Empty Assault

Posted on Mon Oct 10th, 2022 @ 8:38am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Commander Callie Raven-Grayson & Ensign James Phoenix

Mission: Time Bandits
Location: USS Washington

Shran stood in the turbolift with Ayana and two other security officers, phasers at the ready. Shran knew this was crazy, an assault on the bridge to retake it from Romulans, but it was the only option. Jon would be leading the assault from the other end of the turbolift, and it was his hope that everything went well.

As the lift doors opened, Jon exited, his phaser out and ready to use. He stopped and blinked. he looked around nothing. He turned to the others and waved them forward.

Phoenix held his phaser steadily in front of him, ready to fire on any hostiles. He kept quite for a few moments as he looked around the bridge. It was too quiet, and the Romulans could be planning an ambush. Once he confirmed that they were alone for the time being, he holstered his phaser but kept a hand rested on it in the event that the Romulans ambushed them.

Callie breathed a sigh of relief as they found the bridge empty. “I’m not sensing any hostiles” She looked at Jon in surprise.

As the turbolift doors opened Shran was the first out on his end. He was poised to fire and suddenly, a severe sense of letdown came over him. He looked towards the other turbolift for Jon and the others. "It would seem our Romulan visitors have vacated the premises. We need to check everything."

"Agreed." Jon answered, "Can we get Deanna to do an internal sweep of the bridge for anything out of the ordinary?" He questioned Shran.

“You read my mind" Shran said. He hit his comm badge, =^=Deanna, we are on the bridge, but the Romulans are MIA. Scan the bridge for anything out of the ordinary, and then the rest of the ship.=^=

=^=I just detected a large scale transport. I have a feeling the Romulans have left the ship.=^=

=^=Get up here and see if you can find anything out of the ordinary.=^=

=^=We definitely have issues to deal with. my Romulan counterpart uploaded a virus that has locked the navigational systems on a course. They obviously don't want us to follow them. I suspect other issues will be found as I do a deeper dive.=^=

Shran was annoyed with this development. =^=Get up here and see if you can find anything. If everything comes up clean then you can focus on regaining navigational control.=^=

=^=Understood. I'll be there shortly.=^=

Shran looked at everyone. "All of this and the Romulans don't even put up a fight to hold the ship. Something feels wrong."

"Maybe they don't plan on us being able to follow them with whatever they left behind going to prevent that." Jon suggested.

"I agree sirs" he looked at the Captain and then Jon. "I heard stories and rumors at the academy of Romulans hijacking starships. If the Washington is a Starfleet Capital Ship, on par with the Enterprise, then whatever their plans are, have enough in it for them that would cause them to pass up an opportunity to seize a Starfleet Heavy Cruiser. Like Commander said, there may be more than just a locked course."

Sam emerged on the bridge a few moments later with a couple of security officers and a med team. She breathed a sigh of relief to find only their own people there, and all more or less intact.

"Where'd they go?" She mused aloud as she moved over to where Shran and the rest of the senior officers were.

“Looks like they beamed off” Callie looked at Sam with a shrug of her shoulders. “They got what they wanted though, they have Shon and T’Plana-Hath, at present we’ve got no way of following them!”

Celes arrived and began to check the systems and stations on the bridge, starting with Ops. "This station is clear for usage." She began checking things, "Alright, I see what they have done here. Clever" she said aloud. She looked back at Ayana, "I'll need you back at tactical. In just a moment the weapons systems are going to activate and begin a preset firing pattern. You'll have to stop that once I clear the lock out."

"Understood" Ayana replied as she made her way up to tactical.

"I know you wanted navigational dealt with first, but this takes precedence" Celes said to Shran. "We are moving into a highly trafficked area and the weapon systems are set to fire on all nearby vessels."

"Understood. Do what you need to Deanna" Shran replied. He looked to Jon and Sam, "Perhaps we can work on unlocking the rest of the ship so the crew can return to duty. I think things would be easier for all of us if we had the entire crew working on things."

"I agree sir. Though if we have to go and unlock the crew doors individually that is going to eat up a lot of valuable time." Jon pointed out.

Sam headed over to one of the consoles, setting her phaser carefully to one side and her medkit on the floor next to her. Surely there had to be an redundant emergency protocol that would unlock every door on the ship in case of an emergency - she just had to work out what that protocol was and activate it.

As Celes continued working she overheard the conversation around her, "You guys should be able to use the rear consoles to deactivate the forcefields and doors locks on the ship. I don't believe anything besides security overrides will be necessary."

Jon moved to one of the consoles and began to deactivate the forcefields and door locks. He looked to Callie and Sam, "This will go faster if you both lend a hand."

Callie nodded as she took up position at one of the other consoles.

Sam was already elbow deep in protocols trying to get the doors unlocked, the system however was being beyond difficult.

Celes looked back at Ayana, "Get ready."

Ayana stood ready at tactical. As soon as she saw it come to life she began to work to quickly to deactivate the weapons systems. She saw that a civilian transport was coming in range of the torpedoes and managed to shut them down just in time. "Done. All weapons systems offline. I'd like to have some people take a closer look at the phaser banks and torpedo launchers to ensure no additional damage was done though."

Shran nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. Coordinate with engineering. I think we need to check everything on the ship once Deanna clears these viruses."

Deanna sighed. "I'm going to kill these Romulans. I think the only thing left for me to do is regain navigational control."

Jon spoke from a back console. "This too easy especially considering we are dealing with Romulans. I think we're missing or overlooking something."

“Agreed” Callie nodded. “Though if they were just planning on slowing us down they’ve done that. Though...” she paused. “I suggest a thorough diagnostic, they could have left us a booby trap that we haven’t discovered yet.”

"Excellent idea Callie." Jon said in approval. "Let's get a diagnostic done before we open any doors to crew quarters. That could trigger something.'' Jon noted.

"I think they left a big surprise here at navigation" Celes said grimly. "This is going to take time. If I don't do this correctly, we'll have a computer cascade failure and a core breach."

"Can you get past these issues?" questioned Shran.

"As if you have to ask" Celes replied with a smirk. She began working and then began to mumble, "Clever bastards."

"They may be clever but they aren't cleverer than you Deanna." Jon remarked as he watched Deanna attack the problem with gusto and zeal.

"You better believe it Commander" Celes replied.

Ayana continued to work at tactical as well. "I have managed to deactivate the security fields on the crew quarters "she said as she she continued to work. "Commander, with your override code I can unlock the quarters completely and get the rest of the crew able to return to duty stations.

Jon walked over to where Ayana was working. "Computer, override code, Grayson, Alpha Bravo 61387."

Shran looked to Sam and Callie, "Once the crew is free, I'd like you two back in sickbay to address any potential injuries that may need to be treated. Once we catch up to the Romulans, I'll need all hands at best possible for any sort of rescue."

"Sure, I'll head back there right away" Sam replied, rising from the station and heading back towards the turbolift.

“I’ll join you” Callie nodded to Shran, and smiled at Jon before heading off bridge with Sam.

"The crew is free to exit their quarters now" Ayana announced.

"Progress" Shran said confidently.

When they arrived in sickbay there wasn't the plethora of injuries Sam had initially been fearful of. They were busy though and would be for several hours patching up those who met the wrong end of the Romulans.

“I can take the minor injuries Sam” Callie offered a warm smile as she headed towards the nearest group of patients with more superficial wounds.