First Contact
Posted on Thu May 14th, 2026 @ 9:57pm by Lieutenant JG Elen Rell & Sergeant Jace Morven & Private First Class Ariel Kade & Commodore Elias McEntyre & Commander Isabella Garcia & Commander Cressida Vale MD & Commander Gil’an Tyris & Lieutenant Colonel Jesse Moriarty & Lieutenant Commander Declan Malcom & Lieutenant Commander Drevas & Major Blez Dralis & Fleet Admiral Lord Of Admirals & Commander Rylen Lyo & Lieutenant JG Zahra el-Saad & Lieutenant JG Electra Drake
Edited on on Tue Jun 23rd, 2026 @ 4:56pm
9,284 words; about a 46 minute read
Mission:
Pilot - "The Gate"
Location: Gate System - Bridge
It had taken the better part of an hour to compute the courses needed. Elias leaned in his chair, staring tensely at the view-screen as the stars streaked by silently. He had never felt this tense, never felt this nervous before, yet, for all his experience and training, First Contacts always had a way of unnerving him.
Perhaps is was the fact that encountering the unknown could go a thousand different ways. They were, of course, also dealing with the variable that this was an entirely new galaxy with entirely new species. Elias in the back of his mind doubted that the Universal Translator would even pick up on dialect and syntax of species that evolved outside the Milky Way.
They should have seen them by now, the intercept course should have crossed. He turned his chair towards Gil and Drevas.
“Anything?” Elias asked, looking curiously at his Science and Tactical Officer.
"Multiple signatures, Commodore. Cruiser weight. Distance of ten light years."
“Confirmed,” said Gil, shaking his head slightly from side to side. “One of them is…significantly larger than the others. Silhouette suggests it could displace up to eight million metric tons. Possibly a dreadnought.”
"It certainly is armed like one, Commodore." Drevas adds. "Primary and secondary shielding. I detect ports every ten meters of hull space that could be ordnance launchers."
“Energy signatures match nothing in the database,” said Gil. “Actual or theoretical.”
Elias pondered for a moment, multiples meant someone controlled this space. The question was: How did they come to be in this region of space without Warp Drive.
"Are we sure we didn't detect any warp traces or anything to indicated Faster than Light capabilities?" Elias questioned his husband as he stood from his chair, and moved to look over his shoulder at the science station readouts.
“Not in the standard sense,” said Gil, referencing one of the data readouts. “They are not producing an ionized plasma wake, which is generally a telltale sign of a matter-antimatter reactor. They must use a radically different source of energy.”
Dreadnought sized? That changed the equation. Guin was way below the weight class for something the size of an Odyssey Class or a Excalibur Class sized starship. He had to think tactically, strategically though time was not on their side.
“Helm to...” Elias started to say before the ship rocked, hard. Sparks flew as if the shields were not even online. Elias was knocked backwards as alarms sounded and the bridge lighting shifted to red tones.
“REPORT!!!” Elias called out as he pulled himself up by the railing around the bridge.
"Decks five and six have structural damage. Shields are at sixty-three percent." Drevas winces as he nurses a shallow cut to his forehead, having banged it on the console in the impact.
“Ms. Zahra, helms alarboard, come to 300 degrees, 15 degrees up plane!” Elias ordered as the hull is slammed against with energy particles before rapid alarms sounded from the science station, bad ones.
Zahra hadn't even been able to react to the initial before they were hit hard. "Three hundred mark one five, aye, sir!" she called out, directing the ship to veer left and slightly up, maintaining current speed. She would be able to keep them mobile and hopefully prevent further impacts.
“Sir, starboard fore shields are gone,” said Gil, in a weary monotone. “I don’t know exactly how, but the intra-atomic bonds in the tetraburnium alloys are dissolving. Shields will not reconstitute, because the generators are no longer there.”
Elias stumbled as he moved across the bridge as the ship rocked again, heading for the science station as he braced himself against it as the ship took another hit to the hull.
"What do you mean not there?" Elias asked his husband in the chaos as he tapped a button on the panel.
"Bridge to Engineering, Mr. Malcolm, get me some goddamn defenses!!"
Gil gave his husband a sidelong look. Elias knew he was not one for hyperbole, so Gil needed to show the Commodore what he meant. He pulled up a three-dimensional rendering of the shield emitter, spinning the image around with a gentle flick of his finger. “The mass of the emitters has been reduced by twenty nine percent. And all of the tetraburnium components have atomized. The only possibility is that the weapons being used are based on some quite uncommon meson particles.”
Engineering as usual, was a barely controlled chaos when this type of event happened. The alarms were already going off as the components in the shield generators came undone and made them little more than paperweights. Declan was already trying to get things in order, tapping at the pool table.
"Someone get with Sciences and find out what's hitting us! Reroute the power from the forward generators to mid and aft, let's use them while we have them ands push them to reconstitute a very shallow bubble. Damage control teams to your stations!" Declan's voice rang out over the noise and confusion, providing direction.
"Bridge, Engineering. We're going to attempt to partially reform the shield bubble using the mid and aft generators, but I can't promise much. Any idea what's hitting us? Might also want to consider going to warp to get out of the particle mess until we can analyze it." Offering up the only suggestions that came to mind at the moment was all Declan could do.
"Understood, do what you can Declan!" Elias called back as he braced himself again.
The Bridge sparked and shook as another round of fire slammed into the hull. Nearly sending Elias and those standing to their feet as the ship listed.
"Ms. Zahra, helm left hardover! Present our Belly" Elias called to the helm as he kept studying the data displays.
“On it!” Zahra had the ship turning on its axis, pointing its ventral side toward the enemy.
The communications officer turned to Gil and Elias.
