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TRIBUNAL Part 7 - Charges of Tarrasque Abuse

Posted on Sun Jun 16th, 2019 @ 10:20pm by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Ensign Briaar Gavarus & Petty Officer 3rd Class V'Nus Wil'I'Ams & Jaeih Dox-t'Aan & Captain Enalia Telvan & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant Asa Dael & Lieutenant Samuel Clemens XV & Lieutenant JG Rena Pacci & Lieutenant JG Thav Th'ovohrot & Lieutenant JG Oribiar Th'thiasreq & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Ensign Fiona O'Dell & Petty Officer 2nd Class 'Big Ethel' Jablonski & Petty Officer 3rd Class S'Rina Wil'I'Ams & Ahreva Malana & Death & Az'Prel & Maica III 47 & Kodria Mizu & Hera & Baroness 2nd Class Schwein von Alcott & Baroness 3rd Class Sarika
Edited on on Sun Jun 16th, 2019 @ 11:16pm

Mission: Fractured Fairy Tales
Location: Engstrom Nebula
Timeline: 2396, Tribunal part 7
Tags: Tarrasque, HMS Manticore, boarding parties

There was a massive explosion in the space that the Hera had just been in as the nearest mines slammed into each other, pulled into the warp wake of the ship as, on the other side of the creature, the Hera reappeared less than a second later.

As the starship dropped out of warp, Dox put her into a hard turn that resembled something akin to a skidding stop that brought her nose back along the path they had just taken. The wake of their unstable warp field blew out around them, pushing the gasses of the nebula and the mines closest to their new position away from them in a wave.

On the screen, from nearly two hundred thousand kilometers away now, the creature seemd to be searching, confused, for its former target for an instant. But the Manticore was still in its sights.

Sonak turned towards the command chair.

''Captain; animals, even the fiercest predators, panic and flee when in pain. This creature is igniting plasma. If we were to fly by at emergency impulse and vent our own plasma in our wake close enough to it, just before it breathes again...''

The ship's engineer had been quiet but listening as she organized the ship's repair teams and kept everything running. An idea popped into her head as she looked at the results of the scans. "Captain if we charge the plasma to a certain temperature we may be able to fry parts of the creature's collar circuitry. Without control, it may back off."

''An even better application of my proposal,'' congratulated the Vulcan. ''Taking into account the natural resistance of this cosmozoic entity, it would require less energy than what would be needed to hurt it and achieve a similar goal; and without actually hurting it. Excellent reasoning, Lieutenant Commander.''

"Mister Sonak, please find me a weak link in that collar," Paris ordered as she let loose a pair of photon torpedoes and a planetary flare to get the behemoth's attention away from the more fragile Manticore. "Chief, get me that plasma ready to dump on the captain's orders. Miss Dox, you are on free flight for this, plan your own strafing run." Fingers flying across one of her tactical screens, Paris was working up how to tight beam focus as many of the phasers as she could bring to bear at once.

Which, given the forward-facing angle she needed, the Starfleet legacy officer transmitted to Dox at the helm to coordinate with her strafing run. That completed, the busy bombardier began plotting the same firing resolution for the Miranda class USS Manticore.

"Baroness, have you copied all of this, how are you faring?" In truth, Paris was overstepping her authority on the bridge, and she knew it. But she needed to keep the Hera in the fight, even as the captain struggled to control her rage at her own mother's perfidy, and just plain meanness throughout this literal trial which had now become quite literally a trial by fire.

Over the comms came the familiar voice of the augmented silver-haired pirate. "Ja, we copy." She paused, the concern for Enalia clearly evident in her voice before pressing forward. "Our systems are reduced to about thirty percent range so we will act as backup and support for whatever actions you take. Phasers, transporters, and tractors are locked to your sensors."

''Weak point located,'' announced the chief science officer after a moment. ''As logically expected, right where this restraint has been affixed on the entity's body. Transferring sensor lock to targeting scanners. Fire when ready.''

Taking the data from tactical and science, Dox swung the Hera around and made a run straight towards the massive creature while its attention was focused on the smaller Miranda-Class ship. "Internal inertial dampeners adjusting for attitude shift. Tactical, your target will be in optimal range in 9 seconds."

“Engineering, plasma dump on my mark please… mark!” Paris ordered

As the Romulan pilot called back, she pulled up on stick as the Hera all but ran up the Tarrasque's back at full impulse speed. At the last second, she tilted the starship its center axis and hit the starboard maneuvering thrusters at maximum which sent the ship rolling sideways in space in what almost resembled a somersault over the rear of the creature’s neck, lining up the full array of the forward weapons directly over their target.

