Friend or Foe Pt. 2

Posted on Thursday 1 September 2016 @ 04:16 by Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D. & Commander Cale Llewellyn DSci & Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant Commander David Tan & Lieutenant JG Eleena & Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix

Mission: Old, New Ship
Location: Various
Timeline: MD7 Evening
5352 words - 10.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

... David watched as the anomalous emissions edged closer and closer to the 100 kilometer point of no return, where the Merlin would need to take a seriously aggressive stance to prevent whoever it was from having free reign to close in. Any closer and they would be able to fire on the Tri'Jema with impunity ! ... He had modified the sensors numerous times, but still they had difficulty identifying the source. He thought of a possible means of detecting whatever was producing the anomalous readings. Opening a comm to the Bridge and given Commander Barstow was still in tense conversation with the Romulan Commander, he contacted the Second Officer and outlined his idea:

=^= Lieutenant .. We are still unable to satisfactorily identify the emissions in quadrant 2 .. They are now 217 kilometers out and still on approach .. We may have better luck if we reorient the Merlin so the source is directly ahead then transmit a concentrated tachyon burst towards the location .. It may reveal who is approaching and give Lieutenant Tillatix a better chance of locating and locking into the oncoming craft .. if it is the Romulan's then Commander Hexce will be informed immediately I would think .. They will know that they have been discovered attempting to deceive us .. What their reaction would be is up for speculation at this stage =^=

Tan sat back waiting as the anomalous emission readings passed 200 kilometers, still heading directly for the Tri'Jema ! ...

Looking at Tan's message, Melody thought for a minute, Then addressing the Captain "Sir, Lieutenant Tan in the geophysics lab is asking for a better scan of the asteroid, it will be necessary to re orient the ship to use the main sensor array."

Barstow just gave a curt nod, not taking his eyes from the screen, "go ahead....and tell our birds they are weapons free, there are drones we sent out that look like cloaked ships," he said before turning his back on the screen, "unless we should hold fire for some reason, Commander?" he asked and looked back to the Romulan CO over his shoulder.

Suddenly a special command frequency activated and Sav heard a special command executed. =/\= Dragon Actual, Father, Dragons are weapons free. Repeat, Dragons are weapons free. Drones from mother sent out for practice. Enjoy yourselves. Father out.=/\=

Sav sent to all dragons, =/\= Dragons, CAG, Weapons hot and free. Let's find those practice drones, I mean bogeys, and give them one chance, then take them down. CAG 100 Out.=/\= Sav knew her signing off that way would let them know this was fully sanctioned and the fighters were fully ready to rock and roll.

... Listening to the conversation via the open comm link, David realised that the Captain was giving the Romulan commander every opportunity to either admit he had something approaching the Tri'Jema, or to have them exit the area without explanation. It seemed Hexce was reluctant to do either, and he watched the Tactical View as the Merlin very slowly began to rotate to Port. It wasn't a massive adjustment, but enough to bring the deflector array in-line with the supposedly anomalous emissions they had been tracking ..... Their rotation stopped 15 degrees short of exact alignment, 'no point in advertising the blatantly obvious' he thought as he had one of his Officers highlight the five readings. if his idea worked, they would at least have a better idea, and more importantly PROOF that Hexce was deceiving them ! ... He tapped the comm link on the armrest:

=^= Lieutenant Tan to Engineering .. Lieutenant Ikiri .. Configure the Navigational deflector to emit a five second burst of Tachyon Particles through the dish .. confirm when ready .. Tan out =^=

He inched forward on his seat, listening to the on-going conversation between their Captain and the obviously deceitful Romulan Commander, awaiting confirmation that Engineering were ready, and the Bridge confirmed his go-ahead ...

As Melody brought the enormous ship round to its new heading she open a comm link to Tan.

=/\= Jones to Tan, we're in position. Initiate scan at your discretion. =/\=

... =^= Understood =^= David replied, initiating the tachyon burst ......

At first nothing happened, and he wondered if all his efforts had done was to inform the Romulans that they were searching for their hidden craft, but then they were almost lit up like proverbial lighthouse beacons. they couldn't have been more visible if they had telegraphed their minute by minute progress through the vast asteroid field .....

