The Other Shoe Drops Part 4
Posted on Tue Apr 30th, 2019 @ 11:28pm by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Gunnery Sergeant Flarn & Staff Sergeant Shayla Kunadt & Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles & Ensign Dana Wakefield
3,319 words; about a 17 minute read
Mission:
Episode 6 - Old Habits Die Hard
Location: USS Pioneer Bridge - Deck 1
Timeline: MD004 1400 hrs
"Safest location for us to land sir, is near the Capital building. The Cardassians, will not want to damage the capital building. Sending coordinates for our to land in the parade field near the Capital." Ameri said, as she transferred the coordinates to the helmsman station.
The three Cardassian warships let loose a barrage of torpedo and disruptor fire. All of the weapons cut through the shields like tissue paper. The USS Pioneer was falling apart at the seams, and so was her Captain. If it wasn't for the Ablative Armor which had been restored temporarily the ship would have exploded by now. Tyler was tossed to the deck and the last thing he thought was that he had never taken the Kobyashi Maru, he knew now he would fail that test. A small whisper escaped his lips as the darkness of unconsciousness took over, "Katherine..."
The bridge looked less like a bridge and more like... something else. The bridge crew lay unconscious for the most part. Things looked bad. Larim groggily sat up. "Lax." He stammered out before shaking the cobwebs loose.
"Computer...W..Where are we." No response. "Great" he said. Slowly but surely he ratcheted himself up. And rather quickly almost hit the deck. "Note to self, never do that again." He said
Using his console for support he stood. "Captain? Anyone? He called out, looking around. He then noticed Tyler out cold near helm. He started to make his way over, limping all the way
"Cap? Tyler?" Larim said, half sitting half collapsing. He noticed a first aid kit. Straining, he got it. "Ahh!" He winced. "Come here you little bugger! Gotcha." He opened it and grabbed a hypospray. He pressed it to the Captain's neck.
Clarissa wondered when the chief of security, started to refer to the captain as Tyler? That sounded a little bit off to her. She started to walk over to the captain. "Captain Malbrooke." She called out, hoping that he was okay.
Tyler was having quite the dream, there was Oklahoma, and the plains, and horses and Katherine. A short sting to the right side of his neck quickly dragged him back to reality and what was left of his ship. There was too much to put together in this moment. The Cardassians and the Maquis working together, this did not smell right to Tyler. He came to full consciousness as he heard Clarissa Rockwell call for him. His eyes fluttered open and the visage of Larim came into view. "Rumors of my dimise are greatly exaggerated Ensign, thanks you for your concern." He smirked as he took Larim's wrist and was pulled to his feet.
Dana shook her head, trying to take in her surroundings, the last blast had knocked her off her feet and all be it for a moment, she had blacked out. Quickly hearing Commander Myles calling out to the Captain, she glanced to see a lifeless body, 'If the Captain is dead then Lairm would be in command', However, the Captain had enough attention, glancing down at her terminal she squinted to read the data.
"Diverting, all available power to structural integrity, multiple casualties reported, two confirmed fatalities. Multiple hull breaches and micro fractures. We can't take much more of this." Dana said at the top of her voice, quickly carrying out her duties, taking power from non-essential subsystems just to keep the ship together.
"I agree." Larim said. "We need to disengage. . Do we have propulsion at least?" He asked. " We need to enter atmosphere. That way we can divert forceield power to help."
Tyler was a little woozy still that last explosion took it's toll and the bridge like her Captain was beaten.
