Help beyond borders

Posted on Thu Jul 9, 2015 @ 6:19pm by Captain Tam "Demon" Haican & Lieutenant Kyle "Loki" Carter & Civilian Melvyn Raddon

3,080 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Beholder
Location:
Timeline: ((a few days after the new solar system appeared))

[ON]

Captain Dante Hanks stood up from his chair as he shouted over the den of warning klaxons.

"Keep firing on the lead fighter, if they out flank us, then they'll attempt to board!" The Captain said. "NAV! What is the status on warp engines? The longer we stay here the long-- NAV-? Claire!" Captain Hanks stopped as he looked towards Navigation Controller only to see her slumped over the console.

He raced the distance between his chair towards the Navigation station and checked for a pulse. Faintly, he found one. He moved her injured body to the side and laid her down as he called for medical.

"Captain! We've lost primary and secondary torpedo launchers. Dorsal shielding is at 20% and falling!" The Tactical Operator shouted over the continued assault on the vessel.

Captain Hanks grabbed the NAV console and sent out an emergency distress signal on any available frequency.

={}= "This is the SS Mathias, we are currently under attack! To any nearby vessel, we require immediate assistance!"== The dispatch transmitted.

"Tim, keep firing on those fighters. . ." Captain Hanks said as he took over at the Navigation station and continued to maneuver the ship in an attempt to avoid the attackers.

****DS5 Ops****

A comm officer on duty heard the Mathias's distress call. "Starfighter control. We're receiving a distress call from a Civilian freighter, the S.S. Mathias. Be advised standard protocol is to dispatch the Combat Air Patrol to investigate."

****Starfighter Control****

"Affirmative Ops." Kyle called back over the Comm. "Open comm frequencies I wanna hear what the Mathias is saying. Launch alert fighters and re-deploy the CAP to intercept the Mathias."

As ordered the Combat Air Patrol changed their route to intercept the Civilian ship.

****CAP****

Tam was flying lead position in the CAP, when he heard the order. He quickly reacted. "Roger that, Control, CAP is en route to target!" He switched over to the group frequency. "Sabre Flight, this is Demon, we've got a civi under attack that needs our attention. Form up on me in diamond formation and prepare to perform a micro warp jump to the following coordinates." He typed out their destination and sent it to each of the six other starfighters flying with him.

"Jump in three, two, one, Jump!" The seven starfighters jumped into high warp simultaneously, screaming towards the location of the freighter.

[SS Matthias]

Captain Hanks coughed as he tried to breathe through the ever rising smoke on the bridge. =/\= "Mr. Malentod! I need power to the primary phasers!" The Captain shouted from his seat at the NAV console. He had been forced to take over after Claire had been retrieved by Medical. He was trying to keep the vessel in a continual maneuvering arc. If the fighters had to constantly alter their course, they wouldn't be able to get a good lock on the Matthias' more sensitive systems.

". . .I know what you bastards are after. . .and you'll have to blow this damn ship to pieces first...." Captain Hanks said ruefully as he continued to reroute any available power to maneuvering thrusters.

"Captain!" The Weapons Officer shouted over the rising den of noise. "I'm...I- I'm picking up a Starfleet signal from Deep Space 5. I believe they've dispatched a unit to assist us, but they're at least 8 minutes out!" He shouted.

The attacking fighters split into two groups sending four fighters to slow down the CAP and leaving four to vulture the now limping freighter ship. They took a wide turn to come around for another strafing run along the starboard side of the Mathias.

"Captain! They're flanking us!" The Weapons Officer was able to shout before the vessel shuddered again from the penetrating bursts from the fighters' weapons.

The Matthias' shields continued to hold, but everyone on the bridge knew that the vessel would not remain protected for long...

[DS5 CAP]

The small unit dispatched to the CAP was upon them quickly. The second they were within weapons range a barrage of phaser fire came at Tam and his group of fighters.

Tam saw the incoming fighters and ordered Sabre Flight to break and attack. He and his wingman continued to the freighter, to deal with the fighters still hassling her.

