[Josh Broughm]

USS Ares
Deck 10 - CDO's office

Sam was brought back to his senses when an indicator light flashed yellow. He knew now what that meant. The True Way was about to make a 'call'. He hit a comms panel to contact the Bridge.

=^=Bridge, if you're attempting to contact the ships, can you pipe it down here, just incoming?=^=

OOC: I honestly do not know if a CDO can listen in on a ship-to-ship line.

((TAG BRIDGE| XO can respond))

[Nesta]

USS Ares
Deck 1 - Bridge

Sam was brought back to his senses when an indicator light flashed yellow. He knew now what that meant. The True Way was about to make a 'call'. He hit a comms panel to contact the Bridge.

=^=Bridge, if you're attempting to contact the ships, can you pipe it down here, just incoming?=^=

Hearing the comms, R'Turan would call out:
"We'll link it your way once they respond our hails, if ever." The Caitians voice was tense, yet a sense of calm seemed to radiate from the feline.

((Tag Sam Urquhart, Bridge crew.))

[KaiserKirk]

OOC: Sorry for not posting in a while, I have just been waiting for the story to progress until I can be of some relevance.

USS Ares,
Deck 16, Sickbay

The sickbay was a scene of complete anarchy. Nurses and surgeons rushing from one side of the room to the other, groups of officers huddling around medical beds, making sure they are ready for use. The deck plates were rumbling as the sound of several strike craft priming their engines for takeoff in the squadron hanger one deck down. Angus was in the middle of the room still, he had only just received the intel from the bridge and now was planning a course of action. Calling all his years of dealing with these situations. Looking around him he saw the carnage, what was he doing? He needed to get everything organized as quickly as possible!

Staying still for only a fraction of a second longer to think of the plan of action Hems got to work bringing order to the chaos.

First thing on his mind was to create an emergency response team to bring immediate aid anywhere on the ship. He saw Mell run past him towards one of the many medical beds in the main room holding a rack of Hyposprays in both her hands.

"Mell!" Angus called out as he jogged towards her, "I need you to find Jordan, Harris and Klaus okay, got that?" Angus commanded, Mell made a determined nodded as she handed the Hyposprays to another nurse and ran off after her objective.

Meanwhile, Angus commanded the others and slowly brought order in the sickbay, everyone now knew exactly what to do and where to operate. Angus wanted to begin forming teams of 2-6 to perform actions when in combat scenarios in a few days time after he had met with everyone in his department to sus out their strengths and weaknesses, the sudden yellow alert, however, had thrown his schedule out the airlock. Angus had taken inspiration from Blitzkrieg tactics used by the Germans during the second world war, having the infantry in small independent squads each with different goals and objectives.

Mell had found her "squad mates" and was moving to intercept Hems who was pacing between each team.

"Sir found them," informed Mell.

"Perfect, you will be acting as a Mobile First Aid team okay, you will be assisting these beds here," Angus pointed towards three beds, with two nurses hovering over them," they are assigned to stable patients, in the event that the ships hull is breached by enemy fire and a department or deck is hit you will be sent out to treat any injuries in that area and bring them back to the sickbay for further treatment... any questions?" The group was silent, "Good now get yourselves kitted up!"

The team rushed to the lockers on the far side of the main room, inside was field medic gear, Hypospray straps, First aid satchels and backpacks, everything to keep you alive long enough to get you to the sickbay.

"How long do you think we will need to wait?" Harris asked as he slung a bulky white and red satchel over his shoulder with the famous red cross on the front symbolizing medical help.

"I don't kn-" Klaus began, only to be cut off by the sound of an explosion and the rocking of the ship. The group stared wide-eyed at each other and burst into a frenzy, gearing up as fast as possible and heading towards the CMO for deployment.

((TAG: Bridge crew))

OOC: I left the time it took for the sickbay to get ready vague so you guys can take as long as you want to start combat just in case you weren't ready yet!

[Josh Broughm]

USS Ares
Deck 10 - CDO's office

((In response to 'Kitty'....I AM SO SORRY!!))
- Thanks.

Sam closed the channel, awaiting the one way comm. For some strange reason, he felt a little 'prickle' of discomfort on the back of his neck, almost as if he felt something bad was coming.

Suddenly, Sam felt himself fly from his seat from a massive lurch that felt like a weapons impact. His head collided with a bulkhead. Sam got up & looked around. The room was alight with red. He went to a small panel, pulled it off and grabbed a medkit. He then proceeded to heal a cut that he got from his head colliding into a bulkhead, then put it away. Sam then attempted to get to his quarters as per protocol.

