The Starship Legacy, Only recently among the most impressive and formidable starships in Starfleet now was a floating hulk. Within the very heart of this mighty vessel her crew fought for their lives as growing numbers of Klingon aggressors ruthlessly lay siege to them. Ship’s Captain, Captain Nicholas Mason, desperately duelled multiple Klingon warriors in swordplay in sickbay, still recovering from his injuries onboard the recently destroyed USS Ajax. The Executive officer and Operations officer, Commander Aleya Mason and Lieutenant William Simmons desperately fought Klingons, fear and low morale while trying to get the ship operational and in Main Engineering, Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Johnny ‘Beast’ Reed was fighting against his own programming and the severe damage to the ship to try and assist his fellow crewmen. None of the battles were going well, with entire groups of Legacy crewmen being separated and pinned down in various sections of the Sovereign-Class Refit.
Commander Aleya Mason fired her phaser at the last Klingon, hitting him square in the face. Casualties on the bridge were high, with only a mere few survivors of the ship to ship battle still alive. At some point during the chaos of the battle on the bridge, Lieutenant Commander Solkar had died and Captain Palmer, formerly of the USS Ajax, had also been shot and critically wounded. Ensign Holly Sparks, expert helmsman and former bridge officer of the USS Ajax had gathered most of the 12 survivors and taken them to secure the area close to the bridge, having also proven herself a superior marksman with a compression phase rifle.
Ensign Sparks slowly paced down the corridor, looking for Klingons. She was with a jittery young crewman, who despite his raw age of 17 and jittery demeanour was also a mean shot with a phaser and had lightning fast reactions to match. He was scouring the corridor a few meters behind her when a sharp intake of breath. She turned and saw a Klingon disrupter pointed square at the young man’s head. Then with barely a breaths notice, the large, leather-clad finger moved and the young man fell, dead before he even hit the floor. Stunned by the brutal murder that had taken place, she didn’t notice the Klingons pouring out of the rooms and corridors she hadn’t yet checked. A sense of despair filled the young officer as she surrendered and was quickly shackled and herded off by the Klingons. She knew that the Klingons were going to either publicly execute her or torture her for information, knowing that the Klingon leaders had lost their honour when the Duras took over. A small tear ran down her cheek as she was taken away.
In sickbay, Captain Mason was surrounded, tired and outnumbered six to one. The six Klingons surrounded him, with all manner of weapons drawn. Occasionally they would lunge at him and engage in combat. The tiring Captain was struggling to fend off their attacks, but as a younger warrior attacked in sloppy fashion, the Captain sidestepped and thrust his sword straight into the warrior. Watching the Klingon fall back and crash to the floor invigorated the Captain leading him to draw on his reserves and his best knowledge of sword fighting and attack the Klingons. He attacked viciously, slicing the warriors and killing them. But for all his skill, they were equally skilled finding ways to block his attacks. The Captain was having difficulty parrying the counter blows and he could feel his reserve strength ebbing as he fought. He took stock of his situation, slightly heartened by the fact that his last stand attack had killed four of the Klingons. Luckily for him, the Klingons were becoming overconfident, making mistakes that he was trying hard to exploit. Eventually after another few minutes of fighting he killed the Klingons and stumbled out of sickbay. Sword tip dragging on the floor, the Captain stumbled wearily down the corridor. He stumbled, in almost a trance, only broken by a shrill piercing scream.
In one of the labs, the Klingons had restrained Ensign Holly Sparks in a chair and found some active power cables, they were using them to electrocute her. They had already hit her and left her with bruises and a split lip. The 18 year old had never experienced full scale war and never been captured or tortured, she wouldn’t hold out much longer, but sheer determination was stopping her cracking. The big Klingon leered at her again, “What are the command codes to this ship” he said in a gruff voice. She looked up at him, so close to telling her everything she knew about the starship, but her stubborn streak took over and as vehemently as she could manage she spat blood from her mouth and said, “Go to hell”. The Klingon just smiled, clearly enjoying his work, “I hoped you would say that” he said, once again holding the power cables to her. Sparks danced as the young Ensign screamed again.
