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Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

   [Chreveran'ing"takmo qi Erudite | Crew Quarters | Hobus system| ATTN: @RyeTanker @Eden

   As the Erudite dropped out of Warp, it wasn't as if the Savi hadn't been hard at work there and elsewhere. The small group assigned to govern the Federation officers had sent another representative to speak to the Federation Officers. Information needed to be relayed, so Chreveran'ing"takmo was tasked with relaying the information. As the Savi walked into the officers' berthing units, they looked around the room before locating the required officers. The Savi was working 'with' the humans in only the most perfunctory fashion; maybe they would open up some and help the Starfleet crew out a bit? Probably not; to them, they were expendable; as soon as the mission was completed, that is what mattered. The resources "expended" didn't matter in the slightest. The Starfleet crew surviving their tasks wasn't even worth considering to Chreveran'ing"takmo.

   "You are pilots of your small craft, your Valkyries. You are required for a mission. The Infested Scions have set up a secondary facility. Take the data and review it. You must undertake this mission to save the local star systems." And with that Chreveran'ing"takmo shoved the Savi version of a PADD at one of the Starfleeters and turned on a heel to walk off and away. They needed to escape the air these Starfleeters inhabited and return to their quarters. The sooner they cleaned themselves of the shame imparted by being in the same area as them, the less Chreveran'ing"takmo, the sooner they could use these people to win their war the better.


[Ens Victor "Corsair" vanVinter]  Erudite crew quarters | Hobus system


   Victor stood there reeling at the terse, if not rude, arrival of the Savi that hadn't introduced themselves and spouted words at him, then shoved a PADD at him and walked off. So Victor sighed a little and sat down to read the information that he'd received. The PADD revealed quite a bit, and he had to find his direct commanding Officer. A fair few problems needed resolution. A hardened facility was buried in an asteroid field that wasn't nice and dispersed like the one in Sol, but an asteroid field formed in the last few thousand years when Hobus II was impacted by Hobus III, and both planets had shattered. The cataclysm that had shattered the worlds was theorized to be similar perhaps to the Impact Hypothesis that had formed Earth's Moon or a 'less' destructive version of whatever had destroyed the body that became the Asteroid belt in the Sol system.

    It was a cataclysm that could have destroyed civilizations if any had been present. But with both planets' cores and mantles exposed to space, it had allowed easy mining and processing of the rare metals deep within rocky worlds. The chaotic asteroid field, though, had made getting to those deposits impossible. And yet, the Savi had managed it. A small facility, barely a few hundred square meters of space, but with formidable defenses. Point defense systems to eliminate incoming rocks. Weapon systems capable of keeping even another Savi warship at bay. No ship more considerable than a fighter or shuttle could approach. They'd have to, oh damn, this wasn't good. And so Victor needed to find Callax immediately and share his plan with him. It was a crazy damn plan, but such plans needed to be crazy. The approach and controlling the battlespace would be hard enough, but they also needed to extract some tech and possibly a Savi spy to recover.

   Victor began talking to himself, mulling everything over. "Ok so we warm into the orbit of the ruined world on the far side behind the planet, burn at full impulse around, and stay as low as possible. Stick to whatever cover we can find. Go in hard and fast, aim to disrupt the power systems, take out static defenses, and let the shuttle land..." It seemed good, a solid plan. Lots of similar missions had been done like this in the past, such as air cavalry throughout the 20th and 22nd centuries; close air support was the name of this mission. At least the spy had provided known positions of most of the defenses and probable targets.

   "At least I have something to take to Callax, and Amissa will have fun with this, a nice hard mission and..."

   Just when Victor thought it couldn't get any worse, while rushing to find his Flight leader, he saw a line that stopped him in his tracks. His face went white, and a shock of fear shot through him. "Expected combat craft Initiator Class Interceptors x6," He blinked a few times, drawing in a short breath.

   "These are not good odds." And so, instead of continuing to wander about looking for Callax, Victor finally remembered his combadge. "Victor to Callax, grab Emerald and whoever else you can think of because the Savi just dropped a bomb on me, and it just keeps exploding. I'll be with the Valkyries."

   And just like that, Victor began running towards the launch bay; maybe they'd have some time, maybe they wouldn't. He didn't know, but any second could help. Sure, perhaps it would all be for naught; who's to say? But in his mind, they needed to launch as soon as possible. This mission would be like one of his dates with Enyd: fast, chaotic, dangerous, and leaving him with scars.

