Heading Out (part 2)

Posted on Tue Dec 20th, 2016 @ 3:41pm by Ensign Anli Targalia & Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Tate & 1st Lieutenant Leroy Mangalia & Ensign Wilfred (Wedge) Miles & 2nd Lieutenant Jae Drani

1,378 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Shadow Dance
Location: Space

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

Leroy waggled his wings, something that only his pilots should understand as a pilots wave, to others it would look like he hit a subspace disturbance, or if in the atmosphere, some turbulence. He was still following behind the pings that he would get occasionally, and started charging his weapons. "If they go hot, pincer attack. You two to the front, I'll get the rear, should be able to disable and capture no problems."

=^+ Roger that.=^= Wedge said as he kept his mind on the task; eyes on the sensors and figer ready for the trigger.

=/\=Acknowledged,=/\= came Jae's reply, as she maneuvered her fighter into position.

[NEW]

TAG LEROY/ Ship.

The drone arrived several minutes later. "Targalia to Mangalia, drone will react to your orders."

"Drone? I didn't order a drone," Leroy said as he looked up to spot the machine. "Calypso, I asked for a sensor ping to my location, not a sensor pig." He took the term that scientists had used in the 21st century to name the nuclear material they used to test their MRI's, the science predecessor of their new biological and medical sensors. "Calypso, what am I supposed to do with this?"

"That will send out the sensor pulse you want," Anli replied. "You can direct it and send out a wide burst or several shorter ones."

Leroy looked around, connecting the pig up his fighter remotely, then looking at the sensor strength. "And. Here. We. Go." he said firmly as he did a strong active ping. It would give the location of the pig, and some of the sensor noise would bounce off of the other fighters, but he was hoping that would help temporarily disable the cloaked ship that he had notice.

The ping from the drone washed over the cloaked vessel like a wave, causing a rippling effect that revealed the ship. Jae was certain the cloak was primitive in comparison to romulan, which wouldn't have been disabled so easily. Almost immediately she got a power surge from within the ship. "They're preparing to go to warp!" she called out.

"Some proximity charges would not hurt the ship but make forming a warp field rather hard for a bit." Wedge suggested. "Not need to hit just the static disruption will pop the field and set them back a few minutes at least?"

Jae was closest to the nacelles. Her targeting computer locked on and she depressed the button to fire a single torpedo. The torpedo streaked through space as the glow from the warp nacelles grew brighter, beginning the formation of the warp field. The torpedo detonated near the nacelle, causing the warp field to collapse.

Wedge came in behind and with a second proximity charge to assure the field would not be going into warp anytime soon.

"Blow em," Leroy ordered as he finished powering up his weapons. As the charges blew, collapsing the warp bubble, Leroy straffed the nacelles of the supposed enemy, collapsing them as well. "Keep them here, and someone get the Calypso on the horn so we can figure out who these people are and what they want."

"Calypso here," Anli said.

"Cloaked ships have been detained. You can reel the sensor pig back in. Now what do we do with these ships? Warp nacelles are down, and they won't be flying anywhere fast. Orders?"

"Scan them. Find out who they are and what they're doing here. That will determine what we do with them," the Calypso replied.

"Alright people, you heard the mother brain. Do your duty, I'm late for my hook up with the next vessel. Keep me in the loop if you can." Leroy started to move backwards. "Safe travels Calypso, Mangalia out."

Jae brought her fighter around to the rear of the vessel, along with Wedge. as she opened her communication link. "This is Lieutenant Drani of the USS Calypso Starfighter Corps. Please explain your actions. Any further unsanctioned action will be met with deliberate force."

"This is Jaceryn of the Tarcalian Imperium!" Came an aggressive annoyed voice over the comms. Why have you detained our ships? Such an act if continued will be constituted as an act of war and you and your ship will face punishment. Release us at once!" He barked.

"Could you repeat that more slowly my universal translator did not get it all." Wedge said slowly. "And yes we can take you to our ship and hopefully get the repairs you require done." he transmit to the ship.

"We do not require your repairs! You will release us!" Jaceryn demanded.

'Is that so,' Jae thought as the brought up the schematics of the ship on her fighter's computer. Her targeting computer singled the ship's life support system and she fired a burst from her fighter. The volley ripped into the hull of the ship, shredding and obliterating circuitry vital to keeping the life support systems running in several small resulting explosions. "Need our repairs now?" Jae asked, keeping her lock on the ship.

The communications cut immediately as the Tarcalian ship began to drift. This was followed by the initiation of a beacon which seemed to act as a distress call.

'Oops, caused more damage than I wanted,' Jae thought as she opened a channel to the Callypso. "Lt. Drani to Calypso. Suggest immediate transport of the crew of the Tarcalian vessel and tractor in their ship. Their life support has been destroyed and they're drifting, activating a distress beacon in the process."

"Activating transporter and targeting the crew," Anli replied.

Jae then opened a channel to Wedge. "Wedge, better keep on the lookout. That distress beacon could bring their friends."

Leroy slammed on the brakes, cursing loudly in his cockpit. Switching on the comm, he looked over his squadron. "Who did that? Who decided it was a good idea to cause enough damage for a distress beacon!" He was irate, and venom dripped from his voice. "Calypso, belay order to transport the damaged ship to the bay. If the damage is bad enough we could have massive damage when it goes up. Someone shut that beacon down and make sure there's a Marine detail wherever the captives go."

"That was me, sir," Jae replied over comm. "I only targeted their life support system to force them to dock for repairs. My shots shouldn't have caused that much damage." A part of Drani wondered if the excessive damage was some sort of fail safe to prevent the ship from being captured--similar to what Romulans used on their vessels.

"I've got six crew," Anli replied. "They're being contained until medical and Marines arrive."

"For once I am innocent." Wedge said. "I just targeted engines..." He did a victory roll.

"No one's innocent Wedge," Leroy griped as he looked at his wing. "I'm never going to get out of here am I? Jae, I'm going to council you instead of writing you up. What could have been done differently?"

Jae shrugged in her fighter. "They were refusing to surrender or accept repairs. They only thing I could think of was to disable a vital system to force them to surrender."

"Weapons, engines, shields, anything other than life support. You could have caused a small fissure in the hull, or perhaps stopped with the repair idea and taken them into custody. Possible hostile forces headed to the planet while under cloak with the problems we've been having with the terrestrial forces. But to fire to destroy could have caused an interplanetary incident that could lead to war." Sighing Leroy just shook his head. "I'm going to leave punishment to the command structure on the Caly, if they decide to do anything."

"Calypso to Mangalia," Anli's voice came over the comms. "We're registering an explosion. Is everything okay?"

"You'll have to get the full brief from Jae, make sure Phoenix is on standby and make sure these two get back on the ship in one piece. Calypso, permission to depart?"

There was a brief pause while Anli checked with the COmmodore. "Permission granted. We'll expect the other ships shortly. Calypso out."

____
OFF

1st Lieutenant Leroy Mangalia
Flight Leader

Anli Targalia
Communications Officer

Ensign WIlfred "Wedge" Miles
Fighter Pilot

Ensign Jae Drani
Fighter Pilot

Alien NPCs

 

RSS Feed