Star Trek: Starbase 777

After basically full tilt running to the drydock, past many hurried personnel as the red-alart blared through the station, and then into the Eventide itself, Sideon made his was to the bridge to get the ship ready for departure. He commed over to the stations traffic control to prepare for an expeditious undocking and to keep the departure path clear until it is needed, and also loaded up his LCARs pre-sets onto the con. He performed pre-flight checks and connected with engineering ready for more advanced preparations, skipping the spinning rims as time was of the essence here.

Vara had taken up a position on the bridge as well! She took a breath to steady herself, she would get her co-workers back.

Vara'l slipped onto the bridge in silence. Given the situation he'd elected to keep his hand phaser on him. Did so as he proceeded directly to the tactical console and started to run through the processes that would see Tactical functions initialized. Did so as he idly also opened up its functions and proceeded to set about ensuring T'Shai was de-authorised from everything tactical related. He worked through that with a grim slightly angered efficiency. Angered as he considered the fact he'd worked under that... Tal'Shiar traitor. Elements. One hand balled into a fist briefly as he controlled and re-directed his anger, molded it to become something useful. Did so before he resumed his work. Ensured T'Shai was fully de-authorised.

Zhi'rev was there now, feeling the beginnings of some sort of dread -- almost as if he was heading into some sort of danger.

Here was Eshen on the eventide to turn the tide of battle! The thrill of the tension and danger, though, was sadly outclassed by his concern for those captured. Still, he had that trademark Vulcan emotional control to lean on, and lean he did, hard enough he might knock the whole thing over.

The gentle jingle of communications request could be heard on the bridge.

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“Comm coming in, should I put it through?” She asked whoever was currently in charge. (edited)

Though far from being in charge, he did have a free moment as he waits on some system checks to come through from engineering where he can take a call. * *He took a quick gander around to see how busy everyone was with emergency prep, and called over to the ensign himself. "Yes please, Ensign. Accept when ready."

“You got it.” She said, tapping a few buttons. “On screen now.”

The Reman's pale complexion practically glowed because of the dark, vague background of her seating place, the obfuscation of it clearly purposeful. There was a mask on the lower part of her face, one that crinkled slightly at the edges as she squinted her eyes at the people on the bridge. "Hey. Cool starbase," was her greeting, paired with a lazy wave. "Glad you guys managed to get those shields up. Have there been any discussion already on how you want to storm the damn warbird, or no?" (edited)

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Iviaan, from the medical console, made a little humming noise. "I mean. Chase them through space and force them to surrender, no?" He wasn't a Tactical guy, leave him alone. (edited)

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“Preferably we would sneak on board somehow, free our guys and get outta town.” She said simply. “Going to be hard in a 3v1.”

"Yes. Sickbay is all prepared to receive them in any manner of conditions as well." Help, he has no idea what he's doing beyond that.. "The sooner we're ready to go, the better. Time is of the essence."

"Well... it's more of a 3v2," something awfully close to smugness briefly passed in Whisper's voice, her eyes glinting in the dark. "What are your thoughts on tag-teaming the birdie?"

“Very positive.” She said aloud.

"No qualms here," he agreed, bright as he could be with the dull text to speech. He really needed to get along to changing that thing.

"Any help we can get would be much appreciated, keep an encrypted channel open with our tactical team for some effective collaboration!" He got a flash of a notification on his screen. "Systems nominal, she (the vessel) is departure ready on command!" (edited)

"Let's get going, Lieutenant." Hopefully someone higher than him (ACMO) would spawn in that could actually see the screen and make orders accordingly. For the record, he knew what was happening, his puppeteer just likes picking on him.

"Aye." "Lt Ezra to Traffic control. Thank you for your patience. The USS Eventide confirming flight plan and departure window. " *He gave the commands on his con to separate the vessel from drydock, and began to navigate the ship through the station to space quickly and calmly. With the traffic being halted earlier from his request, he basically floored it out the parking lot with little trouble. *

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Smoothly she left the dock, accompanied by a quiet "whoop" from the still open comms channel. "They might spot you moving soon!"

"Make sure shields are up and we have our offensives charged and ready," That was what they were meant to do, right? Help. Iviaan leant forward a little in his seat, switching a button on his PADD to free his hands from typing in case anything happened.

The warning came only seconds before the Mogai-class decloaked, plasma weapons charging up as it took off! (edited)

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Vara'l tapped to raised shields as they departed and the ACMO directed that. He also then firstly stated. "Red alert, weapons charged, shields are raised." And then added. "Romulan warbird detected,Mogai class, its weapons are armed and charging."

"Aye sir, preparing for evasive procedures." He pathed out potential routes to take, and start to warm up evasive manoeuvring thrusters.

"Let's chase her down, Lieutenant." Iviaan was on the edge of his seat, hoping to whatever gods were listening that they could pull this off.

Vara wasn’t really going to be of much help here so she just hunkered down.