[Command Vessel]

"The Federation re-reinforcements have arrived. Inform the 1st attack wing that they are to continue to pursue the Matthias, do not, I repeat, DO NOT damage the secondary cargo hold." The man said to the subordinates facing away from him within their consoles. Although the command vessel was not directly within the battle, they were able to coordinate with the fighters. Their mission was to overtake the Matthias, come on board and retrieve the package, the lives of the civilians on board were of no importance. Unfortunately, the Matthias was able to send a distress signal before the fighters could effectively block their transmission.

The Fighters received their orders and began to concentrate their fire on the much larger vessel. The 1st attack wing targeted its fire on the Matthias' propulsion system in order to prevent it from escaping. The Fighters opened fired, bringing a barrage of fire against the vessel's depreciating shields.

Seeing the fighters press their attack on the Matthias, Tam scowled into his mask. "Damn bastards, teaming up on those civies. Hellspawn," he called to his wingman, "Let's teach these cowards a lesson about attacking ship's in our sector of space!"

"Roger that, Demon," The Andorian pilot replied from her Razor, which was holding formation off of Tam's port aft quarter. "Lead the way, Boss."

The two Starfleet starfighters shot forward on full impulse, making a beeline directly for the fighters that were harassing the Matthias. As they got closer, Tam opened his mind, reaching out to the minds of the raiders, seeing how they were about to maneuver. It was an act that earned him his call sign of Demon. He always seemed to know what his opponents were going to do before they did it.

The Command ship noticed Tam's Fighter breaking off to protect the Matthias.

[com] "Take out the lead Federation Fighter, once that minor distraction is dealt with you can turn your attentions back to the larger vessel." It signaled.

A bloc of the pursuing raiders maneuvered into an intercept position and began to bear down on Tam's fighter, opening fire.

===Tam's Raptor===

Tam felt the mental energies of the enemy pilots before his fighter's computer registered their change in course towards him. "Hellspawn, we got incoming. Stand by to break and engage."

"Roger that, Demon. On your signal."

A few brief seconds lapsed, then, "Now!" Tam rolled his fighter to port while his wingman rolled to starboard, in an attempt to split the incoming fighters. "Execute evasive beta sigma!" The maneuver Tam had ordered consisted of both Starfleet fighters to fly away from each other for twenty seconds, avoiding enemy fire as they did so, then looping back towards each other and eliminating the other's enemy tail.

The fighter attempted to follow; however, the split between the Tam and the other Federation fighter split the enemy forces even further. The command ship authorized the vessels to continue to pursue Tam's fighter since that appeared to be the leader of the attack squad.

"Initiate phase 2, it appears we will have to move up out timeline sooner than we expected." The Command Ship radioed to two fighters that had not engaged the Federation starfighters. They made a direct course towards the Matthias and managed to avoid the various dogfights that were taking place. Once they were within visual distance of the Matthias, they initiated docking maneuvers with the much larger civilian vessel.

[Matthias]

"Captain! One of the enemy vessels is attempted to board the ship!" The Weapons Officers shouted. He was busy enough as it was trying to run around the bridge and keep second weapons systems online, now he was detecting a security alert.

"HOW THE HELL DID THEY GET PAST THE SHIELDS!?!" Captain Hanks shouted as he reached for his phaser rifle within the Bridge Armory.

"I don't know! But I'm reading two different boarding parties on deck 12 and deck 26. . .they're going towards the cargo bay!" The Weapons Officer said with full knowledge in his tone.

Everyone on that Bridge knew exactly what they were going for. . .

"Shit.....get every Security Officer you can muster, hell start pulling Engineerings and Doctors if you have to, nobody is to access that bay!" Captain Hanks shouted as he grabbed weapon and led a small group towards the nearest turbolift.

"You've got the Bridge, kid..." Captain Hanks said to the deathly terrified COMMS Officer.

