Lift Off

Posted on Thu Aug 18th, 2022 @ 1:25pm by Captain Ivan Petrov & Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth & Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant JG Taina M'Tras & Callie Marshall

Mission: S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: Various Locations
Timeline: Mission Day 8 at 0900
1711 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Vengeance Bridge
After hours of administering the Vidiian cure, the virus had been officially eradicated aboard the Vengeance and Klandell. Now a few days of recovery remained for many of them with the most severe cases, but the symptoms had already started to abate as their bodies healed. The Vidiian ship had been officially named the ISS Rynall and Commander Marshall had been sent over to oversee her crew of 350 Vidiians transitioned into obedient slaves of the Empire. They were more sophisticated and ingenious than the Kazon, and they would make a wonderful new addition for their technology and sciences.

Ivan Petrov's joints still hurt tremendously, but it was enough for him to remain on duty as his body repaired whatever damage had been done. On his arm, though covered by his uniform sleeve, a nasty patch of skin looked extremely irritated. He imagined himself looking like those creatures they had been forced to contend with if the disease developed, and he nearly wretched. Beside him, the XO's chair was empty. This change, which had only just been made, would be permanent in his mind. Troy would command their second most fearsome ship after Vengeance and, eventually, he would need to find a new XO.

Down in Sickbay Callie was still in a deep sleep as her body healed from both child birth, and life saving surgery. Her son was recovering slowly from his own battle with the phage, having caught it whilst in the womb.

Back on the bridge, Johnathan gave Kassandra a quick wink snd a smile as he moved to his helm. They hadn't had anytime since the attack to really see how the other was feeling, but, he could tell that she was already on the mend, as was he.

Though Christoph was still feeling lingering pain in his joints, he had returned to his post on the bridge. While Cassiel could have handled it, Christoph preferred to let her and the teams who had gone to the Rynall finally take a rest. Chances are they would need to be as fresh as they could be for what was to come. Hopefully after all of this things would settle down for a while. His people were exhausted and so was he.

Sovas had thankfully not developed any of the rather painful symptoms of the Phage and he wondered if the Vidiian representative had been trying to con them into thinking that they all had the rather deadly disease. Though he hadn't taken any chances and received the cure, which in and of itself was an ordeal but he'd borne it stoically and was calmly posted at his station waiting to see what came next, preferably something more...sedate.

"Alright, Status Report. All Departments." Ivan said, clearing his throat.

Johnathan rubbed his hands together, relieved the pain is finally gone. He was glad that the Vidiians had been made to pay for their attack. He hoped that Commander Marshall kept them on a very short leash.

After looking over his control board, Johnathan spun his chair around to face Ivan and smiled politely. "All flight systems show green and awaiting your orders, Sir!"

"Operations is fully functional captain." Sovas replied with that calm evenness that seemed to be a part of who he was, it wasn't the bland emotionless of Vulcan aesthetics but a genuine unflappable poise to him.

Taina glanced at the console showing a just completed diagnostic. It had been a bit of a race to repair the damage done in the recent attack and she had also made the shield placements she and Revana had used automatic when sensors picked up fire. A good defensive measure. She hit the comm. "All engineering systems a go, captain!"

"Weapons and shields are primed. Squad gamma is on standby." Christoph supplied from his station, keeping it simple and straightforward as he usually did.

Satisfied with the reports, Ivan moved his finger along the console between him and the empty XO's chair.

"Signal blue alert. All hands, all ships, prepare for immediate departure from the planet." Ivan said, and then turned off coms himself. "Helm, activate atmospheric thrusters and stabilizers.

Upon hearing Ivan's announcement of Blue Alert, Johnathan swung back to his controls and began the process of warming up the atmospheric thrusters. When Iven then gave the order, Johnathan then increased the power to the thrusters. Everything was now primed for launch. "All systems set, Captain, awaiting final launch order, Sir."

"Take us out, Lieutenant Anderson." Ivan said, looking to his helmsman, second officer, and the suitor of his daughter. He hadn't spoken to Johnathan about his performance the day before, after Ivan had been knocked out, but he intended to. Perhaps it was enough that he had decided to leave his XO seat vacant rather than ask his Second Officer to step up into the role. For now, he would command by himself, paperwork and all.

