Down the Valley of Death Rode the 600 Part 3
Posted on 30 Oct 2023 @ 9:21pm by Lieutenant JG Thyra Sh'shraaqir & Lieutenant Colonel Alexandria Somers & Lieutenant Leland Hawksley & Lieutenant JG Tosrol Ze & Lieutenant JG Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant JG Ted Silver & Lieutenant Paul Winchester & Master Chief Petty Officer Lucy Armitage
2,604 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
S3 Episode 5: Diplomatic Incident/Hydaransz Again (Main)
Location: Various/L’Horzel Corridor
Timeline: MD 30
[ON]
Previously...
=/\= Hawksley to Captain Somers, We are ready. Thex and I have upgraded Tomcat's shields for the corridors' radiation. The Tomcat’s ram scoops are upgraded as well to redirect the superheated plasma gasses in the corridor for our weapons. We’re heading back in. =/\=
Somers tapped her Commbadge to make the two-way connection =/\= Excellent work Lieutenant, now see if you can apply the same methods to our fighters and auxiliary craft =/\= Somers said sitting back, realising that they were almost ready to enter the corridor. She had gotten a text message from Doctor Dex that the serum to assist in protecting any damages was ready to be used if needed, soon they would find out what happened to the Ambassador.
=/\= Captain. The fighters are complete. I’ve already synthesized the mechanics and instituted the schematics into the Fighter's systems.=/\= Leland watched Thex in front of him as they went slowly, each large boot print magnetizing as they walked back to the port.
Thex and Leland entered the air-tight port hole.
=/\= Thank you, Lieutenant, Somers out =/\= she sat back and looked to the helm officer "Okay Lieutenant take us in half impulse if you will" Somers added as the ship started to move forward.
- Bridge -
As the Tomcat began its journey into the corridor to follow the trail an urgent message arrived for Somers, She called it up and looked pained, at this moment in time Thyra was sitting at communications "Lieutenant Sh'shraaqir, sending over data on the kidnappers, it seems that not only are Rogue elements of Section 31 responsible, so are Rogue Tal'Shiar elements, the information I am sending you has what little Starfleet external security has, it is not much, see if you can find more" Somers said.
"On it, captain." She received the information and started to go through it. She then began to go through her sources to see if she could find new information.
"Thank you," she said in response, She turned to Ze "Lieutenant Ze start working up counters to S31 and Tal'Shiar tactics," she said looking at her Security Chief.
Ze was hard at work "Understood captain give me a few minutes and I'll see what I can come up with do I have permission to speak to our chief intelligence officer I feel it'd be better to have a broader view of both lanes of the battle?" he spoke as he looked around as the tomcat pulled into the corridor.
*Looks back at Ze* "Of course" Somers said as the ship entered the corridor, then she opened a hail =/\= Bridge to Engineering, we have just entered the corridor, how are my engines looking? =/\= Somers asked.
Hawksley finished getting out of his EVA suit, now walking into the Main Engineering. He stopped at the pool table along with Thex. The propulsion systems operated on a refined intermix ratio due to the plasma static corridor. Slapping his large hand to his com badge, Leland replied to Captain Somers.
=/\= Hawksley here. She’s operating on a refined intermix ratio, so far, so good. Just try to steer clear of any plasma cloud build-ups. Our enemies might try and set off superheated plasma gasses, Ma’am. =/\=
=/\= Affirmative Chief, good job, I will try to keep her out of plasma clouds, but it is getting tight in this corridor, put all non-essential power to shields =/\= Somers stated.
=/\= Aye Captain. I will re-direct all non-essentials to the main grid. That should give us solid coverage for any rogue elements, should we encounter them. Hawksley out. =/\= Leland closed the com to the bridge. He turned to Thex. "We have work to do."
=/\= Thank you Chief, Somers out =/\= Alex finished and looked over to the Science station "Lieutenant Silver, now we are in the corridor get all the scans you can, I would wager it is a haven for Scientific study, make the most of it and see if you can find something other scientists have not" Somers said.
Ted's hands ran over the console.
