RP: SNV Gam'trosha [Prologue] The Gathering, and Launch?

Bridge

Def'leor ground her teeth silently to refrain from uttering a string of epithets that her commander may not appreciate.

"Okay, that's how you want to play it." she said as she targeted the Gam'trosha's weapons on the alien propulsion device. If it was going to interfere she was going to remove it. It was possible that without it the asteroid might shift off course enough. She conducted a scan of the asteroid itself and saw that there was another possibility.

"Ma'am I have fired to destroy the propulsion device on the asteroid to keep it from countering the change in trajectory the out-gassing is causing. There is another possibility we could exploit. The drilling and heating of the interior to create the venting. Is creating significant stress within the object. I am seeing fractures starting to form. If I increase the bombardment / drilling its possible the object will explode into a bunch of smaller fragments from the stresses."

Bridge

"Increase it, we are no more than two mitura's away from Levia," warned Sa'kira as she monitored Def's progress and focused more power into the weaponry but did notice a lack of available power. "And why in lordis do we not have any available power?" she asked herself while still trying to contact engineering.

Maintenance Corridor

The debris that had clogged their way creeked slightly as the ship rumbled, the two could hear the distant sounds of the weapons firing which meant that 'somewhere' near this cave-in there had been a hull breach but that the breach was presently contained.... for now....

Infirmary

Tite'yanus had secured their intruder, restraining her on a bed and doing what she could to keep the person alive for later interrogation. The person, despite having an obvious broken back, wasn't moaning anymore and instead just laid there and did not say a word.

Outside

Fighters began to swarm around the asteriod again, their small cannons doing very little to the asteriods surface. Some of the fighters attempted to launch their missiles as the asteriod, but due to the debris that trailed behind it, those missiles only success was in being destroyed by debris and giving the Gam'trosha more to shudder and rock about.

Bridge

"I am on it Mistress." Def'leor called out in response to Sa'kira's orders. She expanded the IDT image to let her better locate the weak points of the object and started firing the weapons in a salvo with the weapons firing in succession into a bore hole, then moving to the next in the pattern she was constructing based on the data displayed on the IDT.

She also added a status to the IDT so that she could anticipate the point where the structure was critical.

Maintenance Conduit

Keri'cruen was only half listening to Shar, absorbed in his own thoughts. Though a nagging feeling caused him to hesistate in backtracking down the narrow tunnel and pull himself from the marines grasp. The kit had noticed the sounds of battle being carried through the conduit from beyond the jumble of broken components and debris.

This caused Keri to realize two things; first was that there had to be a hull breach nearby if the sound of weapons fire could be heard in the tunnel. Second was that whilst in space there were no sounds due to the vacuum. If they could actually hear gunfire, the most likely explanation was that the Gam'trosha had begun to enter Levia's atmosphere in pursuit of the asteroid and time was running out. The impact was probably only a few mitura away now.

"DRISA!" The kit swore sharply in an uncharacteristic display of anger, his tail constantly shifting with his agitation. He mentally cursed himself for a fool and getting injured by the Laibe saboteur when he was likely still needed in engineering. "We don't have time to drag... me... down to the infirmy, right now. Don't even have... a bloody... medic anyway. We're going to engineering... Now! I can't do any good... in the infirmary. The suit's seal will just... just have to hold!"

Ignoring the pain with all his remaining concentration and steeling himself against whatever arguments or protest's Shar'ica might come up with to persuade him to continue to the infirmary, Keri turned and kicked off against the conduit wall defiantly -- forcing his body to float down the nearest junction that would lead to the ships Engineering Bay.

Maintenance Conduit

It would take the two a bit to get to the maintenance hatch that would take them into the engineering bay, but once there they'd discover that the hatch was sealed tightly and that the control knob was bent at an odd angle.

However, the door did appear to not be fully in it's housing due to there being a little bit of light from the bay that filtered into the conduit.

Bridge

As the Gam's weapons were fired and concentrated on specific points, the IDT would show a rise in tempreture within the asteriod, it had begun to change course when Def would notice that the asteriod began to pitch back toward the planet, something 'else' was interferring.

Suddenly the ship began to tremble as it started to enter the upper atmosphere. "Out of time..." Sa'kira could be heard muttering as she strapped herself into her chair. "C'bar, move us off a bit, staying behind this asteriod while it's descending through the atmosphere won't due our crippled hull any good, but keep up the weapons fire as much as you can.

"Also, get me information on 'where' this thing might crash..."