"Already on it, impulse warming up, expect a little kick!" Safely away from the station, he kicked up the throttle significantly, pushing the inertial dampeners juuuust enough. Giving chase!

As they began their advancement after the large mogai, the duet of lesser vessels became visible as well, lingering in front of the Eventide... ... and as if in a defiant response, or even a threat, a Republic warbird by the Somerville-class' left side decloaked as well, hovering protectively over the smaller ship like a bird over it's nest.

Vara'l locked Eventides targeting sensors on the Mogai and checked what Tactical stands indicated about their ship and shields. "Thoughts on attempting to try and disable them?" He then inquired as he looked about the bridge. (edited)

"I believe protocol demands we attempt to hail them first, that way we aren't attacking unprovoked..." He offered, feeling like he might be useful for that at the very least, he was a diplomat after all.

Without anyone else really being active rn, Kya came in! “They fired first by taking our people, let them have it.” She said simply.

“I’m pretty sure we got provoked today.” She said simply to Zhi’rev.

"Better safe than sorry, Commander." Iviaan gestured to give Zhi'rev the go ahead. "I'd rather follow protocol, even in a dire situation."

He simply nodded, deciding to follow the ACMO's advice. He wasn't about to get court martial-ed about this or anything, and so, he tried to hail the Warbird, already planning what he was going to say.

Before too long, the hail was answered, and a far-too-familiar face answered, staring back at them with unkind grey eyes instead of friendly green ones. Irok tr'Lareth was visible on the viewscreen, looking almost bored as he addressed the crew. "You recovered remarkably quickly for a station so... easily breached. Well done," he drawled sarcastically, his voice a malicious monotone.

In the face of someone who looked all-too familiar, Zhi'rev paused for a moment -- this must be a relative as well, but he wasn't about to comment on that, no, he had other things to do, better things to do. He ignored the comment about the station being easy to breach, and started on his spiel -- not expecting anything to come of it. "I am Lieutenant Commander Zhi'rev tr'Lareth, Starfleet. We implore you to return our people or there will be consequences." His tone was very firm, very resolute, almost like this was all a part of his job.

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Kya knew how this conversation was going to go, so she made sure to have her console set to be able to lock on and shoot at a moments notice.

*Preparing for combat expeditiously. *

19:29

Lickity shplit

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Vara'l elected to not point out that they were dealing with Tal Shiar and had been provoked. He just watched and monitored his console. Poised as he readied himself to react if the Tal Shiar attempted something.

"Lieutenant Commander Zhi'rev tr'Lareth, is that so?" Irok managed to sound very convincingly like he was making a sarcastic attempt at shock. "I would say to ask your Development Chief Science Officer who I am, but-" he sniffed once, and didn't finish his sentence. Instead he continued with another thought, ultimately abandoning any sort of worthwhile introduction. "I won't be handing you "your people". The naivety is charming, but ultimately won't save you. Neither will that charming little warbird off your bow. I suggest you turn back to the Starbase, to tally your missing and mourn your lost, before you count yourselves among those being mourned." An active threat, and not even a subtle one. Especially not going paired with shields raising. "I will not give a second warning."

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"Disconnect communications," Iviaan responded quietly, and once it was done, "They've had their warning, and so have we. Put out a warning for everyone to brace for combat." It probably wasn't his place to say that, but oh well.

“Yes.” She said quickly, adding her tactical status to the medical officers statement.

Zhi'rev nodded and did just that, they had their warning, they followed protocol, life was very much not good, but yeah.

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“Firing now.” She said, letting loose the ships phasers and torpedoes towards their engines. “Let’s give em hell.”

Vara'l locked targeting scanners on the Mogai. He then tapped weapons control and discovered the consoles controls being utilized by another so just turned and checked to ensure that T'Shai or anyone hadnt attempted to remote-access any of Eventides tactical systems or something.

With the commands of active weapons being sent, Sideon would track the planned volleys and manoeuvre as needed for them. "Aye Sir!"

The shots sank into shields as the Temhruuhi turned tail and took off, trying to speed away from Eventide as fast as possible. The two smaller warbirds, however, made to block the path, firing on Eventide and the Republic warbird protecting it each. She was quick to respond in kind.

She growled. “We need to break through, any ideas?” She said as she aimed a trio of phaser shots to the weapons system of the left warbird.

Calling backwards to the rest of the bridge. "Fast call on our priority here. Full focus on catching up to our main goal or deal with side threat first?" The eventide continues to pick up speed. "I can perhaps thread the needle but it will take some coordination!"

20:44

He commed down to engineering in order to get them prepared. #comms "if we can create enough pressure with the shield deflectors, we may be able to get by them with little struggle. But that call needs to be made in...about t-23 seconds before we lose that window and they get too close together. Your call commander."

She fired a few torpedoes at the right Warbird’s bridge. “Do it.”

"Aye." Sideon confirmed and sent over the flight route and the needed deflector amplification targets to engineering before rapidly rotating the ship onto its thin side, flying knife through the potential gap between them. Full Speed Ahead.