When he got to the turbolift, he found the lift system went offline, so he went into the Jefferies tubes. Sam had an idea of the tubes layout on the ship, so it didn't take him long to navigate it. He got out on the deck that his quarters were on and started to jog. He stopped suddenly when he spotted an unconscious body, slumped against the wall, face full of burns.

- *Looks like a console blew out.*

He checked for a pulse. It was faint, but there. He went to hit his comm badge, but noticed the pips.

- Son of a bitch! =^=Sickbay, Medical emergency, deck x. Its the Captain!=^=

((TAG Sickbay/CMO))

- =^=Bridge, I just found the captain. He's been seriously injured.=^=

((TAG Bridge/XO))

OOC: Edit above as needed. Its a way to write off Eagles for a spell.

[Allan Hood]

USS Ares
Deck 1 - Bridge

Hearing the comms, R'Turan would call out:
"We'll link it your way once they respond our hails, if ever." The Caitians voice was tense, yet a sense of calm seemed to radiate from the feline.

“Direct hit!” yelled a panicked junior-grade helmsman through the smoked filled bridge. Hood slowly opened his eyes, his head spinning. What was that? Where did that come from? How long have I been out? Hood felt the same panic, though masking it behind experience.

The ship rocked again.

Hood gripped the science chair’s arms harder. Even with the safety harness, he felt as if he could be tossed straight from his seat. His head hurting from the recent whiplash. Least the harness straps activated in time.

How is Gracie and Donna? How is Sami-Jo? YHWH will preserve them, and keep them safe; and they shall be blessed upon the earth: and Thou wilt not deliver them unto the will of our enemies.

“We lost our lower phaser array!” shouted a coughing tactical officer, lights flickering on the consoles behind him.

“Eleutherio! Get to sickbay and help Doctor Hems!” Hood turned to see Eleutherio was unconscious on the deck behind him; the surprise attack caught everyone unaware. Hood risked unfastening his harness, reaching down, finding Eleutherio’s pulse. He noticed half a dozen tiny mechanical arms coming from his Borg implants, making repairs to various areas of his body around each corresponding implant.

As Hood moved to reclaim his seat, the ship shifted under his feet among sparks and smoke. Hood landed unconscious on the deck near Eleutherio.

Gracie attempted to skip her rock across the Caloosahatchee River near the old Xindi Incident Memorial, but it splashed unsuccessfully at the shore instead.

“I think she’s starting to get it, Al,” Sami-Jo laughed, mocking her husband from the tree overlooking the ancient river oxbow, balancing Baby Donna, their one-year-old, on her knee.

“You laugh now, but I bet she’ll have it figured out before you,” Allan half-joked back to her. “Hold it like this, baby,” Hood instructed his daughter while guiding her hand.

After slamming the smooth stone back against the shore with a loud splash the second time, Gracie turned her face to her father and said in her sweet four-year-old voice, “Lieutenant, are you injured?

“Gracie?” Hood asked toward his recovering science officer, using the console to support himself as the ship tilted.

“Lieutenant Hood?” asked Ensign Falora, still strapped securely in her seat.

“Falora! Get to sickbay and help the doctor!” Hood commanded again. The Vulcan stood up emotionless and walked across the shuttering bridge as if it was all routine.

Hood’s eyes finally began burning. He heard someone attempting to put out an electrical fire when the console behind the person erupted in sparks and fire, swallowing his attempt and his soul.

Hood risked remaining unfastened and dashed to R’Turan’s command chair.

We need something old.

“May I suggest the Picard Maneuver, sir? We’d throw them off by giving them a surprise attack of our own. Even the score a little.”

((TAG R'Turan, Teriir))

[Nesta]

- =^=Bridge, I just found the captain. He's been seriously injured.=^=

((TAG Bridge/XO))

Hood risked remaining unfastened and dashed to R’Turan’s command chair.

We need something old.

“May I suggest the Picard Maneuver, sir? We’d throw them off by giving them a surprise attack of our own. Even the score a little.”

((TAG R'Turan, Teriir))

R'Turan was blasted forwards by the impact, although the emergency straps activated in time, so he wasn't blown off his chair. Once he heard Sam, he would let out a seriously pissed growl, before responding:

"Bring him to the medbay, Lt. Urquhart, we've got bigger problems to deal with here." Following, he would close the commchannel, obviously not wanting to be distracted. "Lower phaser bank... Get some engineering teams down there, we need to get that back up and running. In the meantime, Commander Teriir, direct all auxiliary power to the shields, and fire the photon torpedoes when you get the chance to."

