Recovery and Discovery (USS Essex)

Posted on Sat Sep 6th, 2014 @ 11:15pm by Fleet Admiral Mike K`Wor Bremer & Colonel Danny Lennox & Admiral Deela T'Lar & Captain L'Verrem & Commander Jonathan Coleman & Captain R'nard Lokran & Commander Tressa Brislan & Lieutenant Colonel Jillian "Phoenix" Sullivan & Captain Jack Solomon

2,781 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Mission 86 - Discovery
Location: Various
Timeline: MD2 1730hrs, Following 'Getting Inside'

ON:

Planet, Military Base

Bremer and Lennox had followed Coleman and the men 'escorting' him to a building near to the airfield. Most of the damage done to it had been on the edge of the runway, but it appeared to be in service. Several small buildings were still smoldering, but the fires were out for the most part, and repairs were underway.

Coleman tried to remain calm, but inside, he was running through several scenarios that could help him get out of this situation. The men had asked him to follow them or be shot. Coleman obliged their whims and began to follow them. Luckily enough, they did not see him work on his tricorder. That would have broken enough General Orders to get him court martialed and sent to a nameless rock in a star system that nobody cared to chart.

As they walked, he noticed the repairs underway on the runways and buildings. He also noticed several of the airplanes, which reminded him of old propeller planes from WWII. He mentioned to the guard about working on several of them before and a light bulb went on in Coleman's head as they continued to their destination.


Elsewhere in the base compound

For his part, Duval was trying to stay unnoticed but for a guy his size, that was not easy to do, the last time he had been addressed, he had managed to sound convincing but he wasn't sure that the same tactic would work a second time.

He followed the Lieutenant and Pepper into the armory so they could get new gear and equipment.

Jack made his way into the armory with the others and took a look around, taking note of all the different types of bolt action rifles and pistol with magazine clips bolted to the walls. It reminded him of history lessons from years ago in the Academy and before.

He picked up a rifle, checking it over thoroughly, before picking up two magazines. He also picked up a pistol and several magazines for that. His thinking was better to be prepared. He pulled out his tricorder and ran a quick scan of the area, once again locating the tetryon source.

"Its here, inside this building," he whispered to the others as he finalized the location. "Two floors down."

"Understood." Duval responded as he took a quick look around. "They will probably be guarding it quite heavily or they'll have it in a lab taking it apart." he hoped it wasn't the latter as he did not wish to go shooting up a lab and causing a major problem for everyone involved.

"I have the floor plans saved on the tricorder, we need to get down there and see what the situation is," Jack offered. He tapped on the tricorder and quickly reviewed the plans. "We're in luck, its a small lab. Two Guards outside on duty with two lab technicians working inside according to the bio signs, we should be able to handle this," he explained.

Jack put down the rifle and looked around the armory for another non lethal weapon instead. After a few moments of searching, he found several tranquilizer guns with what seemed to be sleeping darts as ammunition located with them. "We could knock out the guards and techs with these," he offered as a Solution to taking on the guards.

He headed towards the door that led down to the lab, looking back to Duval and Pepper. "You coming?"

"Right behind you El-Tee." Duval responded quietly as he hefted his rifle, clearly at ease with such an archaic looking weapon when suddenly they heard Alarms screaming nearby. "I think that's our cue sir?"

Jack opened the door and made his way down the steps, heading towards the lab. As the two guards spotted the three of them heading their way, he managed to fire two darts, hitting either guard in the neck and sending them to the floor, unconscious. He went to the lab door and fired two shots to crack the door lock. The screams and shouts behind the door stopped as he kicked it open, revealing the tetryon source in front of them.

"Who are you? What are you doing?" one of them shouted as Jack began powering down the source and locating it to a suitable carry case. He took one look the lab technician asking the question as he packed the source away.

"I'm the guy saving your life," he answered back. Looking over at Duval he nodded to him "We're leaving."

"Yessir." he turned back to the guy that Solomon had addressed. "Someday, you'll thank us.."

"That device was a gift from the gods.... you've just doomed our nation.."

"Not likely." Duval answered. "Believe me, its better this way." and with that Duval was out the door and after the other two men. "Gents, don't mean to be rude but we best be going.."


