[Josh Broughm]

JP By Josh Broughm, DeuZgie & Krajin
USS ARES
Shuttlebay
A few minutes after Max suits up.


Max walked into the shuttlebay, fully suited up and ready to go. "Schrit, Thane, looks like our situation went from bad to worse."

"In my experience missions like this usually have that effect on situations." Schrit remarked before asking; "I'm guessing our opposition has greater numbers than we're expecting?"

"Much worse than that," Max said, "You guys ever hear about a Silithium lance?"

"Not a lance, but Silithium is used to destabilise Wormholes. The particle is antagonistic towards the same ones that are within the Wormhole." He'd say, walking along with them through the shuttle bay with his kit in a small bag.

"Well," Max said grimly, "they intend to destroy the wormhole with it. The bastards got it from the Syndicate, whom got it from a traitor inside Starfleet."

"I am skeptical that they plan to destroy it after kidnapping ambassadorial staff. Unless you have intelligence that confirms this?" He'd ask. "If the traitor is in fact present within Starfleet then they need to be found and dealt with. Though, Starfleet having such weapons is.. rather amusing." He looked about then added "Maybe the Federation will do what should of been done during the War."

"That's a problem for another day, friend." Max said, "Our only focus is getting Sam back, capturing Krass & disabling the weapon." He brought up a holographic map of the structure and said, "Sam's being held here." Max pointed to the section of the structure. "Stealth is being thrown out the window, as they're likely to be expecting us. Schrit, how close can you get us to this location?"

Even though we're no longer opting for a stealthy approach i suggest we make our approach from this side" Schrit said, pointing at the holo-map. "It's uphill, and i can park the shuttle right there" he added, pointing at a spot behind a small embankment. "With any luck they're not going to see us coming in, and don't know the location of our shuttle. It only takes one smart ass getting the idea of destroying or stealing the shuttle for us to be stuck without a way back." Schrit explained.

The landing site was no more than 100 meters from the entrance. As it was also approximately 10 meters below that entrance's level the Shuttle's noise wouldn't reach it.

"Good enough for me. I want do a sensor pass before we land. I want to know what exactly we're walking into." Max said, then climbed into the shuttle. He settled into one of the seats behind the cockpit & took his katana from his back and placed it on the bench.

Schrit walked towards the pilot seat with the intention of starting departure procedures, after stowing his duffle bag under one of the benches in the back of the shuttle. Passing the Katana that Max had placed on the bench Schrit noticed it looked familiar. He took a closer look at it and his eyes went wide with awe as he recognised it. He turned to Max with an expression of incredulity and awe. "Commander, that has to be a replica. Surely that is not the real Mikazuki-munechika you're bringing on this mission.... is it?" he asked.

Thane settled in and looked at the weapon being shown. He didn't seem to understand the name or the meaning behind it. Something to ask about later maybe. Hopefully the mission might yield something concerning such a weapon.

Max said, "Everything I learned about bladed combat, I got from my Grand-dad. Same goes with the making of swords. When I was tested on close quarters combat, I had received special certification to carry a dagger on away missions. As for not having a phaser..." He pressed a button on his arm. A small crystal was uncovered at the tip of his index. "That's it there." Max said, "Took me about three months to get used to using it after I got this arm."

"Your Phaser arm is a large target. The right spot and it is disabled. Allot easier than the standard issue Phaser. Though carrying a Dagger requires special dispensation from Starfleet? Interesting. Is it the same for wielding this.. Katana that has been brought on board? Seems a bit strange considering Starfleet standard of stun, over kill." Thane would get comfortable in the Co-Pilots chair within the Shuttlecraft, going over his own equipment was easy. His Disruptor sidearm with its stun modification, a small dagger for a just in case plus a utility belt with three flash bang grenades.

"It's a long story." Max said simply, "We get out of this & I'll tell you that one over drinks." He leaned back as the shuttle lifted off.

In the years i've spent as a Marine and doing Spec or Black Ops I've come to appreciate sharpened metal edges as well as developed some skills in using them. I've found though that I'm better suited to using Shuriken. If my enemy is close enough for a Katana or other blade to be useful I've failed already in my view, and should have neutralized him/her before they had come so close." Schrit commented as he worked the shuttle controls to send it on their way to their destination.

"Shuriken are.. a not so useful weapon considering their design. Armour, tough outer exteriors will resist their points." Thane'd add. "Starfleet equips its people.. strangely."

When they'd reached the target area he notified Max, and steered the shuttle in a wide circle around the target's entrance twice and passed over the target once.

Max got up from his seat and approached the cockpit. He studied the display and said, "Ten warm bodies, three of them in the hangar. How many ships are down there?"

Looks like there's two older sub light fighters as far as our sensors can tell. Looks like they're occupation era, barely space worthy to be honest" Schit said, interpreting the data the sensors were showing him.

"Only two?" Max said, "Doesn't seem like a very big group." Me crossed his arms and said, "Bring us down."

"Looks like we haven't been noticed yet. I'll set us down right there and with a little luck retain the element of surprise until we actually charge the door" Schrit replied pointing out the spot he was talking about through the shuttles viewport.

Max slung the katana to his left hip & readjusted his armor vest. He then pressed a control on his arm and a voice said, "Stun grip enabled."

Smoothly and gently the shuttle settled on the exact spot Schrit had intended it to, without any sounds from the engines or the touch down not reaching up to the entrance, and remaining unnoticed by anyone. Schrit got from the pilot seat, grabbed his duffle bag and took out the ammo-feeder for the little minigun attached to his right lower arm. He also pocketed 4 flashbangs and 4 anti personnel grenades in the vest he wore over his armor. Lastly he took out a pair of goggles, placed them over his eyes and flicked a switch on it. He checked the virtual display it produced before him and nodded to the two other men to indicate he was ready to go.

"Everything but the kitchen sink," Max said. He pulled the katana from its sheath and quickly checked it, then replaced it.

Grabbing his kit, Thane would get up, brush everything down and adjust his cloak slightly. "Why would you take the Kitchen sink?" He'd ask and glance at the Minigun and just snort. "Afraid of missing?" He'd ask with amusement. That thing would expend its load of ammunition within a few seconds from what he'd seen of such weapons. "Lets get going, let's be silent."

"Let's begin," Max said, determination in his words, "shall we?"

[WelshAvenger]

U.S.S. ARES
Bridge



Mariella sat in her chair as the Ares pulled away from Deep Space Nine, her mind occupied by the status screens attached to the arms of her chair. All around her, the sound of the ship was soothing to her ears. The murmurs of the bridge crew rang softly as they spoke to their departments in other areas of the ship.

"Captain," Ensign Falora at the Science station called out, "incoming subspace transmission for your eyes only."

"Thank you, Ensign, I'll take it in my ready room." Mariella walked across the bridge and sat behind her desk, keying in her access code.

An unfamiliar man's face appeared on the screen, "Captain Jones, I'm Commander Holstein. I was assigned as lead investigator in a case involving one of your crewmembers."

Mariella nodded, "Nice to meet you, Commander, I'm passingly familiar with the case, how can I be of assistance?"

"We've reached a decision and I thought you should know." Holstein explained.

"Go on." Mariella's heart skipped a beat. She knew that the future of one of her officers was hanging on the the next words out of the Security Officer's mouth.

Holstein explained.

Mariella's face was impassive, "Thank you Commander. I appreciate you taking the time to tell me directly. Ares out." She stood and made her way to the replicator, ordered a mug of Chai and then tapped her commbadge, "Jones to Cushing, report to my ready room."

A few minutes later, Christopher sat in front of his Captain, his eyes alert.

Mariella sipped her tea, "I just received a call from JAG regarding Ensign Han."

Christopher visibly deflated, "Captain..." he began but Mariella held up a hand to forestall any further comments.

"Commander Holstein conducted a thorough investigation of events at the Academy, interviewing many of Cadet Han's classmates and instructors. Some of whom, he remarked, had retired from Starfleet and no longer felt pressured by senior officers. Their sworn statements along with logs taken from the Academy and certain individuals activities after Cadet Han left have resulted in the arrest of two medical officers and the father of one of them for perverting the cause of justice. It is the determination of the Judge Advocate General herself that Ensign Han's record be expunged." Mariella sipped her tea once again and eyed the Doctor carefully.

Christopher became acutely aware that his mouth was hanging open, "Good grief! They exonerated Jei after all this time? That's one hell of an investigator. This news couldn't have come at a better time with everything Jeihee is going through."

Mariella looked confused, "What's happened?"

Christopher voice dropped, "I received a message from CinC Sol explaining that Jei's husband, Lt. Cmdr Wang was killed during a rescue operation outside the Sol system a few weeks before you came aboard. They'd received a distress call from the.."

"S.S. Loren Vale." Mariella finished, her face draining of all colour.

"Now, how on Earth did you know tha... Oh no!" realisation spread across Christopher's face. "You were there. What happened?"

"Doctor, we're on our way to conduct a search and rescue so you'll forgive me if I don't have time to indulge you." Mariella spoke, a little too harshly.

"My apologies, Captain. Request permission to return to my duties?" Christopher tone was cold.

Mariella waved a hand at him, softening her tone, "Dismissed. Once we have a spare moment, I'll speak to Ensign Han."

Christopher nodded, "I appreciate that, Captain."

Mariella leaned back in her chair, clutching her mug, "Scram."

[Josh Broughm]

JP By Myself, Krajiin & DeuZige
Bajoran moon
Abanonded base

Max walked up to the door of the base & placed his biomechanical hand on it. The sensors on the hand transmitted the various pot marks of age across its surface. He then ran a finger down the separation at the middle of it, checking if this was forcible. "Very old titanium alloy. This door doesn't seem to be used by anyone." He said.

Schrit flicked through some of the sensor modes on his HUD and nodded. "That would explain the lack of any detectable security measures, technological or otherwise. There do not even seem to be any guards posted in the direct vicinity. Either this is a very elaborate trap or the current occupants of this facility aren't aware of this particular door" he said, adding "My money's on the latter".

Max brought up a holographic image from his arm. It showed the mechanism of the door was locked into position, but not by any security algorithm. "Looks like we're gonna have to knock." He said, "Thane, mind doing the honours?"

Thane studied the door a bit longer than the rest did as he approached it and began to feel the surface with a large hand of his. Finding the seam of the door the Ferasan looked it up and down and then rummaged through one of his belt pouches and removed two smaller versions of the clamps used to manually open locked down Starfleet (And likely Klingon) doors. Each clamp is set on either side of the door and the beastly Ferasan would start to pry them apart.

