The McKenzie's Attack

The McKenzie’s troubles had been solved, and the crew managed to bite back. They jumped to the Childrens fleet’s position and destroyed one of their escorts.

Crist tapped his panel, “Jolan, status.”

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Jolan tapped his comm. badge, “We managed to get the door to the computer room open, I’m sending in one of my officers. We should restore normal control to all systems in a moment.”

He closed the channel, and spoke up, "Noble there's still a containment field up. Use your Borg implants to adapt to the fields frequency and pass on through.”

The pale man with Borg implants nodded and placed right hand on the force field. Anyone there could see the field reacting and holding the man’s hand back. A moment passed, and then Noble’s hand began to pass through, slowly. As a few more seconds passed, the movement of his hand passing through the force field became greater. Noble closed his eyes, and stepped through the shield.

Noble was a liberated Borg, and because of that, he had to breath. He struggled to breathe, while in the computer room, as the air was extremely thin. He managed to reach the main console, there in the room, and began tapping away. A moment later the force field, in the doorway, lowered and the sound of air rushed in. Noble fell to the floor, kneeling, taking in the air that had just reentered the room.

The MACO team entered and secured the area. Jolan kneeled down to check the vital signs of the engineer who caused the problem. He was dead. Jolan rose, walked over the Noble, and kneeled again placing a hand on Noble’s shoulder. “Nice work. You should head to sickbay.”

Noble spoke to his commanding officer, “No sir, I’ll finish up here.”

Noble rose after regaining his breathe and worked the console once more. It only took him a few seconds and spoke. “Sir, whatever happened, most of the systems are already back under our control. I’ve disabled, what the intruder did, so we can return to normal systems.”

Jolan patted Noble’s shoulder and tapped his comm. badge, “Captain, the Computer control room is secured. All tampering has been reversed, and the intruder is dead.”

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"My Lord!" cried the Tactical officer on the HCS Prophecy, "they've already taken out our Jem'Hadar escort!"

"What!?" roared N'Eligahn as he spun around toward the officer, his anger unfairly focused in his direction. "How is that possible?" Just a few moments before it had seemed like the little ship was going to be lost in the anomaly forever. In fact, he had recently been on that ship and he knew it did not have the capabilities just demonstrated. "Shields up, red alert!"

"It appears, my friend, that they still have some tricks we haven't planned for," came the quiet voice of the Prophet from within his hooded robe, as he stared curiously out at the image now appearing on the screen.

N'Eligahn shot a concerned glance toward his counterpart, Ty'Reynyk. Without words they confirmed each others' doubts at the apparent admiration their prophet was showing toward the heretics.

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Crist responded, “Good work.”

When he finished speaking, Doctor Kinstar, entered the bridge and moved over to Snowfire. Crist turned his attention to the front. “Hughes evasive maneuvers. Shran open a channel to the children. Let’s try to talk to them.”

The chances are low that they would talk, since we took out one of their escorts, but it’s worth a try. Crist thought to himself. Crist straighten up and spoke, “This is Captain Crist, of the McKenzie. We have reports that you attacked the USS Republic. Come to a stop, and prepare to be boarded.”

Although it's not diplomatic, I think its gone far beyond that. Crist thought.

At the familiar voice, Sisko had the second attack in as many hours in front of all the bridge crew and had to be led away by Ty'Reynyk back to his quarters. The officers on the bridge looked around and exchanged concerned glances, but one icy stare from General N'Eligahn made them all return their gaze to their duties. N'Eligahn sat in the Commander's chair and nodded to the Tactical officer to open communications.

"How wonderful to see you again, Captain," he said. "It would be my pleasure to personally show you the path to paradise... the gift given to us by our Preservers. Instead of those nasty boarding parties, why don't you come by yourself and we'll have ourselves a nice, civil discussion."

Crist looked at the view screen as if he was hallucinating. "NEligahn? How did you..." Crist stopped himself. He took a moment to recompose himself. "Well I'm rather surprised, Commander. But I believe I said, prepare to be boarded. I will not be joining them. Lower your shields, this doesn't have to get ugly."