Flarn had an edge that most others on the bridge did not have, and that was the fact that he was a Tellarite. As such he was surefooted and did not tumble easily. When the bridge shook with the impact Flarn simply tottered on his feet for a moment and then regained his balance. He concentrated on listening to the traffic coming in from the teams on the ground. Without turning around he reported in. "I have good news and bad news. The good news comes from Commander O Flannagain's team. It seems that they have gained entrance to the Cardassian politburo and have made contact with two of Gul Markuul's men. They also have a name of the culprit. It seems a Council Member Zelora is holding the rest of the council hostage. News pertaining to Chairman Garak is still unavailable. The bad news comes from Chief Moore. It seems that Second Lieutenant Tremble has somehow been swayed to fight for the enemy. Warrant Officer Masters has engaged him in combat in an attempt to bring him back to the Pioneer." As he spoke the news pertaining to Tremble, Flarn gritted his teeth and turned around. "Sirs I know that he would never..." His voice trailed off as he did not want to think of Tremble betraying them.
Tyler glanced over his shoulder at the lumbering Tellarite. "Sarge we would never dream of it. Keep your ear on that story I want updates from Masters directly."
“It is good news the away team is okay,” Amer said what everyone was thinking. She said a silent prayer of thanks that her husband was alive. She could not imagine life without him. “We need to get our people back and then we can knock some sense in to Tremble.”
The last thing Shayla had remembered was engaging evasive pattern Archer 1 and adding her own twist to it. The console has rushed up to meet her head and did it in a hurry. A large swathe of blood flowed into her left eye, or possibly from her eye, she was unsure. What she was sure of was that she had a ship to fly still and an order to respond to. Acknowledging Larim's request albeit groggily she spoke up. "Sir the helm is responding, we have maneuvering thrusters and up to one half impulse. Warp drive is in operable. Whatever they hit us with they hit hard. If we begin a rapid descent now, we can make it to the surface. That is also if the Cardassians do not shoot us down. Our transponder is down as well and they will not know it is us coming in." She paused as her right eye widened in surprise. "Brace yourselves... Engaging evasive pattern Kunadt-alpha-12."
Outside the Pioneer two remaining Cardassian Galor Class ships had begun another attack run on the Pioneer. The Intrepid Class starship ascended along the z axis while executing a barrel roll. This was possibly the last of Shayla's magic tricks. She knew that most alien pilots did not think three dimensional. The Pioneer lucked out as the second ship collided with the mine that they had moved. The residual concussion wave slammed the Pioneer. "That was not weapons fire. What the hell was that?" Tyler shouted.
Clarissa was manning the engineering station, she herd the Captain's question as she decided to respond first. "Turbulence and weapons fire coming from the cardassian cruiser, the weapons effectiveness, is at 17%. Captain, our trajectory angle of decent is off. Recommend we adjust our angle, the shields are already being taxed hard, with the decent plus the weapons fire." Clarissa said, waiting for Tyler to give bark out orders to the helmsman.
“Captain,” Amer said. “Permission to start looking for an area to land this bird.” She took a deep breath. “I am certain the others will agree with me.”
Tyler righted himself in his chair. He who fights and runs away... he whispered. "Yes Lieutenant get me a place to set her down. Set condition blue throughout the ship, and prepare to bring her in. Flarn if you can alert our people on the ground. Rockwell get me everything you can for structural integrity and engines. Myles hold em off until we break atmo, I don't care if you have to through coffee cups at them. Dana secure the all stations for landing. Kunadt get be a trajectory of descent and prepare to take us down."
Dana hearing the order, pondered for a moment, would the ship even hold up to a decent, glancing at the read outs, she had already diverted what she could to structural integrity. She tapped several more buttons on the console and gently leaned in and whispered "Just a little more, just enough to get us safely down and I promise I'll do your next systems check and overhaul personally." The console began to beep in response and a small smile crept across her face. "Okay, you have every spare ounce of power that the ship is going to get, securing all stations."
Shayla's eyes widened at the Captain's orders. She had broke atmo with something as large as a starship. She wasn't even sure of the physics of flight with a starship this big. "Sir I think it would be best..." She was interrupted by the gruff voice of the Tellarite in the back of the bridge.
