Picking a Fight

Posted on Thu Nov 21st, 2024 @ 12:35am by Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Lieutenant Commander Callie Raven-Grayson & Lieutenant JG James Phoenix

Mission: The Gambit
Location: USS Washington

Ayana looked at the command chair in the center of the bridge. She'd sat there before, briefly when the senior officers were in conference, or when she was leading the night shift, but this was different. This was a different situation entirely, a potential battle situation. The captain was missing, the XO and 2XO and the CTO were on the surface of the planet, and she was in charge. She had called for Phoenix to come to the bridge, and she knew that Callie could be counted on to support her as needed. She sat down, and began to give her initial orders, "I want us to keep the transporter locks on the away team. Continue scanning the system. I don't want it to be a surprise when these bastards start to decloak."

"Aye ma'am" Phoenix started tapping a few buttons on the tactical console. "Transporter Room 3 reports that they're maintaining a transporter lock on the away team."

"Keep us at yellow alert. Shields up, weapons on standby. And be prepared to deploy the special defenses if necessary" Ayana replied.

"Lieutenant, I am reading two different teams that have transported near our away team. It would appear the Romulans have no desire to keep to the agreement" Ibarra said from Ops.

"No surprise there. Maintain that transporter lock. If they call for a hot beam out, I want to be able to comply" Ayana said emphatically.

Just as Ayana had ordered him to do so, James rose the shields again. He tapped a few more buttons and the weapons were ready at his fingertips. "Weapons on standby, shields at maximum" he reported.

"Very good" she said softly. Now they waited. That was the toughest part. She glanced over at Callie. Perhaps she might have some insight.

Callie glanced across at Ayana. “I can’t say I like this, but Jon knows what he’s doing I guess we have to trust in that.”

"We know the Romulans are here. What's the game-plan ma'am?" Phoenix asked from his station.

"I'd prefer to be proactive, but in this case, the best course of action is to let them think they have the upper hand. Our job right now is to ensure the safety of the away team. But keep those weapons ready" Ayana replied with a smile.

"Aye Lieutenant" James said before maintaining a steady eye on the tactical readouts and sensors. The second the Romulans decloaked, he'd be ready.

"Detecting a subspace disturbance" Ibarra said from Ops. "Vessel decloaking" she announced.

"Bring weapons online and target the decloaking vessel" Ayana said as she furrowed her brow.

"Multiple ships decloaking" Ibarra announced.

Ayana looked to Phoenix, "How many are decloaking?"

Phoenix had gotten a target lock on the original vessel that decloaked. "Five vessels total. Three of them dead ahead, the other two are flanking us on either side. I have the flagship targeted as ordered" James said. "I'm prepared if I need to maintain a target lock on the others."

"What are we looking at?" Ayana questioned.

"The flanking vessels are Cardassian, Galor class. The Romulan ships are a pair of D'deridex and the flagship is a Romulan Valdore class" Ibarra reported. "We are being hailed."

"Let's hear them out" Ayana responded.

The viewscreen came to life and Ayana was nearly floored when she saw who appeared. An Andorian looked at them from the bridge of the Romulan vessel. "Ayana, you look like you've seen a ghost."

"Captain?" she questioned, a mixture of astonishment and bewilderment.

"I don't have a lot of time to talk. I created a problem over here, but they'll figure things out shortly. Where is Jon?"

"He is meeting with Lovok on the surface. He has Deanna and Imik with him" Ayana responded.

"They aren't safe down there. Lovok has people from the Mirror Universe assisting him, including my own double. They are gathering components from different Iconian facilities to build some sort of devastating weapon, as if the Iconian gateway technology wasn't daunting enough. I am setting up the self-destruct over here, prepare to beam me aboard."

As the viewscreen went dark Ayana looked to Callie. "Mirror Universe. And he wants us to beam him over. We'll have to drop our shields. But we can't not transport the captain." Ayana looked to Phoenix, "Prepare to lower shields for transport. Ibarra, coordinate with him. I want the shields down for as little time as possible. Let's be prepared for them to take advantage of our shields being down."