N'Eligahn's expression changed from false pleasantry to anger as he responded, "You should know we will never back down. This is our salvation, and if you interfere you will be cut down with all the rest of the unbelievers." And with that, he signaled to cut communications.

"Tell our other escort to come about and hold fast, bow to our stern. They're going to want to maneuver around behind where our weapons are weakest, but we won't give them the opportunity. Maquis Raider should take a stand at starboard. Fire all phasers; target their weapons systems first," he ordered.

As the Hideki-class maneuvered in full reverse around behind the Prophecy, the shots from the Prophecy streaked out and began hammering against the McKenzie's shields.

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Sorripto worked frantically to realign power to navigations as the ship rattled he yelled down to the lower level.

“Report”

“Sir the bridge reports that we are being fired at by two ships from the children.”

Sliding down the rails Sorripto glanced in the direction of Chief Reichman and nodded slowly. No words exchanged but Sorripto’s said everything… it was time. Chief Reichman nodded back and ran over to a power relay removing its cover. He began to frantically isolate the power relays to the ships weapons and shields. Sorripto called the few crewman left in main engineering over to him.

“Listen up. Chief, Ensign Chan, and myself will stay here I want everyone else to report to secondary battle stations. We need to be ready for all catastrophes.”

As the Cardassian turned to pick up a PADD the rest of the Engineering crew left main engineering for their secondary stations. Picking up the PADD Sorripto nearly dropped it as the ship rocked again from another barrage of weapons fire. Looking at the ensign before him Sorripto spoke.

“Chan you were on the scanning crew in the lockout room correct?”

“Yes Sir. I ran the tri area scans for evidence.”

“Did you find anything?”

“Honestly sir I did, but it was what we expected. There was Bajoran DNA on the console and the panel. The intruder must have cut himself because there was a lot of traces of Bajoran DNA fragments.”

Sorripto raised an eyebrow slightly and opened a drawer in his desk.

“What do you mean a lot of traces?”

“Well Sir we never detected any life signs and the only evidence we have was from the residual traces which were strong enough that even if the intruder was not Bajoran our external sensors would have been unable to identify them.”

Reaching into the desk drawer Sorripto laughed.

“So what are you saying you proved the man in there was Bajoran. Should we not be looking for him instead?”

“Well no Sir security is already on it. It is just it was too cut and paste sir. I mean he bypassed your programming lockouts, which are the most complex I have ever seen, he bypassed security protocols and then managed to beam out of a space that was shielded.”

Sorripto raised an eyebrow as he thumbed through the drawer listening as the young ensign continued.

“What I am saying Sir if you want my honest opinion is there is no real evidence that shows the saboteur was Bajoran…”

The scream of phaser fire silenced Ensign Chan mid sentence as he fell to the ground. Walking slowly behind him Chief Reichman smiled while holstering a hand phaser.

“That’s because he wasn’t.”

Shaking his head at the Chief Sorripto stepped over the fallen ensign. Walking to the power relay console Sorripto pushed a few keys and spoke.

“Computer activate protocol file name children authorization Sorripto alpha alpha zero one zero.”

Looking up at the lights Sorripto smiled as the lights dimmed and panels in main engineering popped and sparked. The indicators showed the shields and weapons were being powered down it would only be a few more moments before the bridge noticed.

“Shall we depart old friend? One last thing before we go.”

Pointing up a blue diode in the top corner of his office Sorripto signaled for the phaser Chief Reichman was carrying and upon grabbing it fired at the diode destroying it.

“Internal sensor designed for weapons fire they usually work but I scrambled them. The bridge will show weapons fire in every space. I would say that should keep them busy for a while.”

Gesturing towards the side hatch out of main Engineering Sorripto waved.

“After you old friend.”

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As the Children's ships opened fire on the McKenzie, Crist motioned to Hughes, "Hughes, evasive maneuvers. Shran return fire, take out their escorts first, and then will finish off by disabling that command ship.

The McKenzie began to attack once more.

