U.S.S. Antares
Main Bridge
Beeps and sonar pings sounded throughout the bright bridge as two pairs of doors opened, one releasing an Andorian female, two mares, three fillies and two Tzenkethi officers, while the other revealed eight mares and a stallion coming through, some of them halting in their spots to admire the room. The room was almost pure white, with a bit of dark red for the floor and for the circular window on the ceiling, the consoles looked sleek and had the buttons in a bluish color. and the viewscreen was rather a window with several screens on it.
Twilight only let her eyes take one look around before she turned back to Tarsi, who was at one of the wall consoles as she spoke. "When we landed here, we sent a few officers to set up sensor scramblers above us so we couldn't be detected easily, we also managed to salvage some gear after our skirmish with the Romulans."
"Really? Well we'll most likely need it for what we're about to do. What do we have?" Twilight said as she looked to the officer.
"Some additional torpedoes and beam banks, some shield and weapon batteries, a mining drill, some red matter and a cloaking device." Twilight raised an eyebrow as she heard Tarsi's words.
"How'd you get the last three?" Twilight asked with high curiosity.
"Must've been a miracle, we've been getting all of them installed ever since we landed." The Andorian said with a smirk.
Twilight returned with a smirk of her own as she spoke once more. "Great, that'll really break the Tzenkethi fleet up into pieces, what's our status, Dash?"
Dash was admiring the design of the console she was now sitting at, but snapped out of it and took a second to examine the state of the ship. "Our systems are fully operational, shields and weapons power is at 100%. We're ready to fly this girl up on your word..... or, Tarsi's word, however it's going to work."
Twilight looked to Tarsi, who gave a shrug as she spoke. "Meh, I'm only the First Officer, and while I should take command, you all have more experience than me, besides, I'm sure that Johnny would've wanted you to take his place for the time being." Twilight then looked to Flash and Spike, who gave her a nod of approval before she looked to the screen.
After observing the ocean the ship sat in, Twilight looked to Dash. "Dash, start her up and take us high."
Dash grinned as she tapped the console, the ship jumping slightly as they watched the now descending ocean vanish into nothing but a blue blur.
On the surface, the water moved and splashed silently for a few seconds before a gigantic blast of water appeared in the center of a large space on the water, the splashes becoming bigger and noisy as a large object appeared from the undersea land. The saucer was large and round, with a section in front of the bridge that bore the ship's name and registry, "U.S.S. Antares, NCC-3206". There were six rectangular sections on the front, left, and right of the saucer, three on both the top and bottom with spherical sections that served as the ship's phaser banks, the bridge was sleek with a window on the front of it and a long section trailing down to the ship's glowing red colored impulse engine. The neck was slim and slightly curved down to the secondary hull, a torpedo bay built on the bottom front section of the neck, the secondary hull was circular, a blue and gold deflector dish at the front and a designation reading, "NCC-3206" on the front underside of the hull. The pylons of the ship curved up slightly, holding two gigantic nacelles that had blue glass sections encasing several fins and blades rotating inside, the rest of the engine was smaller as it extended to the aft area, with two fins at the top of the ends.
The ship roared louder than the water falling off of the ship, the lights on the ship flickering to life as the ship slowly turned towards the sky. Twilight observed the beautiful scenery in front of her and the ship before she spoke to Dash. "Punch it." Dash tapped a button on the console and the ship jerked forward, the clouds flying by the accelerating ship as it tilted higher towards the heavens. The ship sped through the sky for a short moment before the last of the clouds passed by and the sky faded into a dark black, with several stars accompanying it.
Twilight stared at the sea of space in front of her, at the moment, they'd fortunately not jumped into the middle of the battle they were once apart of, but farther away, there were ships and weapons fire that could be seen from their current position. After taking in the sight, Twilight then turned to Rarity at one of the wall consoles and asked, "Rarity, can you locate the Fearless?"
The fashionista tapped her console a few times before she found her answer. "They've taken cover behind the enemy fleet, and I'm reading slight damage to the Fearless."
