Scorpion Pirates

[SPApropos]

The History of the Scorpion’s Sting by SPApropos


Chapter One

Personal Log, - Apropos:
I am en route to the Mars Shipyards where they have promised to have a new ship ready for my command. While I am no longer an official Starfleet officer, having some pull in the higher up ranks does have some privileges. After loosing my Defiant class starship in a extremely heated battle, it will be nice to get my hands on a new ship, though I will likely have to take it somewhere else to upgrade some of the systems, having Starfleet put it together, I will likely be quite happy with what systems they put on it.

The loss of the USS Scorpion does come as somewhat of a pain still. It has been one earth standard year since she was shot out from underneath me, and the officers that did survive have mostly moved along, some back into Starfleet, and some have picked up rotations on Starbase Scorpion, though I am sure they will be happy to return to starship life again. SI has been quite gracious to us, in return for the favors we have done for them they took back all the officers who wanted to go back into the fleet no problems, and under special circumstances I retain my Captain security clearance They were the ones who offered to get Mars shipyards to build me this new ship as well. While Admiral Nechayev was the one to suggest that they build me a new starship, she refused to tell me what class it was, which I am sure she has had a few good chuckles over my anticipation to see what it is.

We will be approaching sector 001 shortly, so I am going to go up to the bridge and see what there is to see for my new starship. And Nechayev does deserve that chuckle… I’m extremely eager to see what new “toy” I have to play with.

End Personal Log

Onboard the USS Titan arriving in the solar system Sol, near Saturn

“Captain Riker to Captain Apropos, We will be arriving at Earth in just a few minuets if you’d like to join us on the bridge your more then welcome.”

Tapping his communicator, “Apropos here, absolutely Captain, I will be right up.” Closing the channel he picks up the uniform he was given to wear. It’s been just over a year since he had worn a Starfleet uniform, but it had been suggested that he wear it to prevent any undue questions.

As he stood in the turbolift on his way up to the bridge he squirmed a little bit. The uniform was a bit to tight, it obviously was new, crisp in a way that only Starfleet replicators can make. Then the lift’s doors open up to reveal the bridge of the Titan.

Walking into the bridge Apropos was impressed by all the clean lines and fresh consoles surrounding the bridge. Walking down to the command area Captain Riker stood up and walked over. “Welcome to the bridge Captain, we’ve just received a hail for you.”

On screen the face of Commander Thomas Paris appeared. “Hello USS Titan, I am here to take Captain Apropos off your hands.”

“Hello again Commander, good to see you again. We have him right here. But he brought a bag with him as well, we can pass along the co-ordinance for you.”

“I am receiving them now. Transporting. Got it. Whenever you are ready Captain.”

Turning and shaking Riker’s hand, he said “Thank you for the trip Captain it was a pleasure being onboard.”

“It was our pleasure. Next time I’ll win at the poker table.”

“You’re welcome to try anytime, I look forward to it” Turning to the screen “Energize Commander.”

Energizing onboard the Delta Flyer Apropos suddenly feels a hard point of a phaser pointed at his back, while Paris called out from the front. “I don’t recommend trying anything, he’s quick with that phaser. We will be doing a quick orbit of Mars and the spacedocks then we will be warping out of the sector.”

As Apropos stood there his mid worked overtime. And then the voice that spoke settled it. “If you try anything I’ll vaporize a hole in your chest bigger then your head, mate.”


Chapter Two

With the phaser at his back Apropos knew that he didn’t stand a chance in hell if the person pulls the trigger. But after hearing that voice he just starts laughing and turns around and cries out “RYU! You crazy bastard! I nearly thought I was going to have to start some trouble in this new uniform!”

Laughing the two shake hands and pat each other on the back. “I haven’t seen you since just after the Scorpion was destroyed! Where have you been? And why are we leavening the system? I thought my new ship was being built here?”

With a grin the size of a planet, Ryu in his fancy crisp uniform, he leads Apropos to the back section and the replicator. “Well I’ve been a bit busy with a few things here and there. Had a few jobs with N, but lately I’ve had a different project. You’re going to love it, I’ve made sure that it has a few things that you would expect, but also a few extra surprises that I’m sure will be exciting. Two mugs of bloodwine.”

“Well what is it? N wouldn’t tell me over the comm., but I got the distinct impression that it wasn’t going to be a Defiant class ship. Even though she knows how much I love that class of ship she seemed quite insistent that she wasn’t going to tell me what it is.” Taking the Bloodwine and holding it up in a solute “To all our comrades, the ones who we haven’t seen in a awhile, and the ones that we have been reunited with.”

Saluting together they take a moment to pause and think about all their old friends, and their last moments together onboard the Scorpion.

Just as Apropos was about to lay into Ryu about the new ship the familiar hum of a federation transported started. The unfamiliar part was how long it took. It took about 5 times the normal length of time for a normal transporter beam, but when it was finished the familiar appearance of Nechayev was standing there.

“Greetings Gentlemen. I’m sorry to drag you off so suddenly Apropos, but we built your new ship somewhere a little off the beaten track. You see we have built a new prototype of ship to fight against the Borg, and we think that it will be right up your ally. You see aside from the original prototype we have only built one ship so far, and that’s yours. And just so you know not all the ships of this class will be outfitted quite the way yours is, and the paint job won’t be the same either. This is quite a unique ship here. The cost of building a fleet of ships just like yours would be astronomical. But then again with a fleet of ships like yours and I don’t know if anyone would be able to stop us. Of course I’m sure there’d be a problem with some diplomats about how warlike the fleet would become then too. But that’s ok, that’s why I take care of these things. If a fleet of enemy ships comes in after we built some of these I’m sure that we will prevail.”

“And now that we have your attention, let’s all head to the front of this craft. I think there is something you would like to see.”

Smiling and moving to the front of the craft he got there just in time to see the small craft drop out of warp right in front of a giant asteroid right in the middle of an asteroid ring.

