Space Chase

Posted on Thu Feb 13th, 2014 @ 5:10pm by Ensign Corrine Steiner & Captain Liarra Von

Mission: Manhunt
Location: Archa IV solar system

ON:

If any of the pilots of Starbase Airwing 17 desperately hoped form some action to break the tedium of patrol, they were about to get their wish. Flightcom had warned that alerts were lighting up all over the station. Tuning channels, they could hear the command chatter. Apparently, an escaped prisoner was running amok.

Ed stood in the middle of FlightCom, next to the pool table, similar to the one in Ops. He needed it to coordinate the various flights and ships coming and going at all hours. An escaped prisoner on the station was playing merry hell with the Security folks. He'd even heard of a fight on the Promenade involving a bunch of Klingons and Security.

"Settle down people. Let's get ready for some possible action. Who's on patrol now?" Ed asked, even though he knew damn well what the rotation was. He and Blaze had set it up themselves.

"Claymore's A group is on patrol, B is on hot alert. Express is in maintenance since they came of patrol a half hour ago. Python's are on alert five."

"Scramble Claymore B. Bring Python to hot alert. Notify Express to suspend maintenance and assume alert five readiness. A prisoner escape attempt could have outside help, let's be ready for it just in case."

"Aye sir." Said two of his flight controllers and began to order just that.

Suddenly and without warning, dozens of ships of all sizes began spewing out of the space docks. Most of them were Ferengi. Shuttles, runabouts, and transports ignored traffic protocols and chaotically shot out into space like the proverbial 'bats out of hell'. Along with that came a flood of open air chatter.
"Whoever sees her first gets the ten grand reward!"
"No it isn't! It's whoever catches the hoo-mon!"
"We split Von's bounty!"
"No we don't!"
"I heard it was a hundred thousand latinum!"

Up in Ops, the dockmaster looked in shock and panic at his display as the ships suddenly left the station. He quickly called over to the captain. "Ma'am, we've just had dozens of ships leave the dock. None of them are responding to hails!"

Liarra gave him a confused look and hurried over to his station. "What do you mean? Who authorized their launch?"

"As far as I know, no one. We are picking up a number of transmissions, something about your bounty," the officer replied excitedly. He turned to look up at Von, who was even more confused than she was before.

"There was no bounty announcement from me." She thought a moment about the situation, trying to make some sense of it. The Trill closed her eyes and whispered "Steiner." She shook her head. "Contact Flight Control. Have them get the situation under control. Even if Steiner escapes, those shuttles are just asking to cause bigger accidents. I don't want civilians caught up in this. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Captain. I'll contact flight control now."

"Major!" Called a flight controller. "Seems like most every spacedock on the station just emptied. Ops is screaming that 90 percent minimum don't have clearance."

"Greedy bastards. Only one reason all these idiots would be launching and that's to try and get a payday out of this mess." Ed scowled and shook his head. "Our prisoner is planning to get out in a shuttle or ship then." Ed nodded, keeping his cool while on the inside his mind was racing to formulate a plan and stay ahead of the tide. "Give me an open channel to all squadrons." He ordered.

"Go ahead sir."

"All elements, this is CAG. The escaped prisoner on the station is going to attempt to get out on a ship or shuttle of some kind and these idiots are going to try and stop it and try for some kind of reward. You give them one warning to stop and shut down their engines and if they fail to then you disable them. Phasers only people I say again phasers only, keep those fingers off the pickle switches. Claymore Leader, start working on getting these idiots stopped. Python Leader, you've got the Vipers so assume far patrol. Anything that gets close to your people, disable them no verbal warning and no warning shots. Express Leader, assist Claymore with thinning out the herd. Acknowledge orders and phasers only."

"Claymore copies one warning, then shoot to disable, phasers only. No torps."

"Express copies. Phasers only, warn and disable."

Blaze's voice came in over the comm. "Python copies. Prepping sortie for far patrol. No warnings, shoot to disable."

The situation soon escalated. Along with the opportunistic bounty hunters, a mob descended upon the shuttle bays, desperate to escape the station. They had just heard that a dangerous escaped criminal was overloading phasers.

As with many other parts of the starbase, station launch bays were locked down and containment fields were reinforced. Still, a cloud of small craft had managed to pour into space. Like a drop of ink in water, it dispersed in all directions. Station sensors lit up, rapidly scanning for life sign matches resembling Corrie. The problem was, most Ferengi craft are sheathed with sensor blurring materials. "Business confidentiality curtains", I believe they call them.

On the bridge, the comm officer on duty called out, "Captain Von! USS Wolverine is inbound. They're hailing us!"

"Of course they are," Von answered, shaking her head. "It's such a shame that our long range comm system is down for repairs."

The comm officer looked at her quizically. "Captain, our comm system is functioning normally."

Liarra grimaced. She hated having to clarify in a situation like this one. "Then you better get some one on it to take care of those repairs. We'll deal with the Wolverine once we clear up this mess."

Finally getting the hint, the comm officer nodded. "Aye, Captain. It the repairs are likely to be down for about an hour, which is roughly how long we have until the Wolverine is in range."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Von replied. "Keep me posted."

Down in FlightCom Ed watched the streaks and blurbs of light that represented his birds and those of the various ships and shuttles racing around the area and shook his head. "What a furball this is going to be." He muttered and shook his head again.

"CAG to Ops." He called out, letting the computer route his transmission to Ops and eventually to the CO. "I've got my birds scrambling to cover this mess. I've given orders to give every ship and shuttle out there one warning to shut down their engines and stay put. Any vessel that fails to do so will be disabled by my birds. Phasers only, no torps. I'm shutting down this furball before it gets started if I can help it."

Captain Von responds over the comm. "Get it done, Major. I'm trying to buy us some time until her escort arrives. You only have about thirty minutes to get Steiner."

If there were any doubts about which shuttle the prisoner might have commandeered, they quickly vanished. To the surprise and anger of harbor control, the Type-11 made a short warp burst just as soon as it cleared the launch bay. Infuriated flight controllers lashed out over harbor frequencies, demanding the ID of the pilot.

All the odd Ferengi craft scurrying about lost no time.
"There she goes!"
"Let's get her!"
"That's a Type-11! If it gets a clear shot at open space, we'll never catch it!"
"Keep heading it off!"
"How are we gonna board it? It's got shields!"
"No shooting! No alive, no bounty!"
"LOOK OUT!"

Like a pack of disorganized hound dogs, the potpourri mob of small ships swarmed after the shuttle. If the target had broken harbor channel and solarian navigation protocols, the pursuing mob threw the whole book out. They were all over the place, making short warp bursts in the shuttle's anticipated path. More than one satellite would have its panels get clipped and shattered.

One of Maxwell's pursuing pilots angled in on the Type-11. Although weaving an avoidance course away from the mob, the shuttle really wasn't making any sophisticated acrobatics. He was just about to make a hammering attack against the shuttle's shields when a Ferengi tractor beam seized his small fighter and threw him off course.

"Stay out of this, Hoo-mon! We saw her first!"

Several Ferengi craft crunched into a couple of Maxwell's planes.

The test of a good police officer is not necessarily his combat prowess, rather his restraint. Although sorely tempted to administer well deserved force, misbehaving children of society need to be handled with patient restraint. Disciplinary action would have to come later. Major Edward Maxwell's sky tigers were having to endure this policeman's test with all due frustration and grit teeth.

OFF:

Captain Liarra Von
Ensign Corrine Steiner

Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet