Lieutenant Jack Kessler - Defensible Positions are not Abundant

[Joel Cannistraro]

((Maintenance Tunnel, Outside Reactor Coolant Pump Room - Reactor Dome, Moon Sigma, Ross 580 System))

Jack turned after giving Tucker enough time to get up the ladder and into the hatchway Evinrude had opened for them. Jack picked up the spear Evinrude had laid so carefully next to the wall and then went up the ladder as fast as he could be. In those few brief moments he laughed at the thought that his backside was entirely exposed and open to attack. Jack got to his feet, drew his phaser and dropped low as he panned the area ensuring they did not have company. 

Kessler: ::holding up the spear:: Just in case we need a little diplomatic push back.

Jack smiled ear to ear and the team began to push their way to the reactor. Hopefully there were not too many more surprises down here for them but Jack suspected there was one or two more, as it always seemed to be.

Tucker: Walk softly, carry a big stick. I like it.

Kessler: ::grinning:: What can I say, I like big sticks.

Evinrude linked his tricorder to Tucker's and showed him a few status alerts indicating Tholians in proximity, but on different levels. Jacked watched his own sensor scans as the other two studied their own. The floor was understandably tough, designed to shield from cross-contamination and exposure to all the nasty things the reactor was currently pumping out. 

Tucker: ::under his breath:: Beware the king of the crossroads..

Kessler: ::holding up the spear:: How much further?

Tucker: We should be far now, and once we get there, we’ll hopefully cut a hole in the floor and lower ourselves into the reactor room. If I’ve read this right, the reactor is in the middle of the room, and we’ll come out on the far side. That way, we won’t dive into radioactive Sencha goop.

Evinrude chimed in on the open channel, replying to Tucker.

Evinrude: No "hopefullies" about it sir, I'm making good progress here. We're going to drop down right into the coolant pump room, so we can reset the system and link up its power with the coolant processing of the auxiliary powerplants. I may, however, require an alternate weapon once I run this hand phaser out of power...

Kessler: I've got you covered kid.

((Coolant Pump Room, Near the Reactor - Reactor Dome, Moon Sigma, Ross 580 System))

((OOC: Second away team, feel free to add comm tags and get in touch with us since the call is on open monitoring.))

Just as Evinrude had finished connecting the circumference of the new entrance, the ops officer's hand phaser gave out. He used the pry tool to finish the cut and peel back layers of floor plating, with some of the ceiling section below dropping into the pump room. Jack followed and allowed Tucker to bring up the rear. 

Shortrith/Zh'taan/Esot: =/\= Response, optional =/\=

Tucker, was the last one through the hole as they dropped from the ceiling, and his tricorder immediately chimed out a cautioning alert...no doubt the radiation but Jack's tricorder made no sounds. His was set on a tactical scan on the room. The radiation was someone else's concern. His was physical threats, weapons, and of course the potential lurking Tholian. His eyes darted from corner to corner, recess to recess, as his wrist tricorder continued to scan the compartment. 

Tucker: Alright, so far so good. Let's hope that no Tholian warriors are about; worker drones could be handled. It was the warrior caste that gives me pause.

Kessler: ::turning to Tucker:: Not picking up any immediate threats.

Evinrude: I hope the other team doesn't run into them... ::He replied, moving towards a bank of control panels.::

Jack eyed the Chief Engineer for a moment. Each Starfleet officer was trained to handle threats such as these but for those less experienced the threat a Tholian posed was significant. Jack did not know the other officers as well, his limited time on the Ronin had not seen action with all the away teams to this point so he could only rely on what he had read in their security files and on the Commanders reaction to the situation and his appraisal of their abilities.

Kessler: I'd feel much better if we were all together.

Tucker: Response

Evinrude found what appeared to be the right system and Jack turned from Tucker and stepped over to the Ops officer. The monitor showed a clear fault, with an error log on screen...dated six years ago. Jack eyed the display and looked to Evinrude for an answer, or at least an explanation. 

Evinrude: ::Dryly.:: Either they just let their sensitive equipment run with outdated system clocks, or this is the terminal that experienced a temporal glitch. ::He turned back to look at Tucker.:: I could use a hand, sir...not sure exactly how to restart this system so it can accept Esot's patch.

Evinrude dropped down to a knee and started to look for an access panel or interface port. As he did Jack turned back to Tucker and then the rest of the room. He stepped away from the other two and looked to his wrist tricorder as he slowly moved towards the other end of the room. 

Kessler: Behind this shielded door seems to be a larger power source and a ::beat:: distortion field. 

Tucker: Response

Jack keyed in a sequence into his tricorder trying to narrow down what the scans were telling him. He paused as he noted a small hatch way, maybe a meter and a half in diameter. The hatch oddly enough was welded shut from their side of the room. Was this to prevent someone from coming in or getting out? He continued to slowly walk the perimeter until he reached back around the room and paused next to Tucker and Evinrude.

Kessler: Commander ::beat:: once Esot's patch is in place, how are we going to defend this area from the Tholians? ::looking around:: There are not a lot of safe places in here to take cover from weapons fire.

Tucker/Evinrude: response

Shortrith/Zh'taan/Esot: =/\= Response, optional =/\=  

Jack pointed to the back wall and to the left of the larger sealed heavily shielded doors. 

Kessler: This is a sealed hatchway back there. Looks like it's a small crawl way maybe but the doors are welded shut. 

Tucker/Evinrude: response

Shortrith/Zh'taan/Esot: =/\= Response, optional =/\=  

Jack turned to Evinrude and pulled an extra power cell from the left side of his tactical belt and held out the unit to the Ops officer.

Kessler: My backup phaser power cell. It's all I have so go easy on that. If we get into a firefight with the Tholians you're going to want every shot possible.

Jack looked back to Tucker and then back in the direction that had come. The room did have a few possible points to defend from but the lack of firepower they needed against a Tholian assault was concerning to Jack. He needed to find a weakness or a choke point to hold back any advancing Tholians. The spear gave him an explosive but they had just the one, so it would have to be perfectly placed.

Tucker/Evinrude: response

Shortrith/Zh'taan/Esot: =/\= Response, optional =/\=  

[Tags/TBC]

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Lieutenant Jack Kessler

Chief Tactical/Security Officer

USS Ronin

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