“We have arrived at the location that was specified. We will arrive at the instillation in five minuets. Sit back and enjoy the ride.”

Sitting at one of the consoles Apropos pokes at a few buttons and notices that there speed is at 80. Smiling and sitting back he enjoys a face passed ride through a dense asteroid field. At one particularly close call a quick glance at the Admiral showed her sitting there, quite apparently trying not to respond to the dangerous maneuvers.

“Prepare to dock everyone” Paris called out as he slowed down some and pulled into a small shuttle port in the side of the asteroid.

“Are you ready to see your new ship? We will have to beam over from here, there are no direct ports to space, and it helps a lot when building ship to have a survivable atmosphere.


coming soon... chapters 3 and so on... including what kind of ship it is and why there is a starbase in the middle of an asteriod


Chapter 3

As the transporter started it’s magical hum, Apropos though of the Scorpion, and how it had sustained him through so many different situations. The Borg, Romulans, Klingons, Dominion, and even a few species that the Federation hasn’t officially met yet. Many time though out the time him and his crew had stayed on that ship they had preformed things that many would have thought impossible. And after battling the odds for so long, and beating them just often enough, there were close calls of course, but in the end it was quite the run.

As the transporter beam reconstitutes and he sees the size of the room it is momentarily staggering. As far as the eye can see it seamed to go on forever. And the ship parts seam to everywhere too. Just floating in mid air peaces of starships were everywhere. Impulse engines seamed to be mostly in one area, computer cores, warp engines in mid assembly (?), and what appear to be hulls for multiple Defiant’s. Turning around taking it all in it was almost too much for the mind to comprehend.

Turning to the Admiral Apropos asks, with a bit of shock and awe, “How are all these people moving around so easily in here? It looks like everyone has their own deck, but they are all standing at different points, and even different angles!?”

Smiling Nechayev responded “Well you see the miracles of holographic technology is highly underrated. By placing emitters strategically around the asteroid we were able to have ourselves a hollowed out asteroid holodeck. It’s big enough to provide space for all of your needs, including shipbuilding! The only problem we had was when we tried to put a door to outside in; it caused a massive power drain whenever we tried it so we just decided not to use one. And before you ask, no, I will not explain that right now, you will have to wait.”

“This way mate, and I’ll show you to your new starship” Ryu said, motioning off to the right, and just started walking.

That was when Apropos realized that there was nothing under their feet. Most people became violently ill at this point, some panic, others completely loose consciousness. Apropos did none of those, as he proved that he was one of the few who just looked, and started walking off in the same direction of Ryu.

As they walked through the maze of starships in various stages of construction it helped to really get the size of a Defiant class vessel. It is not too often that people are able to walk right up to a starship and just touch the hull, but the continued on in silence. Eventually they got to one point where there seamed to be an oddly empty point.

“Captain you are about to receive the pleasure that very few ever get. Apropos, may I present the Scorpions Sting.”

As the air shimmered with the normal looks of a cloaking field disengaging Apropos hear started beating faster, not only was he receiving a brand new state of the art and then some ship, he was about to be within arms reach of his ship!

As the cloaking field finally dissipated the Scorpions Sting started rotating, at first there was an impressive view of the top of the ship, with the name clearly stenciled in bold dark letters. The ship continued to rotate slowly, as if a hologram on display it rotated all the way around giving off an amazing view, with the unique black paint job making the ship gleam in the way only a new ship can. It had the sleek slim lines of a Defiant class starship, but it was slightly bigger, with lines that somehow seamed to scream with more power.

The ship finally stopped rotating and Apropos reached out and let his fingers run across the hull. It was as smooth as the lines made it look, the glossy paint reflecting the three of them standing there.

“Its top speed is warp 9.9999, sustainable for extended times, though I’m sure our engineer wouldn’t appreciate it. Impulse speed is unmatched; shield strength can be adjusted but is as powerful as any Sovereign class starship. It has 4 pulse phasers, 6 quantum torpedo tubes, more weapon slots that we can make use of, a tractor beam strong enough to hold anything, and of course the cloaking device, which is much more then the average cloaking device.” Ryu said with pride. Reaching over to the side he pulled out a bottle of wine and passed it over. “And now you get the opportunity to christen her.”

Grinning broadly Apropos pulled the wine bottle back, noticing that is was a fine vintage from the Picard Winery, he swung it forward and felt the solid jarring up his arm as the bottle shattered against the hull, wine and glass showering over the front of the ship.

“This is beautiful! Thank you very much Admiral! So when can we go aboard, and how do we get this ship out of here, I believe you mentioned there not being any direct links to space.”

“Apropos, you have no idea mate” Ryu said as the transporters started chiming again.


Chapter 4

As they energized on the bride of his new ship, Apropos looked around trying to take everything in at once. It looked a lot like a Defiant’s bridge; only it doesn’t look quite as much like federation technology. Instead of all the blue and gray that comes with federation ships, it was more of a red and black look, giving it a darker feel. Walking around the bridge, he looked at the console for the helm.

It was simple to see how it was the federation standard Lcars program, but with just a few commands it revealed how much more customizable it is. A login for regular users, so that the buttons can be moved around for easier use, and even a holographic control display. Pressing that button the console suddenly grew depth, some buttons were raised higher then others, and across the top a 3D display showed the short-range sensors readings, and provided a quick summery. Playing with the controls a bit more the view suddenly pulled back out of the ship and he got a good view of the whole ship and it’s exact orientation with everything in the nearby area. Pressing the reset button the display collapsed and the console returned to the default settings.

