Escape

Posted on Mon Mar 14th, 2016 @ 10:16pm by Captain Liarra Von

“What did you say?” Vaishaa asked, a cold dread pouring through her. She heard the report, but couldn’t believe it.

“Multiple warp signatures coming in!” the tactical officer reported. He turned slowly to the warlord with a grim expression. “Starfleet signatures.”

She clenched her jaw and stared through the tactical officer. Inside she was a tempest of rage. No! No! No! No! No! That can’t be!

But it was true, she looked down at the console and confirmed it with her own eyes. The harbinger of her doom, in the form of a Federation fleet, was dropping out of warp and trapping her own fleet in a pincer. Between that fleet and the Starbase, her Sojourners would be crushed.

Through the gloom of her own demise, she started to put pieces in motion. Despite her confidence, she had planned for this; it always paid to be prudent and Vaishaa made a point to think of everything.

She stormed over to the communications console and shoved the operator out of the way. Jamming her thumb down she opened a channel.

“All ships, this is Vaishaa. Federation reinforcements have arrived, but they are too late. We have the upper hand. There will be no retreat. No surrender. We will crush these Federation toads under the might of our weapons. No retreat! No surrender!

“Attack Wings Four and Five, move to intercept the Federation ships,” she continued, casting her eye over the tactical display. “All other ships, focus your fire on the Starbase. When the Starbase is destroyed, those ships will give up. No retreat! No surrender!”

She watched as the icons on the display that depicted Wings Four and Five broke off and headed towards the Federation ships. She nodded to herself and moved to the back of the bridge. As she moved she issued orders over her shoulder to her flag captain instructing him to spearhead the attack on the Starbase.

Once he acknowledged and turned to issue orders to his helmsman, the Sojourner leader quietly reached into a pocket of her coat and activated a small transponder. She vanished from the bridge with a quiet hum of a transporter beam.

---

The shuttlecraft detached itself from the underside of Vaishaa’s flagship in a manner similar to a Federation starship’s captain’s yacht. The craft banked sharply away to starboard and down on the z-axis away from the combat zone.

Few ships picked the shuttlecraft up on sensors, and none paid attention to it amongst the maelstrom of weapons fire. Inside the cockpit, the sole occupant glared at the sensor readings as her once mighty fleet broke apart within grasp of her prize. Her plans lay in ruins along with her ships and their crews. The crews, the warriors who had followed her this far only to falter at the end. They had failed her.

She scowled as she engaged the warp drive and vowed to have her vengeance.

Vaishaa
Sojourner Warlord