Panko Breadcrumbs (Part 5 of 10)

Posted on 22 Oct 2016 @ 2:39am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Langdale Wiggins & Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn PsyD & Ensign Miraj Derani & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell & Petty Officer 1st Class Unit Cu-47 "Copper" & Chief Petty Officer Crispin Snow & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin
Edited on on 22 Oct 2016 @ 2:43am

2,438 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo/Paulson Nebula
Timeline: MD 03 - 0025 hrs

Previously, on Panko Breadcrumbs (Part 4)...

Petty Officer Wilson ran in behind him, dazed. "What's going on?" He asked.

"Intruder alert, genius. I'll fill you in on the way." He took another phaser and handed it to him. "Get everyone together. We're heading to intercept."

"Stay in touch," Rayze ordered. "Once we get enough of the crew armed I'll see about meeting up with the force securing Engineering. It should go without saying, but watch each other's backs."

"Aye Lieutenant." Greg said. As he turned around, he saw Wilson return with a small squad of security officers. "Wilson, you're behind me. Rivetti, you're in the back. The rest of you fall in. These are Klingons we're dealing with so set phasers to setting eight. Don't worry about prisoners, because they most likely aren't even going to attempt to surrender. Let's go!"

The officers nodded and followed Mitchell out the door.

It was fortunate Rayze hadn't heard the order for the weapon's setting, as he'd ducked back inside the armory once more to unlock another cabinet to arm another group of officers who came running. Fortunate, for the moment at least, but maybe not for later because there was going to be hell to pay for it...if they made it out of this alive of course.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 7 - Main Engineering

Wiggins and the team of security that had headed to Engineering to protect one of its most vital areas of the ship from the intruding Klingons, were currently pinned down in a cross section of the corridor. Twice now the Klingons attempted to flank them, and twice Wiggins and the others had anticipated it. After the latest exchange of fire, they were able to make a break for Engineering’s entrance. The fighting was intense in the corridors as they made their way along. Several so far had lost their lives and the remaining group of men and women were in various states of injured.


Paulson Nebula

USS Galileo's escape route into the depths of the Paulson Nebula was efficient. But the crippled starship could only limp along toward her destination and ultimately hope for the Prophets to rescue them from their predicament...for the reality of their situation was much more severe.

The two Bird-of-Preys detected the intermittent sensor scans of Galileo's movement and began to adjust course to pursue. It came as a shock to the two warrior captains that the small science vessel would not surrender and abandon their fruitless rejection of their present circumstances.

As the two warships closed in on Galileo, the disruptor cannons on the wingtips of each Klingon vessel came to life and sent volleys of green supercharged particles through space. They fortunately passed along each side of the Nova-class without striking the hull, but on Galileo's bridge, the fluorescent lime-green hue of weapons fire illuminated the smokey interior of the command center.

One of the Bird-of-Prey's forward torpedo launchers prepared to fire and started to glow as the magnetic coils and firing mechanisms spooled up. A bright green flare pulsed from its primary hull and a photon torpedo screamed through the cosmos at high velocity as it homed in on its metallic target.


USS Galileo - Main Bridge

"Mister Flynn, man the tactical station!" Lirha yelled while she watched the last of the bridge fires be extinguished. Despite the damage to the command center, there were still operational consoles which needed to be occupied.

"Aye, Captain," Jonas shouted, moving quickly to the standing station behind Saalm. Everything was happening too quickly for him to be nervous and question what he remembered from his rudimentary bridge station training. He simply focused, relied on his intuition to guide him, and examined the readings on the console. The readings weren't hard to miss.

"Incoming torpedo! Bearing, um... 170 mark... mark 30? Mark 30! Back and under us!"

Miraj tried to manoeuvre, wrung as much as she dared out of the thrusters, until her gauges showed them red lining and the inertial dampers screamed. But it wasn't enough. The missile was smaller, had negligible mass to shift around, and she just couldn't outrun it

The sole torpedo closed in on Galileo with precision. Despite the nebulous interference, its homing mechanisms secured a solid lock on the Federation starship and adjusted it course to match any of its manoeuvres.

