Caught At Last

Posted on Mon Nov 12th, 2018 @ 8:39am by Colonel Jason "Jack" Frost

2,300 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Emerald Road
Location: Bridge. U.S.S. Indefatigable

Will sat on the Bridge as news came in, they were catching up to a ship that seemed to be stopped in space. Will had to wonder if a trade off was being made, was Vash being delivered to another party or did they break down. What ever happened Will was not about to let this chance slip through his fingers. "Time?"

"6 minutes." His helmsman replied.

6 long minutes, 6 minutes was all that lay between him and Vash and each second ticked by at a painfully slow pace. His fingers gently rapped on the arms of his chair, even his foot lightly tapped on the carpeting under him as his impatience grew. As he watched the stars streak by on the viewscreen he could only wonder at the horrors Vash had to endure in her captivity, but he'd make everyone pay for it.

"Im getting better readings as we get closer. Single vessel, Orion in origin. Somethings different though. Her signature indicates extensive modification, much highier than usual. My guess would be shes got a bigger engine installed or shes built for speed."

"Tactical analysis Commander." Will asked, he wanted to know what he was getting into. While he was confident the Indefatigable would be up to the task, in any fight information was important if one was to win it.

"Standard compliment of weapons for her class, 2 disruptor cannons and a pair of torpedo tubes. Her mass is different, I'm detecting a large increase." A few moments passed. "Shes got additional armour installed, the things a turtle." Encased in a hard shell, shielded, that would be tough one to crack open for sure.

"Commodore, we are a tactical over match, she can take a beating true and I suspect she will run for it before long." Mark concluded in his report.

Even though she wasn't Tactical, BJ spoke up from her console. "I'd unleash a barrage of torpedoes in front of her before she can go to warp," she said. "Just enough to interfere with their sensors. Once we get the shields down, we can beam over no matter what kind of armor she has."

"The instant we exit warp, fire a spread." Will called out agreeing with the idea, there would be no way he'd let this ship escape with Vash on board, not now that he was this close.

"Understood." Mark made the preparations, 4 torpedoes armed and ready to launch the moment they exited warp. "Weapons ready." He spoke as he linked his console to helm, together they would need to work as a team to get angles on the engines if they were going to prevent the ship from escaping.

Anika tapped her lips thoughtfully as she leaned forward to watch the viewscreen and the damage displays that were reading out on her console. "Green lights across the board."

As soon as the stars streaked to normality the Orion Corvette was exactly where it was supposed to be. "Fire."

We had come this far and at last caught up, Vash was on that ship, everything pointed to it and now it was on the screen. Mark didn't waste time, the 4 torpedoes that he'd made ready now launched from the tubes to skim past the Orion Corvette, these would be the only warning shots, the next would hit its mark.

"Open a channel." Will spoke. "Orion Corvette, you have abducted one of my crew, you will return her immediately. You know of whom I speak, if you test me, you will fail." Will typed a message to Mark at Tactical and to the helm station to stand by for Multi Vector Assault Mode.

Rebecca gave the helm a sideways glance, and simply nodded. She wasn't the one given the order, so she kept her mouth shut, as she saw systems come online that could only be part of the Multi Vector Assault Mode.

In response to the Commodore's message, two D-12 class Klingon Birds of Prey decloaked, one on the port and one to starboard and immediately fired disruptors at the Prometheus class ship.

"You're not in Federation space anymore and we have no Federation officers aboard this ship," came the voice of a female over the comm as the corvette immediately veered off on a new course.

William closed the link, he knew they were lying. Interesting turn of events and choice of words however. No Federation officers. Vash was not a Starfleet officer. "Helm, engage Multi Vector Assault Mode, engage the Klingons but target the engines of the Orion vessel as opportunity bears." The lights turned blue, a siren sounded and then a countdown began which ended with the ship separating into three combat capable and ready vessels.

"All sections are responding correctly, and standing by for orders," Commodore.

"Aye." Mark replied as the ship shuddered as it split into three pieces. It was a first for him to experience this but the tactical applications were amazing. The separation of the three parts exposed several additional phaser banks granting him more firepower which he turned to the attacking Klingon vessels. Everyone had heard about the near capture of the prototype and how easily it disabled a nebula class ship.

"Commander Reign, as a precaution, prepare to repel boarders." Last thing Will needed was a battle out there and one waging within his own ship.

"Aye, Sir," BJ said as she began to deploy her Security personnel to vital areas on the three sections of the ship.

Meanwhile, the D-12 ships opened fire and moved to block the Orion corvette while it accelerated away from the fight.

It came as no surprise that the Klingons would attempt to block, but the ship was in three parts, nimble, agile parts now. "Helm, attack pattern Sierra 3. Focus the D-12 to port, fire torpedoes as target bears, synchronise attacks for maximum effect."

This was the first time Mark had used MVAM but he was surprised by the simplicity of the tactical systems. It was like a dance with the 3 parts of the Indefatigable working in perfect unison. He expected some complicated design, console layout or something more than what he had but he was able to select a firing pattern with ease, assign a target, even target sub systems. "Aye." Mark tapped the D-12 icon and a red circling ring went around it, to the right of the screen were the three sections of the ship and beside them were the weapons. These were green, red or orange to denote status and firing. From his console he could see the barrage of fire the three parts were dishing out to the target.

