[RP] Operation: Deep Strike (IC)

[Karst45]

Hadrid Reached RCS system a whole 10 minute after Wesley got here
Seeing Cowboy tinkering with it he said: What are you doing?

in a calm voice Wesley answered What ya think am doing? am trying to realign this damn contraption, even if it the ship that require an alignment pointing the Rippled out hull

Can you finish this? your more skilled than me with all those "optional gadget", i need to inform the captain about our situation.

Turning around facing the stern Wesley tapped on his wrist computer. He reached the communication officer who finally, after being explain how important it was and much Earl didn't care that the captain was into a meeting, put him in contact with the MacRae


The conference room speaker begin to shim then a warm voice began to say: Heya boss!. There important thing i need to sh....

He was quickly interrupted by the firm voice of MacRae.

Mr Earl, First, you are to refer to me as Captain, second we are in an important meeting


Oh sorry Boss Captain. I knew about the meeting but before ya'll decide were we go, ya'll need to know if we can actually get there.

MacRae Sighted then remained silent for a moment curious about what Earl found. What did you found Mr Earl?

Tapping down on his wrist computer Wesley interfaced is suit camera with the conference room showing the twisted ship.

Mr earl, there seem to be a problem with you camera, said Captain MacRae, the image is all distorted.

Turning toward Hadrid who was doing the final adjustment to the RCS Wesley added Unfortunately the camera work fine, you see the same damage as we see. Our girl getting old and wrinkled. A face lift could fix the problem for a wile, but that will take time and resources we might not have on board. ether way those damage shouldn't be overlooked.


(if i took too much liberty with ether character just say it ill retract and/or modify the thing.)

[icekatze]

((hi hi))

As Mr. Gautreau finishes up the last report, a number of side conversations break out between the various officers present.

Ensign Salehi squeezes his way through the crowd over to specialist Gautreau. "Did you say that the air down on the Icy Twin was Nitrogen Oxygen? Thats incredible! Do you realize what this could mean? If there really are structures down there, they could predate the planet's stellar transfer, I mean, assuming it was a captured rogue planet, and they're not recent. We could be looking at a find that is as old as the first Soia civilization itself."

((Feel free to add stuff into this time slot))
----
Captain MacRae patiently waits for the din to subside before speaking up.

"Since security is our first priority, we will leapfrog with the Pure Wind and try to double up on as many of the planets as we can. Mr. Lynn, I want you to plot a course for Twin Rogue Alpha to coincide as best as possible with the Pure Wind's expected arrival. We can swing around the star and perform a flyby of Twin Rogues Beta before heading out to TR Delta, with any luck our arrival at Delta will coincide as well.

We will have to double back after the system is secured and that is going to take a lot of extra time. We're only going to have time to perform a thorough survey of one or two worlds before..."

Captain MacRae is cut off in mid sentence by an opening comm channel.
//Snip Karst45's Text//
The Captain pulls out his datapad and as if reviewing some important data, he discretely enters a personal message to XO Ptak.
"I know we skipped the shakedown cruise to join up with this task force, but as far as technical difficulties go, this is really pushing it..."

After typing his message, Captain MacRae replies back over the comm, his voice more collected this time.

"Thank you for the report Mr. Earl. I will review the situation." Then, turning to the Chief Engineer, "Mr. Rodriguez?"

"Well, my teams started their inspection of the critical systems, but the interior system haven't shown any signs of warping like that. I could tell my teams to start a full inspection, sir."

"That won't necessary at the moment. Top priority goes to the sublight drive. If we can't move, we can't do anything but fall into the star's gravity well. I want this ship moving as soon as possible, once we're underway though, I want you to coordinate a ship-wide inspection with Mr. Vance. Appropriate any personnel you need to make it happen."

"Yes, sir."

"Very well, this meeting is adjourned."

With that, the captain leans back in his seat and scrolls over some unseen document on his data pad as people begin to shuffle out of the room.

----
Over the comm, Mr. Rodriguez hails Cowboy.

"Damn, that is a twisted sight you've got there, pun intended. Is there any indication why the hull integrity grid isn't detecting the problem? I'm sending Julianne and Erik out with you to inspect the drive assembly. If you can, try to figure out where the epicenter of the deformation is. If it is like an earthquake, maybe we can trace the source that way."

