A Afternoon Attack

Posted on Thu Jul 2nd, 2020 @ 4:02pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Aurelius Davis & Lieutenant Samantha Leyton & Ensign Luis Martinez

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Deck A - Main Bridge
Timeline: Day 31, Month 2, Year 0 15:00
1608 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Lexi leaned back in her chair feeling the strain in her shoulder from sitting there listening for anything. She was working a little bit past her usual time on the bridge due to the big possibility of an attack happening. They had, had three days of being allowed to continue on with their course back to earth and it was usually just how long they got before the Vrav found them. It left them with minimal time to recover or to continue on their course, meaning they made no progress. She normally spent the last few hours of her shift in the communication center but it made sense today for her to stay there.

The tactical console began chirping with alert noises, which startled Luis. Instinctively, the Armory Officer read the screen and began calling out, "Sir, we have incoming. Sensors show a ship matching the Vrav on an intercept course, shall I go to Tactical Alert?" It was almost a practiced speech by now. Ensign Martinez's shift on the Bridge had gone over a regular shift, but his department was a little stretched at the moment. Each Armory crewmember had been overstretched as they tried to accommodate the new needs of the ship.

Samantha let out an exhausted sigh as her eyes glanced to the sensor display that now indicated the incoming Vrav vessel. If anything, these guys were persistent. She moved her hands over the controls as she awaited orders from the Captain.

Aurelius sat back, the tension was getting to him every bit as much as it must be for Samantha who he was watching as her fingers danced over the console. He was seriously tempted to go up and rub her shoulders, then at least one of them would feel relief. He took a breath and sighed. There should be some way to loose them without loosing themselves in the process.

"Tactical alert," Beth agreed without hesitation as the alarm sounded. She could imagine her crew scurrying around below as they tried to get to duty stations on next to no sleep or with the knowledge that this could be the last time they did this. "How long until we are incepted?" She wondered turning to look at Luis.

Pressing the command, Martinez brought the ship's phase cannons online, loaded the photonic torpedoes, and polarized the hull. Checking the sensor readout, the Acting Chief called out, "Time to intercept is three minutes. Weapons range is more difficult to nail down, kinetic weaponry could theoretically have unlimited range. Newton was a bastard."

Beth turned at the word bastard being used but said nothing. If any situation could warrant the use of a swear word or two impending death was one of them along with pain and having children. "Indeed he was Ensign." It was barely out of her mouth when the ship vibrating with a missed kinetic shockwave. "Their shots seem to be getting worse." She murmured. "Hailing frequencies open O'Connery." The comms officer opened the requested frequencies and looked up at Beth whilst she thought about the words that she needed to say to make sure everyone got out of this alive.

"Please stop shooting at us," Aurelius whispered to himself in his usual mocking way. "We're nice people." Humor was always a defense mechanism with him. It hid how scared he really was about the whole thing.

The channel was almost immediately cut to static, leaving the true nature of the attack answered. "May I send another kind of reply, Ma'am?" the armory officer asked, fingers at the ready above the offensive capabilities.

Beth gripped her chair tightly as the shock wave started to get worse. "No!" Beth did not want that type of message sent. "Keep trying to get the line open and establish. HELM get us out of its path." Beth instructed trying to see the navigational console display to be able to see if there was anywhere they could hide after 20 odd days of it they had learnt some tricks.

Samantha's hands danced over the helm console. "Hold onto something!" she called. "I have an idea!" She pushed the Atlantis to Warp 5 as the deck plates rumbled in protest. The Vrav vessel matched the Atlantis' speed as she muttered a prayer before engaging the inertial dampener and cut the power to the warp engines. The Atlantis lurched forward as the onboard inertial dampeners strained to keep people from being splattered against the bulkhead. The ship shook and strained from the forces exerted by the emergency stop instead of dropping out of warp at a much slower rate. Immediately reengaging the warp engines and disengaging the inertial dampeners on the nacelles, she took the ship back to warp, matching speed with the Vrav vessel. Their new position was right under the Vrav vessel, out of their weapons' firing arcs.