“ Large concentration of cosmic dust here reacting to nebula gases. But also picking up variants in the natural debris iron, water crystals and unknown elements. All caught up in some kind of solar wind currents. There is also some static discharge which could give us some problems if it intensifies. Also picking up non-natural debris. It looks like some ships came a cropper here.” Ted reported.
Paul turned to face the Captain as he continued to keep the Tomcat on the course, he asked "Permission to leave the bridge and get ŕeady with the fighters Captain " as he knew that he was better off out there than in here.
"No Lieutenant, the corridor is too volatile for fighters, I will not risk my people on such an event, remain at the Helm for now," Somers said to Winchester.
" Copy that sir, I just wanted to make sure they are ready for when you do need us," replied Paul as he knew the fighters were prepared, however, he wanted to double-check that the pilots knew who was on what shift as the pilots were in the room waiting to get into the fighters.
"Keep the ship steady Lieutenant, there may be plenty of time for your fighters to launch, probably," Somers said in response.
- Bridge - Aft -
Thyra was a little focused and didn't notice the lieutenant join her. She looked up and noticed him. "Oh, hey. I suppose you are here for the intelligence. I have found some interesting stuff." She pointed to her screen. "It wasn't easy, and it isn't much, but it should be useful. What do you think?"
Ze had walked over to where Thyra was stationed, His keen eyes looked over her consoles "Sorry I didn't mean to startle you lieutenant" he said as his black eyes focused a little more "So what have we in the way of Intell I feel we may need every advantage we can get" he said looking around "Well it's not much but it'll give us enough to go on well this certainly changes the playing field eh?" he said gulping as he took in the information.
Thyra shrugged. "Well, this is section 31 we're talking about. They don't document much. Just like the Tal Shiar, there are more rumours than any real intelligence. But unlike the Tal Shiar, who have some rough tactics and the best tech, even better than the common officers that we know of, Section 31 pretty much keeps everything, and I mean everything under wraps. It's also hard to tell how many operatives they have what weapons they carry and what they are capable of. It's also tricky to separate the rumours from factual information. This just further adds frustration to this Andorian officer I must admit. So the bare minimum information will have to for now. So remain on the cautious side, they have some pretty nifty deadly stuff, and they are not above using any of them. Even weapons that are forbidden to use in Starfleet."
Ze took everything in taking notes on his padd "Well it wouldn't be section 31 if this was going to be easy right?" he said taking all of the tactical and intelligence information "Well even for the tal shiar rumors are often fact " he said looking at the intelligence console in front of him.
- Bridge - Forward -
The Tomcat finally made it out of the corridor and came to a stop, ahead of them was a large Outpost, a mix of Section 31 and Romulan design, in orbit around it were some Romulan combat ships with Gryphon fighters and scorpion fighters flying a CAP around the base, Somers knew that they had been spotted, but no ships attacked them, this made her cautious and curious as to what they might do or be doing. She looked at Winchester "Lieutenant, get the 100th ready, full weapon loadout space superiority, also alert the shuttle section to prepare recovery shuttles" Somers said.
"Permission to leave the bridge, Sir," Paul asked looking back at the Colonel as he moved the chair to face her. he knew the crew would have been making preparations for the upcoming battle without him having to tell them what to do as he had trained them well when he helped the position of CAG.
"Granted Lieutenant" Somers said and watched Winchester leave the bridge.
She nodded in response, a replacement arrived to take over from Winchester at the helm, and she looked at Thyra "Lieutenant Sh'shraaqir, hack into their systems and see what you can get from their database, do not worry about the description, just to a download" Somers paused "Lieutenant Ze prepare a full assault team, take Major Donovan with you, let her know you are in charge of it and she will be okay with that" the Colonel added.
Ze looked up from the console he was at by Thyra" Understood captain" he said as pressed his comm badge "Assault team one meet at the security office in 10 minutes" he said looking to the captain "May I leave the bridge and get started on my plans captain?" he asked as he smiled.
Looking around at Silver "Mr. Silver, start scanning for anything that could seriously hurt us" she said.
Nodding Silver ran his hands over the console. He had heard some Ensigns from the lower decks nickname for this area. The valley of death and from what the scanners were picking up. Their name for this area was quite true.