[Dogfight]

Tam and his wingman were still speeding away from each other, when Tam's onboard computer registered that both enemy fighters were hot on his tail. He silently cursed under his breath. He was only reading the thoughts of one of the pilots gunning for him, the other was a blank. That only meant one thing...Ferengi. "Hellspawn, looks like I'm the lucky one at the dance tonight. I've got both suitors trying to fill my dance card here. Care to get your ass back here and cut in?!"

=^=Roger that, Demon,=^= The Andorian acknowledged as she threw her Razor into a controlled flipturn, using only thrusters, before firing her impulse engine back up to full power. It would still take her a few seconds to acquire a target, though.

An enemy fighter on Tam's port wing was able to acquire a lock on Tam's wing and opened fire in three short, but direct discharges. It continued to fire on the lead fighter, attempting to completely disable its maneuverability. The other fighter took up position along the dorsal end of Tam's fighter and opened fire.

[Onboard the Matthias]

Captain Hanks and three other employees came to a stop just around a corridor. Hanks looked around the corner and saw four individuals pacing down the hall with a strangely configured tricorder, seemly to be searching for something. The Captain ducked back around the corner and signalled for Cpl. Lancing to fall on him, while the other two Privates provided cover-fire. Captain Hanks knew that this particular invasion squad was searching for the "Biological Projects" Bay.

Captain Hanks knew what was inside of the BP Bay and he knew what it meant to Mr. Raddon and his future plans. Even if he had to sacrifice everybody on this whole damn vessel, he'd make sure nobody got their hands on the ship's cargo.

Captain Hanks and Cpl. Forsen spun around the corner and immediately opened fired on the lead invader. The man was hit in his upper-chest before he had the chance to notice the Raddon Corps employees fire their weapons. While the first disruptor blast caught the Enemy troops off-guard, the trained soldiers immediately fell back on their training and began to return fire.



[Dogfight]

Tam's computer was screaming out numerous alarms as his durable Starfighter continued to take a beating. Had he been able to read both enemy pilots, he could have gotten clear by now. Unfortunately, with one of them being a Ferengi, which was naturally protected against telepaths, Tam had his hands full just trying to stay out of their weapons locks. "Hellspawn?!" He urged over the comm unit. "Any time you want to cut in, feel free!"

"Boss, when I say, pull up hard and do a microjump to warp!" The Andorian's voice was cool as ice. "NOW!"

Without questioning her, Tam yanked back on his controls, causing the Raptor to stand straight up, respectively to the environ, and shot away in a blink of warp drive.

The pursuing fighters reduced their speed and immediately began to search the surrounding space for any indication of where the Federation fighter had disappeared to. There were rumors that the Federation had outfitted more vessels with cloaking devices since the conclusion of the Dominion War, but there was nothing that said they had developed devices for vessels the size of Fighters. The lead Raider sent a request to the Command Vessel seeing further assistance when--

Before the Raiders could react, Hellspawn's Razor dropped back into normal space, directly in front of the clueless Raiders. She opened up with every weapon at her disposal as she streaked between the pair.

After she passed the pair of doomed fighter, both craft hung in space for a split second, finally exploding in matching clouds of matter and anti-matter.

Tam jumped back into the fight as the twin clouds were dissipating. "Nicely done, Hellspawn. Now, let's go see if that fighter needs a hand. When we get back to base, first rounds on me."

"First and second, Boss." The female Andorian countered. "There were two pirates that were trying to have their way with you."

"Hmm..good point, " Tam conceded with a warm chuckle. "Okay, two rounds. Now let's get back to work." The pair of Federation starfighters linked back up in formation and pushed their impulse engines to reach the Mathias.

[Mathias]

The firefight had intensified within the confined corridor. The invaders may not have been dressed in any form of identifiable uniform, but they were definitely well-trained in small-arms tactics. Every time Captain Hanks and his Security contingent would try to maneuver into a different position, the invaders would manage to maintain suppressing fire, keeping the Raddon Corps employees pinned into confined positions.

"Carl! Wheel to the right and try to flank them!" Hanks shouted over the phaser blasts that left burn marks throughout the wall.

