Invitation To The Opera

Posted on Wed Feb 13th, 2019 @ 1:31pm by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Captain Enalia Telvan & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie

Mission: Dance of the Valkyries
Location: USS Hera, Deck 1, the Bridge
Timeline: 2396

The planet Bismoll and the planet Korrugar had been at war for a very, very long time. However, recently Korrugar had been persuaded to join the United Federation of Planets, on the provision that it make peace with Bismoll. Which was also considering joining the Federation.

Thus diplomatic attaches had been sent and delivered, and even now they were working to move past petty arguments and old grudges and bad blood that was centuries old between the two planets. nOne leader was vainglorious, narcissistic and took everything personally. The other had risen to popularity as a cult of personality and installed himself as a dictator whose iron grip on his world was maintained only by demonizing their enemies, with whom they were now in peace talks to attempt to end the generational feud between the planets and come to a mutually beneficial peaceful accord.

It was not going very well, to the surprise of no one.

The starship USS Hera had been called to be put into play as an equalizer, to be on standby in case one or the other planets, both of whom had a history of hurling deadly payloads at one another’s planets, decided to get trigger-happy. Starfleet Command wanted to insure that there was a monitor nearby to shut down potential hostilities before they escalated back to full-scale planetary war, thus the Here was now parked equidistant between the two planets in the Kargg system… waiting.

Of course, seeing as how the negotiations were proceeding apace and no violence had broken out, that meant the Hera and her crew were idle as Ops kept an eye on the sensors, insuring no one was trying to launch interplanetary missiles at one another. Idle was not a natural state for the crew of the Hera, nor the mighty starship herself. Which was why when the coded emergency message came in over subspace frequencies, it was a welcome respite.

"Oh thank goodness... Something to break the tension..." Enalia muttered as she waited for Operations to hash out the message.

The Ensign at Ops didn't take long, thankfully. "Message is from the USS Photon. It has Commodore Meowlith's signature. I've got it decrypted now, putting it onscreen."

Turning back to the viewscreen, the starfield was replaced with an odd-looking bridge with Farenia in the central chair, red alert klaxons blaring. "USS Photon to USS Hera. ..... Odin and Valkyries are attacking Starbase 336 for reasons unknown. ..... Suspected illegal research between Tal Shiar and Starfleet Intel. ..... Can't hold him off for long. ..... Hurry Enalia, you're our only hope... ..... Talk to him... ....."

Her duty as a Starfleet officer was clear in this case. Distress calls were priority one. "Helm, set a course for Starbase 336, maximum warp and engage immediately. Engineering, I want every last iota of speed out of the engines you can muster. Commander Paris, please inform the Diplomatic envoys that we are responding to a classified distress call and will return as soon as we are able. We recommend they suspend talks if they have to. As for weapons loadout... Ready the quantum torpedoes. I have a feeling we'll need them."

At the helm, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox was already in action, bringing the mighty Starship to bearings. "Aye, Captain."

As Paris busied herself composing a diplomatic message to the diplomatic envoys who were relying on the Hera’s presence as a deterrent, she sent the order to the weapons bays to begin torpedo loadout for her strategies. She’d been drilling her fire control technicians down there on speed loading of torpedoes, so hopefully, this would bear fruit in the upcoming conflict.

“Diplomatic envoy has been made aware of the situation, Captain. Time to arrival at coordinates is 42 minutes at warp 9.5, since we’re in the neighborhood,” Paris reported, as she could plot a course as well, even with modern technology and run speed/time calculations.

As Paris spoke, Dox replied as she slammed the ship's engines to Warp. "Maximum Warp engaged, Captain."

Thex was already down in engineering bring all systems online and authorizing the anti-Amazon weapons they made to be distributed amongst the crew. Hopefully, they'd work against the Valkyries as well. "All systems go down here captain, let's hope we don't need them." The Andorian said into her coms channel.