Again rocked forwards, although the straps kept him in his chair, R'Turan focused his attention upon the science officer, listening to his proposal.
"The Picard maneuver... That could work..." Assuming Lt. Gytaik had not been as unfortunate to pass out, he called forwards, to the Ops officer:

"Lt. Oma, would the Picard maneuver be a feasible tactic to use in this situation? If so, execute it."

((TAG Allan Hood, Dyrell Teriir, Sam Urquhart, Gytaik Oma))

[KaiserKirk]

OOC: Hey guys great work! This story is truly amazing, I wanted to ask if anyone would want someone from their department or a close friend of their character to sadly die from this encounter or be injured to the point where it would affect the rest of their lives, such as receiving a physical disability, maybe a scar? Scars can be short-term though as the Sickbay is equipped with Dermal Regenerators which heal most skin wounds such as scars?

USS Ares,
Deck 16,
OOC: I just wanted to point out as it may be a little confusing the next paragraph happens before the initial opening of hostilities, so we can kind of see what Angus was doing while we followed the mobile unit during the end of my last post. Also, note that I plan to use them as secondary characters during most of my stories as kind of my own little bridge crew here in Sickbay

Everything and everyone was ready for whatever the situation was on the Bridge, Angus was confident in his team and new that they would perform efficiently and professionally under pressure. As he gazed at the many faces awaiting whatever might limp through the door he saw that all were solemn in deep thought, most hid their discomfort, fear and anxiety but Angus saw a few of the younger and more inexperienced nurses where terrified. Angus was standing in the middle of the main room when the ground beneath him shook violently and a crash was simultaneously heard from above his legs gave way under him and he toppled over, crashing into the dark blue carpet in a jarring position. wincing at the pain in his shoulder he collected himself. Looking around him he saw panicked faces through the flashing lights of the Red Alert. The ship was under attack?!

A mob of officers, all of them covered head to toe in medical gear surrounded him, all of them wore a face of determination and anxiety... his Mobile First Aid team.

"Alright!" Hems said in a way that commanded the team's attention, "Computer-" He began before being cut off by an older and panicked voice

=^=Sickbay, Medical emergency, deck x. It's the Captain!=^=

The group was momentarily stunned at the news but training took complete control and soon Hems was giving orders left and right.

=^= Understood, I'm sending a medical team to deck ten now! Where on the deck is he? =^=

"You lot are going to deck ten, find the captain and bring him to sickbay then work your way to the initial impact area. I'll broadcast a ship-wide message asking for any other departments that have injured."
__________________________________________________________________

The MFA rushed out of the Sickbay. The group sprinted towards the turbolift at full pace. Klaus who had lived on starships and stations his whole life was accustomed to doors opening automatically. At the speed, he was running and the captain taking up a majority of his attention he didn't notice the doors refusal to open until it was too late and ran straight into the door. It would have been funny any other moment but with the captain's life on the line, no one stopped to laugh. The group stopped and Mell helped to pick him up.

"The explosion must have knocked out the turbolifts!" Harris exclaimed after pressing the 'open' button two or three times.

"Dam! We will need to take the Jefferies tubes then." Jordon replied.

The group paused again. it was their first day and no one knew the schematics of the ship off by heart yet. Time was running out and they had to find one fast.

"Ahh, I-I think that might be one." Klaus pointed as he dabbed his nose.

Mell rushed to a hatch near a panel and practically ripped it off the wall, and as Klaus had guessed inside was a short tunnel with a steel ladder at the end.

"Come on!" Mell ordered as she climbed through.

__________________________________________________________________

Angus could always remember that horrid feeling in these kinds of situations, nothing prepares you for whatever comes through that damn door. You wait and wait and your mind drifts to all the worst things that could happen, amputation, death? The seconds between the entrance hissing open and you see the casualty are the scariest few seconds in Anguses entire life.

A minute past and the sickbay waited an agonising wait. And then the first came. An Ensign with a plasma burn all over his arms and face being assisted by another.

Angus rushed to carry him, thanking his assistant for what he had done. Plasma burns were serious but nothing a few days in Sickbay couldn't fix. He layed the Bajoran male on one of the bed he had marked as serious. Suddenly two nurses were huddled around the bed as well. one being Tellarite had taken been a fast thinker and had retrieved the burn chamber for the hands. It would take a Dermal Regenerator to heal the rest of the burns and then a Dermal Stimulator to heal most of the scarring.