"Hughes, try to get behind them." Crist ordered.

"No go sir, their making that impossible." Hughes reported.

"Damn, Shran, make your shots count, we can't let loose any stray shots." Crist said. 'Their convoy is right behind them, if anything gets through, those civilians are toast.' Crist thought.

"Down one Hideki, targeting the last escort. There, maquis raider gone. All escorts destroyed." Shran spoke.

"Good work, now let's disable that Galor." Crist said with a smile.

"Sir, I'm losing power to the weapons, torpedo launchers are now offline. Now the shields are failing." Shran reported.

"What's going on?"Crist demanded an answer."

"I'm not sure, it seems power has been diverted." Shran replied.

Crist tapped his side panel, "Engineering, we are losing power to our weapons and shields, what's going on down there."

There was no answer.

"Engineering report." Crist ordered.

"Sir, Shields are about to fail." Shran warned.

"What about our armor generators, have they been affected?" Crist asked.

"Checking, no sir, we still have control over them." Shran responded.

The ship shock violently, as weapons fire penetrated the weaken shields.

"Activate them now." Crist shouted.

As the McKenzie, continued to get battered by the Children's Galor, the shields failed, and the appearance of armor began appearing on the hull of the McKenzie.

"Hughes continue with the evasive maneuvers." Crist said, 'N'Eligahn, he knows this ship. He knows the weakness of this armor. Should I continue the attack or back off.' Cirst thought. "Shran continue to fire, disable that Galor fast." Crist ordered.

Crist then tapped his side panel, "Jolan, get your team to Engineering. Find out what's going on down there."

Jolan voice came over the comm, "Aye sir, we're on our way."

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The clanking of the armor extending could be heard throughout the hull of the ship. Confused Chief Reichman looked over at Sorripto.

“You did not disable the armor?”

Sorripto laughed.

“Of course not, the ship needs some kind of defense. The truth is I do not trust our friends in the children not to kill them. The shields dropped first and by now the weapons have failed. There will be no boarding parties right away, but the day is lost for her.”

“The day should be lost, but you left the armor online. Now she can repel boarding parties and possibly get the systems working again.”

“Not today Chief. The weapons and shields are fried, they do not have the parts to repair them right away, and the lockout on the replicators to produce what they need will keep them busy for a while. This is not my first run through taking a ship out from the inside.”

Patting the bulkhead Sorripto continued.

“I have had free range over all her systems for years. There is not a circuit panel, relay, or isolinear chip I am not familiar with. I took her apart one piece at a time and have everything set up exactly as it should be. Even our telepathic friends will have no luck with my lockouts and disabling.”

Confused Chief Reichman raised an eyebrow.

“They were able to do some damage to the navigational lockout.”

Smiling and shaking his head Sorripto motioned for the Chief to keep walking.

“Chief that was a system interface lockout. I physically destroyed relays and isolinear circuits; there is no unhacking an explosion.”

Nodding the Chief and Sorripto moved along through the corridor stopping at the first access panel. Pulling the cover off Chief Reichman flipped through the chips and wires. Finishing the realignment Reichman reached into the pouch he was carrying and placed a small blue device onto the panel and replaced the cover. Signaling for Sorripto to follow the Chief laughed as they continued on.

“Well that should fix that problem. They will be in for a rude awakening if they try and realign weapons power through auxiliaries. I just feel bad for whoever opens that panel.”

Sorripto paused slowly.

“You planted a bomb? That is what those are I knew they looked familiar. You are using tricobolt detonators.”

“Exactly and they are tuned to the same frequency as our isolinear matrix. Poor souls will never pick that up with a tricorder.”

Sorripto signaled for Chief Reichman to continue on as he pulled off another panel in the access corridor.

“I will disable the secondary systems you keep on with the auxiliary matrix; we will meet at the rendezvous point.”

