To Live and Fight Another Day
Posted on Thu Nov 27th, 2014 @ 2:42am by Captain Liarra Von & Major Alexandria Somers & Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean
Mission:
Aggressive Negotiations
Location: Orbit, Myaz Homeworld
Another huge lurch rattled the Carthage bridge, causing Lieutenant Kelly to grip tightly to the arms of the command chair. Vaishaa must have found what she wanted because the standoff with her ship, the SSV Vekk, ended with the Vekk flying away. But once the shuttle carrying the rescue team departed for the surface, the Carthage was immediately flanked by a repurposed Miranda-class and an old Andorian Imperial Guard destroyer. Neither was a big threat to their larger Excelsior-class, but the two of them together were going to keep them plenty busy. “Report!” Kelly barked out to the other officers on the bridge. Not used to being away from the Jackal, Kelly didn’t know all of the bridge officers names, but he knew what everyone was supposed to be doing. At the moment, that was all he really cared about.
“Shields are still holding at 36%. Auxiliary power is already being rerouted to compensate from a weakening on the starboard side,” the human sitting at the operations console reported. “But we won’t be able to take too many more hits from that direction unless we rebalance the shields.”
“Understood. Helm, set a new course, attack pattern Beta III. Try to keep the starboard side away from the Sojourner ships.” Another phaser blast appeared on the viewscreen shortly before impacting the forward shields. Kelly held onto the chair to brace himself against another rough shake.
“Aye, sir, attack pattern Beta III.” The young helmsman, another human, quickly entered his commands. The viewscreen in front of him moved to show the new route they were flying. It was difficult to be too aggressive with his flying. For one, he didn’t have the same level of talent as pilots such as Ensign De’Havean, but even if he did, it wasn’t easy to turn a lumbering beast like the Carthage in such tight turns.
“Lock all phasers on the Andorian ship. If we can take one of them out of the fight, we might just be able to hold on a bit longer.” Morgan wasn’t entirely sure if he believed that, but at least the idea sounded pretty good in his head. They didn’t need to win the battle so much as just survive until the away team could get back.
“Aye, sir,” the relief at tactical acknowledged. The blood red Andorian destroyer was a moving target, but thanks to the sophisticated tracking sensors employed by Starfleet, hitting it wasn’t a problem. The problem was getting through the shields, which lit up in a glowing blue bubble around the destroyer. “Direct hit, their shields are still holding.”
“Fire at will. Try to wear them down.” Kelly turned his focus back to one of the auxiliary stations. Kelly knew that the operations officer had enough on his plate keeping track of ship systems, and he didn’t want the tactical officer to have his mind off of the enemy ships, so another officer was monitoring sensors and communications to watch for the shuttle. “Any sign of our rescue team?”
The reply was not what Kelly had hope for. “Nothing yet, sir. I’m still looking.”
Morgan took a deep breath. With all of the superior officers still somewhere on the planet, it was his show in orbit. He had been in combat situations before, but it was never easy getting used to having all eyes on him. He rested his head back against the center chair’s headrest, closing his eyes for only a moment as he tried to think. But they popped open again when the ship was rocked by another impact against the shields.
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The Carthage was far from the largest ship in the Fleet, but it was also far from the most nimble. Despite her superior firepower, the two Sojourner ships were keeping her rather busy, harrying the larger ship with circling and strafing runs. The Federation ship kept moving, mostly in a wide arc mixed with assorted evasive maneuvers. The battle raged in orbit, probably unknown to most of the Myaz people on the surface below. Bright red streaks of phased energy lit up the sky, stretching across space between the opposing ships. There was some evidence to support that the Starfleet ship was winning, at least to the trained eye of Liarra Von. Even in the blackness of space, she could see the trail of smoke behind the old Andorian ship. Still, their tiny shuttle was virtually unprotected. If either of those two destroyers wanted to take a moment to stop firing on the Carthage and focus on them, it would be over in a heartbeat.
Looking at the battle with interest "You know Erica it takes guts to tackle such a ship like the Carthage, but its the case of the many out gunning the one, the Sojourner ships are agile and can concentrate their fire on two key spots and fire on them while dodging, I hope Kelly can keep the ships shields strong" Naomi said sitting next De'Havean in the Co-Pilots seat.
"Carthage will lose to attrition," Erica growled busy maneuvering the shuttle, "We should've taken the Jackal. That has a planetary capabilities and wouldn't be in this fix!" She had great confidence in herself as she gave up on trying to get close to the Carthage to dock with the ship. "Merrrrrow would had them both in ruined junk by now!"
Von rested her hand on the back of De’Havean’s chair. She was still standing next to her pilot, bracing herself against the bulkhead from the buffeting felt by leaving the planet’s atmosphere. “Watch those ships carefully, Ensign. Keep us moving. We could be a pretty tempting target.”
"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." Erica just gave a predatory growl as she was already doing it as she flew the shuttle just staying on the very edge of the atmosphere, but in space. Every once in a while, a they would hit an odd ripple of atmosphere.
“Major, open a channel to the Carthage,” Von ordered. “I have a feeling that we won’t be able to do this leisurely.”
From her position she opened a channel "Channel open Captain" She said to Von.
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“Sir! I’ve got the shuttle on sensors. They’ve just cleared the atmosphere. We’re being hailed.”
Kelly let loose a sigh of relief and jumped to his feet. “Put it through. Carthage here. We’ve been a little busy since you’ve left. What’s the status of the away team?”
The away team is all present Carthage, we have Captain Von's group too, we could you a lift and prepare the flight deck for a combat landing, we will leave skid marks on her deck, Griffiths reported.