"Pinkie, see if you can get a signal to Wyatt, Dash, take us towards the Alliance fleet." The two mares nodded and tapped their consoles. Not a second later did the ship speed forward toward the fleet and a large screen appeared showing the Admiral in his seat. He looked unscathed much to Twilight's comfort, but gave a stunned look when he saw her new seat.
"Well, I'm glad you're okay, Twilight, but how'd you get that new ship of yours?"
Twilight then turned to Tarsi, who gave a smile as she replied. "You can thank me and my crew for that, we were hiding down on the planet before you came and we're ready to help."
Wyatt gave a comforted smile as he spoke again. "Definitely, if you could help take out these frigates abusing us here, that'd be a real help."
"Not a problem, we'll be right on it." Twilight said, but halted her hoof from the armrest console when he noticed her friend looking at Terrak, who stood in a friendly posture as Wyatt spoke.
"I assume you're Tzen-Terrak?"
Terrak nodded at the question. "I'm very pleased to see you face to face, Admiral, perhaps when this is over we can meet in person?" Wyatt nodded as the screen changed to show the battle ahead, the Alliance fleet nearly filled the entire window as they closed on the Amarillo.
Twilight then looked to Dash and ordered, "What's the status of the Amarillo?"
Dash tapped her console before she got her results. "Her shields are down to 20%, she's being pummeled!"
"Lock weapons on the frigates, fire at will!" Dash tapped on her console before several red bolts of energy shot out rapidly at the closest Tzenkethi ship, the shields of the ship flashing rapidly until the final flash appeared and the hull was being burned to pieces by the shots. Not a second later did the ship become one with the burning fireball, flying apart swiftly. Dash then turned her attention to another frigate and more red phaser bolts shot out at the ship, a blue beam apparently coming from the Amarillo joining the assault. The ship's shields flickered and took several shots before a single torpedo from the Antares put down the frigate for good.
Dash gave a vicious grin upon vanquishing the two ships. "Ha! This baby's got the claws of a warship! She's pretty tough!" She halted her cocky attitude when she noticed a larger ship coming at them, a Rhas’bej class battlecruiser. "Well, that'll be true if we can kill this thing." The pegasus said quietly as she heard Twilight spoke.
"Don't let that cruiser get a chance to attack our friends back there, get it's attention!"
"Was hoping you'd say that!" Dash said with a smirk as she tapped her console and several phaser bolts and photons shot out at the cruiser, green beams firing back at the ship as they attacked.
Tarsi then tapped her console for a moment before she grinned at the data on her console and looked to Twilight. "Twilight, that drill I mentioned a bit ago has been installed, we can fire on your order!"
The alicorn smiled as she looked to Dash and ordered, "Dash, let's take a bigger piece of meat off of that beast, fire the mining drill!" Dash nodded and tapped her console several times before a large orange beam soon shot out of the front of the saucer, hitting the now vulnerable Tzenkethi warship as it turned to the right from the impact. A short moment later a large explosion appeared on the aft port section of the ship, causing it to turn ever more so to the right and crashing into one of the nearby frigates, which wrought out two more explosions from the ship, the last and larger one bringing about the cruiser's end.
Dash let out a cheer of excitement as Rarity smiled at the sight. "Nice move there, Rainbow! That'll save us some trouble!" Dash then turned the ship to the left on a hard boost of speed, forcing everyone up against their seats as the ship then made another left turn to face the enemy fleet.
The sight of the fleet's maneuvers raised one of Twilight's eyebrows as she saw them, the ships had ceased fire and were now turning away from the Alliance fleet. Curious of the retreat, Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie and asked, "Pinkie, why are those ships fleeing?"
Pinkie tapped her console quickly before she got her results. "Twilight, I don't know why or how, but my scanners are showing high energy levels being generated on the dreadnought. They seem to be very similar to the amount generated for a universal portal!"
