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Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Crisis #08 | Triage Centre [Attn: Lt JG Thomas Ravon]

In regard to the Triage Centre, there had been a unforeseen flaw in the defence plan.

Earthquakes associated with volcanic eruptions rarely exceeded magnitude 5, and these moderate earthquakes would not have been able to affect the Triage Centre.  Therefore, at the event of the planet being at unrest, no real harm would have come of it. However, the tectonic faulting that the Calamity had caused upon Theta Eridani IV caused quakes far worse, and the major part of the centre had collapsed, becoming a heavy, suffocating sheet of thick plastic on top of the weak and injured inside. Furthermore, it was a large, white and shining target for the Reavers as they swept by overhead - coughing twin lines of phaser fire across the area after the shield had winked out of the sky.

Medical personnel trapped inside tried to cut themselves free with exo-scalpels or hand phasers, anything available, just like those on the outside tried to get in - meaning to extract the patients to the four shuttles that Thea had landed next to the fallen tent complex. Given the fact that the patients did not always have combadges of their own, and the medics were meant to use theirs in order to get everyone safely aboard the Theurgy or the Harbinger, the whole situation had fallen into chaos when most areas of the Triage Centre were made inaccessible.

Yet as more and more patients emerged into the open, ashen air, the extraction was still taking too long. The  starships and the shuttles had to take off soon, otherwise they would all be lost. In the distance, the Transport Centre lay in ruins, shredded by a Reaver at first given opportunity. Now, only Chief Selena Ravenholm on the Harbinger and Commander Natalie Stark on the Theurgy could transport people off the planet. Yet even if both starships were over-clocking their systems as much as they could within safety parameters to beam up the people that were cut free, it was not enough. The shuttles had to be filled to the ceiling, or the pyroclastic clouds would sweep in and kill anyone left behind.

"Come back here, you flying fucks! I bloody dare you!" cried one female patient, on her feet before the fallen Triage Centre. She was merely dressed in an askew sickbay gown, feet bare and head shaved, yet she had come across an Isomagnetic Disintegrator from some weapons locker, and she seemed rather inclined to use it. It was a shoulder-mounted directed-energy weapon, and despite the fact that the surface-to-air weapon seemed far too large for her diminutive frame, she still brandished it against the hellfire of the sky.

It was Evelyn Rawley, looking like only the hate burning in her eyes held her on her feet.

This sight, just ahead of him, was what Thomas Ravon had come across in wait for his turn to be Transported to the Flight Hangar on the Theurgy. Fate, however, had come to dictate otherwise.

[Thea to Lieutenant Ravon, come in,] said Thea through the Lone-Wolf's combadge, drawing his attention over the tremors of the ground and the clap of volcanic thunder, [You are close to the Triage Centre, correct? One of the four Conn Officers that were supposed to get the shuttles out of there have been killed in action. We need an experienced pilot to lead the other shuttles out of there. Help get the last patients aboard the shuttles and then take off immediately. I would have asked Lieutenant Rawley, since she has been flying without medical clearance before, yet she has given her combadge away. Can you do it?]

At this point, Rawley spotted Thomas from a distance. "Razor! Get these people out of here!" She paused, coughing at the thickening air - asphyxiation slowly setting in for everyone without a breathing mask. "I have to hold the Reavers off!" Right then, one of the aforementioned unmanned enemy fighters escaped the criss-crossing lines of phaser fire from the two landed starships. It's thrusters seemed to stutter because of the concentration of ash it had been flying through; becoming a blackened beast hovering over the plain. It angled up its phaser pulse canons towards the Triage Centre and shot off towards them.

"Get down!" cried the Lone-Wolf to everyone and aligned her disintegrator. She checked her sights while the approaching attack fighter opened fire; two sharp lines of rapid phaser bursts throwing dirt into the air. Rawley fired, the purple energy smiting the distance. The Reaver's phaser bursts showered Ravon with gravel when they passed him by. There was a concussion in the air. Shield failure. Screeching metal. A rift torn across the ground. Shrapnel flying. The Reaver, hit and spinning, shot past above the Triage Centre, bouncing against the earth again before reaching the treeline in a deafening explosion - leaving ears ringing far and wide.

[Thea to Ravon, are you still alive? I need to confirm that you will lead the shuttles to safety.]

"I don't need wings to fuck you up!" screamed Rawley, teeth bared in the defiant cry of her last stand.

