But Still the Sunken Stars Appear, In Dark and Windless Mirrormere - Part Thirteen

Posted on Wed Mar 18th, 2020 @ 3:56pm by Captain Ariel Gilmore & Commander Ethan "Hardcase" Duval & Commander Jean-Pierre Carey

Mission: Mission 98: Building Our New Home
Location: Various Locations - The Taurus Reach
Timeline: 1215Hrs - June 27th, 2393

The USS Charal slowly began moving to starboard as she began taking hits from the four dozen or so pirate ships gathered. Gilmore turned to her tactical officer. "Open fire, throw everything we got that's not nailed down at them," she commanded.

Lieutenant Rachael Aquilla nodded her head. "Aye skipper. and firing." as hundreds of missiles left their racks before speeding down range into the pirate ships, the first volley caused the pirate force to simply disintegrate under the weight of concussive force and explosions, as two pirate ships simply disintegrated in balls of molten fire. Several more began to sprout plumes of fire as they vented atmosphere, cargos, debris, and bodies into space.

Gilmore turned her head. "Damage report?"

"Shields are at sixty percent, They hit us with over two hundred plasma blasts skipper, they are not powerful alone but together." Lieutenant JG Naris Terisso explained, the Boslic female was the only one on the USS Charal but she was skilled at her job, whats more was that she never lost her cool either.

"Yeah. I figured." Gilmore answered. "Engineering?"

The voice of Lt Commander Michael Banes came back. "Skipper, we're taking damage down here. Blasted Pirates, I just got this ship to the way I like it," he answered. "I'll have your shields restored in two minutes but I need to vent the excess heat produced by the plasma to do it."

"Understood." as the sounds of weapons fire began to boom against the ship's shields again. "Rachael, I don't mean to be a pain but would you mind terribly?" Gilmore asked.

"Launching second volley skipper," Aquilla answered with a smile, as the missiles in question shot from their racks before they sped through space, before crashing into their targets, the impacts shattered over another dozen or so pirate vessels and disabled three more, one of which quickly exploded, spraying thousands of tones of metal wreckage everywhere.

"Where is the Gaarni and the Ayalam?" Gilmore asked of her own crew.

Bowman was the one who answered her. "The Gaarni is falling back with engine issues, and the Ayalam is dropping back as well to help cover them," he explained. The USS Gaarni, meanwhile slowly dropped back, behind the USS Charal as she made it look like she had engine problems.

"Except Gaarni hasn't taken any hits to her engines," Bowman explained a moment later.

"Oh I get it, Duval is being far too subtle in his tactics. He wants the enemy to try and kill him, he will stretch out their fleet in the process." Gilmore explained evenly as over a dozen or so pirate vessels began to close on the Gaarni to try and pick her off, assuming her to be an easy target for their wrath, when suddenly the Gaarni revealed the flaw in their thinking as she closed the trap and demolished all of the pirate vessels attacking her in less than two minutes, first shooting out their nacelles and then shattering them with missiles and phaser blasts.

Just then one pirate vessel suddenly shot away into warp, with the USS Ayalam following quickly, hot on her heels. When suddenly the USS Simpson attacked the USS Gaarni with all of her missiles, this effect ripped open a hole in the shielding of the Century class starship as a large pirate force began to board her with the intention of taking her as a prize.

The alert went out quickly. "Sir, the Gaarni has been boarded."

"What?" Gilmore suddenly responded. "Target the Simpson, put Commander Carey out of his misery," she ordered, when two dozen missiles smashed their way into the Simpson, reducing her from an Akira class starship to a flaming hulk, a piece of spinning wreckage, floating through space.

The remaining pirate ships were all either picked off quickly or fled, only two of them would eventually escape, as the five that fled would fall to the missiles off of the Ayalam, the Gaarni, and the Charal. Suddenly there was a truly massive explosion on the planet below as the pirate base was demolished, the amount of ordinance used was far more than was required as the fireball was almost a hundred times the size of the fireball that killed the Dinosaurs on Earth sixty five million years ago and Gilmore knew that if there was any life here, there wasn't now as she watched the planet quite literally glass itself as the fireball expanded to encompass the entire world.

Gilmore sighed softly. For her, this was a crime against nature. "Scan the Simpson?"

"I'm reading twenty-one lifesigns." came the unexpected answer from Eknir Zh'Shraaliin, her Chief Operations Officer.

"Excellent, Beam them all into the brig," Gilmore commented as she smiled. "Xander, You and Captain Dace go greet our guests." she then smiled as she watched her Chief of Security nod his head once. "It will be done skipper." and with that, he left the bridge in silence.

Gilmore paused. "Leslie, hail the Gaarni," she commented. "See to their needs and ascertain their status please?"

"Captain Duval says that he and his people need a few hands," MacLeod explained with a concerned look on his face.

"Alright, start beaming pirates from them into our brig," Gilmore answered. "Any other lifesigns out there that we missed?"

"Negative sir." Eknir Zh'Shraaliin answered quietly. "Not on any of that wreckage and not on the planet below," she reported as there was a sudden flash, the USS Ayalam had returned. "Ayalon to Charal, the one ship that ran, did not get far. They tried to stand and fight and we were forced to destroy them."

"Understood, we're cleaning up here," Gilmore responded.

"Very well." came the answer. "We'll help as best as we can."

Gilmore tapped her combadge. "Gilmore to Moreland. Report?" she inquired.

"We have forty-two prisoners, including the star of the hour. Mister Carey is alive and well, he seems to be rather irate about his new living accommodations."

"Outstanding. Muzzle him and make him comfortable, he's gonna be in a cell for a long long time to come."

"Roger that skipper, Moreland out." came the response.

"Status of the Gaarni.?" Bowman inquired.

"The pirate attacks upon her have been repulsed." came the response from MacLeod, he had a smile on his face as he said so. "Commander Duval reports they took some casualties fighting the pirates but no fatalities."

"Outstanding, set course back to Vanguard," Gilmore explained. "Open a slipstream aperture and let's go home." Gilmore sat back down in her command chair, suddenly tired as she knew all of her people would be from today's battle.

Lieutenant Kaylen Chegwidden smiled. "Opening conduit now." and with that, the three Federation ships departed from the rogue planetoid which now glowed a bright orange rather than a dull blue color.