The Story Is Getting Nuttier By The Second
Posted on Sat Apr 4th, 2015 @ 1:25pm by Captain Li Hawke & Jackson Banning V & Lieutenant Z. Talan & Warrant Officer Awf & James Holbridge
Mission:
Breaking New Ground
Location: USS Rhine
Jim Holbridge, CEO of a mining consortium and ace pilot, sat at the helm of the runabout. If David had followed the Atlantis Protocol, the facility was ashes by now....6.5 billion in creds down the shitter. Dad is going to slit my throat!
=/\=Explosion detected 3.17 billion KM ahead, bearing zero-three-three, mark zero-eight.=/\=
"Type of explosion?" Jim demanded
=/\=The explosion and debris are consistent with self-destruct charges successfully detonating.=/\=
Jim nodded. He quietly altered the ship's heading to rendezvous with his own ship and his friends, hoping to God that David would not be cashiered by the admiral's jolly JAG-off's. One thing for sure, the company was going to take a hit from the Fleet, and the Board of directors were going to be very unhappy.
Li stood and moved to the cockpit, watching Jim and Awf in silence for a moment before she spoke, her voice quiet. "There was no other choice Jim, either back then or now, with Dave. I want to reach them before the Dominion does. When we reach them, I want to do a little sleight of hand to spread out the targets."
At the very mention of doing that sort of sleight of hand, the Ocampa pilot crooked his head up toward Li and nodded, "What did you have in mind, exactly? Either way your wish is my command as I'm sure you know by now." Despite his words, his usual positive attitude was far more demure now than they would have been used to, for rather obvious reasons.
Jim shot the Ocampa a look. "Kid, what we are about to do should not be tried by anybody with a lick of sense. If Captain Hawke is thinking what I think she is, we are all in a lot of danger. And to answer your question captain, yes the adaptive camouflage coating is in place on the Ghost. Let's just hope there is nothing between us and the Dominion cruisers out there."
"Why?"
Jim looked at the Ocampa, remembering their psyche profile. "Adaptive camouflage utilizes microscopic cameras that gathers the image of all the surrounding area of the ship, then broadcasts them to microscopic transceiver-viewers on the opposite side of the hull. If there is an object, say a hunk of asteroid, between us and the ship looking for us, the asteroid would be broadcast onto the sensors and show the shape of the ship's hull. An idea I had back in the War that never took off because of that glitch."
With a bit of a smirk that probably confirmed whatever Jim had been thinking about him, the Ocampa pilot turned back toward him and commented on the fact that he was told that people who lacked sense shouldn't have attempted such a thing. "You do realize why I signed up for this job, don't you?" Now having shown some of his pearly whites while looking at the other, he leaned back and allowed his hands to rest against the controls.
Jim turned to face Li. "What about a reception committee for the scientist on ice? Will the Archadians play ball?"
"We will have to cross that bridge when we come to it, assuming we all make it back there." She turned now to Jim. "What I want to do is split the Dominion's attention. As such, I want to make use of the gunabouts on the Ghost. You'll take one, Awf and I another. That leaves Jackson and Z here on the Rhine and Lorenz and whoever else is with him on the Ghost. Four targets are better than one. We'll rendezvous so the three of us can transport over, and so the Dominion ships won't know which of us has the cargo, then get the hell out of here."
"Sounds like a plan," Jackson piped up from behind them. Scramble and scoot, as I like to call it."
With a crook of his eyebrow, Awf exhaled before he started to speak again, "You know how much it pains me to admit this but I haven't the slightest what a 'gunabout' is. I have to admit that I like the name a whole lot though."
"Good plan, Li," Jim said, ignoring Awf's thought momentarily. "I'll have Eddie fabricate some tricorders modified to emit life signs of those of us not in the ship, that will really mess with the Dominion. Get on it, Eddie."
=/\= Yessir, boss! =/\= was the sarcastic reply from the computer.
Jim turned to face Awf. "A gunabout is an Arrow-class runabout configured for attack mission profiles. The early gunabouts were the Yellowstone-class runabouts, but they could only carry two torpedoes and were slow. We toyed with the idea of gunabouts at Utopia Planitia, but the bean-counters nixed the idea in favor of the Defiant-class ships.
"It's that 'configured for attack' part that is going to save our hides, Awf." Li smiled briefly. "Basically, you will fly and I'll shoot. "
"Aww, you always say the sweetest things, Li." Jackson shook his head. "You'd better watch her Awf. Last time she said that to me, we had a bailout over an ocean which shall remain nameless and spent four days floatin' on the remains of the emergency hatch. But I'm sure this time'll go much better."
Well, for what it was worth the 'configured for attack' part didn't sound half-bad to Awf either. Tilting his head up and thus giving the other two that he was talking to a look at his prominent ears, the Ocampa pilot smirked once more. "I had no idea that the two of you had such a history with each other, but I'll keep an eye on the Captain. I haven't had the pleasure of floating after an emergency bailout, but there's a first time for everything, right?" Considering his personality, it was sometimes hard to see if he was being as sarcastic as the other two, or genuinely wishing that he could have tried something new.
Li gave Jackson a glare, then turned back to Jim. "How soon to transporter range?"
"There's a lot of ionic activity in this here asteroid field, so we should dock with the Ghost. We will be there in three minutes." Jim grinned. "Unless you decide to disengage the safeties again!" Jim had heard about the incident Jackson had mentioned in the wardroom scuttlebutt sessions, and it was a source of great hilarity to fliers everywhere.
"Everyone's a comedian I see." But Li herself smiled again. "Let's get ready. Jackson and Z, we'll meet you back at 900. Good luck Jim." She turned and moved to the back to retrieve her gear.
"You know, I wish people relied a little more on docking and a little less on transporters in general," Awf said. "It would make all that time that I spent in planetarium training worthwhile." With that he soon stood up and followed Li with a nod and his customary usual expression.
=/\= The
"Alright let's do this." Li hoisted her bag. "See you all at home. And that is an order."
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Captain Li Hawke
Lt. Z. Talan
Warrant Officer Awf
James Holbridge
Jackson Banning
