Fall from Grace - Part One

Posted on Wed Mar 11th, 2020 @ 4:01am by Lieutenant Commander James O'Malley & Lieutenant Commander Edgar Burns & Master Chief Petty Officer Malcolm Rainier & Post Captain Plataea "Phantom" Lasky

Mission: Mission 82: It Is War’s Prize to Take All Vantage.
Location: USS Nightstalker - Near Gorn Outpost Mkralius
Timeline: 0600Hrs - May 10th, 2392

The time was about zero six hundred hours and while it was very early. Commander Plataea Unal was seated in her chair, she had been awake for over two hours and she was wide eyed and bushy tailed. "Status guys?"

Meanwhile, her conn officer was seated in silence before he turned his head. "We'll reach our destination in ten minutes." Lieutenant Malcolm Rainier reported in even tones.

Meanwhile over at the left side of the bridge. Chief Petty Officer Edgar Burns was in the middle of saying something about comic books to the guy seated next to him. Chief Petty Officer James O'Malley sighed. "I prefer real books."

"Real. What!. H-How dare you!. You heathen." There was, however, no malice in the man's tone as he spoke.

O'Malley sighed. "I just finished reading Ulysses."

"Now that's deep," Burns responded. "I gotta tell yah, Superman was all about morals and metaphor."

"Sure buddy," O'Malley responded in a dry tone of voice.

Unal watched her crew interact, she didn't mind how they went about it as she tended to be very democratic in her approach to command, she had a gentle smile on her face. "Superman. Sounds a little over the top... Don't you think?"

Burns turned to her. "Now you're just being unreasonable."

"How so?" Unal inquired. "Soups isn't exactly relatable to the average person on the street." the tall female's smile only widened.

Burns regarded her. "Well. the man has been written about for centuries."

"Still doesn't make it a good character," Unal responded in a rather dry tone of voice.

"Time to arrival. Sixty seconds out skipper." Rainer's voice interjected into the debate that wasn't much of a debate when suddenly the Nightstalker shook with the force of a kinetic energy impact. "Raise shields, find out where that shot came from.?"

Rainer turned. "Six Klingon birds of Prey, closing on us skipper."

"It's an ambush," Burns shouted.

"Target them all, throw everything you have at them," Unal ordered in a quiet tone of voice as she shifted her attention to the main viewscreen. "Show me a tactical display." she paused. "Malcolm, start evasive maneuvers, your choice."

"Weapons operational, however, the shields are at only 60% due to that first strike skipper."

"Engines?" Unal inquired.

"They disabled our warp engines with their very first shot, we only have impulse skipper."

"So we're stuck here then. Fine." one of the other crewmen manning one of the starboard side consoles commented in a dry tone of voice. "I'm good with that."

Unal nodded. "Stand by Quantum Missiles. Full spread." she paused. "Fire!."

The bow of the Nightstalker came around and while she got off six warheads and several blasts of her phasers, the Klingons returning her fire nearly depleted her bow shields but two Klingon birds of prey simply exploded from direct weapons hits.

The Nightstalker shook again as Unal sighed. "Send an emergency signal to any Federation or allied ships close enough to help us."

The young woman seated as the computer sciences and comms station at the back of the bridge. "Sending distress call. Aye skipper."

Unal sighed. "Malcolm, is there anywhere we can hide?"

"Negative. we're stuck out here in open space." Rainer responded.

"Our cloak is also down.." Burns added from the left side of the bridge. "We're taking too much damage.." he paused. "We're being boarded."

"Where?" Unal commented.

"Two boarding parties of five men apiece. Down on deck five."

"Send security details two and three to contain them," Unal responded as if reciting a script. "Helm, evasive maneuvers." she turned. "We got any weapons left..?"

"Just phasers only. That last hit damaged the port side torpedo launcher. It was empty otherwise we'd not be sitting here talking about it." Burns responded in his usual witty sense of humor.

Unal turned. "Any response to our Mayday?"

"I can't even tell if it got out sir. Subspace is being jammed. The Klingons really do not want us calling for help." the young woman responded.

Unal paused, her options were being whittled away one at a time. "Security status?"

"The two Klingon boarding parties have been contained but there is a second boarding action in progress. It's just outside the engine room."

"Misdirection. Typical." Unal responded. "Engine rooms status?"

"We've sealed the place tight. The Klingons are attempting to break in."

"Send in our last security guys to deal with them." Unal knew she was being snookered but she had no other options. "Howe many quantum missiles do we have?"

"Twenty-one, sir," Burns responded.

Unal nodded her head slowly. "Do we still have transporters?"

"All of our opponents still have their shields up," Burns responded, clearly unsure of her plans.

"That's fine. Beam the warheads out into space en mass and then have them activate, locking onto enemy targets and clearing out these birds of prey." Unal explained.

Burns didn't even argue with her, he simply complied with her plan, all seemed to go according to plan as three of the Birds of Prey were simply erased from existence but the battle was joined by two Klingon battleships disengaging their cloaks as they began shooting at the Nightstalker.

Unal was thrown from her chair, she landed on her right arm before she rolled forward and ended up back on her feet. "Dammit." she hissed. "Malcolm, I think this battle is lost.."

"I agree with you, sir." the man responded in a quiet tone.

Unal made her way back to her command chair as she tapped the right side display once. "Computer. Recognize Commander Plataea Unal. Authorization. Unal Zero One Zero."

"Authority recognized." the computer responded.

"Initiate auto-destruct sequence," Unal said quietly. "We can't even send out the log buoy."

"I can send it in a class eight probe. So Starfleet will know what went wrong." Burns commented before he rose to his feet and departed from the bridge.

"This is Lieutenant Malcolm Rainer. First Officer. Confirm Auto-destruct sequence. Authorization. Rainer Four Four Echo Beta."

"Set the timer for." Unal paused. "Ten minutes." she then frowned. "Mark!"

The alarm sounded. "Auto-destruct will detonate in ten minutes."

"Alright." Unal sighed as the young woman seated behind her. "Skipper. We're being hailed. The Klingon commander wishes to speak with you and he's not taking no for an answer."

"Fine, put him on the screen," Unal responded in a dry tone. "It'll buy us time. Do it," she commented