The First System.
Posted on Wed Aug 12th, 2026 @ 3:02pm by Captain Akeno Misaki & Captain Elias McEntyre & Commander Mashiro Munetani "Shiro" & Lieutenant Commander Raelyn Mckenzie & Lieutenant Commander Mark Johnson & Lieutenant Luna Eclipse of the House of Martok & Lieutenant Haaktor Zelaia & Lieutenant Charlotte Averis & Lieutenant Gil’an Tyris
2,955 words; about a 15 minute read
Mission:
Hunted
Location: USS Wayfarer
"Captains Log. After Five Days, we've finally passed the Tamong system. The crew have finally become more settled around our guest, Captain Elias McEntyre, and we're all looking forward to some peaceful exploration.
I'm not sure what we'll find out here, but I am looking forward to it. After all, we are the first ship from The Federation in this area. What we find out here will be new to us all. End Log.
The Wayfarer dropped out of warp on the edge of a Star System. Officially in the star charts it was designated as System BQ-81758. It didn't have a name yet, but that would be one for the people who name star systems to come up with. The Wayfarer was there to simply chart and explore it.
Akeno sat forward in her chair, as she stared at the viewscreen. The two stars in the center of the system brightly lighting up several planets. "Ok, what have we got? Anything interesting in here? Anything that catches our attention?" she asked casually.
"Whistle! I'm no Art Genius, but that there's a beautiful sight!" Luna whistle softly, taking in the view.
"I always love a binary star-system" Raelyn remarked as she checked her readouts. "Besides the usual scan results I'm not picking up anything out of the ordinary" she reported, hoping that would remain true for the duration of the Wayfarer's visit to the system.
"So far, so good," Mashiro nodded, before glancing over at their new Chief of Sciences. "Mister Tyris, seeing as you're the expert on this field... where do you think we should start?"
"We have two different classes of stars here," said Gil, resting his hands on the console in front of him. "A yellow Type G1V of 1.05 solar masses, and an orange dwarf Type K5V of 0.70 solar masses. The smaller star contains a six-planet system. The inner three planets are barren, but the fourth is inside the habitable zone and is class-L, but only barely. Temperatures are on the colder side...even near the equator, the highest temperature I can record is 19 Celsius."
"Luna, lets take a look at that L Class planet." Akeno said. "Take us around that moon and pull us into standard orbit. We'll conduct some scans, see if there's anything interesting."
"Aye, Captain, let's get 'er done!" Luna grinned as she coaxed the Wayfarer into action.
The Wayfarer glided gracefully around the side of the moon and within a few minutes entered orbit of the planet. Down below cold mountains and forests spread across the surface. It was mainly inhospitable tundra and freezing environment.
"Ok lets get some detailed scans an..." however she was cut off as the Wayfarer shook violently. Sparks burst from the rear bridge consoles as the ship automatically jumped to Red Alert. Immediately the ship shook again.
"YIKES!" Eclipse yelped, falling off of the carousel pterodactyl she was ridding disappeared. Eclipse quickly scrambled back to her feet, and went to the non-Starfleet safe area that the ships family and non-coms went during Red Alerts to be kept safe/harder to get to by the enemy.
[What the flemicara!?] Luna mentally swore softly.
"Report?!" Akeno called out.
"What the hell!?" Raelyn cursed under her breath. "We're being attacked. They came out of nowhere. Light cruiser, not too much smaller than ourselves. It's carrying three disruptor beams and two torpedo banks. Our structural integrity is at 85 percent and holding."
"Nothing out of the ordinary my ass..." Mashiro grumbled. "Raise shields, Commander; Ops, can we get a visual on our assailants?"
[Sickbay]
The ship rocked and the red alert lights flickered on. Mark shook his head and sighted.
"Everyone, get the biobed clean and ready. Whatever is happening out there, either we hit something or we got fired upon, we'll probably need to patch up some of the crewmembers." he directed his men to be prepared for whatever was coming.
[Bridge]
The Wayfarer shook again, this time even more violently.
