Trojan Horse

Posted on Fri May 22nd, 2026 @ 2:27pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Commander Devon Hunt & Lieutenant Nezuko & Lieutenant Teneca Quinn & Lieutenant Takina Inoue

1,620 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Flight Of The Valkyries
Location: USS Armitage Shuttle & Herald Freighter
Timeline: March 16th 2397

The team wasted no time in getting to the shuttle and exiting the Armitage. Devon Hunt now found himself leading a mission that wasn't a first for him. But given the high stakes of the overall mission involving the rest of the fleet. This was the biggest task ever handed to him. He was feeling a bit anxious, which was definitely expected. The proton packs were tested but this would be a first in the field. Hopefully, things went as smoothly as possible. "What's our ETA to the freighter?"

Nezuko checked her own instruments and responded with three fingers in the air, followed by a sign for ‘minutes’.

As if by clockwork, a large purple Iconian gateway opened not far from the shuttle. A small yet sleek looking vessel slid out of it and came to a stop in space. It seemed to change course slightly as the shuttle's sensors picked up the immense energy from the strange vessel. It would only be there a matter of minutes before it could re-open a gateway and jump to its destination; The Iconian Starbase.

Now was the moment of truth, the Commander thought to himself. "Alright folks it's now or never. Gear up everybody."

Teneca put on her own armour and proton pack, before helping the others with theirs. Giving the thumbs up sign when she was ready.

Nezuko had everything. Sidearm. Tricorder with specially designed Iconian computer interface. PADD for ease of communication and computer access. She nodded to her teammates. For her, it was time.

Lieutenant Inoue reached over and keyed a command into a nearby control panel, causing everyone's combadges to chirp.

"Self-destruct is primed," she announced, turning to Devon. "I've rigged the detonator with a five-second delay that's synced up to our combadges; once we've beamed out of range, it'll start the countdown."

"That's definitely cutting it close," he replied with a sigh. But he understood that everything was about to happen had to be swift and timing was everything. Securing a proton pack on his back. He then assisted the other in securing their gear. "Standby for transport everyone."

Nezuko sorted out the Transporter, programming it for their destination, a likely to be empty part of the freighter’s hold. She set a delay and, order given, set it counting down.

A few seconds later, they were off their shuttle and aboard the freighter.

The area that the away team materalised in was similar to what they had seen before. Very tall ceilings, arches and orange and purple hues of energy running through walls. Surrounding them were various sized crates and containers, each with strange symbols on their surface. However, they seemed like they were fully contained with no visible hatches or lids, just solid blocks. A large door was on the other side of the room which seemed to split open like paper through a paper-shredder. A light above the door glowed a hue of red.

Upon their arrival, the away team was greeted with a slight jolt- nothing to knock them off their feet, but certainly noticeable.

"Detonation confirmed," Lieutenant Inoue reported. "Shuttlecraft destroyed, Sir."

"Let's get moving, I'm sure they detected the explosion not too far from their haul."

Teneca looked around, the place was beautiful and imposing. She wondered how a culture that made such amazing architecture, could use it only for destruction and conquest.

Moving down the corridor, Hunt was somewhat impressed him then rounding the corner was a single member of the freighter crew who froze at the unexpected sight of the away team. Turning and trying to reach the panel on the wall, he immediately collapsed the floor as the Security Chief shot him in the back.

Reaching down at the man lying on the ground unconscious, Devon snatched what appeared to be the communication device from his belt. "One down, and three more to go."

The Iconian Herald seemed to fizzle, and then disappeared into a puff of black smoke. The lighting in the corridor changed, it now flashed orange and a strange alarm began to wail. A strange language began to sound out, too advanced for the universal translators to decipther.

A large door, similar to the one to the cargo bay opened and the other three Herald crew emerged carrying staff weapons. They didn't hesitate as purple energy beams erupted from their staff ends, directly towards the Starfleet away team.

"Well, looks like we didn't need to go far to find the rest of them," Lieutenant Inoue remarked as she unslung her staff and assumed a fighting stance. "Four of us, three of them; I'd say the ball's firmly in our court."

