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TRIBUNAL Part 4 - Chaos Erupts

Posted on Fri Jun 14th, 2019 @ 12:10pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Petty Officer 2nd Class Ila Dedjoy & Death & Az'Prel & Kodria Mizu & Hera & Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott & Baroness 3rd Class Sarika & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant Asa Dael & Lieutenant Samuel Clemens XV & Lieutenant JG Rena Pacci & Petty Officer 2nd Class 'Big Ethel' Jablonski & Petty Officer 3rd Class S'Rina Wil'I'Ams & Petty Officer 3rd Class V'Nus Wil'I'Ams & Jaeih Dox-t'Aan
Edited on on Mon Jul 1st, 2019 @ 11:16am

Mission: Fractured Fairy Tales
Location: Artan Family orbital Fortress Trial Hall
Timeline: 2396, Tribunal
Tags: Continued from Tribunal: Confessions

Continued from Tribunal - Confessions...

"Speaking of the unfortunate Frau Blucher, may she rest in peace, another reason for her execution was a more long term strategic maneuver. You see, she would have dropped everything to leap to the Princess' aid were she to end up in trial by combat. So while the Manticore was in mothballs, and Frau Blucher was definitely not coming back, the time was also ripe for some subterfuge."

"As the engineer who knew the ship best was now murdered, no one else was likely to notice the thorium bomb with a remote detonator someone planted next to the warp core, guaranteed to cause a breach that would leave no trace of sabotage. The thorium bomb under the captain's chair, I must say, seemed like a bit of overkill. But better safe than sorry, right?" Paris snapped her fingers, then wagged it at the Captain's mother, as she was wont to do. "Oh, we also found the torpedo designed to lodge in the tubes to blow the magazine- nice touch, and you get points for multiple contingencies."

"But, unfortunately for you, Starfleet engineers are surprisingly thorough, particularly when they know they are looking for sabotage." Paris turned and offered a slight bow to Thex, for her diligence in combing over the Captains pirate vessel. "Well done, Lieutenant Commander sh'Zoarhi."

"Now, I will admit, this part? We can't prove she did this part- not yet. We don't have active sensor logs, and even once we find the agent, tracing the money of chain of command back to the Queen Mum over here isn't something we've managed to accomplish just yet today- we kind of just got here." Paris paused for a long breath before beginning a series of broadside volleys. "Baronesses one and all, you must admit, it just seems suspicious. Because why would anyone want to booby-trap Enalia Telvan's personal pirate vessel when she was out gallivanting around with Starfleet?"

"Only someone who knew they could get her captain aboard the Manticore, and get her to put out to space."

"Someone who planned to duel her, in the traditions of her people."

"OBJECTION! Speculation and poppycock-" the spider at the center of a very rapidly unraveling web began to thunder, but Paris was on a roll. She had an audience, she had all the proof the crew had gathered, she had the culprit and she could almost smell justice in the wind. Shouting down her opposition in the sharp, concise voice of command she had learned from the commanders of yore, Rita Paris would not be denied.

"Someone who was so afraid that even after all her plotting and scheming, she still didn't believe that she could win if it came down to a fair fight! So she stacked the deck just a little more in her favor, so she could simply murder her own daughter once she'd goaded her into a space duel whenever the urge struck her," Having abandoned any pretense of impartiality, she had the floor, and Paris was now winding up one of her patented impassioned speeches that might just win her an Emmy.

"Murder. Her own daughter. Sure, the rest of the crew too, a great loss, but I ask you- who goes to all of this trouble, manipulating and plotting and murdering and thieving and lying, only to set as their endgame 'if all else fails I'll blow you to hell'."

"Her. Own. Daughter."

"I don't know what sort of codes you pirates have about this sort of thing, but in the United Federation of Planets we call that, once again, conspiracy and attempted murder. Three counts, one for each bomb," Paris added with a cheery smile in the Queen Regent's direction. "No need to count in all the attempted murder charges for the number of crewmen- eventually the greater charge encompasses that."

"I do admit, again, we have not proven it was Arenara Artan who was behind the sabotage. After all, we only found the bombs an hour ago, and while we're very good, connecting the entire bomber to the rest of the conspiracy is probably going to take us a day at least." While she paused there, no one was laughing.

These were serious allegations, and Rita expected that Mommy Dearest was only sitting through it all because in the end, when she crushed this little rebellion, she would show that all the evidence in the world couldn't take her down. Which was only going to make her appear that much more invincible after she smashed up Enalia's starship.

"That concludes Captain Telvan's opening arguments and presentation of evidence, magistrate," the buxom blonde bombardier offered a nod of respect to Captain Magnus. "I thank you for your indulgence, and I swear by the stars from which all life is made, I have spoken nothing but the truth."