"Sir, I think they may be trying to hail but i'm not sure, the UT is having a hard time locking in on syntax and Language."
"On Screen" Elias promptly replied as he turned to a massive form on the viewscreen. The figure was large, as large as Elias was. His appearance was similar to an Earth Moose, if the Moose had evolved to walk upright and fight with military precision.
He spoke in an odd language, the computer having a hard time before finally it managed to catch a few words.
"Violation...Affront...Zandaryi...Boarded."
The bridge filled with alarms and trills from sensors and defenses. A rapid ping broke through from the tactical station.
"There is a group of small pods being launched at us, Commodore. I would guess they contain boarding parties." Drevas states. "Shall I attempt to neutralise them?"
Elias whipped his head to the tactical station with a look of pure fear. Boarding pods were something that went out of style at the advent of Transporters. This didn't bode much for whomever was attacking them. It meant that Guin was dealing with an enemy that may be at a lower technological level than the Federation. They had to tread carefully as Elias palms the console in front of him.
"Bridge to Moriarty: Lieutenant Colonel, repel boarders! Rapid Reaction Teams report to stations, full armor and weapons loads. Phasers to Stun!"
"On our way, Sir!" Below decks, Moriarty pushed away from the status console, turning to the people at his back, already scanning for the faces he needed. "Morven, Juventus, I want teams at every pod to meet them head on," he was already forwarding the pod entry data as he spoke. "You heard him, full armour and weapons, but NO fatalities...this is still First Contact. Blez, get your people posted to every closest access point to a pod and secure vital areas and systems."
-------
Elias pondered for a moment, the ship lurched again.
"XO, Take over. I'm going down to assist the Colonel and the Ground Forces." Elias said to Lyo as he headed for the turbolift.
Without a word, Lyo nodded from where he was helping coordinating Damage Control and Ground Force responses through the ship.
“Hey,” Gil said, positioning himself in front of Elias. He straightened the much taller Felinoid’s collar, then planted a gentle peck on his left cheek. “Be careful. But also, be a tiger like I know you can. He reached upward and scratched a sensitive spot behind Elias’s ear, a spot it had taken Gil several years to discover.
Elias smiles softly, letting out a soft purr tilting his head into the side the Gil was scratching before standing straight, tugging his uniform jacket down and turning for the turbolift.
"Colonel, I'm on my way down" Elias tapped his commbadge as he entered the turbolift.
Zahra looked up from the helm, her eyes widening as she called out.
"Sir! Incoming!!"
Elias turned to see Meson ordenance heading right for the saucer.
"Brace for shock!!!" Elias quickly grabbed the rail surrounding the bridge as the pulses slammed into the bridge.
The ship lurched backwards hard. Sparks flew violently. The console where Lyo had been standing explored with such force as to send the man flying backwards over the rail behind the station, flipping back with ferocity before he slammed into the deck.
Elias and Gil both rushed over after the ship reoriented itself. Elias kneeled next to Lyo. Lyo laid there, blood across his face, a deep gash on the side of his new, pooling with the iron tinted metallic smell of blood. Elias felt for a pulse but he knew this kind of wound. It was one that you didn't recover from.
Elias somberly turned to Gil.
"He's dead." He said with a trembling voice. Elias didn't know the commander long but the weight hit his chest like any deaths under his command.
Elias tapped his commbadge after taking a silent pause.
"Commander Garcia Report to the Bridge."
"On my way," The voice of Isabella replied back almost instantly, although the transmission seemed a little fuzzy indicating that the comm system wasn't in perfect working order.
"Ms. Garcia, upon your arrival at the bridge, assume command. I'm going below to assist the Detachment" Elias spoke as he entered the turbolift.
-----
Ground Force Operations Center
"Morven, Juventus, I want teams at every pod to meet them head on," Jesse Moriarty was already forwarding the pod entry data as he spoke. "You heard him, full armour and weapons, but NO fatalities...this is still First Contact. Blez, get your people posted to every closest access point to a pod and secure vital areas and systems."
Blez raised an eyebrow as he came to Jesse’s side. “Aren’t my people your people first, if we have internal issues that’s when they are my people?” He countered with a chuckle before he added. “Yes, Colonel, I’ll post Ground Forces at key areas and major intersections.”
He gave the orders after tapping his combadge for a variety of Ground Forces personnel to the key rooms and corridors surrounding them on all decks. Since he is now the Executive Officer of the Ground Forces, acting of course, he’d conduct himself as one. Hopefully his boys had returned to their quarters once Red Alert sounded.
Moriarty gave Blez a sidelong glance at the comment...that had been made in front of his Forces, during an emergency. "Not the time, Major," he arched an eyebrow, his features set firmly on the matter. If he wanted to talk about the chain of command after they'd repelled boarders, he had all the time in the world...assuming they survived. He turned his attention back to the troops that were prepping for action. "Forces, we shut them down at the pods. MPs, I want non-essential corridors locked down ready to force them into chokepoints if they get past the line...." He was already on the move to grab his own gear. "Check seals, check armour, head cams on. No lone heroes...you move in pairs and no one loses sight of their flank partner...." he met Jace's eyes briefly as he strode past. "Let's move!"
Morven gave a small nod in acknowledgment to the Colonel's orders. Now it was to translate them to the squad. "Alpha, gear up, partner up. R'Mes, you're with me," he met the Caitian's eyes, briefly, before he started gearing up. Around him, the rest of Alpha were doing the same, experienced hands checking the inexperienced people's work. Once he was finished he turned to R'Mes, to check and tug at the gear to make sure that there were no weak point of the armour.
"Remember, we don't know what they want or how advanced we are. Assume nothing. Keep your heads about you and maintain your trigger disipline" Elias spoke out as he entered the assembly area in full kit, rifle slung across his chest. His armor was scarred, pitted, well worn and reliable. His rifle was much the same. Veterans, just like Elias.
