The Hunt Is On

Posted on Wed Oct 22nd, 2025 @ 8:15am by Commander Kyle Reece & Conglomerate (Reece) & Daise'Arrain Olmex Thikoho [Reece] & Captain Gary Taylor & Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant Anna Esquivias & Lieutenant N'vok Holv & Commodore Phoenix Lalor-Richardson & Lieutenant JG Nerinath zh'Rhilror [Lalor]

Mission: Season 6: Episode 6: Conglomerate
Location: Circinus Galaxy, outside Zynari-controlled space, Galatonian Hunting Pack
Timeline: MD 1 / 1500 hrs
3786 words - 7.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The darkened bridge was filled with a tense energy as the Galatonians watched their prey exiting Zynari space. From his command seat, the Alpha growled an order. "Standby to en..."

His order was interrupted by an alarm beeping loudly. His head snapped towards his science office. "REPORT!"

The young warrior was already working his console. "Alpha!" He started, his face going slack in suprise. "The..the prey just created some kind of energy vortex, and entered it, speeding away from us. Also, as they did do, the seemed to have dragged the vessel that had been shadowing them, with some kind of energy beam that I am unfamiliar with." He doublechecked the readings, then looked up at his Commanding Officer. "According to our long-range sensors, they have traveled nearly twenty leagues away!"

The Alpha's eyes grew large as he took in the information. He then spun on his Tactical officer. "Activate battle stations!" He then looked back forward as he continued issuing orders. "Signal all ships, advance on hunt! Awaken the hounds and prepare to launch breaching pods! Helm, lay in pursuit course!"

As his orders were carried out, the four ships of his hunting pack entered subspace, heading after the Elysium. In about twenty minutes, they finally caught up to the prey vessels and re-entered normal space, surrounding the two ships.

As soon as the ships reached their locations, a dozen smaller craft detached from the pack ships, and screamed towards the Elysium. Each craft was cylindrical in shape, with pointed bows that were tipped with a spinning drill head.

=== ELYSIUM BRIDGE===

Kyle's short range sensors were suddenly screaming their warnings. When he looked at them, he reported quickly. "I've got subspace disturbances forming all around us, Commodore! I've never seen readings like before!"

[USS Elysium – Bridge]

::The ship shuddered violently as the Galatonian pack re-entered normal space, surrounding them.::

When the ships appeared, Kyle called out the information as the sensors picked it up. "According to the information Mister Teevs provided us, those are Galatonian ships. There's pne cruiser and three destroyers!" He paused as new information came through. "New contacts! Twelve smaller craft have separated from the ships and are on an intercept course with us!" He changed the image on the viewer from the large battleships surrounding them, to focus on one of the smaller craft.

They were roughly cylindrical in shape, with a pointed bow. The bow itself, had a large spinning drill. "Those look like breaching pods!" Kyle called out.

“Red Alert! All hands to battle stations!” Phoenix's voice cut through the chaos, firm and commanding. “Helm, evasive manoeuvres. Tactical, raise shields and bring weapons to bear. Ops, get me damage control teams on standby.”

Anna worked furiously at her console, fingers moving over the controls even as she raised her damage control teams. "Damage control teams, standby. We are being boarded." She nodded grimly at their acknowledgement. "Damage control on standby, Commodore!"

Neri's fingers flew over the controls. “Aye, Commodore! Adjusting course, attempting to break formation.”

Kyle was already working as before Phoenix finished speaking. "Shields up, offensive and defensive weapons activated." On the screen, the area of space around the Elysium suddenly filled with weapons fire, as the point defense batteries began firing. One of the pods was hit and exploded, the other eleven took only minor damage. "Commodore, I suggest we release the warbird. She's dragging us down."

"Do it!" came the reply.

N'vok was in his office making sure everything was intact after the transition. He looked up as the red alert flashed and checked the data streams. "Science, secure all systems and move to shelter," he ordered.

Phoenix stood, her jaw set “Reroute auxiliary power to structural integrity! We hold them off as long as we can. Civilians to secure zones!"

"Yes, Commodore," Anna said.

When the pods reached the Elysium's shields, they were caught briefly, before pushing through. Each one then slammed onto the hull at various locations on Elysium, the spinning drill heads digging into the solid duranium hull plating as if it was thin aluminum.

::The bridge shook again as the pods slammed against the Elysium’s duranium plating. The sound of drilling reverberated through the decks.::

As soon as the pods latched on, the front hatches irised open and the hounds poured out, attacking anyone nearby, killing everyone in front of them.

As soon as the pods connected with the hull, new alarm klaxoned began ringing through the ship. "Breach! Intruder alert!! We have breaches on decks five, eight, ten, fifteen and twenty!"

"We have incoming!" Neri called out.