"Let's hope not but it's best to be prepared." Eyeing her own readouts, Enalia saw the ship's speed quickly ramp up and stabilize at warp 9.6, the normal maximum warp of the USS Hera. "Commander Thex... You said in an emergency we could get up to around 9.975 or a bit higher, right? For like twelve hours before the injectors melted? How fast could you push her for ten minutes?"

"I could push her to warp 9.995, but the injectors will be at risk from exploding if they don't melt from the heat," the Andorian said, already running the calculations she needed to run to do this. " Hold together girl." She said quietly to her ship.

"Then give me what you can, and get us there as fast as possible," Enalia replied. "Lieutenant Dox, at your discretion with Commander Thex's lead, if you will. The longer we're at warp, the more chance the battle is already lost."

"Aye, Captain. Ready on your word, Commander Thex." Dox replied quickly, her hands ready on helm control.

From the science station, Sonak then turned to face his commanding officer.

''Captain; there might be a way to maintain the injectors at a sufficiently controlled temperature to avoid them being irreparably damaged. If we replicate and inject liquid helium directly on them, we would drop their temperature to near absolute zero; one to one point five Kelvin to be more precise. By injecting in more replicated liquid helium as fast as the injectors' heat evaporates it, we will keep the system cooled down... at least long enough to reach our destination.''

"That could work captain. I'll have to keep an eye on the pressure because it could cause them to rupture, but I think it will work." Called the Andorian from down in engineering.

"Make it so, then," confirmed the spotted captain.

“Go to yellow alert until we arrive, Captain?” Paris asked even as she scrambled the security teams to get themselves armed and armored for potential boarding party action, even as she delineated a crew of officers to round out a landing party she suspected might be necessary. She tripled the security on the bridge and main engineering because if the Asgardians could bypass their shields with some magical hoodoo, she wasn’t about to leave the Hera unprepared. “Or should we jump straight to red alert?”

Enalia didn't need to think it over. "Go to red alert and activate all internal tactical systems. Start assembling an away team just in case. Ah... And you might want to include Schwein. She's likely the only one that can match an Asgardian in hand to hand without armor."

''Activating anti-boarding protocol on our transporter system linked to our internal sensors should work as well as it did when we faced the space pirates,'' Sonak suggested. ''We could also in a similar programming use internal forcefields to contain enemies and direct them to choke points chosen by Security, in case beaming them back out would not suffice. I can program our sensors to help implement this procedure as well.''

“Make it happen, Mister Sonak,” Paris called as she moved to the tactical station. “As soon as we drop out of warp I’ll need tactical scans as soon as you can feed the telemetry. Security is ready to receive intruders at Holding Cell 16, the communal holding cell with the highest structural reinforcement and shielding. Instruct the transporters to beam organics only to disarm the prisoners as we beam them. Here's hoping no one has fillings...”

''Acknowledged,'' replied the Vulcan. ''Since we are entering a potential battlezone, I can dedicate lateral sensors to supplement tactical ones; and I will program transporters to selective beaming of identified weapons, weapon energy sources an harmful substances so that any safe orthesis or prostesis will be left out.''

It was obvious that he was just as unaware of his wife's humor as to his own involuntary one.

“Baroness von Alcott,'' continued Rita, '' I need you armed and armored for war in Transporter Room 2, on the double,” Paris ordered as she tabbed the comm, then switched channels. “Chief Riley, I need four of our best hand to hand personnel armed and armored in Transporter Room 2 in five minutes, outfitted with the full TR-119C2 loadouts for god level crowd control and have them bring a spare for the Baroness. Phasers are warmed up and reporting ready to fire, torpedoes loaded and standing by, Captain.” It had been a little while since she’d served in this role, but it all came back to Rita Paris quickly. The universe could be very different and the technology far more advanced, but some elements of starship combat never changed.

“I’m reading ETA to Starbase 336 is 7.2 minutes- Miss Dox, can you confirm?” Paris called from tactical where she was running a countdown timer.

