Arrival at Thorion Part 1

Posted on 12 Jul 2019 @ 10:05am by Captain Jasmine Somers FCapt & Captain Maia Sterling & Lieutenant Paul Winchester & Lieutenant Commander Cody Parker & Lieutenant Serina "Reaper" Donovan & Ensign Teela Tjaansz

3,125 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: S03 Ep 01: Family Of Slaves (Main Story)
Location: Various
Timeline: Mission 1 S3 Day 16

[ON]

It was early the next day and the final names of those who had been taken after a large ship dropped out of warp on them and took some of their crew as they were scanned now a very upset Fleet Captain was pacing the bridge.

“I cannot believe it Lieutenants Dodd and Arderne were among those taken, Commander the moment the Away Team has returned, jump to warp for the Thorion System, Communications recall our fighters and have engineering make any make-shift repairs on essential systems,” Somers said slowly getting control.

“Aye Captain!” the standing Communications Officer responded and got to work.

Maia recalled the fighters and secured the away team as ordered. Then the Tomcat jumped into warp.

“Captain? How do you know they went to the Thorion system? Is the away team equipped with viridian patches?” Maia asked.

“The Thorion system Maia is an Orion Slaver stronghold, so expect heavy resistance, it is also the terminus system for slave transfers, Thorion is the last place our people will be taken before being sold and shipped off to a new slave master out of our reach, this is why we have some ships ready to back us up when we get there, it will not be easy taking our people back” Somers responded.

"Yes, Captain I understand that, However, I must point out that the Thorion system is not in the Federation jurisdiction. If we go there uninvited and start shooting, it will be seen as a provocation for war. I recommend that we call for re-enforcements". Maia said.

Pressing a button "I just did, but we will arrive at the outskirts of the Thorion system and no doubt we will be attacked, so we must hold off until help arrives, crazy I maybe, but I am not repeating what happened in the Hydaransz system when I did not wait for back up, we lost a lot of crew that day" Somers finished.

"Captain I would never imply your crazy. In the end, we won the Battle of Hydaransz but we knew what we were up against".

*shrugs* "still at the end of the day it all worked out...." Anything further that was said was cut off as the ship rocked and automatically went to Red Alert, the crew responded admirably as the ship went on the offensive. It was a scout ship, but the Tomcat dispatched it easily, for the moment they were left in peace.

Their encounter with a small Orion Slaver Fleet, which yielded some interesting results, now with the combat over and a fast Starfleet transport having collected the rescued slaves and were taken them back to their families in Federation space, now the Tomcat dropped out of warp on the outskirts of the Thororion System.

As the view screen’s star lines became stars Commander Cahill and Lieutenant Dodd’s acting replacement arrived on the bridge taking up the bridge Medical and Engineering stations respectively “Science and Tactical get me some information” Somers ordered.

“Aye Captain,” Parker replied sternly. He was still upset at having lost some of his fellow crew members. Maybe if he had been more careful or paid closer attention they’d still be here. Swearing softly to himself for the millionth time today Parker continued reviewing data at the auxiliary console so as not to interfere with the active Security officer.

“Captain we have entered the Thorion system,” Maia advised. Suddenly proximity sensors went crazy… Maia ordered red alert as a dozen fighters came out of nowhere and started firing on the Tomcat… The ship rocked and rolled, as the ship started taking damage. Larger ships came into firing range as well…

As Serina now on the bridge she had to be contacted so tapping her Commbadge Lieutenant Donovan, launch your fighters all of them, your main targets are the enemy fighters, have Rebels do a fighter screen around the Tomcat, Raiders and Reds to attack the enemy Somers said.

"Understood sir", Serina said, hitting her com panel, =/\= Launch all fighters, Raiders, Reds, your targets are the fighters, take them out! Rebels Squadron is to fly Air Combat Defense of Tomcat=/\= Serina barked as she now got down to some combat flying of her own, flying the Tomcat into harm's way.