"Lieutenant ! ... Five confirmed targets ... Running identification now." his Deputy Lysia T'Seng said, "Got em. five in total ... One Romulan shuttle carrying eighteen personnel ... Four Scorpion Class attack fighters, obviously covering the Shuttle." David looked at the information on-screen and duplicated it on Lieutenant Jones' panel. It would also be superimposed over the comm link to Hexce, so the Merlin Bridge crew, and more importantly, Commander Barstow, could see it but not the Warbird. He quickly opened a Comm to the Second Officer:

=^= Lieutenant .. Incoming information should be on your screen now .. One shuttle eighteen aboard .. I speculate two pilots and sixteen Combat personnel possibly Teth Koros ! .. .. .. Four Scorpion Class which are running cover .. They could cause us issues if we let them .. Intercept Intercept .. We need to prevent them from breaching out one hundred kilometer cordon .. Be aware .. We located these but there could be others incoming =^=

He turned to T'Seng:

"Let's reduce our scan distance. I want incentive scans out to one hundred thousand kilometers. If they are sneaking someone else to the party I want to know." he said, eyeing the tactical display and hoping the fighters could hole the intruders off, at least until they had what they needed .....

Hexce scowled at the man on the screen, "I assure you, if we did have any ships out there and you did open fire on them it would be open war. However, since you are not firing and I have no ships there...."

John looked at the Petty Officer manning Tactical and made a chopping motion across his throat, "Jones, I want confirmation those ships are his."

At that moment, Eleena, the Chief Tactical officer made her way onto the Bridge. She had been held up a bit when she had to make an unexpected trip to the armory to handle an issue. The half-Cardassian silently took her spot from the Petty Officer at Tactical. Eleena tapped a few commands on the console and began to look over the data gathered from all departments. Since they were cloaked, the obvious choice were that they were Romulan. However, at this point and with this information, it was impossible to tell from which Romulan, and didn't rule out completely that the Vulcans were also cloaked given the updated treaty that allowed the Federation to use them.

The Chief Tactical Officer tapped a message quickly, then sent it to the Bridge crew. It simply stated, 'set gravimetric sensors to detect subspace disturbances from the tacyon pulse hits.' She hovered her console's view on the nearest possible bogey, then waited for the pulse and scan. If she was right, the subspace scans would offer more detail to the incoming ships.

... Still trying to get a better resolution to the information he was able to feed to the Bridge, Tan could see that numerous sensors had been quickly reconfigured, they were detecting any residual sub-spa .....

"THERE !" his Deputy said, pointing at the almost luminescent blips on their main screen. He could clearly see outlined against the blackness of the screen five distinct craft, as first thought, there was a large shuttle and four smaller craft. He quickly opened a comm to Sav:

=^= Dragon Actual .. Merlin Tac-Ops .. .. Five incoming confirmed at previous co-ordinates .. They must have departed the Romulan vessel well before entering the asteroid field .. .. Dragon 2 is almost on top of them .. Their speed is less than ten meters per second they are practically crawling towards the Tri'Jema possibly trying not to form a wake .. No indication that they are moving aside but they 'must' see him ahead of them ! =^=

=/\= Merlin Tac-Ops, Dragon Actual, no way that could have happened. Mother sent out practice drones for targeting. We are proceeding with drill maneuver Fielders edge. They will be lit up with Talons configured for full ECCM, Dragons for ECM. Be ready with Merlin's weapons. Dragon 35 and 36 will be ready with microtorps from Dashit besides the fighters in position. The 'Practice Drones' will have to make a choice, turn back or be destroyed.=/\=

On the bridge, Melody was sifting through the results of the tachyon scan and finally hit pay dirt. "Captain, the harmonic signatures of the cloaked vessels approaching match that of the warbirds when it decloaked. No doubt sir, That is their mother ship."

An alarm on her console got Melody's attention "Sir, the Warbirds is diverting auxiliary power to its forward distuptors. I think the cat might be out of the bag....."

