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Topic: Day 05 [1113 hrs.] - Sulphurous Signal (Read 7464 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Day 05 [1113 hrs.] - Sulphurous Signal

Reply #25 –
[Ens. Talia 'Shadow' Al-Ibrahim | Shuttle Descartes| Base Camp | Gorath] Attn: @Nero
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She raced through the storm – armored boots pounded into the rocks, kicking up dust, adding to the darkened pall that roared around her. The beams of her suit lights flickered before her, illuminating flashes of pebbles and debris picked up in the storm. Lightning flared in the dense, rolling clouds above the Descartes as she ran towards it; hearing nothing but her own labored breaths over the wind and rocks. Fuck this planet, Talia cursed, limbs pumping her toward the hovering shuttle.

Behind her, the coms tower jostled in the wind. The tie-cables anchoring it to the mountain swayed ever more dangerously to the point of failure. Moments before, while she had frantically connected the booster to the control console, the entire structure seemed to groan under the strain. She'd decided not to overstay her welcome, and made some on-the-fly adjustments to the extraction plan. If we live, I'll take the ass chewing later, she barked a laugh, even as she ran.

Moments later, or an eternity, her boots thudded up the boarding ramp; Talia closed it and the hatch as she stormed in, bounding up to the cockpit after tossing a thumbs up to the doctors. No time for pleasantries, she frowned, not bothering to remove her helm as she dropped into the pilot’s seat. “Copy that LT,” she breathed to RraHnam, while her eyes and hands danced over the controls. “Hang tight back there,” she told the doctors as the external lights flared to life.

The Descartes boosted vertically to glide ten meters above the terrain as she flew out away from the mountain towards the dimly lit structures of the base camp. “Had to abort the docking maneuver – not enough time. We’ll grab them with a tractor. Once we make enough altitude we can beam them aboard and make repairs to that tug in orbit,” she murmured, explaining herself to the LT. “Is the Doctor and everyone on board,” she asked, angling the nose of the shuttle down and slightly askew, correcting for the gusting cross-wind. Her dark eyes flicked to the sensor display – wind speeds were increasing exponentially. Switching to manual control, Talia’s fingers blurred across the console before her, holding the ship in position.

“I can’t lock on and hold us in place, LT,” she cursed under her breath as the ship shuddered hard to port. Talia turned the bird into the wind, boosters flaring as she fought to gain altitude. “Fuck sakes,” she growled, glancing to the Caitian. “You’ll have to lock on manually LT, I got my hands full here,” she shook her armored head. “Just tell me when and I’ll boost us out of this mess!”

OOC: Apologies for delay. RL is a shitshow.

Re: Day 05 [1113 hrs.] - Sulphurous Signal

Reply #26 –
[ Lt. RraHnam | Type-11 Shuttlecraft René Descartes | Barren Wastelands | Gorath ] Attn: @Dumedion @Swift
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The wind whistled when the pilot finally entered the shuttle, which what felt like an eternity later. She ran up to the cockpit without much hesitation and started the engine. RraHnam confirmed her question about whether the others had all made their way to safety in the lifeboat. "Yes, Doctor Foster knows the plan. She was to take shelter with the Koenigs and Tanae in the damaged shuttle. And our passengers are safely strapped in."

Talia deftly flew them through the storm. The wind shear was strong and unpredictable. Keeping the shuttle even halfway stable required incredible concentration and skill. The whole thing became even more important as visibility was virtually zero. RraHnam understood that the human pilot was flying the shuttle through the dense dusty soup using only instruments. The Cait acknowledged the pilot's request without hesitation. After all, this was her specialty here. RraHnam activated the targeting for the tractor beam and searched for the crashed shuttle with the sensors.

The search took a moment, and the admittedly understandably tense mood of the pilot did not make it easier to find the wreckage. But eventually the time came. "Found it.”, RraHnam said. “Activating tractor beam. Damn it! We're drifting too far off to the left. I'm losing it. Too far to the right now. That's it. Activate. Locked! Got it.” She looked at the pilot. “Punch it!"

The shuttle lifted and rocked hard as it suddenly had to lift the weight of a second shuttle and lots of lots of dust. The dust trickled off slowly, but the extra weight tugged at the Descartes' energy reserves. The shuttle climbed much more slowly than planned. There was a menacing flash of light outside the large window of the front windshield. Jagged columns of blue light traced insane paths through the dust, glazing it in their vicinity. RraHnam could hear the crystalline fragments shattering on the hull of the shuttle. She surly hoped none of that lightning bolts were to hit their shuttle.

The security officer kept an eye on the readouts. They had to climb several kilometers before they could ignore the interference of the bedrock and later the storm. Quickly, RraHnam activated the transporter and beamed the stranded personnel from the wreckage aboard the Descartes.

"All hands aboard. We are ready for takeoff, Al-Ibrahim. Really good work. Really good." smiled the Cait visibly relieved. Now they could work on the other shuttle in peace, leaving a safe lifeboat for the rescued.

