Attack

Posted on Friday 30 November 2018 @ 16:53 by Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Commander Cale Llewellyn DSci & Commander Caroline Miller & Lieutenant Colonel Kachiko Bayushi & Lieutenant Michael Ki MD & Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D.
Edited on on Tuesday 22 January 2019 @ 20:37

Mission: The New Collective
Location: Engaging Borg Second time
Timeline: 23950827 - 2025 hours
3140 words - 6.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

John sat in the command chair as the viewscreen lit up with phaser and torpedo fire. The blue orbs of the quantum torpedos from both Merlin and Agamemnon impacted the grey=green surface of the cube. Debris blew away, racing off in all directions. On gis chairs mini screen Barstow watched the tactical display showing the shuttle, "launch all fighters in ten seconds,' he ordered, "have them set course and attack away from the shuttle, lets fill the Borg sensors with tangos."

=/\= "Pendragon t' Merlin," =/\= The chief Engineer's voice came over the comms. =/\= "We're comin' up on th' beam-out coordinates. When I activate the dampenin' field, we'll lose comms. Keep us covered an' Miles'll get at ya with a status report when we drop th' field." =/\=

"Aye aye, Chief. We've got your backs," Llewellyn said at the comm panel wishing he were out there with them. He always leaving his life in someone else's hands. "All fighters launched, sir. They are targeting the cube, sir." Llewellyn watched as the Borg kept firing at things that weren't there. They must be well and truly blind now.

Sav kept herself immersed and sensing onto the Borg Cube through the Merlin Sensors. She had herself keyed onto stored energy signatures. Whenever one built up near a borg weapon, she would zag and shift to get out and away from that area, whenever possible, while maintaining being nearby for shuttle pickup when it was so ordered.

From Sick Bay Michael monitored O'hara's life signs. There were spikes in her blood pressure and her breathing, but nothing to be alarmed about. It was all normal for one who entered a stressful situation. He ordered the medical transporters to lock on her and stand by. If he had to he would use Starfleet general orders to pull her out for her own safety. He sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose and looked back at the screen. He stared and waited as the storm embraced the Merlin.

=/\="Pendragon t' Merlin," O'Hara said. "Initiating transport. Comms'll be offline for th' next five minutes." =/\=

On the bridge, Cale Llewellyn sat as his console and sighed as he watched as the shuttle moved ever closer to the Borg cube. But even as he watched the fighters as they engaged the cube and looked over their flight patterns, he felt even more useless than he ever had on any other mission as chief science officer when his talents were not needed. He felt like a third person on a date; useless, simple useless. He scratched at his head while watching the two screens simultaneously. He hated this and felt the captain had acted in the wrong when he hadn't ordered him to go on this mission but far be it from him to question his captain's orders. So at his console he sat monitoring the action.

Sav sent to Cale a request over his monitor. Upon it appeared this note: == Second Officer, its Sav. I know sensor tech has come a long way to make Wild Weasels no longer a factor, but, we have EWAs on board, Tactical Electronic Warfare Fighters. They have scout sensors and specialized ECM/ECCM electronics. Can you make one of them to be a Wild Weasel and appear as the Merlin? If doable, and we have several, what about the Agamemnon as well? They have phasers and photons on board as a way to make them believable. Would be a great way to get away while the cube continues to battle 'us', eh? Interested?==

== Sav, it's Commander Llewellyn. Sounds like workable plan. What do you need from me? I'm afraid I'm not that computer efficient. I may be engineering proficient enough to stand in for a chief engineer but what you're proposing is a level beyond my skills but yet I'm interested ==

At her station, Sav blushed. She had hoped for Cale to come back with 'Cale', but he was having none of it and had sent her his rank and last name. She tamped down her feelings. After all, this was during a battle and they had to keep it formal. == Hey Commander Llewellyn, from what I know, a baseline electronic and power signature emissions reading of the Merlin needs done by the special sensors of the Merlin. That signature then needs uploaded to an EWA so its ECM/ECCM systems can be reconfigured to output that signature. Once activated and calibrated to match exactly the Merlin, it is launched, and viola, two Merlins now appear to the borg. And, I am guessing the same could be done with the Agamemnon as well... just a little harder as sciences doesn't have a physical connection to the Merlin's special sensors. Orrrr, am I way off base here?==

== Give me a moment. I'll be right there, Cale == he wrote back and got up from his station.

