Star Trek - Predator: The Infestation

[Naruto]

Since UFP has no RP forums, I guess this is as good a place as any

This story takes place after Nemesis but before the destruction of Romulus. It does not fallow the STO Storyline

Only people allowed to post here are myself and David, if you are interested in RPing then talk to me

Ship - USS Predator (Predator Class)
http://www.usspredator.com/images/Art/Pred11.jpg

Crew
Captain: Captain Nathan Carter (Naruto) Race - Human Bajoran Hybrid
First Officer: Commander Carl Tayler (David) Race - Human
Pilot: (To be Decided) Race - Trill
Chief Security/Tactical: Lt. James Freeman Race - Human
Ops: Ensign Toran Hazar
AI: Yuna
Chief Engineer: Michael Burton
Chief Medical Officer: Lt. J.G. Jennifer Harris

The year is 2387; it has been 8 years since the incident with Shinzon. The Alpha quadrant is in a state of peace like it had never been before, the Klingon Federation alliance was strong, and thanks to the actions of the Enterprise E, the relations with the Romulans were at an all time high with talks of a possible alliance. Starfleet was spending much of its resources helping the Cardassian people rebuild their civilization by providing food and rebuilding their industries. And the Borg had not been heard from since Voyagers return.

Captain Picard had accepted a position as the ambassador to Vulcan and Data who had been reborn inside of B4 had taken command of the Enterprise. And once Voyager had been studied and stripped of the futuristic technology she was returned to service under the command of Chakotay and Tom Paris as the first officer

A wine bottle is slowly moving through space, it slowly turns as it continues on its path until it strikes a gray surface with black markings and smashes. A light turns on revealing the black markings as U.S.S PREDATOR NX 85412

Inside the bridge everyone is clapping as an admiral in the center of the bridge began to speak "The new predator class will mark a new era of space exploration for Starfleet, with the new warpcore and structural integrity technology, she will be the fastest ship in the fleet. With this new technology we will be able to explore further into unknown space then any other Starfleet ship has ever done before, well with the exception of Voyager of course" She said with a grin and sense of pride, she then held out a PADD and began reading it "Captain Nathan Carter, you are hereby requested and required to take command of the U.S.S. Predator as of this date, signed Admiral Kathryn Janeway, Starfleet Command." She gave the PADD to Nathan and everyone began clapping

Nathan stood in front of the Admiral and took the PADD "Thank you Admiral"

A voice came over the comm "If you guys are done playing ceremony we can begin testing these ships"

Janeway let out a small sigh "Engineers are always so impatient" she thought to herself "Very well Captain Robichaud, show us what your new design can do"

"And tell Luke to find all the bugs during his shakedown so we can have a nice flawless maiden voyage" Nathan added with a grin

Captain Robichaud was standing in Utopias CIC "Bugs? I designed this ship from the ground up, there are no bugs!" He said slightly annoyed

A Commander stood by his side "Now Rob, we both designed this ship, and we both know that it’s bound to have some bugs" The commander told him

"Your lack of confidence in our design disturbs me David, Anyway enough talk, I want to see that ship in action" Robert said as he tapped a few buttons on his panel "Intrepid, this is Utopia, you are clear for your shakedown, bring impulse engines online, once you clear Pluto engage your warp engines to proceed to the weapons and defence sector" he ordered

A voice came over the comm in response "Understood Utopia, we will keep an open comm with you as we proceed" Outside of Utopia the Intrepid began moving away from Utopia as its impulse engines came to life "We are passing Jupiter station now, helm reports that the thrusters are slightly sluggish, didn't you boys say that these new thrusters were state of the art?"

"They are state of the art, we just haven't had a chance to properly calibrate the power distribution yet, that's the point of the shakedown!" Robert quickly replied

David let out a small chuckle, he knew that Robert wasn't normally this tense "Don't worry about the thrusters for now, we can deal with that once they return to space dock, lets proceed with the warp test, I am curious to see how the new warpcore design will work" David suggested

"Roger ....Utopia, we are...Pluto......" the comm was full of static

"Come again Intrepid, your breaking up. Is there something wrong with their comm systems?" David asked

"That's impossible, both long range and short range would have to fail for that to happen, something seems to be interfering with the signal" Robert answered back "Intrepid, boost power to your....." But he was interrupted

"My god.....so many.......RED ALERT......" the alert could be heard in the background as static continued to fill the air until they heard the Intrepid give one last order "ABANDON SHIP!! ALL HANDS ABANDON SH....." but the comm went silent

"Captain we lost the Intrepid on sensors. sir she is gone....." an ensign informed them

"That's impossible...." Robert said almost in disbelief

"Could it have been a design flaw, something we missed?!" David asked no one in particular

"No that's impossible... we did every possible test, the simulations worst case scenarios were a collapsed warp bubble that would indeed damage the ship but not destroy it!!"

