Author's notes: These are compiled posts by multiple players for the
Earth Spacedock RP on the
Star Trek Online forums. My character was Elric (w Zeta). This continues from the last
ESD entry. Written in February/March 2017.
Earth Spacedock, Pages 101-103
U.S.S. Amaterasu
The I.S.S.
Enterprise's shields are barely even dented, as the obvious 26th century alternate mirror vessel returned fire on all three vectors of the
Amaterasu with a spread of antiproton beams.
All three vectors were hit and their shields weakened. Elric re-integrated the
Amaterasu and took position, joining the other ships. "Well, it was worth a try. How are you guys doing?" he hailed.
"Not great, actually," 11 of 14 replied from the Ranger class Firestorm.
"Neither the Firestorm-K nor the Mephiles are responding to my hails. I think their communications are failing, and the Firestorm-K has lost a nacelle and is spinning out of control."
Sure enough, the Enterprise was now targeting the communications systems of the
Firestorm-F as well, as 11 took her older counterpart into evasive maneuvers in hopes of keeping their own communications out of the line of fire.
---
Facility
Krystal pinched the bridge of her nose. "We're gonna have to hurry," she said. "I'd contact
Lexington if she still wasn't undergoing repairs, or even send a message out to the Armada, but I doubt they'd arrive fast enough to do anything about that ship."
"Speaking of which," the admiral spoke up, turning to Krystal. "You never did get that report in, did you? How did you negotiate the Dominion freedom from the armada again?"
"A show of trust, a withdrawl of forces from Dominion territory while maintaining outposts in neutral space, and... a leap of faith," Krystal replied. "I took a chance to show I was different from D'ren."
"What about the Infamous nanites that kept them in line?" the admiral asked. Agent 47's eyes widened.
"I have no control over them, and have ways to shut them down," Krystal replied. "When I got this job in the first place, I didn't get a 'how to' manual. Hell... I didn't even get the codes to say 'I'm the new boss' until AFTER I negotiated with the Dominion."
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge
"Not good," Elric replied. "We also still have people on the station who need to be transported off. As for the
Firestorm-K, maybe we can stabilize them with a tractor beam?"
The
Amaterasu then flew for the
Firestorm-K and fanned a tractor beam in an attempt to slow their momentum.
The
Firestorm-K slowed down a bit, and managed to use their impulse engines to regain control of their flight, hailing the
Amaterasu.
No response, of course, as the communications aboard the temporal battlecruiser were destroyed, so they weren't even capable of hailing Elric's vessel anyway. They began charging up, but not yet creating a temporal rift, and started flying towards the I.S.S.
Enterprise-J. Evidently, Scott, who was aboard the badly damaged battlecruiser, had an idea.
---
Facility
"What the hell is happening up there?!" Lyras asked as the communication was abruptly cut off. "...On second thought, I really don't think I want to know, considering what happened last time these people were involved... The things they get involved with..." The Captain trailed off, sighing. "Look, let's just go and engage Irora, all right?"
Volaas looked at her, his face unreadable for a moment before he raised his voice, "All right everyone, they're going to dissipate the illusion now. Once they do Irora will be on us in a matter of seconds."
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu
Elric tried hailing the
Firestorm-K with no luck. "Looks like he's up to something. Let's stay close and see if we can assist in any way," he suggested. The
Amaterasu altered course on impulse and followed along.
The I.S.S.
Enterprise-J opened fire on the
Firestorm-K, evidently targeting their temporal drive. In response, the
Paladin-class vessel took cover behind the
Amaterasu, and actually maneuvering closer to the
Hestia-class vessel and extending their shields around them, while moving closely as though indicating for them to do the same.
The
Amaterasu matched the
Firestorm-K's movements as they circled around. "Let's try and reinforce their shields to protect them and us. Hmm. I wonder what they're up to."
The two vessels continued flying towards the
Enterprise-J, taking hit after hit of antiproton fire while using their superior speed to come up from behind the larger vessel. Overtime, personnel from the
Firestorm-K started beaming over to the
Amaterasu, a couple of them materializing on the Bridge.
One of them, a Bajoran Tactical Lieutenant Commander, nodded to Elric and started operating the engineering console, remotely accessing the systems of the
Firestorm-K, so that they may control the
Paladin-class vessel from Elric's bridge. Soon enough, the last one, Scott, beamed over to the bridge as well, and headed to another console, looking up at Elric and his people for a moment. "Release the extended shields and use a tractor repulsor on the
Enterprise on my mark..."
Elric nodded to Scott and then Claire and Jessie. "On your mark, then."
"Mark." The
Firestorm-K flew off abruptly, opening a temporal portal ahead and ramming into the engines of the I.S.S.