Moving around the bridge Apropos took a look at each console, but didn’t stop to play with any, as he made his way back to the chair in the center. Approaching it like it was a dangerous animal, he came up to it and ran his fingers over the material. Smooth as silk the material felt like it wanted to be sat on. Giving in he sat down and pulled the chair’s arm consoles down and pulled up the display. It instantly leapt to life, already configured for holographic controls. The first thing it showed him was the specifications for the ship. Running his eyes across the list a big grin spread across his face. This ship was a marvel to behold, with 4 pulse phasers loaded across the top and bottom of the hull, it gave a great forward arc for them, and with 4 torpedo tubes facing forward, and 2 with a 360o firing arc, the weapon profile of this ship was impressive off the start. And it also mentioned that not all the weapon hard points were in use. The shield emitters were layered around the ship, so that if even 2 emitters went down, the whole shield grid wouldn’t go down. The Impulse power was so high that they would be the fastest thing under warp. The warp core was so powerful that even if they doubled the power to weapons and shields they had more power then they needed. Hull armor was something he had only seen once before, it is normally abladeof armor, but when necessary they also had a special armor that would spring out and envelope the ship, practically impossible to penetrate.

Even with all this incredible tech, the last item on the main list caught his attention fully. A cloaking device, but some of the properties of it was vastly different then anything he had seen before. Quickly scanning his way through the specifications he brow creased up. By the looks of these reading this cloaking device did more then just make the ship invisible, it does a lot more.

“Are you ready to take the ship out of here mate?” Ryu asked, sitting at the helm. “Knowing you, you’d spend hours just reading the specifications for everything, instead of finding out what it all does.”

Unable to disagree with that statement Apropos responded “You know me, I like to know what I’m getting myself into before I get into trouble. Well then, how do we get out of here?”

“Well, actually, since we are in the middle of an asteroid we had to install a special little device that Ryu convinced me to give to you with this ship” Nechayev said tossing a look Ryu’s way, “The Cloaking Device we you have is a lot more then a simple cloaking device, it’s a phase cloak. It will allow us to leave the asteroid without letting out any of the oxygen inside, and it will not disrupt the holographic projections we use to move everything around in here.” And with that statement she reached over to the main science console, and pressed a few buttons.

Instantly the hum of the warp core shifted frequencies as the lighting on the bridge dimmed a bit. The main viewer didn’t change anything but Ryu pressed a few buttons on the helm and brought up a holographic display in between the helm and the captains chair. With avid detail the display showed the Scorpion’s Sting cloaking in the middle of the asteroid construction yard.

“Well, what are you waiting for Ap? Pull up the helm controls on your consoles and take us out. Aim for the transmitter signal on the wall, and you won’t disrupt any of the specialized equipment. The phase cloak is good, but it does have the odd thing to work out, and that includes passing through anything with too much high tech.”

Calling up the display a surge of energy ran though Apropos as he moved the ship through the shipyard. Even just using maneuvering thrusters the ship responded quickly. Turning so that the nose of the ship was aimed at the wall, Apropos kicked up the engines to full power, the ship shot out of the asteroid and into the asteroid field. Dancing the ship around the asteroids, it was like a professional dancer on stage. Even though they were out of phase with everything around them it didn’t matter, as the ship swing around, between, and diving above and below every asteroid that came into view.

The dance through the asteroids lasted an hour if it lasted a minute. Everyone onboard was glued to their links to the view screen as the ship danced around. The closest call to actually passing though the asteroid was by a mere few feet. The only person who was too busy to watch the wild ride was the Engineer, and they were too busy making sure that extra power was shifted around to the SIF, and the artificial gravity as the ship moved around quicker then was expected.

Eventually Apropos turned back to the shipyards and slowed down some. “It’s beautiful! The only thing that I’ve seen that can pull maneuvers like this is a shuttlecraft, and they definitely don’t have the power that this ship has. Thank you very much, both of you and whoever else worked on this ship, I’m sure that I’ll enjoy every moment that I spend on her.”

“After all that you have done for Starfleet and the galaxy, I’m sure that you have earned every last isoliner chip. There are a few of your former crew on the base, and they want to ship out with you, but you will be understaffed until you get back to your base. Everything onboard is fully stocked, and replicator patterns and proper diagrams on how to fix or replace anything onboard are in the computer. But don’t go to just any federation outpost and expect to be able to get repairs too easily. A lot of this equipment is highly classified, or made up differently, so that you will not appear as a federation vessel. When we get within range of the asteroid we can signal them to transport me back, and all the people who are shipping out with you over. Please stay cloaked until you are long away from here, and as always, this never happened, and nothing you have seen here exists. And no, you don’t need to decloak to transport, but you still have to decloak to fire your weapons, even if we had solved that problem, we wouldn’t fix that for you.” Smiling she pressed a few buttons on the console “And remember, this is a highly unique ship, so take care of her, we won’t be able to make another one like this. Nechayev to Base, Begin transporting”

As the Admiral disappeared the smile on her face remained large, and then the sparkle of the transporter took her away.


to be continued... who are the crew that are coming abord? who is already aboard? and what's going to happen to put the first dent in the new paint?
_________________
wa'Dol nIvDaq matay'DI'maQap
~ When your a professional Pirate, you don't have to wear a suit! ~

Entipy Level 80 Blood Elf Arcane Mage
Anunaki Level 80 Torrin Restoration Shamin
ClancyWiggum Level 80 Blood Elf Protection Palladin

[SPApropos]

Chapter 5

USS Scorpion, 13 earth standard months ago

Captain’s Log, Today I find myself with the task of training fresh crewmembers to work with this crew. We will be picking them up from star base and have them integrated onto our ship in the next 3 weeks, as some of my long standing crew will be transferring off the ship, to do some special work for Admiral Nechayev. The current senior members of the crew have been with this vessel almost since her launch, and having other people come in will cause some upset in our routines, but fresh blood is always good, it helps keep the crew on their toes.

After we pickup the new crew from star base 5 we are to head out to a remote sector near the Cardassian border. Relations have been tense lately since the arrival of the Dominion, and the Admiral seams to think that something will be happening soon. Our orders are to cloak and then patrol the Badlands. While this doesn’t seam like quite the hard mission like we have been assigned to in the past, I’m sure that my crew and I will not be complaining.

