Bridge Operations

Posted on Tue Sep 1st, 2026 @ 7:13am by Lonian Royal Sovereignty & Captain Gary Taylor & Commander Kyle Reece & Legate Andrinn Orin & Captain Samuel Woolheater & Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Reece [Reece]

Mission: Season 6: Episode 7: Crossroads of Destiny
Location: USS Elysium
Timeline: MD5
1785 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The bridge of the Elysium sat in tense silence as the starfighters deployed. On the viewscreen, the craft approached the planet, swerving around other space traffic in the area to descend through the atmosphere. A couple minutes later, a new view appeared with a layout of the prison and multiple dots representing the marines appearing. They began to move toward the two clusters of prisoners.

From his station, Kyle reported. "Lonian aircraft have started to mobilize towards the prison, Captain. Sensors are picking up nearly three dozen. At their current speed, they will engage our fighters in about two minutes!"

Gary nodded at Kyle's message. "George and his fighters will be ready for them." He nodded even as he opened a comlink. "Taylor to Charles, Lonian aircraft are headed to your position. Estimated time of their arrival two minutes."

===Raptor 237===

George had just finished entering the atmosphere, and had shifted his control surfaces to atmospheric flight, when the call came in. "Elysium, Flying Tigers Actual, understood, out." He then switch channels back to the starfighter channel. "Alright boys and girls, looks like thr welcoming committee is on its way. Bravo flight, you know your job. Start the house party music! The rest of us will keep the sky clear around you!"

The massive armada of starfighters broke up into four groups, each one moving to their predetermined positions, to come at the prison from the north, south, east and west, at the same time.

From his station, Kyle watched the scene unfold on the tactical display, which was currently taking up the entire viewscreen. He knew that, after this, they would need to leave the area, as he doubted the Lonian govwould forgive this attack. Not that he really cared, as they were the ones who started it. He would ensure that Elysium was ready for whatever was thrown at them.

=/\= Elysium, Bravo. Initial breach secure. Team B entering high-security. Beginning recovery. =/\=

Live feeds from the Marines' bodycams flickered across the tactical displays: tight corridors, flashing amber alarms, weapons fire and overlapping comm chatter as the two teams pushed deeper into the detention centre.

Woolheater's voice came over the tactical channel again, calm against the chaos visible on the screens.

=/\= Elysium, Bravo. High-security is in lockdown. Confirmed Lonian movement toward our position. Prisoner registry shows four Elysium personnel in this wing: Naxea, Richardson, Dosivi, Blackford. Beginning recovery. =/\=

The other team communicated similarly.

Marine Team B was moving fast and throughly.

=/\= "YUT!!, left side! LEFT SIDE!" =/\=

One feed lurched violently as its Marine dropped behind cover. Phaser fire flashed across the image.

=/\= "Corpsman! Two down!" =/\=

Then Woolheater's voice cut across the tactical channel, remarkably calm against the chaos visible on the screens.

=/\= Elysium, Bravo. Breach secure. Two down. =/\=

The feeds continued moving. A door disappeared inward in a shower of sparks and debris. Swede did a fine job of it.

=/\= "Fire in the hole!" =/\=

Phaser rifles flared angrily and cut down the resistance the Lonians were trying for.

=/\= "MOVE! MOVE!" =/\=

==Bridge==

Andrinn had come up from his office on Deck Two to the bridge. He had heard rumblings that the rescue attempt was underway and glad that Sam picked up on the message. While his job was to keep the peace, sometimes there was no way to truly keep it without bending some of the rules.

He stepped out on to the Bridge as he heard something? A live feed somewhere or incoming comms chatter. He stepped off of the turbolift and the door shut behind him as he looked around at the stuff that was happening. Andrinn didn't say much, as he watched everything unfolding in real time.

Eventually, the call everyone wanted to hear came through. The request for transport.

Gary let out a silent breath he had been holding at hearing the request for transport. *So far so good,* as the operation continued to progress.

The last transporter signature vanished from the surface. A few seconds later Woolheater's voice came across the tactical channel. There was considerably less weapons fire behind him now.

=/\= Bridge, Woolheater. Teams A and B and all recovery elements are aboard. All objectives recovered. Ground operation is complete. =/\=

A brief pause.

=/\= The sun is up. Sunrise is terminated. =/\=

The relief was short-lived, however, as the computer alerted to an incoming hail.

Andrinn rubbed the bridge of his nose and couldn't help but chuckle as the hail came in. He waited to see what Gary would do.

Gary saw the hail was tempted to ignore it but thought better of it. "Put the hail through, audio only." He instructed and waited.

The comms opened, and Emeyr's voice came through. She sounded both hopeful and concerned at the same time. "Elysium, Lady Sama is pissed. Be prepared for retaliation," she warned, getting to the point.