All of the phasers on tracks around the ring of the hull of the starship came together to form one large beam, on both the dorsal and ventral hull. Thanks to the daredevil flying of Lieutenant Dox, both could be aligned for the shot, wherein Paris manually compensated to keep the phasers on target for the maneuver. As the twin phaser beams lanced out, they ignited the plasma trail, lighting up local space with coruscating fire that burned even in airless space. The creature roared, whether from pain or surprise it was unclear. But the Hera now most definitely had its attention, as it turned to regard the offending starship.

“Manticore, pull back, that’s an order!” Commander Paris barked, even as a sudden plume of plasma roared out toward the now much-closer Hera.

"Hnaev... Brace yourselves!" Dox muttered to herself in Rihan before shouting out a warning as she yanked hard to port while hitting the central starboard thrusters making the Hera essentially roll over on it's side in space, skirting just around the powerful plasma blast. The ship shuddered hard from the energy as it brushed the ships weakened shields.

Even with the internal inertial dampeners on full, the crew still lurched hard against the roll, but everyone stayed in their seats.

"Nice flying Lieutenant... shields at forty six... five... four... three, forty-three percent. That plasma chews right on through them. Mister Sonak, how's that collar looking? We gave her all she's got with the phasers to go with that plasma burn, any effect? Is it still operational?" Even as she spoke, Paris was launching torpedoes from the aft launchers in an explosive spray designed to disorient the beast, rocking him with near misses.

"Get me coordinates for the Bloody Rose, people. All, this is still a decoy action so she can choose her moment to strike, so stay alert-"

The sentence would remain unfinished as an earthquake struck the USS Hera, jolting everyone not seated to the nearest bulkhead. Those who were seated but not strapped in found themselves rolling across the deck. As the crew struggled to right themselves, the sounds of shrieking duranium were heard and felt across the Hera as another impact struck the mighty vessel.

In a red alert situation at the helm of the starship, Mnhei'sahe Dox was strapped in, because she was prepared for this contingency. Without waiting for an order, the focused pilot called up the tactical readout on the holographic heads up display built into the helm to see what was happening.

"INCOMING! she shouted from the helm as she saw tactical holograms of four boarding pods streaking at the Hera. "They're targeting the deck ten impulse engines, deck 17, the bridge, and... Imirrhlhhse!"

Cursing again in Rihan, Dox saw the final pod heading straight for the Hera's deflector dish. An impact there would cripple the ship, so that was her priority. With four incoming projectiles and an enormous plasma spewing creature still attacking, Dox had to act.

Pushing the starship's maneuvering thrusters to their limit, the hull of the ship strained, making a sickening twisting sound as she set the ship into a spin, like an antique record album on it's center point as she pulled down on the stick and flew dangerously close to the gaping maw of the Tarrasque.

With a loud wrenching sound, the port ventral thruster twisted out of it's housing on the exterior hull and deactivated as two of the four boarding pods slammed into the ship. The pod aimed for the bridge now hit the side of the Hera's Intel pod, exploding on impact as it hit broadside. The pod that had been aimed at the deflector dish hit the port nacelle strut, locking hard into a bulkhead with nowhere to empty it's boarding party.

The other two pods screamed past the ship as it turned out of range, one to crash against the neck of the Tarrasque, and the other to be caught by the forward tractor beam of the Manticore.

Ears ringing, Rita Paris blinked away a mental fog as her vision blurred, then slowly began to refocus. Grabbing at the nearest solid object, she hauled herself up to her knees at the science station, stubbornly struggling to pull herself to her feet. "What... what hit us? Mines? Personnel carriers?"

With a Vulcan's strength and a husband's care, Sonak used one hand to help Rita get back on her feet while answering.

''We were impacted by two boarding pods bearing each twenty-one heavily armed space pirates. Internal sensors are picking up one coming up from Deck 3 obviously intent on attacking the bridge; one having penetrated near main engineering. External sensors detect more pods incoming.''

Sonak's strength and sensor monitoring had allowed him to see it coming, and to stay in his seat when the ship was hit. He was thus quite ready to send directives to the computer.

''Computer; link all unbadged life signs on deck 3 and engineering to all transporter systems. Site to site transport to cargo bay 4 then implement level 10 forcefield around the area and flood the entire cargo bay with neurazine gas. Alert and allow security to pick up the boarders once unconscious.''

The computer chirruped, then responded.

=^= Unable to comply. Unbadged life signs are equipped with transporter lock scramblers. Transporting would exceed safety parameters =^=

Staggering back to her post, Paris shook her head to clear it, then oriented herself. It looked like she'd been the only one dumb enough to not be strapped in. Way to set an example, Commander Rita.