Shar listened to Keri and thought for few seconds. That kit had guts, she had to admit it. It might be stupid, but what he said make sense. She could not give him more then the suit already gave him. Fact was that he really was more useful for the ship in the engineering. That was why she answered with an and helped him crawl through the maintenance ducts.

When they arrived she checked the hatch. It seemed to be disable, it appeared that even thought it was sealed at first glance, it was not really like that. She could see the light from the room behind them.

"Look for the lever to open the hatch manually, it might be somewhere here." She said and drew her knife. She tried to peek through the gap to see if she can glance anything. Then she tried to force the knife in and opened the hatch enough for her to grab a hold of one side of the hatch and force it open.

Bridge

Def'leor continued her weapon barrage on the frustrating object. She resisted the urge to curse as she was forced to start having the Gam'trosha slow down and allow the asteroid to pull away. She was really not comfortable with flying the ship into the atmosphere given the amount of damage it had sustained.

While the barrage continued, her fingers quickly entered a series of commands to pull up a projection of the possible trajectory of the object.

"Plotting the objects most probably trajectory. Unfortunately, there are a number of variables that I can not account for. Upper level winds and jet stream data, and there is the the fact that something on the object is still altering its course. But the trajectory has an 75% accuracy rate. I will update the target as the object continues its descent. Current projections show it should avoid a direct hit in a population center. But that doesn't mean there won't be repercussions after impact." She called out.

Infirmary

The intruder winced when the ship shuddered and opened their eyes and stared up at the ceiling, the person let out a somewhat muted sigh and tried to look over at the person who was also in the infirmary with them.

Their mind then clicked as they weakly began to move their arm to a pouch that was hidden away in their armored suit.

Maintenance Conduit

The knife went in easily but when Shar tried to force it open, there was a whine coming from the hinges but the door itself refused to budge - it would take more strength than what Shar was presently putting into it... although there was an odd green substance on the lip of the door that was only noticable due to the knifes reflective surfaces.

Bridge

Sa'kira nodded her head and looked at the telemetry. "Pull us back a bit, but I want you to continue firing for as much as you can..."

An alarm then went off next to Def'leor terminal, warning him that the ships cargohold was exposed to the planets re-entry flames and that the rear-hatch needs to be closed.

Bridge

Def worked to slow the Gam'trosha's speed to allow the object to further pull away. She continued her bombardment into the drill holes as best as possible, allowing that as the asteroid moved further away, the angle for drilling would eventually become problematic.

She activated the controls for the exterior cargo hold doors. But the system showed it was unresponsive.

She hit the intercom for ship wide.
"Attention all personnel, we are entering the upper atmosphere of the planet. We will seal all containment doors to the cargo hold in sixty seconds to protect the rest of the ship."

Infirmary

Tite'yanus turned his back for a moment to check some of the equipment. When his eyes returned to the prisoner he noticed the slight movement. Rearing onto his hind legs, he slammed one of his paws on the prisoner's wrist and the other paw onto the prisoner's neck.

"Wacha got hiding in there, ya terrorist bastard?"

Shoving the captive's arm away, Tite'yanus began feeling around on the armor for whatever it was that the prisoner was reaching for.

Maintenance Conduit

Keri peered around Shar'ica, trying to get a good look at the damaged hatch. Whilst doing so, his eyes caught notice of the damaged control knob.

"Look's like... the lever for the door is broken." He said breathlessly, then took another look at the hatch. "It's come off the treads... somehow -- you're not going to be able... to force it by yourself... and with this arm I'm little use."

The kit tried to squeeze up next to Shar'ica and get within reach of the door. Though the control for the door mechanism was damaged, Keri thought it might be possible to trigger the door to try and open if he could get at the circuitry responsible.

"Lend me your knife for... a moment. I need to pry loose this panel beside the lever.... if I can trigger the door to...open... try to push it back on its treads... the motors may make the task easier."

Now that the kit was closer, he also noticed the greenish fluid present upon the door lip. Not immediately recognising it, he tentatively pushed one of his furred fingers into the gunk.

Shar looked at the kit and gave him a nod. She twirled the knife in her hand and it suddenly was hilt-first handed to the young daur. "Next time I find you don't have your own knife I will slap you!" She said. Every warrior should have his knife with him at any time. It could save your life. With that sorted out she got ready to try and open the doors on Kit's go.

Def'leor continued to increase the distance between the Gam and the asteroid. She was having to modified her firing profile as the distance increased and started making new holes since they could not use many of the original bores.

She queued a second warning about the isolation doors being engaged.