"Nurse, start to treat her hands with the Burn Chamber," Angus asked the Tellarite and than swung around to the other nurse already holding out the Dermal Regenerator for the CMO, "Thanks, now help take off his uniform,"
__________________________________________________________________

USS Ares,
Deck 10, Maintenence tunnle.

The group had been climbing the same ladder for some time, the trip was made longer by all their equipment getting in the way and being generally cumbersome in the small place.

"I think this is it!" Mell called down to her teammates as she struggled to open the metal hatch. When it did finally give way she was treated to the smell of something burning. As graciously as a beached whale Mell climber onto the deck plate beside the ladder to be greeted by a man nealing over another's body.

"I found the captain!" She called back, as Harris popped his head through the hatch into the department.

Mell rushed to the captains injured body and examined it, noticing straight away severe plasma burns and deep cuts. Pulling out her Medical Tricorder she motioned it sideways as it scanned for injuries.

"Blast! He has severe plasma burns over the majority of his body, along with several fractures and some internal bleeding!" She explained to her team and the officer,"He must have been standing right next to the console when it exploded... there is not much we can do here apart from stopping the exterior bleeding, How are we going to get him to the Sickbay?" She asked panicked to her fellow officers.

((Tag: Joshua A. Broughm))

[Josh Broughm]

USS Ares
Deck 5 - Corridor

OOC: Diplomatic complex is all over D10(according to the schematics), I crawled through some jefferies tubes to get to my quarters on D5.

Sam looked up hat the doctor & suggested,

- Transporters, maybe?

((TAG Kirk))

- Ah. How far down is sickbay?

((TAG Kirk))

[Silynn]

U.S.S. ARES
Deck 8 – Enlisted Quarters
Jei opened her eyes and found herself on the floor. Her side was throbbing and her head spinning. The lights were dimmed and red. The alert klaxon was blaring. As Jei tried to discern if this was a dream or real, she got up and sat on the edge of her small bed.

“Computer, what is going on? Is this a dream? Someone’s stupid idea to run a drill?” inquired Jei.

*“All Damage Control Personnel are to report to their assigned areas and commence repairs until otherwise directed.”*

Jei pulled on her pants and noticed the sizeable bruise on her left side. She took a quick breathe and pulled her shirt on. Immediately, she felt a wave of pain wash over her, but she endured and remained standing. Pulling on her jacket and slipping her feet into her short boots, she grabbed on her tool belt as she headed out into the corridor.

Only the emergency lights were on, denoting that some sort of power conduit for the area had been damaged or bypassed. Jei went to the nearest wall panel and noticed it was darkened. With her tricorder out, she isolated and narrowed down the likely source. It was somewhat directly below her in the Jefferies on Deck 9.

Jei pulled open an access hatch near the floor and crawled in. It was only a few meters of a crawl to the tube junction that led to vertical section of the Jefferies. Maneuvering onto the ladder, Jei felt a heat and flash of pain again on her side. She took a breathe and steeled herself for the several meter climb down wards, knowing it will be some undesired attention on her side.

~”This may be more than a bruise… but as I was told, the pain is telling me that I’m still alive.”~ mused Jei.

U.S.S. ARES
Deck 9 – Gamma-4 PDS Maintenance Bay
After a bit, the pain subsided as she began to smell the tell-tale signs of smoke. Nearing the junction, Jei saw the powdery residue of the fire suppressant system. As she crawled along the now horizontal section, she followed the burned area until she reached the source, the Starboard Power Distribution System Gamma-Four. This PDS powered the whole Starboard section for Decks 8 through 10 for both the Saucer and Neck sections. In addition, during battle situations, this PDS provided the main source of energy for the ship’s lower phaser array.

Before climbing into the sub-bay, Jei keyed in the emergency by-pass to shutdown all connecting conduits that fed the system. She didn’t want to risk another blow-out with a powered system. Once the systems were confirmed to be powered off, Jei jumped down a meter into the PDS bay. Quickly inspecting the various components, she determined that battery unit five overheated and started the small fire. The heat of the fire caused the capacitors on junction 5 to overload and explode. The small explosion added more fire that damaged the junction box feeding the neck section of Deck 10, likely causing some conduit there to blow out.

After cataloging the disable systems, Jei started to sort out the priority of repairs. She knew that she had to get power restored at a functional level. To repair the system properly would take a couple days. Thus, she decided to do the next best option, jury rig the PDS to power to critical systems. Namely life-support, the phasers, and turbolifts. Jei got to work isolating the damaged half of the PDS system and then patching together the other non-damaged half into a semblance of a half-capacity PDS. Granted this patchwork was completed quickly, but it would not hold up to extended strain. Long enough, hopefully, for the ship to get out of its immediate threat and danger.

With all of the by-passes and reconfiguring completed, Jei climbed back up to the auxiliary control panel. She disengaged the power conduit safety locks and slowly powered up the junctions and capacitors one at a time. The system stopped, as she knew, at fifty three point two percent. Satisfied Jei keyed her combadge.

=^= “Control, limited power restored to the Starboard PDS Gamma-Four. Medical life-support and the Lower Phaser array should be online, but at only 50% capacity.” =^=

OOC - Control, to Jei, is Engineering or whomever is manning/supervising Main Engineering. Jei, as a lowly petty officer doesn't contact the bridge. By protocol for her in her Damage Control duties, she'd report to Engineering. From there the Chief Engineer or officer can rely to the Bridge or the Bridge would pick-up the comm report.

[Saelanna]

”Lt. Oma, would the Picard maneuver be a feasible tactic to use in this situation? If so, execute it.”

Oma ran the calculations in her head.

“Yes sir!” She replied, her hands flying over her console making the necessary projections. “Have tactical ready to fire on those ships the instant we drop out of warp!”.

She said a silent prayer to the Prophets and punched it; there was a momentary lurch as the damaged ship accelerated to high warp.

“On my mark…” she dropped the ship out of warp, knowing that in that instant their attackers would see two ships and praying they would be confused enough to give the Ares an advantage. “FIRE!”.

((TAG Bridge Crew))

[Asteropax]

USS Ares
Turbolift

Dyrell Teriir recognized the Orion Interceptors were of an elite group from the Orion Syndicate the instant before they opened fire with a series of particle weapons rather than disruptors. Two of their six shots hit, one near enough to the bridge to cause a fail in the inertial dampeners and caused a small explosion on the bridge near him. Most officers would momentarily panic but he was a veteran of dozens of fights with pirates, the Dominion War, and even faced the Borg. This was just another day on the job to him. He changed the frequency of the shields to one which was better suited to shield the Ares from particle weapons over disruptors as Ensign Aerign informed him that the second blast disabled the saucer's ventral phaser array.

"Understood," he calmly responded as he targeted the two ships with the engineering section's ventral phaser and got ready to fire them and some of the phasers mounted on their nacelle pylons. Every shot of his struck home and flared the shields of the Interceptors. He opened up the comms and opened the doors to Shuttlebay 2 as the Orion ships shot by just underneath them, "Bridge to Spear Squadron; Launch!"

He fired a spread of quantum torpedoes at the lead Orion ship, which was now breaking to their starboard side in an attempt to outmaneuver them. The torpedoes found their mark, the third torpedo leaving a hole in their port shielding. He targeted that point with the phasers and got a shot off before the Ares jolted from an attack from the other Orion Interceptor. He quickly recovered and retaliated with more phaser fire as their attackers shifted positions again to circle around to their bow once more. The Interceptors suddenly started to maneuver much more randomly and began firing their aft weapons at the fighters. Teriir grinned at the sight of the two ships practically running away from seven Adrestia Class fighters. It was good to see them in action. They were sticking to the attacking ships like some sort of adhesive while firing their phasers.

- =^=Bridge, I just found the captain. He's been seriously injured.=^=

Teriir found himself blinking in surprise. That was among the things he never wanted to hear again. He didn't let his thoughts interrupt his actions though and noticed Allen approach R'Turan.

“May I suggest the Picard Maneuver, sir? We’d throw them off by giving them a surprise attack of our own. Even the score a little.”

He quickly ran the numbers through his head. The fighters had given them some distance so they could be able to pull it off. Both interceptors were also looping around towards each other, possibly in an attempt to use their forward weapon arrays on the fighters. Some new information came over his console; the weapon and shield frequencies of the Orion Interceptors.

~"That's almost a new record."~ he silently complemented Ensign Aerign. Simultaneously, the disabled phaser array came back online. He prepared the forward torpedo launchers and then looked over at R'Turan who had given the order to perform the Picard Maneuver. He nodded to indicate he was ready and held his fingers over the commands he would use. A quick warp jump which would be followed up with a torpedo volley. Teriir had dreamed up a variation of the famed tactic years ago but never had the chance to use it until now.