As the Chief turned the corner Sorripto cut the wires and removed two isolinear cards. Stepping back Sorripto removed his Cardassian phase pistol and fired a low power burst into the panel. After the sparks subsided Sorripto replaced the cover and looked to see if the Chief was around. When it was apparent to Sorripto that he was alone he ran over to the access cover that was rigged. Using his fingernail he carved a small symbol in the corner of the panel, small but unmistakable, it was the chemical symbol for tricobalt.

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Jolan and his MACO team rushed into Main Engineering. They moved through the room quickly scanning the room with there eyes. Within a moment, they could see the room was empty.

Jolan tapped his comm badge, "Captain, Engineering is empty sir. There are also sever damage down here." He motioned to Noble, the borg officer. "We'll see if we can get systems back online."

With a quick look over, noble nodded to show, the systems were done for.

"Sir bad news, who ever did this knew what they were doing, there is no way we can get this up and running in time."

Crist voice could be heard over the comms, "Jolan find who did this, NOW."

Jolan, "With pleasure, sir." He closed the comms, "Noble you stay here, see what you can do. You and you are with me," while pointing to 2 officers, one of who was the jem'hadar officer.

Jolan and his 2 officers left engineering to attempt to catch the saboteur. They jogged through the corridor, when they noticed a engineering officers standing next to a panel. He pulled off the panel to preform repairs but before he could place the panel on the floor, the opening exploded. The explosion blow the MACO's backwards and to the ground. Alarms began blaring, and as the 3 MACO's looked were the engineer once stood, they could see the corridor was charred and scattered with debris. Beams had fallen, making passing through this section of the corridor difficult. Once of the MACO's noticed the panel that was just removed, he examined it, then showed it the Jolan.

"Who the hell marked this with a tricobalt symbol. Bet it was the guy who planted the bomb, cocky SOB." Jolan rose, "Lets go, we'll take the other corridor over. We need to kill this guy."

The three MACO's ran off to catch up with the saboteur.

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The bridge shook, "What the hell was that?" Crist asked.

Shran spoke, "Explosion, deck 2. Sir it was in the middle of the ship."

"How the hell did that happen?"

Shran, "Unsure sir, what. Jolan has reported it was a bomb, must have been the saboteur."

"Shran i need those weapons back."

Shran, "I'm working on it sir, my teams are running power lines from the impulse reactors. It will be crowded in the corridors but we should get minimal power to the weapons."

Suddenly a beep went off on Shran's screen, "There, we have Starboard Pulse Phaser 1 online, but only at 50% power. That's the best we can do.

"Good work, Hughes attack pattern Kirk omega. Shran fire at will." Crist said.

The Starboard weapons port opened up, and a few streams of the pulse phaser fire let out.

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"Theoretical discussion aside, I think we can leave the exact specifics of what the three of us and the Lieutenant did until we're out of immediate danger." Ensign Nolanis May stated calmly to her subordinates, brushing a few razor thin strands of hair out of her grey eyes. "Jaylen, Tanya, see if you can't...inconvenience our apparent saboteurs." She ordered.

"With pleasure, ma'am." Tanya replied, as they snatched up two somewhat modified tricorders. "Engineering went down first, and there seems to be a total penetration of ship systems. Makes the responsible parties rather obvious if you think about it." She tapped a quick sequence on the device's keypad, and smiled slightly. "Got him. He's got ship systems - well, most of them at least - I'll give him that. But there's more than one way to trace someone. Especially on a ship this small. Jaylen, you good?" She asked, as the woman in question returned from another section of the lab with something that, had it been observed by someone half blind, could have theoretically been thought to be a phaser rifle.

"Good, ma'am." She acknowledged, her voice low and smooth. "Lead the way." The two vanished out of the lab, heading in the direction of the two engineers, and Nolanis turned to Keladry.

"How is she doing?" Her voice coloured slightly with concern. Keladry shook her head.

"She seems to be all right, but her mental presence is severely reduced. She's still got shields, but that's about all." The vulcan hybrid sighed, shaking her head. "She's out for the foreseeable."

"Damn." Nolanis blew out a breath then straightened. "All right, I guess this last bit is up to us then. Daniel, do we still have full power?"