[TheUnforsaken]

Donna listens to Gautreau's answer to Ensign Salehi's excited statement. "Perhaps, Ensign. The planet's atmosphere suggests that it either had a biosphere before it was ejected from it's original system or someone attempted to terraform it here, whether it was the Soia or not I cannot say. Assuming that the sensor returns are indeed structures and not some freak natural feature I'd guess that they are more likely to belong to whatever species created the rest of the debris we've detected so far in the system."

Donna focuses back on her datapad when a blinking alert indicates she's recieved a new message, "I know we skipped the shakedown cruise to join up with this task force, but as far as technical difficulties go, this is really pushing it..." She gives an almost imperceptable nod as she replies in kind, fingers gliding over the interface without her even looking, "If we can't supress whatever's happening we're in trouble. But we've got some of the best engineers humanity has to offer here with us; if there's a way to stop it they'll find it."

[sunphoenix]

Lt. Lynn stands when the staff meeting is adjourned and salutes Captain McRae, "Not to worry Sir, I'll get us on course and on time. I only reported the anomalies from the system diagnostic as it was unusual. Only really an issue if we try some precision docking procedures... to the Starboard side. Our maneuver drives are fine by what my systems checks showed, but we should definitely find out if our jump drive needs some better tuning. We'll be under the way as soon as the crews get back in for applied delta-V!"

Kamielle pauses a moment for any further orders or directives, then returns to his bridge station.

Remarking to the ensign who took his position Kam smiles, "Don't you run off Ensign... James", reading his lapel tag, "...Captain wants me to put us on course and I'm going to do only that, then you can have the helm back... my shifts over."

Kam takes the helm signaling the repair crews, "Lt. Lynn on Helm here, Captain wants us on course with the 'INNALINZIL' - Loroi Scout, I'm setting in the course now. Get your crews back in for acceleration. Once were on course you can go back to your ship 'face-lift'."

Then Kam switches to ship-wide comms, "Helm reporting, All crew secure for acceleration in 5 minutes."

[icekatze]

((hi hi))

Salehi's enthusiasm refuses to dim "Well, even if it isn't ancient, it is still a huge find, and thats just what we've seen in the mountains. For all we know there could be more hiding underneath the planet's thick cloud cover. I'd bet you lens cleaning duty for a week that we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. I might just have to start drawing up some survey plans, I mean, just in case right?"

---
MacRae sends Donna another message, "At least there is plenty to keep the crew busy and their minds off the danger. Just between you and me, I have a bad feeling about this system, and our ally's far sensing intel has been getting increasingly unreliable. I'm considering postponing our scheduled combat drill until we've completed a sweep for real threats. You're closer to the crew, what are your thoughts? Would it ease tensions or cause undue distraction from the many important tasks at hand?"

---
Captain MacRae stands and returns the gesture, the with faint smile,

"Thank you Mr. Lynn, just go easy on her, she's had a rough day."
---
Ensign James stands up with a shrug. "She's all yours Sir. Besides, all this freespace maneuvering is majorly boring. Now that asteroid belt or those planetary rings... thats where the real action is at."

[TheUnforsaken]

"Ahh Ensign," Gautreau chuckles, "I don't think it would be best to deprive the ship of your skills in that regard. A weeks coffee ration on the other hand..." Gautreau waves his hand, "But perhaps you would not wish to risk so much; I know how you love your morning pick-me-up. However, if you want to use some of your free time to isolate a few locations for potential close study I don't think anyone would complain."

---

Donna Ptak thinks for a moment before sending a reply to Captain McRae, "Something terrible obviously happened here Captain, that sort of thing leaves an echo, if only in our own minds. As for the drill, I would suggest postponing it at least until after the engineers have isolated whats happened to the DeSoto. At some point we'll have to do the drill though; they do have a positive effect on morale and efficiency, even if the crew do belly-ache about them. If nothing else we need to know what...quirks the ship has aquired from all this warping."

[Karst45]

(add before icekatze post) "Helm reporting, All crew secure for acceleration in 5 minutes."[/quote]

hearing that on the main channel Earl quickly reply with an enthusiasm on the same channel What what!? there still people outside on the hull fixing this bucket you know?

