Time For An Engagement

Posted on Sat Oct 13th, 2018 @ 8:34pm by Major Hailey Weston & Warrant Officer Koh Otassu

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/5
Location: Space Outside USS Wellington

ON:

"Alex? Get their frequency and get on the horn with their squadron commander. Assume control for the engagement.” The voice from Captain Averis was a sweet melody to his ears and he immediately searched the 'standard' comm frequencies seeking the tactical channel for the squadron, then finally came across it as the Wellington's squadron began to launch.

"Wellington fighter commander, this is Shockwave coming in at your twelve-o-clock. Sorry to be a bother, but we're in a crunch situation: In about seventy seconds we're going to be facing a piss-pot full of Shalti fighters with a quartet of Kojal fighters. I'm slugging you the specs and capabilities of both, so take a quick look." He scanned the 'standard' fighter of their group, then noted something else, "I'm not sure about your speed and maneuverability of your birds, but these Shalti are faster and more maneuverable than you are, except for myself and Ears there." He referred to the Blink fighter that Koh flew. "So ya'll are going to stay in wing pairs and flights. Cover each other's rears, no glory hunting. Going off on your own or even as a single pair is going to attract their attention and you WILL die. Trust me on this, I've seen it happen time and time again."

By this time, he was within fifteen seconds of a zero intercept of them and pulled back on his stick, using his attitude thrusters and then punching his engines to kill his relative velocity and accelerate back up to their own speed by the time they caught up to him. His fighter resembled something approaching a 20th Century F-15 Eagle, but instead of air intakes, there were four nodes against the fuselage right above and below the wings. Five feet out from the fuselage two warp nacelles were mounted mid-wing and a couple feet further out were another weapons bulge. A pair of angled tailfins completed the fighter and it was obvious it was also capable of true atmospheric flight.

"Black Sheep Leader, Bad News, to Shockwave, copy." Jack wasn't happy. The lightning quick call to scramble meant that he knew nothing about the enemy or the situation, which meant no preparation, which meant the eight KD-56 Gryphons of Black Sheep squadron sortied in base loadout. He quickly scanned the incoming data, barely able to take in key points. Seemed that the smallest fighters were drones of a sort, with their larger variants controlling them, finally a few even larger and more heavily armored variants.

"Black Sheep, Bad News. Stay in formation, on me. Prioritize the larger fighter with the spikes. Don't get caught out. We're outnumbered, engage at will, defensive pattern. All weapons free." Black Sheep 1, callsign Bad News, piloted by Jack 'Hammerhead' Carver, let out a stream of pulse cannon fire, accompanied by eight microtorpedoes, streaming at the enemy fighters. After the weapons fire, Jack pulled into a sharp bank, confident his team would follow his lead. As he banked, fiery streams emitted from the Type VII dorsal bank, lancing at the gaggle of bogeys.

Between the larger dark fighter and the Gryphon-class fighter, three of the drone fighters interposing their own bodies between the control fighter and Bad News, absorbing the hits. One spun away, taking several seconds to regain control of itself, one spine blown off and a visible hole in the hull. The one that intercepted six of the torpedoes came apart, all six impacting the center hull. The third maintained control and twirled its way back to the swarm with a few scars to the skin, which began to scab over, if anyone had the time to notice it.

Ears. After everything, he was Ears. Though, time enough to gripe later. A tap and tug on the wrist of his flightsuit vacuumed the air out from it while the rabbit made his way with haste to his Blink Fighter. A quick hop up as the canopy slid open and Koh was already half-way through his pre-flight check. Engines were warmed and capacitors charged as the order to launch were given, and the Specter launched into the black. Banking along with his wing leader, Koh took up a position in formation and started calculating a weapon lock on the larger fighter. It reminded him of the training sorties back home where the Blink fighters would train against the Dalacari drone swarms.

There were bigger and more important drones there. There were larger ships in this swarm here as well. Koh prioritized the larger six-prong fighter and harassed it with a burst of pulse fire while working towards a lock with one of his hunter/seeker missiles.

