Welcome to Gaia! ::

Captain Gavin J Burns sat patiently in the command seat of his Saber Class USS Fleming, located on the main bridge (Deck 1) of the relatively small ship. "Ensign Marsh, how much longer 'til Earth Spacedock 1?" he asked, shifting impatiently in his seat. The young female Navigation Officer took a moment to reply while she checked, keeping her eyes on her station terminal... "About 20 minutes, Captain. Won't be long, now" she said. "Very well, Ensign. Carry on." Gavin eased, in his gentle, reassuring Scottish accent. "Maybe now, we can all get some much needed... and deserved shore leave."...

About a minute went buy when Tactical Officer Lt. Cmdr. Stewart spoke up. "Captain, I'm picking up some sort of strange movement, not far ahead. Too far to tell exactly what, yet." he said. "Hmm..." hummed the Captain, staring sternly into the view screen, as if to attempt to visually divine what was ahead. "Keep scanning, Mr. Stewart, and put us on Yellow Alert, for now." he said, "Ensign Marsh, slow us down to Warp 5, please, and carry on with the course". "Aye, Captain." the two Officers said in unison, entering their command codes into their terminals. The hum of the warp nacelles could be heard changing their intensity as the ship slowed. Captain Burns patiently but sternly stared into the viewscreen, waiting to see what awaited them ahead.

"Captain! I've picked up a distress signal from a Federation Freighter not far from here!" said the Tactical Officer.

Captain Burns sat up in his seat, with an obviously disgruntled look on his face. With a very quiet sigh of frustration, he spoke "On screen".

The Tactical Officer tried his best to open a channel, but alas, the on screen visuals were poorly transmitted. "Failed to receive on screen visuals, Captain. Trying audio..." he said. After a few finger-taps on his terminal, the speakers blared to life, although very garbled.

The Captain listened fully to the Distress Signal. The Captain, who had his hand at his chin, dropped his hand, into a fist, onto the armrest of his chair, and sat up, again, with an ever-so-slight sigh of frustration. "Ensign Marsh..." he called out. The Navigational Officer didn't even have to wait for the order; "On it, Captain! New course set!". With that, the ship groaned as the ship slowed for the turn, then once on the new course, accelerated to warp speed again, this time, back to Warp 6.

"We're here, Captain. Taking us out of warp" said Ensign Marsh. The ship slowed to impulse, and the derelict freighter came into view immediately.

The Captain stared a moment at the wrecked freighter, then piped up. "Lieutenant Chen, I want scans for lifesigns, and full sector scans to find who did this, as well as scans on the hull of the freighter to see what kind of weapons were used, here, and how fresh the 'wounds' are. Mr. Stewart, I want every effort made to open a hailing channel with the Freighter." said the now obviously irked Captain. The two officers didn't even reply, but instead went right to work on their orders. The Captain tapped his combadge =/="Transporter Rooms and Sickbay, prepare for possible casualties!"=/= he said.

"Looks like shoreleave will have to wait" he grumbled to himself.

Lt. Cmdr. Stewart huffed a bit, in a frustrated manner, "I can't get a channel, Sir. Their communications seems to be completely destroyed."

Lt. Chen chirped up immediately afterwards "I have readings for approximately 34 survivors, Sir. Most of them, very weak. I wouldn't recommend beaming in field medics. With their shields down, I suggest beaming them to our sickbay."

"Do it, Lieutenant. Also, I want the mess hall converted into an emergency triage unit, in case we run out of room." said Burns. "Consider it done, Captain." said Lieutenant Chen. "Also, according to these other readings, it appears the ship was damaged only minutes ago, by what seems to be a small ship... It seems of Federation origin, but I'm not sure... high power weapons. Sector scanners show only minor residual traces of impulse engines" she added. "Mr. Stewart, can you triangulate where they are now?" Captain Burns asked. "Negative, Captain. The traces are too residual, at this time." the tactical officer said, in a disappointing manner.

The Captain huffed. "Keep scanning the area. If they're still here, I want to be the first to know!", he said. "Aye, Captain" said his Science and Tactical Officers.

"Direct hit to the shield generator, Captain! Shield generator almost offline" the tactical officer bellowed.

"Cancel transports, for now! Red alert! Bring us about, and target their impulse reactors. Fire torpedoes, first, to weaken shields, and then fire phasers, full bore. Evacuate the shuttle bays and transfer all life support and emergency power from the shuttle bays to the shield generator." he commanded, with all the necessary stations getting to work immediately.

He tapped his combadge: "Bridge to Engineering, get to work on that shield generator now! I need it up and running ASAP!".

The ship accelerated, and turned about, then, flanking, fired one torpedo, exploding against the shields of the Defiant class. Immediately upon impact, the Sabre class fired two phaser bursts, full bore, one at each impulse reactor, in an attempt to take out their impulse reactors.

The ship shook for a while as the phaser volleys hit again.

"They're behind us, Captain!" shouted the tactical officer.

"Good. Full impulse. Give them something to chase. Target their Navigational Deflector, then, on my cue, fire aft torpedo, immediately folled by two full bores of aft phasers."

The Saber-Class took off ahead of the Defiant-Class for a moment at full impulse, with the Defiant DEAD behind it, with its Navigational Deflector locked into its tactical system. "Wait for it..." the Captain said. He waited until both ships were at full impulse, for maximum torpedo impact, but still close enough that they weren't out of range.

"NOW!" the Captain shouted. An aft-firing torpedo launched from the aft of the Saber, hitting the shields of the Defiant with extreme speed and impact. Immediately there after, two full bore phaser bursts fired straight towards the Defiant's Nav Deflector.

"Drop us down a kilo, and full stop! Bring us behind the Defiant Class!" said the Captain. With that the Saber dropped down about a kilometre, and came to full stop, and the Defiant flew straight above and past it. "Now follow them. Don't let them get behind us again!"

The Defiant Class shook as the torpedoes and phasers hit the shields once more. But the Defiant Class turned and quickly fired another forward assault on the ship as she sped off.

Continue firing! Don't let them get away!

More blasts of pulse phaser fire and two more quantum torpedoes shot across the expanse to collide with the shields of the opposing vessel. As the Saber Class suddenly began to slow, the Defiant Class banked hard to port, bringing herself under the Saber class vessel, and aiming her aft torpedo launcher directly at the vessel so she'd be able to react quickly as she continued to bank and turn to port, hoping to bring herself back around and into range quickly. And thanks to her small size, the Defiant Class was far more maneuverable than the opposing Saber Class.