A Sudden Stop
Posted on Mon May 23rd, 2016 @ 10:42pm by Captain Liarra Von & Colonel S'er'in'e
Edited on on Thu Jun 2nd, 2016 @ 11:31pm
Mission:
The Art of Survival
Location: Shuttlecraft, En Route to Cestus III
S'er'in'e had retired back to the front of the craft once again to check on course and speed to ensure a timely arrival. Since dinner he'd been engaged in thought about what the Captain had said yet he was what made him be, his methods and ways, customs and culture, it was hard to change what had been drilled into someone since childhood. It was no surprise that the Captain had again returned to her room. Everything was running true and normal for the last couple of hours so S'er'in'e decided to pass the time he'd read.
Captain Von had retired back to her cabin following an awkward dinner. She hadn't intended for it to go that way, but some prejudices were hard to break. It wasn't that she thought less of the colonel because of his species or customs, and Von had always tried to be accepting of other cultures. It just felt odd to her that he would devote so much energy into doing things for her, things that Liarra was quite capable of doing on her own. She tried to shake the thoughts and go back to her notes, but she wasn't having much luck.
Everything was still normal as S'er'in'e passed the sixth chapter of his book when unexpectedly lights began to flicker, consoles struggled for life and the ride became more shaky. A quick scan of the consoles revealed instabilities in the warp engines, they were losing power and S'er'in'e couldn't find out why. "Captain Von to the front." He called, two sets of eyes were better than one. Hull stress continued to rise and again for unknown reasons. Feeling the safer option was to drop from warp he disengaged the engines seeing normal stars appear but such tranquil moment was short lived as the shuttlecraft jolted hard to Port.
Liarra hurried to the cockpit, not bothering to return the acknowledgement first. By the way the shuttle started to shake and bounce, she could guess why she was needed. Von made a bee-line to the the copilot's seat and started checking the status. "What happened? Did we hit something?" she asked, frantically checking the sensors.
"Unknown, a Power surge but I can't isolate where from, internal sensors are down, computer core functions have been impaired, warp engines are offline, impulse engines are at 17%, shields and weapons are gone." With internal sensors offline they were unaware of the fire that had started at the back of the ship at least until S'er'in'e's sensitive nose smelt something odd. Even as the shuttle shook and rumbled. "Check the rear compartments, I smell something." S'er'in'e was fighting several tons of metal to keep it flying with systems barely functioning or not at all.
Von wasn't in a mood to argue about who was in charge, not when her traveling companion was focused on flying the ship. Without hesitating, Liarra jumped from her seat and hurried towards the rear of the ship. As she got closer to the rear compartments, she could feel the heat building. The hatch to the engine compartment was hot to the touch. Pulling her hand into her uniform sleeve, Liarra released the manual override, causing the hatch to slide open. Immediately she was greeted by a blast of hot air as a fire raged in the compartment beyond.
She yelled back towards the front of the shuttle, though the roar of the fire and the rattle of the bulkheads made it difficult to be heard. "We have a fire in the engine compartment! Fire suppression is offline!" Liarra searched for a portable fire suppression kit, but the heat and smoke stung her eyes, making it even more difficult to see. She coughed, trying to clear the smoke and soot from her lungs. Another jet of flames flared up between her and the suppression canister, cutting her off.
Von backed away from the fire as the shuttle rocked again. She searched for something to grab on to to steady herself, finding a section of bulkhead to use a handhold. The fire was growing out of control, and there was little she could do to stop it. But something didn't feel quite right about this fire. It wasn't a plasma fire, but it was spreading too quickly to be a simple malfunction. Her eyes squinted though the smoke and cinders. Something was out of place. The fire seemed to have started from a junction box that connected power to noncritical systems. That part of the power grid had failsafes, and couldn't have produced that much heat to start a fire like this. She sniffed the air, and was not happy with the results. She got out of there and sealed the compartment behind her.
S'er'in'e was trying to keep things together with a ship that was only partially operational, the fire Von pointed out explained the smell but without the suppression systems to activate they were in essence, a ticking bomb. He had to get the craft down, and quickly.