The Betazoid replied, his lips curved in a small smile. "The lockouts disabled the weapons and shields and scrambled most other security systems. But they left us alone." He tapped a few keys on the panel in front of him and nodded sharply, his next statement victorious. "We've got enough for Clean Sweep."

"Good. Stand by to initiate, I'm going to fill in the Captain." She tapped her commbadge and spoke. "Captain Crist, this is Ensign May. We've been monitoring the situation and...we have something for you. I hesitate to give the specifics over an open channel, but suffice to say that if it works it will disable the remaining threat to the operation in a non-lethal manner. If it doesn't, it'll do nothing. All we need is the right positioning." She paused for a moment, then. "We also have a two person team tracking the saboteurs movements. I'll relay their movements to the MACO teams."

"Orders?"

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Crist tapped his panel to respond. He had to take a moment to think what to say. At this point he didn't really know who to trust, but he shook off that idea. "Do what you need to do, to get my ship back. And inform the MACO's of anything about the saboteurs. Crist out."

Crist turned his attention to the front. "How long will it take to take out their shields.

Shran spoke without turning around, "Sir, it will take around 45 minutes. Our armor will fail well before that. I estimate armor failure in 23 minutes."

Crist frowned, "Great." with sarcasm. "Lets hope our engineer can fix this, before that happens."

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The hum of a transporter beam filled the corridor as Sorripto and Chief Reichman materialized near the entrance to shuttle bay 3. Looking over at the Chief Sorripto pointed towards the door and spoke.

“You go on and secure us a shuttle and wait for my signal I will go and override the controls to allow us to leave.”

Nodding at each other Sorripto and Chief Reichman parted ways. Sorripto could hear the Chief opening an emergency hatch as he ran down the corridor.

Coming upon an engineering station Sorripto got to work disabling the control fields around the shuttle bay. The access indicator alarms buzzed as Sorripto was denied access.

Hmm they seem to have locked me out of the system. I guess they figured out Engineering was deserted… took them long enough. Sorripto laughed to himself. The advantage of programming the access database is that I know everyone’s information.

Working away at the console Sorripto transferred power through a series of back grids that he had created diverting power away from the areas around the shuttle bay. As Sorripto worked to program a loophole in the targeting matrix a voice called out from behind him.

“Freeze! Sir please step away from the console and place your hands on your head.”

Looking over his shoulder Sorripto saw a three person security detachment standing behind him.

“Step away from the console.”

Laughing Sorripto raised his hands and slowly placed his hands on his head. As one of the security officers reached for his combadge Sorripto lunged out at the closest officer elbowing him across the face and taking his phaser firing shots knocking down the other two security personnel. Aiming the phaser at the bleeding officer on the ground in front of him Sorripto smiled.

“Do me a favor young man. Tell Holmes that Watson sends his regards.”

Showing the bleeding officer the stun setting Sorripto fired knocking him unconscious. Reaching into his pocket Sorripto removed his Section 31 medallion and tossed it in on the floor. As he walked away he removed his phase pistol and fired a shot destroying the panel behind him.

Sitting in the shuttle cockpit Chief Recihman sat impatiently as Sorripto came through the shuttle bay entrance. Running over to the shuttle Sorripto ran up the back and before he could join the Chief in the cockpit the doors had closed and the shuttle bay doors began to open.

“Perfect timing as always Chief.”

As the doors began to close again the Chief and Sorripto ran to the Shuttles transporter pad and with the press of button a blue hue enveloped them and they were both gone.

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Jolan and his MACO team managed to cross to the next corridor. They had been running through deck 2, in order to catch the intruders/saboteurs, that had cause havoc throughout the ship. They finally ended up at transporter room 2, where they met 2 security officers.

Jolan, "Report."

Security Officer, "No one's come through this way."

Jolan, "Damn it, where could they have gone. Security teams cut off all access to other areas of deck 2, this was the only place they could go."

Just then a voice came over the comms, it was the science officer ensign May. "MACO team, we have detected a site to site transport, they should be outside shuttle bay 3."

