//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Collateral Damage // Story: Star Trek Online: Sacrifice - Part I // by Admiral Wyatt Stone //------------------------------// "We know our duty, we just... have our own way of getting it done." Teamwork. When you have friends, it's especially good to work together in your struggles. For some it can be difficult to work with others, but when you and your friends are in danger, it can help you to help them get everyone out. When I met Calamity, he and I went to another stable to prevent an outbreak of monsters within the stable. We wouldn't have gotten out if we didn't work together in that place. When my friends and I went to Old Olneigh, we'd nearly fell to the hellhounds lurking within that place, and we'd only gotten out by working together. If Spike didn't help me in breathing fire on me, I would've never gotten into the S.P.P. and the Wasteland would've fallen to the Enclave. And now I had a new team to work with, and there was no way we'd succeed in our mission if I'd went alone... --------- As the last of the Hur'q left the brig of the Lukara, my friends and I descended down to the floor. I ran up to a console that was near the door, tapping it as it displayed a map. As I saw the layout of the ship, I grinned ecstatically. "Perfect!" I said as my friends looked at the map. "What?" Lacunae asked as I looked at her, sending the map of the ship to my Pipleg as I spoke. "There's a nearby shuttlebay, along with a research lab! If we can get there and get our data, we can steal a shuttle or two of theirs and we'll be home free!" My friends smiled as they approved of my plan. As the download finished, the five of us made our way out the door and through the hall. As we turned a corner to the right, one of J'ula's soldiers was fighting with a pair of Hur'q Attendants, both of them forcing the Klingon against the wall. We ran past the small skirmish, none of them chasing us as they were too distracted with each other. As we reached the end of the hallway, my team walked through the door to the research room. Surprisingly, there were no warriors in here. "Oh, please don't tell me there's some super dangerous soldier hidden in this room or something." I muttered as I slowly went towards a console at the other end of the room. Remembering that I would need to probably hack into the console to get the data, I started doing as such. As I pulled the tray that covered the console's inner workings off, I began my work. I heard a few Klingons racing towards our position. "Just as I feared." I said to my friends. "I'll handle them." Rampage said with a smirk. I tried to protest, but Blackjack walked up to me as she spoke. "Don't worry, she's got this." She shared the smirk Rampage had as the door opened, two Klingons pointing their weapons at us. Rampage let out a rage-filled battle cry as she sprinted toward the Klingons, their weapons firing but missing as the armored mare dodged their attacks. She landed on both of them, tearing their faces open and disemboweling them. I felt a bit grossed out as she dug her left forehoof in their blood. "Their blood is pink, my favorite color!" She said with a ravenous grin as the rest of us looked on with a hint of shock. I turned my focus back to the console, the download was almost complete. I grabbed one of the pistols from the dead Klingons, wiped the blood from it and put it into my saddlebags. "I forgot to reload my gun back on the Harmony, I'll need this if things get bad." I wanted to facehoof so badly, sometimes, I was not a clever pony. As the download finished, I got up and said, "We've got it all, let's get out of here!" My teammates all nodded as I exited the research lab and went to the left, all of my friends following suite. As we walked towards the shuttlebay, I tapped my combadge as I spoke. "Littlepip here, I've got the data, we're headed to the shuttlebay!" Na'Zev responded calmly. "Excellent, we'll beam you all out shortly." My friends and I stopped as we listened to the communications. I broke the silence. "Beam my friends out first, I'll cover them." "If you're sure, we'll keep a lock on them. We're detecting an odd ship within the Lukara's shuttlebay, one of the prisoners wants it."Na'Zev said as I looked to the shuttlebay door, which was now a few feet away. "I'll get it, don't worry. Littlepip out." I looked to my friends as the badge shut off, their quizzical looks telling me this was not a good idea. "Won't they try and shoot you down the moment you launch?" Morning Glory asked me worriedly as I gave a hopeful smile. "Not if I can dodge them, knowing how consoles work, it shouldn't be too difficult." With that, they all nodded before we galloped to the shuttlebay entrance. As the doors opened, I saw only a few guards within the room, standing near the shuttles and a few consoles near them. Hopping into SATS again, I used all but one bullet to take out the four soldiers in the room, leaving only us and the ships to fly. I pulled out my earbloom as I tuned my Pipleg to the Stratus' shipwide communication network. I looked to my friends to get behind the right side of the Lukara shuttlecraft, myself racing to the one ship that stuck out like a sore thumb. It had a large cockpit big enough to hold two people inside, as well as a space that I assumed was for a droid like the one I saw earlier. The main hull had wires and tubes going all across it, two pylons sticking out the sides of the blocky, exposed hull. If I had a dorsal view of the ship, it would look like a Y. I listened to the communication between the crew as Na'Zev said, "Do we have a lock?" "Affirmative, Sir. We're ready on your word." Another officer said as I heard a beep from a console on the Stratus' bridge. "Sir, they're opening a portal! They're going at full impulse!" The bridge officer said as I felt the ship move forward. "Get them out of there, quickly!" Na'Zev said as I turned to my friends and spoke. "Hold on, they're transporting you out!" My friends nodded as they were surrounded by fields of blue energy, their bodies disappearing as the fields did. As I looked to the large ship that was Wedge's starfighter (according to my Pipleg), I heard more Klingons coming towards my location. I opened the cockpit and hopped into the ship's pilot seat, looking at the console, it had some resemblance to older Starfleet consoles. Because of this and my training back in the Engineering station, I found the power systems and activated the ship. The Klingon soldiers had come into the room and started shooting at me as I activated the ships shields, the disruptors hitting them the second they were activated. I pulled out the visor and ordered a view from the Lukara's outer fore view. Even in Wedge's ship, I felt the Lukara slowing down as it exited