Nezuko took shots with her sidearm against the Heralds, focusing her fire on the one on the right, closest to where she was in cover. These things had decent shields when they knew they were fighting. If only…

Teneca fired what had been nicknamed a 'proton pack'. The beam cut through a Herald's shield and overloaded its staff weapon. The resulting explosion vapourising the Herald.

She then targeted another only for her weapon beep. The battery was dead. She dived for cover. It must have been damaged in transport.

"Commander, your turn." She called to Devon, as she worked to fix the problem.

Behind what he called a pillar, Hunt aimed and fired with his proton pack. Penetrating the shield, another Herald found itself vaporized. Now there was one Herald standing. Preparing for another shot, the weapon beeped, indicating that it was low on power. Crouching back into his covered position, he reached for the extra energy source. "I need to recharge."

"I could've gotten that one," Lieutenant Inoue grumbled as she hunkered down alongside Devon.

The Ops chief had been making decent strides and breaking through Iconian computer code, and might soon be able to commandeer Constructs. These Heralds were biologicals, but their weapons weren’t. A bit of malicious code sent from her tricorder, applied with just a bit of ethereal force and… lights on the staff weapons of the remaining Heralds started flashing as their power cores went into a maintenance reset.

That gave Nezuko an opportunity to get in close. She didn’t care how strong the Herald’s shield was; an Amphea could get inside it, and claws ripped into soft flesh no matter the species. The Herald went down, struggling to fight her off.

Dumping the old battery, Devon quickly tried to insert the new one as he was watched Nezuko make her move through the corner of his eye. This would either work or get ugly real fast.

The Herald on the ground stopped moving, the staff falling free from his hand and clattering onto the floor. Nezuko stood up and put her respirator back in her mouth, taking a deep breath.

She smiled at her teammates and gave them a thumbs-up.

The ship fell quiet, only a soft hum of the purple energy running through the walls could be heard now. A large door at the end of the corridor awaited the away team. The light indicator above it was showing green, it glowed against the purple and orange interior and archways.

"Right," Lieutenant Inoue announced as she stood up and surveyed the carnage. "so- for all intents and purposes, the freighter is ours; barring the possibility that they might've called for backup, all that's left is for us to locate the main control center and figure out how to pilot this thing."

she turned to Devon. "Commander, your orders?"

Commander Hunt was clearly impressed by the mess more than he should have been. The deep dark purple blood was all over the floor and along the walls as well. "Let's get to the control center and get this thing moving ASAP"

"Aye, Sir," Lieutenant Inoue nodded as she slung the staff back over her back.

---

It didn't long for the away team to find their way to the control center. Looking down at one of the panels, it displayed the gateway on the verge of opening back. "Take the helm. The gateway is set to open back up in the next two minutes."

Nezuko took the helm station, her algorithm on her PADD enabling her to interface with the controls and activate the flight systems.

As if by fate, the helm console lit up and started to show various strange readings. A purple gateway opened in front of the ship which could be seen on the large viewscreen. Then the engines seemed to power up to full power and pushed the ship straight through the gate.

In a matter of seconds, the Iconian Freighter emerged out of the otherside. In front of them was a huge Iconian Starbase. It was roughly three quarters the size of Earth's Spacedock. Strange glowing purple energy seemed to be pulsing through various panels. Other smaller ships were patrolling around, easily recognisable as the Herald raiders.

However, there were other smaller vessels that looked like drones working on the outer hull of the starbase. Construction was obviously still in progress. Slowly the freighter banked and started making its way towards huge space doors set into the side of the starbase. They opened slowly and the freighter glided in.

A warning in a strange language called out as the freighter came to a stop and started moving to port. A few seconds later it locked onto what was seemingly a docking port with a clunk.

They had arrived...

Posting by:

Captain Taiga Aisaka
Commanding Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Commander Devon Hunt
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Teneca Quinn
Chief Science Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Takina Inoue
Acting Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo

 

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