Jolan, "Damn, why can't they just give up." Turning to the Security team guarding the transporter room, "Stay on guard." Then Jolan started off running, "Lets go team."

Several minutes later the MACO team made it out side Shuttle bay 3. There rifles up searching for enemies. They noticed 3 security officer unconscious on the ground, one of then with a bloody nose; outside the door that leads to the shuttle bay. Jolan gave the a signal and the moved in quickly, one at a time. Another security officer was found inside, this one dead. The shuttlepod was still there, so Jolan motions for the MACO's to circle around the back to trap the intruders. They opened the shuttlepods hatch and when hatch was parallel to the floor, the MACO circled to the back to get a clear shot at whoever was in the shuttlepod.

Jolan, "Empty? Where the hell are they?"

Jolan tapped his comm badge, "Captain Crist, we seemed to have lost the intruders, but we'll keep looking."

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Crist sat in this center chair with a frown. "Understood."

He turned his attention forward. "Whats the status of weapons and the armor?"

Shran spoke, "We still only have the one cannon, armor failure at 14 minutes.

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Nolanis muttered a highly antiquated swear word as news of the two saboteurs filtered down through channels, and her fist clenched tight as it thudded into the table in front of her.

"Daniel?" She asked tightly, heavily controlled emotion crackling beneath her words. "Are we ready?"

"One more sequence." The night-eyed male responded, fingers tapping quickly on the board in front of him, realigning pieces of the science bay's somewhat considerably enhanced energy grid. Snowfire had done a lot of work on the lab to make it hers, and one of the multiple pieces of that had been a total rework of the interfaces between the lab and the rest of the ship. She'd done that at about the same time she secured a conduit to the central processing units and isolated the lab's power grid from the rest of the ship. Engineering hadn't even been involved in the rework - most of it only requiring simple adjustments that anyone who graduated the Academy could do - and all the systems and parts had come in filtered through the science requestions system. Most of her team had thought her paranoid, especially when she had ordered them not to pass any details of the alterations on to the other departments. Now though? Now they understood. And were truly thankful that their superior had taken the precautions she had.

"Done." Daniel's hands flicked through one final mad dash of keystrokes, then stilled. "Clean sweep primed."

"All right then." Nolanis tapped her commbade again. "Captain, if you would have Helm bring us to the position we're transmitting now, we are in a position to resolve the current situation." She transmitted a position that brought the McKenzie in under the Prophecy at medium range. It would prevent her from bringing her phasers to bear, but phasers didn't matter for Clean Sweep. It simply needed the correct positioning. "Standing by."

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The hum of the transporter echoed in the transporter room as Sorripto and the Chief materialized on the transporter pad aboard the HCS Prophecy. Nodding to the crewman standing before him Sorripto laughed and slapped Chief Recihman on the back.

"Good to be home eh old friend?"

"So you made it?" replied the Bajoran standing behind transporter controls. "'Her Majesty' was doubtful your plan would succeed," he sighed, referring to Ty'reynyk with a tone of less respect than the sarcastic title he had bestowed on her usually required.

Reichman chuckled to the transporter operator. "Well soon we will be victorious and upon salvation we will not have to deal with the likes of her, or anyone except the Preservers."

A quick bow of the head in reverence to the original farmers who they believed planted the seeds in the Milky Way for all humanoid life halted the three momentarily before they moved on.

Back on the bridge when, Lord N'Eligahn shouted "status", the man at Tactical hastily provided an update. "Sir, if we can keep up this assualt, we'll have broken their hull in approximately 15 minutes. Orders?"

Just then the Operations Officer said, "Sir, we have two new recruits beaming into transporter room two."

"Recruits! I didn't know about any recruits!" he roared, turning back to the Tactical Officer for an explanation.

"S-sir... you ordered not to be disturbed about every little conversion... sir."

"That was before I knew you imbeciles were bringing them onto this ship... the Prophet's ship!"

He turned to Ty'reynyk who was avoiding his line of sight. "Did you know about this!?"

