Predatory Intruders

Posted on Mon Jul 29th, 2024 @ 10:11am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant Imik S'Niohun & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG James Phoenix

Mission: The Andromeda Strain
Location: USS Washington

The reports were beginning to flood Imik of intruders throughout the ship. It almost seemed like they were mostly appearing in or around areas of large populations, such as recreational areas, engineering, and the bridge. The security officers were holding their own thus far, but Shran was thinking they may need to approach things on a war footing if they couldn't get things under control soon. As much of an issue this was, Shran was more concerned with determining where they were coming from. And they still had those cloaked Romulan vessels to consider as well.

Kate had been prepping a shuttlecraft and running diagnostics when a blade appeared out of nowhere and almost stabbed her. If it wasn't for the fact that she had sneezed at the right moment, she would have been run through. She could feel the vibration of the blade so close to her face that she realized that she almost got Trumped in the ear. Kate screamed and rolled out of her seat. The slender girl crawled under the pilots' chair and through the invisible legs of the intruder before he could turn around, which gave her access to an armory box. She placed her phaser on setting nine and started blasting away inside the shuttlecraft. As she tripped backward a moment, her shoe got caught and she pulled her leg out of it as she started firing.

From the outside of the shuttle bay, the interior of the shuttle lit up like strobe light on topless night during a Mardi Gras parade on New Orleans Avenue. The screams continued as thumps and bumps could be heard. The transparent aluminum glass suddenly shattered as a phaser blast blew out the front window. Large chunks of smoldering pilots' consoles, and LCARS screens vomited out the front of the craft as the side-door blew open followed by copious amounts of phaser beams as flames erupted from the edge of the doorway.

"Take that you invisible Predator meanie from hell!" Kate yelled.

There was a pause as dual phaser beams erupted once again through the door and front window of the craft as it jolted from side to side. The environmental regulation box on the top of the craft suddenly exploded and rocketed across the shuttle bay like a Saturn Five Rocket. The exposed wires of the console area sparked as the nacelles sparked to life in a vibrant blue glow. Kate's slender form jumped out of the shattered front cockpit window, and she rolled in front of the craft as it took off on its own. All the while, Kate, duel-wielding phasers in both hands mopped her petite form across the slick bay floor while firing both weapons as the shuttle spun out of control and slammed into the ceiling of the bay like an errant malfunctioning ceiling fan.

The roof of the shuttle began to cave inward as back cargo door flung open and detached from the craft's back-end. Like an angry frisbee, the thick reinforced door sailed across the bay and crashed into the wall so hard that it breached the section of wall that separated the Shuttle Bay from the Cargo Bay. The smack of the door as it threaded halfway through the wall and half into the next room was so loud that glass shattered above Kate's head, stacks of supplies tumbled down in the corner of the room, and part of the drop-down walkway collapsed nearby.

She continued firing at the shuttle until the bottom of its hull glowed cherry red. Sparks from the spinning top of the craft grinding against the ceiling of the shuttle bay caused a glowing rain-like effect of sparks to float down in the bay as the deafening screech of the out-of-control vessel spun so fast that it couldn't even be identified by anyone that entered the compartment after the fact.

Even as Kate crawled to her stomach and pulled her knees in to gain traction to stand back up, she kept firing behind her head while she approached the bay door console and the tractor beam. The blue glow of the beam latched onto the shuttlecraft and pulled it out of the ceiling as it spun out of control in the center of the bay now. Glass, consoles, seats, gear, and loose components of the shuttle rocketed toward all four walls as it spun rapidly while the tractor beam sent the shuttle out of the forcefield safely out into space before it ripped itself into pieces amongst the stars.

Not satisfied that the creature that tried to kill her was dead, Kate picked the phasers back up and ran toward the forcefield as the bay doors started closing. She pressed the button down on both the discharge emitters like she was a frantic Jehovah's Witness and the trigger to those phasers were the doorbell of the last unsaved man on Earth.

Kate fell back to the floor and dropped both phasers to each side of her body as she caught her breath. As the shuttle bay doors closed, she felt the feint telltale signature of an explosion safely far enough away from the Washington to negate any serious damage.

Kate closed her eyes and sighed deeply.

Silence fell over the now empty shuttle bay as lights flickered around her, sparks dripped down from the busted consoles like metallic red-hot tears, and the smell of ozone permitted the damaged section. Kate looked over to see the outline of a creature lambasted into the hull to the left, opposite the shuttle's dismembered door. The blood outline of the creature looked like a Jackson Pollock painting that became the new Mural for the Shuttle Bay. Kate opened her eyes to confirm her kill before resting her head back on the damaged deck.

"If it bleeds... We can squish it," she stated in self-confirmation between gasps.

On the bridge, things were somewhat quiet, but no less tense. "Continue to monitor those cloaked Romulan vessels" Shran ordered. He leaned over to Jon, "Something doesn't feel right. I believe the human expression is, waiting for the other shoe to drop."