Stumbling back to the cockpit, Liarra leaned against a support beam and tried to clear her lungs. Her eyes still stung, but she fought through it. "I've got bad news and worse news. The bad news is that the whole engine compartment is on fire. It's spread too fast and fire suppression is down. We only have a few minutes, tops, until it reaches the fuel cells."
"The worse news?" S'er'in'e asked.
"I could smell an incendiary," she replied bluntly. "But I'm betting we don't have time to figure out what kind or where it came from. How are things on your end?"
"I'm afraid Captain I am unable to keep the craft in the air. With all the system failures I can not guarantee anything of a safe decent angle for landing." S'er'in'e noticed they were close to a planet which might give them a chance, with external sensors indicated a breathable atmosphere but time was ticking. Red indicators flashed all across his visual range from left to right on the consoles, a painful reminder of his own fighter now laying broken in the Hanger Bay. S'er'in'e then had an idea. "I'm going to take life support offline and route it to the structural integrity grid, then I'm going to open the doors from the entry hatch to rear compartment, I'm going to open then and starve the fire." A bold idea, but one way or another they were going to go down and he'd prefer his chances without a fire trying to kill them both as well. He knew he had to do this before they entered the atmosphere, they needed the hatch to close again once the fire was out.
Von sealed the cockpit door and stumbled into the copilot's seat. "Then let's get to it." Her fingers danced over the console as she pulled up the power grid and door controls. " It's not a big ship, but there's still enough air that the decompression will throw us further off course. He try to bring us down in one piece, and I'll open the hatches." She took a deep breath. There were a lot of things that could go wrong with this maneuver, but it was better than doing nothing. She glanced over at S'er'in'e. "Ready, Colonel?"
"I am." With some fight the shuttle turned towards the planet and began its final decent. It was a rough and turbulant ride to say the least but they had too few options and little time for choices. When the doors opened the shuttle jarred to the side and hard, it was expected and Von was right it did throw them off course, gone was the chance of a open fielded landing area because now they were heading into a forested mountain range. It was hard keeping the nose of the craft in a positive angle of attack and the shuttle groaned its protests of the strain it was being put under. Temperature of the hull rose and it could be felt as life support was offline to bolster she crafts integrity.
The shuttle knifed through the air as it shot through the various layers of the atmosphere but as soon as they passed the cloud barrier the scope of what was quickly drawing near lay ahead of them. S'er'in'e had to alter course a few degrees, it was all he would get however before the engines failed. "I've lost engine power, only RCS thrusters remain and they won't be enough to slow us down." The current headed with the course correction would avoid the quickly approaching mountain but there were others ringed with green lush forrests, which they were about to become acquainted with. "Brace yourself." He fired the forward thrusters in an attempt to slow themselves down and using as best he could, the large wing surface of the craft partially helped letting them glide somewhat but it would not last. A warning indicator told him thrusters had just failed from a prolonged use, or system failure from damage.
Liarra was out of options for reinforcing the structural integrity field. The fire had knocked out most of their main power, and as the colonel had pointed out, they were essentially a blind flying brick on the barest of emergency power. Von did all that she could do, brace for impact.
As the ground drew ever closer and the landscape becoming more detailed it now lay in the hands of fate. The first indication they were close was when the leading edges of the craft cut through tree tops, there were gaps of this as the tress followed the rises and dips of the ground but seconds later more trees were cut down, impacts because harsh and jolting until but seconds later they impacted the ground. S'er'in'e's initial gliding approach allowed them to skip and skid across the ground, sending rock and tree alike washing in waves over the craft. The sound was deafening as metal scraped against rock. The moment of impact sent S'er'in'e into the console before him and he'd headbutt it hard. The warmth of blood didn't register amongst the chaos that was going on, nor his injuries.
The shuttles impact against the ground buckled the hull in several places. Von's head was pressed against the console to prevent whiplash, but the floor of the flight cabin suddenly pushed up, pinned Von's right leg against the underside of the console. Von felt the bone snap as she cried out in pain, but the sound was muffled by the sound of the crash.
A defiant unmoving rock tore off the starboard wing sending the craft into a slow spin, the rush of air felt, a drop in temperature, breeze against the skin as the viewports smashed. The craft ground to a stop after what seemed like minutes but in fact little less than one.
Captain Liarra Von
Commanding Officer
Lt. Colonel S'er'in'e
Commander, Air Group