Shuttle Bay 1, USS Essex

L'Verrem took a little while longer than the rest of the away team to don his environment suit. Despite being designed for a Caitian, he still found it difficult to properly fit his tail in it. His tail could not simply be tucked away elsewhere in the suit. It served as a balance mechanism as much as as an outward indicator of his emotions. Without it being able to freely move, he would have considerable difficulty in maintaining his balance, especially when having to jump or move quickly, which he may have to do in the unknown vessel. Presently, he was finally satisfied with its fit and entered the shuttle bay, his suit bearing a utility belt with several instruments, including a tricorder, and his helmet in hand. They were to take the type 9 shuttle with its name, Acadia, emblazoned on its sides. He entered side hatch and bowed his head politely to the rest of the away team.

R'nard went and put on his own environment suit. It would hamper him to have this on, but it was necessary. He got his equipment belt and put it on.

The doctor arrived with her kit and nodded to R'nard as she chose a suit and quickly put it on.

The Acadia slowly rose from the deck, then dove through the force field that separated the shuttle bay and the vacuum of space. Once clear of the Essex, the shuttle accelerated away, headed for the mysterious ship. L'Verrem had analyzed the the orbit of the ship and discovered it was in an unstable orbit between the planet and its moon. They arrived within minutes, moving at full impulse. The Acadia slowed as they approached. The ship, or what was left of it, was enormous, easily matching the size of a Sovereign class ship, in L'Verrem's estimation. It was completely alien in design, roughly oval, it's surface a mass of dome-shaped curves, and had no discernible warp nacelles. But it was clear where the damage was. As the derelict tumbled, a gaping hole rotated into view toward its back side.

"Let's aim for the hole. It will double as a docking bay, then we can work our way inwards." said R'nard.

"Oh my goodness," Tressa said softly as the damage came into view.

L'Verrem carefully guided the shuttle along side the derelict, then rolled to match its tumble rate. He gingerly navigated the shuttle inside the hole and landed carefully on the deck. "Contact. Activating gravitic anchors," The Caitian stated. He powered down the shuttle's propulsion system, the turned to R'Nard and Tressa. "There is no artificial gravity we will have to proceed cautiously," L'Verrem stated. He stood and donned his helmet. When the others did the same and nodded their readiness, he commanded the shuttle's computer to depressurize. Once the evacuation was complete, he activated his suit's magnetic anchors and commanded the door to open, the stepped out onto the deck of the alien craft. He removed his tricorder from his equipment belt and began scanning the area.

"I am detecting faint epsilon radiation emissions from the vessel in the vicinity of the damaged area. It's metaphasic signature matches the epsilon radiation coming from the tetryon source on the planet," L'Verrem stated.

R'nard also activated his suit's magnetic anchors and came out on the craft. "It figures." he said. "If some attack from the planet disabled this ship."


Planet, Military Base

Bremer and Lennox stopped and watched the men take Coleman inside a small remote building. It was near to the fence line where they had entered the base. After a few minutes, one of the men, the one that appeared to be the Officer left and headed for the command building.

“What do you think?” Lennox asked.

“We’re going to need a couple of distractions.” Bremer replied. He looked around for a moment, and found one that would help them get Coleman free, then another that would help them all get away. “Be ready to move. When you get Coleman out, make for the Runabout, you’re going to need to fly her out.”

“Me?” Lennox replied, “Isn't Phoenix there standing by?”

“She is, but I’m going to need her for something else in a few minutes.” Bremer smirked, then walked over toward the fence line. He saw the woman, the prostitute that had propositioned the Away Team when they had arrived at the base.

“Hey, does your offer earlier still stand?” Bremer asked.

“Yeah baby! Me so horney!” She replied, but just as fast the man that was there earlier came back out the small building.

“Price now twenty Elor!”

Bremer raised an eyebrow, “I only have fifteen, but I have an enemy rifle from the northern front. Never fired and only dropped once.” When the man didn't reply he added, “Come on, it’s for my buddy. He’s been fighting a long time, he needs a girl that can...boom boom a long time. He’s right in there. I’ll pay the full twenty next time.”

After a few moments, the man replied, “Okay, you gimme!” He nudged the woman who started to strut her way toward Bremer. As she got close, he motioned for her to go into the building they were keeping Coleman.

Lennox, who was trying not to laugh, knew what Bremer had in mind. He waited a moment for the woman to go into the building and get the attention of the guards, then he made his way inside. With the men turned away from the door, trying to get the woman to leave, Lennox eased his way in. Coleman was sitting to the right side of the room, and upon seeing Lennox he quietly crept out.

Once clear, Bremer motioned for both men to make their way out of the base and back to the Runabout. Moments later, the Officer was making his way back and Bremer too made a quick exit from the area, but his way was cut off from exiting the base. Instead, he made his way back toward the airfield. After a few meters, he ducked behind another building and tapped his commbadge.