She nodded. "It was an operation to bring some officers over from the McKenzie. There was a human... Reichman... and a cardassian... Sorripto."

"WHAT!?" His fury was palpable as he looked at her with piercing eyes within a flush face topped by bristling head spines.

He ignored her confusion and turned to the security chief. "Take security to transporter room two and detain them!"

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Crist tapped his panel, "Report, Ensign. What is your plan?" Responding to Nolanis plan of action.

"It's...complicated, Captain. And I'd rather not discuss it on a channel that may be compromised. I promise you, we will explain later, but for now you need to trust your science officers. We have a way to fix this. Just get us under the Prophecy." Nolanis replied quickly, nodding once at Daniel. "We'll take care of the rest."

Crist took a moment to think. This was an impossible choice. If they do nothing, the chances of survival was slim, and if those officers were intruders, then it would be over. Either way, things did not look good. Crist took a deep breath and make a decision.

"Do it, do what you need to do to get my ship back."

If they were intruders, then they won't really need Crist permission, to do it. Crist thought, 'I sure hope this is ther right course of action.

"Aye sir." Nolanis replied firmly, tapping the commbadge to close the link. "Daniel?"

"Clear to go."

"Hit it."

As the McKenzie swooped in low beneath the Prophecy, spinning around the warship's powerful phaser blasts, thin beams of shimmering light shot from her deflector dish to impact on the larger ship's shields. Light flickered on the shields, the beams cycling frequency madly until they located and matched that of the shields of the Prophecy.

"Frequency locked, all systems charged." Keladry reported from her station.

"Fire."

Lightning exploded across the stars, shearing cleanly through the frequency blind spot in the shields of the Prophecy and slamming into the ship's hull - rocking it with the sudden impact. Eddies of blue-white energy danced and frolicked along the length of the ship, burning through power conduits, detonating sensor and weapon clusters. And then another bolt of crashed into the reeling ship, hitting it squarely on its engine column. Impulse engines died, warp core crashing into inactivity due to emergency protocols, throwing the vessel on to emergency battery power.

No weapons. No shields. No power other than life support and basic replicator functions. The Prophecy was dead in the water.

Nolanis smiled - a slight edge of ice piercing the satisfaction of a job well done - and then tapped her commbadge again.

"Target neutralised, Captain."

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Crist tapped his side panel, "Understood," then turned to Shran, "Confirm." Crist wanted to make sure before lowering the armor, and sending an assault team on board. Crist was a little paranoid today, but today was a day to double and possibly triple check the security.

Shran checked his station, and spoke, "It's confirmed, the enemy ship is disabled. Their weapons and shields are offline, and their power systems are dark."

"Good," Crist taking a moment to think, "lower the armor. Hughes move us into transporter range." Crist tapped his side panel again, "Jolan, get your team to transporter room 2, it's time." Crist turned to Shran again, once they are over, reactivate the armor, I don't want to take any chances."

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Jolan's team still currently in the Shuttlebay, received the message. "Alright, you heard the man, lets get moving." he then turned to the lead security officer who arrived to the scene after the MACO's. "Need anything else before I go?"

"No no, you do your thing, we'll be fine here. Go get them." the officer said with a smile.

Jolan nodded, with a smile, and started jogging off. He rejoined his team, and they remained jogging through the corridor, on there way to the transporter room. It was if there was a parade on the ship as the MACO's ran through the ship, the crew of the McKenize just stopped working for a moment to watch the MACO's pass. They were off to war.

They finally made it to the transporter room, and they ran up onto the transporter pad. Jolan however didn't step up, he remained off the pad to give a pre-battle speech.

"Men, you know what the mission is, and you know our record. I have no doubt in any of you. In the Navy during World War 2, those who rescue a downed pilot or a crew from a sunken ship, were rewarded ice cream. We'll lets our objective, and maybe the Captain will follow suit. So let's do our jobs, and get our man back." Jolan jumped onto the pad, and spoke, "Move out."

The transporter man nodded, assuming that was the call sign to energize. The MACO team disappeared from the transporter pad.