression at the weapon fire coming closer. "Wish there was a way to block off the foe from coming closer. And be careful Admiral!"
"We'll do our best," Willian sent a message to Commander O'Sullivan, alerting him to try to outflank the enemy for a better position.
Patton went to work immediately, he knew that that if he didn’t hold them off or gain them a better position they would be in trouble. He used what he had available to push their enemy back some, hoping he would gain both some time and was relieved to have better access at taking out some of the enemy.
One of the alien soldiers noticed, quickly turning and firing the twin disruptors as the Enterprise's Security Chief, barely missing the Commander. It fired again, trying to find its target and distract away.
Behind them the transporter beam of the Galileo engaged, taking Doctor Marner back to the small scout vessel as the remaining members of the team struggled to survive. Commander Snow was the second to be beamed away.
As the Security Chief beamed away next the Admiral realized something that he dreaded: he was alone and surrounded by the enemy. He looked carefully at them, watching as they came closer. He fired his phaser at them, knowing that he was nearing an end. Adjusting the device he set it to overload, knowing full well that it would bring down the entire chamber. Activating the sequence, he tossed it over the formation and into the gathered soldiers. Within seconds the weapon exploded with tremendous energy, destroying the approaching soldiers.
But he was still hopelessly outnumbered. Watching the enemy approach he knew that he was about to face the true final frontier. Resolving himself he stood and opened fire with the last bits of energy in his phaser pistol, taking out a few but their disruptor pulses returned. He fired, hoping full well to take them down, but instead felt the energy envelop him.
Commander Galatea stood, arms crossed, in the center of the Bridge of the Starship Enterprise watching the tactical plot on the viewscreen. The alien vessel was large and bat-shaped, very much befitting its predatory nature. The ship featured large nacelles at the tip of each wing and a massive bank of engines at the rear of the vessel, but the ship did not appear to be as maneuverable as it could have been. The ship almost looked Ferengi in many ways, but the design was heavily militaristic, with extensive weapons arrays.
The Galileo was nearby, visible through the viewer to the side of the ship. Galatea had ordered the communications array disabled to prevent Admiral Luzol from turning them around, but she also knew that kept them all at a significant disadvantage. They knew their orders though. Enterprise would engage the alien ship while the Galileo worked to rescue the away team. As soon as they had them aboard they would warp away. Enterprise would follow suit.
She was about to issue orders when they came under attack. The alien vessel, despite the distance, fired its primary heavy weapon, a series of intensely focused plasma energy pulses. The pulses arrived quickly, separating into clusters and slamming into the Enterprise four times with one blast.
The ship immediately rocked from the impact of the energy pulses, consoles erupting into flame and sparks flying throughout the expansive bridge as the damage ripped through the ship. The shields fluctuated and so did Galatea, shimmering as the ship struggled to compensate for the damage sustained.
"Evasive maneuvers!" She commanded as she struggled to regain her composure. "Report!"
"Fudge bucket!!!!" T'Lisha hollered as she tried to turn the ship out of the plasma pulses. "I still have helm control but they are sluggish," she added, fighting to control the turn to port.
"Direct hit!" Hawkins called wafted away the haze of smoke that hindered his vision: "Shields are down to sixty percent! We have damage on decks thirteen through to nineteen and reported casualties. Fire suppression systems are failing throughout the aft section of the ship."
"I'll head down to engineering," Blake volunteered dusting himself off and heading toward the exit. "They'll need every hand they can get."
"Main power is holding and emergency power has been routed to shields. If we do not want to take another hit like that last, we had better disrupt the carrier wave that contains and guides the plasma discharge. Ideally, we might be able to redirect it back at them." Ash reported.
Zoey was a frustrated as she tried to scan for the ship that just hit them with an impressive barrage of weapons fire. She needed to give a report to the Commander. "That might be a problem sir." Zoey started to say as she went on to say. "External sensors are limited Commander, the barrage of weapons fire, must have scrambled our sensors. Short range sensors are affected. Targeting array is offline. We can only fire manually."
Galatea could feel the systems of the ship being rerouted in an effort to stabilize the ship. Some of the resources had impacted her matrix, impacting her ability to shore up her own defenses. Sitting in the Captain's Chair she tapped, near frantically, on the controls as she routed a percentage of auxiliary power to stabilize the holoprojectors on Deck One. On the opposite screen detailed reports of damage scrolled over the panel. It was hard to believe so much damage had occurred so quickly. They needed to learn more. This was not unlike the Breen weapons of the Dominion War in its intensity. Perhaps Starfleet's belief that the Enterprise needed recalled was justified. Perhaps she had just destroyed the morale of an entire empire with her actions.
But this was not the time for self doubt. As Jean-Luc Picard once said leaders often critiqued what they did not do, not what they did in a crisis. This was a crisis if ever there was one. "Switch to full manual, Zoey," she confirmed as she checked the readouts. "Helm, full axis rotation to starboard. Fire full phasers, zero degree elevation at the target vessel. Keep up the barrages as long as we can."
"Understood! Pulling full axis turn to starboard....hang on to something," T'Lisha said as she brought the ship around smartly. With compromised systems, the IDF fields were not as they should be, you felt the turn. Sluggish as she handled, T'Lisha managed to complete the turn and afforded the correct firing position.
"Ash, Nathan, focus your efforts on strengthening the shields as much as you can," she ordered. "We need to keep the defense systems as active as we can - especially if they decide to use their weapon once more," the hologram commanded as she pecked at the interface. "The other priority are our engines. If they go down we cannot leave."
"Understood," Hawkins responded already plotting how to best utilize what power was available to keep them in the fight.
"Aye, Commander." Ash replied, while she worked on a mod to the forward tractor beam array to see if they could disrupt the carrier wave of the plasma weapon. The engineer considered a shield mod instead but it was better the weapon didn't reach its target than to try and harden the shields against it to the detriment of defending against other weapon types. "I've devised a mod for the forward tractor beam array that may disrupt the carrier wave of that weapon if we can time it, correctly." She advised the bridge.
She watched as the alien starship hovered around the Talosian homeworld, the Galileo firing minuscule shots at the alien vessel as it tried to penetrate its defenses. Her tactical subroutines ran the analysis of the weapon impact upon the Enterprise. If they hit the Galileo it would take out their entire shield grid with a single hit. The only thing that had saved Starfleet One was the redundant generators. She sighed, finally understanding why humanoids so commonly expressed them, "we need to get between the enemy ship and the Galileo or they're done for. Full impulse. Continue assault."
"Commander," the Science Officer indicated. "Sensors indicate that the Galileo is lowering shields to prepare for transport."
"We need to ensure that they are defended. Get us between them, now!" The hologram demanded as she stood behind the Helm and Ops consoles. "Maintain firing, and see what we can get on that enemy weapon. If we need to use Ash's defense we need to be prepared."
"Nathan," She looked at the Operations Manager, "Since they have transporters down send Zoey over there. Let them know to get this over as quickly as possible because we are running out of time. Transfer tactical to the Helm."
"On it," Hawkins nodded hoping Parker was ready to be tossed in at the deep end.
"Fire a full spread of torpedoes at the target," the hologram commanded, "supplement with phasers. Continuous fire from Starboard banks. Full impulse until we are clear."
"Full impulse aye sir, firing full spread torpedoes and phasers from starboard banks," T'Lisha said crisply. Her hands skillfully firing and flying as if it was second nature.
She found her Chief Engineer, "Be ready to implement your plan. I'm trying to goad them into using their weapon."
"Understood, Commander." Ash responded, while she focused on fine tuning the sensors identifying the electromagnetic carrier, at the instant it was initiated, that would streak out like an invisible lightning bolt to carry the plasma discharge. That detection would, instantly, initiate the countering pulse that would, at worst, cause the plasma weapon to scatter off in all directions and, ideally, circle back and impact the enemy ship.
