Where Eagles Dare

Posted on Mon Feb 13th, 2012 @ 6:56am by Captain Alexander Gunning & Lieutenant Commander Morgan Kelly & Senior Chief Petty Officer Gilbert Bones [PNPC] & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Sean O'Connell & Lieutenant Marcus O'Connell & Lieutenant Commander Jonathon Bastin PhD & Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean & Lieutenant Lynsi Mason

Mission: The Invasion of Thane
Location: The Thane System

[ON]

[Main Bridge - USS Jackal]

As the voice of Captain Gunning dissipated from the comm, the faces of the resolute officers on the bridge of the Jackal seemed to fall in unison. Their mission had seemed so clear and their cause so noble. Stop the Ritorians taking over the Thane System. They had been willing to lay down their lives in pursuit of that goal and, as Lieutenant Kelly inwardly observed, had the Ritorians really wanted the system, that's exactly what they would have done.

The hum of activity returned around Kelly as he stared blankly at his console. He was the Executive Officer on this mission and now he was left with nothing more than total ambiguity. The Captain's words had been clear. Nothing had changed and there was still a force massing in the system. The real question was who were they and what did they want?

He glanced across the room at Commander Von. She seemed more steadfast in her approach but there was a distance in her eyes. The suggestion that Starfleet vessels were present seemed to have spooked everyone the most. Taken from a Galactic South Salvage Company Yard, the Captain had said, for what it mattered. The ships were old but they were still outnumbered.

Liarra was quiet, starring through the viewscreen and into the streaking starfield on the other side. She tried to stay stoic for the sake of her crew, but a thousand different explanations for why those ships were taken, and who they were taken by, were racing through her head. "Ensign, what is our ETA?"

"ETA Five minutes till weapons range," Ensign De'Havean spoke in her soft voice with a slight menace to her voice. She had made peace with her dieties and ready to make the sacrifice and taking out as many with her before she went in a blaze of glory on the field of battle. ~~let the fun begin!~~ Shifting into a more comfortable position in her seat, briefing wondering why starfleet ship seats didn't have seatbelts in them, like the fighters did. Her paw/hands flew over the console, bringing the Jackal up to combat speeds.

[Main Bridge - USS Antietam]

The dull red pulse of the Red Alert klaxon distracted Gunning's attention from the viewscreen as the Antietam and its escorts dropped out of warp. The sudden reduction in engine noise brought his focus back to the giant tactical display in front of him. The computer's opaque head-up display was rapidly identifying potentially hostile targets. Suder and O'Connell were working fast.

The hostile ships hung in perfect formation in front of them. The only movement was the repositioning of the Starfleet fighter squadrons at the head of the little task group. A rag-tag group of ships, pulled together by a united colour scheme of vicious red. A deep, unsettling blood red colour that seemed to have been thrown over the ships as though it were some rudimentary camouflage.

In a way it was. The red disguised the original purpose and owners of the vessels but their tell-tale hull configurations stood out proudly against the black of space. A Cardassian Galor class sat on the far right flank with with a Klingon Bird of Prey at the left. Gunning's eyes fell on the least familiar of the vessels, the computer identified it as a Ritorian Roshaal class destroyer but the Captain knew little more than that.

It was the vessels at the head of the formation that had spooked him. The computer's scanners offered no registrations or identifiable markers for the three Federation ships which formed the small formation's point, daubed in their red battle-honours. The outlines were unmistakeable- two Miranda classes and, the formation's Flagship, one of the old Excelsior classes. The sensors continued to flail their targeting scanners around, looking for the identifiable mark that would unlock the vessels' Prefix Codes.

Gunning knew that none would be forthcoming.

"Captain," Marcus said. "They have powered their weapons," he said from his Ops station.

Lt. Cmdr. Bastin stood up upon hearing those words and turned to tactical, "Are the shields at full strength?"