Captain Mason heard the scream again. Becoming more invigorated to find the source of such a sound and end the suffering that was causing it. He stopped outside a laboratory and listened. Inside he heard movement and then the high pitched screams again. Sneaking a glance around the corner of the door, he saw 2 Klingons working on a slumped figure. Closer inspection revealed it to be Young Ensign Sparks. A sudden fury gripped the Captain. He knew that Klingon honour had fallen by the wayside since Karath had took over, but he would never have guessed that the Klingons would torture someone so young, so innocent. He charged in, before the Klingons knew what was happening and slew them both in a fit of fury. He quickly unlocked the cuffs holding her in place and folded his sword away hooking it into his belt. He picked up the barely conscious form of the young Ensign and said to her, “I’m so sorry”, before carrying her away from the Klingon infested deck.
On the bridge, Commander Mason had turned her attention to finding Captain Mason. She and her remaining crew had managed to get partial internal sensors, but they could only differentiate between Klingons and humans, they couldn’t pick out individual officers. She could see that the Klingons were being pushed back on deck 17 and that they were few and far between on the other decks. They had been scanning for ages now and no sign of anyone in sickbay or any other triage centre aboard the ship. Just then, the turbolift doors hissed open and everyone looked around, a wounded Captain Mason stumbled onto the bridge carrying the inert form of Ensign Sparks. He took her to the ready room and laid her to rest on the sofa in their before stepping back onto the bridge. Before he could give any orders, there was the unmistakable shimmer of a transporter beam and Chancellor Karath appeared on the bridge, swords in hand. “Captain Mason, for a year now, this war has dragged on, pitting our minds against the other, you have killed my brother and my son and now I will exact my vengeance on you” said the Klingon. The Captain responded in kind, attacking the Chancellor, as the last Klingon attack force beamed in and attacked the crew. The Chancellor and the Captain duelled unhindered as the rest of the crew battled it out and Ensign Sparks recovered. A power overload completely blew half the bridge, killing Starfleet and Klingon alike, most of the people were thrown to the floor. Captain Mason and Chancellor Karath were momentarily distracted. Chancellor Karath was quick to recover, as the Captain turned back to the fight, he turned his hilt, smacking the Captain clean in the face. As he stumbled back, Karath unleashed a kick, causing the Captain to lose grip on his sword, launching it across the bridge where it landed next to the ready room doors. Karath finished off the dirty move by punching Mason in the face, leaving him sprawled on the floor.
The ready room door hissed open and Ensign Sparks stumbled out, not fully recovered from her torture, she picked up the sword and held it, rather confidently pointed at the Klingon, “Let him go” she said, her voice giving off that damaged sound. The Klingon merely smiled before barking orders. The Captain and the Chancellor simply vanished. Unsure of what to do Holly Sparks folded her Captains sword and helped up Commander Mason. Neither of them knew what to do and they shared dishevelled, confused looks as the communications panel fizzled and they heard all fleet communications, which mainly consisted of one word, “Retreat”. They quickly concluded that the fleet was all but defeated. The war was about to become difficult.
SNEAK PREVIEW- PART 4- CAPTIVITY
Stardate 57335.06, Klingon prison colony Duko VaS, Location unknown.
He stood confidently, looking at the Klingon standing before him. Next to him, facing a Klingon opponent equally large and mean looking was his new found friend and more recently combat partner, Lai, of the Romulan Star Empire. The Klingons both leered at the dishevelled Captain and his Romulan friend, both of whom were among the most hated prisoners in the colony. Previously unbeknownst to Captain Mason and Starfleet, the Romulan Empire had been rent in three by the outbreak of Klingon hostilities, the Tal Shiar had been vehemently against helping the Klingons, the Senate had leapt at the Duras clan’s proposal for alliance and most of the civilians wished to stay out of the affair, maintaining their xenophobic lifestyle that they had adopted after the devastation of the Dominion war. The Tal Shiar had eventually split form the Empire, declaring war in defence of Romulan interests. Hopelessly outnumbered, the Tal Shiar had been scattered by Senate controlled forces and then picked off by the Klingons. Lai and Mason shared a glance, before recklessly charging the Klingons to fight for their lives.