He's showing off just a tiny bit here with his physical strength as the doors slowly but surely are pried apart to allow them entry. It's a tight fit for sure but it could be far worse! “In you go!” He'd step aside and let them enter first.

Max poked his head in and looked around. He then proceeded to start entering the opening but found himself slightly stuck. "I have to lay off the hoagies," he said as he pushed off the inside of the door to get himself to unjam himself. When Max got himself free, he took a quick look around the room. Old storage crates dotted the room & a console was along one side of the room. Across the room was another door. "Thane, check those crates please. Van, let's see if this console is active." Max asked.

Thane walked over to the crates and began to check them over. Brushing off some dust here and getting out his Tricorder and began to run some scans. “Hm. Old weapons. Mix of Bajoran and stolen Cardassian rifles and pistols. Not well kept though as some seem to be suffering from corrosion and power cells leaking fluid. Not the greatest kept armoury here for sure. Though, I also wouldn't be surprised if some of these were rigged this way.”

Shrit silently stepped over to the console, recognizing it as a normal, be it rather old and archaic, warehouse inventory management and logistics control terminal. Given the state of the entrance and the inside of the warehouse, he doubted the terminal was an active node in the network. He didn’t even think the network that the warehouse had once been part of was active, online, let alone connected to anything actively being utilized by the current occupants of the facility.

Cautioun had in the past proven to be a virtue through and Schrit had the sensors of his tricorder direct their attention to the terminal before touching it physically. The readings rolling across a tiny portion of the hud in front of his eye told him, surprisingly, that the terminal was in fact operable, and even connected to a network that was also operable. “The terminal isn’t dead, and it’s hooked up to a network” he quietly informed Max. “No sighn of security measures or active sensors though” he added.

Max tapped a control on his arm to bring up his sensor readings. He saw two bodies patrol up & down corridors that were opposite either side of this room. "Two patrol guards doing rounds." He said to the two. He approached the door. It suddenly opened, causing Max to have a small heart attack and dive for cover to hide.

The door would open and Thane ducked up against the wall and waited, hands ready to grab someone and give them a sleepy hug they will never forget. When nobody came he would carefully press the button on the wall to close the door and lock it. Adrenaline spike now wearing off he would look to Max “Shh... Be wary of the doors. Had someone been on the other side..” He'd trail off. Letting the statement hang heavily on the air.

"Yeah, I know." Max said, slightly annoyed, "We need to take out those guards. Van, keep working on that console."

Schritt nodded as he got up from the crouching position he dropped into when he heard the sound of the opening door. “Yes sir,” he said as he tapped the screen of the terminal. The terminal screen lit up and displayed a menu, with an irritatingly excited cursor blinking as if eager to be given a command. The menu listed few options but one of them made Schritt do a double-take. “I can’t believe it sir, but there is a visual inspection and locating feature I can activate,” Schritt said, tapping the menu option. The screen switched to what was obviously the view from a CCTV cam on the ceiling of another warehouse storage room in the facility like the one they were in. Moving his finger left to right across the screen made the view move in the same direction. “There seem to be eight different views available,” he said, stepping aside obviously expecting either Max or Thane to want to see for themselves.

Max approached the screen & looked at the screen that had the landing pad. He noticed a familiar figure working on a large weapon. "Van," Max asked, "bring up the feed to the landing pad."

Stepping back up to the terminal Schritt proceeded to scroll through the feeds until the screen showed the landing pad, the camera obviously slowly panning left to right. There were a few people walking through the camera’s view, seemingly a couple of armed men and women following a person obviously leading them.

Max had a good, long look at the figure. It can't be. He thought, It really can't be him, can it? Max shook the thought out of his head & said, "Does this have a feed to the hall outside?"

“Sure. Here.” Schritt replied and keyed the terminal to show the view Max had asked for. Knowing that the time had come to finish the mission and for the violence to commence, Schritt moved to stand ready before the door leading out into the facility.

Max motioned to Thane and said, "Klingon Sleeper hold?"

Thane watched the screens as they switched between the various views of the Sensors. The Ferasan counted how many guards they had, equipment and how they carried themselves. Looking over to Max as he speaks up, Thane flashes a bright grin towards him. “I got something for it, don't worry.”

"Good enough," Max said, then he charged his mecharm's stun grip. "Other side of the door, please."

As Max charged his stun grip, Thane flexed his hands and readied himself mentally. He focused on the moment there and rather than watch the screens that had the Cameras on them. He reached out with his mind to feel the other minds in the compound. One was walking by the door, the guard in the hallway that they needed to take down. Thane hit the button on the door for it to open as the soldier walked by and like a frightening trap-door cat, he grabbed the man in surprise. One hand over the mouth while his opposite forearm was wrapped around the Cardassian's throat. Pulling him into the room Thane kept him in a tight sleeper hold and once the fellow had fallen into unconsciousness, Thane laid him down against the wall.

Max then quickly darted to the opposite wall & motioned to Thane to take the other corner. As soon as the Bajoran w came into view, Max grabbed his neck & shoulder, with the mecharm firmly gripping the man's shoulder. The arm sent a quick 5000 Volts through the Bajoran's body & he instantly became limp, dropping to the floor. The three now move on to their next objective.

MEANWHILE.....((Authored by WelschAvenger))
USS Ares
Mariella watched the viewscreen as Bajor IV drew ever closer. Smaller than the home planet of the system, Bajor VII, Bajor IV didn't have a name. Its orbit wasn't in the Goldilocks zone and so far the Bajorans hadn't terraformed it enough to support a full time settlement. Mariella could already make out the arid, sun blasted surface which reflected light on its two moons.

"Helm, bring us into a stationary orbit close to the shadow of the second moon." Mariella instructed. "Let's see if we can use the gravity field and radiation from Bajor IV as a screen while we use the moon's mass to disguise our power signature."

Ensign Dawkins at the Helm station nodded, "Aye, Captain, Geostationary orbit programmed in."

"Thank you, Ensign." Mariella acknowledged. "Ops, begin scans of the system and see if Engineering can boost the resolution to compensate for the missing sensor palettes."

After a moment, Lt Elia answered, "Captain, Engineering reports that they can bring the sensors up to 92% effectiveness within the next twenty minutes."

Mariella blinked, "Really? Well, congratulate Engineering and start the scans when possible."

The ship settled into orbit of the dark side of Bajor IV's second moon. "Tactical alert." ordered Mariella.

Lieutenant Frost at the Tactical station activated a series of commands on his console and the lighting on the bridge dropped and turned to a blue hue. All over the sip, non-essential systems were being closed down to minimise the power draw upon the warp core.

Two hours later, Mariella was getting restless. Her palms itched, a sure sign of impending trouble. Everything seemed so quiet and normal in the system so far. Looking around the bridge, she tried to gauge the level of stress the crew were under. She noticed Lieutenant Frost frowning at his station. "What's up, Mr Frost?"

"Captain, I'm getting a really faint reading around Bajor IV, but it's odd." replied Frost.

Now it was Mariella's turn to frown, "Odd in what way?"

"It looks like a subspace eddy but it's almost not registering and it's intermittent but not at regular intervals." Frost worked his controls some more.

"Ops, could it be an artifact from the sensor refit?" Mariella asked.

Lieutenant Elia's hands blurred across her console, "No, Captain, it's highly unlikely. Lt. Nog's people are too reliable for them to botch the installation and leave artifacts in the systems."

Mariella considered her options, "Concentrate sensors around Bajor IV, see if you can get a better reading. Subspace eddies don't randomly appear and I don't like mysteries. Go to Red Alert."

[Josh Broughm]

This is from the cloaked ship's perspective
Renegade
Bridge
Just after the rescue team touches down


Cmdr. Helmsley sat in the center of a very strange, but active bridge. He had a small holographic display, showing the rescue team enter the base. "Renegade to Storm." The channel was specked with static, but the connection was good. "Storm here. What's up?" Helmsley reported, "Sir, the Ares just sent down a ground assault team, likey to get that diplo back from there." Storm coughed a bit & asked, "Were you detected?" The commander looked over to an officer at one of the back stations. The officer shook his head & Helmsley said, "Not as of yet, sir." Storm sighed and said, "Go to Red Alert & load up the EM Bullets. Might need to make a quick get away." The comms snapped off and Helmsley said, "You heard the man, ARM 'ER UP!!!"



Bajoran moon
Abandoned Base

Storm looked at Krass & said, "Knowing them, they'll likely be here within a few minutes." Krass threw a small can at a wall & cursed in Bajoran, then said, "I've not come this far to fail now!!" Storm approached him & said, "Don't get your panties in a bunch. This thing has a turret mode." He then turned to his ground assistant & said, "Hollis, plant this thing on the ground." The assistant nodded and entered a few commands on a padd he was holding. In about 30 seconds, the Lance shot spikes into the Tarmac of the landing pad and began calibrating for planetary firing. Krass smiled and said, "May the prophets burn." Storm said, "It'll take at least twenty-five minutes for the weapon to saturate for firing at this distance." Krass picked up a weapon and said, "I'll take care of these INPOLITE BAJORAN TERM." He walked off. Hollis approached and said, "He's going to end up getting captured." Storm Smiled and said, We got paid beforehand, so it isn't our problem."


((OOC: Sorry for the double post))

[Josh Broughm]

JP by Myself, Deuzige & Krajin
Bajoran Moon
Abandoned base



After about two minutes of walking through corridors, the team comes up to a door with Bajoran script on it.

"Hrm...," Max said, "I should've taken some extra languages in the Academy."

He looked down at his Mecharm & saw a human life sign inside the room. "Sam's in here!" Max said happily.

“You should have. Learning different languages makes you less reliant on Universal Translators. Makes you inefficient.” Thane responded, though he did sound rather Borg like in that. Definitely not his intention.

"One other Life sign," Max said, "Bajoran. Van, Thane, flank the door. I'll do the knocking."

Schrit took up position to the left side of the door, leaving the opposite side to Thane. On a hunch he kept his firearms on standby, and switched his HUD to heat sensitive, maybe they could remain off the scope of the facility's occupants for just a little while longer if they could deal with the one guard quietly.”

This was Max's mission, so Thane followed what he was requested to do and stepped up to the door. His disruptor was holstered in the quick draw styled Holster just in case.

Max walked up to the door, pressed the button and ducked back around a corner. A heavy set Bajoran came out to look.