The Starfleet siren couldn't resist taking that last dig at the embattled Queen Regent, as she shone a dazzling smile at the woman. Which was as close as she was going to come to making a rude gesture at the mother of Captain Telvan, who now had plenty of reason to dislike the old-school officer.

Which suited Rita Paris just fine, although against all logic, she hoped the woman would surrender peacefully. Reaching out with unerring precision, her hand sought that of Sonak's. That... was something. I've never done anything like that before...

An excellent display of facts and evidence
, his mind assured her. Hence the reactions it brought forth. In these circumstances and settings, a loud display of opposition is to be expected. This is much more a test for this society than it could ever be of you and us. Hence why we must always be cautious...

Again, his finger touched his commbadge, to remind her that his channel to the ship was still open. Paris nodded in acknowledgement, and grinned at the sensible scientist. It felt good to be working together, watching one another's backs and improving on one another's plans, just like the old days.

With the bulk of the evidence presented, Merelith took a few minutes longer to process it all, but as she did so, and the data was reviewed in front of them, a murmur went through those assembled. Even Sarika was silent as she watched each piece processed. Eventually, Merelith looked up. "It all checks out. This is all untampered and admissible."

As Magnus raised his gavel to bang it once more, Enalia continued. "In that case, until this Tribunal is settled, by the power vested in me as a Starfleet Captain, I declare Treaty Hector Nine Seven Two Gala Bravo between the Artan Family and the Federation to be... in abeyance."

The twinkle in Clemens' eyes blossomed into a full-blown grin. But only for a moment, as he kept scanning the room, looking for clues in the faces in the crowd.

The large, battle scarred man with the gavel was too stunned to bring his gavel down for a moment, instead pausing in mid-air trying to figure out what to do. He didn't have to think too hard as the last of the swing votes had all changed in the last few seconds as indicated by the terminal built into the desk before him. The votes were now twelve to two.

Narrowing his eyes, he wasn't fond of what he was about to do, but he knew he had to do it. Bringing his gavel down once more, he declared the vote. "Final vote is twelve to two. Considering the evidence I declare Arenara Artan a rebellious element of the Artan family and no longer representing the interests of the family at large. It is the judgement of this Tribunal that she and her allies be stripped of their titles, assets, and be turned over to Starfleet for..."

That was as far as he got before Arenara pulled off one of her pieces of jewelry and tossed it into the middle of the hall, resulting in a bright phosphorescent flash and the sound of steel and hidden weapons being drawn from Arenara's, Garan's and Terethis' balconies.

Sonak at this moment spoke into his combadge.

''Sonak to Hera; belligerence situation confirmed. Keep lock on; ready for red alert.''

His logic and silent attentiveness had prepared him, and the ship, for just such a sudden violent outburst. His Vulcan third eyelid had protected him from the sudden glare of the exploding jewel. Thus, before anyone could even start a step toward the Starfleet group, he had already moved to place himself between his commanding officers and the threatening assembly, one hand ready to whip out his anh woon if needed. The other was tingling with the telepathic pulse of a ready Vulcan nerve pinch.

''Hera waiting for orders,'' he announced to Enalia and Rita. ''Crew and all transporters ready.''

As the room went white, from her balcony, Dox's first reaction was to rise from her seat. But before she could move, she felt her seat pulled slightly back along the floor from behind.

As the flash faded, she saw her security escort, Petty Officer Liu, standing tall despite her somewhat diminutive stature. Standing at the edge of the balcony, she had interposed herself between Dox, her mother, and Az'Prel. The left arm of the fireplug butch in the bowl cut was raised in defense, clad in a brilliant bronze bracelet with a shimmering blue field of energy extending outward as a shield.

In the Captain's box, the Klingon Wil'l'Ams sisters had done the same, rising to put shields between the Queen Regent and the Captain and Rita. Mek'leth's drawn seemingly from nowhere, they stood bulwarking the calm yet fully prepared Vulcan officer, who moved with the surety of a starship commander himself.

In Baroness von Alcott's box, none could be seen past the massive petty officer, Ethel Jablonski. Interposed between the threat, the faithful guardian had stationed herself, even as a rather large and imposing sword had seemingly materialized in her great right hand. None would get past her, for she had a duty to uphold, a promise to keep- not a hair on Hera's head would be harmed while she drew breath.

In an instant, faster than it seemed possible, the impeccably trained security force of the USS Hera had erected in an instant sections of unyielding gold uniforms armed with blue energy shields to stand between danger and the crew of the U.S.S Hera.

His F.R.I.D.A.Y. systems already engaged, Clemens sped off in the direction of the flash. Almost immediately, there were brief reports coming from the opposite balcony and bleachers areas, accompanied by a series of loud *CLANGS*, as though a hammer were impacting metal, over and over, on the other side of the chamber. A groan of tortured metal sounded out, and the entire section dropped to the floor of the chamber in a twisted mass.

"AMAZONS! TO ARMS! Defend your charges!" Paris called out as she recovered from the flash, strobing after-images of the flash still blinding her delicate optic nerves. But her voice was clear and calm, and held no fear. Her Security officers were well-trained and determined, and had known this was a possibility. As for Rita herself, she knew Sonak was here, and while she might not be able to see, the implacable Vulcan suffered no such hindrance, and would allow no harm to come to his shipmates as they recovered.

From the balcony containing Lieutenant Dox and her group, the gold-clad security officer flicked her right wrist, and from the golden bracer emerged instantly the young Romulan pilot's twin Caitian ceremonial blades.

Petty Officer Liu handed the short, curved swords to Dox with the slightest of smiles. After all, the Hera's entire security force had trained extensively with Dox, and knew her capabilities as a fighter. "Lieutenant... the Commander though you might want these. They've been modified to your specifications."

"Thank you, Miss Liu." Dox took the blades and pressed small buttons that had been installed in the hilts. In an instant, a thin blue shimmer flowed up each blade: force fields that created an impact controlled stunning force she had design into the otherwise deadly blades. Smirking as she spun the blades in her hands, Dox thought to herself, 'Rita really does think of everything.'

Turning back to her mother and Az'Prel, Mnhei'sahe watched as Jaeih pulled a small handle out of her sleeve and with a flick of her wrist, it extended into a two meter long bo-staff. Smirking up at her daughter, Jaeih commented with an unexpectedly playful bit of sarcasm. "Please. Your crew can take care of themselves, Baroness Dox."

As Az'Prel could fight with nearly any weapon and preferred unarmed, she was already ready. However, she slipped a pair of daggers free and threw them through the space Mudd was in just as he and Arenara's crew dissolved in transporter beams. The Vulcan rage that washed off of her was hard to contain, but she took a moment to do so, expertly flipping another pair of daggers into her hands.

From the other side of the chamber, there was singing, the tones blurred by the Doppler Effect...and a bit of Missourian twang...

Rising the flag on the masthead ... The sails and the ropes' holding tight ... The gunners are eager to fire ... Well prepared for the fight ... Fight, flee or surrender ... Defeat you can't deny ... Better give up in the first place ... Or drown in the blink of an eye ... Gold, jewels and diamonds ... The price we'll have to claim ... Noble rogues are standing ... We'll never quit in the game ... We gonna ride the sea, we pray to the wind and the glory ... That's why we are raging wild and free ... Come sing along with the pirate song ... Hail to the wind, hooray to the glory ... We're gonna fight 'til the battle's won ... On the raging sea ... No way to move your deadlocked ... Nailed down by feu-eclair ... Lead is carrying fire ... Victory's noble and fair ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7cfQ4oXoQ&fbclid=IwAR0temhdj6UghZdzrwT3Qe6qZajmbgcBSc-pAVT9riAnd3jXTp27fjnSLm0


"Time to kick some pirate ass," Thex let out a slight sigh as she flicked the two bracelets onto her wrist. Sidestepping slightly till she was apart from the group, the chief engineer of the starship Hera clasped her arms across her chest and yelled: "Protect!"

Within a second Thex was gone, and standing in her place was the fabled Armor of Achilles. The visor lifted slightly as she gave the group a wide and somewhat mischievous grin. " Okay, lets kick some ass."

With the renegade pirate Queen Regent and her allies already having beamed out past the transporter blockers, from numerous entryways mercenaries were flooding into the chamber armed with sabers and chemical propellant projectile weapons. The holo-maid system was also offline so there was no help from them.

The mercenaries themselves seemed to be part of the Wild Geese. A loose affiliation group that often hung out at Tortuga Station, looking for people hard up on their luck. Thus the sellswords flooding the great hall were a mix of just about everyone looking for a few quick credits.

Enalia's voice rang out in the chamber loud and clear. "These are mercenaries loyal to money! Stun and disable only! Magnus! Disable the dampening fields!"

"We'd love to oblige you, but the controls aren't responding!" Magnus reported as his crew were already working on just that.

''An EM Pulse should allow us to disable any nearby system,'' Sonak suggested just before a pair of mercenaries rushed them.

His anh woon flicked out of his waist like a living snake and, holding it by the middle, he entangled both of their raised wrists with the weighted ends of the long twin leather length. He slid on his back right between them, forcing both their firearms down as they shot, sending their discharges right at the ground; and then both of them a moment later, face first. His Vulcan strength made sure the impact was hard enough to knock them both out cold.

The next one to close in met his nerve pinch, not at the neck but right under the jaw, cutting off brain impulses to his body and sending him also crashing to the ground. Then the anh woon recoiled once more into his other hand.

