Fight Over Section 31-B Installation

Posted on Fri Jan 18th, 2019 @ 11:21pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant Samuel Clemens XV & Lieutenant Seregon French

Mission: Section 31-B
Location: USS Hera Bridge
Timeline: 2396 - After arriving at the Section 31-B Installation

The air on the bridge of the USS Hera was tense as the ship came out of warp in the middle of the asteroid and nebula field, already at red alert. It was obvious why this installation was here, in the middle of this system. There was no way from a mid to long range scan that anyone would have even suspected that a base was even here. Even with defense platforms and swirling debris, hardly anything registered on sensors at close range.

Mona spoke up from the helm. "Captain, entering the field now. Sensors are barely picking up the remains of about two dozen weapons platforms and I think a dozen more that are still active. Installation is on sensors now."

Enalia leaned forward on her command chair. "On screen. Lieutenant Sonak, please confirm those weapons platforms and signal the Thor to launch when ready. I want to know what happened here. Lieutenant French, ready on the weapons. We'll be finishing off the rest of the platforms."

"Acknowledged," the chief science officer replied, looking at his sensor readings a moment before replying. "Detecting five quantum torpedo autolaunchers, four phaser IV autoturrets and three tractor beam holders, all with short range scanners, EM-hardened target lock computer systems and camouflaging holoemitters. Power levels and active scanning signals confirm that they are active."

As Enalia called out the orders, the viewscreen was dominated by the image of a red and purple swirling mass of fog with rocks and debris in it. In the middle was an asteroid with an installation built into it. On one side was a hangar bay door that was blasted open and on several other sides were small domed city like structures.

"Weapons ready ma'am," said French, as she stood in front of tactical. Taking notes and getting ready to deploy security personnel throughout the ship. She tapped her communicator.

=A= "French to all Security personnel. Take your stations and suit up." Was all she said. And the security area of the ship lit up with activity. It took a minute to put on the armor so the away team detail were now getting dressed. There was no way of knowing what they would encounter, so prep for every possible scenario, was her orders.

The Vulcan at the main science station turned towards the command seat.

"Captain, I would offer a tactic to protect the Thor from those weapon systems. Deploy a full spread of torpedoes along this pattern of dispersal," he said, showing her and French twelve curving trajectories apparently aimed at nothing. "If we modify their signature to imitate that of a scoutship, their high power output should have the automated weapons react and fire on them, betraying their exact position for Lieutenant French to neutralize them with our own weaponry.It could also betray any other defense system we may not be aware of."

Sonak was a scientist. In any endeavor, there was always a margin of error, even with their advanced sensors. He was obviously trying to minimize as much as possible this margin.

"Between that and the access codes Dedjoy is going to try, I'd say we have more than a fair chance." Enalia grinned wider. "Make it so. Let's turn those platforms into debris."

Clemens looked up from his scanners. "Ah'm gonna recommend that we initiate random helm maneuvers b'tween each salvo, so all the torps comin' from th'same place doesn't paint us as th'soahce. Be a good idea t'jump on all three axes with e'vruh shot, if'n we can. Ah'll be tryin' t'look fer holes in their sensor cov'rage, based on th'firin' patterns.""

It really did make sense. They would be aimed at a fixed point in space, fooling the sensors of the outpost. Thereby divulging the positions of all the stations gun locations so she could take them out. French liked the Idea.

"Send me what you have and I'll do the rest." Replied French "It's a good plan for sure!"

"Sensors locked on the area to detect any new hazard," assured Sonak returning his eyes and fingers to his console."Sending data to tactical."

Once she received the data, French went to work plotting the courses of the twelve torpedos. She also initiated launch sequences for high yield phaser blasts to correspond with any guns that fired on those torpedoes.

"Ok, so what I've done is, taken the information given, and plotted those torpedoes. I've also locked the scanners on the station, so that when a gun is fired at the torpedos, its position is automatically logged and locked and ready to be fired upon with no lag time ma'am. All I need is your order to fire!" Said French.