“On my mark…” she dropped the ship out of warp, knowing that in that instant their attackers would see two ships and praying they would be confused enough to give the Ares an advantage. “FIRE!”.

A moment latter they were almost on top of the Orion Interceptors. He fired the torpedoes and then mentally counted down. The Orion ships paused in their firing as they tried to take in the sudden appearance of a second Sovereign Class starship.

~"NOW!"~

He fired of a phaser burst, targeting the shield emitter of the lead ship. The Interceptor received a direct hit and its shields failed the instant before six quantum torpedoes struck the same area on its neck. She was blown in half. The other ship realized what was happening and turned to take the Ares head on. It opened fire but the modification he punched in for their shields absorbed a large amount of the energy. It almost looked panicked at the realization it was now being chased by fighters and practically having its shots bounce off the Federation ship's shields. The ship whirled around, possibly to withdraw. Teriir wasn't having any of it. Those Orions had made their last raid. He made an adjustment to the dorsal phaser array, transferring power from the ventral array as well as the nacelle arrays, and fired off one devastating overload. One shot was all he needed as the blast tore through the Interceptor's hull, beginning to cleave the ship down its center from bow to stern. It never finished because the warp core exploded, incinerating the Orion starship.

It was over.

((Tag: Bridge Crew, Cole, Urquhart))

[Silynn]

U.S.S. ARES
Deck 9 – Jefferies Tube 36
=^= “Han, that you? Good work, but next time report in FIRST before heading off on your own. In any case, head down to Deck 10 and help Dawson and Lor’Nik. They are working on another conduit junction. Samson out.”=^=

Jei didn’t bother to acknowledge the Chief, as he was probably already onto his next task in coordinating the others in the Damage Control team. Double-checking the area about her, Jei made sure she had all her tools back in their pouches before crawling back out to the vertical tube that would allow her to climb down to Deck 10. She noticed her uniform was caked in the fire-suppressant powder and shook her head in amusement.

~”I guess at least I won’t catch fire, not with all of this stuff on me.”~

She reached the vertical tube and sized up her trek. “Only ten or so meters down…” Jei said to no one in particular.

Jei started to turn around to put her back toward the shaft, but the pain on her left side quickly stopped her. She sighed at herself completely forgetting about the pain due to the adrenaline earlier. But now, it was reminding her that it was still present. She sat forward on the edge with her legs dangling down and pulled out her tricorder. She did a cursory scan and confirmed her suspicions. That she bruised her left-side ribcage. Yet she was happy it wasn’t cracked. She could manage with the bruised injury for now.

She leaned forward to allow her right foot and leg to make the initial and support contact with the ladder. Once Jei felt her boot make firm contact with the ladder rung, Jei started to flip her body around so she was now facing the ladder as her left foot made contact with the next ladder rung down. Jei had done more acrobatic and agile moves while moving about the maintenance tubes, but this time she didn’t take into account the fire retardant powder.

The powder had caked the initial few rungs of the ladder, not to mention, that Jei’s hands and uniform were even more covered in the fine residue. As Jei grabbed the ladder with her left hand, she lost her grip. This cascaded into her left boot slipping from the rung as the traction was negated by the fire-suppressant powder. Gravity took over as her body fell backwards and her right hand-hold slipped due to the slippery combination of powder and normal perspiration from her hand.

As the realization that she was falling head first down the shaft, Jei did was any normal person would do. She followed her instincts to survive. She lashed out at anything to get a hand-hold to stop her fall. She was successful in grabbing onto a rung, but her speed and weight was more than her strength and body could handle. Jei did right herself, with her feet down and head up, as her body slammed into the shaft wall. The force of the impact knocked the breath out of her and she lost her balance.

U.S.S. ARES
Deck 10 – Jefferies Tube 37
Jei fell the remaining few meters and slammed onto the deck plate of the maintenance shaft. Instinctively she had cradled her head with her hands and arms in an attempt to protect her head. Jei remained conscious but her ears were feeling warm and ringing, a telltale sign that she was close to passing out. With her remaining strength, she was able to move her right arm to tap her combadge.

=^= “Help… Deck 10…-fferies tube 37…” =^= informed Jei as she finally lost consciousness.

((Tag: Angus Hems and/or anyone))

OOC - Nothing really life-threatening. Sprained ankle, now cracked ribs, strained wrist, likely a minor concussion, besides the normal bruises.

