Distress Call
Posted on Sat Jan 31st, 2015 @ 12:38pm by Commander Jordan Gunning & Lieutenant Hiroto Ishida & Commander Titus Livius Drusus PhD & Lieutenant Yzhara
Mission:
Vagrants, Vagabonds, and Thieves
Location: Main Bridge, USS Montreal
Timeline: Patrol - Day 1 - 1400hrs.
The centre chair of the USS Montreal was unusual to Jordan Gunning's eye. He was used to seeing layouts with two chairs for the Commanding Officer and Executive but the Montreal, being a smaller ship had only the Command Chair.
His First Officer, it still seemed strange to him, Titus Drusus sat off to his right at the Science console. He was a Lieutenant Commander but in truth was more than qualified to run his own vessel, something Jordan was keeping in mind as he learned the ropes as a CO.
In front of him sat their blind pilot, Lieutenant Yzhara, in charge of the flight and also the Operations management. Lieutenant Deakin would baulk at the concept no doubt but he liked the arrangement; it saved him micro-managing.
To his left stood the new Security and Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Hiroto Ishida. They were yet to really meet but Gunning's history in that department kept him conscious that he needed to let the man get on with his job.
Doctor Isolde Brand sat at one of the rear stations, monitoring the same readings that Drusus did, clearly confident in her triage facilities in the pokey medical bay.
He checked the chronometer on his chair- they were a couple of minutes from dropping out of warp at the coordinates with little idea of what they were going to find. The distress call had been broken and patchy and what little they had been able to glean implied that a convoy was under attack.
"Take us to Red Alert, Lieutenant Ishida." Gunning ordered. "Are you getting anything on sensors, Commander?"
"Aye, Captain," the Japanese man responded, with a slight bow of his head. He tapped a control on his console, and the lights on the bridge dimmed slightly, taking on a red hue as the alert status lights around the bridge began to glow. The alert klaxon sounded only once, and he watched as the reports of station readiness came through on his console from the security and tactical personnel throughout the ship; the torpedo rooms reported their readiness first, followed by the various security teams as they confirmed they had taken up their pre-arranged posts around the ship. Another display on his console showed him the status of the ship's tactical systems; the shields activated and came to full power, and the weapons came up to full charge as all of the ship's torpedo tubes reported ordnance to be loaded and ready for calibration and firing.
Drusus turned his head to reply, but kept an eye on the scrolling data from his sensors. "I've got readings consistent with energy weapons fire, sir," he reported. "I'll know more as soon as we drop from warp."
Just as Drusus finished his sentence, the ship began to throttle back and then dropped out of warp, coming to a halt close to the ships which were still in the location of the distress call.
Three vessels hung in the air, their shields glimmering as they took a pounding from the small pirate scow which zipped around them.
"Commander Drusus, what is the configuration of those ships?"
The computer's analysis was complete just as Gunning completed his sentence. "Shoka personnel transports, sir," Drusus replied. "Minimal defences; certainly not designed to last long in a fire fight."
"The pirate ship looks Elasi- I haven't heard reports of them in this region for years." Gunning said quietly, more to himself than anyone else. "Hail the pirate vessel."
Yzhara activated the communications array from the operations portion of her console. The computer chimed to indicate an outgoing transmission. "No response, sir."
"Yzhara." Gunning rose from his chair as he realised that now was the time to fight. "Put us between them and the transports. We can take a beating- they can't. Lieutenant Ishida, target the Elasi vessel's weapons and prepare to fire on my mark."
"Yes, Captain," Ishida replied. The tactical sensors were easily able to identify the weapons ports of the Elasi ship, not least because many of them were actively unleashing their energy towards the transports. Those that weren't were charged and ready, and also emitted power readings that were easily detected by the Montreal's systems. The hull plating around the torpedo ports of the pirate vessel was more enhanced than that around the phaser banks, but more of an issue would be the ship's shields, which would have to be taken down first. The tactical officer programmed a firing solution into the computer that would quickly target the phaser banks with shots from the ship's own phaser systems and launch a torpedo for each of the Elasi launchers, which should sufficiently disable all of the weapons within a few seconds. Saving the prepared firing solution, he devised another using just the ship's phasers that should overload the Elasi shields enough to cause them to collapse, and give him a clear shot at the weapon systems they protected. "Firing solution is ready, Captain. We are prepared to fire on your mark."
