The Empire Faces the Wall - Part Two

Posted on Mon Mar 9th, 2020 @ 7:43am by Fleet Admiral Dominique Jes-Tereth

Mission: Mission 78: Let's March Without the Noise of Threat'ning Drum
Location: Planet Surface - Goranar
Timeline: 0700Hrs - April 11th, 2392

Ensign John Sanderson blinked his eyes as he groaned softly, he gently pushed the fallen piece of debris off of his body, before he took a moment to check himself over. "No.. I didn't shit myself... Okay good." he muttered softly as he then decided to find out what was going on.

He gently hauled himself upright to his feet before he began moving down the hallway he was in, searching for any other survivors of what had just taken place. The Klingons had launched a raid on Goranar which had taken everyone concerned by surprise.

Sanderson found someone else, a young woman who was lying in the hallway and judging by the pool of blood that she was lying in, she was dead, a lack of a pulse confirmed his suspicions when he went looking for it on her neck.

He moved further down the hallway and as he went, he found more living then dead, while he was digging someone out from underneath several dozen pounds of scrap metal someone came up behind him. "Hey. you alright?"

Sanderson knew this to be the voice of Commander Frank Miller, the executive officer for the Starfleet detachment assigned here. "I've been better Commander," Sanderson responded. "But I'm not gonna drop dead on you anytime soon."

"That's good to hear. Let me help you with this one then I need you to head up to the Operations Center... I need subspace comms back online RFN and that's where you come in."

"Aye Commander." and with that, Sanderson shifted over so Miller could get into the space to assist him with removing the wounded officer before them.

A few minutes later,t he man was unburied, alive and awake as Miller gently offered the fallen woman a bottle of water. "It's gonna be okay.."

Sanderson smiled. "By your leave sir."

"Yes. Go. the skipper is expecting you." Miller paused. "Fine work down here Sanderson."

"Yessir." Sanderson went towards the center of the building where he knew the nexus of turbolift's were located, however they were all down so he pulled open a door and went to start climbing the ladders when he noticed the ladder access was blocked several levels up so he climbed up to level eight before he was forced to emerge two levels below the operations center.

Sanderson sighed as he mentally calculated several alternate routes to the command center, he knew it had to still exist as the Exec of the facility had just come from there.

He sighed as an Engineer came over. "Sir?. SIR!!.. The skipper sent me to find you.."

"What?!" Sanderson inquired. "Whats going on?"

"The whole of the building is gone, melted in the attack.." came the response which more or less confirmed Sanderson's worst fears. "So.. the command center?"

"Destroyed." came the half expected and half feared answer.

Sanderson left out the breath he didn't realize that he was holding up to this moment. "What about the auxiliary command center?"

"Well. I just came from there. Come on... The slippers waiting for you." and with that, the two men set off towards their new destination.

A few minutes later they arrived as Captain Don Estlington turned from where he was sitting, with his hands deep inside a console. "Hey everyone, our glorious hero has returned," Estlington called in a rather jovial tone like nothing was really wrong. Sanderson came over to his skipper. "Let me get started with the com system, sir."

"Please do..." as someone handed him a medkit. Sanderson opened it and with that said he went to work repairing the communication systems inside the Embassy, he knew he would need a new communications array on the exterior hull of the base itself and his readings confirmed his fears a moment later. "Skipper... The comms array has been totally destroyed. I can't fix it...." he paused. "Is there anything in the hanger that's still flyable?"

Lieutenant James Bogart turned. "Yeah. I got two Danube's and a Talon-class Scout ship, all three are flyable. "

"Sweet.. can I borrow the Talon for this sir?"

Estlington nodded. "Take her, she's yours. Bogart, go with him and Ensign.. Get the word out any way you can. Clear?"

"As glass sir." and with that the two men departed the command center, making for the hanger bay nearby, they reached it without too many issues but the door was fused solidly closed, thanks to being melted as a result of the nuclear attack.

Sanderson was seated in the co-pilot's chair whereas Bogart was seated in the pilot's chair, he sealed the hatch before powering up the engines. "Yeah, she flies.."

Sanderson nodded while he went to work at his own panel. "Bringing weapons online.." he tapped the panel a few more times. "Phasers online, targeting the door." and with that, he proceeded to begin cutting a large hole through the door.

A few minutes later, the hole was completed as Sanderson quickly activated a tractor beam in repulsor mode to push the large hunk of debris out of the way before the Orion scout slowly made her way out of the hanger and up into orbit as Bogart slammed the engines which quickly went to max power.

A few minutes later, with the scout in orbit, the word got out that something had happened and like a blast of phased plasma, it went through the Federation levels of bureaucracy like a hot blade through butter, quickly galvanizing the Federation response to this within hours.