"Fire away then," ordered Enalia.

"Aye aye Captain. Torpedoes away." Announced French

It did not take long before system that were assumed dead, jumped to life and pulse canons on the outpost began to fire. There were a few close near intercepts, but for the most part, all of the torpedoes were missed. But what they had not accounted for was the next response from the outposts canons. As luck would have it, had French merely programmed the torpedoes to fire and not programmed her phasers to fire at the station once they were away, the Hera would have had a very nasty surprise, because the canons on the station began to lock onto the source of the torpedos. And before they could fire, French's program took over and fired all phasers at the station.

The station shook and the weapons soon fell dead again. And with no one present to get them back on line, the outpost was now defenseless.

"Captain, thank goodness the weapons were programmed the way they were. Or we might have been too late to stop the canons from firing on us." Replied French

"Indeed..." Enalia checked the sensor readouts on the arm of her chair. With the interference from the soup in this system they were all but blind from anything outside the immediate area and she didn't like it. "Continue overwatch for the away mission."

"Bridge to Thor; you are cleared for launch. Safest route input into your navigation computer," Sonak announced over shipcom as ordered by the captain.

But no sooner had the words left her mouth than a trio of small pirate ships entered the system, intent on grabbing some loot. "And we have pirates. Looks like House Dranda. Lock phasers on their weapons and open fire. Watch for grapplers and boarding craft. Helm, evasive pattern omega three."

"Transponder reading confirming your assessment, Captain," the Vulcan at the science station reported.

As the mighty USS Hera once more sprang to life, the smaller pirate ships began firing on the intel ship with bold abandon with plasma beams.

As the pirate ships moved into position French had a flashback to an old under cover mission as a Pirate. It seemed like another life. She quickly tapped her comm badge. “ All security personnel prep for possible boarders. All deck and secure weapons array and engineering.” After which she targeted the weapons and bridge of the Pirate ship. “Phaser pattern Omega in effect. “ a she kept firing until she got the requested result.

“Captain we took minor damage. But the other two ship are taking flanking positions. “ yelled French.

Sonak turned again towards his commanding officer.

"Captain; I can program our transporter system with a link to our internal sensors. If any lifeform appears on board without a properly issued combadge, our transporter system will instantly kick in and immediately send them back the way they came."

"Cap'n, ah'm workin' on programmin' th'sensuhs t'catalogue evruh bit'uh'd'bris we've made durin' th'fight so far, t'give us a view of th'system that'll point out anythin' movin' unduh its own powuh out theah," the Slick Spectre reported, head down and hands flying. "This can't be all the scavengers out here."

Enalia grinned, knowing exactly what the Intel Chief meant. "There are probably more out there waiting to see how we handle these three. Let's show them we're more than the normal Federation starship. Full phaser alpha strike on both remaining ships when ready. Load quantum torpedoes but hold off on those for now."

Down in engineering Thex and her team were doing there best to keep the ship going as the pirates peppered the ship shields. Though the console in front of the andorian was keeping her mind fully occupied as her hands shot across the console. =^= Thex to the bridge one of the orion ships is trying to hack into our systems. Firewalls are holding, but i don't want them dropping something nasty on us." She said calmly keeping her eyes on the screen.

Enalia should have expected something like that. Hitting the comms, Enalia replied to Thex. "It's probably a modified HA7 virus. The Artans use one now and then as well. Keep an eye on non essential systems like lighting control or waste extraction and shut down all comm relays. We'll have to switch to comm badge standalone mode for now."

" Rodger, " replied Thex as she got to work. She had to keep these pirates out of their ship.

Sonak again faced the command chair.

"Captain; there is an antique but effective programming algorithm I know of that can send their own virus back into their own systems."

"Get it ready then," replied Enalia, not skipping a beat.

French heard the captain's orders and went to work. Full Alpha Strike protocol was input and the Phasers lit up on the tactical board. Once all the energy needed was allocated she got a green light. French input the positions of the two flanking ships and locked sensors on them, just as she loaded the Quantum Torpedoes.