Sav had immediately sent, == It would only be good during this fight, wait to long and not needed for this battle== but Cale was no longer at his station. Sav shifted herself to not be so involved with the Merlin while still paying attention fully to her spatial threads she followed when immersed into a starship.

"I say we go for it then, Commander," Cale said softly in Sav's ear.

TBC in JP - Cale and Sav will be talking quietly while Sav follows any quick tactics announced by CO/XO/Tactical

Suddenly, the Merlin Z-shifted while pirouetting her tail away and around to bring her front shields to bear while slipping to the right for a glancing blow if the beam of energy hit, which it did, but with minimal impact due to the maneuvers. Even though chatting with Cale, Sav was still doing her unusually precise flying maneuvers with the Merlin.

Barstow felt his stomach tighten and he gripped the armrests of his chair, ''Llewellyn, status on away team,'' he called as green beams filled the viewscreen and momentary glimpses of Agamemnon were caught.

"From their last report, sir, they had found a point of entry into this cube and a drone to capture. Beyond that I only have that they are holding position at the moment. I'm assuming while they get aboard the ship and capture the drone to bring back for analysis," Cale answered trying not to let his conversation with Sav take up all his concentration away from the battle. As Strategic Operations Officer, he had to keep his mind on all the operations currently in play on the ship and couldn't afford to take one op move his mind away from the big picture.

Caroline didn't know much about what was going in having been suddenly thrown into the mix on Starfleet orders. As they seemed to lurch forward suddenly she held n for dear life putting her complete faith in whatever The away team and Cale and Sav had planned. She couldn't help feeling tense though and knew she wasn't the only one. Like Bairstow had said people would be coming to her door after this was over.

Kachiko's stomach lurched as the Merlin's sudden course corrections exceeded the upper limits of the inertial dampeners. She felt it best not to watch the viewscreen or she may end up losing her lunch. So she moved over to assist Llewellyn at Tactical.

"Thanks, Bay," Cale said as he stepped away.

Sav quieted for a moment as the Borg cube shifted, getting some sensors back. As it did, the Merlin suddenly shifted down and away to the left while some scheduled waste debris was launched from its cradle. A lance of energy bound for the Merlin missed and got the debris instead, vaporizing it and making the Borg think they hit, which they did, but didn't. Sav perked up and resumed her talks with Cale.

The Merlin now shifted to go End over End, a supposedly impossible maneuver, yet, it was now happening, and as it did, the Borg cube brought a lance of energy to bear. It hit the fully charged and reinforced rear shield, taking away the reinforce energy but not damaging the shield, and then the Merlin was facing and able to continue its attack on the cube. Sav was doing her best to keep the Merlin undamaged and fighting while waiting for the shuttle to signal to be picked up and they could get out of there, or, if the cube was starting to come apart, press the attack and take it out. She awaited orders while talking to Cale on the veracity of her updated wild weasel idea.

Cale was impressed by her idea and pressed her to go with it. He saw the sheer genius behind her plan and saw how it would be accomplished. So he told Barstow about the plan and awaited his thoughts on it. He was sure Barstow would approve her idea so he told her to move ahead with it. He was pleased with his decision to return to this ship and even moreso that the captain had approved the transfer but he felt a pang of guilt at leaving Captain Ransome a man short on his ship so he had approved the promotion for Lieutenant, jg Christiano to replace him as Chief Science Officer.