Re: Day 05 [1113 hrs.] - Sulphurous Signal

Reply #27 –
[Ens. Talia 'Shadow' Al-Ibrahim | Shuttle Descartes | Base Camp | Gorath] Attn: @Nero
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The prow of the Descartes pitched up as Talia opened the thrusters after RraHnam confirmed the tractor lock on the lifeboat. “Copy, pushing to low-orbit,” her helm dipped as she nodded, dark eyes watching the readouts on the control panel, willing the shuttle to gain altitude away from the shithole called Gorath.

It wasn’t a gentle ride.

Buffeted by winds and grit, laboring as it hauled the dead weight of the lifeboat below, the Descartes shuddered and jostled them around as it climbed through the storm. Once the transport was complete, Talia threw the shields up – a split second before a bolt of spider-lightning slammed into the starboard side of the ship. Talia winced at the blinding light, holding course. “Fuck me, that was close,” she mumbled, checking all systems as the shuddering vibrations lessened around them.

“You guys always play it this close, or what,” Dr. Foster grunted behind Talia as she fell into the seat at the science/coms station. “Uh, sensors are still a bit scrambled, but I think we’ll be okay,” the pilot heard her mutter under her breath.

“We’re fine Doctor,” Talia sighed as the rumbling subsided altogether. “Passing 100 kilometers and climbing. All systems nominal,” she leaned back in her chair, nodding at RraHnam’s praise. “That was tense,” the pilot laughed, then turned to face Foster. “Everyone ok back there?”
 
Foster had pulled her helm off and looked a little green, no doubt from the smell coming off her EV suit. “Ugh. Yeah, just minor scrapes,” she blew a breath out, blinking her watering, tangerine colored eyes. “So, now what?”

Turning back to her console, Talia activated the autopilot and glanced at RraHnam. “Once we reach geo-sync orbit, I’ll go EVA and patch up the shuttle,” the pilot shrugged. “Then we wait, I guess. Once our passengers are safe we’ll have to book it out of here PDQ*,” she paused, looking over the navigational charts of the system. “If we burn strait through those blue giants, they should throw off enough EM interference to scramble our trail,” she thought aloud, pointing at the twin stars, then turned to RraHnam. “Unless you want to stick around and chat with their ship,” her head jerked to the side, towards the cargo area and their passengers.

After the LT had spoken, Shadow and Foster nodded at the Caitian. “Makes sense. One thing at a time,” the pilot agreed. “I’ll get started replicating what I’ll need for the lifeboat,” Talia checked over the flight console one last time, before rising to her feet. “We’ll hold position at 220km. Repairs shouldn’t take long,” she clapped RraHnam on the shoulder as she turned to head toward the aft section, nodding to Foster as well. “Back in a few,” she told them.
 
[68 minutes later | Low Orbit | Gorath]

She was under the belly of the lifeboat, riveting the last section of the hull back in place after repairing the damaged auxiliary circuits to the coms array. Off to her left, the sickly grey-green Klingon world stretched out, fading to darkness as they crossed the terminus into night. Talia glanced at the scene, after returning her tools to the harness tethered to her armor. Times like these make it all worthwhile, she mused with a smirk, bringing her forearm PaDD up to tap a command in. “Okay,” she sighed, “Descartes, that should do it. Life-support and structural fields are holding, patching into coms now,” she announced.

Her helm display filled with active subspace channels, emergency beacons, and an incoming hail. Well shit, that didn’t take long, Talia cleared her throat. “Uh, LT, looks like coms are up – the Vera Rubin is hailing,” she reported, armored boots thumping with each mag-locked step as she made her way to the rear to seal the ship up. Here’s hoping they don’t do anything stupid, like try to kill us, she frowned behind her visor.

Kicking off the hull after killing the power to her boots, the pilot used the thrusters on her back to glide into the damaged shuttle with a quick burst of thrust. Once her feet hit the deck, she turned to close the rear ramp and looked over her handiwork. It’ll be a tight fit, but hopefully not a long wait, she shrugged. The forward compartment had been completely sealed and welded, once the damage to the emergency power had been repaired. The survivors could wait for over 24 hours in here, if needed.

Talia thumped a fist against the hull. “Give ‘em a nice ride,” she told the ship, then hailed the Descartes, requesting a beam-out.

*PDQ – Pretty Damn Quick.
 

Re: Day 05 [1113 hrs.] - Sulphurous Signal

Reply #28 –
[ Lt. RraHnam | Type-11 Shuttlecraft René Descartes | Orbit over Gorath | Gorath ] Attn: @Dumedion @Swift
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RraHnam closed her eyes for a moment. The inertial dampeners corrected the gravitational effects inside the shuttle within a moment. She exhaled. They had escaped this storm. "Look at this monster." said RraHnam, projecting her view onto one of the central screens. On it, the scale of the storm could be seen for the first time. An unstoppable force of nature that took over most of the Northern Hemisphere. Brownish yellow clouds glided over large parts of the visible continent below them. Lightning flashed across vast stretches, glowing blue with energy. The winds carried dust before them, abrasively grinding down everything it hit. RraHnam was sure that the small camp of the stranded was completely destroyed. The transmission tower was no longer visible. It sank into the dusty monstrosity. "We were lucky to be hit only by the edges of the storm."