Haaktor stood at the rear of the bridge in the small alcove for Ops. He'd been mostly focused on the internal workings of the ship rather than the exploration; the sudden assault threw him, conveniently, against the Ops sensor panel. Grunting as he turned, he spoke clearly. "Reading multiple short-range warp signatures, Captain! On screen now!"
Four ships which were slightly smaller than the Wayfarer dropped out of warp ahead of them. They immediately opened fire, bright green disruptor style beams assaulting the Wayfarer's shields.
"Return fire!" Akeno ordered. "Luna, ger us out of here!"
"Ya think!? Oh.........the engine's are fluctuating!" Luna's words devolved into angry cursing in BOTH languages as the Wayfarer's engine's refused to comply!
Akeno pondered for a split second. "Luna. Full impulse, get us out of orbit!"
"Full impulse, Aye! [Come on ol' girl, don't fail us now!]" Luna encouraged the Wayfarer.
"Shields at 89 percent. Returning the favor" Raelyn reported the second she fired the Wayfarer's primary weapons.
Haaktor's voice was deep and confident as he recentered himself, fully comfortable in a fight. "Damage reports coming from the upper decks. Reinforcing shield arcs facing the enemy. Still no match on enemy hull design or composition, Captain."
"Engines are down, Lieutenant!" One of the Ensigns shouted out to Charlotte before they rushed to another console, "It's the magnetic coupling in the left nacelle strut, out of sync with the right."
Charlotte walked over quickly, taking barely any time at all, bumping the Ensign off with one hip as she looked over the readings, "The initial hit reversed the polarity, right." Possibilities went through her head, "Shunt twenty percent total power to the coupling in a three second burst, I want to degauss it, that'll get it reset to base, initially."
The Ensign had returned to their original station, "Three second burst, aye aye." He responded, activating the main power conduits and robbing power from the weapons while Charlotte started to manage the structural integrity of the damaged hull, "Magnetic coupling is neutral now, ma'am."
"Don't call me that." Charlotte snapped, bringing up the coupling diagram again, "Now... Disabling the coupling, divert a positive charge to the coupling from the nacelle." She watched as the flow of power reduced to a trickle, sliding the activator back into the on position, "Reduce the power flow.... Now." The coupling flickered from yellow to green, "Good, clear!" She smiled, "Now, Ensign, run a quick diagnostic, but it's good to go!"
[Elias's Quarters]
Elias looked up from the work he was doing in his quarters, the ship had gone to dark mode, Battlestations. He got up from his table in his quarters and headed for the turbolift to the bridge.
[bridge]
The Wayfarer dashed through the formation of four ships, her impulse engines glowing a bright red. The four alien ships now in pursuit. Shots of green and orange weapons fire exchamged between them and shields glistened.
"Can we jump to warp?" Akeno asked. The Wayfarer shook again taking another hit to the shields.
"Yes! Warp back online!" Luna howled triumphantly.
"Get ready to jump to warp! Any course Luna, just get us out of here!" Akeno ordered.
However, before Luna could initiate the warp engines the bridge consoles and lights began to dim and flicker. The ship slowed, controls became sluggish, slower to respond or offline completely.
Haaktor spoke up as he watched his board first illuminate too brightly, and then dim. "Power network loss from the hit. Damage control teams are..."
Then, there was nothing as the entire ship was plunged into darkness, even the emergency lighting struggling to stay illuminated.
"Aaand...we got no juice." Luna harumphed.
Elias stopped in his tracks as the ship lost power. One of the benefits of being Caitian was good low light vision. He could still see some, enough that he was confident he could find his way to the armory where he had stowed his gear. He made a dash for it as the ship lurched again.
Engineering went dark, but the emergency lighting went on, casting her people in a ghostly light, but still visible for them because they drew their power direct from the M/AM source, along with the glow from the core itself which was dimming itself. "Shit." Charlotte whispered, "Cycle the EPS conduits, Vladar, Maddie, open the feeds on the reaction, monitor it and if we get a surge, constrict it, we need to get the power to the systems."
