Lieutenant Marty Tucker - Just A Flesh Wound
Martin Tucker
((Deck 3, Main Bridge, USS Ronin))
Niac: Agreed, we need to get all the information we can as quickly as we can. Helm, swing us around and align for a high speed pass. Chief, angle the shields as we go past the target and try to buy us a little extra coverage. Commander Carpenter, sensors are yours - find us a target.
Marty’s fingers scrambled to align the shields. He was going to have to give it a go manually. He didn’t have time to program a macro to automate such a thing. There was a lot of stuff he could do on the fly, but programming that macro wasn’t one of them. It would take time that they didn’t have.
Tucker: Okay, we’re set. I will have to work the shields manually, so let's not try to rough us up, okay, O’Conner?
O’Connor: Aye, taking us around and dropping us hard and fast right on top of it. Hold on, here we go.
Marty grabbed the edges of his console as the inertial dampeners struggled to keep up with O’Conner’s seat of the pants flying. He wouldn’t want anyone else at the helm, for sure. The massive superstructure was now taking up much of the view screen. Marty gulped. The thing was more massive than he had first surmised.
Carpenter: Covering fire.
The ship's phasers lanced the few remaining fighters brave or foolish enough to pursue them as the sensors tried to make sense of the enormity of the Alliance structure. The ship shuddered as a massive disruptor blast from one of the nearby Leviathans got dangerously close to the port nacelle and alarms began sounding.
Niac: Keep those nacelles attached, Chief!
A cacophony of beeps and blurts told Marty things were not going as swimmingly as they liked. He was still manually shifting the shields, and damn it, he only had two hands.
Tucker: I’ll try not to Skip, but with only two hands, things will get dicey. Port Nacelle is fine and intact; she took a bit of a scrape, though.
While angling the ship's shields along O’Connor’s flight path, he worked on the structural integrity field generator that he’d sent Lieutenant Morgan and Crewman Dahl, and he hadn’t heard from them yet. He’d give them a couple more minutes before bird-dogging that mess.
Beck: This reminds me way too much of one of the missions on Kirk's Enterprise. The only way they managed to stop that thing was by sacrificing a Constitution-class ship by ramming it down its gullet.
Marty was pretty sure his former roommate was out of his freaking skull.
Niac: Thank you Doctor but I only just got this chair broken in. Chief what's our status? We have enough power to do some damage to that thing?
There was a part of Marty who wanted to laugh at the mere thought. But he had some ideas about what the Captain was asking for. Marty’s hands danced over the LCARS, getting a quick and dirty look at the ship's systems and damage control...
Tucker: I can boost phasers another twenty percent and strengthen the shields to seventy-five percent. I need to do some fancy redistribution from the power grid itself. Hope you don’t mind the holo-decks being offline for the near future…
Tuck was taking the power that the holo-decks use and rerouting them for ship use. The holo-deck runs on its own, outside the main power grid. It takes a bit of doing, but you can use that power to redistribute throughout the ship as you need. The risk was breaking the holo-decks with an enormous feedback loop.
O'Connor: Sir?
Carpenter: Let 'em.
The Captain turned in his center seat to face the Ronin’s Security and Tactical Chief.
Niac: What've you got Carpenter?
Carpenter: I'm sayin', they wanna use us as the first weave of their web? We make one of our own with the Khitomer and her chron-pulse. ::she hooked a thumb toward the still open and steadily increasing data feed:: We are already workin' on the cancelation form. We put us and the Kitty between THEM and the station. They throw their web wave, we throw ours. And pray to God ours cancels theirs out.
Beck: ::like a mantra:: Cross the streams.
In unison with the good doctor.
Tucker: ::dead pan::Cross the streams.
O'Connor: Will it work? I put us in the path and it doesn’t…we’re outta the fight.
Beck: ::looking up:: Not necessarily. There's definitely a very slim chance we'll survive. The timing of it is gonna be important, though, because we don't know when that thing is at full power.
