Hunting for fate...

Posted on Sun Feb 2nd, 2020 @ 3:21am by Fleet Admiral Sevlek

1,092 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 103 - In The Darkest Days...
Location: U.S.S. Gladiator, Beta Quadrant
Timeline: MD02 - 2230 hours

[ON]

Sevlek stepped onto the bridge of the U.S.S. Gladiator, it was the first time he'd used his flagship for something other than courier, scouting missions or as a VIP transport vessel in several years. As he stepped fully out of the turbolift, one of the officers at the back announced, "Admiral on the bridge."

Sevlek nodded at the young man, who had been a little louder than was necessary. The entire act was something Sevlek felt unnecessary, but Captain Daniel Zandusky - the man who commanded the Gladiator in Sevlek's absence - enjoyed the tradition.

Zandusky turned the command chair around to look and, at sight of the Beta Quadrant Commander, started to stand. He was halted by the briefest of gestures from the Vulcan. Something to slight, that it was likely only Zandusky caught it. "Admiral, I was just about to call you to the bridge." He stood and walked to one of the port-side bridge consoles, "We're less than 2 minutes from the target location."

He brought up a tactical long-range sensor sweep on the console's screen. The Gladiator had recently been equipped with an experimental suite of long-range tactical sensors, which seemed almost like a portent of the outbreak of war. With a range of 72 light years in perfect stellar conditions, they were some of the most advanced sensor systems available. Inspired by Borg transwarp sensor systems, though that tidbit of information was classified at the highest level.

Sevlek nodded at the human, one of two individuals who had served with him for well over 10 years. The other, Colonel David Andrenicus, served as his Chief of Staff and attache. "It appears that they are not expecting any military operations this deeply into their space."

Zandusky nodded, "Yes, sir." He entered a few commands and a new overlay appeared on the screen. "Intelligence reports that the Typhon Pact is still 12-17 years from achieving a stable slipstream matrix." The human's face darkened, "Provided they gain no insights from any of the ships equipped with the drive that were recently destroyed."

Sevlek watched as Zandusky sat in the seat generally afforded to the XO of a ship. The Vulcan flag officer moved to the center seat and sat down, "Red alert, all hands to battle stations." He looked to the tactical station, "Prepare assault pattern Zeta-2-1, target shipyard facilities."

The Andorian nodded, smiling fiercely, "Understood, sir. Standing by with assault pattern Zeta-2-1."

Sevlek stood, looking to the Andorian Tactical Officer as he said, "Mr. Shralten, you may begin the assault immediately upon exiting slipstream."

Zandusky watched Sevlek as the Vulcan sat down and the human said, "Ensign S'rel, drop out of slipstream 1 light second from the shipyard."

The Vulcan woman responded curtly, "Aye. Dropping out of slipstream in 5..."

Sevlek scanned the bridge quickly taking in the faces of those he was commanding into battle...

The young woman at the helm added, "4..."

Sevlek looked at Zandusky, and a silent respect passed between them...

"3..."

Zandusky looked at those on the bridge, the people he respected and admired...

"2..."

Zanduskly looked at his console and uttered a nearly imperceptible gasp...

"Exiting slipstream now."

The Gladiator transitioned to normal space smoothly, located at the Fel'tarin Shipyards, only a scant 200 light years from Starbase 400. Sevlek watched as volleys of quantum torpedoes were launched from the Gladiator, with tricobalt torpedoes interspersed within those waves.

After what felt like far longer than it actually was, Shralten announced, "The shipyards have been destroyed, sir. Romulan vessels are moving to intercept, estimate time to enemy vessels entering weapons' range is 1 minute, 12 seconds." The Andorian's hands move across his console with expert grace as he added, "Sirs, initial readings suggest some 61 vessels of varying type and classification have been destroyed in the docks."

The Bolian at Ops spoke now, "Admiral, the ships closing to intercept number in the 20s, sir. I'm having a hard time getting a solid reading on their numbers." He entered some more commands, "The subspace interference from our tricobalt devices are preventing sensors from getting anything other than size and number of ships."

Zandusky looked at the readouts on his screen, "Ensign S'rel, get us into slipstream."

Sevlek watched as the young Vulcan woman entered commands, and the console beeps its inability to initiate her commands. She replied, "Unable to initiate a slipstream translation, sir. We need to put some distance between the ship and the subspace disruptions caused by the tricobalt devices."

Zandusky nodded to no one, "Best possible speed, then. Initiate slipstream translation as soon as possible."

The crew wait for minutes as the ship evaded it's pursuers, most of the enemy ships seemed unable to keep up with the Gladiator's speed, but two of them were newer model vessels, equipped to chase down normal prey.

The Gladiator, though, was no normal prey. It was one of the most advanced ships in Starfleet, used as a testbed for many new systems that were then installed on other ships that were capable of supporting the technology and equipment necessary. The Gladiator kept the two Valdore class warbirds at the extreme edge of weapons' range.

The two ships responded to their inability to close with the Gladiator by firing volleys of plasma torpedoes at the Starfleet vessel, hoping to hamstring the ship.

Sevlek was sitting in the command chair, recently rocked by what felt like serious hit from plasma torpedoes. He spoke calmly, "Report."

The Bolian at Ops spoke first, "Shields are holding at 91%, the plasma torpedoes are dissipating too much of their energy on the extreme range they must travel."

Shralten at Tactical was next, "One of the ships' shields are down to 20% and the other ship's shields are at 80%. I..." He was interrupted by another plasma torpedo impacting the shields. "am using minimal ordinance to deter our pursuers, sir."

The Vulcan flag officer nodded. Quantum torpedoes had an impressive range, more so than Romulan plasma torpedoes, but there was no need to risk the ship on the possibility of destroying one, or two, more ships than they already had.

After another moment, Ensign S're spoke up, "Initiating slipstream translation."

Sevlek watched at the viewscreen became filled with the slipstream corridor, instead of the usual starfield that occupied it.

They had achieved part of what their mission encompassed. They had destroyed the largest Romulan, and Typhon Pact, shipyard in the region, but they had not achieved the hit-and-run that was hoped. There was no doubt that sensors had recorded the Gladiator's presence and would be reporting it to their command officers even now.

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