The Soulwolf (FT, CLOSED)

[Species and Cultures]

U.S.S Soulwolf
Soulwolf Class Starship
Astrum Traba Shipyards
12th September 2400

Thomas Hunter smiled as he stepped onto the bridge of his ship for the first time, once again the shipyard personnel had outdone themselves; building his ship in just nine months. Being designated as the shipyards top priority helped a great deal. No one else was on-board yet, Hunter had used his new found authority to get onto the ship before anyone else, something which Hunter found extremly amusing. The Soulwolf was around the same size as the old Intrepid Class, all examples of which had sadly been destroyed during the Civil war and there were no plans to restart construction. In many ways the Soulwolf was a successer design, although she was much more capable than her predeccesor, mainly a result of advances in technology.

Hunter had spent the year prior to the commencement of construction on Soulwolf pushing for production to be approved by Starfleet Command. Despite being only a Lieutenant Commander he had seemingly impressed the Admirals and got the ship approved, as well as bagged himself a promotion to Commander and assignment to the construction teams. He got the feeling that his old-friend, Captain Robyn Sinclair, Commander of the Starship Freedom, had had some imput in the matter but had yet to bring it up with her. With such a speedy completion of Soulwolf, Hunter had been promoted to Captain and granted the posting he had wanted and more than deserved; Command of the Soulwolf.

"All I ask is a tall ship..." Hunter muttered under his breath as he settled into the command chair in the centre of the bridge.

"...And a Star to steer her by" A soft female voice responded.

Hunter turned sharply to look at the single turbolift that led onto the bridge, directly behind the command chair. Standing there in her Starfleet uniform was Robyn Sinclair. Hunter smiled and stood up, walking the short distance around his chair to embrace his friend.

"Welcome aboard" He smiled "How'd you get here, I though Freedom was on assignment?"

"She was" Robyn replied as they walked back to the centre of the bridge, Hunter returned to his seat and Robyn borrowed the XO's chair "Our mission took less time than we expected so we put in for resupply"

"Fair enough" Robyn smiled "Congratulations on making Captain"

"Thanks" Hunter replied "But why do I get the impression that you had something to do with this?"

"Don't sell yourself short Tom, you earned this" Robyn replied "I've been on assignment for most of your little crusade"

Hunter smiled and the two starfleet officers spent some time discussing various matters, both of a professional and personal nature, until they were interupted by a sharp chirping from a console on the port side of the bridge. Robyn stood up and walked over to the station and tapped it.

"We're recieving a distress call" She commented "I'm putting it up"

"To any ships in the area...This is General K'ael....Andorian Imperial Guard, to anyone...we are under attack...assisstance..."

"Andorians" Robyn contacted "We lost contact with the majority of the Andorian species during the Battle of Andoria, we lost"

"We're recieving a communication from the Station Commander, we're being ordered to investigate this threat, If these are Andorian survivors it is our duty to attempt to help them" Hunter commented, tapping various commands into his console "Attention all Soulwolf Personnel, report to your stations immediatly, we depart in ten minutes"

Within moments crew began to report in, as many of them had already been on their way to the ship and had broken into a run when they heard the emergency call. Other personnel began to beam aboard to speed everything up. Bridge staff soon arrived and took up their stations.

"Captain Sinclair, you'd better get going, we're launching in two minutes" Hunter commented.

"If it's alright Captain, I'll tag along, Freedom's gonna be laid up for a few days" Robyn replied.

"Of course" Hunter replied "You can set yourself up at Auxilery station two"

Robyn nodded and sat down at the station in question, quickly logging into the brand new computer system. Soon enough everything was ready.

"Sir, all crew reporting ready" Lieutenant Commander Tasla Dez, Chief Tactical Officer, reported "We've been cleared for launch"

"Very well take us out" Hunter smiled.

U.S.S Soulwolf
Soulwolf Class Starship
Andorian Colony
One Hour Later

"Sir, we are approaching the origin point of the distress call" Dez reported "I've got eight ships on sensors; Six are ships matching the Configuration of Andorian Guard Vessels, two are unidentified, Frigate-Rate"

"Stand-by to Drop out of warp" Hunter ordered "Stand-by all weapons"

Seconds later the Soulwolf dropped out of warp, a short distance off the nearest enemy ship, immediatly launching a salvo of Quantum Torpedo's at the enemy ship, the shields promptly blazed under the fire and soon collapsed within minutes as Phaser fire from the two forward array's were added to the bombardment.

"One enemy ship destroyed!" Dez reported with satisfaction.

"Take us towards the other one" Hunter ordered.

The Soulwolf advanced on the second enemy ship which promptly jumped out of the system.

"Their gone" Dez reported "Looks like they knew they couldn't take a fully armed Federation starship as well as they could a bunch of obsolite Andorian Cruisers"

"They'll be back" Robyn commented from the rear of the bridge "It's just a question of who they'll bring with them"

"We're being hailed by the Lead Andorian Vessel" Dez reported, opening a channel.

"Andorian Vessels, this is Captain Thomas Hunter of the Federation Starship Soulwolf"

"Captain Hunter, I am General K'ael of the Andorian Imperial Guard, I thank you for your timely assisstance" The Blue-Skinned Alien replied on the viewscreen "I believe we have a lot to talk about"

[Trysan]

Bloodtooth
"Procured" Acclamator II-class assault ship
Andorian colony

The Bloodtooth was an Acclamator II that had been procured from the Galactic Alliance and modified into a mercenary warship. Captain Khargay loved that word, procured. It was so flexible.