"Captain we just lost contact with Jupiter station, and Starfleet command is issuing a system wide message" another ensign reported

"On screen" Robert ordered

The face of Starfleet’s Fleet Admiral appeared on screen "We have lost contact with Jupiter station and our primary defence lines, the last readings we recorded were our weapon batteries coming on line, all ships and stations are to go to red alert immediately until we figure out what’s going on" as his face disappeared from the screen, the station immediately went on alert, although it had no offensive weapons its shields had been raised

[David Craft]

The USS Hyperion, a massive Titan class starship, orbited around Earth. Inside the captain's ready room Captain Nara and his first officer, Commander Whitmore, discussed ship personal performance in a routine meeting. Nara gazed silently at Earth while listening to his first officer go on about specific officers. In truth he would much prefer being down on Earth right now. They had just arrived, after all, and had been on quite a long tour. Suddenly the door chimed causing Nara to turn around.

"Come in!"

The door swished open and an officer strode in, head held high. His rank pips showed he was a Lieutenant Commander. His uniform was the standard black and grey, but had a white turtleneck underneath instead of the usual red or blue or gold division color. This was a fighter pilot's uniform.

"Good Morning Sirs!" he said with a smile.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Commander Tayler," Whitmore stated in an annoyed fashion. Carl Tayler was the acting CAG (Commander, Air Group) officer, temporarily leading the 14th Air Wing stationed aboard the Hyperion. The previous CAG officer had been recently transferred to the command branch and now served as First Officer aboard the USS Defender. Whitmore suspected that Captain Nara was in no hurry to officially fill the position, and was probably even giving Tayler a shot at the post. Carl Tayler was an excellent pilot and a good strategist Whitmore admitted, but he felt Tayler was still too young, too naive, and overly optimistic for such a post. He had never seen true war like Whitmore had, and did not understand that not everything 'turned out alright in the end.' He also had a bad habit of being a few minutes late quite often, something which annoyed Whitmore to no end.

"Ah yes... Sorry about that..." Carl said while scratching the back of his neck and looking away. He felt the First Officer's eyes piercing through him. This was not the first time this discussion had taken place, and Whitmore always got so agitated every time. It was true he was a couple minutes late now and then, but Carl had honestly been trying to work on it and was definitely getting better. This time the turbolift was delayed, and he was late by only about 4 minutes. The First Officer could get him a little slack now and then. Carl continued, "You see sirs, I got tied up while waiting for..."

"I Really do not give a damn Commander," Whitmore shot back, interrupting Carl. "Meetings do -not- begin 5 minutes after the posted time!"

"Yes sir..."

"I expect even my Junior officers to show up on time. There is no excuse for the acting CAG officer" Whitmore continued. There was a definite emphasis on the word 'acting'."

"Alright Chad..." Nara cut in, "You have made your point. Carl, do please try to work on your schedule." Carl nodded quickly while Whitmore just shook his head, rolling his eyes. Carl was a good officer, Nara thought, if only he could work on the few things that Whitmore found unacceptable. Nara had known Carl for quite some time; his son had befriended Carl at the academy. In some ways Carl was like a second son to him, and Nara wanted to give Carl every opportunity to succeed.

"Now where were we..." Nara continued as he glanced down at the PADD he was holding "Ah yes... we were talking about Lieutenant Smith. Chad, what were your thoughts about his actions during the..." Nara was cut off as suddenly the lights dimmed and a Red Alert was sounded.

"Captain Nara to the bridge!" came the sound over the comm. system.

The three officers looked at each other in puzzlement for a split second. They were orbiting earth; what could possibly warrant a red alert? Nara quickly acknowledged and all three exited to the bridge.

-------------------------

On the bridge officers were busy at their stations trying to accurately assess the situation. The left turbolift opened and a group of officers briskly walked to their respective stations. Nara walked out of his ready room and over to his Captain's chair.

"Report!"

"We are getting a message from the Fleet Admiral sir," the ops officer said. "All contact with Jupiter Station, as well as our primary defense lines, has been lost."

"Lost?"

"Aye. Additionally, long range communications seem to be completely jammed. The Sol system seems to be completely cut off"

"Is this some sort of natural phenomenon that we failed to detect? Some kinda of Ion Storm or subspace rift?" Nara pondered.

"Unknown at this time Captain, but the last recorded action was their weapon batteries coming online. All ships are being ordered to the Mars Defense Perimeter and to stand by at Red Alert."

"Right... Helm, set a course." Nara turned to Tayler. "Carl, prepare your wing. I want to be able to launch at a moment's notice."