Phoenix replied. her tone hard “Then we fight them deck by deck if we have to. Keep me updated on all incursions. Tactical—arm security teams with heavy phasers. Science—find me anything we can use to disrupt those pods before more attach!”

"On it," replied N'vok. "Run negatively phased gravitons through the outer hull's stabilization matrix, it should at least slow them and disrupt their entry."

On the main viewscreen, more hounds poured from the pods, slaughtering anyone in their path. The Commodore’s knuckles whitened on the armrests of her chair, but her voice remained steady. The Commodore spoke firmly. “This ship has been through hell and back. We’ll not fall today. Hold the line, people—Elysium stands!”

As the orders were issued to repel the enemy, the ship's civilian population was hurriedly moved to the emergency bunkers, some being transported site-to-site, by Avalon, if there were enemy forces in the way.

Gary moved to the small weapons locker at the rear of his bridge, He refuse to worry about LL or Naxea. LL would be looked after and Naxea was a warrior. Opening the locker he took the cache of phasers and began to pass them out, He took one, one to Kyle, one to Phoenix. Also to Rin. His face was set in a grim line. He would defend the ship and crew or die fighting.

Kyle took the offered phaser rifle, leaving the one that was stored under his console where it was for now. He then ensured that the weapon was set on full power. This was not a battle to take prisoners, not when they were being invaded and there were reports of the crew and unlucky civilians being torn to bits.

In the intelligence blister, Rin’s displays lit up in a shower of information: the ships outside, the breaching pods, the movement of the invaders inside Elysium. They were fast, and they were vicious. And she recognized them from the Arena. This wasn’t going to be a takeover. It was going to be a slaughter.

She looked to Nicholas Reece, who he was busy at his station. “Nicholas, take the central console,” she said, stepping away from it. “Find that Romulan ship. Convince them to get into this fight. If they’re looking for a way home, we can’t provide it if we’re dead and the Elysium is in pieces. Coordinate with Security and the Marines. Lock the Galtonians inside the turbolifts. Trap them behind bulkheads. And secure the door behind me. I need you all here. You’re going to be Elysium’s eyes and ears.”

No holas nodded as he stepped over from his station. "Aye, Ma'am," he said respectfully as he started to work the console. Working with his brother up on the bridge, he locks the sensors on the Romulan warbird, located thirty thousand meters after of Elysium’s keel. He sent a message to them, looking to open communications.

He received nothing but static. After sending another message, requesting an open dialog, and getting nothing, he turned his focus to working with security locking down all sensitive areas under additional shielding. Looking up as Rin hurried out of the blister, he pressed a control, closing and sealing the door. He then looked around to the rest of the intelligence staff. "Draw phasers from the locker," he tilted his head towards the weapons locker. "Ensure the power settings are set to maximum. We dont know how stun will work on those beasts."

Rin jogged up the stairs which led onto the bridge, where she wordlessly took the offered rifle from Gary. Like Kyle, she made sure it was set to kill. She then summarized what she had just ordered Intel to do, adding “I’m interfacing with Avalon and the internal sensors. I can keep track of their locations.”

Like Kyle and Rin, Gary checked his rifle. This wasn't a fight, this was a war, a war of survival and he intended in seeing the Elysium crew come out on top. "Up to the minute updates Rin, if we can guess where they're headed, we can stop them from advancing farther. We have an advantage in we know the Elysium. They don't, and we can use that knowledge to our advantage."

Phoenix slung the rifle over her shoulder and kicked the side of her chair, and pulled out two long swords.

"It's my duty to point out all four officers of the command department are in this room," Rin said. "Assuming that point is going to be ignored, I can tell you the closest enemy forces are on deck 5, and that the captain is going to have to get a new dining room."

At his console, Kyle continued issuing commands to both Security and Tactical personnel. The powerful array of weapons that Elysium possessed were pouring into the space between themselves and the attacking ships.

Suddenly, one of the smaller Galatonian ships exploded into an enormous cloud of vapor and debris...but not from the Elysium’s weaponry. The Galatonian ships had been destroyed by the Romulans!

Kyle's eyes snapped to the screen, then back at his console. "Commodore! That wasn't us! It was the Romulans!" He then flinched as an indicator started beeping. Looking over to Phoenix, he said, "The Romulans are hailing us, Ma'am." The next words he uttered were words he had never thought he'd say. "They are asking for a truce between us."

"if I overstepped my authority, I apologize, ma'am," Rin said to Lalor.

As Anna approached the others, Rin pushed her rifle into Anna's hands and grabbed another for herself.

"Thank you, ma'am," Anna said to Rin as she checked the setting. Set to kill. Her expression was grim. She had never been a combat specialist but every officer was trained to defend their ship at need. She was scared but she was also ready to do her duty as she scanned the bridge.

"No need for apologies at this time. Lets hear from them." Phoenix said.

