Into the Badlands
Posted on Wed Apr 15th, 2026 @ 4:33am by Commander Daynah Ral & Colonel Galen & Commander Rhupert Tyree & Lieutenant Aria Kanzaki & Ensign Nyx Calder
1,478 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Operation Kakori
Location: USS Valiant
Timeline: First day entering the Badlands
The Valiant dropped out of warp, moving at half impulse as it quested toward the Badlands. On the main viewer, a visual representation of the border, showing the plasma storms outlining various celestial bodies in shadow and silhouette. The storms could be seen roiling, growing larger and larger as Valiant powered toward them.
Rhu had stood as they dropped from warp, looking at the viewer and feeling the slowly tightening knot in his stomach. Missions were always like this…hurry up, plan. Plan some more. Wait.
Always with the waiting.
And now it was time to get into the meat of the mission. The one they’d been running about like a house-a-fire just to get to this point.
Glancing around, he caught himself wool-gathering and went through the normal check outs with his crew. They were ready. Valiant was ready. He was pretty sure the Cure was ready, but if they weren’t, it didn’t matter at this point.
Turning to Daynah, he said, “Any updates for us, number one on behalf of sciences? Anything looking questionable, other than the Badlands themselves?”
"At the moment it simply the usual mess that is the Badlands. As we progress toward the coordinates I will be able to get a scan of Breyet Nor. However, I do not want to risk long range scans at the moment. They built a station in the Badlands. Who knows what boosted technology they have? I must confess that the feat of building the station alone has my interest piqued." Daynah turned from her console on the port side of the Bridge.
"Goes without saying, but full scans as we go," Rhu commented. "They almost had to have mined some resources close by.."
"Colonel Galen, please engage the cloak,"Rhu said said, resisting the urge to pace.
"Yes Commander." Galen spoke from his station and he keyed in his access code. Deep within the Valiant a small device hummed to life with a green glow. The lights all over the ship dimmed as the cloak took power. "Shields have been lowered, and weapons are offline. Cloak is engaged and holding. We are as your people would say off the grid." In space the USS Valiant dissolved into the tapestry of the storm raging around it.
Taking a breath, Rhu centered himself and said, "Alright. Yellow alert. Since we're going to be running the cloak for an extended period, we'll stand to for a couple of hours to make sure it's functioning correctly. Operations, run constant diagnostics on our energy signatures and make sure our feedback stays constant."
"Ensign Nyx, take us in, half impulse. Steady as she goes." Rhu said, clasping his hands behind his back and willing his feet to tell him how his ship was functioning.
Nyx’s fingers flexed over the helm as the Valiant dissolved into nothing.
The Badlands loomed ahead on the viewer — churning plasma funnels, gravimetric eddies snapping like cosmic bear traps, lightning spidering through ionised clouds thick enough to chew on. It wasn’t space so much as a mood.
Her grin crept in slow.
“Oh, she’s angry,” Nyx murmured under her breath. “I like her.”
“Half impulse,” she echoed aloud, voice bright but steady. “Steady as she goes.”
The Valiant eased forward, nose dipping slightly as Nyx compensated for the first wave of turbulence rolling off the outer plasma streamers. She adjusted their vector by fractional degrees, riding the natural current instead of punching through it. The cloak shimmered faintly on her board as ionised particles scraped across its envelope.
“Plasma density spiking portside,” she said, already correcting. “Gravimetric shear in three… two…” The deck hummed as she skimmed them just beneath the threshold. “There it is. Nothing we can’t dance with.”
Her eyes were bright now, locked in.
Most pilots slowed down in the Badlands. White-knuckled it. Treated it like a minefield.
Nyx leaned into it.
“Routing us through the low-pressure channel between those two storm columns,” she continued, almost conversational. “It’ll look ugly on sensors, but the turbulence cancels out about six thousand kilometres in. Saves the cloak from working overtime.”
The ship rolled slightly as a plasma vortex curled past them like a living thing.
Nyx exhaled, almost pleased.