"Aye sir, " Carl responded with a grin. "Don't worry! If there is anything out there we won't let a single one through! See ya when we get back." At this Carl briskly headed towards the right turbolift, but the First Officer stepped in front of him half way. "Sir?"

Whitmore paused for a brief moment but then said, "I have a bad feeling about this... Don't get too cocky out there! You're their leader, they’re counting on you! Good luck..."

"Don't worry sir." Carl responded "And thank you. Good luck to you too sir." With that Carl entered the lift.

-------------------------

The fighter launch bay was busy with officers running back and forth preparing for launch. Most of the pilots were already in their fighters and prepared to launch. Carl walked over to his fighter and looked it over. These were the new class 3 attack fighters. They were solo-piloted and used the latest in Starfleet technology to be quick, nimble, and deadly. Carl solemnly held out his hand and placed it on the ship.

"Be good to me girl..."

"Bout time you got here, I thought we were going to have to launch without ya," came a voice behind Carl.

Carl quickly spun around. "Course not Slone, I can't let you have all the fun, they might make you the CAG instead!" Carl smirked. Slone was a fellow pilot, and a good friend of Carl's. He was also technically second in command of the wing now that Carl was the acting CAG officer.

"Bah I don’t want that job! I hear the paperwork is hell! I just wanna go out and shoot stuff. You know, pew pew! Sides then I would have to deal with Commander Whitmore! I am assuming he was on your case about being late again?"

"No Comment..." Carl muttered.

Suddenly Captain Nara came over the intercom. "Attention. Hostile ships have engaged the fleet at the Mars Defense Perimeter. We arrive in 20 seconds. Prepare to launch!"

"Well, there’s the signal! Looks like we get to see some action after all. Fly safe..." Carl said to Slone.

"But not too safe!" Slone winked, continuing the phrase. Carl chucked and slid into his cockpit.

The ship was already prepped and ready for launch. Carl only need to punch in a few commands and it screamed to life with the rest of the ships. Technicians and other personal ran to clear the way of the fighters. The launch officer held out a thumbs up from the sideline letting the pilots know everything was clear. Carl looked over everything one last time, making sure everything was in order. This was it. He knew he had to lead these people. And he was ready!

"This is Carl Tayler to all fighters, stand by for launch sequence." Carl announced as he moved his ship to the front of the group and into position. "Ops! Requesting permission to launch!"

"Roger that Wing Leader. You have a go!"

"Lieutenant Carl Tayler, Wing Leader, Launching!" Carl yelled over the comm. as his fighter shot towards open space.

[Naruto]

The atmosphere on the Predators bridge was tense as the crew watched the SOL home guard fleet take position along the Mars defense perimeter “Do you think that they will stop them?” A nervous ensign asked

“Calm down ensign, it’s probably nothing, more than likely it’s a natural phenomenon that is interfering with our sensors and communications” Admiral Janeway replied trying to comfort the junior officer

“Yeah, plus even if someone was stupid enough to attack the heart of Starfleet, there is no way that they can defeat our home guard fleet” Nathan said with a sense of pride as he stood in the middle of the bridge

“But we only have thirty ships stationed at earth currently”

“Captained by some of the finest commanders in all of Starfleet” Nathan assured him

“Captain, I am picking up a lot of comm traffic within the fleet” The ensign manning Ops reported

“Patch it though our speaker’s ensign” Nathan ordered

“Sensors are almost useless sir” “What is that? Can you magnify that object? It looks organic, could it just be a creature passing through the system?” “Sir look, there is more than one of them…Damn it, without sensors I can’t tell how many of them there are” “What the hell was that? All ships open fire!” “Captain we have multiple………” “………..MORE POWER TO THE SHIELDS!! SHIELDS!!......” “……..BREACHES FORCEFI……..”

“Captain we lost all communications with the fleet” The operations officer reported

“This ship has the most advance sensors in the fleet, there has to be a way of breaking through that interference” Nathan said as he joined the Operations officer at his station

“Well if we boost power to the deflector dish and bring the secondary sensor array online we might be able to break through sir” The ops officer answered back

“Do it ensign” Nathan ordered without hesitating

The officer tapped a few buttons on his console

“We…….Majestic…..” The officer continued to work his console “….Been boarded……” The officer tapped a few more buttons “The Majestic is gone sir……….” “………THEY ARE RIPPING US APPART!!.........” “……ALL HANDS ABANDON SHIP!! ABAN……” “…….THE TRINITY IS LOSING ITS HULL INTEGRITY, THEY ARE EVACUTATING……” ……”WE HAVE LOST 5 SHIPS AND 6 OTHERS ARE DISABLED!!......”