It didn't take much to convince the enemy to fire again. The mysterious new weapon launched out from the unidentified craft and struck against the Enterprise's shields, countering with the pulse that emanated from the Enterprise herself. Unfortunately, it was not as effective as they had anticipated. While some of the energy was refracted, some of it looped back around and still struck the ship. Static and other energies pulsed over the ship's hull, blowing out systems as they struggled to keep up with the damage. The electroplasma systems attempted to reroute the most dangerous energy away.
Galatea tapped at the controls, aware that most of her tactical personnel were now on the Galileo fighting to keep it going. "Helm, adjust heading and fire phasers at the target vessel. Try to find somewhere we've done some damage."
"One step ahead of you," T'Lisha said. Manoeuvering the Enterprise skillfully, and getting a good bead on a section of shielding that showed signs of failure, T'Lisha fired the phasers. "Direct hit! Shields weakening..."she said as she fired again and this time the shields collapsed. "Enemy shields offline", she added.
"Ash, how badly have we been hurt?"
"Preliminary damage reports are still coming in....We've taken, wide spread, heavy damage. Outer hull breaches span several decks along the drive section and power systems are failing, sporadically throughout the ship. Main power is holding...Primary systems are holding. We've been hurt, far worse, but usually not this quickly. We can not take another hit like that." The Chief Engineer reported. "Disrupting the carrier wave reduced the effectiveness of the weapon by 11%...not a ringing success." She added.
"Deploy damage control teams at your discretion. As much as we may regret this, Nathan, get the communications array back online. We need to find out what's taking so long." The AI commanded as the ship shook from an enemy torpedo strike. "We may have to withdraw from here soon."
"Yes ma'am," Hawkins acknowledged and immediately set to work to restore communications even if that meant Starfleet would crucify them for disregarding a direct order. Still, better a court martial then a death sentence he summarized.
Continuing to give orders, "Counselor, any insights onto why the enemy vessel is attacking us or why they could be so intent on the Talosians?"
"Captain," Hawkins called out to Galatea. "There's a hitch: the array has been damaged. We only have short range communication function."
"We'll only need short range and let me know the moment it's online," the hologram reported as the ship shook from a disruptor impact. "Return fire, full phasers."
T'Lisha's hands danced over the helm firing phasers in short controlled bursts concentrating on the areas of most concern, power control, engineering, and engines. The shots hit home and did damage that was noticeable.
Struggling to remain at his station as the ship trembled from another blow Hawkins worked as quickly as he could while systems blinked in and out of operation around them. He cringed at the readings - they couldn't afford to take much more punishment before they'd be disabled or space junk. Not having long range communications eliminated the ability to call for aid, though knowing how stubborn Luzol she was properly tracking them anyway - at least that was Nathan's hope as he cursed at the damaged array willing it to power up faster. He wasn't ready to meet his maker just yet, not when there was still fight in him.
His console chirped with a wave of relief: "The array is online Captain," Hawkins called.
The hologram nodded, "Excellent work, Ops. Open a channel to the Galileo."
"Channel open."
"Enterprise to Galileo," the Acting Captain called out. "We're taking severe damage from the enemy vessel. They're using some sort of advanced plasma based weapon that is cutting through our shields like they aren't even there. We need to get out of here. I'm giving you five more minutes to get the away team back and then we're getting out of here."
It was the Admiral instead, "Understood, Galatea, set course for Federation Space and engage at Warp 9."
"You don't have to tell us twice," the AI said as she nodded to engage engines.
Lieutenant Rrawran sat at the Flight Control Console of the Galileo, quickly ascertaining the situation that they were in. Captain Bishop was in command with orders to oversee their operation to recover the Admiral and the rest of the away team while Captain Walsh would manage their tactical position. He would do his best to keep them out of harms way, he only hoped that they would be able to handle whatever came their way.
Adjusting their course, slightly, he checked the readouts as the sensors detected a massive energy pulse emanating from the alien ship. It quickly passed by the Galileo and slammed into the outer shields of the Enterprise, the energy pulses wrapping around the military command vessel and tearing into its shields. He tapped at the controls, "Enterprise has been hit! Whatever that thing was it took their shields down to 60%!"