"Open hailing frequencies Kyle. Let's hear what they have to say or what they want for this truce to take place." Gary replied. Thinking that they could use all the allies they could get and with the Romulans help they both had a chance of surviving this encounter.

Kyle nodded, then opened the communication channel. The view of the Galatonian ships switched to show the bridge of a Romulan warbird, the dark shadows highlighted with shades of greens and deep purple. Sitting in the command seat was a serious looking Romulan male, his eyes hard as diamond. =/\=Starfleet vessel Elysium, I am Daise'Arrain Olmex Thikoho. I am the current Riov of the GSN Havraha.=/\= He paused a moment, then continued. =/\=While there is much we have to discuss, now is not the time. I am offering a truce between us, while we are both lost in this galaxy together.=/\=

The name Havraha sent chills through Phoenix and she refused to let it show. "I am not one to turn such assistance down." She said to the tall Romulan on the screen. "After we deal with these... aliens, I would very much like to speak with you about how you are the Riov."

On the screen, Olmex simply nodded one curt motion of his head. Then the channel was closed. The image was replaced with the other two smaller Galatonian vessels miving to engage the warbird, as they started firing actual ballistic missiles and some kind of rail guns. The larger vessel, began firing at Elysium, seemingly trying to disable her. The lager vessels weaponry was a bit more advanced, as it began firing yellow particle beams at Elysium. On the forward bow, a large hatch could be seen opening, and a weapon extended. It's tip began to glow with an eerie bluish light.

Before anyone can react to the Romulan's words, the aft port side turbolift door explodes inward, killing a science crewman who was standing near it. Through the smoke, a large hound leapt into the bridge, killing a security crewman, by sinking it's fangs into his throat and ripping his head off with one powerful twist of its massive head. Through the smoke, shot out a spear-like projectile, piercing the rear of Gary's seat, thankfully missing him by a mere two inches.

Phoenix ignored the screams from junior personnel and took aim at the hound. She fired but it missed because it moved. "Cin baur na bel- slowlui a in naeg!" she cursed in her native tongue and bent and picked up one of her swords. "TAKE IT DOWN!" She yelled.

Anna took careful aim at the hound. Phoenix was close, preparing to combat it in melee, and other officers were right behind it. She couldn't just go firing wildly. She thought she had it carefully lined up and fired but the beast was in constant motion. Her phaser beam seared the deck right where it's hind paw had been.

As soon as the bridge was breached, Kyle activated the security program set in place to lock out the command functions from the bridge. Now, only The Commodore, Captain Taylor or Avalon could unlock the systems. That done, he picked up his phaser rifle and took aim, firing a blast of energy towards the gaping maw of the turbolift, hiting one of the beasts as it was trying to climb onto the bridge from the turbolift shaft. In all his years of combat, he had never seen anything as terrifying as what he was looking at right now. He clamped down on his fear for his children and the rest of his family and friends, and focused on doing his job of protecting those around him and expelling any enemy forces from the Elysium.

Nerinath meanwhile was busy trying to keep the Ely moving away from the attackers. She was cursing in Andorian. She looked at the Commodore and XO. "If the Romulans stick close I can try to jump us away!" she called out.

Gary rolled out of his seat, aiming his phaser while tracking the massive beast. His shots joining others to take the beast down. He rubbed his his hand across his face and looked to Neri. "Do it Neri"

Neri nodded and sent a tight beam communication to the Romulan ship as she spooled up the Slipstream drive.

If the moments after the explosion, Rin had rained phaser fire down on anything climbing out of the turbolift. Once the first beast climbed free, however, things got more complicated as friends and foes alike struggled in the smoke. While she had, of course, trained for such a scenario, this sort of intense, close quarters fighting was not her wheelhouse. She found a target and kept firing.

From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a massively clawed hand raking toward her, and she threw up her rifle to parry it away. While the move probably saved her life, deflecting the worst of the blow, the claws still sliced into her. She went down to one knee, and for a moment there was a stalemate, the creature bearing down on her while the rifle held it at bay.

She spied a blade hanging from the thing's waist. She pulled it from its scabbard and thrust it between its armored plates. It howled and pulled back, giving her room to move, and she swung at it twice more. Phaser fire came in just then, slamming into the creature's head several times.

She was vaguely aware of someone asking if she was ok. "I'm fine," she assured them, getting her feet back under her. She heard Neri and Gary preparing another jump, and Rin dragged herself toward the pilot to play bodyguard in case one of these things went for her. Rin lifted the rifle with shaking hands, ready to shoot anything that managed to slip by the others at the turbolift.

===========
Outside, the Romulans were busy dealing with the last of the three smaller enemy vessels. Unfortunately, their shields were not as strong as the Elysium's, and a few of the missiles and several rail gun rounds struck the hull. The resulting damage spread across many of the Havrah's systems, including her cloaking device, rendering the system nonfunctional.