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #1 –
[Lieutenant ThanIda zh'Wann (Lt. zh'Wann or Ida) | Aerodrome | Erudite | Hobus System] @Tae @Eden @ob2lander961

Lieutenant zh'Wann was irate.  She didn't like last minute changes.  Her cold demeanour matching her blue skin didn't show it, but her frustration was nonetheless keenly felt as she digested the news from the rather brusque Savi.  She adopted her favourite thinking pose with arms crossed under her chest while she weighed the ramifications.  The ship didn't have that many people to call on and she'd cherry picked what was she hoped some of the best since they were going to be on their own.  Now, she had to split up her already extremely limited resources to take on another high risk tasking.  She pursed her lips as she stared at the deck while in the middle of an officer group between herself, her exec, Lieutenant Zark, and their third, Ensign Dubois.  Zark summed it up the best as she held her hands in front of her. "So, who goes for the main station and who's going for the secondary objective?"  The red headed Ensign looked like she was going to volunteer something, but her mouth closed quickly after opening and looked at the soft faced Andorian, then the hard faced one expecting a decision from a superior officer.

It wasn't easy.  The Ensign was a non-starter despite becoming quite proficient at her job since the ship had started running.  From the Deputy's perspective though, the human simply hadn't been at the job long enough and despite being in a few scrapes, hadn't seen serious combat the way Zark and herself had.  She didn't know if the Ensign would drive the mission through to success.  Her own lips twitched as she considered Lieutenant Zark.  There were a large number of reasons to send the other Andorian.  She had determination in spades, had seen combat not only on Qo'nos, but also during and after the Dominion War.  She was pretty quick on her feet and if it did come down to a fight, she was quite capable.  it was her action on Qo'nos though that started leaning the Deputy against sending her.  She'd held the crash site against ridiculous odds and there were a lot of people who simply weren't qualified for any sort of combat, so if someone was going to bring them back long enough for the doctor's to get a hold of them, it was going to have to be a a trained medic.   Ida mentally looked around at the rest of the mission crew and that tipped the scales against the medic.  They needed her.  From what she'd seen, if her mission orders were to hold a place, she would hold it till the sun blew up.

Ida nodded as she came to a decision.  "I'll take Vansen, Hughes, and Lewis with me to the station.  Hopefully you can just infiltrate the place and finish the job, but if necessary, fort up and hold out till the rest figure out how to secure control of the computers or blow the place."  Lieutenant Zark nodded at this.  Ensign Dubois couldn't hide the look of relief on her face, but quickly nodded as well.  Ida rattled off the names of a few more science and engineering types that she was going to take to solve any issues along the way along with a medic.  At this point, the medico looked somewhat rebellious and the Deputy gave a small smile of amusement.  At the end of the day, Zark couldn't help who she was and wanted to be where Ida was to provide care if necessary.  The look smoothed itself out quickly though and she nodded her affirmative. "Lieutenant, you can handle the update to everyone else."  Ida paused for a moment then offered "Good luck."

Zark beamed at this and Milly looked surprised that the cold Deputy would offer anything of the sort.   "Look after yourself and see you on the flip side." Zark replied as Ida nodded once more and turned towards the collection of pilots.  She stopped just at the outer edge of the pilots, though she was quite amused with one smaller and quite loud pilot.  She was technically senior to all of them, but getting her team in was all up to them.  What did give the Deputy pause was what to call all the pilots. "Pilots."  She nodded then gazed at each one.  When she was sure she had their attention, she continued.  "I don't think I've met all of you, but I'm Lieutenant zh'Wann and I'll be leading the boarding.  What are your plans so far to get the shuttle onto the station and how long do you think you'll be able to hold space open for an exfiltration?"

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #2 –
[ Lt. JG Callax Valin | Crew Quarters | Savi Precept Ship Erudite ] Attn: @Tae @RyeTanker
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The crew quarters of the Erudite were efficient. That was as nice a descriptor as Cal could manage applying to the berth he had been assigned without veering into the realm of insult. Sleek minimalist was certainly a valid design choice, it was just a design choice Cal found dreadfully boring and lacking in personality. Even the music was shit as he discovered tapping around one of the electronic displays in the room. No wonder they were all uptight assho–

His combadge chirped just as he was about to test the replicator and see if it could even brew a proper soup. "Victor to Callax, grab Emerald and whoever else you can think of because the Savi just dropped a bomb on me, and it just keeps exploding. I'll be with the Valkyries."

Oh fun.

“This is Archon. I am on my way.”

The Ardanan grabbed his gear and bid his Marie Kondo-approved berth a not too fond farewell. As he stepped out into the hallway he saw Emerald emerging from her own cabin, gear also in hand.

Good. She had heard some part of the communication.

“With me, Emerald. I trust you found the accommodations sufficient?” Cal asked the Orion.

“Oh yes. Very sufficient.” The tone of sarcasm was just barely audible in her tone as she fell into step beside her flight leader. Cal cracked a slight grin.

“Apparently the Savi dropped a bomb on Corsair and he needs some help with the rubble. What that means is anybody’s guess.”

“Let’s go dig him out then,” Emerald said with a sigh.


[ Lt. JG Callax Valin | Aerodrome | Savi Precept Ship Erudite ]

The two pilots arrived in the aerodrome in very Maverick and Goose fashion, confidently marching down the flight deck whilst tossing grins and head nods to the ground crew they passed. The Savi ignored them but to any Starfleet personnel, they probably looked very cool.

Not far into the aerodrome he saw Corsair and walked over in his direction. “Corsair, what entertainment do our lovely hosts have for us today?” Cal asked as Emerald came up beside him.

An unfamiliar voice disrupted their mini-conference and both Cal and Emerald turned their heads towards the approaching voice. Lieutenant zh'Wann was not one of the Theurgy crewmembers he was particularly close with. In fact, he did not think they had ever spoken before. Not the worst thing considering her role as deputy chief security officer. Cal just chalked it up to his good behavior and staying out of trouble.

"Pilots." The blue skinned alien said, nodding and gazing at each of them. Cal would have preferred she refer to them as Wolves, but pilots worked too. "I don't think I've met all of you, but I'm Lieutenant zh'Wann and I'll be leading the boarding.  What are your plans so far to get the shuttle onto the station and how long do you think you'll be able to hold space open for an exfiltration?"

“Lieutenant,” Cal said in a polite greeting before introducing himself and the flight. “Lieutenant Junior Grade Cal Valin, callsign ‘Archon.’ This is Lieutenant Junior Grade Amissa, callsign ‘Emerald’, and Ensign Victor vanVinter, callsign ‘Corsair’. Apologies if you are already familiar with them but I like to be thorough.”

Pleasantries out of the way, Cal began to review his own PADD with the details that Victor had relayed moments before. “The Savi report several spatial anomalies in addition to strong defenses and enemy fighter presence. It will be a difficult run but we will get your shuttle there.”

On the PADD, he zoomed out the screen to reveal a chart of the asteroid field. A red line through the field mapped their intended route. “My plan is to take advantage of the spatial anomalies the Savi reported to mask our approach. We can reroute power from our shields to the sensors to mimic the field resonances of the anistrophies and quantum fluctuations. To them, we should appear to be nothing more than static. Downside is to make it work we will need to go in without shields and keep in tight formation.”

“A diamond formation, with the Valkyries forming the tip of the spear and the shuttle at the rear will allow us to layer our sensors and complete the ruse. If any ship falls out of formation, we risk exposure so perfect formation flying will be necessary.”

He continued to run through the route on his PADD. “Once through the main section of the asteroid field it will not matter as we will be in visual range of the station defenses. Reports indicate the station is well fortified but if we move fast enough, we can get the jump on them and knock out their primary defense batteries before they realize we are on top of them. From there it is on you and your team to secure the objective.”

“For exfiltration, I cannot give you a timeline for how long we can maintain superiority in orbit.” Cal said, sparing a quick glance in the direction of one of the Savi fighters. “Reports indicate at least six Interceptor-class fighters docked in the station. We can hold them at bay but the quicker you can get in and out, the better. From there, we high tail it out of there as fast as we can.”

“Thoughts or comments?” He asked the group, closing the PADD.

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #3 –
[Ens Victor "Corsair" vanVinter]  Erudite crew quarters | Hobus system ATTN: @RyeTanker @Eden @ob2lander961

   Victor sighed heavily as all of the mission details ran through his head. This wasn't a cakewalk, and it was a hell of a mission for his first combat mission as a pilot. However, Victor's love of history and aircraft had scratched an itch somewhere in the back of his mind. It was a high-threat mission with very few craft; this wasn't a standard mission. Going in, taking down a Savi station, and recovering data had special operations all over it. And after a moment, it finally clicked, and he didn't like where this was going, but it was similar in levels of ballsiness.

"Yeah, a few thoughts, Lieutenant, this is a 'Dam Buster' operation. Something From Earth's Second and Third World Wars: the first time The British tried it against the Germans, and how it played out for them wasn't great. The aircraft came in low and fast and used an ineffective ordinance, disrupting operations and drawing attention. The second time the Americans tried, it was more effective; if I remember correctly, it involved the use of a stealth aircraft loaded up with fuel and nuclear warheads against the Three Gorges Dam. It was effective then due to shoddy construction, the dam being on a fault line, and overwhelming firepower. But it was still a distraction for the more significant push of the airborne landings in Beijing. This is a mix of the two operations, Sir. Our part as pilots for this is to disrupt and attract attention; we're bait."

"So we must make a fast insertion, drop our payload, and keep burning thrust to draw attention. The goal is to buy as much time for the shuttle to get in and out. We don't have exact real-time positioning data for our targets, so we must come in fast and keep going. We must divert full power to engines and target whatever explosives we carry with us. After getting their attention, we have to engage and keep them covered until they can escape. Attacking the facility isn't likely to be a minor operation; this will get very bloody exceptionally quickly. If I have permission, Lieutenant, I know how to override the safeties on the engines and make the inertial dampeners more efficient; the engines are going to get hot, and we'll need every ounce of power we can get so we don't turn to jelly on the initial attack run. Spaceframe And Structure was my field with these, but I worked closely with engines and even helped write the specs. I know what I'm doing."

Victor sighed heavily at that, already thinking about what he'd have to do to give them every edge possible. The Valkyries weren't even in the same ballpark as Savi Fighters, so every small advantage that they had would add up. And even then, it wasn't about providing an advantage; it was about drawing attention. The look on his face was thoughtful, even as fingers danced with the necessary calculations and rewiring he'd have to do to hack their fighters. After a moment of muttering equations and technical details to himself, she shrugged.

"I can overcharge the engines by fifteen percent past safety margins, and Structural integrity to eight percent. We'll actually feel some pretty heavy G forces even then, But it's that or shields, and we can't stand up against that kind of power even with a few extra gigawatts going to them. Your choice Sir."

Victor was in his own element but still nodded to Thanalda, giving her a polite smile and doing his best to look reassuring. However, with his mangled visage, it wasn't liable to come across properly. When a ghoul grinned at you, it wasn't comforting. "Ensign vanVinter callsign Corsair, Formerly Chief of Spaceframe and Structure for our birds. I know this sounds scary, Lieutenant, but I helped give the Valkyries their final shakedown before they went into service." That last bit was directed to both Callax and Thanalda; the truth, though, is Victor only expected the shuttle to make it out, and even that was a hell of a risk.

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #4 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix |Erudite crew quarters ] Attn: @Eden  @ RyeTanker @Tael
[Show/Hide]


It had already been a few hours since Via settled in her bunk on the rather "spartan" Savi vessel. Laying back on her rather uncomfortable bed made her consider that she had been taking her quarters back on the Theurgy for granted. At least over there she managed to make her room just the way she liked it, replacing nearly everything she could to her liking. "Hmmm..." she groaned as she adjusted herself into a better position to play some video game on her PADD, but that only lasted so long.

"Fuck this". She sat up on her bed in frustration and stretched looking at the wider room. Via was bunking with Corsair which she soon noticed was talking to one of those Savi. Paying attention only briefly, the young woman took note of the rather, in her own words, "bitchy" attitude the Alien had with her counterpart and little of anything else he said as she was still occupied with playing her game. When the Savi left she rolled her eyes and retained her focus. Then Corsair started talking to himself which prompted Via to begin teasing him.

"You talkin' to yourself old man. My ass gotta find a doc for you now?" she chuckled but didn't receive any reaction. The half Bajoran seem to be distracted himself, muttering something about orbits and defenses. She looked up "Hey! Somethin' going on?"

No response. It seemed like he didn't hear her but Via didn't like being ignored. She observed Corsair contact the other two Valkyrie pilots on board which only increased her paranoia and then he bolted off out of the room.

"Hey wait!" Via said calling after him to no success. Not wanting to be left out she grabbed her flight jacket and ran after him, following him until she realized she probably should've got Chaos in on whatever was going on. It took a few minutes since she got lost on the way but both Via, him, and his RIO made it to the launch bay coming right in the middle of the meeting.

Panting Via walked up to the group of pilots and began to speak. "Dixiebee- Chaos- and uh...who the fuck are you?" Via said referring to his RIO but soon dismissed him. "Whatever. Y'all's asses better not be plannin' a mission without us! Be leavin' behind all the squadron's speed and firepower." Via said proudly and smugly before extending her arm to the side for a fist bump from Chaos.

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #5 –
[Lieutenant ThanIda zh'Wann (Lt. zh'Wann or Ida) | Aerodrome | Erudite | Hobus System] @Tae @Eden @ob2lander961

Lieutenant ThanIda zh'Wann frowned at the plan the Wolf was proposing.  It wasn't the worst idea that she'd heard and in the absence of anything else, the shuttle crew wouldn't have a choice but to go along with it.  She was frowning more over the what she remembered from the Academy about the disastrous consequences of the strike on the 3 Gorges Dam since the US military hadn't been able to totally knock out communications and word had gotten to the leadership of the group leading China at the time.  It had been a case of demonstrating the need to maintain open lines of communication and keep them secured.  The petrified reports from NORAD of retaliatory ballistic missiles had been quite shocking to all the students in class and it hadn't helped that the airborne assault had been a bloody shambles in the face of fierce and unexpected resistance, and the nuking of one of the landing zones.

Lt. zh'Wann stopped for a moment as an exuberant and short pilot joined while making sure she was going to be part of the mission.  The Andorian quirked an eyebrow fervently hoped to avoid any nasty fates since they were placing all their eggs in a few baskets.  Weapons wouldn't amount to much on a shuttle, so there was no need to power those.  "Whatever you're going to do to the fighters, we'll also need it done to the shuttle.  While I hope to avoid any fights, we may have to shoot our way in as well." 

The mission commander stopped for a moment as she worked out the ground component's plan. "So you'll have to breach shuttle bay doors, or an area of the hull that has access to a command node.  Barring that, we'll need access to an area with major computing power.  If we can sneak our way in, all the better, but otherwise, we'll need to fort up while the engineers and scientists can pull any useful information, the find a way to self-destruct the place."  Ida took a moment to look around at the pilots who were going to need to keep their exfiltration route clear.  "And in the mean time, whatever ideas you have to keep your selves alive so we can all get out of the station, voice them now." 

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #6 –
[ Lt. JG Callax Valin | Aerodrome | Savi Precept Ship Erudite ] @Tae @RyeTanker @ob2lander961

Cal listened closely to the input from Corsair. He knew some leaders would simply smile and nod when receiving information from a subordinate, already fully convinced their own plan was far superior for whatever reason; but, that was foolish pride. A good leader listened and considered. While only an ensign, Corsair’s intimate knowledge of their fighters coupled with experience in the non-commissioned ranks made their advice incredibly valuable.

“I trust your knowledge on this, Corsair,” Cal said to his scarred wingman. “If you say they can handle it, then they will handle it. Overcharge the engines by 15% on the birds and the shuttle. Their communications are too much of a wildcard. I would rather have the speed to catch them as unawares as possible.”

Turning then to zh’Wann, he nodded. “Plan is to do what we do best. Fly and fight. The Savi might be more advanced but too much reliance on technology to do the flying for you can be a disadvantage. We will give them a run for their money, as I believe the saying goes.”

Cal knew fully well that the Savi pilots might end up being the cream of the crop, but a little bit of confidence went a long way in reinforcing the idea that victory was indeed possible. “That said, if anybody has any idea on how to sway the odds, I am all ears. Otherwise, that should be all there is to cover from the escort side of things.”

It was a damn risky mission, but what mission wasn't? This is what he signed up for. Starfleet Astronautical Command was not for the meek or risk averse.

