Maja'chuq!

Posted on Tue Jun 28th, 2022 @ 2:13am by Colonel K'mtaq
Edited on on Tue Jun 28th, 2022 @ 2:18am

Mission: Prelude: The Gathering
Location: Near Donatu V (Klingon side of the Neutral Zone)
Timeline: Mission Day 11 at 0500

[Klingon Norgh-class Bird of Play; I.K.S. Tagh]
[Donatu Sector; 2 LY for the Klingon Neutral Zone]

NOTE: [By mousing over the Klingon texts, you will see a pop-up translation]
Mood Music: HERE

"WejpuH!!" The voice was thick, curdled with rage.

The Tagh bled green vapor profusely from the shattered quasi-dome of its dorsal, aft hull. The visor-like slats of blood-red dimmed, splurged, and hemorrhaged from glowing interior flame. Wounded but still agile, the Bird of Prey banked a wide arc around and, with a flare of yellow from its impulse engine, made a last charge at their attacker.

"Jatlh qaSpu'! BaH!" In the red haze, the sparks of the starboard monitor screen in the Commander's view, shadows dragged a third limp shape away and deposited it. A growling Klingon with rheumy eyes glowered as the swing of the stars on the screen was nauseating. It swayed and swayed until it refocused on a ship.

It was little more than a wedge-shaped carbuncle, taller than its hodgepodge of mismatched parts was wide. Affixed to its fore were the scaffolding plasma conduits, raw superstructure, and dull gray of the Klingon interior hull structure- a tube that glowed with the malicious red ember of a D-7's torpedo tube. Clunky panels of aged ablative armor formed its trapezoidal wedge and tattered wings that resembled triangular solar sails gave the carbuncle the appearance of a bloated duranium sunfish.

The sharp, bloodied teeth of a bedraggled Klingon captain bore defiance, edging at the end of his seat.

"Batlh QIch yablu'be' 'ej pagh ngeDqu'chugh!" The Captain's head snapped back at the news, eyeing a Klingon woman at second Tactical. behind the Captain, on the screen, the tube of ambient red energy was building. And it glowed to life.

"Cha! baH!" He nearly squealed. He wheeled out of his seat, a snooling, snarling Taarg squeeing danger. The main screen grew redder. And redder. An orb of crackling energy like a mini-sun pulsed toward the ship. The Captain was thrown off balance, the Helmsman taking the initiative on evasive action.

"petaQ!" The Captain snarled, a fresh drool of dark lilac oozing from a gash on his central ridges. The ship violently clattered and ruptured. Smoke poured. Consoles exploded amidst death cries. Support cylinders groaned, one collapsing across the Captain's abandoned command chair.

In space, the Tagh's shoulder round was twisted into a jagged artichoke and deeply gouged- so badly that the thick, stubby neck of the Norgh-class was noticeably bent up and to the starboard side like a jutting compound fracture. Its olive hull was pitted, glowing like ember cracklings and scarred black at the impact zone.

A harsh, urgent alarm nearly drowned out the brusque voice of the computer's automated warnings. "Vaj Heghpu' qech ghaH. DurachlIj yIghoS."

The Captain growled, staring into the lifeless face of one of his weapons officers whose eye socket was run through with a now-slick and jagged, cinder-like rod. The Captain pushed him away and manned the weapons console. When it flickered and told him was the no power, he pounded his fists against it, roaring until the console screen shattered and the controls flickered like trapped fireflies.

With a low, guttural hum a wash of red waterfall energy lit up the smoky ruins of the Tagh's Bridge. Five beings in gunmetal gray armor and mirrored blue visors, a glow within obscuring the faces, appeared in the matter stream! "Vaj Heghpu' qech ghaH. DurachlIj yIghoS." The computer again warned. "QaSpu'DI' tlhoghDaj."

With a wet snarl, the Captain whipped his dk'tahg from under his commander's robes. It's blades snapped open. He bellowed at the lead boarder who was pulling a Klingon-style disruptor. Already the round emission and sizzle of such a weapon met the Helmsman and the Klingon woman manning the second bank of weapons. "'Maja'chuq!" The Commander cried.

There was a series of dull pneumatic hisses. The lead figure raised his weapon. "Yeah. You do that," her voice said calmly, muffled like tin and smoke in her comm link. She fired- not at the Captain but over his shoulder. It hit the main screen. With a screech of metal and a shatter of crystal, an irresistible wind caught the Captain's hair first- and then blew him off his feet. He bounced off the toppled support that had crushed his hair and clumsily dropped through the hull fracture of what was the former screen.

In the heavy current of air the figures stood only swaying and bracing, the blue glow from their belts a tell that they were magnetically grappled to the deckplate. "Shut that noise off," the lead said in an urgent tone. She touched her padded throat like she was gently holding her windpipe. "We've taken the Bridge." She stated.

"We have engineering," said a tinny, warbling voice from the comm. "Their warp core's going critical. We have less than five minutes."

Again the lead's fingers touched her windpipe. "You have less than four to get that cloaking device, then. Meet us in the shuttlebay."

"No good," a voice with alarm stated.

"Vaj Heghpu' qech ghaH. DurachlIj yIghoS."

"We're locked out of the cloaking systems. Anything you can do up there?"

There was a scoff of annoyance. "Hold on. Gerris, get up here." A smaller person in the same outfit as the leader stepped up, withdrawing from his pocket a device. He moved for a control console. "I don't suppose you could eject the core?" The lead said.

There was a smirk and a chuckle on the other end of the line. "Yeah. Right. That'd be a switch. Klingons avoiding death. If you can't work it, we'll have to abandon ship. And do all this over again."

"A no would suffice," the lead countered. "Standby." Her eyes fixed on the device the one called Gerris had brought. They'd affixed it to the console screen. Its portable viewfinder flashed with Klingon text- and then sizzled and rounded into a strange green text of rounded geometric angles. "Hurry Gerris."

I'm working, I'm working. My hackpoint doesn't like the sound of Klingon." There were thin, flat chirps from the device as Gerris keyed at it. "Try it now Engineering," the one named Gerris said.

There was silence... except from the warning call. "Vaj Heghpu' qech ghaH. DurachlIj yIghoS."

"We're in. See you in the Shuttlebay." A relieved voice stated.

"Which means we're going," the lead stated definitely. She fingered her team to follow her, ripping the emergency containment doors' release off the wall. She pulled, with a straining grunt, at the handle until it hissed. "Let's move."