The fairly-recent member of the crew nodded as he raised his weapon and darted across the corridor. He managed to avoid the various phaser blasts that lanced his way as he tried to get into position. He raised his rifle and placed his face on the stock of the barrel and looked down the optic scope, just as he had always been trained. His training paid off as he managed to get off two shots, the final one taking the leader Invader down.

"Ha! Great job ki---" Captain Hanks began to say just as a phaser blast came from behind Carl and went through the upper part of his shoulder, leaving a smoulder hole in his lifeless form. Hanks only hesitated momentarily as he raised his rifle and returned fire on the intruder that had managed to out-maneuver the Raddon Corps. employees.

={}= "BRIDGE! What's the status on those damn Raiders!?!" Hanks yelled into his communicator. He knew that if any reinforcements arrived for the present intruders, they'd overrun the heavily damaged vessel and take the biological project onboard. He was willing to sacrifice the vessel to prevent that.

={}= "Sir! I don't know how they did it, but the Fleeters managed to fend off the Raiders. I'm not reading any more and the few that were around have initiated retreat maneuvers." The still-shaken Communication Officer said over the unit from his position on the bridge. Hanks acknowledged as he looked around the corner and tried to determine the strength of the remaining intruders; however, all he saw were the slumped forms of the 4 or 5 individuals.

"Sons of bitches must've been ordered to kill themselves to avoid being captured once the rest of the group pulled out..." Hanks said to the remaining Security Officers as he quickly made his way to the bodies and cleared them of their weapons.

={}= "Bridge...signal the 'Fleeters and let them know that we appreciate the assistance and that we'll need some help getting back to Raddon Corps repair facility on Deep Space 5." Captain Hanks said as he took inventory of his team's ammo and any casualties.

={}= "Roger, but sir...what if they ask about why we were attac---" The young Officer asked, but was cut off before he could complete his sentence."

={}= "Raddon doesn't pay you to think, so don't do it! Just follow your Orders!" The vessel's Captain snapped back.

===Tam's fighter===

As Tam and his wingman approached the civilian freighter, Tam took the opportunity to give the damaged ship a quick visual once over. Out of habit, he also activated his nose camera and made a video recording of what he saw.

Continuing to fly alongside the freighter, Tam activated his comm system. "Freighter Mathias, this is Captain Tam Haican, callsign Demon. I am the CAG for Deep Space Five. Can you read me?"

===Mathias===

The young Communication Officer immediately detected the message and composed himself as he replied.


={}= "Captain Haican, this is the Starship Matthias, we thank you for your assistance." The COMM officer replied. "We are currently engaged in repairs at the moment. Our Engine department indicates that we will need some assistance getting back to Deep Space 5. If your detachment is able to escort us the rest of the way there, we'd be grateful." He responded.

=^=We will be happy to escort you in, Mathias, =^= Tam replied over the comm channel. =^=If you have damaged systems or injured personnel, I can have the station dispatch engineers and a medical team to help.=^=

He knew that the last thing Captain Hanks or even the old man Raddon himself wanted was for outsiders to go investigating anything on the ship.

={}= "Ahh....No, that will not be necessary, Captain." He replied as he tried his best to maintain his composure. "We will notify you if we need any assistance within our vessel." He said quickly.

Tam could feel the anxiety growing in the mind of the person on the other end of the line. However, he decided not to alert them of his suspicions. =^=Not a problem, Mathias. You know who to call if you change your mind. Now, have your helm lay in a course directly for the station, keep your speed at half impulse. My fighters and I will give you cover for the rest of the way in. Demon out.=^=

The Officer nodded as he closed the comm channel and breathed a labored sigh of relief. He looked around the bridge and saw the damage that still remained. He wasn't exactly sure how they would explain the situation to Mr. Raddon, but he knew for certain that the enemy force that had engaged them was willing to die to get ahold of what they had in their cargo hold. But the question remained how many more would die to protect it?

-END-

Captain Dante Hanks (NPC)
Captain, SS Matthias
Raddon Corp

Lieutenant Kyle "Loki" Carter
CAG

Captain Tam "Demon" Haican
Bravo Assault Wing Leader

 

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