From Out Of The Darkness

Posted on Tue Sep 4th, 2018 @ 10:48pm by Captain Charlotte Averis

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/5
Location: Lumeri Expanse, Near New Earth

The Icarus and the remaining three fighters of her escort raced through space as fast as she could at sublight speeds, her warp engines having been knocked out by the last explosion and there was no guessing when they'd be up and running. Even as she ran, four coruscating orbs shot out behind her towards the thirty-odd small craft in pursuit. One of the smaller of the craft flew right into one and disintegrated from the impact. Behind them, a hulk rotated in space, venting atmosphere and glowing in several places, lights flickering, but weakly and weaker and weaker by the moment.

"That carrier is down, but it's a full battle squadron still coming after us and we're down to three Vipers, no chance they could hold them off." The sensor officer shook her head, "I've got that sensor reading dead ahead, we're about fifteen minutes out from it and I don't have a clue what it is." He glanced over to the science officer who added his own headshake, "But I think we can agree on one thing: It wasn't made by the Shalti, no biosignature from it at all."

The woman in the Captain's chair nodded, "Make a run for it, maybe it's a wormhole, a dimensional shear?" She shook her head, "Get the Chief to push more power to the impulse engines, I know we've got a good lead, but-" Her eyes flashed up as an alert flashed on the main screen and a black ship occluded part of the screen directly ahead, green bioluminescence filtering from viewports and seams. A dozen pieces fell off and flaring with a red glow, shot off towards the Icarus. "Light cruiser ahead, all weapons forward, Vipers on the fighters."

Six rainbow-colored orbs shot off ahead of the Icarus, not wavering from her course. They impacted the black ship in the bows, quite literally burning their way through the outer hull before... Fizzling out. Where the matte black had been, burns marred the hull, already starting to fade over. From dozens of spines, white blossomed and plasma shot out towards the Icarus, which started to do some simple evasive maneuvers while another half dozen shots raced back, impacting the same locations, snapping off a piece of now green-flickering debris. Five of the plasma bolts impacted the forward shields of the Icarus, sliding off towards the aft, draining power the entire time.

In between the ships, the Vipers, sleek fighter craft, had shot ahead of the Icarus on an intercept course for the smaller drone fighters that looked like needles with four arms wrapped around looking like a claw. reaching out. The pulse-cannon from the Vipers began to fill space in front of them, countered by smaller versions of the plasma weapons. First, three of the Shalti drone fighters broke into pieces, one impacting a fourth which spun out briefly before angling back in. Plasma splashed continually over one of the Federation fighters and suddenly the shields collapsed, one plasma bolt sliding off the cockpit of the craft before a second went right through the weakened hull, tearing the fighter to pieces. Almost immediately after, two drones vanished into one of the rainbow bolts from the Icarus.

The precision of the Icarus's gunner was intense, the five bolts that made it through the fighter melee impacted the same locations as before, one digging into the divot that the spine had been torn off, digging deep into the cruiser's hull. Something inside caused a muted flash and the ship seemed to falter before another rush of plasma was ejected towards the Icarus. This time, the shields flickered under the plasma barrage, then collapsed and two of the bolts dug into the hull, one just burning the hull, the other digging deep into the hull.

The return volley was devastating, this time two of the rainbow bolts dug through the widening wound on the bioluminescing hull and suddenly those flickers became random as the ship ceased powered movement and just began to drift, one spine releasing a last shot of plasma that flew past the Icarus. The remaining Shalti fighter drones broke away from the combat, the last Viper streaking in pursuit for a moment before returning the the Icarus's port bow and taking the escort position again.

On the bridge, the damage alarms had been quieted even as the racing starship passed the drifting hulk, "We're down to one Viper, ma'am." The sensor officer unnecessarily, "Damage reports coming in.. Hull breaches on decks eight and nine, forward sensors are down, casualties..." Her face went pale, "Sickbay is gone, Captain... No one got out." She forced herself to swallow, "Engineering reports casualties, no specifics."

The Captain nodded somberly and exhaled deeply, "Time to anomaly?"

"Six minutes. Our pursuit is seven minutes behind that if they keep on pace."

The next five minutes passed quietly, new reports coming from damage and casualties, some of them hurting the Captain badly, "As soon as we're through whatever it is, I need to know what's there. If there's a planet close by, an asteroid, we need to be in its shadow right away, maybe we cna convince them we've warped out before they get there."

"You're going to need more time, Icarus." The voice over the comm stated, "I can keep them busy for a couple minutes to give you additional time to get out of there."

"No, Commander, you are going to stay on our port bow, you're the guinea pig, boost ahead and hit the anomaly ten seconds before us, that way if you pancake..." There was a grim laugh from across the bridge including from the comm. The fighter increased it's speed, "And you're our forward sensors now, so you aren't getting away from us that easy."

"Roger that, Icarus."

The fighter vanished through whatever it was, no debris venting to indicate an impact and a splattered fighter and Captain Charlotte Averis, United Federation of Planets Resistance, held her breath as they transited. She exhaled when they didn't turn into disassociated atoms. "Setine, report!"

"I'm feeding you my data, Type G star, four planets, two are gas giants, one's an icy ball and one looks to be a fire planet. Moons are six, eighteen, two and none respectively. We ain't in Kansas anymore." The fighter pilot remarked.

"As if Kansas still existed. Sensors, get me a star chart and tell me where we are." Charlotte leaned back, then a muted set of red flashes went around the bridge.

"Unknown ships in-system!" The pilot announced in unison with the sensor officer.

"Bring us on a heading directly onto them." Charlotte ordered, "Continue fire into the anomaly, forward weapons. I need to know who these people are."

Ahead of them, the fighter increased it's speed, wingtips beginning to glow with weapons energy. In the forward weapons nodes of the Icarus, the rainbow orbs began to glow brightly.

"Open hailing frequency." She waited for a moment, "Unknown starship, this is the Federation Warship Icarus. Heave to and exit this system immediately. Any aggression against us will be responded to in kind." Her voice was confident, strong, but inside she was telling herself she didn't need this, not with those behind her chasing. As if in response, another volley of shots swept back and vanished through the anomaly.

"Captain!" The sensor officer behind her exclaimed, putting up the information that had just come in.

Eyes flicking across the screen, "Correction, Starship Wellington, this is the Starship Icarus, it's damned good to see you! We'd heard you were destroyed three weeks ago. I need to speak with Captain Westerly right away, it's urgent."

OFF:
TBC: Hello From The Other Side

Captain Charlotte Averis
Commanding Officer
USS Icarus

Lieutenant Commander Alexander 'Shockwave' Setine
Fighter Command
USS Icarus