"Captain, Alpha Strike awaiting your order. Torpedoes are loaded as well, in holding pattern, just a button push away! Standing ready!" She said and stood up straight and brought her hands together behind her back. She meant business.

"Both defensive programs ready for activation, Captain," also confirmed Sonak.

"Activate those programs and fire phasers!" called the Captain, watching as the orange beams lanced out. The two pirate ships were doing their best to double team the larger USS Hera, but they were in for a surprise.

As Thex kept her eyes on the ships an idea spread through her head. With a grin she tapped her combadge. =^= lieutenant Sonak can you switch off your transporter program for a second. I can send the orions virus back at them through there transporter and use it to hijack any implants they have on any captives and cargo on the ship." She said calmly still doing her job of keeping the shields up.

The answer came back just as quick.

"I can do better than that, Lieutenant Commander; I can hook up your program with my own rebounding firewall and piggyback it through the transporter defense program."

Four seconds later, she received a confirmation signal on her own console.

"All defense programs are active. Input when ready, Lieutenant Commander."

French activated the programs. "Aye, programs activate!" She replied

With the defense programs active as soon as the pirates tried their hacking tricks, they were in for a surprise. Not only were they being blasted with phasers, but their entire computer systems died at the same time. It was all they could do to warp out at a factor of 1.2, limping on manual.

Enalia leaned back in her chair as they did so. "And that's that..." Or at least it would have been if their next competitor hadn't warped in right at that moment - a pair of Breen Chel Grett warships which immediately opened fire with polaron weapons. "...or not. Reinforce shields. Full quantum spread. Fire all weapons. Evasive pattern Theta three. Target weapons and engines."

As Mona sent the Hera into a spiral trying to evade the incoming fire from the two Breen ships, they still closed fast, intent on catching the Nebula class cruiser.

"Shields holding at 88 percent Captain. Free fire on forward phaser rings is hammering on their shields... quantum torpedo away, driving them out of formation into our firing arcs... direct hits, shields at 23 and 40 percent on Breen warships," French reported from tactical, her fingers flying over the controls as inside she worried about Alex on the away mission. Commander Paris had it in for him, and never gave him a fair shake. She hoped nothing was going wrong on the mission, but the cold feeling in her gut told her Alex was in trouble.

"Intruder alert! Intruder..."

The intraship sensor warning died almost as soon as it started as the first boarding wave of Breen warriors materialized on several decks, including the bridge... and barely visible, they faded out again.

"Transporter reflection program successful," stated Sonak impassively. "Boarders have been repelled back to their ships... with the space pirates' virus I added to the procedure from our last encounter."

On the boarding Breen ship, some lights started to flicker and go out, indicating some system failures.

That was one essentially out of the fight at least, thought Enalia as she hoped no more surprises waited just out of sensor range for them. "Alright, let's focus on the other one."

"You got it Captain! I'm gonna blow this popsicle stand right now, watch my dust!" As she spoke, the tactical chief's fingers sent commands to the phaser crews, who brought the phasers around the ring together to form one large dense beam. Targeting the active vessel, she waited for it to bank into a turn, then in that elongated second of broadside expose, the phaser beam lanced out to spear through the Breen warship, causing cataclysmic plasma explosions to illuminate local space, a miniature sun briefly flaring in the darkness of space.

"You want I should blow away the crippled one too, Captain? French asked as she targeted the crippled Breen warship's bridge.

Before Enalia could respond, the ship had warped away. "Doesn't look like there's a need... What's the status of the Thor?"

The ensign at Operations replied back quickly. "Ma'am, they've just left the station. Reading... five lifesigns and a positronic signature."

Enalia's demeanor turned grim as the runabout returned to the USS Hera and the station lit up in a large ball of energy, the reactor having finally gone critical after so many years inactive. "Get them onboard and get us out of here. I want to leave this place as far behind us as possible."