Call of Duty (Part 3 of 3)
Posted on 27 May 2020 @ 3:26pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Luke Wyatt & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Commander Andreus Kohl & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Crewman Draia Thero
Edited on on 28 Jun 2020 @ 1:18pm
2,174 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A, Latari A III
Timeline: MD 04, 2308 hrs
Previously, on Call of Duty (Part 2)...
Kohl cocked his chin up and opened a comms channel across every deck aboard Galileo. "All hands, this is the Captain speaking," Kohl said, announcing, "Blue alert. Secure yourselves and all stations for atmospheric operations." Backing towards the Captain's chair, Kohl gave the order to Sylver: "CONN, begin orbital descent."
The bridge's crimson red alert pulses suddenly ceased and were replaced by blue strobes. The overhead ambient lighting brightened to compensate for the probability of an atmosphere more luminous than space. The airfoils at the rear tips of the ship's nacelles started to rotate as a full flight control system check was automatically initiated.
Luke hadn't made it even halfway off the bridge yet and now with the blue alert being sounded, he didn't have the time to to make it back to his quarters, Moving quickly back to his original position next to Kohl and gave him a sideways glance, whatever was going to happen it would seem they were going to do it together.
And Now, the Continuation...
[ON]
Deck 7, Main Engineering
"Blue alert? what in gods name are they trying up there?" Donald called out loud. "John they're going to need everything we can give them for structural integrity."
John cursed with every other word going on about probable lineages having several jack-asses in them. He did everything but in the end was shaking his head.
"The circuits do not have enough capacity being rigged as they are to handle shields and engine power and nothing in this universe is going to change all that. We have to tell those idiots up there they better plan on landing real hard and not going anywhere after that! We are going to loose one or the other! So want to flip a coin to tell the captain he has a choice to make?"
"No need and no time," Shouted Kala from her workstation as she tapped furiously at her console "We can divert most of the power from Engines and noncritical systems, the gravity of the planet will give us enough momentum to keep our decent steady and the remaining engine power will stop us pummeling into the ground, transferring power now! I need one of you two to maintain the coolant system to the engines otherwise they will overheat with the added stresses and then we will crash into the planet surface and no one can say 'What a great idea Kala'" The Galileo responded with some groans of its own as the gravitational stresses on the ship began to take control of the ships decent, lights began to flicker and some consoles even began powering down. "It'll work" She shouted more to herself than her colleagues.
From another LCARS console across the engineering compartment, Crewman Draia Thero reported on the state of the engine's coolant systems. "Plasma coolant storage is at 72% of tank capacity," Draia said in a clipped tone. "Diagnostics show the integrity of the dispersal system is in the green. Coolant effectiveness is within guideline specifications."
Kala sent a smile and nod in his direction, they were all going to have to be spot on with their readings and power flow correction for this to be pulled of. Otherwise, the ship and its crew would become a toasty flatbread on the surface of the planet.
"They just pulled environmental off line!" John shouted over. "They can't have anything else or we are going to loose shields."
Kala watched the power fluctuation, they never asked engineering where to take the power and cursed under her breath. "Take power from the science labs and sensors, I'm reading radiation that's affecting them anyway so there useless. Begin evacuating personnel from the areas that don't need to be used and turn life support of completely, we must keep those shields and cooling systems online or we'll lose it all" She said as the engineer began to pulsate a bright hue of red.
Deck 1, Bridge
"Yes Sir, beginning orbital descent," Sylver said before he let out a soft, quiet breath. He almost patted the console for a moment, almost to reassure the ship, before he put in the coordinates. He felt the shift the moment they started descending, the way the ship suddenly responded differently. "Okay, girl, you and me can do this..." he whispered, eyes going quickly between the screen, the controls and everything else. The computer did most of the calculations quicker than a human brain could do, but there were some things you had to do yourself...and the feel of the engines, the adjustments to slow their speed, the right angle so that they didn't overexert the shields, didn't burn up...it was a lot. But he had trained for this before and he was not going to get everyone killed due to poor flying.
Mimi glanced across at Sylver; her sharp ears picking up him whispering to the ship even over the sounds of the combat channel. Tapping at the Ops console she bought up a new screen to show graphs of the slowly increasing pressure on the hull and shields.
Commander Kohl looked askance towards where Luke Wyatt had sat in the executive officer's chair. Instinctively, Kohl wanted to say something. Say thank you or finally or duh. Kohl's gaze returned to the viewscreen and then to the command panel offering insight into Galileo's current mechanical state. Their goal felt within reach and yet constantly just barely out of reach. At the same time, Kohl imagined how he might say some words of friendship to Wyatt, but then Kohl kept remembering the way Wyatt had looked at him in the briefing room when Kohl had first returned to Galileo. Kohl remembered that and so he said nothing.
USS Kali, Akira-class Heavy Cruiser
Alarms blaring and lights flashing Sofie was making her way with some haste through Kali's corridors to the bridge. She tripped over as another impact rocked the ship. The ship had engaged the Tholians only a few minutes ago now and it hadn't been too long after that the captain had called her to the bridge. Sofie picked herself up and bounded along the last bit of corridor to the turbolift. Last time she'd been on any bridge had been the ill fated engagement with the Tholians when they first arrived. Best not to think about it.