T’Krya, leading Squadron 2, keeping formation with her leader, saw what was coming and stayed with the Commander as he led them through the onslaught of fighters. Finally breaking off slightly, she went after the fighter nearest to Bad News and opened up with her pulse cannon and sent off some micro-torpedoes and banked sharply with Bad News and his team. T’Krya’s faith and confidence that her team would follow her and stayed off the radio following Bad News and his group. Watching closely, she saw what they were up against and finally said, “No Mercy to Group 2, stay in formation and stay alert. Follow my lead and Group 1. Fire at will at all targets but stay together. This is not a chicken shoot. We are outnumbered three to one and watch each others six. Wingmen keep your eyes open”, she said and closed the radio. “No Mercy to Bad News, happy hunting and watch your six. See you in the barn”, No Mercy out.

"Bad News, Bad News, negative, engage the drone fighters." Alex grimaced at the sight of weapons fire passing between the maneuvering drones on its way to the Control fighter, the one with the actual Shalti warrior in it. Yes, taking him out was important, very important, but if they focused on him, the drones would take them apart like a kid pulling wings off a trapped butterfly. "Black Sheep, break by wing pairs, support your flight pair. Focus your fire, it's going to take multiple hits to hurt them."

Even as he was talking, the swarm broke into a complicated pattern and while several of them came straight on, the rest expanded out like a flower as individuals and simultaneously coming in, spitting burning globs of molten rock into the area where the fighters were and the area around it even while the control fighter held back well away and maneuvered to dodge the remaining fire on it, remaining there as a tempting if distant target. As soon as they completed their initial attack run, they broke off and began to maneuver into chase positions for four of the Black sheep fighters even as a handful of other individuals began to harass the other four to attempt to keep them from helping their friends. In the meantime, the four Kojal fighters kept opening a distance between the Federation fights and the Wellington and Icarus, their escorting seven keeping between them and the fighters, obviously intent on the starships.

Alex snap-rolled and slalomed through the free-fire zone, taking a snap shot with his pulse phasers, the coruscating rainbow shots that were different in makeup from the Black Sheep fighters own golden rounds coming out of each of the four fuselage nodes, five rapid-fire shots from each. Thirteen of the rounds impacted his target drone fighter. The first quartet that hit scarred the skin of the fighter, the next four digging deeper, the other five finally penetrating the 'skin armor' and tearing the small craft apart. A barrel roll that ended in an abrupt jagged maneuver to the left and relative 'down' left the projectiles chasing him flying past him and he made for the Blink fighter, never keeping a straight path more than a pair of seconds "Ears, form up on me, course three-two-eight mark six point one on my command." It would be the direction of the control fighter and he knew what the Blink craft could do and how to compensate for it.

Seeing a potential problem dawn, "No Mercy to Bad News, I got three inbound headed for the Wellington. Permission to take my wingman and draw them away from the Wellington?" She hoped that her commander would say yes, but if he didn't, she would remain with the rest of the squadron.

"No Mercy, Shockwave." Alex overrode the request to Bad News, making a mental note to apologize to him, "Negative on your request. Wellington and Icarus will handle the four Kojal fighters and their escorts. Engage the drone fighters. I need you to trust me. Engage the drones, support your flightmates. Shockwave clear."

’Kyra almost had a flipping heartattack when Alex cut her off. Opening her com, “Who the hell are you to tell me what I have to do. I answer to my commanding officer and that sure as hell ain’t YOU!”., she hollered. She hollered at her fighters to form up on her as she banked for another run at the swarm of enemy fighters headed towards them. She had gotten so angry at Alex that she forgot to close her com, what she said next was awful close to insubordination…”Damn him! Who the hell does he think he is? I don't give a damn if he is from another timeline, you don't just come in here barking orders like you own me and my fighter group!!”, she muttered out loud as she turned again with her people once more. About to order her people again, is when she realized that she had broadcast what she had said earlier. “F*** bitch ass com link was on the whole time?? Black sheep squad to form up on me for one more pass!”, she said, and this time she closed the com link.