"Science, I need you to get the Merlin's energy signature over to the CAG of fighter ops yesterday!" Cale shouted to the person manning the science console. The woman at that post merely nodded at Cale and signaled when his order was carried out.

The hull creeked and Barstow had to hold tight as Sav completed the maneuver. Just as the ship leveled out a wide, green energy enveloped the ship and held it in place, ''weapons, concentrate fire on the trac-'' but he wasn't able to finish the order before a cutting beam lanced out and the sound of the hull being cut near the JAG office ran through the frame of the ship, ''damage report!"

"We've got a hull breach on Deck..." was all Cale was able to get out before he was thrown to the deck beneath him.

Down in Sickbay....if it wasn't bolted or tied down it became an object of injury. Hover gurneys slammed into the ceiling as the bottom became the top then back to the bottom. Medical personnel were tossed around like rag dolls. Cara had been standing in the Nurses' Station when the world began to tilt at an odd angle. She grabbed for the counter, thinking things would stabilize but it didn't. One if the nurses lost her grip of the counter when one of the chairs was thrown into her. Cara grabbed for her but wasn't quick enough. She tried to get a better hand hold of the counter but the ship wasn't rolling side to side. The forward rolling motion left her with nothing to hang onto and her hands slipped. Cara's fall felt like something in slow motion. First she felt like she was gloating. Then she slammed against something and felt ribs break. The screams of her co-workers were muffled and her eyes found no focus as she was tossed off of whatever she had been slammed against and, once again, she was floating. "I'm dreaming. This isn't real," she thought and closed her eyes which meant she didn't see the biobed that had broke loose from its electronics come flying at her. It slammed against her, its weight slamming her against a cubicle partition. The pain was intense. She opened her eyes but Sickbay had already been bathed in darkness. The last thing she was aware of was the taste of blood.

At the helm station, Sav was cursing herself out even as she tucked her legs under her chair to prevent being thrown about by the suddenly shifting gravity of the environmental control systems. In her talking with Cale, she had missed sensing the Tractor Beam charging up, and how the hell did the borg get them so easily? She failed at her primary task, keeping the ship safe. She thought about where the gravity control was, and it wasn't on the deck that had been sliced, which was Deck 8. The environmental control systems were on 15. Somehow, the cutter beam must have affected environmental constants from Deck 8 and up, while hopefully deck 9 and below were fine... hopefully. Sav no longer cared what anybody would think about her special ability as she fully immersed herself into the Merlin, her body slumping over the console in front of her.

From Apollo's chair speaker, Sav's voice was heard. "Sir, I've sensed through the tractor on us and am ready to apply emergency maneuvers. They can break us free, but it will tear the ship more along where the cutter beam sliced us and will play havoc with crew as the inertial Field system won't handle the full force of the maneuvers. But, as it is, we are sitting ducks for the next cutter beam. Is the permission given, or do we stand fast?"

"Captain, I'm afraid Commander Tillatix is correct. We've been breached once more and yet again! I'm afraid Lieutenant O'Hara is going to have her work yet again," Cale said as he pulled himself from the deck.

"Hold fast, Cale take tactical, have all ships target the tractor beam, helm, soon as we're free come to zero mark five five," Barstow called as the deck shuddered and shook under their feet, =/\= Away team, progress report =/\=

The speaker replied, "Aye Aye, Sir, ready."

"Aye sir. All ships, target the tractor beam port! Take it out," Cale ordered the fighters as he targeted the Borg tractor beam with everything the Merlin had. He watched on his monitor as the Agamemnon doing the same. Fairly soon, they were free of the beam and Cale breathed a sigh of relief.

Sav had applied impulse with a small application of warp engines to become a constant stress on the tractor to help weaken the shields around it. Thus, as the tractor sputtered out, she used this energy momentum to slide them away and over to zero mark five five, with their left front shield, the strongest one at this time, to face the borg cube. Now the ship literally danced, weaving about as Sav expertly applied shifts in impulse, Z-Controls, and microhops in Warp to make the Merlin as elusive as possible. She could only do this for a small while as this took immense concentration and energy by her.