“Great!” Lt. Kelly replied. He was more than relieved to hear that everyone was alright, but they weren’t out of the woods yet. “We’ll come around and pick you up. We’ll have to drop shields, so I don’t know if we can bring you in. You may have to land manually. Is that going to be a problem?”
This time Liarra’s voice came in over the ship’s comm. I hope not, Lieutenant. But I have faith in our pilot. Just get us close and we’ll do the rest. Have damage control teams on standby, and prepare to get us out of here. As soon as we are aboard, take us to warp.
“Aye, Captain. We’ll be standing by.” Kelly closed the comm. “Helm, lay an intercept course. Give the shuttle the easier path to land, but try to keep us between the shuttle and the Sojourner ships. Then set a course for Archa IV, maximum warp.”
“Aye, sir.”
He took a seat once again in the command chair and gripped the armrests tightly. “Tactical, prepare to drop shields on my mark.”
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Liarra watched through the viewport as the Carthage adjusted her heading. The starship loomed over the tiny shuttle as it moved into position, all the while continuing to lay down phaser fire to cover their approach. She patted De’Havean’s shoulder. “Alright, Ensign. We’re in your hands. As soon as those shields are down and the shuttle bay doors are open, punch it. We won’t have time for tractor beams, so you’ll have to do it manually. I know you can do it.” Von removed her hand and moved to an empty seat in the cockpit. She sat down and buckled her restraints and prepared for the inevitable hard landing.
Looking back at the Captain who along with the rest strapped themselves in "Oh crap!" Griffiths said and secured herself into the co-pilots seat and braced for a hard landing.
Seeing the Carthage moving into position, Erica began her run. Bringing up the shuttle to speed, she hoped the Carthage Shuttle deck crew was up to speed. Her hands flew across the console and the nimble shuttle danced to her commands.
Erica eyes blazed with excitement and concentration. This would be her third time to make a crash landing with a ship. She just hoped that everyone would walk away with from this one. This time it was on purpose and intention. "We have ramming speeed!" She muttered softly, watching the opening of the Carthage shuttle bay open and inviting, closing fast. At the last second possible, Erica whipped the shuttle around so it was flying backwards and braking as the shuttle entered the shuttlebay backwards. hitting the shuttlebay's tractor beams to help stop the shuttle. But still they skidded across the deck, throwing up sparks from shuttle's nacelles and slammed harshly into the bulkhead that separated the shuttlebay from the ship proper.
Wham!!! SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! and the sound of metal crumpling.
Sparks flew along with smoke filled the compartments of the shuttle. Last thing that Erica remember was her console getting awfully huge and her neck felt like putty. ~~came in too fast...~~ was her last thought before she blacked out.
Von had braced herself for the landing, but was still surprised by the force of the impact. She quickly removed her restraints and moved to check Erica's pulse, relieved that she was still breathing.
Despite being strapped in Naomi was holding onto the surface so tightly that her knuckles were white Oh crap, oh crap, I'm gonna die ?She thought to herself as the shuttle hit the deck of the Carthage hard and screeched to a halt after a long slide across the flight deck. When the shuttle had settled and the deck crew rushed forward, only then with shaky hands did Griffiths unstrap herself. "Do not know about you Captain but I could use a very strong drink" Griffiths said to Von.
"So could I, but we need to get out of here first. That drink will have to wait," Von replied.
Shuttle deck crew sprung into action. Activating the fire suppression system and venting the smoke and fumes directly into space. Most were in shocked at seeing the skid/scorch marks along the once pristine floor of the shuttlebay. And a shortened Shuttle planted into a ruined bulkhead wall. Pieces of the shuttle lay in a scatter pattern around the shuttle and along the path it took to meet the wall.
"Shuttle meet wall. Wall meet shuttle," One of the more veteran old timers joked with another as they busted tail to open the shuttle to get to those inside the wreckage.
Another spoke up, "It should be Egg meets wall!" Giving a chuckle at his morbid wit as they worked.
"Get that Bay door closed!" Yelled another as it was already happening. But not fast enough for the Senior Crew Chief.
Another tremor shook the ship, this time much stronger than the last. With the shock of the crash overwhelming her, Liarra nearly forgot about their current situation. As soon as a door was opened to the shuttle, Von was springing from the wreckage for the nearest comm panel. With the shuttlebay doors finally closing, she activated the internal communicator. "Von to bridge. The shuttle is aboard. Get us out of here, NOW!" There was no waiting for acknowledgment from Kelly. The hum of the ships warp engines roaring to life rattled the deck plates. Shortly after, all sounds of battle had ceased.
With shaky legs Griffiths exited the shuttle and looked back at De'Havean "Nice landing Ensign, bit rough but any landing you can walk away from is usually a good one."
De'Havean was sprawled out over her console, not moving from being knocked unconscious from impact. Medical teams were busy extracting the wounded crash victims which was very few. Soon she was transferred from her seat to a stretcher with a neck brace and carted off to the infirmary. "She'll live, Major. I'll pass your concerns on." One of the paramedics spoke as they passed by Major Griffiths.
Von took a moment to survey the damage, and to regain her composure after the crash. Probably any doctor in the fleet would make her go to sickbay, but Liarra had too many other things on her mind. "Major," she called out to Griffiths. "Take care of things here and make sure any wounded get to sickbay. I'll be on the bridge."
Captain Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
USS Carthage
Major Naomi Griffiths
Commanding Officer
G Company, 14th Battalion
Ensign Erica De'Havean [P: Akiashiro]
Acting Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Carthage
Lieutenant Morgan Kelly (NPC by Liarra Von)
Acting Executive Officer
USS Carthage
Other NPCs by Liarra Von and Erica De'Havean [P: Akiashiro]
