Retribution (Part 1)

Posted on Thu Mar 18th, 2021 @ 3:37am by Captain Evelyn Knight & Lieutenant Commander Mira Jayde & Lieutenant Commander Jason Smoak & Lieutenant Commander Velah

1,111 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: An Angel's Sacrifice

ON

The Hyperion dropped out of warp on the edge of Varian Nebula, the blue and purple whirls of the nebula almost life like in their constant motion. The nebula was huge, and from the sensor readings extremely violent. High speed stellar winds constantly moved the cosmic storms about, threatening anything that got too close. On the bridge, Evelyn stood and walked over to the operations station. "Status report," she said.

"All systems operational," Iona said. "Sensors ready for scanning."

"Weapons and shields are on stand-by." Jason replied from tactical. "Not like we're gonna need them."

"Other departments report ready," Jayde said.


[Sick Bay]

Velah was moving about the Sick Bay going over the systems and getting the ready supplies topped off. Nebulas and 'simple sensory probes never ended as planned. There will be a few more injuries, she had been on a large station and ships coming back with wounded from simple missions that surprised both the star ship as well as station personnel in Sick Bay. Before any deployment she made it a habit to have the ready supplies checked and topped off as replicators can only copy so fast and the staff get busy real quick.

"Velah to bridge.=^= She started. =^= All ready down here for and paper cuts or plasma wounds.=^=

Evelyn glanced up at the chief medical officer's report and suppressed the urge to either roll her eyes or remind the commander of proper intership commline protocol. She decided to let it go. The crew of the Hyperion had been through a lot and she warranted that she could give a few allowances here and there.

"The crew needs something to break up the tedium," Jayde said quietly to the captain. "This nebula is impressive. It should give most hours of research material."

"Yay... research." Jason replied in a slightly sarcastic tone.

Evelyn raised her eyebrows but said nothing. Instead, she shook her head and turned to the matter of the survey at hand. "Stand by to begin full spectrum scan," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am." Jayde smiled at Jason as science began scanning.

In the distance, a faint visual shimmering was ignored, mostly due to the nebula's interference and that the gasses shifted about so much. But a sensor on the Hyperion detected something that seemed out of place, and the computer beeped to draw attention to the anomaly.

"Captain, detecting...something," the science officer said. "Putting it on screen."

Evelyn glanced up and nodded as she turned towards the view screen. The screen focused on a shimmering that seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. "Range to disturbance?" she asked.

Jason watched the view screen cautiously before raising a brow. He tapped the console and asked aloud. "Are you detecting any concentrations of tetryon particles?" He brought up the shield controls and prepared to raise them to full. "It might be cloaked ship. We are in Romulan space after all."

"Running scans now," the science officer replied. "Distance is fluctuating."

Evelyn froze, torn between the conflict within herself on what to do next. It took all of a heartbeat for her to finally make a decision before she spoke again. "Whatever it is, let's take precautions," she said. "Yellow alert, raise shields and standby evasive and escape patterns."

"Aye, ma'am." Jayde kept one eye on her console as each department reported their readiness.

"Shields up. Weapons on stand-by." Jason replied.

On the view screen the shimmering suddenly shifted and changed, rippling and revealing a Venator class warbird. Instantly alarms across the Hyperion's bridge rang out. Evelyn sat up stiffly in her seat. "Report!" she shouted over the alarms.

"Its activating weapons," Jayde informed the captain. "Red alert!"

Jason quickly tapped his console, bringing up shield and hull strength.

The warbird fired its primary disruptors, striking the Hyperion with a barrage that shook the ship. On the bridge, Evelyn clung to the armrests in order to stay in her seat. "Return fire, helm evasive maneuvers now!" she ordered.

"Returning fire!" Jason shouted.

The Hyperion started to bank away from her attacker, but the Venator class warbird fired a rapid series of barrages from its primary disruptors, the Hyperion staggered through the onslaught, but barely.

"Shields are down 20%," the first officer reported.

"Hail them and request a response," Evelyn ordered as she frantically tried to think of a solution to the Hyperion's situation.

"Hailing," said Iona. "No response."

Evelyn wasn't surprised, but she had to at least try. "Divert all available power to shields. Helm, come about, tactical lock on and fire," she ordered.

"Coming about... " Leslie III announced as his hands danced over the console.

"Damage reports are coming in," Jayde reported.

"Ship's status?" Evelyn asked, her brain racing.

"Shields are at 50%. All decks reporting damage. Sickbay is receiving casualties."

"Helm, do we have warp?" Evelyn asked.

"Yes, sir. We can't do maximum warp, but we have enough for our needs."

"Then take us into warp, now!" the captain ordered. "Any heading and bearing, just get us into warp."

"Yes, sir. Going to warp now."

The Hyperion banked away and paused before jumping to warp. The warbird moved clear from its hiding place before following the Luna class ship into warp. The fully powered and undamaged warbird managed to quickly catch the damaged Hyperion and attacked again. This time, the damage to the Hyperion was severe enough to force the ship out of warp as power failed throughout the entire ship.

On the Hyperion's bridge, Evelyn was thrown to her knees on the deck of the bridge due to the savage onslaught of the warbird. When the attack subsided, she managed to pull herself back to her feet and take a look around the bridge. The damage was shocking.

"The warbird is circling around, next attack run in two minutes," the tactical officer reported.

Glancing at the master screen on the console nearest her, Evelyn noticed that a habit al planetoid was nearby. "All hands, abandon ship. Regroup on the planetoid nearby," she ordered.

Jayde sent the alert throughout the ship. "Two minutes to next attack. All crew, abandon ship." She sent the coordinates to the shuttles so everyone would know where to go. "Captain, we should get you to your yacht." She glanced at Jason, wanting him to help.

Jason nodded to Jayde. "Smoak to all security officers. Prepare for emergency evacuation procedures."

Evelyn shook her head as she moved to one of the forward consoles. "Commander, see to it that the crew are evacuated and get yourself off as well. I'll get to the yacht as soon as I confirm the crew are out of danger," she said.

(To be continued...)

 

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