Major Boyle sat in his Command chair watching the operation from the bridge of his ship. Admiral Wallace stood over by the Operations station looking over the current information. Lieutenant McKnight and his recon platoon members were on the planet that called for a distress signal. McKnight only found 190 headless corpses.
News of the Nausican Confederation's downfall were just coming in only three hours before Wallace sent Lieutenant McKnight and his team down. The past several weeks' events confirmed Wallace's suspicions that these mysterious aliens were connected some way or another with the Mullurans.
[Admiral nothing but dead Nausicanns. It appears they attacked while they were sleeping. They've been dead about 11 hours.]
"Very well, Lieutenant, prepare for beam up." Wallace crossed his arms and cursed out loud. "Damn it." Then Lieutenant Vansen brought some good news to Wallace, as did Captain Bicardi.
"Sirs, I'm some how tapping into a message that's being sent to a planet nearly 12.3 light years from here." Vansen said seeing Wallace scratching his chin.
"Play it Lieutenant." Wallace said.
[Korim Guard detachment 31 Alpha. Your planet should be secured according to schedule in nearly 12 hours.]
[This isSenior Captain Bornik. My unit will have this planet clear in about 5 hours. These Nausicaans are no match for us.]
"Lieutenant, distance to that planet?" Wallace said, walking around to where the tactical station was in the rear of the bridge.
"34 minutes at warp 5.6"
"Major, set a course to that planet. Lieutenant McKnight, we may have a red hot lead. Standby for transport."
"Admiral, I think that is a bad mistake." Boyle said, standing up and looking the Admiral in the face.
Wallace was puzzled. "What?"
"Read this, sir." Boyle handed a PADD to Wallace.
STARFLEET UNITS NOT TO ENGAGE MULLURAN FORCES IN AREA FORMERLY KNOWN AS NAUSICANN CONFEDERATION. ORDERS OF FEDERATION SENATE. OFFICIAL FEDERATION POSITION IS NEUTRAL; ANNEXATION OF NAUSICANN SPACE BY MULLURANS RESOLVES PIRACY ISSUES AND WILL NOT BE CONTESTED.
<S>R.ADM GEOFFREY SINCHACK STARFLEET POLITICAL AFFAIRS OFFICE.
Wallace cracked his neck and cleared his throat. "Damn politicians! Listen, Major I am in charge of Strategic Operations for all of Starfleet. I want to find out who these bastards are. You will follow my orders. Set course to that planet." Wallace then threw the PADD with the orders at Boyle.
"Sir, I must protest this order. As commanding officer of this vessel I refuse to obey an unlawful order. " Boyle said, crossing his arms.
"What?" Richard knew this would happen, but now time was of the essence. "Fine--as a Flag Officer I relieve you of your command and assume command of the USS Iwo Jima as of now. Captain Bicardi make note in the ship's log. Under a tactical situation I am entitled to make a life and death choice. Lieutenant get me to that planet now. Lieutenant West, escort Major Boyle to his quarters." Boyle left quietly and Wallace was haunted by the silence on the bridge.
He knew he would be in hot water for continuing his mission but in the long run most of the Command officers would accept Wallace's judgment--or so he hoped, unless he misread his job title.
The Iwo Jima arrived at the planet's orbit and found an alien ship waiting in orbit. Upon scanning he found only fourteen of the aliens were aboard the ship. 54 were on the planet's surface. Upon scanning the entire area no other ships were detected.
I need that ship--the intelligence on that would be invaluable, Richard thought to himself. He stood up and looked at the Klingon tactical officer. "Captain can you see any kind of a main power source aboard that vessel?" Bicardi was quiet for a few minutes.
"Yes, it's located underneath the ship in the rear of the main phaser array."
"Captain, stand aside. I am the only person that could manage this shot." Wallace brought up the targeting sensors and locked two quantum torpedoes.
"Lieutenant Vansen on the count of 3 drop the cloak. 1,2,3." Wallace fired the torpedoes at the enemy ship just as the cloak dropped. The torpedoes hit their mark causing superficial damage to the outer hull. However, the main power relay shorted out, killing all the ship's defensive capabilities. Wallace then fired another shot only .3 seconds after the torpedoes, damaging the communications array so they couldn't send out a distress call.
"Lieutenant McKnight prepare your Marines for a ship to ship beam out. There are 14 of this aliens. We're beaming you towards the command center. Keep a few alive for prisoners." Wallace said as he taped in the coordinates and sent them to the transporter chief.
Now it was up to McKnight. Wallace waited impatiently.