The Rescue Plan

Posted on Tue Jan 29th, 2019 @ 11:34am by Lieutenant Commander Shaille Levine & Staff Sergeant Andromeda Dreik & Major Hailey Weston & Staff Sergeant Nyx'e'Trixe Valentine & Gunnery Sergeant Ami Rori

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Outside the Shalti Hive

"Frenchy, wakey wakey!" Calypso reached over and shoved his arm as something flickered on her screen. The activity in the near-space area informed her that this was that Shalti hive that Andi had suggested they might have been going to, but that's not what had caught her attention and the Warrant Officer's eyes flashed open, "Look at this, I think we have a problem."

The warrant officer looked at the replay of what she'd seen, "Whatcha think it is, boss?"

"Our guys." She responded, "We didn't see them when we got in-system, so I think they've got a cloaking device on their shuttle, but... I think I saw a flicker from it. If that IS what I think it is, if they have a power spike for almost any reason, they're going to lose the cloak." She began to power up some of the systems, "Can we lay a comm laser on that spot without the Shalti catching on?"

Tyler shook his head, "Oh we could, but if there's any scatter at all, or if we miss them, who knows?" There was a nearly instant alteration in activity around the hive as several of their fighter analogs dropped off the asteroid and began to buzz around.

"Going to reaction thrusters, short burn." Cally stated, "Keep an eye out for anoth- Shit!" In front of them, there was a slight flicker, then suddenly the shuttle's cloaking device failed and the Icarus's assault shuttle was there in front of the universe, visible and radiating power and barely moving at all. Then, just as it started to move, plasma rounds from a pair of the the fighters impacted and the shuttle blew apart.

The thruster burn kept on for a few seconds longer than Cally had intended before she remembered to shut them down and the shuttle drifted forward as she turned to the other pilot, "Frenchy, we're going in. I don't know if Hailey and the troops went up with the shuttle, but I can't leave them on that rock if they're still there. You said you're good with guns? Well, we're gonna find out for sure. Take the gunnery station, be ready to warm them up, but don't hit them yet. I'm going to launch an unpowered decoy and bounce a comm laser off of it to redirect to the hive. We're low-observable so as long as we don't power up and emit, we have a better than even chance not to be seen until we get a looot closer." She launched the probe, which began to separate from the shuttle under the initial launch impetus.

"Roger that, Siren." The WO got up and left the cabin, leaving the Betazoid by herself, then about twenty seconds later, "Standing by to power up."

Calypso sighed and made sure she was strapped in before sighting the comm laser for the redirect and broadcast on some of the frequencies she knew some SpecOps groups used, "Phoenix, this is Siren, come in. Phoenix, respond." She repeated it twice, waiting for only a handful of seconds before deciding that there really was only one way to find out whether someone was still alive. It was an unforgivable sin in any military organization to use the Guard channel in anything except for an emergency, but she gave another, longer, burst from the reaction thrusters to get more initial speed towards the asteroid before setting her comm, "Mickey, Mickey, Mickey! Phoenix, this is Siren on the Guard Channel, respond! C'mon Hailey, Mickey, Mickey, Mickey! This is Siren, do you copy?"

****** On The Hive ******

Two more of the team had already gone down as the Shalti closed in by sheer numbers, the lifeless bodies of Chavez and Wilkens left behind and Nyx bounded back and past Hailey after loosing a few more shots as Hailey covered her movement. They were playing tag with the Shalti, but in the end it was going to be a losing battle. The sudden cut-off of comms from the shuttle told her that their ride home was now officially gone, so all this was doing was prolonging the inevitable.

Then the Mickey call came over the channel that was always just there and on as an afterthought, not that it would EVER be used in a combat situation, especially not by a Raider force. It stunned Hailey to silence for a few seconds, long enough for her natural instinct to make her own covered movement and slapped Andi on the shoulder as she went by, seeing the look on HER face as well, "Cally? What the hell are you doing here?"

****** On The Shuttle ******

The voice from the comm made Calypso want to cry in relief, but that would be a distraction and right now? Lives depended on her, "Blame Boomer over there with you for leaking your departure and being suspicious." She saw indications that a fighter was headed straight at her decoy, "Going to lose comms. I need you to set up a beacon for me. If you're near the surface, I'll burn my way in, if you're not, be ready to be beamed out." She spoke VERY quickly, "ETA, four minutes." There was no reply before the decoy was destroyed and she'd cut the transmission before it was so as not to betray her location.