"Confirmed. And warp holding at 9.995." Dox replied.

Down in engineering, Thex was moving as fast as she could as she tried to keep the warp engine from doing some serious damage to itself. Multiple warning lights and sounds bleeped on the computer screen as her fingers flew across them, trying to keep the pressure down and the injectors cool.

"Come on, hold together..." the Andorian engineer muttered as the timer counted down slowly, going from seven to five and then to two minutes. They were going to make it. She hoped.

The tension built as everyone found their places and readied for a battle they could only hope to win and the countdown to arrival made its way to zero. The Baroness von Alcott herself had signaled the team's readiness in transporter room 2, her gold and blue armor having not been used in several years, but having all the battle markings one would expect. And a cape with just as many burn marks.

That's when the USS Hera popped out of warp just at the edge of the battle. Immediately in front of the behemoth vessel was the burnt out husk of a 24th-century refit Constitution class drifting in their path. Sensors showed that of the more than dozen defenders, only five were left even functional. The Commodore's Walker class cruiser, a refit T'varo light warbird, a Mogai heavy warbird, and two refit Miranda class light cruisers. Odin and his Valkyries had sliced through a D'deridex and an Excelsior-class seemingly like they were paper.

Immediately, Dox shifted the controls to manual controls and put the Hera into a tight roll to cut between the pieces of the destroyed vessel. The shields flared as debris bounced off the leading edges.

"Incoming hail from the Commodore," came the call from the Ensign at Ops.

"Onscreen," replied Enalia, having an idea of what she was about to say.

The viewscreen was replaced with a broken up image of an almost decimated Walker class bridge, with Meowlith at the helm this time. "Welcome to the party. Any later and we might not have been here. Odin still isn't talking, but he's definitely pissed about something. Do you mind holding him off long enough for us to regroup and collect our wounded? There's only like... What? Fifty of them left? You've got that no problem, right?"

"Sure, we're on it. What's the worst that could happen? Hera out." Enalia stood and with confidence she barely felt, threw one arm out dramatically. "You heard the woman. Let's give them time to regroup. Position us between them and the Odin Force and give them something to think about! Target engines and weapons and fire at will!"

"Aye, Captain." Dox put the Hera into the Starship equivalency of a side drift as she slid the massive Nebula Class vessel between the attackers and the Commodore's damaged ship. Tilted upwards to present the dorsal side of the ship left the Hera open to fire but provided the maximum surface area to protect the Commodore.

It also put the weapons of the Hera's pod to bear for maximum efficiency.

Tapping at the controls, Paris hijacked the comms, channeling a subspace distortion through the deflector that would cavitate the hulls of ships in the area, as well as bones, if they could survive in space. As a very specific percussion pattern began, a smile spread across the face of the first officer. Lining up target acquisitions, a wall of photon torpedo explosions heralded the Hera's arrival as the local system reverberated with the beginning of Queen's 'We Will Rock You'.

Thoom thoom clap!
Thoom thoom clap!

At the helm, the half-Romulan pilot with an ear for Earth music smiled slightly.

"Time to show the old gods how we used to do it back where I come from," Paris snarked as the photon torpedoes exploded in sequence before them, blinding and driving back those in their path, which bought time for the phasers to build up. Using the sensor telemetry Paris began acquiring and firing at the relatively tiny chariots, causing hits but not disabling with singular shots.

"Wonderful, they're durable too. Captain, I believe we've got their attention but we can't sit here guarding the Commodore or they'll sink us for sure... and here they come," Paris reported as one hand flew across the tactical panel, which she had open on three screens, and the other maintained a death grip on the panel.

At the helm, Dox's hands hovered at the ready as well for the next order as the chariots got closer.

The spotted captain kept an eye on her chair console as the defending ships pulled back and the Asgardian ships moved in, weapons beating against the shields of the larger ship. "Okay, our forces are clear enough. Let's show Odin he chose the wrong mortals to pick a fight with! Maneuvers and weapons at discretion! Mister Sonak, please tell me there's something about those ships we can exploit or a weakness we can take advantage of."