The distinctive whirr of the lift hid the pounding of Sofie's heart - she was all adrenaline and nerves wondering what she could be needed for. As the turbolift doors opened though it was immediately clear what was going on. By the bridge's science station Lieutenant Vasile was lying unconscious with two members of medical staff treating what looked like burns - a notion confirmed when she saw the state of the science station, the Tholian counterattack must have caused a power surge on the bridge.
She quickly made her way to the station calling out "Ensign Ullswater here sir." The captain hardly acknowledged but gestured to the science station before she continued to bark orders at Ops and the Helm.
Sofie sat down at the station. She and Vasile had been working closely together for the past few days, seeing him like this was a bit distressing. "Is he going to be alright?" she asked softly to the closer of the two. When the nurse glanced up though he didn't speak but the look he gave her said everything. She turned back to the console quickly and tried to put it out of her mind.
The power surge had made a section of the station unusable but she was able to reroute any necessary functionality to the still working parts. Lieutenant Vasile had been running an analysis of the last attack when the surge hit. She quickly ran a diagnostic of the terminal and ensured the sensors were still running correctly before calling out to the captain "I'm set here sir."
"Ensign, find me a way through their shields." The Tellarite responded before returning her attention to tactical and the preparation for the next torpedo salvo.
Sofie nodded "Aye sir." and turned to the console to look herself at the data from the previous attack. No damage to the shields was shown at all, the Tholian ships seemingly had the manoeuvrability to save themselves from what should have been devastating. It was just like last time they had fought the Tholians here. Please try not to think about it. She pushed the sensors to focus solely on the the shields and propulsion of the sleek Tholian ships. Maybe she'd find something useful.
Federation instruments such as those of the console in front of Sofie function with remarkable precision. However at time like this as combat rages about they show another side - sensors glide perfectly along the targets relaying data fast enough to provide accurate information to be packaged up and sent wherever it is needed. Kali's bridge shows it too - the close proximity of tactical to the captain allowing the two to quickly communicate to stay on top of emerging situations. Kali was a warship and even in the surrounding chaos her bridge was the bridge of a warship.
The crew as well showed no sign of disarray even as their injured comrades were hauled off the bridge. The captain continued to give orders with a voice that betrayed no emotion other than her will to command. The bridge staff responded with fluidity and precision that really did make Sofie feel like the weak link in the chain. Just like she'd felt last time. Don't think about it.
The next salvo of torpedoes was ready to be launched. Sofie had relayed some of the results of the scans over to tactical but she wasn't hopeful it would help. Out of the corner of her eye Sofie saw the sensors picking up Galileo on her course straight towards the planet.
The ship groaned as another hit from the Tholian weapons shook the bridge. Across the room displays lit up and beetled in urgent sympathy.
USS Galileo
Several miles above Latari A III's glowing blue atmosphere, the small Nova-class starship began its orbital descent. Maneuvering thrusters fired in short bursts to roll the craft inverted with the planet's exosphere. Its sole impulse engine lit up and propelled the ship into a controlled descent. On the bridge's main viewscreen, the class-M world now came into full view and the forward shields started to illuminate when the ship entered the thermosphere.
Atmospheric friction increased in the mesosphere until yellow flames started to lick the dorsal shields with increasing intensity. Small shudders could now be felt on the deck plating which started to increase in intensity.
From the auxiliary station, Lieutenant Diego kept one hand braced on the nearby guard rail while monitoring their flight path and periodically sending updated vectors to the helm. "Looking good, Chief," he commented to Sylver.
Sylver nodded weakly, but he was so focused on what he was doing that for a moment he didn't respond verbally. "We are entering the stratosphere..." he said aloud, because he was used to having to report on what was happening. "Going supersonic, this will get bumpier..."
Slightly leaning to one side Luke monitored the descent from the small panel which was embedded into the left arm. The Galileo rocked as the gravitational stresses of their decent began to take hold of the ship and using his body weight kept himself firmly glued to his chair. "Operations, boost power to inertial dampeners, take anything none essential offline include life support from the non-essential areas, I want the Captain to get her ship back in one piece this time around."
"Aye Sir." Mimi said, her ears twitching nervously, taking power from everything non essential but also life support was a rather 'last ditch', keeping one eye on the charts she shut everything she dared and shifted the freed up wattage around.
"We've lost communication with the task group," Goldie announced. She tried to compensate for the atmosphere, but with no luck. Still, she kept trying.
Instinctively, irrationally, Kohl tilted his head back. Kohl looked to the overhead and its communication nodes, as if he could will the return Rasmussen's orders and the support of the task group. Softly, Kohl muttered, "I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing," and then he cleared his throat, and he snapped his gaze to the viewscreen. Time to go boldly.
To Be Continued...
[OFF]
--
All Crew, USS Galileo-A
Lieutenant Diego
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]
ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Kali
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