Enterprise-J, briefly disabling her long enough to be pushed into the temporal portal by the
Amaterasu. After the massive vessel and the essentially fused temporal battlecruiser disappeared, another temporal rift started to open elsewhere.
"So it begins," Scott said, motioning for them to set a course there so he could close the rift before whatever ship could pass through.
"Claire, set a course for that rift," Elric ordered, before he turned to the tactical station placed against the wall. "Jessie, prepare interphase repair particles and fire it when we're in range."
As the
Amaterasu rotated in rifted space and sped toward the distortion, its deflector began to push out the repairing beam. Captain Elric turned to Scott.
"Rifts inside a giant rift. This can't be good," he said. "And, so much for the K. Think they'll make another one?"
"Those aren't natural. The
Enterprise must have used a temporal drive of some kind to get here," Scott replied, focused on his station. "In the future, after they've repaired the ship, they come back to try again. We can't let them do that."
Scott turned to Elric again, sighing. "Well, she's probably from that alternate future that one of the Nat's future descendant came from, but in any case, yes, they'll build another one. Many, many more. Have you ever wondered why they built a
Chronostorm? They ran outta' letters for their Firestorms," he finished, chuckling to himself.
"Huh," Elric murmured, appreciating the circumstances. "Jessie, status of the temporal rift?"
Jessie tapped at her console. "Since it's temporal in nature, it's fluctuating from closing to opening again, but seems to be trending toward a close."
"Just in case, got any more ships to throw at them?" Elric turned to Scott.
"No," Scott replied, continuing, while working at the science station. "Picking up additional rifts opening elsewhere. Every ship we have are all working to close as many rifts as possible, but there are still more opening."
The Bajoran Tactical Officer stood at one of the other stations, noticing an alert as she turned to Elric. "Intruder alert! Numerous Gorn lifesigns situated near Main Engineering."
"Harrison, get a security team to main engineering..." Scott ordered to the male human officer, who was evidently Harrison, while turning to Elric. "I'm assuming you don't want a bunch of Gorn taking over your ship's main engineering?"
"Yeah, that probably won't be hard since there's literally no one in Engineering. In fact, other than your crew, Jessie, Claire, Zeta and I are the only occupants on this ship. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated," Elric replied. Then he turned to Zeta on his shoulder. "Zeta, see if there's anything you can do to help."
*Click!* Zeta replied before popping up on his eight legs and then jumping off, exiting the Bridge.
"Don't worry, we had a reasonably large crew," Scott said. "For the moment, we essentially are your crew." Harrison exited the bridge, gathered several security officers, and headed for Main Engineering.
Elric watched as the rift closed. He nodded to Claire to take the
Amaterasu to the next one.
Meanwhile, in Main Engineering, Zeta crawled out of a ventilation shaft and leapt for an unsuspecting Gorn. Landing on the Gorn's face, Zeta ejected his metallic cable and shocked the Gorn with a powered charge. After a struggle, the Gorn was knocked out. Zeta leapt off and hid himself.
Harrison and his security team arrived in Main Engineering and started fighting the Gorn. As few as they were, the Gorn were unusually strong; possibly augmented.
---
Facility
"So this was your plan." Irora said as he sauntered into the chamber as though he owned the place, and leaned back against the wall, watching them. "Interesting."
Sahasa rumbled, "This must end, Irora. You must pay for what you have done - to the timeline, and to these people."
Irora's eyes narrowed, as though he were considering something. Lyras briefly wondered if it may be the chances of his survival if he were battle the rest of his people, but... he looked too... concerned for that.
"Fine." The word was forced out with obvious reluctance on Irora's part. He grinned slightly, "I've collected enough power here for the moment. Besides," Irora shrugged, "you have bigger problems to deal with than me, right now."
"Irora! Wait!" Lyras shouted, and started dashing towards him. Oh, but she was going to make him pay!
"Oh, are you going to miss our time together, Lyras? Don't worry, we'll see each other again soon enough." With that said, he vanished, nearly sending Lyras careening into the wall.
"Let him go, Lyras." Volaas had detached himself from the throng and made his way toward her. "Irora was right, we do have bigger problems to deal with right now. Someone made a number of temporal rifts inside the temporal fracture, which is why we couldn't collapse it completely. Right now we're pouring all of our power into keeping the temporal rifts from colliding with the temporal fracture."
Lyras just stared at him blankly, "...and that would be bad because?"
Volaas sighed, "The temporal fracture and the temporal rift would collide from being in the same space in different continuums. They would produce an eruption of anti-time so large and destructive it would encompass the entire galaxy, and disrupt its very formation."
"Captain!" Admiral Nat exclaimed. "Think about it. We thought the fracture was going to destroy the universe, but they evidently have no intention on doing so. It was those rifts all along!"