Well! Bajorans can get that jacked? Certainly had Thane by surprise to say the least. He checked the room behind them quickly before grabbing the Bajoran's Phaser pistol from the back holster to disarm the beast of a man.

Max got face to face with the Bajoran and said, "Hello, sunshine!"

He proceeded to clamp his mechanical hand on his wrist, but before he got the stun function activated, the heavy-set Bajoran quickly shot his arm up and grabbed Storm by the neck.

The moment the big guy grabbed Max by the throat, Thane stepped right up behind him and in a fluid motion wrapped one arm around the Bajoran's neck in a sleeper hold, whilst his boot connected with the back of his knee. Eliciting a cry of pain from the attacker as he was brought down to his knees!

Before the cry could procure more than a muffled whimper, Schrit had the Bajoran’s mouth stuffed with a wad of cloth he had grabbed, without realizing it, from a stack of boxes just before they had come up to the door. He was just grabbing the tie-rip’s from one of his pockets when he noticed the look in max’s eyes, and guessed the man wasn’t going to be needing to be tied up anymore in a few seconds.


Max sputtered a bit and said, "Big Mistake." He cocked back his metal fist and swung a big haymaker to the Bajoran's jaw, which cracked his jaw & instantly knocked him out. Max was now slightly angry. "Inside, boys."

Thane dragged the guy inside, “Might want to pad out the fist.” He comments as he propped the guy against the wall and checked the Bajoran over briefly. Making sure he was alive and not in need of too much medical attention.

Schrit smiled at Thane’s concern for the Bajoran’s wellbeing, but said nothing and moved past, scanning the area.

“Our guy is in that cell over there,” Schrit said, pointing in the cell’s direction.

“It’s got a simple force field. Shouldn’t be more difficult to turn off than hitting the button next to the cell.” Schtit added.

The door closed and Max approached the cell with Sam in it. He deactivated the force field and walked in. He saw Sam lying on the bed, half conscious, with a disruptor burn on his chest. Max knelt at his side and said,

"You look like hell." Sam stirred and said, meekly,

"You try getting phasered at almost near point-blank." Max smiled and said,

"You'll be okay. Take this transporter tag. I'll get the ship to beam you up."

He took a small chip from his arm & placed it in his palm. Alarms went off as Max stood up. He said to the two, "Took them long enough."

Schrit sighed, knowing that from that point on their leisurely progress through the mission was over, and they probably were going to have to take lives to get to their secondary objective; the weapon.

Hearing the alarms now, the big Ferasan drew his Disruptor and checked its charge before grabbing the Bajoran Phaser and setting it to stun.

“This will be fun.” He grinned.

The handling of the Bajoran weapon was not an enjoyable feeling though, but he will make do. Got to neutralize their opponents quickly.

Max nodded, then tapped his comm-badge.

=^=Storm to Ares. Transport one directly to Sickbay. Transponder code Two-One-Five-Theta-Six-Four.=^=

Max saw Sam dematerialize from the room. He let out an audible sigh and said, "Job one, done. Now to get the leader of this crew."

Schrit looked at Max with a frown.

“Excuse me sir. I was under the impression the weapon was our next objective?” he asked, spinning up the barrels of the Klingon minigun he wore on his forearm.

Max walked out of the room was suddenly met with heavy weapons fire. Letting out a very audible curse, Max dived back into the room with his comrades. He heard a voice over the PA,

"You are pinned in, with nowhere to go. Surrender now & your deaths will be relatively quick!"

Max looked at Thane and said, "Time to shut Krass up."

“Hah, surrender and die? Did he really expect us to go, “Hey, ok, we give up? We’re coming out with our hands up” or something?” Schrit asked Max with a grin.

Schrit then nodded with a grin, before he dove into the corridor, firing in the direction of the weapons fire.

His momentum took him sliding into a doorway opposite the doorway he’d come from, but found the door stayed stubbornly, and painfully, shut. Quickly scanning ahead, he spotted a corridor intersecting the one he was in 2 meters away on the opposite side of the corridor from where he had landed. Before he allowed himself to feel the pain from bumping his head into the closed door, he pushed off with his legs, sending himself sliding over the floor just far enough to get into the intersecting corridor and out of the line of fire.

Noticing almost subconsciously the weapons fire down the tunnel had reduced significantly during his, in hindsight, stupid jump and slide maneuver, he rubbed the spot on his head that had hit the door with a pained expression. Glancing down, he noticed his pants had been singed, evidence of how close he had come to being hit by the enemy fire. He shrugged to himself, though, and set it out of his mind.

Then he checked the charges on his mini-gun, and inched back to the corner. He was curious to see the actions of his colleagues, and he was not disappointed.

Thane couldn't help but laugh as he watched Max dive back into the room with Phaser fire on his backside.

“I could have told you they were waiting. I can sense their emotions, intent.”

The Ferasan tapped his skull before shuffling close to the door and taking a deep breath. Tucking the Bajoran phaser into his belt, Thane grabbed one of those wonderful stun grenades, set the unit and then chucked it. The Grenade bounced off the wall and down towards the Bajorans where it detonated with a bright flash and a BANG. With that diversion, Thane ducked out and slid across to some cover in another doorway and began to fire down range.

“Got five so far!”

Schrit smiled, realizing that he should have thought of throwing out a diversion before jumping out into the corridor himself, but ignoring himself as called back a reply he couldn’t suppress before it rang out through the corridor.

“Really? You’re counting?”

Max laughed a bit and said, "Hang on, let me get a tally sheet!"

He thought for a moment & came up with an idea. He brought up an active scan of the base. Nearly all the occupants of the base were focused on them.

"Thane, give me some London fog, if you catch my drift."

Thane had no clue what the mention of 'London Fog' was and it did take a bit to really translate the meaning based on empathic intention and surface thoughts. Why do humans call Smoke, really foolish things? Following that a couple of smoke canisters were rolled down the corridor filling it with thick clouds of smoke.

He then pulled a set of googles from a compartment on his arm and put them on. Max then slid quietly along the wall as the smoke filled the corridor. It gave him ample time to sneak behind the now thinning group. It took about a minute to get behind them. He then crouched behind a corner and awaited the smoke to dissipate. Max then whispered into his comm device, "Hold fire."

Schrit had a suspicion about what Max was up to.

=^=Let me guess, we're surrendering?=^=

Thane really didn't like this idea coming up and shook his head “Not likely.” Was his response. He had never surrendered and while he was all for a good deception or bluff. Faking a surrender against Bajorans of all people was not on his list.

"Don't worry," Max said, "I have your back."

=^=You're the boss, boss. But for the record: I hate being the bait.=^= Schrit replied before sticking his hands up in the air, slowly.

Seeing that one fool was keen to get out there and the team lead was pushing for this plan. Thane would put over the comm =^=You both owe me considerably for this. I do not surrender to inferior foes, even in some bait scenario.=^= It wasn't about trust. It was about honour, his pride, that a member of the Honour Guard was coming out with his hands up to Bajoran terrorists was a scene that could really backfire if it got out. All for one commander to play hero. He stepped out, weapon tucked in the back of his belt just in case something went sideways.

As the two came out, Krass said slyly, "A wise decision. Set weapons to maximum-"

He felt a cold metal hand on his shoulder. Max said, "50,000 volts in an instant will have you pissing yourself before you drop. Tell your men to drop their arms."

Krass knew now it was over. He nodded to his remaining four men. They slowly placed their arms on the floor. Max just smiled at Thane & turned to Krass, "On behalf of the Bajoran Provisional-"

Krass interrupted, saying, "Go to hell."

Max smiled and said, "You might want to rethink that."

That they surrendered so easily made the false play seem.. honestly it would have been more fun to have fought them and had the risk of being hit with a potentially lethal shot rather than being someones bait. “Communicate your plan with your team next time. I will not play bait for pointless heroics like this.” The big Ferasan shook his head and put his Disruptor on safe and holstered it properly. He stepped around to collect the other weapons on the ground in case any of them had any fancy ideas.

"If you're in this line of work," Max said, "you have to have some degree of crazy." He tapped his badge and said,

=^= Storm to Ares. Principal target in custody. Beam him directly to the Brig.=^=

Schrit had walked over to Max, and checked his weapons. Looking up to Max, he said;

"The weapon is still a threat, we need to either confirm it's under our control or destroy it. I think the Bajorrans would be seriously pissed off if something happened to cut them off from their gods." He then pointed at a dematerializing Krass adding;

"We can assume this @$$h0le isn't going to help us to either find or disable their toy"

As Krass was beamed up, Max told the two, "Secure these guys. There are two guys left in the base & I'm assuming they are at the weapon."

Schrit nodded and proceeded to use tie-rips to secure their captive's hand and feet.

“You know I could of just forcibly taken the information from his mind if he was proving uncooperative to interrogation. Yes, I know it is not standard for your Starfleet rules and regulations. If there are two more we move.” Thane adjusted his cloak and would head for their next destination at a light jog.

Max adjusted his arm & proceeded to follow his two colleagues to their next destination.

[LogicalLeopard]

Deep Space 9
Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House and Holosuite Arcade


Some time ago....

The night went on, fueled by the heady intoxicants of forgiveness and peace. Fatima and Biiqs decided to visit the Dabo tables after all, and the combination of luck, good company, and real alcohol urged Biiqs onward to the Tongo tables. There, inexplicably, he made a small fortune.

A gruff Lurian trader. A scandalous Ferengi entrepreneur who wore sumptuous Tholian silk business attire and a fey smile upon her lips at all times. A Nausicaan mercenary and his Dopteran partner. He was certain there was a quiet subtext beneath the game, and as near as he could work out, the Nausicaan was conspiring with the Ferengi to dupe his Dopteran partner. It was the only discernable reason he did so well, because his reckless strategy of acquisitions and leverages left much to be desired. He cleared out with the pot before there was trouble, and bid a good night to Fatima, whom he could tell at that late hour was only tolerating his company out of friendship and pity. They parted with an amicable hug, which he separated quickly from, lest the gossamer touch and jasmine scent of her hair set his heart on fire once again.

He didn't want the night to end. There were only 26 hours in a station day cycle, and it had been such an excellent day cycle, why should sleep defraud him of any of those hours? There was electricity in the air. It was an incredibly youthful feeling that warmed his old bones, and he dragged those bones across the Promenade, looking for something else to do.

That's how he found Pancho's.

Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club was what humans would call a hole in the wall bar, and oh what a glorious hole in the wall. The small enclave was a haven for space travelers with modest needs - food and booze. It was decorated with pictures of flight jocks, mostly from Earth, that were easily recognizable to anyone who knew the world's history. Earhardt. Yeager. Cochrane. Archer. Paris. A large photo of the founder and namesake of the original establishment was mounted centrally, smoking a cigarette and gazing serenely in the distance.

There was a poker game.

Biiqs was many things at many times, and sometimes a fool. He was tonight, and was thus parted from his money. Easy come, easy go, he thought, and surrendered all but a handful of latinum slips with a smile. Being raised on Earth, he didn't have much of an opinion on money. Not like his grandfather, that stern faced magnate of Bolarus IX that he had said all of twenty words to in his life.

He wondered if he should call him now.

Some species lived for centuries. Some for days. But he hadn't met many who didn't feel that their time was short.

Mend one relationship at a time, Bix, he thought to himself.

Standing up from the poker table, he bid those thieving pilots goodbye and went back over to the bar. There he bought a bottle, took it to a solitary table in the corner of the bar, and toasted his own emotional unrest until he woke up the next morning to the smell of wood varnish and pickled springfish.

He rose his head from the table, rubbing the circulation back into the side of his face as he gazed stupidly at the plate of fish before him.

"Morning, sailor. Its not as good as the Bolian restaurant here on the Promenade, but its not bad..."

Biiqs eyes slowly traveled upward from the plate to the eyes of the Bolian waitron smiling before him. Such kind eyes. Sparkling eyes. Blue and teeming with life, like the pools at the bottom of the waterfall that descended down the Cliffs of Bole. The ones you see in the travel holos.

Don't do it. Don't fall in love. Not again.

"I appreciate it very much, thank you, miss....?"

"Don't thank me, thank Captain Arrex from the Wanshu, he said that with all the money he won from you, the least he could do was buy you breakfast. And, he also bought that bottle of Saurian Brandy that put you out, and all the drinks you had tonight. Here's your refund." With that, she slid a few slips of latinum on the table and darted away to assist other patrons. Without giving her name, he noticed.

"Oh well, that's for the best," he said aloud, accidentally. Then, he muttered, "I need to find a better way of spending my leave." scooped up the latinum and headed off to the travel agent to find a place on Bajor where he could obtain a little peace in a healthy environment, if it could be found.

OOC Note: This scene takes place at an "earlier" point in time, closing out my last post. Biiqs is currently on Bajor during the most current point of the RP.

[LogicalLeopard]

Bajor
The Holana River-Musilla Province


I’ve known rivers. I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Seated crosslegged on the dewy banks of the River Holana, Biiqs reflected quietly upon a few lines of poetry that tumbled from the recesses of his mind. He couldn't remember the Terran poet, or the rest of the poem, but during his morning meditation, he pondered how almost all species enjoyed a primal relationship with rivers, lakes, and seas.

Don't think, just be present.

He took a deep breath, inhaling the scents of wet soil and living water. The breath rolled out slowly, and he imagined that the gurgling current was the blood of his body, flowing out of his heart into the rivers and tributaries of his veins.

After a few more deep, cleansing breaths, he slowly opened his eyes, marveling at how the ruddy streaks of morning illuminated the countryside. When the travel agent said that the river held some of the most romantic sights on Bajor, he wasn't overselling it at all. The small cabin was comfortable enough, although the plumbing could use updating. But he didn't spend much time there during the day, he was always outside, with the soil and grass underneath his bare feet, like the days of his youth in Wyoming. The cabins were arranged along the wends of the river in such a manner that he rarely caught sight of others. Which is why the older Bajoran male ambling slowly up the trail toward him was such an odd sight.

"Greetings, friend," the man said, with a smile that twitched precariously on his cheeks and did not rise to his eyes. "I wouldn't have expected to find you still here."

Biiqs responded with a smile of his own, rising to his feet. Mentally, he went to Yellow Alert. "I dont follow your meaning, friend. I have this cabin rented for another day."

"Oh, I'm sure. But haven't you heard the news?"

Biiqs chuckled. "This is precisely the place one comes to when they don't desire to hear news. Is there something of significance?"

"Oh, yes," the man said. This time the smile was genuine. "May I?" He held a PADD where both he and Biiqs could see comfortably, and queued up the transmission from Bohi Krass

JP with WelchAvenger
USS Ares
Bridge
Shortly after prep for the mission


A Bajoran man with slicked back grey hair & heavy stubble appeared. "Attention to all whom reside in the Bajor sector," the man said, "I am Bohi Kraas, Leader of the Shield. By now, you all know who we are. It'll be soon time to show you just what we are willing to do for an independent Bajor, free of outside influence."

"Our demand is simple," Krass said, "We want all Federation persons to vacate the Bajor sector Immediately, but you already knew that by now." The image turned to a cell in the unknown compound, showing Sam, sitting on the bed, eating a piece of Hassperat, saying, "This isn't half bad grub!!" Krass went on, "We have your most senior diplomat. As you can see, he is unharmed and is being treated well. If you do not comply with this demand, we will destroy the Federation Embassy on Bajor. Further non-compliance will result in escalation of actions, including the termination of this man's life & the destruction of the Celestial Temple. Please, do not force our hand. We do this for a free & independent Bajor." The transmission ends.

Biiqs watched impassive as the message played. At the sight of Sam, his eyes widened and stance shifted. A hand unconsciously clenched into a fist.

"Such a shame," the elderly Bajoran said, switching off the PADD as the message ended. "I've been doing my neighborly part to warn tourists in these parts such as yourself. You know, the planetary communications grid gets spotty around here. Its the mountains and outdated equipment. 'Course, in this sort of paradise, people aren't in a hurry to fix it. As you said earlier, people like to be incommunicado..."

Biiqs frowned as the man spoke, both angry at him and frustrated at having the situation brought to him in this manner. "That would explain why I didn't hear from my ship on my communicator. If they even attempted to contact me on leave I'm not sure how rapidly the situation developed..." His mind raced for a moment, automatically attempting to plan a rescue mission for which he had no useful information and was most certainly already underway. Biiqs stopped, unclenched and clenched his hands yet again, and looked at the river briefly before turning toward his cabin. He had completely forgotten about the Bajoran man, and turned back to him again.

"Thank you for the information. I'll be underway soon...leaving soon, I mean."

"Good idea. Hate for something to happen to you..."

Biiqs narrowed his eyes and glowed at the man, taking a step toward him.

"What are you going to do? Hit me? I've been hit. I've been whipped. I've been tortured. All by aliens like you during the occupation. I don't fear anything in this universe except my dead daughter's cries in the night.

"A..Aliens like me?" Biiqs sputtered, caught off guard by the man's words and accusations.

"Yeah, like you," the man spat, no longer carrying any pretense of friendliness. "You Federation types say that you're just here to help. But we didn't see you helping all those years during the Occupation. When we could have used your starships in orbit. Or at least food and medicine and weapons. But as soon as the Cardassians leave and backwater Bajor becomes the gateway to the Gamma Quadrant, suddenly those ships we prayed for appear in orbit! The station where my friends were worked to their deaths suddenly has a Starfleet Commander -I dont believe in that Emmisary nonsense, I lost that last bit of faith ages ago. And the station gets towed away. You don't care about us, you just want our resources, like the Cardassians. And I'm glad that proud patriots like Bohi are sticking up for us. Bajor for Bajorans."

With that, he turned and started to walk away. "Go to the office," he said over his shoulder. "They have a long distance transmitter you can use to call the Embassy and get you out of here. Dont let the annular confinement beam hit you on the bottom on the beam out."

With no words to say, Biiqs watched him amble back up the trail for a moment before he went to his cabin to pack.

[Josh Broughm]

(((JP Authored by DeuZige with input from myself)))
USS ARES-BRIDGE
COMMUNICATIONS STATION

With the ship at red alert and the developments in the mission down on the surface raising tension on the bridge, the shrill tone emanating from the communications console made almost everyone on the bridge jump a little.

Marilella stuck a finger in her ear & asked, "What in the name of God was that?!"

The shrill tone was due to the reception of a message with an uncommon, indeed rare, status and classification flag. A Priority Alpha 2 message rarely, if ever, get sent out to starships and are mostly used for confidential communication between Starfleet upper echelon flag officers.

The communication console indicated it had received one such message none the less. Priority Alpha 2 messages were classified to Commander or above and were to be opened immediately. It got the undivided attention of the Comm. Officer on duty on the bridge, Ensign Aerign.

Despite feeling anxious due to "her" consoles impolite loudness and thus attracting the attention of most bridge officers who were looking her way Ensign Phinix Aerign doggedly spent the required time and patience it took to identify, decrypt, authenticate, and verify the strange message.

Even though the source of the message was not recorded on the meta-tag identifier, the source of the actual signal by which it had been sent to the USS Ares was "Unknown", everything complied with the requirements for authentication of Priority Alpha 2 messages. Phinix confirmed all this and only then did she turn form her console to face the Captain.

"Captain, we have received a Priority Alpha 2 message, addressed to the first officer or captain of the USS Ares." she reported, loud enough to be heard and understood by the Captain, currently at the back of the bridge assisting and overseeing the tactical chief's efforts.

"NOW?! You've got to be kidding me!" Jones huffed, then made her way to the center chair. "Send to me." She said. She was very confused as to why Starfleet would pick THIS VERY MOMENT to send a P-alpha 2 message.

"Aye Captain! On your left armrest display now," Ensign Aerign replied, keying the commands to forward the message as ordered.

Mariella nodded and began to read. As she read, her expression changed from incredulous to confused, to worried.

The message read:


PRIORITY ALPHA 2 MESSAGE

From: Danre van Hulftoids
TO: Starfleet Officer onboard USS Ares, preferable 1st Officer or Captain.

Subject: IMMINENT THREAT from Federation Starship under subspace inversion cloak.

Captain Do Not Dismiss this message solely on basis of its author. The USS Ares, and the (rescue?) mission underway are in danger

I have data which leaves very little scientifically reasonable doubt that the USS Ares is being observed, and tracked, by a Starship using a Subspace Inversion Cloaking device, while having a Neodymium based weapon charged.

I have attached a link to the full data logs, scraped from mostly internal secondary or tertiary sensor systems on the USS Ares from which this information was derived, to enable the CSO or a qualified science officer to perform and confirm the analysis and conclusions I’ve stated above.

