Evacuate

Posted on Sat Oct 12th, 2013 @ 9:15am by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Commander Gaius Ra-Xialii & Lieutenant Horatio Hawke & Lieutenant Ciaran McIntyre & Lieutenant Rose Cooper

Mission: Remnant Part 1
Location: USS Endeavour - Bridge | Research Outpost - Control Room
Timeline: During & After Away Team Post

Byrne sat in his chair at the centre of the bridge, swivelling slightly from side to side as he head through status reports on a PADD he was holding. The away team had been over on the station for just under fifteen minutes so far, but with the interference disrupting comms, the bridge hadn't heard from them yet. Eventually, the captain looked up, deciding that an update was needed.

"Have we had any luck breaking through the interference with the comm system yet?"

"None yet, sir," came the response from the officer at the operations console. "We're still unable to make contact."

"Let's hope that the away team have made some progress. What about sensors? Are we picking up anything that might have caused their distress call?"

Horatio had been taking some of the sensor load while others worked at trying to break through the comm interference. It gave him something to do other than keeping the ship relatively still. "Negative, Captain," he reported. "There's nothing out there."

Just as the lieutenant finished speaking, an alert tone issued from one of the consoles. "It seems as though the ship disagrees with you, Lieutenant," Byrne said, sitting up more in his chair. "What do we have?"

"A signal from the station, sir." The operations lieutenant answered, turning in his chair to look at the captain. "It looks like they were able to break through the interference on their end."

Almost immediately again, another console bleeped an alert - this time from the tactical station. "Captain," the relief officer said, looking up from the read-out at the centre of the bridge. "Sensors have just detected a ship approaching the station. It is of unknown configuration."

"OK - partition the viewscreen. Open a channel to the away team on one half, and see if you can put a visual of the ship on the other," Ben ordered.

"Captain," Rose said when she heard they were being talked to. "Something off with the communication here, but we're trying to fix that. So I can't give you a whole lot of information yet, apart from that the scientists down here seem alive and well."

"It's probably the Mediterranean diet." McIntyre quipped, referencing the Universal Translator's issues. "There doesn't appear to be a problem from a security point of view. They seem to be going about their work relatively calmly."

"Understood," the captain responded. "Be advised that we have detected an unidentified ship approaching the area, possibly drawn by the distress signal just as we were. We are trying to identify it now. Is Commander Ra-Xialii there?"

"Aye Captain, I'm here," Gaius replied, "Sensors on the station note that the nearest configuration in their database is a borg cube," He continued, before muttering an Efrosian expletive.

There was a pause from the Captain after that, as his expression changed to one of mixed shock and fear, which he tried to hide as quickly as he could. "If that station has any shields, activate them now," he ordered the away team eventually. "Shields up. Helm; position us between that ship and the station. Power weapons."

The captain's sudden orders were the result of the image on the other side of the view screen, which had just resolved into a more clearer picture. Distorted enough in shape to confuse the computer's automated recognition protocols, the core ship was still more than visible enough through the accumulated ship parts and technology that appeared as though they were being absorbed by the central craft to trigger any Starfleet officer's fight or flight response; a Borg cube.

Hawke had often heard it told that there was no sight more shocking than a Borg cube on your viewscreen. In his younger days, he'd often brushed off the suggestion with juvenile bravado, but not today. His mouth was suddenly dry and his stomach was frantically trying to reach his toes. Despite the nerves, the anxiety and traces of sheer terror, his pilots hands did their job with a cold precision and the Endeavour slid through space to position herself between the station and the oncoming cube, the prow of her saucer pointing defiantly at the looming threat.

The communication channel between the ship and the station was overridden by a short communication burst on all frequencies from the Borg ship: "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."

As the frequencies freed up again, Byrne addressed the away team again. "Commander; start preparing an evacuation. The Borg ship looks... unusual. Like it's been patched up by other ships somehow, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they will be weaker than a standard cube. The Endeavour may not be able to hold them off indefinitely."

"Evacuating now sir, we will need time to get to the stations transporter rooms, I don't want the Endeavour dropping her shields for any longer than she has to!" Gaius said, already sounding like he was running, he closed the comm channel and started herding people to the transporter rooms.

"Target all forward emitters and torpedo tubes on the cube," Benjamin ordered, shifting position in his seat to better brace himself against the inevitable impacts of the Borg weapons.

"Fire."

As the lances of energy shot from the ship towards the cube, the Borg responded with their own lances of energy, impacting the Endeavour's shields with the strength that Starfleet had come to expect from the Borg.

"Keep rotating shield and phaser frequencies," the captain ordered, before pressing the control for the ship-wide intercom. "All crew, this is the captain. Evacuate all forward sections of the saucer section." Releasing the switch, he turned towards Ops. "Seal off the forward sections once everyone is clear. We're going to end up taking some damage if we stay here too long. Continue firing."

The battle only lasted a couple of minutes before the forward shields had started to fail, and hull breaches were being torn into the saucer section.

"Status on the cube?" Ben asked, calling out over the shrill alarm tones coming from consoles.

"Minimal damage, Captain!" The duty Tactical officer bellowed over the consoles. "They're still attacking."

"And the evacuation?"

"Commander Ra-Xialii has just beamed aboard with the last of the station personnel now, captain," came the report.

"Helm, alter course, back the way we came. Warp one: Engage."

"Getting us the hell out of here, aye sir!" Hawke replied as he laid in the course and thumped the engage button harder than necessary.

The ship spun around in a tight turn, RCS thrusters firing before her warp nacelles glowed and flashed sending the Endeavour hurtling off into warp.