Hearing this, Sonak addressed the command dais.

''There is a saying among practitioners of the martial arts; when you can't see, you can't fight. I would suggest to target their sensor array with phasers at their widest dispersal pattern and recalibrate some photon torpedoes to diffuse their impact as much as possible and as close as possible to the targets. The sudden intense flood of photons, antimatter radiation, and electromagnetic pulse should incapacitate their targeting, navigational and lateral sensors.''

As Sonak spoke, Dox was already in action. In a blur of motion, she leaned into the manual controls and the Hera roared back to life, rapidly launching away from its protective posture to an offensive one as she brought the nose up towards the attackers. In spite of the size of the massive ship, she saw an opening to corkscrew the Hera on end and thread the gap between the incoming attack ships and accelerated. "Commander. You're about to have targets on the dorsal and ventral sides of the ship."

“Shields holding at eighty seven percent,” Paris reported as her fingers danced across the control panel, following the sage advice of her studious chief science officer. Modern warfare tactics had evolved, but there were old Starfleet tricks she was employing, that likely hadn’t been used in a hundred years. Thus she suspected the Asgaardians would be unprepared for the onslaught. Photon torpedo spreads were away once more, and once the phasers had blinded, she began targeting the deflectors of the small chariot vessels. In hindsight she gave the USS Photon a healthy shove with the tractor beam to nudge the wounded vessel out of the hazard zone while the Hera drew fire.

“Captain, I’m reading well over a hundred hostiles in the area, most around type 11 shuttlecraft size. Might be time to open a channel now that we’re already engaged and see if we can at least find out what this is all about?” The starship was rocked by a combination of broadside impacts, overloading the inertial dampeners, and shoving everyone to port, though Paris remained steady at her station.

Holding tight to the helm, Dox righted herself in her seat and adjusted the Hera's attitude to bring the edge of the saucer in line with the attacking ships to reduce the surface area to be targeted on the massive Starship. All the while, Sonak studied intently the sensors readouts, compiling data to find the pattern of attack of the enemy while studying the surrounding area for any stellar object or phenomenon that could help resolve the conflict in their favor, including mapping out the debris field and motion of celestial objects and ships. His sharp mind was working almost as fast as the computer in a parallel analysis of the ongoing battle in search of various solutions and permutations of possible outcome of predictable actions; so that unprecedented or unpredictable ones would stand out instantly.

"Working on it!" Enalia was fast typing in the comm codes to call Odin on her chair console as they were exchanging fire. On the third try, it went through and a popup in front of the holographic viewscreen of a man in gold armor with one eye covered, and an epic beard appeared. "Odin! It's good to see you again, All Father, though I wish it were under better circumstances." Enalia paused as another volley of fire rocked the vessel. "Is there any way I can convince you to tell us what troubles you enough to attack allies like this?"

“The Allfather hath business within yon hall of perfidy, wherein I do suspect deeds most foul being committed!” Stomping the large golden spear he carried on the deck beneath him, the bridge crew felt as well as heard it. Apparently Rita Paris was not the only one employing psychological warfare today. “Yea, though the patience of the liege of Asgaard be great, it hath been taxed mightily by the vexing bureaucracy of thy Federation. When mine ravens can gain no report, and mine one good eye cannot peer into the darkness enshrouding this pit of vipers, truly it is clear to me that base duplicity and miscreance be afoot. I weary of the evasions and half-truths offered, as there is no honesty in base deception. Thus the Allfather hath declared the truth shall be cleaved from falsehood, and what cannot be learned through peaceful means, Odin shall know the truth of it e'en if he must take it by force!”