Back in the shuttle bay, there was a smoldering shoe... Kate limped over and looked at it a moment before picking it up. She realized it was hers and she put it back on her foot. She found the PADD she was using to do the shuttle checklist as she walked away and striked out the checklist from pass to fail due to the circumstances. She found herself shaking as the adrenaline wore off. She just remembered to contact security and give an update. By the time she was done, her body was shivering as she, while in shock, continued the checklist on her PADD.

"Fail, flight systems, fail... Control surfaces... Fail... Propulsion --- fail..."

One the Bridge

The bridge crew had armed themselves as reports of intruders beaming in and attacking crew, coming in from all over the ship. Jon nodded in agreement at Shran's comment. "I agree sir. Something isn't right about this situation."

"Captain, the Romulans are powering their weapons. I believe they mean to attack" Deanna announced.

"Imik, target all of the Romulan vessels. Ready phasers and photons" Shran ordered.


In Main Engineering

Lieutenant Junior Grade James Phoenix entered the engineering hall with a detachment of security officers in tow. They were all wearing tactical vests and had as much of an armament that they could carry. There were already nine others from security and tactical present in engineering, not to mention the countless other engineers and crew members that were armed and ready for anything.

"Rameriez, Joheness, Zor, help guard any entrances and exits to the engineering hall, in a few hours if we are still here switch off the watch with other personnel" he ordered.

"Aye sir" Zor said. "But aren't the intruders supposed to be transporting somehow?"

"Yes, but it takes out one exit strategy if they choose not to use their 'powers'" he turned to the other three that entered with him. "You three. Begin a roving watch with the other security."

There was a collective 'Aye sir' as his colleagues dispersed to their orders. James looked around. Nothing yet. The key word being 'yet'. The young Lieutenant approached the center of Main Engineering.


Bridge

Imik moved to target the Romulan ships when a voice in her head told her not to, *Daughter of my sister, leave these three to us. target coordinates 221 by 342 with photon torpedoes. Confirm command* Hesitant Imik looked to Shran, "Shinkahue, Ojnas vessel 32251 has requested we fire photon torpedoes at these coordinates. They will engage the Romulan vessels, do I comply?" As she waited for a response, Imik scanned the Washington for the alien intruders. =/\="Red Alert! We have multiple intruders on all decks, security teams set phasers on setting 7,"=/\=

Her voice rang out on all decks, with luck the teams would set their phasers on 7. Imik now concentrated on her link, *Sister of my mother, are you a lone vessel or a vanguard for others?* A brief silence then came the reply, *Simply a lone vessel, sent to assist if possible little one. * Imik now knew for certain that Sachzny was on that vessel, only she had ever called Imik little one.

When Imik confirmed it was an Onjas vessel, Jon knew beyond the shadow of a doubt it was Sachzny coming to aid them. He inwardly smiled broadly as the Onjas vessel drew closer with every passing second. He reached out to his dear friend. "Sachzny, my dear Sachzny. Thank you for the assist. I have a vanilla milkshake with your name on it waiting for you.* He knew Sachzny could feel his pure joy at seeing her again. It was a long overdue reunion.

Shran considered what Imik said. In most circumstances he wouldn't alter his orders, but he knew it was Sachzny that Imik was referring to, and he trusted her. "Fire at new target."

As the torpedoes sped to the new target destination, Shran wondered what they might find. Suddenly the torpedoes impacted something, and a vessel materialized as it exploded. From the brief moment Shran could see before the explosion happened, the vessel looked to be about the size of a Romulan science vessel, though it most certainly wasn't a Romulan ship. "Analysis."

Suddenly a dozen more of the vessels materialized in all quadrants and opened fire at the Washington. The ship rocked as it was hit. "Return fire. I want an analysis now on what we are fighting."

As the ship's weapons rang out, they seemed to be missing more than hitting anything. "Captain, those ships are generating massive tesseract energy fields. Our weapons will be largely ineffective against them unless we get lucky and hit them when they fully materialize" Deanna informed as she continued to analyze everything.

"Continue firing, random pattern" Shran ordered.

As she manoeuvred into an attack position, Sachzny's Tactical Officer made a report. "Sinkahue, the enemy vessels have a unusual rotational shield harmonic. It effectively tricks our sensors into not receiving any target information, how do you wish to proceed?" The Ojnas CO looked at the situation and then gave her orders, "Use our old method of firing at undisclosed targets, shoot ahead and behind the vessel then quickly centre the scanners and fire."

With a quick nod, the Tac. Officer fed the new parameters into the computer, "Firing now!!" Two torpedo's left the ship and bracketed one of the Romulan vessels, a third and forth followed quickly and hit the ship square amidships disabling its ability to fight. "We seem to have hit one of our enemy, they are unable to return fire and I have sent a boarding party to capture the vessel."

"That is a good result, inform the Federation that we have one of the enemy vessels." Sachzny continued to assess the ongoing battle, Calmaxus now contacted Washington to inform them on the capture. He was surprised when an Ojnas answered him, but he still had two Romulans to deal with so that problem would be resolved at a later date.