Beth heard the advice a second too late and got propelled to the floor shoulder first. With a wince, she hauled herself back with her could arm and had to hope around the ship people fared a bit better than her. "How long can you keep us here?" She wondered knowing the ship would be strategizing and plotting already.

"Not sure, ma'am. We're a bit more nimble than they are so I should be able to match anything they try," Samantha replied as fought to control the Atlantis. She only hoped the ship would continue to hold together after her maneuver.

"I don't suppose we have anything we can blind them with, any kind of waste that needs to be emptied into space?" Aurelius asked, just trying to think of something that would temporarily get them away from the Vrav. It would only work once, he was sure. But it would give them a break.

"No. Science do we have any nebulas or anything around..." Lexi started to ask but the Science Officer seemed to be already ahead of things which was good as Beth's shoulder was killing thanks to the attack shock wave that had sent her to the floor.

"Yes... I mean yes Ma'am." The woman piped up. "It is not far." The woman asked already pulling the information for the HELM officer to get them there.

Samantha looked at the coordinates and located the nebulae. It was going to be tricky to maneuver past the Vrav ship. "Hold together," she muttered to the ship and she steered it hard to starboard, pushing the Warp engines to full power as the Atlantis shook in protest with its Structural Integrity Fields straining once again to keep the ship from flying apart as it sped to Warp 5.

Beth held her breath as the ship shook violently and the shock waves from the Vrav weapon shook them in the other direction. She had a lot of respect for Samantha at the moment and pilots in general as they finally broke into the nebulas that had been close enough to shelter them. From previous experience, it was the best way to lose them as the Vrav's ships were useless in anything less than open space. "Are they following?" Beth wondered wincing.

It was so much easier to sit in a chair and focus on flying than it was to be on the sidelines while someone else did it. But after this, if they survived, he was going to kiss Sam for getting them through it. Aurelius thought her braver than him in the moment. He braced himself against an unused console and put his hands as flat as they could go for grip, just in case.

"It appears they are searching for us, ma'am. From what I can read on the sensors which sporadically picked up the Vrav vessel thankfully to the higher energy output it had compared the Atlantis," Samantha said as she finally allowed herself a sigh of relief, sitting back in the helm chair. She took a moment to clinch and unclench her hands several times to make them stop shaking from the adrenaline.

"Everyone okay?" Beth asked standing up to start looking over the consoles properly. Everyone seemed to be in one piece but did not mean they were.

"Not bad ma'am," Lexi spoke up from comms taking off her headset looking a little annoyed that they were continuing to be that stubborn that they refused to listen. It did no one any good.

"Yeah, still kicking." Aurelius said. His body was so tense though he was probably going to be sore later.

"You okay ma'am? That was a bit of a fall." Lexi added seeing the familiar woman holding herself differently even as she tried to hide it and stand taller. The communication officer knew the woman too well to be fooled.

"Yeah. Just a bruise." Beth assured rolling her shoulder trying to not wince.

"Sorry about that ma'am," Samantha said, turning in her seat slowly. She hadn't meant for the captain to get hurt. Had she done the right thing in pulling that maneuver? One that she wasn't entirely sure would have worked with putting so much stress on the ship?

"Just need to get seatbelt or something in the chair." The Commander assured. It was not something she would be willing to take painkillers for with such a limited supply but maybe something for the future if this continued was needed.

FINAL TAGS

Commander Bethsabée Leroux
Officer In Charge
NX Atlantis

Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery
Comms Operator
NX Atlantis
(PNPC Leroux)

Lieutenant Aurelius Davis
Morale Officer
NX Atlantis

Lieutenant JG Samantha Leyton
Chief Helm Officer
NX Atlantis

Ensign Luis Martinez
Armoury Officer
NX Atlantis
(PNPC Sloan)