This analysis shall result in the same conclusions that I have. These conclusions, which no Starfleet Officer could have reached by any other means, forced me to use this method of communication to send you this warning:

A hostile vessel, created in the United Federation of Planets, as it is using electromagnetically charged Neodymium, a material only found on Earth, and employing Subspace Inversion to hide its self from all known active sensors is near the USS Ares at this very moment. As it hides from the USS Ares, and is charging, or powering, Neodymium with Electro Magnetic energy, while the USS Ares is at Red Alert, the assumption must be that the vessel is hostile, at least at this time.

Please accept the attached sensor data logs and have the science department analyze it as I have, considering the crude simplistic explanations I have described below this initial message.


Regards,


Danre van Hulftoids
Civilian.

ADDENDUM ALPHA:

Considerations:


• In short the tertiary sensors, which also measure the interstellar medium (“empty space”) among many other things, detected electron clouds of different densities. As these exist everywhere in the Universe in some density, this data is logged and stored for post mission archival and possible deep data AI assisted analization. However that data turns out to have a particularly common feature in this area of space, and since recently which is the movement of some pockets of electron clouds to act as if attracted by an atom that is binding to another atom by 1.14 Pauling.

• One atom binding to another always has an attraction to nearby electron clouds, and that attraction is measured on the Pauling scale. The key point is that the atom that binds with another atom to attract electron clouds by 1.14 Pauling is never detected. I.e.: electron clouds are attracted to atoms binding to other atoms that are not there, by exactly 1.14 Pauling.

• There is only one material that attracts electrons nearby with 1.14 Pauling and that is Neodymium. A rare EARTH metal. Neodymium reacts to electromagnetic charges passing through it or, combined with materials which have capacitor like properties, electromagnetic charges stored within it.

• Having used electron clouds attraction to prove the presence of neodymium without direct detection of Neodynium or anything else in the direction the electron clouds were attracted to (like the gravitational effect of “dark matter” proves it exists but is not directly detectable) there is only one conclusion possible: An object, created on Earth or at least with materials only found on Earth, is moving through space near the USS Ares, and is running electromagnetic power through a substance containing Neodymium. As this object is not detectable this means it is cloaked.

• Other tertiary sensor data stored in the data logs is the subspace quantum field disturbance frequencies surrounding the USS Ares. This is to detect levels of subspace disturbance higher than the threshold which would indicate potential damage to the subspace / normal space boundary. This is standard in all Starfleet vessels with warp capability since the discoveries that lead to the Starfleet directive limiting warp speeds to warp 5 except in cases of emergencies on stardate 47310.4, and never removed from the core algorithmic sensor data gathering code despite becoming obsolete after the variable warp field geometry implementations first tested on the Intrepid class.

[OOC] For information on this reference please see “Force of Nature”, TNG season 7 episode 9[/OOC]

• Running a fairly basic algorithm to go through that sensor data in the logs with the purpose of looking for subspace particle uniformity of motion revealed there are streams of subspace particles moving together in swirls that have the properties of eddies, like those in rivers. Those streams seem to be at one location at any point in time, and that one location is moving through spacetime.

• Those swirls, or subspace eddies, are detected near the location of the projected electron cloud attraction center in 97% of the instances the algorithm found them in the sensor data.

KEY INTERPRETATIONS of aforementioned considerations:

There are 2 moving anomalies that cannot be detected by any active sensor techniques and methods known to be in use by warp capable species, and their location seems to be linked together.

• A search through the scientific databases available for known phenomena matching the data from the logs returned two hits. One concerned the possible resonance at certain power levels and frequencies, of two warp cores, located in close proximity to each other, are connected to and supplying power to, one power conduit system. (as described in the paper published by Z. Cochrane on stardate 197540.47).

• the second hit describes the behavior of subspace/normal space boundaries where they meet or have met due to folds in subspace enveloping normal space bubbles. Subspace folding has been proposed as potentially possible, and unconfirmed claims are known to claim this technique could be or is used in cloaking technology.

<<:{ATTACHMENT 1. “tertiary sensor data log M1324BA9243” ATTACHMENT 2. “Tertiary sensor data log M2125422AA”}:>>

##**##END OF MESSAGE**##**


Mariella now sat there, stunned & a bit confused. She looked at the message's author & had to process this info. It looked extremely detailed, but it was sent by civilian, almost sounded like a kid. Jones decided then that the information was credible. "Helm, evasive pattern Delta-six-five-echo! Tactical, dump as much power as you can into the shields. Security...." She got up from her chair and approached the chief, "Look into who this Danre is. I want to know HOW exactly a civilian could send a P-Alpha 2 message."

[Josh Broughm]

JP by Myself, Deuzige & Krajin
The final part of the Mission!
Bajoran Moon
Abandoned base



The trio had approached two sets of doors at the far end of the base. Max brought up a map of the base & studied it, relative to their position. "This door leads to the Pad's observation deck. Van, you head up there. Keep low & give us cover. Thane, with me."

Schrit nodded "Oversight, got it." he said while taking stock of his equipment one more time.

Thane took stock of all he had on hand which was looking pretty good. Looking to Max as he requested Thane to follow him, nodded and adjusted the setting of his Disruptor.

"If it is who I think it is, Thane," Max said morosely, "this could get VERY COMPLICATED, very Quickly. Keep out of sight & cover me. Our primary concern is the weapon & I will not hesitate to raze this place with a few quantums."

Thane wished he had finished his portable cloaking device at this point as that would complete the idea of keeping them out of sight for sure! “Quantums would flatten this area and a Kilometer out from the impact point. Not the best idea. Not to mention the fallout of the weapon.” Thane adjusts his footing, walking more on the pad of his foot to creep forward rather than the heel as they approached a door.

They then proceeded through the door. Max motioned for Thane to duck behind some crates & flank around. He also noticed Van set up in the far corner of the observation deck. He nodded and drew his sword, gripping it tightly.

William hadn't noticed the three enter, as he was pre-occupied with setting up the Trillium Lance. It had been firmly planted in the ground and it was almost finished an extensive calibration for ground firing. "It should be ready to start the firing sequence in a few minutes." Hollis said. William just nodded and worked a small PADD. A computer voice stated, "TRILLIUM SATURATION PROCESS WILL TAKE THIRTY MINUTES. ONCE THIS PROCESS BEGINS, IT CANNOT BE TERMINATED. DO YOU WISH TO PROCEED?" William said clearly, "Yes. Set target for Bajoran Wormhole." The computer immediately said, "TARGET IS OUTSIDE OPTMIAL FIRING RANGE. WEAPON TRILLIUM BEAM WILL LOSE COHES-" William interrupted and said, "I understand. Set Target." The computer Beeped and said, "TARGET LOCKED. SATURATION PROCESS WILL BEGIN IN THREE MINUTES." Just then, he felt the tip of a blade touch his shoulder.

Max had quietly creped behind him. "Hey Dad," he said, "Never thought I'd see you here." William slowly reached for a phaser & max just said, "Pull a phaser on an opponent WHO HAS A KATANA at your neck? God, you must think I'm an idiot!" Will said simply, "You know I had to try." Hollis, at this point had stepped back a bit from this, edging towards an exit. He also had a communicator out.

Will now had turned around to face his son. He looked defeated. Max said to his father, "Shut it down. Its over." Will looked around and said, "I know you didn't come alone. Assuming a three man team, one up high, in that corner of the deck." He pointed to where Van was, "The other behind those crates, a Fersian, I believe. Makes a good fighter." Max smiled and said, "Congratulations, you know basic tactical concepts. SHUT IT DOWN!" Will, in one swift motion, cracked Max hard across the face with a sickening slap. "DON'T RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME BOY!" He bellowed. Max's sword lowered quickly. He was now reaching a boiling point. Hollis knew he had to get his CO out of there.

Max was now face-to-face with his father and said, "DO THAT AGAIN & SEE WHAT HAPPENS!" It was at this point, that William shoved his son & very quickly drew a rapier and brandished it at his now grounded son.

"Got a bead on him sir, i can take him out!" yelled Schrit, only now seeing how much the two looked alike and understanding that there was a family issue playing out.

"HOLD FIRE!!!" Max screamed. He was scared that he would get run through. Hollis very quickly opened comms. =^= Renegade, Beam back William NOW!!=^=

Thane watched as they went into a word duel and as far as he could see a bit of a Familial drama show, Swords, Phasers.. It didn't matter who had what. What mattered was reaction time, could the older man press the button to shoot faster than it takes to move the blade? Two different motions with different speeds. The moment he saw Hollis yell for the other to beam up and likely going to be beaming himself up with another Order. Thane rushed over quickly, hooked one leg around the man's calf and with a hand gripping his face. Drove him into the ground with a CRACK. Knocking the poor guy out and probably leaving him with a concussion.

William started to dematerialize & said as he disappeared, "Still acting like a scared little ♥♥♥♥." The words hung like the stench of garbage, rotting slowly. Max got up slowly and just stared into the distance.

Thane seeing Max entering into the Thousand yard stare of an emotionally compromised man walked on up towards him now that Hollis was disabled. “Snap out of it!” This statement would follow with a light backhand across the cheek. A full on snap out of it. “Daddy issues have no place on the field.”

Max shook his head and said, "Uh, yeah. Sorry." He approached the weapon & opened the control panel. "SATURATION IN PROGRESS. THIS PROCEEDURE CANNOT BE TERMINATED. TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES TO FIRING." Max knew he wasn't going to be able to shut down the weapon.

Schrit climbed down to join his teammates and threw a stern look at Max. "I think there is something you need to tell us here. That was your father?" Schrit asked, unsure if he should have taken the shot or not. "Are you thinking straight?" he asked, belatedly adding "sir?".

Max shook his head and said, "Not now." He tapped his commbadge and said, =^=Ares prepare to beam us up. Arm two Quantums & send them down when we are shipside.=^=

He approached Hollis as he regain consciousness. He said to Thane, "Hell of a tackle." Thane was about to say something, but Max cut him off, saying, "We don't have time for this. Let's get the NOUN out of here."

The four beamed up & quickly after, two Quantum Torps slammed into the facility, obliterating the ships, facility and the Trillium weapon. The wormhole was safe, but but they had bigger fish to fry.

[Josh Broughm]

JP with WelschAvenger
Forgive the string of posts
USS Ares
Sickbay
Shortly after Sam was beamed up


Christopher swept a critical eye over Sam, looking for obvious life threatening injuries. Finding none, Christopher was relieved, "Nurse, can you please bring the trauma cart?"

