The distress call

Posted on Sun May 5th, 2024 @ 5:03pm by Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance & Captain Mira Rodale & Lieutenant Awal Kronnelti & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

Mission: Flux
Location: Chuck Norris
Timeline: Current

on:
{Delta shuttles 1 2 & 3}

As Kronnelti and the haz units were making their first pass of the cave, he heard the distress call in his shuttle.

He looked at Deena, something is wrong, falling back to the ship. =/\= all shuttles return to the ship! This is not a drill =/\= said Kronnelti

{Bridge, Deck 1}

Kevin manipulated the flight controls, deftly maneuvering the ship in a manner that frustrated the Gorn's attempts to surround them. Ton for ton, the Defiant-class were the most lethal ships in known space, but they were vulnerable to attacks from multiple opponents. The engagement against three Gorn ships was almost a fair fight if he could keep the enemy from bringing all their weapons to bear on the Norris.

He knew that Mira's distress call was unlikely to bear fruit. Unless the responding ships were within a few light-years of the planet, an unlikely possibility given the size of the Shacketon Expanse, this would be all over before help could arrive. Still, it was the quickest way to recall Kronnelti's shuttles with the least objection from the Klingon.

"Chin" Mira called, holding her hand out. She needed to hear everything going on. An earpiece came flying in her direction, and she caught it with one hand. Kevin was one of the best pilots she knew, so she didn't need to micromanage the ship's safety now. Their were times he and her seemed like they were on the same page of the grand novel of life and other times.....well, other times she couldn't understand what was going on in his mind.

She hadn't given orders to him, thinking he would just take over what needed to be done. Protect the ship, not just 2 crewmen who might still be alive.

She should have known the Gorn would set a trap. They always did. Save one person so their food would make an attempt to rescue, and then they got more food. "Tactical throw everything you can at them. Thier ships do not move as fast as we can." She listened to the Gorn commanders. "They're going to go after the shuttles."

That made sense in Kevin's mind. Breaking off one ship to dispatch the shuttles while the other two kept Norris busy. It would relieve pressure on them, but that would be little comfort if the shuttles were destroyed. But it presented a chance at a tactical advantage.

As with all his academic endeavors, Kevin had miserably poor grades in air-space coordination. But on the thrusterball field, his spatial awareness was second to none. That talent for knowing where 21 other players were relative to each other translated very well into this current engagement. His mind constructed a three-dimensional map from the data on the two-dimensional display, seeing the battle in real time.

The shuttles would be rising from the planet, and the Gorn ship would need to expose its flank to target the most weapons on them. It the Norris could strike that flank...

Kevin maneuvered the ship away from the planet, drawing two of the Gorn attacker's with them. He ordered the tactical officer to load the most lethal torpedoes in the arsenal and to hold for his command.

Mira's hands gripped the chair, arms waiting. She had never been good at waiting, but she trusted Kevin to get the job done. Her attention was mostly on the shuttles and communications to gather as much information as possible. Her eyes flicked to the scans as she remained silent.

Making it back, Kronnelti had the haz unit stand by. He rushed to the bridge.

Captain, what is going on? He asked

The duty tactical officer reported, "Sir, we are being engaged by two Gorn light crusiers. A third cruiser is engaging the other two shuttlecraft returning from the planet."

Kevin tapped the flight controls, and the ship cut hard to port to avoid a plasma bolt. Some of the bridge crew were caught off balance, and Ensign Chin held firmly to the communications console to remain upright.

"Crap!" Mira shouted at Kevin, "What are you doing?"

"Laying a trap," he replied coolly.

Mira nodded, She truly did trust him.

The tactical display showed the Gorn cruiser turned towards and bearing down on the two shuttles that were frantically evading the attack. As anticipated, the Gorn ship's weaker rear shields were exposed to the Norris.

Kevin saw his opening. He continued the hard port turn, then straightened out to shoot the gap between the two Gorn ships, pushing the impulse engines beyond their max thrust. Only the vacuum of space prevented the Norris from shrieking as she sped past the antagonists.