Flarn knew that Shayla had her doubts, hell so did he. But they were Marines stoic to the end. He sensed where her sentence was going and before she could finish he turned from his station and interjected. "You hold your tongue Corporal. You will man that station or so help me I will find someone who can. You are a goddamned EVAC specialist and now your team needs you to get them out. YOU WILL DO IT AND THAT IS AN ORDER." Flarn sensed eyes upon him for his outbreak however he did not acknowledge them, rather he stayed focused on the pilot.
Shayla stared at Flarn. At first in disbelief and then it was because she allowed his words to wash over her. She found comfort in them and strength. "Sir yes sir! Hoo Rah!" She turned back to the console with a smile. Flarn nodded and turned back to his work. The rest of the bridge crew would come to realize that was how Marines got through to each other and showed love.
“I have found an area to land in,” Ameri spoke up. “I am sending the coordinates to helm. It isn’t going to be a walk in the park but easy isn’t in our vocabulary.” She was relieved to have found somewhere, she wouldn’t relax until her husband was back and she could check every inch of his body and make certain for herself he was okay. She was worried about The rest of the crew as well.
"Rerouting power to structural integrity." Clarissa said, feeling the vibrations as the USS Pioneer, started to fall out of the sky, she was looking for a place to land. Luckily for the crew, Ameri had found them a place. Clarissa was grateful. She did not like the idea, of the Pioneer, crashing on Cardassia. After rerouting power to structural integrity, the descent to the surface of Cardassia, was less turbulent.
Tyler smirked, as much as the situation was intense he saw that his crew pulled together nicely. They did their jobs regardless of rank or station. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs nonchalantly. He opened a shipwide channel. "Attention all hands this is the Captain. Set condition blue throughout the ship! Prepare to land Pioneer. This is the Captain!" He closed the channel and turned to the viewscreen. "Well everyone it has been an honor and a privilege. Myles hit them with everything you've got. Corporal take us down." His hands tightened subtly on the armrests of his chair.
"We don't have much left, Captain. But I've got my mug ready, just in case." The betazoid said. "Concentrating fire on lead Cardassian ship. Here we go." He said.
The pioneers weapons came to life. Mostly phasers. They raked the Galor class primarily in the front and side in a general pattern. But it was clear Myles was firing blind. Which of course increases the likelihood of a lucky shot. "Please hit something." Myles more or less prayed to himself.
And it seemed to work.
"Gotcha!" he exclaimed. "Captain, I must've hit something, got a reading of a weakness in their shields. Enough for a transporter to get through. Permission to "invite a guest"?"
Tyler smirked it seemed that the plan came together, and that was something he always liked. "There is always room for one more aboard the Pioneer home for wayward souls." Tyler meant it and it seemed that way with all of the strays they had picked up.
Larim grinned. "Momentarily lowering shileds. And got him. Back up now!" And not a moment to loose as the Galor began a barrage of their own. Sparks flew in all directions. Accurate fire to boot
The ship rattled as it descended. "Sir. That last hit took it out of us, Shields about gone." He said. "But the cards not much better. I'm manually targeting a photon torpedo. I think I can get their engines, just hold her steady." He asked. "Firing now!" The torpedo left the Pioneers aft launch tube. It ran hot, straight and normal. It made contact, resulting in a glorious explosion.
"Ship one disabled!" Myles said, just before his console went out
Shayla closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she cracked her knuckles. Like a leaf on the wind... she thought. "Alight the USS Pioneer is going in...breaking atmo in three..." The target coordinates showed on her screen, the Lieutenant found a perfect spot in a public park. Shayla hoped beyond hope that no one was taking a stroll right now, or they would be in for a surprise. "Two..." She called out as she lowered the landing struts and engaged the maneuvering thrusters. The Pioneer angled nose down into a slight dive. Due to the immense damage that the Pioneer took, every part if the Intrepid Class began to shake, and/or whine under the strain of descent. "One..." Shayla placed her hand over the atmospheric thruster trigger and muttered her mantra Like a leaf on the wind... She pressed the button and a small burst if thrust caused everyone to lurch on the bridge, then everything began to shake as winds and gasses slammed into the battered ship. "We have broken atmo, three minutes to touchdown. Port atmospheric thrusters are failing attempting to compensate." Shayla screamed over the noise as her chair slid back and forth and her hands danced on the console. "Commander Myles I would appreciate any assistance you can give on getting that bogey off my six. Executing evasive descent, hold on everyone..." The Pioneer barrel rolled as a Cardassian fighter matched her descent.