Moriarty stilled and watched the CO with an arched eyebrow for a moment...and then accepted it. He always welcomed another experienced rifleman. It was the First Officer's job to persuade him not to throw himself in the line of fire, not his; he could look away in a time of need. He nodded firmly to him, heading for the door as he secured his helmet.
Crouched on the opposite side of the corridor, a few Ground Forces behind him, Blez trained his rifle at the direction that they knew the enemy was coming from. He kept an eye on his superiors for any instructions. He hated waiting in all forms.
"The Lieutenant Colonel will take the Engineering Section, secure the Warp Core and Computer Controls. Major Dralis will lead his sections to the Bridge and work down." Elias divided up where the boarders had been spotted to the two Ground Forces Commanders.
"Sickbay to Commodore, we need ack " The comms cut off suddenly, a medical technician cut down.
"Right, Morven, your chalk with me, we're taking sickbay, MOVE!" Elias turned, taking up his rifle as he headed for sickbay.
“Aye sir,” Blez replied as he gestured for those with him to move out and head back to the Bridge. It would be bad if the Bridge fell into enemy hands, hopefully any senior officers place computer control under their security clearance.
A scout had insisted on being point, Blez had been annoyed at first but soon the Scout was quite well at stealth as the group moved through the corridors. Soon they got into a firefight and the enemy fire was odd. Thankfully their armour was so far deflecting impacts, Blez knew that wouldn’t last much longer.
“Let’s make a wall.” Blez instructed, and he smirked when they looked at him funny.
“A wall?”
“Of phaser fire and as they get distracted by that, others can get into position to snipe.” Blez explained, he pointed at the rifle holders first, “you will get into sniper places on your bellies and,” he gestured to those with beam pistols, “you will help me make the wall.”
The group seemed to get ready and Blez waited for a break in enemy fire. It came a few moments later, probably because they were thinking they got everyone or that their enemy fled. “Now,” Blez said and gestured for them to start.
Several beams shot out from the Ground Forces vertically and began to move towards the enemy position. It seemed to do the trick as no fire came back, new tactics usually caught the other side off guard. The snipers slowly rolled into position and once they all were, they fired directly at the four enemy soldiers who’d left their cover to understand the beams wall.
They heard the bodies drop and Blez patted the snipers on their shoulders as they advanced towards the nearest turbolift hub. Blez figured they better use tubes and turbolift to get into the Bridge.
"Sir," one of the MPs looked at Blez, giving a nod. "We take the Jeffries tube here, goes parallel with the turbolift junctions. It's a climb, but we can do it with your permission."
"Quickly and quietly," Blez nodded, "lead the way," he gestured for the MP who spoke up to take point. The MP made a 'had-to-open-my-big-mouth' expression and sighed before moving to the front as the others and Blez followed.
Inside Sickbay
Casualties had been pouring into sickbay ever since that first volley struck the ship, seemingly passing through the shields as if they weren’t there. No biobed lay unoccupied. Patients sat on the deck along the bulkhead, doing their best to not be underfoot as the medical staff worked quickly to triage patients and begin treatments as best as possible, doctors prioritizing those whose lives were at risk and having nurse-practitioners treat who could be turned around and put back on duty rapidly.
Out of the corner of her eye, Dr. Cressida Vale saw one of the sickbay entrances open. “Micah!” she called out to one of her staff. “New arrivals!”
The medic within earshot turned toward the door, his eyes wide when they took in the sight. He tapped his commbadge. “Sickbay to Commodore, we need –ack–”
His words were cut off when a bluish-green pulse of energy blasted through his chest, causing him to fall to his knees and slump forward to the deck.
Cressida spun around to see two large figures, mammalian, each with an elongated face and a crown of antlers on their heads. They’d look majestic, she thought, if they hadn’t just murdered one of her crewmates.
“Take cover!” she yelled. “Get patients to safety!”
Most doctors hated keeping phasers in sickbay. A place of healing was no place for a firefight. But Cressida Vale was not most doctors. She understood the reality that the defender does not always get to choose the place of battle, so she wore a sidearm on duty and kept two weapons lockers in sickbay just in case. She also, with the help of the FGF detachment, drilled her people in what to do in case a boarding action reached their hallowed halls. Cressida got the patient in front of her off the biobed and into the arms of a sickbay clerk, who along with orderlies and nurses guided anyone who could move deeper into sickbay, which could be more easily defended, while certain designated people armed themselves and took defensive positions.
Two nurses, an orderly, and three mobile patients went down to more weapons fire as six of these aliens took positions standing side-by-side just in front of the entrance and their rifles as one, apparently at the verbal command of one of them. They took a second or two to fiddle with a component of their weapons before finding new targets. Another sound from one of them, another six energy pulses let loose in sickbay. Two found marks in patients on biobeds that could not have been moved in time, a third struck a nurse in the calf, bringing him down, while the rest went wide.
Enroute to Sickbay
Jace had acknowledged and then moved with the Commodore the moment he had issued the order, his phaser rifle already in his hands as he fell in on the Commodore’s flank. He did not question the Caitian Commodore, just fallen into line the way some people drew breath. Their objective: Sickbay.
A vulnerable place on any ship. Like Engineering. Something inside of him, brief, tightened. He pushed it aside, locking down the seed of worry for people he knew. There was no time for it. The corridor lights strobed red over scorched bulkheads and blown panel seams. One wall plate had split outward instead of in, metal peeled back like something had punched through its guts and left the surface mostly untouched. Jace marked it, slowed half a step and angled his rifle briefly toward it.