[Main Bridge - USS Metis]

The reaction on the bridge of the Metis was more muted. They had already experienced first-hand the likelihood of what was facing them and it was only the physical sight of the force which seemed shocking to them. There was no doubt that the ships looked formidable but surely a load of defunct vessels couldn't stand up to a Starfleet attack formation.

Sorik's eyes moved slowly across the assembled force. There could be no doubt that they were outnumbered and there was little doubt that these ships resembled the ones they were familiar with in shape alone. The scans that were coming into his terminal suggested significant upgrades and adaptations to the original designs. With a short flick of his wrist, he transmitted the detail of the scans to Lieutenant O'Connell at tactical.

The Excelsior had been the main focus of the Vulcan's scans and it was, to his mind, the most technically impressive of the craft. Its shields had been completely refitted to something closer to the modular, adaptive shields used by the Ritorians, while its armament appeared to be significantly improved over the original Starfleet design. His in-depth scan complete, he submitted the results and the computer's bullet-point report to Commander Prax and Lieutenant O'Connell respectively.

Sean looked at the tactical screen and bit his lip. The Metis wouldn't stand a chance against any of the opposing ship's, she was out gunned and underpowered. He looked towards Prax and shook his head.

Nilani knew that the Metis was no match for any one of the ships facing them on its own, and drew silent solace from the fact that the Antietam and the Jackal were with them; ships designed to take as much as they can give in battle. Whilst the Metis wasn't strictly designed for these kind of engagements however, the memories and experiences of two of her former hosts - Kronat and Omar Prax, both military leaders and strategists in their own times - came to the front of her awareness. Such a small ship as this one would have to rely on hit-and-run attacks, coming into weapons range to fire off a volley before getting back out of range as quickly as possible, before the other ships could get a target lock. "Mister O'Connell," she said, as she reviewed the report that Sorik had forwarded to her command chair. "I want you to reinforce the forward shields, and arm all forward weapons systems. Mister Exeter, I want you to divert all available power from non-tactical systems towards the impulse engines."

Sean nodded as he boosted power to the forward shields and armed all forward facing weapons.

John nodded as he received the order. "Aye, moving power from non-essential systems to impulse and thruster systems."

Melissa spoke, "I haven't seen something like this since the war."

[Fighter Wings Pythons & Exocets]

Lynsi's comm was open to chatter, and she had received the report from the Antietam's CAG, but she still wasn't prepared for what was coming. As her viper decelerated to impulse, the imposing sight of what looked like a ragtag fleet of blood red ships loomed in front of her.

"Those don't look like Ritorians," one Python pilot noted. Another asked a valid question. "Where the hell did they get some of our ships?"

Lynsi put a stop to their comments. "Cut the chatter, Pythons. Stand by for orders."

[Main Bridge - USS Antietam]

A sudden chirping caught Lt. Cmdr. Bastin's attention suddenly amid the other happenings that had been captivating his attention previously. Jon looked down at the information console positioned next to his station and turned to Captain Gunning, "Sir, we're being hailed by their flagship, all channels and frequencies."

Gunning rose from the centre chair and looked around at the bridge officers of the Antietam. He took a long, deep breath before nodding. "Put it on screen."

[OFF]

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USS Antietam

Captain Alexander Gunning
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Jonathon Bastin PhD
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Marcus O'Connell
Chief Operations Officer

USS Jackal

Commander Liarra Von
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Morgan Kelly [NPC - Gunning]
Executive Officer / Tactical Officer

Ensign De'Heaven
Chief Pilot - USS Jackal

USS Metis

Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax
Commanding Officer

Dr. Melissa Daniels
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Sean O'Connell
CSTO

Lieutenant (JG) Sorik [NPC - Gunning]
Operations Officer

Lieutenant (JG) John Exeter [NPC-Brendan]
Flight Officer

VMA-193 "Exocets" & V/F-26 "Pythons"

Lieutenant Lynsi Mason [NPC - Von]
Squadron Leader, "Pythons"