"Captain, we need to eject the drive plasma, but we have entered the atmosphere. Recommend we get creative with the discharging drive plasma, in a highly charged atmosphere decent." Clarissa said, thinking they should have done this, before they started their decent to the surface.
"Do what you need to do." Tyler replied.
Clarissa was a little concerned, by the captain's desecration. Leaving it up to her. What was he thinking? She really wished that Lieutenant Diari was here at the moment. She started to think, what would be the best case scenario. In all things she thought of, she hated them all. "Captain I recommend till we are 800 feet from the surface, then release the drive plasma from the vents, this will create a toxic cloud, that should dissipate within moments. Recommend we have medical teams on standby to assist any cardassian, who gets affected by the toxic cloud. The estimated range of the cloud is 400 feet radius. The Cardassians, will be upset, by the smell and slightly burned lungs. But they will live. And so will we." Clarissa said, waiting to see what the Captain was going to do.
"A few sick people is a small price to pay to keep their planet and get their government back. Alert Sick Bay and git er done Ensign." Tyler replied to his acting Chief Engineer.
What was left of the Pioneer's phasers tore through the air and stuck the pursuing Cardassian vessel in the engines and forced them to ascend at of the atmosphere. Tyler was impressed with his tactical officer's shooting and let him know of it. However, that elation was quickly ended when the report came that most of the Pioneer's weapons were down.
It had been her suggestion to land yet Ameri prayed for both the crew and any Cardassians that might be affected by their landing. She listened to the officers around her. She worried for her son and husband as well but her focus had to be on the job at hand. They were in descent and until they had landed everyone would be holding their breath.
"We are target altitude, initiating drive plasma now." Carissa said, feeling really awful for releasing the toxic plasma into the air. Luckily the impact to the cardassian population was minimal.
The next few minutes passed with the only noise on the bridge being that of consoles bursting. With the enemy taken care of the rest of the descent was Shayla vs the Pioneer. The wind shears were immense but Kunadt managed to get the ship through them. "Touchdown in three... two... one... Mark." She called as the Pioneer touched down softly. "Securing engine exhaust and warp plasma. We are officially down." She breathed heavily as she viably relaxed.
Ameri was relieved they had landed safely. She waited to hear the captain’s plan for action. They had people out there and they damn well needed to bring them home.
Tyler looked around the bridge as he rubbed his temples and breathed a sigh of relief. They were down, they were alive and the ship was intact, for now. As relieved as he was they were not done. "Mr Flarn get our teams home ASAP. Ensign coordinate repair teams and get us back in the air as quickly as possible. Commander Myles I would like you to get your teams to entrance points to the ship. I am not sure what the state of the Cardassian people are and I do not want them attempting to board this vessel." He stood with a small groan, it seemed some minor aches had settled in.
"Lieutenant Wakefield you have the bridge, I will be in the Ready Room." With that final order he headed for the Ready Room and his solace. He paused at the tactical station briefly and looked up, he spoke in a soft whisper. "It is getting crowded in my sky."
A Joint Post By:
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Ensign Clarissa Rockwell
Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
Staff Sergeant Flarn
Rifle Fire Team 1 Leader, USS Pioneer
Lance Corporal Shayla Kunadt
EVAC Specialist, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Ameri Ó Flannagáin
Assistant Chief Science Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Dana Wakefield
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
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