Half an hour ago, one of their frigates, Firestar, had returned to their temporary base of operations just outside the Trysan system, bringing the news of the destruction of his wingmate after the untimely arrival of an unknown space arrowhead.

Now, the Bloodtooth and four frigates were reentering the system, including the Firestar. It was time to get down to business.

[Species and Cultures]

U.S.S Soulwolf
Soulwolf Class Starship
Andorian Colony
Thirty Minutes Later

"So, what actually happened to your people?" Hunter asked as he and Robyn sat oppisate from the Andorian General in the conference room a deck below the bridge. Given the situation and the likelyhood of the enemy returning it had been deemed best to hold this particular meeting on the Soulwolf. Both officers would be lieing if they said they weren't interested in solving one of the mystery's that stemed from the Federation Civil War, and if they were lucky they were going to get an answer today.

"It's a long story" K'ael replied "The Battle of Andoria resulted in a Federation victory, however only one Federation Vessel; the Starship Excelsior, survived the battle and was unable to report to Starfleet Command their success, thus the Federation must have assumed we failed in our defence"

"Understandable" Robyn commented "We didn't have the ships to send a Recce patrol to Andoria, but how did you get to this Galaxy?"

"Excelsior was equipped with a prototype Quantum Slipstream Drive, and when we heard the Federation's plans, we carried out our own program and travelled to this Galaxy a little under eight years ago" K'ael replied "Since then we were unaware that you were also in this Galaxy and assumed we were alone, pulling our old ships out of the Mothballs until we could construct newer ships"

"But what about the Excelsior?" Hunter asked.

"She departed on a scouting mission two years ago, we've not heard from her since" K'ael replied.

"Well General, looks like you've had the time of it" Hunter commented "We're going to remain in system unless told otherwise by Starfleet Command, I also want to discuss the possibility of your Colony returning to the Federation"

"I will have to dicuss it with the Civilian leadership" K'ael replied.

The three officers nodded and left the room on that note. K'ael returned to his ship whilst Robyn and Hunter walked over to the Captains Ready Room and settled down to discuss the developments over a cup of coffee. Not the least of which was that there was a missing Federation starship out there.

********

The two Starfleet Captains had been finishing off a third cup of coffee when all hell apparently broke loose. The line of lights along the center of the bulkhead walls began to flash urgently red. The distinctive red alert klaxon alerted the ships crew to the emergency situation. Hunter glanced across at Robyn before heading out onto the bridge. Striding quickly across the bridge he settled into the command chair.

"Report" Hunter requested crisply.

"Five ships have entered the system, four matching the configuration of the ship that fled, they are in attack formation" Dez reported.

"Christ" Hunter muttered "Put us between them and the Planet, have the Andorian ships take shelter behind us and put a Code-2 alert out on all Federation Frequencies"

Hunter glanced back at Robyn who remained stone-faced. In a way he was glad, he didn't need anyone questioning his orders during a time like this, certainly not someone he cared about so much as it would no doubt compromise his objectivity. Five ships, albiet mostly frigates, in a signle Light Cruiser, even one like the Soulwolf.

"Open a channel to the enemy ships"

"Aye sir, Channel Open"

"Hostile Vessels, this is the Federation Starship Soulwolf, you are in Violation of Andorian Space, as their Ally we officialy order you to withdraw from this system, or we will fire upon you, last chance""

[Trysan]

Bloodtooth
"procured" Acclamator II class
Andorian space

The Bloodtooth and its four-frigate escort powered on through the system, choosing the silent approach as the enemy vessel before them attempted contact. Then came the warning. Captain Khargay merely smiled at this.

Then, without any warning, he ordered all ships to fire on the foremost Andorian vessel. He watched and smiled as its shields began to fail, followed by the resultant explosion.

Then, he opened the comms. "You take one of ours, we take one of yours."

[Species and Cultures]

U.S.S Soulwolf
Soulwolf Class Starship
Andorian Colony
12th September 2400

"Bastards" Dez reported as the enemy fired.

Hunter watched on the viewscreen as the ships began to fire ont eh Andorian vesselsl. This was certainly going to be a trial by fire for the Soulwolf Class Starship and would either ensure the future of the class, or doom it before it even begun.

"Transfer Seconady power to offensive and defensive systems" Hunter ordered grimly as some enemy shots began to hit the starships shields, the lasers ineffective, but the other weapons began to cause some shield damge, short phaser beams began sweeping arcs of fire in an effort to take out some enemy missiles "Helm; Couger maneuver, all Phasers fire at will"

The Soulwolf moved from it's position on a weaving course through the enemy ships, not staying in one place for too long. As it moved within range of the enemy ships, a multitude of blasts began to be fired from the various Phaser Array's spread across the starships hull. If one was watching closely they would be able to see two beams of light travelling along the array, meeting at the point closest to the enemy ship and letting loose the deadly Phaser beam from that position. On the longer arrays more than one beam could be fired at once.

"Enemy ship directly ahead!" Dez reported.

"Quantum Torpedo's full spread!" Hunter ordered.

Six Quantum Torpedo's launched in under a second from the forward Torpedo tube and went speeding towards their target even as the Soulwolf banked hard to engage another vessel. The Andorians meanwhile moved to engage the enemy as well,a longside the Soulwolf.