Eleena checked her console to ensure the ship's shields were raised to full. It would dampen the effectiveness of the sensors on the asteroid crash site, but it wouldn't matter if the Merlin was destroyed. She then tapped out a few commands to power up the weapons. "Arming weapons," she announced to the command chair just below her.

... Now that they had more detailed information, David could see that the shuttle was in fact Romulan, approximately the size of the Federations Danube-Class runabout, it could hold 18 people, and most importantly, their equipment, comfortably. Which means that first off, Wolf was in danger of being overrun, though the shuttle 'would' adjust it's course to prevent that, it meant one of the Merlin's attack craft could find itself in a proverbial no-mans land, behind the shuttle but in easy reach of the Scorpion attack fighters. His panel chirped, alerting him to a change in status, the Merlin had armed her weapons systems ....... The stand-off, initially cordial, would now take a dark turn, because the Romulans had only one reasonable response. On the Bridge, Hexce and Barstow were still in conversation, he wondered how long that rapport would now last before one or the other decided to undertake an openly aggressive action.

The cloaked vessels had penetrated to within 180 kilometers of the exclusion line the Merlin had set now. Given they had been discovered, he wondered why they were stubbornly holding the cloak rather than showing themselves. Why were they practically 'drifting' into trouble ? ... They must know that the Merlin would stop them ! .... He had a ridiculous thought and turned to Lysia:

"Do we have sensors on the Vulcan vessel ?"

"Yes, but they are just sitting there, they have made no attempt to contact us after their initial communication. Why, problem ?"

"OK ...." David said, wondering if lack of sleep was affecting his judgement, of if he could be seeing something relevant, "We have to take it as fact that 'both' factions know each other is here, right, so If both the Vulcan High Command, and the Romulan Senate, if indeed the S'Trak 'has' been sent on behalf of the Senate, wouldn't it be somewhat of a concern to the Vulcan's that their sworn enemy is closing on the vessel both parties have denied all knowledge of ?"

"You think the Vulcan's know about the interlopers ?" his Deputy asked.

"Oh 'THEY' know .... My worry is, why are they doing absolutely nothing about it !" .....

Suddenly All five dragons disappeared from the incoming vessels scans. However, at the same time, the four fighters and shuttle lit up like Christmas trees as they were painted by the scout sensors on Talon's one and two. Then, suddenly, they were painted with Active Lock-ons of Federation Photon torpedoes ready to fire. There were 20 locked on signatures, four by each broadsword and two for each Valkyrie and Raptor.

=/\= Merlin Tac-Ops, Dragon Actual, ready to proceed with live fire drill. Say the word and the launched target drones are dust, or are we to let them turn around, by chance?=/\=

Barstow moved to his command chair and sat down, "copy tactical," he replied and looked at the screen, "if they open fire disable them and patch me in to all fighters, use an open channel," he ordered and waited for a second, "Mother to all birds, consider training open and go weapons hot. If that shuttle or those Scorpions move any closer on the asteroid you are free to engage, disable if possible."

Melody was monitoring on her screen and also keeping an eye on the Romulan Warbird. At the same time she was making sure that the thrusters and impulse engines were on hot standby as she had a feeling some evasive manuvures would soon be called on.

The tension on the bridge was continuing to rise......

... OOC: Cmdr Barstow had previously agreed on the cloaked Romulan craft (1 shuttle containing Teth koros Commandos & 4 Scorpion class fighters) aside from any drones ...

... Tac-Ops was busy now, they were monitoring numerous targets from the Merlin, along with possible incoming, and both Romulan and Vulcan vessels. David ordered they concentrate the Tri'Jema on a secondary screen, while the incoming Romulan fighters and the shuttle were relocated to their main screen. Several of the Merlin's craft were now converging on the still cloaked but now discovered approaching foe. he received a Comm from Dragon Actual and give her request some thought before replying:

=^= Dragon Actual .. Merlin Tac-Ops .. Bridge has confirmed live fire exercise on target drones but use caution .. First cloaked Scorpion is now inside 100 kilometers from Tri'jema =^=

He wondered if the fighters were being led into a trap, but at this point, stopping them from carrying out the fire exercise would inform the Romulan's that we knew they were approaching. Either way, Sav would need to be ready to re-task fighters at a moment's notice. Lieutenant T'Seng informed him that they were on final approach to the asteroid. 15 seconds from landing.

