The Wave

Posted on Sat Feb 26th, 2022 @ 12:20pm by Captain Ivan Petrov & Commander Cyrus Cain & Lieutenant JG Revana Nazar & Lieutenant Commander Troy Marshall & Lieutenant Cael Maz & Captain Fergus Williams & Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Callie Marshall & Lieutenant JG Melissa Jones & Lieutenant JG Kassandra Selin & Lieutenant Lionel Morrison

Mission: S1 Episode 1: Caretaker, Part I
Location: Various Locations
Timeline: MD 43, 0845 Hours
1505 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

Bridge
34 Days after departing from spacedock, the ISS Vengeance had entered the inhospitable region of plasma storms and gravitational anomalies known as the Badlands. The orange hue of the area shone on the viewscreen, bathing the bridge in a bright sandstone haze. Having entered the Badlands just an hour and a half ago, they had dropped their cloak and were carefully following the path planned for them by the Flight and Intelligence Departments.

On the Bridge, Captain Petrov, Lieutenant Marshall, and Lieutenant Maz leaned over the tactical console.

"We'll be in range of Quonor within the next 8 hours, gentlemen." Ivan stated, looking as Troy worked the console. "What's the safety rating on these thelaron devices, especially considering this mess we're traveling through?"

Troy brought up the weapon deployment schedule and safety precautions in place for the final leg of their mission. "Both weapons are in the forward torpedo room in null gravity containers. Portable inertial dampeners are attached to the containers to prevent any jarring of the weapons if we are forced to perform radical maneuvers prior to launching of the weapons. Lieutenant Cael has the specifications for warhead yield."

"The weapons will effectively take approximately twenty seconds to ready, from there, once fired, it will breach the planet's atmosphere and upon that detection, follow the magnetosphere and begin its dispersal orders. Within approximately five minutes from there, about ninety percent of the population will be wiped out. The other ten percent have been predicted to have underground bunkers with its own ventilation system. Those will need to be breached for the remaining population to be wiped out." Maz stated calmly.

Once the meeting at the tactical station was concluded, Ivan stepped down toward the conn and placed a hand on the shoulder of his Chief Pilot. He was the making the rounds, making sure his people were confident and knew that he had their backs.

“Steady as she goes, Mr. Anderson,” he said in a friendly tone. “We’ll make it.”

Johnathan turned his head and looked up at his Captain, a slight grin on his face. "Aye, Sir. The turbulence from the area is a bit more than I had been told, but I'll still give you a smooth ride, Captain."

As the Lieutenant was speaking, an alarm sounded from the operations console. Commander Cain advanced toward Vali’s console and stood on the other side of her, in front of it.

“What is it, Lieutenant?”

Callie looked at her readouts. “We’re being scanned Sir. It’s a Tetryon bean, currently of unknown origin.”

“Are there any ships in the area?” Cain asked, furrowing his brow.

Troy checked the tactical sensors. "Negative Captain. I am only detecting plasma discharges and stellar fragments consistent with the region."

Callie had no choice but to interrupt. “Sir! I’m picking up a Displacement wave!” She tapped her console. “It’s made up of Polarized Magnetics, and it’s going to impact us in 23 Seconds!”

Before Ivan could even give the order, Johnathan turned his attention back to his controls. "Going evasive! Hold on, everyone!" He quickly manipulated his controls forcing the battleship to flip head over tails on her x-axis, he then pushed the impulse engines to full emergency power. If they were outside of the Badlands, he would've just jumped to warp. Unfortunately, the storms in the region made it impossible to create a warpfield bubble. "Sir!" He shouted over the vibrations of the ship as she strained against the various eddies that ran through the region. "Even at emergency speeds, that wave is going to hit us before we can clear the Badlands!

Still standing behind Johnathan, Ivan watched as the man sprung into action and the image on the viewscreen twisted and turned. The orange dust clouds accelerated, it seemed, in their passing the Intrepid Class ship.

"Shields!" Ivan said, turning his head toward his tactical officer. "SHIELDS!"

