[Bridge of the USS Fox]

“Red Alert!” Michael called as he entered the Bridge. “Status of the structure?”

“Vezda Superstructure has returned to its original position and is slowly climbing, sir. Looks like it’s trying to get out.” Romen reported as he vacated the Commander’s seat and moved to the Tactical Station.

“We confirmed Heilagt Auga has been evacuated?” Michael queried.

“Yes, sir, all life forms within the basin have moved to inside the Mountain Tunnels.” Doc reported from the Science Station.

“That ship is not to escape the planet. Mr. Yeager, bring us into weapons range. Romen, load forward torpedo banks.” Michael confidently ordered.

The Fox’s impulse engines lit to life as the ship moved to a closer orbital position. On the surface, the nose of the bipyramid ship slowly begins to creep up from the central opening of Heilagt Auga, the Blackstone structures crackling with power around it as the earth is shoved aside to make room for the massive ship rising from the chasm.

“Weapons range in 10 seconds, sir.” Romen reports from his station.

“Archie, send a coded message to Framheim Command, let them know we are engaging a known hostile entity, tell them to start preparing reinforcements if we go dark. Romen, Fire when ready.” Michael delegated from the central command seat.

The Fox charged its forward two torpedo launchers and unleashed a pair of Photon Torpedoes towards the planet. Phasers would have been a quicker response, but the intensity of the beams would diminish with how far they had to travel. A payload of torpedoes, however, would maintain its effect, and Michael wanted to ensure they had an effect.

The warheads reached the surface, hitting the superstructure head-on with pinpoint accuracy and exploding, covering the central valley in smoke and dust.

“Direct hit!” Romen called out.

There was a moment of silence on the bridge, as the view screen watched the smoke cloud slowly dissipate.

“Scans indicate no damage to the structure, or the overground ruins for that fact, but it did stop dead.” Archie relayed.

“Well, that’s one miracle.” Michael grunted.

“Sir, there is another planetary pulse; it’s charging up for something.” Doc advised.

“Full reverse, Power to Fore Shields.” Michael commanded.

The three arching pillars that stuck out of the ground from the Bones of the Gods arched with energy. The tip of the superstructure had pierced out of the central opening and rested just between the three, as it seemingly drew in energy from the planet and transferred directly to the Vezda Ship. The energy focused at the tip of the structure before firing a blue beam of light directly into the sky.

“Brace for Impact!” Romen called out as the beam struck the shields of the Fox.

The ship rocked lightly, far too little for what the crew was expecting.

“Report?”

Trixie was typing at her terminal furiously, “It wasn’t weapon fire, Sir, it’s an energy siphon. Shields are being drained, 97% and falling .3% a second.”

“That’s not very effective…” Romen scoffed.

“No, but we’re not going to sit around and just take a thousand cuts. Yeager, bring us about, let’s see if more distance can break this siphon’s link.” Michael called out to the helm.

“Aye!” Yeager acknowledged. As he hit the commands to bring the Fox about, the ship shuddered and remained in place. Now it was Yeager’s turn to look distressingly at his console.

“Mr. Yeager?” Michael inquired

“Sir, as soon as I drew power to the engines, the siphon began to drain from that system. Helm is responding, but whenever I hit the gas, she just won’t go.” Yeager explained.

“Shield drain did drop to .15% when we tried to move. I think the siphon is targeting active systems, sir.” Trixie relayed.

“We’re sure it’s not a Tractor beam?” Michael posed.

“No, sir, we’re still in stellar drift; it’s not holding us in place.” Yeager attested.

“Computer, Hermetically Seal Decks 1 through 4 Independently. Increase O2 production in Decks 3 and 4 by 50%.” Michael quickly commanded. The Computer trilled in acceptance of his directives. Michael was not new to dire situations, and he knew decisive action had to be taken. There was a momentary grip on his heart, his emotions running hot, mirroring what he had felt back on his old Command, the Nakatomi. But he buried the anxiety; he needed to be in the moment, he needed to act.