"Keep a close watch on the Tri'Jema and our runabout's. If anything approaches I want to know it instantly !" he said, eyes flicking between the crashed vessel and the approaching fighters ....

Melody then saw something on her console and turned to Barstow "Captain, I'm showing that our runabouts have landed on the asteroid."

Suddenly, over the general comm line, came the following Dragons communications.

=/\= All Dragons, Dragon actual. If our target drone's come any closer, take them out. If in five minutes they don't skedaddle, TAKE THEM OUT. We are to complete this fire exercise in a timely manner, understood? Oops, was that over the general comm... *click*=/\=

John had to stifle a laugh, he knew she hadn't meant it to be funny, but the situation was so tense he needed to find humor somewhere. On the screen he watched the Romulan Commander shift slightly in his chair, which for the well trained Galae officer was as good as outright fidgeting. Barstow motioned for the comm to open then pretended not to notice, "helm, put us directly the warbirds path. Tactical,-" he started as the comm cut and the Merlins deck lurched upward, "return fire, evasive maneuvers!"

Just when she had started to hope things were about to be pulled back from the brink, things turned to a firefight. Eleena began tapping commands as she returned, "Aye, sir." The first few taps on the Tactical console were to bring up possible targeting patterns for Mogai-class warbirds. She then began her return fire, alternating phaser arrays and the burst-fire torpedo launchers. Her goal was to disable the enemy as quickly as possible. Between returning fire, she sent a few evasive patterns to the Melody's helm console to allow the Lieutenant to pick the best suited. While not one to particularly enjoy battles, the Chief Tactical Officer was happy to be the one fireing the Type-XII phasers and not on the receiving end.

... He was quietly confident that the 'slip-up' with the open comm was actually intended, ensuring the Romulans knew that the Merlin's fighters were about to open fire on their 'Drones' ... Suddenly the Merlin shuddered after being hit. The shields took the phaser fire with no problem, he heard the Captain order a change of orientation so they were directly facing the still stationary war-bird.

"What's the Vulcan's doing ?" he asked, eyes flicking between numerous screens.

"Still in their original position." Lysia said, double-checking with her last set of readings, "They have raised shields but have not brought their weapons on-line. Maybe the shields are a precaution, just in case something goes astray."

"Ensign Kent, drop what you are doing and watch the Vulcan Vessel, I want to know if anything changes." he said, seeing the fighters manoeuvring into optimal firing locations. The five 'drones' had still to de-cloak and he wondered if the Romulan's were going to attempt to get them through to the Tri'Jema without having them fired on. His wondering didn't last long: The Scorpions de-cloaked, turning sharply to confront the Merlin's fighters. The large viewscreen was suddenly awash with red and green icons, signifying the Romulan and Federation fighters ... The Scorpion closest to Dragon Two dove below Wolf, almost throwing itself through a one eighty and firing.

Suddenly, the five fighters reserved for watch replacement launched. They had went to hot standby when Sav had called out, 'not a drill'. Dragon's 13 and 14 hotburned it over to Dragons 22 and 25 with orders to take out the warbirds singularity power core. Dragons 23 and 24 zoomed over the asteroid field to provide Talon Escort. Dragon 36 sped towards Dashit to provide Dragon 35 with support.

Dragon Actual maneuvered up and in to catch anyone sneaking past Dragon 2 and his current squad, while Dragon 34 moved back a little further and down at 90 KKlicks to catch anyone coming down and up, besides providing backup fire for Dragon Actual.

Lt. Tan suddenly realised that he could see only three of the four Scorpions !

"Lieutenant T'Seng. Roll back to the moment the Scorpions de-cloaked, we've lost one !"