Realising that she couldn't shake it, Miraj glanced at Min's panel. There wasn't any where with more shields than anywhere else, the whole field was depleted. It was going to hit them. they couldn't change that. But perhaps she could control where, and the place they could most afford to lose...

"I'm sorry!" she told Galileo, before rolling the ship around to present the underbelly to the incoming missile. Deck Eight was the orlop deck, mostly storage. with luck it would be dense enough to shield Engineering. She gripped at the helm console, and waited the last heart beat before...

"All hands, brace for impact!!!" Jonas practically screamed from tactical.

The call came in just in time but also too late for many of the crew. The torpedo reached its terminal flight stage and came up from directly below the starship before slamming into the weakly reinforced shields. The reinforced casing penetrated the mild defensive energy layer and punched through both the outer hull and inner hull just left of the warp core ejection port. Once it had penetrated, the warhead then detonated.

The entirety of Deck 8 melted when the torpedo exploded and blasted out into the vacuum of the nebula in a brilliant explosion of flames and debris. The shaped warhead charge reached deep into the bowels of Deck 7 where main engineering, the bar, and astronomics were located, and sent a cascading shockwave of explosive energy through each room. What had once been a deck of organized chambers and corridors was instantly reduced to a twisted mess of metal and estranged bulkheads that were suddenly decompressed and blasted out into space in a mixture of flames and electrical conduits.

"Captain, I've lost all contact with engineering!" Natalya cried out as half of her console shorted out and went dark. All the datafeeds coming from deck seven and below were gone. Main engineering couldn't have been completely destroyed, otherwise the reactor core breach would've destroyed the ship. Still, the situation couldn't be good down there and being in the dark about it was like a nightmare come true.


Deck 7 - Main Engineering

Wiggins and his security team had just managed to enter main engineering and begin helping with sealing it off when the explosions began. Strangely he felt the heat before he heard the sound of tearing metal and booming compressions. He was thrown off his feet and slammed into a console that was already on fire. He felt the sting of something and the wetness of what he assumed was blood. Adrenaline, or perhaps something innate in his unknown genetic makeup, seemed to course through his body and he felt little pain. Staggering to his feet he looked to the warpcore where engineers were frantically working to lock it down.

“Everybody out!” Wiggins shouted into the chaos. He grabbed a petty officer who was trying to operate a fire suppression unit and pulled him away. “Evacuate!” He shouted again.

He saw the exocomp he had learned was, Copper, fly towards the warp core dodging explosions as he sped along. “Copper!” Wiggins called out. The exocomp stopped in mid air and turned towards the commander. “Stay and lock down the warp core. You, and you,” he said pointing at two random engineers, get everybody out of here.”


Lower Decks

Mitchell, Wilson and a few other officers were moving through the corridor when the impact hit. Sparks rained from the consoles and the jolt sent the men ramming into the ceiling and then back down again. Greg rolled over and let out a short yell as the pain went through his back. As he slowly turned over, he saw the rest of the officers in similar pain, a few almost out cold. He helped one up, then looked over at Wilson. "You alright?"

"I think I pulled something." He responded.

"Walk it off. I think that one took out something. We need to get to the Bridge, secure access so the Klingons..."

"CHIEF, GET DOWN!" Yelled a security officer.

The beam of the officer's phaser went by Greg's head. He dropped, pulled up his weapon, and swung around. Behind him, a Klingon had stumbled into the room and had attempted to open fire on the group. The hit impacted on his armor and pushed him back. Wilson and Mitchell proceeded to fire right into the impact point, penetrating the armor and vaporizing the intruder.

A few more Klingons entered the corridor. Seeing their comrade vaporized, they turned to attack.