“This is horrible one third of the fleet is already lost….. Admiral we have to lunch the Predator!” Nathan said turning to Janeway

“Are you insane? The Predator isn’t cleared by Utopia, you have less than a skeleton crew on board, and the ones you do have are mostly engineers and junior officers. You are not ready to lunch your ship” Janeway answered him firmly

“Admiral, with the new warpcore design, this ship has the most advanced shields in the fleet, I know that we aren’t ready to lunch but we don’t have much of a choice… We have to use every ship available….This is earth we can’t let it fall” Nathan pleaded with her

The admiral let out a sigh “Captain Robichaud is going to blow a gasket when he hears about this….But your right, just be careful Captain, this ship is still a prototype after all” She told him as she shook his hand

“Thank you Ma’am, Ensign, lock onto the Admiral and beam her onto Utopia” Nathan ordered, and instantly Janeway was beamed off of the Predator “Bring the warpcore online and power up the impulse engines, and get those moorings off my ship as soon as you can”

The Predator suddenly came to life as her systems were coming online “Captain, the warpcore is online, the moorings have been cleared and Utopia has given us authorization to lunch sir…..Wait there is an incoming message from Utopia’s CIC”

The screen showed Captain Robert Robichaud “Nathan, you better bring that ship back in one piece, you hear me? I already lost the Intrepid; I will be dammed if I lose the Predator!”

“Don’t worry Robert, I will bring MY ship back in one piece” Nathan said with a smirk

“……Good luck Nathan” He finally told him before the screen turned back to the stars

“Helm, one half thrusters, take us out”

“Aye sir, one half thrusters” The young ensign replied back before obeying the order. The Predator slowly left dry-dock “We have cleared the dock sir”

“Good, set course for the fleet, all hands battle stations!” The ships lighting instantly dimmed down as the ship went to Red Alert

“Captain, even with our advanced sensors and the boost to the deflector dish, I am still finding it hard to target the enemy ships sir”

“Do your best ensign, open fire as soon as you are within range”

“Target aquired, firing...... Wait something is wrong…. There is an energy spike….” But before he could finish his sentence the ship shook violently as some consoles began to spark and explode

“What the hell? Have we been hit?” Nathan asked, the explosions continued to surge throughout the ship as they got worse, the lights on the bridge suddenly fail as the emergency lights kick in, Nathan slowly got to his feet and began looking around the bridge “Is everyone alright?” He asked

“I am alright sir” The helm officer replied as she forced herself back to her station with blood trailing from her head, but no one else responded

Nathan quickly made his way to the back of the bridge, both Tactical and Operations officers were down “Bridge to sickbay, medical emergency on the bridge!” but no one responded

“Captain, internal communications is offline… We are dead in the water, main power and secondary power are offline, and we are running on emergency power right now” The ensign reported as she used her sleeve wipe the blood from her forehead

“What the hell happened?” He asked as he opened up a medical kit to treat the downed officers

“There was an overload of the EPS relays on deck 4, safeties failed to contain the original explosion and it cascaded across several decks, luckily it didn’t reach the warpcore…. The damage is not as bad as it seems”

Nathan let out a sigh as his medical tricorder informed him that both men were dead, he turned his attention to his only remaining bridge officer and saw her bleeding from the head, he quickly made his way to her to treat her wound

“I am alright sir…. I just hit my head on my console….” She told him trying to assure him

“You have a concussion ensign, we need to get you to sickbay” Nathan concluded as he closed his medical tricorder

“Sir…We barely have a crew on board as it is, I will be fine sir, I can still be of use to you here” She said trying to refuse medical treatment

“From what you just told me, this ship is dead in the water, whether the bridge is manned or not is of little concern at the moment, I am taking you to sickbay and that’s final ensign!” He said as he pulled her up

The young ensign was unable to stand on her own as she felt dizzy “If you say so sir…” She said finally giving in to her captain

[David Craft]

His breath was heavy. His eyes darted from console to console. His mind was busy, racing to find the next move, trying to predict the enemy. The computer flashed in front of him and he barely maneuvered out of the way of the enemy's weapon. Sensors were basically useless. The enemy ships were virtually undetectable, and the computer could only give a seconds notice to an incoming weapon barrage. Even that was not a guarantee. About the only things one could rely on were one’s own eyes and one’s own instincts. This apparently was not going to be enough; they had already lost about half their fleet. If things kept going this way they were going to lose, and Carl knew it.

