The Battle Of Thane Part 2: Always Outnumbered...

Posted on Mon Feb 27th, 2012 @ 6:43am by Captain Alexander Gunning & Lieutenant Commander Morgan Kelly & Senior Chief Petty Officer Gilbert Bones [PNPC] & Captain Liarra Von & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax & Lieutenant Commander Jonathon Bastin PhD & Major Darian Riva & Lieutenant Commander Sean O'Connell & Lieutenant Marcus O'Connell & Lieutenant Commander Melissa Daniels M.D. & Lieutenant Lynsi Mason & Lieutenant JG Allison Price & Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean & Master Chief Petty Officer Arathenar ch’Darnath

Mission: The Invasion of Thane
Location: Thane System

Previously...

As the Metis shook - mostly from the blast radius of the torpedo which had just exploded on the Antietam's shields - Nilani focussed her full attention on the battle that they were now to be embroiled in. "Full impulse! Attack pattern Kappa-4, take us in fast and then straight back out the other side for another pass! Mister O'Connell, ready forward weapons!"

"Aye, full impulse, attack pattern Kappa 4." Exeter replied as he started the Metis on her attack run.

Sean glanced around and shook his and muttered under his breath. "Getting in a few pot shots, check, get our behinds handed too us, check." Sean started targeting the first ship on their run and he knew the weaknesses of the Miranda and excelsior class and probably knew what they could, better then these Sojourners.

[ON]

[USS Jackal]

Kelly couldn't believe his eyes. The two additional warp signatures terrified him. Two. Two more Starships in blood red. The Jackal rocked as she took hit after hit from the Sojourner vessels. One of the Miranda class ships was clearly just firing at anything, trying to score a couple of hits on whatever they could. It was a weakness, but not much of one.

"Commander!" Kelly shouted, "two more ships warping in. Sojourner vessels!"

"Ensign, evasive manoeuvres, Gamma 8. Mr. Kelly, I need a bearing." Liarra braces herself as the phaser blast impacts against the hull. "Bring us about, hard to starboard. Target the weapons on that closest Miranda."

"Got it Commander!" Kelly shouted. "Bearing zero-four-six, mark three eight!"

Erica felt the increase of impacts on her ship as they had taken her measure and called in for re-enforcement. It was just too many for them to deal with. She growled her displeasure at the order, but complied, adding a tweak to Gamma 8 Evasive manoeuvres, instead of going starboard toward the weaker Miranda, she dove and whipped the Jackel in a tight spiral port turn, and then coming up behind and under the now exposed weaker belly of the Miranda.

The Jackal continued to slice her way through the battlefield, nimbly avoiding most of the direct fire. Glancing hits, however, were starting to take their toll, as evident by another explosion on the bridge. Another look to her scanner confirmed what she had feared; the Metis wasn't going to last much longer. Liarra and her ship were way too far away to help, especially with the remaining Sojourner ships between her and Nilani.

[Fighters]

Lynsi gritted her teeth as another glancing blow impacted against her fighter. Christ, she thought to herself. She adjusted her flight path to follow a fighter that was targeting the Antietam. Her squadron had already lost over half of its pilots in the firefight. She could only guess how the Exocets were getting along.

Darian couldn't afford the time to review all the damage and casualty reports in depth at the moment. Exocets were taking heavy damage as well. She moved to obtain another target lock as her fighter rocked from a nearby explosion. Too close for comfort, Riva let that though echo in her mind a moment as she contemplated her next move.

[USS Metis]

The Metis was battered and the bridge was all but gone. Sorik pulled himself forward to the auxiliary control console, throwing himself down on it and trying to give the ship everything he could. The handrails surrounding the bridge had collapsed and crew members were being thrown pillar to post by every volley that caught them. They had been targetted as the weakest link in the Starfleet formation.

He checked the damage reports coming in from engineering. He called out to his Commanding Officer. "Commander Prax! I'm reading hull breaches on decks six-through-eight! Our shields are currently at sixteen percent and falling rapidly!"

"Evacuate those decks!" the Trill called, over the shrill sounds of alarms and fires all around her. Her hair was dis-shelved, her face grimy from dirt and soot, making her appear much the same as the bridge itself did; as if they had been in a war zone for weeks. "Helm! Evasive pattern Theta-Three! Get us out of weapons range!"

Exeter was slumped over his console. He was badly injured. Sean quickly left his station and put Exeter down on the deck and quickly checked his vitals. Noting he couldn't do much for the young lieutenant he manned helm.

"Aye, Evasive pattern on not getting the stuffing kicked out of us!" O'Connell said as he he tried to fly the Metis out of harms way. "I need a Medic for Mister Exeter! Minor injuries, but I think an artery was hit and he will be dead within a few hours." Sean said to no one in particular, as far as he knew only Prax and himself where still in the land of the living.