[Beliskner]

\\\"Helm reporting, All crew secure for acceleration in 5 minutes."///

Command, this is Ferox, I've finished RCS check up. Heading to airlock. ETA 2 minutes. Ferox out.

[sunphoenix]

Kamielle smiles and direct signals Earl, "Kam at Helm here, don't you worry none 'cowboy', I'm waiting on you. So get your 'biscuits & gravy' back inside - you can go back to your fun once the ship is underway. Not going to be needing any course changes for a while once I set our vector & course. Plus, I'm not sweeping you off the hull - You are taking your shift with the bridge 'ball and chain' if I have to weld it to your pig-iron hide! You don't get out of nursing this lumbering target heap that easy!"

His tone is light and full of mirth ...even though his distinct opinion of the DeSoto's performance capabilities is far from complementary.

[icekatze]

((hi hi))

Salehi recoils at the suggestion. "C-coffee rations?" Then, after thinking about it for a moment, a look of determination and a grim smile forms on his face and he extends his hand as if to shake. "Three, three days worth of coffee rations, if you're up for losing a bet that is. If we take a peak under those clouds, I'm positive we'll find more of those formations down there."

----
Ensign Hayne's voice crackles to life over the exterior crew's comm link. "Suit up, suit down, someone must really have a cob suck up you know where..."

Julianne cuts in. "Cut it out, I'm sure they've got a good reason for changing their minds so quick, perhaps they discovered something new? We did just get here after all."

"I got your reason right there, at sixty degrees fore." Hayne points out the airlock porthole towards the unmistakable engine flare of the Pure Wind, from this distance it seems almost suspended in place though receding away at a barely perceptible rate. "Just look at it. Two years ago, this ship would have been top of the line at six and a half, and they gotta show us up with a scrap heap that can pull fifteen... Hey Rox, Cowboy, how do you feel about eating engine wash?"

[TheUnforsaken]

Gautreau grips Salehi's hand and gives it a shake, "Agreed Ensign, three days coffee rations it is." He turns and walks away, but after a few steps he looks over his shoulder, "I hope, for your sake and ours, that you find a city to two down there." Winking, Gautreau adds, "I've heard rumours of what you're like before that first cuppa."

[icekatze]

((hi hi

Now that everyones a little bit settled in, time to kick things up a notch. If anyone was still working on some thread, just indicate that it goes in before here.))

The DeSoto gradually rumbles to life, the soothing hum of her fusion motors resonating throughout the ship like a waterfall. Climbing through open space with a seemingly effortless grace, she draws towards the alien star and its innermost planet. Hours pass, the first two shifts get a moments rest while the unenviable third shift nears the end of its exhausting watch. The Pure Wind made a casual flyby of the Twin planets, seemingly unconcerned about long abandoned ruins. Almost a full day goes by when, as the two scout ships close in on Twin Rogues Alpha, an innocuous blue notice light begins to blink on the DeSoto's tactical display. Bleary eyed, the sensor operator on deck takes a closer look.

"Hey, Toshio... What do you make of this? I was scrolling through the debris ring when I came across this... whatever it is."

Toshio stifles a yawn and walks over to the console. "'Reflective Lensing Signature,' is there some kind of free floating liquid out there?

"Or some intact optics. Maybe there's something worth salvaging out here after all?"

"I can't tell from here, why don't you hit it with the lidar?"

A few minutes pass as the beam from the sensor array bounces there and back again. Toshio passes the time by flipping a coin repeatedly and calling out the results to himself: "Fabulous find, certain death, certain death, fabulous find...."

"Cut that out and take a look at this, the data is coming in now. Hmmm, It looks like..."

A quiet but harsh buzzer sounds on the console, accompanied by a slightly less innocuous red flashing light.

"Oh shi... Command, Sensor, I'm detecting an energy source coming from Twin Rogues Alpha, it looks like a surface launch!"

-----
Over the shipwide intercomm a very concerned voice gets everyone's attention. "General quarters, general quarters, all hands report to combat stations. This is not a drill!"

[TheUnforsaken]

Commander Donna Ptak had spent much of the last watch in her rack. Having woken up in preparation for the new 'day', she was still in the small shower attached to her quarters, rank having some privelages, when the GQ alarm started sounding and the alert came over the ship's intercom.

