Mission 3: "Time is of the Essence"

[Kelli Lauren]

Kelli had just finished fighting off the rest of the Heraan in her area, having fallen far behind the Gallifreyans, as the rest of the invaders suddenly left the ship.

"Lauren to bridge," she said, panting from battle. "Set a course for McKinley Station, and initiate docking procedures."

-------

Several days passed, while the Evolution was hurried through the repair queue at the starbase in high orbit of the capital-world of the Federation. It took them only four days to get pushed through the line (due to their distance from their starbase of origin) and for the ship to be restored. Captain Sanchez still remained in Sickbay, although his condition was stabilized and he was able to maintain a decent level of consciousness, if fleeting.

In the meantime, on the recommendations of both Captain Sanchez and Admiral Lewiston, Starfleet Command had promoted Kelli to the rank of full Commander, and given her the permanent position of the ship's first officer. In the captain's current state, she also was forced into the position of acting captain. This had the expected side effect of leaving the position of Chief Tactical Officer available. Upon review of his service record, Starfleet also approved the promotion of Ensign Mark Lois to the full Lieutenant, and his permanent assignment to Tactical.

"All stations, report in," came her first order as executive officer. "Krenn, bring fusion reactors online and hail McKinley for departure clearance."

[Kelli Lauren]

(OFF: Although I'm usually up for plot twists, we REALLY need to get this mission wrapped up.)

The Evolution dropped back into normal space, and the Prodigal Son released it's tractor beam on the Starfleet ship. As the two ships made their way at impulse to Starbase Avalon, Kelli noticed a second Gallifreyan cruiser in orbit of the station. "Wow," she exclaimed, "that looks important."

The ship banked lazily as it turned into the massive space doors on the outer edge of the spacedock. The helmsman steered the Intrepid-class ship smoothly into position, and a docking umbilical extended to meet them. Most of the external lights on the ship went dark, and the warp nacelle grilles, which normally shone a brilliant blue, went dark, becoming a non-luminescent grey.

Kelli stood from the command seat. "All stations, stand down, she said. "Slave the ship's systems to Avalon, and power down the fusion reactors."

[Techerakh]

Techerakh moved to defend Alexia, but was hit hard in the face by Ar'Krakh's elbow. The warmaster then plunged his weapon into the Gallifreyan's upper chest. Techerakh made no indication of pain, other than the fact that he stopped resisting, and looked the Heraan right in the eye, as blood began to seep from his own mouth.

"You've not... won... yet. You have yet... to face... the Nil'kemorya."

[Lois]

Mark could feel his face growing hot, she must think he's a stalker now. Not that he would find it disturbing if Kelli was outside his door..

"Yeah," Mark forced a smile, trying hard to think of something on the spot. "So where're you heading?" He asked, trying to buy himself some time.

[Lois]

((I Suggest we have two stories going here. I don't want the rest of the crew waiting for me to Kiss Kelli. Say.. we arrive at Earth soon?))

[Lois]

=Bridge=

Mark entered the Bridge with Kelli, he quickly took his position at the back of the bridge.


((Eh I don't feel like typing a lot today))

[Kelli Lauren]

"Stow it, Lieutenant! You can either stay here and be useful, or you can sit in an escape pod while we try to save our capital planet! It's up to you!"

[Kelli Lauren]

"Captain, I've got weapons back online. Shall we continue firing?"

[Malcolm]

Malcolm also finds a spot and fires away taking out a few.

Still, the invaders steadily advance until they're mere meters away.

[Aaron Miller]

<That last hit sent Aaron flying across the bridge, barely missing Lauren as he flew, he hit hard next to the helm console and groaned aloud, despite the immense pain he was getting from his shoulder and back he crawled back to the wreckage of Operations and found that his console was inert.  He then crawled to the nearest console to him and transfered operations to it>

"Ma'am, operations destroyed, we lost a port nacelle.  Cant go to warp even if we wanted too, Several more EPS conduits blew and im........" then Aaron went unconscious from the greivous wounds and blood that was surging out of his body.

[Kelli Lauren]

Kelli wasn't usually a spiteful person, but something inside her made her happy to see the Heraani ships destroyed, beyond just the sense of safety that was returning to the crew.

As the last of the Heraani ships exploded into a field of golden flecks, Kelli sat at the command chair and pressed the comm button. "All hands, this is Lieutenant Commander Lauren. Stand down red alert, and prepare for docking at McKinley Station."

[Alexia]

<Alexia recovered from the torso hit and charged at the Warmaster,  intending to drive her khala into the leg again, but was knocked to the ground by a psychic blast.>

[Will Karelia]

---===Important Message from Expansion Fleet Administration===---

We are beginning the final mission of the current Expansion Fleet story arc, and this mission will conclude the events that have been building for the past few years, some of which began at the launch of Expansion Fleet. This mission will yield an end to the Heraan War, and will be concluding the events of the entire game.

This gives us a unique opportunity, one that we've not explored before, nor have most of the Star Trek RPG's out there. We are going to be starting a new "series" of sorts, in much the same way a new Star Trek series precedes the last. This will give everyone the opportunity to start fresh, with all new characters, new backstories, and new sub-plots. We will even be introducing a new region of space, a new Starfleet space station, and an entirely new fleet.

For the duration of the final mission, due to the extremely cooperative nature of such a finale, we will be combining the posts of all four ships, as well as those of the Starbase Avalon personnel, into a single forum, to alleviate the need to read several forums at once. This mission is to be contained in it's own forum, located at the top of the list of Expansion Fleet vessels we are all familiar with. The new forum will move no one from their previous situations, but will direct them toward the goings-on of this finale. I will be posting a list of guidelines necessary in such a forum, please read those first before posting.

The new forum for the finale is located here: http://www.expansionfleet.com/cgi-bin/fleet/ikonboard.cgi?act=SF;f=308" target='_blank'>http://www.expansionfleet.com/cgi-bin....F;f=308

Thanks,
EF Admins

[James Krenn]

"Aye ma`am." James responded, as he began working on his controls. He opened a comm channel to McKinley station;

=/\="McKinley Station, this is the USS Evolution. Requesting clearance for departure."=/\=

=/\="Clearance granted, Evolution." =/\= came the cheery voice of the station commander. =/\="Thanks for your help back there, and good luck. McKinley out."=/\=

The docking clamps on the Intrepid-class' hull released, and the ship swam smoothly out of dock.

"We're clear of the station, Commander." he reported.

[Lois]

*Bridge*

Mark exited the turbolift and quickly walked to his stationed post. Glancing around uneasily, he wondered if he was the only one who didn't know what was going on. That has always worried him everytime they went to red alert when he was eating something, wither or not he was well informed of the situation.

Looking across the bridge he found Keli at her tactical station,  running his hand through his hair he tried to catch her eye without making it look obivous.