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #7 –
[Lieutenant Alistair Leavitt | Aerodrome | Erudite ] Attn. @Eden @RyeTanker  @Brutus

[Show/Hide]

On his way back to the aerodrome from meeting Barpin, Alistair got more than a few odd looks from passing Savi. He was, in all fairness, outside the assigned area for the Theurgy crew, and was probably the first alien that many of the Savi had ever seen. His escort, a terse being named Rayui, was the only reason that Alistair wasn't stopped. Still, Rayui set a glacial pace in traversing the giant vessel, ignoring Alistair's increasingly exasperated requests to go faster.

If he'd thought that he could've made it without being stopped or (more likely) shot, Alistair would've ditched Rayui and sprinted flat out to the aerodrome. The idea of the team launching before he reached them was painful. It wasn't that Alistair had critical information or advice. He simply hated the idea of sending people on such a dangerous mission without seeing them first. It just felt...wrong.

Fortunately, Alistair made it to the aerodrome in time, and he sighed in relief when he saw that the Valkyries and shuttles were still there. Still, he limited himself to a brisk stride rather than jogging, if only for appearances. It had to look as if he was a competent leader, even if he was a mess inside.

Finally, as he approached the group, Alistair called out "zh'Wann, Valin, over here." He patiently waited a discreet distance from the rest of the team for Ida and Cal to come to him, giving him a moment to reflect on the absurdity of the moment. Ida had saved his life weeks ago on Praxis, and Cal had been quite aggressively kissed by Alistair's girlfriend just a few days prior, among other activities before that. It would've been comical under other circumstances, instead of just bizarre.

After Ida and Cal reached him, Alistair couldn't help but consider the latter for another moment out of simple curiosity. He immediately saw what attracted Enyd; attractive, confident, maybe a little flair too. Still, time and place.

"Okay, you both know your jobs better than I do," Alistair said, "so I'll keep this brief. The Savi data that you're going after could give us an edge against the Infested. With luck, it'll give us clues to their plans, their resources, maybe more. At a minimum, your raid should draw some enemy ships away from Hobus and give us better odds when we attack the main facility."

Alistair paused. "With all that said: the data is not worth thirty billion lives. In two hours, we are attacking Hobus with or without you, no matter what happens. It's up to both of you to assess the risk during the raid and, if necessary, abandon the mission to join back up with us later. Use your own judgement. Are we clear?"

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #8 –
[Ens Victor "Corsair" vanVinter]  Erudite crew quarters | Hobus system ATTN: @RyeTanker @Eden @ob2lander961 @Dree


   A smirk crossed Victor's ghoulish visage once he'd finally registered Via's energy; the shorter woman had an energy that made her seem larger than life and far more diminutive than his lanky form. She was amusing and brought some levity to a shitty situation. Good, that was needed right now; maybe that kind of energy would save them all, perhaps it would doom them all, but there would be fireballs all around; that much was certain.

Victor gave a considering look to Ida and Callax, pondering for just a moment. "No promises on the shuttle, Sirs; I mean, I WORKED on the Valkyries for the final shakedowns of the airframe. I know their maximum tolerances, But I'll do what I can; I'm good enough for that. But It'll probably mean the shuttle will need a full overhaul after."

That was his optimistic assessment with that. Chances were good that whatever he did to the shuttle, it was bound to shit the bed at the end of the flight, leaving it a near wreck, but so long as it could get up to Warp after. But that's what this mission called for, a curious look given to both of the Lieutenants; he'd do what he could for the shuttle but had to make the superiors aware there would be consequences. Knowing what he did about small craft flight systems, power, and engines, the experienced former knucklebuster knew what he could do. There was a whole community out there that tuned shuttlecraft for racing, but those involved custom parts and firmware, this would be a dirty hack, overrides, and mechanical tinkering. Increasing the plasma flow rate and the intermix rate in the core could help, and retuning the shields for a more dynamic flight profile, he could get it to push the envelope. The flight controls would be sluggish, and the inertial dampeners wouldn't be much use.

"Frankly, This is one of those 'ask forgiveness' situations, Sirs. The shuttle won't match a Valkyrie, but give me some time, and I can give it great straight-line accelerations and nothing else. Just expect to begin blowing systems out after more than an hour of flight time. I can make that bus into a drag racer, but it won't be pretty after, and before you ask, yeah, it might blow up. And whoever's in that shuttle, know that you'll be feeling as much as 3g's of acceleration at all times, possibly as much as 12. It won't be a smooth ride for the team in the shuttle." 


