USS Malinche NCC-38997-A

This mission takes place in 2385

<<USS Iowa>>
<Bridge, 0300>

Trace was beginning to really dislike the night shift. Only because he had very little to do; although that was probably good from a security prospective. He was on the bridge of the Iowa, having lost a bet to his chief, Commander Matthew Adams. Trace hated to lose but hated it even more when people squelched on a bet.

Lieutenant Argos was on duty, he was the ships second officer. The Andorian was also there Operations Chief. How he got stuck on the night shift Trace had no idea; although it might have something to do with the fact that he beat their XO in a card game. Argos was tall with light blue skin and an impressive build.

Trace was about to call solitaire up on one of his blank displays when his long range sensors went all to hell.

"Ensign?" Argos asked.

"Long range sensors are detecting Orion ships entering orbit around the Reddick Colony...sir, they are transmitting a distress signal."

"Red alert. Helm, alter course," Argos ordered. "Captain Tavell please report to the bridge; all senior staff please report to your stations."

"I'm detecting weapons fire," Trace reported. "Looks like three frigates and several assault fighters."

The doors opened a few moments later and spilled out Commander Matthew Adams, his department chief. Matthew was a bit on the short side, standing at 5'8 with short spiky brown hair and deep brown eyes. He had a streamlined and defined build to him.

"What do we have?" he asked, heading over to the tactical station. Since the bridge of the Iowa was laid out like that of a Sovereign class Trace headed to the auxiliary tactical station behind the main one.

"Distress signal from the Reddick Colony, Orions entered orbit and opened fire," Trace reported.

The doors to the bridge opened again, this time admitting both the XO and the CO. Captain Tavell was a tall Vulcan, she had regal features and was just now starting to show a touch of gray to her dark hair. She had green eyes and for a Vulcan was very personable.

Commander Jacob Rocko was right behind her. Even at the age of 60, the man was imposing as all hell. He had silver hair and blue eyes, as far as Trace could tell he spent as much time in the gym as he did. He was not a man to be messed with. Argos quickly explained the situation before returning his post.

"ETA?" Jacob asked. He had a Texas accent that Trace had always found to be very intriguing.

"Three minutes," the ensign sitting at he helm reported.

"Any response to our hails?" Tavell asked.

"None," Argos responded.

A few minutes passed before the Iowa dropped from warp, sliding smoothly back into normal space. The screen showed the embattled planet; Orion frigates firing at the small defense force and doing decent damage.

"Lock weapons on the Orion ships and open fire, dispersal pattern Beta," Tavell ordered. "Hail the colony and let them know that we have arrived in orbit."

The Iowa swung in, unleashing a storm of torpedoes from her multiple torpedo tubes. One of the pass frigate caught the burnt of several torpedoes and folded in on its self in a firey explosion.

"One frigate destroyed," Matthew reported. "Looks like that got their attention, the other two are headed this way."

"And now the fun begins," Trace muttered.

OFF:

<<USS Iowa>>
<Bridge, 0300>

The Iowa shuddered as the remaining Orion ships regrouped and strafed the larger Federation ship. The Iowa responded, her phaser arrays and torpedoes hitting the port side of one the passing raiders and sending it spinning out of control. The Iowa shook again, two raiders zipping past the view screen and peppering the Iowa with phaser and torpedo hits.

“Shields are down to 70%,” Argos reported. “I’m detecting a new group of signals entering the system, another 5 raiders.”

“Tactical report in the raiders?” Jacob asked.

“They are similar in size and armament to the Maquis Raiders,” Matthew reported. “It’s not them I am concerned about though, its those frigates.”

The Iowa shuddered again, this time harder then before.

“Captain they are firing random tachyon bursts,” Argos reported. “I believe they are trying to destabilize our shields.”

Now that didn’t make much sense at all, the Orions were never one for subtly or even a lot of tactical thinking. Then again, Trace couldn’t remember the last time that they attacked a Federation colony this far inside Federation space and with this many ships. There wasn’t even really anything on the colony that was all that important; they didn’t have an arms depot or even a large amount of food stuffs. This was not there style at all.

“Rotate shield frequencies,” Tavell ordered. “Concentrate you fire on those frigates.”

The Iowa dove to port, rotating so that she could bring more of her weapons to bare on the nearest frigate. The frigate unleashed all his weapons, causing the forward shields of the Iowa to flare intensely under the impact. Phasers and torpedoes chewed through the aft shields of the frigate turning the aft section into a flaming wreck. The Iowa passed her by, firing again with her phasers and slagging the weapons generators.

“The second frigate is heavily damage,” Matthew reported. “They still have life support though.”

The Iowa reared as if she had been kicked. A massive explosion flared up on the view screen and a shockwave slammed into the Akira class vessel. Seconds later multiple explosions ripped through space around the Iowa, causing the bridge to shake about violently.

“Report!” Jacob snapped.

“Photonic mines,” Trace said, grabbing his station as the Iowa shuddered again, this time from several phaser and torpedo hits. Explosions of sparks worked their way through the bridge.

“Damage report,” Tavell asked calmly.

“Shields are down to 25%,” Argos reported, he grabbed his station as the Iowa took another hit. “Shields are off-line.”

“We can’t keep this up,” Matthew snapped. “Recommend full torpedo spread, that might take out the remaining mines.”

“Do it.”

The Iowa let loose with a spread of torpedoes through all her tubes. Space above the planet was turned into a firestorm as mines and torpedoes exploded alike. Two of the raiders were caught in the explosions and went spinning out of control.

“Captain, several of the raiders have broken off from the main group and are headed down to the planet,” Trace reported.

“Ensign Vosh, take a runabout and a security team get down to the planet and secure the colony. Commander Adams give him covering fire.”

Trace headed out of the bridge, Matthew was already calling the security team to stations and getting a hold of the shuttlebay so that the runabout was ready. Trace grabbed the side of the turbolift as the Iowa shuddered again.

OFF: