Lieutenant Marty Tucker - Fire Starter
Martin Tucker
((Deck 3, Main Bridge, Primary Hull, USS Ronin))
Carpenter: Hold.
O'Connor: 23 seconds to full power. About a second less for those ships to get in weapons range.
It was going to be a close call, and Marty was going to be prepared; he had started rerouting backups and the like in anticipation of the Captain calling for more power.
Niac: Standby. Mr. Tucker I'm going to want as much power in the shields as you can give us.
Tucker: Way ahead of you, Captain. ::he grinned::
Marty’s hands flew over his console, consolidating power and getting ready to fortify the shields as soon as the Captain commanded. Marty forgot how much he actually liked being on the bridge, though being down in engineering when something like this was going on was preferable. But who was he to argue at this point?
Carpenter: Not yet…
Tucker could tell that while she was cool as a cucumber, she was also a bundle of nerves, like the two frigates, one Tholian and one Sheliak. Marty quickly scanned to note that both ships had their shields down and were now acting pretty stupid. Why fly into all those escape pods without putting your shields up? No one said the Alliance was smart.
Carpenter: N-
Just as Marty looked back up from his console, the viewscreen became awash in bright light, almost like a sunflare. The whole bridge was illuminated for a brief moment before the explosion winked out as fast as it had begun. Once the light cleared, you could see the fruits of their labor. The Tholian vessel: gone.
Carpenter: Well, nobody said bullies were smart...
O'Connor: Huh, well that worked out better than I thought. ::glances back toward Kristy:: Not that I didn’t have faith in you.
Karrod chuckled and looked back towards the screen. The Tholian vessel had been obliterated, its perfect geometry shattered into a thousand burning chunks of metallic slag. The Sheliak vessel, only slightly further from the focal point of the explosion, was burning in space and listing badly.
Niac: What's the status of the Sheliak vessel? I'm still seeing s-wave readings building up.
Tucker: If that is a wave building up, it’s going to explode in their faces, all tracking systems are offline, and they’d be firing blind. They’re venting plasma, and hull integrity is down to forty-five percent. And we took their shield generator offline.
He continued gathering as much information about the Sheliak ship as he could. The more insight he had into how they built and armed their ships, the better.
O’Connor: Full power restored. First enemy vessel appears completely disabled. Coming around to bear on the second Sheliak vessel. Their shields are down as well but registering a plasma build up in weapons systems.
oO Plasma build-up? So, so, not good Oo
Niac: Their s-wave generator must be damaged, that's an overload in progress. Helm, full impulse, put us on an escape heading. Maximum power to aft shields. Tactical, advise the Khitomer to break off their run and get clear.
Marty took the power he’d been consolidating and shifted it to the forward shields.
Tucker: Max power to the forward shields,aye. ::glancing down at his console, alarm plays across his face:: Sir, that Sheliak vessel is coming about on a heading of zero-two-four-mark-one-seven-five.
Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Time seemed to slow down as the Sheliak vessel rippled under the withering fire, mangled hull panels blowing apart as phaser blasts slashed away at engines and weapons. The burning frigate seemed to fold in on itself at the last moment, some strange visual impossibility as the ship's s-wave weapons finally detonated, a shimmering subspace shockwave erupting like a tiny supernova.
Marty grabbed his console and planted his feet. He didn’t need the captain's play-by-play to explain what was going on; he already knew.
Niac: Brace for impact!
The Captain barely got the words out of his mouth as the ship rocked; Marty was tossed forward, up and over his console, and unceremoniously deposited on the deck in front of his station. As Tuck tried to pick himself off the deck, EPS conduits ruptured, and consoles exploded. Trying again, this time he made it to his feet and back around to his console, which luckily didn’t explode. Damage reports were flooding in from the entire ship, which was to be expected.
As he dispersed damage repair teams, he took inventory of the damage. It wasn’t as bad as it look, but it still wasn’t great.
Niac: Damage Report!
Tucker: We’ve got fires on decks seven, ten, and eleven caused by EPS conduit damage. The structural integrity is down to sixty-five percent. Aft shield emitters are offline, and shields, though holding at sixty percent, are online. We have several reports of crew injuries, but nothing life-threatening.
Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Tuck took a second to do a bodily inventory, and it seemed he’d escaped his little tumble without too many bruises, but no blood this time, so that was a bonus.
Niac: What's the Khitomer's status? They still in one piece?
Tucker’s hands danced gracefully over the console in front of him. The console let out a couple of beeps that were trying to get Marty’s attention. He took a second to put them in the queue as he finished his scans of the area.
Tucker: ::smirking:: Scans indicate that we took more of the brunt of the shockwave. The Khitomer will need a few dents pounded out in that shiny new hull of theirs.
Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Niac: Very well, advise me when you can raise them on subspace. We need to link up before we make our run into the system. Mr. O'Connor, reciprocal course, bring us into formation with the Khitomer. How bad's the damage Mr. Tucker?
Tucker: There is nothing we can’t handle on the way. The big one is the aft shield emitters. They’re offline, and I don’t want to send a crew out in EVA suits while we’re still on red alert. For now, I can compensate for the rear by expanding the rest of the shields to cover the aft, though it’ll be a thin layer of protection. The fires are all but out; they’re having trouble with the fire on deck ten.
Niac/Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Tucker: Mister O’Conner, I’d suggest that you keep our tail away from the fight when we engage at deep space thirty-three. With the way I'm covering the aft, it can’t take but a few direct hits before it fails.
Niac/Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Tuck knew it was tough to keep the Ronin’s rear out of a firefight, but there was no way they could repair the emitters without sending crews onto the hull. So they would have to make due.
Tucker: Fire crews are confirming that the fire on deck ten is out. It took two fire teams to put it out.
Niac/Carpenter/O'Connor: RESPONSE
Tags/TBC