She strode over to one of the cabinets and keyed it open, "This leaves us vulnerable people, arm yourselves." She tucked a phaser into her belt and tossed one to an approaching officer before she left that to them and headed for her office. If they were going to be invaded, she was going to be ready. Really ready. Never again...
[Bridge]
From Ops, Haaktor finished his sentence. "... responding." He looked around, considering the situation and their options. Hostile ships in front, their main vessel disabled. His instincts screamed that now was the time to jump into the shuttles and attack in a death-or-glory assault, but his rational mind said that wasn't the Federation way. He stepped out of his alcove, and focused on Captain Misaki in the center seat. "Reports from the shuttlebay before we shut down indicated that all auxiliary craft are still functional. Your orders, Captain?"
Akeno grabbed the hand phaser that was tucked into a small storage alcove by her chair. "I have a funny feeling we're about to be..." she didn't need to answer as several green transporter signals began to materialise on the bridge around them. "Take cover!" she called out.
Luna dove for cover, but not before drawing her short d'k tahgs from their sheaths.
A few seconds later, three creatures stood in the center of the bridge. It was at that moment that Akeno and many of the Wayfarer's older crew recognised them. Standing nearly eight to nine feet tall, purple scales, huge claws, strong legs, a tail made of muscle and huge jaws lined with razor sharp teeth. The Tyranians had found the Wayfarer.
One of them wasted no time, without even a weapon in hand it leaped across the bridge towards the Engineering Station. Ensign Tomlinson screamed as it landed upon her, locking its jaws around her neck and biting down. There was a splatter of blood as the screaming stopped. The Tyranian looked down at its prey, and then took another bite, ripping into the ensign, and then another, and another.
"JESUS CHRIST!" Mashiro shouted as she fired off a few shots in an attempt to ward off their attackers. "What in the Sam Hell are those things?!?!"
Tactically, Raelyn wanted to jump the bastard the murdered Ensign Tomlinson. Realistically she would suffer the same fate. She armed herself with an emergency rifle she usually had stashed under her station and lit up the bloody monster. "They're monsters Commander!" Raelyn called out to Shiro from experience.
"I can see that!" Mashiro replied.
"AAAAARRRR!" Luna screamed as she attacked the closest monster, burying both blades to the hilt in the creature's neck.
The voice of the Ops officer was astonishingly calm given the situation. He'd seen battles and boarding actions before, and unlike most Federation members, he'd fought animals in the wild for his training. "Intruders, sir. Attack animals." Ensign Tomlinson was likely dead, there was nothing he could do about it. But the enemy was a different situation. As it was distracted by its savage assault on the junior officer, Haaktor leapt in and wrapped his arm around the thing's muscular neck, aiming to stay behind it and keep the teeth and claws away from himself, trying to find the pressure points and vulnerable arteries along the neck and throat that would help to disable or weaken the enemy - at least enough that the Captain would be able to hit it with a phaser. He glanced up toward the Security station, yanking with all his might and all but trying to rip the beast's head off. "I could use some help here."
"Get off the Bridge now!" Akeno shouted. She tapped her comm badge, just hoping that it was still working. "All hands... intruder alert. All hands arm yourselves!" she said.
[Sickbay]
The deck lurched violently, throwing several medical trays across the room. Instruments clattered to the deck before the emergency lighting finally settled into its dim crimson glow.
Mark caught himself on the nearest biobed before looking around the room.
"Status!"
"Emergency power only," the head nurse Betty answered, already moving toward one of the wall consoles. "Primary diagnostic systems are offline. Internal sensors unavailable."
"Damn."
Another shudder rippled through the ship and few moments later he heard the voice of Akeno announcing the intruder alert.
Mark didn't waste another second, he looked toward the Sickbay entrance.
"Seal the doors."
The medical orderly hesitated.
"Doctor... regulations say Sickbay must remain accessible."
Mark met his eyes.