Carpenter: We would...be cutting it close. But we also might be the station's only chance. If we-
Commander Carpenter was cut off mid-sentence as a portion of her console detonated in a flash of arcing electrical discharge. The acrid smell of burning composite filled the air along with the unmistakable scent of iron. Beck was there with a medkit a moment later as the Captain brushed bits of technological shrapnel off his uniform jacket.
Niac: Damage report! What the hell hit us?
Tucker's hand flew across his console as damage reports started flooding in From exploding consoles to blown EPS conduits, the stream of information kept coming. He frowned when he noticed the phasers were offline, about the same time Commander Carpenter announced to the bridge that they were offline. He immediately started working to get them back online.
Carpenter: Phasers are down, but the Khitomer data feed is still up. We just can't see the progress here. We'll have to eyeball it.
O’Connor: I don’t know what that was but it wasn’t the main cannon. Captain, we can’t sit here though. I can buy us some time and get back in line with the Kitty as soon as we get the calculation frequency.
Beck: First degree burns on your hands, second degree on your torso. I can give you something for the pain now but I'll need to apply a dressing to the wound; normally I'd buy you a drink before I ask you to take your top off, but I'm afraid we don't have the time for it right now.
Beck: We can step into the break room if you'd like. Won't take more than a few minutes to get you up and running again. And before you argue, I'm going to have to insist - the more your jacket and shirt rub against the burns, the worst the blisters and pain will be and the more likely you'll get an infection before we're through.
Niac: The Commander was a Marine Doctor, they make ignoring injuries a form of high art. Get her functional, fast. Mr. O'Connor, get us back to the station and signal the Khitomer to fall into position off our starboard side.
Carpenter/Tucker: RESPONSE
O’Connor: Aye, sir. Hold onto your lunch everyone.
Tucker grabbed the sides of his console and spread his legs to hopefully stay on his feet instead of kissing deck plating.
Beck: Thanks for the warning this time.
The ship lurched as they arched back towards the station, there was a hail of fire from fighters who drew a bead on the Ronin, was immediate and aggressive, with no resistance they sensed an opportunity. The ship rocked to starboard, and the ship started to come down around their ears, EPS conduits bursting, and the console to the Captain’s left exploded in a fury of flame and broken shards from the console.
Tucker: ::grimacing:: I’ve got so much damage that my alarms have alarms. Shields down to thirty-five percent and falling rapidly. We’ve lost containment of the hull breach on deck seven, we’re evac-ing now.
Morgan: =/\= Morgon to Chief Tucker =/\=
Tucker: Tucker here go ahead Lieutenant.
Morgan: =/\= Besides being shaken around like a shaken martini, also, who’s flying this bucket, Stevie Wonder? =/\=
Tucker: Stow it, Morgan, whats the sitrep?
Morgan: The bleeding is stopped for now, but we take a couple more hits like we did and it could fail. There’s about a sixty percent chance.
Tucker: ::wincing:: I don’t like that, but it’ll have to do. Tucker out.
Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Beck: We can do it here, or I can let you stay at your station under protest. The wounds aren't severe enough I'll relieve you, but I am concerned about getting them treated as quickly as possible.
Niac: Chief Tucker, pull power from the phasers and route it to the deflector. If our pulse isn't strong enough none of this is going to matter.
Tucker: Juicing the deflector, aye sir.
Marty put his head down and did the appropriate rerouting. Taking what was left from the phaser and the holodeck's power, or what was left of it, he rerouted it to the deflector shield.
Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Beck: ::muttering:: Should I just keep my mouth shut until one of you is bleeding out?
Dismissing the grumbling as Commander Carpenter gingerly got back to her station Karrod watched the Khitomer pulling alongside. The swarm of small vessels surrounding both ships took a final firing pass but broke off, dashing away from them in every direction except directly ahead or astern. The warning from the science station a moment later simply confirmed what Karrod already knew.
The Alliance was about to fire.