“ Picking up plenty of bad things from our friend out there. This area is like a pit of old-style gasoline waiting for a bare lighted match.” Ted warned.
With a nod in response, she opened an internal communication =/\= Somers to Armitage report to bridge and man the Tactical console, time to put that training to use =/\=
Lucy was working away at her normal duties and jumped when her Commadge sounded, then the moment she had been dreading happened, it was something she had been training on, but with so little experience she was called to duty, she tapped her Commbadge =/\= Affirmative, Armitage out =/\=
As Lucy made her way onto the bridge she was well aware that she was the only NCO on the bridge, but this time she had been assigned a bridge station, a little shy she gathered herself and took her station and arranged the interface back to standard layout.
Alex felt the bridge go quiet for a moment, all knew that the Yeoman had not long started her training, she looked around "We need everyone, those with tactical experience will be on the away team, you were all greenhorns once too" she said and the bridge returned to normal sounds, by this time Ze had left the bridge and a short time later Armitage entered looking a little lost but went to the tactical station.
Somers pressed the comms again =/\= Bridge to Engineering =/\=
Leland opened his Commbadge. =/\= Engineering here. =/\=
He kept watch over the visual master systems display. Every system on the Tomcat was double tested, and double stressed to the max operations having just left the corridor.
=/\= The Tomcat will be entering combat, so set it up for combat damage Lieutenant =/\= Somers said.
=/\= Acknowledged Captain. =/\= Hawksley replied. "Thex, things might get a bit bumpy around here, no matter what, focus on your display. Internal dampeners, tactical arrays, and shield harmonics." Leland ordered.
=/\= On it lieutenant my eyes aren't going to leave the screens.=/\= The Andorian responded
When the link had closed "RED ALERT!" Somers ordered and the ship's status changed from yellow to Red, "Mr Silver how goes the scanning?" she asked the DCSO then looked at the CIO "How goes the transmission intercept Lieutenant?" she asked Thyra.
Ted ran his hands over the science console.
“ It’s going to be rough for us. Tracking a rather nasty wave of disruption heading our way. Something has set off the gases in the nebula. I have never seen this level of chemical reaction in space.” He reported.
Down in Engineering. “Looks like an energy incoming.” Hawksley turned his direction to the readouts that were streaming detection of gasses. “Lockdown secondary Bussard collector intake ports 45-J-C.” Leland turned to Ensign Elders.
Thyra looked at her screen, "I had to move frequencies a couple of times, but I think I almost got it. I can give you voice transmission, I don't know if visual is possible or if they even use that. Is that enough for you, colonel?" She calibrated some more settings as she waited for the colonel to answer.
*Looks at Thyra* "Just let me know if there is any danger coming our way, as I am expecting the Romulans to use their combat ships to keep us at bay while the transport ships leave, see if you can get into the station's computers and do a data dump from their systems to ours as if they are pulling back they will wipe their systems before leaving" Somers said.
"You got it, Colonel." Thyra looked on her screen again a bit in thought. She had to get into their station, which was in and on itself already a crazy feat, but to do it on a Romulan frequency with possible section 31 tech was even crazier. Not to mention she had to do it stealthy and make sure those section 31 types wouldn't get into the Tomcat. She hesitated for a moment and then she remembered a trick she was taught she was in the academy. She then started it up and her fingers danced over the console. She was focused as she started the hacking process.
"Huh," she just exclaimed with a smirk. She hit something on the console and started the download. "Colonel, I was able to get in through the back door, don't ask me how, I am downloading currently a lot of data. The download should be complete in 15 minutes. Mind if you keep 'em distracted, as I do the download?"
*Looks at Thyra with a smile* "Excellent Lieutenant the combat should do that but try to be quick, if you need connection help access protocol 31 I do believe the last Chief Intelligence Officer Lieutenant Commander Swiftpaws liked to try to do things behind the Captain's back, but the safeguards in place hindered her actions, but that protocol was the Commanders and was left in place to assist intelligence gathering" Somers said.
"Interesting, I did come across that. I do like this commander Swiftpaws," Thyra stated. "Don't worry, Colonel, if you keep em busy, I can have the information out of there in no time."
With the CIOs final Response "RED ALERT!" Somers ordered.
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