"Sir," he said, voice low and even so not to draw any attention to them, "bulkhead failure's wrong. Damage is internal. Their weapons are getting through the surface before they break things."
"Must be a reason they're using these meson weapons. Stay frosty, keep moving." Elias nodded back, whispering to Jace as he gave the hand signal for moving up.
Enroute to Engineering
Jesse led from the front, as always, keeping low but moving fast. He gripped his rifle tightly as he and his troopers closed in on the junction to Engineering, able to hear the footsteps echoing around the corner. He motioned for caution as he slowed the pace, heading for the corner to glance around the edge...and a bolt of energy seared past his head. He watched with confusion as it seemed to hit the lighting panel above and behind them with little effect, not even a real scorch mark...until they were showered with sparks as it exploded from the inside out.
Jesse gritted his teeth to suppress the instinctive flinch, motioning for two of them to get ready to make a run for the other side of the corridor junction, so they could fire down the corridor from both sides. He took a quick breath, his heartrate steady with it as he leant out enough to provide covering fire for the dash.
They just about made it, diving for cover on the opposite corner as return fire screamed down the corridor. Jesse watched with deepening dread as some of it sheered past the forcefield they'd erected to limit progress to Engineering, passing through it like some cheap magic trick. Every instinct was telling him something was very wrong.
Moriarty called for a return volley, putting pressure on the intruders with a barrage of suppressing fire, forcing them to fall back. Jesse took the chance to motion his troops forward, pushing down the corridor as the boarders fell back to the next corner...but not before a glancing shot caught a private in the arm.
For a brief moment, it seemed like it was nothing more than a graze....before the arm swung lifelessly with a sickening crunch, followed by the clatter of the private's rifle on the deck as he clutched at the broken limb with a scream of agony.
"They're meson..." Jesse whispered with dread as he moved to grab hold of the man's armour, helping his partner drag him to the bulkhead. He flicked his comm to broadcast to the Ground Forces, catching his breath as he tried to check the end of the gloomy, smoke filled corridor. "These are not ordinary weapons. Repeat, the boarders are not carrying ordinary weapons. Suspect meson technology...armour and forcefields are ineffective," he sent the warning out to the entire Force, not caring if he was proved wrong later down the line. If he was wrong, they'd just be guilty of being overcautious...but if he was right, their armour and forcefields were next to useless.
"Copy," Morven's voice came through the comms. "Extreme caution advised."
Beside Jesse, PFC Ariel Kade pushed forward to pull out the medical tricorder from her medbag. As one of the medics, she kept back a little more than the other ground forces. She swore and dug through for some hypos. "Sir, I think you're assessment is right. Meson tech."
"Stay here, do what you can for him, I'll call you if we need you further in," Jesse nodded to her, squeezing her arm firmly in support before pushing away to head to Engineering.
"Sir," Kade gave a nod, looking at him before she looked back at the trooper in front of her. "Good luck..."
Outside Sickbay
Elias lead Morven and the chalk along Deck 11, nearing to sickbay with slow careful steps to try to catch the borders off guard. The enemies were clustered heavily here. Elias threw his hand up to stop as he heard the weapons fire get closer.
Sergeant Morven felt more than heard the fire as they approached sickbay. You could smell it in the air, the discharge of phasers and other weapons. Meson, Moriarty had said. Seemed right. Meant that the armour was useless and speed mattered more. He glanced at the Commodore, moving to remove his helmet, unclipping it and putting it on the ground. His hair was damp with sweat but his blue eyes were focused. "Sir," his voice was lowered for the Commodore. "Could climb up between the decks, shoot them from above. Risk is nowhere to go if they notice. But could cause panic, give the others a chance to take better shots at them with minimised risk of getting hit."
Elias could smell it too. It was a putrid smell. Burnt Carbons, Nadions and Mesons. His ears twitched as he heard the phaser and weapon fire.
"Agreed. We'll cut through the bulkheads near section 6" Elias replied.
"Sir," Jace nodded and glanced up, for a moment, clearly judging the layout. He moved, because the order had been given as far as he was concerned. Near section six he pulled out the phaser, adjusted the beam and used it to cut a section big enough to get the Caitian Commodore through too. "I advice us to shed anything that might make extra noise. Will be a tight fit in there, Sir, extra gear'll make us less stealthy." And with the weaponry, the chestplate wouldn't save them anyway.
"Armor or no armor, we got to get to sickbay and soonest. On the bounce Sergeant." Elias nods as he entered the hole that was cut, taking point with his rifle aimed and ready.
Inside Sickbay
Orange-red phaser beams lanced back toward the attackers. Cressida emerged from the cover of a biobed to fire, but her shot was too high, but dropped sparks down upon them from the bulkhead behind them. One of the nurses, however, was apparently a good shot and hit the verbal one square in the chest, but not until a third volley took down more medical staff.
Cressida’s next shot landed true, as did the nurse’s, and in the scrum the aliens’ line seemed to break. Two moved for cover behind desks while a third marched toward the biobed Cressida was hiding behind.
The alien had not expected her to tackle him to the ground, kick his rifle away, and tangle his hands in her lab coat.
One knee went right into her solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her and cracking her lower left rib. But she held on as the invader struggled.
It got its arms out of the lab coat and rolled onto its belly. It tried scrambling to its feet, but Cressida swung hard with her left and struck the back of its head. The impact dazed it just a bit, but the impact with the bony subdermal structure holding those antlers broke at least six bones in her hand. She yelled out in agony but persisted. She grabbed the discarded lab coat and tangled it into the antlers. It worked. The attacker seemed to cry out as she got control of the thing’s head, keeping it from reaching its weapon and from goring her.
