09-19-2026, 03:01 AM
The bridge remained draped in amber combat gloom, the silence broken only by the low, muffled hum of life support and the soft chime of passive sensor feeds.
Morad stood in the center of the command well, his gaze sweeping across his bridge team. He had rehearsed the sequence in his mind a dozen times, but out here, with the tactical grid burning red, timing was everything.
"Listen up, everyone," Morad said, his voice quiet, calm, and deliberate. "We are coasting into the pocket on ballistic inertia. In less than forty seconds, we cross their defensive perimeter. When we cross that line, there is no hesitation. Everyone knows their assignments. The second I give the word, we execute in sequence."
He looked at each station in turn, locking eyes with his officers.
"Molina, the moment we break silent running, open that encrypted channel and dump our strike vector straight to the Aquila and Yeager."
"Cortez, prep the decoy probes in the secondary tubes. Launch on my command to muddy their fire control."
"Ra'an, Ava, the instant their shields flare, sweep that dreadnought with every passive and active sensor array we have. Gather every scrap of power-grid telemetry, shield modulation, and core oscillation data you can pull."
"Powl, both forward burst tubes. Full quantum spread directly into that weakened forward seam."
"Krandall, lock your micro-jump coordinates directly to the Yeager’s perimeter. The split second those tubes clear, you punch it. We jump in right behind those pursuing Hidekis—if the Dreadnought wants to fire on us, she’ll have to blast right through her own escorts first to do it."
Morad turned to the damage control console, catching the Chief Engineer's eye. "Keir, Singer—keep those cryogenic lines ahead of the heat curve. She’s going to shake hard."
The seconds stretched thin as the distance indicator on the tactical display ticked down: thirty thousand kilometers... twenty thousand... ten thousand...
"Range threshold reached," Krandall reported in a tense murmur.
Morad gripped the back of the center chair, his jaw setting hard.
"Execute! Execute!"
The Zephyr roared to life. Main impulse reactors flared, defensive shields snapped up to full combat rating, and active targeting sensors locked on, illuminating the Hutet's scarred armor like a flare in the dark.
Instantly, the threat board screamed. As expected, the Cardassian fire control grid locked onto the Zephyr with lethal precision, while the three Hideki escorts banked hard, breaking off their pursuit of the Yeager to converge on the new Starfleet contact.
"Target locked!" A shout came from tactical over the wailing klaxons.
Ameen commanded without hesitation. "Fire everything!"
Magnetic accelerators slammed through the hull as the Zephyr dumped its forward burst launchers, sending a blinding volley of quantum warheads screaming straight into the Hutet’s fractured forward shield arc.
The viewscreen flared white-hot as the dreadnought’s counter-batteries began to cycle. Space bent violently around the Zephyr’s groaning hull as the micro-jump kicked in, tearing the ship away into warp a fraction of a second before the Cardassian broadside converged on, hopefully, the empty void.
This is it... all or nothing...
== Tag Bridge: Everyone should have the opportunity to do their pre-assigned task here before Krandall had slammed the helm control forward and jumped us to the Yeager's proximity. You can each request GM input on your own part. This still can go either way... so good luck! ==
Morad stood in the center of the command well, his gaze sweeping across his bridge team. He had rehearsed the sequence in his mind a dozen times, but out here, with the tactical grid burning red, timing was everything.
"Listen up, everyone," Morad said, his voice quiet, calm, and deliberate. "We are coasting into the pocket on ballistic inertia. In less than forty seconds, we cross their defensive perimeter. When we cross that line, there is no hesitation. Everyone knows their assignments. The second I give the word, we execute in sequence."
He looked at each station in turn, locking eyes with his officers.
"Molina, the moment we break silent running, open that encrypted channel and dump our strike vector straight to the Aquila and Yeager."
"Cortez, prep the decoy probes in the secondary tubes. Launch on my command to muddy their fire control."
"Ra'an, Ava, the instant their shields flare, sweep that dreadnought with every passive and active sensor array we have. Gather every scrap of power-grid telemetry, shield modulation, and core oscillation data you can pull."
"Powl, both forward burst tubes. Full quantum spread directly into that weakened forward seam."
"Krandall, lock your micro-jump coordinates directly to the Yeager’s perimeter. The split second those tubes clear, you punch it. We jump in right behind those pursuing Hidekis—if the Dreadnought wants to fire on us, she’ll have to blast right through her own escorts first to do it."
Morad turned to the damage control console, catching the Chief Engineer's eye. "Keir, Singer—keep those cryogenic lines ahead of the heat curve. She’s going to shake hard."
The seconds stretched thin as the distance indicator on the tactical display ticked down: thirty thousand kilometers... twenty thousand... ten thousand...
"Range threshold reached," Krandall reported in a tense murmur.
Morad gripped the back of the center chair, his jaw setting hard.
"Execute! Execute!"
The Zephyr roared to life. Main impulse reactors flared, defensive shields snapped up to full combat rating, and active targeting sensors locked on, illuminating the Hutet's scarred armor like a flare in the dark.
Instantly, the threat board screamed. As expected, the Cardassian fire control grid locked onto the Zephyr with lethal precision, while the three Hideki escorts banked hard, breaking off their pursuit of the Yeager to converge on the new Starfleet contact.
"Target locked!" A shout came from tactical over the wailing klaxons.
Ameen commanded without hesitation. "Fire everything!"
Magnetic accelerators slammed through the hull as the Zephyr dumped its forward burst launchers, sending a blinding volley of quantum warheads screaming straight into the Hutet’s fractured forward shield arc.
The viewscreen flared white-hot as the dreadnought’s counter-batteries began to cycle. Space bent violently around the Zephyr’s groaning hull as the micro-jump kicked in, tearing the ship away into warp a fraction of a second before the Cardassian broadside converged on, hopefully, the empty void.
This is it... all or nothing...
== Tag Bridge: Everyone should have the opportunity to do their pre-assigned task here before Krandall had slammed the helm control forward and jumped us to the Yeager's proximity. You can each request GM input on your own part. This still can go either way... so good luck! ==