Beck: Uh, the energy level looks like its starting to level out… I think it's going to fire soon. Like eminently. And I don't think you wanna know what the s-wave levels are showing.
Every one of their major vessels had moved in close and their smaller vessels were scattering, well out of the way of the torrent of energy that weapon was about to release. Only the Ronin and the Khitomer stood between it and the station.
Niac: Standby on deflector pulse. Emergency power to forward shields. Keep us close, helm.
Tucker: At your command Captain.
Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Beck: If we're going to get the Kitty to work with us, we'd better do it now.
Marty noticed the bridge had gone dead silent. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. There even wasn’t the usual banter from the bridge crew.
Niac: Signal the Khitomer to synch their deflector with ours and prepare to fire.
Marty looked up at the view screen and gulped silently.
Niac: It has been the honor of my life to serve with each of you.
Tucker: ::grimly::It may have been short, Captain, but it’s been sweet. It’s been an honor.
Beck/O'Connor/Carpenter: Response
The Lattice Alliance super-weapon discharged and space buckled all around it, filling with a crackling lightning storm that moved in unnatural, impossible ways. A heartbeat passed, and the Ronin answered, a blinding cascade of energy stabbing outwards like a vast glowing column of purest silver. The Khitomer's beam lanced forward and joined theirs, intensifying and amplifying the beam until it pulsed and writhed. The S-Wave collided with their counter-wave a heartbeat later, and there was a moment of stunning collapse, the sum total of the energy collapsing upon itself in an instant and reduced to a rippling ball of lighting that seemed at war with itself.
The detonation that followed a moment later was unlike anything Karrod had ever seen. As it stretched its tendrils towards them Karrod smashed a control on the arm of his chair.
Niac: =/\= All hands brace for i...=/\=
Marty was completely unprepared for the shockwave, as the leading edge slammed into the Ronin with a force, that Marty up until that point had never experienced. He was tossed backward into the console behind him, hearing a crunch, he then lurched forward, going over his console, and dumped on the deck plating. Marty tried to shake the cobwebs, but everything was hazy, he could not make out if it was just his sight or the fact several EPS conduits ruptured and parts of the ceiling came crashing down.
Tuck hurt, and if he hurt it meant he was still alive.
He was pretty sure he was going to have to have his back looked at because it hurt something fierce. Marty forced himself to his feet and back to his station, which took a beating. The console and screens behind his station were black and smoking. Luckily his main console was still up and running, untouched from the shockwave that shorted out everything from here to Qo’NoS. His hands started flying over his console as the deck-by-deck damage reports started flooding in.
Niac: Sound...::he coughed painfully, a red stain on his hand where he covered his mouth::...sound off. Damage...report.
Tucker: Reports are still flooding in, sir. I should be able to make heads or tails of it; just give me a second. Every deck is reporting damage, some of it structural. We’ve lost containment on deck eleven; it, too, is being evacuated. Shields are offline, shields are at two percent, it’s amazing they held that well. I’ve got major burnouts on the ship’s power grid.
Beck/O'Connor/Carpenter: Response
Tuck looked up to see the Captain wave Quentin off.
Niac: Find someone else, Doctor, I'll manage for the moment. Kirsty...tactical status...can we get any readings from the Khitomer or DS33? Ian...can we move? Chief...is there anything that does work? It looks like there's still a significant Alliance force out there...even if they got their bell rung as badly as we did.
Tucker: It’s a small list, Captain. We’re adrift, maneuvering thrusters only. The WARP core is off-line, and impulse drives are off-line. Life support is failing on deck five, and we’re in the process of evacuating that deck as well. My grease monkeys are working on the impulse drive as we speak. According to Lieutenant Morgan, the expectation of getting the WARP core back online is slim to none.
Beck/O'Connor/Carpenter: Response
Marty resisted the urge to leave the bridge and get hands-on in engineering. But he trusted Morgan and his staff to get things done; they hadn’t failed him yet.
Tags/End Act 2 for Tucker!