The cut section gave way above them and Morven came through first, lighter without some of the extra armour plates, quieter for it as he dropped into Sickbay with his rifle already up. The sudden shift in angle pulled the boarders’ attention upward for a fraction of a second and he used it, one shot dropping the nearest standing shooter before another drove the ones behind the desks back off their line to the biobeds. He did not stop there, but kept moving into the room, forcing the remaining boarders to turn toward him instead of the wounded.
Elias was next, dropping down and firing phaser pulses at the enemies in front of him. He whipped around as one tried to charge him, nailing him with a fist to the jaw. The enemy solider flew backwards as another enemy tried the same. Elias moved like flowing water, punches and kicks flying.
Cressida heard the door open again, and behind it heard the voices of the FGF contingent. “At least six hostiles!” she called out. “Over here!”
Morven didn’t answer her, but the call pulled him across the room at once. He moved fast and low, rifle coming up past her shoulder to take the next hostile trying to break toward the biobeds, dropping it before it got a shot away. He did not stay on it. With meson weapons, standing off was a good way to get people killed, so he kept moving, using the second Vale had bought him by keeping the one in her coat tied up and stepping straight into the next attacker before it could line up on the wounded.
His free hand came off the rifle just long enough to knock the barrel off line as it came up, the shot cracking uselessly into the bulkhead, and then he was in too close for the thing to use the weapon properly, shoulder driving into it hard enough to throw it back and wreck its footing. He did not try to do it neatly, only make sure it could not fire, could not steady, could not get its aim back. Then he shifted nearer to Vale, one hard movement sending the discarded rifle skidding further across the deck before he reset his grip and brought his own weapon back up, covering past her instead of over her as he kept himself between the remaining boarders and the wounded, giving them no room to settle and no clean line to shoot through.
Elias raised his rifle and fired into several of the boarders before letting his rifle fall to his chest as he pulled his sidearm and did the same to another couple enemy, both of them falling with blood curling gags as they went down to the deck.
Inside Engineering
The bulkhead should have looked worse. That was what set Elen’s teeth on edge. The outer plate was still mostly intact, just blackened and slightly warped near the seam, but somewhere behind it coolant was hissing through micro-gaps, and something in the section’s vibration felt wrong under her hands. So she had gone straight for the panel, prying it open to get at the real damage underneath.
A hairline breach in one of the smaller plasma coolant lines had started venting into the compartment, not enough to become a full emergency on its own but more than enough to turn ugly if left alone. Elen was crouched beside the exposed section with one arm buried in the access space, trying to get a seal patch to sit properly over the damaged line while another engineer held the light where she needed it. “Hold it there,” she said, then, a split second later as the hiss sharpened...“No, there, please. I’d like to not lose my eyebrows today...or get frostbite.” Coolant curled pale and cold around her knees as she pressed the patch down harder and adjusted her grip. “Come on,” she muttered under her breath to the damaged line, jaw tight. “You can be dramatic later, once we are back to normal-ish.” Talking helped. So did the sharp, clean focus of the hypo she had taken the moment boarding had been announced, the one thing keeping her thoughts in a straight enough line to follow.
Engineering was a mess, pure and simple. Several of the displays were flickering or burnt out, shards of plastics all over the ground. Crewmembers were various states of disarray, some injured severely. Trying to keep the circus under control, Declan was shouting orders at intensity and volume for a change.
"All injured beyond ability to work, my office. Someone triage and use the emergency medkit in there. Someone get the damn transporters back online, we're going to need site to site capability and someone else keep working on those shields. These weapons have to be quantum based, so the forcefield around the warp core should stay intact, or we are really going to have a bad day." Declan's voice cut through the chaos, trying to re-establish some order.
Outside the Bridge corridor, in a Jefferies tubes Access room
The climb was tiring to say the least and all the MPs got out of the vertical tubes without hinderance. That MP that had taken point was slowly entering the corridor that the Bridge was connected to.
Blez was about to follow when a weapon discharge came, passed through the MP and continued on to opposite wall. He watched as the MP collapsed with a painful howl but lost consciousness immediately.
Both Blez and another MP slowly positioned themselves to look around the door frame to see where the weapon waveform came from. Thankfully no more came their way as the enemy were busy conversing with each other. The UT wasn't quite picking up on anything due to distance.
The enemy seemed to be preoccupied with attempting to get access to the Bridge. Unfortunately Blez wasn't prepared to lose anyone else to that new weapon, even if it didn't appear to do any damage. Perhaps their beam wall tactic will work here as well but the corridor was longer than the one they'd been in before. Blez had his doubts it would work unless they were more chaotic with the beams this time.
He'd heard the meson technology announcement from Moriarty, he wasn't quick knowledgeable about it but if armour and forcefields are ineffective, they are in trouble. He tapped his combadge. "Dralis to Moriarty, acknowledging meson, sadly there are a few enemies attempting to breach the Bridge and they have this meson weaponry. We will try a long range phaser beams wall, one above the other, tactic I came up. Are walls and doors able to block meson?" It was a stupid question but maybe they can augment it with something else.
Blez wondered if they altered their armour with some form of other energy and rotate the forcefields' frequencies, they'd become useful again. He just wasn't sure as to what would be good or how quickly those tasks can happen.
"Phaser wall again, but let's be faster this time." He saw Voss and Rourke still near the back as Blez gave instructions and he assumed the bottom position so his beam was the lowest.
"It might block it, but it could buckle and give way, be careful," Moriarty's voice came back over the comm, strained with the unfolding combat on his end.
"Understood," Blez replied and tapped his combadge again. "Dralis to Bridge, if I may suggest, seal off the corridor behind the bridge and flood it with either Neurozine or Anesthizine gas. We should test if they work on this new enemy?"