[Allan Hood]

USS Ares
Deck 16 - Sickbay

The sickbay was a scene of complete anarchy. Nurses and surgeons rushing from one side of the room to the other, groups of officers huddling around medical beds, making sure they are ready for use. The deck plates were rumbling as the sound of several strike craft priming their engines for takeoff in the squadron hanger one deck down. Angus was in the middle of the room still, he had only just received the intel from the bridge and now was planning a course of action. Calling all his years of dealing with these situations. Looking around him he saw the carnage, what was he doing? He needed to get everything organized as quickly as possible!

Ensign Falora walked purposely through the corridor to sickbay from the turbolift. Occasionally, she bumped against other crew members, taking turns catching each other, as the ship shook underfoot. She knew, without the inertial dampeners, they'd all have been instantly dashed against the bulkhead.

The psycho-suppression system responsible for the Vulcan suppression of emotions, located in the mesiofrontal cortex, worked better at stabilizing her emotions than the ship's dampeners did at stabilizing the crew, and Falora was heavily relying on it. People lay injured in the corridor on the way to the bridge and her logical mindset guided her to reach sickbay, in spite of the humanoid obstacles that lay before her. As she stepped over and around injured crew members, some reached out to her. She ignored them; logically, there were too many for her to help and there may be those in a more critical condition. The logical thing to do would be to receive orders directly from Doctor Hems, himself. Any of these undisciplined humanoids would have stopped and saw to their injuries, but not Falora; she knew better.

Finally, Falora reached sickbay, the door being held open by an unconscious crew member's leg. Falora ducked a hose that threated to graze her pointed ears as she stepped over the crew member's leg and threshold to sickbay.

"Do you need assistance, Doctor Hems?"

TAG Doctor Hems

[KaiserKirk]

OOC: Looks like Sickbay has its work cut out for it!

USS Ares,
Deck 16-Sickbay

OOC: As you may or not know I have kind of slip my story into two perspectives, the first being CMO Hems and the second being the MFA team with Mell as its leader.

"He's crashing!" A nurse yelled out across the sickbay filled with people. Angus, who was stabilizing a patient with two large pieces of shrapnel protruding out of his chest long enough to move him to the surgical bay heard the nurse yelling out.

"Here, you two take over from here!" Angus yelled as he motioned with a bloodied hand to the nearest nurses.

Dashing across the sickbay and weaving through several groups of people he arrived at a bed with a single nurse leaning over a Human Ensign from operations, he had a deep wound going right through his chest.

"Whats the situation?" Angus asked frantically as the nurse tried her best to wipe the blood that was oozing out of the patient fast enough to get a look inside.

"Dehiscence in his liver sir, it's been pierced by shrapnel and the liver is spewing acids all throughout his body...what do we do?" The nurse replied on the verge of breaking down.

"Okay, Reader Tube!" Angus commanded as he offered his hand to the nurse. Seconds later she had a small silver cylinder with different colour displays on one side being transferred from her hand into the CMO's who then placed it on the patient's skin above the Liver. The displays lit up with green and red colours.

"Scheiße! His toxin levels are through the roof! Nurse give me a Hypospray equipped with medical Nanoprobes programmed to seal the wound!" Angus didn't swear as often as some but when he did he always made it discreet by saying the vulgar words in German. With lightning fast hand movements the nurse produced another silver cylinder, this one though was much larger and had one glass end filled with a clear liquid and another metal end with a smooth semicircle pad. Angus took the Hypospray and pressed it against the man's neck with the pad and a small hissing sound was heard as the glass was removed of its liquid.

Several murderous moments passed until the nurses face lit up with excitement as she examined the medical monitor.

"Sir, He is stabilizing!"

"Haha, excellent..." Angus said as a wave of relief flowed through him, "Make sure to put a Protoplaser on the wound once it's cleaned." Angus reminded the nurse as he dashed to another fire that had to be put out.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

USS Ares,
Deck 5-Jefferies tube

Transporters, maybe?

Mell nodded at the officer who was kneeling beside her over the captain's body,

"Hm...well we will give it a try, but if transporters are down then we are practically out of options unless you want to carry him," Mell replied in a thoughtful manner.

Ah. How far down in sickbay?

Giving the officer a smirk at his remark she tapped her comm badge

=^= Nurse Francie to transporter chief I have a casualty that needs to be beamed directly to sickbay, can you lock onto the captain?=^=

Worried glanced bounced around the group as transporters were their only option, no way could the five of them carry an unconscious captain through the cramped and claustrophobic Jefferies tubes.