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu
The
Amaterasu began closing another rift. Elric watched the view screen intently and then turned away. "Damn. I wish I could go down to Engineering and take on those Gorn, but a Captain shouldn't leave the Bridge during a crisis. What's the security team's status?"
"We're having trouble down here," stated the voice of Harrison over the comms. "We think they've been enhanced with some form of augmentation. We need reinforcements of some kind!"
Scott motioned to an officer to do so, and turned to Elric. "Why would they board us anyway?"
"There was a Gorn on the station who shorted out my armband, and several people from another universe trying to help put a stop to whatever's happening here. They may be related or not. Anything's possible," Elric shrugged. "Who knows? There could be a universe where the Borg took over everything."
Then he witnessed the next rift close, and Claire moved the ship to another one.
"Wonderful," Scott replied, "just wonderful."
The battle continued raging on in Main Engineering, but it appeared that Harrison and his team were eventually going to win.
Outside, a Gorn dreadnought decloaked and targeted the
Amaterasu with it's weapons.
"Hey, man," said Claire, on the Bridge. "It's a Gorn ship off the port bow! They're locked on us."
Elric furrowed his brow. "It's Captain. You're supposed to call me Captain."
"Oh, right. Also, I'm not a Starfleet officer," she realized.
Jessie brought the shields up and targeted weapons before hailing the enemy. "This is Captain Elric of the U.S.S.
Amaterasu," Elric declared. "We are in a volatile, unnatural part of space. We must cease this fighting before we cause the universe to be destroyed."
"This is General Rosk of the Gorn Imperium," replied a stern, Gorn voice over the comm channel.
"You have ended Zar's life and, for that, you will die."
They cut the channel and began firing a series of disruptor bursts at the
Amaterasu, evidently uninterested in the universe's potential destruction.
---
U.S.S. Mephiles
Captain Nat sent everyone else to the
Mephiles, aside from Agent 47, Lyras, her crew, and all the aliens; he figured they can beam up to their vessel on their own and he, himself, wanted to have a few words with a couple of them.
Admiral Nat, his officers, Sarah, and Krystal all appeared on the bridge of the admiral's ship. The admiral sat down in his chair. "Report," the admiral ordered.
"Both remaining
Firestorms report that the commodore and Jim made it to the respective ships," Burt stated.
"We believe the I.S.S.
Enterprise is attempting to open temporal rifts in the area so they can return," Pevro replied. "Additionally, a Gorn dreadnought has appeared and is attacking the
Amaterasu."
Nat looked to the viewscreen, which now displayed the ongoing battle. "Take us in," the admiral said.
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge
"You killed a Gorn? Unbecoming of a Starfleet officer," Claire said. "Probably."
Elric shook his head. "I fought him, but it was an alternate universe Sarah that killed him. But misplaced blame is good too. Good for the heart. They'll feel better. Oh, and initiate multi-vector assault mode, attack pattern Delta-Gamma-Psi. Target their weapons."
Suddenly Elric was transported away.
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu Beta, Engineering
Elric found himself in the
Amaterasu's Beta section, in Engineering. The ship was now separated into three. In Engineering, a Gorn had Zeta pinned next to a console, and which Zeta's cables had been connected to. It was clear that Zeta had beamed him there.
"Bad timing, buddy," Elric said. "But then again, you're not doing so great yourself."
He ran over and punched for the Gorn's head, but his fist was blocked when the Gorn released the robot spider. Elric used his other arm to tap his commbadge. "Elric to
Amaterasu Alpha, I'm on Beta. Continue the attack."
*Click!* Zeta pulled his cable in and then flung it around a second Gorn's waist as the second Gorn attempted to reach Elric. The cable went tighter and tighter.
Elric ducked a swing from the first Gorn and returned with a kick. The Gorn punched again and Elric knocked the fist away and punched his android arm into his face. The Gorn's teeth broke out and Elric palm-striked him one last time, knocking him out. The Captain looked around to find the security team had finished with the others.
"Anyone want to join me in command, feel free," he said.
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu Beta, Battle Bridge
Zeta hopped back onto Elric's shoulder as he left Engineering and took a turbolift to the Battle Bridge of the Amaterasu's Beta section. He took command and activated the view screen whih showed the Gorn ship and the Mephiles joining. "Beta section to Alpha, I've taken command here. I'm targeting their primary weapons," he said before launching two quantum torpedoes.
Harrison and his security team followed Elric, and took some of the other stations to help fly the ship.
"Acknowledged," replied Scott. "I already sent Cujo, 2 of 7, and some other officers to command the Gamma section, by the way. We're all targeting the enemy weapons systems."
On the viewscreen, the
Mephiles could be seen pounding into the Gorn vessel's shields with a flurry of antiproton beams, and taking the blunt of the Gorn vessel's own weapons fire. The
Firestorm and
Firestorm-F continued closing rifts, as did the I.S.S.