"I need to know the point of origin of these launches, Mister Sonak, if you please." Paris was coming around now, getting a grip and moving forward. "Security, stand by to repel boarders. Computer, seal all hatches to the Bridge..." it was then that Paris realized the Captain hadn't said a word for quite some time.

"Captain...?"

The Trill woman was silent, but far from still, however. That last jolt had nearly knocked her out of her seat and only the armrests and training had held her in place - even at times like this, she refused to use the restraints because she saw them as a sign of weakness. As for what she'd been up to, tapping on those armrest consoles, she'd been running a backtrace on those transmissions with Maru, and had come up with something. "I think I found where she was just transmitting from. Maru located a rogue planetoid about a megameter along heading one four nine mark seven four five where the transmission originated from. Almost directly above us."

''Calculation of pods trajectory confirms the location,'' the Vulcan science officer stated with a look at his readouts.

"If my mother is holding true to her idiom, her boarding teams are using the cheapest of transporter inhibitors. If our security can tag them, we can transport them."

The news didn't faze the Vulcan at all.

''Logical precaution for a people traditionally favoring boarding action. Captain, we could deactivate gravity plates at a specific approach point once they reach it. Boarding assault, especially when short of the objective, relies on speed of movement first and foremost. They will not have activated their magnetic boots if they wear any. By the time they recover and activate them, an ambushing security team could have completed the tagging.''

"As for the Bloody Rose, if she's using her old Klingon cloak in this soup, it should be a simple matter of using doppler shift on the nebulous gasses. Mister Sonak, does that check out?"

''Affirmative; sensors detect a ship-sized object of the correct mass fifty-three million kilometers moving at full impulse, bearing 53 mark 15 and moving to 270 mark 30; a flanking maneuver, Captain. Sending signal to tactical sensors for lock on.''

On the bridge of the starship Hera, the first officer poked at a blurry tab onscreen. Transmitting the telemetry of the target and the order to use the doppler shift for location purposes, she had given every advantage she could Summoning the best voice of command she could muster, she transmitted to the R&D department on Deck 3 the command phrase preset to launch the counterstrike she'd prepared.

"Operation: Thunderchicken is a go!"

Almost immediately, a commtext ran across Commander Paris' local screen:

LCDRCLEMENS: As previously discussed, the Special Surprise Gifts are awaiting intruders in all corridors. They are coded to be friendly to all pre-authorized crew and guests, and a big mess of trouble for anyone else. It's Duck Season.

Enalia grinned that lopsided grin of hers proud of remembering a few tricks she'd learned. She also seemed more calm and in control - no longer the pissed off mess she was mere moments before. "Commander Paris, please continue to provide C&C as you see fit. I apologize for becoming emotionally compromised during the heat of battle."

"Just glad to have you back, Cap'n," Paris replied as she settled back into her station. "I'm reading the intruders are engaging with Engineering and Security crews on Deck 24, and they are bottlenecked on Deck 2. Mister Sonak, please cut the gravity on Deck Two. Petty Officers Wil'I'Ams, I am activating the turbolift. Any that are obliging, give me a firing line with transporters tags and let them come. And I know you prefer to work the old-fashioned way, but armor up so we can feed you telemetry- that's an order."

As the two Klingon Security officers rolled their eyes, they nevertheless complied. With a clanging of their bronzed bracelets together, both were clad in the EVA armor that was standard issue for all Hera extravehicular engagements, although now they were equipped with the large TR-116C rifles. As the telemetry came streaming in to them, they could now see and pre-target the pirates who were managing to crowd into the zero-G turbolift whose doors were awaiting them invitingly.

As the turbolift bearing 8 pirates moved from Deck 2 to Deck 1, gravity kicked back in, driving them all to the deck in a heap. Which, as the turbolift doors opened on the bridge, made them easy targets for the transporter-tagging Security officers. A few random disruptor blasts squeezed off, demolishing an Engineering station and scoring a hole in the back of the Captain's chair, but while one ricocheted off the overhead to crack the main viewer, their assault was ineffectual. As the lift cleared of invaders in a shimmer of transporter lights, Paris gave the order.

"Proceed to Deck 2 and finish off the rest, then report back," the chief of Security ordered the efficient defenders, who both marched into the turbolift, their sensors already targeting the freefall invaders below as their boots magnetized to the deck.

With grim resolve, Captain Telvan nodded. "Now... Let's finish this. My mother has a nice cozy brig cell waiting for her."