Akyv just nodded and wheeled over a cart with various devices on it.

Picking up a tricorder, Christopher ran the sensor over Sam's body. An alarming amount of red statistics scrolled across the screen. Programming the rapid infuser, Christopher looked at the man. "Sam, I'm giving you some relief for the pain now. You should start to feel better any second. I'm also giving you some fluids and a broad spectrum antibiotic as you're running a low grade fever. Probably due to dehydration. I'm afraid you'll be with us for a couple of days."

Sam started to sit up a bit, saying, "I expected that. Thanks." Akyv looked at Sam & sighed, "Thank the glaciers you're alive. What the Hell happened down there?"
Sam put a hand on Akyv's arm gently, said, "That's going to be a bit complicated." She rolled her eyes and said, "Figures."

Christopher smiled at the pair and left them to talk.

Akyv went over to a replicator & got Sam a Hamburger with cheese. He took a large bite and said, "Thanks. The job's dangerous, but I never expect this thing."
She laughed, saying, "I know, man. Being an ambassador's daughter and all." He took another bite. Sam suddenly had a thought. "There was a man I saw that might've been a Starfleet Officer." he said, "Why was he there?" Akyv said thoughtfully, "Maybe because he's an intelligence officer infiltrating the cell?" Sam shook his head, "No. This felt....different. Get me a work console." Akyv grabbed a desktop console and placed it on the bedside table and wheeled it over. Sam started to flip through general Starfleet officer profiles. It took him a few minutes and found the profile of the man he was looking for. "Oh my god." Sam said. "Chris, Can you come here for a mo?"

Christopher jumped out of his seat and wandered over to the biobed, "What's up, Sam?"

"I think I found our traitor." Sam said. Just after he said that, the ship was rocked with an explosion, akin to a weapon strike.

[Josh Broughm]

USS Renegade
Transporter 1



William materialized on the pad, heavily out of breath. He sheathed his sword & tossed it to the operator, saying, "Never expected to see him down there." The operator said, confused, "What are you..." William ignored him & strode out of the transporter room



Bridge

William stepped onto the bridge, cursing & swearing in every language he knows. Helmsley gave him a look and said, "You kiss your own mother with-" Storm said, angrily, "Max was down there." The look on Bill's face swiftly changed from begrudgingly amused to one of slight shock. "You're f***ing kidding me?" William motioned to Bill to move. As he sat down, William said, "Why him, why now?" Bill said, "Ask him yourself." William gave him a stern look, the looked at one of the side consoles close to the command chair. Bill glanced at another display & said, "Sir, Ares just torp'ed the base. The weapon has been-" Will raised a hand & said, "Expected as much. Helm, bring us around to Ares stern. 25Km separation. Tactical, ready phasers, full power." Bill suddenly asked, "Really still going through with this?" William gave him a look and said, "Nothing changes. Even though Max is on that ship, not a God Damned thing changes. When we plant the bullets, plot a course back to the Syndicate HQ." The Helmsman nodded.

[Krajin]

U.S.S Ares
Transporter Room
Post Transport



The trio plus one materialized onto the pad. The Transporter chief said, =^= Bridge, the away team has returned. =^= Max stepped down & took a long, deep breath. "Thane, take Mr. Hollis to our finest brig," Max said, "I want to have a chat with him later." He then turned to Schrit and said, "Van, I'd get the fighters ready for immediate deployment."

Thane shrugged and grabbed Hollis by the shoulder and began to force-march him out. “Sure, Promise he will get there in one piece.” But certainly not in the exact same condition he transported in on. KDF personnel were not always the most gentle of people with their Prisoners and generally someone would get just a tiny bit roughed up. “I'd hope you clear all this with the Captain before you start getting everything organised.” Thane adds as he walks off with the Prisoner.

"I feel like I'm going to owe everyone a drink and a lengthy story after this," Max said. "Drinks sound good." Hollis said. “No drink beyond Water for you. Same with Food. Starfleet rations are bland and terrible so don't think you're getting anything fancy. Oh and please.. give me a reason..” Thane flashed a big, intimidating toothy smile at Hollis. Showing off his elongated Saber-tooth like fangs which is common among many Ferasan Males.

“You need a breath freshener in that mug of yours.” Hollis quipped back as Thane tightened the grip on his shoulder and pushed him along. “Betazoid, Empath. Though full blooded Betazoids are Telepaths. To bad, I'd love to root around in your mind. Maybe if Max doesn't get what he needs from you or is pulled off your hide from conflicts of interest I might get a chance.” Thane chuckled.


U.S.S Ares
Brig


“Doubt it. You won't get anything from me there furball.” Hollis responded. “We'll see.” Came the reply. The rest of the Journey was quiet as Thane lead the Betazoid down through the Ship's corridors to the Brig. Motioning to one of the cells, the Security officer unsealed it and helped Thane check him for anything left behind. Weapons, communications or otherwise that had not been caught by the Transporter system. Hollis was placed into the cell and the Force field activated. Thane though would turn to leave and head for the Armoury to drop off his remaining kit that had been Starfleet issue.

[deuZige]

Joint post by Josh Brougm and deuZige


USS Ares
Transporter room
Right after the materialization sequences completed



The trio plus one materialized onto the pad. The Transporter chief said, =^= Bridge, the away team has returned. =^=

Max stepped down & took a long, deep breath.

"Thane, take Mr. Hollis to our finest brig," Max said, "I want to have a chat with him later."

He then turned to Schrit and said, "Van, I'd get the fighters ready for immediate deployment."

Schrit did a double take at that.

"What? They’re not… why am I… where’s…” he stammered, the questions why the squadron wasn’t deployed already, why was Schrit being ordered to get the squadron ready and where is the squadron’s leader competing for which question got out of his mouth first.

He swallowed all three of them, his instinct telling him that they were of secondary importance and getting the fighters ready to fight was the important thing at that moment.

Schrit nodded, deciding to leave any questions for later, hoping Max understood the expression on Schrit’s face was telling him that Schrit would be looking for the man after all this was over for a serious conversation.

He considered just opening a comm channel to the Squadron Commander, and relay the order but then rejected it. Make sure the order’s carried out as quickly as possible, then inform the squadron commander he’d been ordered to do so.

Schrit turned away and started walking, tapping the comm badge and ordering

=^=Adrestia fighter squadron, get ready to scramble! Prepare for combat operations! MOVE MOVE MOVE!=^= he all but yelled into the comm badge.

He then closed the channel immediately after that, pre-empting any confused replies that would only serve to delay the pilot’s shift into action.

He then tapped to open a new comm link.

=^=Lieutenant van Hulftoids to Lietenant Tess, I have been ordered to prepare the squadron for scramble for combat operations, by Lt. Storm as we returned from our covert mission . =^=

Without thinking he did the same to end the conversation he did when he had barked orders at the other pilots in the squadron on te Squadron comm channel. He closed it before any reply had been possible. A millisecond after his hand hit he commbadge and the channel was closed he realized what he just did, to his squadron commander.

Schrit walked in a fast pace to the nearest turbolift, starting to take off the gear he was wearing.

For a second he used the seclusion and privacy the turbolift car provided him to loudly shout some expletives that would have at the very least gotten him a disciplenary sanction if anybody had heard it. Then he pushed it away, and took a deep breath. It was time for the most important, private, comm to his son.

Once the cursing had made way for the silence of and the sense of having released a black hole's pent up tention and energy in the turbolift he decided he had merely a few seconds to check on Danre. He hated he could't hug him in person and had to cut the talk short and hasty.

=^=Schrit to Danre=^= he said after tapping his commbadge. The response was immediate.

=^=DAD! Are you okay? Where are you? =^= Danre replied excitedly, the relief at hearing his father’s voice palpable through the comm badge.

Schrit smiled while he answered back.

=^=Yes son, i’m fine. Told you I’d be alright didn’t I? I’m in the turbolift on my way to the fighters. Seems I’m going to scramble soon. You ok son?=^=

=^=Yeah, sure, no problem. But you need to know something. I’ve...=^= Danre began to say but got interrupted by a scowling Schrit.

He was almost at the fighter bay.

=^=Danre, i’ve got seconds before I get to the fighter bay. I can’t...=^= Schrit was saying but Danre wasn’t giving him the chance to finish.

=^=Dad, shut up and listen to me!=^= Danre practically shouted.

Schrit was taken aback for a second. Danre had never talked to him like that before, especially not in situations like this, with a red alert and a good chance Schrit would be going off into combat soon.

Somehow though Schrit knew that instead of berating his son it would be a better idea to give his son a chance to explain himself.

USS Ares
Hanger, Fighter bay
As Schrit walks out of the turbo-life


As the turbolift opened and Schrit walked into the fighter bay towards the locker area he replied.

=^=This better be good son, real good=^= Schrit told his son in a tone that left no doubt he meant it.

He reached his own locker, opened it and threw the gear he’d not be needing anymore inside and grabbed his flight suit and helmet, and began putting them on.

Danre took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts for a moment before replying.

=^=Dad, there is a cloaked vessel out there, that has fired at the Ares at least once. I’ve sent a message to the bridge telling them about it but I have no idea if it reached them or if they understood. After sending the message I had nothing to do but worry so I started coding a bit of software that intercepts the data I used to detect the cloaked ship and turns it into location approximation information. I also=^= Danre said, managing it all in one breath somehow.

Schrit wasn’t sure what the hell his son was going on about but somehow, without being able to explain why, he knew what his son was telling him was important and it was vital he didn’t dismiss the kid’s story. But he also didn’t have the time to listen to the full story. So he interrupted the explanation.

=^=Son, I'm about to jump into the cockpit of my fighter. You need to summarize, stick to the facts important to me, and now.=^= Schrit snapped in a tone he hadn't used since his Master Chief days, regretting using that tone as soon as he said it, but knowing his son would understand.

Danre slapped himself in the head, berating himself for rambling on instead of giving his father a bullet list of facts he needed to know.

=^=You’re right dad, sorry. I’ve uploaded a firmware update to your fighter. This update will take the interpreted sensor data feed from the Ares computer system and use it to indicate the direction where the cloaked ship is in relation to your fighter. I’ve prepared an update for the micro torps you’re carrying, which should enable them to lock on to the cloaked ship and guide themselves to it like any other locked target. I’m uploading it to your fighter’s auxiliary memory. You’ll have to upload it to the missiles from the cockpit manually if you decide to use it.=^=

By the time Danre had finished talking Schrit had climbed into his his seat in the Adrestia class fighter and strapped in tight. As he did the last engineer disconnected the last umbililical that connected the fightercraft to the hangerbay's systems.