As Lieutenant Dox watched the mercenaries flood the chamber, making a beeline to the Captain, she worked out a basic strategy.

"Miss Liu. Our box is positioned Midway between the bulk of the advancing hostiles and the Captain. We're the closest. Let's flank them in. Narrow their path of attack. Force them towards Miss Jablonski and the Wil'I'ams sisters." Dox raised her weapons and began moving to leap the meter down to the main floor of the hall. It was the same basic strategy the Baroness von Alcott had trained Dox and Paris in on the holodeck facing simulated zombies months ago now.

"Aye, Lieutenant. Stay behind my shield as much as possible." With that, the group of four leapt from their box to the floor and moved to meet the oncoming hoard. Liu blocked incoming projectile fire while the Romulan Mother-Daughter pair moved to meet the raised swords of the mercenaries.

With a flash, the shielded blades of Dox's swords blocked the oncoming swords and the battle was joined by the four women who began incapacitating the mercenaries. With her well trained technique, Dox blocked a strike with one blade while making contact with the other under the attackers defenses. But instead of a blade slicing flesh, the field flared and the attackers fell back, stunned by an electric discharge.

On the other side of Liu's shield, Jaeih was doing much the same, if a bit more brutally, jabbing hard with her staff to disable the oncomers.

The displaced Vulcan, Az'Prel, had all but vanished, her daggers cutting weapons belts and pants belts alike as she moved through the throng of invaders almost unseen, yet staying near her charge of Lieutenant Dox.

But the strategy was working, as the bulk of the advancing conscripts and roustabouts were being forced into a more narrow attack path where their numbers had less power.

With one flank of the pressing mercs being held down by the ship's team, a grin spread over the Andorian's face as she turned to the others. A group of Gorn, Klingons, Remans and some nasty looking species with four arms glared menacingly at the armored Andorian.

"Shall we dance, boys and girls?" Thex said as wings erupted from the back of the armor. A few of the faces were puzzled for the brief second before a sound not heard in millennium filled the great hall of the Artan fleet, as Thex sped towards them colliding with the group.

The Andorian juggernaut heard one of the Gorn's primary ribs collapse under the weight of her impact as she went to town on them. She heard a few fist and weapons strike the armor, many breaking in the process judging by the screams of pain and sounds of men cursing filling her ears.

The 24th century bearer of the legendary Armor of Achilles moved as gracefully as if she wore nothing but dancer's silks, despite being clad in such unbreakable armor as she dodged, punched, wove sinuously and high kicked her way through the mob.

"I have this flank dealt with... is everyone else okay?" Thex called into her commbadge as she worked the crowd, secure in her invulnerability, men swarming her trying to bring her down.

''The situation is not yet under control,'' came the calm reply of the deep voice of Sonak.

In contrast to the noisy, rib cracking, howling commotion around the Andorian, there was an eerie silence around the Vulcan as he displayed in full his mastery of Suus Mana, the martial art of telepathic combat from his homeworld. Devised many thousands of years ago in a time of utterly savage violence, it combined precise strikes with telepathic contact.

In those days, it was meant to destroy an opponent's central nervous system from without and within simultaneously. But in this day and age of logic driven, peaceful Vulcan, it was a most effective method of disabling even the strongest opponent with the merest touch. The moment the hands and feet of Sonak touched an opponent, that opponent fell noiselessly unconscious behind him as he already moved to a new one.

His anh woon also came into play, whipping at legs and arms to entangle them just long enough for his psionic touch to silence them. But now, some of the attackers became wary of his bewildering fighting prowess and opted to strike from a distance, using crossbows, spears and throwing blades he was hard pressed to dodge, unable to reach them.

“Ma’am, would we be offending tradition if Security-“ Paris began before she stepped over to intercept a trio of crossbow bolts with a glowing blue energy shield, interposing it between the deadly missiles and her Captain. The round Grecian-style shield was sufficient to stop the bolts, even as the bronze bracers she had worn beneath her dress uniform peeked out from under her sleeve. “Sorry. Would we be defiling tradition to use more than blades, Captain?”

There was a bit of a struggle going on inside of Enalia at the moment. She wanted to free her family of many traditions, yet she knew that there were some that just shouldn't be let go of just yet. After a careful moment of inner reflection, she had her answer, her voice rising so that at least the nearest of the Baronesses and her first officer could hear her clearly. "My mother has defiled these chambers and broken yet another of the laws allowing these heathens in here with firearms! Commander Paris, we stick to our honor as members of Starfleet! Melee weapons or unarmed only!"

"Aye ma'am, as you say," Paris acknowledged the Captain's order, then double tapping her comm badge to the Security channel, she issued her orders. "Security, hand to hand and melee weapons only- no firearms nor armor, shields up!"


Continued in Tribunal - Ballroom Blitz...

 

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