DV-44628 hung in the view screen, like a jewel that Lieutenant Commander Zors could not afford to buy. All of the planet's promise for colonization might be for not. It was very likely that the Klingon warship was out there even now, just waiting for the opportune moment to strike. AG-21-8 had given Zors the freedom to do what he saw as best. Only a few days ago, the colonists had been dropped off at Deep Space 9. The Novo had returned on station, determined to discover what interest the Klingons had here. Over the course of those few days, the crew U.S.S. Novo prepared for the combat they knew could be ahead of them. The Lieutenant Commander felt a very real sense of pride.
The Novo was meant to be a ship of peaceful exploration, a ship that would make first contacts, a ship that would use diplomacy to make friends out of old enemies. However, even Zors knew that sometimes self defense or the defense of other was the only option. He sighed inwardly, wishing it wasn't so.
"Captain! I'm reading new contact dead ahead! Klingon warship de-cloaking off the bow!", The sensor officer's report pulled Zors from his thoughts.
He leaned over to the microphone pickup built into the command chair and spoke these words for the first time as Captain, "Red alert! Battle stations, battle stations. All hands man your battle stations!" Zors could feel the vibration as power surged through the ship, it was the Novo's life blood pumping through it's veins. The shields snapped on. The phasers charged. All over the ship, crewmen rushed to their stations. In a matter of moments, the U.S.S. Novo changed from explorer to warrior. Zors stood, "open hailing frequencies."
A yellow clad communications officer turned to report, "No response, Captain." From head on the Nehg'var fired it's heavy and dual disruptor cannons. Green bursts of energy lanced on the Novo's forward shielding.
Lieutenant Shoma turned to report, "Forward shielding down to seventy three percent!"
"Evasive maneuvers, hard to starboard! Port side fore and aft phasers, fire at will!", Zors ordered.
At the apex of it's starboard turn, the Novo let loose with two phaser arrays. Orange beams surged from the ship's saucer and stern. Zors took a calculated risk. He knew the shielding on the warship was better, and he needed away to level the field. He commanded, "Emergency power to weapons, overload the aft array. Prepare aft quantum torpedoes, heavy spread. Bring us stern on and fire!" The Nehg'var turned to give chase, only to have it's already weakend forward shielding pounded by a massive burst of phaser energy. The shields buckled, diving into the low percentages. Dual azure orbs streaked out towards the Nehg'var. One buried itself in the starboard wing structure and detonated, taking a large piece of hull with it. The other collided with the forward super structure and destroyed most of the Negh'var's deflector.
"Captain, out aft phaser array is blown," The Ferengi Chief Engineer Reported from Main Engineering. Zors wasn't surprised. He knew it was likely to happen, but their gamble had at least scored a major hit. Sadly, it wasn't enough. The Nehg'var fired it's full weapons compliment blindly at close range. Disruptor blasts and photon torpedoes raked against the dorsal shielding of the Novo, they collapsed. Disruptor fire left two rows of hull ruptures along the engineering section and down saucer, on either side of the bridge.
Through out the ship, EPS conduits blew apart. Sparks showered down from the ceilings. Crewman and officer alike were thrown from their stations as a result of the impacts. Damage control teams perished into the vacuum of space through hull breaches. The Negh'ver continued to fire. The Novo began a slow forward and port spin. A photon torpedo detonated on the starboard pylon, throwing the warp nacelle at it's end off and away. Power failures extinguished the window lighting and the Novo began to go dark.
Time in the bridge had seemed to slow down, all around Zors, the crew was desperately trying to return to their stations. "Abandon ship!", he yelled. No one heard. Another torpedo impact blew apart the shuttle bay. Decompression blew shuttle and crew alike into the void. In main engineering, disruptor impacts overloaded panels causing them to explode. Coolant began leaking from piping around the core. Chief Lamur ordered all personnel out, and manually triggered the warp core ejection protocol. He succumbed to coolant fumes moments later. The Novo's momentum carried her forward as her spin brought her to face the warship again, though this time upside down and at an angle. Lieutenant Commander Zors gazed at the Nehg'var through what was left of the view screen and wondered...'Is this it?'
((You must comment! Or not, I guess that's ok too...))
((Is this open? I'd love to join in. ))
((Edit: I'm bored so I'm gonna post it anyway. If you want me to delete it in the morning I will. ))
((Edit: I'm bored so I'm gonna post it anyway. If you want me to delete it in the morning I will. ))
((this is cool!, only thing is Sh'riss had dibs on what happens next and there was more to be written in space . If you could take this down, ill roll the ball to sh'riss but id love to have you two collaborate, or you can come in later...this whole thing will eventually lead to the planet's surface. thanks!))
((no worries...coming down now ))