The human pilot offered to repair the lifeboat as soon as they reached geostationary orbit. Nodding, RraHnam agreed. Even though RraHnam was a trained engineer and could certainly complete the repairs faster if they stayed on the ground, the pilot was probably the better choice in this case. As a pilot, Al-Ibrahim was far more trained in dealing with zero-G environments than RraHnam and quite a bit more proficient in handling tools in an EVA suit.
"Okay. Al-Ibrahim will take care of the repairs on their shuttle. Doctor Foster, please take a look at Doctor T'Lorr's injury. Foot or leg is broken. I couldn't tell for sure."

RraHnam looked around at her passengers. "You'll stay on board until we're sure help is on the way. I don't want to expose anyone to any more risk than absolutely necessary," RraHnam said. She was sure Al-Ibrahim would do a good job and could make a makeshift patch to the shuttle's hull, but better safe than sorry. She addressed her squad again. "Besides, we'll let the other three have our EVA suits." She gestured in a general way to the suits they were all wearing. "Fortunately, these are fleet standard. So, we don't have to worry about losing an important technological advantage. Nevertheless, as a precaution, remove anything that is not needed."

The Catian security officer read the sensor log. At the moment, no ship was in range of their sensors. So, they had to hold out. "I don't want to be here when the Vera Rubin arrives. But we can't get too far away either. Just in case they get left behind." She didn't like playing the doomsayer, but she always had to plan for the worst-case scenario. So, if the stranded ones were not collected again, RraHnam would decide to take them to the Theurgy.
"I think we can lay a false warp trail and then hide in the shadow of one of those moons until we're sure our Robinsons here are safely aboard their ship."

The two human women confirmed their plan and got to work. RraHnam helped Al-Ibrahim prepare for the repairs. She would feed her in with any information she needed to finish her work quickly. Meanwhile, the doctor would take care of her guests.

Time flew by quickly. Faster than expected. Her console beeped excitedly as the shipwrecked shuttle came back to life. RraHnam ran a quick scan and discovered no life-threatening damage. That was good. Al-Ibrahim had done a good job. The crew of the other ship could use the shuttle as a lifeboat. Al-Ibrahim continued repairs as much as possible. When she restarted communications, the shuttle was promptly hailed. It was the Vera Rubin. RraHnam asked the pilot to relay the signal to the Descartes. "Tanae, your ship is calling you," she said with a smile to the Vulcan woman, who came into the cockpit immediately. RraHnam pointed to the communications console beside her. "Please. Go ahead."

The image of a round-faced woman of Deltan descent appeared on the screen. She was dressed in a red uniform and emblazoned on her collar were the four pips of a captain. The woman's face was soft with cute brown eyes. Her bald head was decorated with a beautiful tattoo. A soft but determined voice came from the speakers. "This is Captain Lina of the Federation Starship Vera Rubin. Lieutenant Tanae, we have received your distress call and are moving as fast as we can. How are you and the away team doing?"
"Captain Lina. It's good to see you. The away team and I are fine, just minor injuries and a broken leg."
"I see." the captain said and arranged for sickbay to be readied. "What is your current status?"
Tanae sought out RraHnam's gaze, seeming unsure whether to mention her and the Theurgy. The Caitian muted the connection for a moment. "That's entirely up to you, Tanae. We were only trying to help." The Vulcan was silent for a moment. She seemed to be considering what she wanted to say. Then she continued, turning the connection back on loudly. "Thanks to the unexpected help of another Starfleet vessel, very good. We are in orbit over Gorath awaiting pickup."
"Understood. We will arrive in approximately twenty minutes."
"Acknowledged."
"Lieutenant Tanae?" said the captain on the other end of the line in a curious tone. "Do you want to tell me what ship it was?"
"Yes, Captain, but for their own protection, I will not disclose that until we are back on board."
The woman smiled in understanding. She wasn't stupid and could put one and one together. She was aware that her crew must have received help from the Theurgy if such secrecy was being made of it. The fact that she didn't probe gave RraHnam confidence. Apparently not everyone had lost faith in the Theurgy yet. That was a good sign.
"I'm really looking forward to reading your report, Lieutenant. See you in twenty minutes. Vera Rubin, over."
The screen went black again. The connection had been terminated.

"Thank you, Lieutenant RraHnam," the Vulcan said. "Without your help, we wouldn't be here now. Thank you for proving the allegations and rumors wrong."
RraHnam just nodded wordlessly. Her ears drooped limply and so did her whiskers. A wistful smile stole onto her features. She touched the other woman’s shoulder "Let us prepare you for departure."

RraHnam beamed Al-Ibrahim aboard and the guests, after donning EVA suits, back to their shuttle. She ordered the pilot to implement her plan and lay a false trail. This allowed them to hide behind one of the moons and watch as the Miranda-class ship picked up the damaged shuttle and disappeared immediately after.
"Good work, everyone. Please take us home, Al-Ibrahim."

-- FIN --
 
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