There's No Place Like Home Part II

Posted on Sat May 28th, 2022 @ 4:25am by Captain Ivan Petrov & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant JG Revana Nazar & Lieutenant Commander Troy Marshall & Captain Fergus Williams & Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Callie Marshall

Mission: S1 Episode 2: Caretaker, Part II
Location: Various Locations
Timeline: Mission Day 7 at 1400
1637 words - 3.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Continued:

Bridge, ISS Vengeance
Five minutes after sensors had informed the Bridge crew that the remainder of Culluh's flee was in-bound, no doubt because they had failed to receive a communique from their leader at a regular interval, the crew of the Vengeance and their ragtag fleet were standing ready for battle. Indeed, the Kazon's worst fears had been realized. The Vengeance had taken the Caretaker's Array and two of their ships as well, meaning that they had hundreds of hostages and the means, if they could figure them out, to destroy so much of what they held dear.

At Ops Andrea was monitoring the Kazon fleet. “The Kazon fleet ETA is 64 seconds Sir” she looked up at Ivan briefly before looking back at her readings.

The doors to the turbolift opened and Culluh exited in restraints, four security officers flanking him and a phaser rifle at his back. Slowly, he was walked down to the command level and stood in front of the Captain.

"I suspect my Discipline Inspection team has given you quite the time, Culluh."

The Kazon man's eyes were wide, as if he had just seen a ghost.

"That is an understatement, Petrov. Is this the part where you execute me?" he asked, looking at the man with the large beard as if that was what he wanted.

"Maybe. But first, there's something I need you to do....for your people." he said, his voice soft. "Tell your remaining vessels to fall back and leave the area at once or they will be destroyed."

The man seemed to ponder for only an instant before he nodded his head.

"There's been enough bloodshed today, Captain. just let me talk to my people, and I'll make it happen."

Nodding, Ivan turned to the ops console and nodded.

Andrea tapped her console, putting the transmission on the main viewer.

On the screen, Margol appeared aboard the bridge of a Kazon Federation vessel. The man who had guided the away team down to the Ocampa society and double-crossed them for their own mission in the end looked with surprise.

"Culluh! You're alive." he said, taking several steps toward his own viewscreen.

"Not for long, Margol...listen very carefully. It's very important you do exactly as I say." Culluh said, himself taking a few steps forward. "These people want Empire, not merely to get home. Destroy the array immediately! Destroy it while you still c-"

Culluh's words choked into screams as Ivan's fingers wrapped around his hair and, drawing his head back, he drew his shimmering blade across the Kazon's neck. Blood sputtered from the open gash as the man struggled for breath. When he collapsed to the floor, dead, Ivan's face, jacket, and leather gloves were dotted with red.

"Your leader died like a fool, and you are about to join him. All weapons, all ships. Fire!" Ivan bellowed.

As soon as Captain Petrov finished speaking, Johnathan started working his controls. "I call this one, Anderson Offensive One!"

Outside, the Vengeance moved like she was a living creature. She stalked her prey briefly, before leaping into action. Performing a micro warp jump behind the enemy, Johnathan brought the mighty warship around, bringing her weapons to bear on their first target.

Troy concentrated the full firepower of the [i]Vengeance[/i] on the largest capital ship in the Kazon fleet. The phaser cannon and numerous phaser arrays collapsed the enemy vessels shields in short order and two photon torpedoes obliterated the ship seconds later.

Kazon Predator Klandell
Rhen sat at the seat of the pilots station it looked like it seen better days so many things missing on it. But he was a decent pilot not as good as the guy driving on the bridge of the Vengeance. "Ready here, Fergus."

Dropping the slumped Kazon of his consol the marine furiously began typing. His translator was doing it's best to translate as he targeted and fired at one of the Kazon ship ripping a chunk into her hull. You could see cargo and crew being vented into the void before another volley blew her to oblivion.

Bridge, ISS Vengeance
The Kazon phasers concentrated their fire on the double-layered shields of Vengeance, pounding them with orange energy and rocking the powerful vessel. She turned and arced away under the capable hand of her pilot and a torpedo barely missed her shields. She had not had a deep enough drink of Kazon blood; that much was clear.

Andrea was keeping her concentration on the shields. “Outer Shield layer at 73 percent and holding!”

