Out of the frying pan and into the fire! (Part 2)

Posted on Fri Jan 14th, 2022 @ 2:25pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Commander Nicolas Trigman 'Trigger' & Commander Alexander "Alex" Knight & Commander Alora Knight & Lieutenant Commander Marcus Decius 'Gladius' & Major Chiyo Shimada & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant JG Nozomi Kusuda 'Gemini' & Lieutenant Commander Phyllis D'lar 'Sorceress' & Lieutenant Bobbie Sue "Bobcat" Hunter
Edited on on Fri Jan 14th, 2022 @ 2:27pm

1,686 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Operation Romulus Return

Previously on Star Trek Tokyo:

"No Ensign!" Amu said as she held her back.

As they struggled to hold Nozomi back, one of the two medics accidentally activated Nozomi's combadge, and Iowa had unwittingly overheard the exchange. Iowa tapped her own combadge to open the channel on her end:

=A="Kusuda, this is Riverside:"=A= Iowa said. =A="Listen to me; your injured ass would only slow the rest of us down: You'd do best to listen to the nurses and stay put."=A=

"Do as she says. We need every person to defend this ship, not running around like fools!" Amu told her. "Don't make me sedate you!"

And now the continuation...

[Flight Deck]

Marcus was out of his fighter almost before he cut his engines off. He stormed to his office and punched up the Deck control and hangar bay doors protocols. Inwardly, he seethed. The captain had actually ordered them to stand down! The worst possible thing she could do, she had done. Only his unwavering sense of discipline kept him from disobeying orders and continuing to fight to the death.

He had honored opponents in the arena who fought even after they knew they were beaten. Those who surrendered were branded as cowards and executed. Moving quickly he encrypted the files using an old bastardized latin code mixed with nonsense characters, one only he would know, and routed them through a low-security replicator system nobody would think to examine too closely, and did his best to disguse the code as garbage data to fool the Romulans. He would make them pay dearly for his incarceration aboard his own ship. Then he turned to make sure the rest of his birds landed safely.

He tapped his comm badge. "CAG to all fighters. Report to the briefing room as soon as your birds are on the deck!" He barked the order, and didn't even feel sorry for the rage in his voice. How could the captain be such a cowardly milquetoast??? He stopped and took several deep calming breaths. "I can't afford this," he thought. "The Romulans will be boarding any moment. I need a plan. We may have surrendered, but I will not go down without making them sorry they ever tangled with us."

Bobcat and Buttercup made sure their fighters were secured and headed for the briefing room.

Lynette remained close behind them, trotting briskly in order to keep pace. Having hardly been prepared for a live boarding situation outside of the basics, it was safe to say that she was scared shitless right now, and she sure as hell wasn't going to risk getting separated from her squad-mates at a time like this.

Silica and Fubuki had already landed, they both looked worn out as they followed the other pilots to the briefing room. They knew that they only had a few moments before the Romulans began beaming soldiers aboard the Tokyo, no doubt that the flight deck would be a primary target.

After making sure their fighters were secure, Iowa and Mika made their way to the briefing room alongside the rest of the pilots. Both had dealt with high intensity fighter combat before, and had also repelled hostile boarders, but this was perhaps their first time having to deal with both those situations back to back.

Phyllis made sure all the Tokyo's fighters and equipment were secured in their births and headed for the briefing room. She wasn't smiling when she entered and took a seat. "We were out-manned and out-gunned, and now this." She turned to Marcus. "I don't know what she's thinking."

"WAS she thinking?" Marcus growled, then his eyes took on an intensity reserved for the arena. "Phyllis, I'm not going down without a fight. You've been around the block a few times. I think I've thrown a few caltrops in the path of our boarders, and I want your opinion on them, as well as any ideas to make their lives a living hell without getting us all killed."

A slow smile spread across Phyllis' face. "I never go down without a fight and I hate being grounded. Let's show them what passive resistance means. I know a few tricks to make taking over this ship more of a challenge than they expect--without getting ourselves killed in the process."

Bobbie Sue smiled. "I'm all for not getting killed--and for keeping them from taking over the ship. All the fighters have a homing beacon to take them to the nearest Federation starbase or colony in case the pilot is injured. We might use that to get help. Did the Captain send out a distress signal?"

"No idea," Phyllis said. "Not sure she was thinking about it. I think we could use some ideas from the resistance during World War II. They knew how to cause trouble and keep their heads down."

