3 to a Pod

“Now hear this! All hands to battle stations!”

    The red alert klaxon alternated with the automated alert status announcement, as the crew of the USS Yorktown rushed to their stations.  The ship was hit by a volley of Dominion disrupters and the attitude compensators failed momentarily sending those standing or running sprawling to the deck.  The com system filled up quickly with calls for medics for broken bones or concussions, all in all 90 percent of the crew got to their stations and those that were not on shift  were ready to either help in triage or in evac stations.

    In space the ships fired and dodged and fired again, it was a loosing battle for the Yorktown; she was out gunned and out matched by the Dominion ships.  The Federation ship was pockmarked with open decks on both the saucer section and the secondary hull.  Listing on a dead nacelle, it lost directional control and was slowly moving in a counter clockwise circle.  The captain tried to push away but the Dominion ships closed in and kept firing.

    Finally the captain realized that the fight was lost and issued the order to evac…  “Now hear this!  All hands abandon Ship! Board emergency pods and escape shuttles, all officers clear your decks of wounded, medical transport shuttles on hangar deck 3!
Now hear this! All hands abandon Ship!”

    3 to a pod. In some cases 5 or more, cowards didn’t want to be left behind, everyone wanted to save their sorry hides, this war was going down the tubes and it wasn’t even funny. 

    3 to a pod. In some cases one… others banging on the hatch as the pod ejected, the cries and curses unheard by the empty launch track.

    3 to a pod, malfunctions always happened in untried systems. Pods launched with the hatch still opened and crew getting in only to die by asphyxiation and fire…

    3 to a pod and their off… drifting in space. Only directional jets to right the craft for planet insertion attitude. Breathing fast and nervously trying to get the pod in the right attitude and pushing the jet actuator as if were an impulse engine… then an explosion...  the ship died. We are alone in space…

    Another explosion, this one smaller…the chatter on the pod com net erupted… “THEY ARE FIRING ON THE ESCAPE PODS!”  Screams and pleads on the com net, others trying to coordinate how to move away, it was all a cacophony of screams and shouts… 

    Another explosion, closer.  Another one farther away, breathing faster, “Oh NO! The fuel is gone…” it slowly gets darker… "NO!"


    “Helm, bring us to a course back to Cardassia, there is nothing else of value here, communications tell the other ships to regroup after they have finished with the escape pods, also tell them to forget cloaking, there is no need to waste energy  nobody to see us out here.”  “Yes, Vorta.”   The two Jem Hadar answered in unison.  The ships turned and crossed the Neutral Zone, the deflector shields pushing aside the floating bodies and the pieces of pods and shuttles strewed through the region…  Unknown to them, a trio of cloaked Romulan Warbirds watched in disbelief and what the Dominion had done…

    A centurion watching from a view ports at the carnage said to his companion, “and these Barbarians have a non aggression pact with us? I wonder how we would fare against them…” the other centurion replied dryly: “I rather die when the ship explodes that in one of those escape pods…”