Ivan, for his part, said nothing. His crew was already in the thick of battle and knew what to do. He merely moved his gloved fingers over the console next to him, sending the next target to helm and tactical. They would execute seamlessly without unnecessary talk. He watched the screen intensely.

Seeing the new target, Johnathan's fingers danced across his controls. On the viewscreen, the image of the battle spun, as the Vengeance rotated 180 degrees on her X-axis. Johnathan then dipped her nose in a large barrel roll. In doing so, he kept all of her dorsal weapons pointed at the target, as he brought the ship around.

Troy repeated the same overwhelming firepower tactic that destroyed the first ship. This next vessel didn't even last as long as the first ship. He smirked with a derisive shake of his head. These aliens were no match for a Terran warship.

Kazon Predator Lovarr
On the bridge of the other Kazon vessel, Andrei sat in the command chair. Still, at his feet, the dead commander lay leaking his lifeblood all over the deck plating. Andrei paid no attention to that. He looked at Nazar and gave her a wink. As soon as she did, the ship began to rock with weapons fire. He looked at the screen and saw two Kazon ships, both of a smaller class than theirs, blasting their phasers in their direction.

"Shields at 62 percent." Came the voice of the Orion officer standing at a nearby console.

"Target the one on the left. Use strategic phaser blasts to drain their forward shield."

The security officer at the tactical station merely nodded, turning the guns of the large ship on the designated ship. Orange phaser fire identical to the other Kazon vessels leaped out, smashing into the forward shields of the target. Since both ships were making a run for them, it was easy pickings. The only problem was it gave the two attacking vessels a chance to fire back. Phaser fire was exchanged to the sound of the brutal rocking of the Lovarr. Once the shields of the target had dipped below 10 percent after a constant barrage of fire, Andrei looked at the tactical console.

"Torpedoes, full volley, fire!"

The flash of torpedoes filled the viewer as they arced toward the target and smashed into their bridge, collapsing the hull around the structure and causing a cascade of explosions. Seconds later, the ship exploded.

"Target the other one, Revana said, not waiting for Andrei's command to issue her own. She was effectively his XO, and she was willing to make that known. "Our shields are down to 19 percent, so we don't have time to wait around."

Kazon Predator Klandell
Fergus growled as the console he was typing on short circuited. " Does anything on this ship work." He yelled as he stepped to the next one to see if he could re write flight control to that one.

Rhen wasn't having much luck on his end the pilot controls was a mess. "Maybe we should of picked a better ship to steal." The ship rocked causing sparks to fly. "Captain, two Kazon ships on our tail!"

" Dump anything out of the cargo hold to slow them down while I get the weapons online," Fegus yelled from his consol.

Rhen wasn't sure if flinging space trash at the enemy ships was going to even work but he thought against challenging Fergus on his hair-brained idea. "Decompressing the cargo holds." The ship rocked again as Rhen blew everything out from the cargo bays into space just Fergus said the ships behind them slowed down to avoid the trash.

With a grin Fergus made the ship lurch one hundred and eighty degrees bringing the guns online. The weapons slammed into the fifth ship's bridge decompressing the ship and sending it hurtling into the next one. With a grin the marine fired again sending both of the ships to oblivion.

Rhen brought the ship back on course slowly shaking his head. "Nice move, next time you want to warn me first?"

Bridge, ISS Vengeance
As the fighting continued, one ship, the one commanded by Margol, broke away from combat and streamed toward the station, as fast as her engines could carry her. She didn't fire her weapons, but merely moved.

"Break off the attack and pursue vessel." Ivan said, his mind turning to the possible implications of what was happening. "Full impulse power."

"Aye!" Johnathan punched in the commands and his ship obeyed them immediately. In seconds, the mighty Imperial warship was bearing down on Margol's ship.

As Vengeance bore down on the Kazon ship, she came to a stop in front of the array and all went silent. No attempt was made to fire on the array whatsoever.

"What the hell are they doing?" the Captain asked, but then turned to the Operations console. "Andrea, scan the array for any changes, chemical or otherwise."

Andrea turned her full attention to the Array, “Sensors are showing a possible indication of several large devices being remotely triggered aboard the array.” She focused the sensors further to get a better reading. “Captain I think they just armed antimatter explosives!”

TBC