“Welcome to the Badlands,” she said softly. “Everybody keep their hands inside the ride.”
Daynah sat at the Science console as she wore the mantle of the Science Officer in this instance. "The gravimetric shear is taking a slight toll on structural integrity. Nothing that the Valiant can't handle at the moment. I recommend that we clear the shuttle bay. If it comes to it we can depressurize the bay and club haul the ship."
Galen was unfamiliar with the term club haul. However, the Commander had brought a thought to his head, one that he could not let go. "Ensign Calder I would like to remind you that although other vessels cannot see this ship due to the cloak. That plasma storm can see right through it. With the shields offline I would recommend avoiding any and all plasma funnels."
Nyx’s eyes flicked briefly toward Galen’s station, then back to the roiling chaos ahead of them. The corner of her mouth twitched, not quite a smile, not quite anything polite.
“Good note, Colonel,” she said lightly, fingers still moving across the helm with precise, almost lazy adjustments. “I was just about to drive straight into the biggest plasma funnel I could find. Really spice up the day.”
The Valiant dipped along the edge of a rolling plasma current, Nyx easing the ship sideways through the gap like she was threading a needle rather than guiding a cloaked vessel through one of the most volatile regions of space in the quadrant. A violet arc of charged plasma snapped past the port side of the viewer and spiralled off into the storm.
Her hands shifted again, shaving a few degrees off their approach vector.
“Relax,” she added, voice calm and focused now, eyes never leaving the viewer. “I’m not punching the storms. I’m surfing the slipstreams between them. Less turbulence, less cloak distortion, and we don’t light up the sensors like a bonfire.”
Another gravimetric ripple rolled through the hull. Nyx compensated automatically, nudging the impulse output down a fraction.
“See?” she said, almost conversational. “Nice and smooth.”
Then, quieter, mostly to herself as the Badlands opened ahead of them in violent, electric beauty:
“Besides… if you can’t dance with the Badlands, you shouldn’t be flying in them.”
Galen turned to look at his readouts from the cloak. Sure enough the Ensign was correct. The cloak distortion had decreased by a factor of two. That was something the Romulan pilots couldn't do and I am sure they would want to know. The Romulan allowed the pilot to see the look on his face, which was one that showed he was impressed. This was the closest to compliment the Romulan would allow.
Rhu watched his professionals work with appreciation. They didn't need him looming over their shoulders. Not yet, anyway. "Good flying, Ensign," he commented, "Steady as she goes."
Looking over to his tactical station, Rhu said, "Lieutenant Kanzaki, please monitor those plasma discharges closely and activate the ablative armor should you see the need. Just monitor for chroniton particles.
Aria nodded. "Yes sir. I would recommend diverting power to the armour and structural integrity field. We don't want those plasma storms hitting us. With no shields, we're relying on the hull alone."
"Probably at least partially why Valiant got tapped for this job," Rhu said almost to himself as he watched the monitor and added overlays showing the energy eddies and storms as visual cues. The flowing red storms and greenish white eddies were beautiful.
And deadly.
After a few beats, he said, "Go ahead, Aria. Better safe than sorry."
"Already on it." Aria replied as her fingers danced across the console. "Even with the extra power, we'll still take a lot of damage if we get caught up in one of those plasms storms. So, fly carefully."
Nyx didn’t look away from the helm. “Aw, you say that like I was about to throw us headfirst into the nearest plasma wall just for the drama.” She skimmed the next current like she was showing off for an audience of one, grin curling at the edge of her mouth. “Tempting, absolutely. But I do know the difference between brave, stupid, and giving Aria the satisfaction of being right in front of witnesses.”
A joint post by:
Commander Rhupert Tyree
Master and Commander
USS Valiant
Commander Daynah Ral
Chief Science Officer
Executive Officer
USS Valiant
Colonel Galen
Romulan Cloak Operator
USS Valiant
Lieutenant Aria Kanzaki
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Valiant
Ensign Nyx Calder
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Valiant
RSS Feed