The Rise of Justinian - Part One

Posted on Thu Mar 5th, 2020 @ 4:54am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Kira Antilles & Commodore Edward Antilles
Edited on on Thu May 27th, 2021 @ 9:23pm

Mission: Mission 62: Its Hour Come 'Round
Location: Various Locations - USS Bonhomme Richard
Timeline: 1400Hrs - January 27th, 2392

Captain Jonathan Holiday smiled darkly as he regarded the report he had just received about Division Admiral K'Temoc Bremer had been proved as incompetent while his ship had been physically damaged.

One impulse engine had been destroyed and he still didn't know the extent of the damage, he took a moment to glance at the wall monitor which showcased the surrounding space, there were three new Federation combadges in yellow. USS Exeter was the largest followed by the USS Cleveland and the USS Royal Oak. All those ships were commanded by an old friend of Holidays.

Holiday was gladdened to see his fellow shipmates on the battlefield while he regarded the Noble version of the Century and the Kelvin refits of the Sovereign as necessary additions to the fleet and while he didn't like them originally, they had won his admiration and his respect by their conduct in the resent battle against a small Klingon force.

He tapped the 'combadge' marked as 'USS Exeter - CHE-003' which also opened a communication channel to the other ship, while he did so, he took note of the other two ships, USS Cleveland - DBL-038 and USS Royal Oak - DBL-039.

The response from the Exeter came in quickly. "Exeter. Antilles here."

"Ed. Its good to hear from you." Holiday said with a soft sigh. "How bad does it look from out there?"

"Well Jon." Ed's tone was sobering. "Its ugly, you got over a dozen holes in your hull and one of your impulse engine mounts actually exploded, doing heavy damage to the surrounding areas.. I also have your final casualty list of the personnel treated by my three ships... of Five hundred and eleven crew.. we lost about sixty four confirmed dead.. but your own medical staff were also swamped with wounded as was the Courageous and two of the Akurian ships... all in all you had about eight hundred wounded. I believe your Chief medical officer is working on the finalized list of wounded and killed in this little disaster."

"Well the man responsible has already been arrested and sent to the brig for his transgressions."

"Good." Antilles responded. "Anyway... your escort has reported she's ready to take ship under tow back to the closest starbase... A lot of questions will be asked, make sure your guys are prepared for the grilling they will face."

"Thank you old friend... for everything." Holiday responded with a soft sigh.

"Hey. I'm glad we got here in time." Antilles responded.

Just then the com system beeped as a female voice broke into the system. "Captain Holiday?. I hate to interrupt but we're ready to go."

"Thank you Captain." Holiday responded in a gentle tone of voice. "Its been good talking with you Ed, next time we meet... the drinks are on me."

"I look forward to it. Take care Jon. You too Kira."

"Count on it, be careful out here Ed... More Klingons might be roaming around.." came the response from Commander Kira Antilles as she was seated in the Captain's chair while the Relentless skipper was at the back of the bridge, overseeing fleet operations in the area.

"I will..." and with that Ed disconnected from the comline. Kira Antilles seethed with anger as she regarded the display before her. "Stephen?". What had happened was not the fault of her crew and nor were the consequences of the same.

"We're ready skipper. No worries... We'll get them to the Starbase... the Starbase has also been advised of our situation.." Lt Commander Stephen Dixon responded as he gave his Captain who also doubled as his wife a smile. "Sickbay reports the last of Bonhomme Richard's wounded was discharged a short time ago with orders to rest... But I suspect some will want to go back to their ship..."

"I can understand that." Antilles responded. "Captain Holiday?"

"I am here." came the male officer Kira herself had come to respect.

"We are ready to get underway."

"Sounds good. Whenever you're ready Commander... and thanks." with that he hung up on her.

Antilles nodded. "Helm, take it from the top..."

The conn officer nodded her head. "We are on our way skipper.." as the Relentless gently connected to the crippled carrier with her tractor beam before she slowly got underway before the two ships moved into low warp speed.