"What?!" She then looked to the screen and saw the lead ship firing a blue beam from it's front side before a blue anomaly appeared in front of the Tzenkethi fleet. Twilight gritted her teeth as she turned to Rarity. "Rarity, hail Wyatt, quickly!" Rarity did so and Wyatt's face appeared on the screen not a moment later. "Wyatt, our scans say they're trying to open a universal portal, they might be trying to attempt an attack!"
Wyatt frowned at the news before he responded. "Well, we don't have time to waste, we're right behind you!"
Twilight nodded as the screen shut off and Dash, without a cue, tapped her console before the ship sped forward, almost knocking everyone off of their feet as the Pegasus held onto her console. Twilight sat in her chair as she watched the anomaly fly past the Antares, thoughts flying around in her mind as she awaited their arrival.
~U.S.S. Amarillo, Bridge~
The centuries-old bridge vibrated roughly as the ship flew through the anomaly, crewmembers keeping their stances with strong effort as they performed their duties. Wyatt stared at the enemy fleet on the screen as he thought in his mind, "This is very strange for the Tzenkethi to be able to activate the portal despite the fact that they've never taken one of our ships for study, I wonder how they've found out how to do such a thing." He then ceased his thoughts as he turned to T'Vrell and asked her, "T'Vrell, can you get any readings on the other side of this portal?" T'Vrell took a second before she answered the Admiral.
"I've gotten a faint reading of the area, but I cannot get anymore than that, there seems to be a large structure of some kind, as well as several more ships around it, but that's all I can tell."
"They might be retreating to some kind of undercover facility to plan their next attack." Miolii said as she looked to Wyatt.
"Perhaps, but the real question I'm pondering over is HOW they gained the ability to travel like this." The Caitian commander gave a grim look as she once again faced the screen, watching the enemy ships in front of them flying fast towards the end of the portal.
Elisa turned to Wyatt after looking at her console again and spoke. "Sir, we're nearing the edge of the anomaly!"
"Weapons ready, T'Vrell, ready shields and send out a signal to our friends at the Preserver sphere, tell them we've got company!" T'Vrell nodded as she performed the task and Wyatt tapped his comms panel on his armrest and spoke. "Bridge to Lon, how's the damage?"
Lon voice sounded through the speakers with slight grunts. "My boys and I have managed to fix some of the damaged power conduits to the deck, and our-NGHHHAAH- warp core's taken only a few scratches."
"Good, keep up the repairs, the fight's not over!"
Lon remained silent for a moment before he responded, stopping the Admiral from speaking in worry. "Understood sir, and Mrs. Creepy wants to come up to the bridge sir, she says she may be able to help out on this matter."
Wyatt had been aware of his new officer's work, she'd been educating herself in Starfleet's history and trying to get the knows of the galaxy lately, as well as taking a look at the new datalogs involving their travels into other universes. Thinking of the possible answers they could get from her studies, he answered his engineer with, "Get her up here immediately."
"Aye." Lon said as the comms cut out and the viewscreen flashed to show a distorted area of space, somehow familiar yet not at the same time. The space around the ships seemed to be similar to the subspace areas populated by the Elachi, but the area would slightly shift in color from dark blue to a purplish red, in front of the two fleets was a large, stationary structure of some kind, it had the type of hull color the Tzenkethi ships had, but the design was nothing like Wyatt had seen from their arsenal, a tall, bulging structure with around three rotating rings glowing orange in their interiors circling around the main section, around all that was several arms attached to the large hull. Each arm seemed to have a ship or two in it.
Curious, Wyatt looked to Elisa and ordered, "Magnify on those two arms on the left." Elisa tapped her console before the screen shifted to a closer view of the station's arms, there were three ships visible on the screen, two on one arm and one on the other. The first one seemed to resemble a civilian ship with minor signs of damage, the second was a Terran Nebula class ship, with signs that the personnel on the base were dismantling it, and the last one forced Wyatt's pupils to shrink and an eyebrow to raise, an Iconian Quas class cruiser, with no signs of tampering whatsoever.
Wyatt was surprised at the sight of a powerful vessel being held by a race that would be nothing compared to the power of such an ancient species, wondering about the status of the vessel, Wyatt turned to T'Vrell and spoke. "T'Vrell, what's the status of the Herald vessel?"