Carl was not afraid of dying. Dealing with the threat of death was one of the responsibilities of a Starfleet officer. It was something you had to accept. He was also well aware that those under his command could, and would die. Five fighters from his wing had already been shot down; he had only detected safe ejections from two of them. These were men and women that he served with, that he had trained with, that he had laughed and cried with. These were his shipmates, his friends, his family. It was tough to deal with such losses, but unfortunately this too was also one of the responsibilities of a Starfleet officer. What Carl was deathly afraid of though, was giving the wrong command, ordering his wingmates to turn to port when they should of turned to starboard. He was afraid of being wrong, of being incompetent. Those officers trusted him, and it was his job to lead them to success. He would gladly lay down his own life if only to make this happen. In this situation, however, was there even a correct answer? Was there a path to success?

His eyes darted back to the console displaying the direct communications line with the Hyperion. He desperately wanted, needed, to see some report from ops or some kind of new information from tactical, anything that would provide the help they so gravely needed. The enemy was not invincible, Carl knew that much. If you pounded in enough torpedoes or fired phasers at one spot long enough, an enemy ship could be made to retreat behind their lines, but only for a couple minutes. Their ships were biological and possessed an amazing ability to quickly heal any and all damage before rejoining the fight. Carl could not confirm if they had destroyed or 'killed' even one of these ships.

"Wing Leader 14! Move around and cover the port side of the Hyperion! A Large wave of enemy attack fighters has been spotted moving to that location"

Carl quickly sent an acknowledgement and signaled his wing to move to the new position. All that the Federation ships could really do at the moment was pull into a tight circular formation and defend their position. They were surrounded though, and were being worn down. Every Federation casualty made defense against the onslaught of attacks even more difficult. For now the larger ships held off the massive enemy ships, while the fighters went for the small enemy fighters that would occasionally break through the line.

There were two types of enemy fighters. The first one was an attack fighter. It was something like a long flexible tube, about twice the size of a runabout. Carl and his group started to call these 'Worms'. They were very maneuverable, very fast, and had significant firepower even against starships. Their range was not the best though. As for the second type of enemy fighter, Carl wasn't even sure if it was a proper fighter, or some kind of biological smart missile. These 'kamikaze' fighters were also very maneuverable and good at evading, but they would attack a target by colliding with it. The resulting explosion was a bit less than the level of a warp core breach but still quite deadly. Whether fighter or missile, the enemy seemed to have a near unlimited supply of these destructive weapons.

Another deadly attack the Federation ships had to look out for came from quite a distance from one of the enemy's larger ships. It was some kind of large coherent Graviton Pulse that would temporarily disrupt a targets shields at the point of impact. The shields would stabilize in about a minute, but this left a window of opportunity for an enemy attack. A common tactic was that several kamikaze fighters would ram a ship while its shields were down. They had already lost several larger ships to this tactic. To counteract this, fighter wings like Carl's attempted to both ward off the enemy fighters and provide a 'net' around the larger ships to keep the enemy from getting a clean shot using that graviton based weapon. This seemed to work with moderate success to far.

"Commander, there are two Worms on the USS Hawking," Slone came over the comm.

Carl inspected the area. Slone was right, two enemy attack fighters attacking the Hawking. The Hawking was an Akira class ship, and just two enemy fighters did not pose an immediate threat to the Hawking shields. Still, the Hawking's phasers were down, and the fighters were practically circling the ship, taking pot shots at it. It was almost as if they were baiting the Hawking, but why? Carl and Slone were the two closest fighters to the Hawking.

"Slone, follow me! We are going to engage those two fighters; they must be up to no good. Freddy, you're in charge of the Wing until I return," Carl ordered. Slone fell into position following Carl.

"Carl," Slone paged on a private channel.

"Go ahead Slone."

"You think we can win this battle? It hasn't gone very well so far..."

"What kind of talk is that Slone? See this is why I'm the Wing leader and -your- not!"

"I'm serious Carl... We haven't been able to bring down even one of their bigger ships, and we have lost almost half of our fleet."

"Slone, Listen to me," Carl said trying to be assertive and encouraging, "Most of those ships were destroyed at the beginning of this battle. We had no information on these guys at all. We are already developing tactics to use against them. The Hyperion just had that major sensor upgrade, and it has been scanning nonstop for any sign of a weakness or tactical edge. It is only a matter of time before we find something. If the federation could adapt to both the Dominion and the Borg, we can certainly adapt here! Now I expect no more of this kind of talk!"

"Of course, your right," Slone replied regaining his confidence. Returning back to his normal self Slone continued, "in any case I bet I can destroy the ship on the left before my so called 'wing commander' will even be able to hit the one on the right."

"That sounds like a threat! Ok... The one who gets the kill last has to cough up the drinks at the celebration party later today, and I am talking about the expensive stuff!"

"You're on, 'sir.'" Slone replied. Carl was glad he was apparently able to convince Slone, if only he could convince himself now. He glanced back over to the communications link with the Hyperion. Still nothing.