Or would Thomas Ravon decide to try and take her place?

OOC: Nolan, I leave it up to you if Amelya Duv has beamed back from the Harbinger to the Triage Centre to help with the extraction. If she has, she has no knowledge of whether or not Dr. Nicander is there too, at least not yet.

Link to info about the weapon Rawley has come across: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Isomagnetic_disintegrator

Re: Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Reply #1 –
Thomas had been trying to make his  way to anything that could get him closer to the Theurgy so he could take out his bird and unleash hell in the skies. Yet fate had chosen to lead him towards the triage center. On his way there Thomas had come across obstructions that prevented him to head towards the Theurgy, burning trees, tremors and ruptures creating crevices in the ground had directed him to the triage center. Seeing the patients and med staff carving their way out and into the collapsed center was a rather morbid sight. Yet Thomas could not think too much about what his eyes registered, he could hear his combadge chirping as Thea hailed him. "I'm at the triage center... or what's left from it... Yes." He answered her query as he made his way closer to it. The air was thick and the ash rain made it pretty hard for him to breathe normally. As he listened to what Thea had to say, he could already see Rawley standing on a small elevation screaming at the reavers. "I see..." He mumbled and sighed and replied to Thea "I'll see what I can do to get as many patients as I can out of here. I'll need some decent cover though as I imagine these shuttles won't last long against reavers or this ash." He replied to her and started hauling ass.

As closer as he got, the more he could see in what shape Rawley was, it was abysmal to say the least. "Rawley!" He shouted as he coughed a bit and shook his head Jut than he could hear what was roaring in from behind him as he tried to stay on his legs by yet another tremor. A reaver coming in as he turned his head slowly and he saw the pulse cannons line up on their target. Yet the shot Rawley pulled off was breath taking to say the least. The purple energy ripping through the fuselage and shields of the reaver as it slowly disintegrated a bit while continuing its crash course. "Holy..." He mouthed and ducked a bit as the wing of the Reaver got very close to severing a bodypart. "Fucking nice shot..." He shouted at Rawley and pointed his thumb upwards. "You think you can fly this bird out of here? I'll cover you with the Disintegrator, I'm in way better shape than you are and can probably make it out of here. No offence Eve, but you look like shit at the moment, just enough to fly a fat bird like this." He nodded to the shuttle. "Besides you're an asset Theurgy can't lose." e tried to convince her, knowing she'd probably be hardheaded and give her speech about being unafraid to die.

He was close enough to Rawley so she could hear the plea of Thea "What do you say Rawley? Will you do it?"

Re: Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Reply #2 –
"An asset?" objected Rawley and coughed into the bend of her arm - glaring at the other Lone-Wolf over the sleeve of her gown, "what kind of bloody asset am I? An undependable drunk? An untrustworthy grunt with nothing but her next fight in mind? A loose cannon in the cockpit? A wildcard with no regard for the safety of the pack? Fuck it, Thomas Ravon, I would rather be that loose cannon for real! Our new SCO opened my bloody eyes..."

Miles Renard had made it perfectly clear that she had no business being a Starfleet Officer, or at least not a Junior Lieutenant. She belonged with the meat at the front line, with no authority over another. She should have taken the easy route and enlisted, becoming a non-com, but she was too stubborn, and took the harder path. Now, she was at a place where she could not deliver as she had promised, so she meant to do what she was supposed to: her sole purpose being destruction until the end.

"Don't you dare try to wrest this weapon away from me, for it is all that I have left," she growled through bared teeth, rocks from the mountains pelting the trembling grounds. Tears running down her ashen cheeks, belying the ferocity in her countenance. "Don't you see? You are the asset! You followed me when I charged the Calamity... You are the one that need to get these people to safety, for you need to survive this as well, far more than I do! The pack... is stronger... without me!"

[Thea to Ravon, please, there is no time to waste arguing.] The urgency in Thea's digital voice could be no more human. [Either get someone else in the cockpit or get the patients out of the valley before it is too late. In minutes, the pyroclastic surges will decimate anyone still alive.]

Yet the danger lay not merely in the planet's boiling protest.

Dropping out of the sky came another Reaver, twenty yards behind them - cutting them off from the collapsed Triage Centre. The thrusters were suffering from the ashes, yet it still managed to maneuver at it's low altitude. It turned about, facing Thomas and Evelyn, about to unleash hell upon them. There was no time to think. The weapons array was already armed, lighting up. Dire moments slipping away. Time yanked out from under their feet. Death to claim them both despite their mutual wish to save the other comrade. Opportunity lost.

