Guns And Ships

Posted on Oct 24, 2016 @ 6:36pm by Commander Jacob Crichton
Edited on on Oct 24, 2016 @ 6:36pm

Mission: Fortress: Earth

= Guns And Ships = (cont'd from "Too Good To Be True")



LOCATION: Point Bonita Facility

SCENE: Corridor

STARDATE: [2.16] 1024.1350

TIME INDEX: Shortly after the Red October’s arrival

As they moved through the facility, Jake fell into step beside Raxl Dreyton. The bounty hunter smiled, though he did not turn to look at him.

“Nice to see ya again, kid.”

“Made it off LIMBO, I see,” Jake said.

“Bribed my way through the worst of it,” Rax shrugged. “Tella Yavin pays her thugs well, but not so well they’re against making a little money on the side.”

“I thought you were broke.”

Rax turned, grinned, and tapped the side of nose conspiratorially. “I always keep a few strips of latinum around for emergencies.”

“Last time we talked, you were warning us about bounties on our heads,” Jake said. “Since you’re helping us burn down the guy who put them there, I take it you’re not looking to collect?”

Rax shook his head. “Selyara made me a better offer. Consider me off the clock for the time being.”

“Yeah, about that,” said Jake. “Weren’t you hunting Selyara back on LIMBO? How’d you end up working for her?”

“*With*,” Rax corrected. “Not *for*.”

“I’m not sure she sees it that way.”

Rax sighed. “No, she probably doesn’t.”

“So what’s the story?”

“Got mixed up with some bad people.”

Jake laughed. “You get kicked out of your book club or something?”

“I got myself in a hole I couldn’t dig my way out of,” Rax sighed. “Selyara offered me a shovel.”

“By that metaphor, all that’s gonna do is help dig yourself even deeper.”

Rax gave a tired smiled. “Don’t I know it.”

=[/\]=

SCENE: Command Center

Richard Edgerton stood before the holotable, over which glowed a scale representation of Earth, surrounded by a shifting cloud of blue shapes, swarming around a series of green deltas. The blue represented the enemy fleet, and the green were Edgerton’s own satellites; the Aegis Network had teeth that Marxx and his traitors had never suspected, even with all the time they’d spent desperately analyzing his satellites. Now, powered by thaleron generators and equipped with devastating weaponry, the Aegis satellites were inflicting horrific damage on the unprepared starships.

As much as the admiral wanted to give the space battle his full attention, he couldn’t ignore the security breach inside the bunker. Some cadet had gone sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong and had uncovered the schematics for the Aegis satellites, and now the facility was in lock-down until she could be found. Edgerton couldn’t risk those plans getting out; loyalty to the Neo-Essentialist cause was far from absolute, and there was every possibility he’d have a mutiny on his hands if his own men discovered the Aegis Network’s true purpose. Edgerton had ordered immediate security sweeps of all decks, but so far they’d turned up nothing.

The doors to the command center parted, and two security officers entered, dragging an semi-conscious man dressed in an engineering uniform between them.

“What the hell is this?” Edgerton asked.

“Saboteur, sir,” one of the security officers said. “He was found tampering with the EPS system in Main Engineering.”

Edgerton stepped forward, gripping the man by his hair and pulling his head up to get a better look at his face. “Lt. JG Sam Henderson.”

Sam only groaned, his eyelids fluttering a little. There was a large bruised lump on one side of his head.

“What were you doing, lieutenant?” Edgerton demanded. “Why were you sabotaging this facility?”

“...n-never tell…” Sam murmured,

“What do you know about the security breach?” Edgerton pressed. “Where is your accomplice?”

No answer from Sam. Edgerton cursed and released the engineer’s hair, letting his head drop.

“Take him to the brig,” Edgerton said. “Get him talking, I don’t care how.”

“Aye sir.” The security officers hauled Sam up again and dragged him back through the command center’s doors. Sam did not put up any resistance.

Edgerton turned back to face the holotable, as the battle continued. Another officer, this one in Ops, stepped up to Edgerton’s side.

“Sir, we’ve lost contact with another patrol,” the officer said. “There’s no way one cadet is doing all this on her own.”

“She’s not alone,” Edgerton scowled. “We’ve got one of her friends in custody.”

“You don’t think our security teams are compromised, sir?”

“No way to be sure.” Edgerton rubbed his temples. “What about Selyara and the others?”

“They’ve escaped, sir.”

“Damn it.”

“What are your orders, admiral?”

“If they want to override the lockdown and take control of this facility, they’ll do it from the computer core,” Edgerton said. “Get a security detail down there immediately. Kill anything that steps inside that room.”

“Sir, our own men-”

“Might be working against us!” Edgerton finished. “The security of that core is now our top strategic objective, is that clear?”

The Ops officer hesitated, but when Edgerton’s icy glare fell on him, he nodded quickly.

“Aye sir.”

The officer scurried away, and Edgerton turned back to watch the dance above his holotable dispassionately, barely hearing the sounds of his officers reporting on the progress of the battle. Although the satellites were performing admirably, there was only so much they could do against the assembled might of the Federation fleet. The satellites might drive them off once, maybe twice, but sooner or later, simple attrition would tip the odds in Marxx’s favor.

And so, the time had finally come to contemplate his final sanction.