The battle that ensued between Carl, Slone, and the two enemy fighters was like a game of cat and mouse. The fighters did an excellent job of using the Hawking as a shield, dodging around the ship. During this fight, the Hawking had been forced to change its course to avoid colliding with the enemy fighters. It was now headed directly away from the Hyperion and towards the other side of the Federation defense. It seemed that every time the Hawking made another course change, the enemy ships would force it back.

"Wing leader 3 to Wing Leader 14, the Hawking and the two enemy fighters are heading directly toward the third Wing. We will take care of them from here."

"Wing leader 3, this is Commander Tayler, we are currently engaged and..."

"Commander Tayler, you should return to your own Wing. We require no assistance. Johnson out!"

Carl sighed, but he knew Johnson was right and this was no time to argue. There was no reason Third Squad couldn't handle it. Besides, Johnson could pull rank if he wanted as he was a full Commander.

"Slone, we are disengaging and regrouping with our wing."

"Damn..." was Slone's only response.

The third wing was already moving forward to engage them. Carl and Slone backed off and prepared to regroup with their wing. Carl couldn't shake a feeling he had though. He glanced back at his consoles, something wasn't right. Why would they chase the Hawking in that direction with the entire third wing right there? He studied the positioning of the ships for a moment before something caught his eye.

"Can't be..." he said out loud. He took a quick look at the nearest federation fighters, but the only one which was close was Slone. "Slone follow me, we need eyes on the rear starboard side of the Hyperion. Freddy, have a squad standby to break off and back me up if needed."

"The rear starboard side? Nothing big enough should be able to get back there to make a difference..." Slone wondered aloud on a private channel to Carl.

That may be true, Carl thought, unless the enemy was able to fire one of those Graviton Pulses from the rear, say right through the small hole left by Wing 3 directly behind them. It would be like threading a needle, but his gut told him this enemy might be able to do it. He glanced back forward and suddenly saw a shimmer ahead of him. It was a squad of fighters heading right for the Hyperion. His gut feeling had been right.

"Hyperion! Emergency maneuver to Port! Freddy get your squad over here! We have hosti..." Before Carl could finish, the unmistakable distortion of the enemies Graviton Pulse zipped right though the small hole left open by Wing 3. The Hyperion was unable to move out of the way in time. It's aft shields around the Starboard nacelle shimmered blue, distorted, and dispersed.

"Commander Tayler, this is Whitmore! We've been hit! Our Aft Upper Starboard shields are down. That pulse also did a number on our engines. We should have shields back up in about 60 seconds..."

"Roger Hyperion..." Carl responded, gazing at the group of enemy fighters just about to come within range. "Slone, we’re engaging! It looks like six Worms have broken off their course and are heading right for us. I am guessing the rest are those Kamikazes. Let’s quickly break these guys up head for the Hyperion."

"Negative! Not enough time and Freddy's squad might not make it either. Burn towards the Hyperion, I'll cover you!"

Slone didn't wait for a reply and maneuvered in front of Carl covering him. Carl knew Slone couldn't take all six of those guys, especially after taking the initial onslaught, but he also knew Slone was right. "Slone I expect you to show up on time for drinks later today! That's an order!" He said lamely. He gritted his teeth and flew past the group letting Slone take the weapon's fire and cut the enemy off.

"Freddy! Where the hell are you?!"

"Sorry sir, we have been cut off. We ar..."

"I need you here -now- or the Hyperion is lost! Carl out!" With saying that, Carl already knew they would be too late.

The Kamikaze fighters were coming within range. It was up to Carl now. It looked to be five of them; this was not going to be easy. Carl quickly aimed for the center ship and fired as soon as he was within range. He immediately followed up with shots right above the center ship. These ships had a habit of pulling up as soon as they detected weapon's fire, and this particular ship did just that, dodging right into the second attack. One down. By sneaking behind the Federation lines, and having their attack fighters break off, these Kamikaze ships were vulnerable to a carefully timed attack.

The remaining four broke into two groups of two. For the next one, Carl would go for double. He positioned himself to the left of one of the groups and fired at an angle behind the rear ship. It predictably pulled forward ever so slightly, but enough. Carl then drifted above the group, carefully aimed and fired strait down at the lead ship in a strafing pattern. Not only did he tag the lead ship, but the explosion also took out the rear ship.

Carl's console beeped causing him to glance over. He noticed that Slone's signal disappeared from sensors. Slone had been beat. Carl slammed the console with his fist but quickly turned back to the matter at hand. In truth, it was amazing Slone had lasted as long as he did. Now Carl had to finish the job, and those enemy attack fighters were not going to make things easy. He lined up the kill; it would take four shots to kill them both in similar matter as the previous two. He fired the first shot, then the second. It was good so far just as he predicted. He was going to make it. His optimism was soon checked when weapon's fire rattled his ship. The Worms were catching up. He wouldn't be able to properly dodge their attacks if he wanted to stop the Kamikazes.

