Riptide (Part III)

Posted on Sunday, 18 April 2021 - 7:14pm by Captain Barret Stillwater & Lieutenant Talarn Zilth & Lieutenant Raith Kolani & Lieutenant JG Harley & Petty Officer 1st Class Siana Ilian

Mission: Operation: Peace or P'Jem
Location: USS Standing Bear | Deck 01 | Bridge
Timeline: 2394

The starship Standing Bear was holding its own against a handful of Andorian battlecruisers albeit not without the skilful piloting of the ship's new Chief Flight Controller, and the help of a few Vomnin vessels which had firepower packed into them. They were dealing a good blow to the Andorians for a bit until more battlecruisers arrived.

Captain Stillwater was still manning the intelligence station and trying to coordinate with the Vomnin when the ship he was communicating with went silent. Sensors confirmed the worst. One of the Vomnin ships had been destroyed. Damn it, he thought to himself silently, but his fist slamming down on the console was a shattering reminder of how Human the crew's Commanding Officer was.

He was a man, not a myth not a legend. He was not without his claws, and though he was known for being rather reserve and quiet, even the stillest of water can experience a tempest. "We just lost one of the Vomnin vessels," he reported, explaining his outburst.

The Standing Bear took a direct hit, a powerful blast from one of the Andorian battlecruisers. It wreaked havoc across the starship, several decks feeling the effects, consoles exploding and workstations draining of power.

Kolani ducked as one of the wall panels near him exploded and sent shattered remains across the bridge, also noticing that several other stations had started to malfunction or overload. "Dammit! We've taken a direct hit on the main hull, somehow that Andorians managed to find a way to weaken the shields in that area," he reported above the din. "We've lost two shield generators and the portside sensor suite is offline, we've also got EPS failures on decks three four and five, with a further loss of power to deck six, they really got us doo this time!"

The report was grim, to say the least, power outages shipwide, and the starship had quickly lost its hum. Shit, the quickest word across the man's mind and soon at the tip of his tongue. Those were the engines.

Harley was struggling. The ship was still moving forward, but his console was only working intermittently. “Captain! I... my console!” The ship started to list to starboard. Harley scrambled to do what he could. “Come on, baby... you can do it...”

"Lieutenant Kolani, preserve as much power as you can. Reroute from weapons, and everything you can, plug it towards life support systems. We can't do shit if we aren't breathing."

Kolani nodded as he began to re-route power to where it was needed, despite the various alerts and lights that were flashing on his console. Looking up at the helm, Kolani confirmed power being routed to the helm. "Harley, see how that helps," he offered.

Harley console sputtered to life again. He gave a little whoop and got the ship back on its course.

Barret Stillwater left the intelligence station that had gone black. It was a losing battle, power needed to go elsewhere to keep them alive yet they were adrift and sitting ducks. If an Andorian battlecruiser decided to take a cheap shot at them now, all souls aboard would likely be dead. "Petty Officer Illian, get down to..." Stillwater then realized that as bad as power was right now, turbolifts were offline. "Take the stairwells and report to Chief Eyelaya in Engineering. Tell her priority is engines after stabilizing life support."

"Aye, Sir," the Trill replied as she hurried off the bridge.

The Captain tapped his combadge out of habit only to have the silence of crickets. It was inoperable, which was reasonable given the unsavoury state of the Standing Bear, and his instructions to Kolani. "Grol!" shouted Stillwater, knowing the yeoman was probably lurking around nearby.

Grol ran forward. "Here, Sir."

A somewhat frustrated Captain was, for once, glad to see his exuberant Yeoman. "The Comm system is mostly offline. I need you to go for a bit of a walk, head down to Sickbay and get Dr. Rose up here once he has things settled down there. I'm calling a meeting and want him there. Then, swing by Engineering and check with Chief Eyelaya. I want a status report on repairs."

"Yes, Sir." He gave a quick salute and was off on his task. He had a mission now and the fact that it took him to Engineering was a bonus. The trip down was not an easy one but he got to sickbay let the doctor know about the meeting and then headed to engineering.

Raith continued to work away at the Ops station, giving it a slam of his fist every now and then to try and coax some more power out of it as he tried his best to make sure that the Captains orders were followed and that as many of the priority systems got as much juice as he could spare. Looking up for a moment at the state of the Bridge, he could tell they had a big job on their hands.


Captain Stillwater had begin to pace around his bridge. He knew that there had to be a warzone out there, but they were as blind as could be. He was sure there were people below deck glued to the observation areas.