Ready To Go

Chief Shale was on the bridge of the Hellcat, speaking with a young male Ensign wearing the gold uniform when Ensign Gordon came in carrying two Padds. He went to work right away informing her on the status of the crew and ship.

"Captain. We're ready to go." Ensign Markos, the Tactical, officer said. Markos then went ahead and informed Gordon that she'll be manning both Ops and Helm and that there are three crewman in engineering,"

"Okay." Gordon said from the command chair.

"I suggest since we are being used a fighter and a support-craft, that we take the warp engines offline. That will give us more power to divert to the shields, impulse engines and weapons." Shale recommended and waited for her to respond.

"Sounds good. Then let's get ready to depart then, shall we ?" She said from the chair.

Rick went to his seat and started the pre-flight check ups and everything was, as expected, perfect.

"Open a comchannel to Captain Devore." Gordon said.

"Aye sir. Channel open."

Then Captain Devore appeared on the screen and seemed a little uneasy.

[We were wrong. The first prong has been wiped out. The Barien fleet seems to be more powerful that we even thought. Now it seems that they are coming our way bearing 034 degrees mark 8. Six battleships.]

With urgency and frantically pressing a few buttons, Devore looked back at the Ensign.

[Once you leave the Leviathan join the Ronin. You'll be attacking the left flank. I want you to keep an open comchannel with Captain Ryan. Good Luck, Devore out.] With that the screen went blank.

"You heard the captain. Chief move us on out." Gordon ordered.

After commencing take-off procedures, the Hellcat lifted up and eased it's way out of the shuttlebay. Shale then expertly had the Hellcat turn one hundred and eighty degrees.

*It feels good to be back in an old job of mine.* Shale said to himself.

[Hellcat come to bearing 30 mark 2, Ronin out.] Captain Ryan ordered.

"Chief, head to that course." Gordon said taking a little joy of being in command.

"Aye heading acknowledged."

After a few minutes Markos broke the silence. "Captain, two Barien ships coming in at thirteen degrees to our starboard side. They are no bigger than a runabout."

Rick started to scan the vessel, he liked the very accurate sensors the Hellcat had. He then repeated what Tactical said but gave more detail. "They appear to be support-craft, same size as a Danube runabout maybe with a little more fire power."

[Hellcat engage those fighters.] Ryan ordered over the comchannel.

Shale knew a different way of flying other then the Starfleet SOP. He came at the fighter on the port side making the Barien pilot think that the Hellcat was making a suicide run at them. Just as the Hellcat came within fifteen yards, Shale pulled up fifteen degrees, aligning the Hellcat's photon launcher with what Shale thought was the weapons array. Ensign Markos fired the torpedo which hit the Barien ship. The Barien ship shook and rolled ninety degrees downward.

"Sir, we inflicted 67% damage to the support craft." Shale said feeling confident.

Then the Hellcat shook hard to starboard as a weapons blast hit the aft section of the ship.

"Sir weapons holding. Shields holding 100%," Markos said from Tactical.

Then another blast shook the Hellcat once again.

"Chief, find that other fighter." Gordon said, as a conduit exploded. The Hellcat shook harder this time.

"Which one we only have about fifty-six or so in front of us." Shale yelled.

[Hellcat and Ronin. Take the fighters on.] Devore said as the comchannel went static.

"Shields and weapons holding." Markos yelled over explosions.

"Shale pick a target and blow the hell out of them."

Rick kept quiet as he flew at four Bariens. They were executing a predictable Starfleet pattern.

*Piece of cake !*

The Hellcat shook hard and another plasma conduit exploded.

*Damn I wish I knew where these Bastards learnt our tactics. ?*