In short order, the D-12 Bird of prey was taken out with very little effort, but the other one proved more elusive. It fired a fully volley of its disruptor banks at the main section, then unleashed a spread of torpedoes at the other sections before it cloaked and began to move.

"Moderate damage to dorsal shields, starboard side dorsal phaser is down." Mark reported as he tried to find this one elusive klingon ship. "Sir, I have a suggestion." It was a shot, but better than nothing. "It has to decloak to fire, it cloaks again, with three sections of the ship we saturate the area with phaser fire from multiple angles, with its shields down while cloaked we should impact the hull."

"Rerouting power along the auxiliary waste reclamators. Give me a second, and I'll get that array back up for you." Rebecca announced, and her fingers danced over the controls.

"Do it, engage the corvette as she bears however, we can't let her escape now." Will ordered knowing that first they needed to remove this last klingon ship.

The effort worked, when the D-12 decloaked to fire it was assaulted by a barrage of phaser fire focused and triangulated on shield impacts. In the one hand Mark sought to keep the Klingons from cloaking under such an attack, in the other he hoped they would as weapons fire would strike the hull when the shields fell. As any weapon systems came to bear they fired upon the Orion Corvette which to his surprise was more study than he expected it to be even for all its additions. "Sir, the Orion vessel is holding up better than expected under our fire. Shall I intensify our attack?"

"Do not let that ship escape Commander." Will spoke then tapped the console on his chair arm. "Colonel, prepare your men."

Mark started to pile on the hits, even with the remaining D-12 to deal with if a weapon was not being used Mark was trying to make it so it was at a different target. Mark observed on his display that the D-12 would engage one section of the hull then vanish. Flank and attack another, vanish again. It made it hard to determine where it would next appear.

After three more attacks, two rather full on and brutal the combined effort of the three sections managed to score a hit. It may have been a glancing one but enough of one to damage the wing and breach the hull. That was the start of its end. With a trail being left behind it, a compromised hull it was not hard to track. Just to be sure Mark fired a full volley of proximity detonation torpedoes from each of the sections.

Of the 11 fired, two appeared to be solid impacts, the rest detonated close around the target in harshly buffeting impacts of concussive force. The ship didn't so much explode but tore apart by the forces applied to it from all angles. "Target destroyed."

Will watched, observed the firepower this vessel had to offer in its rare and unique mode. Each section danced with its companion sections, each delivering deadly firepower to an intended target.

Turning his attention to the Orion Corvette Mark began a focused but deliberate barrage of fire on the ships engines. Her armour was making a solid hit hard, even the shields were caked up to take a kicking but three focused angles of attack. It wouldn't stand for long before the shields would go down.

With the other Klingon Bird of Prey disabled, the corvette had no protection but it's armor and shields, which were far better than average. It looped around in a complex maneuver and opened fire on the main section of the Prometheus class ship, then rolled under it to fire at the secondary hull and then rolled to starboard and took off on another vector.

"I'm still not able to get sensors to penetrate the hull. I still can't get a lock on this Vash individual," Rebecca added.

"It is difficult to get a lock on a single orion, on a ship full of them. I am assuming the trackers she had have all been removed. " Anika answered her dark eyes flickering to William, not liking what she was about to say one bit. "We might have to board them to effectively retrieve her."

Not liking the sound of that, she redoubled her efforts, "I'll keep trying to get a lock. Maybe if I amplify the lateral sensor array through the the deflector we can get a detailed enough of a scan to identify Vash."

"Even if you do I suspect they won't allow us to just beam her off, a prize catch like Vash is to them, they will do everything to keep her." Will spoke watching on the viewscreen as the three sections of the ship engaged the Corvette. It wouldn't be long before the barrage of weapons fire brought the shields down, now came the armour. "Target its engines, I want the ship disabled." He knew the Colonel was ready with his boarding party.

Rebecca turned to face the Commodore, "Orders sir?"

Anika chewed the inside of her lip, trying not to let her emotions play across her face. I have a bad feeling about this. How do we avoid sending in the marines?

It took several long minutes of focused fire to bring the goal to the front. "It's done." Mark gave another few volleys of phaser fire just to make sure. "Warp and impulse engines are down. They won't be repairing them any time soon."

"Alright, here is the sequence of events. We will reintegrate the ship, Helm will manoeuvre us along side to board via the airlock, on standby to conduct synchronous manoeuvres in case the enemy ship attempts to pull away on thrusters, if they have any left." Will began to pace. "Rebecca, I need as much power as you can to the structural integrity grid, they may attempt to sheer the docking arm or attempt to collide with us." Will knew the ship could take a scraping ram or two, the docking arm was not as armoured.

"Colonel Frost and his men will effect entry and secure the ship, Commander Reign will ensure we are not counter boarded. Dr Patrovski will have medical teams waiting in Sickbay, any Holodecks he sees fit to us and a team or two at the airlock to receive wounded, protected by Commander Reign's security forces." Will paused, he saw the looks, he knew them. He knew them because at some point or another during this god awful mission he looked in the mirror and looked the same at the reflection.

"I know this mission has not exactly been by the book, things have been done that will raise more than an eyebrow, or even a casual objection. I know a lot of you have been kept in the dark and while I can only apologise for it, I know its not easy to work on so little." He could feel the eyes on him.

"Let's get it done, Helm....go."

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