Entering into the fray

Posted on 31 Aug 2020 @ 12:21am by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Ensign Adam Morgan

Mission: Mission 4 - Race against the machine
Location: Transport 413
Timeline: MD9
1749 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

There were 2 staff Starbase 308 was sending out to join Captain Reynolds on the Andromeda.

Lucy knew she was small fry, a young straight out of the academy girl ready to join the stellar cartography team but the other chap she had been told was possibly destined to be the ops chief. She sat in awe of the man for most of the transport so far, attempting a few questions here and there but he didn't seem that social.

Focused she would say on the journey and what was equally a huge change to both of their lives.

"Coming up the Agora Crossroads," came a voice from the transports bridge.

The transport pulled out of warp and Lucy could immediately tell something was wrong. They had been expecting 3 federation ships and the Planet Killer they had been briefed on.

The was tons of ships. Some she figured were related to the Crossroads. There had been chatter about a possible evacuation but there was even a Klingon bird of prey. And it was firing ... on .....

The ship lurched as the bridge engaged what seemed to be some programmed evasive manoeuvres. They clearly didn't do the job as one of the smaller vessels clipped them with some weapon.

"Sir," she stated in horror. "There firing on us."

The rocking of the ship he was now onboard caught Adam by surprise. He wasn't expecting anything would come after a lonely transport this far out between the layers of the Agora Crossroads and Starbase 308, in which he came from. Morgan held onto the bulkhead as another blast hit the small ships shields and he walked onto the small bridge hoping to get a report of anything as he was in a small position to do so.

"What in blue blazers is going on here?" Morgan stated as he heard the turbolift doors close behind him.

"No one was expecting enemy fire," one of the crew snapped back. "The brief was a simple ferry you both over to the ship. Who these guys are we haven't a clue. The ......"

The ship lurched again as they got clipped by another phaser.

"The evasive manoeuvres are clearly out of date. This birds been due an upgrade in forever," he stated clearly annoyed.

Lucy had followed the other man. "Can we go on manual."

"Manual," the other man huffed. "I haven't done anything manual since the academy."

Morgan watched the interchange of words between the two bridge crew and walked up to the navigation controls that were closer to the viewscreen showing the madness that was outside the ship. He spoke as he looked to the bridge officer that sat there,

"I can take the controls if you need some manual labor done here."

With a nod of approval from the centre seat, the helmsman moved out of the chair and Morgan took over the controls. He watched as the other ship fired again and Morgan shouted, "Hang on!"

Morgan worked the controls and noted that the inertial dampeners were defiantly out of date as he piloted the transport out of the next blast of fire from the other ship. He danced the controls again and made the manual inputs for the impulse engines to make an evasive manoeuvre from the next volley of fire. He hoped for some praise or at least the next set of instructions to help them out of this bind.

He was being awfully heroic Lucy decided as she watched him in action. She wondered what she could do then realised she was another pair of eyes.

Two of the ships were attacking the Andromeda who was more than equipped to handle them and the other two federation ships were taking out the others moving but one, one was just staying out of the fray.

"What's that Orion one up too?" she said loudly. "Its keeping out of things, that's suspicious. Lets get closer and scan that," she said excitably.

They had talked about adrenaline back in her classes at the academy but she had never been in a situation quite like this. Now she truly understood.

Morgan spoke to that effect, "I wouldn't recommend that since this transport is in no shape to get hit at close range. That ship could be laying a trap for all you know," Adam stated as he turned to face the bridge crew.

"If its laying a trap, isn't that more the reason to keep an eye on?" Lucy stated.

"I can certainly see that mam," Adam stated and he turned back to the controls again and placed another set of commands to the engines. He continued as he placed in a new course to get closer to the Orion ship, "The Orion's ship is not all too big and neither is this transport. I'll get us in to range so we can start some sensor scans."

Morgan spoke, "Taking us within 500 kilometers of the ship. Hope the ship will be close enough to run some good scans..."