Melissa arrived on the bridge with her medical staff. "My people are taxed all over the ship!!" She said. Melissa herself had better days. "Commander, I think this is one of the times in which discretion is the better part of valor."

Sorik's eyes flashed bright with pain as he suddenly experienced every emotion he had suppressed for every single year of his life. He gasped for air but nothing filled his lungs- it was like inhaling the red sands of Vulcan and the pain seared through every nerve in his body. He looked round as far as he could and was greeted with the sight of one of the bridge's support beams protruding from his back. He shuddered as the final emotions seized him. His eyes closed as he collapsed forward.

Melissa moved toward Sorik. "Good lord." She picked up her med kit and began to work on Sorik. "Nurse, Amazine, Verazide combo and a Life Support unit. Now. I think we can save him." Melissa placed the lifesupport unit on the Vulcans chest. He stabilized a bit, but the vulcan still wasn't out of the woods. He was still rapidly going into shock. Melissa took her phaser and cut through the support beam. The Vulcan collapsed to the ground. "Sorik, Stay conscious." She continued to work. The Vulcan's blood appeared on her hands. But no matter what she did, the life support unit couldn't stabilize him. Melissa finally closed the Vulcan's eyes and moved to the next of the wounded.

"Now, Johnny, you'll be fine. I've had football injuries worse then you have. You'll be annoying the heck out of me in no time." He tried to smile as Exeter garbled something and was spitting up some blood and then passed out. Sean knew Exeter would make it. He looked around and saw the CMO closing the Vulcan's eyes. "Damn!" he muttered and then looked for nearest opposing ship on the sensors. He quickly slaved tactical to his console and fired a full volley of all aft torpedoes and phasers at it.

Seeing the ship being disabled he continued trying to move the Metis to safety.

[USS Jackal]

Phaser fire erupted from the forward emitters as the Jackal took another shot at the attacking ships. A direct hit takes out the main torpedo launchers, but the still operational phasers finish off what little was left of the shields. A staggered Von recovers herself. "Damage report!"

"Minor hull breaches on Deck 4. Containment fields are holding. Transporters are down. Phasers are at 65%," SCPO Bones reported from her left.

"That's better than nothing. Ensign, bring us around for another pass," Liarra ordered. She figured that there was a good chance they were all going to die anyway, why not try to take some more of them with them. "Lieutenant, target their engines."

Ensign De'Havean worked the controls of the now sluggish Jackal, yet still ferocious to continue the attack on the Miranda, keeping the Miranda between them and the rest of the fleet, always working toward the Jackal's advantage.

"Aye aye, Commander!" Kelly called out as the tactical scanners inter-mingled and gave him the shot he needed. A burst of photon torpedo fire cut out from the Jackal's hull and towards the nacelles of the Miranda class which lay in front of them.

The tiny Defiant class ship came about, weakened, but not out of fight yet. Red orange blasts of phased energy shot forward in pairs, striking the damaged Miranda class ship squarely in the nacelles. A follow up attack of six quantum torpedoes caused the engine casing to explode. Shock waves spread across the ship signaled a chain reaction straight to the warp core. As the core overloaded, the rest of the aging ship went up with it, creating a massive fireball and wave of shrapnel that rocked the fleeing Jackal.

"Nice shooting, Mr. Kelly," Liarra responded, praising her executive officer. "Prepare to come about, bearing 176 mark..."

She was cut off my another proximity alarm and an exclamation from her engineer. "Captain, there's another ship approaching at high warp."

Christ, Liarra exclaimed under her breath. "Another of theirs?"

The engineer shook his head. "No, Ma'am." A look of confusion was replaced by a look of excitement. "It's one of ours!"

To be continued...

[OFF]

[USS Antietam]

Captain Alex Gunning
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Jonathon A. Bastin, PhD
Acting Executive Officer/Chief Diplomatic Officer

Lieutenant Marcus O'Connell
Chief of Operations (SB-332)/Acting Operations Officer

Lieutenant Lynsi Mason
Squadron Commander, Pythons

Major Darian Riva
Squadron Commander, Exocets

[USS Jackal]

Commander Liarra Von
Commanding Officer

Ensign De'Havean (NPC: Akiashiro)
Chief CONN Officer

Lieutenant Morgan Kelly (NPC: Gunning)
Executive Officer / Chief Tactical Officer

[USS Metis]

Lt. Commander Nilani Prax
Commanding Officer

Lt. Commander Melissa Daniels
Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Sean O'Connell
Chief Of Starbase Security

Lieutenant (JG) John Exeter [WIA] (NPC By S. O'Connell)
Flight Staff

Lieutenant (JG) Sorik [KIA] (NPC by Gunning)
Operations Officer

[USS Vesta]

Commander Valerie Palmer (NPC by Von)
Commanding Officer

Lt. Commander Brian Ratchford (NPC by Prax)
Executive Officer