“Romen, go to Deck 3. When I give the command, I want you to override and open the port docking hatch, vent all the atmosphere from Deck 3 in one go. That should spin the ship in a free yaw. Trixie, get down to the Shuttle bay, and once we reach 180-degree spin, override the shuttle bay doors. The compression from Deck 4 should be enough to shove us away from this Siphon.” Michael ordered.

Both Trixie and Romen stood from their stations, but Trixie hesitated. “What about the Kitsune?” She asked.

“Lock her down, don’t need to lose our only shuttlecraft if at all possible.” Michael followed up.

The plan was solid, but shields were still draining, and sitting at roughly 70% by the time everything was in place.

Romen: “Blowing Port Hatch”

Michael watched as the ship shifted, and the forward viewing screen began to pan to the right as the ship vented the air from deck 3 to put itself in a spin on the Z-axis.

“Heading 027… 056… 90 degrees…” Yeager audibly relayed over the ship’s comms.

“Steady…” Michael bid silently to himself as he watched the progress.

“Sir, Siphon Drain has increased drastically to 3.7% per second, Shields down to 42% and falling fast.” Archie informed by Romen’s station.

“WILL’s getting desperate, keep going!” Michael confirmed

“123…147….169…” Yeager continued to relay.

Michael watched the degree counter with trepidation, and as soon as it hit 179, he called it “TRIXIE, NOW!”

The Shuttle Bay doors nearly blew off their hinges as the increased air pressure rushed out of the open doors. The Fox jerked forward, away from the planet in response.

“Sir, Siphon power is decreasing, but our shields are failing!” Archie stated.

“Yeager, Power to the Engines, Get us out of here!” Michael barked

“Gladly!” Yeager cheered, hitting the throttle on the helm.

The ship thrashed violently, Michael was thrown from his seat as the lights began to flicker, and power conduits overloaded, sending showers of sparks across the bridge.

Doc managed to help Michael to his feet, who stumbled over to The Helm station, “What the hell was that?!”

Trixie and Romen rematerialized on the bridge to take their stations and help clear up active damage.

“Shields failed, and now we are stuck in a tractor beam, sir. We’re being pulled back to the planet, and the Siphon is going after engine power.” Yeager reported.

Michael contemplated for a moment. The ship was oriented the other way; he could fire aft Torpedoes, but their weapons did nothing to the Vezda ship before; it would have been a waste. There was only one other option left, and it was the definition of a Hail Mary.

“Activate the warp core.” Michael called out flatly.

All heads turned to him. “Sir?” Archie asked, the tone of disbelief in his voice.

“I scanned the power crystals; they can’t maintain a charge, they’re eons old. If they hit even a quarter of their capacity, they will start to break apart and begin a cascade failure. So, if he wants power, I say we give him what he wants and blow him up like a balloon.” Michael explained.

“Pop goes the weasel!” Yeager added in excitement.

“Or we give him what he needs to activate the Shroud Generator, and plunge the sector into a standstill once more,” Archie added doubtfully.

“If you got any better ideas…” Michael opened the floor.

Archie thought for a second and shook his head, “Pop goes the weasel.”

Michael nodded, and everyone returned to their stations.

“Trixie, generate a Warp Field Bubble, equal to Warp 1, and get ready to rev the engine on my command. Yeager, let’s not give the tractor beam too easy of a time.”

The warp and impulse engines lit up with life as the Fox valiantly tried to struggle its way out of the tractor beam’s grip. The Warp bubble formed around the vessel attracted the energy siphon’s focus, giving the other systems a moment to breathe.

“Warp Field integrity at 97% and draining, sir.” Trixie reported.

“Good, kick it up to Warp 2. Romen, see if you can use external batteries to charge the aft Shields back online.” Michael directed.

“Increasing to Warp 2. Energy Pull increasing to match.” Trixie relayed.

