Lieutenant Commander Cadfael Peters: This Had Better Work Part II
Zeph
(( Bridge, Deck 3, USS Chin’toka - In geosynchronous orbit over Reskarii deposit, 4th Planet, PTE-2891 System ))
That was not going to get him many points in popularity contests, but if it worked and he could pull it off, it would likely buy him free drinks for a long time.
Raga: =/\= I’m nowhere near as good a pilot as you are Cadfael. But if you can get into the thermosphere we can try. =/\=
Kiax / Levinson: =/\= Responses (if any) =/\=
Isa / Logan: =/\= Responses =/\=
Peters: =/\= Get ready for some fancy flying. You got this, Toryn. Fair winds. =/\=
It would take the shuttle longer to return to the surface than it would to reach the thermosphere of the planetoid. Mei paused only for a moment, then pushed up to his feet.
Cadfael took a moment to make the preparations and was waiting for the captain’s order to descend. He wanted to make it as smooth as possible, but for what he was attempting to do he had never tried before. It was likely either going to work with minimal damage to the ships, or cause everyone and everything around him to explode. Given how many times he’d practiced this particular maneuver which he’d never done before outside of simulation, he had to swallow his fear and pray that this would work.
Peters: oO This had better work… I am a leaf on the wind. Oo
Kiax / Levinson: =/\= Responses (if any) =/\=
Isa / Logan: =/\= Responses =/\=
Mei’konda: Lieutenant Logan, briing shields to full power. Use auxiliary generaators if you need it. Commander Isa, briing all stations to blue alert. Prepare for atmospheriic entry.
With most of the preparations already done, he began to make the final adjustments necessary for atmospheric entry.
Isa: Aye, Captain.
Peters: Aye, captain. Ready on your signal.
Logan: Responses
Mei’konda: =/\= Kraken, we’re setting an intercept course. Waatch for severe atmospheriic turbulance, our proxiimity won’t calm the wiinds. =/\=
Raga / Kiax / Levinson: =/\= Responses =/\=
With a quick tap of his thumb against the public address button on his armrest, Mei sent a broadcast throughout the ship.
Mei’konda: =/\= Captain Delano to all haands. Prepare for turbulaance. We’re about to enter an atmosphere. Commander Isa will haave more details. =/\=
Isa: =/\= This is Commander Isa. We are about to attempt atmospheric entry and recovery of the shuttle Kraken. Atmospheric conditions are extremely chaotic which is going to make this maneuver even trickier. Hangar Deck, prepare for emergency shuttle retrieval and have a team standing by to implement crash protocol. All stations, monitor artificial gravity output and report any anomalies to the bridge. Damage control teams on all decks, standby. =/\=
Mei drew in a deep breath, shifted the viewscreen to a picture of the planet beneath them, and spoke.
Mei’konda: Commander Peters… engage.
Peters: Aye, sir. :: He pressed a couple of buttons and began their descent. :: Beginning descent at fifty percent impulse power. Intercept course locked in with the Kraken.
Logan: Responses
As they began the descent, Cadfael took a breath to center himself and bring focus to the task at hand. His obstacle course for her recertification turned Esa into a decent pilot, but he hadn’t had the pleasure to put Toryn through the ringer. Once they made it back, this maneuver, as crazy as it was, would probably fit the bill for his recertification of piloting shuttlecraft. His own negative thoughts about how many different ways this could explode were quickly suppressed as he continued to maneuver through the atmosphere.
On the main viewer, the crew could see the planet getting closer and closer. They could also tell when they finally began to enter the thermosphere as the tell-tale glow of the fire and heat washed over the image. The Kraken had risen a bit more, but they were still extremely low.
Isa: We need to get even lower, Peters.
No surprise. He nodded slightly and knew full well they had to get lower in order to successfully invert the Chin’toka to catch the Kraken in mid-air. He took another steadying breath and nodded.
Peters: Roger. I’m going to go full impulse burn and barrel-roll the ship, which will bring us directly over them.
Isa: You’re going to do what!?
Peters: Fancy flying, commander. Hang onto something. Logan, give me as much of the auxiliary power to the impulse engines as you can. :: tapping button. :: =/\= Toryn, prepare to engage full impulse on my mark. =/\=
Mei’konda: Response
Logan: Response
Raga / Kiax / Levinson: =/\= Responses? =/\=
The first officer let out a groan as Cadfael maneuvered the ship into a barrel roll, the grace and speed of the Akira class handling a bit rougher than he recalled in space due to the atmospheric interference. He saw the surge of the plasma storm grow closer and closer, the cloud rising rapidly to greet the Chin’toka.
Mei’konda: Response
Raga / Kiax / Levinson: =/\= Responses? =/\=
Isa: Steady on, Mister Peters. I was in one crash already within the past year. I don’t care to repeat the experience.
Peters: oO Don’t tell me how to fly, please. Oo Acknowledged. :: button tapping :: =/\= Mark! =/\=
Mei’konda / Logan: Response
Raga / Kiax / Levinson: =/\= Response =/\=
Once the ship was fully inverted, she opened a channel to the hangar bay.
Isa: =/\= Hangar deck, standby on tractor beams. The Kraken is going to be inverted from our perspective. You’re going to need to use the tractors to rotate her back to our orientation before setting it down on deck. And they’re coming in hot. =/\=
Zarax: =/\= Hangar Control, acknowledged. We’ll be ready. =/\=
Isa switched the display on the viewscreen to show the aft side of the saucer section, above the shuttlebay entrance. Just off in the distance, and closing slowly from below, was the Kraken, clearly inverted, and bouncing around crazily.
Mei’konda: Response
Logan: Response
Raga / Kiax / Levinson: =/\= Responses? =/\=
Cadfael’s formerly deft handling of the dolphin-like grace that which he’d come to associate with the sleek Akira was all discarded when operating it within an atmosphere. He’d driven other vehicles before, in simulation, mostly ground-based ATV like constructs, and at the moment he felt this was one such vehicle: slow, almost sloth-like and the sensation of not becoming one with the vehicle in question. The normally swift response from the control panel wasn’t seeming to operate at its full capacity, but the auxiliary power he had asked for was assisting in their maneuvering to the shuttle.
He watched the display as the Kraken sped toward their open hangar bay, the plasma storm rising in the background beneath them. As he saw the telltale signs of the shuttle’s engines start to protest under the strain of a full impulse burn racing against a plasma storm, he took a breath and hoped. It had to work.
Raga / Kiax / Levinson: =/\= Response =/\=
Mei’konda / Logan / Isa: Response