Yeah, that was definitely Odin, alright... Enalia wanted to sigh and hang her head in frustration, but instead she stood and braced herself against yet another onslaught of weapons fire and addressed the Allfather. "I too grow weary of duplicitous talk. My Commodore no doubt came here to investigate the same claims you are angered over so. You know me. You know my honor. I fight here now only to defend those that can no longer fight and those that are not warriors. I entreat upon you to lay aside your weapons for a time so we may discuss this further and together see if we may peer into the darkness that enshrouds this station."

“Thy word is thy bond Enalia, daughter of Artan, bearer of Telvan. Know I that these mortals be not warriors,” Odin admitted. “Yet the Allfather shall not be swayed from his course. Mine Valkyrykor shall continue to hammer these defenses til the walls about this secret which thy Federation strives to hide from the All-Seeing Eye of Odin shall shatter as a robin’s egg, laying bare the worm-rotted core of the foul secret they seek to hide. Thus shall it be so!”

Even as the autarch of Asgaard pontificated, the mere mortals of the USS Hera were still working hard. The charging time was not much more than the warming time of phasers in her, day, and it practically doubled the phaser output. Ringing the emitters in pairs now, shots were firing nearly as fast as the telemetry was coming in from the sensors, as Rita Paris defined her targeting locations on the small and agile chariot ships and employed the computer to do the actual targeting, with her responsible for triggering the weapons fire. A plasma burst exploded off their starboard bow, shaking the mighty starship as one of the Romulan cruisers committed a near miss on their unlikely ally.

Dropping a photon torpedo in their wake to scramble the trigger-happy Romulan’s sensors, while decimating a trio of chariot vessels that were in pursuit. At the rate they were going, they could win this engagement if they could hold out.

“Mister Sonak, I need a deflector pulse to the shields, 42 percent and dropping,” Paris called as the Hera stabilized enough for the captain’s reply.

''Acknowledged; reconfiguring main deflector dish output to shield grid... now.''

There was a brief surge of power from the navigational board, barely as lon as the blink of an eye. Then the tactical station registered the same power surge.

''Forty-seven percent deflector output to shields added; shields now holding at eighty-nine percent; estimated duration, five point three minutes.'' then confirmed Sonak.

"Captain, this is Commander Pierce of Starbase 336," came another voice on a different channel, an excited and hurried tone in the man's voice. "This operation must be defended at all costs, so quit trying to reason with a madman and blow him to smithereens! the future of the federation depend upon it!"

The Vulcan then turned from his station to face the center chair.

''Captain; I have mapped the debris field and the enemy ships trajectories. With our full tractor beam array, we should be able to direct them as projectiles against the same number of targets. It will not penetrate fully operational starship shields, but it will significantly damage smaller crafts.''

Enalia reclaimed her seat and crossed her legs as if she had all the time in the world. "Well then... Odin, Allfather... By your beard, it is my duty to protect the citizenry of the Federation, be they noble or bootlickings. Let us meet in battle. I only pray that victory carries us both through the day."

Cutting off the comms before anyone could pontificate further, Enalia grinned let a hint of a chuckle out. "Okay everyone! Let's try all those tricks! Sonak, that's a go on the tractors. Dox, keep up the fancy flying. Paris, we have a couple tricobalt torpedoes, right? I want one detonated right in the middle of them, maximum yield. It should blind every sensor within ten thousand kilometers... Except some of ours and that eye of Odin's. Let's see if we can make this a much more even fight for a couple minutes."

Maneuvering the massive ship in between the spray of debris and the significantly smaller attack crafts was no easy task, but Dox deftly weaved the Hera in and out like a ship half it's size.

“Mister Sonak, I have transferred tractor beam control to your station,” Paris called out, knowing when to delegate. “Miss Dox, you have telemetry to coordinate with those debris efforts. Doctor Dael, this is Commander Paris- please suit up for EVA action and report to transporter room 2. Tricobalt torpedo loaded and 3… 2…1… away!” Another forward impact rocked the Hera as the torpedo raced from the starship, finding its mark and exploding in a white-hot ball of fury, blinding sensors, scrambling systems and pulverizing a dozen of the small chariot fighter vessels.