"Those regulations assume the people outside aren't trying to kill us."
Heavy blast doors slid shut with a reassuring clang as Mark exhaled slowly.
"Now get back to work on the wounded crewmembers we have here" he closed towards the closest biobed "and arm yourself, we don't know who's coming".
Mark looked around Sickbay.
"If casualties make it here, they come first." He paused. "If anything else get through that door..."
He looked each member of his staff in the eye.
"...we protect our patients."
--------
Raelyn furiously tapped the security console to attempt to turn the bridge into a security lockdown mode despite the lack of power. She fired a few more shots at the monsters before one tried to jump her. She dove out of the way towards the jefferies hatch. She cracked it open, dove in and fired on the monsters from her cover. She left the hatch cracked open to allow anyone else to dive for cover.
"Come on, people, let's get a move on!" Mashiro shouted as she frantically ushered the surviving bridge staff into the hatch from which Raelynn had escaped. "Go! Go!! GO!!!"
"I'll see you in hell, Son of a Drablmarpek!" Luna snarled as she rent her blades from the thing's neck, and dove into the Jefferies tube, fire boiling in her chest at the screams of those she couldn't save.
"You will be avenged, my qorDu'!" Luna whispered horsely before dry-heaving.
Akeno dashed towards the rear door near the main operations console, the escape route onto deck one. Meanwhile another of the Tyranians cornered another officer. Akeno closed her eyes breifly as she looked away as it began its assault on her officer.
"OH, FOR F***'S SAKE, GET IN HERE!" Mashiro shouted as she grabbed Akeno by the collar and yanked her into the Jefferies tube.
Raelyn kept firing on the Tyranians from the safety of the jefferies tube after Akeno and Shiro practically dove into the jefferies tube. She wasn't going to let them take the Wayfarer.
A lucky shot took down the alien that Haaktor had been bravely trying to decapitate by hand, and he darted to the Jeffries' tube in a hurry, diving in just before the captain started to close it.
Akeno slammed the hatch of the jeffries tube shut and slammed down the lock handle. She aimed her phaser and aimed it at the hatch edges. It spluttered and sparked. "Come on..." she muttered in frustration.
Bang. Bang. Scratch. Scratch. Akeno began to breathe heavily as she fumbled with the phaser. Eventually an orange beam erupted from the nozzle. Akeno aimed it at the edges, melting the metal together, sealing the hatch for good.
The banging and scratching continued. Akeno turned to the others. "We must be caught innsome sort of dampening field." She said. "We can't rely on phasers alone. We need other options." She pondered for a moment. "Regroup on deck nine. Lets secure the armoury and gear up. No doubt they're beaming onto every deck".
[Eclipse, the kids! Kahless, protect them!] Luna thought, genuine fear gripping her heart.
"Sir." The new Ops officer might have been less arrogant than the reputation of his people from a century before, but he was still quite bold. "Request permission to skip Deck 9 in favor of Decks 8 and 10. Deck 8 fore has the ODN trunk - the bioneural gelpacks have batteries for their life-support, I may be able to send an SOS burst to Starfleet. Deck 10 aft has the shuttlebay. If the auxiliary craft are still online, we'll be able to set up a comm net and engage emergency transporters for the wounded to bring them to Sickbay." He thought for a moment. "And, those are the two decks from which we can most effectively eject the intruders directly into space."
"Captain, the non-coms need protection. I...I." Luna was shaking now, the first time she had EVER allowed her raw, non-Klingon emotions to show anywhere other than a Holodeck program.
Akeno nodded. "One bridge at a time." She said through heavy breathing. She looked over at Luna. "Luna, gather who you can and protect the civilians. Your first area to secure should be the school room. Raelyn go with her." She then looked over at Gil'an and Mashiro. "You two get down to the shuttlebay. See if you can use one of the shuttles to get a message out. I'm going to get to the armoury, round up as many people as I can and secure Engineering. We can use Engineering as a base of operations."
"Make it fast people!" Akeno ordered.
To be continued...
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