"Baroness, I am coordinating telemetry now. Miss Dox, please give me a firing resolution," Paris ordered as her fingers flew across her console. As her vision was not fully cleared and she was still a bit muddle-headed, she couldn't afford weakness right now. The ship was in danger and lives were at stake. "I want that beast off our backs before we engage in starship combat. Transmit a flight path and firing trajectory to the Manticore, and we're going to pour all our phaser power into that weak point on the collar!"

From the helm, Dox nodded and replied calmly, "Aye, Commander." As she spoke, she called up her tactical heads up display all the while continuing to dodge the lunges of the attacking creature. With one hand, she began manually tracing a finger over the holographic display, muttering math to herself in Rihan under her breath.

A very few short seconds later, the focused pilot punched in a flight plan and sent it to the Commander's tactical station and Baroness Schwein on the Manticore. "Commander, course and targeting run entered and forwarded to the Manticore. Ready to engage on order..."

The Manticore was ready and waiting, having not been considered a threat in the battle and mostly unscathed so far. The torpedo launchers weren't loaded with photons, but with EMP missiles and the phasers were primed and ready, the prior stray boarding pods having been dealt with already. Schwein's voice came over the comms just for a moment. "Manticore is ready for the attack run. We have a wunderbar present that should help."

-=Main Engineering=-

Thex had heard the warning and activated the security measures around engineering. By the slight thump, she could hear the Houdinis had begun to go off, sending the pirates into all sort of chaos. One invader, after being blinded by one, suddenly found himself glued to one of the other pirates as a pair of them went off, but the team pressed on.

The doors to engineering had been sealed but one of the attackers a big gorn with more cybernetics than flesh began prizing the doors apart.

Thex let out a sigh as she pulled on the bracelets. One more power pack before she'd have to ditch this for a while.

"Protect." She yelled as the doors sprang open. The gorn had a look of glee on his face before the armored andorian slammed into him going at the speed of a train. The corridor outside buckled as the lizard slammed into it. The pirate attack team had barely any time to react before the andorian was on punching and kicking her way through them.

-=Bridge=-

The Captain nodded and gave the order. "Fire at will. Take out that collar, and let's see if this Kaiju is a bit friendlier without it causing it constant agony."

With the order given from the Captain, Lieutenant Dox pressed forward on the manual throttle of the Hera, maneuvering the mighty starship in a counterclockwise arc around the neck of the colossal Tarrasque. Meanwhile, the flight instructions transmitted to the Manticore had the smaller but more maneuverable Miranda class vessel taking a clockwise path as the two ships corkscrewed up the outer edge of the creature up to its neck where the collar was located.

Flight paths were one thing, but with a moving target, both ships had to make adjustments on the fly to avoid its flailing limbs and flaming breath before converging over the rear of its massive head revealing their mutual target: the locking mechanism that kept the pain-inducing collar in place and activated. As they twisted in space, Dox called back from the helm to Commander Paris' tactical station. "Targeting Apex in 3 seconds, on my mark... annnnd..."

Crisscrossing positions, both ships were in place at the same moment to deliver a blow to the collar at the same instant. As they reached their respective apexes, Dox shouted back, "MARK!"

With the weapons system of the Manticore slaved the those of the Nebula class USS Hera, both vessels poured concentrated phaser power into the weak point identified by the chief science officer. While the two thick beams of the Hera lanced out to produce pressure on the enormous collar that must have cost a queen's ransom to craft. Then the Manticore pulsed her phasers, into the same targeted location, but rattling the already under-pressure materials to vibrate them beyond their stress tolerances.

The pain increased, and the beast flailed, causing both ships to pull back. Yet they did not change attitude nor alignment, phasers still firing until with an explosion, the perversion of science that had chained a great beast was broken. Grappling with it, the Tarrasque blasted the links in it's hands, as apparently the legendary life form was immune to it's own plasma. What survived that onslaught was caught in a chain reaction which caused link after link to burn, plasma greedily consuming all it touched.

"Couldn't do THAT in a Constitution class!" Rita Paris beamed a smile, seeing the creature cheerfully rending the remains of the Agony Collar, even as out of the nebula, more boarding pods raced their way. "Here we go again..."

''Creature's control unit has been rendered inoperative,'' confirmed Sonak from his scans. ''It is now free to act on it's own volition. Tractor beam output now connected to deflector field. This will repel from the entire vicinity of the ship any object up to the mass of a shuttlecraft.''

"Outstanding Mister Sonak, thank you. Now, what do you say let's wrap this up," Paris expressed as she turned her attention to the matter at hand- dealing with the Bloody Rose.

"Where's that bloody pirate..."

To be continued in 'On The Launchpad'

 

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