Then she tapped her Commbadge again =/\= All hands this is the Captain, by now you would have felt the ship rocking from impacts, we have engaged a Slaver Fleet, this is a direct order to all Medical personnel, if we are boarded you are authorized to take the enemy out with extreme fervour as they will either try to capture you for slaves or kill you, either way, it is you or them you must make it them make no mistake it is killed or be captured, Somers out =/\= she closed the line.

Parker listened to the Captain make her announcement, if they were boarded the casualties could be heavy, quickly changing interfaces he sent a pre-drafted message to the Master at Arms, “Assemble Response Teams, Prepare to Repel Boarders.” As he hit the send button Parker began mentally walking through the scenarios, where were the choke points, where were the clear fields of fire, where was Tomcat vulnerable? With a visible shake of his head, he pressed the next button on his panel that authorized the Security Teams to use of deadly force.

As this was happening the Away Team returned to the ship and word came down that their task was a success, as that was happening her Senior Staff was returning to their bridge stations.

Next to return to the bridge was Lieutenant Winchester who took over at Communications and Lieutenant Donovan who took over the helm of the Tomcat from the relief officer.

“Lieutenant Winchester scan all communication channels coming from that system, reports have said that it is a Slaver stronghold *pause* Lieutenant Donovan be ready for evasive moves, we are deep in hostile territory and I want us to attract as little attention as possible, until needed *pause* Lieutenant Winchester also put a call into Starfleet requesting some back up at this system and to be ready when we call for help,” Somers said.

Paul had spent so much time in his quarters going over the latest intelligence reports that he had forgotten about the mission at hand and had returned to the bridge, as the Captain spoke bringing him out of his thoughts, Paul replied, “Aye Ma’am, Scanning all Channels now,” as his hands flew over the console and began to collect any chatter on the slaver Stronghold. As he knew that this would have to be analyzed quickly by his team as he had to make his report to the Captain shortly.

"Captain evasive patterns already entered. I suggest you put on your seatbelt. You might need it", Serina said with the face of a very serious combat pilot. She would put the big lady through her paces and fly an Akira Class as no one has.

With that, the ship jumped to Warp for the Thorion System, as they hurtled through space Somers tapped her Commbadge =/\= Somers to Taggert =/\=

- Engineering -

=/\= Taggert here captain, go ahead, =/\= she said, tapping her commbadge.

=/\= Lieutenant until we rescue Lieutenant Dodd you are in charge of Engineering, make emergency repairs to essential systems and make sure you give all your staff hand Phasers, we will most likely be going into a combat zone. so be prepared =/\= Somers said.

=/\= Understood captain. We’ll be armed and getting things back in working order for combat, =/\= replied the Assistant Chief Engineer. Her pulse quickened at the news. She knew what abduction was like. She just hoped that Chief Dodd didn’t get altered like she was. They’d never caught the Orions who changed her.

=/\= Good, Somers out =/\= the Captain said.

“Damn,” Nicci said under her breath. “Alright, let’s get this done.”

Nicci pulled up the ship’s schematic and isolated all damaged points on the ship. She tapped the intercom to page all engineering staff, isolated from the rest of the ship’s crew. “Engineering staff heads, report to engineering on the double,” she said, hearing it echo from the commbadges of a few of the engineers currently around her.

It took a few minutes, but all the heads of the various engineering departments - impulse engine control, shield control, warp engine control (which had several heads due to the various intricacies therein), computer control, life support, shield control, beam weapon control, torpedo weapon control, and a few others - were all gathered around the Master System Display.

“Good, thank you for coming,” Nicci said, addressing the dozen and a half crewmen there. She walked them over to the main floor area in front of the warp core and figured it would be easier to use a holo-emitter, which she had set on the floor. Directly above the illuminating emitter, a see-through schematic of the ship showed, without its exterior hull, just the phaser emitter and photon torpedo launcher outlines visible.