The Vulcan officer tapped her console a few times before she replied. "There are no life forms aboard, the ship's systems are shut down and the vessel itself is restrained by docking clamps on the arm of the station. I'm also reading several life signs on the station, some of them are not Tzenkethi."
"Perhaps they're prisoners.... and what of the Terran vessel?" Wyatt said as he took another look at the Imperial vessel, the turbolift doors opening and Creepybloom entering as T'Vrell answered.
"The ship's name is I.S.S. Depression, NCC-98847, some of her components are missing, I believe that the Tzenkethi may be using them for study."
Creepybloom's pupils shrunk upon those words. "...Did you say, that ship's name was "I.S.S. Depression"?" She said as she stared at the somewhat familiar ship.
Wyatt, giving a confused look, turned to her and spoke. "Yes, is there something wrong, Creepy?"
The filly shook her head out of the trance-like stance and turned to Wyatt as she answered. "Yes, you see, when Ah was studying those datalogs, Ah decided to take a look at the databanks of a recovered data buoy we picked up in the Badlands a bit ago, and Ah found a load of data involving some of their ships. Ah looked into several of them and one of them turned out to be that ship on the screen." Wyatt then turned to the screen again to see the ship Creepybloom had been talking about before turning back to the filly. "Ah read a lot on the ships, including the prisoner data files, and.... that ship had a prisoner Ah'm very familiar with."
Wyatt gave a curious look as he asked, "Really? Who?"
Creepybloom held herself together as she answered. "A friend Ah made when Ah was back on Mirror Equis, Pinkie, or, Pinkamena, if that'll help specify things."
Wyatt's eyes widened slightly, after hearing the tale of the filly's capture after she joined the crew, he'd been wondering what'd happen to her. In his eyes, family was an important thing to have for him and his crew, and he started to have hopeful thoughts as he spoke. "So, are you saying that since that ship is here, she may be on that station?"
Creepybloom thought through the chances as she responded. "Possibly, Ah read further on that ship's data, and from what Ah read, the ship was reported missing after they went on patrol in Tzenkethi space, and mah friend wasn't registered as transferred when that happened."
Wyatt turned towards the screen as he observed the station, there were prisoners, and if what the filly said was true, then they might be on a rescue mission at this point. Saving the Admiral's breath, Creepybloom looked to her friend and asked, "If you'll allow meh sir, I'd like to join on an away team to the station, if we can get through to them, that is."
Wyatt stood staring at the screen for a moment, looking at the station for a few moments before T'Vrell spoke up. "Sir, the Tzenkethi fleet is coming towards us, we must hurry."
"Hail Twilight, lemme see what she can do." T'Vrell tapped her console in compliance before Twilight appeared on screen.
She gave a eager look as she spoke to her friend. "What's the plan, Wyatt?"
Wyatt gave a hopeful look as he spoke to the princess. "Twilight, do you have any special gear aboard that ship? I'm considering a... rescue mission onboard the station and I need to know what your ship's got."
Tarsi got in front of the screen as she spoke up. "I believe so sir, we managed to gain a cloaking device during an earlier scuffle with an enemy, if your team doesn't mind using EV-suits, I believe we can do that."
Wyatt smiled as he heard the officer's words. "You got it, I'll see if we can provide some EV-suits, how many do you need?"
Twilight looked to her friends, and deciding who would go, she answered. "I'd say about seven, if that won't be a problem."
"Not at all, we'll send over the suits and take cover behind the fleet until we're ready to start the operation... also, I'm sending Creepybloom over to you, she says there may be someone on that station that she knows very well."
Twilight smiled at the filly's face again as she replied. "Got it, it'll be good to see her again, we'll let you know when we're going to proceed. Sparkle out." The Princess finished with a smile as the screen cut back to the station, the Tzenkethi fleet bearing down on the Amarillo as Wyatt looked to T'Vrell and spoke to her.
"T'Vrell, contact our friends around us, tell them to cover us as we prep ourselves for the operation!"