The voice of Isabella came through his comm badge. "Understood." Forcefields jumped up blocking off the enemy and white gas began to flood through the air vents.
Sickbay
"CLEAR!"
Elias called out as he brushed off his armor with a hand, slinging his rifle across his chest as he helped pick Cressida off the floor.
“Thanks,” Cressida said, wincing as she was pulled up by her good arm. Her left side stung badly, confirming her previous suspicion. “That was some attack,” she said, cradling her badly broken hand. “Is it over?”
"Not sure." Elias answered as he tapped the communicator on his wrist gauntlet.
"McEntyre to Bridge, Report?"
"We've took damage to several decks Commodore. Boarding parties are still on board, and our phasers are having little to no effect on the alien vessel." Isabella's voice replied.
Elias pondered a moment. It was clear they needed to retreat if only to fight another day and get word to Starfleet.
"Ms. Garcia, get creative. Find us a way to break through their lines."
Jace looked over at Elias and Cressida. His eyes ran over her, for a split second...wounded, but standing. He moved to the door, guarding it, his body tense but his face blank. Sweat had dampened the collar of his uniform and his hair, and apart from some cut, scrapes and bruises, most of them from crawling through the ceiling, he was unharmed.
"Let's police these bodies, Sergeant!" Elias barked as he turned to Cressida.
"How would you feel about a battlefield post mortem on our new adversaries, Doctor?" Elias inquired with a curious look.
Cressida nodded. "Yes, sir. We'll get it done."
Jace had automatically gone to secure the bodies, tying up any surviving prisoners, checking lifesigns on those that weren't moving. His face was still, betraying nothing, until his eyes landed on the red-head standing in sickbay. He stood, his task completed, looking over her to check for injuries.
Electra Drake pushed herself up from where she'd been checking on a crew member, catching her breath as she brushed red hair off her face that had come loose. A gash marred her cheek and another was bleeding at her temple, and the sleeve of her blouse had been torn at some point. She made her way over at seeing Jace, letting out a long, shaking breath before speaking. "Jace...Jace, have you been through Deck 10? Is the classroom safe?" she asked, managing to keep her voice even despite her fear for her daughter.
Jace met her eyes at the words, a pull between his eyebrows at that. He did not know the status of the classroom, but it was not one of the places that the Ground Forces had been sent. He gave a shake of his head, glancing over at where Vale and the Commodore were before he checked his phaser rifle. "I'll get her," he said and pulled away. "Stay here, be safe," he added before he moved, efficiently, past McEntyre and Vale and out to the corridor, to make his way to deck ten.
Electra looked after him, letting out a shaking breath. A mixture of relief at him going to find Lucy and worry over not knowing what was going on up there battled in her. She finally nodded to herself, turning back towards the patients.
"Sergeant? Take two with you, comm me when you've secured Deck 10 and get the kids to safety shelter."
There was hesitant step that showed that the Sergeant had heard him. "Copy, Sir," he said and continued to walk.
"We could use some help from the MPs securing and clearing the prisoners," Cressida said. "Our people will handle the corpses. Otherwise, I need to get back to my patients."
Not having time to wait for a dismissal, she waved to one of the nurses. "Joy! I need stabilization!" She gestured to her hand, and was immediately joined by someone spraying a compound to keep everything in her hand where it was, so it could be fixed when she could get J.R. out of surgery.
Inside Engineering
"No, no, no..." Elen's voice was hushed, but her hands were busy. She had pulled a panel to shield herself, but also making sure she was far enough from the warp core to be...well.
Plan B. For Bait. Because the moment that Engineering had been breached, Elen had decided to be as noisy, disruptive and generally stalling as possible. It had started with a shriek. A good, old fashioned shriek. And then she had grabbed two toolkits and dived to the left, pulled a panel open for cover...and...well...
Hurled various tools at them, while swearing loudly. Which worked distracting these...people...and hope that the forcefield erected around the warp core would hold or take some of the heat off in case the meson weapons...well...warp core breaches were at least a quick way to go. Elen picked up an ODN Decoupler and shifted a little, then poked her head out, shouted and threw it at one of them, then ducked into cover again.
"Let's move!" Moriarty led his team into the noise of Engineering. They hadn't been able to stop them from getting in, but now that they were, they were trapped. Now, they just had to put them down. He fired quickly, not taking any risks with the devastating weapons in the boarders' hands. He pushed forward, shooting one and then another in the more enclosed space. He lurched to the side just in time to miss a bolt of return fire that sizzled past him. He watched as the bulkhead took the hit, seeming fine for a moment before crumpling from the inside.
Elen poked her head enough to look at the damage, eyes wide. "Get them to stop damaging the ship! One hit to the warp core and I am not sure I can make it better!" she shouted, aimed at the Ground Forces. She took a breath, shifting to a crouch, rolling her shoulders. "B for bait..." she muttered and then pushed herself up to run, sprinting across the space to dive for cover behind another console. Drawing fire, hopefully.
Moriarty took the chance, a volley of fire blasting from his and his troopers' rifles, chasing down the last of the intruders. As the final man fell, Jesse pulled his helmet off and shook his head to fling his damp, dark curls of hair off his face as he caught his breath. He pointed to Elen with his helmet, his eyes wide. "You're a lunatic, Elen Rell!"
Elen pushed herself up, her hair wild and a grin of relief splitting her face. Her...somewhat bruised face. "You needed an opening and I needed them not to hit the warp core. Seems like the best way," she said and moved to the core, taking a breath. "It hasn't been hit but we're battered to Hell and back..." her eyes went to Moriarty and the troopers, her mouth suddenly dry. Adrenaline was still burning through her though. "Thanks, Jesse..."
Jesse waved his helmet with disbelief at her before clipping it to his belt. "Bloody menace. You're not the team mascot..." he tsked, looking around to survey the damage. "We think they have meson weapons. It's causing huge amounts of damage throughout the ship. I'm going to leave a couple of troopers with you."
"Good, even better if they can help repair the ship," Elen said as she looked at Jesse before she smiled. She pushed some hair from her face. "Because we're going to be busy..." she moved towards the warp core, then stopped and turned, her hair wild and her eyes shining. "Also, you'd be lucky if I was the team mascot. I'm cute and able to knit matching scarves for everyone."
"Mesons? Who the bloody...nevermind. Meson based means the antimatter containment field will hold against it. Anyone get that transporter and the shields working yet, I'm busy with life support!? Wait, yes. Yes. Antimatter, they'd be vulnerable to antimatter since anti-mesons are part of the particle list."
Declan's eyes lit up with an almost unholy light as he worked out the numbers in his head.
Deck 10, corridor to classroom
The approach to Deck 10 had been relatively easy. Morven had used the Jeffries tube and ladder, which got him out not too far from where the classroom was. But the deck already looked wrong. The corridor showed marks of battle...phaser marks, as well as the slight twist of meson weapons. His blue eyes fixed on what was ahead, his phaser rifle ready. He saw a body, Starfleet...but he didn’t need to check to know the person was deceased. Near him, one of the boarders, not breathing, tongue lolling out. He gave a look to R'Valla and Vren, motioning for them to guard their retreat.
His phaser rifle lowered as he slowed, hearing something. Weapons fire, distant, but that was not what made him slow down at the corner. It was the heavy breathing of something, someone, and the banging against the door.
He shifted a little forward, to peek. A boarder had made it this far. A large hand hit against the door, before the weapon was raised and shifted to bang against it. Lockdown. The red alert lights cast a different hue on the boarder.
Did not matter. Jace looked at his phaser rifle, checked it, before he moved forward. The boarder was still focused on getting the door open, the weapon not yet fired. He didn’t exhale, didn’t make any sound. Something in him unlatched as he moved forward. He crossed the distance fast and silent, then drove the butt of his phaser rifle hard into its side, low enough to break its balance rather than throw it forward. As it lurched and started to turn, he stepped in close and caught the alien weapon with his free hand, forcing it down before it could come up between them. He stayed tight to it, shoulder in, using position and leverage rather than trying to match its strength, and brought his own rifle up in the space he had made, the barrel nearly against the side of its head as his thumb pushed the setting higher. When he fired, it dropped at once, all weight and sudden slackness, and Jace was already turning back toward the classroom door.
The computer must have recognised him, and the lack of other lifesigns, because he didn’t even need to do an override before the doors opened. He stepped in, his eyes scanning the room, seeing the children. Safe. Whole. And a teacher who seemed to have been ready to defend them with their life.
"Jace...Jace!" Lucy pushed herself up at seeing him, blue eyes wide and red hair messy. She ran for him, crying as she flung her arms around his legs, holding onto them tightly, refusing to move as she hid her face against him.
Jace touched her hair for a moment, taking a deeper breath. "You are safe," he said, touching her ear before he looked around, making sure that they were okay.
"McEntyre to Morvan, Report?" Elias voice came over Jace's communicator
There was a brief moment where Jace stilled, as if snapped out of something. He blinked and activated the communicator. "Classroom secure, no casualties," he said, looking over at the teacher who was comforting a crying child.
Bellamy Ghazi stroked the little girl's hair back, giving her a small and reassuring smile. The Dralis kids, Emery, Lucy, Lottie, the other kids...they had all been good listeners during this. They glanced over at the broken stool that they had...well, stepped on to get a leg to use as a weapon. They might need to deal with that in the future, more training. But right now, Lucy seemed to know the soldier that stood there. Morven. They committed the name to memory.
"I'm on my way to the bridge, take your chalk and complete your sweep once you're taken care of your charges. Good work, Sergeant. McEntyre out."
"Copy," Jace said and looked at the children, giving a nod. "Follow me, single file, hold onto the person in front of you. If I raise my fist..." he demonstrated, then gave a firm nod. "You stop and crouch down. Got it?"
"Got it," Lottie nodded firmly to him. The slightly older girl was just as scared as anyone else, but had been through more than one red alert in her time living on ships. She let out a shaking breath to keep calm, reaching out and taking hold of Emery's furry little hand, squeezing it and summoning up a reassuring smile for him.
Emery nodded with nervous energy, gripping onto Lottie's hand. Lottie and Emery had became fast friends since she came aboard the ship. They were often found together when not at school.
Jhaen, Dhomynik, and Kaedens put themselves between the teacher and the rest of their peers. They were 10 after all and sons of a security officer. They'd tried to help the teacher but they knew to protecting their peers was a greater responsibility.
The moment one of the Ground Forces came in, all three of the Dralis boys were relieved and immediately got into that single file but between their peers, Jhaen took up the rear while Kaedens was in the middle and Dhomynik near the front. "Yes sir," they said in unison when given instructions.
"Lucy," Jace looked down at Lucy, watching her for a moment. "I need you to grab the back of my belt and stay close. Be my shadow. And I will protect you."
Lucy tried to calm her crying, her breath catching in hiccups with it. She looked to him though, seeing how serious his face was. She reached out to take a hold of his belt, her head down as she sniffed loudly, the entire experience too much to process.
"You're doing well," Jace said, hearing the sniff, the hiccup. He reached back, his hand touching her hand for a moment.
Teacher Bellamy surveyed the children, moving to the back. "We're ready," they called out, their eyes dark with it. The classroom had been a safe place, at least for a little bit...but it was better to find somewhere more secure.