"No Mercy, Bad News. Calm down, fall in line. Follow Shockwave's lead for now, we'll deal with him later." Jack's voice was surprisingly calm, but those who knew him well could hear the pissed off undertones. He didn't like this situation any more than T'kyra did.

Alex didn't respond to the comments he heard over the comm and switched his transmit to the Blink fighter, seeing it had a status update with the callsign of the pilot, "Ghost, Shockwave, after reversion, perform an Immelman Engage Blink drive in three, two, one, mark." At the point of 'one', he inverted his fighter in relation and a fraction of a second after he noted the Ts'usugi fighter activate his drive, he engaged his own warp drive in a stutter-move that would keep his pace roughly at that of Ghost's and he came out twenty additional meters from where he'd been in relation to Koh, then hauled back on his stick in his own mirror of Koh's fighter and he knew that just as he saw it, Ghost would also see the Shalti Control fighter hanging in space and slowly joining the engagement of its drones while coordinating them, "Ghost, engage." He pulsed out a burst of his rainbow-shifting pulse phasers and a quartet of micro-torpedoes lanced out in addition, joining the fire from the Blink fighter.

Only the Blink Fighter wasn't there.

Koh's last thought before the sleek craft became a blue blur in the heavens was... "The hell's an Immelman?"

Oh it was on the scene, just in a different location. Slightly above and to port of where Shockwave had projected, but still the sleek alien fighter instantly poured on the firepower almost before the second "G" in 'Engage' was spoken. Pulses of particle weapon fire streaked out from the nosecone section of the Blink Fighter while the pilot awaited the calculation of a firing solution. Ducking and weaving through enemy fire, the craft pushed the offensive. Then the tone sounded that was, almost literally, music to the ears of the son of Ts'usu as the reticent on the target changed to indicate a firing solution. That's when the pilot squeezed off what he trusted was... the killing shot.

A section of the undercarriage of the Blink Fighter slid open, and the rotating weapon rack descended so that the lowest option of ranged violence was primed for launch. Multiple options of missile-chassis weapons, a few atmospheric rated bombs, and even a lengthy metallic rod of some sort. Though of all of those options, it was a missile-chassis weapon that was selected. The propulsion system flared to life, the clamps holding the missile in place released, and the missile flew through the gulf of infinity with all the inertia of the Blink fighter plus all the thrust of its own. The target region was a hot mess from all the firepower it had taken already, but the difference between the Federation's projectile weapons and the Ts'usugi's were that the Ts'usugi missiles wanted to penetrate the enemy armor prior to detonation.

The softened shell of the control fighter would be a delicacy to the sleek weapon's intentions almost to the point of turning the missile's anti-matter warhead into a perversion of the concept of a shaped charge, directing a majority of the force of the explosion inward.

Which promptly turned into a more muted explosion that send the control fighter spinning off in pieces, the largest being two spines and a chunk of hull. “Nice shot, Ghost!” Alex commended, eyes on his HUD, seeing a pair of drones headed their way.

Koh banked away from the scene, his duty here done for the moment and his wingmates engaged. He hit the comms for Shockwave, but 'accidentally' hit the comms for wing-wide comms instead.

"You fly well Shockwave, for an adviser."

Alexander noted that it came over that frequency and tabbed over to it, figuring what the Ts’usugi pilot was doing with that comment, “Thanks Ghost, Thirteen years against these assholes does sort of help. Good guns of your own.” His HUD updated on the larger encounter as the Shalti drones suddenly twitched, that was the only word to escrow it, then their right formation fell apart, individual fighters reorienting on the Federation craft as they were forced to make their own decisions now and most directly, often taking non-optimal paths.

He had followed behind and to the left of Ghost, but Alex smiled, “Black Sheep, the enemy drone fighters just lost their primary brain, Bad News, feel free to engage at your command” With that he passed primary command to the other fighter commander, his thumb flashing a brief message he sent over tight beam to Bad News, ‘Sorry.’ Was the only thing it said.

