MSNPC Ch'zila: The Sting
Meris/Brian
((Bridge, USS Invicta, Holosuite 4, Deck 5, USS Thor))
From the failing bridge of the Shra'Tik, Ch'zila watched the Badlands close in like a living storm. Systems were collapsing and there was no path left that would save both ship and crew, but the brood still had a future. When the Federation vessel answered, Ch'zila ensured their continuation and released the hatchery into the chaos, trusting that Starfleet instinct for life would be stronger than fear.
Naledi: Snap Crack Pop Hiss Creak... Of course, Ch’Zila. You have our word. It’s word that they will be kept safe at all costs.
DeVeau: Captain?
Tito: Track that Pod, under no circumstance can we lose it.
Ch'zila saluted the fellow Xindi-Insectoid, crossing one forelimb across their chest plate and placing their palp upon their heart with bowed head. The interference from the visual feed overcame the signal strength and the channel cut out once again.
Naledi: ::Cricking and Snapping:: On its mark... Prepare to tractor the pod into our shuttlebay. Lieutenant Tito, have sickbay prepare for doctors to rendezvous with it there, biohazard protocols in place. Beam as many Xindi as possible into cargo bays and get them medical attention after the pod. When the pod is aboard, set a course away from the Badlands, and engage.
Tito: Aye Captain. Forwarding message to the medical department. I suggest diverting all power from non-essential areas and functions.
DeVeau: Locked on target. Ready to initiate the tractor beam.
Across the bridge of the Invicta, Naledi’s orders snapped the crew into coordinated motion. From the center seat Naledi directed the rescue while Tito relayed orders to sickbay and diverted power across the ship. DeVeau wrestled with the Badlands interference to secure a stable tractor lock on the drifting brood pod. Around them the holographic crew fought to keep the ship steady as sensors flickered and crewmembers hunted for flickering lifesign readings.
Naledi: Pew Snap... Mark.
DeVeau: Got it!
Tito: Keep it steady.
At Naledi’s signal the bridge moved as one. DeVeau locked the tractor beam onto the drifting brood pod and began compensating for violent power fluctuations while Tito coordinated medical teams preparing to receive the hatchery.
Tito: Medical teams standing by. Shuttlebay empty and ready to receive the Nursery.
DeVeau: Bringing it in. Redirecting power from all necessary systems to the tractor beam and transporters.
Naledi: Response.
The ship shook as a nearby plasma column ignited. The starship shifted within the turbulent gases of the Badlands.
Tito: Watch the fluctuations on the tractor beam… Captain we... We either get the Nursery or the Shra’Tik…
Frowning, Alora avoided looking at Naledi refusing to believe in a binary outcome.
Again the ship shuddered, this time more severely. The tractor beam flickered.
DeVeau: Trying to compensate!
Naledi/Tito: Response.
DeVeau: We need more power!
Across the bridge every console lit with warnings as the Badlands pushed harder against the Invicta. Helm struggled to keep the ship steady while tactical monitored the deteriorating condition of the Shra'Tik, its hull drifting dangerously close to the plasma columns. Sensors flickered between the brood pod and the damaged vessel.
Naledi/Tito: Response.
DeVeau: I’m losing it!
Again the ship shook violently until the last moment when the brood pod drifted into position in front of the shuttlebay and the main tractor beam winked off. For a heartbeat the pod hung suspended in space, haloed by raging golden plasma storms, before the shuttlebay tractor emitters snapped on and pulled the brood pod safely inside just as medical teams rushed in to receive it.
Naledi/Tito: Response.
((Bridge, The Shra'Tik, Holosuite 4, Deck 5, USS Thor))
Ch'zila raised a forelimb and gave a crisp salute toward the image of Lieutenant Commander Naledi. The gesture carried none of the respect it might have suggested.
The viewscreen flickered as the signal from the Federation vessel collapsed into static. It was replaced by the glowing storms of the Badlands while Ch'zila stood motionless, compound eyes fixed on the brood pod drifting toward the Invicta.
oO Yes... protect the young. Oo
Behind Ch'zila the bridge of the Shra'Tik smoldered under dim emergency lighting. Conduits sparked along the bulkheads and the air smelled of scorched circuitry and plasma exhaust.
Ch'zila knelt beside the body of the First - the ship's commanding officer. The dagger that had been driven through the captain's carapace still protruded between the thoracic plates. With a practiced motion Ch'zila pulled the blade free, wiped the ichor from it across the fallen captain's armor, and slid the weapon back into its sheath.
The captain's compound eyes stared upward, lifeless.
A short distance away lay the headless body of the Second - the executive officer. Their severed head rested several meters away where it had rolled during the mutiny.
The bridge crew watched Ch’zila silently.
They had chosen their side already.
Ch'zila rose.
Ch'zila: Snap Crick... stations.
The mutineers moved immediately. Helm returned to their console. Tactical sealed failing subsystems. Another officer adjusted the external visual feed, keeping the Invicta centered on the screen as its tractor beam captured the brood pod.
The Federation ship had taken the bait.
Ch'zila's mandibles clicked with quiet satisfaction.
Ch'zila: Snap Crackle Pop... Gather weapons. Take your positions.
Compartments opened along the bulkheads as the mutineers armed themselves with rifles and plasma lances. One by one they moved toward the emergency dispersal hatches.
Ch'zila stepped to a secondary console.
Ch'zila: Pop Snap Hiss... Initiating separation sequence.
Outside the Shra'Tik the vessel began to change shape. Three wing-like structures detached and drifted away from the central core.
From the Invicta it would appear that the ship was breaking apart under the strain of the storms.
oO Wounded. But not so wounded as we made you believe. Oo
Ch'zila secured a plasma rifle to their thorax harness.
Ch'zila: Hiss Pop... Dispersal teams stand ready.
The mutineers locked themselves beside the dispersal hatches.
Ch'zila pressed the final control.
The impulse engines roared.
The remaining central core of the Shra'Tik surged forward like a spear through the storm.
Ch'zila's mandibles spread.
Ch'zila: Crackle... Ramming speed!
The core accelerated to maximum impulse.
Ahead, the Invicta loomed growing larger in the viewscreen.
They were focused on the brood pod.
They were unprotected. Their shields, intended to protect against torpedoes, were no match for the bulk of the Xindi vessel’s central core.
The sharpened prow of the Shra'Tik slammed into the port side of deck 7 near the arboretum. Hull plating crumpled as the core punched deep into the Federation vessel. Emergency forcefields snapped into place around the breach.
Inside the shattered core there mutineers died instantly in the collision.
The surviving seventeen did not hesitate.
Ch'zila triggered the hatch release. Explosive bolts fired and the dispersal hatches blew outward, allowing the boarding party into the Invicta's interior.
They emerged into dense greenery.
Towering shrubbery.
Humidity.
Living soil.
One of the mutineers stared at a fern in confusion.
Their leader did not.
Ch'zila: Crick Crack... Move. Activate your transport inhibitors. We take main engineering and then we take the ship.
They pointed deeper into the ship.
The Xindi-Insectoid boarding party surged forward through the arboretum toward the corridors beyond, weapons raised and firing on any Starfleet crew they saw along the way.
((Tags/TBC))
---
Lieutenant JG Meris
Helmsperson
USS Thor
A240207M14