the anomaly, and arrived near a yellow gas giant. There were several ships in orbit of the planet, some were of similar design as that star destroyer I saw back at Laurentia, others had a bulbous shape and were even larger than the star destroyers they were near. I could see flashes of light as the ships flew around each other, a few exploding as they were hit by weapons fire. There was a battle going on, but I didn't have time to watch space warfare. Sitting on my flank and strapping myself in, I tapped a button with my magic and the ships engines activated, the ship itself lifting into the air a second later. I ordered the visor I was wearing to show the interior of the shuttlebay, and I was granted a view of my ship, the Klingons outside hitting my ship with disruptor blasts all the while. Seeing the turret on the top of the cockpit, I used my magic to remove my strap belts and look at the aft console. Seeing the view of the turret's barrels and the Klingons, I grabbed the two sticks and turned the turret around towards the two soldiers. I pressed the triggers and blew the Klingons off of their feet, the impact to the ground had to have hurt them badly. "Let's see what this baby's got!" I said with a smirk as I fired four more dual shots around the shuttlebay, one of them hitting the door clamps. I quickly hopped back into my seat and strapped myself in as the doors opened, the Klingons and other shuttlecraft being sucked out into the vacuum of space. When the path was clear, I grabbed the controls and dove the ship out, kicking her to full speed. I let out a "YEEHAAAW!" as the ship sped away from the Lukara, the flagship of J'ula firing shots. I kept focus as I turned the ship towards the gas giant, praying that I could find safety there. I tapped a few buttons before the statistics about the planet came up on a small red screen. "Hmm, Taloraan? Sounds like a nice place." As I examined it some more, I gasped as I saw the description for civilian life. "No way, they have an artificial city in the clouds?! Oh I'm going to love this place!" As I looked out the left window I noticed something odd. The Lukara had stopped firing. Curious, I tuned my Pipleg to the Lukara's communication channel, placing my earbloom in my ear. Good thing it still worked. I could hear J'ula speaking as the Stratus and its allies arrived out of another anomaly, continuing their attack on the ship I had escaped. "It seems she is more impressive than I anticipated." "Shall we open fire on the ship, my Lady?" One of the officers said to his captain. "No, you will focus your efforts on the Stratus and her fleet, T'gath, do you have the inhibitor installed on that fighter?" "Yes, my Lady, she won't be beaming away anytime soon." I sat in my seat as I heard that dreaded sentence, they'd put transport inhibitors in this thing! "J'ULA, DAMN YOU!" I cursed so loud I thought the whole system could hear me from here. I noticed I wasn't safe yet, I had a huge battle to get through, and Klingons were probably still on my tail! I once again kicked the ship to max speed, racing towards Taloraan. "No time to worry about that, it's time to face the fire." I said to myself as I got near two of the large starships near the battlefield. The first obstacle I had to avoid was the capital ships. The star destroyers and the bulbous vessels focused their efforts on each other, but some shots got close, maybe too close. I maneuvered my ship erratically as they fought each other. I almost thought I was clear as I passed through two-thirds of the battlefield, the ships ignoring me as I flew closer to the planet. All of a sudden, my console beeped as the sensors detected another ship pursuing me, thank the Goddesses it wasn't an enemy. The ship had a large fuselage with four large engines, and connected to those were wings, each wing boasting a laser cannon of some sort. I removed my earbloom as I listened to the communication channel, the other ship's pilot was trying to talk to me. "This is Thunder 4 of Thunder Squadron, state your business on the surface." Oh great, don't tell me to pull over when we're in the middle of a battle! I tapped the console and spoke to the pilot behind me. "Listen, my name is Littlepip, I'm a member of the Universal Alliance and I've just escaped from an enemy warship far away from the battle. I need to head to the surface so I can get back to my ship via transporter!" I held onto my controls as I waited for a response. "Hmm, your ship's signal code registers as Rogue 3, that's Commander Antilles' ship you're in!" The pilot said as I replied. "Yes, and that ship I escaped from stole it earlier! Look if you need to escort me down there I'll gladly accept, just don't shoot me down!" "Very well, I'll ensure the commander's fighter is safe and so-" I was stunned by a blare of static as the ship behind me exploded, another ship following behind me. It looked like a ball with two pylons and two large, hexagonal wings. "SHIT!" I yelped as I took control of the starfighter and flew towards the surface, my new pursuer following. I sped towards the surface, my pursuer firing green laser bolts as I flew, I got hit one time on the port engine, but I was alive, and tried to stay alive as I flew. As I reached the atmosphere, I searched the console. "Dammit! Where's an auto-turret button when you need one?!" I let out a yelp of excitement as I found it, tapping it without a second to spare. Behind me, the ships turret spun and aimed at my pursuer, firing red laser bolts as I flew. I reached the surface and sped between two large platforms, which carried cargo containers of some kind all over them, the enemy fighter behind me didn't hold back as he fired at me, missing and taking out some of the cargo tanks on one of the platforms ahead of me. As I looked back, two more shots flew at the enemy ship, the latter one hitting it dead center. The cockpit exploded as the fighter burned through the clouds. I let out a cheer of victory as I steadied my ship. "Woohoo! They must've been really stupid if they didn't have shields on that thing!" I said as I laughed, then ceased as I saw the large cloud city. It was massive, alright, it was a large circular platform that held over a dozen buildings, under it was a long spire that pointed down at the surface below. "Wow... well let's look for a place to land." I said sheepishly to myself as I grabbed my control sticks and flew towards the city, looking for a safe area. How do you think they could build such a structure? The little pony in my head said as I searched, finally finding a landing pad on one of the lower areas of the city. I hoped my friends up there we're okay while I stowed away here, cause J'ula, from how she sounded, wanted me back alive, and I wasn't going to let her have me without a fight.