"Everyone, open fire!" Mitchell yelled, as the group of security fired simultaneously at the intruders. The air was filled with phaser beams and disrupter bolts as both sides fired on each other. Two beams hit the Klingons and another shattered a console behind one. A disrupter bolt wizzed by Wilson and hit a security officer straight on. He was killed instantly. Another was grazed by a bolt on his leg and dropped in pain. Greg took aim and fired at the final Klingon, who fired at the same time. The bolt grazed Greg in the left shoulder and he felt a searing hot pain as his uniform singed and his skin cooked under the heat. He instinctively grabbed the wound and gritted his teeth. The beam he had fired hit the Klingon, who was flung back onto the ground. The officers advanced, about to finish him off when the roof suddenly collapsed and a mix of wires and framework landed on the intruder.

"Damn!" Called out Wilson.

Greg looked to make sure the impact had indeed killed the Klingon, then turned to the rest of his men. One officer was dead, another knocked out from the impact earlier. Yet another was keeled over in pain. That left Wilson, Greg, and one more without injury. "Alright, listen up. We are no longer combat effective. I want these three taken to sickbay now. Wilson, Rivetti, once we get them to safety we are looking for survivors."

Rivetti spoke up. "Sir, you need to get that looked at."

"Later, we still need to help what's left of the ship." Greg moved to sweep the corridor ahead of him.

"But sir..."

"Petty Officer, either you grab one of those men and head to sickbay or I will. And trust me, if I have to do it you are going to regret it." Greg threatened, which is something he didn't normally do.

"Aye sir," He said.

The group grabbed the rest of the team and made their way down to the general direction of sickbay.


Deck 5

Crispin Snow dodged down the corridor. There was a gash along his arm when a wall console had exploded next to him. He could feel the blood trickling down his arm under his uniform. On the port side of the ship, he could hear the exchangeof phaser fire. He'd been up late and reading when the attack came


Deck 3

T'Lin grabbed a hold of the doorframe as the ship manuvered wildly and then rocked. One could feel the vibration through the floor. So far this deck seemed to be holding. There was no logical reason to abandon her guard at the moment.

Amaranai had decided that if the ship was going to survive being boarded, she was going to have to stand and fight. She had hoped she would have seen more people, but the only thing she heard was the sound of Klingons trying to decide how to handle her. She fired off a few shots to keep them back but knew that she was going to have to draw them out in order to take them out.

Peeking out from her corner, she saw one Klingon attempting to sneak up on her. She reached her phaser around the corner and without even looking began firing. Most of her shots hit the bulkhead but she did hear at least one hit her target. She quickly glanced out and received a phaser toward her as the Klingons covered the wounded soldier as he retreated.

As she waited another moment, she wished that she had memorized the complete layout of the ship, including any hidden weapons stores or secondary armories. But, being mostly a science vessel, Amaranai figured one armory was probably more than enough for the ship.

There was a rock against the ship and Amaranai knew that it was laser fire, most likely from whatever ship these Klingons had beamed over from. Then a general warning to brace for impact. It was a split second too late as the ship was jolted and Amaranai was tossed into a bulkhead behind her. She heard an explosion and then blacked out for a second. The wind was knocked out of her and as she slowly tried to gather her breath - and feel pain as she did so - Amaranai had to hope that the Klingons down the hall were just as injured as she was. Instead of checking, however, Amaranai slowly got to her feet and made her way toward Sickbay. Even if there wasn't anyone there, she could get a hypospray to numb the pain until a doctor could look at her.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

General Ko'raH
Klingon Commander
SS Recluse
[PNPC Saalm]

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Noah Khoroushi
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
PO2 T'Lin
(PNPCP)
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Ryan Alexander
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Langdale Wiggins
First Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. JG Braxton MacKenzie
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Petty Officer Eviess (PNPC)
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
(PNPC played by Braxton MacKenzie)

Lieutenant Junior Grade Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Min Zhao
Chief of Operations
USS Galileo

and other Galileans...

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