One of the new crewmembers being assigned to the ship is Chew, who is brining important information on the current activities in the badlands, and some specialized knowledge about scanning in the mess that we will be flying through. While we are at the star base our sensors will be upgraded for this mission. We will have Lieutenant Moo and Lieutenant Commander Ryu at the helm for this mission, so I am not worried about the special disruptions too much. Chief Engineer Bane has assured me that all the necessary upgrades will be completed by the time we reach the badlands.

On the bridge of the Scorpion, approaching the Badlands

“Captain, we are approaching the badlands, and we will be in full sensor range in a minute.” Reported Lieutenant Moo from the helm.

“Excellent, drop out of warp and proceed at best speed to our staging point in the badlands. Status repots.” the Captain called out.

At the cloaking device status panel Lieutenant Commander Octavian called out, “Cloaking device functioning at peak efficacy, probability of failure is well under safety limits.”

“The new sensor upgrades are functioning properly Captain” Chew called out from the secondary science console.

“Nothing within sensor range yet,” Eros reported from the main science console.

“Engines responding at full readiness sir” Bane reported from the bridge engineering console.

“Weapons systems report all ready” Thor called from the weapons console.

“Sickbay is ready, if we need it” Greythor reported.

Calling over from his console Commander Morphious reported, “All hands below decks signal ready sir, Klaah reports transporter system fully functional and Tim reports that Stellar Cartography is ready to plot our course.

“Excellent, Commanders Morphious and Ryu please join me in stellar cartography, we will go plot the best patrol route we can, Turkey you have the bridge” Rising from his chair, Apropos exits the bridge followed by Morphius and Ryu, while Turkey stand up from his security console and sits in the command chair.

Arriving in stellar cartography the 3 officers are greeted by Tim. “Welcome, I have our current location pinpointed, and a few possible patrol routes we can take. Because the badlands have such a volatile existence, a permanent course is impossible to set, but the generalities are fairly easy to manipulate.”

After a few hours pas all 4 officers strolled out into the corridor. “Well that was interesting, if not time consuming” Morphious said, “Would any of you care to join me for a drink? Our shift is over and we aren’t due back on duty for a few hours.”

“No thanks, I have some reports to finish up, but you three go ahead.” Apropos suggested, and headed off to his quarters.

*****

Two days later, near the Cardassian side of the Badlands.

“Captain, I’m reading weapons fire on the sensors, “ Chew reported excitedly, “They are coming from 3000 km off our port bow.”

“Helm, change course and take us in that direction, maximum impulse. What signatures do they have Chew? Anyone we know?”

“Readings are showing phaser and compression beams, sir, as well as what appears to be Klingon disrupter fire, but that is a long way away from home for the Klingons.”

“Don’t forget that the Maquis have acquired property from anyone they can get their hands on in order to fight their war Ensign Chew, they won’t be picky about who they get anything from.” Morphious responded to Chew.

Interrupting, Octavian called out, “Captain the weapons fire is stirring up the gases, if we get to close to any shots we may be detected.”

“Understood, helm keep us a safe distance away but get us close enough to get a good look on what’s going on.”

As the Scorpion slipped though space closer to the battle they saw 2 Maquis raiders and 2 Klingon Bird of Prey ships attacking 2 Cardassian Galor Class vessels.

“Sir, one of the Cardassian’s hull’s is about to buckle!” Eros reported from the science console.

“Are we far enough away to be safe from the explosion?” Apropos questioned.

“Yes sir, but we must stay at least 500 km away from any weapons fire, and at least 800 km away from any warp core explosions”

“You heard the man Moo, keep us far enough away from those people to keep us safe,” Morphious ordered.

Sitting in space the Cardassian ship continued to shake violently under the barrage of the 4 smaller vessels, as sparks started flowing their way down the hull, then fires started exploding their way into space, and then finally the warp core of the vessel finally gave out, releasing it’s energy in a large explosion. Seeing it’s sister ship explode in a ball of fire, the second Cardassian ship started moving away, still firing it’s weapons at one of the Maquis ships. All four of the smaller ships pursued the Cardassians though, all the way back to their edge of space. Chasing after them the small ships released volley after volley of directed energy, making the shields glow. Getting perhaps a bit too eager, one Maquios ships got a bit too close to the Cardassians, and suddenly shook under an impressive barrage of weapons. But the little ship was no match, as the compression beams striped the shields off of it and scored direct hits on the hull of the ship, making it go out in a ball of flames like the first Cardassian ship. Finally reaching the border, limping some as the Maquis ships that blew up was too close, they leapt into warp, rushing back to the safety of a shipyard somewhere for repairs.

Watching this all happen on the view screen Apropos suddenly realized that they were now in the direct path of the 3 ships returning back to their base in the badlands. “Emergency full stealth mode! Reduce all power levels! Barely leave anything in the life support system, they are coming back this way and I don’t want us detected!” he called out orders, causing the panels around the bridge to suddenly get heavy use then he watched as the power was turned off all around him, silencing the warp core’s repetitive sounds, and the impulse engines hum.

Quiet enveloped the bridge in a way rarely experienced on a starship that wasn’t in its death throws. Watching the ships come closer through the open port behind where the view screen normally sat, the captain though about how brave the people on the small ships were. Not having detected any previous warp core breaches it seams that they attacked 2 large Cardassian ships with only 4 small ships, quite an act of bravery indeed.

Eventually the ships passed overhead, and after the shortest period of safe time, Apropos called out “OK I want full power returned, and I want to follow those ships! We are going to find out where they are basing their operations from here, I want to know where we can find them if we want to.

As power started humming up again no one on board had any idea that this was to be the final voyage of the USS Scorpion, or that the Maquios had detected them before they had gone into stealth mode.

why is this such an omonious mission for this starship? who is in the badlands that can/will harm/destroy this ship? and how soon will it be for the next installment?