****** On The Hive ******

The comm cut off, but not in mid-sentence, instead the warning of comm loss made it at least sound like it was controlled. Hailey patted Nyx on the shoulder, "I'm going to see the Colonel." The Tialan nodded and took over Hailey's 'spot' in the running fight, then Hailey jogged off, "Colonel, I don't know if you heard, but we've got a ride incoming."

A sense of relief washed over Sabrina as the words Hailey had spoken actually registered in her brain. She nodded. "Let's get these people out of here, before we lose anyone else," she said quietly.

"Three minutes." Hailey remarked, then pulled out one of the emergency beacons each person carried, "Hold what you've got!" She called to the rear guard team, "Mackenzie? Pull back your probe." She waited for two more minutes as the marines got back to the cluster, then hit the beacon.

****** On The Shuttle ******

Almost as soon as they had materialized on the shuttle, Sabrina moved to the back and secreted herself away so she could try and get the message back to Admiral Hunter that they had completed their mission, albeit with heavy casualties. She didn't raise the fact that they had been rescued by a pilot from the Wellington. She wasn't even entirely sure how this pilot knew where they were going, let alone how she just happened to be there in the right place at the right time, she'd get down to the bottom of that later, but for right now she just needed to acknowledge that their mission was complete.

Andi sank down onto the seat, grateful for the solidity of it, "Cally, I swear to God, I could kiss you right now," she said before leaning forward and covering her face with her hands. After few seconds she scrubbed away any sign of emotion lingering on her face and sat up, looking across at Hailey. "All good Hails?" she asked quietly, seeing the sombre expression on the Major's face.

"Yeah, I'm good." Hailey said, knowing it was a lie and knowing that Andi knew it was one as well. She hated losing people and of the team she'd brought to the table, only she, Andi, Nyx and Ami had come out of it. She'd lost nearly half of her entire unit, in a timeline not even her own.

"Look, everyone, we're not out of the shit yet!" Cally called back, "I need either someone to come up here or take over for Guns back there, doesn't matter to me!" The shuttle was dipping and dodging around, Calypso noting that the Shalti fighters weren't... Actling like just one. "Screw that, Hey, alternate boss Chickie, get your ass up here, I've got something to ask!" She goosed her belly thrusters and the shuttle basically jumped to avoid a pair of plasma blasts.

Sabrina moves through the shuttle silently, not Even making eye contact with anyone let alone speaking. There was nothing she could say at this point that would make a lick of difference. As she slipped into the cockpit she glanced at Cally. “I assume it was me you were summoning?” She asked.

"Yup! Look at them, they're not acting like a single entity like they were before. You do that?" Cally didn't bother looking over, she was barely blinking in the first place, eyes flitting around, suddenly swerving the shuttle, flipping it over and diving, spinning the ship twice before breaking in yet another direction.

With a nod Sabrina sank into the second chair. “Their regenerative abilities have been modified. They can’t communicate with each other as effectively. Think of it like a time randomly modulating time delay, only every craft or creature is on a different wavelength and there is no rhyme nor reason to how it modulates. This is how we’re going to win the damn war,” she said softly.

The view ahead spun in two different directions as Cally put the shuttle through the works, "Is there any reason to stay here, lady? And where can we go we won't bring these guys back to the ship?"

"Head directly for the rift, we have company waiting, they'll make sure we're free and clear," Sabrina replied with some level of confidence, "at least I hope they'll be there," she muttered under her breath.

Cally nodded, then tapped a button and a yellow light shone on the console where her fingers were dancing along with the shuttle. It flickered to green for maybe half a heartbeat before going back to yellow, then again as the gyrations passed the same attitude, "Back to the rift, Roge-O." Her concentration was supreme and she suddenly stopped motion and the light burned green as she slammed down on the warp button and the shuttle shot straight ahead, "Well, maybe they won't follow us?"

"Well, we're due some good luck, so fingers crossed," Sabrina said with a faint smile. "Fingers crossed..."

=/\=


Lieutenant Calypso Skyie
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Wellington

Sabrina Hunter
Filler Inner of Places
USS Icarus

Major Hailey Weston
Marine CO
USS Wellington

Staff Sergeant Andromeda Dreik
Marine
USS Wellington

Gunnery Sergeant Ami Rori
Marine
USS Wellington

Staff Sergeant Nyx'e'Trixe Valentine
Marine
USS Wellington