He lined up the third shot and fired just as he took a direct hit. He regained focus only to realize in his horror that that hit had messed up his shot. The two Kamikazes fighters didn't move like he wanted them to, they were too far apart. He had to compensate, to take a chance, and fired slightly ahead of the lead ship. The ship backed off slightly closing the gap between the second ship. Carl's ship was hit again; the attack grazed his port side. A panel beeped showing that aft shields were almost down. Meanwhile the Kamikaze fighters approached the Hyperion's starboard warp nacelle. Carl was out of time; he fired.

Carl watched in almost slow motion as the shots he fired raced towards their intended target. They would reach the target in less than a second, but to Carl it felt like an eternity. In one second the lead ship would be struck, and fall back catching the second ship in the resulting explosion. An explosion this close to the Hyperion would do significant damage, possibly knocking out their entire Warp drive. It should still be able to defend itself though, and its shields would be back online shortly. Hopefully they could survive this fight and afterwards Captain Nara would give Carl a hard time about waiting till the last possible second to shoot down those ships. Whitmore would probably chime in about how it was so like Carl, always being late. Carl would then tell valiant stories on how Slone had taken on six ships to save the Hyperion. All that would begin in one second. If only he had one second. If only...

The Kamikaze ships struck the Hyperion.

One ship ran into the warp nacelle support pylon, severing it in the resulting explosion. The other slammed into the nacelle itself, spinning it towards the Hyperion and slamming it into the main engineering deck. This was too much for the Hyperion. The last thing Carl saw was the white blast of a Warp Core Breach.

[David Craft]

Darkness. There was no sound. There was no light. There was no feeling. Carl wondered if this was what it was like to be dead. But he was not dead, not yet, and the sudden sharp pain on his head was all the proof he needed. He slowly allowed himself to come to, slowly reaching blindly for his head. He opened his eyes but his vision was cloudy. There was a voice in the background; he couldn't make it out though. His head was damp. The substance felt slick between his fingers. Blood. He rubbed his face trying to clear his eyes and slowly became aware of where he was. It was all like a dream, but a dream he could remember every detail of. A nightmare he wished he could wake out of and forget. But he could not; this was no dream. The Hyperion was destroyed. He had failed.

He heard the voice again, a computer voice. He struggled to sort out the words but could not. An emergency med kit was below his station; he reached half blindly for it and opened it. Fumbling around he found what he was looking for, a hypospray, something to make him more coherent.

The hypospray worked fast and he could feel his senses returning. The pain increased as well, however. He could not chance taking something for the pain lest he pass out. He took a deep breath and forced himself to full consciousness. His vision returned slowly and he could see a pool of blood dripping from his console. His head had been hit hard. He glanced down at the pressurized helmet lying on the ground that he should have been wearing. He never did as it was uncomfortable and just plain slowed him down. He couldn't see as well with it on, and the accompanying gloves made typing on the console a nightmare. Besides, he had thought, if something was going to suddenly pierce the hull, chances are he would die anyways. As he looked back at the pool of blood he concluded that perhaps there was another reason he should have been wearing the damn thing.

The voice repeated again. This time he heard it fully. "Warning, main power is offline; hull microfractures detected; emergency power down to 40 percent; life support failing."

Carl looked over his flickering consoles to try and assess the situation. Something caught his eye; a flashing error message. "74% complete - Transfer Failed, Connection Lost!" Carl looked at what the transfer was, and was surprised to see it was from the Hyperion. Someone on the Hyperion had attempted to transfer their entire science and tactical information about the enemy before being destroyed. His ship must have been the only one in range for such a large transfer that fast. Carl stared out the window at the dead ship hulks and floating debris. It was eerily similar to Commander Whitmore's description of the Wolf359 massacre. For all he knew he was one of the only survivors, with the only detailed scans. It wasn't much but perhaps between his ships sensor logs, and the Hyperion's information he was able to get, they could find some way of stopping this enemy before... At that thought, his mind trailed to Earth and what would become of it.

"Warning, main power is offline; hull microfractures detected; emergency power down to 30 percent; life support failing."

Carl shook his head. For now he had to at least survive and get whatever information he could to Starfleet personnel. He typed on his console to try and figure out what to do. Sensors were down; communications were down; emergency transporter was down; engines could probably give him one last burst, not enough to get anywhere meaningful. He started searching through ship hulls to see if he could find one with maybe some of its hull still intact. He chanced upon one ship which actually looked more or less intact though obviously still adrift. He couldn't tell much more from just visuals. He decided it was probably his best option and burst his engine in its direction.