"Guerilla tactics," Marcus mused. "I like it." He briefly told them what he had done with the flight deck hangar, gravity, and atmospheric controls. "Our fighters are all secured, but the Romulan boarding craft will be strewn around the deck, loose. No doubt they will be heavily guarded to prevent someone from trying to steal one and escape to warn StarFleet. The plan will be to get as many of the boarders back into the bay as possible, while none of our own people are there. Then, I'll drop the gravity, turn off the ACF and watch them all get spaced by the explosive decompression." If we catch any flak for it, we'll blame it on a malfunction caused by all the damage from the ship's battle with the enemy. I've re-routed my command codes through a low level replicator system, so that if the computer gets taken offline, I can still act." Any other ideas we can use to ruin their day without getting caught?"

"These Romulans are playing dirty," Phyllis said. "We should do the same. Guerilla warfare, if we can, sabotage if we can't."

"I like the idea of sabotage," Bobbie Sue said. "It might be worth it to put one or two of our own fighters on the deck and turn on the homing pigeon. That way, once they drift far enough away, the ship will fire up and head for the nearest Federation planet or station. Might send a few of them chasing after it."

Marcus nodded in approval at Bobbie Sue. "I like the idea, but we're too far out. Even if the Romulan cruisers didn't splash an unmanned fighter as soon as it tumbled out of the bay, it wouldn't bring back help in time. I'm afraid we're on our own for this one."

Mika raised her hand.

"If we could get ahold of some Romulan disruptors, even if it's just a couple; we could use them to disorient the enemy." She suggested.

"How would having a disruptor disorient an opponent?" Phyllis asked. "Do you think they're going to think that if they're being shot at by their own weapon it must be a mistake?"

Marcus looked at Phyllis, then turned his attention to Mika. "While I appreciate your willingness to brainstorm and come up with suggestions, Ensign, you need to understand the enemy a lot better. These are Tal Shiar operatives. They don't give a rat's ass about what kind of a weapon is shooting at them, they will return fire without mercy and without hesitation, even against their own people." He shook his head ruefully and muttered, "They're even more ruthless than the slavers on old Magna Roma."

Mika shrugged without further word. At least a shot was better than no shot at all.

Then, his face lit up. "Phyllis, I believe there are still some type one hand phasers in the weapons lockers near the pilot's briefing room. Grab them and arm them..."

"And accidentally set them on overload," Phyllis replied with a grin. "Tricky things, those Type 1s."

"It'll be like the old Claymore antipersonnel mines from your 20th century," he continued.

"Nah. Type 1s do more damage," Phyllis said. "A claymore'll do 50 meters, but a Type 1 will do at least 75, and it's non-directional."

"O-overload?" Lynette stammered nervously.

"How else do you plan to clear a room?" Phyllis asked her. "Disco?"

"Yeah, just cha cha cha them out..." Silica replied with a sarcastic smile.

[Bridge]

Only a few moments later, several Romulan soldiers armed with disruptor pistols and rifles began to beam onto the Tokyo. They were being beamed mainly into unshielded sections of the ship.
"Romulan transporters detected" Ensign Akiyama reported. "Decks four, eight, eleven and fourteen Captain"

"Bridge to Knight" Taiga said tapping her comm badge. "We have Romulan Forces on decks four, eight, eleven and fourteen. I believe they may be trying to take control of the essential areas of the ship. Security forcefields are offline"

"Bridge to all crew" Taiga said opening a shipwide channel. "We have been boarded. Repel all hostile forces. Keep them from vital areas and stand your ground!" she ordered before closing the channel.

Lieutenant Yuvek bit down as he strained to get into a stable position and await the boarding parties. He knew that if forcefields were offline, then it would be only a matter of time before the Romulan forces attempted to breach the Bridge and secure complete control over the vessel.

It did not make any sense for the Romulans to make such an aggressive move agaisnt a Federation vessel while on the Federation side of the Neutral Zone. Even if they were able to kill or capture the Ambassador, there would assuredly be political fallout from the deaths of Starfleet Officers and Federation citizens within their own territorty.

Taiga turned to her officers. "Seal the bridge and halt all turbolifts to this deck" she ordered. "We are not giving up the Tokyo to the Tal Shiar. You are all to stand your ground" she placed a hand on her phaser as she spoke. She wasn't about to let them take her ship away.

To be continued...

RSS Feed