Set Your Sails For Home (part 1)

Posted on Sun Feb 14, 2016 @ 5:13am by erie'Riov Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian & Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin

1,674 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Torm's Eastate
Timeline: MD10 2000

::OLD::
"Somebody give me a phaser." he snarled. The side of his face that had been smashed with the jar earlier was swollen and oozing blood, his eye half swollen shut. "Orions," he spat. Globules of saliva actually splattering out to land on Klia. "More trouble than your're worth. And you were worth an awful lot."

One of the Andorians offered him one. This one was a neat compact model in a Bajoran style with a short barrel and enclosed hand guard. Torm took it and put it to the back of Klia's head.

As she heard Torm flick the power setting to max, Klia reached for Yolanthe's fingers, and squeezed tight


::NEW::

Yolanthe turned bright yellow as she felt Klia's fingers squeeze her. It shouldn't have ended like this. She braced herself for the terrible sound of a phaser on maximum setting.

Instead, there was an explosion. And everything went black.

-----------------------
Five minutes earlier...

[Diana's Arrow-Hangar]

There was barely enough room in the hangar of the old Miranda class to launch a Peregrine, but at this point it was any port in a storm, it was go time. There was, of course, the usual tension that came before any mission but this was different, it was personal and the tension magnified a hundred fold. Needing to take her mind off of it Rianni turned to Micklin, "Okay, Andy, we good to go?" She asked, even thought she knew beyond any doubt they were; Midnight was an amazing fighter and Andy Micklin was a virtuoso with a wrench, the Mozart of mechanics.

"Yeah, we're good to go, College Girl." Micklin snarled, not because she made him angry but because Andy Micklin just tended to snarl, "You've got one smart bomb, a few micro torpedoes, and the phaser banks should be good for a few hundred shots, but you might wanna try not to use 'em." He continued, "I also wouldn't take her to warp, neither. You didn't gimme enough time with that engine."

"Didn't have enough time, Andy." Rianni shrugged, "Sorry."

"Yeah, yeah." Micklin groaned, handing Rianni her helmet and adjusting the straps on her seat, "Make it up to me by not comin' back dead."

"Andy, that's the sweetest thing you've ever said to me." Rianni laughed, slamming the visor on her helmet down as they began launch protocols.

"And bring my damn bird back in one piece, too, or I'll kick your scrawny, Romulan butt!" Micklin threatened, meaning it sincerely.

Launching from the hangar of small ships was, and always would be, a challenge for any pilot, Rianni's skills at the stick notwithstanding; it was also one of the greatest thrills of flight. As she blasted out of the hangar it seemed Midnight was a little more sluggish than she'd remembered; maybe Midnight had lost a step, or maybe she had, maybe it was just that she'd gotten used to the speed of the Romulan Scorpion fighter, she didn't know and she didn't have time to think about it. She headed for the atmosphere, wishing she'd had the time to test the weapons, ~Too late now.~

[Torm's Office]

Hiding in his boss' office as he did every time there was gunfire, Squink was alarmed even further by a proximity alarm, "What?" He groaned, activating the viewer from behind four inches of armored glass. The viewer was instantly filled with the image of a Peregrine fighter; practically ancient, they couldn't have sold that thing to a customer on a bet, but the pilot was obviously an ace. He sighed loudly and ordered the computer, "Magnify and enhance." The picture became a close up, an obviously battle hardened Peregrine with the words 'Midnight Angel' painted below the cockpit, the sure sign of a fighter jock with many victories to their credit.

~That could be bad.~ Squink thought, knowing they'd received a lot of heat lately from the authorities. For glebbening's sake, Willets had just called a few minutes earlier to let Squink know Rubin and Xiona had been killed in a gun battle with the cops, and he was not looking forward to telling the boss that. He wondered if that approaching fighter might be related, more cops maybe? ~Since when do they use fighters though?~ He mused, then decided to play it on the side of cowardice, calling Sinlo, the head of Torm's defensive battery, "Yes, this is Squink, we've got a bogie coming into the atmosphere, deal with it. No, don't bother the boss with something this trivial, just do it."

From there he poured himself a drink, Kanar from Torm's shelf, one of the privileges of his high position, and walked to the window, it looked like there was going to be an execution.....

