Stardate: 71028:1304
Title: Drastic Action (Part 1)
Author: Captain Deadilus
Time: Current
Scene: USS Horizon
When the Federation 'civil war' had come about, the explosion of the Rennas
population and their hunger for meat had led to the deaths of billions and
entire worlds. Having successfully entrenched themselves on almost every planet
within the Federation, their kind had succeeded in seeding themselves amongst
the stars and a vast supply of food...
The Horizon had continued to be a scientific vessel on the Federation borders
for many years before being 'downgraded' to planetary support missions. During
the initial outbreak of the war, Captain Lily Deadilus and her crew had been
studying the heavily ionised M-class planet of Techna 3. Out of contact with
Starfleet, they had broken orbit several weeks later to find a Federation in
tatters. The Rennas movement had been strong, co-ordinated, and swift.
Finding many of their own ships turned against them, crewed by Rennas Starfleet
officers, the crew of the small Nova-class vessel had nonetheless managed to
score several hit-and-run victories against their enemy. The resistance may have
been small, but it too was well-organised.
~
Time-travel had been successfully achieved on several noted occasions. As the
plan to secure a prototype temporal device from a far-off Federation research
post had been planned, the resistance grew bolder in its movements, scoring
several key victories against Rennas-crewed vessels.
Lily had refused to go into further detail, a far-off look in her eyes, only
explaining that once the device had been fitted the rest was history (quite
literally in her case) as the two Horizon's met up...
=/\= USS Horizon =/\=
As Captain Scott Deadilus sat on the bridge of the Horizon, he recalled the
conversation he, Autumn and Lily had had only a few hours before. His thoughts
were broken as Ensign Colón's voice came over the ship comm system, quickly
detailing how he thought he was hearing Rennas' voices and had an uncertain but
troubling feeling that they were all in mortal danger...
=/\= Rennas Vessel 'The Conquer' =/\=
As Grand Warrior Glim'Plel waited for the energy circuits to charge, he too
found himself deep in thought.
The vessel the scientists and engineers had created had included a cloaking
device stolen from a nearby alien race and an advanced energy weapon bought from
one of their trade partners. But life was full of checks and balances; all their
testing had shown that the weapon could be charged slowly whilst cloaked, but
the discharge cycle needed huge amounts of power to ensure a cohesive energy
bolt, and as such the cloak had to be lowered. To make matters worse, their warp
drive (as limited as it was)
had to be taken offline to transfer all the energy necessary for both the cloak
and the energy cannon.
Even so, this close to their enemy they were assured victory, especially given
their inside knowledge of the Horizon's weaknesses.
"Grand Warrior," the Rennas officer at the sensor panel called out. "The second
ship appears to be moving away from us."
"Check cloak status. Have they spotted us?" Glim'Plel was not about to let
victory slip through his grasp.
"Cloak is online. They merely appear to be repositioning themselves."
"Hold fire, and prepare to move us into an advantageous position once they have
completed their maneuver."
=/\= Future Horizon =/\=
Captain Lily Deadilus knew most of the officers on her ship. Those she had
served with she had become close to when they realised many of their families
were dead, but some of those who had been assigned to her for this mission were
unknown elements.
Several of these unknowns occupied key slots on the Horizon due to the losses
they had inevitably encountered during their time on the run from the Rennas
and, unbeknownst to Lily, some of them had a secondary mission to carry out
should their first fail...
~
In the small torpedo configuration suite, Commander Barek worked hard to ensure
the modified torpedoes were ready...
=/\= USS Horizon =/\=
"Sir, we're detecting some unusual radiation emissions 50km off our starboard
bow," Ensign Beehan reported, temporarily manning the Tactical station.
"Put it on the viewscreen," Scott ordered. There was nothing there except the
darkness of space.
"Do the Rennas have cloaking technology?" Scott asked, looking at Lily.
"We never encountered any..."
As if it was the will of the universe to prove her wrong, the odd-looking and
angular Rennas vessel uncloaked before their eyes, unleashing a bolt of energy
directly at them.
Although the shields absorbed the majority of the impact, the sheer energy
unleashed onto the small vessel overloaded several key systems. Phaser arrays
and torpedoes appeared unaffected, but warp drive was offline; they could fight,
but they couldn't run...
=/\= Future Horizon =/\=
As Commander Barek sat on the Bridge, he ordered a heading adjustment, pointing
them directly at the Renna star, tapping a few buttons on the chair arm before
uttering two simple words.
"Launch torpedoes."
=/\= USS Horizon =/\=
As the spread of torpedoes quickly traversed the short distance between the ship
and the star, the bridge crew momentarily wondered what was happening before
Scott recalled some failed Kaelon experiment many years previously. Ordering the
destruction of the torpedoes, even the best Tactical Officer would have been
hard-pressed to hit all ten before their impact with the star.
Hitting three in such a short timeframe was good but, even along with the one
the Conquer had destroyed, the Captain wondered if it would be enough.
~
As the inner temperature of the G-class star proceeded to pass 500-million
degrees Kelvin there was no doubt that a supernova was inevitable. Another
minute passed and the star proceeded to literally disintegrate from inside out
before their eyes, the leading-edge of the shockwave bearing down upon the
Rennas planet and the immobilised Horizon...
=================
Captain Scott Deadilus
Commanding Officer
(Destroyer of worlds!)
USS Horizon
NCC-72400
=================
