Into The Lions Den (Part 4)
Posted on Thu Apr 11th, 2024 @ 3:09pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Rea & Lieutenant JG Kurumi Hatanaka & Commander Thomas Johnson & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Major Chiyo Shimada & Lieutenant Jasad Yuvek & Lieutenant Talia Johnson & Lieutenant JG Nezuko & Lieutenant Tatsuo Shimada & Lieutenant Takina Inoue & Lieutenant Mizuki Nakahara & Lieutenant JG Dana Monroe
1,940 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Starship Graveyard
Location: 15:00 USS Tokyo & Borg Cube
Previously on Star Trek Tokyo:
"Readings show that the next nearest gap in their shields is nearly a mile from our current location," Chisato pointed out.
"Well it's better than staying here..." Kurumi said simply. "I don't fancy being a drone." She added as she flipped her tricorder shut.
"Unfortunately, Kurumi-Chan's right," Chisato surmised. "If we stand any chance of getting out of this place alive, then we're going to have to risk the danger."
She held out an arm, as if motioning her group to fall in.
"Stay behind me, and be aware of your footsteps at all times," she instructed them.
"If it feels like the floor's about to give way, feel around until you can find more stable ground."
"I'd better be getting hazard pay for this..." Mizuki bemoaned as the four of them began making their way towards the beamout location.
And now the continuation...
Dana cringed at the sound of the alarms, just being back aboard the cube was hard enough without the risk of more drones showing up. “We’ve got what we need! Let’s get away from here!” She motioned the team a different way. “I can show you another way out, there’s a gap in a damaged sector this way...”
Thomas nodded, "Lead the way Lt. Lets go people, time to head out."
Dana nodded. “Yes Sir” She started moving towards the most damaged end of the cube. “Be warned, there’s a lot of structural damage this way, that and a lot of bodies as well.”
[USS Tokyo Bridge]
Talia was monitoring Alpha team. “It looks like Monroe is leading Alpha Team another way, she knows that cube better than anyone else there. She must have a different way out!”
"Whichever way she knows, she better move fast because I'm starting to see additional signals moving toward their respective locations." Lt. Yuvek replied tersely.
Taiga remained standing by Jased's side at the Operations console. She could see the teams moving, their locations indicated on the consoles screen. She could also see that the transporter couldn't determine an accurate lock on them. "Is there no way to get through their shielding?" She asked.
"I have an idea..." Taiga said. She moved away from the Operations console and made her way towards the Tokyo's tactical Station.
[Borg Cube]
"Aisaka to away teams. The Borg shields are stopping us from beaming you back." Came Taiga's voice through their comm badges. "I'm going to punch a hole in their shields so we can get you back." She said.
Dana paused, she didn’t want to risk heading through an already heavily damaged sector if the cube was about to be bombarded.
=A=Wait, you're going to what?!=A= Chisato attempted to radio frantically.
[Tokyo Bridge]
Taiga's fingers danced across the tactical console. Her eyes locked on the the targeting scanners. "Jased, shunt power from the lower decks to the torpedo launchers in the upper pod," she ordered.
"...trial by fire..." The Cardassian muttered to himself as he worked to reroute power from various lower deck systems and directly into the torpedo launch systems. Ordinarly, it would take several minutes to do so and would probably have been handled by the power control teams on that deck. However, this situation required Lt. Yuvek to skip over numerous safety protocols and managed to create the necessary low-resistance diversion path to feed the power into the necessary tactical systems in a matter of seconds.
"Power re-routed!" He said once he received confirmation.
"Aisaka to away teams. Brace for impact, and prepare to beam back to the Tokyo." Taiga said after tapping the Starfleet delta on her chest. She tapped on the Tactical console.
The torpedo launcher in the Tokyo's weapons pod began to power to life. Similar to the Akira Class which the Armitage was based upon, the weapons pod had a rotational launcher. It allowed constant fire of torpedoes from the ship's magazines. The Tokyo also had additional micro-torpedo launchers built into the pod providing three hundred and sixty degree coverage of the ship. It was mainly designed to conbat against starfighters and smaller craft, however today Taiga locked the launchers on one target. The Borg Cube.
Continuous streams of Quantum and Photon Torpedoes burst out of the launchers and began speeding across the sand dunes. "Twenty seconds to impact..." Taiga said.
Talia couldn’t help but worry about Thomas, even though she knew he’d be ready.
[Borg Cube]
Beta Team was presently fighting their way to the beamout location, a swarm of Borg Drones hot on their heels. In spite of their best efforts to hold them back, the Borg Drones had long since adapted to the damage sustained to their cube, so they already knew where it was safe to walk. Takina attempted to buy them some time by shooting down a conduit dangling overhead, crashing down on top of a pair of Borg Drones and sending them tumbling into the Abyss, but the Drones directly behind them quickly adapted and expertly navigated around the downed conduit. With just another hundred feet left to go, Beta Team was at risk of being overwhelmed before they even had the chance to reach the beamout location.
Out of the corner of her eye, Chisato spotted a flash of light heading straight for them; Her heart skipped a beat as she realized the danger they were in.