[Atmosphere of Planet Siva]

Rianni had just gotten into the atmosphere and she was already in trouble. Not only did she have to go through the part she hated most about flight now she had bogies inbound, ~Hope they aren't fighters.~ She thought, then keyed her comm and in seconds had Micklin on the other end, =^="Andy, looks like I'm in trouble."=^=

=^="That's a damn understatement, College Girl!"=^= Micklin snapped back, the scopes on Diana's Arrow were better than the ones on Rianni's fighter, he'd already identified exactly what manner of trouble Rianni was in, =^="SAM is airborne, hit the deck!"=^=

SAM, the pilot slang name for the dreaded Surface to Air Missile, the very word sent chills up the spine of any fighter jock, ~Shit. Looks like I was expected.~ She thought as she dropped into a steep descent, a near perfect suicide dive maneuver, easily evading the first two missiles, smiling as she heard them scream by. That was the thing with missiles, if you heard them, you were fine because they had already gone past you, it was the one you didn't hear that bent you over.....

Another thing about missiles, they didn't all burn up in the atmosphere, some kept right on screaming into outer space, locking onto something else, she'd learned that in the Dominion War, ~Only thing up there they could lock on to would be the Arrow.~ Rianni thought, knowing that if those missiles hit the Arrow her Papa, Andy, and their ride home would all go up in smoke. The first thought was to fire one of her microtorpedos, but she knew she only had about four, ~Might need those later.~ She concluded, then remembered that using the phasers might not be the best idea, either, ~Not even sure they would penetrate the hull.~

There was only one thing she could do, she had to give chase and find a creative way to destroy those SAMs before they got out of the atmosphere. She keyed her comm and gave warning to the Arrow, =^="Andy, I slipped the first two SAMs, if I can't get them before they exit the atmosphere, you'll have to."=^=

=^="Then you better get 'em, College Girl."=^= Micklin replied, he knew the Arrow would surely be destroyed if she didn't, =^="If they slip the atmosphere we're gonna hafta go ta warp!"=^=

~And then I'm on my own....~ The thought hit home hard, but she knew that it was the only way to save the Arrow, just as she knew if she was shot down the only hope Klia had of survival was the Arrow calling Debby to the rescue, =^=Be ready to go if you don't see a huge in atmosphere explosion then, Andy. And don't let Papa argue with you, I'll get myself out of this shit.~

=^=Just take them missiles down, College Girl.=^= Micklin answered, shutting off the channel so she would focus.

It was then it hit her, ~RAF!~ She instantly went back to a simulation she had flown many times dating back to the first day she was trained by Starfleet to fly fighters; a part of the Battle of Britain where the RAF had to destroy the V-1 rockets, whose hulls couldn't be penetrated by the ammo on the RAF fighters so they had to develop an ingenious maneuver to cause them to spin out of control, ~It's going to be a little rough, but I've got no choice.~ She decided, throwing the throttle to maximum thrust lest she lose the SAMs.

The tail fire on the SAMs was intense, even through the shields, but she managed to slide between them and underneath the stabilizer fins of the one on her right, tipping Midnight's wings into it before cutting power and dropping away from the missiles. Getting the engines restarted in a freefall was insanely tense, but she managed, just in time to see the missile she'd tipped barrel roll into the other, exploding both on impact and sending a shockwave that rocked her fighter, nearly making her lose control.

Now missile three and four were on her ass... hard, and she'd concluded that missile three was too close to shake through evasive maneuvering alone, ~I'll have to try something else.~ She concluded. The surest way to lose SAM was to get low and get low fast, but that wouldn't work at this point, she'd need something creating more heat than her engines.

It was then that she was, in a bizarre twist, blessed by incoming phaser fire. Slipping and twisting through the heavy phaser blasts she realized that this was about a type 9 phaser bank, once the standard armament of ships of the line, ~Get hotter than Hell, too.~ She thought with a smirk, taking the engines to maximum thrust and heading directly at the phaser battery, ~That's it, come to mama!~

She was so close now she could feel the intense heat of the phasers, the time to make her move was now. At the very last second she pulled up hard into a straight climb at top speed, hearing the impact as the missile slammed into the phaser battery, and rode the explosion to sky.

::OFF::

Rianni Monteros-t'Khellian
Rogue Pilot

Yolanthe Ibalin
Owner, The Box of Delights

 

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