Cale felt Sav's concentration in the ship as it started to weave in and out of the Borg's line of fire and he was shocked about this new ability that she was now displaying so openly. He would have to speak with her about this at a later time and probably come clean about his own preternatural power. He wasn't sure about letting his ability getting out into the crew at large but maybe it was time for it to come out into the open about it. Maybe it was the appropriate time for him to 'come out' about himself and his ability.

Kachiko was one of the unfortunate crew on the bridge not buckled in at their station, so as she went airborne, she relaxed her whole body, expecting to impact a bulkhead or the deck sooner or later. When she finally impacted the deck, she pushed herself up with a groan, "Any updates from our kidnappers?"

Llewellyn looked down at the console and said, "Not as of yet, Sir," Cale said with deep sadness. He wondered how the away team was going.

As the ship shuddered again Barstow gritted his teeth, "the second they're clear let-" he started but stopped as the Borg cube quickly turned into a flash of green light as it warped away just as ten more Starfleet ships warped in. Apollo grinned, "better late than never...hail the lead ship," he ordered as he relaxed.

With the Borg leaving and the cavalry having arrived, Sav shifted the Merlin to station keeping while she gathered her mind from the Merlin to retake full control of her body. She drew upright in her chair as she inhaled, then exaled. She felt pleasantly exhausted for a change, rather than wrung out. Of course, it was for just a short amount of time, but, full immersion was always draining. She shook herself to try and be presentable when the Captain of the lead ship appeared on screen.

"Aye sir, lead ship responding," Cale said. Cale breathed a sigh of relief as he counted 4 Prometheus, 2 Defiant, and 4 more Akira-class starships make their presences known to the Borg.

=/\= "Pendragon t' Merlin," O'Hara said. "Mission accomplished. We're headin' back t' th' barn."

=/\= Excellent, Pendragon. We welcome you back home with open doors as it were,=/\= replied Cale. He was relieved about their success and he sighed a deep breath at their announcement. "Captain, did you hear that?"

Sav kept her hand on the console to 'see' through the Merlin's sensors. The Merlin now shifted to bring its runabout docking bay towards the incoming runabout with it's cargo. Sav called out, "Merlin in position to receive the Runabout, Captain."

"On screen," John ordered, "Captain Refil, I appreciate the timing," he said as the Andorian CO appeared on the screen.

"Not a problem, sir," Refil replied with a smile, "where do you need us since the Borg decided to tuck tail?"

"Take up a defensive perimeter around the base," the Merlin CO replied and stood up, walking to the center of the command platform, "and keep a monitor on comms, if you get any distress calls the Parmentor, Connor, and McCloud are to answer, all other ships are to remain on station."

"Copy that," the Andorian answered and motioned to an officer off screen, "we'll get it done, Parmentor out," Refil finished and the screen blinked back to showing the collection of ships starting to move away.

John looked around, "ok people, I want damage and casualty reports in the hour. Helm get permission to dock for repairs, I'kl be in sickbay waiting for the away team," he said and turned, heading towards the lift.

"Aye, sir," Llewellyn said as he nodded to the Ops station for the Damage and Casualty reports.

Sav replied, "Acknowledged Sir, on it." She immediately rerouted some communication circuits to her console and began hailing the base for permission and where to dock the Merlin for starting repairs.

OFF:

Captain John "Apollo" Barstow
Commanding Officer
USS Merlin
Task Group Commanding Officer
Task Group 47-A

Commander Cale Llewellyn, DSci
Strategic Operations/Second Officers
USS Merlin

Counselor Caroline Miller
Chief Counselor
USS Merlin

Dr. Cara O'Reilly
ACMO
USS Merlin

Commander Save'ena Tillatix
CFCO/Bridge Command Specialist
USS Merlin

LTjg Stephanie O'Hara
Chief Engineer
USS Merlin