“Sir. Look, the Planet.” Archie advised. On the view screen, the Planet of Brynar could be seen in full. From the Antipodes of the Bones of the Gods, a Shroud-like mist was starting to form over the planet, crashing over the stormy oceans of the opposite hemisphere, as if being drawn into the Vezda structure itself.

“Increase power to Warp 5.” Michael stated, watching the Shroud close in on the Mega continent. He could see the shores of Brunr Goltr, and hesitated on what effect the shroud might have on the villagers there.

There was a definite reaction to the sudden jump of power, as the shroud advancement halted for a moment before continuing at a much faster pace. That momentary shutter gave Michael hope.

“Power Drain has increased 10-fold. We will lose Warp-field stability in 30 seconds!” Trixie advised.

“The shroud has made landfall and is approaching the Mountain Range, Sir!” Archie also reported.

“Sir, there is a power buildup in the superstructure itself! It’s getting ready for something big!” Doc decreed.

“MAXIMUM WARP!” Michael yelled, rising from his seat. Begging, Praying, for his plan to work.

As Trixie and Yeager ran the dials all the way up, the shroud was beginning to roll over the mountaintops into the Misty Valley of Heilagt Auga. The air was filled with energy; static humming rang out like a bad tinnitus case when everything just…stopped.

The Warp Field Bubble collapsed.

The Engines went offline.

Every terminal on the bridge went completely dark, save for the view screen of the planet below.

But the Shroud’s advance also stopped.

The Crackling of energy at the center of the Bones of the Gods that maintained the Power Siphon and Tractor beam stopped.

“Reinitialize main power,” Michael called out.

Trixie ran from her station down the staircase to the right, down to main engineering. Michael realized the Holo Emitters were still active: life support, artificial gravity.

“Sir…look.” Romen pointed out at the view screen.

The tip of the Vezda superstructure that had breached the surface began to slip back down out of view. The Shroud that engulfed the continent began to also thin out and dissipate, rolling back down the opposite side of the mountains back to the sea.

The bridge hummed back to life once more as Trixie restarted the warp core. Michael looked over to Archie, who was already working on his station to scan the planet.

“Sensors indicate the Vezda superstructure is offline; no power readings of any kind are emanating from it. It has fallen back down into the chasm and into the pit we dug for it.” Archie turned to look at Michael with a weighted smile, “We did it, sir!”

Commanding Officers’ Log,
Stardate 79836.4

Drone data from the understructure of Brynar confirms reports that the Vezda ‘Ship’ is officially dead. The Power Chamber is empty, with signs of the power crystals overloading and shattering into pieces. Unfortunately, the Bio Farm that Archie had discovered was also beyond recovery, as all souls within were drained of life. Additionally, we found that the number of Svart Augu, the Nemandi, and Arnorr were found dead on the surface. Doc estimates that whatever bio-hacking control WILL have over them terminated their life when his system went offline. It is a regrettable outcome overall. This also means that all Vezda tech that was used by the religious order is also non-operational and not at risk of contaminating the population.

However, the rest of Brynar seems to be coping well. Bui, for one, is hailed among the locals as a hero and declared the new ‘Synsmadr.’ I hope the title in his hands holds more beneficial meaning than the puppet that came before him. There was a debate on whether we needed to augment his memory of what all occurred, but for what part we played, I don’t think there is much in terms of a Prime Directive violation. Everything he experienced was going to happen under the Vezda’s AI control anyway, only this time, he survived, and he knew nothing of our true identity and goals.

As for the Fox, Trixie is currently running repairs to the ship’s system that were damaged during the exchange. Romen has requested that Archie be quarantined and his systems scanned due to his exposure to the alien AI computer system. He should be back in service in no time. Meanwhile, Doc is threatening to replicate a Medical Shotgun if I don’t get some well-deserved sleep. Not a bad idea, really. The last 24 hours have been one train wreck after the next.

After I get some rest and confirm the ship’s systems are back online, we will be setting course to Framheim Station for After Action Review, and possible return to DS47. I’m just glad it’s all over…

It’s Not THE END

[To Be Continued]