"We've got company incoming ma'am, warp signature detected, unknown starship entering the battle," Paris reported. "Miss Dox, if we're to use that debris we could do with putting some fighters in our wake. Strengthening aft shields- make us a tempting target, Lieutenant."

"Aye, Commander." Dox replied with the usual flat, eerily calm tone she maintained in the heat of the moment. Aligning the Hera with the flight path telemetry provided by Sonak, Dox pulled back off of the manual throttle to slow the Hera's path to lead the ships in closer as instructed.

While Paris spoke, the chief science officer's fingers tapped his console like a concert pianist. On the main screen, an array of blue beams swept across the debris field and pushed them outward like a meteor swarm, hitting almost every small ship converging on them just as they renewed their attack sweeps. Adding their damaged hulls to the mix, Sonak reversed polarity and now dragged them together and behind the Hera while their engines and defenses were still offline.

''I believe in ancient times they called this a buckler,'' the Vulcan offered matter-of-factly; ''a handheld shield. 'I can keep this blocking mass between us and the intruder for the next fifty-three point forty-seven seconds before having to release it all in our wake. Our emitters will burn out beyond that point."

"That's a lot of debris. If we whip launch that at a larger target, it may not penetrate their shields, but it might give us a window to exploit." Dox added from the helm.

"Both plans. Dox, we've got a wrecking ball behind us- swing that thing around and see what havoc we can wreak. I'll pick them off as they're avoiding it and when we're going to lose control have us in position to whip it into one of that cruiser. Let's poke Odin in his good eye," Paris called from the tactical console where her crews were loading torpedoes with remarkable efficiency and the targeting computer did the hard match. While it was serious business, she had to admit she was having a ball.

"Aye." Dox replied as she aimed the bow of the Hera toward the Sliepnir Class Cruiser and put the ship into the maximum speed with which she could still maintain the tractor lock.

"Mister Sonak, if you could guide our errant buckler into the engines... whatever is generating propulsion in there. Let's not do more damage than necessary." the buxom bombardier continued firing both phasers and torpedoes as she spoke, not looking up but multitasking with remarkable compartmentalization, learned from her association with said master of logic manning the science station.

The Vulcan almost frowned.

''Commander, one of the first laws of physics is that, to any action, there is a counter action of equal force and opposite direction. Moving this much mass around in the manner you suggest will jeopardize our own maneuverability... unless we coordinate this very, very precisely. This can only be done if navigation and tractor beam vectors ae done by the same person. The tractoring is basic, but the piloting is beyond my current capabilities. I recommend giving full control to Lieutenant Dox. I can then use the targeting scanners to feed her the necessary data directly to her nav computer.''

As Sonak did his work, Dox pulled the Hera's nose down then back up again as close to the main cruiser as possible, sending her flight data to his station to coordinate their efforts. At the mighty ship began it's rapid loop it trailed a massive field of debris in it's wake, Dox called back. "Wrecking ball is primed and ready to release on your mark."

Sonak made a few adjustments with the scanners, input the projected data to be sent to Dox, station and raised a finger.

''Continue firing; Veer off 210 mark 45 on my mark... Mark!''

Under the skillful efforts of the Half Romulan pilot, the Nebula class starship suddenly turned and elevated it's nose. Behind it, the blueish beams shut down, letting the entire mass of debris continue on it's altered trajectory to graze the aft section of the enemy cruiser. The size of a small asteroid and composed of innumerable particles of every size and shape imaginable, it peppered the shields of the vessel until it was overwhelmed with the added phaser fire of the Hera. Many good-sized chunks of metal ripped into it's hull plating. The engines of the ship were shredded like that of a falling ship into an atmospheric bad reentry, then sputtered and went dark.

"Well done, people!" Paris exclaimed. "Well, that should change the odds a bit... they're turning main cannon batteries toward us, get us elsewhere please, Miss Dox." Fingers still in motion, alternately cooling phasers and firing, the tempestuous tactician slid her finger across the display once more, shifting the viewing plane of the battle onscreen. Suddenly the entire screen's display leapt up before her in fully three-dimensional holographics, which enabled her to take in the battle from a comprehensive perspective and rendered it fully interactive.

A full five seconds of the battle was wasted with Paris taking in the sight, seeing all of the data available and grasping only just a few of the applications available to her.

While Rita was taking in the holographic displays, Dox was executing her orders, banking the ship away from the Odin's Breath at breakneck speed.

"The future is amazing," she whispered to herself, where only sensitive ears could hear, the lights of the battle dancing in miniature before her eyes. One finger targeted a small chariot fighter, while the other touched the secondary screed below, sliding it upward as well. Another holographic display appeared beside the first, with fire control at her fingertips.

"Magnificent. Let's see now..." with targeting set on one fighter craft, Paris fired two batteries at it in succession, and it registered as powerless. Reaching up, she targeted another, then seeing the projected flight plan would bring it into formation with four other chariot fighters to form a wing, she targeted it with a photon torpedo, and launched it. In all, for a good minute of the battle, immediately following the crippling of the Odin's Breath, the USS Hera was mobile, but not firing with much force nor effect. But that changed soon afterward, as she suddenly was everywhere with phasers and torpedoes unloading from her with devastating effect. But not without a cost.

"Shields are at 22..." Another impact rocked the Hera from astern as Rita Paris dropped a proximity mine in their wake to ruin someone's day. "18 percent. Warming up the hull plating, orders, Captain?"

"I think it's time we pulled back and regrouped with the others." Enalia was glad they had disabled about half of the attacking ships and seemingly Odin's ship as well, but there was another larger cruiser inbound that also registered as Aesiir. "Bring us about, covering fire from the aft..."

That's all she got out before the heavens cracked open and all hells broke loose. That cruiser popped out of warp and what looked like Freyja in an old chariot being pulled by house cats appeared in the sky right before a brilliant lance of light shot out from there, raked across the USS Hera, clean through one of the remaining Miranda class ships, and stabbed deep into Starbase 336.

Sparks rained down across the suddenly darker bridge as both the shields and armor instantly failed and the power systems were overloaded across several decks, causing blackouts across half the saucer. The Ensign at Operations was frantically trying to manage damage control teams and report at the same time. "Captain, we have hull breaches on decks six, seven, and eight! Emergency bulkheads and force fields... Now online! Port impulse engine at fifty percent! Incoming transport signals detected!"

At helm, Dox began frantically running a full systems check before calling back. "Helm controls unresponsive, Captain." As the part-Romulan pilot was speaking, she quickly scooched back and slapped open the maintenance panel to begin examining the systems to try and diagnose the problem for herself physically.

As soon as they finished their reports, the golden shimmer of Aesir transporters shimmered for a moment before they were overridden with the silver Starfleet ones, right there on the bridge. When they were finished, several sets of arms and armor clattered to the deck.

"Looks like we should expect company," Paris muttered as she co-opted shipboard comms. "Security teams, high alert! All hands, prepare to repel boarders!" All across the Hera, already on red alert and reported to battle stations, the crew of the Hera reached for phasers. Armed and armored security teams guarded critical access points, while teams stood by in the armory as well as both on the pad and standing by in Transporter Room 4, ready to be deployed in rapid response.

"Five phaser banks still operational and we have one aft torpedo tube still operational... two operational.," Paris reported as systems flickered and the holographic interface fizzled out. "Back to the old school," Paris muttered as she began setting as defensive perimeter about the crippled starship.

''Antiboarding transporter protocol will not operate in our present condition for the next five point three minutes,'' Sonak warned.

Laying on the deck, upside down with her head buried into the Helm station, Dox pulled out and sat up. "The power surge fried some of the conduits. I did a hard wire reroute." Sitting back up, the pilot slash grease monkey ran a quick diagnostic. "Holographic controls are still down, but we have limited helm control restored."