"There !" Lysia said, highlighting the wayward Romulan fighter ... It had corkscrewed over Dragons two, twelve and six and was now on the far side of one of the larger asteroids within striking distance of the Tri'jema, and more importantly, their own runabouts. he opened a Comm to Sav:

=^= Dragon Actual .. Merlin Tac-Ops .. One Scorpion pealed off and is now hiding behind asteroid at co-ordinates two zero four mark eight six .. Suspect it is attempting a run on the Tri'Jema .. I am requesting Tactical fire on the asteroid so keep your birds clear =^=

Not waiting for the Air group commander to reply he flicked the Comm to the Bridge:

=^= Bridge .. Tan .. One scorpion making a possible run on our runabouts .. Tactical fire on asteroid at location two zero four mark eight six .. Full spread recommended .. Tan =^=

He waited, anxiously watching the large viewscreen, he didn't want the Scorpion to break away before Eleena could destroy the asteroid and the hiding fighter beyond .....

Dragon Actual shifted away from the asteroid in question and hid among the Talon's signature, waiting for either the Scorpian to appear to try for the Talon, or for the asteroid to vaporize and momentarily blind the Scorpian to be picked off by Actual and 34.

Seeing what was happening on her tactical console, Eleena entered the commands to target the asteroid. She burst-fired a full spread of photon torpedoes, enough to blow the asteroid in a dazzling display.

Melody's console displayed the evasive manoeuvres that Eleena had sent. She sent a quick thank you back to the tactical console, then noticed the Romulans were powering up for another volley. "Hang on!" As she put the ship into a hard barrel roll to the right, the inertial dampeners didn't quite compensate as the deck felt to fall away briefly as a distuptor blast whizzed past.

During this maneuver, on the Tactical display, the marker for the Scorpion that had been using the Asteroid for cover turned into a confirmed kill marker, CAG 100 confirm with Dragon 34 Assist. Those markers shifted with CAG 100 covering Dragon 26 Scorpion with Dragon 34 'disappearing' once more, but with Ident Markers showing it heading over to cover the Romulan shuttle if it came closer than 100 KKlicks.

On the monitoring screens, a confirmed kill of a Scorpion appeared by Dragon 100 with Dragon 34 assist.

Melody winced slightly "That was close! Missed the port nacell by less than 10 meters. The Vulcan ship is powering its engines. I don't know what their thinking but it could make our lives more complicated."

Battles like this made Eleena thankful that the new breed of starship designers saw fit to include a chair at Tactical. Hearing Melody's status update on the Vulcan ship, the Chief Tactical Officer slightly turned her head so the command trio of chairs below her could hear better. "Shall I take out their engines?" she asked, ready to take the shot.

Barstow could feel himself pressed into his seat even with the inertial dampeners, but his eyes never left the screen, after what he'd put Jones through before everything happened he didn't even glance down to helm over her shoulder, "negative, keep focus on the Romulans for now....the Vulcans are pacifist, and we aren't aiming at them," he said then took a breath, "but keep a sensor on them in case they aren't Vulcan," he added and glanced back with a nod to Eleena, "Tan, position of Romulan shuttle?"

Eleena set the console to alert her if the Vulcans reached a certain threshold or changed their current course and speed. She then let her fingers dance on the console as she kept kept weapons lock on the Romulans and fired the various weapons. She glanced every now and again at the numbers of torpedoes in stock and the stored energy in the phaser banks.

... In the TIC David was pushed into his seat, the images on the screens around the room spinning dizzily as the ship made quick course and orientation changes. He heard the Commander requesting the position of the shuttle:

"Lysia, position of the shuttle, is it still moving forwards ?" he asked his Deputy.

"It has changed course but is still on a general heading that will take it close to the Tri'Jema. One of the Scorpions is in close proximity and seems to be firing blindly. Shuttle co-ordinates, two zero two, mark six four, three hundred kilometers from the Tri'Jema and closing at twenty meters per second, still way to slow given the circumstances."