He thought for a moment about the rest of that and slowly shook his head, waiting for permission to do what he needed before rushing off to the hangar to get his hands dirty. The appearance of Alistair wasn't expected, and seeing the Temporal Specialist on hand made a chill run down his spine for some reason; the man looked grim, the exact sort of opposite energy that Via had given him. It couldn't be helped though, they all had a job to do.

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #9 –
[Lieutenant ThanIda zh'Wann (Lt. zh'Wann or Ida) | Shuttle Klarc-Tarn-Droth | Hobus System] @Tae @Eden @ob2lander961

[Approximately after 0800 the following day]

Lieutenant zh'Wann's cold face hid whatever trepidation she felt about their current mission.  The morning had been tense for everyone as it was possible it would be the last time that everyone would see each other alive.  In her case, it was worse since she was taking a much smaller team to a hazardous location.  The thought of having to deal random mini big bangs in order to secure a portion of the facility temporarily, extract whatever data they could find on the Infested's plan, then destroy the station was a tall order under any circumstances.  Doing it against a technologically superior race was something else.  The Andorian gave a small smile as the shuttle zoomed through space towards the objective for there was one advantage the Theurgy crew had, and that it was more ready to fight for their objective than the Savi.  A decade of tumult in a quadrant would do that to an organization and while some in Starfleet had wanted a return to the 'good ole days' as some called them; many others were not.  When she'd given her team's part of the briefing to the assembled crew, it was so everyone had an idea of what each component was up to, but mainly it was for the Betazoid diplomat's knowledge so she could juggle the needs of both missions and hopefully intervene if necessary to support the survival of each one.

The Deputy stretched her neck in her armour as Chief Petty Officer Garvan Dixon piloted the shuttle towards the station at something that was considered 80% of max impulse speeds, but still below maximum rated output really was after Ensign vanVinter had finished the modifications to the shuttle's systems.  He wasn't planning on using max output till he reached a calculated point approximately twenty minutes away that full power would be used.  Hopefully it would be close enough and not eat into the reserve that could destroy the shuttle if mishandled.  Ida looked at the back of the shuttle and saw apprehension written all over everyone's faces, even the small armoured security team that was checking and re-checking rifles, isomagnetic disintegrators, pistols, knives, grenades, and armour systems. A few were also checking the new device that had come out of the Theurgy's time at Qo'nos, courtesy of Lieutenant zh'Ptrell and Kala's collaboration; a portable defence turret.  It had passed the necessary tests, but the current doctrine on how to use it was still up in the air.  This left a lot of room for creativity and Lt. zh'Wann still remembered when the other Zhen had used it on her during an exercise by tossing it behind her team and using it to clear her barricade.  She could still remember the medic sticking her tongue out when the Deputy had come around from being stunned.

The security officer shook her head and the metaphorical cob webs from her reminisces when she looked at the console in the shuttle as they approached the imaginary bubble in space that indicated the time they should go to max thrust.  "Chief, how is the shuttle handling? "Still flies like a shuttle, but I can feel she wants to go faster."  The Deputy didn't question the metaphysical belief that had assigned the small craft a gender.  If it made the pilot more confident, so be it.  Looking out the viewport, she could barely make out the fighters that were escorting the shuttle in.  She guessed they would be happy to be free of the comparatively lumbering shuttle, and it had been interesting following the more manoeuvrable Wolves through several debris fields and a gas cloud to mask their approach.  At least the Chief had thought it was fun.  Unfortunately the amount of cover available in the final approach was minimal, so it was going to be up to the pilots of the fighters to see the boarding team through.  "Sir, I have the landing zone located and am plotting a course for it."  "Understood Chief, take us in."

The Erudite, being much more familiar with Savi energy signatures, had identified several areas of possible high computation on the station and provided them as target coordinates for the team to easily infiltrate.  These were near the surface of the station, and not wanting to be scrambled in a transport, Ida had opted to demo their way to the objective after attaching the shuttle via a docking collar. "Going to max impulse."  The shuttle leapt forward appreciably as the station began to grow in size.  Their energy signature must have become massive and impossible to ignore angry red markers sprouted on the sensor screen and Lieutenant zh'Wann knew the Savi were reacting.  She could only watch as the fighters peeled off to punch a hole through for the shuttle.