"Black sheep, Bad News. Form up on me, stay close, cover eachother's six. Engage at will, all weapons free. Ghost, great work." was Jack's only reply on comms, though his gunner heard Jack mutter and grumble under his breath, even as Bad News lined up an attack run, shield focus forward. If there was one thing the flight of eight Gryphons flying under the squadron name Black Sheep was not lacking in, it was firepower - and right now a biblical amount of pure, raw hate streamed out of various Gryphons - clouds of pulse cannon fire supplemented by streaks of microtorpedoes and even the relativistic lances of Type VII phaser fire lashed out into the swarm of drone fighters, still in disarray from losing their command ship.

Blobs of superheated bolts screamed back at the Black Sheep, some impacting Bad News, some impacting other Gryphons. "Leopard, taking fire, breaking off!" came Black Sheep 5's voice, a hint of panic in his tone. "Judgment, they've burned through my shields, losing ablative armor, pul - " He didn't get to finish his sentence. A brilliant white ball of death accentuated the demise of Black Sheep 7, one of T'kyra's wing. "Animus, taking heat, pulling back. Shields down, hull intact." sounded Black Sheep 3, the female pilot's voice as calm as you'd expect from a Vulcan.

The counters in the extreme upper left corner of his vision had been counting down whenever one of the Shalti fighters was destroyed, those numbers beginning to drop rapidly. But even as his fighter danced with the pair of his own problems, making them focus on him, Alex cringed at the cut-off of the pilot's voice and he tallied one more pilot to his personal list of shame, "Ghost, lining them up for you." He did a slow spin, then cut up and to the right as the two Shalti fighters matched his maneuver, spitting fire at him. Two grazed his shields, dropping the power on them by over fifteen percent each, but their pursuit of him should leave them in a position for Koh.

Where there was nothing, there quickly was a blue shift followed by the emergence of the sleek Ts'usugi fighter-craft coming in quick and fast from behind the congo line of enemy fighters. Almost the moment its Blink Drive finished its task, the nose of the fighter lit up with the radiance of pulse bolt after pulse bolt. High energy particle bursts screamed out across the dark as Koh stuck to the enemy tail like glue. He assumed the shielding would be thicker near the propulsion system for the craft, but there'd be little in the way of armor there.

He wouldn't hold back on the resources to complete this fight, though. No point in hoarding missiles if they could help save lives. As soon as the target lock was acquired, another missile was sent on its way. As that hunter seeker sped on its course, Koh was still continuing the assault. He'd switch targets once he had a confirmed kill.

In front of him, the continued impacts on the frantically dodging craft began and then continued to break small pieces off the hull. The hunter missile finished the job, a direct hit on the already weakened hull, vaporizing the bulk of the drone, sending the remains in all directions. The second drone continued its pursuit of the alternate universe fighter, shots being spit out at an increasing pace.

T’Kyra had her own problems to deal with as well. Losing one of her group was bad enough but for her, but having to accept the fact she was taking fire from two of these so called fighters was making her madder than a wet hen. Banking sharply, she did a loop and an old Earth game of shooting between the rocks. She came at both fighters head on, weapons blazing, and in an instant both ships blew up at the same time, making her own ship suddenly shake violently. Two down several to go as she headed into the heat of the battle yet again.

Jack pulled away, confident the other Black Sheep would follow. Shield focus switched to rear, as that was the side of his ship he was showing the enemy. Engines full blast, he found it difficult to pull away from the smaller, nimbler ships, even in disarray as they were. Even with his aft to the swarm fighters, the fiery orange streaks of Type VII fire lanced out at targets, slashing at the remaining swarm fighters.

