It begins (Part 1)
Posted on Wed Oct 20th, 2021 @ 8:58pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Amu Hinamori M.D. & Lieutenant JG Silica Tetsuhiko 'Twin-Tails' & Lieutenant Fubuki Kuchikukan 'Snowflake' & Chief Warrant Officer Karuta Roromiya & Petty Officer 1st Class Yoshika Miyafuji & Commander Nicolas Trigman 'Trigger' & Lieutenant Commander Marcus Decius 'Gladius' & Lieutenant Lhravitelim th'Endirhc & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini'
Edited on on Wed Oct 20th, 2021 @ 8:59pm
1,256 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Operation Romulus Return
Location: USS Tokyo
[Bridge - USS Tokyo]
Captain Aisaka sat in her chair on the bridge of the Tokyo drumming her fingers on one of its arms. They were just under an hour away from where they were planning to drop out of warp and deploy all three ships fighter wings. The general idea was to be extra prepared in case the Tal Shiar decide to put up a fight.
Taiga was expecting some form of confrontation. She doubted that they would attack them in Federation Space. The Neutral Zone after all was neutral territory as per treaty; however if there was going to be conflict it was more than likely to happen in the zone than claimed space.
She tapped a couple of buttons on the arm controls of her chair to open a shipwide broadcast. "To all crew this is the Captain. Shortly we will be dropping out of warp on our side of the neutral zone" Taiga began to address the crew. "Our mission is to ensure the safe return of the Romulan Ambassador to her people. We expect the Tal Shiar and possibly the Elachi to engage us in the Neutral Zone" she paused for a few seconds.
"Prepare yourselves for what could be a very bloody conflict. Remember that we are Starfleet we've go..." she was cut off suddenly as the Tokyo shook violently causing people to be thrown about on the bridge and over the ship.
Taiga herself was thrown forward by the sudden jolt causing her to impact with the deck. The ship immediately went to Red Alert with warning Klaxons sounding.
[Space]
Several strange ships seemed to simply 'pop' out of no where either side of the Federation Task Force whilst they were at warp. Bright green disruptor style beams and some sort of torpedoes struck all three ships, aiming mainly at the Nacelles.
The port nacelle on the Armitage exploded causing the ship to spin out of the warp field, throwing the ship out of subspace while the other two carrier vessels continued to take fire.
The Elachi vessels continued their assault now focusing on the Oceania's engines. Bright blue plasma began to flood from the ships nacelles as she also dropped out of warp, returning to normal space her main warp drive disabled.
[Bridge - USS Tokyo]
Taiga looked up from the deck, the Armitage and Oceania were gone. Several Elachi vessels were now firing their weapons. She watched as the Tokyo took several direct hits. It seemed as if their weapons ignored their shields. The Tokyo was thrown out of subspace, the viewscreen showing that they were now in a barrell roll.
"Helm, get us stabilised!" Taiga ordered as she returned back to her chair.
"All hands to battle stations!"
Telim's fingers flitted across his console, bringing up and dismissing status displays and warnings as the ship's computer responded to the damage being received. He could feel at the very least a large bruise forming on one side of his forehead where he had collided with the support frame next to him - which had at the very least stopped him being thrown entirely out of his seat. "Heavy damage to the warp nacelles," he called out, summarising the warnings flashing on his screen. "Structural integrity down to sixty percent." He grunted as the inertia being generated from their barrel roll temporarily brought itself to bear upon the ship's occupants before the inertial dampeners kicked in again. "Inertial dampeners failing. Going to manual override." He activated the relevant series of protocols to take direct control of the inertial dampeners, fixing them in a configuration to counteract the roll for now whilst he worked on rebooting and restoring the automated subsystems.
[Fighter Bay]
"...And this is precisely why you should keep a towel on hand at all times," Nozomi sighed as she stumbled into the fighter bay, a bloody towel pressed to her forehead.
"Oh my God; what..."
"She's Bleeding!"
"Medic?!"
"I'm fine," Nozomi insisted to the concerned Flight Deck Handlers as she pressed on to where her company had assembled. "Just got a little jostled around..."
Marcus was at her side in an instant. "Take off the towel, let's see how bad it is." He didn't like his pilots being injured.
Without a word, Nozomi slowly lowered the towel, reveling a fairly sizable gash running along the left side of her temple.
Amu had been summoned by the shout of someone asking for a medic. She rushed over to Nozomi, med kit strapped over her shoulder. "Where did you sustain this?" She asked simply indicating for the pilot to sit down.
"I got slammed against the bulkhead when we took a hit back there," Nozomi explained, wincing a little as the medic forced her to sit down. "Not sure how long I was out, but next thing I can recall was the Captain ordering everyone to battle stations, so I just grabbed a towel from the Gymnasium in an effort to stop the bleeding."
"I need you to come with me to the Flight Deck sickbay. You can't fly with a head injury, and I need to check you for head trauma ensign" she said simply.
Nozomi appeared visibly disappointed that she was going to have to sit this fight out, but seemed to recognize the potential severity of her injuries and resigned herself to her fate as Dr. Hinamori helped her to her feet and led her off to Sickbay.
Marcus turned to the small group of onlookers. "Okay, show's over! Back to your posts. Head wounds always bleed a lot. Doc'll patch her up just fine. Move!"
[Bridge]
"Where are the Oceania and Armitage?" Taiga asked quickly.
Lt. Jasad Yuvek groaned in pain as he dragged himself back up off the deck and back into the Helm console seat. His left arm was numb and he could slowly feel the returning of some sensation in his left hand as he tapped his console and tried to regain control of the listing vessel.
"The Armitage is 8 lightyears behind us, port nacelle was severely damaged, the Oceania is 5.4 lightyears, but they're heavily engaged in combat on top of their engines taking significant damage." Lt. Yuvek was able to communicate as he stabilized the vessel.
"Too far to really help..." Taiga muttered. The ship shook again as it took another volley of weapons fire from the Elachi ships causing consoles to send out sparks.
"Bridge to Decius. I want all available starfighters deployed now. We're under heavy assault from Elachi vessels, you're to engage and return fire once deployed" Taiga ordered quickly over the comm.
[Flight Deck]
Marcus wasted no time. "Acknowledged!" he barked. Turning to the expectant faces around him, he used the voice he had long practiced commanding gladiators in the arena, the voice that could be heard over the screams of the dying and the maimed, "Charlie and Delta Squadrons, get to your fighters! Delta launches first. Charlie, get your birds lined up on cat 2! I want both squadrons in space ASAP!" He turned to Phyllis. "Sorceress, you'll have to sit this one out and take my chair. Have alpha and Bravo squadrons on standby. If things get dicey, use your best discretion and launch the remaining fighters."
With that, he leapt toward his ship, the other pilots close behind.
To be continued...
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