The scans would reveal the outer configuration of the Orion Scout Ship, circa mid 23rd century. It had an oblong primary hull, attached to a central spine. Its primary propulsion was made of two four-spoke components, these would spin independently of each other when in flight.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Orion_scout_ship (just for a reference image)

Cetea/Orion scout ship

N'nadyr, Cetea ace pilot of this area sneered at the fighting taking place. He wasn't happy with the destruction of that Miranda class ship, was glad he wasn't on that. He itched to get into some action but chose to wait, analysing taking in details, running scans. He noticed that his leader was heading to take on the USS Andromeda, along with the other fighter. A good distraction, he will go about coming from the aft position. This way the USS Andromeda will be crippled and the leader will be victorious in his battle.

Transport 413

Lucy was smarter than she gave herself credit for. "There going to try a pincer attack on our new ship. We need to stop them somehow. Is there any weapons?" she asked. "If not how good can you fly sir? We need to block them."

As the ship still sat there in space before them and closer than the last couple minutes of maneuvers, Morgan looked back at Lucy as she stated that last comment. He was wondering on why she was so defensive against him in his abilities but that could of been speculation on Morgan's half. He spoke the following instead,

"Trust me. This ship will be clear from that ship before they get the chance to do anything." Morgan continued as if he needed a reason to do so, "Besides, I have seen the records from the old Enterprise on that ship. They can be fast, but I'm faster."

Cetea Ship

N'nadyr decided it was time, kicking his ship into high gear, wanting to see if the update to the ship's speed would suffice in his opinion. A grin of delight, crossed his lips. He was going to have accolades from his leader when his mission was successful.

Trasnport 413

Morgan danced his fingers across the controls when the Orion ship started to move and the started to fire upon the transport. Adam didnt have much time for maneuvers against that ship, so he called out to anyone who would reply behind him, "Taking evasive maneuvers. Hang on!!!" The ship lurched upwards and Morgan spoke again, "Why now do they attack?"

"Probably because they have just seen us coming," she stated.

Morgan looked at Lucy again after that statement and had to wonder on his lingering thoughts. "What other starships are in the area?"

Cetea Ship

N'nadyr cursed under his breath, veering his ship away . That transport, he hadn't noticed it until it was almost too late. He was set to make another run for the USS Andromeda when a communication came. It was his leader.

"Break off attack, it is time to leave."

Another quick glance towards that other ship, the transport, he sent a message before leaving.

"The one who pilots that transport, we will meet again. My name is N'nadyr."

Transport 413

Morgan watched as the Orion ship stopped the attack on the transport and watched the viewscreen again as they now started out of the system without taking on any other ships. 'Curious' was all Morgan could think. He turned to look at the others on the bridge, "It seems the Orion's didn't want to keep up the fight. They are headed out of the system at full impulse."

"I don't think they were Orions," Lucy said darkly.

Morgan kept a glance at his controls so he could get the ship out of danger and noted a message pop up on his display.

"The one who pilots that transport, we will meet again. My name is N'nadyr."

Who was that? Morgan didn't know anyone of that name, but he had to think that the Orion's had a better thing to do than to message Morgan personally. 'Must love my navigation skills' Morgan thought and a smirk came to his face from that thought. Morgan was thinking of returning the message but chose not to and turned to the bridge crew again,

"Since the Orion's don't seem to care for us, should we try to get to the Starfleet ships in the area?"

"I'd say lets head for the Andromeda but ...." Lucy trailed off and rubbed her eyes to check what was actually happening was. "They seem to be playing chicken with another of these ships. And that ship we just chased off, they beamed someone over from the one that's going to collide with our new ship."

On screen another vessel crashed right into the shields and ricocheted off. Plasma explosions followed and it smashed into another vessel. She scanned it quickly. "It took damage and someone or someone's transported over. So that's what they were doing. Waiting to retrieve people. They used one of their own ships to try take down a galaxy class star ship. Who are these people?"

Morgan watched as the Galaxy class Andromeda took that blow to the shields and returned the gesture with phaser fire to any target heading towards them. Morgan placed his hands on the controls and spoke, "Im taking us to the Andromeda. That ship is our best harbor. We need to get off this transport before we become the next explosion out here."

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