Molten rock was flying around Alex, penning him into a steadily decreasing area. One of the two behind him had been destroyed, but this one was apparently better than its unfortunate counterpart. He couldn't wait for Ghost to take this one out, it might or might not be in time. He cut hit forward thrust and rotated on his horizontal axis, then punching his retros to provide any iota of propulsion backwards, firing a burst of his energy weapons at the now scarily approaching swarm craft. There was no time for it to dodge the shots, four microtorpedoes following behind a fraction of a second later. The nose of the fighter melted away from the energy and the torpedoes penetrated before they exploded, sending the spines in four different directions. One of the projectiles hit Alex's shields and sizzled, twenty percent of his shield power sapping immediately and it burned. But there was a procedure for even this and he rotated again on that same axis and flickered his shields, the molten rock, now unencumbered, flew past and Alex's engines burned back to full as he came to his original orientation, his shields down to forty percent and slowly recovering.

Enemy fighters were dwindling, but Bad News was suffering. Alarms blaring, warning lights flashing that shields were down and the hull was being eaten in to. These enemy weapons continued to do damage for a while after initial impact. Weapons down, engines flaming out, fusion generator warning lights lighting up orange - about to go critical.

The fireball signaling the end of Bad News lit up the vast blackness of space, drowning out the distant stars, but out of the fireball lazily spiraled the forward third, the core block, containing the two crew, life support and various survival tools and packages. A highly advanced life pod, but essentially just that, a mere life pod. An automatic homing beacon signal beeped across the remainder of Black Sheep squadron, and a crackly comm signal sounded across space. "Bad News, ejected, crew safe. Hunter, take command. Bring our people home."

Seeing Bad News blow up, and hearing her boss giving her command did two things. One made her even more peeved at Alex and two by giving her command meant she had to command the entire squadron, or what was left. “Wellington, this is No Mercy, Commander Carver has ejected from his fighter. Need for a pickup of his life pod asap, Madison out”, she said quickly. “Black Sheep, No Mercy, form up on me, pair off and go after these drones. Let’s make the Commander proud”, she said, taking her wing man and doing exactly that.

The remaining five Black Sheep fell into formation of three pairs behind No Mercy, each pilot sounding off with a click on comms, fighters with low shields taking up a rear position, wingmen to the undamaged ones taking lead, behind No Mercy.

T’Kra had a better thought, “ Black Sheep, wait! Form up on me. Two right and two left, I’ll lead. We will form a ‘'V” formation and go in head long splitting them up. Pick your targets correctly as there are friendlies bound to be in there. Watch your spacing and watch the ship you have on your wing tip. Make damn sure of your targets! Ok now let’s ‘'Plow the Road”!, she said leading the pack into the middle of the battle.

Her formation was so precise and her pilots so careful so’s not to hit friendlies, they split up the fighters quickly and Alex’s ships had better positioning for shooting the hap-hazard flying of the drones. T’Krya brought her formation around for a second shot and accomplished that again but this time, “ Black Sheep take your wing man and pair off and have a good time, but watch each other’s asses”, and she closed the com. She knew that she would be there alone flying solo, but she also knew she had a job to do and she flew right into the heart of the battle.

Jack's cockpit block lazily spun away from the battle, small maneuvering thrusters slowly countering the spin and leveling out the forward one-third of his fighter, doubling as life pod. He knew that he and his gunner, Lieutenant Elisa 'Trapdoor' Chapman, would be fine for a few days if needed. They had enough life support and food and water to last them that long. Quietly he watched the tail end of the battle play out. His role in it was done.

Five left, Alex noted, seeing the coordination of the Federation fighters and the (blessedly) uncoordinated Shalti. His HUD flashed a signal that there was only a single Kojal fighter remaining and it was under heavy fire from both starships, then the counter went down to four and all of them went into different directions, chased by the pairs of fighters, except the one which he vectored on, Ghost in tow. It flipped around, orienting on either him or the cockpit block he'd tagged as Bad News, the two of them were on a similar angle and he accelerated at it hard, ignoring the message on his HUD that he was exceeding max accel. Once he flashed past the lifepod, he adjusted himself to be directly between it and the drone, then triggered a burst from his guns, noting the plasma shots incoming. One of the rocks exploded when it intercepted one of his shots, several impacting the drone, snapping a spine tip off, then another burst hit the drone, spinning it out of control when his last four microtorpedoes hit along the centerline cracking it open. The final plasma shots impacted his shields and they began dropping again. He goosed his vertical thrusters before repeating the release move again to let the plasma slide off his shields when they went down. The depleting plasma grazed his tailfin, burning paint off of it. He read the resulting message on his HUD, "Yes, Gem, I do owe you a paint job." The last drone went down under the concentrated fire of the remaining squadron almost simultaneous with the final Kojal fighter from the starships.