Gary nodded to himself and looked at Andrinn and Kyle to see their reactions. "Thank you Lady Emeyr. It is something we expected and are ready for." he replied.

"I can send you to Seelak Station about 250 light years in the direction of the Milky Way." Emeyr knew that these channels were monitored, which was why she spoke quickly. "It is well outside of our territory, and they can help you get more resources for your vessel..."

There was a pause, then the sound of surprise quickly followed weaponse fire came over the comms. A thump of a body hitting the floor in the government buildings of Pomei.

Then, a new voice came through. It wasn't Emeyr. It was colder. Harsher.

"Elysium. You are out of your jurisdiction and have no right to interfere!" Sama's voice was firm, but there was no hiding how angry she was. "There are vessels in pursuit. If you want to leave this star system intact, you will surrender the prisoners and the evidence to them."

Gary's voice floated back to her, it was full of iron. "We have every right to reclaim our people Sama."

"If you are willing to aid a traitor of the Sovereignty, then I hope you are willing to die like one." With that, the communications cut out.

"I am willing to rescue my crew from illegal imprisonment and abuse. As for dying, perhaps but not today." Gary fired back before communications were broken off.

Kyle's console beeped a warning. Looking at the readings, he shook his head, then looked over at Gary. "Sensors are reading a dozen contacts approaching our location. Ten are escort-style craft coming from the surface, and the other two...they could best be considered light frigates." Kyle made a sour face as he continued. "Unless they have some fancy weapon that we haven't seen yet, Sir, even in Ely's current state, they are no match for us, Sir." The impending battle suddenly brought up the memory of how Kyle had commanded the Elysium, as a young lieutenant, when she fought against five Constitution Class cruisers. That battle had been sorely one sided. This? This would be a blood bath.

"I recommend we only cripple their ships, Captain." Kyle finally suggested. "There is no reason for any more bloodshed."

Gary looked at the telemetry coming in. "I agree. Show them the error of their ways. Cripple those ships. We're here to get our people back. Not destroy a civilization."

"They'll definitely be writing textbooks on this whole thing once we get back to Federation space. I just can't believe that an advanced civilization would try and harm someone, just cause they're not of the right species," Andrinn said, shaking his head and sighing to himself.

Kyle carried out Gary's orders without comment. When the Lonian vessels were in range, Kyle silently hoped that they would only attempt to surround the larger vessel, to keep them from escaping.

That hope was dashed when the lead escorts began firing on the Elysium. Their high-powered lasers barely registered as hits on Elysium's shields. Kyle used his weapons like a surgeon, using the phasers to easily cut through the weak deflector shorlds of the attacking vessels, and neutralized each of the escorts in a matter of seconds. When the two frigates arrived, the started using their electromagnetic cannons to hurl rods of tungsten at the Elysium. Even though the ship's shields stopped the incoming ordinance, the impacts were draining the shields. Though, the generators were keeping up with the drain, to keep the shields fully in place.

Kyle managed to disable one frigate easily. When he attacked the second one, unfortunately, its systems overloaded and the ship exploded, taking two hundred and fourty-eight Lonian soldiers with it.

"I was only targeting their offensive systems, Captain!" Kyle said softly as he watched the cloud that used to be a frigates, slowly dissipate. He felt bad for the lives that he had just taken. Had the fight been more equal, he probably wouldn't have. However, he was now feeling the same guilt as he did back in the Mirror Universe, all those years ago.

Gary stared at the slowly dissipating cloud of debris that only moments earlier had been a Lonian frigate. "I know Kyle. I know. No need to explain." He replied quietly.

"Something I've learned in my long life is that Diplomacy isn't always black and white. All we can do is give people the choice between peace and everything else and hope they choose wisely," Andrinn said as his eyes shifted to the debris on the screen. "Unfortunately, today. They didn't."

"Mr. Orin is right. We gave them a chance to make the choice to stop, to turn around and save their lives. They refused that choice and what we are seeing is the result of that choice." Gary replied soberly.

Kyle's console beeped again. Looking over the readout, he said aloud, "It looks like she did it, Sir. We just recieved the coordinates to Seelak Station. Transmitting them to Helm." He then typed a few commands into his holographic controls and the directions coordinates were transmitted to the Helm console.

Gary nodded at the recent news. "Excellent. Once all our people are safely back onboard and account for we'll head for Seelak Station." He looked at Andrinn, "Mr. Orin is there anything else you wish to add?"

"just make sure that Teevs and his daughter are back onboard too. They're apart of our family. But, besides that, nothing sir," Andrinn said shrugging as he looked at Gary.

"That Mr. Orin goes without saying. Rest assured we are not leaving without Mr. Teevs and his daughter," Gary replied as he listened to reports coming in on crew being rescued and transported back to the ship.