Sally, but it was becoming clear that they were too slow; several alternate Terran Paladin class Temporal Battlecruisers had already broken through and started engaging the local
Firestorms.
"Elric to
Amaterasu Alpha: It looks like we're struggling with rifts. Since Gamma has the deflector, I'll send them to assist. Keep up your attack."
Amaterasu Gamma veered off toward a rift and began closing it. Meanwhile, the
Amaterasu Alpha and Beta hit the Gorn dreadnought's forward weapons hard, disabling them.
On Gamma, Cujo brought up the comms, hailing the other vectors.
"We've take command of the Gamma bridge," Cujo stated, working away,
"we're closing this rift now."
One of the alternate Terran Paladins outside took notice and headed for the
Amaterasu's Gamma Section, targeting the deflector. The newly instated acting helmsman, a Vulcan male named Sirok, initiated evasive maneuvers.
Elric watched as
Amaterasu Gamma was hit, just missing its deflector, and likely disrupting those inside for a moment. "Agh, poor guys," he said, sympathetically. "Elric to
Mephiles, have anyone to spare to take a temporary command of
Amaterasu Gamma? I'm heading over to cover them."
He then nodded to Harrison to send a message to
Amaterasu Alpha.
"Harrison, have Scott follow our lead," Elric suggested.
---
U.S.S. Mephiles, Bridge
Admiral Nat just deadpanned, turning to Sarah, shrugging, then turning to Krystal. "Get down to the transporter room and beam over."
Krystal literally jumped up and ran for the Transporter Room, clearly excited to be doing something.
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu Gamma, Battle Bridge
As soon as she was able to beam over, she ran for the Bridge. 2 of 7 turned to Krystal as she ran in abruptly. "Captain," 2 of 7 said. "We're currently evading fire from an alternate Terran battlecruiser, evidently a future vessel. Your orders?"
Krystal thought for a moment. "Quick rundown on what we got available, and see if we can find a blind spot on that battlecruiser," she said. "This thing's a lot smaller than the
Lexington so its gonna be a bit of a switch in tactics."
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu Beta, Battle Bridge
The Beta vector flew passed and fired phasers and torpedoes into the Paladin-class ship that was firing at Krystal's Gamma vector. "Elric to
Amaterasu Gamma. Captain Krystal Jade? Is that you? Huh. I couldn't imagine a better person in command."
Then he continued.
"I'm on the Beta vector and Commander Scott's on the Alpha vector, but you're on the only vector capable of closing those Mirror Universe rifts. Scott and I can cover you, if you're up for it."
"Just clear us a path Elric," Krystal said.
"Plow the road. We'll do what we can."
---
U.S.S. Mephiles, Bridge
Admiral Nat watched the battle from the viewscreen, noticing that the
Mephiles had now been left to fight the Gorn dreadnought alone, as the dreadnought in question continued targeting the
Amaterasu's Beta section and headed directly for them, targeting their shields. The
Mephiles, naturally, followed, but their numerous attacks evidently didn't attract their attention away.
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu Alpha, Bridge
Scott watched the ongoing battle, somewhat weary of the
Paladin-class battlecruiser, who's defenses were evidently unyielding to a mere
Hestia-class Advanced Escort. The Terran battlecruiser continued firing at the
Amaterasu Gamma, using temporal weapons to begin degenerating the vessel's systems and prepared to trap it in a timeline collapse.
"Amaterasu Gamma, get out of there, now!" Scott said urgently. "You don't stand a chance!"
---
U.S.S. Amaterasu Beta, Battle Bridge
The Beta vector was hit by the Gorn dreadnaught, weakening its shields. "Didn't we just disable their weapons?" Elric asked. "They must've brought them back online already? Return fire."
The Beta vector fed phasers and torpedoes back into the Gorn dreadnaught's weapons. A console on the battle bridge rang off a minor alert, distracting the Captain for a moment.
"What the?" Elric turned to check. "It looks like Claire configured the ship to scan for something specific. What was she doing?"
But then the Gorn ship took his attention back as
Amaterasu Beta veered around again for a final onslaught. He ordered another attack and a salvo of photon torpedoes splayed across the enemy ship. Meanwhile, the Mirror Universe rifts continued on in the background, and Elric wondered how close they were to the edge of the temporal fracture.
A Terran
Sagittarius-class cruiser emerged from another rift and locked weapons on
Amaterasu Beta.
"Another one," Elric realized. "Open hailing frequencies."
Amaterasu Beta began transmitting. "Mirror Universe vessels, we are currently locked in a temporal fracture, existing outside our universe. Your interphasic rifts threaten the spatial composure of this place, being held open by a group of Xzarefiins. We must cease this conflict and close those rifts if any of our universes are to survive."