Rescue Part 1

Posted on Mon Sep 14, 2015 @ 11:18am by Lieutenant Kyle "Loki" Carter & Captain Maritza Soran

1,277 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Fallout
Location: The Planet
Timeline: Md04 0001

::ON::

Lt. Commander Soran walked into her quarters, saw the bleeping console, read the message waiting there, swore continuously for a minute in four different languages, found and took another dose of stimulant, and went straight back out again. Walking to the turbo lifts she tapped her com badge. "Soran to lieutenant Carter. Meet me at shuttle bay two immediately." She didn't wait for a reply. She'd thought the day couldn't get any worse. The universe had obviously taken that as a challenge.

Loki was in Fighter Bay three on the other side of the station when Soran order him to shuttle bay two. He looked to the pilots he was talking when the call came over. "You have your orders, get ready." He knew the turbolift wouldn't get him to the other side of the station quick enough. He glanced around the fighter bay and noticed a type 9 shuttle land in the bay. He walked up and opened the hatch before the pilot was out of his seat. "Give me a lift to shuttle bay two. Quick touch and go drop." Kyle said with a nod as he closed the hatch behind him.

The pilot saw the CAG and shrugged with a confused nod. Despite his initial hesistation he lifted the shuttle up and darted Lieutenant Carter over to shuttle bay two.

Kyle jumped out of the shuttle giving the pilot an grateful nod and wave. He walked towards the doors of the shuttle bay and waited for Soran to show up.


=== Meanwhile, on the Planet ====

The sun was going down, and the hordes of animal lifeforms surrounding them were getting louder. Crackers hadn't seen them yet but he knew they were out there based on all the growls, croaks, hisses, and snarls he was hearing. The readouts on the tricorder were further telling him that they were inching closer. Whatever apprehensions they'd had were melting away now that darkness was closing in.

Crackers touched his commbadge. It chirped when he did, which he took as a good sign. "This is Lieutenant Graham to anyone within transmission range. My pilot and I are down on the planet. She needs immediate medical attention. If anyone is coming then now would be a good time." He checked the setting on his phaser.

A few feet behind him Shoni Muuhi, his pilot, was still strapped into her seat in the wrecked cockpit section of their fighter. She had been drifting in and out since their crash. Crackers had done his best to keep her awake. He didn't even know if he had to keep her awake. It was simply something he had heard one should always do for a critically injured person. For the umpteenth time today he cursed himself for not paying closer attention in first aid training.

He knelt by Shoni and shook her gently. "Shoni, c'mon! Don't go to sleep yet! Hang in there!"

The Betelgeusian pilot replied with a faint groan. Her eyes remained closed.


----Shuttlebay two----

Carter was waiting for her when she got there. The Ararat squatted of the far side of the bay while the crew worked to add on the extra equipment for the mission. "Good morning, Mr Carter. Join me on the bridge?" She kept walking towards the entrance, expecting him to fall into line. "Pilots Graham and Muuhi have been MIA for twelve hours. There's a feint distress signal from the planet below. WE're going to check it. Science says the planet is spacially stable, so we're going to take a quick look. I need you for insight into your crew. If they're not with the wreckage, WE need to be able to figure out what they've done and where they've gone."

"I was already briefing a small contingent of Valkyrie pilots to run low orbital scans on the planet to find our M.I.A.'s" Kyle responded quickly. As soon as he was back in a uniform he was checking the status of his jocks. When he saw the report on Crackers and Muuhi he already had planned to send a group down to look for them. "They launch as soon as the word is given."

"You were supposed to rest," She said archly, walking onto the small bridge of the Ararat with a nod to the single duty officer there. "Get your people in the air." She indicated the helmsman's panel. "Do you want to take the helm?"

"It would be a good idea. I'm already familiar with flight pattern formations and the flight path I assigned them." Kyle answered sliding into the helmsman's chair. "Sending the launch authorization to the fighter element now. They'll lead the way for our path past the Asteroid field."

Soran sat down in the captains chair. "Make it so."

==== The Planet ====

Crackers felt it before he heard it. A gentle rustling that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Steeling his resolve he turned on his heel and drew his phaser, firing before he even had a bead on it. The shot was wild and unfocused, but it was enough to illuminate his would-be attacker. It was an arachnid of some sort. About the size of a large dog. Its six eyes glowed in the semi-darkness.

Crackers screamed and fired again. This time he held the phaser with both hands and took better aim. Even as he stumbled backwards. The arachnid also made a screeching sound in the split second before it was vaporized.

There were more out there. He knew it. The tricorder had told him that there were multiple life forms out in the jungle. So numerous that they were literally on top of each other. Crackers touched his commbadge again. "Prowler One-One-Five Bravo to station. Do you read me? I've got lots of trouble down here!"

The reply surprised him with its speed and clarity. "Ops here. We can hear you a lot better now, Lieutenant. Help's on the way. What's your status?"

Crackers stayed by his Shoni's side and held his phaser at the ready. "My status is I'm about to be supper! Beam us up now!" He turned in a wide circle looking for more of those things.

"There's still some residual interference from the transdimensional shift. We can't get a solid lock on you. A garrison ship is on the way."

"Yeah? Well tell them to hurry up!"

The foliage rustled again, and several more of the arachnids appeared. They inched forward. Crackers fired again.

Shoni heard the shriek of the phaser and stirred. Though she was fading into blackness she tried to reach for her phaser. Her fingers stumbled about the holster, weak and uncoordinated.


====USS Ararat ====

The Ararat followed in the wake of the Valkyrie wing to reach the low altitutde orbit where the scan would be the most effiecent. The fighters themselves soon split off, each to take their own orbit of different inclinations. "Sensors?" Soran asked. "Any sign of them?"

A Bolian at the engineering/ops combo station quickly replied to the Commander. "I think I'm reading a small blip on the southern continent...." He trailed off as he kept trying to interpret the data coming across his display.

"Nothing from the fighters yet, but their sensor range is half the distance of ours." Kyle added. "I think we should let the fighters remain on their current course and head for the southern continent. If nothing's there we can make up the ground faster than a Valkyrie."

[TBC]

Lt.(JG) Mitchell Graham
Tactical Systems Operator
(NPC Bert)

Lt Commander Maritza Soran
Chief strategic operations officer
DS5

Lieutenant Kyle "Loki" Carter
CAG
DS5

 

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