The Battle Of Thane Part 3: ...Never Outgunned

Posted on Mon Feb 27th, 2012 @ 6:44am 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

Mission: The Invasion of Thane
Location: Thane System

Previously...

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!"

[ON]

And now, the conclusion...

[USS Vesta]

From the edge of the battlefield streaked in a welcome sight to the struggling starships. The sleek vessel seemed to almost glide through space, the words USS Vesta emblazoned on the hull.

As soon as the Vesta dropped out of warp, Ratchford was issuing orders for the minutiae of the actions they were about to partake in. "Lin, I want full power to the shields. Helm, take us as close as you can, we need to try and draw some of their fire from the other ships. Masters, target all phaser arrays and stand by to fire."

The blonde woman in the center chair leaned forward. "Target the lead ship. Target the weapons and engines." Valerie was still recovering from her failed test, but at the moment, the task at hand was the only thing on her mind.

[USS Metis]

As the Metis shook violently one more time, more consoles around the bridge exploded, and as the ship continued to shake from repeated hits, a violent jolt sent Nilani through the air, the support beam the command chair was affixed to shearing clean off as the chair itself rebounded across the bridge. As she pushed herself up onto her elbows, she heard the computer's cool, calm voice; a direct contrast to the environment into which it penetrated. "Warning: Warp core breach in twenty seconds. Escape pods inoperable. Transporters offline. Shields at zero percent. Weapons offline..."

As the message sunk in and the computer continued on with its verbal announcements of systems which had been too damaged to operate, time seemed to slow on the bridge of the small starship. Standing up, amidst all the chaos, she saw her officers all looking towards her, waiting for her to say something. She took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts before following the procedure that she knew must be followed. "Launch the log buoy," she ordered. "And send out the distress signal." She knew that the latter wasn't likely to be much good. Even with sensors down, she knew that the Antietam and Jackal would be too occupied by the fighting to come and rescue them in time. As she looked around at the faces before her, she felt that there was more she should say. She felt as if they were counting on her to say something that would make their end have meaning... and be worthwhile.

In the end, all she could think to say was, "It was an honour serving with all of you."

Sean dropped into Exeter's chair and sighed. His family would receive the dreaded message that he has passed away in the line of duty or some such nonsense . That was not something which really bothered him, it was part of the job. The first real time he was being dragged into a live fire fight and he lost! That was something he couldn't stand.

He turned around to face Prax and just nodded. He then sat back and wondered who would take over gamma shift on the station,which group would be patrolling the promenade and how how the security drill for the beta shift went. He started to laugh. As strange at it might have been he was worrying about the boring stuff while everything around him was slowly being destroyed.

[USS Antietam]

"Helm, bring us about for another attack run!" Gunning shouted over the din of phaser fire and reticent engines. "We need to put ourselves between the remaining vessels and the Vesta."

Suddenly a shrill chirrup cut through the noise. The Metis was in trouble. She would be gone in seconds. "Lieutenant, get us to the Metis, now!"

The young man at the CONN looked crestfallen. "We'll never make it into transporter range in time."

Gunning looked around the bridge at his officers. They had been lucky so far, aside from some minor damage to ship's systems, the bridge of the Antietam still looked in pretty good shape. That didn't change anything though. He watched as the crew tried to ignore what was happening and focus on fighting their way out. He couldn't focus. Suddenly he was above it all, watching things unfold below him. In ten seconds he would lose the Metis and not only that, lose his friend.

"I'm sorry Nilani." He uttered quietly as the situation came back into sharp focus.

[USS Vesta]

"Captain," Brian said, as the bridge shook slightly as the shields - much stronger still than those of the ships who had been in the fight from the beginning - absorbed another hit from a Sojourner weapons system. "The Metis' warp core is about to breach." He looked over to the woman in the centre chair, waiting for the instruction that he knew would come rapidly.

Ratchford had barely finished his sentence before Palmer spoke up. "Masters, lower our shields. Transporter room, get those people out of there now!"

As the transporter cycle completed, Brian watched the countdown on his command console in his chair to the right of the captain. When the cycle completed, there was only four seconds left until the core breach. "Helm! Move us away! Masters, reinforce dorsal shielding!" As the ship began to power away from the small science vessel, the Metis exploded, the cloud of hot debris lighting up the lower bubble of the Vesta's shields as they flared, protecting the larger ship's hull from the blast. But they had at least beamed the survivors aboard, even if they couldn't save the ship herself.

[USS Antietam]

"It's so sad that the Metis was lost. I wonder if the crew got off before it was destroyed." he said as he scanned the area for any escape pods.

Cmdr. Bastin clenched a fist as he watched the Metis 'burn' in space. There were hundreds of good people on the ship and they might all be lost. Not for the first time in his career, Jon wondered if their deaths would be in vain.

Gunning ran his hand down his face, smearing it with sweat and grime as consoles fizzed and sparked around him. The bright white explosion of the Metis filled the screen and time seemed to stop for a moment. He closed his eyes and things began to slow. The rocking of the Antietam's hull as she came under constant barrage from the enemy ships was all he could feel.

He knew what he had to do. "Ensign, hail our vessels. Sound the retreat; we're getting out of here."

[USS Jackal]

"Captain, incoming message from the Antietam! They're sounding the retreat!" Kelly shouted above the sound of bursting consoles and weapons fire. "Couldn't pick a better moment!"

Liarra nodded. "Agreed. Ensign De'Havean, get us out of here."

Erica howled a cry for the loss of the Metis, for she had friends with helm crew of the science vessel as she flew the Jackal into clear space before jumping into warp back to Starbase 332. The Jackal was running for home port to lick its wounds, both crew and ship needed a lot of working on. There was just too many of the enemy in a tightly packed area and add all the torpedoes and beams of destructive energy floating about. It was wiser to flee and return to attack another day.

[Fighters]

The Pythons squadron leader spun her fighter around and headed for base. "All fighters, prepare to retreat. I repeat, prepare to retreat." Lynsi's heart sunk as she took another look at the destruction around her. Starfleet was not just beaten here, but they were beaten hard.

[USS Vesta]

"Captain," Ratchford said, checking his console as the comm. system alerted an incoming message with a double tone. "Incoming message from the Antietam. Captain Gunning's sounding a retreat."

Palmer looked around at her crew. If only they had arrived sooner, they might have been able to make a difference in the fight. "Helm, lay in a course for Starbase Three-Three-Two, match the best possible speed of the rest of the fleet." While the Vesta could easily outrun the other ships, she needed to stay close in case they needed to provide cover to the more battered vessels. "Open a channel to the Antietam."

"Channel open, Captain,"

Valerie stood up from her chair. "Captain Gunning, this is Commander Palmer. We were able to recover 43 people from the Metis before she was destroyed. We've set up triage in our sickbay. From what I understand, Commander Prax would like to have a word with you. I'll set up a comm for us to talk when I get down to sickbay."

[USS Antietam]

Gunning stood on the raised platform in front of the centre chair. He was shellshocked. They were limping home at low warp with very little in the way of defenses if the Sojourners decided to give chase. He held both hands over his face before taking another look at the viewscreen. The destruction and carnage of the battle had been replaced with the streaks of light in the starfield. They had lost but they were safe.

The Metis had gone but the Vesta had not only rescued the survivors but, using the element of surprise, had probably saved all of their lives. He dropped into the centre chair and sighed. The Federation had lost a protectorate world and gained a new enemy. Starfleet was going to be delighted.

[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

[USS Vesta]

Commander Valerie Palmer (NPC by Von)
Commanding Officer

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