"Mr. Rrawran, it's time we become a wasp and take some of the heat off the Enterprise. Ryan, bring our weapons online, keep the shields up and target the enemy's engines with everything we've got. Let's give the Enterprise some time to regroup."
The Rorworr Helmsman checked the readouts on the screen, "Captain, sensors are detecting armed lifeforms on approach to the away team. I think that they may be under attack!"
Janice quickly relieved Lt. Rrawran at the helm, thus enabling Ryan good shots at their targets. Janice was another fighter pilot who could fly anything that had an engine or engines. Clearly a better choice for the Galileo helm.
Ryan quickly followed orders, bringing their weapons online as well as shields. He targeted their enemy's weapons and fired, using all he had, knowing they had to pull their attention off the ship.
"Sir," Rrawran looked at the screens, "the Away Team has come under attack themselves. I'm reading," he paused in surprise at the numbers before gathering his courage to finish, "there are almost 200 people on the surface approaching the away team. A series of subterranean explosions have blocked one route, but they are still on approach. Sir, we need to rescue them!"
"Captain, should I get closer to the planet for transporter range?" Janice asked.
Rrawran added, "Our away team is in a subterranean cavern, approximately a kilometre underground and the enemy is closing. Sir, they're heavily outnumbered. We need to focus on extracting them."
"Understood! " Bishop shouted, "When we get in range beam them up immediately and then get us the hell out of here!"
"Bringing the ship within transporter range now Lt. Rrawan" Janice said as she flew to within the needed range. "Range achieved" she added.
"Sir," Rrawran had moved to the Operations Console, "We're intercepting a hail from the Away Team to the Enterprise. Audio only."
"Enterprise this is Dr. Marner can you hear us? We have people that need to be beamed out of here and important cargo to be beamed directly to sick bay. Do you copy?"
"Dr. Marner, this is Captain Bishop, we read you and we're on our way stand by to have the away team and cargo beamed up immediately." Bishop glanced at Ryan, "As soon as we're within transporter range beam the away team and it's cargo up."
Ryan continued to use their weapons in the ship. He hoped they got to their people in time.
"I've got target locks, Captain," the alien officer announced as he worked the transporters, "but this is going to take some time. They have a lot more embryos than our transporters can take at one time. This is going to take easily about 4.7 minutes and that's near constant transporting," the translators struggled with keeping up with his words.
The transporter beam sent Lieutenant Parker to the Galileo, beaming her directly to the Bridge.
Zoey was happy to hear that they got the target lock. It was not an easy task, given the state the weapons array was in. "I recommend we get started as soon as possible, every second counts sir."
"Doing our best," Rrawran interrupted. "I could use some help running the transporters." As he said it Doctor Marner was transported aboard the ship, arriving directly on the Bridge of the small Galileo.
Feeling the familiar sensation of being transported Marner was surprised to find himself on the bridge, "Thank you, and where have the embryos been transported to?" he getting ready to head off to where they are at. "and hope you are able to get the Admiral and the others."
Bishop nodded, "You are welcome, Doctor. Glad we were able to pull it off. Yes, we were able to also retrieve the Admiral and the others. The embryos are currently in Sickbay."
With a nod, Cyrus smiled, "I am very glad to hear this, thank you again." he walked over to the turbo lift and stepped inside. "I'll be going to medical now." then he disappeared from view as the door closed shut.
A second later Commander Snow appeared before them, having been transported out to the Galileo as well.
"Enterprise to Galileo," the Acting Captain called out. "We're taking severe damage from the enemy vessel. They're using some sort of advanced plasma based weapon that is cutting through our shields like they aren't even there. We need to get out of here. I'm giving you five more minutes to get the away team back and then we're getting out of here."
Having been beamed to the Galileo, Willian answered instead, "Understood, Galatea, set course for Federation Space and engage at Warp 9."
"You don't have to tell us twice."
"Let's do the same," Willian ordered as he watched the alien vessel on the screen.
The enemy craft maneuvered deftly through space, turning quickly to charge toward the small Galileo. As its dangerous weapon engaged, a projectile of charged energy flying toward them, the Enterprise and Galileo became streaks of light as their engines engaged.
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