Chapter 6

USS Scorpion, located in the Badlands, 12 standard months ago

Captains Log: Apropos

We have been patrolling the badlands for a month now and we have only seen a few small engagements similar to the one we saw on our first day here. We have not gotten involved in their disputes, and have only monitored their activities, but somehow I feel that things will start picking up soon, the last few battles we have seen were increasingly brazen, though we have only seen the two Klingon ships, so it is possible they are not affiliated with the Empire.

On a side note Chew has worked well with the crew over the past little while, and seams to be making a small impression, if things continue to work this well as time goes on I may have to consider keeping him onboard. The rest of the new crew seam to be fitting in well enough with the ship, and the efficacy level of the crew has not dropped down at all, which leaves me impressed with their training.

***

“Captain, we are picking up weapons fire, directly ahead!” Reported Chew from his console. “We will be right on top of them anytime now at this speed.”

“Red Alert, let’s be sure that we don’t have any problems, I’d hate to mess up our track record now.” Apropos said. “Who’s fighting?”

“It appears to be the Maquis and Cardassians again sir.” Eros said, “And there are the BOP’s decloaking, putting it on main viewer sir.” With a few pushes on his console, the images of the battle were on the main viewer.

“This is the most lopsided battle we have seen yet! Two Raiders and two BOPS’ against one Galor? This isn’t their style…. Something is wrong with this picture.” Morphious pointed out. “I don’t like it, we should stay way clear of this battle Captain.”

Speaking up from Tactical Thor said, “Their weapons are shredding that Cardassian ship to peaces, they cannot even return fire they are being bombarded so hard.”

As the image of the Klingon disrupters slamming into the obviously doomed craft, the two Bird of Prey’s cloaked, letting the Raiders finish off the ship. It didn’t take long, just a few shots later the warp core destabilized, and the ship exploded with a blinding glare.

Turning to Eros, Apropos asked, “Can we detect those cloaks in here? It cannot be too big to fit on those smaller ships, thou-“ and he was cut off by the deck suddenly jumping up against him, slamming the armrests of his chair against his forehead shooting stars behind his eyes. The klaxons and alarms going off didn’t help any.

At the same time that the chair tried to take a bite out of Ap, The secondary science console exploded in an impressive and violent explosion-throwing Chew across the bridge like a rag doll.

Fortunately for them all, the crew was well trained to respond automatically in the response of an emergency.

“Cloaking device is offline, impulse engines at 75%”

“Engaging full impulse, evasive pattern Charlie Baker Tango”

“Shields up, registering at full power. Weapons are fully charged and ready to go.”

“Hull armor still holding.”

“Med Team to the Bridge!” Morphious called out, tapping his badge as he ran across the bridge to see if chew was ok.

Shaking off the haze that wanted to overpower him Apropos sat up whipping the blood from his forehead. “Full about, target whatever just hit us and hit them back!” he called to Moo and Thor. “Who hit us? And where did they come from?”

“It was those 2 BOP’s sir, they decloaked behind us and came through some of the heavier gasses to nail us like that, and they must have detected us some time ago. This was a trap,” Eros stated.

Spinning the ship like a top, Moo got one of the BOP’s directly in the main weapons arc, and Thor let loose a full volley, pulse phasers and quantum torpedo’s flying out to slam against the Klingon’s ships shields.

“Direct hit, their starboard shields have failed and they have damage to some of their systems.” Reported Thor.

“Sir!” Eros said, “ The life form readings on that ship are not Klingon! They must have acquired that ship somehow.”

“Well we just want to push them back, we don’t need to kill anyone today! Hail them!”

“Sir I am receiving a transmission from the undamaged ship” Ryu said.

“Hold our fire, let’s see what they have to say,” He ordered. “On screen”

Immediately the screen changed to a swirling view of the Badlands at it’s most violent. “We are the Maquis, why have you been spying on us Starfleet?”

“I am Captain Apropos of the USS Scorpion. We are here to patrol and monitor for any forces moving towards Federation space, we do not want to hurt you! Stop your attack and let’s discuss this. Who do I have the honor of speaking with?”

“You can call me Badlands, Captain, and why should we trust you? You’ve been in here for a month now, and all you do is watch the battles, you don’t stop the Cardassians at all when they arrack! You are no better then they are, standing by and watching them kill us!”

“Badlands, we are only here to observe, we are under strict orders not to engage anyone. In fact we would have been quite happier not fighting you, but you did attack us first!”

Suddenly the channel was cut, as Eros said, “Sir! I’m reading Jem’hadar and Cardassian warp signatures coming this way, that last ship must have sent off a distress signal.”

The screen flipped back on, “Well it seams that you now have to make a choice Starfleet. We disabled your cloak so you won’t be getting away from this battle. Will you join their side or will you stop them?”

Suddenly both their ships rocked, as their Enemies converged on them. “I’m reading a Jem’hadar attack curser, 6 Jem’hadar attack fighters, 4 Keldon, and 3 Galor class vessels sir!” Ryu said from Ops.

“Well Captain, it looks like today is a good day to fight, we will try to slow them down enough for you to get away. Close channel. Open a channel to the incoming fleet. This is Captain Apropos of the United Federation of Planets, you are in violation of –“ and again he was cut off as the ship rocked from combined fire. “Well it looks like we have our answer, coordinate our attack with the Maquis, Ryu, and let’s take those Jem’hadar ships out first. Keep us on evasive, Moo, and try to keep our strongest shields facing the biggest concentration of enemies. Hold nothing back Mr. Thor, give them the full hammer.”

“Increasing to attack speed, and going evasive.”

“Aye, Sir. Diverting power from all non-critical systems and overloading all weapons and shields. Targeting the Jem’hadar fighters.”