Olmex commanded that all emergency power be routed through the main disruptor banks. The resulting blast nearly incinerated the smaller enemy vessel.

============

As the Elysium started to pinwheel away from the main enemy vessel, the glowing cannon fired. The beam sliced right through the Elysium’s shields and struck her port warp nacelle, deactivating it, and many sections around it, with a massive electromagnetic blast.

On the bridge, Neri cursed. And cursed even more. "We are dead in the water!" she called out. She glanced at Rin. "You look like hell Commander" She said to the Intel chief.

Kyle shot the last creature that was standing on the bridge, as it lunged at Commodore Laoro-Richardson. Seeing the attack reminded him of the last time he failed to protect two former Elysium commanders. He would not fail a third time. Shouting a battle cry, he poured phaser fire into the beast, until its shield failed and the beam struck its body, vaporizing it in a matter of heart beats.

Anna lowered her phaser rifle as the last of the beasts on the bridge went down. She wasn't sure she'd gotten any direct hits, but battles were complex things. She took a breath but didn't yet relinquish the weapon as she returned to her station. This wasn't over. "Damage control, status," she said in a tightly controlled tone she hoped might be mistaken for calm

Gary silently surveyed the carnage on the bridge before turning to Anna "Go Anna." He replied, waiting to hear how bad the damage was to the ship/ He could see the damage to the crew in the bodies that lay around the bridge and the blood splattered deck and bulkheads,.

When the last creature was dead, Kyle ordered the last security crewman left on the bridge to post herself at the turbolift opening, watching the shaft for any other enemy troops that may try to attack from that direction. He then returned to his station and asked Avalon to unlock the security block he had put in place moments before.

As soon ad that was done, the viewscreen came alive, showing the last remaining enemy vessel approaching Elysium from the weakened port side aft quarter of the ship, where its ion blast has neutralized the defensive systems. "The enemy is attempting to latch onto us!" He called out as the image showed several metallic tendrils begin to shoot out from the enemy ships, striking theunprorective section of the hull, and latch on. The enemy ship then began pulling itself towards the Elysium.

"Reeling us in or them them to us. "Gary observed. "He gripped the phaser rifle even tighter. "The Elysium and this crew have been through so much already we will not falter or fall now." He vowed.

Rin accessed the ship's internal sensors again. "Closest boarding party is 12 decks down and engaged with the Marines. We have a moment to breathe," she reported, lowering her own rifle, shifting its weight to her right hand. Her left arm was trashed. Diagnostics reported that no bones were broken, but the flesh was bleeding and mangled. She bled from her left cheek as well, although that was superficial.

She dropped into an empty chair before her legs could buckle, letting go of the rifle. "It looks worse than it is," she assured people. "The nanites will shut down the bleeding."

Kyle worked his controls, attempting to lock weapons on the enemy ship. "They're too close for torpedoes! Firing phasers!" On the screen, several red beams of energy lanced out from Elysium. Unfortunately, due to the system failures along that portion of the ship, most of the hits were only glancing blows at best.

Suddenly, blasts of green energy started to sever the various central that had latched onto the ship. The Romulans had locked a tractor beam onto the alien vessel and her compliment of starfighters were weaving in between the aliens and Elysium, firing their weapons at the connecting tendrils.

Anna nodded grimly. "Not all damage control teams reporting in. Some are under fire themselves or have taken casualties. We have breaches on decks five, eight, ten, fifteen and twenty, at least. Interruptions in the flow of power and communications. Destroyed doorways and damaged turbolifts. The structural damage seems almost incidental from what I can see so far. It's our people they're coming for." She rested her hand on the phaser rifle and looked toward the door again, despite the breathing room Rin had spoken of.

Gary turned to Neri. "Neri, turn us to face the enemy ship. Bring all phasers to bear on them maybe we can add to the damage the Romulans are doing."

Neri gave a nod and used thrusters to move the ship. "That's all I can do Sirs!"

A few moments later, the two ships were separated again, and the Warbird began to pull the larger vessel away from Elysium.

As soon as it was clear, and Neri's commands had the mighty Starfleet vessel turned enough, Kyle let loose with every weapon as it came to bear. In moments, the larger vessel started to break up and exploded.

At his console, Kyle looked at a warning message. "It looks like the enemy vessel sent a distress call before they were destroyed. I am unable to track its course, as it shifted onto subspace, using technology i am unfamiliar with." He looked over at Phoenix and Gary as he finished speaking. His board then beeped again. Looking back at it, he said aloud, "The Romulan commander is requesting an in-person meeting, to discuss the proposed truce between our two ships."

"In 3 hours." Phoenix said calmly. "We have clean up to do. Get those beasts off this ship. Engineering will need all hands to help with repairs."

~TBC~