"General quarters, general quarters, all hands report to combat stations. This is not a drill!"

Hurriedly rinsing out her hair, Donna has a few choice words about the universe and it's sense of timing before she steps out of the shower, the stream of warm water cutting off once it detects that there is no one inside, and quickly towels herself off. Crossing the small room Donna opens the locker containing her Work Suit and pulls it out before putting all but the helmet on as fast as is sensible given that it might be ther only thing standing between her and hard-vacuum. She then grabs the rest of her standard equipment, along with the helmet, then runs out the hatch and makes the short trip to the bridge.

"XO on the bridge!" Yells the private guarding the bridge as Donna enters.
"XO on the bridge." Agrees Lt. Commander Gupton. "You have the conn, Commander."
"I have the conn." Replies Donna only now noticing that she's beaten the Captain to the bridge, "Sitrep, if you please, Commander."

[icekatze]

((hi hi))

"Aye Sir!" Lt. Commander Gupton is already in motion before she is even finished talking. Sliding over to the XO's console she punches up some data files.

"It launched from the sunward side of the planet just a few minutes ago. We can't tell if there is anything else down there still. Judging from the emissions spectrum, we believe it might be an older model Umiak gunboat or similar light craft. From this distance we can't get much information on its design, but it is showing some unusual characteristics. After it broke atmosphere, it jumped up to about 26 Gs, so we suspect that it is carrying a heavy load or is otherwise not operating at maximum efficiency. Its on a direct intercept course for the Pure Wind."
A few more keystrokes and a tactical map appears on the console.

"Here we are in red. We were just about to start our gravity assist burn, so we're just over fifty two million kilometers away from Twin Rogues Alpha, cruising speed roughly .01c. Pure wind, in green there, is heading roughly the opposite direction about twice as far and twice as fast as ourselves."

Lieutenant Chu politely attempts to interrupt. "S -Sirs? I've got a message from the Captain, he says he's on the line with Captain Red Salt, he'll be a few minutes yet. He wants you to start preparing contingency plans right away."

[TheUnforsaken]

Donna looks over to the young Lieutenant and nods, "Thank you, Lieutenant." She then looks back to the data files displayed on her console, "Aside from Pure Wind's interceptors neither of our ships have weapons that'll reliably hurt that ship at anything beyond knife-fighting range." Looking back up to Lt. Commander Gupton, Ptak asks, "What's the gunboat's ETA on Pure Wind? Can we generate a zero-zero intercept with the Loroi before the gunboat engages them?"

[sunphoenix]

Kamielle was in his quarters when the Battle-stations alarm was sounded doing some light technical reading on the schematics of the latest Areo-space fighters of the Terran forces. Immediately he gets his Spacesuit on securing his helmet to its neck collar but not sealing up as yet. He knows its not his duty-shift and listens for any further directives. Taking moment Kam shrugs into his dual shoulder holster harness unloads and safety's his guns securing their magazines into his belt compartments.

Not willing to wait any longer out of the loop with no calls from command, Kam quickly makes his way to the bridge.

Entering, "Lieut. Lynn Reporting ...er Ma'am!", noticing its the XO at the Con.

"Do you wish me to take the Helm ma'am... or wait in the ready room on standby?"

Kamielle looks over to see who is currently at the helm station.

[icekatze]

((hi hi))

Lt. Commander Gupton nods as she listens to Commander Ptak's questions, but her eyes never leave the display console, constantly darting back and fourth, absorbing new pieces of information.

"At our current velocities, unless we decide to break off now, I don't think there's many other options but a joust. Even if the Pure Wind turns tail and runs, we'd still end up blowing right past them. At present speed, the Pure Wind will intercept the bandit in just over four and a half hours. If they decide to charge, it'll be even sooner, but they're already traveling recklessly fast." Gupton pauses for a moment, tapping some controls on the console, she pulls up some data from the Loroi's tactical support files. "There's just too many variables sir... If Captain Red Salt decides to attack, her interceptors might be our best hope, but it all depends on what the damn thing is armed with. I hate to say it sir, but if that thing has a plasma focus, we won't stand a chance... If not, we might pull through with a lucky shot or two. We could conceivably turn our shuttle into a powerful missile, but unless the bandit decides to focus entirely on the Pure Wind, I don't think we'd be able to score a hit."