The Defiant leapt ahead as its Impulse engines powered back up, flinging them forwards. The Raiders had made it back now, and all five ships went straight for the fighters. Holding nothing back, Pulse phasers, Klingon Disrupters, and Standard phasers all leapt out at the ships, stripping their forward shields right before they let loose, sending weapons hurling back at the defenders, ripping apart one of the Maquis Vessels, as four fighters died off the main pass. The deadly dance continued, as the now four ships came back taking out the last two fighters, as the scorpion made a strafing run down a Keldon’s side, the torpedo’s making their shields ripple from constant impacts.

Unfortunately the rest of the Cardassians were right behind it, and as the tough little ship came over the top of their prey, they came into full view, receiving a full alpha strike from 6 ships, sending the Scorpion way of coarse, momentarily out of control. Seeing the Starfleet ship getting slammed around so bad, the Maquis ships veered away from the loan Cardassian ship, but they still got a beating, as the wounded Bird of Prey exploded, critically damaging the rear end of the Keldon.

Picking himself up from the front of the bridge, Apropos looked around, seeing burned wires and charred consoles. Most officers were down across the bridge but Ryu was struggling to get a response from helm and Morphious was banging on the tactical console. “Report!” he called out.

“Helm is barely functional, impulse engines down to 25%, Thrusters are almost all gone, and warp power is down to half. It doesn’t look good from here mate.”

“Shields are gone, weapons systems are 50% destroyed. Damage and casualty reports coming in from all over the ship.”

“Engineering to Bridge. I don’t know what’s going on, but that just about got us there, we can’t take anymore of this, but I don’t know if I can get us back together to get out of here.”

The hatch to the bridge suddenly popped open, with Greythor and an aide crawling in with med kits. “Came as fast as we could, would have been faster if you weren’t trying to get us killed.” He remarked sarcastically as he came across Chew. “What did happen? Chew is dead.” And he went back to trying to pick up crewmembers.

Eros, picking himself up off the deck had Greythor coming his way immediately, but he waved him off, cleaning off his seat as he went back to his console. “Sensors are barely functional, all I can tell you is that I don’t see any of the Maquis vessels, and it seams we have 8 vessels bearing down on us.”


A doomed position to be sure, not an eviable one, and most definately not the best battle the USS Scorpion ever fought.. but then everyone has their bad days, satay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel!!


Chapter 7

As Apropos watched, some crew materialized on the bridge, as others beamed to other locations on the ship. Octavian, Bane, Turkey, and Eros all materialized on the bridge, smiling. Greeting them like the old friends that they are, they all exchange a few minuets of conversation, all happy to see each other. “Haven’t seen you in a year!” “Did you ever get your sword back? “How was your year vacation?”

After a few minuets they finished with the immediate small talk, and moved off to different stations on the bridge. Octavian to the Cloaking command console, Bane to the Engineering console, Turkey to the Weapons console, Eros to the Ops console, and Ryu returned to the helm.

Returning to the Command chair Apropos smiled wide, it was just like old times, only less rules, owner of the ship, and no one telling them what to do. The possibilities were endless – but first things first. “As glad as I am to have everyone back aboard, I do think it would be a good idea if we left the good admiral’s door step. Set a course for home, let’s see how fast it can really go!”

As the sound of counsels being used the excitement of the new ship seemed contagious. Everyone had a big grin on their face, as they played with the holographic consoles, tweaking the displays and readings.

“Ok, setting course for Starbase Scorpion, starting at warp 1 and we will ramp it up from there.” Ryu said from the helm console.

“Engines are reading good to go.”

“Cloak is functioning fully and phase is still engaged.”

“Weapons are powered up and good to go.”

“All systems functioning normally and ready to go.”

“Excellent. “ Apropos said after everyone had reported in. “Let’s see what she’s got Ryu.”

With a few beeps the ship rotated a bit, and leapt to warp. “Warp 1 running fine and reading steady, ramping up. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six – luckily we have a special warp design so as to not harm subspace – Seven. Eight. Nine.” The hum of the warp engines was finally picking up to a slightly strained level, and the ship hardly had any bumps. “Pushing it fully now.” And slowly the mighty warp engines started sounding louder and louder. Eventually the ship started to shake, but not even as bad as a lone weapon hit. “We have now reached Warp 9.9999 and holding steady.”

“Engines are pushing at their max, this is as fast as she goes, but the good part is that we can sustain this speed for quite a while. We should test it out some time.”

Suddenly the power of the warp engine stopped abruptly as the ship dropped out of warp, and the ship lurched back to impulse.

Straightening back into his chair Apropos glanced around to see everyone already back in their chairs, and called out “What was that?”

“Sensors are picking up a concentrated field of gravity, but I don’t see any reason why there would be any gravity field out here in the middle of nowhere!” Eros commented from ops.

Punching buttons on his console Bane points out “Whatever it is, it’s preventing us from building up a warp field.”

“Captain! Whatever it is it’s causing a lot of problems with the phase portion of the cloak. I’d recommend decloaking, or at least returning to phase.” Octavian called out.

“OK, well if this is someone’s idea to get us to stand still for a second, they slowed us down at least. Disengage cloak, red alert, full power to shields and weapons! Keep us moving, I don’t want to got any nasty surprises!”

As they decloaked the shields snapped up around the ship as everyone on the bridge was trying to figure out what was happening. But then suddenly the ship stopped moving with a lurch.

“Tractor beam! And it’s a strong one too! It must be coming from a base but I don’t see anything!” Eros said with shock.

“I’m running some anti-cloaking scans to see if there’s something cloaked there.” Octavian said. “Got it! It’s decloaking now.”

On the view screen it showed a strange looking base, where an old Constitution class starship melded into an asteroid in a quite weird way, the tractor beam glimmering out and holding them tight.

“We can’t break the tractor, it’s pulling us in.”