David relayed the information up to the Bridge and watched as both sides' fighters danced between erratically moving chunks of rock that could crush a fighter instantly. The one Scorpion that had concealed itself was drifting away having been destroyed by the Merlin's destruction of the asteroid it was hiding behind, the one previously guarding the shuttle was far from powerless though, as it suddenly turned on it's axis and headed directly for the Merlin, and he wondered if they were going to attempt something stupid. He wouldn't put it past them to try a suicide run just to focus the Merlin's attention. He eyed the screen covering the still observing Vulcan vessel. It had powered up drive systems and was inching its way into the asteroid field and the Merlin.

"Lieutenant, I'm getting more accurate readings from the shuttle now ...." Lysia T'Seng said suddenly, "Eighteen on board, assuming two pilots, there are sixteen others, they would have to be Romulan Ground Forces, likely intent on getting into the Tri'Jema." she finished. David opened a Comm to the Bridge:

=^= Tan to Bridge .. Confirmation of shuttle personnel .. Two pilots sixteen others possibly Ground forces =^=

On the Bridge Melody responded =^= Copy that, Please continue to monitor. =^=. Then turning to Barstow "Captain, we have confirmation of Romulan ground troops on route."

At Tactical, Eleena's notification system popped open an alert. The Vulcan's were opening a general comm channel which meant they were, in essence, hailing everyone. "Sir, everyone is being hailed... by the Vulcans," the half-Bajoran called down. Seeing that it was an audio transmission, she tapped a few commands on her console as she announced, "Patching it through."

=/\= This is the Vulcan research vessel Sarak. We have no wish to become involved in this unecessary military posturing. We are simply hear to protect the important historical discovery that has been made here and assist in a joint venture of exploration. =/\=

John stood up and stepped down from the command platform, "Commander, we have no desire to fight, we are defending ourselves and our away team. As a neutral party myself and the Federation would appreciate any non-military assistance you could give to help resolve this situation," Barstow replied, knowing full well it wasn't a coincidence that the Vulcan government sent a ship too, but, if he could get their help to reach a diplomatic solution and use that to keep their eyes off of Dashit until the away team was safe then all the better.

... David was watching the Vulcan vessel's progress as it slowly approached their location. He could hear the conversation relayed from the Bridge, and despite their assertions that they wished not to be involved, they were manoeuvring into a position that would give them a clear line of sight to not only the Merlin, but to the Romulan vessel 'and' the Tri'Jema. If they wished to take sides, it would be very easy to do so from their position ! ... Lysia T'Seng put the Sarak on one of the screens alongside the S'Trak, both could now be seen making inroads towards the Merlin, and he vaguely wondered if they would find themselves in the middle of something they couldn't easily get out of. With only one Scorpion remaining, it was almost certain that they had won that round, 'but again nothing was ever that simple when fighting' he thought to himself eyeing the troop carrier.

The Romulan shuttle was still on course to the asteroid where their people were about to enter the Tri'jema for their first look. It crossed his mind that the Romulan's were now unable to back down from their intent to either stop the Merlin or destroy the Tri'Jema .. what the hell could be on that crashed vessel that is worth open war ! ....

Melody raised an eyebrow and turned to Barstow and scoffed "Military posturing? If we weren't here they probably would have been blown out of the stars by now!"

If the Vulcans had heard Melody comment, they chose to ignore it. =/\= We would be glad to offer our assistance to you commander if you can give us your assurance that you will protect us should the need arise. =/\=

"Of course, Commander," John replied and moved to the command chair then typing a message to tactical to watch the Vulcan ship.

... On his screens, David could see all three vessels, plus the Tri'Jema and the Runabouts meters away on the asteroid. He couldn't help thinking that they were rapidly approaching what used to be called a 'Mexican Standoff' situation. The Tri'jema as the focal point, while the three prospective protagonist's hovered in equidistant positions, all being able to cover the others should this evolve beyond the current, and decidedly fragile situation. While the Merlin had only one priority, that being the safe return of her personnel currently entering the stricken vessel, he couldn't say the same for the Romulan's or the Vulcan's. Both had sent vessels, and it was blatantly obvious that both had something to gain from taking possession of the crashed Tri'Jema. He fervently hoped it could be resolved without more bloodshed, but despite that, he still thought things would escalate beyond posturing ...