Alex's shields came back up, again rather weak but strengthening slowly and his speed slowed as he looped back around to the cockpit lifepod and did a slow flyby with a scan, checking to see if the pilot and gunner were alive, then opened his comm, "Bad News, Shockwave, be ready for possible acceleration shock, I'm going to take you in tow back to the Wellington." He stopped above and in 'front' of it and targetted it for his tractor beam. It was meant for precisely this situation, battlefield recovery. HE activeated it and began a slow acceleration for the paired starships. "No Gem, we're not charging them for the tow."

The pilot and gunner of Bad News gave Shockwave a wave as the latter lined up, the crackly comm sounding "Shockwave, Bad News. Confirmed. Ready for tow." With that Jack heaved a sigh. It was over. And he wasn't happy. There was too much about this whole damn situation that pissed him off. The presumption of Shockwave to micromanage Jack's pilots. The sudden emergency scramble without time to prepare. The total lack of information on their enemies and the situation. The identity of this 'Shockwave' to begin with. The loss of his ship, Bad News. And the loss of Black Sheep 7, Judgment, along with the two crew, Lieutenant Bob 'Sledge' Segal and Lieutenant Junior Grade Tessa 'Lock' Grady.

No, Jack 'Hammerhead' Carver wasn't happy. It was fair to say he was steamin.

Once the fight was done, “No Mercy to Black Sheep 1 and 2, form up on me people and let’s go home”, she said wearily. “Good job gang, well done, and the drinks are on me”, she added, as the com bustled with agreement from the crews.

"Icarus, Shockwave, I am Winchester and R-T-B after I drop a hitchhiker at Wellington." He spoke over the dedicated comm to the Icarus.

Moments later, the voice of the sensor officer came over the comm, "Copy Winchester, R-T-B to Wellington, your hanger is undergoing a remodel."

"Copy, R-T-B to Wellington, Shockwave clear." He sighed and continued on course.

She flew in first ahead of the rest of the squadron and watched as the rest of the fighters landed. Seeing the escape pods coming to rest on the deck she made a beeline straight for Jacks pod…

“Sir, glad to see you. Sir...a word with you before you get pulled away…”, she said, in a tone that indicated she was irate about something. “What the F*** happened…”

Koh brought the Specter in on the order, staying behind to watch for any more surprises while his wingmates were landing. Once the all clear was given, to his satisfaction, the blink craft set in on approach. It gently landed, and then the pilot started the post-op sequence. Hop out, plug in the power feed to begin recharging the fuel cells, and then set about the conversation with the Wellington's replicator to begin resupplying the expended munitions in the roller rack. Seeing as there was no immediate call to gather, Koh took a moment to stop by the pads that were devoid of fighters.

The pads of those who wouldn't be coming home.

In front of those, he stood for a moment, muttering something in the hollow tongue of the children of Ts'usu. A prayer, from the sounds of it. Then a simple gesture: A tap on his forehead, then over his heart, then an outstretched hand as though releasing something into the wild. Once the souls of those pilots and gunners were set free to fly, or so the story goes, then the rabbit made his way to the pod that was recovered. It was hard to read his expression, but it was obvious he wasn't pleased.

OFF:

Lt. T'Kyra "Hunter" Madison
Flight Leader
USS Wellington

Lt. Cmdr Jack "Hammerhead" Carver
Commander Air Group
USS Wellington

Lieutenant Commander Alexander 'Shockwave' Setine
Squadron Commander/Survivor
USS Icarus

WO Koh "Ghost" Otassu
Pilot IKS-43 Blink Craft 'Specter'
USS Wellington