Fall from Grace - Part Two

Posted on Wed Mar 11th, 2020 @ 4:03am 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: Deep Space - Near Gorn Outpost Mkralius
Timeline: 0600Hrs - May 10th, 2392

Unal regarded the Klingon Commander, he was giving her a rather sinister look as she let out a soft sigh. "You can either surrender to me now or I will simply deploy five hundred marines onto your ship and take you by force. Decide now."

Unal smiled. "May I have a moment to inform my crew of their options?" she inquired.

"No. You are stalling for time. You will decide now." the man demanded of her.

"Fine." Unal regarded the Klingon before her with a smile. "The answer is no. Your actions have been without honor and I will destroy this ship before I permit you to board her." Unal responded. "I am not afraid to die. Are you?" Unal slowly smiled.

The Klingon gave her a rather evil glare. "I'm going to make you my personal-" when suddenly the signal died and the screen cut back to the starscape with one damaged Bird of Prey before her.

Unal paused. "Uh, what just happened?"

"Subspace Comms just failed. I'm sorry skipper." the comms officer responded.

"So am I," Unal answered quietly. "Time remaining.?"

"Eight minutes, ten seconds," Rainer responded as Burns came back onto the bridge. "Class Eight probe is ready. So are ten decoys."

"Where are the enemy battleships.?" Unal inquired.

"One is behind and above us, the second is below and off to starboard."
O'Malley responded. "The Bird of Prey is directly ahead of us."

"Security Units report that all the Klingons have been eliminated. Skipper." Burns commented, "Their boarding action has been repelled."

Unal nodded. "Shunt all remaining power to the forward phasers and destroy that Bird of Prey, as soon as that's done, fire off the probe and the decoys," Unal explained her orders.

Burns nodded as he proceeded to do exactly that, he opened fire on the Bird of Prey, when she exploded, a dozen or so warheads shot from Nightstalkers starboard launcher right before a Klingon torpedo demolished it. Both battleships began to play with their prey as they each began taking one shot each at the Nightstalker, doing damage to her and within seconds the two ships began landing shots onto the small Defiant class ships hull.

The probe escaped as did many of the decoys while Unal sighed. "Status?"

"Phasers are out." and the list of the damage came in as the situation appeared hopeless. Sir. I'm reading more ships entering the area." came the sudden shout from O'Malley.

"We should be flattered," Burns growled.

"No. They are Akurian ships.."

Unal smiled. "Oh, Allah be praised."

Ryuukei Akavai, commanding the Battlecruiser Ryazar's shield led a task force of his own battlecruiser, the Large Cruiser Vaichora, two heavy cruisers and three fleet escorts. Ryuukei commanded to the battlegroup. "Focus fire on the nearest Klingon battleship, don't stop until they are a crippled wreck, then attack the second ship."

The Commanders of the various ships acknowledged and opened fire on the nearest Klingon battleship with a combination of 200 cm, 150 cm, 125 cm, 80 cm, and 64 cm railgun fire. The Klingon ship below the Nightstalker ended up being the closer target and took the initial volleys of the Akurian battlegroup. Though it fired back with everything it had, the surprised Klingons didn't focus on a single target. Its shields were hammered flat in less than two minutes, then the heavy 200 cm and 150 cm rounds tore into the ships hull, penetrating their armor plating and inflicting heavy damage.

Unal watched the chaos unfold on the main viewscreen. "We just might make it out of this alive." she paused. "Cancel Auto-destruct sequence. Authorization Unal Omega One six abort."

"This is the First Officer. Authorization One One Ten. I concur." Rainer added.

Sudden the com system came alive again. "Bridge, this is the Engine room. We're taking heavy damage down here. I can't repair the holes fast enough. We're losin-" and with that, the com system died again.

"Alright. Abandon ship." Unal responded. "Everyone out, get to the escape pods and abandon this ship, Alert everyone you can find," she added as she rose to her feet. "Now!" she snapped.

This got people moving as the crew cleared the bridge quickly. Unal meanwhile went over to the dedication plaque, she yanked it off of the wall before she moved to the entrance. She turned and took one last look back at her ruined bridge, several consoles had been destroyed and there was debris strewn everywhere, she sighed before she turned and hurried aft to her escape pod.

Meanwhile outside the Klingons fought on as best as they could but it was a losing match and before long the two battleships had both been demolished.

Weyai alerted Ryuukei. "Ryuukei, the Nightstalker's escape pods are launching."

Ryuukei nodded, "OK Move the ship into position and recover the escape pods, then send a message to our cruisers and escorts to cover us, make sure that there aren't any Klingon ships lurking around that might try to stop us."

Meanwhile, aboard the Nightstalker. Commander Plataea Unal had her tricorder out from where she normally had it on her left hip. "I'm the last," she said quietly as she wanted to make sure that nobody remained aboard this ship. "Alert. Meltdown imminant.." the computer intoned.

Plataea reached her destination before she looked up at the ceiling. "Thank you." she quietly thanked the ship that had for a short time, been her home and command, all in one.

Unal sighed as she moved into her escape pod, she then activated the systems and quickly ran through the pod's activation sequence. Moments later the outer hatch opened and her pod shot from the hull of her doomed ship that was starting to disintegrate due to the unleashed fires of the warp core that suddenly collapsed, producing a massive explosion, consuming the Nightstalker utterly.

Unal sat in her escape pod, with her ship's dedication plaque next to her. She tried steering for the Akurian battlecruiser nearby as it was presently recovering Nightstalkers escape pods. Soon, however, she was the last to board.

Unal stepped out of her escape pod when she was docked in the cavernous hangar bay. "Permission to come aboard?" she inquired of the first Akurian she saw.

The Akurian looked at her like she was crazy," What, we just pulled your pod onto our ship, why would you need to ask for permission to come aboard."

Unal regarded him. "Oh... Right. Well in that case.. Nevermind." the tall female sighed as she held the dedication plaque in her hands. "Are my crew being gathered somewhere?"

"No idea," the Akurian responded.

Plataea hefted the plague in her arms. "Alright. I guess I'll go and track them down there. After I drop by the command center first." she paused. "Is this the Ryazar's Shield?" she inquired.

"Yes."

"Excellent. I'm off then." and with that, Unal turned and walked off the hanger deck, she made her way to the command center and it was right where she remembered it being. "Allo, allo, hello. Hello," she commented. "So.. Who do I thank for my rescue?" she looked at the various Akurians present. "Ryuukei. We meet again." as Unal came over to him. "So my adorable. How're things?"

Ryuukei looked up at Unal saying. "Well you seemed to be in a bit of trouble there, the Klingons really wanted you for some reason."

"Yes. I was wondering about that." Unal paused before she smiled. "I'll give the matter some thought when I get back to the Roanoke's battlegroup. I'll ask a few of my guys to look into the matter as well." she paused. "Thanks for coming to my rescue," she added before she picked him up and gave him a gentle hug.

Ryuukei should have expected being picked up, but it still caught the kurokuri somewhat by surprise.

"We'll figure this out," Unal responded before she set him back down again. "Thanks for saving me and my crew. I need to go and see them." and with that, she turned and departed the bridge in silence.