Richard Edgerton wasn’t insane, no matter what his enemies might have thought of him. He simply saw more of the bigger picture than the people around him. He could see the Federation’s weakness, standing as an invitation to other galactic powers: hunt us, burn us, destroy what we’ve made and take what you want from what remains. It was an invitation that too many had accepted. Edgerton knew first hand what horror awaited humanity in the galaxy’s darkest reaches, its most far-flung spaces. The Romulans, the Dominion, the Thal… all of them had sought to destroy the Federation, and it hadn’t been diplomacy that repelled them. How many times had the Federation, and the human race along with it, been brought to the brink? How many threats had Starfleet only barely overcome? How many more were still out there, building their strength while the Federation wasted its time with the pursuit of some laughably idealized harmony?

Conflict was inevitable. Blood was the currency of freedom; always had been, always would be. For humanity to exist freely in this galaxy, other races had to be brought to heel. Threats to humanity would be identified and neutralized. Strike first, in self-defense, because the alternative was extinction.

For awhile, he’d gotten what he wanted. He’d sat at the head of the Federation, and his first order of business had been the construction of the Aegis Shield, a new kind of the weapon. Enemy fleets attacking Earth would find more than a satellite network waiting for them; they’d find a highly-sophisticated network of battle platforms, armed with thaleron weaponry, ready to push back any attempted invasion. And, should the worst happen, if humanity fell in the end after all, the satellites would make sure no human would suffer the indignity of enslavement by an inferior race. The satellites would burn the world to ash, along with any invasion force foolish enough to set foot on it. If humankind’s destiny was to be exterminated, then by God, before it went, Edgerton would make sure to set off a conflagration so great that no race in the quadrant would be able to ignore it.

He’d known there would be resistance, but he’d underestimated how much. Too few officers could be persuaded by Edgerton’s philosophy. Too much of Starfleet could not be trusted with the details of the Neo-Essentialist plan. The meddling from Captain Kane and his crew had also accelerated Edgerton’s time table more than once. The plan, which had seemed to be going so well, fell apart as the truth about Edgerton’s movement had been exposed.

And now, they were all here, at the end.

When the siege had begun, Edgerton had every intention of destroying the Earth if his hand was forced. But, in truth, he’d never expected it would actually get to that point. Edgerton had calculated that the destruction of Paris would be enough to dissuade Marxx from any foolish heroics. Once they’d accepted that Earth was under his control, they would have come to some sort of accord. Dexter Marxx was a reasonable man, after all.

But Edgerton had miscalculated. The destruction of Paris hadn’t weakened the enemy's resolve, and the situation had continued to deteriorate. Now, he stood inside his bunker, the site of his last stand. There was an internal security threat that risked what remained of his operation, and in the skies above, Starfleet had engaged his satellites. There was no longer any possibility of escape; Edgerton would be caught, or killed. Humanity would turn back to weak leaders, who would guide them down a path to inevitable destruction. The next time some incomprehensible nightmare roared out of the dark, the Federation may not be ready to face it down. Humanity’s death would be slow, a death by inches, but it would come. Sooner or later.

Better to get it over with. More merciful.

Edgerton reached down, and activated the console before him. Immediately, the composition of the holographic globe before him changed, its color becoming an infernal red. As he watched, several of the glowing green blips broke off from their battle groups, and began positioning themselves around the Earth.

The satellites were moving into position,

Doomsday had arrived.

=[/\]=

SCENE: Computer Core

Lynette crawled out of the maintenance hatch, grateful for the opportunity to stand once more at her full height. She had turned, reaching back into the hatch to grab Mackie’s carrier, when she heard the main doors to the Computer Core open. Lynette froze, and as she watched, a squad of security officers poured into the room. They were all armed with pulse rifles, and immediately took up strategic positions throughout the room. Their attention was focused on the main doors, and none of them had noticed Lynette, towards the back of the chamber, crouched before the maintenance access hatch.

“I want that door rigged with an electric charge,” the lead security officer said to his second in command, “The second those saboteurs come through here, I want them fried.”

“Aye sir,” the second officer nodded, and delegated the task to one of his lieutenants.

Lynette realized she was holding her breath, and she let it out in a slow, quiet hiss. So far, none of the security officers were sweeping the core, so in theory she could escape back up the hatch before she was detected. But there was a reason Edgerton had ordered his men to fortify this position; if there was any hope of overriding Edgerton’s security lockdown and canceling the doomsday attack, it would be found here. There was nowhere else to go, anyway; no other way out of the facility, and no hope of escaping Earth before the thaleron bombs did their work.

But Lynette was unarmed, and her training had not prepared her to go up against a full security complement. If she tried to act, she would almost certainly be discovered, and probably shot on sight. She chewed her bottom lip, desperately searching for a way to even the odds.

=[/\]=

NRPG: Sorry for all the delays, this wound up being a busy weekend. This would have been longer but I didn’t want to delay it any further. So; our main group is about to storm the computer core, which has been booby-trapped against their incursion. Meanwhile, Cadet Ryan has managed to find a backdoor into the core, and may be in a position to help us. Meanwhile, Edgerton has triggered the doomsday countdown, and his satellites are moving into position to obliterate all life on Earth.

To the DH folks: Hello! Looking forward to working alongside you all!

Shawn Putnam

A.k.a.

Jake Crichton

Chief Engineering Officer

USS PHOENIX