"Brace!" Was the only thing she could think to shout. "BRACE!"
The torpedoes began their relentless assault, slamming into the side of the Borg Cube. Their weakened shields buckled as more followed, striking the downed cube in several places. Huge sections of the cube were blasted into millions of pieces as the torpedoes cut through the ship's hull and slammed into the cubes internal systems.
As a shower of sparks and debris rained down on them, Mizuki lost her footing; were it not for Takina's quick thinking, she would've almost certainly tumbled over the edge.
"Are you alright, Lieutenant?" the brunette inquired as she helped Mizuki to her feet.
"I'm gonna need a clean pair of pants after this..." Mizuki grumbled.
Takina glanced over at Chisato and Kurumi and gave them a nod that Mizuki would be alright.
[USS Tokyo Bridge]
"Get them out! Now!" Taiga ordered.
Once he saw the shield integrity fall below 17% he was able to get a strong enough lock on the away team members and initiate the transport procedure.
"Alpha and Beta Teams are secure from the Cube, but I had to re-direct the transport signal. I wasn't able to bring them back to the ship. They should find themselves several thousand meters from the Cube." He said. "They'll have a bit of a hike ahead of them, but they'll be safe from the Borg." He reported.
The viewscreen switched to show the cube. Several sections were now ablaze and smoke towered high into the sky. More of the Tokyo's torpedoes struck the ship, blasting more holes into the huge vessel. Taiga watched as one of the corners began to collapse into itself. "The Cube is starting to collapse. I'm going to finish them off for good." Taiga said as she unleashed more of the Tokyo's firepower on the cube.
“Captain is that a good idea?” Talia gave Taiga a worried look.
"Ma'am, I'm not certain the power system can handle such a sudd--" Lt. Yuvek tried to say, but he was interrupted by a cascade of sparks from the nearby wall panel as it sparked and overheated.
The Tokyo was a powerful ship; however, it was not designed to go from dormant on a planet's surface to suddenly unleashing a volley of torpedoes in a matter of minutes.
Lt. Yuvek was able to avoid the initial sparks and get to his console quick enough to shut down the overloaded power junction that was feeding into the bridge's tactical control system.
"Tactical systems are powering down, ma'am." He announced as he worked to keep from causing anymore sudden explosions.
Talia made a mental note to speak with Taiga later, right now she kept quiet.
Taiga turned to look at Talia and Jased. "As far as I'm concerned we did them a favour." she said simply. "Plus, there was no telling if they would trace our location and start to assimilate us all. I wasn't going to take that risk."
"The tactical systems aren't a priority now. We can repair them later." Taiga said as she stepped away from the tactical console. "Lieutenant. Fancy taking one of the shuttles and picking up the away team and their salvage?"
Lt. Yuvek could tell from the Captain's tone that it was not a mere request.
"Yes ma'am, I'll prep a runabout large enough to carry both teams and prepare to depart shortly." He said, still dodging the random sparks that were still cascading from the wall panel beside him.
Taiga nodded. "I'll be in my ready room." With that said she made her way towards the ready room doors and walked through allowing them to swish closed behind her.
[Outside The Borg Cube]
Both groups were beamed just a short distance from the cube, near the remains of Lieutenant Riverside's fighter. As they got up and dusted themselves off, they watched in astonishment as the Borg Cube finally caved in on itself, reduced to a mountain of tangled steel and circuitry in a matter of seconds.
"I... ha... holy shit..." Chisato gasped as her legs finally gave out and she collapsed on the ground. "I'd say that's enough exercise for this girl for one day..."
"Drama queen," Takina sighed.
Dana stood looking back at the cube, the odd feeling of sadness swept over her as she looked at the burning wreck that was left. “We’re lucky we weren’t killed.” She turned back to the others. “They were not in a condition to harm anyone outside of the cube, there was too much damage from the crash.”
"I doubt that anyone would have helped them." Kurumi said. "The Borg aren't exactly 'liked'" she added. "No offense..."
Dana nodded as she turned to look at Kurumi. “None taken. You are right, Borg aren’t liked. Besides what the Captain did was probably kinder in the long run, it’s not very pleasant wondering around lost and alone once you’re disconnected from the collective.” She sighed and said nothing further.
Nezuko was just glad to be out of there. It was not an experience she was eager to repeat. But she and others had power nodes. The mission was a success, if not a particularly clean one. She changed the battery in her rebreather and stood in line with the rest of her team -- satisfied now with the loyalty of one Tatsuo Shimada (if not necessarily the rest of his team).
Thomas looked around, "Whenever you are ready Captain." Thomas replied as looked around. "Sooner we get out of here, the better."
Posting by:
Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo
Commander Thomas Johnson
Executive Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant jg Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Commander Chisato Nishikigi
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Takina Inoue
Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Kurumi Hatanaka
Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant Mizuki Nakahara
Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo
Lieutenant JG Dana Monroe
Operations Officer
Lieutenant Talia Johnson
Chief Counsellor
Lieutenant Jased Yuvek
Chief Flight Control Officer
Tatsuo Shimada
CO - USS Redemption
RSS Feed