Unless a sudden wind had not changed all the critical vectors, and cast the Reaver's sights astray.

While orange phaser fire tore the ground asunder before their feet, the tall figure of the Chief Medical Officer could be seen in the background - eyes white and aglow far behind the reeling metallic beast. Dr. Nicander, the Câroon physician that had caused Rawley such grief in saving her life, had just done so again. Barefeet and just wearing trousers and a billowing labcoat, the exotic man could only keep the Reaver occupied for seconds before the light in his eyes went out and he stumbled with the throes of the ground.

Yet those seconds were enough to pick up the weapon Rawley had lost in the commotion and settle the argument in action, regardless of choice.

Re: Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Reply #3 –
Listening to Rawley as she told him she didn't belong in a cockpit anymore, Thomas felt the ground tremble while the hot ash made it harder for him to breathe as well. He noticed how convinced she was about not belonging with the pack anymore but he sure as hell wasn't going to leave the young woman on this self destructing rock. He didn't argue with her as she told him Miles had opened her eyes. His eyes just rested onto her as they stood there on the plain while the world around them literally combusted into flames. Thomas his uniform had been punctured at certain parts due to the ash and is eyes were a bit watery from the heat and weather effects.

Thea's plea came just moments after Evelyn had warned Thomas not to wrest the weapon away from her. Before he could even react to both women the reaver showed up, it was as if Murphy really had a hand in the events of today. "Fuck sake..." He muttered and his eyes flashed from the reaver to Rawley to the shuttle. People were already boarding the shuttles and all they needed now was a pilot that could actually hold the ships steady enough to get out of this hellhole. Feeling the ground shake before them by the reaver, Thomas had noticed Lucan in a millisecond. He glanced at Evelyn and without thinking he grabbed the disintegrator lined up his shot and fired the purple round into the center of the reaver.

"Rawley, I do not have the time to argue with you here!" He shouted now, getting a tad frustrated by the numerous ways he could die. "If you're just a fucking grunt, than get your ass in that shuttle and either prep it for take off so the last people can board it or fly off with it! Now get Doctor Nicander aboard the shuttle before he turns into a crisp. That's a fucking order!" he shouted at her now as his face had turned a bit black from the ash. His teeth were still remarkably white yet the contrast just got more obvious by the ash.

He kept the weapon aimed down the sight while he slowly made his way to the shuttle himself, covering the skies around them for any new reaver threat. Time was getting crucial now as he noticed the surges creeping down the slopes of the mountains. He reckoned they had about five minutes to get off the ground and it would take him at least three to get to the shuttle. He just hoped Rawley would do what he had ordered her, even though she was at the same rank as he was.

Re: Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Reply #4 –
Since the gale had caught the Reaver from behind and made it tilt forward, Thomas Ravon's shot caught it right across the area where a glass canopy would normally be located on an attack fighter. As it were, no glass was there to be shattered, yet the close proximity energy burst still ripped through shields and hull. Like an animal gone limp, the craft slammed into the ground immediately.

Coated in dust from the commotion - her gown torn by the blast of air that had coursed over them - Rawley looked so furious she might kick Razor with all the power she held in her diminutive frame right between his legs. Only she didn't. She screamed wordlessly at the other wolf, mostly because he had taken away her weapon and her excuse to stay behind, far more than for him ordering her to fall back and assist in the evacuation. She knew Thea and him were right, yet it did not make it any less easy for her; having long decided to forfeit her life that morning. "If we make it through this, I will bite off your cock."

With that promise, she set off towards the Triage Centre with a fistful of her sleeve held over her nose and mouth.

If Thomas Ravon was to move towards the shuttles, he would pass next to the crashed Reaver on the ground. A glance would state that it was still powered up, the light emanating from the hole over the cockpit area. It was only bereft of movement... as if there was no one there to pilot it. It was not too remote a thought to assume that the hologram that had been inside was offline, perhaps because the cockpit's holoemitter was destroyed. And while damaged from Ravon's shot and clogging ashes, it might just still be intact enough to fly with a structural integrity field to seal the hull breach.

Rawley had come to a pause in her path towards the Triage Centre, looking at the Reaver in the same way that Thomas might.

She looked towards him, and the situation seemed oddly hilarious to her. "Actually, you may keep your toy after all, you dick." She adjusted her gown and walked back to Ravon, eyes gleaming from the fires all around. "Your choice! Reaver or canon, but just so that you know... if you give me the Reaver, I will suck that cock of yours without any teeth involved. How about that, Razor?"

Regardless of choice, time was short, and there was no telling how many more Reavers were inbound.

Re: Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Reply #5 –
Holding the weapon in front of him for a second as the blast wave caught both of them, he looked up and looked at the crashed Reaver a few metres away from them. He made his way to the shuttles now and as he noticed Rawley stopping at the reaver he halted as well to look at it. It looked in pretty bad shape but he had flown worse wreckages than this. He glanced over at Rawley who seemingly changed her mind from biting his cock off to sucking his cock off and he smirked a bit, catching a bit of Ash in his mouth thanks to it. "Fuck it, you better bring this bird back to Theurgy without any more damage or I swear to God, I'll rip your ovaries out." He said to her and nodded to her to get in it and get out of here. He didn't hesitate long as he knew someone had to pilot the shuttles and discussing about this with Rawley would just be a waste of valuable time.

Once Rawley had boarded the Reaver, Razor made his way over to Nicander and he offered his hand to support the CMO of his starship. "Nice trick you had there Doc. What do you say we get out of this overcooked sauna and head back to our ship?" He said to him with a grin. Without waiting for his answer really, he grabbed Lucan by the forearm and dragged him along towards the shuttles. Thankfully the shuttles were as good as lift off ready and Thomas made his way through the injured people from the triage center and the few nurses and crew that were still afoot. He assumed his position aboard the shuttle and tapped his combadge "Thea, Ravon here, I'm in the shuttles and ready to take off. I'm skipping pre flight checks as I really do not have the time in this furnace. Mind you I'll be having one Reaver flying back to Theurgy, it is a friendly with Ranger aboard. Inform the needed people that they don't blast my prizebird out of the sky!" He said as his fingers moved fast yet controlled over the instruments.

"Ladies and gentleman, welcome to your flight out of hell's kitchen. Please keep your arms and legs inside the shuttle at all times and hold on for a bumpy ride." He spoke out loud now so everyone could hear him. He punched the instruments so the shuttle would burn it's thrusters to maximum power and he just lifted off in time to avoid the first surges of pyroclastic that had nearly reached the shuttles. "Alright kids, follow me." he spoke to the other pilots in the other shuttles as he started to make his way through the valley. The sight down the valley was apocalyptic, crewmembers of both starships still running around in panic trying to find a shuttle or way out of the destructive environment. Thomas glanced now and than, yet he kept his focus on following the flightpath towards safety, he had other souls to worry about now.

Re: Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Reply #6 –
Being a man of the elements, what was happening below Dr. Nicander's knees was keenly felt in his whole being. Hush... Be still just a while longer...

After having been thrown to the ground, head reeling from the aftermath of having used his Câroon abilities, Lucan ran his tattooed hands through the dying grass - laundering them in ashes. Indeed, albeit disoriented, he found himself in need to wash his hands from something he had done, yet it was not the sudden impulse to seem the hero in the eyes of the ignorant sheep. No, that had felt oddly... right... to save the lives of the two bickering pilots. Admittedly, it was partially because he wanted either of them to get him out of there.

No, with pursed lips and opaque eyes dimmed, he wrung his hands in embers because what he had done aboard the Harbinger. What he had done for his kin. Why was he feeling conflicted? He had merely arranged the power failures in the repulsors and shields, fusing them together to draw on the same power relays, which would force Engineering to reboot all power to find the problem and attend to it. So when he raised his pale irises to spot the Akira-class starship take off from the valley floor... he knew that he had set loose the other one. He knew what she would do, had even suggested it, so why did he feel like he could not breathe?

It is the ashes. Asphyxiation setting in. I just need a respirator.

He sat on his knees, mind clouded and with ashen hands spread as he turned his gaze from the Harbinger and looked upon the collapsed Triage Centre. He had toiled there with the best of them, cutting canvas in order to free suffocating patients. He had ordered the rescue attempt as best as he might, shouldered the most injured people and carried them to the shuttles. He was weary, drained, and dirtied, and now even burdened by this phantom guilt. As if the lies he told about himself had become an alternate reality from which he found it harder and harder to escape.

The parasitic beast snarled inside the darkness of his mind, said it was Eve Jenkins' fault, and it reminded him that there was no recourse but to move forward, and continue herding the cattle towards their slaughter.

Thomas Ravon came, and with the pilot's help, Lucan got back on his feet - vertigo hitting him like a hammer. "Sounds like a marvellous idea, Lieutenant," he said wearily, and accepted the young man's help to set his bare feet upon the path to safety. Nurse Maal was waving, signalling that the last patients had cleared the sea of white canvas, and the stragglers had to fit into the last two shuttles. Lucan merely had the energy to nod his head in the Klingon's direction.

When inside the shuttle, strapping himself by a seat, the doctor heard Thea answer Ravon over the intercom. [Acknowledged, Razor. I have relayed the information on Rawley. I have to remain in the valley a while longer... The docking clamps of one of the hull cranes is malfunctioning, and while my holographic projection is there to assist in the situation, Captain Ives is still on the planet. Therefore, the First Officer has not ordered the helmsman to take off. Either you seek refuge for all the shuttles in the sky, or you try to make everyone dock with me. Wait.. Standby.]

Right then, the external shield generator seemed to come online, and the dome reappeared in the sky. It would give them some more time if they remained below it. [The shield is back online. Stay below it and have everyone dock in Shuttle Bay 01. Belay that. Belay! Reavers inbound! I repeat! Reavers inbound!]

With phasers coughing death, two Reavers had been trapped beneath the dome, and they now came in hard towards the flanks of the string of shuttles.

"By the winds... Do something!" called Nicander and struggled out of his seat, getting up next to Thomas and scowling at the development. "Can you help all the shuttles to fire against them?"

Or were the odds of survival greater in dispersing from their current path?

Re: Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Reply #7 –
His eyes glanced at the Reavers now that had chosen his group as an easy target. He bit his lower lip as he ran the simulations in his head, wondering what the best move would be next. The thought process got delayed by a few nanoseconds as Lucan Screamed and scowled next to his ear. "Really Doctor, I need you to sit down and strap in..." He said with a cold blooded voice and he toggled the comms and intercoms to the other shuttles and his own. "Reavers approaching, everybody strap in for some crazy manoeuvres. Pilots, execute buddy cover and try to keep the Reavers off your buddies tail. Put most power from systems that you don't need in shields and engines." He said calm and with precision to what they had to do.

"Thea for Razor. I need some fighter support ASAP. I'm dispersing the shuttles and probably will keep the Reavers busy for a few minutes, but we're sitting ducks like this. I need fighters to cover us or you'll be looking at substantial crew losses." He relayed the message to the large starship that was still laying in the valley. He didn't wait very long before he tapped the keys and Lucan had only mere seconds to sit down and strap himself in. What followed next was a serie of hard turns to the left and right. The systems started flaring red by the extreme demands of the pilot. Engines and structural strength were being strained and this show wouldn't last forever. Each time A reaver would pick a target in the shuttle pack the destined buddy of that shuttle would move himself onto the tail of the Reaver, firing of several rounds into it. If successful they could destroy the Reavers before much damage could be done to the shuttles, if they were to slow, their buddy would get reduced into a burning metal coffin with multiple if not numerous souls perished along with them.

Re: Crisis #08 | Triage Centre

Reply #8 –
When the Tactical Conn pilot made his choice, Lucan just barely managed to strap himself to the chair next to Razor at the front of the Type-9 shuttle. He was certainly no pilot, but he might be able to assist the human with some targeting. His tattooed hands operated the touch screens with great frustration at his own lack of experience, even if he knew the tactical controls from Academy training. His pale grey irises darted between the HUD:s that popped up before him.

"I am a doctor, not some damnable gunnery brute," he murmured, tugging his lab coat straight over his bare shoulders before trying to get Reavers into his sights. He fired away, and the voice inside cackled with contentment, even if there was no true blood that was being spilt if Lucan actually managed to hit anything. He still felt drained from what he had done with his abilities earlier, yet if there was no other resort, he might try to tip the scales in his favour once more - calling upon the elements to vanquish the opposition.

His eyes went wide. Perhaps it was too late.

"Two incoming!" he called, hardpoints sent their way - cutting straight through the volcanic ashes. Desperately, time far too short, he tried to find and release ECCM Pod countermeasures.

- Fin

OOC: This thread is henceforth continued in Crisis #09 [Volcanic Skies]. Your next post goes there, Nolan!
 
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