Endurance... Distracted

Posted on Thu Jun 30th, 2022 @ 11:13pm by Captain Temperance Harding

Mission: Mission 2: Chasing Shadows
Location: USS Endurance

ON

"The Sheliak?2 The figure on the viewscreen chuckled. "My my, your First Officer does indeed have an active imagination."

Harding almost ground her teeth. She forced her expression to stay neutral, but inside, she was seething. What part of Silence on the Bridge could she not bloody well understand? Letting out a silent breath, Harding chose her words carefully. "My crew like to state their opinions. I encourage that in everyone. Even those who hide in shadows."

The figure stayed deathly still for a moment. "We hide, Captain, because the shadows are the only place we feel we can be ourselves. The Federation shines a light into every dark, dank corner of civilisation, and people do not have a place they can be who they really are. They must always be on show for others. The Federation is ripping the enjoyment of life from the living."

An odd position. Harding wasn't exactly sure where this was going. "So you turn to piracy?"

"We turn to a means of enjoying ourselves. If you wish to brand it as piracy... that is your decision." The figure made a gesture, and the signal was cut.

"Ma'am?" Ops brought a different region of the nebula onto the viewscreen. A small craft emerged. Compact, and about the size of a Saber-class by Harding's eye, although it had no likeness to any Starfleet ship.

"They're on an intercept course." Ops announced.

"Weapons power signature. Unknown type." Tactical added.

"Red Alert. Raise shields." Harding tapped the control on her arm-rest. "Bridge to Shuttlebay. Sixty seconds to launch. Make ready, and wait for the order."

The Bridge shuddered under the first impact of weapons fire.

"Bridge to PriFly. Scramble Alpha Strike. Scatter to the compass on launch. You're gonna be disguising the Avon's launch."

She gave an order to open a comm signal directly to the shuttle. "Bridge to Avon. Squadron will launch, and scatter to hide you in the clutter. Launch on my mark, head straight to the nebula, and avoid all contact till you reach the facility at the center." Tieing both the shuttle and the Flight Pod into one comm channel, Harding watched the enemy craft on the screen for a number of heartbeats. "Launch, launch, launch!"

With the ancillary vessels scattering from the Endurance like ants from a hill, the Avon made a path for the Nebula.

"Tactical. Status?"

"Shields at 84%. They have some sort of ionised particle weapon. It's ripping our shields to shreds, I'm having a hard time countering."

"Lock weapons, and fire at will. Helm, evasive pattern Echo-7. Bridge to Engineering, re-route auxiliary power to Shields!"

The ship rocked again, but this time it was less noticable. On the viewscreen, the Endurance's phaser beams sliced through open space, missing the enemy ship. "Damn, they're nimble." Tactical muttered darkly. "Firing torpedoes."

A volley erupted, and streaked after the vessel, detonating against its shields. "Engineering to Bridge. We're getting an ionisation build-up in the plasma manifolds. If this goes on much longer, we'll need to purge the whole system."

"Helm, Victor-9. Start randomly switching patterns." Harding watched as the squadron buzzed the ship, taking shots at its shields, yet never being targeted. Only the Endurance. She wondered why that was.

"Shields down to 61%!" Tactical announced after another shake. "I do not know how much more we can handle."

"Engineering, I need evertthing you can give me into the shields. We need to stay put-"

Harding's words were cut off as she watched, in bafflement, as the ship peeled off, and set a course away from the Endurance, circling around the Nebula.

"Endurance to Squadron. Break off pursuit. Maintain coverage." This didn't seem right. Something else was at play. Harding looked back at the aft Science station. "Anything from the probe?"

"Checking... we did pick up a second warp trail exiting the Nebula. Hard to pin point its course. Let me play with the data, and I might have something."

Hardiong just sat back in her chair and smiled to herself. There it was. She was starting to grow a small amount of admiration for this supposed White Wolf. "That's twice." She said half to herself. "Next time you are mine."

OFF