“Bremer to Phoenix.”

"Here Admiral... And no where close to figurin' out where the vibration originates," Phoenix said above the sounds of techno tools beeping and chirping. "What can I do for ya?"

“Coleman and Lennox are on their way back to there now. Coleman will track down the problem, just advise him of anything you've found or ruled out. I need you for another mission if you’re up for it.” Bremer replied.

"I'm up for anythin' Admiral," Phoenix spoke, grateful to have something in her wheelhouse.

“Good. Scan the base, you should see several single engine prop driven fighters parked along the edge of the base’s runway. I’m going to need you to barrow one. Beam into the cockpit of one, and take off, doesn't matter where you go, just get away from here. It should cause a distraction big enough to allow Solomon, Pepper, and Duval to get away with the device.” Bremer explained. “Once they are clear, we’ll beam you out of the fighter.”

"What the hell... I always wanted to fly in a unreliable, explodin' tin can," Phoenix remarked more to herself than anything else, as she moved from the engineers hatch and to the operations console to look for a plane.

"All righty... Phoenix on mission," the pilot spoke as she transported herself into the fighter. Though from that point, it was a bit more difficult. After several long minutes of trying to figure out the pitch, yaw, and roll controls, did she turn the engines on.

"Heh..." Phoenix let a dry laugh out as the engines instantly drew attention. "If this air strip has ADTs, I'm a gonna hurt someone if the shoot me down."

And down the runway she went, full throttle. A lot of soldiers firing at her right before lifting off the ground. And to that, other pilots were scrambling to get to their planes. But the main objective was complete. The distraction was indeed away.

Bremer smiled as he watched his CAG take off and cause a mad dash around the base, but after a second or two he tapped his combadge, "Bremer to Solomon, we've got a their attention elsewhere, if you have the package, get it to the Runabout, now. Coleman and Lennox are there waiting, I'll join you shortly."

"Understood sir, we're on our way," Jack confirmed.

Coleman and Lennox made their way back to the runabout as quickly and quietly as they could. They could hear people around the base scrambling and shooting as, what Coleman could best tell, a plane taking off. Once they reached the runabout, they noticed the Phoenix was working on the problem with the vibration. He took a quick sensor reading of the base and the plane that he heard taking off.

Coleman pressed his combadge as he began working on the vibration problem. "Coleman to Phoenix. Whenever you want a beam-out, just let me know and I'll get you out in a pinch."

"Now would be good," Phoenix suggested. "I don' wanna fly in a gas bomb, thank you."

Coleman chuckled and pressed a command on the panel in front of him and the whirl of the transporter took effect on Phoenix. The next moment, Phoenix was on the bridge of the runabout.

"Welcome back, Phoenix." Coleman said, looking over his shoulder, grinning a bit. "A gas bomb?"

"Thing that makes really shiny when it goes off," Phoenix noted with sarcasm while she took her seat at the pilot's station.

A few moments after Solomon, Duval, and Pepper arrived, Bremer arrived back as well a few moments later. After boarding the runabout, he said "I wanted to make sure no one followed you out. We should be clear now, so if the Runabout is ready, let's get back to the Essex."

Jack headed to the rear compartment with the tetryon source, securing it below, ready for the Runabouts trip back to the Essex. Finally taking a seat, he took a breath and smiled. He'd forgotten how much fun going on an away mission was and hoped for more.

Duval looked for an empty post to fill, spotting one he sat down at one of the stations further to the back. "Yessir."

"And the monkey flips the switch," Phoenix noted as she gently began to lift the shuttle off the ground, headed back to the ship.

Bremer smirked, “Well, I tried to put the monkey in a fighter, but she wanted out.” He smiled again, “Good work everyone.”

About thirty minutes later, the Runabout returned to the Essex...

Bremer looked back at Coleman and Solomon, "Take that to a lab and secure it."

Duval secured his post and he was one of the last to disembark, he stepped out into the hanger as he decided to go turn in his newly acquired equipment into the armory, then he would go start his paperwork.

Jack looked at Coleman and nodded as they were ready to move the secured Tetryon Source to the nearest lab on board the Essex. Once out of the Runabout, they made their way to the nearest lab and secured the source in place. Jack moved over to a panel and began running mild sensor scans for output and power distribution, making sure that there was no threat to the ship.


Bridge

Vice Admiral T'Lar was notified that the runabout had arrived. She stood up, "As soon as the Acadia returns, let me know." She entered her ready room.


tbc...

RSS Feed