Success! Eventide wove between the two warbirds, speeding off after the Mogai. The two paused only long enough to turn around and begin to give chase.

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Kya growled softly as she saw them coming towards them. “All right, here we go.” She said, sending a few torpedoes towards their engines.

"Eventide! We will try and keep the little pests off your tail!" Whisper's slightly hoarse voice came through, just as the warbird began shooting upon one of them.

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Nailed it. #comms

“Thank you!” She said over comms as she now took aim at the main warbird, before sending off a few torpedoes at their engines.

The chase carried them further from 777, the Mogai expertly weaving around shots fired (though was not escaping unscathed, mind you)... One of the Tal Shiar's warbirds stubbornly persisted, continuing to fire on the Eventide while Whisper's tried to fend both off.

"Eventide, you can still hear us, right?" the Reman's voice came through again, "We will catch up in the moment. The Mogai, however, might go for a warp if it gets enough distance away from us and the starbase. I can offer good news, though - we think that a couple of Starfleet ships docked at the base might be eventually coming in for assistance."

“All right, we’ll try to get rid of their engines.” She said, and unleashed onto the Mogai’s engines, not giving them a chance to breathe. Torpedoes, phasers, hell maybe even a kitchen sink.

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They continued moving further and further from the starbase... A heap of scorching plasma was sent right back in retaliation from the Mogai-class; the sleek ally warbird swerved above them, avoiding the damage. The Reman piped up again - she wasn't even the captain, yet it was her who spoke with the bridge: "We're more used to possible Shiar runaways than you guys are - no offense - so we would like to get in front, closer to them, and have our tracker lock on them. Could you keep an eye on the pesky duo?"

Kya peeked up. “Respectfully, they don’t have your crew. Besides, I have an idea.” She said with a hum. “Could we tractor beam them? They would pull us along, but we could use that to get a clean shot on their engines.”

"How much power does the tractor beam draw? Especially if we are just using it as a tow line instead...we could multitask pretty effectively here should we have the resources, but thats outside my speciality."

"Inefficient. They know their systems better than we do. Better to rely on the allies we have and try to swat away the chasers," the ACMO insisted, waving it off. "They're more equipped to handle combat as well.."

All at once, Eventide's shields shut down, and the connection to Whisper was cut off.

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22:28

The Mogai and the Jhu'ael continued their battle dance, the latter completely distracted from the silent Eventide...

Kya groaned as she commed engineering. “What happened?” She asked.

And all around Eventide, as she struggled to slip from the chaos, more Warbirds began decloaking. Various shapes and sizes— most of them erring more on the level of the hulking Mogai. The flock began to descend.

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Kya hit the cloak button pretty quickly since that was a tactical job, we think. “Andddd cloaking now.”

Safety limits are advisory. Full impulse to maneuverer thrusters! "Hold on to everything and keep your insides from becoming acquainted with the carpet. This is gonna be rough!" He starts treating this ship like a fighter vessel and dives to avoid direct fire. "We need defensive support! Use everything we got!"

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Well. That had certainly ensured that every other option had just been removed from the table, Vara'l idly mused to himself even as he assessed the situation and decided that the cloak happened to be a good choice. Just hoped that Ezra would be a good enough pilot to ensure that they avoided any further hits. "Helm, if you need to and you can, get the republic ship between us and the Tal Shiar." He initially ordered then. He then looked to Kya and moved to speak before he heard the comms. "Commander, can you take a look at the scans, you're a weapons specialist right?" The CTO inquired as he clutched onto the console. "Anything out there look like it's got something that caused that, weapon wise?" He then looked around as he stated. "We need to find that cause now, even if we get shields back they wont be much good without it identified so we can deal with it." After a moment, he looked down to the console and asked. "Any idea who the warbirds belong to?" As he looked at the tactical scans on his own console and attempted to determine that, suspected that they were probably Tal Shiar. He also attempted to check the external communications status. This seemed like a time to get a message out, if this fleet was Tal Shiar, the wider fleet, past what had been mentioned to already be coming, needed to be informed.

External communications down. Whatever shut off the shields came from somewhere inside. The cloak went up as the Tal Shiar's warbirds swooped down to surround Eventide, though it did little to halt their assault. Plasma fire erupted on all sides, threatening to swallow the Eventide whole in its light. Defensive maneuvers were easily countered. The red alert klaxon blared, howling as if in agony as a well-placed engine shot left propulsion useless.

She sighed. “We’re going to need to go to escape pods. Now. We can get our people another day.”

"Dammit!" Sideon resisted every urge in his body to not slam the delicate console in frustration, though its not like his preservation of starfleet tech in this very moment in time could mean much. "If we are going to get to them, now is the call...send the order to the whole crew..." His tone very frustrated and defeated, but an understanding of what must be done.

The order went out, and all were evacuated to escape pods. It wasn't long until a ship came to their aid, taking Eventide in tow and pulling everyone inside to ship back to 777 in order to lick their wounds.. Leaving the fate of their friends wholly unknown.

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