James kept a firm eye on the readouts to keep an eye on the warships. His hands were hovered over the shield controls as well as the weapons. He looked to Ibarra. "I'm ready."

"Reading power surges from the enemy vessels. They appear to be powering weapons" Ibarra noted.

"Phoenix, deploy armor. Ibarra, increase power to the transporter to compensate for us having the armor deployed" Ayana ordered. She looked to Callie, "Jon never said I couldn't deploy the big defensive systems. I'm just not authorized to fire the big guns" she said with a smile. "Phoenix, torpedoes offline until we get shields back up. Prepare for phaser volleys, and if possible, see if you can intercept at least some of the torpedoes they fire at us."

"Aye ma'am, dropping shields now and deploying the armor. Bringing torpedoes offline. I'm keeping an eye on their weapons. I'm ready for them" James reported as he brought the defensive systems online and dropped the shields, while monitoring the other ships.

“But how do we know that we didn’t just speak to the mirror counterpart of Shran!?” Callie looked at Ayana concernedly.

"We are taking it on a bit of faith, but I want a security detail sent down to the transporter room. Whoever gets transported over here is to be held for identification once we have this conflict resolved" Ayana responded.

"Detecting a massive buildup of power from the enemy ships. The lead ship has dropped shields, detecting internal explosions along its primary power conduits. Detecting one Andorian on the bridge, and he is signaling us" Ibarra reported.

"Beam him aboard, security to hold him" Ayana ordered.

The ship began to rock as it was hit with disruptor fire. "Helm, course 45.22, full impulse" Ayana ordered. "Bring the shields back up and fire phasers Phoenix. Prepare quantum torpedoes."

"Shields up, armor is down to 90 percent. Firing phasers, quantum torpedoes online" James reported as he worked his magic at tactical, firing the phasers as ordered.

The moved under the flanking Cardassian vessel to their starboard as they attempted to move away from the planet. The phaser volley mostly was directed at the Cardassian ship, which exploded as they were clearing it, shaking the ship. Ayana looked at the tactical display; the two warbirds were moving to cut them off while the other Cardassian ship was coming up on their aft port quarter. The ship shook from the multiple hits to the shields. "Aft torpedoes, fire" she ordered.

"We are being hailed from the surface" Ibarra noted.

It was Jon, ordering an immediate beam out. Ayana informed him of the situation, at least the tactical aspect and requested permission to use the big guns just as Ibarra informed that 3 additional warbirds had decloaked. Jon gave her permission and closed the channel on his end. Ayana looked at the updated tactical layout, "Bring us to 188.22, full impulse. Prepare to drop shields and transport everyone up. Phoenix, load a full spread of the transphasic torpedoes and prepare to fire on all five warbirds."

"Aye ma'am" Phoenix replied as he tapped quickly to bring the transphasic torpedoes online. "Torpedoes online and targeted on all five warbirds. I'm ready to drop the shields and fire on your order."

"Fire" she ordered as she looked at the tactical display. Everyone on the bridge watched as the orange hued weapons streaked through space towards their targets. In mere moments they each passed through the enemy shields and struck the targets, destroying them all completely. All that was left was the Valdore class Romulan vessel, and it was floating harmlessly in space, apparently adrift with main power offline and auxiliary power barely keeping life support operational. If they did have the captain being held in the transporter room, he had certainly down a more than adequate job disabling the lead Romulan vessel.

"Put us back in a high orbit, transport the Commander and the rest of the away team along with anyone else down there with them immediately, and have security present, just in case. Disengage the transphasic torpedoes and drop the shields, but keep the armor active, and keep the phasers locked on that Romulan ship" Ayana ordered. "Let's have damage control teams sent to all necessary locations and get an update from sickbay regarding injuries." She sat back in the chair. She was beginning to enjoy all this power, and the chair was comfy too.