Johnathan grinned and nodded as he turned his head back to look forward. "Aye, Sir!" He replied with exuberance. His fingers then danced over his controls and a few beats later, a low rumble started to roll through Vengeance as her powerful thrusters fought to get her airborne.

Suddenly, in a massive storm cloud of dust, the mighty ISS Vengeance lifted off the ground. She rose slowly at first, but when the forward thrusters were activated, she accelerated forward and upward into the blue sky of the world, her landing struts retracting as she ascended. The Rynall and the Klandell were soon to follow. The Lovarr's absence was conspicuous.

Back inside the bridge, Johnathan continued to call out their progress. "Crossing ten thousand feet...fifteen thousand...we are still showing green across the board! We will make orbit in five...four....three...two...one!"

As quickly as the shuddering had begun, it was completely gone, once the Vengeance returned to her native environment, outer space.

"We are in low orbit." Johnathan announced. "I am deactivating thrusters, bringing the impulse engines online to move us out if the planet's gravity well."

There was a slight feeling of inertia as the ship blasted forward on full impulse. Once the ships all cleared the gravity well, all feeling of movement ended as well, as they were now fully under the operating purview of their own internal life support systems.

"We are floating free, Captain," Johnathan looked back over his right shoulder at Ivan. "Deactivating Blue Alert. Fleet stands by for your orders, Sir."

Once the fleet had returned to space, where they belonged, a sigh of release seemed to move simultaneously through the crew. Ivan, for his part, had his mind on other things. Namely: his son. He had either abandoned them totally, or something worse was afoot.

"Sovas, can you track the route of the ISS Lovar?" Ivan asked, getting up with a wince and a growl and looking back at Operations.

The half-Vulcan's attention was turned to his station as he began scanning for the Kazon ship's warp trail that had several hours to decay before they had begun pursuit, which would make tracking more difficult. He ran several scans to built the best trail to determine what direction the fleeing ship had made its escape. "The trail is faint but I was able to locate to the port side of the ship at bearing 330, mark 15 and according to the Kazon records there is a enclave on that heading."

“Helm, set a course along that line, maximum warp.” Ivan ordered. His mind drifting to his son and the possible reasons for his ship having left that planet at the only time when they couldn’t chase them down. “Andrei wouldn’t go to a Kazon Enclave…”

"Aye, Sir!" Johnathan replied, his earlier exuberance now replaced by a serious demeanor. As he worked his controls, his mind went to Andrei. While they certainly were not what one would consider friends, he was still a loyal Imperial officer and a shipmate. If the Kazon dogs had done anything to him, Johnathan swore to himself that they would suffer long and excruciatingly painful deaths.

In less than ten seconds, the mighty Imperial warship, along with her small, but growing fleet, reoriented their bearings, then, after the Vengeance's powerful warp nacelles rotated up into position, all three ship jumped to high warp speeds.

After looking at his readings, Johnathan spun his chair around to address Ivan. "Captain, suggest we engage the cloak. If the Lovarr is still running, we would stand a better chance of catching her unawares if she can't see us coming. It is, afterall, one thing to see a Kazon and Vidiian ship flying about. Even if the deception only gives us a few seconds, those seconds could be the determining factor of getting Andrei back, Sir."

“Sir, if I may,” Ivers spoke up, “I suggest we keep the Klandell and Rynall out of sensor range the Lovarr’s sensor range. It will easily ping the Klandell if it comes too close and cloaked or not we would lose the element of surprise. Since the Klandell didn’t leave with the Lovarr it seems likely that they were not a part of the… plan.” There was a certain tone of distaste in his voice as he said the last word.

Johnathan nodded in agreement. "Sir, I concur with Ivers. We should go in alone, but the Klandell and Rynall should be be kept within at least extreme sensor range. That way, should their assistance be required, they could get to us quickly."

"We will cloak when we have them on long-range sensors." Ivan said, having listened to the advice of his Chief of Security and Chief Flight Control Officer. "Mr. Ivers, signal the Klandell and Rynall to fall back to long-distance range. Let them know that, as soon as we cloak, they should come to a stop and wait."

“Aye, Captain.” Christoph replied and relayed the message quickly. His eyes came up to the back of Jonathan’s head and he wondered briefly if they would end up having it out more or if the matter between them was settled. He didn’t dwell on it long though and returned his attention to his own station. “Orders relayed.”

END