And it did, as the one tractor beam grabbed the ship, another streaked out from a docking bay, and pulled the ship in.
_________________
wa'Dol nIvDaq matay'DI'maQap
~ When your a professional Pirate, you don't have to wear a suit! ~

Entipy Level 80 Blood Elf Arcane Mage
Anunaki Level 80 Torrin Restoration Shamin
ClancyWiggum Level 80 Blood Elf Protection Palladin

[SPApropos]

Chapter 8

Sitting back as the ships was pulled into the docking bay; they waited until they heard the whine of a transporter.

Native materialized on the bridge and looked around smiling. “Good to see you all again! And nice ship I must say! Very new, it looks like the good admiral finally finished it, though I think there are a few other toys you’d like to have with it - if you want them of course.”

Standing up and approaching Native, Apropos said nothing for a moment. “You stop us suddenly, and tractor us into a holding bay without warning just for a few ‘toys’? You certainly knew how and where to find us easily enough, but then again, I guess that’s one of the perks of Section 31.”

With that statement the bridge went completely silent, as everyone stopped doing everything and just turned to see what would happen.

“Well when I heard that you were finally getting your new ship I felt it was only appropriate if I gave you a few ship warming gifts!”

Finally releasing a big grin, Apropos went over and embraced Native for a moment, then stepped back. “Look at you! It’s been about a year since we last saw you hasn’t it? And by the looks of things this gig works out good for you! Congratulations on the nice star base too, definitely the most unique looking thing I have ever seen.”

“Haha, buddy you have no idea, I’ve got a few things for this new ship of yours that will knock your socks off!!”


Over the next 24 hours crews went to work on the Scorpion’s Sting, working on systems inside and out. Quite a few times when looked at it was almost believable to think that they were reverse engineering the ship. But most of them kept busy, as Native showed them all around the star base, and somehow they ended up spending the first 16 hours in the bar, before they all went and slept in some really nice quarters that were provided for them.

When they were getting ready to go back to the scorpion, they all arrived at the docking bay around the same time. Just as they were all starting to wonder when they could go back on board, Native walked in.

“Hello again, and welcome to your freshly refitted ship. We’ve added a few systems, modified a few, and even removed a few things that you are better off without – specifically the tracking device and hidden software that SI was so nice to give to you. I’m sure that none of you want any of that. All in all they gave you a quite nice ship, they didn’t skimp on the impulse, warp, or thrusters, though they did leave quite a bit of weaponry off, and they didn’t give u even most of their toys. A few things that you may want to read about before using - the slipstream drive is rather complicated to keep happy, for example.”

“But I’d have to say one of my favorite toys that we gave you is the holographic cloak. It may sound a bit wired, but we have perfected this technology, and it works quite well. For example, when we found you, you saw a refitted constitution class asteroid base, correct? Well the real base looks nothing like that, I assure you.” With a big grin he swept his arm towards their ship. “Now let’s say you found yourself in the middle of Romulan space, and you didn’t want to stand out, well all you have to do is hit a few buttons, and – “ suddenly the ship shimmered like a cloaking device was being engaged, but instead it turned into a sleek looking Romulan Raptor. “Now I’ll let you go home and run your tests on this, but if you had scanners in front of you right now you would read a Romulan ship, with nothing more suspicious then you tell the system to provide. The library for the Holo-Cloak has as many different ships as we could think to give you, so have fun with it eh?” And suddenly the ship shimmered again and returned to the normal look.

“Well gentlemen, there are a few surprises on this ship, and I expect you will have finding them all.” Grinning broadly he swept his gaze across them all. “I know it has been a long wait for you to get this ship, and I’m sorry to have delayed you a bit longer, but now this ship has the goodies you all disserve. A lot of the stuff on here is even hard to find out about from inside Section 31, so be careful who you let look at it, ok? Now get out of here, and get back onto your ship, and find all the goodies that we put there for you!” And with that a transporter beam started up, picking them all up and depositing them onto their starship.

As they all materialized on the bridge, they took in the scene, as everything looked different. More different they any bridge they had ever seen. Even more different they anything on a starship outside of a holodeck. It appeared they were all standing in the middle of a beach. For miles the sand appeared to spread on either direction, the ocean going all the over the horizon, with beautiful blue colors. As they all stood there taking in the incredible view, they noticed a picnic area setup with surfboards all around.

“Well as nice as this is, it is not what I expected.” Apropos said deadpan. As he walked up to the picnic table and noticed a PADD sitting on it. Picking it up he scanned it quickly. “Well this is interesting… it seams that this is the ship’s automatic intruder defense program. I’m sure it would come in handy if we get boarded, and apparently it runs the whole length of the ship, so even better!” And he tapped the PADD a few times, and the holographic scene disappeared from around them, depositing them back onto the bridge.

Everyone moved back to their consoles and started fiddling with their controls, trying to find out what else had been added.

“Thanks to all that holographic tech everywhere, we can even customize our quarters!” Eros said from Ops.

“From this looks of these reading, mate, this ship will move better then a shuttlecraft!” said Ryu from the helm.

“I am going to have a lot of fun with this holo-cloak! They have literally anything I can think of, including asteroids and star bases!” exclaimed Octavian.

“They did a very thoroughly refit on her, in quite a short time, all the ships response are sped up a lot, and backup systems are insane!” Bane said as he read screen after screen of information from his engineering console.

“Apropos, you are not going to believe the weapons we have now, in addition to the pulse phasers and quantum torpedo’s, we have a few things I’ve only heard rumors about, and a few things that I thought were way beyond what we could do now!” Turkey said with shock. “They equipped us with photonic cannons, and transphasic torpedo’s! With weapons like this we could take on anything – most likely even the Borg!!”

“Well this is certainly going to be an interesting ship! With all the gadgets that SI and S31 have given us, nothing will be able to stop us! So how about we get out of here and go home and get some more crew to fill up the ship eh? We are running on a slightly small staff right now!”