=^= Acknowledged, I have locked onto the captain and am transporting him...now.=^=

Within moments the captain dematerialised in the familiar blue particles to the relief of the entire team.

=^= Nurse Francie to CMO Hems, the captain has been transported directly to the Sickbay.=^=

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

USS Ares,
Deck 16-Sickbay

=^= Good job, continue towards the impact zone.=^= Angus replied as he and three other nurses waited for the injured captain to rematerialize in the small transporter bay in Sickbay. It didn't take long for the transition and soon Hems was kneeling down beside the wounded man with a Medical Tricorder. As he received the readings he had mixed feelings, he was stable but so badly hurt that his condition could change at a moments notice, especially with the internal bleeding he detected throughout the body.

"Nurse, help me take him to the ICU, meanwhile you two prepare to deal with severe plasma burns, internal bleeding and bone breakages," He commanded as he moved to grab a stretcher.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

USS Ares,
Deck 5-Jefferies tubes

Relived that the captain was in good hands Mell and the others prepared to continue their climb upwards while Mell sorted out the other officer.

"Thanks for all your help, you could have just saved the captains life!" Mell effused as she slotted her Tricorder back into its sheath on her belt "Oh, are you injured?"

OOC: From what I have read you don't appear injured and I am going to assume will answer no.

=^= “Help… Deck 10…-fferies tube 37…” =^=

The muddled plea emanated out of all the group's badges, Harris was halfway through the maintenance door when the distress started.

"Someone is in trouble!" Jordon exclaimed.

"Did anyone here were she said she was?" Klaus replied, he was a tall man for his age and was forced to bend so low that he was practically bowing in the cramped compartment.

"Somewhere on deck ten? But I didn't hear the last part," Mell stated, she sounded horse.

"I think she said...Jefferies tube 3-....37?" Harris replied looking very confused.

"That's almost on the other side of the ship five floors down!" Jordon exclaimed with a pained expression.

"Uh...well no rest for the wicked I guess" Mell sighed as she began to crawl towards the maintenance entrance she had entered through only moments ago.

=^=Sir, we have received another distress call a few floors down and are en route,=^=Harris explained to the CMO,

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

USS Ares,
Deck 16-Sickbay

The captain was being treated in the ICU, his injuries are extensive but he is stable. The Sickbay was almost completely full casualties, it had gotten so bad that the medical staff had to shoo away anyone with minor injuries that don't need immediate attention. Thankfully the system Hems had put in place was still working efficiently, though now nurses were treating three or four patients at a time.

Angus had just finished treating a Lieutenant with plasma burns when out of the corner of his eye he saw an officer in blue collapse in the middle of the doorframe of the entrance into the Sickbay.

Two nurses rushed to carry him towards one of the last remaining beds and another officer in blue walked right over the unconscious officer apparently oblivious to the condition of the other. The Vulcan officer made a B-line directly for Angus.

"Do you need assistance, Doctor Hems?"

"You can say something like that!" Hems stated mockingly as he threw his hands out as if to say 'Yeah ya think! have a look around!'

The Vulcan replied with a blank and cold stare, seemingly oblivious to the remark.

"What kind of medical training do you have?"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

USS Ares,
Deck 10-Jefferies Tube 37

After almost 15 minutes of crawling, Mell and the others arrived at the distress calls origin. It was a box-shaped compartment the same height as the compartment on deck 5, only this one was much larger in width, the junction had one display that was sporadically flickering and a steel ladder at the bottom of it was...

"She's unconscious!" Mell called out behind her as she threw herself out of the maintenance hatch. The body of what appeared to be an Ensign was sprawled across the floor just below the ladder. Mell crawled as fast as she could while simultaneously producing her Medical Tricorder. Harris who was second out of the hatch was Jordon who arrived on the other side of the casualties.

"I'm picking up several fractures, two broken ribs, severe head trauma... and a broken ankle,"

"We will have to transport her to Sickbay as well," Jordon contributed.

Even though they were equipped with enough medical gear to treat most of her injuries there was just no way she was going to be able to crawl all the way down to Sickbay.

((Tag: Allan Hood, Silynn, Joshua))

[Josh Broughm]

USS Ares
Deck 5 - Corridor

OOC: Not an officer, Kirk, just a civvie working for the fleet. LOL

Sam shook his head & said,

- Cracked my head when we got hit. I'll get it checked when things calm.

((TAG Kirk))

Sam saw them off and surveyed the mess, once he got to his quarters.
This is gonna take me forever!! He thought.

((TAG Anyone))