Troy touched a button on his console. "Shields at maximum Captain!"

Intelligence
Morrison and Selin were in a stand off. He wanted to brig her arse but knew better and she wanted him to do his bloody job and get to the bridge but he was wanting to remain safely in Intelligence.

"Fine" She finally snapped out. "You know Lieutenant? I am done. I am through playing the protect the chief game. You want to stay here as a coward be my guest. I am going to the bridge." she spun on her heal and stalked out of Intelligence.

Engineering
Melissa spoke. "Ensign Nazar... Transfer power from all Non-Essential systems to the Structural integrity field. Replicators, The Agony Booths, Everything." Melissa mentioned as she went from console to console. "If our ship disintegrates... It will be quite inconvenient."

Revana worked at the console on the opposite side of the room as gold-shirts moved quickly around her. Some were from Alpha shift, but most were recently arrived as soon as the ship was in danger. Despite the fact that a heightened alert condition hadn't been called, most people on starships got to work as soon as something exciting started happening. The sad reality was that most space travel was boring point, click, and wait.

"Power transferred, ma'am." Revana said with a worried expression. "It's possible the wave could destabilize the warp core. I’m reducing the flow ratio. Hopefully that will make it more easily controlled.”

Holodeck
The marines had been practising again when the emergency alarm went off. The simulation ended immediately. " Everyone brace yourselves. " Yelled Fergus as he magnetized his armour as he looed around to his men.

Bridge
"Captain, it's possible a graviton particle field might disperse the wave. We can use our warp engines to generate one." Commander Cain said, his hands bracing on the metal railing between the back of the bridge and the command center.

"What are your thoughts, Lieutenant Maz?" Ivan asked, looking toward the science station.

Maz's fingers ran over the data, "It is possible that it has a chance. I need to scan the wave first. Never know what it might contain that might cause an adverse effect."

"Do it."

Maz nodded and his fingers flew over the console. "No effect. Wave is still on course for us." he said with a frown. "Hold on to something is all I can suggest from here."

Callie looked at her readouts. “Impact in 5 seconds! 4...3...2 seconds!!” She hung tightly onto her console.

"Brace for impact!" the captain said, turning and rushing toward the command chair. "Repeat, brace for impact!"

Callie hung on for dear life, exchanging a scared glance with Troy.

Johnathan quickly reached over and activated his emergency restraints, securing him to his seat and protecting him from being tossed across the bridge by the impending impact.

Cael Maz moved toward the wall, holding on to what he could and keeping himself clear from consoles. He had been in enough accidents near the, to know they tend to explode way too much.

Deck 9
Kass never made it to the bridge. Lionel caught her by the back of the neck near the turbolift and threw her down a side hallway.

Kass picked herself up, and as she turned to face him, drew her knife.

Lionel was already waiting for her, his own blade drawn. “No one to save you now Selin. Your cocksucking skills will not save your life”

“My what?” she growled

“You have been very busy, I wonder what the Captains wife will say when she finds out you are sleeping with her husband?”

“Well one, I haven’t been, and two Yana knows that.” Kass replied. “And as I have only slept with one man on this ship, your premise is very, very flawed”

Lionel snorted. “You have Marshall on a hook, Anderson as well as Caine and Petrov. The only reason they would do anything to support you is because you spread your legs for them. And I am done with you. I should have killed you the moment I saw you in the briefing. I will now however.”

“Well if you are thinking you can, please do try” she replied. “But I will return the favour”

Lionel lunged at her, and cursed as she dodged. “Stand still!” he ordered.

“No. I am not going to stand still so you can stab me to death.” Kass retorted back as she dove low and managed to score first blood, cutting him on the thigh as the ship went to red alert and the alarms blared.

He cursed and spun back towards her and lunged, his knife missing as the ship shook and bucked as the wave hit them. His forward momentum allowed Kassandra to throw him down the hall and into a wall.

The lights went out.

The wave smashed hard into the back of Vengeance, causing it to lurch forward and upward with amazing amazing speed. As consoles exploded and systems failed, people were thrown back and forth, and everything faded to black.