Shoutout to @Brutus and @Griff for Faye and Alistair being mentioned in passing.

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #10 –
[ Ens. Via "DixeBee" Wix |Wolf-16| Hobus System] Attn: @Eden  @ RyeTanker @Tae
[Show/Hide]

Via didn't regret much in her life. Growing up she had made a lot of bad choices, many of which if she hadn't had her "guardian angel" sister around would've caught up with her at some point. There was a pretty good chance she would've wound up dead like her brothers or worse end up like her mother, but in the end, she didn't regret her life circumstances. However in her small instance of reflection, as she piloted her fighter to attack a highly advanced alien facility defended with technology centuries ahead of anything the Federation or even other galactic powers could field, attacking with only a few others and a shuttle as backup, she had one regret.

"I swear your bitch ass is goin' to be suckin' vac in the next second if you don't shut up!" Via said with a restrained rage back towards her temporary RIO replacement for Charles who had been tapping his finger against the dashboard and muttering worries to himself from pure anxiety the entire flight.

"What if it's a trap?!" the young Bajoran RIO cried out. "Prophets, I heard the Savi don't destroy you. They abduct you strip you naked and...probe you... I don't want to be a science experiment!!"

Via rolled her eyes. Her regret was she took Charles and his "Blonde ass" for granted. At least he wasn't this much of a whiney crybaby...just naggy.

"I'll probe you with my foot up your ass if you don't stop being a whiney ass bitch and watch the sensors." Via exasperated.

The threat didn't do much to change the RIO's deamor and the woman started praying to herself which only made the young pilot sigh in annoyance. Wanting to focus on something else before she actually did reach back there and strangle the Bajoran Via opened a channel to the entire flight and spoke.

"My ass wants a new RIO, my first kill is bout to be her." she paused for a response if there was any. "Ain't we supposed to go over the game plan or somethin'? Once that slow-ass shuttle starts boostin' to that landin' zone how are we going to wreck shit up until it's time to get outta there? Tryin' to blow some dumbasses." Via said innocently with her eccentric enthusiasm somewhat returning.

Once the station came into view the young pilot immediately switched on keeping her flighter in league with whatever maneuver the flight lead ordered out. Her RIO however still was in her own mind worrying about the battle to come which prompted Via to shift her attention once more back to the Bajoran.

"Wake your ass up do your job dumbass! Get spottin'!" Via yelled back and the RIO frantically got to work.

"Sorry ma'am! Sorry!"

Re: Ch 4: S [D01 |1830] Second Station from the right and straight on till its over

Reply #11 –
@Eden @RyeTanker @ob2lander961 @Tae

They never landed quietly.

From the moment their warp signatures blinked into the system, the tension had sunk in like cold metal—tight and merciless. The Savi station loomed ahead, quiet, shadowed, monstrous. Designed without empathy, devoid of warmth. It felt less like approaching a base and more like flying into the belly of something ancient and cruel.

The shuttle ride was rough. Hull plating groaned under errant flak from auto-defenses, and one of the team took a hit—nothing fatal, but enough to raise the stakes.

Once inside, they split up briefly to move faster. The corridors were an eerie kind of clean, sterile enough to make your skin crawl. It wasn’t long before they encountered the experiments. Things that were once people—Federation, Klingon, even Romulan—splayed open, reconstructed, rewritten. Science, they called it. One chamber had held something worse—alive, barely—but they couldn’t save everyone. They had to move.

One one tier they found a conduit and began the download, taking anything they thought could be of use in the coming days.

It was in the lower medical tier that they found them: survivors from the Cayuga, emaciated, weak, but alive. They’d clung to each other in silence, scared to hope. The pilots had to burn their way through a sealed bulkhead to get them out.

It cost them another injury. More losses to note if they survived the day. But they didn’t stop.

By the time they got back to the shuttle, the station had gone from unsettling to hostile—alarms screaming, drones rising. The extraction was ugly. One pilot took a disruptor graze, another got slammed into a bulkhead by a drone—but they made it.

The hatch sealed, engines roared, and they left that cursed place behind.

There would be questions. Reports. Nightmares. But they had the survivors.

And for now, that was enough.

FIN
 
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