The helm officer proceeded to her maneuvers without another word. Her bone white hands carefully manipulated her controls, powering up the Montreal's impulse engines and thrusters to move the ship on the required vector. Her aim was to put the ship between the pirates and the civilians. As a pilot, she never wanted to purposely put her ship in the line of fire; normally her job was to keep the ship from being hit. But sometimes they had to make sacrifices to protect the people of the Federation. With the Diligent class ship gracefully sailing into the path of the weapons fire, the crew of the bridge were alerted by the rumble caused by the impacts on the shields. "Holding position, Captain."
"Fire." Gunning ordered simply, expecting the Elasi to have fired at them, but they seemed to be attempting to manoeuvre around the Montreal. The Shoka must have been holding something valuable.
Ishida quickly confirmed his firing solution before hitting a single symbol on his console; a stereotypically large red button marked 'fire'. Lances of red energy erupted from the dorsal phaser arrays; some lasting for several seconds, whilst others lasted for less than half a second, before the beam fired out again at a different location on the Elasi vessel. The combined and varying effect of the phaser beams quickly overrided the ship's shields, and they failed with a visible flicker of the blue bubble surrounding the pirate ship. The phasers immediately ceased firing as their target vanished, and the tactical officer quickly switched the firing solution to the one he had configured to attack the weapons systems. The Elasi vessel was just banking to try to protect itself from the assault as he hit fire again, and the phasers once more lashed out, followed by a burst of torpedoes, each homing in efficiently on the ship's weapons systems. The entire engagement, from the first shot through to the rendering of the Elasi ship entirely without teeth lasted no more than thirty seconds. "The vessel's shields and weapons have been disabled, Captain."
"Elasi ships are retreating," Drusus reported, his voice level as the sensors confirmed their impulse engines at full burn, hurtling along the fastest course away from the Montreal. He turned and looked at Gunning, "And I thought they'd do something stupid like try to shoot back."
The double chime of an incoming transmission sounded from the tactical console as a result of the heightened alert status - a protocol designed to ensure that if a vessel being attacked were to wish to surrender, a ceasefire could be enacted more quickly. Ishida had often doubted that such a similar protocol would be in place on a Klingon or Romulan vessel, but saw the value of it within Starfleet's peaceful ethos. "We're being hailed by the lead Shoka vessel, sir."
"Onscreen." Gunning replied, nestling back in his chair.
"Federation vessel, this is Commander Arik Tallis of the Shoka transport vessel Duuh. Thank you for your assistance, we were set upon en route to Starbase Three-Three-Two."
Gunning studied the face on the screen- this was someone who had rarely seen combat and he could tell he was shocked into inactivity. "Commander- I am Jordan Gunning of the USS Montreal. Do you have any injured aboard your vessels?"
"We do. Minor injuries but we're shorthanded with medical personnel." The Shoka Commander confirmed.
"Acknowledged. We will send over medical assistance and escort you on your way to the Starbase." Gunning terminated the signal and turned to his Chief Medical Officer. "Doctor Brand, beam over and assist with the treatment of the Shoka crew. Yzhara, plot a course back Three-Three-Two and engage at a manageable warp factor for our Shoka friends."
"Aye, Captain," the Aenar pilot acknowledged. A simple scan was all that was needed to assess the Shoka warp capabilities. Even before they were attacked, they had an older warp core and weren't capable of any record setting speeds. Adding the damage on top of that, it was going to be a slow ride home. "Course laid in. Looks like we'll be doing Warp 4.5. I doubt they can give us much more without repairs."
Gunning nodded. "That'll have to do. Notify Three-Three-Two that we are inbound with more refugees."
Commander Jordan Gunning
Commanding Officer
Commander Titus Drusus [NPC: Deakin]
Executive Officer & Chief Science Officer
Lieutenant Hiroto Ishida
Chief Security & Tactical Officer
Doctor Isolde Brand [NPC: Kamdram]
Chief Medical Officer
Lieutenant Yzhara [NPC: Von]
Chief of Flight Operations