“From our last encounter with the Orions, scanning that apparent derelict, Chief Engineer Dodd was abducted,” Nicci announced, making sure everyone was up to speed. She believed honesty was the best policy and letting everyone have all the information they needed to make the best decisions possible.

She scanned the crowd and saw some reaction and whispers, but they were professional and kept it to a minimum.

“I’ll be in charge until he gets back,” she said, “so we need to make sure the Tomcat is in a condition to make that happen. We don’t leave anyone behind. Ever.”

She got some nods and smiles and some ‘yes’ and ‘that’s right,’ from the assembled engineers.

“So, this is what we’re working with,” she said, pressing a button on her PADD, which changed the hologram floating about 3 feet off the ground. All the damaged sections of the ship were highlighted in red for non-functional, and yellow for partially functional.

“We have fifteen torpedo tubes,” Nicci began, reciting the specs of the ship. “From our most recent battles, we need to get four of them repaired. The tube under the deflector,” she said, as the hologram highlighted with a brief flash of red, to draw everyone’s attention. She continued, “both starboard launchers, and one under the forward shuttle bay doors, which also need repairs.”

The diagram showed the damage sustained, as she continued. “Several sections of the dorsal phaser emitters sustained damage and will need to be removed and replaced as quickly as possible, despite us needing to go to warp.”

That comment got some murmurs from the group. Repairs while at warp were tricky at best, and dangerous at worst, when working on the exterior of the hull, unless you could magnetically attach a workload to the area, wrap it with a casing, pressurize it, and adapt the warp field around it so as not to affect the ship’s performance too much.

“Interior,” Nicci continued, “we need 29 plasma conduits repaired or replaced, 263 isolinear chips replaced, 113 reprogrammed, two stations on the bridge repaired due to plasma conduit explosion, 13 shield emitter segments repaired, one Bussard collector inspected for power fluctuation, one fusion engine in the port impulse engine checked, and a number of microfractures on the hull inspected and repaired.”

“Oh, is that all?” Teela asked, innocently enough, which got a chorus of laughter from everyone there. The humour of the moment went right over her head since humans’ humour often did with her.

“We’re going to focus on the tactical systems first and foremost,” Nicci said. “Pair up in teams by speciality. Get done what we can get done inside the ship first. From best estimates, we have 18 hours to do as much as we can, maybe less. Shields, phasers, torpedoes are the main priority here. After they’re ready, engines, then everything else. Let’s get to it,” Nicci said.

Billy came up to her after the engineers began disbursing, their repair orders already transmitted to their individual PADDs.

“What’s on your mind, Billy?” she asked. She put her hair up in a ponytail to get it out of the way.

“It’s just…that’s a lot of repair work,” he said, speaking his mind. “And if we’re going into battle, I don’t know if we’ll be ready.”

“We’ll be ready,” Nicci replied. “Because we have to be. Orions are tricky and devious and almost always have an ace up their sleeves. I don’t want to be hit by their so-called ‘scan’ again and have more crewmen abducted. Focus on your task, triple-check it, and move on to the next thing. If you finish everything, then help someone elsewhere you can. We’ve shut down all non-essentials, so we should have enough power. If you can get those EPS conduits repaired and replaced quickly, we’ll be in a heck of a lot better shape and ready for battle.”

“You got it Chief,” Billy said with a smile. He was already planning to put in a new EPS conduit design he’d been working on with Nicci and Teela and Chief Dodd, with a new casing and fuse system, which would make ruptures when placed under stress, like a battle, at least 10-15% less likely. Fewer ruptures mean more working systems and a better chance of surviving. The new design, however, took more time to fabricate, as replicating some of it was not very efficient, so he only had 17 of these new designs ready to go.

“Don’t call me Chief, McCloud,” she replied in as gruff a voice as her soprano vocal cords would allow. Billy chuckled in response at their joke, a call back to a 1970s cop show from Earth.