"Warning isolation doors around the cargo hold will be deployed and locked in 30 seconds. Any personnel in the hold or adjacent areas should move to a safe location." sounded across the ship.

Bridge

The continued hits were showing a lot of progress, as the ship breached the atmosphere, it started getting attacked as flames licked off the bottom and fore of the craft.

Blastdoors slammed shut and containment fields engaged to isolate the breached cargohold from the rest of the ship.

Infirmary

The intruder/patient, weakly they said. "Beastly Bastard..... if.. only we'd succeeded..."

Feeling around the armor for a few, Tite'yanus's paw would brush across an area on the left side of the suit that had a bubble on it, a hidden pocket.

Maintenance conduit, outside engineering

There were the sounds of the ships reactor working feverishly to provide power to the ship, but there was an audiable tone that could barely be heard.

"W---in-- -ea---- o---ea----- --a--- -- f--- ------t-"

Maintenance Conduit

Keri rolled his eyes heavenward and tried to stifle the short bark of childish laughter that came unbidden in response to Shar'ica's overprotective chastisement. His laugh was cut short though, by a grimace of pain.

"Ahh... drisa.... don't make me laugh, please." Focusing on the panel, he jammed the blade tip into the seam with his good arm and then pushed himself against the handle. The covering popped loose enough for the kit to fit his slender fingers beneath. Then, using both fingers and blade he pried the rest of the covering off with an audible pop.

He returned the knife to Shar'ica, then peered at the exposed circuitry and components. The slight fingers of his good arm slipped into the seemingly chaotic amalgamation of circuits and wires, gently tuggling some loose and then plugging them into new sockets. As Keri worked, his ears twitched in response to a faint noise he could hear. It sounded like words, but the sounds were too muffled by the engineering bays sound-proofed bulkheads to make out any details.

"Alright... get ready...." Keri announced as he was about to insert the final wire. "PUSH!" He said, inserted the final wire which would trigger the motors for the hatch to reverse and hopefully help Shar'ica to get the damaged passageway open.

Maintenance Conduit

There was a clang as the automated controls began to work, the door's hinges protested loudly as it began to open slowly thanks to the combined weight of the mechanism and Shar and Keri.

The door opened a few feet before it finally came to a rest, with something blocking it from moving any further. Whatever it was, the two had a slightly unobstructed view of a green mass blocking the path although when the door had 'hit' it, they both would hear a painful moan emiting from it.

From the door the two would also noticed this green goo on the walls and within exposed circuit boards, but the most noticiable thing about the room was how 'hot' he felt along with a bright red glow against the walls.

With the door now opened, the audio warning that Keri and Shar had heard was much more clear: "Warnings! Excessive heat build up in reactor! Emergency shutdown in thirty seconds unless venting procedures are engaged!"

Infirmary

Tite'Yanus snarled as he tore at the hidden pocket of the terrorist intruder. He made sure to cover his face with his tail, in case anything dangerous was to release.

Shar reacted fast. She could hear the emergency warning and new that Keri needed to be in that room fast. She had no idea what that greenish thing was, but it was in the way so it had to go. So she just went ahead, braced with her back in the shaft and tried to push it away with both her legs.

"Go!Go!" She shouted as soon as she managed to give the kit some room, following him herself.

Bridge

Def'leor left the weapons on automatic, and concentrated in keeping the Gam flying. Which was becoming more difficult as the wounded ship was buffeted by the upper atmosphere.

"We're getting power fluctuations ma'am, if the power fails... well I don't need to tell you what happens." she said aloud.

In the event of failure, Def started looking for possible emergency landing sites. Someplace that would not destroy the ship and kill all on board. If she needed to put Gam down without the engines she would need either a large body of water, or a snowfield.

Infirmary

The ripping of the suit revealed a small round object that Tite'yanus would recognize from her training due to the presence of orange rings around the object.

There was a groan from the traitor for a moment before they said. "Why not just kill me...."

Bridge

Sa'kira nodded and glanced at her display and brought up a local map of the area around where they were headed. This same map appeared to the left of Def'leor and showed a large amount of flat land in their along with an ocean to the south and a sand-pit to their east that was being used for mining operations. There were small blue colored pentagons that indicated the presence of habited areas such as villages, towns, and settlements.

In the distance, the asteriod got further away, it's entire forward area a-lite by the flames of re-entry. Further ahead, the ships forward sensors would pick up the presence of shuttles hastily fleeing a nearby settlement while groups of fighters made vain attempts at trying to destroy the asteriod only to get caught in it's wake and destroyed.