----
Ensign Toshio stands and briskly salutes as Lt. Lynn moves over to the helm station. "I stand relieved sir." The navigation display is lit up with numerous red dots, most of which are simple bits of space debris, though entirely deadly at these velocities.

[TheUnforsaken]

Ptak grins tightly at Lt. Commander Gupton's comment, "I don't think we're at the point where we need to consider pegging our small-craft at our enemies just yet, Commander," Donna pauses for a moment and murmurs, apparently to herself, "Though it is an interesting idea."

Ptak turns and looks over to Lt. Lynn at the helm, "Lieutenant, we'll need you fresh if we get into any interesting situations with that gunboat in the coming hours...once we have a course of action I want you to get some rest or food. I have a feeling we'll need you at the top of your game."

Turning back to Gupton, Donna clears the tactical files from the display and brings the system map and course-tracks back up, "The Captain wants options, so," she continues working at the console and three course plots appear, one definite, the other two clouded by various uncertainties. Ptak points at the definite track, "We can continue using the star's gravity-well, even go deeper, to sling-shot ourselves away from the gunboat...and our allies. Or," This time the two uncertain courses are highlighted, "We can go in support of Pure Wind. Either trying to match velocities after the battle in a zero-zero intercept to help the Loroi with any damage repair or SAR. Assuming the Umiak have been delt with, of course. Or we can do a high speed pass like we were talking about before." Donna shakes her head, "There really isn't any middle ground here that I can see. Run...or don't."

Commander Ptak is quiet for a moment, her mind ticking over rapidly, staring at an image of the gunboat, discarding options as fast as they form. A thought crosses her mind and is almost discarded, but, absurd as it is, the idea fails no tests except for its being insanely optimistic. "Y'know, we could try hailing it."

[icekatze]

((hi hi))

Lieutenant Chu punches some buttons on her console, then turns to commander Ptak. With a few nervous hand gestures, she says "I've go the transmitter ready on the standard trade frequency, but, um... what do you suppose I should say, sir?"

While Donna is distracted with the communications officer, Lt Cdr. Gupton pulls Toshio over to the console which has now become a center of attention on the bridge.

"Do you think you could give me a hand cleaning up some of these escape vectors?"

Toshio goes to work, generating probability charts, weeding out unlikely scenarios, then going back and starting again in different time intervals. While he is doing this, Lt Cdr. Gupton busies herself by switching back and fourth between the shuttle launch checklist and the Chief Engineer's FTL drive report. Eventually, Toshio speaks up in a bitter voice.

"If we do take an escape course, I don't think there is a very good chance we'll be able to go back the way we came. A full about will take a couple of days at least. It looks like the pure wind would need to keep them busy for two, maybe three jousts -depending on the velocities- in order to give us enough time to get back to the fleet."

Gupton scratches her head, deep in thought, then interjects with an idea of her own.

"Umiak light craft don't usually have a great deal of endurance, maybe a couple of jousts is all we need. Run it out of gas."

To which Toshio repies, "Or perhaps the reason why it is moving so slowly is because they've loaded it down with fuel. I don't think we'll be able to gauge their fuel status based on emissions for another hour or two yet. It gets worse though, we don't even know if their real target is the Pure Wind."

Toshio pulls up a hypothetical trajectory.

"They're currently accelerating towards the Pure Wind, but that vector is also parallel with our present trajectory. They might decide to break off after one pass, or even bypass the Pure Wind all together. In that case, we would definitely need to find an alternate jump lane, and hope that it doesn't simply take us deeper into Umiak controlled territory."

[sunphoenix]

Lt. Lynn takes his station at the helm relieving Ensign Toshio.

"Understood ma'am. I can get us into the chosen vector and course setting then stand down until things get more ...livelier."

His hands flash over the console plotting various potential course corrections with the virtuosity of a artist.

Kam makes no further comments, and grimaces, again annoyed at jockeying a lumbering space target instead of an interceptor fighter. His expression shows he has definite ideas as what they should be doing , but he keeps his opinions to himself - knowing its not his place to voice his personal sentiments on making strategic policy.