"Move out," Jace said, weapon ready as he led the children and the teacher out, ignoring the body of the boarder on the floor outside the classroom.
Dhomynik gently leaned forward. "Squeeze my hand," he told Lucy.
Lucy's body juddered with her hiccups from crying, but she kept one hand firmly on Jace's belt as the other gripped Dhomynik's. She kept her eyes closed, letting Jace lead her.
Bridge
Isabella, now the ranking officer on the Bridge looked at the alien ship on the viewscreen. Reports were coming in from all over the ship, decks were being held but she was sure that they were still sending more boarding parties. So far, their phasers had done hardly any damage to the alien vessel.
She turned to look over at the tactical station. "Do we have power to the forward torpedo launchers?" she asked simply, as an idea came to her.
"We do, Commander. Enough to fire, but we will have to make them count." Drevas replied.
"Right. I want four of those Transphasic Torpedoes loaded and ready to launch. If they're powerful enough to kick the Borg's ass, lets test them out on these" Isabella ordered.
"Loading." Drevas' hands flew over the controls. "Torpedoes loaded and ready on your command."
"Fire." Isabella said.
Four bolts of yellowish light rushed out of Guin's forward torpedo tubes, racing towards their targets. It took a scant few moments before they slammed into a smaller cruiser's hull, ripping though dense plate armor and point defenses. The ship strained under the pressure before snapping in half.
Elias had entered the bridge just a moment before light engulfed the bridge through the main screen as the cruiser lit up, it's reactors imploding. Several bridge crew whooped and hollered in a small celebration as the torpedoes did their jobs.
Isabella stood there watching the ship break apart. "Not quite the first contact we wanted." She mumbled as she crossed her arms.
"Never is, but we know something new that we didn't before we started." Elias quips.
“Their offensive weaponry is impressive,” said Gil flatly. “If not for superior piloting and defenses…” He let the comment trail off, the implication hanging in the air.
"Let's use this to our advantage, shall we XO" Elias looked down towards Isabella.
"Ms. Zahra, helm starboard hardover, break through that hole in the lines." Elias ordered as he leaned against the back rail, near to where Drevas was standing at the Tactical Station.
"Engineer, I need Warp Drive if you got it" Elias called down to Engineering.
Elen's voice came over the comms, sounding out of breath. "I got something, unsure if it'll hold but we'll do our best down here." Which was a nice way of saying the core was semi-stable and might have a temper tantrum, but she wasn't the best at translating that without panicking superior officers.
"What Ms. Rell isn't saying, is that we have a lot of damage to the support systems. We can get you Warp 1, maybe Warp 2 sustained, but you're going to need to leap-frog it for a bit so we can manually adjust things down here if you want faster." Declan stated over the comm, calmly. Projecting a reassurance that while fickle right now, they could handle the warp core with some care.
"Understood," Elias replied before speaking to Zahra.
"Ms. Zahra, escape course, Warp 5, engage" Elias spoke rather calmly.
Having just navigated through the enemy's broken lines, Zahra nodded. "Warp five, aye." She initiated the jump, and a moment later they were free of enemy fire.
Elias grips on the rail by the Tactical Station.
"Sir, before we warped, we detected somekind of high yield energy signature on internal sensors. I am also seeing reports of enemy boarders disappearing." A young ensign reported from one of the mission ops stations.
Elias pondered. "They have Transporters?" He asked as he looked over to the science station at his husband.
“Only in the most rudimentary sense,” replied the Ba’ku. “They appear to require some sort of mechanism to focus the beam similar to a pattern enhancer. Given that they deployed only offensive hardware, that technology must be integrated into their battle armor.” He shook his head once. “Astonishing.”
Elias let out a long breath that he didn't know he was holding before he tapped the comm circuit on the tactical console.
"All hands, stand down to Yellow Alert. Department Heads, submit casualty and damage reports to Commander Garcia on the bridge."
Elias slowly turns his attention to Garcia.
"Commander, will you take charge of the Damage Control efforts?"
Isabella nodded simply as she moved over to the Master Systems Display. Several part of it were flashing red where damage had been detected. "I can do that from here." she said simply as she now had a full view of the ship.
Elias then turns to look at his husband with a wordless look of "Let's go get our son".
Gil nodded crisply. “He will probably be pretty shaken,” he said.
Elias walked over, pulling his husband into a hug, putting his head on top of Gil's head. "I think we're all a bit shaken." Elias said before releasing the hug.
"Ms. Zahra, plot for the nearest Class M world, random course for 3 hours before plotting. Once you find one, park us in a polar orbit," Elias started as he headed for the turbolift with Gil.
"Aye, sir," Zahra answered.
"Ms. Garcia, you have the Deck"
Not taking her eyes off the MSD as she co-ordinated the damage control teams, once again Isabella nodded. "Yes sir." she said in response simply.
-----
Commodore Elias McEntyre
Commanding Officer
USS Guinevere
Commander Isabella Garcia
Executive Officer
USS Guinevere
Commander Cressida Vale, MD
Chief Medical Officer and Second Officer
USS Guinevere
Commander Gil Tyris
Chief Science Officer
USS Guinevere Commander
Sergeant Jace Morven
Platoon Sergeant, Alpha Squad
Federation Ground Forces
USS Guinevere
Lieutenant Junior Grade Elen Rell
Engineer
USS Guinevere
Bellamy Ghazi
Teacher
USS Guinevere
Lt. Colonel Jesse Moriarty
CO Federation Ground Forces
USS Guinevere
Lieutenant JG Electra 'Lex' Drake
Counsellor
USS Guinevere
Lucy Drake
Civilian Child
USS Guinevere
Lieutenant JG Zahra el-Saad
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Guinevere
Lieuteant Commander Declan Malcolm
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Guinevere
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