Nicci grabbed her vest and toolbelt and started on her own task. She was going to visit all the isolinear burnouts with Teela and make sure everything was working, and if possible, update a few chips to the new Mark 19 isolinear chip; a 2.97% boost in storage efficiency and speed. Not much, but every advantage helps.

=/\= All hands this is the Captain, by now you would have felt the ship rocking from impacts, we have engaged a Slaver Fleet, this is a direct order to all Medical personnel, if we are boarded you are authorized to take the enemy out with extreme fervour as they will either try to capture you for slaves or kill you, either way, it is you or them, make it be them make no mistake it is killed or be captured, Somers out =/\=

oO Oh, f*** Oo Nicci thought to herself. She jogged over to the nearest storage locker and grabbed a phaser in a holster, attaching it to her belt.

From the Jeffries tube, her heightened hearing picked up the manual opening of a hatch, slowly and almost silently. The hairs on the back of her head stood up.

A blow dart whisked past where her head had been, while she turned, kneeling, and shot her phaser on kill to the Orion. She leant over the pool table with one arm and practically flew with a flying sidekick, knocking a second back into the tube, a very clear 'thunk' signalling his head being lacerated and knocking him out. She turned and gave a quick scorpion kick to a third Orion, as a fourth grabbed her from behind. She was stronger than humans, but he was even stronger.

He whispered in a deep and sinister voice, "Doctor Harrad sends his regards..."

Nicci went sheet white, colour draining from her face, her struggle stopping momentarily.

"He said you're his best work," the Orion said menacingly. "If he gets you back, we'll finish the mental programming and you'll be our best infiltration agent..."

"No one's getting inside my head," Nicci growled through gritted teeth. "My mind is my own."

"We'll see," said the fourth Orion as he slashed her uniform, baring her undergarments. "You're right. Some of our best work."

oO They'll kill all that's left of the real me if I don't fight back Oo she thought, overriding her thought of oO I can't fight them. They're too strong Oo. Her will steeled itself.

With a quick move, she knelt a little, jumping her legs off the ground and wrapped around his head (OOC: Scarlet Widow-style martial arts from Iron Man 1/2), flipping him to the ground and snapping his neck. In doing so, her arms slipped out of the ripped uniform, surprising the Orion holding her back.

She held on to the tattered sleeves, went back onto the ground, and flipped the Orion over her, going into mount position on top of him, hands on his throat.

"Want to see your 'best work' huh?" she said in anger. She punched the Orion square in the face, cracking his jaw. Then she kept punching. Her biceps, triceps, deltoids, and very fit, toned back was tight with exertion as she punched the Orion into unconsciousness, as she screamed out her anger upon him. She kept punching and punching until she was pulled off by Pril and Machado. Orion blood spattered across her six-pack, her breasts, arms, and face; her long, blonde hair was a mess out of her bun. She was quite a sight standing there in her pants and a bra, splattered with Orion blood.

Nelson, Pril, and Machado were all shocked to learn of Dodd's abduction by the Slavers. Nelson was the closest thing to a best friend Dodd had and vice versa. They were generally always together when off-duty if their significant others were still on duty. Pril was ready to get to work to get the ship ready for the tasks ahead and to get Dodd back on it. Machado was already headed for his assignment and focused to bring his Chief back aboard.

Pril was also alarmed to learn that Walon was also abducted and how that would affect Dodd as well. Dodd had been a very focused chief and took lots of pride in his crew of engineers and the Tomcat. To be away from the ship was hard enough for Dodd and now to have his significant other also in the grip of uncertainty would surely make him very enraged.

[OFF]

Captain Jasmine Somers
Commander Officer

Commander Maia Sterling
First Officer/Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Paul Winchester
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lt. Jg Nicole Taggert
Assistant Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Serina 'Reaper' Donovan
CAG/Raider 1/Helm Officer

Lieutenant Jg Cody Parker
Mission Advisor/CoS

Ensign Teela Tjaansz [P: Taggert]
Engineer

 

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