The Adrestia’s computer systems were lighting up and going through the automated flight checks, showing green across the board. He noticed the blinking indicator of a new file in auxillary memory ready to be executed.

He also noticed one of the displays had been split into 2 sections, one of them showing a three dimentional directional indicator. Basically an arrow pointing in the direction he needed to point the fighter to get to the…. Whatever it was it was pointing to.

Schrit was still somewhat anxious about what his son was telling him, let alone going along with what his son was saying. Danre had always shown to have nacks for doing things related to science, computers or have understanding of certain historical, archeological and paleo-anthropological concept and connections that, as it turned out, no one had before. Including lead archeologists and historians from the Daystrom Institute that had studie the same material for years without seeing the connections and concept Danre had descerned in weeks.

But this was different. Not only could relying on his son this way put his life and all others on the Ares on the line, and no matter how much nack he had, or insightfull he seemed, he was just a 12 year old boy.

His little boy.

The fact that the fighter’s computer indicators backed up exactly what his son said did leant him credence though. He needed to make sure his son understood what was at stake one more time nevertheless.

=^=Danre, you realize that if this is some kind of game, or if you miscalculated or made any error, Dad and a lot of other people are going to die?=^= Schrit asked his son, a sliver of insecurity about his son’s skills and intent lingering in the back of his mind.

To Danre's credit though, if he had any concerns about the very specificly stated death of many including his dad as concequence of his actions, Schrit couldn't hear it.

=^= Yeah dad, I know! No pressure right! You know I’ve been working on computer sciences and studying up on fighter computer operating systems. Look dad, if there is ever going to be a moment you’re going to trust me than please let it be now dad. I’m trying to save us all! =^= Danre pleaded in reply.

Schrit made the decision then, for better or for worse, to do exactly what his son asked him to do.

=^=Danre, I am going to trust you, and I’m going to run the program you put in aux.mem. Is my fighter the only one with this software? =^= Schrit asked while commanding the computer to execute the program, and authorising the program to update the firmware in the torpedoes on his fighter.

Danre sighed in relief at hearing his father’s expressing of trust and replied with a smile

=^=Thanks Dad, You’re going to be proud of me, I promise. And no, i’ve not touched the other fighters. You’re the only one with these updates. Good hunting dad, I love you!=^=

=^=Roger that son. I love you to!=^= Schrit replied.

Then his computer signalled his fighter was ready to go, and a quick glance at the tactical display told him the other fighters were ready too. It also told him his fighter had been designated Adrestia gold 1, the designation reserved for the squadron’s leader.

The fighters were devided into two wings of 4 fighters, Wings gold and Silver.

Schrit switched his comm system to the squadron’s frequency, took a deep breath and let his mind catalogue all he’d been through the past few hours, and the conversation he just had with his son, and allowed himself slip into the fighterpilot mode he always got into just before take off.

Then he spoke into the comm. To his fellow fighterpilots.

=^=allright listen up pilots! This is Schrit van Hulftoids, and i’ve got lead for this mission, designation Gold One. Here’s what we’re going to do as soon as we leave the bay, as soon as we scramble! =^= Schrit said, surprised himself by the confidence with which he spoke.

He just wished he felt as confident as he sounded. He pushed that thought down to the back of his mind and continued to give the squadron their orders.

=^=I want Silver wing in close shield positions, ready to take out anything heading towards the Ares.=^=

=^=Gold wing forms up on me on hunt and destroy duty. Understood?=^= Schrit said.

One by one the other seven pilots replied they understood and complied with his orders. After Silver 4 had sounded off with

=^=Aye skipper, Silver 4 ready=^=

Schrit flicked his comm to the bridge tactical station’s frequency.

=^=Figher squadron ready for scramble. Standing by!=^= Schrit reported, his heart beating faster in anticipation.

He’d not been in actual combat in over a decade, but he knew he was a better pilot now than he was then, and he was itching to get back into “real” fighter flying.

[Josh Broughm]

USS Ares
Transporter room
Just after Thane & Schritt leave.


Max stood there in a bit of silence, trying to compose himself. The transporter operator said, "Want me to stow your kit?" Max nodded his head & said, "Right...." He doffed his armor, handed his sword to the operator, then headed to the bridge. "Why is he doing this?" He said out loud in the lift.

Bridge

When he got on the bridge, Captain Jones spun the chair around to make eye contact. "Take it went-" she said, but was cut off by Max, "My father was down there." Mariella stood up slowly & said, "That's....impossible. Isn't your dad in command of the Sagan?" Max said, glumly, "Apparently, that changed."
The tatical officer pipped up & said, "Ma'am, ship of unknown federation design just decloaked off our stern. THEIR FIRING PHASERS!!" The Captain said, loudly, "EVASIVE!!!" The phasers rocked the ship hard. Tactical called out, "Shields holding. It look's like their trying to frequency hunt." Mariella steadied herself and said, "Return Fire! Max, looks like your dad is trying to get away."

Max said, "Figured as much." Another hit. Tactical called out, "Shields down to 81%! Their starting to zero in on-" Jones yelled, "UNDERSTOOD! Quantum torps, full spread, FIRE!!" Ares let loose a volley of torpedoes towards the renegade. The ship deftly & impossibly dodged each one. "No joy on torps!" Tatical called out, "Bugger is nimble!" Max looked at one of the displays and said, "Helm, put full power to thrusters & apply evasive pattern Storm-three-two-echo." Mariella gave him a strange look and Max explained, "I know how to counter his patterns, since I learned these from grandpa."

The next phaser hit barely missed them. Mariella said, "Breathing down our necks, peppering us with phasers. What the hell is he playing at?" Max said, "Looking to disable us and try to get out of here." Jones had a look at the 'note' that was sent. Suddenly, a torpedo impacted their shields, exploding some consoles & sending debris all over the place. The tatical officer was sent flying backwards. Max checked on him....No pulse. "He's gone." he said, glumly. Max now headed to an aux console & transferred tatical and ops status to that station, saying, "That torp took out our shields! Hull integrity at 63%. Any more hits like that....." Max trailed off, saying, "Ma'am, Their backing off. That's unusual." Mariella brushed herself off and said, "Finally, breathing room. Max, try to get our shields back up." He said, "Already on it." Max kept one eye on the sensors as he was working on the shields. He noticed an odd reading coming from the Renegade.

"There's a strange reading coming from the Renegade," Max said, confusingly. Jones approached and had a look. It looked like the ship was readying to fire some sort of new weapon. "That looks like an EM type weapon," she said, "Helm, give me full impulse, any heading!" The helm officer said, "Helm controls offline, manual control is not responding!!"

Max said loudly, "DECTING TWO NEODYNIUM OBJECTS LAUNCHED FROM THEIR SHIP!" Jones spun around & saw the two objects approach at a fast speed. "ALL DECKS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!!!" Mariella screamed. Suddenly, the ship was rocked violently with the force of the objects. After a few seconds, Jones called out, "DAMAGE REPORT!" Max looked at the status board and said, "Hull breach on both nacelles! Weapon systems offline, shields offline, Warp engines offline!" The captain looked at Max said, "Send out the fighters. Have them follow that bastar-" Suddenly, the bridge was plunged into a deep darkness. They did not know if they were about to be destroyed.

[deuZige]

==USS Ares Hanger, fighter bay==

The tension among the fighter pilots, on standby for scramble, was so tight that Schrit wondered how it hadn’t snapped yet. In his ears the sounds from the bridge were crisp and clear, and the squadron stood ready to press their launch buttonss the very second the word “Scramble” was heard over the comms.

Only it didn’t.. The sounds went from tense but professional to complete pandemonium in a fraction of a second. That was just before the vibrations and acompanying sound told Schrit the ship had been hit hard with something. After as many years on starships, stations and bases the feeling of the metal shell that was keeping you alive getting ht by weaponsfire was something instinctively recognized.

Short ofter the first hit a second strike impacted which heralded sparks flying from places that only few were are of having machinery or electronics. Powerfailures evident by some sections of the hanger going dark and the communication with the bridge being out.

Schrit’s instinctive turning to look at the outer hanger bay doors proved to be crucial, Schrit’s hunch that they might be closing confirmed by the slowly shrinking gap the two doors were closing off.

It was at that point that Schrit made a judgement call and took things into his oen hands.

=*=Gold 1 to squadron, scramble, scramble. Launch and get out before the doors close!=^= Schrit barked into the mike of his commsystem while simultaneously punching his thrust controls to afterburn.

This caused the Adrestia to lurch forward as if shot from a crossbow, and shoot out from the hanger into open space, half a second later.

Checking his systems he noted that only 3 other fighters had made it into space before the gap in the hangerbays exit was too small to pass through. Schrit’s mind took note and picked the most prudent changes he’s have to make to the tactics they’d use.

=^=Gold 1 to Red 1. You take Green 2 on your wing and become the USS Ares’s moon. Never stop moving! You’re now Ares’s spot defense system. Anything that moves towards her does so as an expanding cloud of superheated particles and organic matter.=^= he ordered, splitting up into two wings.

A quick look over the HUD readouts told Schrit that the indicator of direction had been greyed out and not pointing anywhere. This meantt that nothing within sensor range was moving that could be “seen”. It also meant they had no idea on where the bogey was, where it was going and what itt intended to do.

=*=Blue 1, you’re on my wing. We’re going hunting. Keep your senses open and mark anything thst moves. Okay, one, two, BREAK=^= Schrit then told “his” squadron.

On the word break the formaiton they’d formed to that point looked as if it burst into a 4 leafed star flower, as the 4 fighers broke in their own direction. Hald way trough the loop though the fightters, cutting their thrusters a microsecond turned 45 degrees on their horizontal axis before being shot off forward in the direction the fighter’s nose was pointing.

To an onbserver the manouver happened so swiftly and smoothly the notion of the four craft being Autonomous Intelligent Space Utilization Vehicles (Aisuv) controlled by a parrallel synchronized AI cluster wouldn’t be hard to come to. The two wings had found each other as intended and off on a course to fulfill the task set for them by Schrit.