"Tactical," Kevin ordered, "Concentrate fire on target Alpha Three. Execute attack pattern Delta Four." The attack pattern was designed to breech a ship's shields and inflict maximum damage to the hull.

Norris launched a single photon torpedo along with a fusilide of phaser fire intended to overwhelm the target's defenses. Seconds later, the remaining torpedoes were released to seek their prey.

His orders were given, and Kevin spared a glance at the tactical display. The two crusiers had overcome the initial surprise of the aggressive maneuvere and were firing on Norris' own flanking shields, turning inwardly to aim their forward batteries at the Federation ship. But that brought themselves on a collision course with each other, and the desperate, last-minute maneuvers to avoid a crash cost them their opportunity to get vengeance.

"We are getting the ship attacking our shuttles." Mira spoke in a calmer voice, then she was felling. Her eyes flicked to Kronnelti. "Good to have you back. We are attempting to get out of a trap set by the Gorn. They leave someone to rescue and then attack. " She rubbed her forehead.
"If they can slow us down, they will try beaming aboard."

Not going to happen. He had engsin ken take tactical as he went for weapons. Mira didn't even want ask what Kronnelti was up to.

{ Shuttles }

K'ner held on as they side-slipped against, the whine of the propulsion shifting hard. "Where's Deena when I need her!" She listened to Tela feed them tactical information from the 'Norris.

Next to her, Taz laughed, not taking the hit on her flying skills at all and redirecting all the gravitic forces sharply again, forcing the Gorn ship that had thought they were easy pickings even lower into the atmosphere to come after them.

Crossing away from there, Roadie prayed from his seat, wondering just who was crazier, Taz or Chbet when Deena wasn't around to get them safely somewhere. All he could do was be as erratic as possible and listen for the confirmation they were clear.

Both shuttles rocked as a shockwave erupted from the Gorn ship. K'ner finally relaxed. "I think the torps from the XO finally caught up with 'em! With the interference from all of our maneuvering in the atmosphere, they likely didn't even know they were there until it was too late. Let's get back into position and see what's left up there. Hey Tela, vector us in. We'll fall in line and keep a slim profile. No way they'll pay any attention to us with all their focus on the 'Norris, just let us know where you wanna plug us in."

{USS Chuck Norris, Bridge}

The execution of Attack Pattern Delta Two was as successful as Kevin had hoped. The combination attack phasers and the torpedo has taken their enemy by surprise and the combined energy overwhelmed the light cruiser's rear shield. It briefly glowed a brilliant white the the light from the energy dissipated
as the shield collapsed allowing the torpedoes following to strike the hull unimpeded.

Explosions rippled across the Gorn ship sending debris spinning off into space and the emissions from one of the impulse engines was snuffed out as the generator that powered it died. The ship began to list as it fought against the gravitation pull of the planet. Weapons fire against the Norris' shuttle slackened significantly either due to a lack of power or destruction of the fire control systems.

Kevin turned his attention back to the two pursuing Gorn cruisers. They had narrowly avoided a collision and were completing their turns to bring their forward batteries to bear on the Norris. Fire, in accurate at first, began to increase in frequency and many of the shots found the Norris. Kevin decelerated and execute another sharp turn to deny the enemy shots at the ship's flank and to bring their own weapons back into the fight.

With relief, Kevin noticed that both shuttles had evaded destruction and were climbing out of the atmosphere to rendezvous with the Norris. It would be tricky keeping the two remaining Gorn cruisers at bay while the shuttles were recovered.

Mira smiled take that lizard brains. "One down two to go. Let's take out the trash." She smiled at Kevin she was dating a crazy man and that worked for her.

:off:

Captain Mira Rodale
CO USS Chuck Norris

&

Lieutenant Awal Kronnelti
Chief of security and tactical
USS Chuck Norris

&

Lt Betaras K'ner
Hazard Team Medic TL-B / Acting CMO
USS Chuck Norris

&
Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer (and Flight Officer Extraordinaire)
USS Chuck Norris