Sonak took this moment to provide a report from his scanners.

''I have completed my scan of the USS Aldrin. There is a significant level of antiproton radiation all accross the hull. I read hull breaches on fifty-three percent of the decks, port nacelle obliterated. Thirty-six percent of the ship is open to outer space without emergency forcefields and left uninhabitable. Bridge and first three decks are destroyed. Warp core is gone, impulse engines offline and in need of extensive repairs. Thrusters are offline and the ship is adrift, holding on barely on emergency batteries. Phaser banks and torpedo complement are depleted, shuttlebay doors fused. Faint lifesign readings on lower decks; probable survivors from the crew. I am sending coordinates to our transporter teams.''

"Beam survivors directly to sickbay as soon as we're able and notify the medical staff. Use the emergency transporters as well if you have to." Enalia was busy tapping at her chair controls, trying to bring up any sort of readings on the station itself. When she did, she finally had an idea of why Odin's beard was in a knot. "Is that a Titan signature?"

Before she could confirm it, a stream of rainbow light streamed across space, through the Hera, and onto Starbase 336, dumping off who knew how many more Valkyries, not to mention in the short time they'd been trying to get the ship moving, Freyja's ship was about to board it.

"As soon as we're in range, Commander, lead an away team to help defend the station," Ordered Enalia. "Take whomever you need."

"Titan? Is there a titan in the station and that's why they refused to tell Odin? What are they doing to it though..." Rita exposited before handing off her station. "100 kilometer perimeter, she'll autofire on anything in range, and watch to the rear for torpedo opportunities, stick with photons- we don't need to pull out the quantums except in extreme cases. Hold the line, Ensign," Rita clapped the young man on the shoulder after briefing him, then glanced quickly across the bridge.

"Commander Paris to flight deck, scramble runabouts for rescue efforts on the USS Aldrin immediately. It's still hot out there people. so this is combat evacuation. Deploy immediately, there are still survivors out there. Miss Dox, Mister Sonak, you're with me. Given hull breaches on the station, I would recommend EVA suits, but I will respect your choices Mister Sonak. Computer, inform Lieutenant Dael to report to Transporter Room two, armed and armored."

''Acknowledged,'' the chief science officer responded, securing his station for his assistant while calling her up.

Sparing a glance at Captain Telvan, Commander Rita Paris nodded in an unspoken communication. We'll get it done, ma'am.

Getting up from her station at the helm, Dox tapped her Comm badge as the station's communication panel was down for written messages still. "Ensign Gonadie to helm Control." As she spoke, she stepped across the bridge further away from Commander Paris, tapping her comm badge again. "Computer. Dox, M. Lieutenant. Access code 795-X9E. Please institute EVA Suit up protocol immediately."

As the portly pilot stood still, her own Crimson EVA suit appeared on her in a twinkle of transporter lights. As it was complete, Dox smiled lightly. "Thank you, Computer." To which the computer chirped and unexpectedly replied. =^=You are welcome, Lieutenant.=^=

Mona rushed out of the turbolift, ready for duty and headed to Dox first, planting a kiss on the half Romulan Lieutenant before taking her station. "Come back safely."

They had both been informed of professional protocol concerning their newfound relationship, but clearly, emotion overrode Mona in the moment as Dox smiled awkwardly back with an exaggerated expression that read 'not on the BRIDGE.' Nevertheless, she had returned the kiss as it happened and replied quietly with a loving smile. "You stay safe."

Pausing by the pile of weapons and armor the left behind by the Valkyries who had been defeated and disarmed by Sonak's planning, a sly smile crossed Rita's face, pausing to scoop up a headdress, a sword and a bright red cloak, she smirked.

"If we're headed to take the stage in an opera, may as well dress the part..."

Sonak raised an eyebrow then nodded and imitated her.

''Blending in, confusing the enemy and easying allies; a sensible tactic, Commander.''

In a few minutes, they'd find out.