Getting in would be a bit of an issue. As he saw it, there was really only one option, slam right into the shuttlebay door. It should be minimally reinforced and his ship should fit through. He grabbed his pressurized helmet and put it on as well as the two gloves inside of it. It was now or never he supposed. With that he set a collision course, carefully targeting the center of the shuttlebay door, and braced for impact the best he could.

-------------------------

Consciousness flooded back to Carl. He blinked, groaned, and once again slowly became aware of his surroundings. He was in his ship, though it looked in even worse shape now. He couldn't see outside the ship; it was too dark with only the blinking red alert lights. He assumed that he had probably caused quite a mess in the shuttlebay.

"Warning, main power is offline; multiple hull breaches detected; emergency power down to 20 percent; life support is offline," the computer stated very staticy and almost incomprehensible.

With much trouble, Carl eventually got the cockpit door open, and was able to get out of his fighter. He turned on a light and shined it around. He was in the shuttlebay alright, and he had indeed created quite the mess. He walked over to the door and scanned the other side with his tricorder. On the other side he read a stable atmosphere. It also appeared that there were other lifesigns on this ship. He had to make his way out and find them, but the shuttlebay was decompressed on account of him blowing a hole through the bay door. He stumbled over to a console to try to see if by chance he could activate a forcefield. The console was dead like everything else seemed to be.

Carl got an idea and dragged himself back over to his ship. He leaned inside and typed on one of the few consoles still working. The panel showed 16 percent emergency power remaining. "Good, that should be enough," he remarked. He ripped open a panel and switched around a few of the isolinear chips. He also grabbed a PADD and downloaded his fighter’s computer to the PADD. He then went back over to the console in the shuttlebay, pulled off the lower panel, and hooked his tricorder directly to the circuitry. The console hummed to life.

He started working at the console. I should be able to initiate a power transfer beam from my ship to this console, assuming the energy conduits on my ship are still more or less intact, Carl thought. That should be enough to backfeed into the forcefield generators, and get a forcefield covering that breach, at least temporarily. I will have to be quick though, this console wasn't made for this and will probably overload in a few seconds.

He finished rigging it up and set a 30 second timer. He started to make his way to the door but had to pause a moment. The dizziness was catching up to him. He finally reached the door, and went over to the left side to the emergency release. The console beeped letting him know the timer was up. His ship started producing high pitched humming sound then suddenly shot an energy beam at the console. The console sparked but it worked; the forcefield shimmered in place.

He quickly went to work on the emergency release. He struggled against it until it budged ever so slightly. A gust of air whistled through the door. Just a bit more, he thought. He finally got the door open enough to fit through. He glanced back at the console; it was sparking and smoking like crazy. He didn't have much time. He worked his way through the door and went to work on sealing it. It was easier to close than to open, as the doors default to being shut to prevent entire decks from becoming depressurized; however, he still found it difficult. It finally slammed shut, and not a moment too soon. He heard an explosion from the other side. He detached his helmet and let it drop to the ground, breathing in the air. Now he had to find the people still on this ship.

The corridors were empty. It looked a ghost ship. Carl wondered what had happened here and why most of the crew had apparently abandoned ship. He made his way to a turbolift and was surprised it was online. He punched at the controls and found out that this ship apparently ran turbolifts on a separate control system in case of emergencies. "Bridge!" he let out. Dizziness suddenly overtook him for a moment, and he fell to his knees. He took several breathes trying to refocus as the turbolift made its way to the bridge.

The turbolift doors swished open and Carl, holding his head, stepped out of the lift. The bridge was empty and dark, with only emergency lighting. To his left he noticed an officer lying on the ground. He checked for a pulse, none. He stepped down towards the center. There appeared to be no one here, no one alive anyways. He wondered where everyone had gone. He went to the helm console and tried to figure out what was going on. It didn't tell him much, most systems were offline it seemed. He supposed he would try engineering next.

As he began to make his way back to the lift, his legs began to give out. He staggered until he fell into the captain’s seat. He took a breath, focused, and forced himself back up. He took a look at the bloodspot he left on the back of the captain's chair and realized he was still losing a lot of blood. He would not last too much longer. He finally got back to the lift and yelled Engineering. He leaned heavily against the wall waiting for his destination.

When the doors finally opened, Carl stumbled out. He knew he couldn't take much more. He rounded the corner and was a bit stunned. He had found the Starfleet officers. A few of them stopped, suddenly looking right at him. He must have been quite a sight indeed. He blinked for a moment, pushing to stay focused. He took a step to stabilize his balance and held up the PADD. "I have information..." he slurred out. "We need to get this to Starfleet Command as soon as..."

His body would take no more. His vision hazed over and the last thing he remembered seeing was the deck plating getting ever closer.