By the time Schrit and his wingman, Ensign Bloq, were on their heading on the search grid that they’d be following on a systematic scan and search of the local space around them the ship’s computer confirmed what Schrit’s eyes had already told him. The USS Ares had ben hit hard, and taken major damage. There were few, if any, lights to be seen on the ship, a field of debris from small to more than 3 meters across was moving away from he Ares slowly amd a disturbing silence on any other comm frequency and channel save for the inter figher squadron communication node.

And apparently a comm unit near his Son.

=^= ...ease… old 1, th.. is Danr.. ome in please=^= coming from Schrit’s helmet the tinny voice and static sounded otherworldly.

=^=Danre, is that you?=^= Schrit replied, boosting the gain and confinement on his receiver.

=^=YES! Dad can you understand what I am saying?=^= Danre exclaimed, his relief at gettting an answer palpaple.

=^=You are now coming in clearly. What...=^= Schrit started, but Danre interrupted him.

=^=Dad you have to listen! If you don’t do something about the Niodynium projectiles I am going to die!=^=

Schrit was taken aback by his son’s words. His brain shocked out of the mindset he always slipped into when he was in the cockpit.

=^=Dad, you need to get a message to the bridge. When the Ares is surrounded by a cloud of Isopropane and Tert-Butylcatechol it wil react violently with any Neodynium it comes in conact with, turning the metal and Tert-Butylcatechol in to rubber.=^= Danre told his father breaking through his father’s brain freeze.

=^=What? I don’t understand, I…=^= Schrit started to say, more than a bit confused.

=^=Just tell the bridge Dad, i’ll explain later, if the USS Ares still exists that is!=^= Danre insisted, adding; =^=Please Dad, just do it, please!=^=

The pleading tone in his Son’s voice, the lack of an indicator on his HUD and the thought his Son might die was enough to make Schrit comply.

He switched comms to includde a channel to the USS Ares’s bridge, conference call style, and called out.

=^=This is Gold one to USS Ares. I’ve got a possible way to mitigate the damage the projectiles the enemy fires can do. Please reply!=^=

The comm at first returned only static. Just as Schrit was about to try again, an answer came.

=^=…ne. This is….=^=

Tweaking his commsystem to clean up the signal Schrit was able to get a reasonable connection with the Ares.

=^=Ares to Gold 1, have you found the enemy?=^= was the first audible quesiton that came through.

=^=Negative, not yet. The range on the detector seems to be limited. But that’s no what why I contacted you. You remember asking me about my Son?=^= Schrit replied.

A moment passed in silence before an answer came.

=^=I suppose you have good reason to remind me of that?=^=

Schrit decided time was too short to waste and have his son take the stage so to speak.

=^=Tell the Captain what you told me Danre.=^= Schrit told his Son, than pointedly staid silent. Danre didn’t miss a beat.

=^=Captain, the enemy is firing Neodynium metal projectiles with an Electromagnetic charge. We can render them useless if we hurry. The Ares, like any other ship in the fleet, has a lot of Isopropane and tert-butylcatechol running through the ship, used as a coolant. If we eject that into space, create a cloud around the Ares, the metal will react when coming into contact with the Isopropane and tert-butylcatechol and turn into rubber. The EMP charge will dissipate into space, and the projectiles will simply bounce off the Ares.=^= the kid said, in one breath, in an effort to get everything out as quickly as possible. If anyone had asked it had nothing to do with anxiety because he was addressing the commanding officer of the USS Ares, but as no one would ever ask, it probably did.

Schrit decided to backup his Son to motivate the Captain to trust Danre.

=^=Captain, I can’t see any way that we can keep the next shot from the enemy from obliterating the Ares completely. Please, trust my Son!=^= Schrit pleaded.

=^=It is not an issue of trust as much as it is one of being possible. Most of our systems are still down after the previous hits with the EMP charged slugs!=^= the reply from the Ares sounded from the speaker. Schrit had to clamp down on the feelings of dispair threatening to overwhelm him. Danre’s voice sounded from the speaker though, with a way out.

=^=It should be possible to connect the coolant conduits to the fire suppression system that has nozzles all over the Ares’s hull, spraying a mist of Isopropane and tert-butylcatechol that should do the trick=^= Danre countered, knowing their time was running out.

=^=Acknowledged. Ensign Ventress just came up with that same idea. We’re sending out crew to carry it out as we speak.=^= the Ares answered.

Less than a minute later the first nozzles began spraying a fine mist of liquid out into space which continued to expand outwards with its momentum. Soon more and more nozzles joined the effort to envelop the Ares with the mist that could save her from the novell weapon the renegade ship was firing at her.

Suddenly Schrit’s HUD gained an extra indicator which caused Schrit to startle as if he had seen a Horror film’s jump-scare moment. An arrow pointing up and left. He knew that the enemy ship must have come within the sensor range, possibly sneaking up to take the kill-shot at Ares.

=^=Captain, I've got a reading. Heading 212, mark 4=^=Schrit reported, closing all comms after that, knowing that there was nothing more to say. Either the Ares’s spray of the propo...pripa… the chemical stuff would work or it wouldn’t.

All Schrit could do now is head into the arrow’s direction and hope the missile guidance system got a lock and he could fire at the enemy before it was too late.

=^=Gold two, keep it tight, we’re going hunting!=^= he told his wingman.

=^=Eye sir, keeping it tighter than my mother’s bathing suit=^= his wingman answered.

With the flick of his controls the fighter shot off in the direction indicated by the arrow, with his wingman’s nose not more than 30 cm from his rear wingtip. Five seconds later his missile guidance system started to beep, with increasing frequency, until he beeps became a single persistent tone.

=^=I’ve got tone! Fox 2!=^= Schrit called out, keeping to the traditional jargon fighter pilot’s had used since the first heat seeking missiles came into use in the 20th century.

The missile shot out from the missile launcher in the Ares’s weapons bay, immediately starting a lazy turn to the left and slightly down from the fighter’s horizon point of view. It had locked on to something, that was for sure.

=^=Missile is tracking, repeat the missile is tra..=^= Schrit was saying, keeping everyone listening appraised of the missiles progress when a blindingly bright flash from 90 degrees to his left and slightly below the Adrestia fighter.


An oval shape could be seen for a second before that shape seemed to shimmer, flicker and dissapear. In it’s place was a Starfleet vessel, though Schrit had never seen one like it before.

=^=Ares, are you seeing this?= he said into his comm, while using the thrusters and vector controls to point his fighter’s nose at the ship that appeared. His wingman kept pace as if glued in place to Schrit’s fighter, bringing his weapons to bare onto the ship that had just appeared.

As if in direct response to being discovered three flashes signalled the aggressive response from the renegade. It had fired it’s Neodynium weapon at the Ares.

This time though, instead of the projectiles hitting and penetrating into the Ares’s hull, wreaking havoc as they did, the projectiles seemed to undergo a transformation as they travelled through the mist of chemicals that now surrounded the Ares up to a distance of 300 meters.

The tactical sensors showed the projectiles heating up undergoing an exothermal reaction, before dissapearing from sensors. The science station on the Ares’s bridge did show the projectiles though, as rubber objects bouncing off the hull leaving no more than slight dents.

From the fighters the projectiles weren’t visible but the lack of impacts on, or damage to, the already wounded Ares said all they needed to know. The Ares was no longer at risk from the Neodynium weapons. How voulnerable Ares was to any other weapons the renegade ship could bring to bear remained to be seen though.

Schrit grinned for just a moment at that realization before he shoved any emotion other than grimm determination to pay back the enemy for what they had done into the back of his mind.

=^=weapens locked=^= Gold 2 reported pointedly.

=^=Gold one to Ares. Give the word and we’ll fire everything we’ve got. We might just have a chance here!=^= Schrit told the Ares through the commchannel.

His finger hovering over the fire button, which when pressed would fire the whole arsenal on the Adrestia fighter, and which would be added to by Gold 2’s equally poised weapons.

All that was needed was to hear the word “fire” come through the speakers in his helmet.

=^=Fire=^= the voice from the comm speaker said.

Schrit and his wingman both pressed their firing studs simultaneously causing four missiles and two beams of destructive phased energy to spew forth from their fighters. The beams hit the renegade vessels first, reveiling their shields had been repaired enough to be reactivated.

The missiles followed swiftly, impacting at roughly the same spot as the phasers had. The combined assault from the fighter’s weapons caused the shields to flicker, and wink out, after which sparks on the ship’s hull revealed that the renegade ship had at least suffered some damage.

When the renegade ship had been reveiled the two other Adrestia fighters had begun moving towards it, keeping themselves between the Ares and the enemey.

=^=Gold 1 this is Red 1. We are in range, weapons hot and locked. Permission to fire sir?=^= came the voice of the Red wing’s leader.

Before Schrit could reply the renegade began to turn and speed up, sensors showing by the energy signature she was powering up it’s warp engines.

Schrit decided he wasn’t having none of that.

=^=Fire at will! They’re trying to run! Don’t let them...=^= Schrit said, punching his engines up to full as he spoke but never got to finish his orders. A bright flash following the seemingly streching of the ship signalled the renegade ship had gone to warp.

=^=Initiating persuit=^= Schrit said through his comm, and punched in the keys to engage his warp engines.

Schrit knew that if he was quick enough his sensors could pick up the ship in subspace, and possibly even get a weapons lock. With the missiles all gone, he only had his energy weapons to fire, but with those he hoped he could force the renegade ship to drop out of warp.

As the Adrestia leapt into subspace his sensors showed him the renegade ship ahead of him. His first gut reaction of relief was soon replaced with dispair as he realized that his Adrestia couldn’t hope to keep up with the ship he was trying to catch. The renegade vessel was passing warp 8, and still accellerating. His Adrestia would struggle to reach warp 8 and would never be able to maintain it long enough to make a difference.

Dissapointed he logged the renegade ship’s vector before keying in the commands into his nav system to take him back to the USS Ares.

=^=Gold one to Ares. I’ve lost the ship. It was too fast for the fighter to keep up with.=^= he informed the Ares, his voice sounding dissapointed and dejected.

Moments later the fighter appeared out of subspace near the Ares. The sight of the vessel, and its damage discouraging to say the least. He noticed the hangerbay was still inaccessable.

=Gold one to all fighters. Form up on my wing. We'll be doing Combat Space Patrol until we can return to the ship. I don't expect the enemy to return but stranger things have happened.=^= Schrit ordered the rest of the fighers.

As the fighters came into formation, he set out a course that would patroll the perimeter and settled into his seat, hoping repairs would progress quickly so he could take his son into his arms for the biggest hug he'd ever had.