On the monitoring screens, a confirmed kill of a Scorpion appeared by Dragon 33 with Dragon 26 assist.

Dragon 2 had a Scorpion on his six and was trying to shake it by flying around a small asteroid. Suddenly, CAG 100 flew up and against that asteroid, using shields and thrusters to push the asteroid into the Romulan Scorpion. It hit the asteroid and careened away, only to be destroyed by fire from Dragon 2. Luckily, the asteroid returned to its previously known course and no plotting adjustments had to be made.

On the monitoring screens, a confirmed kill of a Scorpion appeared by Dragon 2 with Dragon 100 assist.

Perhaps it was her Cardassian half bringing up a bit of paranoia, but Eleena had a bad feeling. In between taking shots, re-modulating the shields, and feeding Melody a stream of evasive overlays, Eleena took a few scans of the Vulcan ship. The fact that it was moving along as though there wasn't a battle raging kilometers from their hull was a bit strange, even for Vulcans. "Captain, are we sure the crew of that ship are Vulcans?" she asked, hoping he or someone within earshot would have a quick and easy method for determining Vulcans from Romulans.

The engaged Dragons shifted positions. Dragons 2, 33, and 34, a Raptor and two Broadswords, went for the Shuttle. Dragons 100 and 26, a Valkyrie and a Raptor, went for the final Scorpion that was heading out towards the Merlin, catching quickly as they knew the asteroid plots while the scorpion had to go slower due to line of sight and sensor plotting.

"I'm hoping, Lieutenant," Barstow replied and looked back to the screen waiting to see if they would intervene diplomatically as requested.

... In the Tactical Information Center David watched the scenario play out ... The Merlin, the S'Trak, and the Sarak, were now holding station in a triangular formation 5,000 meters apart. The Vulcan Sarak was still playing uninvolved observer, calmly offering help if it was needed, while the Romulan S'Trak, they were still holding off, but he could imagine the heated conversation going on on their Bridge as the Senor Officers argued with Hexce to uphold their honour. He could only assume Hexce was holding firm, or they would have fired regardless of the consequences by now. He could see that several fighters had bee re-tasked to go after the one remaining Scorpion, while the other, firstly positioning themselves between the Tri'Jema and the Romulan shuttle, began their approach. The Sarak still watched impassively as the fighters and the shuttle closed the distance between them ... It was now or never. If Hexce didn't recall his ground troops aboard the shuttle, they would have no option but to destroy it, and then ..........

Melody opened a comm channel direct to the away team. Things were getting a bit out of hand and time now was of the essence. =/\= Merlin to away team. Now would be a good time to think about heading back guys. Things are getting a bit tense up here! =/\=

Her console beeps and she reported "Captain, we're receiving a transmission for Dashit."

=/\=Camelot to Merlin. We're under attack here but we're getting ready to return home. I'm just waiting for Lieutenant Walker and his teams to return to their runabout so we can all leave together. Oh and Lieutenant Jones, thanks for the head up. =/\=Camelot out.=/\=

=/\= Merlin to Camelot. Copy that transmission and no problem. It's not much better up here but I'll feel a lot better when you guys are back and I'm sure a lot of other people will too. =/\=

"Stat ops, get fighters to escort our shuttles, once they're back have our birds set up a perimeter around the ship..." the CO called.

Melody was also monitoring the runabouts position "The away team is returning to the ship, ETA 3 minutes."

John nodded after the Vulcans came back, asking them to back off, "of course, Commander....Melody, all birds RTB after the shuttles land, then take us out as requested...just set a course away...." he ordered then turned to tactical, "Lieutenant, good job. I need to see you in my ready room."

Eleena nodded with as she replied, "Yes, Captain." As the battle quieted down, the Chief Tactical Officer took a more defensive posture with the ship. As Melody piloted the ship away, a junior officer would take Eleena's spot on Tactical so she could join the Commander in his Ready Room.



Commander John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D.
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant jg. David Tan.
Chief Operations Officer.
USS Merlin.

Lieutenant JG Eleena
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Merlin

Lieutenant Melody Jones
Chief flight control officer / Second officer
USS Merlin