The ship lifted off the floor, and out of the docking back, cloaking as she goes, and leaving behind an already invisible star base, they jumped to warp, going home.

Chapter 9

13 standard months ago, the Badlands

The USS Scorpion was dead in space. Plasma venting out all over the ship, hole’s ripped right through in a few places, and some emergency shields were sparking, but not nearly enough. The ship was wrecked, it would take a miracle to get it into warp, never mind holding it together at warp speeds, and they weren’t even in a position to go to warp, it was a long impulse tide to get to a safe enough place to enter warp.

A Keldon Class Cardassian ship lay immobile in space close by the Scorpion, but with the sparking and gasses shooting out of the rear of it, it was clearly immobilized as well. But two more Kendon’s, followed by 4 Galors were right behind them all, turning to put the Scorpion back in weapon arc’s. The Jem’hadar attack curser was slightly behind them but building up speed to try and make up for it.

Sitting on the bridge Captain Apropos watched on one of the screens that were still working on the bridge, as all seven of the fully operational ships loomed down on them. “Is there anything left we can throw at them, or get us out of here? The escape pods won’t get us out of range fast enough.”

“Sorry Ap, but there is only one left, and we drained the power from it. It won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.” Morphious pointed out from the half burned out weapons console. “We might be able to launch a probe at them, but I think we should save the energy from that too, at least we can keep a few of these systems running long enough to see this through.”

“I think we have enough thrusters left to turn us towards them, face them head on, mate” Ryu said, whipping blood out of his eyes.

Hearing nothing that could help them Apropos punched controls on his console, determined to find something, anything he could to postpone this fate. Nothing popping out at him he watched, fascinated as the other ships pulled closer, about to end this wonderful ship and crew’s careers. It had been a good run, and never expected it so soon, but then no one expects anything to end.

Suddenly the Dominion ship’s rear shields glowed brightly then cracked as they suddenly dropped, and explosions ripped out of the rear, billowing up the sides some. As he watched all lights on the ship went out, as it stopped dead in space, looking about as bad off as they were. Spotting their comrades sudden distress, the Cardassian War Ships turned about, facing towards the Jem’hadar, looking for what hit it. And then a ship started rippling, as a Tactical Nebula decloaked behind the two Keldon ships, releasing deadly volley’s of phasers and quantum’s, ripping the shields off of them, shooting up sparks along the hull. As timely as it was, the Galor’s were half expecting something like that, as they released four alpha strikes against the decloaking ship. Half the weapons fire blasted against the ship as the shields snapped up, stopping the rest of the shots, but shaking the Nebula like a leaf in a windstorm.

Not giving up despite the damage it just took, it continued to fire on the Keldon’s destroying one and disabling the other. Turning back about, remaining under constant fire from the Galor’s it swept near the Scorpion, transporting all the crew off the ship. The shields went down, the transporter cycle ran quickly, as the Nebula started to cloak just as soon as the transporters were finished, but the Galor’s were not giving up that easily, they bombarded the Federation ship, most of the shots raining randomly on their hull, but a volley of torpedo’s nailed the cloak and the main weapons pod. Being forced out of cloak, they did not slow down one bit, as the ship continued to accelerate to full impulse, which turned out to be twice as fast as the Cardassian ships. As they dropped their pursuit they instead turned back and fired a few compressions beams at the slowly sparking USS Scorpion, breaching the warp core, causing a large explosion, the shock wave spreading out, and nailing the crippled Keldon’s causing both of them to explode as well.

Rematerializing on the bridge of the Tactical Nebula - “USS Big Nasty” - The bridge crew of the Scorpion picked themselves up, and looked around. Quickly they had to pick themselves up as the Cardassian ships nailed them, preventing the cloak.

“Welcome to the bridge of the USS Big Nasty, gentlemen. I am Captain Native, but I’m afraid the view screen has some sad images that you may want to watch.”

And as he spoke the Image on the viewer zoomed in and showed the Cardassians turning back to finish off the Scorpion. Even the crew of the Big Nasty stayed quiet for a few moments as the warp core exploded, taking out the two remaining Keldon’s.

After a respectable moment of silence, Apropos spoke, “She was a good ship. For many years she carried us around and rescued us from many tight corners. May she go straight to Sto-vo-kor.”

“I am sorry to see you ship go Captain. She did many fine missions for the greater good, her and her crew. We will take you back to Starbase 5, and Admiral Nechayev will see to all your needs.”


Chapter 10

Present, Scorpion’s Sting, en route to Starbase Scorpion

Captain’s Log: It has been an eventful past 18 months. A lot has happened, lost a ship, some friends, got a new ship, with some new friends. This ship is a much larger step up from our previous ship, and also has a few things that we wished we had. I am sure that this new ship will have quite a few surprises for us, but I am sure that it will keep us out of trouble.

If it had not of been for Native’s rescuer all that time ago, and Necheyv’s help with us after and all the work that she and others had put into this new ship, we might still be sitting on the Starbase.

We will have a full crew again when we get back to berth, and I cannot wait until we get to see the look on Loki’s face when we show up inside the docking bay. It should be worth any trouble we have to go through.

End Log.


***


I hope that you enjoyed this story. I will be writing more stories as time is available, so we can all see the new toys on the Scorpion's Sting. I will take anyone who wants to be in the story, though it may take a bit to fit any wierder races in, all i require is - character name/character race/ship class/ship name

Hope you all enjoyed going on this journey with me, and we will see you all.... out there!!
_________________
wa'Dol nIvDaq matay'DI'maQap
~ When your a professional Pirate, you don't have to wear a suit! ~

Entipy Level 80 Blood Elf Arcane Mage
Anunaki Level 80 Torrin Restoration Shamin
ClancyWiggum Level 80 Blood Elf Protection Palladin

[LeatherAngel]

Very AWESOME hon!!! two thumbs up
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~the one and only~Angel~signing out~WHIP IT!!~ ~~Get SeXY!!~~